Sometimes the stupid makes me want to bash my head into a wall. Like today. And yesterday.

But instead I think I'll go try to sew something.

Wow. So far this is a weekend of failures! Multiple things have gone wrong or been forgotten or lost, including Luke's DS. Traffic was terrible yesterday, and must be terrible today too since we have many missing Ducks, which means I have to skip a class so I can help with BAPA lunch. Oh, and someone unplugged the Duck's fridge early in the week, so everything went bad. Brilliant.

Updating with my cell phone

I just made the discovery that I can update my blog using my cell phone.
So, if I have anything really interesting to post over the weekend I'll be able do so, despite the fact that I'll be at Bristol.

Speaking of Bristol, I should probably go pack. We'll be heading that way in a few short hours. I'll be taking several electives tomorrow, and I'll probably join some of the regular BAPA classes too, like dialect and history. Oh, and I'm going to take some of my sewing stuff with me because Alyssa (the costumer) has given me permission to use the costume shop sewing machines. Oh, and any of the patterns in the costume shop, which is pretty nifty. Although I don't know if I'll need any of the patterns.

Another post about another weekend.

I had lots of fun being a fairy at the Medieval Midsummer Fayre this past Saturday (which I had written a post about and then the computer freaked out and erased it. Sad.), even though I got really sunburned (and I was wearing sun lotion!), and there weren't a lot of kids, and some of the kids that were there were afraid of me. I was told that it was the purple tights. Apparently purple tights are scary. Who knew?
Anyway, it was a fundraiser for the Beaver Dam YMCA, and the goal was to have 200 patrons. We surpassed that number (I don't have official word, but I hear it was around 250) so the YMCA wants it repeated next year! Next year it will be held in late September so as to not interfere with Bristol.
Oh, and I met a five year old girl Milana. She told me lots of jokes. These are three of my favorite, even though they don't make sense.
Knock knock!
Who's there?
Diamonds!
Diamonds who?
Diamonds are pretty!

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Pretty!
Pretty who?
Pretty diamonds!

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Flowers!
Flowers who?
Flowers are pretty with diamonds in the middle!

There was a terrible storm we got stuck in on the way up to Beaver Dam. We were stuck on a road that was closed down to one lane for 25 miles, and the storm was awful! I checked the weather on my phone and it said the storm was about 7 miles north of Paw Paw. Where do you think we were? About 7 miles north of Paw Paw! Joy. They were predicting 70 MPH winds, which was really knocking us around, along with a a lot of rain, lighting all around us, a green sky, some serious cloud rotations, and lines in the sky (anyone who knows our Texas tornado story knows why lines in the sky would be frightening to us). Jeremy took some pictures on his phone and he posted them on Facebook if anyone is interested in looking. The pictures are good, but they still don't do the storm justice. We were really, really happy to get out of it! Oh yeah, and the temperature dropped 29 degrees in less than 10 minutes.

And of course we had Bristol rehearsals on Sunday. Us Ducks started our morning off dancing with Bristol Buskin Frolic, which was fun. I believe we plan on repeating it this coming weekend.
We got a lot done this weekend, including getting our canvas over some of our workspace. We're really hoping the faire will give us a roof someday, but at least we got new canvas tarps for this year!

My weekend

My weekend was very, very fun. We arrived in Kenosha at about noon on Friday and went straight to the Dowell's house. It was pretty crazy in there, but the fun kind of crazy. The kids (Stefanie & Charlie have 3: William, Joshua, and Sherry) were noisily (but pleasantly) playing there video games, Stefanie was getting lunch ready and cleaning up, and Charlie was in some sort of meeting. After lunch Stefanie and I got ready to head to Milwaukee for the bead show.
We got there around 5, and we were astounded by the amounts of beads. It was an absolutely humongous room full of hundreds booths, full of beads. Plastic beads, shell beads, pearl beads, glass beads, wooden beads, shiny beads, dull beads, crackly beads, rock beads, gems, you name it and it was there. We decided to start at the back left and work our way forward. We stopped at some point to have dinner, which was good. There was someone else sitting at our table. She introduced herself as Caroline. We complimented some of her jewelry and she told it that she bought the pack of pendants for about $260. We only talked with Caroline for a few minutes, but she managed to fit in a lot about herself in those 10ish minutes!
After dinner we continued on our way, and we found some fantastic deals! We found these crazy colored pearls (various shapes; not all round) and we had to get some. They were amazing! We joked about buying the strand of crazy colored skulls to go with them, but we never actually did.
We kept seeing aquamarine, which is sooo pretty, but all strands were priced well over $200, so we weren't expecting to get any. However, Stefanie found a strand of faceted aquamarine at one of the last booths we went to, and she asked the man in charge how much they were (not expecting to buy them), he answered that they were $25, which absolutely stunned Stefanie and I. She had to restrain herself from buying all five strands that were there!
I checked my phone at one point to see the time, and it was 7:20. The bead show was going to end at 8:00, and we had things we knew we wanted to buy that were clear at the other side of the room, so we spent the rest of our time making a mad dash to find everything we wanted (and more!). It was really, really great. We got so many beads, and for such good prices! Next year we want to take some classes during the week and then go to the bead show earlier in the day to get more shopping done. Stefanie is hoping that we can make lots of jewelry and Beadmarks together and sell them at a Christmas show she hopes to do, and she also has an Etsy website that we want to get up and running. We just need to create some inventory and take some pictures!
While the two of us were at the bead show, my Mom and brothers went to Bristol to try to do a little clean up from the rain last weekend, and then they went to Goodwill, and after that they found Lake Michigan.

The rest of the weekend was mostly at Bristol. We stayed at Stefanie's Friday and Saturday night to avoid the rain (it was pretty rainy again, and we still needed to clean up our tent from last week, so it was easier to stay elsewhere), and had BAPA classes on Saturday ( I took two electives: Gypsies, Tramps and Theives & Improv, Improv, Iprov) and rehearsals on Sunday.

So, it was a really fun weekend! I'm already looking forward to a similar one next year.

A Hole in the Ocean

A friend of ours co-wrote a song with his friend, Steve Bartlett, about the oil spill. It's called "A Hole in the Ocean" and you can watch it here, or here.

Beads, Bristol, and fun!

It's Friday, which means it's once again time to leave for Bristol!
However, we are leaving earlier than usual this weekend. Stefanie Dowell is taking me to a bead show for an early birthday present, so she wants to leave from her house by about 11.
It's supposed to be raining at Bristol again (I really wish I'd been able to buy rainboots this week!), so we'll just stay at Stefanie's house on Friday and Saturday night so that we can stay dry.
I have a few electives to take this weekend (yay!) , so I'm excited for those.
I think I'm going to start carrying some of my sewing around with me with a needle and thread. Hand sewing may not be very fast, but if I can work on it for an hour when a sewing machine isn't available then it's farther along than I would have been otherwise!

I'm hoping there's less mosquitoes this weekend. I had far too many bites last week. Oy.

Grr.

I get so mad at people who lie to you, try to trick you, and then act as if you're below them.
How dare they? How can they feel good about themselves, behaving like that? How can they be so blatant about it?
Nice, people. Real nice.

Mr. Turkey

Mr. Turkey is my defender.
He's a great turkey! If Russel tries to attack me Mr.Turkey has taken to chasing him around the yard and pecking him.
Russel wouldn't even attempt to chase me this morning because Mr. Turkey was standing right there, and if Russel even got close to me Mr. Turkey would puff up his feathers and start gobbling at Russel.

I can understand why Benjamin Franklin would have recommended a turkey for our national bird. Turkeys are brave and loyal, and once they're loyal to you they'll defend you! They also happen to have a red, white and blue head, although judging from the letter Ben Franklin wrote he wasn't really thinking about the color of a turkey's head.

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country...

I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

Trained butterflies?

This weekend I was playing with Timothy after rehearsals. He wanted to play in the rows of seating at the Cheshire Chase stage, and he was holding his spoon (all Ducks have a spoon they decorate. The spoons are approximately 31" long) between the seats to pretend it was a gate. I was supposed to go up to the spoon and say "Here's money for today" and pretend to put money on the spoon. Timothy would then move the spoon so that I could walk through, then he'd run to the next benches to block me. Eventually he decided that I didn't need to give money to the spoons, but I'd have to repeat whatever password he told me.
My very favorite was when he made me say "I'm off to join the trained butterflies and the scarf made the spoon fly to the garbage can" (although he later changed it to "Sam's off to join...." and claimed it was based on the song lyrics "Sam's gone away to join the trained bands". I'm pretty sure it's "I'm", though, and not "Sam's").
It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about with the scarf making the spoon fly, but I eventually understood: He has a piece of woven trim tied around his spoon, and it looks like a mini scarf around the spoon. And apparently scarfs can fly....

After that game we were playing with his spoon pretending it was a gun (we were shooting holes in the clouds, I think). Timothy hung the spoon up and then suddenly said "You have to take the spoon and poke it in your eye and say "ow ow ow ow" until it stings". He then proceeded to demonstrate what he meant, and then told me to try. Although he told me I just had to shove the spoon into my glasses and not my eye.
I'm not really sure what that was supposed to accomplish, but it was still funny.

I'm so glad I get to play his nanny this summer! It's going to be an easy job, and he's so much fun!

**Note**
Contrary to what I previously said, Timothy was in fact correct, and the song goes "Sam's gone away....", not "I'm gone away...."

This Weekend

I'm excited-BAPA and rehearsals start this weekend!
I signed up for nine electives (I only have to take three), and I may sign up for a tenth. I'm just waiting to hear back from my director on something.
We'll be leaving tomorrow (about noon), and we'll be pitching our tent. Then classes are on Saturday and rehearsals on Sunday! I'm taking some of my sewing with so that I can ask for help on part of it (the Ducks rehearsals end at approximately 2:30-3:00 and we have sewing time after that until 5:00 PM).