Steven Helmer Publications

I didn't have much time this morning, mostly because I had to turn back around and deliver the ear buds my daughter needed for school and left in my car this morning. I did, however, manage to take a short walk by the lake and grabbed some photos. Here's some of them:

The weather is absolutely beautiful out. It's sunny and, for the first time in at least several days, I didn't need to wear my heavy winter coat. So, I ended up taking a walk.

Unfortunately, I couldn't go too deep into the park today. Most of the trails have some fairly deep puddles on them and I didn't have a change of socks. However, even though I had to cut the walk short, there were still plenty of signs of life, including a muskrat eating lunch in one of the ponds.

Here are some of the photos I was able to get:

The one that talks about how exhausting a child's extra curricular activities can be.

My oldest daughter had her annual ice show this weekend (four 3-hour long shows in 3 days) and, while fun, it was a lot of work. As I joked with one of the other parents as we put away tables after the last show yesterday, my daughter is the figure skater but I was getting as much exercise as her.

The show, Rapunzel's Story, did prove to be a big hit. There were some snags early on, such as the music cutting out at inopportune times (though, to their credit, the skaters kept skating as though it was still playing), a few other minor malfunctions and competition from prom, but we pulled together and made it work.

I think the most memorable thing for me had to be my daughter's unintentional comic relief during the Saturday night show. She was supposed to sneak out during a scene change and hide out of sight until she made a surprise appearance a couple scenes later. They forgot to call her …

I saw some pelicans flying over top of me yesterday and decided to stop by the lake this morning to see if I could spot any. Even though the water still had a thin layer of ice on it, there was one that was hanging out near shore and I was able to get a photo of it as well as some other birds.

Synopsis: 30 years after stopping a killing spree by an ancient supernatural clown known as Pennywise, a group of friends reunite in an effort to stop the clown's latest murders.

Who's in it? The movie stars Harry Anderson, John Ritter, Tim Curry, Annette O'Toole, Jonathan Brandis and Tim Reid.


Review: I had intended on writing this review Monday. However, after learning of Harry Anderson's death that same day, I felt almost obligated to wait a couple of days.

My oldest daughter wants to see the 2017 remake of this made-for-TV movie. But, before letting her do that, my wife and I wanted her to see this version first. So, since we had a snow storm Sunday afternoon and nowhere to go as a result of that, we ended up watching it.

This was actually the first time I had seen this movie in its entirety. Up until Sunday, I had seen bits and pieces of it, including most of the second half of the film, but had never had a chance to watch it from start to finish. After finally doin…

Thanks to a mid-April snow storm this weekend, my girls had a 2-hour school delay yesterday and, while at home waiting to take my youngest daughter to school, I was able to snap some photos of the birds flocking to our front yard for the food I left out for them.