One, Two, the Cow says Moo! Three, Four, the Lion Roars!

Fierce.

No, Thank You!

The Shrine today received a number of thank you cards from St. James school who attended last week's Earth Day celebration.  Here's one from Olivia:

The Other Guy feels a little left out.

Mii Sculptures

Mike pointed us, as Nintendo Wii lovers, to this site where for far too much money you can get a three-dimensional 4-inch-tall sculpture of a "Mii" you send to them: miisculptures.com.  Pictured is their representation of Jack Black (center) based on someone's mii representation of same (left and right).

Here's the real Jack Black, a person that a bearded Orin was accused of looking like this past earth day.  We don't see it either.

Our response to miisculptures?  Eh.

And maybe some _____________ too!

Seen at the dentist's this morning:

Fill in the headline blank in the comments:

And maybe some _________ too!

First Communion Fun

Orin's niece-and-godchild Madelyn celebrated her first communion yesterday in Hokah, Minnesota. The day was filled with unique places and moments. Here are a few:

The 2nd-graders around the altar for the eucharistic prayer.

After communion, the class sings "His Banner Over Me is Love"

The "Reserved Pew" banner, made by Madelyn

St. Peter's in Hokah.  See below:

It really is on the 4th floor!

At the reception, three stories down, on our reserved table.

Apparently, many students had been learning Roman history.  There were many informative signs up with Top 10 lists.  This one, on Roman clothing was probably one of the best.  Note #5: "The Romans knew how to make hoods" and #10: "At 5,000BC, everyone wanted a fur coat."

The hotel thought the afternoon party was for a 7 year old's graduation, I guess.

Cake!

And this morning: snow!  We even drove through a bit on the way to the airport and saw a recently jack-knifed trailer in the ditch.

CosmicWalk?

Thursday and Friday Oddwalk served as emcees for the Shrine's Earth Day celebrations for grade schoolers.  When at this event, you may recall we take on the personas of Earth Man (Shannon) and The Other Guy (Orin) - that helps explain Shannon's cape and hat.

Pictured here is Earth Man and his wife Erin holding signs pointing the way to Fr. Maurice's Cosmic Walk that was part of the day.  

In case you were concerned, we haven't changed our name.

Congrats!

Oddwalk friends Sarah Bauer (featured on "Walk Away Different") and Chris Sansone just got married!  Here a pic of them at the reception with another Odd-Friend, Joia Farmer.

Happy Earth Day to . . . All of Us!

Today is Earth Day - and it is a very Catholic thing to protect all of God's creation through stewardship and environmental justice.

Read more here! 

Or here!

And maybe we'll see all of you at Our Lady of the Snows for their Earth Day for Schools this Thursday and Friday!

Earth Man and The Other Guy Return!

Into the Heavens? Brazilian Priest Missing After Floating Away Under Hundreds of Helium Balloons

As always, no, we're not making this up:

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing Monday off the southern coast of Brazil.

Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute.

He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials, according to the treasurer of his Sao Cristovao parish, Denise Gallas.

Gallas said by telephone that the priest wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil's second-largest port for agricultural products.

More here...

pOddcast - Mi Chamocha

New on the pOddcast: a version of Mi Chamocha written by Dan Nichols, and recorded by Orin and Cantor Seth Warner and his assistant Dan Geigerman at Congregation Shaare Emeth in Creve Coeur, MO.

Maybe some of you don't know: Orin on many Friday nights and Saturday mornings, when not Oddwalking, accompanies services at this Reform Jewish congregation.  They are putting together a CD of some of their liturgical music to give to new members.  So on Seth's laptop (featuring what else, Garageband!) a dozen or so songs were recorded.  This one is probably Orin's favorite.  The text is from Exodus, it's the song the Israelites sang just after crossing the Red Sea and escaping slavery.  It's in Hebrew; here's one translation.  Passover has just begun for Jews.  (Remarkable too that Pope Benedict visited a synagogue during his USA visit.)

As always, you can find the podcast in the gcast window in the blog sidebar or over at the main site.

We Did Good

The results of the evaluations of our workshop presented at the National Catholic Educators Association Convention a month ago in Indianapolis:

He was a General too

Seen as a tag line on an email recently: “Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

(Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican)

Earthquake!

A year and a half ago, we mentioned an area minor earthquake here on the blog.  Today's was a little bit bigger - 5.2 on the richter scale, about 120 miles east of St. Louis at about 4:36am.  I (Orin) don't know if Shannon felt anything another 120 miles or so west, but we got woken up and lightly bounced around for probably 20 seconds or so.  No damage, I guess, except one road near our house had a bit of crumbling concrete (see the picture).  Read more here.

Now we wait for any aftershocks!  Whee!

Eva Johnson Memorial Video

It's been one month since Orin's mom Eva passed away into new life.  Here's the video of some 54 pictures that was put together as a memorial for the visitation and funeral.  Additionally, it's a chance to see many youthful pics of Orin and many various combinations of uncool hairstyles and weird facial hair.  The preview pic is in the Johnson's backyard (near the well-known "hands in the air" location) and is the morning of Orin's first communion in 1982.  The video is about 9:30 in length.  You'll also notice a few breaks which feature a river, waterfall, etc.  The joke was that Dad had landscaped that stuff in the backyard.  (It's not true.)

Welcome B16!

And happy birthday!

OddRingtones and OddWallpapers!

Hey all - We're trying something new - free Oddwalk ringtones via myxer. Here's the first one, a sample of "Get It Together" off the new CD, "Walk Away Different." We now have eight ringtones to choose from! You can just click the link in the sidebar of the blog or on various pages at our main site. Let us know what you think!

More from Oddwalk Ministries at Myxer

We also have five wallpapers available - here's the basic one; there are also "Walk Away Different," "Just Because You Can" and of course Oddwalk Keytar wallpapers too!

More from Oddwalk Ministries at Myxer

Oh Henry!

This past Thursday, Oddwalk put on a performance for the PSR program at St. Henry Church in Belleville, IL. We were excited about the opportunity to return, as we had presented there in 2007 as well. It's actually where our video of "The Cubs Song/Old Irish Blessing" comes from.

The show went very well. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in bringing us back. Thanks especially to the young people whose singing and participation made the show a success.

The most entertaining part of the evening might have been when the son of one of the organizers, an excitable little five year-old boy named Jay, made his presence known.

As people were arriving at the Church, Jay welcomed them in yelling: "Welcome to the Happy Monster Band"! Trying not to take that too personally, we later found out that the "Happy Monster Band" is actually a show on Playhouse Disney. WHEW!

Public Transit For All

Thanks to a couple folks who pointed us to this videoclip of a now-pulled commercial regarding the Pope's upcoming trip to the USA.  We don't find it so offensive, though the Pontiff is wearing cardinal red instead of papish white.

Always ahead of the curve

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the California newspapers read: "California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than New Yorkers."

One week later, "The Aitkin Age," a local newspaper in Aitkin, Minnesota reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in peat fields just north of Palisade, Ole Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing.  Ole therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Minnesota had already gone wireless."

Rickrolled

Orin was introduced to a new internet/pop-culture term today: rickrolled.  For instance, the New York Mets were just rickrolled.

What does it mean?  This.  Mmm. 80's.

We know what you're thinking: "What can I do to not be a victim of this merciless plague?"  Well. to avoid being rickrolled, just click here.  No, really.  Would we rickroll you?

Gracie is not dead.

In response to a comment about Gracie looking dead, I offer this picture of both Gracie and Penny snapped by Orin's wife Erin earlier today at the bottom of the steps.  No, Ricky, they aren't stuffed either.

Two Informative Pictures

Orin passed his comprehensive exams!  With honors!  And is turning in his major paper this week!  And will be done!  DONE DONE DONE!  And likes exclamation points!  A lot!!!

Gracie is the same color as the floor.  The end.

Happy Birthday Miriam!

Last week was Miriam's 2nd birthday - Miriam was adopted by Jason and Corinne, friends of Orin and Erin.

Sunday was the big birthday party, at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis.  Orin and Erin brought Miriam a nice flower, which mom put in her hair.  This is a picture of Miriam just before she decided she didn't want the flower in her hair anymore.

Vacuum Cleaner Hero

We've known for a long time that Noah C. likes keytars.  Here, he mimics mom playing guitar hero using anything he can find.  Hat tip to Cerneka Family Blog.

The Lord's Prayer

As sung by a 2-year old:

Thanks to Fr. Jim for the tip!

OddPoll: Who is the "Yoko" of Oddwalk?

We've gotten a number of entertaining reactions to yesterday's April Fool's Announcement that Oddwalk was breaking up.  Here's a sampling:

Nice April Fools blog. I went to your site thinking "I wonder if they got a joke up?" (Ricky)

Stealthy. (Ricky again)

It says on your facebook profile that you guys are breaking up... for real?
What's up with that? (Paul)

I have to go know, the sting of the tears is too much. (Sean)

okay--you got me on that one--thanks for the laugh!! (Jared)

Uhhh... you guys like.... um stink (or substitute harsher, stronger word).  You got me... (Paul again)

ODDWALK breaking up...and Shannon is cheering for the Cubs (Roberto el Birdo)

Is there anything that photoshop cannot do?!? (Orin's wife, Erin H)

I am now a professional golfer on Wii sports, which is pretty good considering I don't play all that often. (Ricky again, though I'm not so sure this comment is specifically about our April Fools joke)

Perhaps the funniest remark though came from our friend Gene of Apex Ministries:

it was great working with you guys.
sad to see you go. (who is the yoko of Oddwalks?)

With such inspiration, we announce a new OddPoll: 

Who is/was/will be the "Yoko" of Oddwalk?

-Shannon

-Orin

-The Oddwalk Keytar

-Erin C

-Erin H

-Yoko Ono

You can only select one answer, and have a week to mull it over.  As always, you can find the OddPoll over in the side bar.  Good luck, and happy voting!

Oddwalk breaking up

OddFriends,

After nearly four years of a successful ministry together, Shannon and Orin decided earlier this week to break up the act.

We've enjoyed bringing our message of "Community, Participation, Mission" to many folks around the country, but in the end, our personal differences are just irreconcilable.

Shannon likes to eat yellow snow, Orin never showers, Shannon's breath smells like bleu cheese, Orin has fleas... the list goes on and on (but it's mostly Shannon's fault, really, that big head of his.  I mean, just look at it.).

Especially after recent successes like our projects with GIA, this is particularly painful.

We're sorry to announce this to the world in such an impersonal manner, but thought everyone should know as soon as possible: April 1, 2008 - the day the music died.

Oh, and Happy April Fools Day!