American Idol

Any takers out there wanna bet Jason DOESN'T go home tomorrow???

Musical Melodies

I got to take in the prince's final choir concert of the year today. The melodies were melodious. Not only that, but I was THRILLED when they sang "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray (my FAVORITE movie!). Unfortunately they did not call me down to sing a solo, but there's always hope for next year! Rock on, Middle School!

Prince of Track

A few photos of the prince and his peeps at today's track meet.



Practicing for the long jump.
Me and my gang!
Long jumpin' it!

Running the 200 meter.

Yes, it was every bit as gorgeous outside as the photos make it look!

16...19...days!

16 more days of school for me and the princess.

19 more days for the prince.

United States of England

This was too funny not to share on the blog:

Britain is Repossessing the U.S.A.

A Message from John Cleese

To the citizens of the United States of America: In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise.Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize. You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) - roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did for them.

12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters.Watching Andie McDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

13. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don't try Rugby - the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.

14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.God save the Queen. Only He can.

John Cleese

Idol

How great was it to hear Neil Diamond songs on Ameican Idol tonight?

I LOVE "Sweet Caroline"!!!!

Chicken WHAT??

I was bringing the kids home from school on Friday when the neighbor boy said, "I'm going to ask my dad to take me to Subway this weekend. I really want that CHICKEN MARIJUANA sandwich."

WHAT???

He meant CHICKEN PARMIGIANA.

It's the little things that make me happy!

The Pioneer Princess

Here is our Pioneer Princess, before her Wagons Ho Musical solo.

Skirt and shirt, compliments of Good Will. Boots, compliments of a good friend.

Making her parents proud: PRICELESS!

SNOW

It's snowing. Been snowing off and on all day. And cold. What's the date today? Oh yeah, April 20. Not a lot of accumulation, unlike other parts of the state that got more than an inch. And we need the moisture so...

FOXY!

I spotted a red fox running across the prairie behind our house this morning. We're still waiting for the antelope to return from where ever they've been this winter.

Caribbean Cruise Anyone?

STRESS TEST

I am not sure exactly how this works, but this is amazingly accurate. The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Center in Burlington Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that , in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins . The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may need to take a vacation.

Have a GREAT, STREE-FREE DAY!!!

River Fun

Visiting our cousins this weekend brought lots of cool experiences like riding horses, dirt bikes, and a bonfire down by the river!!! The weather really cooperated too! Here are some photos.

The princess is being lead because the horse likes to buck sometimes--she's old!















Get your motor runnin'! (The camper in the background is where the king and kids stayed!)















Cousins--and some fierce wind! Sitting on ye ol' hitchin' post!

Mop Head

The prince got a much-needed haircut Saturday. He was ready and willing because he hated the way it was flopping around during track practice. PHEW!! No parental pressure there, so check it out!

BEFORE!

AFTER!

Watch My Man

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but this link MIGHT take you to a clip of  my man, singing his swan song on Idol Monday night.  Hope it works!

http://www.americanidol.com/videos/?vid=1116

In Mourning

I'm in mourning. My man, Michael, was voted off American Idol last night. I might just have to go into hiding too. (Seems like the right thing to do.) On the other hand, the king, prince, and princess are off to visit the royal aunt and cousins in a land far, far away for the weekend, which means that, as of about 10am on Saturday, I am HOME ALONE for well over 24 hours. I think I'm coming out of my grief already!!!

Check it out!

Thursday Chance of Snow	Friday Partly Cloudy	Saturday Partly Cloudy	Sunday Clear	Monday Clear
50° | 29°	54° | 34°	65° | 38°	70° | 43°	76° | 45°

Check out our cool forecast! Pay close attention to SUNDAY and MONDAY! We have been FOREVER in the 40's and sometimes peak at the 50's so we're really looking forward to this. Of course, this time next week you'll be listening to my complain about how warm my lab is (I'm running the air right now, and it's only 48* outside as I write this, but still...I'm focused on spring!!!

Ouch, ohhhh, ouch, owwwwww!

The prince went to his first track practice last night. Several laps around the track, many sprints, and lots of lunges later he was one hurtin' unit when he got home!!! I gave him so Advil and some dinner. His dad then suggested they take a walk. WALK???? He didn't think that would help but decided it was easier than waiting for the jacuzzi tub to fill, so off they went. What do you know? The old man was right. The prince could walk up the steps without the pain AFTER the walk. More practice tonight. We'll see how he's feeling...

Circus Anyone?

The king, prince, princess and royal aunt attended the Shrine Circus this weekend. As you can see, a good time was had by all.
















Last year the royal aunt rode the elephant with the kids. This year it was the king's turn on a pachyderm!















The royal aunt and prince, doing the "self-portrait" thing.
















The princess, "clowning" around.

How Amazing

This is an albino peacock. Pretty amazing, huh?

No FOOLIN' Happy Birthday to my SISTY!

It's not an April Fool's Day joke. My little sister is celebrating her birthday today. Looking good, sistah!

The king's mum's trip to the east coast

The king's mum took a tour of the east coast in March. Among the highlights (and not necessarily in the order they happened):

Seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway in New York City--her favorite part of the trip. Moving the props was amazing.

The king's mum, her brother, his granddaughter in front of the White House.


A statue of Paul Revere and the Old North Church behind it where the whole "One if by land, two if by sea" happened.

The queen's mum in Florida

A few fun shots of the queen's mum, sister, and neice in FL in February!




The queen's mum has a "thing" for posing with statues. We have many photos of her with various "stiff" men!!!

Belated St. Pat's day photos

The girls, killing time with a self-portrait while waiting for the parade to start!

The prince is 2 to the right of the guy in green hair--sort of leaning over and waving, wearing the black hat!

Sleep, I want sleep...

So it's around 2:00 AM. The prince just threw up for the second time tonight and the princess threw up for the first time.

I'll back up and say that neither of them was feeling well when they went to bed. By about 10:00, the prince threw up. By 11:00, the king had moved the princess to the floor in our room. By 11:30 the prince was also on the floor in our room.

At 1:30 the prince was moaning and groaning so I put him in my bed and decided to sleep on the couch. About that time the princess woke up to tell me she did didn't want to sleep anymore because her stomach hurt. I told her she could sleep in the tv room w/the tv on. Meanwhile I take Pepto to the prince and come back into the living room to hear the princess being sick in the bathroom. Clean that mess up, get her settled with the tv, and I hear the prince, in my bathroom, being sick.

Great! He didn't quite make it to the toilet this time so there is "stuff" all over the bathroom floor and toilet. The king, who has mostly been sleeping through all of this, says to me, "Are you going to put the rugs in the washing machine?" Mind you, he says this FROM THE BED THAT HE HASN'T GOTTEN OUT OF!

Sure. And I'll scrub the toilet and mop the floor while I'm at it. So I did. At this point, I'm not feeling all that tired and decide to go watch tv with the princess. But she assures me that, should I turn off the tv, she can go back to sleep now. Lucky her!

I don't know; the washer has turned off. Maybe I can go to sleep now too. On the couch. Away from all the sickies, but close enough to hear them when the next round begins.

By the way, we all ate the same dinner, and the king and I aren't sick. We went to brunch this morning. I can't think of anything they ate that one of us didn't also eat. Who knows. Maybe they're both just sick! It happens. The good news is that we have no school tomorrow so at least we can all nap!

I hope you're healthy! The queen of puke, signing off!

Google Names

Have you ever googled your name? Mine is unusual so how many hits could there be? Try OVER 61,000. I just checked out the first 12 pages or so, and saw nothing that references me, which I guess is good because I like to be a little bit anonymous. I did find a 21-year-old with the same birthday, many of Indian decent, and several businesses! Now, if you add the last name, you'll quickly get hits on me! The wacky internet!

Happy Easter!

Bright Lights of Vegas

Did you hear about the transformer blowing in Vegas last week? Took out power to Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur. For those of you not familiar with Vegas (and why I haven't converted you yet, I'm not sure!), Excalibur sits on a major corner of the strip with the Tropicana across the street, MGM kitty-corner, and NYNY across the other street.

As "luck" would have it, someone I know was staying at the Excalibur but happened to be at Mandalay Bay when the power blew. Here's what she had to say:

1. They happened to be walking through the casino when it blew. She grabbed a chair and held on, thinking they didn't know how long it would be out and she might want to sit down as time went by. It was pitch black because there are no windows in casinos (part of their ploy to keep you there longer not knowing what time it is.) She said it was at least one minute before their generators kicked in. (Could this be any more like Oceans 11, 12, and 13??) After the generator kicked on, she said casino people were scrambling to go to each individual machine where people were playing and had to open them up and figure out how much money the player had in the machine and pay them out in cash.

2. My friend and her husband decided to walk back to Excalibur, but walked out and saw a HUGE traffic jam because the light at that corner where those big hotels are was also out. They decided to people-watch, and she said it took an HOUR for a cop to come and start directing traffic at that light.

3. When they went back into their hotel they found that:
A: All the elevators and stairs were shut down. (The stairs automatically lock in case of a power outage.)
B: Their room keys no longer worked because the power going out automatically scrambles all the lock codes for the rooms.
C: There was a lady (youngish) in the lobby dressed only in a towel because she was on the 28th floor, taking a shower, when the power went out, and she freaked out and ran down 28 flights of stairs dressed only in a towel. Why hotel management didn't help her out is beyond me, but I'm sure they were busy!

4. My friend said from the time the power went out until the time it was fully back on and they were able to go back into their room was about 3.5 hours.

When you couple this with the recent fire at the Monte Carlo, you've gotta wonder why anyone would want to go there, but all I can say is I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!!!

LOSERS!

My girl is gone. And, mind you, she didn't even get voted out. She QUIT!!! There goes my chance of winning $50. But there's always next season! (Ever the optomist!)

Cool Amanda

I blogged earlier about cousin Amanda winning a big essay contest. Here's some more info and the essay! You ROCK, Amanda!

Her mom writes: This was quite an honor She was a guest of honor at the Chuckwagon breakfast that included the governor and the mayor. Her essay was one of two that were selected out of 800 entries. She is such an amazing girl. This was the 39th essay contest. It was a great day! She received a $500 savings bond and $200 check from the artist Neil Patterson.



I like Charlie Russell Because ...I like Charlie Russell because he is an inspiration to me. He showed me that if I want to do something I could do it. Not only did he go to the West and do what he loved to do, his art, but also he successfully started a moneymaking business. I enjoy the way he loved, yet never hunted, animals. He drew pictures of buffalo being hunted and he never saw that. He just had heard it.

I was inspired by his will to go to the West, and when he was 16, his parents sent him on a trip there, and then he never permanently came back. That shows me to never forget what you want to do. Charlie grew up far different from me, yet Chaz, his parents called him, had the life I want. He got to spend the day doing what he always wanted to do. He married Nancy Cooper, and became a very successful artist, as I have already said. Charlie grew up to be what he had always wanted to, even though his dad wanted him to go to college and be in the family business.

So, eventually, he ended up a cowboy and creating over 2,000 paintings! Charlie’s paintings were unique to me. They were unique because he drew them with feeling. He drew what he has never seen before, and he became a very good friend to the Indians of the West. So he settled in Cascade with his wife, Nancy, and all of his Indian friends. The Indians told him of the buffalo hunts, and that put his imagina-tion to the test. The description of the buffalo’s eyes, and the way he drew the description and the fear in his eyes. I know what the buffalo is feeling because of that.

The paintings talk of him, his family and his family and his experiences. Right now, I live on 20 acres with one horse, and I go to parties all the time. Charlie showed me that no matter where you are, or where you live, you could change.

YUM!

Heaven, a little slice of heaven--that's what my new FAVORITE coffee creamer is--MARSHMALLOW Chocolate! Gotta LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!