Various stages of my life have been marked by dance recitals.  My sister took dance for years, and I attended every recital.  Both of my daughters took dance, and I attended all of their recitals, as well.  Last night I began Phase Three of my dance recital career by attending the first-ever recital of my granddaughter, Liza.  I got a few pictures and a video of the occasion. 

The Diva arrives at her debut–sound asleep in the car.

There were only five girls in the recital, ranging in age from three to seven.  The three year old (the African American girl on the far right) stole the show, so make sure you keep an eye on her.  Liza is the blond on the far left.  My apologies to any readers who can’t access the embedded YouTube video directly; there is a link for your convenience after the performance.

Here’s the link: click here.

No dance recital would be complete without flowers, and Liza’s was no exception.  Here’s a picture of her with her pink carnations.  She’s sitting on our new sofa, and you can see the new blinds in the background.

In addition to being a budding dance artist, Liza’s also a budding photographer.  She took this picture of Grandma and Grandpa (Grandma had already put on her pajamas.).

This was a great milestone in Liza’s young life, and we celebrated afterward with a festive meal at McDonald’s at the diva’s request. 

ED

Every time I turn on the radio or TV, I hear more news about the oil spill in the Gulf.  I recently heard a story about an effort to collect human and pet hair to use to absorb oil released in the spill.  I thought this was bizarre and a little grotesque, and it didn’t change things that a local tattoo shop was offering a discount on “body art” for every donation of hair.

It turns out, though, that this is entirely serious, and there’s even a non-profit foundation dedicated to this effort.  Here’s a video about it:

You can find more information about this at the Matter of Trust website (click here).  My favorite bit of information from this site is this:

- we also accept fur and other “natural fibers” waste wool, alpaca fleece, horse hair, feathers… again, please, no other garbage or contaminants in with the hair/fur/ wool fibers… (a handful total per bag of hay and seeds are ok, but no garbage and, of course, absolutely no poo!) Thanks!  [emphasis added]

ED

I came across this amateur video today of the Gulf oil spill.  I found it rather compelling.

ED

I haven’t written anything about the Gulf oil spill until now, but I’ve followed the news about it as closely as I could.  Because we live in a coastal city that has a vested interest in the Gulf beaches and the fishing industry, we take something like an oil spill pretty seriously.  A big section of our downtown city marina has been set up as a staging area for booms and other equipment that will be used to contain the oil if it comes our way.  Today I drove down to the marina to see what’s going on.  One of the things I saw was a huge tent with a large number of workers under it.  It was two o’clock in the afternoon, so it wasn’t a lunch break.  Some of the people–and there must have been a hundred or more–were sitting on the ground, but many of them were lying on the ground as though taking a nap.  I’m sure there was a good reason for this “break,” but it wasn’t apparent to me.

I’ve titled this entry “Part One” because I expect to write about the spill and related activities again.  Maybe next time I’ll actually see some of the workers working.

ED

Savannah is a 2 year old blond Lab who belongs to Susan and Sean.  They were visiting from Atlanta this weekend, and Liza had a wonderful time playing with her canine cousin.  Here’s some video of Liza feeding treats to Savannah.

After giving Savannah treats, Liza decided to crown her a princess.  Here’s the video of that.

Much of the family went out to dinner tonight, and Liza wanted to know why Savannah couldn’t go to the restaurant with us.  It’s fun to watch a little girl play with a gentle dog that weighs half as much again as she does.

ED

They’re celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week in our local public schools this week, and this morning there was a letter to the editor of our local newspaper about me.  It was written by a man I taught 23 years ago, and it made my day, my week, and my whole month.  Here’s the link to the article: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/editor-83540-appreciation-letters.html.  The letter about me is the second one at this link.

ED