What's Up?

Unbelievable that tomorrow is "May Day". May 1st. When I was a child, growing up in a Catholic family and going to a parochial school, May Day was the day we payed special attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We had a May Procession with one lucky girl chosen to be the "May Queen" and allowed to dress as the Virgin Mary and lead the procession into the church. I was never the May Queen, but I do believe that one year I was in her court. I don't really remember. But I think I was some kind of princess What else is exciting about May Day?

* To me it truly marks the end of winter. Until April is over, I always have the niggling fear that we'll get some kind of weird New England snow storm. But who gets snow in May? (please God, don't smite me for my thoughts and throw 12" of white, fluffy stuff on us!) I am going to put away my snow boots and my winter parka. I am THAT confident.

* The Red Sox season is well underway. They are doing very well (again God, no smiting with a 12 game losing streak now). It's taking a while to get used to the new players but most of my favorites are still around. It's nice to know the season is long and luxurious and will probably go on until the World Series in October.

* The sun is out later in the evening. I can get home at 6, watch my favorite People's Court, take a walk with my Hubby and still go over to the library in the daylight. Phenomenal! The only downside to this is that I feel guilty getting into my jammies before it's dark if we decide not to go out.

* The forsythia and daffodils are out in full force. I adore the bright yellow colors of these two flowers. They announce unquestionably that "Spring is Here"!

* The weather has been beautiful the last few days. Hot and Sunny. Cool nights. It's great to see people walking around in their shorts and flip-flops, arms and faces slightly (and some not so slightly) pink from the sun.

* New Hampshire kids are on school vacation this week. I'm glad that they've got such nice weather for their vacation, but I'm also envious. I wish adults could have the same vacations that school kids do.

Isn't spring wonderful?

HAPPY MAY DAY EVERYONE!

Dynamite!!

Hubby is having an art show this month at a restaurant in Hudson, NH called Dynamite Sushi. It's a little hole in the wall ... part of a strip mall......very unassuming. But the food is awesome! We went there last night to check out how it looked. Here you go: The wall isn't really bowed like that. It's a flat wall. But when you do the panoramic view on the camera it comes out like that sometimes.

The waterfall on the left below actually belongs to my daughter. Hubby painted it for her for her apartment along with two smaller paintings that go along with it and she let him borrow it back for the month.

If you live in the area and you get a chance.....go check it out. You won't be sorry.

No Canoe Yet :(

We didn't get our canoe this weekend.....which was a real shame because New England is having a HEAT WAVE! Saturday, Sunday and today it was 80 degrees.....tomorrow might hit 90! It would have been so awesome to be able to get on the water and float along. Instead, we got together with our son Doug and my grand-daughter Emily. DIL Kara was away for the weekend at a wedding in South Carolina and Doug invited us to join him at the park. We took the baby on the playground while Doug jogged/walked with the dog around the track. Did I bring the camera? Of course not! There were some really great photo opportunities too. Isn't that always the way? Emily played on the little bouncy animals that you sit on. She's partial to the duck, and I was impressed that when someone else was on it she just stared at the person until they got the creeps and got off waited patiently for the person to get off. She really loved climbing up the climber to get onto the slide. But her favorite game of the day was "Run and let Memere and Pepere chase me until they are sweating like pigs and fall into exhaustion onto the ground." For some reason she prefers running on the pavement instead of the grass, which regularly gave Pepere heart failure. We rounded out the day with an ice cream at the little stand near the park. (Talk about location, location, location). Emily was more interested in the chickens roaming around free than she was with the ice cream. At one point, she was a little too interested in the chicken. I was afraid she'd get pecked with her friendly approach and her, "Hi Chicken!" Now.....to digress completely.......what the hell is happening on Celebrity Apprentice? Melissa got fired? Not sure how that happened. There goes my theory about The Donald setting up a final confrontation between Joan and Melissa. Seriously.....there isn't anybody I want to root for. Both Joan and Melissa have totally lost any respect I had for them. They're both insane, hysterical shrews with no business or 'people' sense whatsoever. And if Joan quits the game because Melissa got fired.......she will have a negative amount of respect from me! Clint? Has no clue what he's doing or how he is coming off to people. I liked Jesse James but he was such a baby this week....and was obviously trying to throw Clint under the bus. I did like that he had the ba**s to congratulate Clint after he won. Brandy? Is totally being manipulated by Annie and has no idea. And I wouldn't vote for Annie even if they offered to pay me a million bucks......because I hate people that manipulate others. So where does that leave me???

Manchester Freedom Football

I've mentioned here fairly often that my daughter plays football for the Manchester Freedom. It is a woman's professional football team. Not that they receive any money for playing. Quite the opposite in fact. It's "professional" because they play by the same rules as the NFL. Full tackle, full pads....you get the idea.

This is Jamie's fifth year playing the game. Hubby and I love going to watch. We've even gone to all the away games.....in Montreal and all over New England.

Jamie is the one on the far right in the photo above. She is a wide receiver because she is small and quick. She also plays safety on defense.......and is the kicker for extra points or field goals. Today's game was great. They won 47-0 against a team from PA. Jamie had some outstanding plays including an interception.

In the program they 'interviewed' several members of the team. Below is her interview......and the reason I am so proud of her - beyond the fact that she is an outstanding athlete, is beautiful, smart and has a loving personality.

GIRL SCOUT, ATHLETE, AND ROLE MODEL, JAMIE NAYLOR SHARES SOME KEYS TO HER FOOTBALL SUCCESS

"The first tackle I made was the best feeling. It was a good clean hit and I took the running back down with force. I was seven and had taken down my older brother, Doug, in the back yard. Since girls could not play football when I was little (and Mom didn't want her baby girl to get hurt) I had to satisfy my need to tackle on my brothers. I watched enviously as Doug played through Pop Warner and High School. As I grew up, I played soccer, softball and basketball, but my heart was always on the football field.

As I dreamed of football, I kept busy through Girl Scouts. I started off as a little Brownie in first grade and graduated my senior year in High School with my Gold Award. Girl Scouts taught me a lot of life skills that I still use today. I learned the power of perseverance, how to lead a group to accomplish a common goal, and the importance of hard work and dedication. Girl Scouts helped me to become a part of, and to give back to, my community. It gave me a chance to make a difference in the lives of others who may not be able to help themselves. Girl Scouts also taught me that just because you are a woman does not mean you cannot accomplish your dreams.

I use these skills not just in life, but on the football field today. This will be my fifth year playing for the Manchester Freedom and I have loved every year. While I worked independently in Girl Scouts, football is a complete team sport. One player cannot be successful without the support of her teammates. There is no other sport where team can be better exemplified.

We are not a group of women trying to play a man's game. We are a team playing a women's game."

Bits n Pieces

So much going on to comment upon:

Cool - Susan Boyle. The latest UTube Sensation. She is awesome - no question about it.

Not Cool - She already had a make-over. Why don't they leave her the heck alone? Does she really need to be "beautiful" to have an amazing singing voice?

IPOD put out a new game called "Baby Shaker". Are you serious??? Are you ##%^& serious?? They pulled it off the market after public outcry. No kidding. The game is - when the baby cries you SHAKE your cell phone until it's quiet.....and when it becomes quiet it has X's over the eyes! Unbelievable. You think you've seen it all and then people go one step further.

Our upstairs neighbors are all moved out. For this past week, someone has been up there renovating. Banging, bumping, shouting....someone talking on their cell phone. Why do people think they have to YELL to be heard on a cell phone? And it's worse because they ripped out all the carpets so it echoes up there now. Hubby keeps telling me to cool it.....that there's nothing we can do about it. We just have to wait and see what happens. Although we were talking yesterday about ways we could scare people away.......staring out the window as people walk in....go upstairs and knock on the door and act like the 'drunk' downstairs (or send my across-the-hall neighbor up since he really is a drunk). I know I shouldn't stress about it....but it will affect our quality of life.

One of our travel agents here at work got an email from an unknown source. They get scam-type things all the time. "I am a prince in the Netherlands and need funding to go over and accept my inheritance. If you give me $5000 to make the trip, I will split my inheritance with you." Uh huh.

This time, however, the scam was "I have been asked by a friend of yours to TERMINATE you (at first we thought it meant terminate your job.....then we figured it out). If you give me $20,000 I will not do it." It's all written in broken English, which most of them are. We sent the email on to the supervisor......she sent it to personnel....and next thing you know we're being asked to "cooperate with the police". The police came and were not impressed. They assured us it was another type of scam, told us to have our IT dept. block that email address and delete any new correspondence we got.

The only saving grace was that the police officer (who was young enough to be my son) was HOT.

REALITY SHOWS:

Amazing Race - I was sad to see the brothers, Mark and Mickey, go.....they were fun. But HELLO! follow the rules and you will not get kicked off. The two female teams left are bitches.....and who wants to root for the Chinese brother and sister? They've been top of the race from the beginning. I'd rather root for the underdog......so I'm hoping Margie and Luke win. Hurray for Margie for standing up for her son and Hurray for Luke for learning to say "bitch" in sign language!

Celebrity Apprentice - It's a shame Herschel Walker got voted off. He didn't deserve it. It's extremely clear that The Donald is totally manipulating the show. He didn't want to fire Clint Black because he likes the controversy he creates. I'm going to bet my bottom dollar that The Donald is setting things up to have a Joan and Melissa face-off for a finale. Mark my words.

American Idol - so far I've been pretty happy with the way America has voted....except for Anoop. The guy has a phenomenal natural singing voice. He should have stayed and Allison should have gone. Lil definitely deserved to go....she's been going downhill since they've gotten to Hollywood. I'm hoping the top three are Adam, Chris and Danny. I picked Danny at the beginning and still stand by him even though Adam seems like the clearn fan favorite.

Survivor - SMOKIN' blind side last night!! Wow! They were talking about blindsiding Tyson and I was sure they'd be too scared of Coach to do it. But they weren't! And they did!! I loved it. I have to say I wasn't all that excited that they saved Sierra. She rolled over and gave up and did no finagling at all to extricate herself from her position. But I'm still glad they got rid of Tyson (who was turning into a Class A jerk) and ruined Coach's wonderful plans.

Have a great weekend. See ya on the flipside.

The Peace and Quiet might be OVER

Hubby and I live in a condo. We live on the middle floor, with a unit above us and a unit below us. When I first moved in 7 years ago (this was before Hubby) it was my first time living in a multiple-living-space building in 23 years. The first six months were somewhat of a nightmare. The people above me had the woman, the boyfriend/husband/whatever, the woman's mother and THREE kids living in a two-bedroom apartment. It was summertime and the children apparently had no bedtime. I could hear them literally jumping off the beds in the middle of the night. Finally, after months of no sleep, I tried to confront them and the BF/Hubby/? scared the bejeesus out of me. Finally I had no choice but to complain to the condo association. Typically, the condo rep said, "Oh yes...those people. We've heard about them before." Two months later they were gone, and were assholes kind enough to let me know it was "all my fault". There were about six months of bliss, where the apartment was empty. Then a couple moved in......middle-aged with no children. They've lived there the past five years and have been the best neighbors ever. Maybe once a week or so - strangely enough when the woman was at work - they guy would play a car-chasing/bombing/shoot-em-up movie on his surround sound. But he always had it off by 10pm. I loved having them there. Sadly, they are moving out. When I asked where they were going, they guy said, "Well.....she's going to York and I'm going to Somersworth". Oops! Bad Question. And now they're gone. We have no idea who's moving in. Or even IF someone is moving in right away. There's been a pickup truck in front of the condo the last two nights, and someone up there banging. We can only assume it's the owner getting the place ready for the next tenant. Please, please, please God.....Let it be a little old lady .....or a young girl who works 60 hours a week. Please no partyers, or drug-dealers, or family with many children. Or.....it could stay empty for a couple of years. That would be nice.

Belated Easter

Last night we had a belated Easter Dinner with Hubby's kids. His daughter Wendy came with her boyfriend Allan and their sweet little baby Noah. Son Kenny also came but without his boyfriend Matthew. We love having everyone over.....we don't see them often enough1 And we definitely don't see enough of Baby Noah. He is 7 months old now and as cute as a button! He was as good as gold, even though by the time they left it was past his bedtime. Some photos: Grampy is very serious about teaching the boy some music. Even though he thought the guitar was a drum, Grampy says he will be a "concert pianist" someday.

Memere is more intent on teaching the child some reading skills. He liked the books he got in his Easter Basket......even though his face doesn't show it.

Mommy knows how to make him laugh. She was dancing with him and he was just lovin' it.

Uncle Kenny is amazed at Noah's skill of standing without anyone holding on. The child is just turned 7 months and is starting to get up on his hands and knees. Walking will not be far behind.

It was also Wendy's birthday. Hubby made her the traditional cherry cheesecake for her birthday. I'm so glad they came to visit. I hope we see them more often.

Customer Service is Alive and Kicking!

Who would have thought I'd find superior customer service at Home Depot? I have a wide window in my bedroom. When I first bought the condo I put up a blind. It's been falling apart for about two years. Hubby made a valiant effort at fixing it which gave it another year or two.....albeit on life support. Somehow Spring being in the air nudged me into finally getting a new window covering. This time I decided to go for a traditional shade of the room-darkening variety, since there is a lovely street lamp right outside our bedroom window. After checking online at different places, Home Depot seemed to be the way to go. I was lucky that someone else was getting a shade so I didn't have to hunt down a salesperson. The girl Amanda was knowledgeable, quick and efficient. She knew exactly what I wanted and got it cut to my specifications in just a few minutes. I went through the self-serve lane......gotta love those, don't ya? I use them whenever I can. I don't need no stinkin' salesperson. The only thing this cash register didn't understand was that I did not want to bag my shade!! The metallic voice kept repeating "please bag your item". It didn't want to listen to me saying, NO! Anyway.....I digress. After Hubby got home he agreed to put up the shade for me. (Thanks, Hubby!) When he put the shade up to the window.......it was too short. IT. WAS. TOO. SHORT. By TWO FRICKIN' INCHES. I should know better than to try and measure anything. I stink at it. Really. I knew that I was supposed to add 2 inches to account for the tape measure, but I didn't. I didn't add the two inches. So instead of a 46" shade, Amanda cut a 44" shade. Which is what I told her to do. Sweet Amanda. I shlepped back to Home Depot all the while trying to figure out how I was going to finagle out of this one. The shade cost $35 and I didn't want to have to pay for a new one because of my measuring disability. I walked up to the service counter and just said, "This shade is too short". The customer service person says, "Who cut it for you?" I didn't want to throw Amanda under the bus but I had no choice. They called Amanda up to the front and asked her to cut me a new one.......with no questions asked. Did you hear that? NO. QUESTIONS. ASKED. Amanda went back to the shade cutting area while I squirmed at the front of the store. She came back with a cheery, "Here you go!" I felt really guilty so I had to ask. "You aren't going to get into trouble, are you?" and I had to add, "Cause I know think it was my fault." She says, "Oh no, not a problem. It was probably my fault but either way it's okay." I was so impressed I went home and emailed a letter to Home Depot, thanking them for their customer service and extolling Amanda's virtues. I got a response this morning (less than 24 hours later) thanking me for my kind words and promising to forward my email to the store manager. It's so satisfying to see such great customer service. I knew it still had to be out there somewhere.

All Emily

Emily had a blast at Easter at Great-Grandma's house. The two balls she is holding in her hands are from the Easter basket I gave her. She never let those balls go. There were three of them, and she was willing to give one away if you asked her for it, but she always had to have two of them. If you asked for one of those, you got a head shake and a resounding, "Noooooo". (said....as she says everything.......with a lilt at the end). And what can a 20-month old do on a bright and sunshiny spring day in New England? She can pick at the moss in the yard. She digs it out with her finger and holds it up saying, "Moss!".

She can play with a basketball. She runs and gets it and hands it to me and chases it when I throw it.

She can play with a soccer ball. She seems to 'get' that you are supposed to kick it. she sends it flying all over the yard.

Or I guess you can EAT the soccer ball.

Or you can pick at the rhododenron buds. She points to them and says, "bud" but then thinks she can sniff them like they're already flowers.

One of her favorite past-times is playing with rocks. Collecting rocks, counting rocks, organizing rocks......or offering rocks to Memere, who has to fling them on the ground when she's not looking.

Covering yourself in sand in the sandbox is always fun.

She doesn't quite get the bike yet. She likes to open the compartment and put rocks in it, but even though I sat her on it, she didn't know what to do and said, "done" right away.

We stayed outside for almost two hours. She kept herself busy, and kept me busy the whole time. I wanted to join her for a nap afterwards! But we went in and had supper and a tubby. Nothing like a full belly, a clean baby and an exhausted Grandma at the end of the day!

Easter

First let me say thank you to those who gave their condolences on my ex-father-in-law. After fussing so much about the wake, it turned out to be okay. My kids were there together and weathering it well. The funeral is today....I'll call soon and see how things went. Easter yesterday was good. As usual, we all went to my Mom and Dad's house. They're both really good cooks so we had a nice ham dinner. Mom let some of us bring some of the side dishes this year......my son's girlfriend brought fruit salad, my daughter-in-law brought regular salads and I brought sweet potato casserole. My sister and sister-in-law brought desserts. We all had a nice time. My grand-daughter had red-rimmed eyes when I walked in......she's a super-friendly little girl but needs a few minutes to acclimate when she walks into a roomful of people. I gave her a little Easter basket with some balls in it and she was off to the races. She ran around and had fun and charmed everyone for the rest of the day. The next holiday is ..........hmmmmm..... Patriot's Day. Our offices are closed (I think to save some money) so it'll be a day off for me. I don't know if I'll do anything special or just take the day to veg.

Game On

It's been quite the weekend so far. Hubby and I had a nice time Friday night at the Java Room. It's a nice little coffee shop where we go to hear live music. Some good friends were playing so we went and had some raspberry smoothies and relaxed to the beautiful songs our friends write and play. It was a great Friday night treat after a long week. Saturday I worked in the morning then went with Hubby to my ex-father-in-law's wake. It was a very strange experience. I always got along well with my ex-hubby's family. In fact, they were upset for me when ex-hubby and I got divorced. They knew what kind of person he was and actually gave me kudos for staying with him so long. So it was kind of nice to see them again, despite the circumstances. My kids were doing just fine. They were visiting with relatives and heard a million times "Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you since you were this big!" They were holding up nicely. We only stayed for about 20 minutes because then we left with Jamie to take her to her football game in Hartford, CT.....about a 2 hour drive. The whole drive down it was pouring-down rain. Thankfully, it stopped just as we got to the field to drop Jamie off. Hubby and I had about 2 hours before the game started so we headed off for something to eat. I had looked online to find a restaurant and chose Black-eyed Sally's. It was a southern-style rib kind of place and turned out to be delicious. Hubby had blackened Catfish with mashed sweet potatoes and Collard Greens (yuck to the Collard Greens!) and I had cornmeal fried Catfish with sweet potato french fries and cole slaw. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere was fun. It was in an old mill building so the inside was all bricks but someone had painted all over the place. You could sit there and just gaze around at all the things to see. Our original intention had been to go early and sight-see in Hartford, but because of the situation we didn't have time. Now we really intend to go back and do that sometime. It looks like an interesting city. Black-Eyed Sally's has live music at night ...... we wouldn't be averse to going back there after a day of sight-seeing and have dinner again and listen to some music. Finally we went to the field for our purpose in going to Hartford. The weather was 40 degrees or so but thankfully not raining by that time. Hubby and I are old hands at watching games and had worn all our winter woolies. The Manchester Freedom played the Connecticut Crush. Freedom won the game 27-14. Jamie got the first touchdown of the game......a sweet catch and run into the end zone. She also kicked the extra point on three of the touchdowns and had some very hard hits on defense. I was so proud of her and the game she played. The whole team was awesome. The drive home went quickly and we were in the house by midnight. Today it's off to Grandma's house for Easter dinner. I'm making my sweet potato casserole as we speak. It'll be a long but fun day of visiting. Hoppy Easter everyone!

Sadness

My ex-father-in-law passed away last night. It's a strange situation for me to be in. He was my father-in-law for 23 years......but then he was not. I was divorced 7 years ago and haven't really seen him since. Not because there was animosity between us, just because my kids were grown when the divorce happened and there wasn't really any reason for us to get together. I saw him only once or twice.....at my grand-daughter's birthday party or whatever. By that time, he'd had a couple of strokes and I'm not sure he knew who I was. My sadness is for the memories. We had a good relationship. We always got along well. And he was always good to my children.....his grandchildren. I hope they have some great memories of him. My in-laws had a summer camp and the kids spent lots of time there. I hope they remember the good times they had with him and their Nana at the camp. It's the first big death for my kids (my "kids" being 30, 28 and 27 years old). They've lost their first grandparent. The only other deaths they've known are distant relatives or grandparents of friends. I hope they can handle the wake and the funeral. My first instinct is to offer to go the funeral with them. So they can have the emotional support I doubt they'll get from their father's side of the family. But they're grown-ups....and they have each other to lean on. I will go to the wake. I'd like to pay my respects to his family. I think he deserves that. He was a special part of my life for a lot of years.

Busy Busy

It's been wonderful that for the past two days I've been busy at work! Hurray! I'd much rather be busy than not. The days go by so much faster. Are we up for a review of our Reality Shows?

First up: Celebrity Apprentice

This is a new show for me. I watched the Apprentice maybe the first season then haven't watched it since. I don't know what made me start watching it this season but I've enjoyed it so far. This week......what the hell???? He fires Tionne because she volunteered to be a good friend to Melissa and go into the boardroom with her? I really think he just didn't know who to fire from that team since they'd worked together so well and he didn't want to fire Melissa, so he chose Tionne randomly. And firing Khloe because she had a DUI? I admire him for his stand on drunk driving, but that was a totally random firing as well. There was no question that Clint needed to be fired, but he chose Khloe instead. There is a method to his madness......I really believe he wants Melissa and Joan to be the last ones standing so they have to go head-to-head in the final task. Mark my words.

Next up: Amazing Race

I was sorry to see Mike and Mel get booted off on the last episode. I think they were a great team and genuinely loving of each other. Of the teams that are left I'd like to see Margie and Luke or Mark and Mike win. Tammy and Victor are just too predictable. I like to go for the underdog. And Cara and Jaime are just too mean.

Survivor:

I'm rooting for Taj. She is smart, wily and works hard. She had a good idea of forming an alliance with the other team. I'm glad JT did the right thing and didn't vote for her last week. Can we all agree that Coach has to go?

American Idol:

Some great performances again tonight. My favorite, Danny, and Hubby's favorite, Allison, are both doing great. I really, really think Scott finally has to go tomorrow night. I so hope that people arent' voting for him because he's blind. I would be horrified to think I'd won a singing competition because everyone felt bad for me. He just really hasnt' got star quality. And what happened to Lil? She's done bad the past three weeks. It's going be either her or Scott going home this week.

And I know it's not a reality show, but were we all sad to see the finale of ER last week? I watched the show religiously during the first 5 or 6 years, kind of watched sporadically during those murky years 7, 8 , 9, then started watching again. I thought they did an excellent job of bringing everything full circle. I loved that they brought Mark Green's daughter Rachel in to remind us of him and show that things come around and connect. I was disappointed they didn't get more of the old characters back for the finale......what about Lukah and Abby? And....please tell me why Nurse Haleh wasn't in the finale??

Hiking Harold

Hubby and I have been trying to get out and about to do more hiking and get more exercise. We both need to lose weight and I need to lower my cholesterol. Last Sunday and this Sunday were gorgeous days to be outside. This Sunday Hubby and I went to Harold Parker State Forest. We had downloaded a trail map from the computer but that didn't help much. Most of the time we didn't know where we were. (and the trail of breadcrumbs just wasn't working!)

However, our view for most of the day looked like this so we really didn't care:

We spent a good hour and a half hiking around in the woods and really enjoying it. This lake made us remember how much we want a canoe though. Anyone have a canoe for sale? Just a small one.....maybe 12 feet? We have no place to keep it since we live in a condo but we'd figure something out

Stupidly......we went and got an ice cream cone after the walk. Kind of defeated the purpose but I figure it would be worse if we'd sat around on our arses all day and then went and got a cone! I did get frozen yogurt......which counts for something, right? Even if it's Moose Tracks???

Unfortunately today looks like this outside:

That means we won't be doing our promised after-dinner walk. We want to try to walk every night but this makes me just want to put my jammies on and curl up on the couch.

AND......Opening Day for the Red Sox was cancelled!!! ohhhhhh....that just makes it seem like it's not really spring yet. Hopefully they will get the game in tomorrow.

Manchester Monarchs

Last night Hubby and I went to a local semi-pro hockey game. We're not fans of hockey but daughter Jamie's football team The Manchester Freedom, was having a fundraising night and we bought tickets to support the team. We had a really nice time. The team had a pre-game gathering at a local sports bar. Hubby and I figured we had to eat dinner so we might as well go. It was like a cocktail hour with food. Then place was right across the street from the arena where the was so we walked over after dinner. A semi-pro game is so much more fun than a professional game. Before the game started they had a local bunch of kids sing the National Anthem. They had the giant Lion Head blown up for the hometown team to come out through. The action on the ice was exciting. During the first intermission they had some tiny tiny children who are budding hockey players come out to play a ten-minute "game". They were just hilarious. "T-ball on ice". There was more falling down than skating, but I'm sure the little kids were thrilled to death to be skating at a real arena. They also had the Lion Mascot come out and shoot t-shirts up into the stands with a bazooka. There was a blimp flying around dropping gift certificates to a local restaurant on the crowd. During the second intermission they had the famous "Chuck-a-Puck". For a price you could buy a foam puck with a number on it to throw out onto the ice and try to hit a target and win $100. We got a free Chuck-a-Puck with our ticket. Sadly, I couldn't get the puck to go farther than the row of seats below me. Regular hockey fans must know what happens, because the people in the lowest group of seats near the ice knew enough to turn around after chucking their own pucks and catch all the pucks that were raining down from the seats about and throw them onto the ice for us. Between some of the action, the jumbo-tron would put up video of people in the stands dancing or waving or acting like crazy people. My son Nick and his girlfriend Kelly and their two friends managed to act silly enough to get their faces on the jumbo-tron. All in all it was a fun evening and we helped out my daughter's football team.

Genius? I think so!

My grand-daughter is not quite 20 months old. She started counting by rote several months ago and can count easily to 10 (although for some reason she often skips the number 1). Sometimes she keeps going into the teens. I thought this was astounding enough. But watch the video below to see true genius.

At first I'm trying to get her to count....that's my voice you hear. When she looks at me and realizes I'm not going to tell her the numbers, she picks out some numbers to tell me. She knows even more than she says here......but of course I couldn't get her to do it on camera. She says "seven" perfectly.......when she wants to!

April 1

Happy April Fool's Day everyone! Does anyone do jokes for this day anymore? I haven't done any since I stopped working with kids.

Four and five year olds don't quite get humor but they try anyway.

"Miss Karen, you have a duck on your head! April Fool's! ahahahahahahah!"

We did try one time to play a joke on the parents at my preschool. We would open the door at 11:30 to let parents in to pick up their kids, and the kids decided to hide in the other room so the parents would think they were "missing". The parents did a great job of pretending they couldn't find their darlings........and the kids jumped out and screamed "April Fool's" and thought they were hilarious.

I'm not working today.....I hope I don't miss out on any good tricks at the office!