Road Rally

Here is part of the team before today's Road Relay Scavenger Hunt. It's a fund raiser to benefit the new low income dental clinic that is coming to our town. Here are some difficult items of the 100 that we found in less than two hours: a pair of men's boxer shorts with red hearts on them (thanks, John, we'll never you look at you the same way), a mounted fish *real*, a souvenir from Wisconsin, a wooden Louisville Slugger bat.

Thought we could find but didn't: a metal or wooden milk crate, casino or slot machine token, Millenium Falcon plastic model.

Impossible: Ernie Banks or Lou Brock baseball card, pennant from Baltimore Colts or Chicago Cardinals, John Denver audio tape.

I'm entertaining myself by watching "Jackass: the Movie". How does someone not killed??

Name that College Girl

She's the one on the right. She can turn on the world on with her smile. She can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile. Yeah, it's you girl and you should know it, with each glance and every little move let you show it...

She is Liz M. and she used to live in our house when she went to university, along with a brothel, I mean bevy of other cute girls. There was a housing shortage back in the sixties, so boarding houses were more common. Liz was cool, probably mom and dad's all-time favorite, like a daughter/friend. Today she proved herself cool as ever, text messaging and when I mentioned a scavenger hunt I was going on today, asked if it Geocaching, which I had never heard of. No, geocaching has not come to our small town yet, just an old fashioned scavenger hunt for a good cause.

21st Century

Now that I have my family's attention with the declaration: check the blog for BIG news. I now realized I can't reveal all the news on this blog.

So the big news is: I have a cell. I have no home phone any longer. I got too PO'd at Verizon for a variety of reasons eg. I got sucked into some wonderful unlimited plan that cost me $20 more per month than I was paying, every time it rains my phone goes out, they have a perturbing auto response phone system, and they were going to take a week to come out and fix it. Well, I fixed them.

I couldn't go to Verizon wireless for obvious reasons, or Nextel (bad experience with Boy18's phone), so I tried US Cellular. Great choice. I explained I didn't want a camera, an MP3, texting, etc., oh and I want it free. He showed me one for $3, looked good, but it had everything I didn't want, and was called a SLVR. "I'll take it!!" two seconds later. And for Pat, the do-nothing plain flip phone.

Now I'm having a faint memory of niece Lauren last Thanksgiving explaining the different phones to Grandma Nell, and the sliver was one she thought was cool. So, now I'm cool, I'm so cool.

We can't operate either phone, but the kids set up the contact lists, and so far I can kind of answer it, and make a phone call.

PS. I have the same phone as Jamarcus Russell.

Major League

What is up with this new annoying practice of employees in stores yelling out "HELLO" when someone walks in the door, even if you can't see them and they can't see you. How is one supposed to know who they are talking to? How is this increasing sales in any way?

I'm curious is this a local or national trend? Has anyone else experienced this?

Eli's Scholastic Bowl team has advanced to Sectional on Monday. Cal is making his pitching debut on the same day.

The weather has moved back down to the 50's. The Office was not funny. The cat's paws are filthy from playing locked in the attic all day (voluntarily). I have to go exercise cause I can't focus. Why is a young Charlie Sheen on a commercial pitching?

Hello, Chris?

I was just wondering if Chris has been reading the blog since returning home from the hospital. Maybe with this recovery time, he could start a blog, or at least become a blog commentator. I bet he would have some interesting things to say about, oh the Boston Red Sox, Nurse Ratchett, what the kids are doing.

I attended a mental health Recovery conference yesterday and enjoyed it. The keynote address used a quote from Carl Sandburg, "Nothing happens unless first we dream." I think that's pretty close. She talked about Sandburg's six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln who battled severe depression, and I believe his wife's mental illness. Recovery from mental illness is a "new" concept in the last 5-6 years that I've been aware of. That's great, but the idea that blew my mind the first time I heard it, was that we will find a cure for mental illnesses. That is a big dream, but why not? Mental illnesses are physical illnesses, of the brain, but are put in such a different category, stigmatized, and those who have them, blamed and villified. That's just wrong. Things are beginning to change and it's good to be a part of.

Nice Dinner

We had a nice dinner tonight at the folks's. Dad cooked two chickens on the grill (charcoal) with his special whole wheat dressing. Mom added baked potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, vegetable tray. For dessert we had make-your-own sundaes, or have Boy12 make- you-a-banana split.

Jeter hit his first homerun tonight. Little Red is happy for that. Cubs lost in the 10th inning. Well, the bottom of the ninth was good anyway. We hate-dislike when the Cardinals win. Their fans are so annoying at school.

Everyone is preparing for school/work tomorrow. I got my car cleaned inside and out. Lots of laundry is clean with love. My neck is barely holding up my head at this point, so I will say Good night.

Leisure Day

Sundays are sweet. My kids sleep late, Pat plays golf and all is quiet and peaceful in the house. I'm having my coffee, of course, studying, and blogging. I technically finished my homework last night, but I am doing extra problems just to make sure I really get it. I love the chapter we are doing now. It is called Application of the Normal Distribution, and deals with how you can use the bell curve to figure out probabilities based on the average score/salary/size and the standard distribution. Anyway, the formulas and the math are easy and fun, and it all makes sense which is nice. I want to earn my A and not get it based a curve.

The top photo is some violets I saw in the yard yesterday. They remained even after the lawn was mowed. I had gotten the camera to take a picture of a squirrel who was posed so funnily in a tree. He/she was lying on a branch lengthwise, with his front arms hanging down, and his tail slung over another branch. He was so relaxed and cute as trimmed butter.

Okay, I stole that last simile from the play last night "The Real Inspector Hound." At least I thought I heard one of the characters say, "trimmed butter." Sometimes I get my best ideas from hearing something wrong.

Anyway, here is my two cent review: Shortest play I've ever been to (90 minutes including 15 minute intermission), that's a plus. 3 actors were high school classmates, which is always interesting. John M. directed and filled in for one of the main characters who was absent. It was kind of a wry twist, as he played a theater critic who was standing in for another theater critic, so there was a battery of jokes that had dual meaning. Sean G. was the other theater critic who became wrapped up in the onstage play within a play, and his real life partner, Karen P., was a jilted tennis engenue. We are all getting up in years for some of these parts, but what the heck.

I had Boy14 and two of his friends with me, as Sean is their junior high math teacher. They seemed to really delight in him bellowing, "Reckless bastard" when a guy in a wheelchair knocked him over, and also embracing a fellow classmate's mother. The performances were pretty solid, though we've seen several of them in nearly every play the last five years. Actors playing bad actors can be tricky to pull off, but it worked.

The photo below the violets is a mock DUI scenario at the university on Friday. I went as part of my job (substance abuse prevention) even though these type of events have not been found to be effective deterrents as they are intended. They may have a short term effect, but people then go right back to their usual behavior. I thought the picture turned out pretty good, though. I used the action setting on my camera.

It's time to get on with the day now. Have a good one, y'all.

Randomness

I am sitting here pathetically engrossed in "Sidewalks of New York." Edward Burns attempting Woody Allen. And who believes Stanley Tucci is 39 years old?? I hate the editing- it cuts in the middle of every conversation multiple times, for no good reason but to be different?

I kind of like Heather Graham.

I almost got a suntan today. It was 81 degrees, just perfect.

I'll be going to another play tonight "The Real Inspector Hound," and I feel another possible review coming on...
Is this movie ever going to end? It was on before dinner and goes on and on now.

Ciao for now.

Excellent Prognosis

Chris is being labeled, "the star patient." I guess "youth" makes a difference in these kind of things. He was out of ICU in less than a day, and walking around today, and asking for more exercise. He's probably watching the Yankee-Red Sox game right now and jumping out of bed when Coco Crisp hit a two run triple in the bottom of the 8th.

By-Pass

No, not the one around the city. My big brother is having triple by-pass surgery tomorrow. He's only 48 and a big guy, but not obese. He had a spell or two last summer but stress test and echo were normal. This past week he was having chest pain while walking (mild exertion) and they took it more seriously, performing a cardiac catheterization today. They were not able to insert a stent in the most blocked artery and recommended he proceed with by-pass to fix that and two other blockages.

Now, my dad had a heart attack at 60 and several stents since then, but this is just crazy. Anyway, I think he will come through fine. There was no damage to the heart, his body had re-routed the blockage somewhat adequately.

He was in good spirits tonight, and I just wish him the best!!

Since I only got my digital camera in November, I only have two pictures of Chris, taken in Boston on my friend's camera. The other one, I posted awhile ago, so this is kind of goofy, but Chris is on the left, walking towards Paul Revere's statue, across from the Old North Church.

Life in the Fast Lane, ha

This weekend I was working on a mini-scrapbook for a dear friend that I visited last fall in New Hampshire. I was simultaneously helping my friend Terri create a scrapbook for her daughter's high school graduation, and she did a great job on her first few pages ever. She is pictured above. She is also the person who went on the trip to New England with me, so we reminisced about the trip. I had to write to my friend because we couldn't remember some of the names of places I wanted to blog, I mean, Journal about. I got back a nice, long email from her about all her retirement activities. She is amazing, a former English professor who is very politically active so New Hampshire is great place for her to be. She is on board with Barack Obama, so we have that in common. Must be the Illinois connection, though many others seem to be connecting with him just as easily.

I love cheese and crackers. Just thought I'd say that.

Tomorrow is another hellish day: meeting after meeting, followed by class and another meeting. I don't know how I am going to fit my exercise in this week, and I was just noticing some progress on the cellulite situation! I am finding time to write this between meetings, and waiting for the chicken bake meal to cook in the oven. Prepared food is better than fast food, right? My kids consider it homecooked when it comes from a box. BTW- I ate lunch at the junior high today and it was so good, corn dog and lukewarm fries. They had a beautiful salad bar, but corn dog was just so school lunch-like. For sides they had fresh fruit (3 choices) canned peaches, fresh cauliflower, carrots and celery, ranch dip, tortilla chips, salsa and Milk. I think the kids just get the greasy stuff and ignore the rest, which is all you can eat, and makes the $1.75 pretty good.

I must have charged the batteries the wrong way on Sunday, for the camera only took two pictures before pooping out, and I had just been bragging about how long it holds a charge. It should be done soon, and I will download or upload the photo.

My college freshman was sitting at the computer when I got up this morning, apparently having pulled an all-nighter. He was delirious, and said he had just eaten a spoonful of coffee grounds and would be fine till class is over at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. He was spending an inordinate amount of time of each multiple choice of his take home sociology exam because he couldn't focus, and a quick glance at the paper he was writing on Tupac (god knows what class this was for) had three errors in the first two sentences.

Sunday Morning Already

My laptop is running r e a l l y s l o w and I'm about to blow a gasket. It must be the kids' music, games, etc. My email is not coming through either. I did get my camera and Ipod recharged, though. How many hours must we spend messing around with technology on a daily basis, instead of actually DOING something? ARGHH. Now I am going to have to defragment, run spybot and adaware and who knows what else to get this back up to speed. I've also been picking molecules of skin and dust out of the keyboard with a toothpick because I can never find the Dust-off in the store.

Ok, there's the mess on the table that sat there overnight and was probably shed upon by the cats. I hope everyone has a great day. I've already done my optional homework, and am understanding it, thankfully. I'm hungry for my second breakfast and it's only 9:30 a.m. Well, I am certainly grumbly this morning. That reminds me a joke: Did you wake up grouchy this morning? No, I let him sleep in.

Sunday Morning Already

My laptop is running r e a l l y s l o w and I'm about to blow a gasket. It must be the kids' music, games, etc. My email is not coming through either. I did get my camera and Ipod recharged, though. How many hours must we spend messing around with technology on a daily basis, instead of actually DOING something? ARGHH. Now I am going to have to defragment, run spybot and adaware and who knows what else to get this back up to speed. I've also been picking molecules of skin and dust out of the keyboard with a toothpick because I can never find the Dust-off in the store.

Ok, there's the mess on the table that sat there overnight and was probably shed upon by the cats. I hope everyone has a great day. I've already done my optional homework, and am understanding it, thankfully. I'm hungry for my second breakfast and it's only 9:30 a.m. Well, I am certainly grumbly this morning.

You Little Devil

Has anyone else been craving Deviled Eggs? These did not turn out too good, my improvised recipe seems to be missing something. The ones I got at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago tasted sweet, which was a little weird, but better than these. I would appreciate any ideas.

My mom has been staying by herself out on a farm in North Dakota while taking care of my great uncle's affairs, while he is recuperating in a nursing home. Just found out there was a double murder on a nearby (20 miles?) farm. Very scary, very Truman Capotesque. No details were available but she checked herself into a motel, wisely. I'm going to look it up on-line if I am not too tired after writing this.

My dining room table is filled with scrapbooking materials, but I have accomplished nothing all evening, except a little project for the school PTO. I'll see if I can take a quick photo. **quick break: took picture, but won't download due to low batteries. I have never actually had this happen. I always heard digital cameras used batteries very rapidly, but that did not seem to be the case with ours. We have rechargables, anyway, and it only takes 15 minutes, but Boy12 is waiting to use the laptop. Still having music download problems and needs two computers to complete his task. Don't ask. Come to think of it, my Ipod died today while I was walking the track at the Y. I had it plugged into the computer overnight and it has never died before so that was weird. Maybe I have some kind of negative electrical charge.

Uh oh, several 8th grade boys just walked in after the Jr. High party at the Y across the street. The last time they got together a wooden billiards rack (triangle) got broken over one kids' back. Apparently the highlight tonight was three boys singing "My Humps" and dancing. Good thing they don't let the parents chaperone, well, my kids don't let their parents.

Friday Night Lights

Ahhh...I'm back to the blog, it's been a really busy week. What with stats class, American Idol, The Bachelor, Scholastic Bowl matches, track meets and baseball practice, we are on the go. I feasted on a little too much sugar this week, but otherwise, a good week. I was too exhausted Friday night to finish this and am back this morning. Unfortunately, it's raining today which is a bummer for the baseball kids who are anxious to practice.

Here is a picture of Boy12 counting his money. He is quite a miser and is building a nice bank account. He is having a hard time setting up his Ipod library on the new computer.

Betsy, do you remember that drawer in the big dresser when we were kids, that had an old carpet remnant in it? Well, it was a new remnant at the time. That was our Barbie house, with various size boxes as furniture and scarves as tablecloths. We made Barbie clothes out of fabric scraps with only a pair of scissors. Oh, those were the days...

I am not able to get my email all the time, so it is hard to respond to that.

Ranting

I picked up Boy12 this morning at 8:00 from a church Lock-In he attended with friends. He immediately began talking about the events of the past 12 hours, which had me none too happy. Ok, it was a church, so I should have known better, but it didn't seem that fundamentalist. Here's the scoop. They showed 12 year olds The Passion of the Christ without parental permission. I would have given it, most likely, if asked, but at least I could have explained or warned him prior, let him decide whether to go or not. I know when I thought about showing it to my youth group, I called all their parents and asked, and they were in high school!

I think he was more upset that it lasted 3 1/2 hours, it was spoken in "Hebrew" with subtitles, and they kept stopping to explain everything, than the actual content. He agreed it was really violent, the whipping part, and that he did learn something about Jesus. However, one girl was apparently in tears. Then they were lectured about HELL and how they would be going there unless they did three things: pray, accept Jesus as their savior and something else. She asked if they knew what hell looked like and described it, that the world is going to blow up, how the Bible says so, and Boy12 told the lady outright, "I don't feel like believing this." I was so proud. One of his friends was really upset and worried, and kept asking, what he had to do, etc. I asked my boy if he was worried, and he's like "nope". I reassured him, just in case, that she doesn't know anymore than Mitch Albom, me or him about heaven and hell.

Okay, that is the last church event he's going to. It really angers me that people are out there scaring little kids with their negative freakish beliefs and predictions.

P.S. After The Passion movie they watched the Pistol Pete Maravich story, which seemed really odd, but he loves sports, so that was cool. Then hubby told me Pistol Pete was a born again.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

I PICK U

I meant to post this much earlier in the winter as an entry in the Valentine's corny saying contest. Anyway, better late than never, eh?

Easter Memories and Traditions

Some of the Mother Lode


I don't have a lot of memories, good or bad, of Easter. My firmest memories are of my mother-in-law, known as Nellie. When we were living in Western New York Nellie always had nice Easter get togethers, regardless of the weather, which was iffy at best. Pansy usually sent a nice spiral ham, and many of the ten siblings would be present with kids in tow. They are probably getting together today, we just aren't close enough to visit.

One tradition Pat started here in Western Illinois, was the golf ball hunt. Spread all over the yard, there were prizes for most golf balls, any golf balls, and the coveted, money golf ball. Prizes included candy, sports equipment, and other small gifts. Boy12 hopefully asked if there would be a golf ball hunt this year, and was told he was too old now.

This morning I set off for last minute Easter shopping at Walgreen's and Pat followed. I had $10 in my pocket (one chocolate bunny each), but Pat has more of an Easter fetish. He ended up spending $43, mostly on candy. Yikes.

I have always thought dyeing Easter eggs was a big hassle, something like carving pumpkins. I guess I am a holiday party pooper. I have a box of Easter decorations somewhere. I am just too lazy to get it out. I know it has some beautiful blown eggs with fancy quill designs that Betsy made and other fancy stuff. That would probably have made a nice picture, but the thought occurred too late.

I believe we are products of the way we were brought up, and holidays were just not commercialized, materialized or emphasized in my home. Yes, we did get hard boiled eggs, and a chocolate bunny for Easter, but not new clothes or gifts, god forbid. I try to keep it simple now, too.

All in all, it was a blessed Easter!

This One's For You, Bets

Good morning, Lou. Per your request I am updating the boring old blog. First, I had to learn to download some songs from ITunes and pay my fair share (99 cents each). It was a little confusing at first, but then super easy. It loaded to my library in about 5 seconds, I plugged in the pod, and it synced automatically. Then I worried how I would find if the new songs were loaded, on the shuffle. Luckily, up came one of my new songs as soon as I turned it on.

I made a late decision, last evening, to invite Dad over for Easter dinner and actually prepare some decent food. Mom is up in North Dakota assisting Uncle Cal in the nursing home, where I hear he is doing really well. Hopefully, she will be able to help him find an apartment with other seniors, rather than returning to the lonely farm. Anywaysss, he agreed to join us for dinner at noon.

Headphones on, another 'new' song came on, Unchained Melody. Very memory-laden song. And not just Demi Moore in Ghost.

I tried on a fake pony tail at a Merle Norman store today. It was so thick and matched my hair color perfectly. The elderly lady said, "Oodles of people are wearing them now." Very tempting, but $42 is too much for a whim that would probably sit in a drawer collecting dust or on my dresser scaring young children. Dad will have to remind me of the German words for "dangerous thing" which Nephew7 called Grandma's wig (sitting atop her dresser on a Styrofoam head form) several years ago (in German). We have a family song that contains that phrase. Most three year olds don't go around calling wigs "dangerous" in German nonetheless. His vocabulary has always been very advanced.

Sports News: Nephew7 scored 3 goals in soccer today, his first three also! Too cold for soccer here...Macomb Little League has reshuffled and new teams picked. Cal is now with MidAmerica National Bank with Pat as coach.

Mystery of the disappearing photo: After posting the photo of Grace and Toru I got an email from Grace asking me not to post her picture, as the Internet is not a safe place. Tell me about it! Don't know what kind of perverts are weird enough to be reading and looking at this blog.

More news of little consequence: Our new Dell desktop arrived yesterday. Boy14 had it set up in 10 minutes or less. I just gleefully figured out how to connect my old printer (by digging up the cord someone had disconnected when we cleaned up all the cords from the old one that bit the dust four months ago). My laptop is now mine again.

Five things to be happy about:

1. finding my Y key

2. game of Gray Wolf happening in my yard

3. the dashing way Tiger Woods dresses

4. hot tea

5. successfully printing on the new computer

Photos above include: New York skyline from some bridge north of the city, September 2006, where the toll takers wear rubber gloves (smart :). Alfonso Soriano the hope of the Cubs season.

Good Day everyone. I'll be off to a talk on Aethism on Easter morning. If I go anywhere, which is unlikely.

NCAA Fever

Since everyone around here is watching "the game" I will just blog a little. I got my last test back in Stats tonight. I was not understanding probabilities to the degree I expect of myself, just couldn't 'get it' and was not prepared for the test. He announced before handing them out there's a percent and a letter grade. My percent was 78, but the grade was an A, so apparently, I wasn't the only one who bombed it. I am really trying to keep up on this next chapter, but unfortunately, it contains probabilities, albeit, simpler ones.

Boy14 had his first track meet tonight. I wasn't able to be there because of my class but he got a 2nd in 100 meters, and 4th in 200 meters. Not too bad.

I'm thinking about going back to my Arm Meat blog, but it is more personal reflections of family (like this is not!).

Tales by WOLFMOTHER

Been working on my arm meat (lifting weights). Really, more concerned about getting some weight bearing exercise in, so I don't get osteoporosis. A little embarrassing to only be pressing 25 pounds.

Did not have a good night of scrapbooking on Friday. Completed no pages. I did use a heavy duty die cut machine to cut pictures into puzzle pieces but then they didn't really work as well I hoped. I worked on Nephew's Oliver! pages but am not really pleased with them.

Joakim Noah has a ponyhawk thing going. Pat and I are duking it out for tournament points in the Florida vs. UCLA game. The boys teams have all been eliminated.

Somehow I ended up losing the family NCAA tournament even though I had one of the last teams left standing (UCLA). Florida looks really good, and Ohio State does, too. That should be a good game.

I'm posting some pics of dinner tonight. We had our friends Grace and Toru over along with my parents. International students are sometimes advised to take on an American name when they come over, which Grace did. Toru's moniker, Bruce, never caught on, however. Grace brought Joutsa's (my own spelling) with special sauce, which were delicious. I prepared Crab Stuffed Chicken Breasts this morning with asparagus, rolls, salad, etc. Dessert was not birthday cake as we are half way between Mom's and Pat's birthdays, but some Midwestern potluck dessert called Pretzel Salad. Salad, ha! Crushed pretzels with a quart of butter and sugar for crust, a layer of cream cheese/whipped cream and more sugar, followed by strawberry jello with frozen berries mixed in.

After dinner, Boy14 serenaded us with Seven Nation Army and Wolfmother selections on bass guitar. Still time for some batting practice after that...I think the early Daylight Savings Time, or is it the end of DLS, is working out well.

Five Things to be Happy About

1. being able to read
2. someone telling me today, "no one can steal your joy"
3. pony tail holders
4. oranges
5. remembering my mom's birthday today (there she is with Boy18 aka Sanjaya)

Hair Emergency

We had something of a hair crisis last night when we tried for some bargain haircuts at a friend's house. A dude named Julius was cutting hair for ten bucks so we thought we'd get the boys taken care of. It's getting very difficult to even schedule a regular appointment with school, work, track practice, guitar, Scholastic Bowl, baseball, etc. Nothing against Julius, but I don't think he cuts much white-boy hair. When I walked in and saw Boy14's hair, akin to early Beatles/Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka/Artie Johnson on Laugh-In, it was really hard to keep a straight face. When I asked for layering he said he didn't have "shears."

Boy12 was really concerned about big brother going to school looking like that, assured him Dad could fix it by buzzing it off, chastised me for laughing in the car, and offered to enter the house first to tell Dad not to laugh. Dad had a wonderful solution, taking him to Wal-mart . I called to make sure they were still open and alerted them an emergency was coming in.

When they got there, she assumed Boy12 was the emergency, and fixed his hair up a little, then went to work on Boy14. The results are pictured above. I didn't have the heart to photograph them pre-second haircut, not knowing everything would turn out okay. He would not have allowed me to publish it on the blog anyway, but it sure would be good for laugh now and then in the privacy of our own home.

Suffice it to say, a lot of hair was shed, and I couldn't be happier. It may not be perfect, but I haven't seen these faces in ages. Now it's time to work on Boy18, who looks a little like Sanjaya.

Parlor Games

Tonight my sister and nephew are in town so we had dinner together at the Knights of Columbus fish fry. Afterwards, we went to my folks house to play games. The boys shot hoops outside for awhile and everyone was comfortable in the living room, so when they came in, I suggested staying seated where we were and play parlor games. This was a big hit at Adam's graduation party, and it went pretty well again.

We changed it up and started with "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button," except no one could quite figure out how to play it. Next, we played "Hide the Thimble" with the button. This is where one person goes out of the room and you hide the button. When they come back everyone shouts, hot or cold as they get closer are farther to the button. This lasted for sometime and was actually challenging to Nephew7. As interest faded in that, Betsy suggested, "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board." This was kind of dumb, and illicted some hysterics by Nephew7 as he laid on the floor and four others lifted him with two fingers each.

The boys were getting kind of squirrelly after a few rounds of that, so we played "Stone." Nephew7 stayed quiet 1/5 of a second, and I started kick boxing around Betsy in an effort to get her to laugh, and wound up getting myself and Grandma doubled over in laughter and in need of a Depends (me, not her). Since most of the family were still able to stay silent we started in with Charades. This went on with both good and lame charades including Sanjaya, Shrek, Willy Wonka, Sandlot, etc. Finally, just Grandpa and Boy14 were left in stone. Eli almost lost it when Nephew7 did his own version of beat boxing. Grandpa broke down eventually when Betsy made a literary gaffe, and he had to correct it. Found out Boy14 had a plan to call Grandpa's phone in the morning if the game was still on and try to get him to answer.

It was an evening of old fashioned fun.

Idol Chatter

I agree with Ginnie that Melinda has already been noticed by those that matter. Hadn't thought of it that way. My boyz were dissing my girl Melinda, and calling her a thirsty platipus, something they got off "The Soup." I do wish she would eliminate the look of being a surprised school girl. I think she is trying to portray a little more confidence.

I learned a new term last night, Beat Boxing. I guess that's how it's written. Anyway, it's what Blake does, and it's getting a little annoying, like he can't control himself.

My sister says "they" are calling the crying girl, Little Miss Sobshine. Thanks, Bets. She described her emotions as "anguished," perhaps her puppy died.

866-idols-11

We had kind of a good laugh over Idol tonight, which has nothing to do with the picture above. Actually I got home after 8:00 and watched the end of the show live. I saw a young girl bawling in the audience during Melinda's rendition of "As Long As He Needs Me." Since I was bawling, too, I didn't think much of it (I had recently seen "Oliver" if you remember, and I loved the music from it). I then saw the re-cap at the end so when I went through the DVR tape (?) from the beginning, I could just watch the ones of interest. The boys actually wanted to see Gina sing "Paint It Black," something they have on their Ipods. But I had to show them how awful Sanjaya was, although he was better than usual! And there was the same girl, crying and quivering for Sanjaya. They showed her about 10 times, then had him go out and hug her afterwards. Weird!

Well, I hope to hear from Betsy on what she thought of the performances. Anyone else, too.

Little Miss

Little Miss Sunshine is a good movie for anyone who felt their family was a little off-dysfunctional-weird. I enjoyed watching the family cascade from one disaster to another. Unexpectedly, it didn't turn out with a fairy tale ending. My only complaint was Olive's "fat suit". I'm 100% sure they put a pillow under her shirt, to add to the frumpiness factor. Completely unnecessary.

Last week's American Idol, just viewed on DVR, was the WORST ever. I suppose I know now I am not a fan of Diana Ross. I thought the songs were terrible and were performed poorly, to boot. My actual favorite was panned by the judges, Chris' Sligh's update of Endless Love.

Random Pictures

#1

#1 Boys trying on some kool cat clothes.

#2 Blogging and relaxing, relaxing and blogging. Dig the telephone in our "boutique" hotel.

#3 Carribean street performer doing his stuff.

Did You Know?

This is our last evening in New Orleans, on the Riverwalk?

Street performers in the Big Easy mime as statues for money?

Nick Fazekas fouled out in overtime but Nevada prevailed anyway?

Bob Evans has a new menu and it is quite good (flounder)?

Mississippi has security guards posted at rest areas 24/7?

North Texas University players were seen walking down Bourbon Street before their game and may have caused their demise?

Red Hot Chilli Peppers can be agreed upon by all ages in the car?

When I listen to my Ipod, I expect "Mandy" to get stuck on the words, "uphill climbing, uphill climbing, uphill climbing" the way it did on my record in 1974?

I got accepted to University of Illinois School of Social Work master's program?
Staunton, IL doesn't really have a Casey's.

St. Patty, patron saint of driving

Blogger does not want to cooperate and upload photos tonight, but I will jabber anyway.

Pat logged 900 miles each way to and from New Orleans, and didn't let me drive a lick!

Last night we made it to Festus, MO and couldn't help but make fun of the name (we were punchy). InFestus, infested with what?? Boy14 followed up with, "Can you get my BagDad?" Ok, not that funny, guess you had to be there.

Boy14 asked today if we were eating dinner Grandma's and I said, "No, why?" He replied, "It's St. Patrick's Day." It has been a tradition for my mom to cook Corned Beef and Cabbage, some call it Boiled New England dinner, on Pat's Day.

Priceless

After staking out the New Orleans Arena (next door to the Superdome) for an hour this morning, patience was rewarded in the end. On our way back from Bourbon Street this evening and very near to our hotel, I spotted a bunch of tall guys in warm-ups, and signaled Boy12. He saw the Nevada logo immediately and sped across the street, so as not to miss the opportunity this time, to the Hard Rock Cafe where Nick Fazekas was gracious enough to have his picture taken and provided an autograph for Boy12. We're convinced he will make it to the NBA and do well. He has a new devoted fan regardless. He seems like a really nice guy, and humble. Doubt Joakim Noah would have been so accomodating, though who knows. Maybe he would've danced for us.

A Day in the Life

We started the day at Cafe du Monde (seems like 25,000 steps ago--well it was). I can't say there is much difference between a beignet and a garden variety fried dough/funnel cake at any carnival or festival around the country. The chickory coffee was good and strong though.

We then walked to the Superdome which was a little farther than it looked on the map (2 miles?). No one seemed to know anything about the NCAA practice schedule, or they weren't telling us. After finally convincing Boy12 to abandon post at the players entrance, we walked back for lunch at Jackson Brewery food court (renovated beer factory, reminded me of the Tivoli in Denver). The boys took in Ripley's Believe It or Not (and a visit with the world's tallest guy) while moi had a rest. Later a stroll through the French Market where Boy14 spent the money burning a hole in his pocket. Pralines for me!! Boy12 and I then sat through a pretty amazing street performance of the Calypso boys pictured above. $10 donation for white folk.

Dinner at some Creole joint for some authentic cuisine followed by a walk down Bourbon Street. We had a sighting of the North Texas basketball team, which we didn't even know was in the dance.

Where in the World is Nick Fazekas?

Nick was spotted outside Bubba Gump Shrimp near our hotel about 8:30 p.m. with his Nevada teammates waiting for the charter bus. They are in town to play Creighton Friday night. Pat ran back to the room to get the boys but they missed him by a few seconds, boarding the bus. Boy12 was majorly bummed.

The second guy is just a typical vendor on Bourbon steet. It's quite the place. Not necessarily family oriented or the best place for a prevention specialist to spend vacation. Spring breakers abound.

Smooth Operator

Here is our carriage driver. He was a real cut-up. Showed us where Brangelina lives. He was really entertaining, lots of vampire stories and historical information. Drove a mule called "Shannon", yelled at cars and cab drivers, and accused the other carriage drivers of DWI, while he appeared to be the one on "purple drank." He let the kids drive the mule then criticized their abilities. He made the lady in front of me (pictured here) take photos of St. Louis Cathedral with sunset behind it, then chastized her for making it into a "photo shoot."

Bourbon Street was just starting to come alive at 8 p.m., about the time we retired.

Oh, by the way, the driver says "French Quarters," plural. I'm wondering which is right? He seemed to be a local who should know??

French Quarter

We drove 900 miles and all we saw is the lousy Mississippi River and threw ice at seagulls?? Just kidding.

We arrived in NO around 3:15 p.m. but took awhile to find our way to the French Quarter and to our Historic hotel. Very tight quarters around here. Narrow streets, close buildings. NO ONE can give directions or seems to know where anything is, leading to some frazzled tempers, especially the people checking in at the hotel before us.

Walked around a bit to get oriented and soak in the ambiance (beignets, beer and urine). Boy 14 wants to buy an alligator skull ($12.99) in the worst way, but we are holding him off for now. Found the Cafe Du Monde (3 blocks), street performers, and origin of the carriage rides. So far, no Brangelina sightings. The boys are looking for Joakim Noah, here for the NCAA 1st round games. Will post picture if we are lucky enough.

We found a Walgreens and got the much needed Colgate toothpaste. Burt's Bees lavendar and mint, dirt colored vintage 2000 toothpaste didn't cut it. Must run now and brush teeth before dinner...more later, dudes.

Memphis, TN

We are thankfully in an okay room in Memphis after driving 9 hours. I worked this morning, the reason for the late start. I had a new bunch of kids for their first anti-drug lesson, and it went okay. We're a little weary and a little crabby when we couldn't find our way to the Fairfield Inn (a reliable choice). The kids got a little freaked when Pat and I had words over a U-turn that turned us AWAY from the Fairfield. We landed at the Ramada, and already have had someone knocking at the door looking for Paul and Angie.

We stuffed ourselves, literally, at Red Lobster in Cape Girardeau, MO. I feel like a pound of butter is coagulated in my upper colon. I am going to read a bit before bed, while Cal does push ups on the questionable hotel floor.

Sorry for no exciting pictorials of Graceland, Jim Neeley's Interstate Ribs, or Darius Washington, Jr. Just the boys chillin' on the bed. Sports Center catching to do.

The Blue Jays have it

Just a quick reminder that Spring is here, but winter was not long ago. I'm so thankful. It's about 60 degrees, my car is clean and ready for our trip, along with myriad other errands being disposed of. I only have "clean the bathtub" left on my to-do list, and it may or may get done. Right now I am methodically going through all my digital pictures and deleting unnecessary ones. Most I don't even want print copies of, but can't part with them either, eveb though I'm afraid they are going to jam up my laptop. I knew when I started with the digital pictures, there would be major drawbacks, but the good outweighs the bad at this point. I recommend enlarging the bird picture.

Messiest Desk

This picture was taken for my entry in the Messiest Desk contest at our local newspaper. The prize was a free organizing session at your place of work. Needless to say I was too disorganized to actually submit my photograph, and I have to say the guy who "won" was way worse than me.

For you, a thousand times over.

I have to revise my assessment earlier this week of "The Kite Runner" after finishing it today. I was bored in places, but interestingly, when I would pick it back up it would draw me in again. I know I'm a little behind the times, the book was published in 2003, but I had it on my list of books to read a couple of years ago, if that counts for anything. Over Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law's boyfriend highly recommended it and that was the impetus to buy it for Adam for Christmas. Pat was the first to read it, me, second, and Adam has not read it yet, but I'm hoping he will at least start over Spring Break this week.

I was also disappointed when I realized this was not an autobiography, and the plot became somewhat unbelievable. This all led me to make some negative comments. However, there was something haunting and redemptive in it. I also appreciated the complexity and fallibility of the characters, which I argued with Pat about. I also fell in love with the little boy who becomes a central character. It ended on a positive, if not ecstatic note, which was realistic. The story came full circle and I found myself looking back to find familiar scenes and phrases. I love the way the author wove "for you, a thousand times over" into the fabric of the story. Very nice. I recommend it.

A View Looking In

I was looking for some inspiration in my pictures, and found this. Frankly, I'm a little burnt out on writing. At work today, it was kind of nice because I had all day to catch up on stuff. Most of it was writing. Meeting minutes and articles for the newspaper on social hosting (adults providing alcohol to minors) and parental communication and monitoring. Easier to give advice than carry it out myself. Actually, I'm pretty happy with my parenting skills overall.

This is the most complete room in my little dollhouse. My mom actually needlepointed the little welcome mat. I haven't put the kind of effort into it like I thought I would two years ago when I got it. I guess my girlhood dream should have remained just that. Since this picture was taken, this little living room contains a fireplace, a silver tea set and a kitten in a basket, thanks to some birthday gifts from Betsy. The other room that has gotten some attention is the attic. My plan is to have the kids sleep there. There are some miniature Cubbie pictures glued on the ceiling above where the beds will go. In the corner is a box of Christmas paper and ornaments.

Spring break for the kids has officially begun. We are going to take off for New Orleans on Tuesday. Not too much planned, we have a room in the French Quarter. Most of my ideas center around food (Beignets at Cafe du Monde, Emeril's, Quarter Master Deli). Maybe a swamp tour, voodoo shop, visit with Brangelina at their new home in the French Quarter, and cemetery walk. Any other suggestions appreciated!

Lost

Lost is such a weird show. It's playing in HD in front of me, and I can't get into it.

American Idol, on the other hand, is THE BEST. Actually, when I DVR it, I can skip most of the singers who I think are mediocre and/or boring, and listen to my girls a couple of times over. There is one guy who is growing on me, they call him "justin timberlake." He did a cool song last week, something about a "freak". This week I didn't care for his Keith Urban impersonation.

Better to spend most time reading. I'm trying to get through "The Kite Runner" though I'm finding the story too far fetched. I didn't really know anything about Afghanistan, other than they grow and export a lot of opium products, and the atrocities of the Taliban, especially with regard to women. So, I find any other cultural data very interesting.

Blogger Constipation

Blogger is running really slow tonight, wouldn't load my pictures, takes forever to go from window to window. I just commented to Pat that everyone must be blogging tonight because the system is all clogged up, just like our toilet after a big....

Now, to continue with the day. The boys got out on what was a very wet field, that froze over the last couple days. Good enough to skate on, until they started poking holes in the ice and the water erupted over the ice. That was it for our frozen tundra (I hope). Pat misses the ice, being a Buffalo hockey boy at heart. The groundhog said the spring would be early, and this is not early. I expect March to be much nicer than it has been so far.

Mercury Retrograde

Mercury must be out of retrograde, as I am feeling pretty good now. I don't know what that is exactly, just that I was out of sorts, disorganized, overwhelmed, and had problems in general last week. The full moon has also passed, and we are into waning crescent as of this evening. I am busy doing laundry, exercising, studying for a statistics test tomorow, and squeezing in a little blogging (for a reward and stress relief!).

Last night we saw the community theater production of "Harvey." This was all my kids, nephew, husband, sister. Everyone enjoyed it and found many parts uproarious. Elwood P. Dowd was played by a university theater professor. Just a really good performance, even if my dad thought he played him as something of a lech. I thought he was charming, poignant and yes, hilarious. My father played Dr. Chumley for the second time in his amatuer acting career, and Mom was Mrs. Chauvanet. She had previously played Myrtle Mae and Veta Louise, much meatier roles. I'll have to add here, the name of my blog was inspired by my idea of trying out for the role of Myrtle Mae a few months ago. I didn't know at the time, the character was in her twenties. Ha ha on pulling that off! Mom got the first big laugh of the show with her, "I thought you were dead" line. Dad was quite believable as the psychiatrist who begins to believe in the imaginary white rabbit who can stop time and take him to his fantasy of "Akron, cold beer and poor, poor thing." Not bad for a couple in their seventies. The play was an interesting take on the mental health profession of the 1940's. My how things have changed!

Coincidentally, the movie version of Harvey was shown on TNT tonight. I have to say, Jimmy Stewart doesn't have anything on our Ray Gabica. He was a little too hapless for my taste. Just learned in the afterward, that Jimmy was not happy with his portrayal and thought it was not edgy enough. He later did it on Broadway and in a TV movie, a little darker and "crazier" and was much happier with the result. I would like to see that and become a real Harvey critic.

IPod Update and Ugly Cake

I posted this awful picture in case Christina looked over here to see how great her birthday cake really does look. I picked up a store cake the night before and this is it practically demolished after the folks came over to help celebrate. The IPod is sitting on top of the clear plastic lid. Somehow, I thought it would look artsy, but didn't turn out that way afterall.

I have already learned how to sync my IPod and added three CD's (Ragged's, Lucy Kaplansky, and Beatles Love) all by myself! It is so exciting to learn something new. I guess I will have to break down and buy some songs off ITunes, though I think $1 a song is ghastly. I haven't gotten to listen much as my sister arrived in town tonight so I didn't walk at the Y. I was listening and computering at work, and the boss walked in and startled the bejesus out of me. Guess I won't wear it at work anymore.

Has anyone else found a laptop to be much more comfortable on one's lap than up on a table or desk? I'm only a little afraid there is radiation seeping out into my thighs, it gets really hot.

Happy Birthday to E

We have a 14 year old in the house today. I tried to import one of his CD's to ITunes and my Ipod before he had even listened to it. He loves the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are okay. But it was the Beatles CD I had heard good things about.

For his birthday, he got Mom coming into his health class and teaching drug prevention. Well, at least it was the last time he will have to endure that.

Happy Birthday to Me

Hello Ipod. I have definitely not mastered the new toy yet. Not even close. I have to get one of the boys to instruct on every step. Then it looks so obvious. The clip is so handy, though. Really nice for walking. Too bad I only had four songs. The color is awesome, the boys love it. The picture doesn't do it justice. That was after deleting over 200 I found had been saved on my computer by Boy/man18. No clue who any of the bands (?) were.

Chuck, aka Tag03, aka BIL, I wouldn't want to ruin Of Mice and Men for you, should you decide to watch or re-read it. Yes, I could see how it could upset a child or at least give them a creepy feeling.