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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter 2007 Continued . .

 

I figure we might as well finish Easter of 2007 before moving on to this year.

Here's a shot of the kids Easter Baskets on the mantle, the first Easter morning in our first house.

From left to right: Smiley, LuLu, YaYa.

The kids (naturally) woke up at the crack of dawn to raid the baskets. Note all the unpacked boxes in the background; this is also long before Lisa painted the picture that hangs above the fireplace.

The baskets included 'donations' from the grandparents. The girls, esp. Lu, received Princess themed items, while Smiley got his share of Spiderman.

The set of 'carrots' in the background of some of these pics is a Easter bowling set, with carrots as pins.

Poor Smiley . . there are so many pictures to humilate him with when he's older. These bunny ears were featured in a nekked bunny pose we had professionally done for YaYa four years prior.

In the afternoon it was on to my Mom's house. That's their dog Cocoa, which just happens to be one of the first words both Lu and YaYa ever spoke. For years it was their all-purpose word for 'dog'.

Their has to be kieabalsa, of course, and blessed bread, and coarse horseradish . . .the girls love kieabalsa.

Granted, it's a year later, but from what I remember it was a very nice Easter!

Easter Egg Dyeing - 2007 ???

                                                   

Graphic borrowed from My Extremely Simple Life. Stop by and say hello! 

Yup, you read it right! It's time to make up for lost time. The massive renovations we did to our 1892 home before moving in last April meant I didn't have much time to *properly* post in 2007.

Even so, we stuck to our traditions. Even though we still hadn't had time to put up curtains in every room, we went ahead and did our annual Easter egg dyeing on Good Friday. All the kids we knew were invited - nieces, nephews, friend's kids - as they had been every year since '96 or '97.

The girl in the middle is our niece/Goddaughter.

Smiley was very tired and missed most of the fun.

Lisa's friend Chris brought her kids and nephews too

Chris' brother had helped remodel our house, and I think it made the boys proud to see what their Dad had accomplished.

I include this next pic with no idea of what Easter orientated activity is going on:

You know, I looked high and low for a 2007 pic of my nephew, the original inspiration for the tradition, but there are none; funny, I chastisted him this year for missing the event for the first time. Did he miss last year too?

Here's his sister, my other niece.

And now back to the stars of the show:

I recall being amazed how smoothly and quickly it all went, compared to any number of the previous years. Lisa was quick to point out a lot of the kids were now older, and there were a greater number of kids participating then in say, 1997, four years before our oldest was born.

And the final results, to be divided among the families involved:

A great tradition, one I hope we keep up with the grandkids (and great-grandkids) some day.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Dale Check - A musical thank you!

 I once supervised a great guy by the name of Dale Check. Here's a pic of him at my Mother-in-laws Christmas party in 2002.

He's long since moved on but we've kept in touch. Not so long ago he sent me this letter:

I was talking to a new friend of mine, and telling her aboutcha. We have alot of fun memories don't we? :) Specificailly, Do you remember the time, when I was very hard up for cash, and kinda ran out of food (Of all things)? I told her about the time you cleaned out your kitchen, and gave me the food you could spare. As I was telling this story, it got me thinking, and I just wanted to say...
 
What you did for me is something I will never forget. True friends like you are few and far between, so I want you to know that I am grateful, and if I could ever repay this favor I would jump at the chance. I wanted to take the time to tell you how much that ment to me.
 
Thank you Danny.
 
Very Sincerely,
      Your Friend
               Daley
 
Dale's letter makes my role way more important than it truly was. Many a time, right up until a few years ago, I'd found myselfdirt poor and relying on food either cooked or provided by my parents or in-laws. At the time Dale had no such resource to fall back on, and for one day I filled the void.
 
Consider it  settling a karma-ic score :)
 
Besides, he was a buddy of mine, wasn't he?
 
So what does this guy do for my birthday this year? In addition to taking me out for lunch he strolls into my business singing and playing a guitar - a guitar he presented to me.
 
 
It's much too expensive a gift, but I'll borrow it for awhile :)
 
In return I want to post some music of his. He wrote and played guitar and bass on this track. He plays the drums too (and trumpet and piano) but not on this song, at least on this version.
 
Click on the graphic below to play his song: UPDATE: Uh, I guess not. Click here instead.
 
                                             
 
 
Dale's looking for a solid vocalist for the band he's forming, and/or a rich sponsor to make him a kept man. He can be contacted at fretnoise900@yahoo.com.

Easter - Never this Early Again (well, in our lifetimes)

Here's some interesting facts about this (oddly early) Easter. I'd heard these before but saw them in print for the first time over at Sybil's Village Life journal.

No telling if it's strictly the truth or 60% internet make-believe (not of Sybil's creation, natch), but I'm betting on the former.

* * * * * *

Never This Early Again
=======================

This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that
the Hebrews used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Found out a couple of things you might be interested in.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier
(March 22) but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the
rest of our lives!  And only the most elderly of our population
have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!).  And none
of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

Here are the facts:

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the
year 2228 (220 years from now).  The last time it was this
early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only
ones who were around for that!).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in
the year 2285 (277 years from now).  The last time it was on
March 22 was 1818.  So no one alive today has, or ever will see
Easter any earlier than this year!
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(What I consider) a stunning pic of The Baby

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Honoring America's Last Surviving Doughboy

Again, not the typical Easter post, but this has been sitting in my email since the 8th and its darn time I got rid of it.

Frank Woodruff Buckles is recognized as the oldest surviving U.S. 'Doughboy' - a vet of World War I.

His story is genuinely fascinating. He exaggerated his age to join the Army at 15, headed overseas on the same ship that rescued the Titanic survivors, and drove ambulances in Europe during the war.

Jump ahead to WWII, where he is captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and spends 39 months as their captive, eating all his meals from a single cup. He still holds  the cup dear as a memento of the sacrifices he made for his country.

Now 107, he was honored earlier this month at the White House by President Bush.

A full copy of the article can be found here.

A great story, but its sad to think he's the last known U.S. veteran of the Great War.

I thought hard about finding any personal story to relate about WWI, but largely drew a blank. My paternal Great-Grandfather fought with the U.S. Army, but he died before I was born. I think my only known contact with a WWI vet was a man I helped during a field trip to a nursing home in fourth grade (roundabout 1984).

His name was something like Earnest, and I was assigned to help him with his bingo card, for all the good I did him. I remember liking him because he reminded me of my recently deceased grandfather.

That's it. Not exactly an in-depth connection to the war. Part of the disconnect is no doubt due to the idea that the war was just a 'introduction' to the devastation of the '40's (and of course the last 'big' war fought largely without radio, motion pictures, and newsreels covering every moment). It never received the attention its successor did, that's for sure.

One odd thing. Consider this:

WWI, which always came off as ancient and distant in my youth, as if it should have been prefaced by 'once upon a time, long ago . ." was less than 60 years in the past when I was a small child. 

Now WWII, which appeared so 'current' and relevant in my childhood, stands further away than that in the scheme of things - nearly 63 years since Germany surrendered.

Crazy.

Thanks Frank, for your sacrifices and the service you and your countrymen gave this nation.


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Some Easter Humor

I borrowed the pretty graphic above from This, That, and Hockey, largely because it softens the non-conformist Easter humor below.

Mind you, I have every intention of doing the standard Easter posts later, but for the moment enjoy the chuckle from Hallmark's Shoebox Division. Read 'em at your own risk, but if you do please note that the last one is my favorite (which probably says a lot about me, and none of it good :)

Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

"Only about 20% of what gets turned in gets accepted and becomes a Shoebox card.
Here, we feature the other 80%.

Happy Easter, diabetics!

Enjoy those seasonal stickers.
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Let’s celebrate Easter like we did when we were kids, Brother!

I’ll be cool and you be a loser.
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It’s Easter, and you know what that means!

If not, your pastor’s gonna be very disappointed in you.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you find at least one good egg this Easter.

However you want to take that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Easter bunny collects, sorts, colors and delivers millions of eggs every year...

Not bad for somebody who never finished high school.
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It’s Easter! Boobs for beads!

Wait, is that right?  "

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Wisconsin makes the Sweet 16!

                                       

The Wisconsin Badgers advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 today with a 72-55 win over Kansas State.

I watched most of the game and it wasn't nearly as much of a blowout as the final score indicates. While they maintained a steady lead throughout the time I saw, they didn't blow it open until the final minutes.

They played a steady, VERY physical game and played it well.

Congrats to my homestate Badgers!

Meanwhile my hometown Marquette Warriors, er, Golden Eagles fell 81-80 in overtime to Stanford.

It was a good game with plenty of excitement, even if the wrong team walked out as winners.

Still, to blow an 11 point lead and lose . . yikes.

I hope all Marquette fans join the fold of Wisconsinites rooting on the Badgers in the tournament.

On Wisconsin!

The pizza that currently reigns supreme

I just want to go on record as saying the following pizza (I could not locate a picture) is THE BEST ever.

Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE Pizza. Beginning with a cracker-thin crust, it's topped with Papa Murphy's creamy garlic sauce, 100 percent real mozzarella cheese, crispy bacon, grilled chicken, fresh spinach, marinated artichoke hearts, shredded parmesan, and herbs.

 

That is all.

The Baby goes to the Emergency Room

At about 1 o'clock yesterday I wrapped up an interview and took a call from my wife.

"You have to come home. The baby needs to go to the emergency room"

"Why??" I knew the baby had been sick, but that was old news. She'd had yellow diarrhea for days, stuff that smelled like rotting camel, but she'd slept through the night. I assumed that meant an improvement.

"She looks ten times worse than when you put her to bed. She's lethargic, she hasn't taken a bottle in days without throwing up, and she'd dehydrated." Sensing some doubt she launched into an explanation. "She cries without shedding tears, her [soft spot] is sunken in, her skin doesn't bounce back when you pinch it, and she didn't pee all night."

I must have hesitated.

"Look, this is our fourth kid. I know what I'm talking about. The doctor's office is closed for the holiday, the alley is snowed in and I can't move the van, and if you can't come I'm just going to call an ambulance. She needs an IV."

So I left. A neighbor had shoveled a path for her as she waited outside. We wound up at the emergency room of the hospital where YaYa had been born.

They tried to insert a catheter twice to get a urine sample and failed, which isn't the greatest thing in the world to have to watch. Then they attached a bag in her diaper to catch any urine, and set out to take some blood (later returning for another round of samples). In the end they never could get a urine sample.

The verdict? Dehydrated, no doubt due to the diarrhea and vomiting, and low potassium for the same reason (which is odd, as we'd been pumping her full of bananas in an effort to stop the flu w/ the recommended BRAT diet of banana-rice-apples-toast).

They hooked her up to an IV twice and basically we just waited it out. I encouraged Lisa to leave and get to work on time, and I spent the last hour there with the baby. It was actually quite relaxing, minus one blood draw, as the baby fell asleep and I soon followed.

{you know what I hate about taking a kid in to see a doctor? Even the ones without kids act as if they can school you at all times. The pacifier drops . .nurse says "You know that's dirty now right?" . . you're feeding the baby, your fourth child and another nurse stops you, honest and true, and tells you you are doing it 'wrong' and the bottle should be on an angle 10 degrees higher. F* off foks. Dang nanny state.}

And wouldn't you know it, right after we were told she was going home, she filled her diaper with urine.

These events, along with the snow of course, forced the cancellation/rescheduling of our annual Egg Coloring event.

So hopefully she continues to improve and gets over this flu, because I don't want to see her land in the hospital for days like YaYa did for the same reason as a baby.

The Return of Old Man Winter on Good Friday

God must truly follow the liturgical calendar, although he doesn't seem to like it too much. Ash Wednesday featured a nasty blizzard, and so did Good Friday.

Spring officially started the other day, but it felt like it'd been around for a week.

Temperatures in the 40 (F)'s had melted all the snow, every last bit of it. I went around without a jacket, the kids played outside (thereby ruining their clothes by covering them in mud) and all was well.

Then I had to go and think nostalgically on this ferocious winter, and hope for at least a few more flakes before it was all said and done.

Milwaukee, feel free to hang me from the nearest tree.

What my wish brought was 10.9 inches of snow in the city proper, bringing our total for the winter to 95.4 inches/7.95 FEET of the white stuff this season.

Hey, we got lucky - some parts of the area got more.

That puts us in second place all-time in Milwaukee's recorded history.

I'll say one thing for all this snow: I have now officially overcome my long-standing fear of driving in a snowstorm. Now, I could really care less. I don't like it, but I'm not afraid of it either.

However, I'd like to one day have a job where I could look outside, see a blizzard, sigh contently and say "You know, maybe I won't drive across town today. No doubt the office is going to close."

Instead, I went to work, which as I've said before gets awfully busy when the weather gets foul.

In the evening I set out to shovel and darn near slit my wrists. 10 inches, sminches - apparently my alley is the collection point for all drifting snow. I forced my gate open and was greeted by a wall of snow two feet high.

Sonofa***ch.

Naturally my snow blower still worked like crud, so I abandoned it and picked up a shovel. 20x20 parking slab - cleared. Back walkway, steps and porch - cleared. 1/2 of the alley behind our house - cleared.

And then I just gave up.

So as it stands my alley is impassable, Lisa's van, the only means of transporting the entire family at once, is therefore inoperable, and my back is killing me.

But I still can't say I mind all that much. It's been a memorable winter, that's for sure.