Hi all,

I've got some down time while the soup is cooking, and I've got a good wireless connection going again, so let me type as fast as I can to get this posted in case I can't post before we head to "bean town" Saturday for the charity event . Please excuse typos, spelling or otherwise.

The weather here in Rhode Island has gone from gorgeous to ghoulish. Rain, rain, go away!! No fishing or clamming but lots of cooking for the family. Emeril has nothing on "The Mit!!"

Monday night as we were watching the game show Deal or No Deal, Pyewacket, the great hunter cat, decided to bring in a present for his master, Sta-a-a-conta-wakea. (That's my brother in law's Indian name, he made it up, don't ask, I'm confused as it is.) Anyway, Greg screamed, "Oh no Pye, not a mousie!! No mousies in the housie!!" That's all Wendy had to hear. "A mouse, where, where?" "Oh no little buddy, you brought me a bunny!!" added Greg. Wendy and Rasa, our niece, jumped up to find the animal. You'd think that family had never seen a rabbit before. I had, many a time with carrots, potatoes and a nice gravy dripping on top. lolol

So while I watched, the Antanaitis tribe worked in unison getting Pye outside and catching the rabbit that was about 2 months old. The poor little thing was shaking. Wouldn't you be if some huge cat was using you as a football, swatting you around on the floor??

After the little animal calmed down and the guy on the game show won over $300,000, Greg, Rasa, Wendy and I were off to set "Blossom B. Barrington of the Rhode Island Barringtons" free at the nearest rabbit warren. That's what a rabbit community is called. The name, you ask? Wendy said that the rabbit had to be given a name, so Rasa thought of Blossom and Wendy, well, she thought of the rest. She said it sounded very 'New England!!' Humour her Ian, just humour her.

My sister in law and Irish partner in crime Vicki, suggested Greg find Blossom's family warren because her family is probably missing her. Greg then said to Vicki, "What kind of fantasy land are you living in? Like there are other rabbits looking for her?" "Fantasy land?" I thought. "Doesn't Greg think he's an Indian and he's telling Vicki she lives in a fantasy land?" Hey, I'm just a guest here, who am I to say? haha

With Vicki left behind at the house, we walked towards the end of the street, almost to the bay, when, The Antanaitis's, not me mind you, started singing a Hopi Indian song. "Hi yo hi yo nipsy mi ya, Hi yo hi yo nipsy mi ya, Hi yo hi yo nipsy mi ya, etc..." I know I may not have the correct spelling, so to all of our Hopi readers, I apologise. lolol

As we got the warren, Greg held the bunny up against his fore head and chanted some Indian pray. He then placed Blossom on the ground and said, "Go little sister and be free." We stood there, the bunny just laid there, we all looked at each other, we looked at the bunny, and then we looked at each other again not knowing what to do. That's when Greg said, "Ok, she's coming home with us until she feels better, we can't leave her here, it's cold and wet out." That didn't take any persuasion did it "Oh Indian warrior?" He sure turned into a typical card carrying PETA member at that point. Cold and wet my bum!! She's a WILD rabbit!!

So, we turn around and up we walked towards the house. Once again, "they", as in "not me," chanted Hi yo hi yo nipsy mi ya, until we got to the house. Thank the Great Spirit in the sky that it was only 3 verses worth of that song!!

The next day after Wendy got up, I told her that Greg had left the bunny for us to release, but it was so cold and rainy out, we hadn't the heart to let her go. And she was so cute. If this had been CA, she'd be our new pet. Yeah, I was sucked in to the PETA cult. ;)

Throughout the day, Blossom ate and drank and slept. Wendy made her a nest on the couch out of a big, fluffy blanket. When Rasa came home from school and Greg and Vicki came home from work, Greg told Rasa to let "little sister" run a round and be free.

So Blossom ran around and as dinner time drew near, Rasa picked up Blossom to put her back in her cage. When all of a sudden, Blossom hopped out of Rasa's arms and into Wendy's robe. She just laid there like many a rattie had done before. Oh great!! Wendy started to tear up. "Noriko-Millicent loved to do this. Oh to be a mother." I quickly chimed in, "Now don't you get all Angelina Jolie on me!! I don't want to see you running to the nearest foreign country, i.e.: Canada and bringing back some baby who'll end up like Celine Dion claiming, she izzzz zeee best!" lolol Wendy then said to me that all she wants is a Chihuahua, not a baby!! Oh, whew!! Those maternal instinct, do they ever go away?

Anyway, that rabbit just slept all cozy in Wendy's robe, and yes, digital photos were taken. I have to admit, it was really cute. She was just this tiny little creature, sound asleep, all secure.

About 2 hours later, Greg told Rasa and Wendy to put the rabbit back for some food and water. Then it happened, as Rasa was getting ready for bed, she yelled for Greg to come up stairs. So he did. When he didn't return right away, Wendy ran upstairs and within a minute came down stairs holding Blossom. She looked at me and told me Blossom was dying. Wendy laid the rabbit on her lap and Rasa sat with her. Wendy explained what was happening. We've gone through this with many of our rats, so we knew that Blossom must have been injured when Pyewacket got a hold of her. Within a few minutes, Blossom was in the big rabbit warren in the sky. We have no idea what happened. :(

Greg grabbed the shovel and Wendy and Rasa prepared the bunny for burial. Where I'm from, the garbage is as good as anything to bury a wild animal, but not the Antanaitis tribe. So there we stood, Greg, Rasa, Wendy and I, the rain drizzling down, and the darkness almost upon us. Vicki was left in the house once more, she couldn't bear to watch the burial. Rasa and Wendy were crying and Greg had tears in his eyes. Wendy added a few last words....when doesn't she? And as Greg covered the bunny's terrycloth wrapped body with dirt, he said, "We've lost a life, little sister is now gone." I looked at everybody and thought, "My wife and niece are crying, my brother in law thinks he's an Indian and I'm at a rabbit's funeral, how did I get here? Did I turn left instead of right? Things like this got you tarred and feathered while growing up in Northern Ireland!!"

Upon going inside the house, I told my sister in law about the happenings outside. She said to me that we married into this family for better or for worse, and it could be worse. Yeah, I suppose she's right, it could be. Hi yo hi yo nipsy mi ya. This was a bad time to give up beer! lolol

What's that song? You know that song, that annoying song from that annoying musical that my wife sings?  Oh yeah; OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes sweeping, blah, blah, blah, what have you!! Well, I had my first experience of Oklahoma this past weekend and do I dare say, no wind came sweeping down the plain, but the people were the most extraordinarily friendly "folk" I've ever met!

Let me back up a bit. Since I last posted a blog, I did some more private gigs and one public gig and I've been in the recording studio recording, yes, you guessed it, a new CD.
But more about that another time.

Anyway, as luck would have it, I got a call from my agent who told me he had a booking for me on an Indian reservation. Then I started singing 'Indian Reservation (Cherokee people)' by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I believe Jeff's reply was;
"No Mitchell, it's the Choctaw!" 
What? There are other tribes except the Cherokee?
They didn't teach me that in US Citizenship 101.

So I quickly did my research, checked out the casino
and even found out that
the Choctaw were the first code talkers in WW1.
I found this fascinating.
Did everybody see Windtalkers?
If not, you may not have a clue what I'm talking about.

 Anyway, I decided to surprise Wendy at the last minute with a ticket to join me in OK. What I didn't know is that she had already contacted two ladies who were at the Anaheim fest, DeeJay and Tess. Apparently they live near Dallas, yet a two hour stone throw away from the Reservation. So she was very excited that she would see them again.

Monday evening brought my wife in from CA and landing in Dallas two hours before me. About 30 minutes before my plane landed, Wendy said she looked outside and decided this wasn't going to happen. There was a crane holding up my gate.
It's an accident waiting to happen and chances are, we wouldn't be pulling into it. And of course it was MY gate that was broken!! The luck of the Irish(-American) I'll tell you!!

Twenty five minutes later she finally got word that there was a gate change and my plane landed. I couldn't wait to deplane, the quicker I did, the quicker I could get a kiss and the quicker we could get to our driver for the 90 mile drive to the casino/hotel. Now, where IS that driver?

As we grabbed my luggage and proceeded outside to bake in 90° F degree weather (that's 32.2° C) with 120umidity at  9.30 PM, I thought, "This was a bad time to give up smoking, AGAIN." But by a miracle, I had one smoke left. Ok, more like ten, but really it's an on going struggle!! So I lit up and sat staring at the parking lot.

"Wendy"  I said. "I remember the days when the driver was right at baggage claim holding a sign with my last name on it. What's that saying? You know, the one the flight attendant said to me in Germany when he tried to stop me from being the only one sitting in a business class seat and wanted to down grade me so he didn't have to deal with business class? You know, the one who grabbed my ear and pulled it really hard?" 

"You're not a Pop star anymore little boy?" she answered.