Like my new temporary wallpaper??

Kendra will be graduating on Fri with the rest of her APS class. Here they all are.

Kendra is right by the bottom left corner of the banner, in the white shirt. Hard to believe. Here is the pic I sent with her graduation announcements.


more pictures to follow.....

And into June we go...

Here is tiny hooligan giving a cheesy smile at his end of year piano recital. The end of a busy year, the beginning of another (I kid you not). He is exceptionally proud of the gold cup he got for getting superior ratings 3 years in a row at the NFMC Festival. I believe the cups get larger every time for consecutive superiors, so he has something to work toward again.




Both Ben and Cami earned their new Taekwondo belts this last week. Kudos to H2 and H3!! They both love it, and certainly benefit from the release of latent hooligan agression every week. Hiya!

May mayhem

So, as I related, Jury Duty took up about half of May. Really. After which, between getting the hooligans back on track mentally, and the house dug out a bit, Darryl was scheduled to make his appearance (hi Darryl!!) on the 21st. Which left me about a week. No problem. D arrived on schedule, and we did our annual trek to Disneyland, as well as a trek to CA Adventure. Arriving on a Thurs. gave us an extra day to play.

We had a thoroughly good time at the 2 parks, although it was tiring. We crashed at home on Sun. Darryl had come on Thurs, so Thurs night we went to see the Star Trek movie. Made all the hooligans cover/close eyes for the racy scene, but the rest of it was enjoyed by all. Great movie (minus the racy scene). Monday, Memorial Day, we usually - traditionally even - go up to Ruth and Robins for a picnic, but this particular day they were down at Ruth's sister's laying tile for her. We enjoyed lounging, I'll admit, and later went to see Night at the Museum 2. Sort of a lazy day. And, all good things eventually coming to an end, Darry flew back home Tues., *WITHOUT* leaving any important papers/ID in the van. Yay! H3 was depressed for 3 straight days after Darryl left.

Ben and new legos from Downtown Disney lego store... with my usual disclaimer: "please disregard any floor debris...I know it's there, and it will get vacuumed eventually. Like maybe August."

Here he is folks...H3 in full munchkin regalia! Actually this is the "run of the mill" munchkin costume. In 2 of the shows, he will be the "Mayor of the Munchkin city...", so will have a fancy hat, bright blue jacket, and important looking sash. I won't go into the amount of time that was consumed trying to the right kind of socks for all the hooligans. Yikes. You must admit, however...they are colorful, are they not? "Wizard" is winding down....only a few weeks left!

OK, this is where the Jury Duty post should really be...

miscellaneous April stuff (by the way, jury duty was Apr 28 - May 14)

Here's Ben and his good buddy David Monroe at our church's AWANA games. We didn't win or anything, but it was fun. It was the same day as.....

Ben's CAPMT Sonatina competition down at the First Methodist Church in Northridge...a gorgeous church, with a gorgeous piano. H3's looking pretty gorgeous there himself, heh heh. He's a handsome devil all right! Amazing what a shirt and tie can do. Almost seems unnatchr'l! He played very well (has good stage presence at least), and got good comments from the judges. He didn't win anything of course....I mean there are some *really* good kids that played, but he acquitted himself very well. Bravo. (I just want to pinch his cheek when he wears a tie :o), he's so darn cute!)

Ben at Friday swimming


I think this was the National Federation of Music Festival

Well, those hooligan sisters were definitely avoiding the camera in April ('cept for Easter)...too bad for them....

Jury Duty

Following close on the heels of the plumbers was the (spooky music) dreaded Jury Summons. Having put this off quite long enough, it was time to do my civic duty, which, I hoped, would be swift and painless. I mean, the younger hooligans, being of age to semi-mind themselves, and capable of completing at least a modicum of schoolwork in my absence, would survive for 1 day surely. I was hoping it would be a 1 day stint. Really hoping. Really really hoping. I was actually hoping that they would say I didn't need to come in when I called the night before. Yeah right. Lets just say....*that* didn't happen. In the spirit of true beginners luck, not only did I have to go down to the courthouse, a whole huge group of us got immediately called up to a courtroom, where I was in the first group of 18 called to the jury box, where I further sat for the next 3 weeks. They liked me. I just couldn't find it in myself to gin up disqualifying prejudices of any sort, much to the annoyance, I'm sure, of my loving family. I thus became "juror #9". Long story: 4 days of jury selection (fascinating people watching), another 2 or so weeks of trial. Nutshell version. Young hispanic robbed at alleged gunpoint by big burly hispanic. Lots of very incriminating -- yet admittedly circumstantial-- evidence on the prosecution's part. Lots of doubt-sowing on the side of the defense. Upshot: the guy was positively id'd at least 3 times, there were too many "coincidences", so guilty. Found out after we read the verdict that the defendent had a colorful record of assorted assaults and robberies. On the positive side, it was truly fascinating to watch lawyers in action, and my fellow jurors were the best of people. The ladies on the jury went to lunch every day together for the most part, and enjoyed the company. We enjoyed each other so much that we are planning to do lunch a couple weeks from now, since most of us were from Santa Clarita. The hooligans were very glad to have Mom back to keep things on an even keel (nothing like arbitrating hooligan "discussions" on the cell phone). Actually they did pretty well on their own all things considered, and it was an excercise in independence at least. Alas, there are no interesting pictures of this episode for obvious reasons.

After Easter

Oh my goodness!! The delinquent nature of my very own self frankly stuns me. I haven't written here since April! Yikes! My penance will have to be all the time it will take to catch this "thang" up. Phooey. It really is such a nice relatively quiet spot (can any "spot" in the context of utter hooliganism be quiet??)compared to the bustle of facebook. I'm having to look at i-photo to remember exactly what *have* I been doing anyway for the last 2 months??? Pathetic in the extreme.

So Easter happened. Obviously. Followed by such things as:

Making DNA models

Spending about 4 days with plumbers ripping my walls out to put in new copper piping -- HOORAY!!!!! (except for the part about the plumbers underfoot for 4 days......followed by the wall-fixers, and the painters). But in the end, NO MORE LEAKS! And *that* dear friends is the salient point.