12/12/09

WooHoo! How cool is this?

We got our pics taken with a couple of the Red Wings! Brett Lebda (#22) & Justin Abdelkader (#8). They were doing the Red Kettle bell ringer thing for the Salvation Army outside Hockeytown Authentics by my work last Tuesday. It was a competition of sorts for the most donations, since there were guys at 3 other locations during the same time frame.

Angel was funny. I can honestly say that she has been bribed by one of the Wings! She didn’t want anything to do with posing with them – at first. I handed her my camera and told her to take one of me with them. They thought that was funny! So after she took it, I asked if she wanted to go up by them and she shook her head. Lebda asked her if she wanted to ring his bell (bribery!!) and then all was good. She was perfectly happy to go pose with them then. They were really nice guys. I kick myself over & over for not buying the white helmet ornament in the store and getting them to autograph it. Guess I’ll have to do that next year.

Randy and I went on our hot date last night while Angel was at her Lock In at the dance studio. We went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, got a few things from WalMart, came home & watched the Red Wings game – then I fell asleep while Randy messed around with his new Netbook Scribbler thingy. We are such party animals. But it’s nice to have some alone time.

The kid has been fighting a sore throat all week. I sent her to school Tuesday then had to go get her around 1. Same with Wednesday. I had them check her throat at her meet & greet Tuesday night, and the doctor said it wasn’t strep and just take OTC meds for it. She’s got a yucky sounding cough right now. Thursday I kept her home from school, but I needed to go to work for a couple hours, so she spent the morning alone. Then I get home and she wanted to go to school for 5th & 6th hours! Sheesh! She had a presentation to do in 6th hour, was the reasoning behind that. I called the school and they were OK with it, so I dropped her off and finished off my Christmas shopping (I think!!!).

She was mad at me Wednesday. She wanted to skip dance and go to her friend Rebecca’s birthday at Dave & Buster’s. I wasn’t happy about it, but I was going to let her go. Then she called me to pick her up. Since she was too sick to stay at school, she obviously was too sick to go party! I just dropped her off at home and went back to work for a couple hours – she called me at work and told me that she was miraculously cured (this said in her gravelly voice) and she felt 100 times better since she took medicine. I expressed my amazement, but told her she still wasn’t going to the party. I can only imagine what she told Rebecca about me when she called her. And in case she was going to “forget” to call, I told her that I still had Rebecca’s Dad’s # on my caller ID and could call him so he wouldn’t make the unnecessary trip to our house. She didn’t like that idea, but I know she called.

Man is it cold! I’m so glad the wind stopped, tho. The west side of the state had blizzard warnings most of the week and got lake-affect snow dumped on them. They can keep it, too. We have enough to cover the grass somewhat, but the sun is shining. We didn’t lose any major limbs out of the maple trees, even when I was hoping we would. There are a couple big dead ones in the one tree just caught up in the other branches and I was sure they’d come down in one of those nasty 35+ mph gusts. Nothing.

Tonight we’re going to meet up with Mom & Laurie for dinner & then we’re going to look at the lights in Rochester. I hope I can get some pics to do it justice. Here’s a little YouTube clip someone made a couple years ago.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXRfa0Wof_M

America's Largest Bebb Oak on Record, Rochester Hills

12/7/09

Holy crap, it's December.

Frost on top of my car.

The halftime show was awesome.  Definitely a cool experience.  I'm sure this will probably start being an annual thing, as long as Pnut goes to this studio.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lc1vUH6SpQ

Thanksgiving was fairly tame, as usual.  Besides Lisa & Angel leaving Captain’s stall door open and him dragging a bale of hay into his stall, not a lot of action happened. I think Laurie had one glass of wine and I polished off the bottle. No one else drank. Booo.

Saturday we took Lisa & Angel to their first “big” craft show. We’d never been to Ford II, so we didn’t know it was HUGE and packed with people ! Crazy. But I got a few little things like a really cool wood pedestal bowl that this guy made out of the reclaimed apple wood. Love it!

Randy got home safe & sound Monday. Heehee, I’d gotten Jack a collar with a necktie on it and left it on him so Randy would see it. He’s not crazy about the dog wearing clothes, so I see what I can get away with. I won’t do shirts, but he’s got several bandanas, a scrunchie thing that goes over his collar and now this. I asked and he said he was ignoring Jack’s new threads.

Last week was pretty uneventful. I did manage to get out of painting the girl’s bedroom until after the holidays!! Her cheer pics finally came in at school. I’d been waiting for them for weeks so I could put them in Christmas cards. So Monday night she said they’d come in, but she doesn’t go by the office to get them. Ok, so go out of your way to go by there! Tuesday they’d been moved to a classroom and she didn’t know where it was. As if she couldn’t ask someone. Finally, Wednesday (I was in a bad mood anyway) was the last straw. Yet again she had some lame excuse why she didn’t bring them home. I told her that if she couldn’t do a simple little task like that for me, than I can’t be bothered to do make the effort of painting her room. It can wait until I’m good & ready to do it. We were all ready to paint, too. All her stuff was boxed up and in the living room; the bed & dressers were in the middle of the room, etc. I told her to move it all back in, I wanted my living room back.

However, since we had the primer, I went ahead and primed the room Friday night. Mistake! I would have been better off getting that expensive paint & primer combo. The fumes off Kilz primer are HORRENDOUS! I did get most of the ceiling and upper halves of the wall covered, but not the corners. Good enough! I was starting to feel dizzy & nauseous & I asked Angel and she felt dizzy, too. So I hurried us both outside. As we went thru the kitchen I smelled different fumes in there, but I was confused enough that I couldn’t figure out what it was. We started to feel better so we went and turned on the TV in my room, since the fumes hadn’t wafted into there yet. After a while, they drifted in and I really got concerned. So I called Mom and asked if she wanted some company – a lot of company. There’s no way I could have left the cats here! She said we were all welcome, so we packed everyone up and had a sleepover with Grandma!

Jack settled down nicely for the night, once he figured out where his bed was. Angel put a blanket down by her but he couldn’t get to it. I had to step over sleeping bodies to grab it and he was fine. Skeeter & Maggie adjusted pretty well. Skeeter snuggled with Mom for a long time. Poor Chester wasn’t happy. He didn’t start wandering around until just a couple hours before we left. He hid the rest of the time.

Cross Dressing Chester

Randy was doing Skywarn Recognition Special Event at the NWS, so he didn’t get home until 8ish Saturday night. On his way home, he figured out what the other fumes were coming from. When the furnace was leaking before, he’d put a bowl behind it to catch the drips. He never moved the bowl. So apparently the water had evaporated and the plastic bowl was getting hot. Guess we’re lucky it didn’t catch on fire.

So yes, I wasted almost all of my Saturday, since we didn’t head home til past 8:30 PM. OK, it wasn’t wasted. I spent quality time with Mom and we went to a candlelight memorial service at the funeral home. It was very nice. They talked about how to cope thru the holidays and read a nice poem, etc. Then we lit candles and they went around the room and you were supposed to say who your candle was for. I was so classy, I can’t even begin to describe. My turn came along and I said my dad, James Owens and my father-in-law and then my voice cracked. I made this awful noise somewhere between a wheeze and a snort and it was loud. Like Dad always said to me – if it weren’t for low class, I wouldn’t have any class at all!

I think we’re about ready for the holidays. The Christmas cards will be going out tomorrow and then I’ll have to start wrapping. I need to get just a couple more things, but I already know what I want to get and where. So it’s just a matter of going to the store. I have the prime opportunity to get a lot done this Friday, because Angel will be at the dance studio for the annual Lock In (basically a sleepover for the kids at the studio). Or I could use that time to go on a date with my honey. Hmmmm. Forget wrapping!

Mom, Laurie & Lisa are spending Christmas Eve & Day at Frankenmuth, since Mom didn’t think she could do the usual Christmas thing. They expected us to go, too! Ah, no. Linda & Dave are more than welcome to go, but we’re not. We want to spend Christmas Eve at home with our tree & our presents and be able to get up and do our thing on Christmas morning. We learned last year that it sucks having to haul Christmas presents somewhere else. Then Mom said Angel could come spend the night with Lisa! Hello! No she’s staying at home, too. Sorry. I think we’re going to be going to Christmas Eve Service at our church (which by the way moved out of the gorgeous old building where we got married – sniff!). We haven’t gone to any services in way too long. We’ll go up the Frankenmuth C-mas day and spend that night. Still don’t know what we’re going to do with Jack. I don’t know if I could get him into the kennel at such short notice.

Alrighty! Think it’s about time for bed. Angel’s going to her meet & greet at the doctor’s office tomorrow, which could be a good thing, since she just told me tonight that she had a sore throat & I just heard her in there coughing.

OMG !  The first time ever my Christmas cactus has bloomed!! 

I've had it for years.  Right now there's only the one flower, but there are lots of buds!