BIG News!

@ emissions testing, waiting to renew Lisa's plates.

Oh! And big news today: the Never Ending Pasta Bowl is back at the O. G. Life is complete.

K-Mart

Not that it matters to anyone, but K-Mart truly is the place where lousy customer service goes to flourish and multiply.

I've found some decent deals there lately, and the only place left w/ layaway....my kids only hope for a decent Christmas, lol. But customer service there is still as much of a joke as always. - Lisa

Still more Farmville

So . . . is the mammoth statue too much?

FV friends - please help in 'raising' my expanded chicken coop. I'm also in need of Topaz, horseshoes, bees, and a life. Thank you in advance.

UP

We just finished watching Pixar's "Up". I'm not sure why the kids (who watched it earlier in the day) loved it as much as they did, as balloon/house/talking dog silliness aside, it's very much a movie about adult themes. The montage of Fredrickson's marriage? It said more in 90 seconds, without a single line of dialogue, than most movies do in 90 minutes. Well done.

The Stone Sword

@ The Stone Sword, a medieval theme restaurant, w/ the kids and mee lady.

It was a huge disappointment. Nothing "themed" except the walls. No one talked funny or wore costumes, what a bummer. And my meal was so bad I didn't eat it and asked them to take it off the bill....and I NEVER do that. - Lisa

It's on Layton, in the old Sizzler building. It wasn't *that* bad, although Lisa's meal sucked. I like mine, and the sweet potato fries were da bomb. Overall, I'd give the place a C- as a restaurant, an F as a themed place, and a lifespan of less than 6 months. 

Date Night

w/ the kids at sleepovers, we began a 20 hr childless period (of which 1/3 was devoted to sleep, 1/3 to work). It was more of a tease than an actual respite, but we did get good & drunk on tequila at El Fuego, then returned home to watch 'Date Night'. A good movie, and appropriate, but dragged down by Tina Fey. One more time: she's a writer, not an actress. She sucks in front of the camera.

True story: I stumbled across Jeeves and Wooster on PBS and told Lisa how I used to love watching the show before I met her. "Yeah," she said. "You and every other virgin shut-in".

Junie raids the fridge

How much can a twenty pounder eat? Corn dogs, carrots, a granola bar, some salad, an apple, cereal, waffles . . now she just raided the fridge and brought me a jar of peanut butter and cream cheese. YOU ARE TWO. YOU DO NOT HAVE A TAPEWORM. GO WATCH ELMO. Ugh.

Update: she just walked in wearing a bagel around each wrist like a bracelet.

I wish I could flee but Lisa has the oldest three at a waterpark. I'm trapped, trapped I say!

Not Me

Man, my kids sucked this morning. Here's a new rule I'm enforcing: if even one of them says "not me" when I ask who left the fridge open all night or who moved my bleepin' phone charger, "not me" will translate to: "Only one of us is probably guilty, but just on principle Dad's gonna make all four of us regret the day we were born"

Clash of the Titans

Lisa wimped out on me early, so I headed over to Blockbuster and rented the new 'Clash of the Titans'. I'm not sure why every modern movie hero needs to sound as if they have a bad sore throat, but aside from that it was a fine action film. I do worry that as CGI continues to improve movies risk becoming expensive cartoons, but that's a topic for another day.

A Pediatrician Visit

W Lisa @ work yest.it was up to me to take all 4 kids for physicals. Immunizations for the two little ones, blood work & urine tests for all. All the kids (knock on wood) are very healthy and ht/wt proportionate, except Lu, who is only @ the 25th percentile for height. I bred with a Swedish-German because I value size, and what does Lisa give me? A 7 yr old only an 1 1/4th taller than my 5yr old.  ;)

Want

Among the dozens and dozens of things relegated to the mythical "When we're back on our feet": a compost tumbler.

My Thoughts

The same people who preach the 'value of hard work, regardless of pay' are the folks who sit on their a**s earning $80G while they pay their workers a subsistence wage- & then act smug when their employees can't pay their rent. Bullsh*t - the value of a job is in the standard of living it allows you to maintain. A hard days work for a fair wage, and nothing less.

More Farmville

My FV home. I love the clothesline and cat, I think they're just the right touch.

Random Fact of the Day

Random fact of the day: A third-class ticket on Titanic cost $40, which is approximately $900 in today’s currency.

Someone rifled through my car last night, which I don't understand at all. It's pretty damn obvious there's nothing there of any value, besides the car itself (and the nekked pic of me I hang from the mirror. Oddly, they left that in place. No accounting for taste). I would have appreciated it if they'd closed my door tho', rather than drain my battery.

Did You Hear About the Morgans?

'Did u hear about the Morgan's?' was an average romantic comedy w/ quite a bit of genuine warmth. Tho as a Hugh Grant fan someone needs to explain to me how we're supposed to believe he'd marry a bow wow like SJP.

We're watching the hand model/low talker/pirate shirt episode of Seinfeld. Truly LOL

Tooth Fairy

We're watching The Rock in 'Tooth Fairy'. It's actually pretty dang funny.

The Demise of Bella's Fat Cat and Villa Roma

I tried treating the kids to a pizza yesterday only to find out Villa Roma has gone under; last week Bella's Fat Cat shut its doors too. 

update: Hey - a neighborhood resident/manager at BN is the one who came to me with news that Bella's had folded. He said his wife went there herself & discovered it was OOB, and I'm 100% sure I heard him right. Still, I just got a Facebook note saying it seemed to be open today. I'll stop by tomorrow and find out what's going on. Meanwhile, I can personally confirm Villa is gone, w/ the inside empty and a note on the door.

update 2: OK, so I went to Bella's myself this morning and it *IS* closed. There's a sign on the door promising they'll be open again soon, but what Milwaukee hamburger/custard stand chooses to close its doors in the middle of a 90 degree week? I fear they're kaput.

Babysitter Wanted

Watching 'Babysitter Wanted' an unexpectedly good horror film starring a talented Jennifer Garner lookalike. Cannibals, Satan, some dark humor & a decent script - well worth a rental.

Gremlins 2

I rented 'Gremlins 2' for the kids from Blockbuster. I wanted Space Camp (taken out of inventory and sold), Howard the Duck (missing from the shelf) or Short Circuit (unavailable in any Milwaukee Blockbuster), but whatcha gonna do? The kids wound up loving it almost as much as the original, and actually *thanked* me for renting it. Be still my shocked heart.

A Busy if relaxed day

I heard a radio interview this morning with Tim Gunn. I wish I hadn't, because now I miss Project Runway something fierce. Anyhow, I love Tim Gunn - uh, you know, in a manly, largely platonic way.

After I dropped Lisa off at the Fair I rented "Batteries Not Included" for the kids. Against all their (very vocal) expectations, they liked it. LuLu adored it actually, and peppered me with questions throughout. It really is as good as I remember.

And our Good Samaritan has struck again. This time they left a bag of school uniforms, and a brand new backpack filled with supplies on our porch. Whoever you are, thank you.

ISO

Yo - does anyone have a copy of *any* of the following DVD's: Howard the Duck, Space Camp, Short Circuit, or Batteries Not Included?

Yuck

Nothing better than the smell of burnt popcorn in a breakroom as big as my closet