It's a Jolly Holiday

Well, okay... It's just the weekend. But it's been great! =) Last night we had some friends over for dinner. We ate a lot, talked a lot, and laughed a lot. It was a lot of fun! The only downside to the night was that one of our friends lost his wedding band in our back yard. There is a *lot* of grass back there to go through!

This morning my mom, Erica, and myself went to a seminar on being a good church pianist. There was a lot of good teaching! Putting it all into practice will be the hard part. I wish I could just overnight become a good pianist without having to work towards it.

Oh... I forgot to mention that yesterday was Julie Andrews' 75th birthday! Happy Birthday to her! I'm sure that since she's an actress, she's done some things I wouldn't approve of, but I love her voice! Here are a couple of the songs I love to hear her sing: (I was surprised to find that my favorites haven't all made it onto youtube)







And now, my friends, I will share with you the sad story of the Red Scarf Penguin.

It was a warm Thursday in September when a teenage girl went shopping at her favorite thrift store. She found much to make her happy, but narrowed her choices down to a couple of books, a lovely skirt, and a cute - adorable - little stuffed penguin with an amazingly soft red flannel scarf. This girl decided that the penguin was too expensive, so she went to put him back. But he looked at her with those cute little eyes as she put him down, and she knew that she must have him. So off to the cash register this teenage girl went, happy with what she had found, and pleased with herself for overcoming her instinctive cheapskatedness. (Okay, maybe not that last part.) The friendly man at the cash register made jokes as he rang up the girl's items, she laughed and cracked a joke in return. Then the two bid each other a good afternoon and the girl left. When she got home, however, she discovered that there was no penguin in her shopping bag. The girl enlisted the aid of her little brother and they searched the car. She also investigated every part of the house that her shopping bag had been in. It was useless. There was no penguin to be found. Sadly, she told her mother of her predicament. So it was that Saturday morning found the girl marching purposefully into the thrift store, receipt in hand. But the lady behind the cash register would not help her. "The man who helped you is not here to verify your story. I won't be cheated out of two whole dollars just on the story of some pretentious young lady." Crestfallen, and maybe a bit angry, the teenager went to search for her penguin. It was nowhere to be seen.
One week later, the girl's mother decided to try and get a refund. It took some smooth talking and persuasion, but she finally accomplished her goal. She happily went to report her success to her daughter. But lo and behold, it was discoverd that only half of the money had been refunded! Unwilling to cause further trouble for the already unhappy manager, the mother decided that the daughter would have to be happy with half of her money and no penguin. The daughter was *very* unhappy. She went to look through the stuffed animals again to see if her penguin might have shown up. The penguin wasn't there, but a cute little elephant was. Now this may not be common knowledge, but this girl happens to collect stuffed elephants. She sighed and picked up the elephant, which she soon purchased with her refund from the penguin.

This girl hereby resolves to never complain about the penguin again, no matter how woeful the situation is.

Should I name my new elephant, "Penguin", or is that not a good idea?


P.S. Thanks to the amazingness of Google, the above picture is actually identical to the penguin in the story. *sniff sniff*