My Gals

Here's two pictures of the girls as they appeared for the Christmas concert at their school. Maybe I mentioned it before, but I saw the rehearsal, whereas Lis attended the concert itself.

Lis, if you remember what songs they each sang, please leave the info in the comments section (I know Lu did the Russian dance).

You might notice the flood of entries this evening; I have forgone my big screen TV and BCS title game (gasp!) to give Lisa a little time of her own in front of the TV. Don't worry - I'll have her make it up to me :)

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A silly little memory

Here's two blurry pics (taken in the ever-useless 'night' mode of my Kodak) and one computer lightened photo. All of them are mementos of a very neat day I spent with the kids in the week before Christmas.

You see, I never thought of taking down the trampoline for the winter. Then YaYa mentioned to me that the trampoline canvas was sinking and about to touch the ground.

Three feet of snow will do that.

So we piled out there and spent a good hour clearing it off, with the girls taking deep pride in removing blocks of ice, the bigger the better their boast.

A silly little memory, but I enjoyed it.

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A brief Word

Greetings folks - hope your 2008 is proceeding as planned.

Here at the Slapinions household we're nearly done with the two and a half-week cold/flu - I only lose one meal in ten now! - and all the kids save the baby are over it ..

[But as I wrote the above paragraph this past morning YaYa came up to me and announced she was going upstairs for a nap - She For Whom Naps Must Be Force Fed Down Her Throat - because she felt ill] 

Still, it seems like the flu/cold caused the ruin of many of our Christmas traditions. We've missed Candy Cane Lane, and due to my in-law's fragile immune systems we've yet to see my father-in-law's side of the family (and on Christmas proper we were forced to cancel all engagements).

We've still got presents to hand out (yo, Tre! it's past the epiphany already!) but it feels like much of Christmas bypassed us in 2007.

Oh bleeping well. It was still a pretty good holiday.

* * *

As usual there is much to catch up on here on the site - the Chuck E Cheese party for one, and all that summer schtuff, but that will have to wait for later/ever?

I've promised Lisa I'll do some old-school 600 word columns on what she calls one of the "The Four Statements Guaranteed to Make My Friends Hate You and Change Their View of You Forever". [paraphrased, but close to verbatim]

No, I'm not a Nazi and I don't believe in UFO's. Rest easy ladies, rest easy.

One of the four statements is politicalin nature (actually, I think two are) so I reckon I'll work on one involving my choices for the 2008 primaries.

Meanwhile, I should get some sleep. That ole one-meal-lost-in-ten has kept me up past my bedtime tonight :)

BTW - anyone else notice the political spam slapped onto the comments of the kids NY Eve post? WTF is that?

New Years Eve 2007 Lisa and the kids

While I was at work Lisa held a New Years Eve celebration for the kids, with the 'New Year' falling at 9 pm.

[excuse the red eye folks]

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Smiley's Ears - Update

One bad thing about running a blog for three years is that you're never quite sure what you've mentioned in print and what you haven't, because you're ALWAYS composing posts in your head.

On the 5th of December Smiley had tubes put in his ears. You may fill in the blanks with any cliche you like - what a brave boy, etc - because they all ring true. Frankly, I'm not even sure he realized anything happened. As far as he knows he got to mess around with a stethoscope, fell asleep, and woke up to watch Elmo. Period.

[At a slightly older age YaYa had a minor procedure. She didn't enjoy the 'drunkenness' of the anesthesia and asked the doc "Why you have three heads?" then vomited on the way home. Smiley enjoyed the heck out of the intoxicant and had no ill-effects from the drugs]

Since then its been a parade of hearing tests. There's no magic bullet and he hasn't blossomed into a Kennedy-esque speaker, or even mastered more than one additional word [blue = 'bool"].

At the last appointment on Thursday they gave his right ear a clean bill of health but noted problems with the left. They want the doc to look at it again and have us signing him up for speech, hearing, and development assessments. That's crap - the boy can't speak, but he's a thousand ways from dumb or mentally slow. If only politicians were granted half his brains and all of his speech.

Today we noticed a thick, milkish fluid pooled in his left ear - think the android blood from Alien - which was both alarming and disgusting. There's another medical appointment this week, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

BigFoot

Here's some shots of Smiley gamely trying to fill his Daddy's size 13 steel toes. Someday buddy, someday.

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NFL WildCard Weekend

I watched both games yesterday. I'm a Seattle fan so that was a pretty easy game to pick sides. Washington was over-rated, and that whole Sean Taylor thing . . a tragedy yes, but it wasn't like losing Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, or for that matter even Thurman Munson. How long can you stretch out a family's pain for your own PR?

I'm glad the Seahawks won, and sad that I now have to root for them to lose - they'll face Green Bay next week.

The AFC game rocked. I didn't have a clear favorite going in but Jacksonville certainly won me over. The 4th and 2 turned 30 yard run - priceless. I thought they played it a little too safe at the end, but they pulled it out. Good for them, and for their quarterback.

Now today's games . . I say the Giants over TB, SD over Tennessee. We'll see.

UPDATE: I was right about both, but the games were abysmally boring.

RIP Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus

For those of you outside Wisconsin, the Badger State lost one of its best this week. Former Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus (R), passed away of respitory failure. He was 81.

Dreyfus was in office from 1979-1983, a one term governor who walked away from an almost certain re-election. He was a latecomer to the Republican party and politics in general, joining the party only after a mid-'70's trip to China convinced him a one-party system was abhorrent.

Wisconsin, at the time, was a Democratic stronghold bordering on absolute dominance. So Dreyfus joined the GOP.

"My mother always taught me it was polite to join a party before you take it over," he said.

He ran without special interest money or much advertising, but ran into luck when Pope John Paul II took office. Dreyfus, the former Chancellor of what would become UW - Stevens Point, had once met the new Pope when he toured the state as a Cardinal. 

In Wisconsin, the  news footage of the new Pope featured  Dreyfus alongside the Pontiff in many shots, burning the association into the minds of good Catholics across the state  - and nevermind that Dreyfus was Episcopalian.

Dreyfus, with his trademark red vests, was also quick with the one-liner. Madison, he said, "is 30 square miles surrounded by reality"

He found the concept of a budget surplus an 'immorality' because he believed it meant citizens were either being over-taxed, slighted on services, or both. He would leave a defecit behind for his successor.

A national economic downturn curtailed any grand plans for the administration, but he remained a popular figure that would go on to lead Sentry insurance.

Dreyfus is the first Governor I remember, primarily from his photo on the back of maps as a kid, and he's the first one I ever saw in person. It was nothing more than a passing glimpse. I think I was with my paternal Grandparent's and as we were leaving a restaurant he was walking in, or vice versa. He could tell I recognized him, smiled, and nodded. Maybe he even said hello. Maybe not.

Nothing more than that, but it was enough for me to remember him fondly.

He'll be missed.

 

The Inaugural 2008 SleepOver

One of YaYa's friends was in need of a babysitter for Friday and somehow it morphed into a large sleepover. Representing YaYa: Anna, AnnaBelle, Sophia. For LuLu: Amelia.

Friday afternoon Lisa took them sledding at South Shore while I watched Smiley and the baby.

Her's Sophia's Mom:

I believe YaYa is in the pink.

Later that night we watched Meet the Robinson's (an impressive Disney flick - Keep Moving Forward!) then bunked down for the night. There were some issues with kids afraid of the dark, but all in all it went smooth.

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In the morning, waffles

Once some of the kids left we packed up the rest and went to Home Depot for the monthly kids craft project. This month was a hit - a princess castle bank - and so the line was super long (in fact, a verbal argument with open threats of physical violence erupted when someone tried to skip in line)

At any rate it was too long of a wait so I asked someone at the store to sneak some of the projects out to me. Later, when the rest of the kids went home and Lisa was at work (and after I made a great dinner of steak and potatoes that the kids ignored) I helped them put the projects together.

[note both Smiley's physique and the 40 Christmas cards we received, after sending out 55 (and having several returned for wrong addresses). Not a bad return on our investment.]

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Quote of the Day (Language Advisory)

True story:

I'm at work late on New Years Eve and some kids come up to get change. But I'm already dealing with a young couple in their early '20's. The male half of this couple comes up a little short and asks his girlfriend to front him the money.

"You'll have to work at paying me back," she says.

He scoffs. "You can have a taste of my balls. That'll be enough of a payback," he says.

She laughs.

""No, really; a taste of Balls is more than enough," he said.

At this point I'm a little p*ssed. "You want to watch your language around the kids?" I say.

They look incredulous.

"Balls is a drink," the guy says, and shows me a bottle. The woman bursts out laughing.

I'm still not sure if I was conned or not, but they sure seemed on the up and up.

* * * *

Again - thank God I no longer work nights in this business. Without going into detail (and I never have re: work) I mediated a physical argument between two groups. One accused the other of getting a child drunk; the other claimed the accusers were armed and going to retaliate.

All this and that before-mentioned headache too . .

100 minutes to go. . . and then all I have to worry about is driving home with all the drunks on the road.

Sigh. I shoulda been born rich.