6/22/10

Aaah! Home at last!

We’ve been busy since I posted last. Let me see – the weekend of the 11 / 12 / 13 Randy was over in Holland working at the West Michigan MS150 bike race. He had a bunch of late nights prior to that, getting trackers ready and whatnot. Last Wednesday the 16th was dress rehearsal for Angel’s recital. Thursday was the recital. Wednesday was a half day of school for her and Thursday was her last day, so I took half days off work, too! I also took Friday, Monday and today off, too! We left here Saturday morning and drove down to Dayton to see Terry & his fam. So we just got home around 2:30. Currently Randy is napping & Angel is in front of the TV – you know she went several days without watching any!!

The recital was really good, as usual. Pnut messed up slightly in lyrical – oops, but did really good otherwise. Something was extremely funny during ballet, since she was cracking up thru most of the dance. But she looked really good! She was keeping time with Sarah (the studio owner’s daughter who is really good) during the spins & such. Very nice. Hiphop was just a neat dance. It was a mix of probably 6 songs and each one they danced to differently. Jazz had a very Caribbean feel to it. It was just fun. There were technical difficulties during the finale and it was cut in half. The sound just went out. But all the dancers improvised and hurried up & got into their ending positions for when the lights came back up. I had 3 other favorite dancers. One was a tiny little 3 year old black girl who was just too cute for words. The next was her sister who was probably 5 – she really got into the music and most of the time did her own dance – so funny! And the last was the only boy in the recital (there was a grown up guy, too) He was in 4 dances & they worked it so he got to dance with each girl in the class for a few steps. He was pretty good, seeing as it was his first year. I’d say he was 8 or 9. I hope he sticks with it! I know his sister dances at the studio, too. The grown up guy was at Ford Field with them for the Thanksgiving Half-time show. I seem to remember him being called Carlos, but he was in the program as Charles. Anyway, he is of the extreme feminine persuasion – if you catch my drift – but he can dance! He did “Nasty Girls” with the rest of the adults & even wore “Pink” sweatpants from Victoria Secret !! Funny!

Aw crap, I was going to upload pics from dress rehearsal, but it seems to have stalled.  At least I already got her costume pics on here!

Thursday was a crazy day for me. I was supposed to leave work at noon, and go right to a dentist appointment for a check up (I’d gone in 10 days before to get a sore spot checked inside my mouth and had gotten a prescription for antibiotics) Anyway, I was working my butt off & got a call from Angel around 945 that she’d forgotten her art portfolio at home and needed it for her final. So I had to run home get it & take it to the school. So that meant I had an extra 45 minutes I had to make up after my appointment. Neat. Anyway, by the time I got all I needed to done, it was almost 2 before I left on my half day.

Friday was a punishment day for Angel but I didn’t torture her as much as I planned. She had asked to walk home from school with her friends on the last day. I told her no at first – since it was recital day. Its 2.7 miles which would be tiring in the heat & humidity. Then I said OK, but she was not allowed to wear flip flops. She had to wear real shoes. So she had on jeans & carried a sweater to put on over her tank top in class. I got a call from her asking if she could go to McD’s for lunch! The only problem is that McD’s isn’t on the way home – it’s in the opposite direction!! So I told her NO and to get her butt home ASAP. She ended up going to lunch at Taco Bell not far from school with her friends & got a ride home from Patricia’s mom. So because she didn’t go straight home from school like she said she was going to do, she had to go with me on ALL my errands Friday. She (finally) got lunch at McD’s out of the deal, so I wasn’t too mean to her. And she got out of going to weigh in with me, since I’d let her sleep in after being up late after the recital. But she went to my eye appt with me, thru the car wash & to stop by KFart to pick up my vitamins. Then i chose to wait for Randy to go to WalMart & to drop Jack off at the kennel, so she got a reprieve.

So we met the fam at Mom’s at 9 am on Saturday. We had room in our car, since we only had the 3 of us, but everyone else (Mom, Laurie, Lisa & Catie) all chose to ride with Linda. Pppft. OK by us! We ended up getting to the hotel about an hour before Linda, and were able to get the only available room in our block, so we were already in the pool when everyone else showed up! Once they got checked in, we went to Terry’s house (cute place with a ton of space located on the side of a hill above the river – with 2 back yards! One right behind the house & the other down a path by the river bank). We went to this cemetery where Erma Bombeck & the Wright Brothers are all buried until they closed & kicked us out, and then we went to the Mexican restaurant with the giant margaritas. I set the trend & only got a 16 ounce one – that’s what everyone else got, too. But 2 of those on an empty stomach was a bad choice. But my grilled tilapia tacos were really good! Then we went back to the hotel & went in the pool.

Sunday we went to this giant flea market called Trader’s World. That was an all day excursion! It was huge! But we got some fun stuff. Catie got a pair of stress balls that look like boobies. So those made a few appearances. We stopped at one of those old time photo places & got Angel’s pictures taken. They loved her! We ended up getting a leather portfolio with an 8x10 and 4 3x5s and 2 more 5x7s and a sheet of wallets, plus the CD & copyright so we can make as many copies as we want. Oh yeah – that was Father’s Day, so we got Randy a new Mr. Bill to replace the one he left in Arkansas, A DVD of the Jeff Dunham TV series & a pound bag of Tim Horton’s coffee. Mr. Bill & his girlfriend Pat, the crazy cat lady were quite the hit. Sunday night after dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse, we went back to the pool & Terry emptied 2 little bottles of hotel shampoo into the hot tub while it was bubbling. It was pretty funny! It was like a weird family bubble bath! By the way – it still bubbled last night!

Not my favorite setting.

This is one of her favorites!

Monday we braved the rain (& Waffle House for b-fast) and Terry took us on base to the Air Force Museum to see the Presidential Exhibit and the Research & Technology Exhibit. Personally I like the Research part better. You could really see where the current aircraft started from. It was like airplane evolution! And we could go thru Air Force One that carried Kennedy’s coffin, etc. They had it all blocked off with plexi-glass so there was only a really narrow walkway thru these planes, but they’d put dummies of the Presidents in there and FDR scared the crap out of me & Laurie. The walkway was really tight & we had just compared it to a funhouse with all the twists & turns. We had just stopped in a passageway next to the bulkhead of the plane to look back at Linda & when we looked in front of us, there was the FDR dummy & we just weren’t expecting a see a body, so we both screamed.  Moving on, this was cool because there wasn’t hardly anyone there, with it being both a Monday and being on base. When we went to the regular Museum, it’s open to the general riff-raff so it was more crowded, but not too crazy. It was really cool. There were 3 huge hangars to go thru & they had it broken up according to era in time. From the Early Years, to Vietnam & Korea, to the Cold War. There was the Aviation Hall of Fame section, one on the Holocaust, a section dedicated to Bob Hope, and a Space gallery & missile area. It literally took all day to go thru this all. Here’s a really cool map…. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/podcasts/index.asp  I don’t think I could have done the actual podcast, since we preferred just to go thru at our own pace. We had dinner at this bar & grill called Tank’s. The food was excellent, but MAN there was a lot of it. We just got burgers & stuff. Angel got a PB&J Club, which she thought was pretty neat.

I'd make an awesome first lady!

Yes - I laid on the floor in the middle of the museum.

Apollo

Sputnik I

Mr. Bill at Tank's

So anyway, it was obvious everyone was tired, since each night we were there it got tamer. Saturday night much alcohol was involved and we were all rowdy & loud. Sunday night wasn’t as much so. Last night we went in the hot tub because it felt good after all that walking, but we didn’t stay there long.

Terry, me, Linda Laurie

Mass Spoonage

The kids - Lisa, Angel, Catie, Alex

But we’re home now. Aaah! I don’t know why it just so much nicer to sit around in your own home than in a hotel.

So back to work tomorrow. At least I should be busy, since I’ll have 3 days of stuff piled up waiting for me – And it’ll be a short week, too! Angel will be going to the Club. Catie offered to keep her for the day, but I hadn’t heard anything more about it, so I’ll stick with my plans. ARRL Field Day is this weekend (I may go make an appearance at the Weather Service with Randy, but I won’t do the whole weekend), Lisa’s recital is Friday, and sign up for Angel’s summer dance is Monday the 28th. This is a requirement since she’ll be trying out for the competition team in August. She thinks she’s going to concentrate on tap & jazz but is going to take a technique class, too.

Whew – I need to go switch out laundry since I sorted thru the bag from Ohio right on the kitchen floor outside the laundry room. And we have very little food in the house, so I’ll have to figure out something easy for dinner until I can go grocery shopping tomorrow. Yay!

Later!

Stained glass window in the Museum - "Lord Guard and Guide the Men Who Fly"

"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain"

Gives me shivers!

The Defcom levels

6/2/10

Depressed.  I just need to bitch & moan some then I'll be fine. 

This morning around 1:30 am, one of the teams at my work was in an accident.  It's just horrible, since I knew both drivers! 

http://www.ksat.com/news/23766817/detail.html#story

I just watched the clip for the first time - there's nothing left of that truck, except the chassis & some wire.  I've been doing some pretty serious praying since I heard.  I didn't know Hardacre very well, even tho he'd worked there for 5 or 6 years.  But I knew Gallagher well.  He had a herd of kids, the last I think can only be 4 or 5 years old.  When things were better at work, he was always telling us about the jewelry he bought for his wife.  He was the Hare Freight Union Steward until it was absorbed into Point.  Then he opted to go over the road.   I just pray, for their sakes, that it was over fast. 

It just seems lately that I've really been conscious of my own mortality.  I don't know why.  I am thankful for how blessed I am.  Family, health, life, etc.  All are good!   Just recently, Randy went to help Fred clear out a storage unit for the widow of a ham who passed away last Decemeber.  She had no idea what to do with all that equipment.  I'm afraid I'd be the same way if anything ever happened to Randy.  Sure, I'm licensed & I have my own mobile and portable units (and can use them) and I would probably keep using them until he says I need an upgrade!  But I don't know what kind of rig a person is using just by the antenna on their car, as they drive past at 80 mph!  So yeah, I'd have to call in more dedicated reinforcements.  But why should I even worry about that???

Sigh.  I don't know.  Guess I'll go round up the dog & give him a bath because he stinks.

5/30/10

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

It’s so nice to be able to have a day to chill tomorrow! Angel didn’t have school Friday, so I took the day off, and spent the day getting the house presentable (and applying weed & feed and grocery shopping and putting dance pics in frames and random other stuff here & there). Saturday I had to re-arrange the living room, since the console radio and its adorning plants were in front of the window where we put the A/C unit. Then took Angel to dance, made another trip to the grocery store & the hardware store. 2 people that Randy graduated with came over with their families for a visit. We actually had a really good time! Hannah & Ron were really nice. Hannah’s hubby, Dave, grew up in Sterling Heights and his parents only live maybe 2 miles from us! Their son was perfectly happy in front of the TV.  Ron & Wendy drove up from Indiana for the afternoon….sort of an impromptu Smackover Buckaroo Class of 1985, north of the Mason Dixon reunion. Almost 10% of the class was there (they only had 39 in their class!) Today we went to church, then over to Aunt Jenny’s for a BBQ. We didn’t leave there until after 8 pm. We had a good time with the fam.

Randy, Hannah, Ron

me, Randy, Hannah, Dave, Wendy (with Dixie) and Ron

So the plan for tomorrow is…….veg!!! OK, changing sheets & doing laundry, but that’s it!!  Maybe spending some quality time out on the patio under the awning with some nice sun tea and a book....or I may drag out the coffin to paint it!  I will get that done sometime early this summer!!  It's calling for rain in the afternoon, so the awning will be welcome.

I finally got the girl’s dance pics yesterday. They’re awesome!

Ballet

ballet (yes - she's in mid-air)

Hip-hop

Jazz

Lyrical

Wow, not a whole lot has been going on otherwise. We got an email about Pnut’s ballet & jazz classes being extended up until the recital as of last week. An extra 45 minutes of ballet per week and 30 minutes of jazz. The ballet drill instructor is a real stickler, so she’s really “polishing” them. And jazz is just a super fast song, so the extra practice must be welcome. There had been talk about extra hiphop practice, but no one ever said anything more about it. Guess they got it together.

Pnut owes Randy 2 car washes – I took her out a week ago Friday looking for these rubber band bracelet things that EVERYONE had. So of course every place we went to was sold out. The last 2 places, a CVS and a Walgreens told us that they were getting trucks in Saturday morning, so I volunteered Randy to take her. Darn if that little turd got offended when we told her she could use her own $$ and then take Randy to Tim Horton’s for breakfast!!! She said it was a waste of $$!! I will totally remember that line & use it on her when she wants me to get her something.  So Randy bought her 2 packs of these cheesy bracelets and she has to wash his car once for each pack and had to pull all the weeds between paver bricks on the patio to cover breakfast. Took her an hour and a half, but she did a really good job!

Funny story while she was doing that. I was around the side of the house, pulling weeds in the flower beds when she called me – there was a strange dog in the yard and Jack wasn’t on the run because I’d been playing ball with him. So he’s out in the back with a huge put bull. But the pit was just standing there while Jack sniffed him. Jack turns deaf when his nose is working, so he didn’t come when I called him. I kept calling and calling and this pit bull circled around like he was going to come to me. I finally got where I could grab Jack’s collar and the hose to spray the visitor. So he left. He seemed friendly enough, never made a single hostile moment, but we don’t need strays in our yard! So when I was in the front, I saw the neighbors had the pit on a leash and a Shelby K9 unit was over there. I get the impression someone else in the hood had called the cops about the dog running loose but the neighbors knew who he belonged to. Angel said she saw that dog out & about all the time going to and from the school bus. A little while later, she took Jack for a walk and came home to tell me that she heard the neighbor’s calling the pit bull (who was doing full body wiggles while the cop was petting it) and his name was Jack, too! No wonder the poor dog looked confused, I was calling his name, but shooing him away!  But I'm so glad he was friendly, since Angel wouldn't have stood a chance if he went after her while sitting on the patio. 

Anyway, I’m getting tired now. These early mornings are catching up to me now, so I think I’ll turn in!

Out!

Joe was all up in our new grill!

5/14/10

TGIF!!

It’s Hamvention weekend, so it’s just us girls at home. Randy left this morning for Dayton. I just got a text from him that he already got the SkyWarn bumper sticker that I asked for. Can’t wait to see what else he comes home with.

I had ambitious plans to put up new shower walls in the hall bathroom while Randy was gone, but then I realized just how big a project that would be. Besides having to use a hammer or something on the soap dish, I‘d have to take the faucet & spout off. I’ve never messed around with plumbing, so I think I’ll just pass on that. Guess it’s going to be a Labor Day weekend project. So my project tonight was putting together the gas grill that we got at the end of the summer last year. I stopped after work and got the fuel tank filled, so it’s almost ready to do some cooking!

Jack approves

It’s supposed to be sunny & upper 60s all weekend, so I’ll find something to do outside. I’ve considered dragging out my Halloween coffin & throwing a coat of paint on it. Touch ups on the headstones maybe. I don’t know. I have all summer for that, but I also want to get it done early so I can concentrate on my new ideas for this year.

I was pretty excited Wednesday when I went to pick Pnut up from dance. The owner of the studio happened to be watching the jazz class warm ups and noticed how much Angel has improved in her technique, and asked if she’d like to try out for the competition squad next year! I’m so proud of her! I’d noticed how much better (for lack of dance-ese speak) she looked, so was happy to find out a ‘professional’ also noticed. I haven’t sat her down to ask what she wants to do yet.

Love the ballet costume!

We should be getting her dance pics sometime next week – I can’t wait. They’re going to be awesome. The photog will pose the little girls for their individual pics, but will ask the older girls what they want to do. So for ballet, they got her in mid-leap. Love it! For jazz & hip-hop she’s doing something with a chair. Then for lyrical, she’s doing a heel stretch. Cool! And since they use digital cameras, we could look to make sure it was good. So the photog kept having her re-do ballet & lyrical until toes were pointed, smile was nice, legs straight, etc. For the jazz group pic, all the girls were posed so nice & serious. Then the photog pointed at ~guess who~ in the very middle & told her to do something goofy. So I think they’ll go with the one where she’s leaning forward blowing a kiss at the camera.

Last Saturday we all went to my cousin Jennifer’s wedding. This was supposed to be “The Wedding” that everyone will talk about. Yup. Sure. OK, the church was huge, obnoxious & ornately gorgeous located in snobby Bloomfield Hills. But I didn’t like how it was set up. The sanctuary was surprisingly small & the altar area was long & narrow, so unless you were sitting right on the aisle, you couldn’t see what was going on up there. Laurie & Linda couldn’t see them light the unity candle. Anyway. Jenn was probably the unhappiest bride I’ve ever seen. I know I smiled like an idiot my whole wedding day. But she walked down the aisle looking down and not a hint of a smile. It’s a shame since she was a beautiful bride! She’s one of those people who look good all the time anyway (Pppft) Chris looked pretty happy at least.

The reception was at the Troy Marriot. So we all got rooms there for the night. Let me gush on the hotel first. I totally want one of those beds. It was king sized & the mattress was so nice that I wasn’t sent airborne when Randy flopped over. Between that and the feather duvet – it was like being in a hot pocket (Randy gets credit for coming up with that phrase!!) Our room was on the 14th floor and faced east, so we left the curtains open and got to see the most gorgeous sunrise. Then we closed them and went back to sleep.

So at the reception, we all had our entertainment. Linda had Waiter Ken, Laurie had Maitre’ D Ken (or vice versa) Mom had Billie in his pink tux, Aunt Jenny (who chose to sit with us instead of her own family) had Lederhosen Ken and I had GI Joe. We had so much fun with them!! So many adventures and Laurie scared away the rind bearer with her Ken. Funny! The DJ sucked. For the bride & groom’s first dance – he played the wrong song. Then he played a few songs before anyone went out on the very tiny dance floor. Then we went out & danced a while. Then he got on the mic and said he had some requests “from the younger crowd” and started playing the kind of crap you hear on the radio now. I was offended at that! Younger crowd my butt. Jenn is only 3 or 4 years younger than me. We played together as kids! So for probably 5 songs, no one danced. Sure there buddy. I saw that “younger crowd” just rushing the floor! I’m glad I wasn’t paying for that. He “slowed it down” for the last couple songs, and then wandered away, so when one of the songs cut off in the middle he wasn’t there to fix it, so we all left the floor & no one went back out for the last couple numbers. We wandered out to the hotel bar & watched some of the last Red Wings game.

This is what happens when you tell the riff-raff what room you're in.

 

Joe and his "steel" guitar.

Fun guys!

Sunday we took Mom out to breakfast for Mother’s Day. Big Boy’s breakfast bar totally destroyed me staying on plan. Mr. Foodie Dave scoped it out & said it looked good, so I knew I was in trouble. Cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy, bacon, fresh fruit, bacon, hash browns and did I mention really good bacon?? Yeah. Hence a contributor (along with too many Bud Lights to count) to my 3 pound gain this week. But I’m happy with my gifts that I ordered for myself. I got the FlyLady mop set, with a dust mop like the elementary school janitor used in the halls and microfiber cloth refills. I got her Sink Reflections book and also her water bottle. I understand the hype about how it keeps the water cold and doesn’t sweat, etc. But I found I’m not drinking as much when I use it. I don’t know if its because the opening is smaller or what. So I’ll stick with my 20 oz plastic bottle for work and save that for when I’m going someplace.

Quick funny story re: being a FlyBaby….After I dropped Angel off at dance Wednesday, I planned on going and getting a bag or two of trash out of her room. So I came home and changed out of my work clothes and put on my lace-up shoes (not going in there barefoot – eew!). Jack saw me putting shoes on and he got all excited – he thought we were going on a walk! Of course I felt guilty, so I set my timer and did 20 minutes in her room and then took him out around the park.

This tree was blooming in the park.  Pretty!

Sad about the Wings, but at least they made it to their 19th consecutive play offs!! Considering they had so many guys out for a lot of the season, they did good. Still proud of them! Now I shall cheer for the Blackhawks, because I can’t cheer for the team who knocked out the Wings (the Sharks).  Neener, neener, the Penguins didn’t get any farther than we did, so get ready to hand over that Cup to someone else – neener neener! I couldn’t resist – when I saw they lost their game 7, I went on Facebook and put “Breaking News! There have been reports of flash floods in the vicinity of Mellon Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It appears Sidney Crosby is crying” as my status. Heehee!

Let’s see. The girl is all signed up for the summer program at the Boys & Girl’s Club. She’s already started finale practices at the studio. Work is slow but I’m still on 40 hours, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. My 10 year anniversary is coming up in less than a month!  We have a furry new neighbor in living in our yard – a big ol’ groundhog. There is hopefully going to be VERY good news in the near future. I’ll find out more next Wednesday when we go to get the ball rolling, so I don’t want to jinx anything by speculating. And NO, it’s not anything to do with me reproducing or lack thereof, either. I’ll write more when I have more informative deets. It’s hard to bite my tongue, or I guess bite my fingers!

Peace out!

What?  There's no room for you in the bed!

4/25/10

What a positively dreary, rainy day today! I just lit a coconut candle so it’ll seem more cheerful in here. I didn't even get Angel up to go to church. She went to a sleepover birthday party Friday night & it must have been one heck of a party! I was over at Mom’s yesterday & Randy told me he had seen her dozing on the couch a few times – that’s totally unlike her! So she must really need the rest. And poor Randy is working at the March of Dimes walk today in Troy. Maybe it won’t be too bad – he said he’s net control so he’ll be inside. I feel sorry for the walkers, tho. Maybe they should be called waders!


Mom got her new carpet yesterday. When spokeslady Laurie called me Friday, I was under the impression that Mom was going home with her, and needed someone to be at Mom’s house when the carpet guys got there. Nope, I guess she thought Mom wasn’t a big girl and needed someone else there. I was tweaked for a minute, but then thought it would be nice to go visit Mom for a while, so I went. They tore up that nasty brown carpet that’s been in there as long as I can remember. I didn’t know there were gorgeous wood floors under that! I was sad to see them get covered again – but then again – I’m partial to wood floors. Oh well. The color she picked is really nice. It goes well with the new paint. And the two – very silent – guys who did the work did a really nice job. Even on the stairs. So now she’ll be getting new furniture! I get to envy Mom now since I can’t imagine anything ever getting done around my house.

Case in point – the biggest sore spots in this house are the bathrooms. The nice hole in the floor of the shower off our bedroom– makes it totally useless. I’m perfectly content with the idea of ripping the darn thing out and putting an armoire in that corner, then a new taller potty & a pedestal sink. Nice. A half bath works fine for me even if the shower was convenient, I can deal without. The hall bathroom is useable, but the tiles around the shower are coming loose, allowing water to get behind them. There is a plastic bag taped to the wall right now covering where Randy pulled off one of the tiles. Classy. We found at Home Depot you can get a 5 piece shower surround for $50. Trims to fit & says it’s easy to install. However….. Randy wants to temporarily (forever half-assed) patch the hole in our shower as back up IN CASE IT TAKES LONGER THAN 3 DAYS TO DO THE OTHER (! ! ! ! ! !)  Then he wants to pull all the tiles down from the hall shower, which means replacing all the drywall that had gotten wet underneath….THEN putting the cheap wall panels up. Personally – I’d just cover the crappy 70s brown tiles with the panels. And I was going to do that anyway while he was in Dayton for HamFest. Heck, even if you call one of those places that will custom make a new surround – they just cover the old stuff! So he’s making a LOT more work than there needs to be. Which, happily for him, backs up his story about how horrible home improvements are. He’s even mentioned waiting to get our shower fixed until closer to when we’re going to sell the house. That makes no sense. Why not get it fixed so we – the ones who currently live here – can use it??? Gggrrrrrrrr! OK, done venting.

~gusty sigh~

So, Friday night we had date night! First, on a whim, I stopped in to Fantastic Sam’s and got a haircut. Just a smidge shorter than I thought, but I like it and am getting used to it. Man I look old.  Should have put some makeup on!  After dropping Angel off at the sleepover, I met Randy for dinner at Red Lobster & OD’d on shrimp (BBQ bacon wrapped, pecan encrusted and lobster & crab stuffed – with coconut shrimp for an appetizer!!) Mmmmm yummy. Then we went & walked around Michael’s for a bit. I wanted to find a smallish shadow box so I could put Grandma’s turtle pin & great-Grandma’s hanky from my wedding in. We ended up finding one that was bigger than I wanted in the clearance section. But I liked it better than the one on the regular shelf because of the black background and it was marked 50% off. So $4.95. But then when I went to pay, it rang up $.99 !!! Crap! 90% off! Outstanding! Then we went home and did nothing exciting until game 5 started at 10. We turned it off at 2nd intermission and went to sleep. We are such party animals. But we did do our co-ed naked hockey watching! LOL! And the Wings won again - so all is good!  Oh, we did have some excitement. Jack was outside & was barking like an idiot. We can usually tell when someone or something is in the yard. He really sounded distressed, so I grabbed a flashlight & went out to see what it was.

POGO !!!

Wednesday I went to SkyWarn spotter training for Macomb County. That was pretty neat. I enjoyed it. I’ve always loved watching storms, so now I can be useful while doing it! I thought it was interesting to learn was a tornado wasn’t. I could see where a lot of people would freak out at a rain shaft or smoke plume because of the general shape. And I got to meet the EC (emergency coordinator) for the county & chatted a bit. Of course they knew Randy & sent home a nasty gram to him for missing a meeting. Shame shame shame.

Angel got 3 of her 4 recital costumes this week. Of course the one I really wanted to see – ballet - is the one that hasn’t come in yet. Randy picked her up from dance while I was at spotter training & he got to see her do hip-hop in costume. Darn him! Of course they didn’t do it Thursday for lyrical when I picked her up. Pppft.

Hip-hop

Jazz

Lyrical

Last Friday I was supposed to have 2 extra kids at my house, but only ended up with one. Amanda’s mom had asked if she could stay over, because the older sister was having her 18th b-day party. Sure. So we went to the mall & out to dinner. Then they goofed off in Angel’s room because I claimed the TV to watch game 2 of the Coyote stomping (heehee). Then Jazzy came over. She & Amanda don’t always get along the greatest. Amanda is one of those people who gets offended very easily & will hold a grudge for a couple days. Anyway, Jazzy came over at 10:15 – Amanda was calling her mom to go home by 11. I told Angel next time she’s only having one friend at a time spend the night and she agreed.  Too much drama!!

I had a good laugh at Angel & Amanda tho. While we were out, there we got a message at the house from the school.  I enjoyed the looks of horror on both faces before I told them that it was just a recording saying that as a cost cutting measure, report cards were being sent home with the kids on Monday, instead of being mailed. I have to say I am impressed with Miss Angela’s report card. It could be better, but I’m not complaining. She brought home Bs in both English and Innovative Presentations and Cs in Math, Science, Geography & Art. I’m not complaining about the C in Art. It seems like it should be easy, but they’re learning a lot tougher stuff than I did in 12th grade.

This was our entertainment at work Friday.  He was eating lunch - we assume a pigeon - but there was nothing but a pile of feathers left when he was done.  Magnificent!  Not a bad pic for being thru the glass on the front doors, zoomed in as far as possible, then zooming in again on the camera.  I impressed myself!

So that’s about all for today. I’ve got truckloads of laundry to fold / iron / hang up and put away. The entire loveseat is filled. Scary. Plus 2 more loads in the washer & dryer and probably 1 or 2 more after that. Cringe!

Random LFMF - blue food coloring on french toast makes them green.