I’m not sure if you military types know this, but apparently if you are playing the Wii-Tanks game in two player mode, if you kill the other player (Code Name Grandma) then you get to play all by yourself against the bad guys without having to listen to Code Name Grandma complain that she can’t figure out the controls with her arthritis.
This could be a new enemy infliltration strategy, me thinks.
Tonya and Ryanne share a birthday! No, there are no pictures because David hasn’t sent them yet.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Tonya. I haven’t been to Springfield because everytime I make plans to go, like last week, we have a huge snowstorm. I was going to take Hailey to see a movie soon - The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything is opening one of these days - but is questionable whether Kate and Ryanne will get to go. Kate apparently doesn’t like movies and Ryanne falls asleep - according to Hailey who might have ulterior motives.
For you excellent entertainment - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaWU1CmrJNc This is the YouTube video for the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. It’s hysterical - watch the Larry the Cucumber.
Happy Birthday Dad! Feb 4th was Dad’s birthday and we had a party at Mom & Dad’s. I took a lot of pictures with David’s digital camera, but he hasn’t emailed me the pictures yet. Even though I’ve asked twice.
Also, I’m not having a party this weekend. My phone line has gone down for the third time this week, and so far it has not come back. AT&T is supposed to repair it by tonight at 7:00pm. Of course, this is the week where I start teaching my online class for Roosevelt University and I can’t get online. I’ve been working at Mom & Dad’s for the past two solid days, trying to get everything posted in the online class software. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. It has not been a good week. But hey, on the upside, this is one of the few times when I really glad that I only live a mile away!
Well, I had great intentions of posting everyone’s birthday wishes on the blog, but I already forgot the first birthday of the year - Alex!
I tried to steal a picture off of Chris’s mySpace page, but I couldn’t. Then I tried to scan the picture I got at Christmas and blow up the picture of Alex standing waaaaay in the background, but it looked crappy.
(Anyone have a recent picture? Email me and I’ll post.)
Let me tell you about the funniest thing that happened when I first met Alex. It was at Chris & Sara’s wedding. Michael (brother) and I went with Het & Uncle Ron. It was a blast except for when they all ditched me and went to the strip clubs. The priest/pastor/officiating dude had this huuuuuuge Bible with all these purple velvet ribbon bookmarks in it, sitting on the Bible-holder stand. (Raise your hand if you can tell that my parents never made us go to church…) During the ceremony, Alex, who was maybe four? got bored, started wandering around up on stage - and it’s not like Sara can go chase after her - well, she saw those pretty purple ribbons and started pulling them out one by one and dropping them on the floor. In the middle of the wedding ceremony!!
Naturally, we are completely cracking up over on Chris’s side of the church, I’m stealing Sandy’s kleenex to cover my face, Irene says (everybody with me) “oh, my word” and I forget what Craig was doing but I think they train the giggles out of you in the Navy.
Then the priest/pastor/officiating dude picks up the Bible, doesn’t find a single bookmark, and goes STRAIGHT to the “now I pronounce you man & wife” part! No readings, no pontificating, no Lisa trying not to roll her eyes about the wifely duties part - it was GREAT! And about 20 minutes long, tops. Loved it.
Ok, I’m not sure if this is Festivus or not, but it is my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of not dropping dead of a blood clot. Save the date, I think I’m going to have a party. Usually, I cook but I have no kitchen. (I did work on it this weekend though, I’ll save that for another post.)
I am officially off the coumadin too, so the next time I go to Charlie’s Ale House, I am having the spinach salad. I have not had spinach since Feb 12th, my official anniversary. My craving for red meat has disappeared too.
Hey, maybe I could make that posole in my crockpot or something….
I went down to Oswego to hang out with M&M & Co. the other day. Melba fed me enchiladas, which is always worth the trip. Maybe I should have taken a picture. Maybe Sandy and Melba should exchange enchilada sauce and mole recipes and we could have some kind of latina TOP CHEF cookoff and I could be a judge? I could enter too, since I am quite fond of my own mole sauce, but then who would judge??? Mom? Jill? *snort*? Who? Dad would just call it a tie and offer to take everyone to Portillo’s.
I think I’m going to start posting recipes soon. I have had Melba’s posole … I adore posole.
Anyway, back to the topic! They have a Wii and Nico taught me to play Transformer’s <blah-de-blah-something?> and I died but did manage to throw some tanks around. I also kicked some police cars over, which I forgot to tell my boss about today. She’d appreciate that, I’m sure. After Transformers, we boxed – and I kicked his little 5YO butt!! You have to get low when you box with someone who is 24” tall. Just FYI.
But then we did bowling and the first game, Nico beat me 187 – 75. Michael pointed out that my score was usually what I got when I really bowled, but hey – I have a bad elbow! The next game was better, 163-160 but Nico still beat me. I told him to figure out the baseball game and next time, game IS ON!
Melba got all this on video on their digital camera, so if you can figure out how to send me the clip, I’ll post it.
Well, here’s Sadie – the latest foster dog for Shiba Rescue. My friend Deb and I are co-fostering. Let me tell you, that is a great arrangement for two single people! Both of us travel, both of us kinda want a dog…. But we both travel sporadically for work and we both occasionally have things to do after work! It’s hard to get a neighbor to walk a shiba because they can be quirky dogs. The last foster dog we had (Shea) was afraid of parked cars. Not moving cars, just parked ones.
Anyway, I fostered for years but then I started traveling for work and then I started remodeling the kitchen and THEN I got the blood clots – thank GOD I didn’t have a dog then – and after that, I didn’t want to commit to another foster. But my friend Deb gradually said that she was in the same situation, so now we pass the dogs back and forth depending on our schedule!! It’s great! She’s our third foster dog in…. 5 months?
Sadie is a 7YO female from a puppy mill, who came in with puppies. The puppies have been adopted, and Sadie has been spayed and ready to be adopted. www.shibarescue.org.
She had to have teeth pulled because she probably chewed on the bars of her cage, but that certainly doesn’t stop her from eating. The cats tolerate her and she has never made the slightest squeak of a noise. Dad, you would like her.
I finally did it. I bought an iPod. Now, before you start making fun of me, I have had a different MP3 player for a long time. But over Christmas, I started making fun of Jill’s iPod Nano and the little teeny tiny screen – what could you possibly watch on that??
Well, Jill and Min jumped all over me, handed me the iPod and made me watch some video. Wow, I had no idea! And Jill is lucky I didn’t run off and steal hers right then. I love love love it! I used to bring my laptop when I traveled just so I could watch a movie on the plane, but no more – you can download them to the iPod and the resolution is actually great! I wouldn’t sit in my living room and watch my iPod, but for traveling or watching something at work, this is going to be great.
Hailey got one for Christmas too! (Notice Aunt Dorothy’s Table is making a cameo appearance…)
For inaugural blog post, meet Aunt Dorothy’s table. She’s actually Dad’s aunt, which makes her my Great Aunt Dorothy, and she’s really quite impressive. After decades of living in Glen Ellyn, IL, Aunt Dot sold her house to a developer and moved to Wisconsin and in with Cousin Russ, her son.
I suspect that Aunt Dorothy could have “retired” to Hawaii, where she spends a sizable chunk of the year, but she choose Wisconsin. We are nothing if not practical.
Anyway, after the estate sale, there were things left so Dad and I went over. No one wanted Aunt Dot’s sewing table (with an old Secchi sewing machine inside) and I had a sneaking suspicion that it matched the Grandma Minnie’s sewing table – and IT DID! Except Grandma’s had a Singer sewing machine. Regardless, now I have two awesome matched end tables…. But I digress.
On the back porch was a table. A nice little oak table, rather aged. It’s stamped 1941. I didn’t take adequate ‘before’ pictures, but I took this one for reference on what the stain did…
That’s 2 coats of Minwax Polyshades (Antique Walnut) and 2 more coats of oil based satin poly. Awesome, ain’t it?
Pictures, in use in my office:
Hello world! Test post, and thanks to Big Gar for suggesting the name
