Rain and Pours

The end of my week turned out a little different than I expected.

We had the kids' Spring Musical @ school on Thursday night but there was a tornado warning. When the principal gave the all clear signal, we grabbed the kids and drove home through the driving rain. When we got home and had the van in the garage, the heavens opened up and it began to rain even harder. It was good timing to have arrived @ home when we did.

Last night was the Pre-Gala at school. We met a group of parents at a restaurant called the Blackstone. Of course, since there was a pool table, I got into a doubles game with the three other guys. We won the first game b/c the other team scratched on the 8 ball, but after that, we lost 3. It was competitive, but I couldn't find my rhythm. I'd make a shot, be set up to make a second one and miss. I had a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon and cheddar cheese, which came with fries, and it was good. I'd go there again. The atmosphere of the place is a sports bar with lots of big flat screen TVs.

The Pre-Gala itself has improved in my eyes over the years. As our kids have gone through the grades, we see more and more of the same people to the degree that it's a big social event. You walk around bidding on prizes all in an effort to raise money for the school. They serve drinks and food and it's fun. I bid on an Iowa Men's T-shirt and won it for $7. I also was bidding on a Green Bay Packers blanket - my last bid was $55 - but I was outbid @ $60.

We left around 10, got home, had a beer with the babysitter, started watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" - the episode where Debra asks Marie about their private bedroom life - and fell asleep.

Today, Saturday, is baseball practice with Alex from 9-11, then Mass @ 5:15, then up to Cedar Rapids for the "Club Swing" show at the Paramount. My friend Phil gave me his tickets b/c he's in Las Vegas for a co-worker's wedding.

Tomorrow, we have nothing planned except needing to put down step 1 of the fertilizer on our yard. I'll work with my son on his tutor assignment, listen to his piano lesson, and do some flash cards.

By the by - no piano bag yet. I've heard anecdotes that when you least expect it, it will show up. I hope that is the case.

The weather has been rainy all week. My brother-in-law's sump pump quit, ran on battery backup for 8 hours, died, and now he has 1" of water in his basement. I feel awful for him. He is already remodeling his house and garage - it's a massive project that I feel like I've not helped hm enough with - and he had been storing furniture and stuff during it in the basement. It serves as a painful reminder that if you have a sump pump, you need to check it.

As far as music goes, when we were playing pool last night, a song called "When the Heart Rules the Mind" came on. GTR was a band that I used to adore. The guitarists were Steve Hackett & Steve Howe. Their other single from their debut release was called "The Hunter." I'd forgotten about them until I heard the song. Hearing it didn't help my pool game.

No Progress

The piano bag is still missing. It is frustrating to not be able to find it.

Wanted: Denim ballerina bag with Piano books inside

What should be the hardest thing to lose has disappeared. 

Somewhere, in our house, is a blue denim bag with ballerina slippers on the outside. Inside the bag are my daughter's piano books. It was shortly prior to bedtime last night when the tears started falling. 

Tonight, it was more tears and raiding the shoe box she stores her money in as she is saving up for an MP3 player because her father won't let her buy an iPod. She thinks she has enough money saved up to purchase her piano books.

I told her that was silly. There is no reason for her to buy another set of piano books. They have to be somewhere. I was confident, when I said that, we would be able to find her piano bag. She says she remembers her bag being upstairs in her room. Now it is gone off the face of the earth.

We started in the obvious place but, for whatever reason, the bag is not in the sun room, where our piano rests. Instead, the piano bag is elsewhere, in a mysterious place, that no one - not me, not Megan (my daughter), not Alex (my son), not Karen (my wife) - can find. We started at the top - checked in my daughter's bedroom & closet, in the toy box, & in my son's room. On our main level, we looked in the piano room, in the master bedroom, and in the sun room. We looked in the living room and we looked in both vehicles. Then we looked downstairs. I looked in the furnace room, in the living room area, in the sump pump storage room, and in the den. It is nowhere to be found in this house. It has to be somewhere - I'm assured that a denim ballerina bag with piano books inside cannot grow legs and walk away.

The worst part is that I vaguely remember seeing the piano bag and remember thinking, "That's a weird place for the piano books." Of course, I didn't take the piano bag, at that time, and put it in the sun room. I don't have an answer to the question "Why didn't you put it in the sun room if you thought you were seeing the piano bag in the wrong place?" I apparently didn't think it was in such a strange place that I would never see it again.

In other news, though, I did find my knee brace. Prior to my knee surgery, I was wearing a flexible knee brace to help support my knee and make it not hurt. Then, it was gone. I found it under my bed. Not next to the denim ballerina bag with piano books inside, but the knee brace was found.

Life will go on and someday we will find where the piano bag is located. It is large enough that it will be found someday. It's not like a needle in the haystack - it's like a 8 1/2 x 11 blue denim bag. My daughter's piano books are within that bag and she needs that bag for tomorrow night - she has piano lessons @ 5:30. I get to go with her and be in the room when we tell her teacher we haven't been able to find her piano books. We have looked everywhere. And we have come up empty.