We had a busy weekend last weekend. I was so peopled out by Saturday night I literally fell asleep sitting up in my chair, and we still had Sunday to deal with.
Friday night hubs had another one of his sold out comedy shows. He tries to make each show a little different and this time around there were some comedy skits, a new thing the guys were calling sketch-prov and some straight-up improv. They'd had some rehearsals leading up to the show which I went to and the guys taught us some beginning improv exercises. They were pretty fun and as a result, I was called up on stage during the actual show to do an improv sketch with two go the guys. It was a crazy, convoluted thing that started out as a weather report about a hurricane and ended up in a meteorology love triangle. I'm still not sure how it happened, but that's how improv works. Afterwards, I had a woman come up to me and say she hadn't laughed that hard in years, so I guess we accomplished our goal of making people laugh. I don't think I'm going to go on stage again though. As much fun as doing improv is, I guess I'd rather do it in a small group of friends than on stage in front of a room full of strangers. We also did a little thing where hubs did part of his stand-up act, then I came on and gave a little back story to his jokes. I suspect that most people think he makes most of his jokes up...that's not true, sadly enough, he really did get me a Shop Vac for my birthday the first year we were married, and yes, we did indeed meet at a demolition derby. I also told the story of how we got our first set of steps when we moved into our trailer house years and years ago, but I didn't tell my friend Donna's favorite story about flushing the rope down the toilet. That woman can listen to that story over and over again and never get sick of it. Maybe some day I'll share it with those of you (if there are any) who actually read this thing.
We also had hubs niece's wedding on Saturday, an all day church event on Sunday and I had to get hubs to the airport by 5 am Monday morning to head out to Hawaii. Very dear friends of ours moved down to Hawaii that day, so we met them at the airport with their luggage and helped them get things organized during check-in. Wow, did that bring back memories of when we moved down there. I don't miss that episode of my life at all. Moving across the country like that is no picnic, as you can probably imagine. But, on the upside, we bought their mini-suv from them and I drove it home from the airport that day. So, new car, baby!! Much nicer driving than the 20 year old car we've been driving around in for the last year. Angel #4 happily took that one over for herself.
I'm glad that after the business of last weekend, this one was nice and quiet. I needed a little alone time to recuperate from the onslaught of so many people last weekend.
I got my plant shipment in that I ordered from the nursery catalog. Those guys sure do know when to get us at our weakest, they send their catalogs out during a cold snap when we're all wishing so hard for spring that we'll spend hundreds of dollars on bedding plants in the hope that it'll hurry the warm weather along. I planted the cherry trees, blackberry bushes and the climbing rose this weekend, I hope it doesn't get so cold they freeze out and they die. I've got my strawberry plants chilling in the basement waiting for their chance at growing. I've got plans to put them in a raised bed and Angel #4's boyfriend was going to help me build them. But...the little brat broke up with him last week, so it looks like I'm on my own. I tried to talk her into doing the breakup after the beds were built, but she's so unreasonable sometimes. ;-P
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
It's April, fool
We're busy around here doing spring-y kind of stuff. Last week Angel #4 and I went shopping and hit a prom dress bonanza. I refuse to buy a new, off the rack dress for prom, they wear it one night then it lies around for the rest of our lives doing nothing. So I hit all the neighborhood thrift stores, looking for a good buy, benefiting from others who don't have an aversion to spending full price for a useless dress. The problem with all this is that Angel #4 is really hard to buy for. She's got a really wide rib cage and once we get the zipper about 3 inches up, it's done. The first store we went into we found a dress that fit her wonderfully and looked great on her, but she wasn't nuts about the color, gray being a bit too subdued for her butterfly tastes. But, since it was only $12, I decided to buy it anyway figuring that at least she'll have a dress if we can't find anything else that fit her and looked good. The 2nd store we went to we found the perfect dress, all blue and sparkly and looked incredible on her. We also found a short formal dress that'll be perfect for the Homecoming dance next year, once again, a perfect fit and a perfect look on her. I paid $25 for the blue dress and $12 for the short one. So, I got 2 prom dresses & a homecoming dress for under $50, less than half the price that most people fork over for a single prom dress. Things are looking up.
Today is April Fool's day. I can't let an opportunity like that just go past, you know. I took some brown paper and cut it into the shape of a letter "E". I made about 6 of them and brought them to school. My fellow lunch ladies loved my idea and we put them on a pan in the lunch line. Our principal had a great time offering the kids brown-E's for dessert. He said he'd never seen such a confused group of kids in his life. Of course, when they were in line to go into the serving area, I made sure they all knew we had made them brown e's for a treat today. They went inside all excited,then saw the principal offering them up. Most got the joke, but a few accused me of lying, until I explained it to them.
It's days like this that make it great to be a lunch lady.
Today is April Fool's day. I can't let an opportunity like that just go past, you know. I took some brown paper and cut it into the shape of a letter "E". I made about 6 of them and brought them to school. My fellow lunch ladies loved my idea and we put them on a pan in the lunch line. Our principal had a great time offering the kids brown-E's for dessert. He said he'd never seen such a confused group of kids in his life. Of course, when they were in line to go into the serving area, I made sure they all knew we had made them brown e's for a treat today. They went inside all excited,then saw the principal offering them up. Most got the joke, but a few accused me of lying, until I explained it to them.
Friday, March 13, 2015
YAY for 60 degrees!!
The last couple days have been so gorgeous! I've hung laundry out on the line, raked gravel out of the grass at the side of the driveway, cleaned out the asparagus patch and the dead leaves and stalks from the flowers alongside the grainery. The irises are already starting to come up, how cool is that? After I exhausted all my excuses for being outside, I brought the outside in by washing windows. I didn't get them all done, but I've got a good start. It's just so nice smelling fresh air that doesn't freeze your lungs and seeing a little bit of green showing up outside again. Angel #4's boyfriend was asking me when I want to get started on building my raised beds for strawberries, so he must be getting spring fever too. He's going to build the beds for me and get me some sandy soil so I can finally finally finally have my own strawberry patch, something I've wanted forever but never had. I can't wait. The boyfriend also fixed a broken barn door for me yesterday. I've informed #4 that she's never allowed to break up with this boy, and if she does, we're keeping him and getting rid of her. He's pretty handy around the house and yard and is also really tall, so he can reach stuff on high shelves. Definitely a keeper, imo.
WE is getting all settled in at his new barracks in San Diego. After a couple months at Fort Leonard Wood (aka Fort Lost in the Woods) in Missouri, he's more than happy to be back to the land of warmth and beaches. From the sounds of things, he more than likely will spend the rest of his time in the Marines at Pendleton, which, as a mother makes me happy, but for him, as a Marine, he's a bit disappointed he probably won't be deployed. Turns out that when you're 18 and think you're invincible, getting sent off to some nasty foreign place where people shoot at you is a good thing. As a mom, of course, I see things a bit differently. But, it's his life, his decision, my job is to just grin and bear it.
I discovered that my cell phone is a time machine, as a Dr Who fan, I'm hoping it's a mini-TARDIS. I got a text today from my friend dated with today's date and time stamped 9:26 pm. Odd thing is, it was only 6:20pm when I received the text. Yep, Connie was contacting me from the future!! I'm sure you're wondering what amazing futuristic insight I got from her text so I'll share: She wanted to know if I had a rubber chicken she could borrow. I guess in the future there's a horrific rubber chicken shortage and she was reaching out to the past to rectify the situation. Sadly enough, I couldn't do anything to change the course of the future as I have no rubber chicken.
Is it weird that I was more taken aback by the wrong time stamp on my text than by the fact that my friend thought I was the go-to person in her search for rubber chickens?
WE is getting all settled in at his new barracks in San Diego. After a couple months at Fort Leonard Wood (aka Fort Lost in the Woods) in Missouri, he's more than happy to be back to the land of warmth and beaches. From the sounds of things, he more than likely will spend the rest of his time in the Marines at Pendleton, which, as a mother makes me happy, but for him, as a Marine, he's a bit disappointed he probably won't be deployed. Turns out that when you're 18 and think you're invincible, getting sent off to some nasty foreign place where people shoot at you is a good thing. As a mom, of course, I see things a bit differently. But, it's his life, his decision, my job is to just grin and bear it.
I discovered that my cell phone is a time machine, as a Dr Who fan, I'm hoping it's a mini-TARDIS. I got a text today from my friend dated with today's date and time stamped 9:26 pm. Odd thing is, it was only 6:20pm when I received the text. Yep, Connie was contacting me from the future!! I'm sure you're wondering what amazing futuristic insight I got from her text so I'll share: She wanted to know if I had a rubber chicken she could borrow. I guess in the future there's a horrific rubber chicken shortage and she was reaching out to the past to rectify the situation. Sadly enough, I couldn't do anything to change the course of the future as I have no rubber chicken.
Is it weird that I was more taken aback by the wrong time stamp on my text than by the fact that my friend thought I was the go-to person in her search for rubber chickens?
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Is winter over yet???
So while I'm quietly ( or not so quietly, depending on who you ask) out doing my lunch lady thing, my husband is out conquering the world one giggle at a time. Thursday he came home from Texas after doing an awesome business promotion, last night he knocked another one out of the park hosting a dinner/comedy show, he's got another comedy show tonight then tomorrow he hops on a plane to go whip Hawaii into shape. On the other hand, my major victory for the week was getting a new kind of fruit added to next weeks school lunches. I think I know who would make a better subject for a biography. But we also turned all our tax information over to the accountant today, so I've got that yearly agony over...though we get another round of agony when we get the accountant's bill. Getting corporate taxes done for 2 different businesses doing business in 3 different states is not cheap.
Last weekend I had a wonderful day spent with Angel #4, WE's girlfriend, who's pretty much another daughter for me, my sister and her daughter. My sister gave me an awesome gift, a signed biography by Alison Arngrim, Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. A little known fact about me is that back in the day, I could do a pretty kick-butt Nellie Oleson imitation. Yep, I have some kind of talent, just not a bankable one. BTW, if you haven't read any of the 3 Little House girls biographies, this one is DEFINITELY the best out of the three. I want Nellie to be my friend and hang out with her at Starbucks.
Last weekend I had a wonderful day spent with Angel #4, WE's girlfriend, who's pretty much another daughter for me, my sister and her daughter. My sister gave me an awesome gift, a signed biography by Alison Arngrim, Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. A little known fact about me is that back in the day, I could do a pretty kick-butt Nellie Oleson imitation. Yep, I have some kind of talent, just not a bankable one. BTW, if you haven't read any of the 3 Little House girls biographies, this one is DEFINITELY the best out of the three. I want Nellie to be my friend and hang out with her at Starbucks.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Go home Wise Men, you're drunk
It's the end of January, high time people took down their Christmas decorations. But, then again, if they did that, I'd miss one of the highlights of my drive home from work every day. One of the bars in town has one of those big nativity scenes in front of it, with the big, 4 foot tall plastic people that light up on the inside. Nobody there has figured out the art of weighing the figures down though, and they frequently fall over. The first time this happened, Mary was face down in the gravel while Joseph and the 3 wise men were all standing in a circle staring at her and appearing to be saying "go home, Mary, you're drunk". Mary eventually was put upright again, but it seems like everyone is taking turns taking a digger. Currently, Joseph and 2 of the wise men are flat on their faces while the third wise man is standing there holding his little treasure chest of frankincense and wondering the the rest of them are going to grow up and stop acting like frat boys. Mary and baby Jesus appear to have flown the coop and are nowhere to be seen. Maybe she decided that it simply wasn't the proper atmosphere to be raising a child in.
I'm reading a fascinating book written by a NYC medical examiner about forensic medicine and autopsies. This morning while drinking my coffee and eating my bagel, I was reading a step-by-step on how to perform an autopsy on a drug overdose victim, including what order to take out the internal organs. I had no problem eating while doing this, but a half hour later, I was gagging uncontrollably from brushing my teeth. I suspect this isn't normal.
Tonight hubs and I went to watch the high school boys (and 1 girl) wrestle. It was against our biggest wrestling rival. We tend to come up on the short end of the stick with this rivalry because the other school is quite a bit bigger than we are, they're not only not in our conference, but they're a division 2 school while we're a division 3. But, what makes this a particularly active rivalry is the coaches. Two brothers coach our wrestlers, our rival school is coached by a 3rd brother and their father. So it's kind of a family rivalry more than a school one. Our boys fight hard for our coaches honor, but we're pretty much out-gunned, though we only lost by 9 points, so it wasn't a complete massacre. I enjoy watching wrestling and, according to hubs, I get a bit wiggly during the matches. He's been calling me Mr. Lowney, after one of the wrestling fathers in hubs old hometown. Mr. Lowney was a big man with a whole slew of wrestling sons. He would get so worked up he's start leaning over in the bleachers and end up accidentally pushing people off the end. I don't think I'm that bad, but I do know that my heart rate goes up a whole lot better watching wrestling than it does when I'm exercising so it's pretty obvious which activity I need to focus on for my health.
I'm reading a fascinating book written by a NYC medical examiner about forensic medicine and autopsies. This morning while drinking my coffee and eating my bagel, I was reading a step-by-step on how to perform an autopsy on a drug overdose victim, including what order to take out the internal organs. I had no problem eating while doing this, but a half hour later, I was gagging uncontrollably from brushing my teeth. I suspect this isn't normal.
Tonight hubs and I went to watch the high school boys (and 1 girl) wrestle. It was against our biggest wrestling rival. We tend to come up on the short end of the stick with this rivalry because the other school is quite a bit bigger than we are, they're not only not in our conference, but they're a division 2 school while we're a division 3. But, what makes this a particularly active rivalry is the coaches. Two brothers coach our wrestlers, our rival school is coached by a 3rd brother and their father. So it's kind of a family rivalry more than a school one. Our boys fight hard for our coaches honor, but we're pretty much out-gunned, though we only lost by 9 points, so it wasn't a complete massacre. I enjoy watching wrestling and, according to hubs, I get a bit wiggly during the matches. He's been calling me Mr. Lowney, after one of the wrestling fathers in hubs old hometown. Mr. Lowney was a big man with a whole slew of wrestling sons. He would get so worked up he's start leaning over in the bleachers and end up accidentally pushing people off the end. I don't think I'm that bad, but I do know that my heart rate goes up a whole lot better watching wrestling than it does when I'm exercising so it's pretty obvious which activity I need to focus on for my health.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
FIne, upstanding cititzen....NOT!
I'm at work today, minding my own business, not really paying attention to what's going on around me because I was, wait for it, yeah, working! So apparently,while I was doing my job, one of the other lunch ladies and our Superintendent were harassing each other, a common occurrence in our lunch room where we tend to call each other fathead and slacker and generally pick on each other. But, like I said, I was working and not really paying attention, which meant that when the Superintendent came over by me and asked me to stand in a certain way, I just moved where he asked, wondering what was going on, Well I found out quickly. He stood behind me, then said, "Hey, Diane" Without even looking, Diane turned and shot water hose right at him...which since he was using me as a human shield, hit me instead. Yes, the man in charge of my town's children's education USED me to cover his own sorry butt! Of course, now I must plot my revenge. Suggestions will be appreciated.
In other news, it's been pretty quiet around here. Hubs has been in Hawaii for the last week or two and Angel #4 has been out and about, or working, so I've been home alone in the peace and quiet a lot. This weekend we were kind of busy though. I went out with my friend Connie on Friday night. Angel #2 went out that night as well, though I think she partied a bit more than me since it was her 21st birthday. I can't believe she's that old already, I still think of her as a little girl. Now I've got 2 kids who can legally buy a drink in a bar. Amazing, since I'm still so young. Saturday morning, Angel #4 & I met Connie and her daughter (aka WE's girlfriend) for breakfast, which was really nice. We go to a little local place which has the yummiest food and the friendliest staff around, which makes going there even more enjoyable. That night the four of us, along with Connie's other daughter and #4's boyfriend, we went bowling. I did much better than when we went bowling as a family when the boys were home. We only bowled 2 games, which is good because my hip started hurting again in the same place as it did last time I bowled. I guess I"m going to have to start working out if I want to continue with my bowling career.
In other news, it's been pretty quiet around here. Hubs has been in Hawaii for the last week or two and Angel #4 has been out and about, or working, so I've been home alone in the peace and quiet a lot. This weekend we were kind of busy though. I went out with my friend Connie on Friday night. Angel #2 went out that night as well, though I think she partied a bit more than me since it was her 21st birthday. I can't believe she's that old already, I still think of her as a little girl. Now I've got 2 kids who can legally buy a drink in a bar. Amazing, since I'm still so young. Saturday morning, Angel #4 & I met Connie and her daughter (aka WE's girlfriend) for breakfast, which was really nice. We go to a little local place which has the yummiest food and the friendliest staff around, which makes going there even more enjoyable. That night the four of us, along with Connie's other daughter and #4's boyfriend, we went bowling. I did much better than when we went bowling as a family when the boys were home. We only bowled 2 games, which is good because my hip started hurting again in the same place as it did last time I bowled. I guess I"m going to have to start working out if I want to continue with my bowling career.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
the end is near
Here it is, the last post of 2014. It's been another eventful year around here with WE graduating from high school and going into the Marines and Angel #1 leaving the Marines and starting a new chapter in Miami going to college and finally getting himself a girlfriend. Angel #4 getting her drivers license and her first job and Angel #2 getting not one, but two dogs (more on that later). Hubs has spent over 110 days out of town on various jobs, getting real success with his public speaking and stand up comedy stuff along with new business opportunities coming his way. As for me...well, I read a bunch of books and got a sports injury (more on that later, too).
Last night was Angel #1's last night home, he left early this morning. In a great, unplanned moment of travel karma, Rent-a-Grandma and her daughter flew out of the local airport on Dec 25, actually getting on the exact airplane that hubs and Angel #1 were getting off from on their flight home from Hawaii. So grandma & her daughter spent the night at our house and we had a great time together and the next morning they drove to the airport and handed off their car keys to hubs who took her car back to our house, so her new car didn't have to spend a week alone in airport parking. This worked out especially great because this morning Angel #1's flight left at 6 am, so he drove himself in grandmas car, locked the keys in and the car was there waiting for grandma when her flight arrived back home a couple hours later. How's that for perfect? WE flies out on the 6am flight on Saturday, sadly though, someone here (hubs, not me) has to get out of bed and drive him to the airport. WE's a little bummed out because his girlfriend left for Paris on the 25th and she'll be returning on Sunday, so he didn't get to spend as much time with her on his leave as he would have liked. But life works that way sometimes.
Since it was #1's last night home, we decided to do something as a family and bowling became the activity of choice. #1 does a lot of bowling in Miami and #4 goes bowling with friends occasionally, but the rest of us hadn't been on an alley in years. We had a family bowling tournament, hubs had an old trophy he bought at a thrift store for some reason and sharpied the words #1 Bowler on the plaque, best bowling score won the trophy. We decided to bowl 3 games, 1st game was a warm-up the the best score of the last two games won the award. We're all pretty sucky bowlers, so hubs score of 115 got the prize. About the 2nd frame of the third game, I tossed Gene (my bowling ball) down the alley and something went wonky in my hip. I ended up walking with a limp the rest of the night and finished the game with a whopping score of 66. I'm calling it my first sports injury.
Now, for Angel #2's dog story. Back this spring she got a little Pomeranian dog. It was an old dog, I think maybe 14 or 15 years old. She knew it was sick and has maybe a year to live which was perfect for her intentions. She'd been thinking about getting a dog, but didn't know if she wanted to make the commitment to taking care of a dog with her schedule. Well, she learned that she's more a cat person than a dog one and was biding her time until Lucky the dog met his maker. But this week someone brought a Chihuahua into the hospital in birthing distress. They'd bred it with a larger male and the puppies were much too big for her. They managed to save the mother, though both puppies died and the mother needed to be spayed. Since her wonderful owners only wanted her for breeding purposes, they were going to have the dog, who isn't much more than a puppy herself, put down. #2 intervened and claimed responsibility for the dog so they wouldn't have to kill her and now she's got a dog she doesn't know what to do with. If anyone here in Wisconsin is willing to pay the $125 for it to hitch a ride home with Angel #4 when she goes to visit #2 at the end of January, they can have themselves an adorable little dog who just got a second chance at life. Let me know if you're interested.
So anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print for the moment. Everyone have a safe and happy new year and see you in 2015!!
Last night was Angel #1's last night home, he left early this morning. In a great, unplanned moment of travel karma, Rent-a-Grandma and her daughter flew out of the local airport on Dec 25, actually getting on the exact airplane that hubs and Angel #1 were getting off from on their flight home from Hawaii. So grandma & her daughter spent the night at our house and we had a great time together and the next morning they drove to the airport and handed off their car keys to hubs who took her car back to our house, so her new car didn't have to spend a week alone in airport parking. This worked out especially great because this morning Angel #1's flight left at 6 am, so he drove himself in grandmas car, locked the keys in and the car was there waiting for grandma when her flight arrived back home a couple hours later. How's that for perfect? WE flies out on the 6am flight on Saturday, sadly though, someone here (hubs, not me) has to get out of bed and drive him to the airport. WE's a little bummed out because his girlfriend left for Paris on the 25th and she'll be returning on Sunday, so he didn't get to spend as much time with her on his leave as he would have liked. But life works that way sometimes.
Since it was #1's last night home, we decided to do something as a family and bowling became the activity of choice. #1 does a lot of bowling in Miami and #4 goes bowling with friends occasionally, but the rest of us hadn't been on an alley in years. We had a family bowling tournament, hubs had an old trophy he bought at a thrift store for some reason and sharpied the words #1 Bowler on the plaque, best bowling score won the trophy. We decided to bowl 3 games, 1st game was a warm-up the the best score of the last two games won the award. We're all pretty sucky bowlers, so hubs score of 115 got the prize. About the 2nd frame of the third game, I tossed Gene (my bowling ball) down the alley and something went wonky in my hip. I ended up walking with a limp the rest of the night and finished the game with a whopping score of 66. I'm calling it my first sports injury.
Now, for Angel #2's dog story. Back this spring she got a little Pomeranian dog. It was an old dog, I think maybe 14 or 15 years old. She knew it was sick and has maybe a year to live which was perfect for her intentions. She'd been thinking about getting a dog, but didn't know if she wanted to make the commitment to taking care of a dog with her schedule. Well, she learned that she's more a cat person than a dog one and was biding her time until Lucky the dog met his maker. But this week someone brought a Chihuahua into the hospital in birthing distress. They'd bred it with a larger male and the puppies were much too big for her. They managed to save the mother, though both puppies died and the mother needed to be spayed. Since her wonderful owners only wanted her for breeding purposes, they were going to have the dog, who isn't much more than a puppy herself, put down. #2 intervened and claimed responsibility for the dog so they wouldn't have to kill her and now she's got a dog she doesn't know what to do with. If anyone here in Wisconsin is willing to pay the $125 for it to hitch a ride home with Angel #4 when she goes to visit #2 at the end of January, they can have themselves an adorable little dog who just got a second chance at life. Let me know if you're interested.
So anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print for the moment. Everyone have a safe and happy new year and see you in 2015!!
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