Ten Books

Curry L said I have to name ten books that stick with me. I guess the rules are no more than five minutes of coming up with it and tag him and 10 others. I will not tag anyone, as that smacks of heathen communism and, more importantly, work. Continue the meme is you wish. Here is the list

1. Henry and Ribsy

2. If I Never Get Back: A Novel

3.Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'amour

4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

5. The Stand by Stephen King

6. To Kill a Mockingbird 

7. The Rookie by Jerry B Jenkins

8. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

9. Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker

10. any Civil War book by Bruce Catton

Keep it Up!

I'm super proud that I just found LuLu, never a big reader, lying in bed reading an Alex Rider book (by Anthony Horowitz). Sure, she'll tear up an Archie comic and the Wimpy Kid series, but beyond that, it's always been a pain to get her to read. Now she's plowed through the Hunger Games and Catching Fire and moved on to the Rider series. I was so happy to see it I went and picked up an armful of the books from the library this evening. She claims she's being teased at school for reading in her downtime (and that's hard for someone so focused on popularity) but Lu- keep it up baby!

60 Minutes

If you're watching 60 Minutes, good for you. Their story on ISIS is something you should be watching. It was disturbing to see former Sec of Defense Leon Panetta (2011-2013) say that he was against pulling our troops out of Iraq - for fear of exactly what happened in its wake. King Abdullah of Jordan is very articulate and a great interview subject, btw.

Uh oh

Our bank has notified us that our Visa card was compromised in the Home Depot identity theft fiasco. We are not liable for any fraudulent charges (to date, we haven't found any) but our cards are being replaced and the account flagged for monitoring.

C'mon Seattle!

BAM! Denver throws it away. Couldn't happen to a better franchise. 2:12 to ice this Seattle.

UPDATE: Whoohoo! Great end to the Seattle game. (sorry for the temporary jinx there 'hawks fans!)

(I dislike Denver due to the Elway SuperBowl, and I'm a casual fan of the Seahawks bc of Holmgren)

The St. Vincent De Paul Society Walk for the Poor

Today #TeamSlap (minus Junie and Lisa) took on The St. Vincent De Paul Society Walk for the Poor along the Oak Leaf Trail on Milwaukee's lakefront.

Despite stopping for some pictures (and to move a caterpillar out of harms way) we finished the 3 mile course in just over 45 minutes! A fine pace! Smiley, in fact would often run ahead as much as a quarter mile, then double back to us, so he probably did the equivalent of a 4 mile route. 

They ran short of t-shirts and had only one left, and Lu won an epic rock-paper-scissors battle to claim it. The organizers asked for a picture of us at the "summit" of the walk so look for that in future ads for the annual walk. 

Way to go Smiley, LuLu, and YaYa! I'm so proud of you!

LOL

I was driving with YaYa the other day when some water fell from an overpass and splashed on the windshield.

"Aw, it's raining!" she said. 

I tsked dismissively. "That's not rain," I said. "It's eagle pee"

"Nuh-uh," she said. 

It was quiet for a minute. 

"It's not, is it?" she said.

School Picture Day

Lisa and I are trying to get out of here and get to an appointment, but today is school picture day and Lisa is trying to get the girls' hair ready.

Unfortunately, Lu washed out a nights worth of curls and wasted an hour of Lisa's time, so for the first time in years I've tried to step up and do one of their hair. In the end Lu is going to have to wear her hair down, and there are already tears, plus Junie is whining about her (beautiful) 'do . . . sigh. Meanwhile Smiley is chilling on the couch watching the Thrilla in Manilla, which I'd put on before they got up. Lucky him.

Junie's take on Adam and Eve

Just got home from taking Junie to her first "Sunday School" class in preparation for First Communion next year. Her verdict? 

"If I was them [Adam and Eve] I wouldn't've listened to a talking snake. Snakes don't talk. I woulda said 'I'm dreaming or you're the devil'. It was a talking *snake*! Animals don't talk, 'cept parrots. I think they were pretty stupid."

Momma was annoyed

Lisa was irked at yesterday's video (the one where the kids cross the road halfway down the block  due to construction on the nearest corner.). This morning when they tried to do the same thing she came out on the porch and yelled at them. "You want to cross the road, you go a block *that* way and do it," she said, pointing  the other way. "You know why? Because if you're butts get run over crossing here we get nothing. If you get killed in the crosswalk your Dad and I will get millions. Don't be selfish."

Just saying... I was laughing when I said it but there is a grain of truth in it. - Lisa

A Great Tip

To date, the most valuable lesson I have taken away from law school - and I'm not being facetious here - is the importance of giving your electronic files detailed names. I've been prone to saving documents under whatever suits my fancy (a recipe for disaster) and I've learned that even "accurate" file names fail over time. For instance, a .doc file entitled "Lisalettertodoctor" sounds swell, but give it a year or two and you'll see it and wonder "What doctor? About what? WTH?". Nowadays I go all out. My latest assignment? "Rule Synthesis Draft 1 Memo 1 LegalWriting Fall 2014" Pay attention Team Slap. 

75 Years Ago

On this day, 75 years ago, the Soviet Union, allied with Nazi Germany, invaded Poland from the East, forcing the Poles into a hopeless two front war.

Pizza

@ Classic Slice with Lisa

The Neighborhood Kitty

This is a neighborhood kitty that was on my porch just now. I enjoyed a swell ten minutes playing with him. He at up a saucer of milk and has lost his collar since the last time we saw him, but some house in this neighborhood has claim to him.

The Eddie Vedder Coat

I bought this Vedder-esque coat for YaYa, thinking it fit perfectly with her neo-grunge style. She disagrees, mainly because I'm the one who found it, but it looks good on her.

Yesterday was Productive

Yesterday was one of the most productive days off ever. 

*walked the kids to school

* took that online pre-test

*signed LK up for catechism class

*Lisa made a dr appt

*arranged for an estimate on our skylight repair

* picked up YaYa's glasses

*took Lisa to lunch

*paid the mortgage

*ordered our TEAM SLAP shirts

*bought a dryer vent cap, removed the one old one and replaced

* got our entry light rewired

* walked the kids home from school

* Lisa took YaYa to Plato's Closet and to get her ears pierced again

* fine tuned my writing assignment

*watched DWTS

* some more stuff I've forgotten

A Second Piercing

YaYa took her babysitting money and got a second set of ear piercings - something I had promised her, years and years ago, that she could do at this age, [Note that I thought she'd just forget over time. Oops]. Unfortunately, the lady screwed up and pierced her *below* the first one. Because of this error, they had to give her a third set of piercings. So . . . yeah.

YaYa's New Glasses

YaYa's new glasses. Despite her intentionally glum pic, she was super happy to get them and I think they look great!

My New Specs

Here are my new glasses. I think they're swell, a little hipster, a little Buddy Holly.

Core Grammar for Lawyers

I just completed a 96 question pre-test for "Core Grammar for Lawyers" an online course mandated by Marquette. I was warned it would be brutal, and it was. I scored only 73% overall, but placed in the nineties in what I'd call some traditional areas (stuff not involving the proper phrasing and punctuation of citations, etc). Anywho, I tested out of seven subject areas, so that'll ease my load a bit as the semester progresses.

Frank Torre

My baseball strike aside, RIP to Frank Torre, age 82.

Lu has an opinion on Mayweather

LuLu came home from a sleepover this morning and told me she'd watched the Mayweather fight with her friend. That made me ecstatic - what a kid! She then mentioned that she thought Floyd "got away with a lot of stuff", echoing the bull that the announcing crew spewed. *That* made me annoyed again at their jibber-jabber. I have the good fortune to have a copy of the Ali-Wepner fight stripped of the broadcast track (it has nothing but the noise of the crowd and the fight). Oh, if that could be the case for most bouts . . .

Bay View Bash

At  Bay View Bash with Lisa and Smiley

Watching the drag queen revue at the Bash

Found!

Explorers have found one of Sr. John Franklin's lost ships, missing with all hands since being stuck in the Arctic ice in 1845.

LuLu the reader

A (once) rare sight. LuLu with her nose buried in a book (Catching Fire). She's been reading a lot more lately.