100% Accurate

U live in a house of 4 girls remember? We will remember this - Lulu

How Ginger Spent Her 5th Birthday pt 1

Hard to believe but it's been five whole years since little Ginger/Lump came into our world. This years event was held at Chuck E Cheese.

  We had the party at noon on her actual birthday, hoping weekday crowds would be far smaller than their weekend equivalents. We were right. While we didn't have the place to ourselves, it was close enough - it felt like our own private playground.


The party started off with the kids just playing and using their allotted tokens for a good 45 minutes.

Of course, some grown ups had to get in on the act too.

 











Meanwhile most of the grown-ups chilled.





At one point all the kids joined Chuck E for a dance along - including YaYa!







Then it was time for pizza!





The grown-ups, meanwhile, had a veggie tray and sandwiches.

Then it was time for cake:



and to sing happy birthday!





Ginger was loving it!



So was her Daddy!




Then Chuck E came out to visit her again





and we sang happy birthday AGAIN! (oopsies!)



not that she minded



Then they put her inside a booth that blew tickets into the air around her. The goal was the golden 1000 ticket prize, but the manager cheated and told her to step on it before the wind started :)







Mission accomplished!



Then it was time to open presents.



We got her a zebra print hassock





a Cuddle-Up-It (her favorite gift of the day!)






YaYa got her a princess movie DVD .



LuLu got her lipgloss




I got her a whiffle ball/bat and baseball mitt, and she got scads of other stuff from friends and family:












Smiley got her AppleJacks, a My Little Pony

and with her tickets from the games she got herself a gumball machine. It was a great time and a swell birthday party (oddly, very relaxing for the grown-ups too) and her day was only half done . . .

Look at these nails!

 I wish I could take credit for this set! But it's the work of Illiana (hot chick w/ the accent at the nail booth). Artistry, and so creative. Taxi is my fave, tennis shoe a close second :)  - Lisa

Silent House

A few nights ago Lisa and I Redboxed "Silent House", a 2011 horror movie filmed in 'real time' and in what appears to be a single, continuous camera shot.  It's creepy and atmospheric and once it even got me to jump in real terror. However - and I'm aware this makes me sound like a dawg - I was genuinely and persistently distracted by the  cleavage of star Elizabeth Olsen (sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley) and so my attention was divided. How divided? Even now, days later, I had to delete several adjectives I wrote before the word 'cleavage. I'd grade the movie a B+.

Lil One

My darling Gracie way back when. :)

Quote

When it comes to dressing, comfort is overrated. A little discomfort probably means your clothes fit and they're not pajamas. - the great Tim Gunn

The First Day of School 2012

The mandatory 1st day of school shot. Note the exhausted looking LuLu - shoulda gone to sleep when I told ya too, eh kid? LOL

And the new school year begins! Not without: one crying, one shouting, and another so excited it was palpable. Onward! - Lisa

Quote

"Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you." - Spanish proverb (at least according to Ryan Searcrest's FB page, but you know how that guy can stretch the truth. One time I heard . . . )

The 2012 Fantasy Draft

Fantasy draft in five hours. I have two great keepers (Victor Cruz and Gronkowski) and because I acquired them in deep rounds last year, I have three pics in the first 20 slots of the draft. Gotta do well . . . .

UPDATE: 

1st pick: Ryan Matthews (RB)

2nd pick: Michael Turner (RB)

3rd Round pick: Eli Manning

4th round: Stevie Johnson, WR

Round 5: Jonathon Stewart (RB)

Round 6: Darrius Heyward-Bey (wr)

Round 7: Michael Crabtree (WR)

Round 8: David Akers (K)

round 9 (keeper pick) Victor Cruz

Round 10: Dustin Keller TE

My first logistic error of the draft . . I had Keller listed as a week 7 bye, but in fact he's week 9, which means I have both my TE on bye that week. Sigh.

round 11: Houston D

Round 12, keeper pick: Rob Gronkowski TE

Round 13: Lagarrette Blount, RB.

round 14: Ryan Fitzpatrick QB

round 15: Nate Burleson WR

Final pick/Round 16: Robbie Gould, K

My TV Tastes

First of all, I love Wipeout. I don't care if you find it childish, I think it's LOL entertaining and I hope it runs on ABC for forever and a day. Pbbbttt to you if you disagree. In other news, this week I saw my first episodes ever of Warehouse 13, Supernatural, and Monk. Warehouse is fun and has a sustainable if unoriginal premise, whereas I keep wondering how the Winchester brothers on Supernatural keep paying for gas, car repairs, lodging, etc; six episodes in it's essentially Route 66 with demons. Monk is downright funny, and I think it'll grow to be a favorite of mine. The kids might even enjoy it, as they have become big Psych fans on their own.

Neil Armstrong

BREAKING NEWS: Neil Armstrong, the 1st man to walk on the moon and a genuine American hero, has died at age 82. RIP sir.

A Brief Date Night

An unexpected night alone without kids, but . . . . Lisa has the same bug that knocked out LuLu, Smiley, and Junie on successive days. Our night out lasted all of fifteen minutes before she returned home to crash for the night. :(

Aliens vs Predator by Steve and Stephani Perry

I finished the novel "Aliens vs. Predator: Prey" by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry. I thought it started out like a cookie cutter media tie-in, grew into a pretty darn good sci-fi advernture, and sadly finished back where it started. Definitely a mixed bag. Given my low expectations going in, I'd grade it a B. (book #70 of 2012)

A Bell For Adano by John Hersey

'Round about a quarter century ago I watched A Bell For Adano on American Movie Classics, a station that at the time actually played classic films and not television series and second rate flicks. Yesterday I finished reading the novel of the same name by John Hersey. It's the sentimental and at times comedic story of the American occupation of an Italian town during WWII. I liked it a lot, but was routinely put off by the casual use of slurs (dago, wop) in the daily speech of the Americans. It's accurate for the time, just a little jarring. Grade: B (book # 69 of 2012)

On August 20th 36 Iranian universities placed restrictions on female students, making 77 fields of study male-only including most science, mathematics, and engineering programs.

Another column

Yesterday the Journal called me on my break at work (sweet timing, since I would never have checked my voice mail) and asked me to get them a Paul Ryan piece by the end of the day. Done. The best part? I got paid to bash Nickelback in a national newspaper. Sa-weet! It's running in tomorrow's Journal-Sentinel.

Can he do it?

Derek Jeter is exactly 1000 hits shy of Pete Rose's all time hit record. He's 38 and has one more year on his contract with a club option for '14. Your thoughts on the odds of him taking the title eventually?