1 May 2005:

Jimbo, again:

You've got to blog-if-y-y!!!! Sung to the tune of Funkifize by Tower of Power. I know its lame but as good as a Muskelunge quiz???

The next couple of weeks are going to be chaos. I have to visit my favorite folks at Ford Hospital for a "look see" MRI (yuck) and then Val is home for the summer on Wednesday. The trip to Siberia to see the old man and then right back so Val can have her knee fixed, again at Ford Hospital in time to try to get a job and be ready for the almighty Spartan Marching Band season to start in August. Plus a big band gig thrown in there somewhere just for grins.

All this in the middle of vehicle launches out the wazoo at work. "You must be perfect" says our customer!!!! Yeah......

What else? Trip to EL to get Val's bike and have a pita at Pita Pit. Subdued campus, everyone is stressing about exams and Val is no exception. Been there done that many, many times. Nook has a track meet Tuesday and hosts a pasta dinner tomorrow. A carbo fest before every track meet.

Enough from me, maybe the cliffsvic blog master has something to add.

Yeah, the "blogmaster" has something to add...

Saturday was sheer energy! Got all but 4 of the windows (downstairs) washed and their screens scrubbed (all by myself) before I ran outta chutzpah & time. In this house, that adds up to 16 windows & 14 screens; plus the sliding glass door (not the screen) and the storm door at front. 'Course, we have dog nose prints back on some of the dog-height viewing ports again....

What didn't get mentioned about the Spaghetti Dinner tomorrow night: we are one of 3 hosting the event this time; approx 30 girls expected (and the coaches); Nook's responsibility is salad (and dressings), fruit, plates, beverages, and bread/margarine. Princess Bubbles has the spaghetti/noodles & lasagne. J-Webb gets cups, plastic tableware, desserts. Hopefully, nothing's forgotten!!

Alfie & Ernie are wrasslin'; broken up by occasional Alfie "burn-outs" (high-speed circuits throughout the house - and I mean *high speed*!!). Throw in the sporadic cookie demand, and that makes for very happy Guyz. (Sam is chillin', content to NOT be a part of the wrasslin'.).

2 May 2005:

Pasta dinner a resounding success!!

• 1 crockpot full of spaghetti sauce.....cleaned out
• Several potsfull of spaghetti noodles.....gone
• 3.5 loaves of Italian bread....poof!
• Green salad with choice of dressing & croutons....well, more left over than consumed
• 1 - 9x13 pan of baked mac & cheese....demolished....completely
• Apples....see "Green salad", above
• Cookies....M&M cookies, see "Italian bread", above....Oatmeal Raisin, see "Green salad", above
• Various juices & Gatorade & water....whoosh!

And whoever said that girls "don't eat", have NOT been around a bunch of runners!!

Pretty cool tradition among the Girls' Track Team, these pre-meet Pasta Dinners! And, every one of these girls was SO polite and cheerful! And - no catastrophes with food dishes or anything! No mess!

4 May 2005:

Val's home! Val's home! Val's home!

Left from work 12:30, hooked up with Valdemort in EL, "Panchero's" for a late lunch (tortillas made before our eyes!), many laden trips between dorm room & CR-V, trip home via "Tropical Smoothie Cafe" so Valdemort could sample "Blimey Limey", home long enough to unload, brush teeth, put flute & picc in cases, pack up and head up to FIM for Flute Choir!

Nook had babysitting job tonight for the family up the street who will be moving to California before too much longer....she's gonna miss her regular customer....

Valdemort starts job hunting tomorrow, hoping that all the other college kids who got out before her didn't take all the available jobs in town...

Hard to believe that yesterday, everyone was freezing their you-know-whats off at the Track Meet yesterday - and we were getting snowed on, to boot! Then today, Valdemort & I were walking outdoors in shirtsleeves.

Anyway, in spite of the terrible, cold weather, Grand Blanc won the track meet. No real surprise (tri-meet: Grand Blanc, Kearsley, & Swartz Creek). Good competition, though!!

6 May 2005:

Valdemort sez, "Blog!"

Nook and the rest of the GB Track Team participated in the Badar Classic Invitational, held this time at Carman-Ainsworth Jr. High. And, GB (both Girls & Guyz) won the meet!! Great job, kids!

Nook sez that it's really nice to NOT hear your team announced for 3rd place, and again, NOT hear your name for 2nd place, either. Especially when you KNOW you're getting FIRST!

Nearly every event that a GB team won, a Badar Classic record got set today - pretty amazing. Watched Geena run the final leg of a relay....lapping several girls who were still on the second-to-last leg (yes, she really IS that fast, whew!).

Thank goodness for "Hot-n-Ready" at Little Caesar's...and that there's a Little Caesar's just off the school property!!! Just the ticket for the post-race runner.

8 May 2005:

Happy Mother's Day to All!! (Where would we be without you? Not here, for one thing....)

My Mother's Day [weekend]:

• Sent Jim, Val, sis-in-law Anne, & Sammer up north for Jack's birthday (Monday)
• Target (looking for flippy-top wastebaskets - to foil a certain Basenji-type beastie - came home instead with several DVDs of "had to have" movies"...and a couple other things)
• Quizno's for lunch (mmmmm, broccoli-cheese soup!)
• Grocery store
• Try to explain to elderly Danish neighbor that, YES, we ARE doing something about the dandylions in our yard, just that our contracted lawn service seems to have turned to smoke after the first application of weed killer (which has done exactly the opposite...)
• Laundry-laundry-laundry
• Homemade chicken quesadillas for supper (with pineapple salsa, sour cream & guacamole!)
• Got to actually READ before going to sleep (instead of being subjected to TV for what seems hours on end...which only - for all practical purposes - provides flashing lights and ridiculous quantities of noise, which unnecessarily causes brain centers to be stimulated that are really supposed to be quieted down for sleep to happen...) - and as a result, got a restful night's sleep!!!!! :-D
• Woke up late (well, 7:30AM *IS* late for me....), with Ernie & Alfie snuggled in
• Attempted coffee at home. YICK. [What *does* Starbucks do with their coffee to make it so good, anyway????]
• Alfie's tripod-ing - gonna have to make a Vet trip Monday. In the meantime, moisturizer on that poor pad
• ATM / Ace Hardware / home / blocker The Boyz / de-poop the yard / fill in some of the low spots with last year's topsoil (which is now partially moss-y) / look for scrap wood (no success - it all got thrown out with the big Spring CleanUp week last week) / laundry-laundry / lunch / wash CR-V / yak with Kathy R / take out garbage / Qdoba for take-out chicken nachos / laundry-laundry / moisturize Alfie's pad again (tripodding still) / blog!
• TV has NOT been on at all today....except for Nook watching a DVD briefly
• Paid the Com-rip-off bill today....gone up to over $98 (for both cable & internet - and that's with the so-called $15 discount for having both thru Comcast). Time to really look at alternatives....

9 May 2005:

Happy 86th Blub-Day, Jack!

The Alfster has been tri-podding all weekend; I come home to take him to the Vet, he's on all 4's. See the vet anyway, get a prescription for Rimadyl (vet was nice enough to quarter the tablets!), get home, Alfie gets his first dose, and he's occasionally tri-podding again....but, can I keep him "quiet"??? Noooooooo!

Loaded Ernie & Alfie (in leashes, of course) into the DGSLD. Had to get Sam fuel before he returns from Up North. Actually, got it more-or-less "free", thanks to saving Proofs of Purchase and enough receipts to qualify! Plus a bag of "goodies" (flavored rawhide chips) for The Guyz....

S'ghetti dinner tonight, Tri-Meet tomorrow - HOME!

Took some pix of "Spring" today....will post once I can get them ready-for-web.

10 May 2005:

Val's home! Jim's home! Sammer's home! Bananne picked up her car and she's home!!

All-in-all, sounds like the trip North was a success...Jack got birthday'd, Fran got to fuss over "other people" for a bit (and have them fuss over her, too!!). Penny's Kitchen, Clyde's, Seasons, the usual in-town haunts; and the Cabin, the Beach, the kayaks, the Beach, the Beach,...oh, and did I mention the Beach? Hot enough that Bananne wanted to swim (but didn't for want of "quick-dry underwear"!! hee hee!!). So, sitting on the Beach and kayaking to Cedar Point (the one next to Birch Point, not the one next to Sandusky) were the viable and not-at-all-unpleasant alternatives. Especially when Radical Betty, beer, and ginger ale make simultaneous appearances....

Sam waded and bit the waves and trotted up and down the beach. Got in the water, much to the consternation of two (yeah, 2) Golden Retrievers - which for some bizarre reason, their owner will NOT let them go in the lake!! They're WATER DOGS ferchissakes! Oh, well. So Sam was probably telling them (dog-wise): "Neener-neener-boo-boo!!" and smirking dogly smirks.

Tri-meet between Grand Blanc, Flint Powers Catholic, and Flushing this afternoon. Grand Blanc won. Again. Then, Saturday is the Mott Track Meet, hosted by Grand Blanc. Dunno how many teams to expect for that. Will find out Saturday!!

11 May 2005:

4AM. Didn't even need a winch to haul the teenager outta bed for this one...why? Knee repair day!! Had to be in West Bloomfield by 6:15AM - made it with 10 min to spare (5:15AM traffic was surprisingly dense on SB I-75, but, unlike the 7AM traffic, it was moving). Valdemort's doing GREAT, minimal discomfort, turns out to NOT have been torn meniscus, but something called "plica", which had gotten thick & inflexible due to scar tissue. But, she doesn't have plica in her right knee ANY MORE, and she expects to be marching by August. Look out SMB!!

15 May 2005:

Sunday. Sigh. The odd things one hears on NPR....

Are you an alien? Or know OF an alien?? Then, check out www.ieti.org.

What I want to know, is: where is "Car Talk" when I need to be amused???? Eh?

19 May 2005:

Yes, it *has* been a busy week, thenkyewveddymuch!!

It's a dawg's life:

• Sleep pack-style with Mom & Dad
• Get up early-early, go outside, chow some kibble, slobber water, go outside again, go to Valdemort's room when everyone leaves and pack-sleep with her for another couple hours....
• Ask nicely (yet, persistently), and get cookies for all 3 of The Guyz
• Pack-snooze all afternoon with Nook when she came home from school early feeling icky (nothing infectious, just major fatigue-and-overdone-track-meet syndrome)
• Excitedly greet everyone as they return home from their day's ventures
• Chow kibble, truffle-hunt for "goodies" that might be buried in the kibble (leaving *all sorts* of loose wild kibble on the floor), slobber water, in-and-out a few times, chow more kibble, ask again for cookies, slobber some more water, snuggle with various family members, then back upstairs for the nightly pack-sleep

21 May 2005:

Neighborhood garage sale (packed streets, alert dawgz barking at the swarms of garage scavengers....)...trip to Gramma's & Grampa's...nummy Gramma's-no-longer-a-Secret-Recipe-Potato-Cheese-Soup and black-bean-salsa bread...move *stuff*....unsuccessful wrestling match with an obstreperous chest of drawers (the furniture won)...load *stuff*....home...trip to Grondin's to shorten teenager hair (lo-o-o-o-o-ong wait)....unload some *stuff*....drop some *stuff* at new apartment....drop more *stuff* at storage unit....The Girlz got Quizno's for supper....Mom & Dad got spiffed up and had Kruse & Muer's for supper (early "Happy Anniversary")...dawgz got blockered....get recall notice about iBook & PowerBook batteries (none of us qualify, whew!)....dawgz now snuggly....Southern Barbeque on the TV (but, we JUST ate!)...

24 May 2005:

The main blogger is running out of steam and I don't have any to start with but something has to get yakked about. Today's CNN website has a picture of a snow leopard taken on Everest. First confirmed sighting since the 1960's...whoa!!! Big rain yesterday....BIG rain. Where's our roofer?

The MSU green blooded lump is in major lump mode with many lump owned piles around the house. We're about to kick the lump to see if it is alive or not. Actually it is three lumps. If one becomes a lump in our house, there are two smaller lumps that take advantage and it becomes a lump pile, or cluster, or whatever you choose to call it. Actually the green blooded lump has recovered from knee surgery really well, the only real complaint being itchy skin from the bandage adhesive. As Dr. Z at Ford Hospital said, "it's nice to be young".

The big move date for Joyce and Hu approaches. We came away Saturday with photo albums and a few heirloom type items. Yes Joyce, we peeked at the wedding dress but it was professionally packed and we didn't want to disturb the packing material.

Time to get the green blooded lump to mow the lawn and un-lumpify herself.

Jim

25 May 2005:

Today's BLOG: The Green Lump's Rebuttal:

Dear Large Brown Lump,

I resent being unfairly accused of needing de-lumpification. I have been cooking your dinners all week and cleaning your icky man-undies! And what's this about Green-Lump-owned shambling mounds? *looks around* I don't see any. The only ones around here are in my room where you don't have to see them!

Also, there's a Brindled Lump attaching itself to me, contently watching the Large Golden Lump stare at the wall, and the Teeny Golden Lump jump around ecstatically whilst eating.

Anyway, before the molecular bonds start setting (Lump Above, that's a fast chemical reaction!) and I start turning Green-Brindle, I had better go do some more laundry!

Love,
The Green Lump

P.S. No more hyperbole, Large Brown Lump!! It's unfair and reeks of propoganda!

28 May 2005:

Pick website of the month: Brass Band of Battle Creek. Unbelievably great and listenable brass band music on their Listening Post page!! Got QuickTime??

30 May 2005:

Memorial Day!!

Celebrated our weekend in the usual weekend manner. Feeble attempts at actual cleaning....a handful of laundry loads....lawn de-poopified & mowed....watched shingles & other roofing paraphernalia get conveyed to the roof....walked The Guyz around the block, Squirrel Park, and Genesys Health Park on various days....The Nern got to go on a couple of runs with Nook....got the Green Lump to put all her dorm-room *stuff* into a bin and got that moved to our storage unit....washed 3 out of 4 vehicles (yay! the Miata finally got its first bath of the year!!)....watched weather roll in, got the meteorological explanations about what's going on atmospherically (cool!), enjoyed the rain while it was here, enjoyed the sun the rest of the time!!

Nook has a job for the summer, sounds like an "on-call" job with Branching Out, landscaping business co-owned by Princess Bubbles' mom. She's already done 2 jobs with them this weekend, both in Troy, planting bazillions of begonias!! You GO, Girl!

Valdemort (aka The Green Lump) has applications in at various places around town, will hear from Kroger tomorrow if she gets that cashier job...

31 May 2005:

Roof is getting installed....word is that the back roof is in pretty good shape, just that the boards were not properly nailed down to start with (!)...new shingles look pretty nice - waiting to see the view from the front....Alfie "sqwincked" (Valdemort's word) this morning - eventually returned when he was good-n-ready (with a huge grin, I'm sure!! He REALLY likes taking off on a short-highspeed-random roundy-round)....Brown Lump & Green Lump called a truce (hee hee) long enough to agree upon Ya-Ya's for lunch today....Green Lump goes for a 2nd interview at Kroger on Friday....

And.....the cleanout of Valdemort's room has started (see below):