Fountain Park Pictures

This summer Alice and I have been doing a tour of the local fountain parks. Maybe this is a Southern thing or maybe its a Knoxville thing. I don't know, but they are awesome. Its basically a sprinkler on steroids. I love it because I don't have to pay the water bill (directly, anyhow...), it's FREE, and it's a good opportunity for my lonely only to socialize with her peers. There are several of these parks throughout Knoxville. This one is right on Gay Street, which is the main drag downtown. Its set back from the sidewalk so the kids don't splash the business people walking past. The theater I perform at is to the right (but not in the picture.)




This is in World's Fair Park. These are the biggest fountains in town and the ones we frequent most often.

These are also fun because the height of the water varies. Sometimes it will be really low and calm and then will suddenly shoot up higher than the flag poles.

There is also a really great playground in Worlds Fair Park.

Here are some pics from our trip to Ann Arbor. I'm pretty bad about documenting things with the camera. I didn't get any pictures of Alice with Grandma or Grandpa G or Aunt Amy! I think Mom got some, so if she sends them to me I'll put them up.

These are from the children's museum



Alice in a bubble:


This was Alice's favorite part of the museum. You danced in front of a screen and it projected images of you onto a screen in front of you:


I thought this was a cool picture because it sort of shows how it works. The silver screen / black shadow only show up when you take a picture of the color screen. When you're actually dancing and watching the color screen you only see the colorful images.

Alice and Mme P:

Phew! I had forgotten the endless movement of the toddler years!

The Fluffy White Death (aka snow)

Today is a snow day. Alice does not have school; they called it off at 7pm last night. Something is missing.... I can't put my finger on it....




The snow isn't supposed to start until early this evening. Granted, if we get what they say we're going to get (which is anywhere from 3 inches to a foot) it will shut the entire city down for several days. The funny thing is we have to go brave the grocery store today because we are out of milk. I'm considering making Alice wear her bike helmet because this has the potential to get ugly.

Tristan

This is quite possibly the most romantic piece of all time. We're playing this, sans soprano tonight. It is Isolde's love death from Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. Basically Isolde has come upon her lover right as he is dying. He dies in her arms and then she dies of grief after singing this aria. It is one time where I am not wishing an opera singer to die a little faster from down in the pit. Just gorgeous.

Pleasant Purple

So, things are going well at Wondergirl's school. About a month ago she won the Good Citizen award for her class. It was a big deal and involved walking across the stage in front of the whole school to get a certificate, ribbon and pencil from the principal. Wondergirl's class operates on a color system for behavior. Every day the kids start out on "Pleasant Purple." Then, if they make bad choices, they move to Oops Orange, Yucky Yellow, and, finally, Ghastly Green. (It's not really ghastly green, it's some other "g" adjective that I can never remember. We call it ghastly green here.) When a child lands on Ghastly Green, their parents are called. Kids can also move up to Beautiful Blue if they do something exceptionally good.

Most of WG's class winds up in the orange to yellow range by the end of the day with several hitting the dreaded green. Her teacher has her hands full. The class is rowdy, and it is also her first.

WG is coming up on 50 consecutive days of being pleasantly purple. Tim and I think that's a pretty big deal, so I think she will be getting some sort of surprise reward when we visit Granny Julie and Friend John for Thanksgiving.