15 Minutes of Fame

Just a few minutes ago I was checking in on one of my favorite blogs -- catalogliving.net -- when I saw something that caught my eye. Off to the side, in the area where it shows a few people who "like" this website on facebook, was a picture of Daughter #1. The fact that she likes it wasn't surprising. The fact that out of the 26,046 people whose picture could have been there, hers just happened to be there when I was checking! Okay, that deserves even more emphasis. !!!!!!

I have to admit, I exited and entered the site a few more times in rapid succession to see if her picture would still be there. It was.... for just a few more minutes. And then just as quickly as she rose to fame, she vanished. Oh well, you know what they say. Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame.

I discovered that I also have been captured on the internet. While checking out google earth satellite maps one day, Son 1A found our town. Zooming in a little closer he found our street, then our house, then ........me! I was so excited to be famous. And I even looked pretty good. I was bent over the lawn mower filling it with gas. (I'm so glad I was caught doing something industrious, and not just lounging on a lawn chair eating bonbons.) But just now as I've been searching to find that same image, it's disappeared.

Oh well, you know what they say.

Dixie

The Resident Entertainer

I took a little drive this past week to visit my mom. Since I have last seen her, she has moved to a Senior's lodge. We used to call it "the old folks' home" but I suppose that's not politically correct anymore. Initially I was a little worried about her moving in there. I thought she'd be a little lonely, or missing her home, or whatever. Hah! She's loving it!

• While everyone else complains about the food, my mom thinks she's died and gone to heaven. No more meals to make.
• While everyone else misses their homes, mom's relieved she doesn't have a lawn to mow or sidewalks to shovel.
• While everyone else whines about their tiny living quarters, she's grateful she doesn't have very much to keep clean. And to top it off she gets maid service once a week!

So, her spirits are in pretty good shape. She's having a good time, and seems to have taken it upon herself to be the resident entertainer. She puts on musical programs and tells jokes about old people. The funniest thing, though, was her walker. At first glance it looks pretty normal.

But upon closer inspection.....

you will notice that the contents include:

1. one kleenex box (okay, so that's pretty reasonable)
2. one garbage bag (for the used kleenexes) taped to the handle bar
3. one bottle of multi-vitamins
4. one piano book of rag music
5. one tambourine
6. one set of maracas
7. two harmonicas
8. three kazoos
9. one wooden train whistle
10. one pint jar of Roger's Golden Syrup (in case they serve pancakes for breakfast)
11. one bottle of cinnamon (?)
12. one bar of Irish Spring soap (your guess is as good as mine)
13. one pair of sunglasses (perhaps to give a hint of "rock star" while playing the kazoo?)

I think she has every right to claim the title of "resident entertainer". I only hope the other people are laughing with her.

Dixie

Today

Today I am:

.....packing my suitcase with chips and salsa, games, strawberries, bananas, caramel popcorn, photo albums, chocolate (of course) and a couple of favorite movies. Oh, and a few clothes. I'm getting ready for a girls' weekend with my three daughters. We've never done this before, and I'm so excited about it!

.....trying to figure out how to arrange my Showbiz Kids classes for next year. I've had an unusually large number of registrants, so I need to make some adjustments to the class sizes and age divisions, and try to keep everyone happy. It's not proving to be too easy.

.....hoping that The Mr. can make it through the day. He's been sick for the past several days and having a hard time keeping up with everything. He needed to be out of town today for a long day of meetings, but he was up most of the night coughing, so didn't get much sleep. Hopefully, he can sleep on the plane. Hopefully his coughing won't stop others from sleeping on the plane!

.....making meals and doing laundry so The Mr. will be well taken care of in my absence. I think I should probably leave him something special while I'm away. Something just for him. Like maybe a package of cough drops.

Holding My Tongue

When I was a young mother, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a sewing machine and learn to sew. My first few disastrous attempts were so frustrating, that I found myself wanting to curse like a sailor! I decided maybe it would be a better idea to put the machine away until the kids were off to college.

That sewing machine has pretty much remained unused over the years -- until the past few weeks. I've been sewing like a maniac trying to create, repair, or alter a ZILLION costumes for my Showbiz Kids. My experience this time around wasn't much more successful than it was the first time. But, as long as the costumes were only viewed from a distance, they looked okay.

But now that it's over, I don't want to see that machine again for a loooooong time.

Dixie