The Prince Point of View

John had a great time as one of the not quite 12 dancing prince(s). Here he is holding down stage left while Sarah gets stage right. We think John did quite well as a late addition in the last three weeks of rehearsal. See for yourself.

Oh, we got Sarah too. Look for her perfect kicks at the end of the clip.

Which brings us to the "Just my Luck" department. No matter how many rehearsals I attend, for some reason when show time comes I am on the opposite side of the audience from at least one of my kids.

(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."

Our snowy driveway

Here's Bobbie shoveling our driveway. It's a 25 yard uphill dogleg right. Note the evergreen rough on the left side of the fairway. Like most houses in our area, we have a tuck under garage in the back. It fits the hilly terrain quite well.

But if there is a single flake of snow on the driveway you will loose traction as soon as you turn the wheels going uphill. Indeed it was quite embarrassing when I got stuck in my own driveway during our first winter in this house 15 years and several snow shovels ago.

There are two solutions to this challenge. First, shovel the driveway again and again. Instead, this winter I have parked my car at the top of the driveway and wait until it stops snowing. You see, it is cloudy most of the time here. So we get a little bit of snow in the air most everyday.

(Don't think Bobbie was shoveling alone. I had the pleasure of clearing the apron next to the garages.)

What happened next...

Once we got everything working again at home, it was off to the big event. Here's some of John's buddies making some cornbread to go with that chili. Thankfully the guys made some milder chili, and plenty of it for the crowd of 20.

Everyone was very kind about the chili. They mixed in some sour cream as a buffer or tried both the mild and hot together.

In the end we went home with an empty pot after having a great time.

That's a $200 pot of chili...

Yes, there it is, the pot of chili that cost me $200.

This past Saturday we had our winter boy's club event in which the boys cooked dinner for their families. They made chili, and corn muffins at the Doyle's while the other families brought salad and dessert. John and I volunteered to bring a "pot of red" that might have a little more zing than the chili the boys were making.

Chili tastes better the next day, so I made ours Friday evening. We followed a recipe that sounded pretty good and I selected because I thought we had the ingredients. Foolish me.

The precise power behind the recipe was a tablespoon of cumin, four tablespoons of mild chili powder, and four of hot chili powder. (Might I add that I love my wife and am proud of her culinary skills including how she stocks our pantry.) Indeed it appeared that we had all the proper spices until Bobbie came in and saw them.

"How much of this did you put in?" she asked while pointing to what I thought was the hot chili powder.

"Three tablespoons. I wasn't sure about the recipe and wanted to adjust the seasoning."

"Oh no! I only use that chili powder to keep the deer away from the roses in the garden! I think it's mismarked cayenne."

At this point the chili tasted like the deer would indeed stay away from it, as well as any sane person.

"You can't serve this tomorrow night unless we do something." So I did something. Because I had not yet added anything else, I drained the meat which removed the fat as well as some of the heat. Later we added a quart of homemade tomato sauce and some peanut butter. Both added depth to the flavors making the chili more than edible. (Even later I had a bowl as a midnight snack.)

Now, what to do with the drainage. Addled by the spiciness, I dumped it down the sink.

In 70 degree weather I might have gotten away with it, but at zero, forget it.

Saturday morning my cell phone rang while taking the kids to ballet.

"Did you notice water backing up in the basement before you left?"

"No. Is it now?"

"Yes, it is. I will call the plumber. Do you have his number?"

"Of course I don't."

Our new plumber arrived at 2 PM as we were the third in line Saturday. Bill for services rendered- $200.

- 30 -

Girl Scout Cookie Time

Did I mention that Janine and Sarah are selling Girl Scout cookies? Well they is and they can mail them to you if you would like to buy some. Just click on the comments line below or send me an email. Everyone needs some Thin Mints!

Janine has been energized to sell. We wants to go out tonight in the snow storm because we were out last Friday while it was lightly snowing. You see that was when the selling officially began and she wanted to get to the neighbors before her friend Samantha down the street.

I never want to discourage her in her selling efforts so I walk from house to house with her but let her do the talking. (Not to complain, but I wish they would choose a more agreeable time of year to sell cookies.)

Sarah by contrast has been working her network at Saltworks play rehearsals. She has a Harry Potter event this Sunday afternoon. I will remind her to take along her order form at that time.

(Update, 1/21/09- Blog readers still need to make their voices heard and sweet teeth satisfied! Click on the comment line to order now.)

At the barre

Tonight we were supposed to have the first night back at ballet class, but the snow intervened. While we haven't had a problem getting around today, apparently others are stuck in traffic or worse.

Here's Janine from the last class before Christmas during which we had a "parent's observation." The other parents got to sit in on the class to get an idea where their money is going...check that...their daughter's progress.

Every class starts with time at the barre. Janine was paying attention, but the music stopped at this point.

Both John and Janine are in the Saturday morning class. The studio owner's Christmas gift to this class was music provided by a live pianist. Donna is an accompanist at the nationally acclaimed dance studios at Point Park University. While Donna is great, the piano is not. So we have to put up with a few out of tune notes and an occasionally buzzing sound board. But it's worth it to listen to Donna play.

First Field Trip of the new year

Yesterday we all went on a field trip to the small art museum next to the Frick Mansion in the Point Breeze section of the city. There is an exhibit of high Renaissance drawings there from Michaelanglo and the like. For more click here.

Bobbie and I enjoyed straining our eyes at nearly 100 relatively small chalk, pencil and pen and ink study drawings. In order to preserve the works, the room is fairly dark, so I spent most of the afternoon with my nose next to the glass. The kids did not strain their eyes at all. But they pooped out by the first room retiring to the benches in the foyer. (In all fairness, Janine was coming off a New Year's sleepover.)

Afterward, we went to our favorite grocery store pictured here. The place was packed so this was the best photo I could get of the sign other then directly under it.

We bought many of our favorites there including their house blend coffee and goat milk yogurt. (We can't get a Trader Joe's favorite here: Charles Shaw wine, aka, Two Buck Chuck. Alas, it's great to live in a bastion of socialism with state run liquor stores.)

Interestingly, one of our other favorite food stores is Aldi which is owned by the same company. The locations are small. The stores are set for maximum efficiency with far fewer SKUs (items) than conventional grocery stores. Most everything is private label. In other words, much like Trader Joe's but carrying more basic items. No goat milk yogurt for example.

We even found some of the cereals were similar, except for this one from the "Things that make you go hmmm" department.

Christmas Morning

Even if Christmas was last week, this year was one of the best ever for us, full of joy and time with each other (in the right measure).

Sarah got things started with some improvised hair decoration from her first gift. It's funny how things get started as traditions. Every year Nana puts a bow on top of her head, but this year Sarah beat her to it. The kids are the arbitors of these traditions as they should be. The best Christmas morning gift giving is full of child-like wonder and anticipation. (Ideally this anticipation should reflect that of ancient Israel's anticipation of the Messiah, but that's another post.)

Our other Christmas morning tradition is below: homemade scones fresh from the oven.