Summer's Eternal Quest for the Perfect Cartwheel

I will be 42 this year and I have unfinished business.

I want to accomplish a cartwheel. A really perfect straight leg over the head cartwheel.

Nothing fancy, no Nadia Comaneci moves, just a standard cartwheel. No round off, no back walkover, just a cartwheel ...

a PERFECT cartwheel.



I don't know why this is important. I just know it is.

Thursdays are for Piano

The sanctuary of Darrolyn's is available to me every Thursday if I choose to take the mission. That mission being taking Ella to piano lessons.

Darrolyn's is a place of infinite color. Her home is a rainbow and every holiday is accounted for. It's a weird trip back in time as I think of my own piano teacher Mrs. Mord. I am reminded of her collection and obsession with all things frog. Just like Darrolyn my Mrs. Mord was a colorful character. A multitude of frogs in various positions and circumstances decorated her studio where she sat with each child.

There is still one poster I remember to this day. It was a poster of a frog (of course) stretching to reach a branch. The caption was something along the lines of "those in uncomfortable positions make the most progress."

Darrolyn sends us home each week with a quote. We take a picture to remember the moment.

No One is Irish Anymore ... Everyone is Scottish

There is a very strange thing that has happened to me in recent years. A good bulk of my Irish peeps have researched their family history only to find that they are not so Irish after all.

They are Scots!

Now I have paperwork that says I am Irish. It's not a family genealogy and I can't verify anything at this point, but it says that I have Irish and English blood coursing through my veins. That is all I know.

I am married to a Mc ... a Scotch Mc and every time the Irish-Scottish thing comes up he is always quick to remind me that the English never subjugated the Scots, only the Irish.

But before you pull all that Braveheart stuff on me I have something new to share.

My Merriam family genealogy has always pointed to England, or so I have been told. But after getting "the book" I have found that the Merriams were right on the Scottish border.

But I guess on St. Patrick's Day everybody gets to be Irish.

And I am no fan of snakes so I am all about St. Pat.