Solonor's Inkwell

I got an e-mail from Jen at Bad Ass Coffee of Orlando, today, indicating that my earlier entry used the wrong url for their website. So, if you want Bad Ass in Orlando (as opposed to generic Bad Ass), make sure you visit www.badasscoffeeorlando.com

NOTE: The coffee was wonderful, and these people are really good sports for letting us abuse their name. Seriously good Kona coffee.

Coincidentally, I got an e-mail from Geekman with a couple of pictures from that infamous adventure. One is of the sign outside the store (seen above). The other is from our Hawaiian volcano experience inside.

I forgot that the kids have off from school today, so I didn’t have to get up at 5:30, and I didn’t have to use the “Get Pepperkat Out of Bed” routine:

1. Knock (gently) on her door. “Time to get up, sweetie.”
2. Wait 15 minutes and repeat.
3. After 10 more minutes, yell (from another room), “Time to get up!”
4. Get third cup of coffee.
5. Bang on door. If desired, this step may be accompanied by a booming chorus of “Get your ass out of bed.”
6. Using crowbar, break into room. Avoiding as many death traps (and piles of clothes) as possible, approach her bed menacingly. (Sleeping teenagers have been known to kick intruders in the stomach. Use extreme caution.)
7. Plant explosive charges. Be careful not to use too much TNT. (Wouldn’t want the room to look like a disaster, now, would we?)
8. Surrender. Get ready for work, resigned to the fact that she’s just not going to school today.
9. Clench teeth when she gets up and asks you, “Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?”

I’m posting a whole buttload of crap, because I don’t think I’ll have much time to post anything the rest of the week. It’s Holy Week, don’tcha know. Being the choir angels we are *cough*, we’re busy, busy, busy.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. We had our regular service, then practice for next Saturday’s community service where a bunch of area choirs get together to sing. Tuesday night is practice for that again. Wednesday night is our regular choir practice. Thursday night is our Maundy Thursday service. Saturday we have three services for the aforementioned community thingy. Then, Easter Sunday it’s sunrise service and the regular service before we collapse into a twitching mass of hoarse voices.

We haven’t done one of these community things since Thanksgiving of 2002. As usual, you can watch them live or in the archives the following week at the Forest Lake Seventh Day Adventist Church site.

See you next week!

Busy Mom hits the nail on the head with You know it’s Daylight Savings Time when…”

“Everyone is 45 minutes late for church.”

and

“You realize that you have, yet again, forgotten how to change the clock in the car and have to look it up.”

She’s got more, but I’m late getting ready for church.

Whiny is looking into getting a music scholarship for college. His music teacher pulled him aside last week and suggested it. He’s in steel drum band at school, and we got him started playing in the bell choir at church.

It took some convincing that it wouldn’t be sacrilegious for him to play bells without going to church regularly, as he is adamantly anti-religion. Of course, Pepperkat (the main instigator of the “twist Whiny’s arm” coalition) is now upset with him, because he just walked in and started playing (“It took me months to get to that point! I hate you!”). The reverse is usually true. Generally, it is she that gets everything easy, while he has to work at it. So, fair is fair.

Anyhow, last night we went to a percussion ensemble concert at UCF. They had a full program that featured a lot of marimba solos. Incredible stuff.

But when you go to bed at 2am, get up at 5:30 and work all day, a 2-hour recital of technically brilliant (but loooong) pieces in a hall where the temperature was set to “comfort of the womb”… well, let’s just say snoring is not one of the percussive sounds they were going for…

(When we got out, one of the first things Whiny said was, “Man, some of that was boring!” He really is a good kid.)

or…

“The Adventures of the Mighty Geek, the Half-Elven Solonor, the Bitter Kat, the Whiny the Elder and the Nicknameless Lady (Who Would Have Her Own Blog If Only She Didn’t Hate To Write So Much)”

Once again, dear reader(s), the forces of truth and justice were on a mission. So, while they were busy, our wrecking crew set off to imperil the city of Orlando. I shall attempt to recap the events of last evening as accurately as possible given the limitations of the written word and the boundaries of good taste that are the hallmark of this blog (sorry about that… the air sickness bags are in the seat pocket in front of you).

Actually, there’s too much to cover with the limited web space I have available (and I have to be at work in 30 minutes). So, rather than giving a blow-by-blow account of the festivities, here are some of the highlights*

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