Wordless Wednesday - Colors of my June Flower Garden

Garden Report - 6/17/08

Last week Joeprah asked: Is this a gardening blog? To answer his question: Why, Yes! For the Summer, it looks like this is what my blog is turning out to be. Lots of similarities between mothering & gardening. You plant the seeds, nurture, water, feed and they grow. The miracle of life!

This weekend I cleaned out a bunch of weeds and transplanted pepper and tomato plants that popped up around the garden. This is our 5th year of the vegetable garden. Each year I gain new insights and we change the layout and crop selection ever so slightly. I have also gotten better at recognizing weeds and tree seedlings from vegetable starts.

I only bought 3 tomato plants this year and everything else is from seed or reseeded itself. New to our garden is the yellow squash which is planted next to the cucumbers. Last year was a fantastic year for peppers and fair for tomatoes; cucumbers did not fare so well. Some sort of blight. This year I positioned the cukes in the same area as the first year, The Year of The Cucumber, where we had a bumper crop and shared with many of our neighbors. I hope we will have the same good fortune this year.

So far we have had an over-abundance of Dill. I learned a few things about Dill this weekend. Contrary to popular belief, Dill is not a garden bug repellent. It can attract a few pests such as the dreaded Tomato Horned Worm ( looks like Heimlich the fat Caterpillar from Bug's Life ). I did some research on the internet and this is what I learned:
1. Horn Worms are attracted to Dill but the good news is that it makes them easier to spot. I found about a dozen small worms and threw them in the yard waste trash can.
2. Fully grown the Horn Worms turn into Hummingbird Moths. They are freaky looking, similar to hummingbirds but not as cute. We had a few last year and now I know where they came from.
3. Dill can be frozen. Simply wash, dry, cut up and put in freezer bags.

I have cleared out some of my dill by giving to neighbors, freezing some and transferring some to pots to be given away (perhaps left on doorsteps like orphan babies). I hate to let my plants go to waste but will need to clear away more. They are taking up too much space and crowding out other plants such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.

If anyone out there has any great recipes that use Dill, let me know! Right now I use it with Tuna fish and in salads.

What we are reading today..

I've been a bit short on time for posts but want to get 2 quick reading suggestions in:

I just finished reading Julie & Julia My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. Great read! It is a chronicle of a woman who tries to fill a void in her life by taking on the ultimate cooking challenge. She decides to make all of 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In one year! I don't cook and can't begin to imagine the dedication this took.
The closest I came to a project like that was the summer I worked in a dress shop near a Baskin Robbins. I decided to have all 31 flavors in a month. I ended up having double-scoops of ice cream for lunches every weekday, gaining a few pounds and finding out there was way more than 31 flavors. Even if you don't count the sherbets.

My boys are reading religiously everyday as part of the summer reading program the local library sponsors. Tonight my 7 year old son started reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. (She also wrote Because of Winn-Dixie).

My son's first grade teacher had read this to the class during the school year and he loved it. He came home and told me about this book one day when we went for a walk. A very sweet and melancholy story about a china rabbit named Edward and the tumultuous turns his life takes. Think Velveteen Rabbit with more violence, tragedy and bigger words.

Now I am having him read it to me. Lots of new words. For both of us. (Tonight's new words were jaunty and ennui and this is just the beginning) Highly recommend this book!

Wordless Wednesday Garden Report

Vegetable Garden is looking greener

Dill anyone?

How I go green!

Peonies - Show is over......

Lilies are starting to open

Foxy Foxglove

Defensive Gardening

I love strawberries. I love them in salads. I love them in cake. On cereal. Or just plain. In my garden, not so much.

Every year, the round green leaves of my strawberry plants are the first to pop-up and vine out in my garden bed. I have tried to relocate these invaders to pots, yet they still make their way back into the raised vegetable garden. Commanding a bit more real estate than they should, they flower and bud with the promise of a juicy red harvest. Only to disappear right before I come to pick them. I feel like Charlie Brown and the ever illusive football he attempts to kick.

This year is going to be different. I have developed a new strawberry defense system.
Step 1: Create a "forest" around the plants to foil attacks from above.
I left some dead, woody plants ( dill & pepper ) so that if a bird swooped in they would get poked by a stick. I also have a forest of fresh dill that helps hide the ripening berries.

Step 2: Create a border of Garden Animals. I gathered up all my bunnies and turtles to make a menacing gauntlet to scare off chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and any other critter that normally approaches from the ground.

Step 3: Gather up any empty spare clay pots for the ripening fruit to overhang, creating another layer of protection. Fortunately I have tons of these, primarily from 8 years of Mother's Day gifts that the kids created at school.

So far it seems to be working pretty well. I have had about a dozen, delicious strawberries so far with more on the way!

Wordless Wednesday: The Peonies Have Finally Opened!

The Ride

They ought to make a Dangerous Book for Moms.

It was a beautiful day Sunday and I wanted to get the boys out for a bike ride early in the day. They have been spending too much time indoors. In order to get their cooperation, I need to make it an adventure. My oldest remembered that we needed to measure last week's ride, where we were caught in a torrential downpour on the way home. The ride we were re-enacting was during the Memorial Day Weekend lazy-fest.
Scene 2: Sunday of Memorial Weekend
It was on-off again clouds and showers. During a break in the weather, I saw an opportunity to get a quick ride in. My oldest son had told us about a route he discovered with his friend the day before. The path went through the woods to a water-tower. I suggested that he might want to show us the route and he took the bait.

The Path

I remembered the gravel path which I estimated to be about 1.5 miles from our house. I sometimes would take my two older boys, when they were small, for long walks in the stroller. I once attempted to navigate the long, rocky path but got spooked and turned around. Not only was it difficult to push the buggy, I was worried about taking two babies into a deserted wooded area by myself. It reminded me of a horror flick right before the monster attacks.

Traveling with three boys by bicycle didn't seem as scary. Chances are we would outnumber any demons.

As we entered the gravel path we followed a winding trail with several walking trails that branched out into the wooded areas. The sweet smells of clover and wildflowers filled my nostrils. The narrow road surrounded by a thick canopy of trees and brush would make the perfect setting for filming a thriller, where the victims are being chased through desolate forests.
But I was not afraid. I had my posse. And I was grateful. This route was much longer than I anticipated. Finally as we reached a clearing we saw the road which led to the gated water-tower.

There was a park in the distance and this was the point we needed to turn around. It also was the time it started to rain.

to be continued.......

Wordless Wednesday - A Day of Firsts

Good: First Rose of '08

Better: First Strawberry of the season

Best: New Piano Came Today!

Time to Smell The Roses

On this Memorial Day weekend I plan to relax, reflect and hang out in my yard enjoying the flowers. Sometimes we are so caught up on getting somewhere that we don't appreciate the journey. Obsessed with achieving a goal, we don't take time to appreciate the the fruits of our labor thus far. This time of year I make a point before I leave for work and when I come home, to walk around the yard, smell the flowers and marvel at life's miracles.

In Another Lifetime I used to have a "real" job. I worked in the offices of a billion dollar corporation. (Not as impressive as it sounds). Every quarter we would have a "briefing". More like a giant pep rally. I vividly remember one of these Quarterly Briefings. After the reports of company performance and awards were handed out, we had a surprise visit from the founder and CEO.

O & A
Our great, wise leader took the podium and made a short speech. When he was done, we were told there would now be a question and answer session. A hush fell over the crowd. It appeared that we had an entire organization of mutes. After an uncomfortable silence there finally was a "softball" question followed by another one.

More silence.
" Any more questions?"
... more silence
" Anyone???"
yet another awkward moment or two.

Finally a gal with a big, booming voice stood up with another query. This gentleman, a college drop-out, had started the company with $5,000 and a big idea. After lots of hard work, and a bit of luck, he was now a successful billionaire.
"....... Do you ever stop and look back in awe on what you have created?"
More silence...
Our founder furrowed his brow and thought for a moment. He stammered a bit and finally answered.

" I never thought about this before. No one has ever asked me that. Hmmm...I guess my philosophy is that if you stop to smell the roses, you'll get run over by a bus."

I remember shaking my head, thinking how sad that must be, for someone to have achieved so much and not take the time to enjoy his success.

Five or Six Years Later

I had left my job to start my own, very small, business. I was tired, felt stifled and needed a break from the corporate world. A few years into my venture, I was interviewed for a fluff piece by a writer for a local business journal. Midway into the interview, the reporter asked " What is your greatest accomplishment?" I hesitated. "...Something you are most proud of?". While it was a pretty standard question, I did not have an answer. I thought back to the comment about getting "run over by a bus".

I finally understood what this successful businessman had meant. I was so busy trying to grow a business and comparing myself to others, I was never satisfied with my efforts. I kept setting the bar higher and higher as I achieved my benchmarks. I was never where I wanted to be.

Moral of the Story

I have noticed the same phenomenon applies to blogging and life in general. We get so caught up in trying to keep up with others, we sometimes spend more time worrying about what we don't have rather than appreciate what we do have.

As I sit in my backyard, I take in the sweet smells of suburbia; the intoxicating odors of gardens and barbecues. The sounds of birds chirping, lawn mowers humming and children playing create a joyful symphony for my ears. I am taking time to be grateful for what I have. I also owe a huge amount of gratitude to the men and women who have given their lives for our country, to protect the freedoms that we take for granted.

This weekend I am taking extra care to smell the roses. And give thanks to those who made it possible.

Wordless Wednesday - May 21 Garden Report

Peonies are progressing

Vegetable garden is finally cleaned up & planted

A perimeter is set up to guard the strawberries as they ripen

Attack Bunny

Shade Planter

Corner of my haven

5 X5 MEME

Jenny from Jenny's Happy Life tagged me for a 5X5 Meme. I will try my hand at this. Okay 5 topics to say 5 things about.......

Five Favorite Foods
1. Coffee - I make a fresh pot every morning
2. Chocolate - It should be a food group on the pyramid.
3. Fresh baked bread with brie
4. Pasta with tomato basil sauce ( made with tomatoes & basil from the garden )
5. Salad made with greens from our garden

Five Hobbies/past-times
1. Blogging
2. Gardening
3. Walking
4. Going for bike rides with the boys
5. Flying kites

Five things in my purse
1. Lip Gloss
2. Wallet
3. old reciepts
4. cell phone
5. pen

Five Goals in Life
1. Win the lottery
2. Start my own village
3. Create my own Holiday ( like Hallmark does ) or a special Blog Day
4. Start my own religion
5. Find 5 more realistic goals

Five things that I wish I could do
1. Keep a clean house
2. Eat healthy
3. Exercise regularly
4. Play a musical instrument really well. ( I took a few years of violin when I was young )
5. Have 5 blog-friends to tag.

If you want to play along.... tag, you're it.

Did I do this right, Jenny? This is my first and possibly last attempt at MEME.

First Salad

We had a nice sunny day today, although still a bit cool. I needed to finish getting the vegetable garden ready for planting. I found some chives and rogue lettuce that had sprouted up; just enough for a small salad.
I made my first salad of the season and had to take a photograph. I added some salmon and strawberries with some raspberry vinaigrette. It was delish!

Tomorrow we will go to a garden center and I get to pick out plants for the garden. This is our Mother's Day Tradition. Hopefully I am able to get some gardening done. We're expecting rain.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommas out there!

Mom of the Year Award!

This Friday, my first grader came home with a laminated wall hanging for Mothers Day.

"I love you because when you let me go to your work you give me good snacks and let me wach Pinky and the Brain (cartoon)" the personalized, handwritten, foreword proclaimed.

What he means by "good snacks" is recently past-the sell-by date, samples and other food items that I have in a tub marked " Eat Me". How many other parents have their children asking them on a regular basis " Do you have any expired food I can eat?".????

I'm sure the teacher was impressed with our good taste in cartoons. I guess I should be grateful he only mentioned "Pinky and the Brain" and not Yugioh, the Simpsons, Family Guy or Mad TV. She may now also be onto our plot for World Domination. A family has to have hobbies, right? Hey! Taking over the world takes skills!

The typed poem reads:

Sometimes I might upset you
Just because I'm small
By leaving fingerprints of mine
On a table, chair or wall.

But everyday I grow a bit
and I'll be big one day
When all my tiny fingerprints
Have long been cleaned away.

So keep these prints of my two hands
to help you to recall
Just how big my fingers were
That time when I was small.

See! I'm not a bad housekeeper. My house is one giant scrapbook!

How to Create a High Level of BlogZanity

How to Make Friends and Influence People at Cre8Buzz and Other Social Network Sites

1. Day 1 : Log on and see how many bloggers you can quickly visit just long enough to leave your profile photo on the Recently Visited section of each member. Do Not leave any comments.

Day 2: Change your photo to something slightly more disturbing like this:

Go back and visit all the Buzzers who noticed your visit on Day 1 and called you out on not leaving a comment. Do Not leave any remarks; just your new profile photo.

Day 3, 4 and 5. Repeat Day 2 until no one gives you a shout out!

Opposite Day

Take a random day and make it Opposite Day. Do not tell anyone. When leaving comments, say the opposite of what you mean. When Rating photos & posts, 1 now is the best and 8 is the worst for today. Pick all the top rankers & rate them with a 1 (for best) and your least favorite should be rated with an 8! Vote early and vote often.
Random Day - Similar to opposite day, make random, nonsensical comments as you blog hop.
Do not tell anyone what day it is; make them guess! Create your own vernacular and acronyms and don’t tell anyone what they mean.
Meme from Hell
When you have some extra time on your hands, create a special 100 question Meme. The more random and bizarre the better. Send it to any one who ever sent you a meme. This could be the start of a new career as a Random Question generator for Blogger.
Drunk Blogging
Similar to Drunk Dialing, have several drinks before you blog. This is a great time to reminisce about your dysfunctional family, unresolved issues or highly personal matters. Do not use spell check or proof-read before publishing. This is also a great time to leave comments for all your blog-friends!
Time to Downsize
Once you have a healthy "Friends" List built up, it's time to cull the herd. Have your own personal Friend Down-sizing. Too many friends can be unproductive. Time to get rid of the non-performers. Offer no apologies or explanations.
Create Your Own Blog Award
Make your own blog award. The goofier the better. Give it to half of your blog friends and make the other half envious. Award it to random blogs that you have never seen before.Create Your Own Blog Day - Pick a day of the week and create your own special day like "I Hate Mondays - Personal Issue Day". (Everyone needs a special day to air their dirty laundry and family dysfunction.) or how about "Tuesday - Bluesday " ( for things that make you sad)

Dance Dance Revolution

When pimping out your site with music, include your children’s favorites like the theme song from Barney, the BooBah soundtrack, recordings of your children practicing their piano or family Karaoke night. Make sure you have the volume as high as it can go.

Other Suggestions? Feel free to leave your BlogZany ideas.

Wordless Wednesday - Garden Report - Week of May 5

Jungle Island coming back to life

Lily of the Valley in Bloom!

Peonies - Stay Tuned ...

Casualty of Winter Hail

Happy May 5th!

Ambivalence is the Best Revenge

Have you ever written a post, one you were proud of, and were disappointed to find no comments? When I first starting blogging, I had to create another identity, just to test out my comment section. It was a good day if I received one remark, even if it was Kenny Surtani telling me where I can buy handmade suits for less. Even now, I am extremely grateful if I get more than 3 comments on a post. More than 5 comments make me feel like a rock star. I don't know what I would do if I ever exceed my all-time high of 15 ( from a blog-hopping party).


I haven't seen a Troll since I was a child. What are these Trolls I hear talk of? I have heard mention of marauding bands of naysayers and cyber-bullies that lurk in the blogosphere. They lie in wait to attack innocent and unsuspecting bloggers. Lately I've come across several posts where maligned posters direct attention to an offending missive. I take the bait and follow the link to view what the hack journalists and their commenters have to say. Pumped up and prepared to help out a fellow blogger, I end up disappointed.

Any attention, even negative, is better than none. Directed to a post I never would have normally come across, I am helping draw attention and boost ratings to an undeserving blog. I am left to wonder, who benefits from this? Certainly not me. Nor the cause I wanted to help.

Ambivalence is the best revenge.
Sometimes it is better to ignore bad behavior as opposed being drawn into an argument. Attention is like oxygen for the fires of controversy, fueling the flames. If you cut-off the "air-supply" by not paying attention, the inferno will die out. Often, after living well and looking good, ambivalence is the best revenge. I'm still working on the first two!...

Wordless Wednesday in the Garden of Bad Momma - The Color Purple

Vinca ( Myrtle)

Wild Flower - no idea

Phlox

Lamium

Lilac

Pansy

Bodies - The School Science Project

Bodies: The First Grade Science Project. Now how do you throw that out?
p.s. I have a few of these in my possession. Do you think I can set up an exhibition and charge admission?

Spring Cleaning - Part II - HELP!

This weekend I continued where I left off on our Spring Cleaning. I spent a bit of time cleaning out the vegetable garden plot. As you can see from the before photo below, I have my work cut out to get ready for planting this year. I didn't pull out the stakes and dead plants at the end of the season last year. One of my boys pointed out that our garden looked like it belonged to the Addams Family!

I moved on to our closets, making piles of outgrown and outdated clothing. I was making fairly good progress until I came to the Dining Room Table, which is covered with two or three years worth of old school projects, papers and artwork.

At this point I choked. I tend to be a pack rat and have a hard time getting rid of unnecessary paperwork and momentos. I am organizationally impaired as well as ADD. I took one look at the table and walked away. When faced with an unpleasant task, I tend to put it off for later. Better add "procrastinator" to my list of short-comings.

My husband is much better at this. He will sort through the piles of papers that come home, filing schoolwork and recycling art projects and papers not worth saving. This works well until one of the kids finds their treasured project in the recycle bin and rescues it. Surely Dad made a mistake! I don't have the heart to say otherwise. I end up adding the retrieved items to the growing collection on my table.

I will probably end up being one of those old ladies who is found barricaded in her house with 20 years worth of mail and newspapers. Good thing I am not a cat person! I sure could use some advice!

Wordless Wednesday - Vegetable Garden - Before

Perennial Potluck

Photo by Alex

Common Ground
There are many similarities between blogging and gardening. Both are hobbies that almost anyone can do, you learn as you go ( or grow!), and can be shared with others. Both past-times also help preserve memories.

Certain plants and their scents can bring back long-ago experiences. To this day, Forsythia and Lilac bushes and Lilies of the Valley remind me of the first botanical treasures to flower each season at my childhood home. When my parents' home was sold, the new owners let me dig up some plants to relocate to my yard as momentos. This was mutually beneficial. I was able to hold on to some dear memories and made room for the new owners to relocate some of theirs.


Pot Luck

This Sunday, I took my middle son to a garden party. I was invited by a friend who owns a garden shop in an urban area. I was having a hard time finding Lily of the Valley plants and was going to have her special order some for me. Her neighborhood garden club was having a Perennial Potluck / Plant Exchange where gardeners would divide and bring plants from their garden to trade. She thought I might find some interesting plants.

I dug up a variety of perennials from our yard such as Day Lillies, Lamb's Ear, Lamium, and Sweet Pea to swap. My son was excited about finding some flowers for a small patch I designated as his special garden plot. I was hopeful of finding some shade loving plants. Neither one of us was disappointed. I even found Lily of the Valley plants that I was searching for!

Good Gardeners are Hard to Find

I was a bit surprised at the lower than expected turnout. In recent years, attendance at this garden party had been dropping. As the urban neighborhood is becoming more gentrified, it is attracting a younger, more affluent population. One of the club members speculated that her neighbors rather pay someone to tend to their landscape than to get their hands dirty.

She shared a recent anecdote about a neighbor who approached her to get the name of the lady who tended to her yard. As the neighbor was coming and going he would frequently see a woman hunched over planting, pruning and weeding at his neighbor's home. The man wanted to see if the gardener would be willing to work her magic on his property.

She gave his a bemused look and said, "That lady is me!"

A Memorable Time

My son brought his camera and took some photos of both gardeners and plants. When we came home, we excitedly showed off our loot to the rest of our family, and found the perfect home for each new friend. Not only did I find my sought after Lilies to help preserve my memory, I helped create a new one for my son.

Earth Day - April 22, 2008

I went to recycle today and got this t-shirt to celebrate Earth Day. I love the sentiment! Every day should be Earth Day.

I have a favorite book for gardening and household cleaning tips, Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles, by Ellen Sandbeck. This paperback is full of non-toxic ways to get rid of pests ( insects and bacteria, not human pests! ).

One of my favorite tips from the book, is to take crushed eggshells and spread them around the base of plants in my garden. Slugs and other crawling bugs do not like to crawl over these sharp edges and will avoid your plants. This is also a good source of calcium for your soil.

Another great tip is to save your coffee grounds to add to the soil around your acid-loving plants such as tomatoes. Coffee grounds also make for a great air-freshner for the car or to deoderize a stinky couch.

This is an Earth Day must read!

Happy Earth Day a few days early!

What's In a Name?

Juliet:"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet - Act II, Scene 2

After my oldest son finished an hour of reading and emptied the dishwasher for me, I let him watch a baseball game on television, The Cleveland Indians versus the Oakland A's.

As I entered the room, my son asked, " Where is Progressive Field?". I looked at the screen and could see that it was cold and sleeting on the ball field. This has to be Cleveland, I brilliantly deduced. I doubted that it would be snowing in Oakland, California this time of year. I thought my son must be mistaken about the name until I heard it for myself. When did this happen? While I'm not a sports nut, I can't believe that I missed that memo.

So I did some research on the internet and this happened in January of this year. Progressive Insurance bought the naming rights for 16 years at roughly $3.6 mil a year!

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/
http://clevelandsports.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/rip-jacobs-field-1994-2007/

I grew up going to games in Cleveland Stadium. It took a while to get used to "Jacob's Field " or "The Jake ". The name was changed in 1994 when a new stadium was built. Now I need to get adjusted to "Progressive Field". Suggested new nicknames are the "Prog" ( sounds too much like Prague for my liking) or the "Pro" ( not feeling it). I guess nothing is sacred. Everything is up for sale at the right price.

I wonder what the value of naming rights to my children are? I may have to test that out on E-Bay or Craig's List. For the right price, I am willing to change my children's names. "Target", "Nationwide" and "McDonalds" have a nice ring to it.


Vanity, thy name is a Baseball Field!

Bathroom Humor

As I've been reading the blogs of Moms with toddlers, I am reminded of how much easier my boys are to take care of now that they are older, especially when it comes to the bathroom.
An Excerpt Reprinted from our 2003 Family Newsletter

Bathroom Humor
As you can imagine, there is much drama that unfolds in our household and the bathroom makes for a great staging area!

“ What’s that wet spot on your shirt?”, I asked Colin as I came back to check on him. I was trying to cook some pasta as well as assist Colin in the downstairs bathroom.
“ Devon peed on me!” he replied.
Devon was at the sink, washing his hands, with his back to me. He was pretending not to hear this exchange. “ Devon, is this true?” I asked him. “ Did you pee on your brother?!” Devon looked at me sheepishly and replied, “ It was an accident.” I waited with amusement to hear his explanation.
Apparently Colin was taking too long sitting on the potty and Devon was too lazy to go upstairs to another bathroom. He saw a small opening and thought he could make it. We had a “discussion”. In addition to agreeing that it was not a very wise choice, we also concluded that his aim is not very good either.

Shaving with Dad
Sometimes in the morning Dad will let Colin shave with him. This consists of putting some shaving creme on Colin’s face and giving him a razor with the plastic cover left on. Bit by bit, Colin will slowly and methodically remove the foam.
One day Alex, who is very observant, also wanted to shave. Dad told him he could go after Colin. When it was Alex’s turn, after lathering him up, Dad gave Alex the razor Colin had used.
A few moments later, Alex cried out, “Ouch!” Without Dad noticing, Alex had removed the guard before shaving. Having witnessed Daddy shaving on several occasions, Alex knew that you could not shave with the plastic cap on over the blade. Seconds later, blood and tears flowed freely. Our little stud had his first shaving accident!
It was no surprise that Alex refused to help create a reenactment shot, even when told the cap would stay on and we would use fake blood. “ I’m never shaving again!” he protested in a highly agitated tone.

It Never Hurts To Ask

Last night we attended our first piano recital for 2 of my boys; my 7 year old and my 9 year old. They have been taking lessons for two months. Their piano teacher spent a considerable amount of time explaining a few expectations for the recital.

The program was being held at a mini concert hall that was part of a well respected Piano Gallery. The teacher was concerned about protocol such as arrival time, bowing and playing through mistakes and stressed the importance of not playing with the pianos in the gallery. Many of these instruments are over $20,000.

I was a bit annoyed how much of the last two lessons this lecture cut into. I also didn't need to be told several times about not touching the pianos, but I realized this must be an issue.

The boys wore dress pants, button-down shirts with ties and dress shoes. All the other students also dressed up. The hall was small but elegant and the children had the opportunity to play a concert-quality baby grand. With a few small bumps, the program went well. There was a five minute intermission before the older students performed. We had the option of leaving. We opted to stay.

While we were strolling about, I had to remind my 7 year old a few times about the "No Touching" rule as he started to reach out to play one of the gallery pianos. Several other families milling around, let their children run about and play on the pianos. My husband, who had missed the protocol lectures, didn't believe me. He pointed out all the other kids "tickling" the ivories and I countered that this didn't make it right.

I had my son go up to the desk and ask permission.

The receptionist looked at me and remarked, " He is the only child that asked permission!" and she pointed out a safe section of pianos to try out. I made sure she knew that we were told by the teacher not to touch any piano other than the one in the recital area or practice room.

I was a bit irritated with the other families for not paying attention to the rules. I now fully understood why so much time was spent to try to reinforce the importance of being respectful.

If you know the rules, follow them. If you are unsure, it never hurts to ask!.