Theatre - The Ultimate Team Sport

The center section of the high school theatre auditorium was almost full. 60 sweaty kids after an intense rehearsal, 100 or so parents threatened within an inch of their lives if they did not attend, 5 directors, and The Steering Committee.

This is the meeting where we finalize the the passports, the behavior contracts, and most of all the money - all $350,000 of it, needed to send our production of High School Musical to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland this August. Through a few grants, some fundraising, and a whole lot of begging, we have been able to raise every bit of it in just over 11 months.

The tense moment of the night came when 4 of us from the Steering Committee stood in front of this motley crew and explained the American High School Theatre's policy on kids behavior while on this trip - which is basically, screw up once and you are on a plane home before you know what hit you! Oh, and that emergency ticket will be paid for by your parents' credit card. Oh, and now parents, if you'll just hand us your credit card, and your child's passport we are going to go make copies of them so that transaction can be handled with just a phone call. And by God, if they didn't do it!

I was pretty overwhelmed by the trust in that room as parents solemnly passed all manner of American Express, Visa, and Master Cards, along with their kids' shiny new passports to the aisle, like good Lutherans, where they were collected by 4 moms. All that was missing was an organ playing the offertory hymn as we carried pretty much 150 people's identities off to the Activities office to make copies.

After an hour of slaving over a hot copier, we returned the precious documents - amazlingly, all to the rightful owners. As I handed a Barnes and Noble Visa back to one parent, he whispered to me, "Well, at least if he gets sent home, with this card I'll get 750,000 points!" Now that's takin' one for the team!

Oxy-moron

"More Effective" .... yet "Useless" ... hmmmm ....

Am I the only one that thinks the wording on this packaging could have used another opinion?

Dave Days

There is a 10 day stretch in the month of June that we call Dave Days. Father's Day, Dave's Real Birthday, Dave's New Birthday, and Dave and Linda's Anniversary... oh, I get honorable mention there at the end with the anniversary, and thanks to a mixup early on in our relationship I did invent Dave's New Birthday, but other than that, it literally is all about Dave - otherwise known here as Downtown Dad.

Around here, Dave Days are usually a virtual shower of gifts, cards, and special dinners. This year though, the price of gas and Realtorin' being what it is, Dave Days were a little thin. A homemade copy of the HBO John Adams series; yet another political book; some clothes picked out by DD himself then judiciously doled out over the span of celebrations; and a cake decorated by car headlights at 1 a.m. by loving teenagers - some not even ours; were all that the extended family had put together.

**(Translation: "Happy dinosaur we heart you ab day")**

.... don't ask me, teenagers, headlights, 1 a.m. ... go figure ....

...But there was a Dave Days surprise in store we hadn't counted on... Tessie looked out her 2nd story bedroom window and saw a white cockatiel sitting on the wire. At first, she thought one of ours had accidentally gotten out, so she went screaming down the stairs "There's a bird outside!" but when she saw both Tizzy and Rascal safely in their cage, she added "And it's not one of ours!" Apparently, this bird was attracted by cockatiel chatter coming from our window (and the fact that it was Dave Days) and arrived on our back deck, as a Dave's Real Birthday Present from the Universe! We easily coaxed the new guy inside by putting the cage with our two birds in it, and some seed and water near the sliding glass door, and pretty soon he just walked in and made himself at home!

We've checked the lost and found section of the newspaper every day and no one seems to be looking for him, so I guess we now have three cockatiels! We're not sure what to name him yet. Since he's mainly white, Tessie is pulling for Edward, after the Vampire star of the Twilight books... any suggestions?

Mosaic about me meme

I found this while reading Jen at Juggling Life and loved it, so I swiped it! (I suppose it can't be called stealing if I give Jen credit for it though, right?) It sort of reminds me of one of those Vision Boards, where you cut out pictures from magazines that represent the things, people, places or ideals that you want or want to be like... Hmmm, 5 out of 12 pictures of the ocean, yep, that's me, mexican food - check, pie - check, rain - yep... OK, yes, I have a thing for intellegent guys with white hair... you got a problem with that?

1. Oh! Que Linda, Linda Mar..., 2. enchiladas with red sauce, 3. 2/8/08, 4. .A touch of Pink., 5. Richard Dreyfuss, 6. Chardonnay Sunset, 7. Red Light, 8. Chess pie for Easter dinner, 9. the writer and the sea, 10. Why does it always rain on me??, 11. good secretary, 12. Tonight's Dinner: Pork Chops

Anyway, this is what you do:

Answer each of the questions below. Surf over to Flickr and type your answers into the search bar. From the choice of pictures shown only on the front page, click on the one that moves you. Once the page with your picture opens, copy the URL. Surf over to the Mosaic Maker, set up your mosaic, and paste your URLs. Click Create. Voilla!

The Questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
What is your favorite drink?
Where would you go on your dream vacation?
What is your favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
What is the one word that describes you?
What is your Flickr name?