Mini-Mac is Babette

I forgot to mention that Mini-Mac is Babette in the Stage1 production of Beauty and the Beast Jr.

They had their opening weekend last weekend and it was fab. It's a very different experience from her usual theater group. Instead of hundreds of kids in 3-5 casts all milling about, they picked the top kids and really rehearsed them.

It makes a big difference.

The show is much tighter and much higher quality and much more enjoyable to watch.

Plus Mini-Mac is awesome in it, of course.

I'm still glad Peter Pan Foundation is around giving kids a shot. Because every kid gets in, Mini-Mac has been able to have experiences that she wouldn't otherwise been able to get. She's gone from being in the Ensemble with occasional solos to having name parts. I don't think that would have happened if she was just auditioning and auditioning and not getting to production after production.

Plus they do so much good work raising money for charity.

The Toyota is Dead. Long Live the Toyota!

MacBoy totaled his car.

Okay, HE didn't total it. Some dude totaled it for him. The other guy was going at least 50 in a 30 mph zone. But says he had a Green light. MacBoy says it was a flashing Red.

Which means it's "he said, he said."

We think the insurance company will come back with "Unable to determine fault."

That's good in a way because it means MacBoy's insurance rates won't go up. But bad in a way because he only has Liability insurance and so he won't get a dime for the wrecked Solara.

The Cash for Cars people gave him a couple hundred for it though. And another couple hundred for his Aunt's Saturn that she gave him but he couldn't learn to drive because it was a stick shift.

He did try on the stick shift but he couldn't get comfortable on Mr. Mac's car and his Aunt's was in much worse shape and much harder to drive.

We ended up buying him a "new" one for his birthday with the understanding that he'd pay us back for most of it over time.

It's another Toyota but a Corolla. So quite the step down from the Solara in some ways. It's a 1997 too. But slightly less mileage. And not dying like the Solara was. At least not as far as we know!

MacBoy has a job!

A real one. He's going to deliver pizza for Pizza Hut. He likes to drive and he likes pizza so I think this is a good job for him.

He may now need to give his car a tune up. It's been a while.

The Grounding

MacBoy and Mini-Mac BOTH got grounded within days of each other.

Mini-Mac was just a fight over her room. But MacBoy really screwed up. He took his car out for a drive even though  he's had no lessons and only has a learner's permit. Then he got caught and drove the car over a curb and burst three tires and dented three rims.

It's going to cost him $1300 to fix his car and he's grounded until the end of the year.

MacBoy is licensed

MacBoy got his learner's permit. So the roads of Northern California are no longer safe!

(Heh, he'll be so happy to read that.)

We're going to Vegas

Okay, Mr. Mac and MacBoy are going. It's for MacBoy's birthday. He wants to drive to Vegas, see "Love" at the MGM Grand, and drive home. MacMadame said it was okay if a parent went and she's busy the two weekends he wants to go. Plus he doesn't want his punk kid sister to go so someone has to stay home with her.

But no she has to go to the SJ Rock 'n Roll Marathon and she's not happy about that.

MacBoy still not in college

So MacBoy's college plans hit a snag. He completed all the requirements to get in. But then he couldn't find any classes he wanted to take that weren't already full. So now he's going to wait until the Spring semester to start.

In the meantime, he's going to keep looking for a job.

MacBoy is going to college

I can't believe it. I kind of figured this day would come, but I figured it would take longer.

He's going to start the Fall semester on Aug. 31st at Ohlone College, which is a community college right here in Fremont. He can ride his bike to it.

The plan is to take some courses that interest him and get his General Ed requirements out of the way, then transfer to a 4-year university at a later point.

Mini-Mac is back from camp

Mini-Mac had a good time at camp. She informed me she got married four times and divorced three and remarried one. Or something like that. She and her friends would do that in pre-school but the boys were marrying the girls. Okay, one boy married two girls, so it was still not mainstream. But apparently the in thing with the tweeners these days is to marry other girls. I'm not sure what to make of that. It probably explains Zac Efrom and Dave Archulleta though.

Pre-Teens are Loud!

Mini-Mac is having a sleepover. With 4 of her friends from school. I swear, they gave me a migraine within about 5 min. of walking in the door with all their shrieking and running through the house. Of course, Mini-Mac is the loudest of them all.

Right now they are playing Hide & Seek so the noise has subsided a bit. But not that much.

The kids are alright

At least I assume they are. We managed to get rid of them for five freaking days and no one has called to say we need to come pick them up or that they managed to kill each other when no one was looking. So it's all good.

They are at Winter Drama Camp and come back Friday. I could have used a few more days of peace and quiet, but they do have to get ready for school on Monday.

Mr. Mac and I will probably go see "Milk" tonight for New Year's Eve and tomorrow I'll try to get some 2008 projects finished off. My new bike is supposed to arrive "any day now" as well so maybe I'll get a rid in before they show up.