Camping Out

Okay, so the title is deceiving: we didn't camp out. But we are pretty "camped out" today, as this morning we had Music Camp - and tonight we had our princess ballerina lessons. It was a busy day for Madison, who had a great time, but at the same time was pretty tired at the end of the day.

The good news is that the temperature seems to be dropping a bit. The rain fell down late today and tonight, and the skies stayed overcast: things stayed wet and gloomy, but right now that's preferable to the oppressive heat.

We signed Madison up for more music classes today, which we think is a good decision. These target playing the keyboard, although there will be more than that learned. Obviously, learning to play the piano is a big deal - but also learning much about music will be useful as well. We'll see if it works out, but at the present, she does enjoy being in class. And she enjoys playing notes on her keyboard. Soon she'll be playing some music for us!

Speaking of music, here's a photo of Boba Fett playing clarinet. It's actually a reference to a part of a song by Weird Al Yankovic, one of Daddy's guilty pleasures. I think I have all of his CDs, and recently for our anniversary, Mommy got me his latest CD, "Alpocalypse." It's a great selection, and it's awesome to have Weird Al back in the playlist. Weird Al and Daddy go back a long, long ways - back to the days where he'd parody Michael Jackson and Madonna. But Al's original material is frequently just as good, if not better.

Some time ago, one song in particular "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" sent Daddy on a journey to Darwin, Minnesota with a few of his friends. We were there to find the thing: there it was, a huge ball of twine in a makeshift pagoda. It was an epic trip, where we stopped by at "The Museum of Questionable Devices" and the mother of all weirdness: "The House on the Rock" in Wisconsin.

It was such a legendary trip that Daddy's groom's cake at the wedding was affected. Yes, that brings us back to remembering our anniversary here: sure, there was gazebo on it like the bride's cake. But inside that gazebo on the groom's cake was... you guessed it... a twine ball. How many wedding cakes do you know that have a twine ball on them?

"What on Earth would make a man decide to do that kind of thing, windin' up twenty-one thousand, one hundred forty pounds of string?"

- Weird Al Yankovic