Easter Egg Dyeing on Good Friday

After we polished off making the Rice Krispie Eggs, we hit the traditional six or eight dozen eggs we dye for family and friends. Some of the pics below were taken by the kids, so pardon the fuzzy quality.









It's getting easier, generally speaking, as the kids get older. It was a real bear when the only 'helpers' were a four year old Jonah and a two year old Caitlin. But we still have one demon in the group: Ginger.





Anyhow, it proceeded as normal and I will note that the kids broke only a few eggs this year, a dramatic fall-off from years past. Sadly, that left fewer for me to eat, er, dispose of.













Here's the final results. Everyone digged this 'globe' egg











Not everyone kept clean



And not everyone stayed classy



But we all had a good time!

Update on Milwaukee Serial Killer: 7th Victim Identified

Milwaukee police have confirmed that DNA tests have tied a seventh victim to the serial killer they're hunting. Remember, two dozen additional samples are being tested and more victims may be identified in the coming days.

Florence McCormick, a slain prostitute who was found dead April 24, 1995 on
Milwaukee's north side.
McCormick's body was found inside a vacant home on
the city's north side in the 600 block of W. Locust Ave., police said at the
time the body was discovered

The Rambles pt 2

Here's the last half of that post, fleshed out for good measure.

* * * *

For Mother's Day I bought Lisa another copy of the New Kids' CD, replacing one my sister had "borrowed" and never returned. This brings to mind an experience she had at the concert in April. She was seated between the main stage and stage 'B', the rotating platform where they perform three songs. As the guys moved from one to another she grabbed hold of Jon Knight's hand. Always and forever her favorite, he had to pry her hand off in order to continue on his way. She said his hand was much bigger and softer than she expected.

* * * *

The media coverage of Jon and Kate's marital problems leaves me shaking my head . Yes, yes, smirk and say "what's good for the goose is good for the gander. They were certainly keen on the attention when things were well, weren't they?"

Well, sure. Anyone who says - let me elaborate: says and truly believes- that they would turn down the same offer is a fool. The couple has eight children. A television station offered them a chance to document their family for posterity, while paying the Gosslin's more money per episode than they would earn in a year at a 'real' job.

You're right, it sounds like a horrible, selfish idea. [Attention Hollywood: if you want to come over to the Slapinons household and film the convoluted mess that is our lives, my number is 414 555-5555.]

As far as the alleged infidelity: if he's cheating, and I say 'if', then he's an idiot for doing it in public when he knows cameras are following him. That said, no one knows what goes on inside a marriage except the two people who exchanged vows. There are rumours of sexual discord, of Kate herself having a 'friend', and even of 'allowed' dalliances - none of which is any of my business, nor changes my respect for what they've accomplished as parents.

Update: since this was began I've read Kate's interview in People. Sometimes I wonder where this woman's PR people learned their trade. She tries to sell herself as a saint, and paints Jon as a lazy, shiftless wreck of a man. I don't care what's going on behind the scenes, if you want to try and work on your marriage that's a lousy, lousy, way to start the process. Score one for Jon on the sympathy meter.

* * * *

We watched a second week of The Fashion Show, and it's growing on us. I like the emphasis on sale-and-wearability over the 'arty' fashion of Project Runway.

We've also scoped out a week of Any Dream Will Do, Andrew Lloyd Webber's casting call for an English lead for Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Joseph is my favorite musical, but the reality show falls flat. It's much too posh and slow paced for my cheap American tastes.

* * * * *
I ran into an old customer of mine from Job Prior, a prostitute who now seems to have retired from the trade. She was with a husband/boyfriend at Wal-Mart, and while we exchanged nods we didn't speak. I don't blame her. What was she going to tell the guy? "Oh, this is Dan. He was working 3rd shift back when I was turning tricks, and sometimes he'd have to step in and deal with a john that got out of line."

I remember one time, in a lobby filled with people, she whipped out a caramel colored breast to show off a bright white crescent scar; the result, she said, of a woman biting her chest during a youthful brawl.

Ah, memories.

Milwaukee Police: Seeking info on suspected serial killer

The Milwaukee Police Department has announced that they are seeking a serial killer suspected of killing six or more women over a 21 year period. DNA found on all six victims match that of the unknown suspect. Additionally, more than two dozen more samples are being examined in cases involving other potential victims.

It should be noted that the killer does not appear in any law enforcement DNA database, which means he has avoided conviction in Wisconsin since at least 1996, and avoided conviction for sexual assault in Wisconsin since 1994. In other words, he has managed to slip under the radar for decades, possibly living an ordinary day-to-day existence. Frightening, to say the least.

The information below is from JSOnline. Anyone with information related to the women below should of course contact the MPD immediately.

The victims include:

Deborah L. Harris, 31, was found on Oct. 10, 1986. in the Menominee River about 100' east of the Ember Lane Bridge, tied with a clove hitch knot.

Tanya L. Miller, 19, was found strangled on Oct. 11, 1986, between a house and garage in the 2100 block of N. 28th St.. She was fully clothed but wearing no shoes. Her socks were clean, leading police to believe her body was moved from the spot of her death. She was last seen around 10:30 p.m. on the day before, talking with friends on a street corner.

Sheila Farrior, 37, a mother of five, was found June 27, 1995 in the bedroom of a vacant home on the 1400 block of W. Chambers St. by the building's owner, who went there to inspect remodeling work.

Jessica Payne, 16, ran away from home shortly before she would have started junior year at South Milwaukee High School. She was found Aug. 30, 1995 behind a vacant house at N. 7th and W. Chambers streets. Chaunte D. Ott was convicted of her homicide and sentenced to life in prison after a man told police Ott had confessed to killing Payne during an attempted robbery. In January, Ott was released from prison after DNA linked Payne's death with that of two other women.Payne's killing does not fit the profile of the others, police said.

Joyce Mims, 41, was found by workers renovating a vacant house on the 2900 block of N. 5th St. on June 20, 1997. She had been strangled. Mims was last seen by family members walking away from her home two days before her body was found. She had a son.

Ouithreaun Stokes, 28, was found by a city inspector and two other people on April 27, 2007 at a boarded-up building that had previously served as a rooming house. She was 28.

Rambles

I'm going to try and sneak in a quick post before work.

It was a busy and productive morning. Smiley and I bought diapers, cat food and litter, went to the bank, paid our utility bill, gave my sister and Dad each a ride, dropped off a folder at the girl's school, and went to his ENT appointment.

[Smiley's ears have improved since the last appointment, but the right tube is still recessed and runs the risk of thinning the bone in his ear. So he'll have to try to fix it himself by holding his nose and blowing hard twice a day (I'm serious) or they'll have to fix it with surgery.]

Speaking of paying that utility bill; as of now my mortgage, car, insurance, utility and cell phone bills are all paid for the month. With the escrow increase in June, God willing that's not the last month I can say that. I need a better job, and ASAP.

Things have gotten so bad for a number of our circle that two of Lisa's friends have asked, independently of one another, if we'd consider allowing them to move in and help pay the costs of the house.

As Lisa is irrationally against the idea of having sister wives, I say no deal ;)

* * * *

Ok, I'm running out of time before work. So I'll scrap the last half of the post and (possibly) recycle it later. Have a good one!

YaYa in "Mary Poppins"

This spring YaYa signed up for a role in her school's performance of Mary Poppins. You might remember me mentioning the twice a week after-school practices that demanded a lot of schedule wrangling.

I'm pretty blunt about school/kid functions. If it sucks, I'll say so - not to the kids of course, and I'll view it in the context of the ages involved - but you won't find me saying a music recital is as good as a day at Carnegie Hall.

Well, in the end the practices were worth it. Mary Poppins was unexpectedly good. Many of the main characters (all female; no males played starring roles) had strong voices, there was a decent attempt at scenery and costuming (the latter due to parent contributions) and the acting was decent for their age. Well done.

YaYa had a small speaking role as a bank customer. Lisa purchased her outfit from a convent thrift shop that caters to an older clientle, and my mother-in-law sewed the alterations.





Her line kicked off the run on the bank. "There's something wrong! The bank won't give someone their money!". She also vigorously pounded on a teller window, an act she kept hidden from us as a surprise for the show.





Our one complaint about the show was the length. It followed the musical line by line and stretched past the two hour mark. The trip to see the Uncle and other superfluous scenes should have been trimmed. As it was, however, Smiley did an admirable job staying serene for the show. LuLu had already saw the show at a 'school kids only ' performance and had no desire to sit through another.











Well done superstars!

Razzle Dazzle

This is the weekend of our annual dance recitals, and as I write this Lisa, Smiley, YaYa and LuLu should be wrapping up the first performance of the year. I'll be attending the evening show with my Dad, and it stands to be a great night of family entertainment.

In honor of the event, I rented Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance, a mockumentary centered on two competing children's dance studios in Australia.


The first and most impressive studio is run by the beautiful Miss Elizabeth, who operates - very successfully - with cold hearted efficiency. "More stretching, less eating" she recites to her troupe, and she chastises one girl for failing to complete a turn even after all the "false praise" Miss Elizabeth handed out.


The competing studio is your classic underdog, run by Mr. Jonathon, who seventeen times (he counted) was relagated to the back row of the stage in childhood recitals. His approach is that of your classic over-the-top artist, with children's recitals full of dances about political oppression, economic policies, and sexual politics. That being said, Mr. Jonathon is a nice man who genuinely loves both dancing and the members of his little troupe, and you're quick to side with him in his struggles.


And struggle he does. His dancers have talent, but the best of the bunch, Tenille, comes with the Stage Mom of all Stage Moms. The troupe's costumer is a silent goth woman, and the secretary routinely auditions potential foster children, takes them into her home, then drops them back at the orphanage at the conclusion of recital season.


Enter talented young Grace, the daughter of television personality who's fallen in love with his male on-screen partner and divorced her Mum. Grace herself is eccentric, and if the viewer isn't mistaken there's a bit of chemistry between her Mom and the lonely Mr. Jonathon . . .


Great fun, with some talented dancing and a good laugh or two as well.


Recommended.

"And I was all ready to say thank you!" - classic Match Game moment

The wonderful Charles Nelson Reilly brings the show to its knees with this one, an unexpected response to a Match Game question about Snow White. ROFLMAO, as the kiddies say with their fancy-dancy new text machines.

Danny Gokey and the Lost Season Finale

I told you that twenty-year old monstrosity of a Terrance Trent Darby song would help seal the deal.

With Danny Gokey gone I'm relieved - the Slapinions household is now done with American Idol for the year, if not longer.

I've felt for weeks that Adam would win the prize in the end (how could he not, with Simon and the producers pimping him at every opportunity, be it on Oprah, in Entertainment Weekly, etc) so I have no complaint about him moving on to the finals.

But Kris???

I like the guy, but he doesn't have the chops to be in the final; an American Idol should not be chosen on the whim of a bunch of 12 year olds with mad text messaging skills. If Kris wins, its no better than Taylor Hicks Pt II, and so . . .gag . . . I have to root for Adam in the finals.

But I'm not going to watch, because either its a done deal or I'm done with the show. Don't believe me? Once Dautrey (sic) was voted off neither Lisa and I watched another episode until this season.


As for Danny, I don't think he'll stay long in pop music. I imagine he'll do a quick strafing run on the top 40 to earn his pension savings, then carve out a long career in Christian Rock.

* * * *


Lost's season finale blew my mind. It was a solid, well thought out show that managed the neat trick of creating more questions while still moving the story arc forward at a brisk pace. For the record: about ten minutes into the episode, I guessed that John's corpse was in the shipping crate and that 'Locke' was an imposter. But don't feel bad if you didn't figure it out.

I am an Evil Genius after all.

Anyhow, I'm a wee bit tired to craft all my thoughts into a coherent package, so let's go with a list of items from my brain.

a. I think we have to concede that 'Adam and Eve', the two aged corpses in
the caves from the first season, are Rose and Bernard - happily together, even
in death.

b. Rose was right; the Losties spend a whole lot time dredging up
drama and trotting around trying to stop it. Of course, without that there would
be no show.

c. Miles' question about the bomb was apt. What if the Losties create the incident by attempting to stop it in the first place? A few points against his POV. One, the incident seemed pretty wickedly bad sans the nuke, although I'll grant you the gunfire may have affected the drill and magnified its effect. Two, even if he's right, big wup. If they set off the bomb and cause the incident they're no worse off than they were, albeit with a few more corpses laying around to clean up. Essentially, it would be status quo.

d. I repeat my earlier claim: Kate is of no use to the plotline anymore. Kill 'er off.

e. Note the New Kids on the Block lunchbox? Rock on Lost universe, rock on!

f. I know the producers have discounted the purgatory/spiritual aspects of the show, but the finale would sure seem to be a return to the idea. Read on below.

g. Jacob is a benign and supernatural force that encourages free will and yet seems to have foreknowledge of what those freely made choices will be. His opponent - fans have already named him 'Esau' after the biblical rivalry between Jacob and his brother - is a being who restricts free choice by manipulating men to do his bidding.

h. I was wrong about Locke creating his own destiny. Locke/Esau made his own destiny, and doomed poor Locke. It was Esau who instructed Richard to prompt the true Locke into his belief that his death was essential, and tricked Richard into believing the same.

i. I don't believe Esau has power outside of the island. He was forced to manipulate events from the island in an effort to bring Locke and the Oceanic Six back to his home turf. Once Locke was dead and the plane on the ground he could assume Locke's form.

j. I believe Esau is, or is connected with, the smoke monster. I think he assumed Christian's form to manipulate Claire and John, and took the shape of Ben's daughter in the temple to force Ben's co-operation. Taken as a whole I think the monster/Esau is incapable of mimicking a living soul, and can only replicate the dead.

k. I buy into the argument that Eko was Esau's first pawn, but that he somehow caught wind of the manipulation and in response was brutally killed by the monster. Note his dying words to John: "You're next."

l. Esau obviously lacked the ability to kill Jacob himself and needed to find a 'loophole' to accomplish the deed. That places Esau as subordinate, if distinct, from Jacob. God/Devil?

m. The breadth of Esau's manipulation, which dates back over a year and suckered in the entire show's cast, is well and truly impressive.

n. With his secret revealed, will Esau be able to talk his way out of danger? Does he need to?

o. Back to the 'core' group - the bomb goes off in the end. Is tragedy averted? The 'no' vote: we wouldn't have much of a show then, correct? The 'yes' vote: Daniel was a pretty sharp tack, and the idea sounds plausible in a goofy Lost-like way. I can't see the point of doing it if its just going to be explained away with a 'huh. We were wrong." in the season opener.

p. Back to Jacob: so was it Esau that was the resident of the cabin? If so, why would Ben take anyone there? Then again, he was surprised when items flew abou,t so maybe he assumed it was just a mock-stage to sucker in the masses. But why bother with the charade?

q. Whoever was in the cabin was a prisoner to some degree, as the ash boundary is a clear line of demarcation. But I assume Esau was free to do his business with the smoke monster, so what gives? At what point in the show was the ash boundary trampled on by a Lostie? That might give us the answer right there.

r. The storyline as a whole: forget what the producers said five years ago, this is reeking of redemption/punishment/spiritual judgement. Call it by whatever name you like, at its heart it appears God and the Devil are battling it out for the possession of a handful of souls.

s. What a great bleepin' series. Man I love Lost!

Rice Krispie Eggs on Good Friday

As usual, we kept up our annual tradition of dyeing Easter eggs with the kids in our life, a practice that dates back to well before we had children of our own. Two changes this year: because of schedule difficulties our friend Chris' kids did not attend, and for God knows what reason my nephew and oldest niece skipped the proceedings. *

Ack, make that three changes, in honor of the Trinity ;), but the last one was a good 'un. Lisa decided to mix things up a bit and make Rice Krispie Eggs dipped in chocolate.











Aside from getting it on themselves and some on the woodwork, they kept the mess to a minimum.



















I think we'll repeat this project next year, but not because it was oh so successful. I think the finished product looked a little turd-like, and they were far too dense for my liking. But it's a neat idea and a crowd pleaser, and with a little practice I think they'll be yummy.


* Hey, I know egg dyeing isn't something a 14 and 12 year old *want* to do, but tough ta-ta. Half my life, if not more, is comprised of doing things that aren't high on my "Hot Dog!" list. If nothing else, the little kids look up to them and noticed their absence. *Meet your obligations*Here endeth the sermon.