Turn out the lights, the party's over

Please enjoy Andrew's final basket for his final game of a 7-1 season...

The season is over, but the obsession goes on...
the boy doesn't go more than five minutes without tossing a ball towards a hoop.

The. Most. Dramatic. Results Show. EVER.

I, a seasoned television viewer, am not often caught off guard by the shows I watch. There are previews all week long; the internet is ripe with rumors and spoilers. Sure, there is always a sprinkling of plot twists and a handful of blindsides or unexpected voting results, but generally I just cruise along in my television bliss.

BUT-occasionally there is a moment that is so shocking, that comes so completely out of the blue, that makes me fall in love with television all over again.

Case in point:

• ER, May 11, 2000. Carol Hathaway goes to Seattle to reunite with Doug Ross. And George Clooney actually came back. Best moment in television history, hands down.
  

• 24, January 31, 2005. Jack Bauer is in trouble, and calls the "only person [he] can trust." Who could it be? It's Tony Almeida, embittered ex-CTU agent! Sweeping in to save the day! (Or at least the next five minutes--this is 24, after all.)
  

And then.

American Idol, March 5, 2009. The wild card show.

I am all about Anoop Desai. Consequently, I experienced the lowest of lows when Simon revealed that the third Final 12 spot belonged to Matt Giraud. Had I really seen the last of 'Noop Dogg?

But then.

The sun shone, birds sang, and I screamed. They were making room for Anoop.

So now, after a shaky start (I was really not too happy with the Final 12 selection process this year), I have fallen in love with American Idol. All over again.

Snip

Keep it simple

Words from a faithful boy in front of hundreds..."I'd like to bear my testimony. I know this church is true.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Ditto.

Here's what's happening in our neck of the woods

Just a typical quiet Friday afternoon. Brooke and Andrew were home from school, eating their snack and checking their new email accounts. I was piddling around the house, switching laundry, straightening up, waiting for Emma and Leah to walk through the door at 3:45pm.

Only it was 4:00 and they still weren't home.

A call to the transportation department was in order.

Transportation secretary: Well do you know what's going on?

Me: Um, no. All I know is my children are 15 minutes late getting off the bus.

Secretary: Well, there's been some sort of bank robbery and police chase so some of the roads are blocked off and the buses have been rerouted. We were going to call the parents.....

Me: So...where are my kids?

Secretary: Let me radio the bus driver and find out where she's going to drop them off.

And she proceeded to put me on hold. I stood there holding the phone, with a thousand thoughts running through my head.

Where are the kids. Guess the police cars and caution tape I saw down the street has something to do with this. Where are the kids. We are going to be late for piano lessons. Got to call the piano teacher. Where are the kids. Should probably get a snack for Emma and Leah for on the way to piano. Got to get Brooke and Andrew in the car. Where are the kids. Who is that beeping in--don't recognize the number, going to ignore it. How am I going to get to piano teacher's house if all the roads are blocked off. Where are the kids???

Ms. Secretary gets back on the phone and tells me where the bus driver is going to drop the kids off. Way down the street and around the corner. Good thing I was planning on going to pick them up anyway, because it was kind of far away. And so we head out, away from the brouhaha to the west, in search of the girls.

After passing the police blockade at the other intersection, we found the girls. They piled into the car, full of chatter about the afternoon's excitement. Turns out that call that had beeped in was Emma, using her friend's cell phone. Turns out they had heard the bus driver on the radio with Ms. Secretary and knew that I knew what was going on and where they were and was coming to pick them up.

With everybody finally accounted for, we made our way to piano lessons.

In the process of navigating through the city streets we figured out that rather than the whole main street being blocked off, all the action was at one intersection. The intersection approximately 200 feet away from our house. The intersection where a police chase (which actually passed in front of our house) ended in the fatal shooting of a robbery suspect.

Andrew couldn't understand why someone would want to rob a bank (doesn't he know that's wrong?!?) and wanted to check the news for a "front row seat." And then he proceeded to run around the house pretending to shoot guns. And then he informed me that he wants to be a police officer when he grows up, just like our friend. (Hey mom, was so-and-so down there? No, dear, he works on the other side of town. Oh, well, I want to be a policeman just like him.)

Gulp.

But for now, we are all safe and sound. We can all go back to our quiet suburban lives, in a town that is safer than 97% of cities in the entire United States. We can all sleep well knowing that our city's overall rate of crime is sufficiently low that NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows the city to be one of the safest in both Ohio and the nation.

The only thing that might tell you differently are the little spray-painted T's that remain on the road...just down the street.


Click here for the full story...and the interesting latest developments.

Because $1 t-shirts are just too good to pass up...

...and because Jill and I are actually twins.

And the band played on...

The first 5th grade band concert was a surprisingly pleasant performance. I think my expectations were quite low after hearing the orchestra in December, and when you have lower expectations, they are much more easily met.

We had Leah on the bells in the back row...

...and Emma on the flute in the front row.

We also had lots of family there for support, including Aunt Jill!
(who kind of scheduled her solo trip back east around the concert)

Well played, girls. Well played indeed.


The only thing we don't have is video of the concert. Not sure why, as there was a video camera in use. Better luck next time, right?