Whit-n-Staish

I was going to post this on Whitney's birthday, but why procrastinate. I just listened "Bye Bye" by JoDee Messina and it took me back to this era:









(Make a shape!)

Whit was driving The Bagel* down 800 West in Orem by Mountain View, belting out every word. She didn't have any inhibition about singing in the car with others present. I've loved the song ever since. But Whit-n-Staish go back way further:

















Whitney or her parents were arguably the first to call me Staish, something few are allowed. But no one else says it quite right. The Debenhams just give it a special ring.

After they moved (were we 9,10?), Whitney gave me the poem Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold. I have always remembered this and Whitney is the goldest one I have.













I think this was the day we joked about Samuel and Matisse getting married, the same way we married off my brother to her sister, oh, is it 25 years ago?

(Bagel: beige Subaru wagon hatchback with sunroof, complete with shellacked bagel ornament)

Fun Day with Jen & Mason

While Joseph was in El Paso all last week, we went up to Spring and spent the a day and night and a 1/2 day with the Hoyts. Jen took us to the Children's Museum at The Woodlands Mall (and got us in for free - Thanks Jen!). Samuel loved the trains, sand, and the rubber pit where you can use construction equipment to dig for what else but dinosaur bones. Mason buried his giraffe in the sand.















See the scarf blower that entertained Samuel for these 49 seconds.
















The boys had fruit and chocolate ice cream for dinner (as seen on Samuel's shirt).

Once in a Blue Moon...A Tax Refund!

We sent off our taxes today. Joseph filled out all the schedules and I plugged the numbers into the 1040. Joseph proposed splitting our refund three ways - $800 each for Samuel, him and me. I spent about 30 minutes shopping online for an enameled dutch oven pan like the one I admired at Kari Hansen's. I found a deal on ebay, but then realized that I could get free shipping on Amazon and that made it cheaper. Bad news for small business that Super Saver Shipping is. In the end, I decided against it. I don't have anywhere to store it and we are postponing most decisions until after we decide if we are going back to grad school. But in true "less is more" fashion here's a picture to admire in all its blue heat-preserving splendor.

Speaking of blue, I am listening to Round of Blues by Shawn Colvin. Many of my favorite tunes have blue in the title, Blue Moon being my favorite. I first heard the Marcels doo wop version in elementary school. As a direct result, I like about any song that has any kind of ding dong shoo bop shoo bop, even Mariah Carey's- "Always be My Baby." Another fun blue song with ding dong shoo bop is "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65. Back to Blue Moon though - Melanie Morrow choreographed a dance to it in Orchesis in high school and I since then I was hooked. I should collect all that I can find (like dad's "Nessun Dorma" collection, only not so regal). I also have Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and Rod Stewart singing it, even though I can't stand his raspy voice. I can also play it on the piano, but that's not collection worthy - just fun. Dad also introduced me to Nanci Griffiths, a folk singer in Austin who has a lovely song called "Once in a Very Blue Moon." This song inspired me to copy Laurie Oldroyd's Blue Moon party in the Timpview 10th ward. That was a really special party for me. We were just married, new in the ward and the only people at the party who didn't have kids. Laurie was probably the closest in age to Joseph and me, and she is in my high school year book as a teacher! There were also people at the party who were our parents age. It was a fun mix and a killer party. Ever since I haven't hesitated about having friends and guests that weren't close to my age. I started planning my own blue moon party last year, but I got the month wrong and missed it altogether. (The projected blue moon date I found was based on Greenwich time putting the blue moon in June, but it should have been May in the Western Hemisphere. I learned this on June 1st. Charming.) I started collecting any songs that had the words blue moon in them for the party and found Patsy Cline's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Van Morrison's "Once in a Blue Moon." I always perk up when I hear the words "blue moon." When I read "Winter of Enchantment" in February, I noticed that the author repeatedly refered to a blue moon but defined it improperly as the lack of a moon - which should have been called a new moon.

That's all I've got on Blue Moon.

Indoor Soccer Video - Check it out

Out indoor team shows some sweet defense!