Fasten Your Seatbelts July!

So much going on around the Casablanca in so little time!

(My feeble last minuet attempt at 4th of July Decorations.)

Just after our Missouri trip, I only had to work three days, and then had another four day vaction because of Independence day. Patricia and I didnt get to spend much time at the lake on the 4th because friend Alex and I had to drive Patricia to Dallas to hop a plane to LONDON!

(Friend Alex, Patricia and Myself!)

We got Patricia safely to DFW Airport, wound our way through terminal traffic, and FINALLY found the right gate!

(Friend Jordan and Patricia just about to Jet off to London!)

No tears were shed (we got that out of the way earlier) and yes I gave Patricia my shirt to wear, she was cold, and its what a Boyfriend should do.  After our good byes and a kiss that was giving other people in the room diabetes, she was off on her adventure to study abroad at Queen Mary University in London!  You can read all about Patricia's adventures Here at her blog and friend Jordan is also hosting a blog as well.

 (Corabelle and I miss her already...)

Friday Friends Joe and Alex came out to the lake to console me , keep me company! Joe cooked a tasty cabbage dish to eat for lunch (Alex and I helped prepare).

Friend Joe was down visiting from Fort Smith A-R-K and we were delighted to see him! Alex had driven all the way in from ALVA O-K to chat around the kitchen table!

(Friends Hannah, Austin, Jen, and Emily)

Friday night we loaded up and drive two hours to the Chief Drive-In Movie Theater in Chickasha Oklahoma for a triple feature of "Despicable Me 2", "Monsters University", and "Now You See Me".

(Friends Austin, Hannah, Emily, Utah, and Joe wave hello from the Chief Drive-In!)

This theater was SO worth the trip! As you may notice in the background, one of many things that makes the Chief unique is that it has a mini golf course in front of its screen!

So cool! Patrons of the Drive-in can play mini golf right up until they start showing movies, and the putting greens were so busy that my friends and I never even got a chance to tee off! Our group had a lot of fun at the Drive-In, but the last movie was over at 2:00 A.M. and with a two hour drive back (with stops for gas and breakfast) Alex, Joe and I didn't arrive back to the Casablanca until 5:30 SATURDAY MORNING! Gosh as we were going to bed dawn was literally breaking over the hill behind the house! Saturday was kind of quiet around the Casablanca, which was FINE as I was sleeping it off from the night before. Sunday Friends Emily, Utah, and Jennifer motored out to the lake to spend time together. We ended up cooking chicken and dumplings, (yes, I know... in this HEAT!) and just before we left they helped me clear Pontipe Hall of everything but the piano...

(Don't let this picture fool you, its all been crammed into the Kitchen!)

So excited! With any luck this Saturday we will be installing the single hung bathroom window, the air conditioner in the living room, and begin insulating the ceiling and walls! Friend Russ is supposed to stop by and finish up the electrical work and pretty soon (hopefully before July if I have good pay check) we will have the real, wood ceiling and walls up! I can't wait, wish us luck and lots of patience!

-Mick-

Un-PREDICTA-ble Finds In Missouri!

HEEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOO READERS!(Read as "The Big Bopper")
 Miss us?! Patricia and I took a belated vacation to Missouri  for my Birthday to visit friend Michael. (Of Cul-de-Sac Shack Fame) And BOY  did we come home with some great things!

By now if you've stopped drooling I will tell you the tale of "The Predicta TV set" (one I NEVER though I'd own!) It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip! I have dreamed of owning a Predicta set since I was about nine years old, so imagine the excitement at Michael's house when we discovered one at an estate sale on Criagslist just 20 minuets away! So we load up the car and head to the sale, which we drove past because the house looked abandon.  Patricia found a phone number to the sale, and after a quick call we found out the sale WAS in fact in the abandon looking house.  We walk up the driveway, and there it is a wonderful old TV set, and MUCH to my surprise they didn't want an arm and a leg for it! It met my qualiflications of looking nice and was under $100.00 so we loaded it up in Michael's trust Buick and home it came with us! I was freaking out, this was a bucket list item and since they made so few I never dreamed i'd actually have one! THIS Is the TV set that put Philco out of business, Philco (a product of the Ford company) designed these super futuristic TV's for the Holiday Inn chain of Hotels and only made them from 1958-1960.  These sets became know as "stylish pieces of junk" as they looked super cool, but were always on the blitz. I am 99% sure this one came out of a Holiday Inn as it has its matching gold TV cart with it. This set doesn't work, it will make noises and tubes light up but no picture, but other than that it is PRISTINE! I'm so happy to have this swanky set in my living room.

 Between the the three of us we bought, picked up, and traded so many things and I just havent had time to take pictures of it all! At one antique store in Springfield we found sheet music for $1.00 and there were LOTS  of good selections, one of my favorites being...

I was humming that tune the whole trip!

My second prize find for the trip (with credit to Patricia) was this great 1930's "cut-yer-finger-off" fan, it was a steal at $40.00 and all it really needed was a new power cord. That was a simple fix and now we've got it blowing in tip top shape!

(The back seat of the Camry on the trip home.)

I told you we bought a LOT of things and had a ton of fun doing it! We drove all over Southwest Missouri picking out deals and eating GREAT food. Patricia and I owe a big thank you to our fantastic host Missouri Michael. He let us stay with him and carted us around the state, Thanks Michael!

Well, that the short and highlighted version of our Missouri adventures, Tune in friday for a 4th of July recap and some exciting home improvement news!

-Mick-

Herman Miller, Hey-Wake, AND My Birthday. OH MY!

(Corabelle presents me with her birthday present to me!)

Last Saturday was my 23rd Birthday, not nearly as eventful as birthdays prior but that's alright we'll be celebrating this weekend in Missouri with blogger friend Michael! I can taste the "Chicken Annie's" NOW! As you can see in the picture above, Corabelle gave her daddy a "Herman Miller Studio" chalkware bathroom fish. I can't wait until July because we might actually have walls to hang it on then!

(Patricia with her present to me, a Heywood Wakefield set of drawers!)

Patricia's gift comes with some "cheating" she swears I am hard to buy for, so she developed a "Point" system. Where when I find something I would like I just point to it and she buys it. Well the day before my birthday, I went into a local antique store and there it was! This wonderful Hey-Wake dresser a few pictures and phone call later... Happy Birthday to me! Thanks Dear! I plan to keep our MASSIVE record collection in it!

Then when I returned home after a fun day with Patricia and Cora I found this in the mail box! A Wizard of Oz themed Birthday card from blogger friend Christine over at "I'm Not Old, I'm Vintage!" wishing me a Happy Birthday. Thanks Chris!

Hope everyone is having a happy Wednesday!

*Sings* "Weeeeeeeeeere OFF TO SEE MISSOURI..."

-Mick-

Our Big Fundraising Night "On The Town"!

What a night it was Readers! I so wish ALL of you could have been there to dance and cha cha the night away with us! We raised  $732.34  towards our bathroom renovations, (with donations still trickling in!) That's nearly half of what we need to raise to put the bathroom holding tank in!!! Hooray!  (We need a total $2700.00 to complete the job, so we are well on our way!)
 Now settle in readers because we filmed all the evenings fun and entertainment to share with you!

Nearly 70 of our friends turned out to raise funds for the Casablanca and we had a WONDERFUL time doing it! Everyone was dressed so sharp in their formals...

(Friends Kara, Emily and Lauren)

(Friend Rachel and son Caleb)

(Friends Chloe, Mary, Myself, Sheldon, and Zack)

(Friends Stephanie and Catilyn)

(Our Masters of Ceremonies Jensen & Seigen!)

I am starting to learn we just need a photographer for these events! I was so busy running in circles I hardly got to take any pictures, but rest assured everyone looked so nice.  

We had quite an evening of entertainment and dancing planed, and at 7:45P.M. Our fantastic Masters of Ceremonies started things off...

("The Road to Morocco" By Seigen and Jensen)

Wasn't that funny?! These guys are a hoot, and our favorite "go to" M.C.'S! 

After the first number  we danced the Hokey Pokey to get things rolling.

The "Hokey Pokey", "Limbo" and "Bunny Hop" have become tradition at Casablanca dances, everyone's has fun doing them. Although, "The Bunny Hop" becomes a test of endurance as the song plays on! 

At 8:05P.M. Friend Lara shared a song with us about how surprisingly "Shy" she is.

 ("I'm Shy" -from- Once Upon A Mattress" by Friend Lara)

 At 8:20 P.M. Friend Jennifer serenaded us with her ukelele!

("Boom" by Friend Jennifer)

Then it was back to the dancing, this time with "The Stroll"...

Strolling on!

At 8:35 P.M. we were crooned to by friend Michael!

("My Funny Valentine" by Friend Michael.)

Isn't his voice JUST like velvet! He had all  the girls swooning!

("It Had To Be You" - By Friend Michael.)

At 8:50P.M. we were in for a real treat! Friend Stephanie and Caitlyn had prepared a tap dance number!

("Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better"- By Friends Stephanie and Caitlyn!)

It BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN! And Rightfully so, those girls worked so hard on that tap number JUST  for this event! 

At 9:05 Friend Terrace took the stage with an old Peggy Lee favorite!

("Why Cant You Do Right" - Peggy Lee- by Friend Terrace.)

Then at 9:20 P.M. it was time for the long awaited Limbo Contest!

(Our Limbo Contest Winners- Jarrod and Lee!)

(Myself and Local Channel 3 NBC News anchor celebrity Katie Crosbie!)

 Almost  everyone we knew turned out for the dance, and people kept coming!

A good time was being had by all, Miss Casablanca 1959 was ladling out punch for party goers, and Friend Jordan (head of the refreshments committee) made sure we were well stocked with cookies!

Our famous fruit punch, in my Great Grandmother Youngblood's punch bowl-

 (Delicious!)

At 9:40 Friends Audrey (Miss Casablanca 1959) and Jensen took to the floor to sing and dance with an old Cole Porter tune!

("De-Lovley"-Cole Porter- By Audrey & Jensen)

There Song and dance was, well... De-lightful, de-lishiouis, De-Lovley~! Jensen and Auredy will be starring in a Production of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" later this summer, what a great preview!

At 9:55 We were lucky enough to be entertained by the Sisters Andrews!

("Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" -The Andrews Sisters - By Friends Jennifer V., Mary F. And Patricia!)

 At 10:10 P.M. We were visited by our first special guests of the evening!

("Honey Bun"- Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific- By Friends Mary W., Utah, and Sheldon.)

Guest danced in the low light, drank and ate, and at 10:25 Friend Jarrod brought out his gitaur to serenade all the couples at the dance.

The records were kept spinning by Friend Utah, our zany DJ for the evening! First "The Bunny Hop"

Then a rowdy "Mexican Hat Dance" by Chubby Checker!

(Friend Utah cutting it up!)

At 10:45 Out of nowhere our second special guest appeared!

("Feeling Good" - Frank Sinatra- By Friend Chance!)

We danced, and Danced, and DANCED Some more!  "Real" dancing mind you, none fo this bump and grind stuff. It was all such great fun we could have very well danced all night! But all great parties must eventually come to a close, so for the last song of the Dance Miss Casablanca took the stage and sang the "Casablanca" Movie theme song "As Time Goes By"...

A fitting end to a wonderful evening. 


Oh, oh OH! let me tell you about our theme and decorations! (I nearly forgot) Since this is the only Casablanca party ever to be held somewhere OTHER than the Casablanca we had to channel the 1940's War time vibe to set the mood! 

We held the dance in the upstairs banquet hall of  the historic Wichita Theatre in down town Wichita falls. The Decoration committee (Patricia, Jennifer V., Jordan and Myself) set things up to be like a 1940's dance club!

 Complete with performance stage...

 (Patriotic red, white, and blue lanterns!)

I was going for a homemade/USO show back ground all of our props, costumes and all the featured decorations came from shows we've done in the past at the Theatre. Jennifer and Patricia wired all the stair and balcony rail work with white Christmas lights. I was very happy with the way things came together, it was just being Mickey Rooney in an "Andy Hardy" Movie! Every thing just kind of fell into place. In Typical Mick Jordan fashion, I festooned anything that would stand still in crepe paper streamers and paper lanterns!

We surrounded our Stage/ dance floor with ringisde tables for two (just like in the movies!) we found these wonderful black and white chairs upstairs left over from a production of "My Fair Lady", and friend Cheryl lent us the silky purple table cloths left over from her daughters wedding! Thanks Cheryl! And The paper lanterns are from a production of "Annie Get Your Gun"! One of the neatest things about having our event down at the Theatre was getting to put our event up on the old marquee!

It looked so cool at night with all the neon lit up and letter board blazing!

(I love the red and green blinking neon!)

 (Patricia and I all dressed up.)

Patricia and I have such wonderful and supportive friends, there are so many people to thank for helping put on this event, Friends Lynn Marshall and Russ for coming up with it, (Lynn also for being our publicity committee and coming up with all kinds of great art and posters. Our planning committee Utah, Jennifer, Patricia, Jordan, Nichole, Zack. All of our wonderful friends that volunteered to be part of the entertainment for the evening (You all were Wonderful thank you so much for donating your time and hard work for a fabulous floor show!) All the Blog readers who have sent donations our way, Dwane and Lisa Jackson of Wichita Theatre for hosting a place to have the event, and everyone else who helped in some way. Also to all of the fabulous party guests and and nice people who donated to the cause. THANK YOU ALL! 

There is a line from "Wizard of Oz" that always touches home with me and I think is appropriate for the situation "A heart is not judged by how much YOU love, but by how much you are loved by OTHERS." I feel the love and consider myself to be so incredibly blessed. If this were a movie, I feel it would be like the end of "It's A Wonderful Life."

Thank you all so much.

Here's looking at you kids! 

-Mick-

Going "On The Town" Tonight!

Well readers, everything is just about ready! The tables are set, the decorations are up, we are stirring the punch and everyone we know is getting ready to go "On The Town" with us tonight!  Wish us lots a luck and cross your fingers that this fundraiser is a HUGE success!



-Mick-

The View Between A Rock & A Hard Place...

I'm learning a lesson the hard way Readers...

This past weekend Patricia and I made a trip to Graham Texas (about an hour away) to pick up the single window for the bathroom. When I started this addition project I decied rather than buy brand new doors and windows I foolishly (in a romantic way) wanted the new part of the house to match the old. This meant, I would have to salvage bits and pieces to put together. Thus far its been mostly smooth sailing. The wooden french doors from Missouri are in, next came the eight foot window in the living room, we've found the back door that will be put in, and now i've purchased an old double hung window for the bathroom...it has seen better days.

The thing about the bathroom window is, when Larry framed it, we had planned to use two old windows and sash them and everything but life gets in the way. Well We had framed the hole in a wired size as a result it is a peculiar size, and it has been hard to locate a vintage wood framed window in the right size and FINALLY one popped up!  There is quite a melodramatic story about another buyer who turned out to be a nasty lady and banned both myself and the seller of this window from a Facebook group, but that's just a foot note.
When we arrived in Graham I was disappointed to discover that one of the glass window panes was broken, but before I could even point it out the seller gave me an additional window to use replacement panes out of free of charge!

Whoever caulked these windows last did a HORRIBLE Job...so I chiseled off all the old caulking and will re do it myself. In the process I broke another pane of glass. So I have decied to use the other bottom replacement window... but it too has a broken pane! AHHHHH!

But it would be easier to replace the glass in this spare and put it back in the original window. It also needs a new window sill built into the bottom of the framing. GOOD GRIEF! Any other normal person would just give up and buy a new smaller window and put it in, but I am a glutton for punishment! It's taking a little more work than I would have liked, but it will be worth it in the end!

I know it doesn't look like much now, but its going to be a perfect window! I just have to replace the glass and re-caulk it all, and figure out how to do the sill, and paint it white, then it will be ready for instillation.  Sounds like a lot of work I know, but to me its worth it!


Hope you all had great weekends!

-Mick-




 

A Crystal Ball & Fate With Carmen Miranda and The Andrews Sisters!

Picked up lots of things last weekend at Bowie's "Second Monday" trade days Readers!  The Fransiscan cream and sugar were a steal at $2.00, the Ivy vase (which now holds kitchen utensils) was $2.00, the 50th Wedding cake topper was $0.25, The clear glass bottle was found for $3.00 (it  now holds sugar, don't worry I cleaned and boiled the bottle first!) The green glass water/juice jar was in a free box, the two dishwashered Pyrex fridgies $0.99 for both, and the Morton's pickle jar lid was $0.25.

We went to our favorite thrift store in Downtown Bowie, When this Turquoise 55(?) Bel-Air was parked out front we KNEW it was going to be a good day!  These sweet church ladies run it and the prices are so low and all sales go to a good cause. We always walk out with an arm load to help them out!Friend Jenn and I were digging through the records, and I was thumbing through 78's when I stumbled across this...

(The Matador- Carmen Miranda & The Andrews Sister)

I Jumped up off the floor and started doing a happy dance, I said to Patricia and Jennifer "OH MY GOD!!!" They, were not quite as excited as I... I was delirious because I knew when I flipped the record over what would be on the other side!

(Cuanto La Gusta- Carmen Miranda & The Andrew Sisters!!!)

You might be thinking about how annoying that tune is, But Carmen Miranda is one of my favorite 1940's idols. Her outlandish hats, the "Good Neighbor" policy with Brazil, her rocket to American fame and how Latin lovers, song and dance swept the United States by storm... Why Foxtrot when you can Rumba! Any who, what is so special to me about this record is the fact I have bought it SEVEN times and never got to play it until now. 78's are brittle and even thought I would win the bidding wars on the big auction site, the seller would NEVER package the record well enough and i;d end up with a box full of dust. So I was ECSTATIC to actually find one in the wild, this one made it all the way home and is now safely tucked away in my "Andrews Sisters" album of 78's!

Thank You Mrs JoAlan Spears for buying this hit tune so many years ago, and taking good care of it! Oh and the best part of this tale? The long searched for record cost me a total of $0.10!!!

 Victorious in our hunting we stopped at Sweetboys Diner for lunch, this is one of the BEST places to eat in Bowie and we always make a stop here for the delicious food. I ordered the "small club sandwich" with onion rings and as you can see the sandwich was bigger than my hand! Seriously one could have fed a family of four on this thing! After lunch it was back to hunting, a little bit of business with pleasure- I was searching for props to use in "The Wizard of Oz" and I found just what I was looking for...

(The Crystal Ball...)

I must say I was thrilled, and quite surprised to find this gem for $35.00, I really think is a paper weight, but to us at the theatre it will be Professor Marvels mystic crystal ball. The one he sees "... a house with a picket fence... and a woman in a clean but worn gingham gown..." it is perfect for our show, the ball is quite heavy, but the way the stage lights shine on it and make it glow it makes the scene!

After a long day of hunting we weary travelers headed home with lots of fun finds!

Tune in next week for The Wizard of Oz set post reveal! YIKES "On The Town" is Next Thursday too! Wish us break a leg and lots of luck!

-Mick-