When will the musical version open on Broadway?

While on my way to pick up Annabelle at Youth Services a little while ago, I was listening to "All Things Considered" on the radio. I tuned in halfway through a report on an interview that NPR's Juan Williams conducted with President Bush yesterday. I heard this and just about drove off the road:

MR. WILLIAMS: All right. You know, you mentioned timetables. NPR has a reporter embedded with the Minnesota National Guard in Iraq, and one of the soldiers there asked the question – says, my name is Specialist Ryan Schmidt (sp) from Forest Lake, Minnesota, and my question for you, Mr. President, is what if your plan for a troop surge to Baghdad does not work?" What do you think?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I would say to Ryan, I put it in place on the advice of a lot of smart people, particularly the military people who think it will work, and let us go into this aspect of the Iraqi strategy feeling it will work. But I will also assure Ryan that we're constantly adjusting to conditions on the ground.

Yes, yes, please, let's go into this "feeling" that it works! I'm sure that every disaster up to this point in this Charlie Foxtrot has to do with inadequate "feeling."

Is it just me, or does anybody else see the similarities between President George Bush and Professor Harold Hill? A con man waltzes into town, convinces the populace they have an imminent problem, and then offers the solution, which will enrich nobody but himself (and in this case, his cronies). When Bush talks about his strategy of victory through feeling, am I the only one who pictures those 2 tone-deaf River City youths singing, "I love music, Mommy" as they demonstrate the limitations inherent in the "think method" (which I have to believe is a first cousin to the "feel method")? I just wish Bush's brilliant plan to save us all had been a marching band. Or, hell, even a pool hall.



(With apologies to Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.)

Vote for "Zits"!

No, I'm not asking you to elect acne to public office. Instead, our morning paper is asking its readers to vote on a replacement comic strip now that "Foxtrot" is no longer published daily.

"Zits" is a hysterically funny strip featuring the antics of "Jeremy Duncan, a 15-year-old aspiring rock musician, riddled with angst, boredom and parents who don't understand anything. Let him show you the wonderfully lousy world of being a 15-year-old. Meet Jeremy's parents Connie and Walt Duncan. Watch as they continue to try to figure out the mysterious science of parenting a teenager... " In short, "Zits" is my life.

Please go here and vote for "Zits" to be the new addition to the Louisville Courier-Journal's comics page. Vote early, vote often. Please, God, don't let "One Big Happy" win. That would be almost as depressing to me as the past 2 presidential elections.

Bread--it's what's for supper.

A couple weeks ago, my invisible friend Barbara shared this New York Times article about an exciting new breadmaking technique that calls for a very long rising time and NO kneading. Now as you may recall, I am a failure when it comes to making bread, so at first I didn't pay much attention.

Soon though, my invisible friends all across the country were making this bread and raving about the results. I decided to give it a whirl, figuring all I stood to lose was 3 cups of flour and a little yeast and salt.

Last week I made my first loaf, and it was good! Annabelle even said I could have my own business--Bonnie's Breads--which is pretty high praise. I made another loaf last night, and the kids and I had it for supper since Fred had to stay late at work for a meeting. Here is a shot of last night's creation:



Go here to get the recipe and try it yourself! You'll be glad you did.

Do you have your Red Hot Chili Pepper shoes on?

Fred and Mike do. They are at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati waiting to get inside for the concert tonight.

Mike was devastated last spring when RHCP announced the dates for their tour and there wasn't a single venue within 5 hours of us. We are cool parents but there are limits to that coolness, and apparently the limits do not extend to Cleveland.

But then in the fall, they added on some performances including tonight's, and Mike bought his ticket as soon as they went on sale.

How cool is Fred for taking Mike to this concert (even if he did also pack earplugs)? Can I just say how eternally grateful I am that I didn't have to go? I don't have a very extensive concert pedigree, and the few that I do have include head-banging acts such as Air Supply and John Denver. I don't think I would know what to do with myself at a RHCP concert. I think I would look out of place if I sat there knitting.

UPDATE: Just received the following from Fred via the Crackberry: "We are in and in our seats. They are straight across the floor from the stage. We have shirts and are waiting for the show to start."



UPDATE: Here is the latest from the Crackberry: "RHCP is GREAT! Started at 2100. No idea when they will stop." I wonder if that means Fred took the earplugs out. (Thanks to Suzie for tweaking the photo of Mike!)

Happy anniversary, Grandma and Dave!

Wow, hard to believe that 2 years have gone past already since Grandma's wedding! Fred was deployed, and the kids and I were on our way to back to Germany after having spent the holidays in Florida. When we arrived in Florida just before Thanksgiving, we knew Grandma had a friend named Dave, and 2 months later they were married.

Since then they have kept busy taking off on one exotic trip after another or taking part in one of their many organized activities. I want to be just like Grandma when I grow up (except I don't want to leave my appendix in Africa)!

So long, Jake

One of the big drawbacks of this nomadic military lifestyle is how often we have to say goodbye to friends, whether we are the ones doing the moving or they are. Mike's best friend Jake is leaving today to move to Texas. We're all going to miss him.

FORTY?!?

This can't be happening. There is no way Julie is turning 40 today, because if that's the case, then I will turn 40 in a few short weeks. And that, my friends, is just impossible. Why, we graduated from college just the other day!

My cousin Julie and I have been inseparable since birth, if you don't count the 500+ miles that have separated us for way too much of that time. When we were able to get together, she was my partner in crime, always willing to make plans to build a car that would go on land or underwater or to make up stories about the ghosts concealed in the paneling at Grandma's house or to help me build an umbrella out of a lingerie drying rack, newspaper, and 2 rolls of tape. How cool it would have been if we could truly have been twins:



Even when we weren't living near each other while we were growing up, we remained devoted penpals. We roomed together for 2 years in college, and we even went to Europe as exchange students at the same time, Julie to France and me to Germany. Here we are with some French dude whose name I do not know tasting wine in the caverns of Beaune:



This was taken just before my graduation from college:



When we were kids, Julie and I were always allowed to call each other (long distance!) on our birthdays. They were much too short calls, and there was generally a parent hovering in the background, moaning and groaning about how much the phone bill was going to be. That was a nice enough birthday tradition, but now that we are FORTY (or will be soon), I think we should start a new birthday tradition.

I'm thinking something like a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas--no husbands, no kids, open bar. What do you think, Jules?

Following in her mom's footsteps (eyesteps?)

Our big news is that Annabelle now has glasses! She was having problems seeing the blackboard at school, so we got her eyes checked and yep, she's nearsighted. I think she looks very fetching in her new eyewear:

First day (night!) of school

Well, tonight is my first day of library school. That sounds strange, doesn't it?

I thought about having Fred take a "first day" picture of me, like I always take of the kids, but I decided to take advantage of one of the big benefits to distance learning and learn in my PJs. Nobody needs to see that.

I am positively giddy at the idea that not only can I chew gum in class but I could surround myself by an absolute feast! I could sit here with an entire ham, and who would know? Heck, I could even have a glass of wine (except then I might fall asleep before class ends at 10). So I've just got my glass of water in case I get thirsty, but I still am getting a charge out of thinking of all the things I COULD have with me "in class."

If there is one drawback that I can see to distance education, it's lack of access to the informal grapevine. How am I supposed to get the dirt? the 411? the scuttlebutt? Am I going to have to go onto MySpace for that? I never thought about it in my previous educational experiences, but one learns things about courses and teachers and such just from keeping one's ears open while standing in line to buy books. I ordered my books online--there was no scuttlebutt to be had.

Hmmm . . . here's another potential drawback to attending school from home. My stupid cat is standing in my bathroom yowling his head off because he wants somebody to come turn on the water in the sink. That never happened to me in Elizabeth Hall.

Oh, my gosh, it just dawned on me--this is my first time since high school to attend a school with a football team! Is it still football season? Are we winning? I guess I am going to have to start caring about these things.

OK, I am going to go water the cat and then I am going to go to school.

Go, 'Noles!

Hello, LibraryThing!

I'm afraid I'm not very good at keeping my sidebar up to date. I have loads of blogs and websites that I go to faithfully but that I just haven't gotten around to adding to my BlogRoll yet. I should really get on that while the year is still fresh and I am full of enthusiasm.

Another thing I've been meaning to do for ages is to get rolling with LibraryThing, which is this really cool . . . well, LIBRARY THING that allows you to catalog your books online. You can also use it to connect with other readers who share your tastes as well as to get recommendations for other books you might enjoy.

I have been stymied by my own perfectionism in getting set up with LibraryThing though. I was plagued with doubts such as would it be cheating to include library books I read? What about books I borrow? What if I read a book and then pass it on? Do I have to purge that title from my collection? As you can see, it is a lot of fun to be me. These are the issues that keep me up at night.

I finally decided to get over myself and just get started with books that I read in 2007 in order to get a feel for the system. (I was inspired by my invisible friend Kim, who keeps an Excel spreadsheet of everything she reads!) Later on I can branch out and start adding older books.

I don't think I will be rating books, at least not in the beginning. I spent a good 15 minutes this morning agonizing over how many stars to assign to each of the 3 books I've got listed thus far. I'm somewhat of a literary trollop (that's fancy talk for "book slut") who is free with my affections when it comes to books. I tend to love most of them, and a line of 5-star reviews isn't really informative when there's nothing to compare them to. ("Oh, look, Bonnie loved another book. Somebody alert the media.") Also, I would hate to hurt the feelings of the rare book that doesn't do it for me. Again, fun to be me!

So the new addition to my sidebar for today is my LibraryThing widget, which will display recent books that I have tagged with "2007." Please let me know if there are any funky display issues.

Now, to get that BlogRoll updated . . .

Happy 2007!

I decided Sunday night that New Year's is my favorite holiday. It's a very low-stress occasion and it brings with it the promise of fresh beginnings, which I just love.

I spent part of Sunday evening cleaning up and defragmenting my hard drive, which isn't fabulously exciting but which gave me a good feeling and is in keeping with my resolution to be a better computer housekeeper.

We got word last Friday that we will be remaining at Knox one extra year rather than moving someplace else this summer. This brought me to another of my resolutions--to hurry up and get my office and sewing room organized so that I can have plenty of time to enjoy and use them.

We're only 3 days into it, but I am excited about 2007.