My Musical Adventure

Every Monday night the children's librarian at the branch hosts Family Fun Night. They do different stuff each week - board games, making stuff out of pipe cleaners, Shrinky Dinks, etc. Marra's Family Fun Night tonight was Instrument Playground where the Friends of the Philharmonic come with different instruments and kids get to try them out.

I had mentioned to Marra's volunteer Hwa earlier in the evening that I used to play clarinet. As it turned out, the person who normally comes to demonstrate the clarinet was not here, and apparently Hwa revealed my secret to Marra, so Marra came running out and pretty pleased me into sitting at the woodwind table and helping kids with the clarinet. So instead of sitting at the children's desk signing kids on to the computer, I got to go play the clarinet and help kids try to make noise with it! :)

It was lots of fun. They had a table of percussion with all different kinds of special effects noisemakers, a flute and clarinet at the woodwind table, a cornet and trombone at the brass table, and some violins and a cello at the string table. Some of the kids came back several times to try an instrument again. One little boy was so serious, just concentrating very hard! Some kids had trouble getting the clarinet to make any noise, but some got it right away and a few had good sound quality. I tried to encourage everyone and the ones who would come back to try again I would trill notes for while they blew through the clarinet. They really seemed to like that.

Marra said one little boy told her the clarinet was his favorite. The first time he tried to blow he let out this gigantic squawk that made him jump, and he thought that was cool. :) A lot of kids left rubbing their lips because the vibration felt funny. And we doused the mouthpiece in Listerine between kids, so they all hated the taste. I told them it doesn't normally taste like that. :)

It was fun!

I AM HAVING TRAUMA!!!!!

I just saw an online report that NBC is canceling Law & Order!!!!!! It is in its 20th season, tying it with Gunsmoke for the longest running tv series EVER. Of course, they have SVU, but it's just not the same. I never really bonded with Elliott. And rumor has it they will be starting a L&O: Los Angeles, but based on a 7th season L&O I just watched where they went to LA to get blood from a suspect, that series might be rather annoying.

L&O has not been the same since Jerry Orbach left, of course. Lennie, how I miss you!

My favorite cast was Jerry Orbach as officer Lennie, Benjamin Bratt as officer Rey Curtis (never good on the witness stand), Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, and Angie Harmon as tough-as-nails DA Abbie Carmichael. She never took any crap. :)

Kind of interesting... the Internet Movie Database lists how many episodes each actor appeared in. S. Epatha Merkerson, Lt. Anita Van Buren, has the most at 391, followed by Sam Waterston at 368, and Jerry Orbach at 274. Merkerson made an early appearance as the mother of a shooting victim, and Orbach as a defense attorney before they nabbed their ongoing characters.

Okay, so I am a little L&O obsessed. Is that a bad thing?

One of my favorite episodes is the one where Frances Conroy played a nun who was on trial. The acting was superb and she just glowed in the role. The same actress also played in season one a rich dominatrix guilty of the murder of one of her submissives.

Another favorite is the one where the homeless guy kills people with a sword and it turns out he has a law degree and is schizophrenic and off his meds and he defends himself - beautifully acted. That actor was in another episode where he played a leader of a militia who were trying to separate themselves from the United States.

Any favorite episodes for you? :)

BMV Update Again

I finally got my driver's license. You may recall I went to the BMV to get my updated one and was told that because I had a photocopy of the marriage license instead of the original, I could not get a new license. The original went in the mail to get my passport.

So I waited until my new passport arrived and there was no marriage license with it. Kevin went down to the courthouse and got a new copy of the marriage license, which then, of course, arrived in the mail with my old passport the next day (but he still gets points).

So I went back to the BMV with my new marriage license and my other 4 pieces of documentation and NO ONE asked to see anything but the license! After I dug through my files to find two utility bills and my birth certificate and made sure to have my new social security and passport paperwork with me. And this is for the new supposedly "secure" i.d. I know I feel safer.

I also have a new crappy photo that makes me look like a serial killer. Oh, well. At least I don't have to renew until 2015.

Dining Room is done

Kevin and I spent our honeymoon working on the dining room. This was my idea, since we didn't have money to take a trip. It was a lot of hard work and involved much climbing up and down step ladders, hot steamers, scrapers, sticky fingers, sanding, dust, patching, etc etc etc. But once we got that first coat of paint on top, we both heaved a sigh of relief. Here's the slideshow:

BMV Update!

So I went to the BMV and they would not give me a new license because the marriage license I had was a photocopy and not the original. When I explained the original had been taken by the post office to get my passport renewed, they simply did not care, even though I had the name change receipt from the social security office and my passport receipt from the post office. Not good enough. She told me I would have to go to the courthouse and get another certified copy of my marriage license, which I would have to pay for.

She also told me even though the website says you have to have your license within 30 days of the name change event, you don't. So the BMV can wait until I get my original documents back from the post office in 4-6 weeks. I'm sure I won't run into any problems when I go back in, mmm hmm.

You may visit me in jail.

Just Another Way Our Government Makes Life Easy for You

So I have to change my name since I got married. I had to wait for my certified marriage license to come in the mail before I could do anything, and that took a week. Then I had to go to the social security office to apply for a new social security card, but I could not put my middle name on it because it would knock my new last name off line one and the clerk did not know if it would print two lines and apparently there was no one in the world to ask because I asked her if she could check on it but gravity was keeping her in her chair. She told me it would be 1-2 weeks before I would receive my new card in the mail.

Then I went to the post office to apply for a new passport. I had to fill out the form and have my photo taken, which was fine because my first passport photo sucked bigtime, and then I had to pay about $100 to get everything processed. I will have to wait 4-6 weeks for that to arrive.

So I went to the BMV website to see what I needed to change my name on my driver's license, and after clicking through a hundred screens - because the answer you need promises to be on the next page - it seemed I needed to get a new driver's license within 30 days of the name-change event, i.e. wedding, and I need to bring a social security card and passport. Hmm, my math skills have always been fuzzy, but I don't think I'm gonna get that passport in time.

So I called the BMV to find out about this and was told I can bring my birth certificate (which proves I exist on this planet), my social security card application receipt (which proves I have applied to change my name), my marriage license (which proves there was an event), my most recent pay stub (which proves I have an address), AND a utility bill (which verifies the address). And I will get to wait in line and then it will be mailed to me! NEAT!

So in a few months I should be able to prove I got married.

Games for a Good Cause

Play free games online and you automatically donate to help animals in shelters! You can also click the links through the Child Health Site, Literacy Site, Rainforest Site, Breast Cancer Site, or Hunger Site if you like one of those causes better. I always prefer to go through the Animal Rescue Site. :)