Two Things I Learned

I learned two things this weekend. #1 - My dad is a square dance caller. He's done it for over 30 years. For about 10 or 12 years he and my mom ran Square Dance Weekends. They'd rent out a little bed and breakfast and 20 or 30 couples would go for a weekend of good food, square dancing and fun. One of their favorite things at these weekends were skits. After the dance on Saturday night they'd all get into their jammies and be comfy and meet back in the dance hall where anyone who wanted to could put on a skit. For years my Dad wanted all the skits put onto one video so they could be watched in one sitting. For his 70th birthday we decided to do it. We got all his videotapes and converted them to DVD. Then I spent hours editing the DVDs, finally making four DVDs of skits. I made nice labels and jewel cases for them and gave them to him for his birthday. I was delighted to have given him such a personal gift.

Sunday night he called and said the DVDs wouldn't play on his player. I couldn't figure out the problem since they played on my player. We told him we'd come up Monday night to look at it with no idea whatsoever what the problem could be. For no reason I can think of except for desperation, I called Best Buy, thinking maybe there was some kind of setting on my Dad's DVD player that could be changed to allow the DVD to play. When I called, I got the "Geek Squad"....you know those guys who drive around in the little Volkswagon Bugs? He asked me what kind of "media" I had used....huh? Turns out he meant what kind of DVD, and I had to go look but I told him I used a DVD -R. He said most DVD players will play only on kind of DVD...either -R or +R. I had no idea there were two different kinds. I ran over to Staples, picked up a box of +R DVDs and quickly burned one of the movies. We went up to my parents' house and voila! It worked!

So now the only problem is I have to re-burn all those DVDs! Hubby can do them at work in about 5 minutes per copy, so...not a big deal!

#2 - Daughter Jamie sent me a picture message on my phone showing a picture of her making a touchdown from her game on Saturday that was published in the Manchester Union Leader. Hubby was kind enough to go out and try to buy a copy...but after going to every convenience store and supermarket in town, he was not able to find a copy. So Monday we decided to try the library, figuring we could photocopy the picture. We went to the rack labeled "Manchester Union Leader" and they had Monday, Saturday, Friday, Thursday, etc. No Sunday! I thought maybe they kept them behind the desk for some reason so I went up and asked the librarian. Turns out the Manchester Union Leader is called the "New Hamphsire News" on Sundays! WHY????? Hubby saw that newspaper at each store he went to but had no idea it was the same paper. The Librarian did have it, we got the photocopy and we're happy.