Footloose at the Temple

It is no secret that I LOVE Sanford’s Temple Theater!  The only shows I miss are ones that fall when I am tied up to the point where I absolutely can’t get to go!!  That said – I almost missed the Temple’s production of Footloose running from October 17th thru November 9th.  After taking advantage of a last minute whim and going to see it tonight, I see that missing it would have been a terrible shame!!!  The reason I almost missed it had nothing to do with not being able to go — I actually have been thinking about going and just kept deciding to wait!  My reason for procrastination was the movie – you know, the one starring Kevin Bacon that everyone loves……except me!  Yep, that’s right, I am likely the only person in the world that did not like the movie Footloose – not even a little bit!!!  So, I found myself trying to convince myself of what I knew would be true — that this would be different and that it would be amazing — but I wasn’t listening!  ha-ha

So, tonight I went to the Dairy Bar for dinner and drove by the Temple on my way home and just decided in that instant to park the car and go in to see the show!  And I did!  And I am soooooooooooo glad!  It was WONDERFUL!!!  I like all the Temple shows, but I mostly like the ones that have a lot of community players and especially the ones with local kids — this was one of those shows!  We have some incredibly talented kids in our community! 

You know the story, so I won’t go into that!  What I want to highlight are the kids — not to slight the adults that were in the show – they were all amazing, too, but I was so very impressed with all the kids!  The singing and dancing talents were inspirational!!  Really — they did such a great job! 

Alex Copas played Ren – the Kevin Bacon role.  Alex is a sophomore at Southern Lee HS and was perfect as Ren!  Jentry Womack played Ariel, the Preacher’s daughter.  Jentry is a Moore County freshman and was absolutely adorable as Ariel.  Both Alex and Jentry are naturals — they look totally at ease on stage and sing and dance like pros!  They did a great job and have a bright future in the arts!

All the kids were incredible — whether they had a named role or were part of the ensemble cast, their hard work in preparing for their participation was impressively evident!  I am not sure of the name of who portrayed the little nerdy kid – the one who was clumsy and got pushed around a lot – but it was an adorable role and stood out for me!

As amazing as they all were, though, I think the ones who really “stole the show” were Patrick Holt as Willard and Ravenne Escobar as Rusty!  These two were bundles of extremely talented comic relief!!!  Whenever they were in a large group of multiple people on stage, I found myself fixed on them – they were perfect for their roles and made me want to see more of them!  And I bet we see LOTS from them!

The show was fun, energetic, and entertaining!  I had a great time and am sooooooooooo glad I decided to go and didn’t procrastinate myself right into missing it!  If you haven’t seen it, yet, you need to go — you don’t have much time left!  The final shows are tomorrow (Sunday the 2nd) at 2:00, Thursday the 6th at 7:00, Friday the 7th at 8:00, Saturday the 8th at 2:00 and 8:00, and the last chance will be Sunday the 9th at 2:00!!!

Mass Last Minute Influence Attempts…

I have come home to messages on my answering machine every day this week – most days anywhere from 2-6 messages per day – with recorded messages from candidates hoping that their “personal” call will be a successful plea for my vote!  I even got one at 10:30 PM one night this week — that candidate, who will remain nameless, DEFINITELY won’t get my vote cause he/she irritated me with a call that late at night!  (OK – truth be told, I already wasn’t planning on voting for them, but this was the unnecessary nail in my vote’s coffin)

So – in the spirit of attempting to sway a few of you who may still be undecided in these final few hours before election day on Tuesday — here is a video with a very eloquent song from my candidate for President — Paris Hilton!  Spread the word — let’s paint the white house PINK

Whoever you plan to vote for — JUST GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!

What to do when you can’t sleep…

I get these bouts of insomnia every now and then!  I can’t seem to sleep at night and it knocks my sleep patterns all out of whack!  All this week, I have had a difficult time sleeping at night – then, I am exhausted all the next day – then, I come home from work and end up zonking out on the couch watching TV – then, I get up and try to sleep and (of course) I can’t because I just spent several hours sleeping on the couch!!!  It turns into a vicious cycle!!!

Tonight was no different — I got home from work, took care of the girls, met Tina from CIS to give her some paperwork I owed her, went to Myra’s for supper, took the trash and the love seat the girls (actually, just Megan – not all of them) “ate” to the road for Thursday pick up, and by 6:30 I was trying my darnedest to not fall asleep too early!!!  It didn’t work — about 7:00 was the last time I noticed the clock before the girls woke me up at 10:30 to go outside!  I checked emails and thought about going in to bed, but was wide awake and not one bit tired!!!

So, what do I do when I can’t sleep and want to try to make myself tired?  I get on the computer!  I checked all the local blogs, checked emails, read some of the news teasers on Yahoo and AOL, played around with Facebook a little bit, and stuff like that!  That took me to about 11:15 or so…..what now???  I realized it was Wednesday and I hadn’t listened to The Rant, so I did that……then, I checked emails, blogs, and Facebook again (must be I thought someone else might still be up and doing the same thing I was doing), but found nothing new to read!  I did find out that the Phillys won the World Series tonight – WOO HOO!!!  Not sure why that didn’t show up on the news feeds earlier, but was glad I found out before tomorrow’s news! 

I was just about to give in and try to go to bed, but was still wide awake — it was 1:30 am and I had no hope of being able to fall asleep!  I don’t know what made me think of it, but I decided to check to see if by some remote chance, the Thursday Sanford Herald on-line edition was posted and it WAS!!!  I was impressed!!!  So, I read the Herald and now I won’t have to do it when I get up in the morning before work — that is, if I ever get to sleep so that I CAN get up in the morning…  This is so good to know — With the *old* web site for the Herald on line, I was lucky if it was available before 7:00 so I could read it before work!  Since the new site, I have tried to access it as early as 5:00 and found it updated, but this is the first time I tried in the middle of the night!!!  Now I know that when I can’t sleep, I just might be able to make myself sleepy with the Herald!  ha-ha-ha

So — it is now 2:20 am and I’m still not tired……………..but, I AM going to go to bed and try to get some sleep before I have to get up for work!  I’ll turn the TV on and find something really boring to watch — like CNN or something – they are sure to have some election coverage that will have a high potential to put me to sleep quickly!!!  ha-ha

GOOD NIGHT!!!!

Finally!

OK — it finally happened — Cloris Leachman has been voted off Dancing With The Stars!!!  This was the worst fiasco since Master P kept getting votes to stay on WAY past the time he should have gone in Season Two!

Susan Lucci was with Cloris in the bottom two — she’ll likely be the next one to go!  That’s a shame cause I think she could have the potential if she would just cut loose!!!  But — as it stands now, she’s probably the one that will be voted off next week…..

Dinner and Dancing and Stars

Tonight was a night of Dinner and Dancing and Stars…but it wasn’t as romantic as it sounds – and the “stars” aren’t what you might think!

DINNER:

When I was in school, my two favorite cafeteria lunches were sloppy joe and hamburg gravy over mashed potatoes.  To this day, I still really like them both.  I rarely think about sloppy joe – hhmm – now that I have thought about it, maybe I need to go get some ingredients and make myself some!  But every now and then, I get a real craving for good ole hamburg gravy over mashed potatoes!  I thought about it all day today and just HAD to have some!  So – on the way home tonight, I stopped by Food Lion and picked up some hamburger and potatoes.  Then, I came home and made an absolutely delicious pan of hamburg gravy and some wonderful mashed potatoes!!!  I jazz up my version — the recipe they used in school was just hamburger browned in a pan and added to a rich brown gravy and poured them over regular mashed potatoes.  That was delicous – after all, it did make my top two favorite school cafeteria menu items!  But – I take it to a new level — I season up the hamburger with garlic powder, pepper, chopped onions, and a little worstershire sauce.  Then I make a thick brown gravy and add frozen peas, corn, and carrots to the pot.  I let that all simmer to get the flavors really blended nicely.  The mashed potatoes I use have garlic and a swirl of yellow mustard to give them a little oomph!  It really turned out good – lots of flavor – and there’s enough left for tomorrow night, too!

DANCING:

Of course, I’m talking about Dancing With The Stars!  I do believe this will be Cloris’ last week on the show — I know, I’ve said that almost every week since week 3, but I really think she’s run her course.  She is taking the competition more seriously and doing much better, but she still just isn’t up to the level of ability that any contestant should be now that they are 1/2 way through the season.  It isn’t her fault — she’s really trying — but, she’s 82 years old and just isn’t as flexible and nimble as the younger contestants are.  He put her into a spin where he held one arm and one leg and swirled her around and let her down to the floor and I held my breath hoping she didn’t break a hip!!!  What a risk at her age! 

Lance Bass took over the lead from Brooke – she had an injured ankle and was a little too cautious when she danced to the point where she looked stiff and in pain.  So, she didn’t do as well tonight as she has been.  But, I’m sure she’ll be right back at the top as soon as she is better!

Susan Lucci is still holding her own, but she probably won’t make it past another week or two – she’s good, but not the caliber as some of the others.  She’d have a lot more potential if she would just let loose and have fun with it – she’s too guarded and it shows.

And what’s with all the injuries and issues this season???  Every season has it’s share of drama, but man — Jeff Ross got a finger poked in his eye the first week, Susan Lucci and Brooke Burke both injured their ankles, Misty May-Treanor had to leave the competition early because she blew her achilles tendon out, and now Juliane Hough needs to go into surgery tomorrow to have her appendix removed!  It seems to me like there was another injury, too, but can’t remember!

STARS:

I saw stars in my living room tonight — not just the ones on Dancing With The Stars — I also saw the kind you see when you hit a brick wall…  Amy was sitting beside me and my arm was around her and we were watching TV.  Well, I guess that wasn’t good enough for her, she tried her best to get closer and in doing so, she whacked her head on the bridge of my nose — HARD!!!!  It brought tears to my eyes, I saw stars, and my nose started bleeding!!!  She did a good job!!!  I barely stopped feeling strange from when Megan and I collided on the 30th of Sept and now this!!!  If they keep it up, I’ll end up with a nose like a prize fighter!

TiVo or DVR from Cable Co???

I put off going to digital cable for a very long time (just broke down and switched last year) — I wanted to stick with regular cable as long as they would support it because of the easy ability to tape things!  Before I got the cable box, I could tape one show and watch another or set it up to tape a wide range of channels while I was away or several other options!  Now that I have a cable box, I have to have the TV powered on and tuned to the channel I want to record!  That is why I pretty much stopped tapping All My Children while I’m at work cause I got sick of needing to run the TV all day to get one hour’s worth of programming!  So, I watch it on SoapNet in the evening – IF nothing else is on that I want to watch at that time – cause I can’t watch one thing and tape another!!!!  Uugghh!!!  I thought we were more advanced in technology than that!!!

So, I’ve been looking into TiVo and DVR from the cable company!!  BUT – it really, really, really irks me that now, in order to get the ability to tape while the TV is off and tape one show while watching another, I have to PAY for either a TiVo unit PLUS a subscription OR pay monthly rental on a DVR machine from my cable company (instead of just using the cheapo VCR and same tape I have used for years)!!!  I already pay a monthly rental on the cable box and the digital cable costs a LOT more than the regular cable used to cost me!  I’ll likely just leave things as they are — TV isn’t that important to me over all, but every once in a while, I get really irritated about not being able to easily tape something I want to see and can’t, for whatever reason……

Just in case I get more serious about it — any words of wisdom out there on either option????

Revolution

My car radio is almost always set to local Sanford station WFJA – 105.5 – because I love listening to classic rock and oldies and I find it is best when it is played LOUDLY and when I sing along with passion and conviction!!!!  There, I’ve said it…..if you’ve seen me driving around town with the radio blarring, bee-bopping, and looking like I’m talking to an imaginary friend – it is really just that I am totally zoned into a song that reaches out of the speakers and grabs onto me and I don’t care if someone thinks I’m nuts!!!

Over the past few weeks with all the economic turmoil, heated political debates (locally and nationally), and talk of the need for radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives, I have found the Beatles song “Revolution” popping into my head a lot!  Well, I was really excited the other day when I was headed up Hawkins Avenue and that wonderfully distinct intro started to play!!!!  I cranked the radio up and went to town with it!!!  I thought maybe it would be a good song to share on here, so I found a You Tube video of the Beatles doing one of their biggest hits — here you go:

Smarty Pants and Cutie Pie

No – not me….. 😉  Megan and Amy!!!!  They really put on the charm and made themselves irresistible this morning – yeah, I know, they ALWAYS put on the charm and make themselves irresistible, but this morning was over the top!!!

The story of Miss Smarty Pants (Megan):  While the girls were outside doing their business this morning, I went into the bedroom to get ready for work and noticed Megan’s favorite yellow ball in the blankets.  I thought I should probably put it in the living room so that she doesn’t leave it in there and not have it to play with during the day (I shut the bedroom door if I’m not home so they can’t go in there and tear up the pillows and whatever else they decide to tear up)!  So – I put the ball on the throw rug in the living room where I was sure she would see it right away!  Just after that, I let them all back in.  Megan made a bee line for the bedroom and I followed her in there to finish getting ready for work.  When she got to the bedroom, she immediately started searching all over the bed, nosing the blankets and pillows all over and off the bed, and then searched all over on the floor around and under the bed — duh — dummy me — she knew exactly where she left that ball and was very upset that it wasn’t still there!!!  I had a tough time getting her to give up and follow me to the living room so I could show her where I put it!!!  Once she found it, she took it back to the bed and put it back on the blankets just where I had found it before I moved it!!!!  Smarty Pants!!!!

Then, Miss Cutie Pie (Amy) decided she was cold or something — don’t know for sure….  I had left the bedroom for a bit and when I came back, she had rolled herself up in the blankets like a cocoon!!  She often scooches herself up under the blankets so that she’s all covered up, but this was different — and oh, so cute!!!  She literally rolled herself up in the blankets so that she was tightly wrapped in it like an egg roll or a cocoon or something — a nice tight roll with just her head and one arm sticking out!!!!  She was just laying there looking around and when I came in she started to wiggle and groan with excitement and pride for what she had accomplished!!  I couldn’t resist — I had to go snuggle up with her and hug her — she thought she was so cute — and she was — little Miss Cutie Pie!!!

Dancin’ Update

Well, surprise, surprise — for the second week in a row, Cloris Leachman took the competition seriously and actually did a really good job with her dance – and she behaved herself!!!  There’s hope for her, yet!

She’s still at the bottom of the leader board based on judges scores, though.  She’s tied with Lance Bass, who, in my opinion, had the worst performance.  I agree with the judges that it was all his partner and no focus on him – I think it was Bruno who said “this is Dancing WITH the Stars, not Dancing AROUND the Stars”!  He was just “there” and didn’t seem to participate in his dance hardly at all…..

So – it’ll be a toss up who gets the viewer votes tonight and who goes home tomorrow.  I’m thinking Lance….  But, my predictions have been off every week except for week one……..so don’t put your money on my advice!!

On the high side — the two Jitterbugs were GREAT!!!  Definitely worthy of the high scores given by the judges! 

Surprise!

When I pulled up my street and into my driveway, I was welcomed by a lovely surprise!  Chris Harrington and his crew from Harrington’s Lawn Care and Landscaping were here today while I was at work!  There has been some things we talked about doing after I moved the fence line, but he was waiting to do it all at the same time he does the usual fall treatments.  So – today they aerated, fertilized, and over-seeded the lawn with winter rye grass, planted pansies at the mailbox, around the trees in the front yard, and to accent the walkway to the front porch, trimmed all the shrubs, put in a new flower bed along the side of the garage where I moved my fence line back and left a spot that just “needed something”, extended scalloped brick edging where needed after the fence line moved, planted some new bushes around to fill in where needed, and freshened up the red mulch where needed!  Everything looks so neat and pretty!!!  What a lovely surprise!!!