JACK (AND JILL) -O-LANTERNS

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Last night we had our traditional "pumpkin carving party" with Grammy & G-Boy. The results are posted above (Largest to smallest, they are the work of: Julio, Stephanie, G-Boy, Harrison). Grammy snapped photos and made fudge while the rest of us carved. I got my less elaborate Jill-o-lantern done first, and had time to snap a couple photos myself:

As we were cleaning up, Harrison cracked up laughing, then called Julio over to the sink. "Come here, Dad! Wanna see my pumpkin throw up!?!" (picture below)

It was a late night, but much fun was had by all.

I Voted

I run a "reward program" for Harrison's class once a week; it's an incentive tool for his teacher to use as encouragement for kids to behave and get their homework done, etc. Basically, I go in and play some kind of semi-educational game with the students who have received a "star" for the week, then once a month (or every month & a half) I do a more extensive project/program for anyone who gets 4 or more stars.

When the program was done today, I checked Harrison out of school so he could come with me to vote. I always take him with me when I vote; when he gets old enough, I want him to be very comfortable with the process, so he won't hesitate to exercise his own right to vote.

We picked up Grammy and G-Boy and headed to the county auditor's office (temporary headquarters at the mall on the other side of town, since their downtown building is still in flood-recovery mode). There was a good-sized line outside the door, but they were very well organized and it didn't take long to get through the line to cast our ballots.

Once we had all voted, we stopped at the Chik-Fill-A (sp?) for lunch, then took Harrison back to school. On the way back to school, we talked about the process to make sure he understood each step along the way. Mission accomplished.

Have you voted yet?

Why Women Should Vote

I have to confess, after feeling like my vote counted far less than those of a small group of people in Florida back in 2000, and being a busy person who doesn't do well with standing in line or being near large groups of people (unless they are in the audience and I have the safety of an orchestra pit and the anonymity of playing a character between me and them), it is always a project to motivate myself to get out and vote.

If you are like me, you should Netflix or rent the movie Iron Jawed Angels.

Suffice it to say, I will continue to do what needs to be done to motivate my way across town and mark that ballot, out of gratitude to the women who sacrificed more than I would have been willing to sacrifice so that even the politically ambivalent have a right to be heard.

Champion Costume Designer

Harrison has a way with Halloween costumes.

His first winning costume was Peter Pan a few years back, which won the top prize at the safe Halloween party sponsored by Usher's Ferry. That was a tough one, as he was very specific about how it should look, and nixed the first couple attempts before it was exactly the costume he wanted.

Then two years ago, he made a Shamu mask at cubscouts, and we built a costume around it which won the grand champion award at the pack's costume contest.

Now this year, his original creation "the Scarer Crow" won the prize for most original costume at the all-school Harvest Hop.

Congratulations, Harrison!

Can you help me costume the musical???

Everything I needed to know I learned from a 5th grader

Working on preparations for our upcoming musical last night, I wasn't paying much attention to the television. After a round of political ads, Harrison turned to me and said, "If I ever run for president, I'm not going to waste any money on ads to say bad things about the other guy. I'm just going to use my ads to tell people about why I should be the president, and my plans to make the country better."

Then we came up with a strategy whereby as voters, we would decide who to vote for based on the high-mindedness of their campaigns. We will go one step further than voting on the issues. To counteract the "damage" negative ads cause their opponents through influencing the "ignorant masses", each negative ad will count against the candidate who "approves this message", and we will make a point to vote for their opponent, regardless of party affiliation.

At first we decided only to vote for candidates who don't use any negative campaign tactics - but then we just wouldn't vote...how sad.

We're also going to vote for candidates who are smart enough to do the job, even if they think they are better than us. From what I've seen, even the politicians who pander to us soccer moms think they are better than the general public. (To be honest, I find it insulting to be referred to as "guys and gals" by a public official. "Ladies and gentlemen" is far more respectful and less patronizing. My grandfather was a farmer in a small town who built his farm into a million-dollar operation without benefit of a college degree. He was never a "guy". He was a gentleman.) I WANT somebody smarter and better than me leading this country! If a plumber can't identify with him or her, I'm good with that.

For me, the most important value my leaders need to have is the courage of their convictions, and the integrity to stand up for their positions even if it is not the politically safe move to make. Both presidential candidates can point to evidence of such courage in their political histories. From my perspective, one is better positioned to continue with such conviction than the other - who has only recently switched focus to "playing the game", ironically with considerable success.

My goal for the upcoming election is to have an administration and leadership in place that will improve America's reputation world-wide, and make our country less of an international punchline. Luckily, both Presidential candidates are capable of making that happen, so no matter what we hear in the news on November 5, it won't be as jaw-dropping or stomach twisting as the last two elections were.

I'm Baaaaaack - sort of!

Thanks to my heroic husband, I have my own PC back up and running - and lost a minimal amount of data. Thank you, Julio - I love you!

Also, thanks to my generous father, who loaned me his laptop for a week longer than either of us expected, I was able to keep up with my emails and communications to the school.

Bye Bye Birdie opens in just over two weeks - sounds like a lot of time, but we can only have rehearsals on Monday Tuesday and Thursday, so really there are just 6 rehearsals left. Also, next Monday and Tuesday the school has conferences until 8pm, so we won't have a music director or accompaniment until about 8:30 each of those evenings...and we're not allowed to rehearse past 10pm for any reason. So, things are tight. As usual.

We had a weird evening tonight. I got a Facebook announcement from TCR this morning, saying they needed help tonight to fill 500 goodie bags for the Rocky Horror Show, which opens this Friday (they had 1500 done, 500 to go). So Mom and Dad came over for an early soup and sandwich dinner, and we all headed over to "TCR Lindale" (temporary theater they've created out of a nearby building which used to be a movie theater, then was a dance club, but has been sitting vacant for over a year). Turns out, the message was issued YESTERDAY, but for some reason, Facebook didn't post it to the group until this morning. They got all the bags filled last night, so Harrison missed out on his first non-performing volunteer opportunity at TCR. *sigh*

So after Dad & I greeted the few people we still know who are at the theater (Damon, Laurie, Diana, Casey, Dave...wow there were a lot of new faces there!) we headed to Perkins for pie. We had just started our sugar-fest when the woman who had been working the front counter came over and invited herself to join us...

Harrison and I were only slightly less befuddled by this turn of events than Mom, Dad and Julio. She is the mother of a boy Harrison goes to school with. He and Harrison were in the same class a couple years ago, and I've seen her at school functions a couple times (whereas Mom, Dad and Julio had no idea who she was and thus assumed she was some old friend of mine). She sat and regaled us with tales of her trouble at work, problems with her 7-year-old who had to be taken away by police and put in some facility for troubled children, her high score in science when she took the GED, and her desire to somehow persuade local big businesses to start a science fair.

I asked who was watching her kids tonight while she worked (hint hint). She kept talking. Julio made a show of getting up to go pay the bill. On she talked. Dad announced that he and Mom had to get going and left. She stayed seated and chattered away. Finally Harrison asked if we could go to Grammy & Grampa's to play a game, and I said "Oh, it's getting late honey - it's practically bedtime. We've got to get you home." She agreed it was getting late, and followed me toward the door, wanting me to wait until she could find a piece of paper to give me her phone number - I frantically offered to store it in my cell phone instead, and we escaped with our lives, driving straight to Grammy & Grampa's to apologize for having our nice quiet pie outing hijacked.

Now it is bedtime. More thoughts and anecdotal moments later...

Life Keeps Poundin' a Rhythm to the Brain...

So the poodle skirt workshop took almost FIVE hours (I had guessed two hours, tops). I missed the Eagle Scout ceremony entirely, which might have been just as well, since I was tired from no sleep on Friday and could very easily have embarrassed myself during the "small talk" portion of the reception.

Harrison had a sleepover at his friend Avery's house on Friday - I don't think they slept at all, because according to Julio, Harrison fell asleep while putting on his soccer uniform. When I got home from the poodle skirt "ordeal", Harrison was half-napping/half watching TV wrapped in towels after having showered. We barely got cleaned up and dressed in time to make it to Grace and Chuck's wedding.

The wedding was lovely - Grace's four sisters were her bridesmaids, and Chuck had good friends stand with him. The tiny little ring bearer was carried down the aisle - I didn't realize they made tuxes so small!

Kate and Patricia each did a reading and one of Grace's sisters sang a beautiful anthem during the lighting of the unity candle. They had a vase of white lilies in memory of Tom. The reception was held at the Art Museum - I was astounded at how they transformed the library area into a gorgeous reception hall.

It was very elegant, with everything from a candy bar to an ice sculpture which fascinated Harrison ("It was so cool, I just had to touch it!" he confessed on the way home).

We survived church on Sunday morning (I had to give the children's sermon, and Julio handled computers for Sunday School) and decided to eat out since we were too tired to fix our own lunch. Then we stopped by Lindale Mall to a special dinosaur exhibit they have, which was provided to the Science Station to help raise funds to rebuild. Bill Demarais (a friend of Dad's - they taught at the same school for over 30 years each) was giving a free presentation about dinosaur tracks & fossils - it was very entertaining and educational. Since today is a half-day of school, I'll be taking the daycare kids there this afternoon. If I have a chance, I'll write on that later...

Ok, well, that's our update for now. My PC is at the computer doctor's to get backed up and repaired after coming down with its very own virus, so I borrowed Dad's laptop - but he's home now and I'll be returning it to him this afternoon, so I don't know what kind of computer access I'll have for the next little bit... sigh. Well, I'd rather lose a computer than any more loved ones!

Something's going around, I guess

It must be my turn to have PC issues. Julio has spent the last few nights trying to fix things, but it's going to be slow going. In the meantime, Dad let me borrow his laptop while he and Mom visit Jason & family.

Harrison has ITBS testing this week (along with soccer practice & games), rehearsals for Bye Bye Birdie continue unabated (and are much more pleasant, since I finally had enough and removed one of our less mature cast members from the show), and Julio was able to resolve a problem in one of the systems at work which had him working several hours of overtime every day (just in time to come home and fix MY computer trouble!)

This coming weekend is packed. Saturday morning, I have to go to Clarence for a "poodle skirt workshop" - Aunt Chris is graciously volunteering her time to come and teach our kids how to make their own skirts for the show. Hopefully we'll get done in time for me to grab some lunch before heading over to Lowden for the Eagle Scout ceremony of one of my students (hey - anybody out there know if you're supposed to bring a card and/or gift to an Eagle Scout ceremony?) While I'm there, Julio will be taking Harrison to a soccer game, and we'll meet up with Grammy and G-Boy that evening, for the Wedding of Chuck & Grace, followed by a reception at the Art Museum. Sometime in there I'll need to come up with a children's sermon for church on Sunday. I think after church (where I'm also singing, and Julio is running computers for Sunday School), we will have a DAY OF REST.

It sure is nice to be this busy with all positive things (that is, except for these darn computer problems!).

Richard Barker - Artistic Director or Fisherman Artist?

Most of you who read my blog are very familiar with the name Richard Barker. For the past 20 or so years, he was the head honcho at TCR, our family's primary theater home. He retired just before TCR got hammered by the floods.

Through the magic networking of Facebook, I reconnected with Richard the other day, and found a website of his photographic artistry. Even if you didn't know Richard "back in the day", you should check out his website. He has some really fascinating work, and pricing that makes it affordable for nearly anybody to own:

http://www.imageafterimage.com/