The Greatest Show on Earth

Yes, that's right, we went to the Greatest Show on Earth today -- Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey! It was great! We loved it! We're going back every year!


Of course, when I say "we" I mean Steve and I. The kids really got in the way of our enjoyment. Actually Ryan was great -- poor kid didn't nap AT ALL (this from a kid that takes two 2-hour naps a day) but thought the circus and everything about it was awesome.

Andrew, however, who was BEYOND excited to go, quickly changed his tune and spent most of the time screaming and crying.

What's that you say? He looks perfectly happy in the picture? Yep. That was one of very few smiles.

So here's the story. A couple of months ago I saw the circus was coming so I checked with ticketmaster about getting tickets. As luck would have it, they had some "Celebrity" seats available, which are front row center, and gives you extra privileges, including riding on a special train in the arena DURING the circus. Pretty cool, eh?

Well, I did have some reservations about taking the kids -- I knew it might be a little overwhelming for them. Their reactions did surprise me -- the intensity of Andrew's bad reaction and Ryan's great reaction.

Anyway, we get there early to participate in the pre-show fun (that is when these pics were taken) -- you get to interact with the performers, etc. Very cool. Andrew was uncharacteristically shy and reserved. Mind you -- he was crazy excited about coming.

But the real hell broke loose when the show started, because they had some little fireworks and the noise just did Andrew in. And he doesn't recover well from that. Most of the rest of the first act was him crying and screaming that he wanted to go home, face buried in Steve's chest, with his horrible mean mommy saying "No way kid!" I wanted to ride that damned train. I knew he would like it too, and he did like that part.

Andrew actually I think loved it, but he just got so spooked. He can't stop talking about it today. We'll let you know how it goes next year. Maybe we'll bring home a souvenir for Andrew.

A moment of silence please

For our dear, departed Bob the Snail. It seems Bob has died. A couple of days ago, I think, but its kind of hard to tell with a snail.

I'm bummed. Bob was cool. I'm taking it harder than Andrew who always preferred Fishy the Fish anyway (he's all flash). Frankly, I'm kind of ambivalent about Fishy -- what I liked about him was related to Bob, and now that he's gone . . .

A Fishy and Bob story: "experts" suggest giving your betta fish some exercise by putting a mirror up to their tank now and then. They see their reflection and want to fight the fish. Except that Fishy is a wuss. We'd put the mirror up and he would immediately go and hide behind Bob. I'm not making this up.

The other thing that Fishy did that amused me was that although he was a wimp when faced with other fish (a small toy fish that Andrew had also had Fishy retreating to Bob's protection); he was a fierce fighter of vegetables. We'd feed Bob the occasional pea or bean and Fishy would attack it. This cracked me up and I had a running commentary, which involved Fishy as a drunken Irishman saying "yeah, bean, put 'em up -- I'll fightcha. Yeah, with one fin tied behind my back, that's right . . ."

So bow your heads for a moment please, and think kind thoughts about Bob the Snail, who has left us for greener waters. Steve and Andrew both asked if I was going to go buy another snail. I told them I needed time to mourn.