92 Year Old Hole in One

Oh, did we mention he was BLIND too?

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - A hole-in-one is rare on the golf course, but what are the odds of a blind golfer sinking one?

Leo Fiyalko couldn't see it, but his golf buddies did: a hole-in-one on the fifth hole at the Cove Cay Country Club in Clearwater.

Fiyalko is 92 and has macular degeneration. He's been golfing for 60 years, but his 110-yard shot with a five iron on January tenth was his first hole-in-one.

As he puts it: "I was just trying to put the ball on the green."

Fiyalko tees off every Thursday with a group of golfers ranging in age from 70 to 90-plus.

His friends at the country club presented him with a plaque last week to commemorate the feat.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Catholic Schools Week 2008, Immaculate Conception, Columbia, IL

Oddwalk performed a concert Thursday night (as the snowstorm began) in Columbia, IL. Thanks to Oddwalk fan Nick who took these photos (and more) of our appearance!

Here, Shannon surprises everyone with the big solo in the middle of "Just Because You Can" - usually, that's Orin's job.

Orin strikes one of the classic "Wanna Be A Rock Star" Keytar Solo poses.  The pants remained intact – this time.

The concert ended with a usual "Matilda the Gorilla" Oooh-Oooh-Ah-Ah-a-long.

Thanks again to all who braved the weather to come out last night, and for all the folks we saw over Catholic Schools Week: Jefferson City MO, Troy MO, O'Fallon, IL, and Columbia, IL!  O'Fallon MO, sorry we missed you today, but we hope you enjoyed the snow day, and we'll catch up soon!

2008 Composers Forum

John Foley and the SLU Center for Liturgy have, for 10 years, hosted an annual forum for published liturgical music composers.  As Oddwalk now fits that description (Thanks, GIA!), we were invited, and Orin attended today as Oddwalk's representative.  Keeping Shannon in the loop, he got to send him a couple informative text messages, such as:

I just joked about killing chris walker.  With chris walker.

[Christopher Walker is the Celtic Alleluia guy.]

I just called michael joncas 'mike'

[Michael Joncas is the On Eagles' Wings guy.]

To both of these, Shannon sent replies we had better not publish here.

Highs and Lows

As reported by Oddwalk friend Michael:

today the high in stl was 67. and the low will be 7.  this ain't right.

It's not "cream," it's "pepper white."

Last week Erin Hammond (Orin's wife, but not in a possessive way) upgraded her vehicle.  Away went the 2004 Saturn Ion-1,

And in came the 2005 Mini Cooper! (Pictured here while still on the lot:)

If you want a fun story about pricing and negotiations, let us know in person next time...  It all worked out okay in the end, that's the happy news.

And the Saturn never, not even once, burst in to flames on the open highway.  Let's hope the same holds true for the Mini.

Catholic Schools Week 2008!

Catholic Schools Light the Way is the theme of Catholic Schools week this year.  Oddwalk is pleased to have the chance to visit many area schools in celebration.  This morning we got the week started at St. Peter's in Jefferson City, MO.  There will be more reports as we visit several other places Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Happy Catholic Schools Week everyone!

Most Accurate Pie Chart Ever

Found on flickr:

Jury Duty

This week, Orin has been called to Jury Duty. So far, this responsibility has required him to sit around and wait to see if he is going to be called as a potential juror. I'm sure his jury notice specifies that he has to be at the courthouse over a specific span of days. There is no guarantee, though, that you will actually do anything during that time.

I (Shannon) asked him to send me some pictures of his experience. Here now is our faithful citizen:

Below is the room Orin has to stay in. If it's anything like my jury duty experience, he has to stay in the same assigned seat the whole time:

The Hall of Justice:

Good luck, Orin! I hope you get called or sent home soon.

Hippo Sweat is Natural Sunscreen

Don't ask me (Orin) why I just googled "Hippo Sweat" - but here's the first link google spit back out:

Hippo Sweat is Natural Sunscreen

Enjoy!

Cribbly's New Blog

Our ministry friend Anne Marie (to us, Cribbly) has stared a new blog, "Vignettes."  Please pay her a visit!

Trivia Night!

Oddwalk will be the emcees for a trivia night supporting Belleville Young Adult and Campus Ministries!

When: Saturday, February 16, 2008
Doors open at 6:00 PM, trivia starts at 7:00 PM

Where: Corpus Christi Church, 206 Rasp St. Shiloh IL

Cost: $80 per Table of no more than 8

Cash prizes to the top teams.

Prizes for the best variation/decorations on the theme:
Valentine's Day!

Also 50/50 drawings, raffles, and mulligans!!!

Food can be brought in,
drinks will be available for purchase.

Rumor has it there may be one or two special categories as a result of Oddwalk's presence...

For more info, click here!

Burnination

Seen at the Shrine over the weekend:

For more burnination, visit

homestarrunner.com!

Feeling Blue?

We've heard of the Blue Man Group before, but not anything like this:

Paul Karason puts a whole new spin on "feeling blue.” For more than a decade, the 57-year-old has been living with a blue face. Fourteen years ago, Karason developed a bad case of dermatitis, which results in swollen, reddened and itchy skin. He started self-medicating, using a treatment called colloidal silver, which is made by extracting silver from metal.

"I do tend to avoid public places as much as I can," he said.

Whole story (with video) here.

pOddcast - Get it Together, SpiritN3D

New on the pOddcast - a version of "Get It Together" as recorded by a group called SpiritN3D. We met a member of the group, Dan, while we visited the Diocese of Norwich last month. He liked the tune so much he had the band learn it, and did it at a "Jesus Jam Season for Believing" — he was careful to tell us that it was the first time the band did it in public, and the live recording is a little rough around the edges, but we think it's still very cool. Enjoy!

As always, you can find the pOddcast in the Gcast player in the sidebar or over at our main page.

Oddwalk Concert on Saturday Night

I hope all of you blogwatchers in the Belleville/St. Louis area can make it to Oddwalk's Holiday and CD Release Concert this Saturday, January 5th. The show will begin at 7pm and will be held in the Visitor's Center at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL. The concert is free and will be something the entire family can enjoy.

The Shrine also features the Way of Lights, a restaurant, and a gift shop, so feel free to come and make a night of it. For more on the Shrine, including directions, go to http://snows.org

If you can't make it, I'm thinking the concert atmosphere will probably look something like this:

Here comes MMVIII

Happy New Year!

Lots of exciting things await Oddwalk in 2008: Appearances at the LA Congress, the, NCEA conference, putting together another CD with GIA, and the opportunity to present in many different parishes, schools, and dioceses. 2008 also marks the return of Earth Man and the Other Guy! It should be a lot of fun.

We hope to see you somewhere along the way!

Be safe and healthy in the new year. We'll keep all of you in our prayers.