We got directions to the concert venue, and we had a map of the city. Have you ever driven in New England?
It's ... interesting. For all of you lucky people that grew up in the middle or western parts of the country, I'll just say one thing. All New England roads, whether in the city or out in the boondocks, were laid out not by engineering crews, but by wandering cows. Needless to say, we're trying to figure out if that little bitty alley counts as the first left or not, decide not, miscount and miss our turn. I look at the map and say "Hey Guppy, there's a traffic circle just ahead, we'll turn around there." Except you can't turn around there. Because for some reason the so-called traffic circle on the map did not actually make a complete circle in the road and we ended up going off in the wrong direction. Yep, if you ever meet me, or Guppy, or my friends Knuckles and Stampy, just ask us about "Getting Lost in Lowell" and we'll laugh. What an experience. We drove around a bit, trying to retrace our steps in a large MA city where half the roads are one way the wrong way and the other half wind in circles or dead end. Finally, we pass a fire station. Guppy pulls in to get directions - after all, who would know the town roads better than a policeman or a fire crew? Guppy was a volunteer firefighter and EMT in NH. After she got our directions, she tells the crew - "Thank you, now I'm going to stare at your trucks for a while." And she did. One of my earliest memories of my sister, Guppy, is stopping to look at fire trucks while lost in Lowell. :)
Well, the directions worked great of course, and we get to the concert.
Now, as I mentioned, Guppy was older than I, and out of high school. I myself was already on the upper edge of Menudo's fan-base's age range. Picture Menudo as the Hannah Montana of the 80's, and a concert venue full of screaming pre-teens, a few teens, several bored parents and one embarrassed 20 yo. Poor Guppy, she was so out of her element. I remember Knuckles, Stampy and I standing up, singing along and dancing, a couple times, and Guppy just sitting there, listening, and probably thinking "Holy cow, I'm older than everyone on stage by at least 5 years!!"Thankfully, the drive home was not nearly as eventful. I'm sure if you asked her, Guppy would tell you that the highlight of her evening was getting lost and taking the time to look at fire trucks!
Mommy: "Because I have to go too. My tummy tells me when I have to go potty. Just like your tummy tells you."
Some mnemonics are pretty universal, and most people have at least heard of them. "Thirty days hath September..." for the days of the months, "ROY G. BIV" for the colors of the rainbow. Leap years are evenly divisible by 4 but not 400.
Some are more personal, something a teacher or a parent taught you that's a little different than how other people remember it. I can still hear my 10th grade french teacher whenever I spell professor - "It only takes one F to fail you." I've heard other variations, but in our house the planets were aligned in the order of "Mary's Violet Eyes Make Johnny Stay Up Nights Period."
One summer holiday, we were sitting around the pool at my uncle's house, and the adults were playing Trivial Pursuit. (Quick, which decade was this?) My dad and his brothers and sisters liked to play in teams, and bounce answers off each other before giving the official answers. This also allowed the teams to ebb and flow as people arrived or departed, without disrupting the game. A precocious kid, I preferred to hang out with the adults, so I was the official card reader for both sides. (Oh, and by the way Regis? I came up with "Is that your final answer?" WAY before you did. You can make my royalty checks payable to LadyPatsFan...) The following question came up for my dad's team:
Discussion ensued. "Well, of course, Neil Armstrong was the first." "Yes. And that was Apollo 11." "Did Apollo 12 touch down on the moon, or just orbit?" "I know Apollo 13 was supposed to and didn't make it, but was 12 scheduled to land?" "Who was in line for the Apollo 12 mission?" "Okay, now who would have been commander?" "Would the Commander have stepped out or stayed behind?" 
DH has completely healed from his liver cancer surgery in December 2007, and is now 1 year cancer free. He sees his oncologist and surgeon here every 3 months, and a transplant doctor in OKC once a year for follow-up. Thus far, all is well. His company had 3 rounds of layoffs in 2008 as a result of the economic downturn, but so far DH's position has been spared. He still seems to enjoy his job, however, so hopefully the company will continue to survive into the new year, and start to thrive when the economy recovers.
I was not quite so fortunate, and was laid off twice in 2008. In September I landed a good position doing web and software development. The people here are very nice, the work is varied and interesting, and I'm really enjoying it. The commute downtown can be a bit hard on us with only one vehicle. However, the library is only 3 blocks away, so I have a good excuse to go out and walk at lunch a few times a week. Over the summer I started the Couch-To-5K running program with the kids. We did not finish, due to various factors derailing my motivation, but I hope to pick it back up myself in the next few weeks. If not soon, then definitely in Spring when it warms up. :)
Stringz is doing extremely well. As a 7th-grader, he is now in Middle School, and has different rooms and different teachers for each class, like a high school. He is taking Algebra for math as well as an honors Science class, and really loves the challenge. Stringz is in his second year playing Viola, and doing very well. He was so excited this fall when he auditioned and made the cut for Honors Orchestra. This is a special event that provided an opportunity for Stringz to rehearse and perform with a different conductor as well as musicians from his and 4 other school districts. He practiced the music on his own for a month prior to the event, then rehearsed with the group all day on Saturday, and performed in a concert that night. Stringz continues to enjoy playing chess, and tries to attend a weekly chess club meeting as often as Mommy and Daddy can get him there. He is currently First Class rank in Boy Scouts, and expects to finish his Star rank early this year. He still loves going on the campouts and attending Troop meetings. I can not believe he will turn 13 at the end of the month, making me the parent of a teenager!
Squeegy is enjoying school much more this year. He is in 6th grade, and is learning the trombone in band class. He is currently using the same trombone that I learned on, which originally belonged to Squeegy's Great Uncle A - aka GUA. While trombone was not originally his first choice, he is learning very quickly, and frequently earns Second or Third Chair after each week's test. He enjoyed his first band concert in December. Squeegy was offered the opportunity to take Chinese as a foreign language this year, and he absolutely jumped at the chance. He seemed to enjoy it and learned it well, and I hope that he will want to take it again in 7th grade. Squeegy has achieved the rank of Tenderfoot in Boy Scouts. He did not play a sport this year, a situation that he has advised me that he would like to correct next year.
Giggles is in 2nd grade this year. She is absolutely reading up a storm. She only wants to read chapter books, and frequently raids Stringz's bookshelf, as well as mine! Her teacher this year seems to be doing a better job of challenging her, and Giggles complains less about being bored than she has in previous years. Giggles is a second year Brownie this year, and was so excited to finally go on her first campout. The temperature outside dropped to 30 degrees or less, but luckily for us our troop was assigned the lodge, which meant heated sleeping areas. Giggles continues to enjoy scrapbooking and crafts, although she much prefers paper scrapbooking over the digital scrapbooking that I do. She has expressed interest in joining gymnastics for some time now, so DH and I are researching programs and hope to finally get her started in February.
Princess is nearly 4 years old - where does the time go?!?! DH and I are looking to get her into a Montessori preschool early this year. She is showing so much potential right now, and her current day care just isn't up to the task. Her speech is getting much clearer and easier to understand. We still have occasional communication issues, but mostly when her mind works more quickly and maturely than we realize. A few months ago, Princess learned that her name starts with S, and now anything with an S on it belongs to her - much to Squeegy's chagrin. Her favorite pasttime lately is coloring, and she has started drawing her own stick people - with arms and legs growing directly out of their head, of course. Princess also started writing her name without help recently, and it is completely recognizable too! She is stubborn and mule-headed (wonder where she got that from, huh?) but very sweet and loving, and even cuddly sometimes. She still plays a bit rough with the cats, forcing them to sit with her when they want to leave, but she is learning restraint and is much improved in this area. 
Speaking of our furry family members, the pets have managed to stay mostly healthy this year. In February, we adopted what was posted as a Bernese Mountain Dog mix puppy, but is more likely a Miniature Australian Shepherd (Mini Aussie) mix puppy. So, instead of the laid back, 100lb fluff ball I was expecting, Wolfgang has turned out to be a cute, if spazzy, 35lb bundle of energy. 
Wolfie basically ignores the cats, which is a very good thing, and he turned 1 in December. Our German Shepherd, Daisy, is 3 years old now, and has started attacking the cats. We've got the situation temporarily managed with baby gates, but much training is in her future. 
The cats, Jesse, Wyatt, and Calamity, are 1 1/2 years old, and thanks to the falling temperatures they are even more cuddly than usual. Jesse tends to sleep on our bed. Calamity has adopted Giggles's bed as her own, much to Giggles's delight. 
Wyatt likes to cuddle with me on the couch, especially when I'm using my Patriots blanket (thanks Sis!).
"Ugh, I am having a wicked bad day." While Wicked can be paired with almost any adjective, it's raison d'etre is to be paired with Awesome. "Dude - did you see the Red Sox game last night? It was Wicked Awesome the way they pulled that out!"
Slapstick
Celebrity Impressionist, Singer, Comedian and Ventriloquist extraordinaire 
