For my birthday my mother gave me tickets to see Itzhak Perlman in Omaha last Saturday.  If you don’t know who he is you can probably skip this post entirely.   I asked my husband first, but he begged out due to a conflicting football game.  Then I asked my friend Mary, then I asked about six other friends as well as four relatives.  Only one of the eleven had even heard of the man.  All of my friends were busy and my SILs all said, “If you can’t find anyone else who would actually enjoy it, I can go.  If I have to.”  Obviously I need new friends, maybe relatives too.  Thursday I was paging through my address book one more time and ran across Traci.  Her kids are grown and she isn’t a football fan, but she lives well over two hours on the other side of me from Omaha.  I called and asked if she was up for a road trip.  “Sure!”  She took the time to Google Perlman and had all kinds of info for me when I got in her pickup Saturday morning.  

We drove straight to the casinos in Iowa and invested in Iowa’s economy.  I still say Nebraska will never have casinos because we have a “no smoking in public buildings” law.  Whoo Hoo!  I dropped $22 between roulette and penny slots. Then we got all pretty for the show.  We got lost, or at least took a wrong turn everywhere we went, beginning with getting to Omaha.  Traci may never let me navigate again.  Some of them were honest mistakes, and some were…well just mistakes.  We found a parking spot large enough for Traci’s pickup in a garage downtown and we set off in our uncomfortable shoes to find an eatery which was both close and affordable.  We ended up with Asian Fusion.  I figure $13 isn’t too bad for an evening in the big town.  As we left we overheard someone talking about going to the same concert so we followed them right in the front door.

I can’t decide if the hall was small or large.  It seemed really small until you looked at how little the people across the room were.  Either way the acoustics were phenomenal.  We had seats in the far back row, and we could hear everything.  We listened to a couple of Mozart pieces then after the intermission as Traci said, the whole band came out and we heard some Bernstein (excellent) and Gershwin (long but good) followed by Schindler’s List (too short) and a couple by some guy named Kreisler.  Perlman only played the second Mozart and the last three pieces, but he was excellent.  Just excellent.

We made it home in time for lunch the next day at a bar where Traci got her hot wings fix.    (this would be the 9-11 flavored wings) Getting some "culture" didn't change her that much.  Later on Sunday my friend Rebecca called and asked what I had done for my birthday, so I told her.  She said, “I love him, he’s great!”  Now I have two friends who know who Perlman is.

And here is an in-focus photo of my costume.

I hit the post Halloween sales to see if I could find some boy's dress up clothes for Leo.  The only costume I could find near his size was Darth Vader.  Leo fell in love with it, cape and all.  So I had to rent Star Wars so he could see who Darth Vader was.  You know that was a great movie, and it still is.  Well, Leo wore the costume most of Tuesday and he insisted on wearing it to bed, except the cape.  He wore it all day yesterday (but not to bed) then he handed it to me first thing this morning.  Have I gotten my $5 out of it yet?  By the way, Star Wars has been playing on a constant loop.

I have been dreaming of a particular costume for years, as in at least 11 years.  Due to a change of plans I have the opportunity to make the costume and use it this year.  In four days.  Can I do it?  As I was cutting up the material I wondered how I would be able to fit it on myself.   It is probably a good thing I don't like to follow instructions...a pattern would really complicate things.  Then I remembered something I learned in 4H.  Well, I learned it when my step daughter was in 4H.  I can make a dummy of my body using duct tape and a tee-shirt. Ready, set go!

Tuesday

1.  Make dress maker's dummy without suffocating myself or cutting off important body parts.

I needed something to pin it on for size since I couldn't very well pin it on myself, and so I could see that it wouldn't slide down in the front...This is a poor example of what the 4H gal turned in as a dress maker's dummy.  Try to wrap yourself in duct tape and see what you think, a job best done with a friend.

2.  Put top together.  Without pattern.  It is a little breezy around the armpits, but then try putting sleeves in a outfit you didn't have a pattern for.  I think I will just wear a shirt underneath. 

3.  Rent part of the costume so I can make the skirt. 

3a.  Buy Dryel...that stuff is not cheap!

4.  Do stuff at school and take Jane to art class.

Wednesday

5.  Cut out huge skirt without pattern Dryel (is that a verb?) and sew together.  It took me about an hour's worth of math before I decided to cut into the fabric.  It was so long and so thick I used my husband's 4' level as a cutting guide.

***The Dryel didn't really take the smoke smell out, but the smell is at least 12 years old, so it isn't horrible.  The Dryel did however perk the color of the curtains up remarkably.  Several pieces went from orange to pink or even back to red.  Thanks for the idea, Beth.****

6.  Swimming lessons and do stuff at school.

7.  Clean house and plan menu for this weekend.  Scrape pumpkin off floor.

8.  Carve pumpkins.

Leo wanted me to make feet for some reason.  We carved a couple more little ones too. Part way through the process I couldn't figure out what the dots were in the middle of Snow White's face.  As you can see, they should have been the nose.  Our pumpkin was really too little for that pattern.

Thursday

9.  Do more stuff at school.

10.  Pin flounces and sew flounces. I had a friend wear the skirt while I pinned the flounce on.

11.  Make hat and look for gloves.

12.  Learn how to imbed video on Xanga.  Have someone take a photo of me in the costume.

13.  Make kids clean house this time.

****I have been saving this material since we moved into our house.  As you can see it is truly lovely, and obviously exactly what I would choose to decorate my living room.  That is why it has been in my closet since 1998.  If you offer me money I will tell you how I made the hat.  Money or a great recipe.

The iphone takes good photos, but it takes some getting used to.  I had a friend take photos with her camera, which should be clearer than this one, but I wanted you to see.  Several people asked me if I was "curtains."  Leave it to me to choose what is essentially an inside joke for a halloween costume.  Carol Burnett playing Scarlet O'Hara.******

Cost 

• Curtains- Goodwill wouldn't have taken them on a bet
• Sewing materials- on hand
• Replacement rotary cutter blade- ?
• Duct tape- free (notice it is silver not pink hence not mine!)
• Old Tee shirt- now I have one less night gown
• Rented hoop skirt- $7.50 plus tax
• Dryel-$11 something plus tax.
• Curtain rod furnished by gentlemen after they bent the snot out of it.

Paul spent most of the night under my skirts.

Did you notice that hoop skirts went out of fashion before the automobile, and NEVER came back?  They are nearly impossible to get under the steering wheel.

Thank God for ADA, or I would never have gotten out of the bathroom.

I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist it.