Rob's family

We have a foster dog with us this week - Dakota.  He's a mostly well adjusted dog with a predilection for random barking.  We're using little fingernail sized doggie treats to persuade him to be good rather than barker.  For convenience, we're keeping a stash in a small metal cup.  My children know my penchant for small dishes.  I love small serving dishes with unique colors and uses.  We have dozens and I use them frequently for entertaining.   Julianne and Collin were here last night.  They went out for dinner together and joined us as we were finishing our Friday fun nacho dinner.  As they came in, we quickly set up a couple little dessert cups of chocolate this and chocolate that.  Tasty. My mistake was to miss an immediate  opportunity to clear the kitchen island of every day stuff.  Like Dog treats. Julianne noshed on chocolate this and tried a little bit of chocolate that.  She did not count on dog treats being on the counter.   I felt really bad, but laughed pretty

Melinda stopped taking piano lessons (the first time around) in 8th grade.  This story probably starts about 8th grade (2012 or so).  She had started playing around with GarageBand and doing recordings of herself.  I was doing my best to be Dad - biggest cheerleader.  Annoying in ways only Dad can be. My Dad really likes piano music.  He had a Richard Clayderman CD he loved.  One of the songs on the CD was de Senneville's Ballade Pour Adeline.  I must have heard that 500 times.  I like it too.  So I found the music online and printed a copy for her.  As I remember it, I just put on the music stand part of Tracey's childhood piano and said little (if anything) about it.  I probably nudged and pushed a little guilted about father's day...  It never got played. Fast forward... Melinda bought herself an electric piano this year and has been making a point of playing it.   And it's my birthday this year... she played it live for me.  I asked for a recording... Ballade Pour A