Things Are Getting Better

I know enough about the grief process to know that it cannot be avoided. I think it may be possible to get stuck in one of the stages, but when someone this close to you dies, like it or not, you’re going through it.

I think I still have the “why him” questions. Maybe I always will, but this morning while I was thinking/praying about the events of the last few days I stumbled across a piece of reality that is helping to make all this better.

In my last posting I said, “I want to be able to wrap my mind around some concept, some truth, some piece of reality that will make this all better.”

The truth is that I have been given a gift. I was able to be a part of Homer’s life for almost 20 years. I had the opportunity to call him family. I’m not sure what I’ll do with this truth, but for now focusing on that is helping.

Thanks for listening.

I don't understand...

I went to a close friend’s funeral on Tuesday, and it was quite possibly the hardest funeral I’ve ever had to attend.

You see, Homer was my car enthusiast pal, my house painting buddy, my guy to call when you need a favor right now…Homer was my father-in-law.

I want it to make sense. I want to understand why.

I know life and death and living and dying rarely if ever make any sense, but damn it, I want this to make sense. I want understand what part of God’s big plan needed for Homer, a perfectly health man, to go to bed one night and then just not wake up. I want to be able to wrap my mind around some concept, some truth, some piece of reality that will make this all better.


I don’t think this is too much to ask.

Spelling Tests and 4th Grade Hecklers

Whenever I give spelling tests I try to add a wee-bit of humor to the day. Sometimes I’ll have students think of and blurt out different nouns, and then I choose one and use it in the sentences that I say with each word. Other times I’ll pick one student and have that student doing strange things in each sentence. And still other times I just say whatever wacky thing happens to pop into my head.

Today I went with my off-the-cuff, whatever pops into my head routine…and baby I was hot! I had ‘em in the palm of my hand. And let me tell you, it’s not quite as easy as you might think to keep a room full of nine and ten year olds in stitches. Well, maybe it is, but never the less, I was on fire.

I looked down and “gown” was the next word. Of course the first thing I think of is wedding gown. Before I knew what I was saying this sentence popped out of my mouth.

“At my wedding, the gown looked great on me!”

And everyone laughed.

However, just as the laughing was beginning to die down, a tiny voice from the corner of the room squeaked out these words,
“Mr. A, are you trying to tell us something?”

And the room completely fell apart.

Just when you’re thinking about taking your act on the road, you get taken down by an unruly 4th grade heckler.

Sometimes teaching can be brutal.

An Unusual Sight...at Least for Me

unusual
adjective
1. not usual or common or ordinary;
2. being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected;
3. not commonly encountered;

While I think all three of these definitions would make sense in the context of my situation yesterday, really the third definition is the one that makes the most sense…at least for me.

You see, yesterday my daughter brought home here first jr. high report card and she got all A’s. She even had a 100 average in not one, but two of her seven classes.

I think I’ve mentioned things before about my lack of success as a student, at least through my high school days. I mean I never saw all A’s until I was in graduate school. And I’m sorry if this ruffles your feathers, but getting a 4.0 in seminary just ain’t all that hard!

So my head is still spinning as I try to wrap my mind around this crazy new world.

Because all A's on a report card really is an unusual sight...at least for me.

Life on a Cloud

Feeling safe and secure in my own little space,
Yes, safe and secure, cause there’s never a trace

Of any real danger or sadness or hurt,
I always have dinner and usually dessert

The world that I know is not a cruel place,
When I go to sleep, there’s a smile on my face

I have a wonderful family, supports always there,
I’m surrounded with love, compassion and care

Yet I know that not everyone lives like I do,
That our world, it has pain and suffering too

It’s just far too easy to look past the pain,
To live in my world and try to stay sane

I exist on a cloud with the pain far below,
If I squint I can see it, or at least I think so

Sometimes from way down, I can hear a faint hum,
So I toss down some pennies, a quarter…a crumb

Then I fluff up my cloud and think, “Man, I’m sure nice!”
Of the folks down below I don’t even think twice

But my cloud took a dip, and I came face to face,
With a world and an image my mind can’t erase

What I saw was a world where children have fear,
Where they’re yelled at and beaten, but just why was not clear

I looked deep in a face, whose gaze came back hollow,
The despair that I saw was a hard pill to swallow

With my cloud way up high, my life was so easy
But now I’m uncertain, and I feel a bit queasy

Now my cloud’s not so fluffy, and a little less white
The temptation to clean it, I hope I can fight

I’m still trying to figure out what I should do,
Cause if clouds can float down, I’m sure help can too.

I'm trying to write...no really!

Have you ever had one of those periods in your life when you just don’t seem to have time to get everything done that you want to?

And when you have those times, do you find yourself prioritizing your to-do list for the week?

Then does it always seem like you can never find time to accomplish the last few things on your list, so you just keep moving bumping them over to the next week in hopes of somehow finding the time to do them?

If so, then welcome to my world.

The beginning of each teaching year is like that for me. Nothing, other than school stuff, ever seems to get done. Due to my inability to “jump” right back into the swing of things I spend what feels like an eternity playing catch up.

You would think after 14 years of teaching I would have figured out how to flip my school mode personality on and off like a light. However, I spend several weeks winding down at the beginning of the summer and several more getting geared back up in the fall.

All that to say, I’m trying to write…I really am.

On a fun note, I read my Frog Memory (You can read it here) story to my class and they laughed like it was the funnies thing they had ever heard. I even got a few fun comments and two or three odd looks from some of the parents the next day.

I’m not sure, but I think this only confirms their suspicions that they have a strange teacher. A mindset that I do everything I possibly can to encourage.

With this age of kid, the weirder you are the better…at least in my mind.

What ever happened to Jr. High?

When I was in jr. high it was very different than it is today…at least that’s my impression. Sure, it was 30 years ago, but I don’t remember there being such a huge effort to teach organization skills as well as the curriculum.

At my daughter’s school every student has a day planner that they MUST have with them at all times. If you are ever caught without it, then you get after school detention.

I had never even heard of a day planner until I was in graduate school, and by then all my bad scheduling habits were so ingrained that it was literally teaching an old dog new tricks. Actually, one of my goals for this school year has to do with organization. I’m going to do my lesson plans on the computer, because I tend to keep better track of the things I do if they are on the computer.

But I digress…

All I remember about jr. high was trying to look cool while at the same time keep my grades above the D mark, a stunt that didn’t always happen. The only choices I had were whether or not to play football and if I wanted to take art or music. I just circled my choices on a sheet of paper and stuck it in a box.

For Macy it’s a lot like college was for me. She has to decide about athletics, pre-AP classes and band. Basically she arranges her own schedule. She’s making decisions in jr. high that effect classes she will be able to take in high school that can give her college credit!

Growing up in El Paso, my dad was of staff at UTEP, so I knew what college was. I probably couldn’t have spelled the word college, but I knew it was a place people went after high school.

There’s always somewhere she’s supposed to be, something she’s supposed to have and somebody we’re supposed to give money to. All I know is Melissa and I are being baptized by fire.

It’s a whole new world.

Another FUNY Thing Happened...

I'm sorry about the spelling problem with my last posting's title. You would think that I could at least write the title without any spelling errors!

Now let me see...what would I say to one of my fourth graders if he or she turned in a paper with the title misspelled?

I bet it wouldn't be funy...

Funy Things Happen...

My school has a new principal.

This is my 14th teaching year, but only my first time to get a new principal. I’ve changed schools twice and have changed principals both of those times, but this is a wee-bit different.

Having your boss be the new kid on the block is a little strange. However, his personality and his “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” attitude, are making the transition very easy.

Last week he sent out an email to the entire faculty. It sounded something like this:

“For future reference, if you happen to see me walking through the building with a dab of icing on my chin, please feel free to point it out to me.”

As I read the message I wasn't sure if he was trying to just make a random request to break the ice with his new staff, or if something like this had happened to him.

The next time I saw him I asked him why he would make such a request and he turned red.

It seems that early that morning someone in the building had given him a cupcake. He ate the cupcake and went about the business of being a principal. He had spent time in the office, walked through several classrooms, and more than likely had talked with more than a couple of parents.

Sometime around lunch he happened by a mirror and noticed a spot of icing that had been on his chin for most of the day.

I must admit…I laughed out loud at his story, but he laughed too.

It makes things much easier when you discover that not only is your new boss a regular guy, but he's also kind of person who can laugh at himself.

Like I said, funny things happen!

My Jesus Shoes

Growing up in El Paso I wore flip-flops all the time. This was long before flip-flops were such a huge fashion statement. Due to the fact that, like most boys, I either tended to be extra rough on, and or lose items of this type of clothing, I can’t imagine my mom spent much more than a dollar for each pair of flip-flops.

A few years ago I was walking through Dillard’s when I saw a pair of Tommy Hilfiger flip-flops sitting on a sale table. They were originally $35.00, but marked down to $12.00. I’m not sure exactly why, but I decided to buy them.

So began my rekindled love affair with flip-flops.

For a while now my flip-flops have been showing signs of age. However, it wasn’t until the cruise that they began rubbing a blister between my toes. Sadly, I decided to retire my flip-flops and search for a new pair.

I tend to be rather picky about things like shoes and spent a few months looking. I didn’t look everyday, or even every week for that matter. It was just if I happened to find myself in a store where they happened to sell flip-flops I would take a look and see if anything caught my eye.

I had just about given up hope of finding a pair when I happened though that same Dillard’s and came across the perfect pair…on the sale table. There are no flashy colors, no zippy slogans, and no fancy stitching. They’re even a little jagged around the edges.

Melissa and Macy think they are ugly and can’t stand them. (A fact that makes wearing them all that much more fun!)

Looking down I said, “You know, if Jesus was here today I think that this is precisely the type of shoe he would wear. There’s even a fish on the bottom!"

"I guess it’s slipped your mind that Jesus hung out with a bunch of fishermen!”

My goal was to shame them into liking my shoes, but alas that hasn't worked...yet.

Maybe someday they’ll see the light, and embrace my Jesus shoes.

Now That's Farmin'!!!

I’ve got this neighbor who we’ll call Old McDonald.

Now, Old McDonald is quite a guy. As far as “Do-It-Your-Self-ers” go, he is the man. Old McDonald has lived here for over 30 years. I’ve only been here for the last 10 of those years, but that’s long enough to be quite amazed by the jobs he’s pulled off. To date, I’ve been a bystander as he installed his own sprinkler system, laid the wood floor in his house, tiled his front porch, and hung his own front door. However, in the 20 years before I got here there’s no telling what he did.

I like to think of myself as a fairly savvy, home project kind of guy. Thanks to my dad, I can fix more than my fair share of things around the house. However, it’s more than a little bit humbling to discuss home repairs with Old McDonald, because I know that inside he’s just laughing.

Old McDonald is also quite the farmer. In the back-40, which is really just a strip in the alley out behind his house, he’s always got something good growing. For the last couple of years it’s been tomatoes and peppers. And baby, these are some seriously good tomatoes and some seriously hot peppers. Old McDonald went out of town for a few weeks and told me I could have any tomatoes that turned red while he was gone, not many did, but the ones that did were very, very tasty. Every time I went anywhere I made a close inspection of each tomato in the garden.

Little did I know that Old McDonald was taking his farming to a new level.

It was after Old McDonald got home, and we were talking over the fence about the tomatoes, my new foundation repair and all kinds of stuff, when he was telling me about some problem one of his gutter downspouts was having due to all the rain we’ve had.

He was in mid-sentence as he gestured up to the gutter on the second floor above his garage. What we saw silenced him, raised my eyebrows, and made both of us smile.

“Went with corn this year did ya?” Was all I could think to say.

I don’t remember exactly who said what, but we each made several wisecracks about keeping the rabbits off, how hard it was to plant, and being a bitch to harvest.

Like the song says;

“…and on his house he had some corn, ee-i-ee-i-oh!”

OKC

“Oklahoma City? What’s in Oklahoma City?”

These are the words that somehow stumbled out of my mouth when I was asked if I had any interest in making the journey.

I was quickly informed that the Oklahoma City (OKC for short) has one of, if not the, largest collections of Chihuly glass in the world. I’ve seen some Chihuly glass, and it’s pretty amazing, so I said, “Sure, let’s go.”

I think I was more excited about making a road trip with our friends Darryl and Winjie than I was to see the Chihuly, but I figured the glass would be fun too. I really wasn’t expecting much more that a fun time with some good friends, and the chance to see some Chihuly glass…but it turned out to be better than I expected.

First things first, the Chihuly glass was incredible. I am officially a fan. Not that I’m going to be buying any to decorate my home any time soon, but seeing this huge exhibit and watching a video showing the incredible process each piece goes through has made me think twice about buying some...you know, when we win the lotto and all.

We also went to the National Memorial of the Oklahoma City bombing. I was both very impressed and deeply moved. I’ve written before the closed head injury and my emotions, and this was really hard for me to make it through. I mean if you cry at Tide commercials, something like this puts you through the ringer.

The memorial, inside and out, is wonderfully done. It walks you through the day and you leave with a true understanding of what this did to the community and how the community pulled together to overcome such a horrible time in its history.

I must admit, I never really understood the whole empty chair sculpture thing out on the lawn. I thought it looked good, especially lit up at night, but now I understand…it makes sense.

I gave up trying to put into words here how seeing it made it all make sense, because nothing I wrote seemed to do it justice. Visit if you have the chance and I think you’ll see what I mean.

And last but not least, we went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. We had been told by Melissa’s mother that it was a good museum and worth seeing. I went along simply because I didn’t think it would kill me. However, I was pleasantly surprised. There was a whole section devoted to John Wayne, Buck Rogers and all the old movie cowboys. Not to mention, the all the great guns they had on display. Overall, the museum was fun. Well, except for when Darryl and I were forced to dress up like cowboys for a picture. I’ll post a picture of the two roughriders in western garb as soon as I get one from Darryl.


Now for the food:

I didn’t want to go to Oklahoma City and eat at places I could eat at in Dallas. Chili’s, On the Border, or places like that. I wanted to experience some real OKC cuisine. And experience it we did!

There’s a place downtown that Melissa and Winjie knew all about called, Bricktown. Bricktown is a kind of downtown revitalization thing, I think. While we weren’t all that impressed with what Bricktown had to offer in the way of Friday night entertainment, it does have a fun micro-brewery called Tap Werks, and Tap Werks has good food, cold beer and a fun atmosphere.

We also ate a fun place called Shorty Small’s. It’s a BBQ and burger kind of joint that was also rich in OKC flavor and tradition. It was good, but the BBQ sandwich, while good, couldn’t hold a candle to Peggy Sue BBQ here in Dallas. This is a fact that I decided against sharing with our waitress. However, their blackberry cobbler was more than a wee-bit tasty.

Saturday night, we went out to the lake, and sadly I don’t even know which lake it was. It was one of those lakes with lots of water. We went just to go see the sunset and sit and talk. We went to a restaurant/bar called Pearl’s Lakeside, had some more to eat, and sat outside by the water and listened to a band called 2AM. They were good enough that we even bought one of their CD's.

Get this; we even closed down the place! I know what you’re thinking, “Man, they are some party animals!” However, I should probably tell you that last call was at 11:00PM and not 2:00AM.

What can I say – It’s Oklahoma.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at a place called The Classen Grill. It was another old time, been there for over 50 years kind of OKC institution, and it was good too.

I have to thank Winjie for doing all the restaurant research. She somehow found our about all these great places and she even had directions and maps to boot!

So should you go to Oklahoma City for your next vacation? I’m not sure it has all the makings for full-blown vacation, because after a couple of days I was ready to hit the road.

But next time you’ve got a weekend to burn, give OKC try, you may just enjoy yourself…I know I did.

This is the Life!

The only 7-Eleven in Texas that changed to a Kwik-E-Mart for the Simpson's movie is only about 5 miles from my house. So of course I had to go get a Squishee and some Buzz Cola. I decided to buy a 6-pack so I can send a couple to Gordon.

Here I am with my recent purchases.

Foundations of Life

Unlike the title of this post might suggest, this isn’t writing with a deep theological meaning. I’ll leave that to Real Live Preacher.

I first began to notice some foundation issues a few years after we moved in. Doors sticking, cracks in the sheetrock, and a couple of cracks in the bricks on one side of our house. We had a soaker hose that went around about half of the house, and at first, simply having that on for an hour or two was all we needed to fix the sticking doors.

Sadly, the soaker hose hasn’t been fixing things recently and I decided it was time to bite the bullet.

There are about 10 guys are out there working, so I decided to take a few pictures and write a bit about what’s going on. For a man (some say simply a big kid) with a love of anything mechanical, this was a dream come true! Baby, I’m having a blast.

I put a cooler full of ice and water bottles on the porch this morning for the guys as kind of a bribe. I think it worked, because they haven’t minded me poking around and taking pictures.

The type of repair we decided on is the concrete pressed pilings. These are six inch in diameter x 12-inch long cement cylinders with a hole running straight through the center of the length of the cylinder. The put rebar in the hole and a kind mortar between the cylinders to stabilize the piling. They dig as many of these holes as the engineer says they need. For us it was it was 14, but the average is 10.


Cement cylinders

First, they dig a 2 foot square hole, that is about 5 feet deep right next to the foundation. Then they put the cylinders into the hole one at a time and use a hydraulic jack to press them down into the ground. They keep on pressing these into the ground until the amount of force needed to press the cylinder into the ground is greater than the amount of force needed to lift the house. Then they put a wider piece on top of the last cylinder and use jacks and shims to level it
off.


Looking down into a hole



One wall of holes



Finished piling with shims

Even as I’m writing, I can both hear and feel the work that’s being done right outside my window. This is the closest I’ve ever come to being in an earthquake…it’s kind of fun.

My cats are freaking out! I’m talking arched backs, big tails and everything!

They should be finished today, with maybe a little bit of work to do tomorrow. You know, holes filled in and bushes put back – that sort of thing.

They’ve barely started to shim things up, and already my two doors that stick aren’t sticking anymore.


Not too shabby, not too shabby.

Some People are Really Stupid...

So Melissa and I are going to the movie. We saw Ocean’s 13 and it was very entertaining. However, that’s not the crux of this story.

We went to the Northpark AMC 15 Theater. Northpark is a mall here in Dallas and the theater is relatively new. Usually I don’t like going to theaters in malls, but this one is about the closest theater to our house, and the parking is usually better than most of the other theaters.

We’re looking for a parking spot when I turned down an aisle and first witnessed the shenanigans happening down at the other end. As we crept down the aisle looking for a spot to park, my gaze was locked on a small four-door sedan and a minivan.

At first it looked like the sedan was leaving a front row spot and the van was being impatient as it waited to park. However, it quickly became clear that the sedan was trying to twist its way around, via some very creative forward and reverse maneuvers, and steal this space from the minivan.

The minivan was doing its best to crowd, but not touch the sedan in order to somewhat forcefully persuade her not to park there.

It is important to know that there were two African-American ladies in the sedan, and a white lady driving the minivan.

Melissa and I were immediately entertained. The first thing we thought of was the Seinfeld episode where George gets into the parking dispute while trying to parallel park.

We’re laughing and having a good time, all the while waiting for them to get finished so we can find our own spot.

The sedan finally gets into the spot and the minivan starts to pull away and stops. I don’t mind telling you that I began to get a little worried. It’s a sad state of affairs, but people have been shot here in Dallas for much less.

The lady in the minivan rolls down the window and shouts at the top of her lungs, “That’s why everyone hates black people!” Then she drives off.

My first thought was, “Oh, why did you have to bring race into it?” Then I thought, “You mean, if you hate black people it’s because of the way they park?”

Then I saw the driver of the sedan shaking her head, and I decided I wanted to say something to her. I drove over to the exact spot that the other lady had made her idiotic remarks, stopped my car, looked over at the lady and smiled.

She looked back, but didn’t smile and seemed a bit guarded.

“I’m sorry she said what she said.” I told her. “That was very mean and it’s just not true, please don’t listen to her. I like you because of what you did! That was great parking!”

She smiled and her passenger said, “Thanks, but we never listen to people like that.”

I drove off feeling like I had done something good, fought the good fight.

It wasn’t long before that lady’s words started to haunt me, “We never listen to people like that…we never listen to people like that…we NEVER listen to people like that.”

I only happened to be there while these two ladies were treated like second class citizens. And it’s something they deal with enough to be able to say, “We never listen to people like that.”

I don't feel like I'm going through life with blinders on. I mean, I've seen my fair share of bad stuff, but I guess in reality I’m pretty sheltered.


Like I said, Some People are Really Stupid...

Childless in July

At 8:30 this morning you could find us, along with about 200 of our closest friends, at Inwood Village on Lovers Lane here in Dallas. This is our third year to put Macy on a bus and sent her off to camp for a month. There really weren’t any tears this time, at least not from us.

The family of a friend of ours put their little girl on the bus for the first time, and that sure brought back some memories. But in the end, all was well.

For the next month we’ll communicate by US Mail and, when we’re lucky, we’ll get a glimpse of our daughter enjoying one of her many activities on Waldemar’s web site. (They post 50 to 100 pictures a day)

Other than that I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself. Oh, I’ve got a list of projects. One of which involves me ripping everything out the master closet, painting and installing all new ClosetMaid wire shelves, drawers, and shoe racks…I’ll keep you posted on that one.

Power Restored!

After a day of electrical mystery all circuits are up and running, all our gauges have acceptable readings, and we’re good to go.

We limped along on half power for about 24 hours, but in the end everything turned out fine, and…it didn’t cost me a penny!

Dropped Power Leg???

“Mr. Atkinson, sounds like you’ve got a dropped power leg.”

“Umm…so what does that mean?”

“Well now, that’s hard to say. Could be something simple, it could be something really big, or it could be a bunch of small problems all combined, there’s just no way to tell until we get out there, dig things up and check ‘em out.”

This is never the conversation you want to have with your power company.

That was about 6:45 this morning. Since then I’ve discovered that not only are they going to have to replace about 100 yards of underground cable going to my house, but it’s an all day job with no real idea of a time or even a date for completion.

We’re getting more than our fair share of rain here in Dallas, maybe that’s to blame. Whatever the reason, the power in our house started acting rather strange yesterday afternoon. We were down the street with some friends when Melissa came home to get something and discovered our power dilemma.

What's odd is, only some of our power is out.

· The lights in our family room are out, but the television works.
· The main light in my daughters room is on, but all of her outlets are out.
· The main lights in our guest/computer room are out, but the outlets work just fine.
· The A/C keeps trying to turn on, but doesn’t have enough power, so I just turned it off.
(So I’m very happy to have the cooler rain temperatures for the day)
· Luckily, our fridge is still working, but the oven and microwave only have about half power.
· If I flip the light switch in the guest room, the oven’s timer beeps.

And the bizarre list goes on and on and on...


I don’t think Ben Franklin had this in mind when he flew his kite.

It wasn't a Rock...

The B-52’s (You can check them out here) had a concert at the House of Blues here in Dallas last night.

And we were there baby!

The fact that Melissa not only listened to the B-52’s, but also owned at least one of their albums was one of the first things I liked about her. I’ve liked the B-52’s ever since I first heard Rock Lobster. Back then their music seemed so kooky and unusual that it was hard for me not to like them.

I liked the fact that their songs were written about the most bizarre things. This was the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and all the music I was used to hearing was either some sappy love story put to music, or it was some AC/DC type of band singing about being “Back in Black.”

Don’t get me wrong, I really like those songs too, but I couldn’t understand half the words, and the half I could understand didn’t make any sense. Not that that made all that much difference.

However, with the B-52’s I could understand the words…I didn’t have any idea how they came up with the words, but they were catchy and I enjoyed both listening and singing along.

That being said, the concert was great!

The House of Blues' theater is pretty small, with a mosh pit and seats in the balcony. We sat in the balcony and could see and hear everything. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that they didn’t play Quiche Lorranie, one of my favorites.

It was a lot of fun, well worth the money, and I’d go back to see them again in a heartbeat!



…it was a Rock Lobster!

SPAMALOT

I don’t think I had ever seen a musical on stage until the first year I got married. I had been to lots of plays, and had seen the movie versions of things like The Sound of Music, but as for experiencing a musical live and in person, I didn’t really understand the appeal.

However, shortly after our wedding my father-in-law gave us season tickets to the Dallas Summer Musicals…and I was hooked! There’s something about being in the audience as it is being performed that’s really cool.

A couple of years ago my father-in-law thought that the upcoming season look particularly good, and he decided to get season tickets for the four of us. We enjoyed the season so much that we’ve repeated our season tickets for the last three or four years. However, this is the first season that Spamalot has come to Dallas.

Spamalot is basically the Holy Grail put to music. The Playbill puts it this way:

Monty Python’s
SPAMALOT
A New Musical (lovingly) ripped off from the motion picture
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I’m here to tell you that it is simply incredible! - My new favorite musical.

If you're even kind of a Python fan, then do whatever you must to go see it...It’s well worth your time and money.