the softer side of Señor DeVille…

first this:

then this:

then this:

then this:

and finally, this:

and my heart will be full.

So, we go to Guitar Center this afternoon to pick up a replacement $20 Korg chromatic tuner so I can tune up the guitar and play Edelweiss like papa from Sound of Music for the girls without it sounding like cats being vivisected…

…yes, that guitar tuner which Natalie chewed the buttons off/out of 6 months ago.

Olivia starts campaigning for her own mini guitar for Christmas on the drive over… “I don’t need the Hello Kitty one, a black or red one is fine, Dad, as long as it looks like your guitar…”

“We’ll see, honey, we’ll see…”

We walk in, say hello to the multiple-pierced honey watching guard over the door, through the turnstile (is this the f’ing subway?) and into the store, where you can hear at least 8 different people “jamming”. The economy may be in the toilet but these people don’t have any money anyway, and they’re happy.

Of course we stumble upon a display of mini guitars, including an Ibanez Kirk Hammett (Metallica…) replica model. “This one is really cool,” another pierced and stretched-ear lobe young man informs us.

I buy the tuner and we get out of there in short order.

As we walk out, Olivia takes the lead in her newly acquired blue pants (which have a very slight bell-bottom look to them) and polo shirt and literally struts out into the parking lot headed for the car. She had that slightly slouching lope about her that said, “yeah, I’m cool… just checked out some guitars at the Center… now we’re off to the library. who knows, maybe they’ll have some Usborne books about Black Sabbath or something…”

Now, I’m not making this up! Jen saw it too and we both started laughing. Kiddos… gotta luv ‘em.