I found something today that I think one of my daughters would like for a Christmas or Birthday gift. There are other Star Wars items there, but this one just screamed my daughters name to me.

Look Here for the Sleeping Bag

Oh boy, I found one more item… Maybe her husband would like this one.

You can get it here!

It really was a great premiere.  Not sure how many audience members we had but on a Friday night during basketball season… Mr. Potter is definitely now high on my favorite character list.  I love doing evil!

Admin and Taylhis sat in the front row but with the lights on stage, I would have never known… not that I would try to look!  Beth (another game nighter) and her sister were in the audience.  The game nighter’s significant other was in another show… I do not believe successful human cloning is yet possible.

Jeff brought the three little ones.  After the show, they came to congratulate me.  Noah had gone under after the first act.  Elizabeth enjoyed it but Joshua stated that he did not have a great view… was he sitting behind a pole?

A Wonderful show a Wonderful cast, Wonderful fans (which someone is always quick to acknowledge… thanks pal! just wish my special one was still here, but know she was in spirit), and 5 more Wonderful shows to go.  So glad we have two weekends.  One is not nearly enough for this show… and two might not be (it’s been awhile since I have gone 2).

And a shoutout to my great Goon who finally was able to wheel me on and off every time.

Kudos also to the genius behind the 7.30 curtain time.  It allowed some people to stay and chat longer!  Just the right time.

…to get to the city council meeting, of course!  Did you happen to catch this story on the AP news wire a few weeks ago?  While Durango, Colorado’s city council was discussing their recent 3-2 vote which made it easier to keep backyard chickens, a person in a chicken costume ran into the meeting, circled and flapped, and then sat in the gallery.

Several minutes later, the unidentified chicken exited – after laying an egg on the floor.

No need to worry about disrupting business, however, the council found it humorous!

“I thought it was hilarious,” councilwoman Christina Thompson told The Durango Herald. “I was laughing so hard my eyes hurt. There are just so many other things for us to be serious about, it’s good to take a break once in a while.”

I, like everyone else, I’m sure, have questions.  Who was the anonymous chicken?  Was it a prank?  Were they there to show their support for the hen ordinance, or were they against it?  Was the egg hen-sized or was it larger, perhaps large enough to contain a message for the council?  What was inside that egg?!?

Seems like there is a lot of changes happening in the Tangents’ world. I did like having my own avatar, so I thought I should have a page that displays them. If the page looks a little familiar, I’m using the same theme our admin is using.

I liked it because it was highly adaptable. As you may have noticed, I like playing with this and I never leave a default if I can help it. If you notice, your avatar is not the standard default, so if you don’t like the little monster, you should pick your own. 😉 So far, I like this theme and the current setup, but again things may change.

3 more shows, so this will be a short post.

This afternoon, after picking my new-battery installed car from the theatre, I went to the school to watch the dress rehearsal of Alex and Alyssa’s Elementary Christmas program.  I just found out about it this morning and since I am otherwise engaged this evening, I thought I would go and lend an ear.  The program was divided up into two adorable musical revues.  The K-2 portion featured close to 90 little ones in a show entitled The Incredible Reindeer.  It seems that an asteroid is hurtling straight toward the North Pole which will not only wipe out the planet but will cancel Christmas.  Enter a quartet of super-powered reindeer: Lightspeed, Mighty Moose, Laser, and Robodeer.  Will the heroes save the day and who will lead the sleigh through the murky fog with Rudolph out with a cold?

The second half was an American Idol parody entitled North Pole Star.  The eight reindeer were the contestants with the host and three celebrity judges: Santa and Mrs. C, and the obligatory Simon stand in (sorry did not catch the name).  The audience got into the act by voting for their favorite on a ballot sheet.  Personally, I thought Comet the Comic was the most talented, but once again I was not in the majority.

The shows were really cute little ones standing in front of the microphone delivering their short lines. I was impressed with many of the older kids’ solos, not bad for the age group.  I remember the program my 5th grade year, the masterpiece that is Santa and the Snowmobile.

I think I blogged about my daughter’s upcoming 10th birthday party a few weeks ago, looking for activity ideas.  There was no need to worry, because we had the party last weekend, and everyone had a blast!

We ended up extending the party to make it last 3 hours instead of 2, and two of the girls were even able to spend the night.  It was actually really easy to entertain 8 nine and ten-year-old girls, as well as the birthday girl’s two little sisters, ages 3 and 5.  Seventeen-month-old little brother was a nuisance, but the poor little guy was really very outnumbered by all those girls!

As we waited for the girls to arrive, they played a video game on the tv where there are floating balloons they get to break using their bodies instead of controllers.  Next, Dad led the girls in about 5 rounds of the party game Mafia – they loved it!  Then, we made English muffin pizzas – I set out the English muffins, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and mushrooms, and the girls made their own pizzas and then I put them in the oven for 5 or 10 minutes.  The entire activity cost about $6, and the kids loved it!  Then we had cake, but I had realized ahead of time that with 4 kids, we spend about $80 on birthday cake per year!  Wow, does that add up!  So I had a talk with my oldest, and she really had no problem with me getting mini cupcakes instead of a personalized birthday cake and numbered candles.  This decision saved us about $15!  I got two 2 liters of pop, and a few cheap bags of snacks for the sleepover, and the entire party cost us under $20!  Most importantly, my daughter and her friends had an awesome time and made some great memories!  Happy birthday Taylor!!

(No, the party wasn’t so boring everyone fell asleep!  This what a group of kids playing the party card game Mafia look like!)

…so can I.  Besides, the other theme didn’t show avatars in comments, so now that two of us have them it is nice to see them.  Thanks Justj and Admin for the avatar idea!  I hope you enjoy this theme.  Note that you can click on the squares on the upper left for some quick navigation, such as to recent comments and posts without having to scroll down.  Not my idea, but part of the theme.  Nice.

Well, ok, so last Sunday wasn’t really my stage debut; I acted in about 4 stage plays when I was a kid, and three quarters of those roles were in The Wizard of Oz  🙂

But somewhere along the line, I developed a severe stage fright, and I haven’t come close to the front of a stage since I auditioned (and wasn’t chosen) for the part of Thor in The Nerd in 1990.  I’ve worked in many various capacities behind the scenes and on the members’ boards for a few of our local community theater groups in recent years, and if ever someone was brave enough to inquire, I would always reject and adamantly refuse the offers of roles to be portrayed onstage in front of an audience – just way too nervous, and I’ve actually had many a nightmare about having to  get onstage!

But a few weeks ago, my husband and I became involved in our church’s semi-annual Kidstuff, which is a small collection of skits and musical numbers aimed at instilling a virtue in its audience, this time being ‘compassion’.  So my husband was rehearsing for Kidstuff, and I was tagging along to rehearsals as I usually do when he is in a play.  I was asked by the director (who is also the school nurse in my two oldest daughters’ school district) if I would “just stand there and hand out prizes” during one of the skits.  Always being willing to help providing it doesn’t get in the way of my family life, I obliged, and next thing I know I am a character complete with a name, Fran Hootenhiener!  So I guess you could say it was my stage debut as an adult!  The director was right though, I really just had to stand there during one of the skits and hand out cookies, but I even had an introduction by the extremely handsome game show host (my real-life husband) where I had to smile and even give a little wave to the audience while I showed off my cookie prizes.  I was incredibly nervous beforehand, but I got through it without fainting or doing anything really embarrassing like throwing the cookies at someone or dropping my tray.  I think it helped that 90% of the audience was kids and also that our little show had a more divine purpose than simple entertainment.  It was quite a different experience to work with a cast and crew who were coming together to teach kids a virtue versus a community theater production where the goal is to entertain paying adults.  Not that one is better; it’s just a matter of personal preference, I think, and it helped me to be less nervous.

And I think this experience helped me for what was to come last night…  because of the weather, the two other small group leaders for the 7th grade girls at youth group were unable to make it, so I was in charge of ALL the 7th grade girls last night!  It went better than I thought, even though I really don’t like to be the one in charge of a group.  But, such is life, and I’m just happy I didn’t know about it until we arrived last night otherwise I would have been a nervous wreck all day.  And the youth pastor’s face when he told me I  was the only teacher who could make it was just priceless, haha!

I’m not saying I will ever get on stage again, but for this one time, I actually had some fun!

to our final rehearsal for tomorrow night’s gala premiere, I stopped by the BP to fill up.  I come back to the car and start her up.  OOOPS… no start.  I try again… NO START.  A good samaritan comes along and gives me a jump start.  WHOO HOO.. we make it the final half block to the theatre.  During intermission, I went back to the car to start it up again just to make sure.  AAAAND you guessed it, no soap.  One of the cast members knows the owner of the local auto store in town and asked if I would like him to check it out in the morning.  OH. THANK YOU BERT!  We decided that it was probably the battery that has not been changed since I bought it back in ’02.  Nice 🙁  So my little car is sitting in the lot.  Thank goodness, we got Chad to come pick Shelby and I up.  I did not want to chance another start and die on the way home.

The show itself is definitely ready for an audience!  All this “sentimental hogwash” can now get underway!  WOW… 24 hours from now, night number one will be in the books!  In less than 21 hours, the curtain will rise.  I am ready for the thunderous applause (or something…) to begin.  Break a leg all!

Last weekend had some more involvement with kids than the usual weekend.  In addition to the two services where I serve with 4th and 5th grades, there was an earlier event for single moms, a Christmas party.  No, I am not a single mom, but I (along with another from my Monday small group) helped out by leading games in the gym for some of the boys who came with their moms.  The age range was about 3rd grade through 7th grade, with a couple data outliers (I think that’s the statistical term) in the form of one about six years old and another in 9th grade.  What does football have to do with this?  Well, Mike, the other one from my small group, brought along a football.  We started with just one 7th grade boy, one I knew very well by the way since he was in my cabin at summer camp a couple years ago, while the younger ones were listening to a Christmas story in the other room.  The three of us tossed around the ball for a bit before the rest came in, including more older ones (5th-9th grade) who joined us in a game of touch football played in half the gym- the volleyball ministry had the other half.  While Mike led his team as QB, as a non-sports guy I let the 9th-grader take that position considering he plays at his high school.  While we played, the younger ones played with various other balls, tricycles, and whatnot as Mike and I kept order.  Eventually some left for awhile to do crafts or something in another room, but the football game kept going.  It was a pretty fun afternoon.

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The lesson for the weekend was part two of Joseph.  Of course, most knew the story, but with these intermediate grades the focus is on application.  In this case, obedience and perseverance in our relationship with God even when things in our lives aren’t going so well.  On Saturday there are three leaders who rotate teaching from week to week so I never teach this service, but there are only two of us for Sunday, though somehow I still only teach every other month- huh.  The other one does two Sundays a month while one of the staff rotates in the months I am not on.  Well anyway this was my week so naturally I wore my bright yellow overalls I wore when I was in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat several years ago.  I also sang from some of the songs from the show as we talked about Joseph before Pharaoh (where we left off last time), Joseph finally getting his reward after 13 years of obedience during hardship, and later Joseph before his brothers who were trying to get food during the seven years of famine.  It was a fun lesson though I think I went a little long.

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So that was my weekend in a nutshell.  I’ll have to think about if there is anything to write about my two days of subbing this week- one in early childhood, one in 7th grade science.  Until then.