My Dad and I travel to Chicago to see a White Sox game

On a rainy Chicago day in 2003 - back when I still had all my hair - my Dad and I drove down from Milwaukee to catch a Yankees game at U.S. Cellular field. 

Gold Star

Gold star 🌟 goes to Dan  for making rice crispy treats for the back-to-school bake sale (with proceeds going to LuLu 's DC trip). I was planning on doing it, but he had them completed and individually wrapped by the time I woke up. Wow... Thanks babe! - Lisa

The Last Day of Our Summer

Tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation for the kids. I am not sad they are returning, but I am not ecstatic either. I like them around.

An Update

The scale was kind to me today, and I'm happy, but I've had to kibosh any real exercise for the last 48 because the hip keeps flaring up - oddly enough, not from the workouts, but from having to stand in one place at the post office for a third of an hour. That's death for the hip. Expect a nauseating gym post tomorrow.

The Binding by Nicholas Wolff

I liked The Binding, a new horror novel by Nicholas Wolff (said to be a pseudonym for a best selling author), right up until the last few pages, when in my opinion it stuck the reader with a cliched ending right out of a horror film. 

That aside, I still recommend it. But . . . 

This gaffe at the start of chapter fifty-six really knocked me out of the book for a good long while. He describes a college basketball, tied at 88 all  (that, despite it being a "tepid" game, would be a stellar score for an NCAA contest). Then, in the very next sentence, he talks about the quarterback launching a long pass. 

Look, either the author is COMPLETELY, silly-sitcom ignorant about sports, which I fear might be the case, or he started the chapter, put it down for a good long time, then forged ahead based on a false recollection of what he'd already written. 

Either way, where were the editors?

That's an inexcusable gaffe in a mainstream novel. 

Kaepernick is a bum, but a bum with rights

Colin Kaepernick has a right to protest as he wishes. The fact that he makes millions, simply by virtue of being born in a country that values his skills, doesn't negate his ability to argue on behalf of those making far less money, whether you think his cause is just or not.  

Likewise, the fact that TimTebow was mocked and minimized for his utterly sincere belief in Christ does not, in return, grant you the power to shun Kaepernick out of spite. 

But before you think I went all lefty-loosey, think again.

He did not protest in the past, when his money was being negotiated and deals made, and when he was riding an over-hyped path to stardom. No siree, not then. Not when he supposedly experienced police impropriety in college, not when Trayvon Martin was killed, not when Ferguson erupted, not when Chicago and Baltimore turned into a killing field for blacks No, not then. 

Now, when he's a bench player that can't get a starting gig, NOW he deems it important enough to make his point, and coincidentally make things mighty uncomfortable for the organization benching him.

I call B.S. 

He's a piece of petulant, hypocritical sh*t, but even pieces of s*it have their rights. 

Of course, the 1st amendment applies ONLY to the gov't acting upon your speech. An employer can do as they wish regarding the speech and actions of an employee, and I think the NFL is eager, if possibly unwilling, to grant him a permanent spot on the bench and out of the spotlight.

My fantasy football draft results

Here are the results of my 2016-17 fantasy football draft for the Sad Sack Slapjacks (the pic leaves off Carolina's D). Last year I finished third in our highly competitive league. Your thoughts?

GusGus and the Fishtank

 This is GusGus, heir to Billy, who in turn was heir to Lucky. Behind him is our 40 gallon fish tank. 

Whenever you press the button atop the tank to turn on the light, and/or open the curio cabinet to retrieve the fish food, this is what will happen:

GusGus will come running, from wherever he may be, and jump atop the table next to the fishtank. 

You must - and I stress MUST - shake a bit of the fish food into the cap of the bottle and hold it out for his dining pleasure. He will respond only for fish food, no mere "cat treat."

Once he has partaken, you are then allowed to feed the fish. He will then stare at the fish from his perch at he table, taunting them and forcing them to live every moment of their waking life with a predator a breath away from them. 

He's a charmer. LOL

The Gym

I went to the gym with Smiley this afternoon. We both did a nice circuit on the weight machines then fifteen minutes on the treadmill. He did great.

Chicken Soup

I do not know what compelled my mother-in law to make homemade chicken soup on a hot August day, or why she chooses to keep her A/C three degrees warmer than room temperature (!) But danged if that woman doesn't make a mean mean soup. The pot lasted all of ten minutes once it got home to our house. :)

THIS

Odd

Ripper Street

Ripper Street is affecting my speech. "It is a difficult task, to be sure. But I would ask it of you all the same," I said to YaYa. 

She called me on it and laughed. "Stop talking like a Victorian. I like our language. Bae, hoe, thot . . ."

Pool Party!

Junie and Smiley attended a pool party, complete with DJ, bounce house, and fire truck, at their Grandma's apartment complex. (Smiley refused to consent to photos)

16

Junie's Flowers

I bought Junie flowers this morning and she made them into this (her first ever) arrangement!

Sandee: 
Beautiful! It's so nice you buy your daughter flowers. It will be a wonderful memory for her one day, that her daddy bought her flowers!

Tax Money at Work

Just absolutely ridiculous.  What an overreaction and an insidious abuse of administrative power. 

Snooze at the Zoo

Earlier this month our friend JJ took LuLu and Junie to Snooze at the Zoo, an overnight campout at the Milwaukee County Zoo. 

They had a good time, despite the heat, and all hands reported rave reviews of the dinner spread LOL

A teen? Yeah. I can believe it.

Learn This

Having just left a post where the Crusades are being wrongfully touted as an act of Christian aggression, may I kindly remind you of *actual* history: 

Preferences

My two week summer vacation (from school, not work) ended today. Bitterness envelops me. However, it was neat seeing all the 1L's dressed to impress in their Sunday best while everyone else slouched around in their jeans and shorts. A few 1L's stopped me for directions and advice on how to use the printer, so I guess I now look like a veteran.

Mars Cheese Castle

In late 2011 Team Slap ventured near the Illinois border to visit Mars Cheese Castle, a retail store that's a local landmark in southeastern Wisconsin. 

A Plank Competition

We're having a plank competition in the living room. Right now it's YaYa vs LuLu on elbow planks, but Lisa  and I have taken turns on straight arm and the elbow version.

I Found a Toad

This fella was waiting for me when I got to work.

Pet Peeve

Is "over-exaggerated" an actual word/phrase? Isn't exaggeration, uh, exaggerated to begin with? At that point isn't it easier to just say "I lied?". It takes fewer syllables.

Great 43 minute workout that left me sweat soaked and my hip aching. I was very happy to see Olivia Slap run on the treadmill the whole time I was lifting. While there I also had my body fat percentage checked. Since mid-March it's fallen 4.8%.

Angry Emoji

Stupid geek anger: Quit referring to the Charlton Heston version of Ben-Hur as "the original." IT was a remake. Try to learn something, bucko. 

And while we're at it, reporters can stop saying Lady Gaga's A Star is Born is a remake of the Barbara Streisand movie that was first done by Judy Garland. Janet Gaynor and Fredric March say hello.

The Grave of Orville Cadwell

At noon I went to Forest Home Cemetery for a Rec Division tour that's been on the calendar for months. The only problem? The cemetery knew nothing about it, doesn't charge for tours (the Rec fee was $5) and there was no such tour. I've been robbed! But the cemetery officials, while turning away the other unfortunates, allowed me access to their Halls of History. A bit creepy being in the locked museum alone, as there are crypts there, but very neat. Here's the stone of Orville Cadwell, the first person buried there, in 1850. The cemetery has replaced this marker with one honoring his status.

Junie and I at the MSO - March 8, 2016

Back in March Junie asked me the chaperone a trip to see the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She told us her class would be performing onstage with recorders, and she was both nervous and excited. 

It was quite the feat for me to climb the steps to the balcony at the MSO, less than three months after hip surgery, but I did it for my girl. As it turns out, they weren't performing on stage- that bit never made much sense to begin with - but rather participating from the audience ALONG with the musicians on stage. 

It was an interactive experience meant to drive the kids into the arts, and dang if the audience didn't soak it up, shouting out the answers to symphony related trivia questions displayed on a big screen, and bouncing around to the music. 

I was impressed. 

And my Junie and I had a very good time :)