Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Make Me Laugh Monday!


Did you know that yesterday was Make Me Laugh Monday?? ME NEITHER!!

That is, until you guys made me laugh!!!

I'm going to launch Make Me Laugh Monday and award people the MMLM award based on how hard you make me laugh. Stay tuned at the end of this post for the winner of yesterday's...

But first - CARDZ! and a little sad news.

One of my life heros died on Monday. :( His name was Pete Rodriguez, and you didn't know him. He was my band director at Bryan High. He was probably the most demanding person I've ever worked for, and my most beloved leader. He was little, but FIERCE. When he was mad, you hid. Except you didn't, because he wouldn't let you. He never blamed anyone for a mistake that wasn't theirs, and he never let you not own up to yours. And when we did well, he got all teary eyed. When he hugged us, we felt our ribs crack. He was as politically incorrect as they came, assigning nicknames to us, like "Big Gun" to anyone who was chubby. He loved us fiercely, and when we performed with him, we were much better than the sum total of our talent, because the extra ingredient was his passion - for music, for education, for people, and for flawlessness, or as near as you could get with mortal efforts.

The little twinkle in his eye changed my view of the world, as did the things I did with his help - the awards I won that I never would have had without him, the trips I took where he kept us safe and on track, and the friends I made because of his generous spirit and great example. He had us all to his home one Christmas, which no other teacher before college ever did, and the caroling, and the cookies and the warmth and love from Mr. Rod and his wife feel to me just like they did that night X years ago. (No, I'm not telling you!)

I love you Mr. Rod. You were my hero. I hope you're giving em hell in heaven and teaching people what the heck a straight line and a tempo mean. I'm sure they'd forgotten. You will never be.

This card is for you.
This little fella is from the new release at Starving Artistamps called Super Parents! Check it out, and stand by for more. The background is my beloved, beloved cityscape from Set the Scene.

I colored it with Copics and accented it with a white gel pen and a blue Souffle Pen.

So, I hope I didn't make you sad. If so - please let's go on to Make Me Laugh Monday!!

First, when leaving a comment on the Google Earth Car/Bat/Bird Post on Monday, my buddy Jayne gets "desplunc" as her secret word. If you're new to my blog, we like to entertain ourselves over here by using these words in a sentence. Sometimes I give prizes for especially amusing ones. Well Jayne asked for help with this word, and my favorite shunned one, Lisa Page, offered this:

Jayne- BEAUTIFUL! Spelunking is the act of cave exploring- as in exploring the caves where the bats are in the Central Texas area! Sooooo, here's your def.- "desplunc"-Whenever you back out of a cave. It could be for any reason. Bats that freak you out. Or stalagmites that are going to attack you. I'll use it in a sentence- One day my brother and I went to Innerspace Caves in Georgetown, I had to "desplunc" because my brother had claustrophobia!" love always, rad.shunee

She followed it up with this:

Of course, then there is the "spledesplunking"- when your spleen decides to give out as you are retreating from the cave.


Now Lisa is shunned because she likes rain, and I do not. But apparently, my little rain radical's sense of humor is not affected by the weather, because these about made espresso come out of my nose when I read them.

So congrats to Lisa - the inaugural Make Me Laugh Monday Winner!!! You are welcome to the contents of the post you commented on - either the red or blue bird - lemme know which!

Finally

OMG A GIANT CAT LIVES IN MY HOUSE - LOOK SHE TAKES UP THE WHOLE CHAIR - RRRRUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!

Oh, well. Maybe she's still little. Maybe I found a teeny leather armchair at Target that I thought would make a hilarious cat chair for my studio!!! Is that not awesome?? It's right next to my desk and she loves to flop down there while I work. I would like to pretend it has nothing to do with my space heater, so I'd appreciate that if you'd stifle an urge to suggest that might be what it is.. :)

Tomorrow I will announce the winner of the Momster contest, and will also publish dates for the next few webinars. I have to scurry now.

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.


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13 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear about Mr. Rod, but I love your tribute card. The hair is just fabulous, and of COURSE he belongs against the city backdrop. I have yet to ink that one up - What am I waiting for?

    I have no funnies for you, but I'm gonna check out the post and let other people make me laugh instead.

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  2. what a great idea for a stamp set - super hero parents!

    love the cat chair!! she is watching you carefully --- to make sure that you don't take any more of her pom-poms and adhere them to cards!

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  3. sorry about Mr Rod....those teachers take a special part of our hearts don't they?

    Umm...why did you try to gve you cat a Mohawk?

    WV of the day...TRINGSP
    ..as in....I have no idea....LOL...um...this is going no where is it?....OH..here we go..
    TRINGSP as in...
    I have to stop TRINGSP-g so much wine ...

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  4. Sorry about Mr Rod. I am glad you had such a wonderful person in your formative youth.

    LOVE the chair! And I LOVELOVELOVE the MMLM idea.

    LOL over that desplunk. Here's mine for today: branter. Banter is blahblahblah-ing, branter is when you blahblahblah a Rant.

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  5. Wow, what an amazing tribute to Mr. Rod, and yes of course it made me cry. We should all be so blessed to have something like that written about us after we are gone. He sounds like he was one in a million. I hope you have shared that with his wife as well; I'm sure you have.
    Happy WEDNESDAY!

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  6. RIP Mr. Rod. *sniff*

    Your tribute is really beautiful. He sounds like he was a great man.

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  7. I always wondered where everyone got the "word of the day." Now I get it! I just had to try mine:

    "mintio" - the extent to which something tastes minty. Ex.- I love this new gum; it is really minti-o!

    giggle

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  8. I've had teachers like that in my life and I know he will be very missed by you. So sorry to hear that he passed.

    Glad I made you laugh! Really wish I coulda seen espresso come out the nose! What I did just see was that you are on the Convention 08 highlight video. Didn't realize that until now.

    Am still trying to learn Twitter. When people say there is a learning curve I know they aren't talking about me. In my case, the "curve" is a HUGE arc the size of a rainbow!

    I'd be honored to receive the bluebird- those things are just too stinkin' cute!

    Have a great day!

    Radical Shunee (in your dreams)

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  9. What a wonderful tribute to Mr. Rod. There is something extra special about music teachers - especially if you have a good one.

    I, too, loved Lisa's definition for desplunc. She's a very clever gal - for someone who likes rain. :)

    And of course, the only reason your kitty is in that chair is because it keeps her close to you. Why else would she be there?

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  10. Were you drinking espresso at the time or do you have the ability to secrete espresso at will? (Who's Will?) Anyway, love the blog.

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  11. So wonderful what you said about Mr. Rod. I hope he knew you felt that way....wouldn't it be nice if people would tell us all those wonderful things when we are on this side of the ground??
    You were in Band? All I can think of in my head right now is...
    "this one time, in band camp....."
    hehehe. Come on, you went to band camp, didn't you?!

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  12. Who quoted this? "I didn't know you were funny" (brilliant movie line with Bruce Willis) Teresa. Me says ha-ha-ha-"who's Will?'- ummm, hee-hee. Hoo-hoo. :) :) :)

    Hilarious!

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  13. I just loved your comments about your teacher. And yes, it made me cry. I was about to ask if this was MMTT (Make Me Tear (up) Tuesday) But I'm reading this on MMWW Make me weep Wednesday. Sorry, couldn't resist.
    Connie

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