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Month: January 2006

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The Incredibles On Ice

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I saw the commercial with Eilis a couple of weeks ago, and she starts asking if she can go.  Every time I look at tickets for something like this, I am left feeling like these things are WAY overpriced, and there has to be a cheaper way to entertain your kids.  But, Eilis persists, and every time the commercial comes on, she tells me how much she really wants to see it.

So, I come up with the bright idea that I will take her the first Thursday after school starts back up.  It will be me, Eilis, and Grace, and I’ll just grab whatever seats are available so as not to break my meager budget.  Then I think I should check and see how long the show is.  Of course, I don’t do this until the morning of the show, and I find out it is 2 hours and 15 minutes – including the 15 minute intermission.  I will NEVER be able to take Gracie with me – she will never sit that long.  I phone my mother, who is going to a doctor appointment and can’t watch Grace, and even if she could, but the time I drop Brighid off, and then drop Grace off, I haven’t got time now to go home and get Eilis dressed and ready to go. 

Jim calls, and I mention it to him, and he says to take her in the evening with Brighid and he’ll watch Grace.  I don’t know.  I’ll have to see if there are tickets for the nightime show left.  There are.  There are even VIP seats.

So, here we are, front row, almost center ice, watching the Incredibles on their Disney World vacation.  All I can think at this point is that for the cost of 3 VIP tickets, we could be on a Disney vacation ourselves.

Eilis is captivated.  She claps, she cheers, she stands and dances, she does everything you want a kid to do.  They gave all the kids a wristband to help save Minnie and Mickey and restore the Magic Kingdom, and Eilis uses it every chance she gets.  The only thing that upsets her is at one point, the pirates skate over near us and as they stop, we get splashed with a wee bit of ice.  How dare they?

I gotta tell you, I really enjoyed the show.  I enjoyed watching Eilis and all of her expressions.  The thing that bugs me is that for the amount of money we paid, you don’t even get a free program (for VIP seats to the Radio City Music Hall show, you get a program, a popcorn, and a drink).  And everything was outrageously priced – $10 for  a bag of popcorn or cotton candy, because they came with a “free” Incredibles mask.  $12 for a snow cone because it came in a reusable Incredibles cup.   I spent $60 between the program, a light toy, a bag of popcorn, a soda and a pretzel.  That didn’t include parking at $10 a pop. 

We’ll have to find a way to convince Grace that all the crazy things we did are so not worth the money.  But that’s so hard to do when I know you can’t put a price tag on some of the smiles I got from Eilis at the Incredibles on Ice.

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The Proper Way to Hang Christmas Lights

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So, growing up, it seemed to me the men-folk were the ones who did all the fancy ‘lectrical stuff around Christmas time.  It was the strong, handsome men hanging lights in the windows and stringing the Christmas tree.

Then I married Lazy *** Jim.  Our first year together, he helped out, not a lot, but enough that I thought he did a good job.  He did do all of the lights on the tree, but I did the lights in the windows and such around the house.  Gradually, over the years, it became my job to also string the lights on the tree.  Having never done it, and not sure how to do it, each year it seems that I do it a different way.  It never looks evenly lit all the way around, and I am always pissed off that I had to do it without Jim.  The women are supposed to hang the balls and string the garland.  Lights are not in my chromosomes. 

Last year, for the first time, I watched the White House Christmas.  Damn, those people sure know how to decorate!!   Not only does the whole joint look fabulous, they have truckloads of volunteers to do it all.  All Mrs. Bush has to do is wander in, hair perfectly coiffed, suit pressed and lovely, smiling a big ol’ Texas smile, and admire how great her house and her trees look.  Although lacking the hundreds of volunteers, I decided last year to light my tree the White House way.  They wrap each branch with the lights, each individual branch, each insignificant on it’s own little branch.  It always looks so bright, so beautiful, and so evenly lit.  Of course, wrapping each branch is not an easy task, and when you undertake it, you realize why they White House has hundreds of generous souls wrapping and wrapping and wrapping.  After three branches, my hands ache, my back hurts, I hate Christmas, and at the earliest possible convenience, I intend to stab my husband to death with one of these insignifcant little branches.

So, the problem with wrapping the lights around each branch is that you eventually have to UNWRAP each branch.  Yep, after the hours that went in to wrapping the branches, we try to figure out how to unstring the lights in less than 20 seconds.  And hours later, we are left with tangled bunches of lights, sap over everything, poked eyes, scratched cheeks, and cracked fingers.

Next year, Jim says, instead of wrapping the branches, just put the lights in patches.  I say get off your Lazy *** and do it yourself.