I have always liked our plumeria, the way its branches bend instead of breaking, and the way the flowers look when it is in bloom. Recently however, when walking home from the park I have noticed that the plumeria looks kinda barren and sad. So I came with a great idea to restore its look of color and fullness, that is both practical and useful. We can use it as a hat-rack! That way you have a convenient place to hang your hats during a barbecue, your tree looks really stylish, and you can get a great new storage place. See! 
Even the shadow looks cool. 
The one problem is if it rains your hat will get wet, or the hat gets dirty, or rodents start living in it, or spiders and other bugs make a home it, or it gets blown away, or your hat could get stolen, or… okay maybe it really isn’t such a great idea.
Category: Family
All things family related go here (so pretty much everything).
Holding a Charge
While we were eating dinner this evening we were bemoaning the fact that we couldn’t find a working suitcase turntable for Anne (the first one came broken). And Mom and Dad had been looking at different options, and there was one that looked really neat, but the battery would not hold a charge. So as they were discussing this Veronica suddenly chimed in, “And I think all those batteries should come with clamps, because it would get tiring if you had to hold in the charge all the time.” It was very cute the way she said it, but I think she had reached the end of her knowledge on the subject.
Groundhog Day!
It’s Groundhog Day!… again. For some reason I have been reliving today for about… 37 days now. It’s really annoying and I don’t know how to stop it. If there is any popular movie or something like that, that is similar to this, if someone could tell me about it so that I can get some reference, I would really appreciate it. But you’ll have to tell me today because you won’t remember tomorrow.
Trumpet Problems
Apparently someone does not want me to practice well. I mean it’s just one thing after another this week. First, when I tried to play my trumpet nothing came out, but a weird muted note. Turns out there was a cleaning brush which had somehow gotten wedged in the front of my trumpet. Then while I was wrestling with Stephen I busted my lip really badly. Then, as my lip was finally healing, I got a cough and a runny nose. What next, will my trumpet keys get welded in place?
The Bush
Several months ago we bought a package of fresh basil. This basil was so fresh it came with soil and roots in it. After we had used the basil leaves we planted the roots. Believe it or not they grew…a lot! The bush was two feet high and a foot in diameter. There was so much basil even our family could not eat it all. So we cut it all down and Mom made two batches of pesto
However, this did not significantly diminish the basil supply so we hung the basil in bunches in the garage and dried it. We then pulled the leaves off the stems leaving decorative dead stems.
Then we crushed it (in a very artistic manner)
Finally we put our dried basil in a spice jar, or two, or three…
That was one big basil bush.
Sick as a Dog
Have you ever wondered where the expression “sick as a dog” comes from? I mean do dogs just get sick more often then people? I don’t think this is the case because every time I see a dog it looks fairly healthy… you know for a dog. Or do dogs just get extra sick when they do get sick? Having never owned a dog I may never know.
The Langenkamp Show!
We truly must live in a TV show or a sitcom! We were all going about our daily work, when Robert saw one of our neighbor’s wallet fall out of his pocket. Not wanting to go outside by himself he asked Jonathan to go and return the wallet. Of course Jonathan went out, and returned the wallet, but really, what are the odds. Somehow Robert saw a wallet fall out a mans pocket across the street, through a window.
Grade A!
So the other day Mom saw Jonathan siting at his desk scribbling on a piece paper. When she asked him what he was doing he said he was trying to figure out what grade he got in one of his classes. So Mom asked him the percentages were, and he said 95.84, 97.21, 97.21, 93.22, 98.43, 99.49, 82.13, and 92.72. Yeah… Mom told him an A is an A no matter how you add it.
FedEx!
So today a FedEx car drove up, and the FedEx came out to bring us a package. As he was walking up to the door, Veronica saw him through the window, and yelled in her small yet excited voice, “FedEx!” As he handed Mom the package he laughed about Veronica’s excited squeal, which had pierced the walls quite effectively. He was quite amused, and gratified at Veronica’s enthusiasm.
Cleaning My Trumpet!
So the other day I had to clean my trumpet, and I mean REALLY clean it. Normally before I put away my instrument, I just have to empty the spit valve. This is really easy, because all I have to do is press that little button on the valve, and blow through the mouthpiece (the woodwinds in my family are kinda resentful about this since they have to clean their instruments piece by piece each time they put theirs away). Still every month or so I have to take the whole thing apart, run water through it, and scrub out the inside with these trumpet cleaning tools.
Then you lay it out on a towel to dry. 
Now if you ever need to clean trumpet, you can!