Adam Pope (Dick)

Greetings Rockin' Pope Family, I wanted start by saying how great it was to visit with so many of you while I was up in Utah at the beginning of the month. Dad and I managed to travel the whole state in two days, going from SLC to La Verkin to see The Allen Family, then back to SLC to visit with The J. Howe Clan and finally back up to hang out with the Richmond Gang. Of course there were many folks we missed in between so we'll have to make another pass soon. The next weekend I headed out to California for some birthday celebrations. On Saturday I went to Disneyland with my best friend who shares my same birthday and was also Goofy at one time. It was fun to reminisce about the costumed days gone by and ride the various mountains of Disney adventure. That night I had a Kung Pao Chicken dinner from my favorite Chinese restaurant with my Mom that Erik also attended and we played some guitar while we waited for dessert. Then Erik and I met up with a bunch of my high school friends to go see the X-Men Origins:Wolverine movie and laughed into the wee hours of the morning. The final event was a lovely Mother's Day breakfast at Mimi's Cafe that Erik's wife Joy joined us for, which was very nice. Returning to Arizona I had to prep for our quarterly company party. This event was going to be Mexican themed/catered so we called it our Friday Fiesta! I had been sending out faux-bios and advertisements for a "Special Musical Guest" named Mel Zorro, who was formerly in an 80's heavy metal band called Chicks N' Salsa, to get people more excited for the performance. Clad in leopard print pants and shirt, wild hair and lots of metal jewelry I took the stage as Mel Zorro and brought up some of my co-workers to play my former band members: Monty Zuma and Frankie Flan. We performed two silly acoustic songs, one called "Rock That Guac" and a love ballad entitled "Love Is A Warm Tortilla". It was a very fun show with a lot of good audience participation. I've included some pictures with my entry since words can only say so much. I have just now returned from another trip to California visiting Erik at his home in Glendora. It was great to have an extended Memorial Day weekend to really relax and have fun. Also along for the trip was my dog Murray who enjoyed getting to know the family and exploring Erik's backyard. We spent most of the time playing this great musical simulation video game called Rock Band 2 with Katie. We called our band "The Jombies" with Erik on guitar as "DieterX", Katie on drums as "Rimmbie" and yours truly on vocals as "Bimbee!". We pretty much played night and day for the whole 3 day weekend aside from the occasional break to bar-b-que some hamburgers or watch a wacky kung-fu film from the 70's. We also had a nice sibling family gathering with Heidi and family at a skateboard park just down the street from Erik's house, where Erik taught us how to juggle and even took a few turns on the concrete ramps of the skate park (truly a more daring fellow than I). On the way home a nice police officer decided to give me a speeding ticket, so that I would never forget the magic of the weekend (Thanks a lot). Summer fun at its finest. I hope you all are enjoying these summer days as well. Talk to you next month.