Kiss My Knits!

Our internet is down until at least Monday. Apparently our internet provider subcontracted out to another provider, which folded without telling anyone, so we’re stuck until Monday. That means that pictures hosted at tvini.com will not display and e-mails to jaynehat.com and booboomonkey.com will go unseen. E-mails to wearwithstyle at gmail dot com will be seen when I have access to an internet connection. Boo.

Right now my daughter and I are at Caribou Coffee trying to connect to her karaoke site so that we can sing. Unfortunately, that particular site is moving very slowly. We may have to try again later.

She is reading over my shoulder as I type this.

Anyway, if I don’t answer e-mails, that’s why.

See you all soon!

Eeeee! Look what sent Emily! You may know for her super cute ferret Jayne hat or her Vinnland socks (the green ones I’m making) but you may not have known that she makes soap. These smell fabulous. Thank you so much, ! Emily will be using one of these – or, honestly, probably more than one – in her bath tonight!

ETA: In Jayne news, am working on orders from Oct 20th. Still getting them out faster than the eight week delivery time estimate. Yay!

I was in Dragonrealms this morning, updating my moon mage visions, when I realized that the one I’d written about the orphanage being rebuilt had finally come true. I’m a prophet! Woo!

My next prediction will be:

You find yourself standing on Tvini’s doorstep, holding a check for a million dollars. You hand it over and watch her dance a happy jig. The vision fades.

By the way, if you wanted to do something for my kid’s music teacher, she’s got a request up on DonorsChoose.com. I think it’s about time to get another yarn-for-donations raffle going. Hmm.

Well, Emily had her debut in the musical theater tonight as a member of the chorus. She’s in the pink shirt with the two braids. She’s the tallest one, as usual. The third and fourth graders were off to the sides of the stage, while the fifth graders played the actual parts.

Right: Check out the Wells Fargo Wagon! I wondered how the heck they could afford all the stage dressing, since our school is, we shall say, dirt poor. Then the principal mentioned she’d seen the same production at another school last week, which makes me think that the district shelled out for the rights to Music Man Junior as well as the settings. She also said that our production put theirs to shame, which I totally believe.

Left: sign definitely not needed. The music director stationed this teacher at the back with this little baby. The reverse side says “SING NOT SHOUT.” Emily wasn’t supposed to have the solo she did, but she decided to sing a line along with the soloist. Nice and loud. And she sounded great. I don’t think anybody noticed, but she was fabulous.

Link to an AVI of a bunch of eight year olds singing Meredith Wilson – IF YOU DARE!

Upon coming home, she immediately popped in the DVD of the Music Man which I had cunningly left sitting at the edge of the coffee table. She’s singing along with the songs now. She’s going to be a star, I tell you! A star!

And now, if you’ll pardon me, it’s time for the star’s bathtime and jammies.

Tomorrow night, Emily’s school will be doing The Music Man. I assume they’ll just be doing selections from it, since I doubt they have a pint-sized Robert Preston ready to sing “The Sadder but Wiser Girl.” They will, however, be doing Iowa Stubborn, 76 Trombones, the Wells Fargo Wagon, and Pick a Little Talk a Little.

Apparently they’ve got the stage dressed as River City, complete with a Wells Fargo wagon and horse, “a big orange ball” for some reason, and hats for the kids.

Emily will have two solos – well, duets, since they pair the kids up for the solos. In Wells Fargo Wagon, she’ll be singing, “And once I got some grapefruit from Tampa” and also “Oho the Wells Fargo Wagon keeps a-coming!”

I spoke with her music teacher, who says that in rehearsal, the kids are really more shouting than singing. For those not lucky enough to enjoy this gem in person, I point you to two things:

First, this list of terms used in the Music Man with which you may be unfamiliar.

Second, this audio rendition of David Sedaris reading “Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol” in which he takes on the persona of a drama critic skewering a local elementary school production of A Christmas Carol. Heh.

As for me, I’ll be running the video camera. First karaoke, now Broadway musicals, tomorrow, Hollywood!

Sock eating carpets, Jayne hats, and miscellaneous knitting.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Emily’s reading “The Wizard of Oz” in her advanced reading class at school. She has really, really taken a shine to it. Just now I heard her playing with her dolls:

Doll 1: “MY JOINTS NEED OIL!!”
Doll 2: “Sounds like Shauna’s in trouble!”
Doll 3: “We have oil!”
All dolls: “Yay!”

I loved the Wizard of Oz as a kid. I remember reading all the books in the sixth grade, and getting teased for it by some kids in my class, who weren’t real big on reading and I’m sure thought that the Wizard of Oz was baby stuff. At the time, their teasing bugged me, but I wasn’t about to stop. I’ve got all 14 of L. Frank Baum’s books in paperback on my shelf, and no amount of de-cluttering will get me to part with them.

That is, I thought I had all 14. Lo and behold, I’m missing book 1. Yep, I don’t have The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I don’t think I ever bought it. I have no idea why. It’s an appalling lack. I’d like to have it, but I settled for getting a big illustrated copy from the library for Emily. Maybe one of these days I’ll get a used paperback and we can go through the series.

My friend Laura and her youngest boy came over today, and it was great. Emily’s cornucopia of Playmobil stuff was fun for him to play with. Afterward, it looked like Godzilla had rampaged through TinyTown, but that’s what I expected. In years past, this would have been a big issue for Emily, but I took a chance that she could handle the chaos upon her return, and she’s doing fine at rearranging stuff the way she wants it without being upset because it was messed up to begin with. Excellent progress. Of course, she did also come up to me later and say, “He didn’t play with my Groovy Girls, did he? I don’t want that.”

Emily’s been extra cute lately with the holidays getting her all worked up. I went just now to get the video camera to record some of this for posterity, but the battery’s completely drained. Something to fix before this weekend’s cookie bake at her paternal grandparents’. This is a new tradition on that side of the family – my husband’s mother heard about the one we have on my side of the family, and loved it so much they started their own. So come this weekend, there’ll be a dozen people staying overnight in a three bedroom house. Should be cozy. My husband’s family is great, but that’s a lot of people for an introvert to be constantly around. Wish me luck! 🙂