Randy

Reverend Randy Aldrich

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I never dreamed of being a Minister or a Reverand.

Still, I happened across The Universal Life Church the other day and found out you can be ordained from them for free.  So I did it.  Why not?
Reverand Randy Aldrich
I recognize that this probably means absolutely nothing but it’s still fun.

I did a little digging and found that according to Section 11 of the New York State Domestic Relations Law the following list of people are authorized to officiate a wedding ceremony in New York State:

Various government officials;

a member of the clergy or minister who has been officially ordained and granted authority to perform marriage ceremonies from a governing church body in accordance with the rules and regulations of the church body;

a member of the clergy or minister who is not authorized by a governing Church body but who has been chosen by a spiritual group to preside over their spiritual affairs;

other officiants as specified by Section 11 of the Domestic Relations Law.

The person performing the ceremony must be registered with the City of New York in order to perform a ceremony within the New York City limits. The officiant does not have to be a resident of New York State.

Ship captains are not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State.

Looking a bit further, Also in Section 11 I found:

The term “clergyman” or “minister” when used in this article, shall
include those defined in section two of the religious corporations law.
The word “magistrate, ” when so used, includes any person referred to in
the second or third subdivision.

This doesn’t quite cut it yet so I looked a little further into Section 2 of the Religious Corporations Law and found:

The term “clergyman” and the term “minister” include a duly authorized
pastor, rector, priest, rabbi, and a person having authority from, or in
accordance with, the rules and regulations of the governing
ecclesiastical body of the denomination or order, if any, to which the
church belongs, or otherwise from the church or synagogue to preside
over and direct the spiritual affairs of the church or synagogue.

Honestly I think that pretty much sums it up and means that as long as the Universal Life Church Monastery believes you to be ordained as a clergyman of their church (which they do as soon as you register), you can perform a wedding in New York State.  Note that the articles of law I found do not list any documentation you must provide, that is likely up to the individual county clerk.  Just for fun I’m going to look into it for Monroe County.  If whatever I need to get from ULCM doesn’t cost much, I might just do it.

Then again, I have no idea what I’m talking about and I’m using Google as a Law Book.

DISCLAIMER: Please do not take my word for it.  If you decide to pursue this method of marriage, clear it with your county clerk first.
So there you have it.

Reverend Randy Aldrich is now available for all your wedding ceremonial needs.

Julia Nunes and Ben Folds

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We mentioned before that we saw Julia Nunes at the Ben Folds concert we attended.  Her performance was awesome, especially since we had no clue she was going to be part of it and I knew her from Youtube.  She finally posted a video of her performance, and while the quality isn’t very good it portrays the show perfectly.  About 5:20 into the video you’ll get to see Ben playing the drums for Julia which was completely unexpected and awesome.  She was totally clueless which made it even better.

In other news, we might be going to the 2009 Block Party with Ben Folds this Sunday.

Like a RockStar

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CassandraMy niece sings karaoke every Friday at the VFW in Newark NY.  She’s been doing it for a while now.

Friday night Rachel and I went out to see for ourselves and I’m proud to say she has quite the voice.  She started with some Evanescence, then rocked out to some Sublime and No Doubt and a few others. All of which she nailed with the exception of some song she didn’t know and thus fumbled through with her friend.

The karaoke at the VFW was a much better setup than I expected.  The patrons even more so.  There were a few people that essentially owned the karaoke machine.  Then there were a few others which subjected us all to throaty renditions of Wonderwall and off key versions of Living on a Prayer.

Overall an extremely fun and entertaining evening.

Planning our 3 week Hiatus

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Rachel’s Brother George lives in Portland Oregon and he’s getting married in July (the 11th to be exact).  Since we’ll be trekking all the way across the country for the big event we’re planning on making a vacation of it.  We’ll be staying in the Pacific Northwest for 3 weeks.  The rough itinerary is Portland for about a week, Glacier National Park for about a week, Seattle for a few days and then back to Portland to fly home. Beyond that we have no idea.

We’re trying to plan as little as possible and just wing it but we’ve put together a tentative map of the route we might take and the places we want to see.

2009-trip-planView Larger Map

We don’t want to plan our trip but we do want ideas.  We’ve never been to the west coast or the pacific northwest and we need to know the cool stuff to do or see.  If you have been to this part of the country, please let us know what places you enjoyed (and those you didn’t) so we can add it to our list!

Shorts (The Bar) – Rick Rolled

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My buddy Charles was in town this past weekend for his birthday and we were out and about in Fairport NY.  Everyone was a little toasted by the end of the night and Brian and Charles took advantage of the empty bar at Shorts to subject everyone to a little of of their finest Karaoke.

It’s worth a look (and a listen) because it really is quite atrocious, as all good Karaoke should be.

The Passion of Ben

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Watching anyone that is passionate about what they’re doing is both exciting and rewarding.

At the last minute Rachel and I were able to get Tickets to the Ben Folds Show at the Waterstreet Music Hall last week.  During the show it became clear that Ben thoroughly enjoys his music and his shows.  He played some of the most energetic piano for over 2 hours and when he finally went off stage he shook his hands and you could tell he was exhausted.  Even so, as all bands do, he came back for an encore and rocked the house again.

Needless to say the show was incredible.  Everything was amazing from the opener, a band I’d not previously heard of called “Jukebox the Ghost“, to “The midnight Ramblers” (an acappella group from The University of Rochester) to Julia Nunes (a famous ukalele YouTuber from Rochester NY).  The only music we really knew was the older stuff from Ben Folds Five but it didn’t really matter, The place was alive and it was a blast.

Unfortunately all I had with me was my iPhone camera so It was difficult to capture the moment with any clarity.

I’ll remember the show forever even without the pictures.  That’s what Passion does.

A Week in Review

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I’ve had the camera for a little over a week now. However; I’ve only had a memory card for 3 days.  I wasn’t about to pay Circuit City’s prices so I ordered a 16Gb card as soon as I got home. Anyway after finally getting a card I’ve been playing. A Lot. My results aren’t the greatest, and they show I have a lot to learn but it’s been fun.

I’ve uploaded some of my photos from the first week with my 40D. Take a look and let me know what you think.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=67348

Finally

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After 1 year and 5 1/2 months I finally took the plunge.

While we were out today we stopped by Circuit city to see what sweet deals they might be having.  We only found one.  They had the Canon 40D DSLR on sale for $150 cheaper than I’ve seen it online.  I’m now a proud owner.  My reaction so far is it’s awesome, above and beyond my expectations.

40D

Just Call Me Longshanks

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A while ago I became pretty interested in Genealogy. I started searching around and talking to relatives. I’ve found out a lot of interesting things but probably the most interesting came from somewhere unexpected. The Mormons are apparently very into this stuff and keep track of it all. They have a website filled with genealogy records.

Although I can’t verify it (Yet!) It seems I may be a descendent of King Edward II. If you’re not sure who King Edward II was perhaps his father King Edward I (nicknamed LongShanks) might be more recognizable.

http://www.geni.com/tree/embed?t=4834851109280048626&public_token=4834851109280048626&base_url=http://www.geni.com

Yes the very same King Edward I from Braveheart. Apparently I have evil blood flowing through my veins. The same blood which killed William Wallace.

I’m Sorry 😦

Stripes and Banana

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strips and bananaGrowing up, Stripes and Banana was the only way to eat Ice cream.  Banana is obvious, Stripes is more than just chocolate syrup.

It’s really quite simple.  You fill a coffee cup half full with Nestle’s quick.  Then you add water and mix until you get the desired consistency.  After, you just microwave it for about 30 seconds, Pour and eat up!

It’s somewhere between chocolate syrup and hot fudge if done properly but it’s better than both.