I grew up listening to my mom play Chopin and Mozart and Debussy. Some of those pieces are still my favorites. But she also had the complete scores to tons of classic musicals, which I practically had memorized when I was a kid. I can still sing big chunks of Billy Bigelow's "Soliloquy" from "Carousel." I knew everybody's part.

Amy, what a wonderful memory.

My mom just listened to show tunes. I got my Oliver and Brigadoon and Jesus Christ Superstar love straight from her. Along with a deep fondness for the Carpenters.

That sounds delightful, Amy. My dad plays piano, but we never had one at home, so I didn't really get to hear him play until I was an adult.

My goal right now is to manage the chords for some Christmas carols by Christmas.

Dillo sets it to "vibraphone" and is having a grand old time.

Selling my piano before moving to Colorado was painful. But it went to a Buffista, so that makes it a bit better. I miss playing.

Both kids took clarinet in school which taught them how to read music. K-Bug taught herself how to play piano after that. Did I mention I really miss playing? Who knows what my brain and fingers remember now.

When I was young, my biggest wish was to play the piano. My best friend was a piano prodigy, and she taught me from her beginner books and drew me a piano keyboard to practice scales. It was not to be because I have never able to have regular access to a piano or lessons. I did learn to play on a keyboard in high school, but I could never do too much but play the right hand and some chords with the left in order to practice singing. It is a big regret of mine that I pretty much left music behind to take up theatre, because I did not have that much talent but was able to get pretty good with tons and tons of practice.

HPF is feeling much better. Despite the steroids making her crazy hyper. Now my throat is sore and I'm super achy. Whee. Dear This Week: you suck.

It was really lovely. We had the piano until I was in college, but a) it lived with us in Florida for two years, where the humidity pretty much ruined it, and b) it became untunable, apparently, and its tone was all off.

It also buckled the living room floor in the circa 1910 home we lived in while I was in high school, and we had to shore up in the basement with a big beam. Oops.

I wish I'd learned to play music as a kid. Instead, I had ballet and intensive gymnastics and flirted with guitar. My brother had guitar, football and baseball.

Now I know I'd like Noah and Grace to play and I'd love to get a Yamaha p95 eventually.

In other news, I have purchased 7 turkeys in the past three weeks. They've been $.59/lb and since Grace alone eats about 3 lbs of chicken a week, turkeys seem way more economical than chicken breast. But if you are an LA person and want a turkey, Fresh and Easy has them for $.59/lb for a few more days. And they have small turkeys -- the one we roasted yesterday was about 10 lbs.