Grasshopper Hunting to End the Summer

Last Wednesday was the last day of summer vacation for the kids (my two week vacation from classes ended that Monday). We had a  mini-tradition, for a bit, of having a picnic in Whitnall Park during the week Lisa would work at State Fair. It's been a few years, but Ginger brought it up recently and so, for a last hurrah, we did the same. 

Sorta. 

We started out with an early dinner at Kopp's Custard. 

Oy, I know YaYa will hate this picture, given it shows her apparently jamming food in her mouth. But of the two I have as options, trust me kiddo - this is the more flattering ;)

 Alas, after dinner we split up. Nothing was wrong, but for some reason I don't even remember I got it into my head to go catch grasshoppers, and that only appealed to Ginger. In an act of sisterly love, LuLu offered to come with. And so the three of us went a'huntin'. 

Ginger was game for the chase. 

LuLu was not, and served as our spotter. An effective one at that. 

 

 LuLu also became our location photographer. 

 We were very successful, catching enough grasshoppers to fill a gallon pickle jar when we got home.

Ginger's grasshoppers have even mated and laid eggs since they joined our household!

My Mom sounded cheerful today and said the doctor is debating between sending her home for outpatient therapy or directing her to a rehab facility.

To a T

My Life Plan

C'mon People

I just don't understand the commenters on Clinton's social media. It's one thing to express your agreement, it's another to respond as if she herself is writing it and gush about how much you adore the way she thinks. What kind of idiot are you? She isn't composing posts between fundraisers. I guarantee it's a Lilly white college intern, living off their Daddy's stipend, that is writing every word.

Dang.

Update

I spoke to my Mom Friday evening. It was a stroke, and in my judgment her speech intelligibility is down maybe 20%. They still haven't located a blockage and will be doing more testing today.

Bad News. Prayers Needed.

My mother had an apparent (minor) stroke yesterday and is hospitalized. She is, or was, awake and talking in the ER, albeit with some distortion of her voice. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Yup. This!!

The First Day of School 2016

First day of school! :)

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 . . ."