(not quite) 12 Dancing Princesses

This past Friday and Saturday were the big performances of the (not really) 12 Dancing Princesses, Sarah and John's big musical show. There was a shortage of princes, so they settled on 10 instead of 12.

No matter, because the show was great. Here's Sarah as Princess Audrey, the eldest princess who gets to tell all the younger princesses what to do. Sarah drew richly on her real life experiences for this role. Just click below for proof. You are even treated to a snap and talking to the hand.

Classical Education Conference

This past Saturday was the ninth annual Pittsburgh Classical Christian Education Conference. I have attended or volunteered for all of them but one. For more information click here.

I always leave this conference refreshed and encouraged to be in the company of people for whom faith and reason are complementary not contradictory. Not only that, but are passionate about passing the tenets of the Christian faith to the next generation.

I got started with classical education in the late 1990s when I read this essay by Dorothy Sayers. Since my mother was a great admirer of hers and her mysteries, I was open to her ideas. At that time our children were approaching school age and we were considering homeschooling. So the connection was made and has been ever since.

I have always thought that it is important to know what you believe and why you believe it. So it follows that I would marry a woman who thought the same way, and perhaps that our children would do so too.

The Math is Easy

Here's a great example of not only faulty math, but especially thinking.

To those who complain that "math isn't taught like it used to be," I agree. But I would add that this clip looks to be at least 60 years old.

Hat tip to my brother-in-law Steve who first sent this to me under the title, "Bank Bailout Explained."

Oh, and one more thing. After listening to Pa the title is wrong. He sounds like he belongs in Vermont more than Kentucky. Besides, this really should be titled Congressional Math.

12 Dancing Princesses (Princes too!)

After almost eight weeks of hard work and rehearsals, Sarah and John's big show is coming up this weekend.

It's the 12 Dancing Princesses. I can't tell you much about it because the rehearsals have been closed. We will post an update after the show.

In the meantime, if you are interested in tickets, please leave a comment and we will contact you.

Snow another day

Here's Janine from about two weeks ago when we still had snow. She is sitting on our new stone bench installed last fall. Just a reminder that winter is not over yet despite the fact that the snow melted earlier this week. But now it's back to the cold. The big question is if the snow now falling on my hometown in Nebraska will make its way here in two days or so.

Dance like it's 1799

Last Saturday night Bobbie, Sarah and I went to an English country dance in the manner of Jane Austen. This photo should look familiar as these are the same dresses they wore for last spring's Netherfield Ball. (Click here for a refresher.)

The crowd came mainly from the North Hills, but some people drove nearly two hours down from the Meadville, PA area. These English country dances started at Grove City College about an hour north of Pittsburgh. They have become so popular that the organizers are starting satellite events to reduce the crowds in Grove City.

Due to vague directions, we arrived about 20 minutes late, but joined in right away. We all enjoyed the dance. While Bobbie and I danced together for most of the time, I had trouble dancing with Sarah. She was fairly popular and seemed to already be taken most of the time.

We already have the second annual Netherfield Ball scheduled for this spring. In the meantime here is some video to show how it works. (Please note that as with most dances the girls outnumber the boys, so some doubling up always seem to happen.)

The Big Game

Since last night everyone around here has been talking about a big football game.

Well in case you didn't notice, the Steelers won the Super Bowl last night. They really take football seriously around in these parts and here is an illustration.

This is a screen shot of the post game coverage on the local ABC affiliate. They had their main news anchors there grabbing players as they went by. Note the crawl at the bottom of the screen for schools who were calling a two hour delay. Now there was no snow storm, or other weather related reason. The simple reason is that the Steelers won the Super Bowl late the night before.

As Rod Serling used to say, "Submitted for your approval."