Our New Van

Well, we bought a new van.

We scouted the internet for a bit over the weekend and then took LuLu and one of YaYa's friends with us to a few dealerships on Monday. Other then a nice Caravan with a DVD system, we didn't see much that screamed 'buy me'.

But that night, while trying to find the DVD van on the dealer's site, I came across a vehicle that caught my eye. Tuesday after work I decided to go look at it and dragged YaYa along - Lisa bowed out of the process, citing her purchase of the lemon Voyager (a foolish thought, as she did all the right research and just hit some bad luck).

YaYa and I test drove the car, looked at all the features, debated price with the salesman for awhile, then took the plunge and bought it. The decision was simple, the actual purchase was not. We were at the dealership from just  5 p.m. until just shy of close at 9 a.m.

[note: aside from an initial bout of brattiness right at the outset, YaYa sat patiently for hours, coloring, reading and playing on my phone. She also walked right into the side mirror of a Mustang, cutting her lip open (!). All in all she rocked and I was proud of her.]

In the end we - or rather I, as Lisa's (superior) credit was not run - got the loan and we were good to go. With the downpament payments are only $15 more a month than we paid on Lisa's Ford Aspire back in '95.

Of course, we haven't had a car payment at all in years and years, so the whole thing is frightening and very adult-ish.

It's a white 2005 Ford Freestar. Please spare me any formulaic anti-Ford propaganda. During our time together Lisa and I have owned a 1994 Aspire (still running) a 1995 Aspire (totaled by a drunk driver, which paid for a lot of our wedding), a 1994 Ford Escort wagon we sold to my Dad when Smiley was born, and a 1998 Ford Windstar (totaled by a woman who sped through an intersection and sideswiped Lis and LuLu). All ran fine and were dependable and durable as you can hope for, especially Vi, our '94 Aspire.

The Plymouth however . . well, p**s on it.  

So I was gleeful to be back in a Ford. It reminds me a lot of our Windstar, with some upgrades. It has stow and go seating, dual sliding doors, a second row bench which gives us a crucial extra seat in the middle, remote keyless entry, a CD player (no small thing, as the Voyager's radio was on the fritz), and more.

What do I like best? Aside from the stow and go, the bench, and the 36,000 miles on the odometer,  I dig the little mirror located above the rearview mirror. It's sole purpose is to allow the driver to see the kids in the back row, which downright ROCKS.

Here's some pics right off the website.

Here's that second row bench:

Here's the stow and go before:

and after:

Some of the dealer perks: a $520 gas card, a year of roadside assistance, a 3 month/3000 mile comprehensive warranty, and free car washes for the life of the vehicle, which can come in handy with a white car.

I like it, and I hope/pray/wish it works out well for Lisa for many years to come.

The *2007* school trip to the zoo

I realize you're all zoo-ed out, as am I, but I figure now's probably the last chance to realistically work in the post about the 2007 zoo trip, long promised and long delayed.

As I mentioned on the prior post, I chaperoned YaYa's K5 class last year. We were allowed to wander off and do what we wanted with our groups for the five hours of the trip, and I admit to being a little overwhelmed at first by leading a group of 4 girls.

By the end of the sweltering day I think we'd all had a fun and pleasant time, and I think our group did well, with two exceptions. The first is when we were in the playset area. Unlike the '08 trip it was SUPER crowded with scores of kids, and when it came time to regroup I was missing the blonde girl  in the front of the picture. Never mind the warnings to stay in the area, or the constant head-counts, she skedaddled. I found her minutes later playing in another area that had been called off limits for all the K5 kids, but yikes . . that moment wasn't good for the ol' heart.

I'll get to the second moment later. But first, some animals.  Why? Why not?

In a the last zoo post Beth asked if the zoo had any big cats, and mentioned that it seemed Milwaukee had a fairly large zoo. Yup on both counts. The zoo, which I've never failed to appreciate (even as it bores me most days, having seen it so often) hosts 1800 specimens of 350 species on its 200 acres.

Here's some of the cats from that day. Most shots failed to turn out because of the reflection of the glass. Just our luck they weren't strolling around the outdoor areas that day.

Brief interruption: one thing I failed to mention about the 2008 trip was that a lion suddenly jumped to attention, stood up on a large rock, and began to roar and bellow at the crowd for mintues on end. It was a loud, fearsome, wonderful display of his strength.

Here's the girls holding onto the baby gorilla statue for good luck.

 

Here is one of the 'dinosaur tracks' the girls were intent on following.

I think this next one was in the aquarium or bat area. Either way, YaYa looks cute.

Remember this from this years trip? I honestly would've sworn it was a new addition to the zoo this year.

As I said, it was a sweltering day. I let the girls go hog wild with the water from the hand-washing station near the goat feeding pens.

A waterfight errupted and we all left the area soaked.

Here's the group trying out a foot massager to rest their weary bodies after a long day of walking.

Like I said, a fun day, and a nice introduction to YaYa's friends.

Oh, yeah, that other 'moment'?

After the giraffe area YaYa threw a hissy fit (the joys of chaperoning your own kid) and ran away from the group and hid in a crowd. She didn't go far and I knew she was within hearing range but I was boiling mad, especially since I knew she was egging me on after the play set incident.

She finally emerged from behind a sign, all smiles and 'ha-ha', and I let her have it with both (verbal) barrels. I petered out as I noticed she kept looking over my shoulder. I turned around, and who was there ? ? ?

Why a stunned, emotionally damaged Quaker family, with their children now near tears, that's who. I'm sure they thought me a heathen brute, and I'm equally sure they now use me in sermons as an example of the evil of the outside world.

Thanks YaYa ;)

The NBA Finals, Free 411 calls, Father's Day, and Alphawoman's praise

I was moseying around Technorati and noticed that my longtime friend Alpahwoman had written about me in her journal. In a post that jokingly references her *not* being AOL's guest editor, she lays out her picks for the week.

I adore Dan of Slapinions who never is at a loss for something to say or write about. I, for one, was rolling on the floor laughing (hahahah) several weeks ago when he wrote about a stop he made at a dollar store in a shopping center that was subsequently held up! He is the greatest Dad and the I look forward to reading each and every entry he makes

Thanks! I'll take flattery wherever/whenever I can, and this almost makes up for her calling someone else (!) the best writer in J-Land a few weeks ago ;)

* * *

Meanwhile, let me steal verbatim from Buckoclown's site because I feel it's a heck of a find and something that would have saved me money just this past Friday. Read the info here, but try and stop by his site to thank him for the extra change in your pocket :)

To quote him:

Public Service Announcement - Free 411 :o)

Cell phone companies are charging $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 Information calls. Since no one carries a telephone directory in their vehicle, they get away with it. 
 
When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial 1(800) FREE 411, or 1(800)373-3411, you will incur no charge. This works on your home telephone as well. If you enter this number into your cell phone, you will always have a way to get a phone number if you need one. 
 
Verified at Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/free411.asp 

* * *

How 'bout those bleeping Lakers? I thought Boston had it cinched but LA is going to make the trip to the east coast after all. They really should be embarrassed at how they failed  to stick a knife in the Celtics' heart and finish the deal. If you can't close out the game on your home court, don't expect to win in Boston.

* * * *

To all the Dad's out there - Happy Fathers Day! And thank you everyone for your well wishes!

The June 12th School Trip to the Zoo

Last year I chaperoned YaYa's K5 trip to the zoo. This year Lisa was picked to chaperone for her, while I pulled duty with LuLu's K4 class. This had the unfortunate side effect of preventing us from attending Smiley's 1st ever year-end school picnic, scheduled on the same day. Thankfully my mother-in-law picked up the slack and took him, and I owe her (and Smiley) one.

Lisa and I had planned on linking up at the zoo and merging our two groups, but alas K4 was told to stick together. I had five kids, including LuLu, under my watch. We went the opposite way of everyone else and hit the kids 'family farm' area first.

True fact: cows are prone to swallowing nails and other metal objects mixed in with grass. To prevent that from doing damage they are intenionally given a magnet to swallow, one that sucks up all the nails before they do harm.

4 million animals and the kids reacted the most to seeing a playset to attack.

Then finally, on to some animals.

Then, on to a snack.

We took the snack break on a patio with a gorgeous view of a pond.

A peacock wandered onto the deck and the kids gave (polite) chase from a distance.

We bumped into YaYa and Lisa and caught up on our activities. YaYa had gone on the overhead glider across the zoo and back, but K4 was prohibited (and rightly so, to my mind) from engaging in any activity that cost exra money.

We split up again and K4 had lunch. Then we went through the bat house, the reptile area, the monkeys and apes, the aquarium, etc. Suprisingly we actually had some learning experiences, as a snake was shedding its skin and there were dead mice hanging from a branch as a snack for another reptile.

Here's my group, plus a few hanger-on's.

I've tried hard not to post pictures of the animals because, as I told a mother there 'every year I come here, and every year I take the same pictures' and besides, if you want to see what a giraffe looks like, go hit wikipedia.

But somehow it'd escaped my notice that the flamingo's, which I remembered vividly from my youth, had been removed from the zoo in recent years. They were reintroduced this year, and I feel compelled to post a pic of them here.

By this point the kids were exhausted and fights errupted, so we hunkered down in a park-like area to rest. The adults did most of the resting, to be honest, while the kids played.

I do this gimmick where I put my palms out, encourage my kids to lock their elbows and put their palms on mine, and then I lift them in the air.  The trouble is, when I lifted Lu up in the park all the kids wanted to try it out, and my arms got the biggest workout in quite awhile.

I don't remember where we went after that, but I thought this was neat:

We headed back to the bus just in time, as tornado warning were again threatening the area and a storm was coming. We just barely missed the rain, as the sky's opened up as I was getting into my car in the school parking lot.

A good time. Exhausting, but fun.

Oh, yeah. At the zoo we only had one camera and I had it with me (remember, we were supposed to have been together all day) so all these shots are mine. But she did take some pics with her camera phone. For whatever reason they came out super small, so enlarging themt made 'em less than perfect. But they give you some idea of the fun the kids had with her.

Here's two I sent her in reply

Misc Chatter and YaYa's first communion dress

Still no phone, eight days after the (big) storm. In fairness I haven't asked Time Warner to come out in the last few days, simply because I've been busy and the house is a mess. But saints preserve me, as much as I hate the thing I'm actually beginning to miss having a home phone.

Oh, a belated happy twelfth birthday to my niece Caitlin, who was pretty po'd I didn't announce her birthday here on the actual day. Here's hoping you hear 'happy birthday Caitlin' on at least 88 more days in your life. Love you.

School (finally) let out for the summer on Friday, the day we went to see that movie. After the show we went down to Mayfair Mall and I set foot in Macy's for the second time in my life, shopping for First Communion dresses for YaYa.

The event isn't until next year, but they're on clearance now. We liked several and wound up buying three: one for my niece, one for YaYa, and one as an alternate (since returned).

This is YaYa's, taken that night via camera phone in my parent's kitchen. :

We're still not sure where the ceremony will take place. The school, which is supported by six parishes, idiotically seperates the class and shoves the kids to their respective parishes. The problem is we are not parishioners in any of the six, and so as it stands YaYa will have to attend seperate religion classes at our home parish (this, despite attending Catholic school) and celebrate her communion with a bunch of kids she doesn't know. Grand.

Oh, more good news. The transmission on Lisa's van went out for the third time in two years. That van's always been a lemon, straight from day one, so tommorrow we're going van shopping. The money put aside for a new roof will now have to be diverted to the car situation, which bites.

Ah well. Such is life.

Hope all is well with everyone.

'The Orphanage' is a great movie

                                                    

The Orphanage is a great film, a truly suspenseful and frightening movie that stands in direct opposition to the mess that is The Happening.

A foreign language film, it was released in Spain in 2007 to great acclaim and chosen by the Spanish Academy of Film to represent their country at the Academy Awards. New Line Cinema is talking of making an English-language version, but my advice would be to skip it and go with the original, because I can't imagine a way to improve upon it.

Laura, the main character, purchases the home that once housed the orphanage where she lived as a child. Her memories of the place are positive and joyous, and as she moves there with her husband and son she entertains the idea of opening it again as a home for special needs children.

Enter her son's imaginary friends, and the horror begins. Her son disappears and we feel the emotions of the parents, the anger, anxiety, grief, and loss. There is much more to the story but its my sincere wish that you go rent it, so I won't elaborate, spoiler warnings or no spoiler warnings.

The film is beautifully staged by director Juan Antonio Bayona, and the acting is outstanding, especially that of Belen Rueda as Laura. It's pace is slow but steady, more in line with The Exorcist than modern horror. There is no bloodshed in this movie, no cheap thrill caused by a quick camera movement, no unstoppable golem lurking in the shadows. What there are are moment after moment of film that induce real, fear of the dark terror: the boy at the end of the hall with the strawman mask, Laura's game to draw out the spirits, the pile of shells near the door, the medium's trance, etc.

When you watch it, pay close attention near the end; I can't say more, but the secret of the vanishing is truly heart wrenching.

Don't be turned off by the idea of a foreign film. In this day of DVD's I don't watch English language films without the subtitles on, and both my wife and I quickly adjusted to the format.

Outstanding. 3.5 stars out of 4 or 85 out of 100.