Mr. B has eclectic musical tastes

He asked to me to pick up his latest stack of "on hold" CDs from the library today. Shuffling through his list is always entertaining, but today a little more so.

He's got standard theatrical rock hits from the 70's:

He has some early 90's make-out music:

And then there's this.

Oh no!

Can't be true!

The Sound of WCCO

Amelia Santaniello is near the top of my list of favorite local news anchor people. But I turned on channel 4 when I got home from choir tonight and this is what I see? All I can think of is this:

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

(Speaking of WCCO, The Ensemble Singers from VocalEssence will be singing around 6:00 a.m. on the news tomorrow. There may be a lot of throat-clearing.)

I bet 1st grade teachers love this part of the job

MOM! I bet you can't guess what I brought home in my take home folder tonight!

Based on the fact that you've been able to turn your top right front tooth around 180 degrees for the past three days, I bet I can.

Color ideas?

What color(s) would you paint this house? It used to be light grey.

Times they are a-changin'

You know you're living in the 21st century when, at a night out for your UMW church circle, bloggers outnumber non-bloggers three to two.

Among the many topics that came up (all either directly or indirectly related to how to stay sane as a mother) the bloggers discussed how to deal with variations of writer's block. I forgot to share one of my favorite fixes the only fix I know:

Steal somebody else's entertaining stuff:

Scared Straight Santa-Style (via Defective Yeti comments)

Moby Dick readathon

From Defective Yeti:

Status Report: One nice thing about this book: even if you put it down for a few days, you don't have any trouble remember where you left off. "Oh that's right. They're on a boat. And nothing. Is. Happening."

New favorite show

Everest: Beyond the Limit

Remind me to never climb Mt. Everest. Nevertheless, I love to read about and watch shows about climbing it. I highly recommend this show.

Deja vu

Every year. This year I'm 99% sure it's not the bird flu. (Whatever happened to the bird flu, by the way?) (It's not mad cow disease, either.) (Nor is it e-coli from bad Thanksgiving spinach.) I think it's just a code.

Happy Thanksgiving

(The pie that went SPLAT)

It was a Belarusian Thanksgiving. Our first. Mr. Bickerson was in heaven with computer chat, Boundary Waters chat, pickled everything (except turkey), and frequent vodka toasts (Jeff, you were right -- there was lots of wodka). Mr. B. even took his turn at the piano when it was revealed that he had taken one semester of piano lessons in college. Nobody can play Standing in the Need of Prayer like Gary. And I mean that.

It went slip-sliding away

I just finished fluting the edges of the most beautiful apple pie I have ever made, turned around to stick that baby in the oven and....

Ka----BOOOOOOOMMMMM!

Pampered Chef pie dish with apple pie contents strewn across the Bickerson kitchen floor at precisely 9:30 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Ka-rap.

What to do. I had one slab of a Pillsbury Pie Crust in the fridge. Would you do what I did? I slapped that puppy right on top of the broken pie contents and slid it all into a second class pie pan, refluted it, sprinkled the sugar on top, and stuck that baby in the oven. I'll let you know the outcome tomorrow. I am outta here.

Great TV news

I saw an ad on public television today that said The Electric Company is coming in December!

They're gonna turn it onnnnn

They're gonna bring us the powerrrrrrr...

Fibs

I just signed in to my library account to renew the books and videos that we have check out here at home. The videos are two Christmas Veggie Tales tapes and one Sesame Street DVD about Telling the Truth. Guess which of the three videos can't be renewed because there's a waiting list for it.

There appears to be a fibbing virus making its rounds.

Seen on our run

Expression du jour

We were outside in the backyard from 11:30 to 3:30 today. Every day should be just like this.

More pictures here. (And if you think the kids might be oohing and aahing at a late season broad daylight backyard fireworks show, you might be right.)

At the supper table

What's that disease kids get when they scratch their heads too much? Lie? Lying? What do they call it?

Do you mean lice?

Yeah! Lice! Two kids in my class have that disease!

Bangs

I wish them well. I really do. That sweet baby deserves a good life. But what is going on with his hair? Dude! That is a not good hair look. And I know bad hair. I lose the battle daily. You have resources. So there's no excuse! None. Zip. Fix your hair.

Sandra Lee

Slashfood author likes Sandra Lee.

I don't watch so much Food Network anymore but I knew I loved Sandra Lee when I happened across her show for the first time. She was creating a fancy tablescape for a wedding reception, that featured pastel-colored jello shooters. (I Jello shoot you not.) (It wasn't a joke, either. She was believably sincere in describing the ethereal beauty of the pastel jello shots.) I was unable to tear my eyes from the TV screen.

Can you hear me now?

Kindergarten screening:
Vision? Check
Hearing? Check
Fine motor skills? Check
Gross motor skills? Check
Receptive language? Check
Expressive language? Check
Vocabulary? Pretty good, but

I SAID it's a BEAD. You put it on a STRING and you WEAR it around your neck. [Duh.]

Overheard in the basement

The children have been served minced hotdog meat on a whole wheat (I stop to pat myself on the back) bun and are eating supper in the basement while watching a Veggie Tales Christmas video. It's a regular Norman Rockwell scene, I tell ya. Why minced, you ask? Because yours truly has choking phobia:

IF ANYONE CHOKES DOWN HERE WOULD THE OTHER ONE PLEASE RUN UPSTAIRS AND GET ME SO I MIGHT ADMINISTER THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER?

Dog story

God bless my mom. Despite (and because of) my semi-severe Oprah aversion, she emails me links to worthwhile stories from the show. This was one that I came across while viewing another story:

Faith the Dog

If you want to see the segment from the Oprah show (it's a tear jerker), go to oprah.com, click "videos," and look for "Faith the Dog" after you are forced to watch the Best Buy commercial (boo, web commercials).

My kids have both had some questions recently about why this person talks funny and this person can't walk, etc. The Faith the Dog video created an opportunity to talk about differences, and preseverence.

What he said

Dilbert Blog

(And after that idea becomes reality someone need to get hot writing some software that gives me dinner menus and recipes for a week when I type in my kitchen pantry contents.)

Uh oh

My winter feeding habits are kicking in and while reading cookbooks in bed is still fun, there are WAY too many food blogs to search. This one is my new favorite...

Alpineberry

There are about 75 recipes here that I want to make.

The many mostly angry moods of Peggy

From our neighborhood photographer extraordinaire, George.

Spelling Bee

Speaking of spelling (this is for my liberal, co-blogging, anomymous, choir friend, Shyestviolet) (and I can't believe this is still on You Tube) (also, why can't VocalEssence back up Tenacious D one of these days?):

The best SNL sketch in years

Random musings about cafeteria food and test anxiety

First of all, this is funny.

Hank didn't feel well after school yesterday. In fact, he fell asleep on the couch watching a Spongebob Squarepants Marathon that he had been anticipating with great excitement for at least a week. Nick Jr. was advertising the 24 hour period beginning yesterday at 7 p.m. as The Best Day Ever!! We had all been singing the little theme song ditty for a week. (The entire Bickerson family enjoys a good Spongebob epi.)

Anyhoo. The Hankster fell asleep on the couch. It could have been the stress of the first spelling test. He told me right after school that he chose not to spell any of the extra credit words.

"I didn't want to do 'em," he said.

I didn't understand that at first because he had mastered them during the week. When he told me more about it he explained that animal was the first extra credit word given by the teacher. He got confused by the n and m and then was unable to proceed with subsequent words. We might have some test anxiety issues. Nuts.

Last night, sleeping on the couch, he felt hot. And looked sad. And didn't want supper. But he woke up this morning chipper and ready to go to school. I told him that if he did not feel well at school that he should tell his teacher and she could call me. He told me he was scared of going to the nurse's office. He would rather sit in class feeling ill than go see the nurse.

I came up with what I thought was a good solution to check on Hank at school today. I could go have lunch with him. I asked him if that would be okay but apparently he is already too cool to have his mother show up at school to eat lunch with him. He's six! But he tried to tell me in a nice way that he didn't want me there cramping his style:

Well Mom I don't think so because it's a lot of extra work for me. I have to introduce you to everybody and tell you where to get the food and where to throw the garbage away...

Big sniff. But I totally understand him. He'll probably tolerate his dad going one time but he knows I've been there and done it already. Once was enough for him. So there's a little milestone come and gone. Thank God he still wants a hug before he gets on the bus in the morning. When that's gone, that'll hurt a little more.

On to other cafeteria stories: I kind of miss eating lunch at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics especially on the days when I could dine with Mr. Bickerson and the cafeteria would be serving Cuban Beans and Rice. It was delicious, yes. But most importantly Mr. B. would always tell the server, "I'll have the Ricky Ricardo, please!!" and that would always make me laugh like hell.

Not on my Christmas list

Face Bra

You know you're from a tiny town in Iowa if

1. Your former hairstylist exclaims, (after Howie points out that one of the briefcase-holding models is from England "just like your son-in-law!"), (what are the chances!?) replies, "Oh my geyesh!" (We Iowans like to say geyesh instead of the usual gosh.)

2. You have stupido tears in your eyes while watching this blast from the past on national TV.

What a hoot.

The last straw

The label says to use a pair of scissors to cut it from the can in order to use the recipe printed on back. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to slit my wrist after a long day of being a wife/mother. GAH!

Efficient use of charitable donations

Smile Train via Freakonomics. Wouldn't it be great if all organizations spent money as wisely as that?

Fiberlicious

I can't remember if I told you guys about my fiber addiction. There is never enough fiber. I have discovered a new product with which I am pleased:

Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookie

They are extremely delicious and high in fiber for such a tasty cookie. :-)

I voted

And for some of the candidates, it felt a lot like choosing who's it first in a game of Toilet Tag:

Eeeny, meeny, miny, moe...

God help the people who win today to steer this ship in the right direction (whatever way that is).

(And good luck to Mr. Bickerson who has to break it to the children that the 30 minute per child screen time tonight is going to amount to watching election returns.)

Deal or No Deal

My faithful blog readers might be interested in tuning in to watch Deal or No Deal beginning Thursday, November 9th to see Myra, the lady from my hometown who used to cut and perm my hair (a la Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born-style) on a regular basis, and her daughters, the eldest of whom (Angie) I was in musicals with (Anything Goes, Little Mary Sunshine) in high school. I hear they are on for several days. Maybe they win big?

(You think I kid about the Barbra Streisand perms? I wish.)

NY Marathon

Lance meets his goal but is surprised by how hard it is to run a marathon.

2:59

Swim like a fish

I have only one complaint and that was that the swim meet was FOUR HOURS LONG. But as a mother of a child who has sunk like a stone in swim lessons for the past two years it was AMAZING to see him swim! There's some kind of magic involved in blowing a horn to signal the start of a race that allows your child to actually remain on the surface of the water not just for half the length of the pool but for two lengths! I don't think he's ever made it the length of the pool doing the freestyle but under the pressure of racing today Hank swam the 50 yard freestyle without stopping to clutch of the side of the pool. I couldn't believe my eyes. And it was difficult to see because there were some tears in the way. He also swam the 25 yard freestyle and the 25 yard backstroke. Most important of all, he loved every minute of it.

Slideshow here.

Yes, please

Tarragon grapefruit

My sherpa, Peggy

She's not carrying my stuff; she's pulling ME.



Aside from the intense pain of her leash squeezing my liver, spleen, and intestines in two, (there's nothing gentle about her Gentle Leader), a run with this dog is quite fun.

Time for another buzz cut

It looks like this 24/7 unless we smush it down with Brylcreem, or whatever similar vaseline-like hair care product is within reach.

Moby Dick

Is being live-blogged here.

For Mary

Funk? Get the funk out of here.

For those of you who don't live in Minnesota, you may not know that at this time of year there is such a sense of foreboding. It's not Alaska, but. But! Such a sense of darkness and cold, cold wind. Shoveling in the 30 below windchill so you get to work on time. Shoveling so the kids can get to the bus stop. Strong Minnesotans steel themselves. Weaker ones (who moved here from Iowa) cry themselves to sleep on howling-windy nights in October and November.

But when we emerge in the spring? In mid-June? Sweet, sweet joy. Joy. Warm, manic, crazy joy.

And in the meantime I will wait patiently for another sighting of the aurora borealis. I can make it through the cold if God will let me see that again.

Halloween's over, you know

And it's time to make Christmas plans!

FizzyLizzy's link today made me panic (kinda). But here's something you all can do. I don't get any of this money but the concert will be good and it will put you and your children in the Christmas spirit. If you want to go, give me a ringy-dingy.

What's up on a bleary Thursday afternoon

Hope paintsGeese walkPeggy smirksWhile mom contemplates a sock

No sweating allowed

Prissy Gym

FYI MPR

In my mailbox:

Tune in to Classical Minnesota Public Radio (99.5 FM in the Twin Cities) Thursday, November 2, during the 3 pm hour.

Live music by VocalEssence and Cantus will be heard during the weekly regional music spotlight on Classical Minnesota Public Radio this Thursday between 3 and 4 pm. Three selections from the October 1 “American Voices” concert, recorded at Orchestra Hall, will be featured:

VocalEssence Ensemble Singers: The Day is Done, Stephen Paulus
Cantus: They Shall Hunger No More, Dominick Argento
VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers: Beneath These Alien Stars, Libby Larsen

Texts:

The Day is Done
Stephen Paulus (2006)

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of they choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall be banished like restless feelings
That silently steal away.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



They Shall Hunger No More
Dominick Argento (1966)
from The Revelation of Saint John the Divine

They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more;
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb shall feed them,
the Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of water:
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of water.

Alleluia, Amen.
—Revelation 7:16-17



Beneath these Alien Stars
Libby Larsen (1988)

Beneath these alien stars
In darkness I have stood alone,
More than mountains
Come between me and my home.

The desert wind has waved my hair:
Desert sands have etched my face,
And the courage of the mountains
Has bound me to this place.

And something of its peace I’ve won.
I have stood with only God,
Between me and the sun.
—Vesta Pierce Crawford, from Pioneer Woman