Our daughter, the star....

We are very proud of Lulabell who was recently chosen to represent the school district in a singing festival that will be held near Pittsburgh on March 7th! Here is the actual note from the music teacher:





Dear Parent:


I have selected your child to be part of the fifth grade Spring 2008 District 5 Songfest to be held this year at R****** High School on Friday March 7. Many fifth graders auditioned for me, however, eight students stood out from all the rest. These students are excellent vocalists as well as outstanding students in music class. I will be proud to have your child with me representing S*** Elementary School.





Well, as you can imagine, we are thrilled that our daughter's talents have been recognized at last! (I'm only half-joking here). This is quite an honor and I already have arranged to take the day off so we can attend the concert which is about an hour away. They will be making a CD of the concert and everything so this is a big deal here.

Birthday food and shopping!

Well I had a very nice birthday on Friday. I arranged to only work four hours which was sweet! I had a lunch date with a friend whose birthday is also in January and Stu decided he wanted to come to, which he did. We had a lunch buffet at a favorite restaurant of ours in town but apparently they were having an off day. When I asked the waiter if I could have crackers to go with my soup, I was told “no, sorry”. No explanation. Well, this seemed kind of odd to my dining partners and I. What, were there no crackers because this was a buffet and they don’t put out crackers on a buffet? Were there no crackers anywhere in the restaurant? What? So when he passed by again we asked and in fact, they ran out of crackers A WEEK AGO and still didn’t get any crackers in. Now COME ONE….there have to be crackers somewhere…if it was my restaurant, I would have called my food service people and demanded crackers RIGHT NOW dammit! A week? That’s just nuts…..Plus, I thought the lunch buffet was $5.99 and sometime between now and two months ago when we last had the lunch buffet, it has gone up to $7.99! The food wasn’t all that great either. Sigh, cross another one off my list, I guess.

Then we went over the Goodwill because it was “half off Friday” and I ALWAYS try to go there on those days (last Friday of the month). If you are willing to dig, you can find some really nice things. I always find things for Lulabell, not so much for Peaches though because men are notoriously hard on their clothes. Women are more likely to give clothes to Goodwill because they are tired of them or they are out of style. Men given their clothes to Goodwill because they have worn the crap out of them and must retire them, or they have outgrown them (after wearing the crap out of them). So, the men’s clothes aren’t usually in such great shape, especially T-shirts, which is what Peaches wants. So, we had some luck and I even found myself one or two things. Then Stu went to work for a few hours and I went home and laid on the couch to watch a movie. My friend lent me The Lords of Dogtown because Health Ledger is in it. It was not one of his better movies, I must say (I LOVED him in the Patriot), but I was really saddened by his death this week and I wanted to see him in a movie. I feel just terrible that he is no longer with us, what a sad, sad thing. I must confess, I hope they release the Batman movie he is in because now I really want to see it. I also really want to see Rambo as it has gotten sensational reviews on IMDB (reviews by regular people, not by paid reviewers). My birthday continued with the kids, Stu and I going to ANOTHER restaurant for dinner, ANOTHER buffet. However, this buffet is ALWAYS pretty good and it was absolutely packed. We found a table at the back and dug right in. My faves are potstickers and butter shrimp with a little fried rice. They even had (gag) frog’s legs which nobody wanted to try, not even Stu. I asked our little Chinese waitress if she could please refresh my diet soda and she said “you wait” really harshly. I was a little taken aback, but tried not to let it get to me. She was cleaning the table next to us. Finally she took my glass and refilled it. Then, as we were leaving, we had the check and were standing up to put on our coats when the waitress came running over exclaiming, “I take check…you sit down”, again in a really forceful, mean kind of way. Stu said something like, “no, that’s okay, we can do it”. She says “NO!, I take….you sit down”. Okay, then, geez….we were kinda shocked by her tone, but Stu explained that these waiters and waitresses were always in a bad mood on account of how they are brought here from China and then forced to work to pay off their debt. Well, now I know why….thanks Stu!

Today Lulabell and I decided to hit Goodwill up one last time for 50% off Saturday! We found a few more things for us and then hit the local discount grocery store for some groceries. I don’t usually buy my meat, veggies or fruits at this store, but do buy my staples and a few treats here and there, plus they have THE BEST kettle potato chips. So, we were standing in line and all of a sudden, Lulabell’s doctor is standing behind us! It was a bit of a shock to see him as this IS a discount grocery store and he IS a doctor, but they had just stopped in for a few snacks to take on their bus trip to a casino! We let them get in front of us, for which they were very grateful. As I was placing my items on the belt, I realized that most of what I had on the belt was kind of junk food and now when we go to see the doctor and he asks what kind of food I am feeding my kids, he will KNOW!!!!! Not that I don’t feed my kids good food…..I do….but I also like my chips and Reese’s cups….sigh.

Comedy raises it head in Boardman

Had a great time on my date with Stu Saturday night. I got tickets to the Funny Farm in Boardman from the radio (10th caller!) and we decided to make a night out of it. Actually, it’s good because my birthday is next Friday (the 25th) and this was kind of my B-day night out. We started out with dinner at the Olive Garden. However, our first choice, Outback Steakhouse was a no go because there was an 88 minute wait to sit down for God’s sakes. We hightailed it outa there and was just driving the strip in Boardman until we found the Olive Garden. Stu went in to find out what the wait was (a more brisk 40 minutes) and as we had plenty of time before our show started, we decided to eat there. I parked and as I was walking to the restaurant I happened to notice that right behind the Olive Garden was the Holiday Inn, which is where the comedy club is. So, I got inside and Stu had miraculously gotten a table in the bar, which is where we just decided to stay and eat. Everything was delicious, as usual. We decided that if we ever have any money, we will buy an Olive Garden franchise, open it in Hermitage where gobs of people will eat and Stu will be the maitre ‘d because that would be his dream job…greeting people and showing them to their tables. He is the best people person I know….. So, we still had like an hour to kill and headed over the Gabriel’s, where Stu has never been. This is a bit of a low end discount outlet store. You can find some nice things but you have to look REAL HARD and LONG for them. I did find some decent things for the kids and Stu found a shirt he liked so, $20 later, we headed back out into the freezing cold and swirling snow flurries over the comedy club. Now, in San Francisco, we had been to one or two comedy clubs and these are usually small, dark little clubs with a stage and little round tablets all over. We parked at the hotel and entered a side door and looked around in vain for the comedy club….nothing even resembling a comedy club was apparent and we headed to the lobby, where we figured we could ask somebody. However, I spotted a sign before then and we turned around and headed back to where we had come from, where there were people gathering at the entrance to one of the ball rooms. Stu said he had attended a Quickstar meeting at this same hotel at some point in the past and this is what it looked like. People were standing in line to "register" and then waiting for the meeting to start. Actually, THIS was the comedy club…..the hotel’s ball room (grand ball room please). I was a little confused, but walked up to the table and started saying to the woman, " I don’t think I’m in the right place, but….." Before I could finish the sentence she said, "You want the Funny Farm comedy club? This is it!" Oh boy. I could see her list and my name was on it so yep, we were in the right place all right! So, even though I had FREE tickets, there was a two drink minimum you had to pay for those up front don’t you know. So, Stu coughed up $20 for us both to get two "free" drinks during the show. I could hardly the hell wait to see what these $5 drinks looked like. So, soon enough the doors to the "club" opened and some guy was seating people at the tables (how many please?). I indicated there were two of us in our party and he lead us to seats RIGHT IN FRONT of the stage. The stage was an elevated area with a black curtain hung at the back and a mic stand at the front. The tables arranged perpendicular to the stage, very close together with the seats positioned as if we were sitting on buses (one right in front of the other), approximately two feet from the stage. It was all very close and awkward. I was nearly rubbing shoulders with the woman sitting to my left, the table was on my right, Stu was in front of me right between my legs, and I was right between the legs of the woman behind me. Like I said, a little awkward. We sat there, waiting for the waiter to come around (there was one waiter for the entire "club"). People continued to be seated and if I had to guess, I would say there maybe 75 people in all. Finally, the lights went down, the blaring music was turned down and this sweaty guy in a T-shirt and jeans with a beer in his hand hopped up onto the stage and started insulting everybody in the audience. Then, when the laughter was not at the level he expected, he insulted us more, which did not make me want to laugh at him. He insulted my husband regarding his ethnicity and his shirt (which was a little creased as it was brand new - okay, it was brand new but I had bought it two years ago and he had never opened it – so it was a little creased, but I didn’t think it looked THAT bad). He kept sweating and drinking and getting more frazzled at the lack of the audiences response to his "jokes". He kept calling us "fuckers" and saying that the owner of the club was here and we were making him look bad. I hoped desperately that this was only the warm up guy and the real guy was better. Oh, by the way, our drinks turned out to be beer (Bud Light, Miller Light, Bud), a house wine, ONE well drink, or soda pop. When my husband asked for Heineken the waiter almost laughed out loud. So, we both got wine, which was really icky and sour. FINALLY, the boring guy stopped talking and introduced the star of the show, Bill Scott. Now, THIS guy was funny. He is very laid back and has a very dry sense of humor, which is right up my alley. The audience behaved like we were watching George Carlin himself, so glad were we that an actual funny person was on the stage! This guy was very good and very funny. He asked about cats and I raised my hand and he asked what the name of our cat was. I didn’t want to get too involved so I just said "Tinkerbelle". He laughed and that said "what a gay name for a cat!" Well….I’ll show him, I thought. "Actually", I piped up, "we have two cats, the first one is Tinker and the second one is Belle….get it?" He was silent for a minute and then burst out with "that is even gayer than ONE cat named Tinkerbelle!!!" The audience was loving it…..I felt a little down because actually, when I named the cats originally, I couldn’t stand how damn cute our naming scheme was. So, I just laughed along with everyone else. (Somebody for God’s sakes remind us to NOT SIT IN THE FRONT at any more comedy clubs!)

Bill continued to talk for about an hour and again, we thoroughly enjoyed him. Then he asked if anybody was married and of course we put our hands up. Bill asked Estuardo how long we had been married and he said "twenty years". A sound went up from the audience "no waayyyyyyyy" we heard. This kind of cheered me up because it was obvious that we don’t LOOK like we have been married for twenty years, from the audience’s reaction. In fact, Bill said, "what, did you guys get married when you were 12?". I was feeling pretty fine after that, I can tell you! All in all, a lovely evening. We got home about 11 PM and went to Bill’s website to get some more info on him. Here is his site if you are curious: http://whitebillscott.com

Lion King Extravaganza

The outside of the theater....



The view from our seats in the upper balcony...not too shabby!


Wow....just one word, wow! We headed south to Pittsburgh yesterday to enjoy our Christmas present from MA (finally!). We and about 25 friends chartered a bus and went to see the Lion King in Pittsburgh. This is the way to do theater, my friends...first have somebody pay for your tickets (!), then have somebody drive you there. Awesome. We met at a local parking lot, parked and then boarded the bus, which was lovely and quite comfortable. K, my mom's friend who had kind of arranged everything, even thought to bring the movie The Lion King so we could watch it on the DVD player on the way down! Everyone was quite excited and we chatted the whole way down. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch, The Spaghetti Warehouse in the strip district of Pittsburgh, which actually looks like a very cool area and I may even VOLUNTARILY come back down to Pittsburgh to check it out sometime! So, lunch it was for the 25 of us, and we weren't even the biggest group there at the time, there was 50 person group that arrived just about the same time as we did in a MUCH BIGGER BUS! Lunch was expensive, but tasty and they had awesome desserts which were huge. P's dessert was so huge she had enough to share with 5 people! So, on to the theater....





We arrived at the Benedum and I must say it was SO nice not to worry about parking or walking around the mean Pittsburgh streets (just kidding!) The bus driver let us off right at the door and I felt like a celebrity just walking into the theater. Our seats were in the upper balcony so we began our climb...up, up, up. It was a little breathtaking but we finally reached the top. Except for some initial vertigo, we acclimated quite well to the height and in truth, I don't think there is a bad seat in that place. We waited for the show to begin and once it did we were spellbound by the music and the puppets and the actors. Everything was just so awesome. In fact, when the animals first walked on stage, I was so overcome that I actually teared up! It was that beautiful. I was especially taken with the giraffes, while others commented on the elephant. The puppets were really rather ingenious and I think the show was even more enjoyable because all the music was so familiar. The kids in our party were just sitting there with their mouths open (and some of the adults too) at the wonder of it. Intermission came way too fast, but we weren't fast enough on our flight to the ladies room....a line of about 50 women wound its way in front of us and those of us at the back of the line were looking rather desperate. We had to pass the mens room on our way to the queue for the ladies room and had noticed NOT ONE PERSON standing in line at the mens room (typical). My desperate friend and I resolved to use the mens room, which is what we did! We stood outside gathering our courage and tried to ask the men leaving the restroom if there were stalls (with doors!) in there. We were assured there were. So, she and I grabbed each other's hand and boldly marched into the mens room, determinedly looking straight ahead. We stood in front of the stalls and waited, with our backs to the urinals. We were surprised to discover a few brave (desperate) women had followed us in! The men in the restroom didn't really react to our presence (I don't know what I expected, howls of outrage?) so, we just got in, did our business, and got out. It was really rather a nonevent and I will never again wait in a long line at a women's restroom...why? I was rather proud of us and when we got back to our seats our women friends looked at us in amazement and awe. Yes, we did it! So, much more comfortable now, we settled in for the second half of the show, which was just as enjoyable, if not more so, than the first. Really, if you have a chance to see this show....GO! We followed the crowd out the doors and again, it was really the most awesome thing NOT to have to trek all the way back to a car. Our bus was waiting just where it left us off and we just got on the bus and left. All in all a rather enjoyable day! We got home about 6 PM and decided to eat at Arthur Treacher's were the kids have never been. They LOVED it and exclaimed all over again....When I got home I kind of collapsed on the couch with Lulabell and didn't lift my head again until my husband was telling me it was time to go to bed! Thanks again to my mom for her gift and to K for arranging this most perfect day....

A port in any storm....

This is my 50 pound plus dog Daisy cramming herself into the cat bed in the basement. I have her bed next to MY bed, so when we are in the basement, the only bed for her is the couch (which daddy doesn't allow her on) or the cat bed..... my poor baby!!!!!

Blah, blah, blah....

That's how I feel right now....just blah. Nothing happening, nothing to look forward to really, just, blah. Stu and I had lunch at Arby's today (whoopee!). I had to go emergency clothes shopping for Lulabell as she has NO PANTS! This poor child only has capri pants and I, being the model mother than I am, did not really realize it until today when we were getting ready for school. So, I rushed to the store to buy pants and got a couple pair for her. However, she is kind of between sizes right now so when she tries on her pants today after school I will either be a hero or a schmuck...I'll be sure to let you know which one I turn out to be.

Still not back on a regular work schedule yet as I went back for one day, then was off yesterday, then go back for four days, then off one, then work four then off two, THEN I will be back on my regular schedule. It is cold and snowy here but rumor has it we are in for a warm up this weekend with temps in the 50s! Wow! I see the west coast is taking a pounding right now, just like it did when we visited last December (one day while we were there they had the most rain ever in a single day, breaking a 100 year old record!) Just our luck......(sigh).

A happy new year for everyone!

Hoppy Nooyeeah....I don't know why I typed it like that...just being a wiseass I guess. Our New Year consisted of three teenage boys, a preteen girl and two adults banging pots and pans together to welcome in the new year at midnight. We had spent the evening eating and eating and eating, plus watching movies, playing cards, a couple rousing games of limbo and musical chairs. I swear, no matter how old these kids get, they will NEVER get tired of limbo or musical chairs. I must admit that I am no limbo pro so I get to hold the stick, although Stu made a real go of it before his old bones gave out on him. We listened to music too and generally had a very nice evening. We had to take our movie back by midnight and so when it finally ended at 11:45 I was worried that Stu wouldn't get back in time to see the new year in, but he made it in record time, arriving back at the house by 11:56! Then we range in the new year with plenty of noisy enthusiasm with hugs for all. Another couple of rounds of poker (using tortilla chips for poker chips, of course!) and off to bed for everyone by 2:30 AM!