Proud mama

Spyder performed three magic shows today.

My friend is a first grade teacher, and today was the last day of school. First grade + last day = nothing planned. Several weeks ago, she asked if Spyder would be interested in coming to her classroom to do a little performance.

Naturally, the answer was, "OF COURSE I WILL!"

Word spread around the school of the magician, and it ended up that every class wanted to see it. Most of what he does is close up magic using cards and coins, so it doesn't work all that well with a really large audience. Instead of one huge audience, they split the classes and he did three shows instead. Even at that, each performance had about 25 to 30 children and 4 or 5 teachers, so he walked among the crowd.

I know that I am biased -- I figure I'm allowed -- but he did a really great job. Last week he did a show at the library for an even larger audience and he did just as well. Spyder is a natural at performing, and it's somewhat surprising for me to see. He knows what he's doing, and he is comfortable enough in front of an audience to change things around depending on the reactions he gets. I'm still a little bit astonished at how well he does. His performance isn't perfect by any stretch, but he just doesn't let the stumbles get to him and rolls with it.

One of my favorite instances was when Spyder did some card trick, and one of the children was absolutely unimpressed. The child called out, "Hey, why don't you make that card disappear?" Spyder just looked at him and said, "Okay." *poof* The card was gone. The child's jaw dropped, and I was glad I was standing behind the door because I had to laugh.

His shows today took about two hours. That's a long time for an 11-year-old, and he was visibly tired at the end of it. Pleased-tired, but tired all the same, so we all went out to lunch as a "yay, Spyder!" and had ice cream for dessert to celebrate.

I am really proud of him. Even though I get tired of being the practice audience sometimes.

Truth

This afternoon the urchins and I were at Big Lots, specifically to get manuscript handwriting paper (I was quite disappointed that they had none), but we ended up wandering. Because really, that's the best thing to do at Big Lots. I love that place.

I had told the children that they could each choose a package of snacks to put in the snack basket at home. Of course they ran straight to the super-sweet, teeth-rotting, mom-would-never-choose-those shelves.

I must admit, I ended up being glad about that. Sass picked up a package of Little Debbies, pointed to the logo picture and said, "What's that girl's name? Michael loves her." And it was said so honestly and earnestly that Sass couldn't quite understand why I was laughing so hard that I couldn't speak.

$250 later

Ol' Skeeter got mad at the faucet tonight. It has always been quite temperamental, that faucet. We've lived in this house for six and a half years, and the faucet has dripped the whole time. Not horrible, just drip-drip-drip. It didn't really bother me. What DID bother me was when it just decided to stop. It would whine -- yes, high-pitched whine -- and suddenly the flow of water was reduced to a trickle. You would have to wiggle the handle just. so. to get it to work properly again. That was quite an annoyance. Thankfully, it didn't happen terribly often, perhaps once a month, possibly less.

Today it did the whiny trickle, and Skeeter attacked it with a vengeance. Oh, he was attempting to fix it, but I think he might have gone at it a bit too vigorously because -- SURPRISE! -- he busted some gasket. Water flowed freely throughout the kitchen. And yes, the laundry room. The laundry room that has been flooded four times in less than a year. That poor laundry room.

Thankfully, I was at work when this occurred because I probably would have had a panic attack. And yelled. I am told that there was quite the tidal wave of water flowing freely from the pipes. So Skeeter did what any man would do when he's in over his head like that. He called the plumber, the guy that worked on his job site and came to fix our laundry woes back on Christmas Eve.

Let me take a moment to note that this occurred on a Sunday. On a Sunday night. He called a plumber on a Sunday night. Not that there was really any way around it, but when he told me, I will admit that I wondered if I needed to sell a kidney or something to pay for it.

Skeeter finds such convenient times to have water woes.

I found out about all of this at 7:30ish, when he told me that the kitchen flooded and the plumber was there. In a text message. I was calm. And patient. I sent him a text message asking him to let me know what happened when he could. I was VERY. PATIENT. Especially for me because I am not a patient person. I waited a whole hour before asking for an update. As in do I only need to sell one kidney, or do I need to put both of them on the market? And WHAT WAS GOING ON IN MY KITCHEN!

Truthfully, I still don't know what really went on. That might be a good thing though. I just know that it's going to cost me $250. But since I kind of like having a working kitchen and an unflooded house, I am not going to complain.

The only other things I really know are that all of the items that were on the counter and underneath the sink are now outside on the picnic table. And that the plumber's parting comments were, "I don't mind being your plumber at all, but I'm taking your plumber's wrench away."

And he did. When he cleaned up his stuff, he took Skeeter's plumber's wrench right along with him.

Flower Potty

Just in case anyone thought I was joking about the whole toilet-as-lawn-art thing.

Behold.

Road trip!

Originally the plan was to take a little overnight trip. That was scrapped though, partly because Skeeter wasn't interested in getting up early. The kicker was the weather though. Rain, rain, and more rain. And storms. I couldn't leave the poor old doggies out in the bad weather, and I sure couldn't leave them inside for an overnight away trip.

So instead of an overnight, we took a drive to the Jim Henson Exhibit in Leland, MS. It has been on our list of "someday ..." and we decided on a whim that today was the day. It was a longer trip than we anticipated, but all four of us were pleased that we went. The attendant (docent? host?) was incredibly accommodating when we arrived late -- very late. The museum was scheduled to close 10 minutes after we arrived. EEK! It's a small museum, but not quite THAT small. The attendant graciously stayed an extra 45 minutes so that we could have a decent look around.

The main room of the exhibit is filled with letters and photos of Henson's childhood and later success.


It also includes an original Kermit made by Jim Henson and used in one of the films.


A smaller room filled with memorabilia was just as fun. There were so many things there that Skeeter and I remembered from when we were little. Most of the items in that room were donated by Muppet fans. And sadly, they did not have my absolute favorite album -- Sesame Street Fever. If I can find mine, I will donate it. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of that room. I had forgotten my camera, so I only had the piddly little camera on my phone. And I only have room for about 6 photos at a time! Talk about limited!

We might make it back there at some point if we are nearby. We were a little bit rushed because we were conscious of the fact that the attendant stayed extra just for us, so I would like to go through it again. But even if we don't, it was a satisfactory experience. And I think I love the Muppets just a little bit more now.

My nefarious plan is working ....

ME: So, what do you think? Corn or broccoli for dinner tonight?

SPYDER: I think ... broccoli.

ME: ::double take:: Seriously?

SPYDER: I KNOW! You've indoctrinated me!

Now if I could only work my sinister English pea magic on him.