Happy 75th Birthday Dad!



well... we did it!... :-) My mom, my sister and I have been conspiring for almost a year now to have a surprise party for my dad celebrating his 75th birthday, and we did it! Yesterday, Sept. 28th, at the Pittsburgh Airport Holiday Inn, we were able to surprise him... If you know my dad, you know that his hyper-curiosity and and unrelenting questioning can make even the most war-hardened-cold-war-secret-agent-spy feel like a school-boy confessing to a simple classroom prank. ...But we did it! hah ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-aha-haaaa......wait..i have to catch my breath....ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. ahhhh. /*sigh*/ heh-heh. :-)

The party was great. Lisa took a lot of great pics (which you can see online HERE and the hat pics are HERE). I'll try to get some of the pictures that other people took to add to our collection. Stay tuned....

My mom and my sister deserve all the credit for the logistical effort of putting the party together. ...They did a great job!

My part in all of this was to put together a photo presentation using about 120 pictures that my mom gave me spanning his entire life to date. I used a program called "Pro Show Gold" by Photodex (http://www.photodex.com) to render the presentation. My mom and sister helped me make a list of songs that he loves and I used the online music service Rhapsody (http://www.Rhapsody.com) to find the tunes. It turns out that there are typically hundreds of versions of each of his favorite songs.... I listened to literally hundreds of songs trying to find what I thought were "just the right ones" to use in his presentation. I'm pretty pleased with the result...

...you can download and watch the photo presentation using this link:
R.K.Evans Jr's 75th Birthday Photo Presentation
(you will need to save the EXE file to your computer and run it.)

Here is an overview of the slideshow:
  • Track 1: CHILDHOOD,
    "What a wonderful world"
    by Louis Armstrong
  • Track 2: COLLEGE,
    "Penn State Fight Songs"
    by the Penn State Blues Band
  • Track 3: IN LOVE,
    "Don't You Know"
    by Della Reese
  • Track 4: MARRIAGE,
    "Aida, Triumphal March (Act II)"
    by the Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
  • Track 5: TRAVELS ABROAD,
    "Raider's March"
    by John Williams
  • Track 6: NEW HOUSE AND KIDS,
    "Movin' on up!"
    from the Jeffersons TV show
  • Track 7: RAISING A FAMILY,
    "Cabaret"
    by Lisa Stokke
  • Track 8: CHILDREN LEAVE THE NEST,
    "The Impossible Dream"
    by Andy Williams
  • Track 9: BEING A PAP-PAP,
    "I could have danced all night"
    by Christine Andreas
  • Track 10: TODAY AND TOMORROW,
    "Up, Up and Away"
    by Dionne Warwick

    /*sniff*/....enjoy!

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