A few months back I was at my mother's house watching TV, and we ended up watching one of those Time/Life Music collection infomercials. They can be a bit repetitive, but a lot of the time they are just as entertaining as a regular TV show. This one was about a collection of romantic music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. My mother really enjoyed it, and she almost called the number, but then decided she could not afford the $130.00 or so dollars. I ordered it the next day, and have been keeping it for her 72nd birthday, which we celebrated today.

My sister 11 of 12 came in from Portland, Oregon to visit. She has been working for the Kerry campaign and gave a speech at her state convention. She also just recently purchased a house. She is going to rent half of it to a friend. While she was visiting I got her to help me clean out the gutters on top of the second story roof on my mother's house, a project I had been meaning to get to for a few months.

Mom is not doing so well these days. I found out that during the past two months she had unexpectedly fallen down about half a dozen times. They have put a heart monitor on her that she has to activate the next time she falls. It has her nervous of course.

In other news, my brother 3 of 12 checked himself into the hospital on Friday. He is schizophrenic and the voices in his head had started getting louder and more insistent. At least he has the sense enough to know when things are getting out of control. They are adjusting his medication, and hopefully he should be back out within a week or so.

Despite the bad news, we had a nice birthday party for my mother at 2 of 12s house. At one point 2 of 12s husband and I were watching football and my sisters, my daughter, and my nieces had gone for a walk. I got up to look for my mother and found her sitting alone in the darkened living room. I was a bit concerned but she was fine, just enjoying sitting and thinking. The CD collection and the other presents went over very well, and everyone seemed to have a pleasant time.

One of the songs on the 'Romance Collection' was "Mack the Knife", which is about as unromantic a tune as I can imagine. But I'll end with the lyrics anyway because they fit my strange sense of humor.

Oh the shark has such teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack knife has old MacHeath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight

You know when the shark bites
with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though wears MacHeath, dear
So there's never, never a trace of red

On the sidewalk, Sunday morning,
Don't you know
Lies a body oozing life
Someone's sneaking round the corner
Could that be our boy, Mack the knife?

From a tug boat by the river
There's a cement bag just dropping on down
The cement's just for the weight, dear
Bet you Mack is back in town

Did you hear about Louie Miller he disappeared
After drawing out all his hard earned cash
And MacHeath spends like a sailor
Could it be our boy did something rash?

Jenny Diver, Sukey Tawdry
Polly Peachum, and old Lucy Brown
Oh the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Mack is back in town

Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver
Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh the line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mack is back in town