It's Time to Meet The Muppets on The Muppet Show Tonight

Do-do-do, do-do-de-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do

Mahna Mahna

Do-doo, be-do-do

Since we are out of the office next week, today was our day for the Marketing Department to dress up for Halloween. 

The writing team voted (while I was away on my sister getaway) to dress as The Muppets. First, I really wanted to wear my Hee-Haw get-up so I could get my money's worth out of that costume! Secondly, there are a lot of Muppet characters to choose from. And thirdly, thank goodness there is because we found an often forgotten muppet named Annie Sue the pig, who wanted to be a country singer.

Hee-Haw outfit meet my pig nose.

Here's our motley crew! Back row: Swedish Chef, Annie Sue the pig, Animal, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear, and Janice the hippy singer. Front row: Camila the chicken, Beaker, Waldorf (grumpy man in the balcony), and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

And this one has a few more members of our team dressed as a firefighter, a Brewers fan, and a writer. Ha.

Of course we had a fire drill today and that's when we realized not many departments were into celebrating Halloween a week early! That must be why people shake their heads and say "Oh that's just Marketing!"

We also could trick-or-treat today – in case I don't have enough snacks for my scrapbooking weekend!

Happy early 'ween!

A Loony, er Lunar-y, Night

When we saw the early evening moon outside our Yee-Haw party shed last night, I was sure to capture it. Then I got totally confident about catching the "deep partial" eclipse later ... with the BLOOD MOON.

Give me points for trying!

Full disclosure: This just my phone. Not my "good" camera. But I could see the "blood red" with the naked eye AND when I didn't zoom in too closely.

When it was close to peak viewing just before 11:12 p.m., it was just (to my phone camera's opinion) a dark side where it was getting eclipsed.

Then the clouds moved in and I don't remember anything after that! 

Thank goodness I do remember our Yee-Haw cast party! It was beyond positive. Everyone reported they'd received countless feedback – all 100% positive, that's for sure! How exciting and also fulfilling that we could give people some entertainment, kindness, humor (sort of), and a teeny bit of inspiration.

We came to the conclusion that – like the rare Blood Moon deeply partial eclipse – some things just can't be replicated!

Please share any decent shots of that darn eclipse last night! 

Your Long-Awaited Yee-Haw Review

Finally home long enough to go through photos, etc, for my version of a Yee-Haw recap! Why does it matter? Well take a look at this graphic and see what our summer of work – and a 2 1/2-hour show – accomplished.

Our fundraiser benefitted St. Philip's Church in Rudolph, the Portage County Power of 5 organization, and the Parkinson's Foundation. Thanks for your support! SALUTE!!

A couple months ago, I think we probably started with twice as many jokes and way more verses to the songs. But it seemed it was going to be a 4-hour show... and we didn't want anyone to suffer through that. Gradually we cut jokes (even though they were all hilarious in a corny way) and reduced the number of verses in a lot of songs. It was quite a process!!

And we did not coordinate what we were all wearing to look like cast members of the old Hee-Haw show...

But Amazon has everything! Search for Hee-Haw outfits and they've got 'em! Probably made in Hong Kong, but it fit!

And look at our uncoordinated coordination! It's like we could all be cut from the same cloth – picnic table cloth, that is!

The night of the show we were amazed at the growing crowd! My biggest surprise was my twin Raylene and hubby driving 4+ hours to attend. We were kind of into Hee-Haw when we were young!

Her son, my nephew Tony, came over from Green Bay and knew but kept a very good secret!

There were a few co-workers who attended, too. I mean I've been hounding them for months about this!

My "co-writer" Tom and his wife – who Jim and I have known for 20+ years in various publishing roles.

Dalen, my current graphic designer, was there with his mom. Not to see me necessarily since his dad (who happened to be Carter's grade school band teacher – small world) was playing with the warm-up band! His mom insisted on a photo because all the moms think I am their child's "work mom." True in many cases, but not all. Ha.

Our "picnic table cloth" selfies were plentiful. Here I am with my friend Sara, who married into the OG Yee-Haw family.

And her beautiful daughter Lydia, who've I've adopted as my own forever!

Our pre-game warmup – a.k.a. pep talk and the Lord's Prayer. Let's do this! Yee-Haw!

We had so many friends there, too. My friend (and golf partner) Molly was there and close enough to the front I could motion to her to try and get a picture of Jim and me together since I wasn't always next to him on stage. This was the best we could do because that darn microphone stand was in the way!

In the end, it was like, WOW. What a crowd! And a standing ovation! Every one of us on the stage had a minimum of half a dozen people tell us we need to do it again. One lady from my church was there and the next morning she gushed on and on about how wonderful it was. Her daughter's like, "She won't stop talking about it!"

Too bad we didn't set up Yelp reviews!

Tomorrow night we're gathering again to celebrate the successful show. I wonder if we should have our swinging barn board on hand to kick us in the butt for a bad joke or very bad idea of what we're doing next. LOL.

Love our HA-HAs family. We're so grateful they "adopted" us Austins into the fold!