a free date

Tonight we went on a little holiday excursion. There was an ad in our local magazine for a free brass ensemble and handbell choir Christmas concert at Lynchburg College. We are pretty much always up for a free concert so we decided to give it a try. Welllllll, ya win some and ya lose some. It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely lacking star quality. Our first tip was when the handbell choir began playing The Lion King Suite. . .complete with "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" I am very sorry for this representation, Elton. If you look closely at the brass ensemble on the left you will see the most well-behaved seeing-eye dog. He dozed there the entire time and we enjoyed having him.


Then, a few minutes later the brass ensemble played The Pink Panther. By this point, we had gotten smart and were prepared to make a video. If you make it all the way to the end, notice the french hornist on the far right proceed to take off his jacket and head over to the handbell side of the stage so he could participate with them. Quite professional. We were a little concerned the first time, but by the end of the performance we hardly noticed anymore.



To end the performance, the handbell choir all simultaneously reached under the table to retrieve a Santa hat which they all donned for a lively rendition of "Jingle Bells." They strongly encouraged the audience to sing along, and all 20 of us tried our best, but I don't think we mustered up quite enough enthusiasm for them. However, I must admit, we left with a smile.


The smiles continued when we pulled up to our house and saw. . .you guessed it!. . .a new dress display!! I guess these are their Christmas party ideas:

Had to show off our festive selves:


And we're off to bed. Farewell November. Let the Christmastide joys begin!!

a lynchburg listing. . .

We're behind again, so let's just make a list for efficiency's sake:

1. The ugly dresses downstairs just keep coming. . .

In case you can't tell, those are indeed stripes of solid silver sequins going around a purple mermaid dress with a huge rosette on the right shoulder. We stand amazed.

2. Across the street there is a restaurant called Main Street Eatery. It is owned by a German couple, but we hadn't been because it is quite expensive. However, they had a traditional Oktoberfest menu for most of October and November. It was a bit cheaper than their usual fare and our curiosity finally got the best of us:

Susan Ada ate this. . .really can't remember what it was called. . .Chicken cutlets sauteed with mushrooms and served with cooked cabbage and German dumplings. Delicious!

Curt had Wienerschnitzel. . .basically a fried meat patty served with french fries. Unique, but not quite as tasty.


3. Curt bought Susan Ada birds for her birthday!! She saw zebra finches on our honeymoon and had been begging for them ever since. The night of her birthday we went to the store to buy them, but they had another kind of finch (Orange Waxbill) that had been bullied and were missing some feathers so they were giving them away for free. Sooooo, we got all 3 and brought them home. So far their names are Cheeky, Molty, and Ollie. . .but those are subject to change at Susan Ada's whim. Here is Cheeky (and that's Molty fearing for his life in the back. . .they're a little flighty):

They have red tail feathers:


4. Curt's parents came to visit us. They were our first guests and we really enjoyed having folks to come stay in our home. We wandered around town, went to the local globe museum, relaxed, and ate yummy food. While they were here we cooked our first pumpkin of the year. . .and roasted the seeds. Delicious!


5. We went to visit our babies in Greenville, SC. Kate informed us today that she turned 4 1/2 yesterday. My goodness, the milestones. We had a blast with them and enjoyed raking leaves, helping them carve their pumpkins, and spending all weekend playing.



6. We got new neighbors so now when we open our apartment door this is what we see:


Yes, that is indeed a plastic rat in the bottom right corner. . .

We don't exactly share similar tastes in decor. Yippy. Perhaps this will just give us something else to blog about come Christmas.

7. Curt got to visit his first nuclear power plant for work! Let's just say he had to take a few precautionary measures:


8. Someday you are going to believe us. There really is an unlimited supply of these things:

Just to be clear, that is a layer of pink tulle upon layer of yellow tulle upon layer of blue tulle with a pastel 80's print bodice, sparkle boobs, and a very large flower on the hip. And with that, we must leave you. Hope the nightmares are bearable.

Happy Thanksgiving!!