Lots of Stuff

Lots of stuff going on these days. Emily is trying for the first time for a title - Junior Miss Dance of the Bluegrass - this coming weekend. Break a leg, Emily! She is doing a really cute tap dance to a number from Hairspray (Welcome to the Sixties). Her costume is really cute - a hot pink sequin mini-dress with a matching hot pink hairband. Sorry, no picture. Erin Smith did a fabulous job with the choreography, I am pleased.



I
was doing dishes the other night, and cleaned some pots and then noticed they looked like something....very commercial.

I shouldn't have to tell ANYONE what this looks like. Don't you just love shiney metal? I do. My girls pretty much eat all the time and it seems like by the end of the day, any knife in the house is dirty.

Chewy is my night-time running buddy. We make one or two laps, sprinting, jogging, and walking. We have so much fun! There is a big black lab in the neighborhood that "gets" to run loose at night sometimes. He is scary! There is also a mutt that is part pit-bull that is still running loose at times. That dog scares everyone. Fortunately, tonight, we saw no other dogs loose at all and there were no cats or other critters.

Sarah has forsaken her blog and she rarely emails me, but from what I've heard so far, she is having the time of her life. I'm looking forward to visiting her and actually seeing another country (besides Canada and Mexico). I hope she is happy, but not so happy that she never comes home. I miss her SO MUCH!!

March will be a busy month. I get to spend a weekend in Lexington with Emily for a dance competition, and a weekend in Lousville with Erin for Governor's Cup. I am looking forward to Louisville - we will stay at the Galt House and we'll get to visit Akiko and Ron and hopefully Miki and her family. Erin and I had a very nice time last year. Erin is studying debt in developing countries for the competition.

pre-mid January news

Molly has been helping me with the laundry today. Actually, we keep the catfood in a cabinet right beside this cabinet she is sitting in. She jumped into this cabinet because she thought she might find a way to get to the food. She isn't the brightest crayon in the box.

The holidays aren't officially over for me until I get all the Christmas stuff packed up and carried down to the basement and stowed away. I took my Sarah to the airport last Tuesday. It was hard to say good-bye, but it's a once in-a-life chance for her. And now!!! I'm planning my trip over to go visit her. I should have my passport within a few more weeks, and I've been looking at places I want to go see while I'm there.

Jerry and I tested for our advanced yellow belts this morning. Eight other people tested with us today, and we all passed. I'm kind of liking karate now, but starting February, the class schedule is changing, so I'm going to have to hire a driver if I'm ever going to make it to a class. I need to do that anyway since I have some business trips coming up.

I sure hope my Sarah blogs soon so I can read details about her adventures over on the Emerald Isle. I hope she has found some red-headed musicians to make music with. This picture below is interesting. The picture uses lots of pictures of rocks. The background is a flourite crystal. The face and neck are slices of polished rock (I can't remember if it's agate or onyx, or a slice of a huge geode). The mouth is a geode. The hair looks like amathyst or rose quartz crystals. The dress or shoulders - I can't tell what that is. The rose is a piece of sandstone, a formation called a sand rose...I think. Sarah made this picture...I think she either made this in highschool or perhaps a college art class of some sort.

2008

The start of another year and this is going to be a busy one...and expensive. Lots of travel plans coming up for this year. I am going to make a trip to Ireland to visit Sarah in the late spring sometime. We are taken Erin to Vegas in July, and I hope to combine that with a trip to the Grand Canyon. We will no doubt do the annual Henderson Myrtle Beach pilgrimage. I'd love to take the girls somewhere they've never been for spring break or fall break this year, or maybe back to Washington. They were 6 the last time we took them to Washington. Emily doesn't remember anything about being there and Erin says all she remembers is eating a hotdog on the street. We should go back. I'd like to take them to Williamsburg this year, if we don't go to Washington.





Sarah is leaving soon and I will miss her tremendously. She bought a beautiful new banjo with an awesome sound. It sounds tinny like her dad's banjo, but with a strangely hollow sound that I really like. Maybe it's the skin head on it. The workmanship on it is impressive. A man in Ironton made it.

It's Friday and my van is getting new tires today. My front tires are bald and the rear tires aren't much better. With this last snow storm, I can't ignore the lack of traction any more. I'm hoping it's ready to pick up by noon so I can find somebody to give me a ride over to the garage. It's only a couple of miles to walk, but it's COLD today, and I'm a puss about the cold.

A week from tomorrow is karate testing. I will test for my advanced yellow. I am pretty confident I will pass. The hard part will be reciting the code of ethics because my memory sucks. It won't be too bad - there are 7 people testing in my group and it's a 45 minute test. I've had all my tips for several weeks now.

I haven't been running much thanks to the ice and snow. I've been trying to stay in shape at the gym, but I miss my early morning runs. It's supposed to warm back up Sunday so I will defintely be getting out there again.