mostly interested in the stairs. Mostly, she is intrigued with where
they all lead. Once she gets there, she looks for more stairs.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Art
mostly interested in the stairs. Mostly, she is intrigued with where
they all lead. Once she gets there, she looks for more stairs.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Ambition
and get some biking in!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Keeping up Appearances
As you know, Internet, I am competitive. It is not something that I try to do, it is merely WHAT I do. It is not that I really want to be competitive. I just want to win. So now that we've established the theme for the post, let's get to the meat. We have a new next door neighbor. The husband has been very busy outside, so we see him a lot and spend a good amount of time chatting. Right after the Dexter-Ann Arbor run we chatted and I found out he is a runner too. Faboo! But he runs 5-7 miles a day. I run 2. Then his wife got pretty hanging baskets. I don't have any of those. He has projects and you see him ALWAYS working on them. It was not too bad, Internet, until last week when I saw an Evola truck pull up and deliver a piano. I play piano. I play piano rather frequently. So last night when we were sitting out on the porch, we could hear the husband playing the piano. As he played, I recognized the songs: Hey, I thought, Moonlight Sonata is MY piece! And that Chopin waltz is one I play! Piece after piece it seemed he choose from my music library, increasing the difficulty with each one. Finally, he played a part of Clair de Lune. That amounted to all out war. I never really worked through that piece, as it is intimidating, but it is a beautiful one that I grew up listening to. So, the proverbial gauntlet is out, right there in front of my porch, and The Neighbor does not even know he threw it out. So today, instead of pulling out the worn DeBussy music from which to begin picking, I dragged out my dusty violin. Why? Don't know. Except that I haven't heard him play that instrument yet (I came to find out he plays the banjo with wild abandon), and I feel like I may have a one-up on him. Of course, I can't play the violin very well, never having followed through with lessons past Suzuki Book 2, but it made me feel better to squeak out some old tunes. You should know, Internet, that I have a SCIENCE degree - which I thought gave me a competative edge over him - until I found out he is an engineer. So the marathon running, banjo picking, piano playing engineer next door is about to engage in a race that he doesn't know he is running. It's better that way- I've got the element of surprise! And, by the way, I didn't hear ONE IOTA of Mozart, so he better step up his game a bit.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Circus, through Mary's Eyes
After the girl's dance dress rehearsal, we changed them and went to the circus. It was a small affair, outside at a small fairground in Bellville. We had free kid's tickets, but not enough cash to get 2 adults in - who carries cash, anyways? So Jim took the girls in while I waited in the car. After a bit he texted me to say Mary was tired and quite done, so I went to get her and took her home to go to bed. Jim stayed behind so Emma could ride the elephants and soak up some big kid circus fun. Since I did not get to see the circus, I asked Mary about it. Her version was so fun and random, that when I got home I tried to recreate the conversation and typed as fast as I could. I have to mention that Mary repeats portions of her sentences until she feels she has finally made her point. That's what makes talking to Mary so great. So, I sat down at the computer, hands poised, asked her about the circus and she started rambling off the whole thing all over again. It was actually pretty close to the original descriptions, so, for your enjoyment, ladies, gentlemn and children of all ages, I give you Mary's version of the circus, quirky grammar and all:
So, Mary, how was the circus?
Better.
What did you see?
Some lions, some tigers, hmm… let me think about the other ones… Horseys, cowboys…. Why do we call them with a cow when the people who go on horses with a ‘cow’, why do people call them with a cow, cowboys, with a cow?
Because they used to ride horses to corral cows. That means to make the cows go where they want the cows to go.
Oh.
Tell me about the lions.
They made them do tricks! And the people who were helping them do tricks put some ladders up. And we saw a girl, she was a princess who was doing tricks and she had sunglasses on and a crown. She was doing a trick with a sword on her head inside her crown with sunglasses. She put it through a part of her crown and she was balancing and she put STEAMING FIRE on it with a pan.
Wow.
The steaming fire was on the pan.
Wowie. What did they do with the lions?
They had things that go judge – that means there is little waggy things that they wave to do tricks and then they gave them high fives - the lions do, real high fives! They were very brave, giving the lions high fives all the time. They were playing musical chairs with them. Not real chairs, just the little ladders. And one was sitting like people! LIKE PEOPLE!!! YES!! Then, what came next was a neat girl and she was hanging upside down then she went up on her neck and she hanged upside down on her foot! She was very brave and it looked very scary because she went high up hanging. It was scary! It was very scary!
Tell me about the doggies.
Um, they pushed a baby Pluto that the mama pluto pushed the baby one in acar. They tried to get them to do tricks, Then they brought horseys in and they got those ones to do tricks. Black and white ones. One was black and white and then the other one was black and white. They were both the same because they were a mama and a daddy who lost their little kid horsey. Some horsey gypsies took the little kid horsey away from their mama and daddy. There was three of them. There was elephants, people riding the elephants that were from a different country. Daddy told about the ones that are from a different country. Did you see the those? They were America ones. They lived in America, that’s the country. Are you typing that? You can spell America? Wow, mama. Great job!
Wasn’t there a little boy making the announcements?
He was a clown! And he was juggling and he was singing songs without sweeping and he keeped wanting people to clap when didn’t want to sweep and he danced. So his dad wanted him to sweep, and he said turn the music off, Then he started dancing again. Then they said, “can’t dance there either”. Then he turned the music off and throwed his stuff like a bad clown. So he was being a bad clown. Then his dad, the circus, he juggled some sticks with steaming fire – real fire! On them! It was real fire! He didn’t burn himself at ALL. He was the bravest Daddy – is that neat? He didn’t burn himself, he was juggling with his hands and he didn’t even still burn. And the girl that was standing upside down on the thing that I just told you about that was the princess, uh, they took the neat balance beam off, that’s all they did. That’s all I know about the circus. Aren’t those pretty neat tricks?
What was your favorite part?
All of the parts. And the man who said, “come here”, he said, “which color is your favorite” and I said ALL of the colors. Did you hear me say that? His name was Charlie, like our dog. The one who was at the dance where the stage is. Yeah. That’s all I know about the circus. That’s why I said yeah.
So, Mary, how was the circus?
Better.
What did you see?
Some lions, some tigers, hmm… let me think about the other ones… Horseys, cowboys…. Why do we call them with a cow when the people who go on horses with a ‘cow’, why do people call them with a cow, cowboys, with a cow?
Because they used to ride horses to corral cows. That means to make the cows go where they want the cows to go.
Oh.
Tell me about the lions.
They made them do tricks! And the people who were helping them do tricks put some ladders up. And we saw a girl, she was a princess who was doing tricks and she had sunglasses on and a crown. She was doing a trick with a sword on her head inside her crown with sunglasses. She put it through a part of her crown and she was balancing and she put STEAMING FIRE on it with a pan.
Wow.
The steaming fire was on the pan.
Wowie. What did they do with the lions?
They had things that go judge – that means there is little waggy things that they wave to do tricks and then they gave them high fives - the lions do, real high fives! They were very brave, giving the lions high fives all the time. They were playing musical chairs with them. Not real chairs, just the little ladders. And one was sitting like people! LIKE PEOPLE!!! YES!! Then, what came next was a neat girl and she was hanging upside down then she went up on her neck and she hanged upside down on her foot! She was very brave and it looked very scary because she went high up hanging. It was scary! It was very scary!
Tell me about the doggies.
Um, they pushed a baby Pluto that the mama pluto pushed the baby one in acar. They tried to get them to do tricks, Then they brought horseys in and they got those ones to do tricks. Black and white ones. One was black and white and then the other one was black and white. They were both the same because they were a mama and a daddy who lost their little kid horsey. Some horsey gypsies took the little kid horsey away from their mama and daddy. There was three of them. There was elephants, people riding the elephants that were from a different country. Daddy told about the ones that are from a different country. Did you see the those? They were America ones. They lived in America, that’s the country. Are you typing that? You can spell America? Wow, mama. Great job!
Wasn’t there a little boy making the announcements?
He was a clown! And he was juggling and he was singing songs without sweeping and he keeped wanting people to clap when didn’t want to sweep and he danced. So his dad wanted him to sweep, and he said turn the music off, Then he started dancing again. Then they said, “can’t dance there either”. Then he turned the music off and throwed his stuff like a bad clown. So he was being a bad clown. Then his dad, the circus, he juggled some sticks with steaming fire – real fire! On them! It was real fire! He didn’t burn himself at ALL. He was the bravest Daddy – is that neat? He didn’t burn himself, he was juggling with his hands and he didn’t even still burn. And the girl that was standing upside down on the thing that I just told you about that was the princess, uh, they took the neat balance beam off, that’s all they did. That’s all I know about the circus. Aren’t those pretty neat tricks?
What was your favorite part?
All of the parts. And the man who said, “come here”, he said, “which color is your favorite” and I said ALL of the colors. Did you hear me say that? His name was Charlie, like our dog. The one who was at the dance where the stage is. Yeah. That’s all I know about the circus. That’s why I said yeah.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Welcome Summer!
delight for the girls.
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