04.18.08

Earthquake!!

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 7:06 am by Meg

It woke me up this morning about 5:30 AM. Turns out to be a 5.6 somewhere out in Illinois, so it was far enough away to just give the house a little shaking. It seems to have spooked the orange cat, but not much else.

Did make it hard to get up when my alarm went off an hour later though.

This is only the third distinctive earthquake that I’ve experienced. The first two were:

1. 1983 - in upstate NY. Woke up to house shaking and bedroom door slamming. Thought it was the wind at first. It was a 5.3. I was about an hour or two from the epicenter.

2. 1990 - in Southern California. I was nearly on top of the epicenter and it went on and on. Strong enough that I was seriously considering getting under my drafting table at work. It was a 5.5. Hubby was even closer and he could see the walls of his office rippling. There were aftershocks, but nothing so severe.

Edited later: They have down graded it to a 5.2.

And later: Boy said that he nearly fell out of bed!

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04.17.08

Do you like Abba?

Posted in Scholarships, Contests, Reading programs and the like at 6:48 pm by Meg

I remember growing up and singing Dancing Queen in my bedroom with my friends using hairbrushes and whatever else was available as microphones. Image what fun it was to see the musical Mamma Mia this past year and watch them do that on the stage.

It was corny, but enjoyable fun. I will admit that I’m looking forward to the movie.

And now I find out there’s a chance to recreate that Dancing Queen experience, as part of the movie lead-up Pond’s is running a contest for woman over 40 (yep, that’s me!) and two friends to audition as a real-life Donna and the Dynamos.

The winning trio get to go to London for the world premier of the movie!

To enter you need to either make it to NYC on April 28 to audition live, or send them a video of the three of you by April 30.

I don’t have the guts to actually do, but it you do, let me know and I’ll vote for your video!

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04.15.08

The play….and a rant

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 4:10 pm by Meg

First off, the play.

The weekend went amazingly well. As I suspected, a blown dress gets the kids to that final push and the two performances went great. Everyone pulled together and produced something to be proud of. Step-mom enjoyed herself and the kids had fun.

People that came to the show were decently impressed.

But I’m afraid that I don’t have much else to say because they killed the entire experience for me. In addition to the two performances that we had this weekend, we are scheduled to do it again on the 22nd at the local state university for their drama department. - Sounds really neat, doesn’t it?

Sunday evening the boy playing the second Antipholus dropped out, citing pressing deadlines in order to graduate on time, his paperwork is due on the 22nd. Monday evening, the second Dromio made noises like he was dropping out because for the university we only had a 50 minute time slot and would need to do an abbreviated show. Then the girl playing Adriana started wondering if it was worth it.

I was upset because:

1. We’ve had the 22nd planned since about mid-February. This week and a half lag time is no surprise on anyone’s calendars.

2. Last Wednesday, I announced to the kids and any parents that were there that the show would be an abbreviated 50 mins. I asked people to think about that and to talk to me some time in the following 24 hours if they had strong feelings about go/no go with doing a show that is missing scenes.

3. As of Thursday’s rehearsal, NO ONE had said anything to me, so I went and talked to parents. The comments I heard were: Yes - let’s do it, and one NO - that’s a long time to wait between the main shows and doing it again. (This was not a statement that was a NO GO, just a comment on an issue that was known since February.) I also heard a couple of pleas that we do it since friends would not be able to make either of the weekend shows.

4. On Saturday night I said to the kids we were doing it, I just wanted to confirm a couple of things with the theater before I committed us.

5. Sunday night Antipholus and a minor character (his sister) dropped out - this committed us to a rehearsal this week so that we could work around not having him in the show. I did not plan on rehearsing this week. I really do not have the time and Boy has 2 AP tests in about 3 weeks, he doesn’t really have the time. OTH, I had made a commitment to the 20 some kids that have been involved, so I was going to find a way to make it work.

6. Monday morning I spent 90 mins talking to each family asking for a commitment for the 22, doing a show abbreviated differently than I had envisioned on Saturday. Losing Antipholus has meant that I can not do an abbreviated show that includes everyone else. I had to ask kids to be willing to allow me to cut their character out.

7. I then called the state university and COMMITTED us to being there on the 22. I have put MY word out to having us there based on EVERYONE saying THREE DIFFERENT TIMES that they were on board. Now I will have egg on MY FACE when I call and cancel. The people involved at the state university will not come away with a good impression of homeschoolers in general or our group in particular.

I GIVE UP

I can not force anyone, so do whatever you want.

At this point I’ve got an amazingly bitter view of the show in general and our group in particular.

I will be at rehearsal from 2 to 4 PM on Tuesday afternoon. Come if you stand behind your commitments and we’ll see if we can come up with something that will work, at this point to be honest, I wonder.

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04.10.08

Comedy of Errors

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 9:06 pm by Meg

We TOTALLY blew the dress rehearsal today. It can only be better for tomorrow and Saturday’s performance.

But doesn’t the cast look awesome!! (glowing eyes and all)

Can you find the two sets of “twins?”

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04.07.08

Almost done

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 4:41 pm by Meg

I still need to finish the hem and sew on two hook and eyes.

I was able to take in a little of the back and eliminate the need to take in the bust.

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04.06.08

Just when I think I’ve done the toughest thing

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:03 pm by Meg

on this fool dress…the next part is just as hard.

I started on the skirt about 11 AM this morning. Aside from cooking (cold roast, twice baked potatos - not much time involved) and moving laundry (not even folding it) I didn’t get the skirt attached to the top until about 5 PM!

Then there was the fool zipper and then yards of lace up and down the front.

Now I still have to finish the under skirt!

And then I’m going to have to add some darts around the neckline cause while I tried it on Girl as I was putting it together, I didn’t realize how oversized the bust was until I finish putting the zipper in. AND I’M NOT TAKING ALL THOSE SEAMS BACK OUT AGAIN TO ADJUST IT!

Here’s what it should look like

but imagine it in brick red and cream

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04.04.08

Clothes, thread, needle….

Posted in Meme at 11:11 pm by Meg

I’m am sewing like crazy to get costumes done (where is my mil? She could whip this right off and I could get on with doing the 99 other things that need to be ready for the shows next week!!!)

I’ll post pictures of Girl’s dress when I’m done, I hope it comes out - It’s a pill to make.

Anyway, just to have something here, I’m grabing a meme from my friend Kim.

1. My username is ______ because ______.

Meg_L. because….Big surprise, it’s my NAME!
2. My name is _____ because ______.

Meg (Margaret) because my parents liked classic names with good nicknames - Elizabeth (Liz), Patrica (Pat), and William (Bill) - years ago it was pointed out the British royal familyness of the names.

3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.

Get In, Hang On because my best friend in high school used to say that when she was driving and any one commented on her driving. The last part that I’ve dropped is Shut Up. Anyway, raising kids (and especially homeschooling) is a get in and hang on experience, so I thought it fit.

4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.

Hoppes Homestead because that’s her name and they have a FEW animals.

5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.

A picture of our dog, Hunter, because I’m crazy about privacy and who wants to see me anyway. The dog is cute.

If anyone else plays, let me know.

PS: on a different note, Boy has now heard from all the colleges. Money on the otherhand, we are still waiting on.

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