The Wrong Use of the Force

Watch your hands mister!

A Saying of Mine

What other people think of you is none of your business. If God wanted you to hear what was said behind your back, he'd have put ears on your ass.

A New Years Card :)

Tenative Plans

Contemplating New Years Eve plans. Narrowed it down to 1of 2 choices: a burlesque show & all night party here in Bay View, or church bingo until the witching hour. 

We are multi-faceted people. 

A: need sitters/sleepover invites for the kids. YaYa is also available as a sitter if you need one (though we usually like to introduce the kids to her and vice versa first). My mother-in-law was going to take 2 kids when we went out of town for the holiday, but $$ has scrapped that. Maybe she'll keep the offer open even while we're in town?

B: there is a family event @ the Domes that starts at 6 & has "New Years" at 9, but it's pricey for what you get, has no booze, & still leaves the actual midnight hour open. Plus we went once long long ago & weren't overjoyed. 

Any other suggestions?

Elysium

Just finished watching "Elysium" VERY good flick, and well worth the rental.

A Crime to Remember

Greatly enjoying the ID network's "A Crime to Remember", a well done and insightful series that follows crimes of the distant past. Within one of its darkest tales, the gruesome "Career Girls Murders" of 1963, a reminder that even the worst aspects of human life carry within it some purpose: the mistakes made during the investigation of that crime led NY to abolish the death penalty and the US Supreme Court to deliver its "Miranda Rights" decision.

A Great Evening

Had a great time at Jeanne's annual Christmas Chuck E Cheese party. With the kids growing older it was a much more mellow, less paranoid event for me LOL and I genuinely had a blast. It was fun to hold Lisa's baby nephew, and great to talk with her cousins. Jaspare was unusually talkative and friendly. A great time and a great gift to the kids - plus Smiley won the gingerbread house raffle!

A Follow-up to the (missing?) follow-up

Not sure what happened to it, but I don't see my follow-up on LuLu anymore. It was a sprained ankle and foot. She was fitted with a walking boot and crutches, but they saw no broken bones on the X-ray. :)

Exam Grades

Remember when I said my contract law final was one of, if not *the*, hardest exam of my academic life? Did you think I was exaggerating, or being unduly modest regarding my performance? Think again. The professor emailed the class the results, which account for 100% of your final grade in the course. Of the 80 questions on the exam, the best score (not mine) was 52 correct, or 65%; the worst was 23 correct, or 28.75%. I notched a 36, or 45%, and thanks to the curve created by this collective ass whupping I received a B on both the exam and the class. This, well, . . . . wow. Lisa dismissed the results of the class as evidence it was designed to scare and weed out the weak links of the incoming class, but either way . . . zoinks!

A Broken Foot??

We went sledding today at Pulaski Park and  LuLu may have broken her foot there while snowboarding. Lisa's at the hospital with her right now. I swear, these kids will do anything for attention ;)

Gordon Hinkley

A big RIP to Milwaukee broadcasting legend Gordon Hinkley, who passed away this week at age 88.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special

I'll fill you in on our Christmas later, but at the end of it, with everyone else asleep or on the way, YaYa and I sat down to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special, knowing it was Matt Smith's last turn at the wheel. Near the end YaYa was sobbing, saying she didn't want him "to go". I comforted her with a hug and told her I was proud to have raised a Whovian, but then, when Matt slipped off his bow tie and let it fall to the floor of the Tardis . . . man, I lost it too. We're sorry to see you go Matt. You wore the mantle with honor.

Mike Hegan

RIP former Brewer and announcer, Mike Hegan, who also had lent name on a batting cage facility here in Milwaukee. 

Christmas Eve at My Parents

Sorry for the poor quality pics

Kermit, Chillin' in our Fishtank

Impressive Credentials

One last post, cuz otherwise I'll never remember, and now the info will float forever on the web: Lisa is on the phone with her Dad discussing boxing and he just mentioned fighting Arthur Redden (a '68 Olympian and Pan-American Games Gold medalist) and Sugar Bear Williams.

Having Fun

Having fun at the fam Christmas party!! :D - YaYa

Not a Good Start

Not the best start to Christmas Eve. A bumpy nights sleep, only to wake up to SEVEN kids (Entourage dropped her kids off here yesterday) in a variety of moods, not all of them good. The traditional Christmas Day movie was bumped back to today after we received an invite, which is great, but now I've jettisoned that too: too many grumpy kids, too much cleaning left to do. Plus I'm annoyed that YaYa can't find her camera. Ah well, we'll pull it together. Plenty of time to turn things around.

:)

 Having fun at the fam Christmas party!! 

  - YaYa

Found It!

A Christmas miracle! Out of the blue I found LuLu's long lost Junior vest - missing half a year - folded up neat as can be right where we've looked a dozen times. Lisa credits the big J.C. with the victory on this one, but I object: if he wanted it found, he'd have led us to it months ago. All credit for this one, IMHO, to one Dan Slapinions, aka Tammy Faye Sugarbaker, aka Wonderman, aka Boone Doggie.

Adorable

 Lulu pullin Isaiah around on the sled.. Lol

Playing in the Snow at Ravina

 

Our Snowman

LuLu won!

LuLu is THRILLED with a Monkey-go-Happy she won in a worldwide contest on pencilkids.com! It came all the way from New Zealand! To win it she had to correctly id the foreign city shown in a video, which i identified as Cracow in the first ever use of my eastern European history degree! Lol good for her!

Whew

Lisa and Lulu are making 90 Christmas brownies for school tomorrow (for 3 classrooms), each in their own little Christmas bag . . presents for the teachers are wrapped and delivered . . . presents for the kid's friends awaiting delivery . . .Junie has gift bags with candy canes, taffy, pencils, erasers, and sixlets ready . . and I'm cooking 3# of kielbasa for the kids to bring in too. Christmas is near!

The 2013 Holiday Program

Departing for the 2013 school Holiday program 12-17; I missed it due to a final exam.

Harsh but True

Non PC - aka "Correct" - opinion of the day: another teen, this one from WI, allegedly killed themselves because they were picked on in school, and oh the mighty cries to stamp out bullying and intimidation.

Well, yes. There's no place for that in the adult world, so why tolerate it in schools? 

But when people start taking their own lives because they were bullied on the playground, it's time to focus a wee bit on coping skills, proportionate emotional responses and perspective, and yeah, a little bit of "toughen the F up".

Anchorman 2

Home again, after seeing "Anchorman 2" with Lisa, courtesy of $5 Tuesday's at your local Marcus Theatres - with popcorn included in the price. LOL'd a ton, picked up a few new catchphrases, and followed it up by going out for decrepit, moderately burnt coffee at the airport Denny's. 

We finished the date with a flourish:, by stopping at the grocery store for kielbasa that YaYa told us  she needed *at 9 PM*  for a cultural fair at school tomorrow. LOL

Contract Law Final

I'm back from my Contract Law final, and officially done with my first semester of law school. The test itself was a b--ch, right up there with the toughest of exams I've ever taken (for a course where ambiguity is bad and vagueness is a killer, there sure were a lot of vague and ambiguous questions). I still finished after two of the allotted three hours, and I'm reasonably certain I didn't fail. I've taken the night off from work and - if I can get Lisa to agree - strongly desire to party all night, Old School style.

update: He did not, in fact, party all night. Old School. Or New School. 

A Little Light Reading

My contract law flash cards

Joan Fontaine

Some news this morning that made me literally gasp with shock, which makes no sense, as the woman was 96 years old: the GORGEOUS and talented Joan Fontaine has passed away. Since the late 80's, when I was a devoted watcher of the AMC (back when it was an actual classic *movie* station), I have been a fan of her work, and, to be honest, her hotness. Along with Brittany Murphy, she is now enshrined forever in the Dan Slapczynski Eternal List of Five. RIP

 @ Landmark Family Restaurant 

As Seen at Marquette's Bookstore - Ron Burgundy

RIP Quasi

Quasi, our deformed pleco, died overnight. He's been sick for over a week. Not 'ich' sick, but "lets move from the old folks home to the hospice" sick. RIP sir, and may you swim straight forever in whatever pseudo-heaven your soulless self has gone to in the sky.

Don't Forget!

Don't forget, tonight is the Psych Musical on USA!

Why are you online?? The Psych musical is about to start on the USA Network! Whoot-whoot!

Peter O'Toole

Actor Peter O'Toole has died at age 81. RIP

Sounds Right

Audrey Totter

Audrey Totter, a Hollywood femme fatale I just watched in "The Set-Up" last week,has passed away at age 95. RIP beautiful.

Snow

I just finished shoveling, with some "help" from Junie. It's a bit too many square feet of snow to clear for a fat guy with a shovel, but I persist, firm in the hope that someday one of my progeny will amount to something and lend me a hand.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Jolenne K on graduating from college today!

China has landed an unmanned probe on the moon. I . . . am not pleased.

Hot Dog!

To my great shock, it appears that I learned something in Criminal Law and the final went well!  I think that, barring the professor being on the take, I aced 32 of the 45 problems, bombed one, and listed 12 under "maybe" - but I'd go to Potawatomi on the odds of those "maybe's" being largely "correct" answers. This portion of the exam is only 1/3rd of the Final - the other 2/3rd's coming from two 2000 word take home essays I had to hand in to receive today's exam - so the possibility still exists that I stunk it up. But if I did, I stunk it up less than I feared four hours ago.

YaYa helps out Junie on the computer - and a toy right out of my youth!

I remember toys like this from when I was little!