Spring Break Chill . . .

Zach and the DMV. . .

Antsy and Pauly. . .

We had a very busy but very fun weekend. Sometimes my job just doesn't feel like work.
(Other times make up for it, though!)


Last May we ran sound at The Egyptian for a NAMI fundraiser featuring the band "Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours. LOVED THEM! Really funny show, very genuine people and so very entertaining. Unfortunately, we were VERY busy that weekend with 6 different events happening over 3 days. It didn't turn out so well for me, but I still carried the memory of Antsy's hilarious music so that made up for the bad stuff.

ANYWAY, we were informed 4 or 5 months ago that NAMI was bringing the Troubadours back to town for another concert. I looked forward to it all winter! The day finally arrived on Friday and it was well worth the wait!

We ended up setting up a small system at Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine on Friday afternoon for Pauly Zarb's one-man-band so he could play after the concert and again on Saturday evening. Pauly is from Australia and plays keys for Antsy as well as performing all over as a solo artist.


It was an easy set up and we had a chance to visit with Pauly and make a few plans for the rest of the weekend. . .



Plus, it's just interesting to hang out at Donnie Mac's!

We eventually headed back over the The Egyptian where we were already set up and ready for a sound check. The afternoon went by quickly and the SOLD-OUT concert went off without a hitch!! I love it when that happens!

If you ever have a chance to see Antsy in concert, DO NOT MISS IT. He is very off-the-cuff funny and has an amazing amount of energy.

He uses a PowerPoint presentation throughout his show to emphasize certain aspects of life in a trailer park.

You've probably heard of Americana Music . . . well, this is Trailercana Music. . .

Jimmy Buffet has followers called "Parrot Heads" and Antsy McClain has followers called "Flamingo Heads". . .

It was a three hour show with a 20 minute intermission but I could have listened for three more. . .

His sweet wife travels with him and occasionally joins him on stage. She inspired one of my favorite songs that he wrote titled: "I Married Up".

All of the musicians were local except for Antsy and Pauly. They all played as though they'd been playing together for years.

At the end of the show, Antsy thanks his sponsors up on the big screen. . .

It's one of the funniest parts of the show. . .

It wouldn't be a party without balloons. . .

Antsy is not one of those musicians that we sometimes work with who goes straight to the Green Room and lets his Roadies pack up his stuff. No Roadies for Antsy. He was packing up after the concert right along with the rest of us. . .

We brought a couple of Roadies with us and they did a great job helping us pack up. . .

It was too late (early?) to listen to Pauly after the concert on Friday night but Rob picked Pauly up on Saturday morning and spent the day driving him around talking about different venues and possibilities for a return trip. I joined them in the evening to watch Pauly's incredible One-Man-Band show at Donnie Mac's. . .

It was a very fun, very relaxing evening. . .

Everyone had a great time including Donnie Mac, himself!

We ended up hanging out on Sunday afternoon as well and got to know more about Pauly and his family. He has a pretty wife who hails from England and two sweet girls who were born in Kentucky so I can only imagine what it is like to hear all of their accents together! By Sunday evening I could tell he was missing them and ready to head for home. It kind of felt like we'd found Rob's long lost brother. Only they don't look alike. And they weren't born in the same country.

(The only problem with hanging out with an Australian for three days is that now all of my thoughts have an accent. Yeh, yeh Mate. . . )

He's planning a trip back this way sometime next summer and will, hopefully, bring his family. I'll be looking forward to that!!!

Here are some of my favorite You Tube videos from these wonderful musicians:

Antsy McClain - Wreck of the Bookmobile
Uploaded by sumoflam. - See more comedy videos.

Chemistry. . .

I have fallen hopelessly behind on my blog and would probably not even try to catch up but, you see, I have all these pictures that I've taken and there are all these things that have happened that are running around in my brain along with this weird (pathological?) need to blog chronologically so it may take me awhile to get current and start posting one picture a day. (Who am I kidding? I have yet to post just one picture a day consistently since I started this blog!!)


Anyway, sometime last week Zach gave me a list of items he needed for his next Chemistry experiment. The list simply said: Vinegar, Red Cabbage, Powdered Drain Cleaner. I'm sure I've noted here before that science has never been my strong suit so I delivered the items on the list and waited to see what would happen.

The (clear) vinegar was poured into a beaker and weighed on Zach's handy mass scale. . .



The (purple) cabbage was boiled on the stove, left to cool for a few minutes and then the cabbage water was poured into another beaker. (I can honestly say that I have never purchased or boiled cabbage. There may have been a stray cabbage in my pre-packaged bag of salad but it would never have been a conscience decision).


When the beaker containing the boiled cabbage water was cool to the touch, it was transferred into the beaker containing the vinegar.


The result was instantaneous and very cool. I didn't read all the reasons why this happened because that would be Zach's job but some chemical reaction caused the solution to turn this pretty red color (there's a reason I got a "C" in chemistry) Another weight measurement was taken on the mass scale:

The final step in the experiment was to add the Drano crystals that contained Lye to the solution . . .

Zach slowly poured the crystals into the vinegar/cabbage water mixture. . .

. . . and stirred it up with his stirring rod . . .

. . . and it eventually turned from the pretty red color to this kind of putrid yellow. The solution was measured again and the mass weight was exactly the same as it was before the chemicals were mixed:

The point of the experiment really had nothing to do with the color changes but was a proof for The Law of Mass Conservation. If you're still reading at this point, and, honestly, if this were your blog post and I was reading it, you would have lost me back at the boiled cabbage picture BUT in case you're still interested, this is what the textbook says about THE LAW OF MASS CONSERVATION:

"Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change forms. Thus, when you burn wood in the fireplace, the matter in the wood is not destroyed. Instead, it changes from wood into other substances. Today, we know that those substances are carbon dioxide, water, and ash. . . If we measure the mass of the wood and the oxygen before a fire starts, and we trap all of the carbon dioxide and water produced by the fire after it starts, we will find out that the mass of the wood and oxygen used by the fire is exactly equal to the mass of the ash, water vapor, and carbon dioxide produced by the fire." (Exploring Creation With Chemistry, p. 70)

I'll take math over chemistry any day. . .

News. . .

It looks like we're in for a change. A BIG change.



Much has happened since our visit to the charter school a couple of weeks ago. In spite of Gloria's initial misgivings about the school's UN-traditional appearance, her desire to go to school- to ANY school- cleared up any doubts she may have had. The day after that visit she told me she'd really like to go there for at least a year and felt like it would be a good transition into REAL school.

I continue to waffle back and forth from excitement about letting go of a huge amount of responsibility to a feeling of defeat at not being able to educate her myself. Am I giving up? Giving in? Or just giving her a chance to spread her wings?

The look on her face when she read the letter was pretty priceless. (She had been pretty sick the day the letter came so that explains the outfit!):

We haven't decided 100% for sure just yet but I have a feeling that life as we know it will never be the same again. . .

Business As Usual. . .

I've decided to continue to post publicly in spite of knowing that someone tried to commandeer my blog for unknown reasons. It was more than likely a computer generated inquiry and I've come to the conclusion that if a real live person really were out to snag my blog or my Google account for themselves, they would have nothing to gain. No fame, no fortune, no nothing. However, if you pull up my blog one day and there are posts completely unrelated to horses, homeschooling, quizzing, cases and concerts, you'll know that someone else has taken over and you should probably exit quickly!

In the meantime, I've continued to take pictures and ponder my life so I'll get back to that as soon as possible!!!

Stalker??

So, I received a weird e-mail from Blogger this morning asking me to confirm the new Google account that I requested that included the titles of three blogs that I supposedly author. The new "account" used my full name (including the correct spelling of my middle name) and three blog titles that are very similar to mine. When I went to these blogs, my name is on the profile. Hmmm. . . While I'm sure this may be a common occurrence, it makes me a little nervous so I'm going to go "private" for awhile. I've never looked for a big readership because that would defeat the purpose of why I write, which is for me, but I know there are a few people who enjoy reading on occasion. If you are one of those people, just e-mail me sometime this week (or leave a comment on this post) and I will add you to the list of people-who-are-invited-to-read-my-blog.

I know that I can't just stop blogging because it's just what I do, so bear with me while I sort this out. Please. :)

Attempts At Photography . . .