When I was growing up I had high aspirations of being a back-up singer. I liked singing and I thought I sounded ok (like every teenage girl singing into her hairbrush), but I was waaaaayyyyyy too shy to be in the spotlight. Well, somewhere along the line I accidentally became a hardware consultant, but I still sing along with the iPod at full volume. A few weeks ago Aliya asked me if I was too old to be on American Idol. Alas, until I can audition for the Senior Citizen version, I had to find a way to occupy myself. I know some of you won’t believe this, but last night I sang karaoke for the first time in my life. Luckily I had Mercedes and Jasmine (Pam and Jenny) as distractions so I didn’t faint. What made me decide to lose my karaoke virginity was the realization that most people singing karaoke are terrible, and most of the spectators are tone-deaf. We were wishing we were completely deaf during some of the performances.

Here’s Lana’s reaction to a singer so bad that the karaoke host was “helping” by singing along. He wasn’t helpful enough. During this performance I heard Gia say, “Well, she’s no Lori Greene, I know that!” 🙂

And here’s Lana cheering on Jasmine and Lacy’s rendition of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I Feel Lucky” (dramatization).

I wonder how many karaoke nights it will take until I’m shopping at BJ’s and a fellow shopper gives “Lacy” a High-5.
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It’s that time again…Ramadan began on September 1st and will continue for the next 30 days. If you have any questions about Ramadan, you can refer to last year’s post:
http://lockmommy.blogspot.com/2007/09/ramadan-faq.html

If you have new questions, I’ll do my best to answer them. If you’re wondering how Miss Norah feels about Ramadan, SHE LOVES IT!!!

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We enjoyed one of the last days in the ce-ment pond last weekend. It was a feast of burgers, dogs, sausages, fresh tuna steaks, and just when we were all stuffed, the lobsters arrived. Maren taught the girls how to hypnotize the lobsters for a less traumatic steaming experience. When one of the girls asked if she could give it a try, Maren said, “You can try, but I don’t know if you have *the power*…” So funny.

Lana and Larry…thank you again for all your hospitality. You ROCK!!!

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It’s hard to believe I’m posting about crime yet again, but here goes. I was working at home today when I got an email from Lana, who always has her finger on the pulse of local events, news, hot sales, and networking opportunities. It was a link to a news story about some of the Framingham schools being in “lockdown” because a suicidal maniac was on the loose in the neighborhood. Of course I went right to the window to see if the suicidal maniac was hanging out at my picnic table, but no such luck. In actuality, I think it was more like a drunk guy threatening his wife with suicide and ending up as the center of a manhunt, but it was still scary. I could hear the police cars speeding by and the helicopters hovering overhead. He was last seen about 2 miles from our house, and a 2-minute walk from Adlani’s school. I emailed the director and she said everything was fine…the kids were kept inside and there were police on the school grounds. At the end of the school day it got a little crazy because the schools didn’t want to send kids home on the bus to the area where the police were searching for the guy. They eventually found him and took him into custody. Phew.
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As of noon, the guy was last seen on Joseph Road and was found somewhere in the area. Adlani’s school is the large building on Joyce Lundberg Drive. Way too close for comfort.
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http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17380195/detail.html
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/09/framingham_poli.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6
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This was the scene in front of our house at about 1:30 this morning. I was answering email when I noticed that our neighbor’s motion sensor light was on (yes, Nikki, Leah, and Nancy – this was the activity in your driveway while you were asleep). There was a Wayland cop in front of our house, and another Wayland cop and a Framingham cop pulled up about 30 seconds later. They cuffed the two 20-somethings in a car parked in my neighbor’s driveway. The guy got arrested for DUI after refusing the breathalyzer and the girl wandered off, presumably to find a ride home. The car was picked up by a wrecker and the neighborhood is quiet and peaceful once again. I guess I can go to sleep now.

The perp didn’t do as well on his field sobriety test as this guy:

But he passed with flying colors compared to this guy who apparently had a crack problem too:

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