Do a little dance, sing a little song, get dog tonight . . .

So the kids entertained Ryan and I with one of their many shows tonight.

A show is a semi regular occurrence around here. Carmella is always the director. Beau is the showcased talent. There is always a rehearsal and most often Ryan and I don't know a show is going to happen until we are recruited to come sit on the couch with our drinks to watch the show.

All shows involve Beau not following Carmella's script. Then what follows is Carmella getting very upset that her artistic vision is not being properply realized or worse, she'll make a mistake--despite having a carefully written out list with songs, script and choreography all planned out. While she fumes and fusses and directs; Beau hams it up at her expense. Inevitably Carmella becomes the disgruntled misunderstood director and a fight ensues with the talent. By that point the audience has had enough and both tyrannical director and loose cannon talent are promptly shuffled off to bed.

Tonight's show was no different.

Let me preface this with that Ryan and I are both regrettably very unmusically gifted.

Me probably more so.

And sadly, I've actually tried. I took a guitar class in high school. Lucky for me your grade was mostly based on written tests and so I still managed a good grade. The teacher (--I can't recall his name, maybe Mr. Moody???) told me on one of my guitar playing tests "I don't know why it sounds so wrong since you are hitting the chords right but something is very off." Though I am not known as one of the most astute people readers even I could tell it was painful for him to sit through my blues five finger strum. Me though? I thought it sounded fantastic.


If musical talent was based on exposure to music then my kids would be savants as they are not wanting for musical toys: ipods, cds, radios, microphones, bongos (thanks Aunt Pookie!), recorders, toy piano and each kid has their own acoustic guitar. Heck, we even have a Karaoke machine(scary, I know).

Truth is folks, no matter how much money you spend, you can't buy musical talent.

But don't worry. I'll still spread the love and share some of the outtakes of the performance.

And I will say, if you can understand Beau I think he shows real promise as a song writer. And well, Carmella, without a doubt. I think Caramel Christmas Tree is the next big hit. She has others but I made her save the Tea by the Tree for another evening.

First up a duet: The Candy Cane


Not sure why Beau won't face the "audience." Probably to annoy Carmella.

A solo performed by Beau: I like Spiderman


The Caramel Christmas Tree, by Carmella

"Eat soiled fish. With caramel on it." Mmmmm . . .


Lola seemed to feel left out so I taped her too. You can see how well we have her trained. Be sure to watch this one all the way through.


In other news my running is much improved over last week's sad one day of running and totaling 8 miles for the week. I believe that is an all time low for me. This week I am feeling much better and got in several days of running between 4-7 miles and finished up at 34 miles for the week. I also got in a bike ride with Steph. Not sure how long. Probably about 30 miles.