Video killed the radio star.

I'd been holding off on posting this because I was checking to make sure everyone was okay with some clips of their children in the video, but it looks like nobody minds it. Then I got so busy prettifying my new office, and... you know how it goes.

Puppet Tour 2011 is all over, and we finished it by visiting with the Sandbank family. After watching her siblings get married in a matter of months, Leah Drew finally succumbed to peer pressure and got a boyfriend. Not only does he think Leah Drew is sweet (no small wonder), he brought an adorable puppy to win our affection. Hey, our love was for sale and he was buying.

There were the usual Sandbank family movie nights, several games of dammit, delicious culinary creations from Matt's mom, Mary Ellen (previously referred to on this blog as Mdawg), and even some trips to new places. Like Mdawg said, it should be a crime not to get together for six whole months.Now that it's all over, I present for your viewing pleasure, the summer video.

My job is so small town.

Sometimes I just have nothing to say about the places we visit. After a while, small towns start to blend together. I'm not talking about the nice little towns with culture and identity. I'm talking about the small towns that have nothing but a dollar general and a bad Chinese restaurant.

To entertain ourselves, Matt and I started a competition to see who could randomly sprinkle their conversations with a bizarre fortune he got at one of the bad Chinese restaurants. You get points for frequency of use, and extra points for style and inanity. Here's an example:

Mdawg: Matthew, do you want an omelet?
Matt: Is even the greatest of whales helpless in the middle of the desert?
Mdawg: Is that a yes or a no?

Here's a small town story. One library, which shall remain nameless, was papered with signs advertising a show, by Mother Goose Theater. Normally, I would let this slide, but here's why it's a blog-mentioning error. 1) This is the third year in a row that we've been there. 2) The sign was adorned with a picture from Matt's website. At some point, the person making the flier had to go to www.wildgoosechasetheater.com, and stare at a banner that says Wild Goose Chase Theater, whilst grabbing the photo. I guess it says something that in the three years we've been to this place, I've gotten zero pictures there.

Now we're in Greensboro, where Matt is performing his final shows of the summer. We're staying with Matt's family, which comprises the blog readership almost entirely. So on the next blog, I'll have an especially fun time writing about them. It's like talking about someone behind their back and to their face at the same time! So meta!

The shows in Greensboro have been received pretty well. I can usually hear a fair amount of laughter, most of it coming from Matt's mother, who has been to all 5 of his shows here. Yesterday, while we were setting up, a kid approached us wearing a tshirt that read "I'm kind of a big deal." As soon as we informed him there would be a puppet show, he enthusiastically said, "I love puppet shows! I've never seen one before. Can I be the star?" Immediately after the show, he followed this by insisting that Matt teach him to make shadow puppets on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.












Kids say the darnedest things.