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 :)

Hypocrisy

Where's all the MSM cries of racism that were levied at Bush for Katrina?

Beauty and the Beast - an unpublished post from 2013

***Apparently, I forgot to hit 'publish' on this back in the day ***

This weekend was the annual school musical. 2013

LOL