The only way these could be cuter is if Joseph had baby kittens playing on his head.

We saw Marcus and his band play last night at Central.  Dallas had to be at a basketball game, so he wasn't there to sing.  They played two songs Marcus wrote.  Don couldn't believe how really, really good our Fang is onstage!




They call him Angus.


Davis and Oz.  It's kind of hard to get a picture of him behind the drums.

We had three birthdays in a row, so we celebrated them all together.  I made a cake with pecans only on 2/3.  Mama made her great cheeseburgers with cheddar cheese.  My favorite part was when Daddy got a Red Ryder BB Gun from Jackie for shooting squirrels.  Joseph said maybe Grandpa won't have to beat them to death with a shovel anymore.  Daddy says it kind of takes the sport out of it for him.  Hey, it may have been grisly, but it was really good exercise.  When I went over there Thursday to pick up Joseph, Mama had all the windows open and was walking around with a can of Febreeze.  It smelled like that time at the bank when a dead mouse was in the Coke machine.  Shoooo-wheeee!  I told her I suspect Daddy "winged" a squirrel, and it crawled up under the house and died.  He denies everything, of course.

 

I'm still waiting to hear which session of JBA Joseph's accepted into.  If it's June, he'll most certainly have to fly alone if he goes.
If it's July, I'll be driving him up.  I know I said I did everything I wanted in Missouri, and heaven knows I took enough pictures (I loved taking the ARCH pictures), but I've been reading up on Kansas, OK, AR, and Iowa.  There's lots more to see.  I could visit the site of the In Cold Blood killings.  That's almost as good as seeing the Lizzie Borden house.  I didn't go in the Jesse James cave that was on Rte. 66.  There's a giant pecan I missed, too.

I downloaded my camera pictures today finally.  Let's start with October, shall we?
Happy 18th Birthday, Patrick!


Moving along, we have the Grace Temple Baptist Church Annual Fall Festival, where we do the Lazarus Tomb (it's SCARY, whoooooo).  In the first pic, that's Marcus filling in as Mary.  Or Martha.  Whichever.  John Marc is Jesus.  That's Erica in the second pic as Mary.  Or Martha.  Whichever.  Joseph was Lazarus this year.  I remember the Marcus years as Lazarus when I'd wrap him in yards and yards of torn sheets.  What a trouper!  I wish I had a pic of the Lazarus/Jesus dance number. 








Then, came the Squatter Halloween Party.
Here's Johnny!


Andrea was the truck from Maximum Overdrive.  Patrick was the road.  Kashi was a cat.  We had a Stephen King theme.  Don was Cujo.
          

Thanksgiving rolled around, and we got Ginger.  She whines and barks at me if I stop petting her, so I pet her continuously.  She is the bane of my existence. 




Christmas Banquet with the Lone Star Cloggers!


Cowboy Glen performed at the Christmas Banquet, too.



  

Blackie gets under tree again, once the presents are gone.  Ginger gets the good bed!


Joseph was psyched because Cornerstone let the boys grow out their hair and beards in honor of the first day back to school after the break being "Lumberjack Day".  A little weird, but Joseph was one hairy little lumberjack.


Now that I've caught up, maybe I can write some blogs and take new pictures.

I saw on the news that today would have been Elvis's 74th birthday if it weren't for that whole dead thing.  I was on my way to my cousin Christine's house in 1977, driving over the railroad tracks on Main, when I heard the news.  I told my Aunt Mary when I got to her house, knowing she was a fan.  She and my mom have a picture taken of them with Elvis back when he was just starting out.  Anyway, I remember Aunt Mary was surprised, but there wasn't a huge reaction.  When I asked her about that, she said, 'I liked Elvis, but not the way I liked Johnny Horton.  I really liked Johnny Horton.  When he died, I really took it hard.  I'm still not over it yet.'

Now, I like Elvis, but do you know what I liked even more than Elvis?  The harlequin Elvis from the mural that was painted on the civic theatre's marquee back in the early 80's.  I loved that mural, and I loved that Elvis.  I remember standing out across the street from the theatre with Richard Nance, watching the guy paint that mural.  Richard loved it, too.  You know what he liked best about that mural?  There was a lady on the far right of the mural, opposite Elvis, and her dress had slipped down over her shoulder.  Richard loved the idea that San Angelo, Texas had an exposed lady on our Angelo Civic Theatre marquee.  The same San Angelo that asked the sculptor to change his Concho Mermaid statue to be less endowed because anything over an A-cup would be indecent.  So much for art.

When I got my camera almost two years ago, one of the first pictures I took was of that harlequin Elvis and the marquee.  The West Texas sun had faded Elvis and all but erased the exposed nipplage that tickled Richard so long ago.  I'm glad I took those pictures because it has since been painted over.  What bonehead decided that?  So much for art.

Rest In Peace, Harlequin Elvis and Nipple Lady.  I'll miss you every time I drive down Sherwood Way.