Monday, April 30, 2007

Fly me to the moon

We had a lovely family adventure after dinner tonight. Greg suggested that we do something after dinner instead of the usual homework-read a book or two-TV routine, so all four of us went to the park across the street with Greg's new kite.

Which kicked ass, by the way! This thing really flew. Much better than Allie's little octopus kite, which refused to cooperate for most of the time. Greg's new kite is 54 inches wide and the tails are 12 feet long, not that you could tell most of the time because it was so high up that it's appearance was deceiving.

Four other people got out their kites after they saw ours, which was a neat bit of community competition. I went and got Greg's old rainbow delta kite after awhile, and that thing kicked ass too. We hurt our hands letting the string in and out, but it was totally worth it.

The girls made some new friends and we all got a good dose of fresh air and fun.

Then we rushed home to get in the homework-read a book or two thing before pajamas and bed. I'll bet the girls dream about flying tonight. I'm pretty sure I will.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Cheated again

We get food at Culver's quite a bit. Actually, we get food from Culver's way too much. It's very convenient to our house and we take advantage of that.

Today, we were cheated by Culver's. Greg wasn't hungry, so I got hamburger combos for me and Allie and a corndog combo for Julia, with onion rings. Julia really likes onion rings. I mean, really likes them.

The restaurant gave her french fries, despite the order tag, which was attached to our order, clearly stating onion rings. I thought she was going to cry. She thought one of the other bags were hers because she didn't see onion rings and when I told her they weren't, that she was going to have to eat french fries, you would have thought I told her she was going to have to eat dirt.

She was tired anyway because it wasn't long before her naptime and that added up to a volatile situation. So she decided to completely ignore her fries and eat her corndog, depressed. Such is the life of a 3-year-old. Nothing but disappointment.

Friday, April 27, 2007

My 300th blog

I would like to type something amazing for my 300th blog, but my husband wants to go to sleep. He's being mean as a result.

He's saying all kinds of mean things and then daring me to post them.

See, you people all think my husband is so sweet and funny and romantic, but there's a whole other side to Greg Lee.

There's the psychotic side. And I get to sleep with that side of my husband tonight. As long as he doesn't get up in the middle of the night to get an axe from the garage, I guess I will live to post again.

I hope.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

That's not so bad

Well, I finally got around to calling the library today, to get myself put on the list for when the last Harry Potter book comes in in July.

The librarian took my library card number, then said I was on the list and that they'd be calling me when my book was available. I said, just out of curiosity, can you tell me where I am on the list, you know, approximately.

She said, oh, you're about 750.

I said, Oh, my goodness. So maybe I'll get the book in six months or so? She reassured me that the library is going to get about 120 copies of the book, so I might only have to wait a month or two.

That's not so bad.

Greg says I should just buy the book, but you know what--I doubt I'm going to ever read these books again. They're just too dark. So why would I spend any money. The library system gets my tax money whether I use the library or not. So I can wait.

As long as I get it by Christmas.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

What's new

Well, lots of stuff at work that I'm not going to talk about.

Julia bit another kid at daycare yesterday, which is something we all thought she'd left behind at least a year ago. She's going to be 4 at the end of July, for pete's sake. I understand that another little girl was sitting on her, so this is how she took care of the situation. Our naughty girl had to stay in her room (and play with all of her toys in her room) last night instead of getting to play outside like her sister.

Allie got to go on a field trip to a nearby college last week to see a play featuring college students as actors. She thought it was awesome. As she said, "I just love to go to the theater!" She's basing this statement on going to see ballet productions of "Peter Pan" twice, once at three and once at four years of age, but who am I to argue. I remember going to see a show at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee (a beautiful historic theater) when I was in grade school and thinking it was the most magical thing I'd ever seen.

My husband did either a very sweet thing for me yesterday or he did his husbandly duty, depending on which way you want to look at it. He took some time off work, picked up my car outside my office, and got four new tires put on for me. It was something that was way overdue--the guy at the shop said I was riding on the bars of the tires. Thank you, Gregory! I love you.

And in regards to the rest of my life these days, you know what they say. When you're hanging off a cliff and your fingers are starting to slip, dig in your fingernails. I hope there's gelatin in my multivitamins.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Neighborhood mystery

The girls were in bed and Greg and I were in the living room tonight when we heard sirens coming. A police officer tore down the street and pulled into our cul de sac, then turned off his lights and siren and parked. Then another. Then another. I'm pretty sure that's the entire active police force of our town on a Monday night, all on our street.

Of course, Greg and I were concerned about what was going on. The neighbor across the street has been taken to the hospital at least twice, so we thought maybe something had happened there. But no, they pulled up to one of our other neighbors and they all hopped out and rushed to the front door.

The house was really dark inside, so I started thinking burglars or something. Then someone opened the front door and turned on a light. The cops stood with someone and talked briefly, then two of the cops turned around, got in their cars, and left. The only thing I could hear was, "He's gone."

I went back inside, wondering what that was all about. This is a small city, so you never know when you might hear of what was going on. Until then, it's a mystery. Do you have a theory?

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Blogging outside

Mother Nature decided to make it up to us yesterday and today for that last, nasty spring snowstorm. It's 85 degrees today and yesterday it was about 75. I'm typing on my laptop on the porch, watching the girls run around barefoot in the grass.

It was, I believe, two weeks ago that Greg took the picture in the front yard of Allie kissing her snowman. Now, my tulips are blooming, the trees are leafing out as though they're going to miss something if they haven't fully sprung by midnight, and the grass needs to be mowed.

Spring is here. Deb is happy.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Kitty torture

As I type, my father-in-law is cracking up. He's running our kittens ragged with a laser pointer.

When we got these two brothers, we thought that we would free-feed them, though that had never been successful with our other cats. In the past, we had to feed only twice per day or (actually, and) our cats were quite overweight.

Well, these two love to eat too and so it's quite fun to give them some extensive exercise to try to keep them in shape. I have to admit, Dave seems to be getting quite the giggles from running the kittens into the refrigerator and basement door.

I would never do something like that. It's more fun to run them into the front door, which is steel and gives a satisfying thunk.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Cats swimming

We've had a major problem lately with floods of water. I came downstairs the other morning at 6 a.m. and stepped in a big puddle of water in the hallway outside the half bath. Then I realized that the rag rug that sits there was completely soaked.

After checking the toilet, the sink, and interrogating the girls for spillage that they hadn't disclosed, we figured out that the water came from the cats. Yes, our 7-month old kittens have decided that instead of just drinking their water, they should splash it in like raccoons washing their walnuts.

Despite our house not being very old, our floors are really, really slanted right there (by the way, if we ever decide to move and you ever decide to buy our house, I'm completely kidding about that slanted floor thing, dramatic effect, you know), and it turns out that the splashing they were doing traveled a good eight feet in a nice little river.

In the process, the cats soaked the bottom legs of the Ikea butcher block tables we have there and I know they're really going to ruin them if we allow this to go on. Greg has decided on a program of aversion therapy involving extensive swatting. I'm hoping that this won't make them decide to stop drinking from their dish and start drinking elsewhere, like (horrors) the toilet or something. That would be as bad as if they were dogs!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Fifth helpings

Julia's appetite is a mystery. Normally, she subsists on cereal, chicken nuggets and fruit snacks, but sometimes she seems to have developed a second stomach.

Tonight was such an evening--we ate salads and macaroni and cheese and the girls had hotdogs too. We told the girls they had to eat some green beans to get a refill on their macaroni and cheese.

Allie, Greg and I finished eating and I cleaned up while Greg worked on the mess that the cats have been making with their water dish. Julia dithered about eating her green beans, which usually means that she's about to say that her stomach hurts (which it doesn't) and that she's done eating. That lasts for about ten minutes normally, until she starts asking for fruit snacks.

She walked away from her plate to go to the bathroom, then came back and perched on her chair. She asked for more macaroni and cheese and I reminded her for the third time that she had to eat her green beans. She settled down and started eating them, then I was happy to get her more macaroni and cheese.

And more macaroni and cheese. And more macaroni and cheese, and more macaroni and cheese. Yes, she had five helpings of macaroni and cheese (big tablespoonfuls).

Then she took some bites of out of her Easter chocolate bunny and she was done for the night. I guess the second stomach was momentarily satisfied.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

OK, I'm back

I've been pretty unavailable for the last two weeks because I've been busy reading. And reading, and reading. Thousands of pages, literally. I've been reading the Harry Potter books.

My local library didn't have book one available, but I've read two, three, four, five and six. I finished six off in about 8 hours, more or less. Of course, I think it's only 600-some pages, as opposed to book five, which I think was about 870 pages. I would have finished six faster if I didn't have to keep stopping for the last 50 pages to get more Kleenex and blow my nose.

Why did I just read these books now, instead of years ago? I always knew that I wanted to read the series, but I didn't want to be one of those desperate people who camped out at the bookstore to get the next book.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to call my local library and put myself on the reserve list for when they get their shipment of book seven. I can't wait. No surprise, here, but these are really good books. I'm sure my girls will read them someday, and I look forward to sharing them with them.

Since I have to wait now until at least July for that last book, I'll get back to more of my normal blogging schedule. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath. And now your long wait is over, you lucky dogs.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Run for it!

We got 6 inches of wet, heavy snow yesterday. Yuck. Every tree and sign and power line and structure was covered with several inches of heavy snow. That wasn't the worst of it, however.

I drove about 45 minutes today to another one of our plants and all the way there, I kept getting attacked. Yes, attacked!

All of the trees were blowing in the wind and they kept sloughing off bits of the snow from their branches. These weren't little poofs of puffy snow, though, falling like snowflakes onto my windshield and the top of my car.

These were ice bombs! Seriously! The temperature has been just at the level where it appears every bit of snow on every branch has a bit of ice under it. And when the tree moved and dropped off some of it's snow, the bit of ice went with it.

It was really bad. There are kind of a lot of trees along the road on this trip, which I'll admit is not something I've given a lot of thought to before today. I kept jumping and glancing up warily, expecting to see a crack in the moonroof, it was that loud.

Attack of the spring snow--that would make a rotten movie title, but it would be accurate.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Much too busy

Can't take the time to do a real post . . . . reading Harry Potter, you know . . . on the fourth book and only 605 pages in to the 734-page book . . . how in the world can this be considered children's literature . . . . Harry's tackling the third task now, must run . . .

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Dreaming of a stripper pole

Last night, the girls and I were driving back from visiting my family when I saw a curious sight. There was a dairy farm by the side of the road (that's not the curious part, it is Wisconsin, of course).

Cows were gathered in the middle of a fenced-in area, eating (that's not the curious part either, I saw numerous cows eating dinner as we passed various farms). Their heads were all down, snuffling up feed off a concrete bench type structure that ran down the middle of the pen (still not curious).

The curious part was that there was one cow who stood on top of the bench structure, appeared to pose, and then tore down the "runway" as though she wanted to show off for the other ladies.

I've seen so many movies with anthropomorphic animals lately that I couldn't help ascribing her antics to the desire to show off, to show it all off, baby!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Observations on gaming

This afternoon, this statement was heard. "Can we gamble now?" It was heard at my sister's house, after we'd eaten a large, traditional family-gathering dinner and done the dishes. It's our tradition to get out the dice or cards after these lunches/dinners and trade some funds. The only problem with the above statement is that it was made by my 3 1/2 year old.

She doesn't actually gamble, of course. She just sits on someone's lap or an extra chair and watches. Allie, however, who's 7, plays. And she won today too. About $5.

I'm thinking that if she keeps this up, she can pay for her own college education.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Odd, hmm

I was driving out of the gate where I work awhile back and saw something that caught my eye.

A trucker was backing into a receiving dock and he was carefully watching his mirrors instead of looking in front of him, where I was. I glanced up to see which way he was moving and where he was looking and I saw something that looked familiar.

There was a cat stretched on his dashboard, right against the front window of his semi truck, facing the steering wheel and between the wheel and the window. I could see his ears and the back of his head as he watched the driver back up.

I've certainly heard of truckers having dogs in their vehicles before, but this was the first cat I've ever seen. I had to wonder, where does the driver keep the litter box? Or is the cat road trained? Trained to only go outside like a dog would?

I can't imagine wanting to travel with the a litter box in the sleeper cab. I know those spaces are suprisingly roomy, but ick. I think the feline companionship would be nice, though!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Oooo, this is going to hurt

My husband enjoys food. He enjoys food even more if it has any number of unusual toppings on it. During our meals, it's not uncommon for him to try two or more seasonings with his food, including some things that I personally consider rather extreme.

Such was the scene at our dinner table last night. We ate beef roast, and it would have been a rather nice meal with the two of us somewhat alone because the girls hate beef roast and we'd already given them spaghettios, they'd eaten, and they were playing in the nearby living room (actually, fighting over toys, but that's another post).

So Greg and I could have had a lovely semi-intimate dinner, ignoring the sparring from the girls and talking about our daily activities or the stock market performance or what sexual position we were going to try out later that evening.

However, those dastardly English people visited recently and left my husband some gifts of food, which he is immensely enjoying sampling. Thus it was that Greg uttered the above statement. He was putting a rather large amount of Colman's Mustard on each sliver of his roast beef, pausing in rather dreadful anticipation, and then chewing, pausing, and swallowing rather rapidly.

It didn't even look like fun to me, but he swore that it was wonderful. He's about halfway through the jar already, so I guess he's serious. I just hope nothing vital burns up or falls off before the jar is empty.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Oh, lordy

After I wrote the post last night, I got out "Little House in the Big Woods" and started re-reading it. I got a good chunk of the way through the book and then Allie saw me and she wanted to hear some of it. I read out loud about the first time Laura ever went to town and what a wonderland she thought the town store was.

Then I told Allie that for Christmas, Laura and her sister only got new red mittens and one candy cane, and how excited they were to get such wonderful presents. That's when I got into trouble. Allie asked why Santa Claus didn't bring them more than that.

Oh, crap. I told her that this was a very long time ago and that children didn't get presents like she does now. Allie said, Mommy, is Santa Claus real? I said he was. She said, are the flying reindeer real? I said they were. She said, how do they do that? I said, no one really knows--want to hear some more about Laura? She said, I want to go to the North Pole and see them do that. Then she said she wanted to hear more about the Ingalls.

She's 7 years old. When do we have to admit the truth? I'M NOT READY!