The Grasshopper Picnic 2014

With Lisa working State Fair, I had our annual picnic at Whitnall Park, with its traditional search for golf balls in the tall grass of a blocks-long field. This years tally was low - a mere 8, not including one badly damaged by a mower - but I did catch and release some grasshoppers, saw and failed to capture a snake, and had a beautiful red dragonfly land on my belly! 

In addition, Smiley saw that Junie was upset that she hadn't found any balls, so he told me he would hide one in the grass and let her find it. I vetoed that (she found one on her own anyway) but told Junie about his plan, and the love in her eyes for her brother was something to see. 

Good kids, these, if you conveniently overlook the tantrums and the drain on my wallet ;)

A Beach Visit

This morning with the youngest three . . .

Yesterday with Yaya

Yesterday with YaYa . . .

Not a Grand Day

Yesterday when I picked up the kids from UWM I walked with them down Lake Drive for a mile or so, enjoying the beautiful weather. We stopped our hike at Northpoint Custard, where we met up with Lisa, and I treated the family to ice cream. 

In return, Lu mocked Junie, Smiley somehow managed to get as much ice cream on his face as in his mouth, Junie got upset over OJ's taunts, and YaYa went on and on about how she'd prefer chicken wings, because, you know, it was National Chicken Wing Day. I was so annoyed I left the table. 

When the kids and Lisa joined me at the car Yaya stepped on a bee and was stung in her bare foot. (her first ever sting). Hey, I know it makes me sound like an awful Dad - but I gotta believe there was some Old Testament smiting at work. Thanks Big Guy!

Good Job Lu

This morning Lu's plans to go to WI Dells with a friend fell through at the last moment - at 8:40 a.m, just as #TeamSlap was leaving for a 9 o'clock drop off at College for Kids. With literally no complaint she changed her clothes, grabbed a lunch Smiley made for her, and headed out the door to attend class. Kudos to her on handling the situation with maturity and calm. xxooo LuLu xxoo

Dying Order

I'm stealing the phrase "dying order" - which means getting things cleaned or organized enough so that you wouldn't be embarrassed if you dropped dead this moment and strangers walked in - from longtime AOL friend Jan Agar Combs

Bee Sting

Had my first bee sting - ever - today. Admittedly, I cried like a baby. Yaya

Lunchtime!

PD and LK eating lunch today at UWM (College for Kids)

The Grand Avenue Mall

Lunch at Grand Avenue Mall with Lisa

All Cheerleaders Die

We just finished watching "All Cheerleaders Die", a horror film that was pretty darn good. And yes, that was surprising. Bring on the sequel!

They Don't Like this Pizza

I bought a thin crust Spicy Fennel Sausage, Mushroom and Red Pepper pizza for the kids tonight from Papa Murphy's .. . . and they hate it. *I* happen to think it may be the best pizza ever, but I'm now in danger of being the victim of a coup . . .

My kids prefer supreme pizzas loaded with all of the above (well, not fennel, although I use it in my zupa toscana). . I thought they'd adore it. What I think threw them off was the white sauce.

At Gastrau's Golf Center with Lisa

Trivia Time

Where am I?

answer: a stairwell in St. Luke's parking garage. 

A Solemn Anniversary

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, which, all hyperbole aside, completely molded the 20th century into the bloody, conflict ridden mess it was.  RIP to all who perished during its four years.

Divergent

Just finished watching "Divergent" with the middle two. Not bad. I think Hunger Games was better, and D romanticizes violence much more than HG, which I find repugnant, but overall, a decent flick. I liked it better than the book.

Grouchy

I'm having a pretty crap*py day - if I was going to give details, you'd have read them by now - and to burn off some steam I hit the pavement and walked over to Socialist's house. From there we walked over to Goodwill to scope out some golf clubs for a starter set. I picked up a driver and a great golf bag, the latter being only $4.99. As this is my life we're talking about, the cashier initially refused to sell it to me, saying it was mistakenly marked and should have been either $14.99-$24.99. OFW lady, y'all wrote the tag, not me.. A nice driver and a great bag for just over $9 - a much better way to BLAAH than by shoving food down my throat.

Watching the Ali-Chuvalo fight from '66. It's a great, grueling slugfest.

My Day

Two things, the first a little TMI: With a family history of skin cancer, I went to the dermatologist today about a nasty mole I was worried about. It turned out to be ok, but the Dr noticed and removed two others she thought were actually worthy of concern. I'm sure it's nothing and the procedure was easy. The worst part was when she said she felt the need to do a full body lookover and ordered me to strip. "Ugh," I said, as she poked around my belly. "This would be a lot less embarrassing if you were older or uglier", which inspired a good laugh from her and a blush from moi.

Second, I walked there and back (about 3.5 miles total) and took in the sights and sounds of Bay View along the way. I really love this place - it's the best part of southeastern Wisconsin, without a doubt. I was so damn proud of my hippy-dippy yuppie paradise that by the time I was at the Doc filling out my medical forms I filled in my city as "Bay View, Wisconsin". LOL

Watching the Season 13 premiere of Project Runway. I'm digging Carrie Sleutskaya, but that might just be the beautiful face and the hot blue hair. #ProjectRunway

All Is Lost

For the record, Robert Redford's "All is Lost" is a stunning, beautiful film that is a fitting finale to his acting career (if that's what it is; he is, after all, 77).

Quote

Lana Del Rey: "I have slept with a lot of guys in the industry, but none of them helped me get my record deals. Which is annoying."

"No One Has the Right to Judge"

This isn't about anyone who reads Slapinions, so fear not, you're in the clear :)

When I hear someone say, "I don't want to be judged" or "No one has the right to judge me", my mind automatically translates it - correctly - to sound like "I've done some f'ed up sh*t that falls below the minimum standards of acceptable behavior held by both society and my conscience and yeah, I know I'm wrong. But emotionally I can't handle hearing someone else say that, or admitting it out loud, so I'm going to go on the defensive and pretend that every individual exists in perfect isolation and thus is not subject to any moral or ethical standard other than what they retroactively concoct to appease their guilt". 

Or something like that LOL

Oops

Hmm. According to my phone I have pocket dialed half of Wisconsin in the last ten minutes. Humblest apologies folks.

Quotes

“Discipline, doing what you hate to do but do it like you love it.”- Mike Tyson

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion'." -Muhammad Ali

The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do - stolen from a meme on FB

LOL

A girl at school asked Smiley for his number today. 

"Some of the ladies like you, eh boy?" I said with pride.

"Some?", he replied. "ALL".

School Supply Shopping

School supply shopping . . . .

We get the list with the last report card, lol. But I'm actually grateful for it. Wasn't too bad this year, about $225 for 4 kids, I can't complain too much. Dan combined the 4 lists excel spreadsheet style to help me....and I was sooooo grateful!

Now for the $440 dollars in after school club/art/field trip fees the first week of school....that's more challenging, lol.

and that bag of okedokey? Yeah, that was my required "after school shopping" supply! :)

We enjoy shopping at Kmart and value their lawaway program

All done, and went back 6 days after to get it re-adjusted and got another 40 bucks off!! Whoo hoo! Those adjustments sure are worth the trip.  

Admittedly could have saved more if I did what Angela does, but I'm not the type to go to different stores for this/that. I like to get it done in one swoop, and early....so the stuff I need isn't sold out. (Damn triangle crayons, or fat pencils...my back-to-school nemesis for a few years there!)

Right before I walked with Smiley down to Classic Slice to split a $5 lunch, I watched the Jerry Quarry - Mac Foster bout from the summer of 1970. Contrary to every other fight of his I've watched, Quarry avoided getting cut and TKO'd Foster in the 6th.

Scrabble

According to the statistics on the Scrabble app on my Nook, I have played 421 games, with a record of 263-154-4; that's a 62% winning percentage. In my best game I scored 406 points, I have notched eight bingo's, and my best scoring word of all time was FROLICS for 82 points. All but about two dozen games were at "normal level", with the rest at "hard".

LOL

This week the girls are at day camp while Smiley is stuck home.

Each morning Lisa will drive the girls to their bus stop while I walk him to school. Anywho,as Park and I were crossing a busy intersection Lisa and the girls rolled up in the van and honked their horn. 

"Heyyy good looking," Lisa yelled out the window. "Can I have your number, sexy? 

"It's 9-1-1 you CREEP!" I yelled across the intersection in my best totally-upset-girl voice. 

Smiley didn't stop grinning for a block and a half.

Under the Skin

We just finished watching "Under the Skin", a film that stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien seductress who lures men to their death by exploiting their desire for her body. It is the epitome of an artsy  "Oriental" movie, and from what I can tell from Bing critics adore it. Myself? It only tolerably kept my attention, was flush with Kurbrik-esque homages that had me reliving "2001", had dialogue so heavily Scottish it may as well have been filmed in the Ukraine, and was so overtly artsy it was almost a parody of film. Eh, what do I know. On the upside Johansson is naked or topless for many parts of the movie, so, you know, cool.

One Direction

One Direction is playing on the TV right now. They've really accumulated a nice catalog of hits, including some that far surpass your average boy band fare - and I like boy bands.  Someone I respect actually compared them to a modern day Beatles (and no, it wasn't a kid or a teenager). I don't know about that, but all props to them. I wouldn't mind seeing them in concert with the girls (never gonna happen; YaYa is a Taylor Swift fan, which is the Yankees to OD's Red Sox)

An Interesting Walk

Walking with my Godson

Smiley, Junie and I seem to attract crazies when we're together on Sunday's (remember the fireworks brawl last week?). On our walk today with my Godson we stopped at a Family Dollar near his house, where I bought them all a juice. The cashier seemed distracted.

"I'm sorry, that guy out there has stolen from here before. I just need to write down his license plate." she said.

I looked out the door. "The guy in the Altima?" I asked. 

"Yeah, he steals every time he walks in. He's robbing us blind."

Well there happened to be a blonde behind us in line. When we were done with our purchase I stood outside opening the drinks for the kids as she walked out . . .and got in the Altima. Oopsie. The cashier had said all that within earshot of the guy's girlfriend. Cue the guy going loco and charging into the store. 

Cue also my deep sigh. "Smileyr, if I give the word walk TJ and Lauren to Uncle Tre's house, ok?"

"Why?"

"Just do it if I say. I gotta make sure this guy doesn't do something stupid."

There's not a whole lot more to the story. He screamed and swore at the cashier, she said she was calling the cops, another customer and I made sure the guy knew he was outnumbered, the girlfriend beeped her horn, and he ran back to his car and drove away.

The kids were wholly oblivious, except for Junie who commented on the crazy way the man squealed his tires as he left the lot. I finished opening the drinks and we walked home together. 

The end.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 20th Birthday Jonah!

Today is also, as I pointed out last night at work, the 45th anniversary of the moon landing. I did err tho' in saying Chappaquiddick happened the same day - it was actually the 18th of that month. My bad.

James Garner

Aw man. RIP James Garner, age 86

Argh

When Parker was at camp I surprised him by cleaning his room, so with Lu gone since Sunday (Saturday, if you believe my Mom) I decided to do the same. I cleaned a bunch of it yesterday, then just went upstairs to finish the job. Except, of course, that the room is now thrashed. I'll skip the dialogue excerpts, but let's just say I wasn't happy. No one admits to it, and Junie even blamed LuLu- never mind that she's up in Door County. $%#%@#

Yup

It's All Relative

Enjoying the new reality show "Leah Remini: It's All Relative". It's a hoot. #leahtlc

Quake

This morning, at around 6:51 AM my time, I had the unusual experience of being on the phone with Fred Bryan when an earthquake hit his hometown of Yakutat, Alaska. Cocky as he is, he calmly stated it felt like a "5.0". Sadly, he is no seismograph; the web says it was a 6.0.

JFK Jr.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of JFK, Jr. He was such an iconic figure during my early lifetime. I remember watching coverage of the search for him while living at our apartment on 23rd street, and knowing in my heart that tragedy had befallen the Kennedy's yet again. 

Banshee Chapter

Watching a scary movie with dad 😱🎬  Banshee Chapter - YaYa

The Snowtown Murders

This morning we watched "The Snowtown Murders", a movie based on the story of Australia's "worst" serial killer and how he groomed and corrupted an abused young man to be his protege. It was . . . well, it was depressing and frightening and sad and graphic. There is child abuse, sibling rape, torture, animal abuse, and a prolonged murder scene. Describing it makes it sound like a snuff film, and it assuredly was not, with most of the above - but sadly, not all - occurring off camera. It's a well made, serious film that's what I call an "Oriental" meaning it would play at an independent show house like the Oriental or Downer. If you can handle it I strongly recommend streaming it on Netflix. Just don't expect to smile for the rest of the day.

I hope so

AT&T

While their product is great, I can't continue with AT&T for my TV and Internet.

I'm on a plan that's supposed to be "X" a month, and yet, EVERY month it's a different amount. This month's tally is literally double what it should be. I'm going to call, they're going to claim the difference is because of taxes, fees, the end of a promotional period (it's not), or an increase in the price of strawberries in Kansas. , I'm going to argue, they'll knock something off the top, and we call a truce for a month. Or so it would normally go. But this month we are super tight, and even if we weren't enough is enough. 

What's worse, AT&T just bought out my cell phone provider, which explains why their normally exemplary customer service went down the tubes last month. Ugh.

That's a Pretty Big Difference

"The difference between us is that we're using missile defense to protect our civilians and they're using their civilians to protect their missiles," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Big Blue

15 years ago today, Big Blue collapsed at Miller Park, killing three workers.

I remember my friend Tre calling me with the news, and turning on the TV to watch coverage of the tragedy in the living room of our apartment on 23rd St. 

Frolics Fireworks

The family bugged me to go to fireworks but then gave up the fight, heading off to bed while actively expressing their dislike in who Lisa chose to be their father. Usually that doesn't bother me, but this time I said WTH and rousted them out of bed to go the South Shore Frolics. (Lisa and YaYa chose to stay home, even though Yaya had been the biggest proponent) . No parking whatsoever, so Junie, Smiley and I had to walk from a spot on Indiana and Fernwood to our eventual seats a block east of Texas and Superior (Mapquest it). It was a great view and the fireworks were swell, and I couldn't have had better company. :)

Here's the adult version of the before-mentioned evening: All of the preceding was true. But in addition, the kids got an extra special treat. A group of young males, eager to disprove cultural notions about the role they play in society, decided to start screaming and swearing and hollering the N word, over some slight, be it real or imagined. Before too long they were brawling in the street, both with members of their party and some locals who had told them to knock it off. Two pairs of guys were swinging at each other, and another pair were rolling around on the ground like it was a "stop drop and roll" exercise." As we were sitting at the end of a dead end street about 150 ft from this fracas (actually, Lauren was sitting on my shoulders) I was a bit concerned. Then - and I mean this literally - I saw how cartoonishly inept they were at inflicting damage on one another, gauged my chances of success as "high" if it came to it, and told the kids to ignore it and watch the fireworks. Two squads came to break it up by by then they'd moved on .F'ing ridiculous.

Faux Child Free

Lulu is now away at Girl Scout camp, set to explore Door County for the next five days, Yaya is at a friends house in our old stomping grounds near 31st and Mitchell, LK is still at Grandma's, and Smiley. . . Smiely has spent the entire day glued to his tablet in his room. This is about as close to "childless" as it gets for #TeamSlap

Soccer and Boxing

Wow, the World Cup Finals in on the air, and at the half the score is . . . . 0-0. [crickets chirp]. What a tremendously exciting sport.

Update: 

Rather than waste precious hours of my life watching a World Cup match that is 0-0 *at the completion of regular time* I fired up last nights Canelo-Lara bout. I scored it even up 114-114, with one round that really could have gone either way. The judges scored it 115-113 (one for Canelo, one for Lara), but the deciding score was a ridiculous 117-111 in Canelo's favor. That judge, IMHO, is on crack.

Disappointed a planned bowling outing with Da Boyzzz was cancelled, especially since Mike Ste-- had extended the invitation to Smiley . . . maybe next time.

Walked with YaYa from guitar class to the library then home, a nice brisk pace. Then watched Jerry Quarry v Ken Norton ('75) and now Joe Louis v Cesar Brion ('50) update: then Bob Foster v Mike Quarry ('72)

The South Shore Frolics Parade

The South Shore Frolics parade in Bay View Milwaukee this morning (Pd and I didn't attend)

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