As some of you know, I have been volunteering at the Lucy Lane House Museum at Calico Ghost Town in (lovely downtown) Yermo, CA for about ten years, along with my good friend Pauline and sister Kathy. We enjoy going out for the day about 4 times a year, spending time with our on-site friend Serena, demonstrating handwork of a bygone era, participating in their annual Calico Days Parade, and more recently displaying heirloom linens and of course, Miss Melody.

We have really enjoyed our times spent out there, and over the years have developed a great fondness for Calico. Most of our friends and all of our family members know what "going to Calico" means to us. The Park is owned by the San Bernardino County Parks Department, and was formerly owned by Walter Knott, of Knott's Berry Farm fame. The Calico Mine Ride and Ghost Town at Knott's Berry Farm were both inspired by the real Calico Ghost Town, and many of the artifacts in the Ghost Town Museum at Knott's are from Calico. Would that they could return or at least lend them back on occasion...

Anyway, I can't count the number of times we've been out to Calico. We love going there. That's about all you can say. We have hosted fancy tea parties, performed vignettes about social calls in the 1890s, been in the parade as Suffragettes demonstrating for the right to vote, bathing beauties (1890s style of course!), a literary society, and soon, as a Temperance Society. Calico is a great inspiration for history and fun combined.

Our friend Serena has invited us to become a more permanent part of the Calico record by participating in the shooting of video footage to be used in a commercial, and possibly in other videos used by Calico for tourism and/or trade shows. We don't know yet what our role will be, maybe just walking around in the background, who knows. But, Kathy, Pauline, Melody and I will be heading out on October 2nd to meet with our 15 minutes of fame. The commercial is to be shot by Time Warner and shown in the Victor Valley. If anyone reading this blog lives in that area and can record it for us, we would greatly appreciate it!!! I'll be taking pictures and maybe some video of the process, and will post as soon as I can.

Today, Melody's friend Gianna has brought a bounce house to daycare. Well, her MOM really made the arrangements, but it's for Gianna's birthday, so happy birthday, Gianna! We all know that Melody LOVES to jump, so she'll be wiped out tonight, a good thing before a big day like we have tomorrow.

Part II to follow a.s.a.p.

Please visit the Calico Ghost Town site at http://www.calicotown.com and click on the Museum link, then scroll to the bottom to see our first brush with "fame" in connection with Calico. :-)

There are some women who swear they will be nothing like, or identical to, their mothers. I am somewhere in between. I never expected I'd be exactly like my mother, but I also did not strive to be a Grandma Alice clone. We are all individuals after all. I definitely don't expect Melody to turn out like me, she is too much like her Dad in many ways already. She's stubborn, she's developing a sense of humor, she loves Hannah Montana... But I digress. She will learn some of my behaviors...hopefully the more graceful and refined ones.

Tonight, I found myself doing something that I saw my own mom do obviously enough times that it stuck in my head as "the thing to do." I freely admit I am not a neat freak, nor am I even tidy. At best, I'm organized chaos. However, I like to keep my kitchen clean. There are times I slide on that, and yes I have left dishes to sit in the sink too long, or allowed the trash to pile up because I'm being stubborn and waiting for Dad to take it out. But, every night after dinner, I like to clean the kitchen, and tonight was the night I scoured the sink with Comet. I can remember my mom doing this, the faint smell of scouring powder on her hands afterwards when she'd say okay to a cookie, and the sparkling clean white of the sink.

I have always scrubbed my sink with some regularity. I love the white porcelain, the smell of Comet, and the memory of my mom. It's completely mundane, I know, but for some reason tonight I really identified this as "something I learned from my mom." She has taught me how to sew, sprinkle and iron (although I rarely iron and heaven forbid, sprinkle!), do laundry, clean properly - yes I do know how to do it - cook imaginatively, be frugal, be generous, be patient, and most of all, she taught me how to be a good mom. But, sigh, for some reason, scrubbing the sink it what popped out as a mom-ism tonight. When I do this, I feel very connected to my mom, and a bit like a little girl again, remembering how I would sometimes sit at the bar of our kitchen and watch her work. I guess you could say that at the feet and knees of our parents is where we learn a great deal of our behaviors, morals, and values. You don't really think when you are a kid that learning the difference between the usages of Spic-N-Span and Basic H are going to affect the rest of your adult life, do you?

What are some things you learned from YOUR mom that you find yourself doing from time to time? Use the comments to share "something you learned from your mom."

This has absolutely nothing to do with Melody but it's funny and you should watch it. :-)

A lot of people have asked me about our dog, Browser. He is Melody's favorite doggie (a new word for her) even though she loves to say Nano, the name of our other dog. Browser and Melody play in the evenings sometimes. She throws his toy for her and he watches her. No, really, he will play tug with her and since he is small, he doesn't pull her over.

Browser has a funny habit that we have tried to describe to people, but never really could. He likes to kick his feet. He looks like he's dancing. The other day, I finally caught him doing this while I had the video camera 1) handy 2) on and 3) he didn't stop as soon as I pointed it at him. Anyone remember Emerson J Frog? Ha ha. Anyway, here's that video people have been asking me for recently as I try to tell them about Browser kicking his feet and dancing. You can hear Melody talking in the background.

You might have read the post where I told the story of Melody locking me out of the house and the 30some minutes of stress while I waited for a tow truck to open the car...etc. Well, we bought a key hide, a really fancy one, with push button combination and memory, so there is that.

Thursday evening after work, I decided to take Melody and the dogs to the park. I gathered everything up and the dogs were being little brats so getting out of the house was a bit frantic. We got to the park and for some reason I patted my pockets...no housekeys!

Oh my god!!!

So this time I was locked out with a toddler and two dogs. I also realized that the new key hide is still in the Home Depot bag, on the kitchen table because we couldn't decide where to mount it. UGH! I called AAA (of course I had my phone!), put the dogs in the back yard behind the gate, and waited out front.

But wait, it get's better!! AAA came, opened my car, I opened the garage door and went inside. Then I noticed one of the dogs coming toward me.

Inside the house.

We don't have a doggy door.

THE BACK DOOR HAD BEEN OPEN THE ENTIRE TIME. I never even thought to look back there!

I am claiming the official title as village idiot! Yikes!

PS let it be said that the last time I was locked out of my house (other than the Melody incident) was three houses and almost 10 years ago. I am not the type to walk off without keys!