Hey Look! A Sheep!

I was talking with my mother the other day on the phone.  I realized that she may have been hearing some strange noises from my end.

"In case you're wondering," I said, "I'm blowing out a goose egg."

"Of course you are," she said in reply.  "Why?"

"It's a prop for the show."

"Of course it is," she said.  She knows me well enough that I don't think I could surprise her with any task I take on anymore.  I was reminded of that this morning as I spent part of my planning period like this:

The play tomorrow requires sheep. My students suggested we use real ones; I reminded them of the tale of Extra Crispy and Original Recipe (or, "Why Waterhouse Will Never Use Live Animals on Stage").  Instead, I had them papier-mache several balloons, then glue cotton balls on the large balloons and spraypaint the smaller balloons black. I wasn't entire sure how we would attach the styrofoam eyes to the heads or how to attach the heads to the bodies. Fortunately, when we took the balloons outside into the sun to dry faster, they swelled and split the casing. The students were dismayed. I pointed out that the splits could be the mouths. The splits also proved handy when I attacked the attachment issue with duct tape and Elmer's glue. Hence the James Herriot-like photo of the sheep devouring my arm.

When the students showed up for class, I showed them the finished product. 

The general consensus was that they're so ugly they're cute. We've declared them our Tim Burton-like sheep, and with luck and a fresh roll of duct tape on standby, they just might make it through the shows tomorrow.