From hot to ??????

Well (deep subject), the unseasonably hot weather turned into just plain weird weather, although we personally didn't get the wackiest of it. Yesterday we had the worst wind I have ever seen (just about....at least in my limited memory) here. It was a gale all day long. Its a little unnerving sitting in your car in a parking lot and feeling the wind rocking the car. I'm not precisely sure when the wind stopped, but when I went to bed at 11:30 I looked out the bathroom window and it was dead calm. After the howling all day, it was sort of "twilight zonish" with the crickets chirping and all. Whatever the case, it's not hot anymore....yay! What with all the hail/snow/flooding/tornadoes today in various parts of S.CA (not here thankfully), it makes for a sort of interesting week, weather wise. (Not to mention that my sinuses went nuts from the wind and I've had a whopping headache all day today.....advil is my friend....)

From the "Whoda Thunk" files comes Hooligan 3's MTAC Theme recital (Sonatinas were the theme) update. Da-du-du-dum...........he placed in the "Winners Circle"!! They picked the top 1/3 of all the kids who played, and lo and behold, he made the grade! I confess to being a bad mother, because when his teacher told us yesterday at his lesson, I literally didn't believe her. Then I started laughing hysterically (you know....."how to make your child feel appreciated" - HA!). And then I panicked thinking he'd have to play it again...(he doesn't - it's a one-shot-deal....whew!). It just wasn't one of those times I felt he had played particularly well. I came away feeling like he could have used another week working on it (not to mention the kid forgot to bow at the beginning - oy vey!). So thats what I get for nit picking and not appreciating my hooligan's apparently more-than-adequate efforts. 2 judges gave mostly praise, 1 gave good constructive criticism along with his encouraging remarks. A nice way to end the piano year.....God is so good to give us fun surprises. WAY TO GO BEN!!

*Uncle*Darryl is coming tomorrow.....almost as much anticipated as Christmas in the Hooligan household. We'll have lots of pics next week for sure. Darryl is a longtime friend & college mate of Marks, who lives in Nevada, is single, and insists on coming every year to wine, dine, and entertain us. Ben especially likes playing board games when Darryl comes, as the hooligan sisters aren't up for playing them with him much anymore (we won't go there...). Anyway, Darryl has endless patience with the game crazy hooligan of the family. Since Darryl reads this blog on occasion, I'll put in that if anyone comes across a female-type that is interested in matrimony, he'd be happy to meet her. All us hooligans have, to date, failed miserably in finding him a wife. We plan to spend the weekend seeing movies, and enjoying Disneyland (unless it is too crowded, in which case Mark won't enjoy it as much). I'm just thankful that it will be about 70 deg instead of 90 deg at DL on Sat. Small blessings from the Lord.