The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is posting FB messages in Arabic. Odd, and a wee disturbing, to see my 'wall' decorated by 3 posts in Arabic, w/ no English translation on hand.
Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Parent Teacher Conferences
Went right from work to YaYas parent-teacher conference. It went much better than I feared, w/ her teacher heaping praise and compliments on her. Still, she rightly pointed out that YaYa, if we can speak plainly here, rarely gives more than a half-ass effort in math and anything she finds 'boring'. Time to break her of that before it gets too ingrained (sp?) in her personality.
This week's Lost
Lost: Excellent episode, u can really feel the season picking up steam. So in alt. timeline Locke is happy; he has his woman, comes to grips w/ his paralysis, and is fufilled @ wrk - all by abandoning faith, making him a true opp. of his 'old' self. Will Jack be equally fulfilled by *embracing* faith in that timeline? Yin/Yang, etc?
God Bless Her
God bless my mom. She took YaYa, LuLu, and Smiley swimming! Junie is resisting a nap pretty hard core, but hopefully she'll settle down and peace will occur. At least for a little while! Happy Thursday....later today, YaYa's conferences.... - Lisa
Facebook Feb 6th - 9th
Feb 6th: MacMillan books are now back on Amazon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but BN and Borders did little to push that publisher's titles during the drama. It seems to me like waste of a golden opportunity to profit at Amazon's expense.
* Cases of whisky left behind by explorer Ernest Shackleton were found in the Antarctic
* LuLu is cute as can be, asleep on the couch, Ginger is coloring at the dining room table, and I can hear YaYa singing along upstairs to the soundtrack of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Me? I'm sitting here with a smile on my face because it's the little moments that make the day worthwhile.
* Re: the Super Bowl. I have no dog in this fight, so I'm good with either team getting the W. NO's a better story, no question, but as a Favre basher I recognize that another ring for Manning - one more than Brett - gives him even more ammo in 'best of' discussions. So . . . slight nod towards Indy.
* (re: a tazering at Southridge Mall) Screw the crime and tasering. They lost me when they lost Cinnabon's.
Feb 7th: Worked all day, didn't even know the outcome of the SB until minutes ago. Congrats N.O.! Meanwhile, my Dad took Grace rollerskating. On the bus trip back a drunk woman got on, stumbled, fell, and then began vomitting blood. The bus was evac'd by police and they stood in the cold for an hour until a replacement bus arrived. I guess the woman was only 16 or 17, so just a girl. My Dad and Grace said a 'friend' of the girl literally pushed her aboard. She spoke no English, and within a mile was doing her Ebola impersonation.
Feb 8th: Tonight we watched the Black Eyed Peas concert from Malta. What a crowd!
Feb 9th: The poster above Grace's bed reads: "School prepares you for the real world . . . which also sucks"
Lisa's take on the poster: Is it wrong that when I saw a picture tacked above my daughter's bed that said "school prepares you for the real world....which also bites" I kinda was proud that she's got the gist of life down? LOL....I mean the resignation that things will be hard but you keep going anyway? Or should I be worried that at 8 she's alr...eady showing signs of my "glass is half empty" genetics? hmmmm....
* On our way out the door to go to Ginger's playgroup, snowstorm be damned. But I still can't believe MPS chose to stay open, not with 14 inches expected to fall.
* MPS cxl'd school halfway through the day for @ least the 2nd x this yr. WTH - either have the foresight to close in the AM or the courage to ride it out. Even tho' the girls attend Catholic school, I went & picked them up. I think we're housebound for the rest of Tuesday.
* Cases of whisky left behind by explorer Ernest Shackleton were found in the Antarctic
* LuLu is cute as can be, asleep on the couch, Ginger is coloring at the dining room table, and I can hear YaYa singing along upstairs to the soundtrack of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Me? I'm sitting here with a smile on my face because it's the little moments that make the day worthwhile.
* Re: the Super Bowl. I have no dog in this fight, so I'm good with either team getting the W. NO's a better story, no question, but as a Favre basher I recognize that another ring for Manning - one more than Brett - gives him even more ammo in 'best of' discussions. So . . . slight nod towards Indy.
* (re: a tazering at Southridge Mall) Screw the crime and tasering. They lost me when they lost Cinnabon's.
Feb 7th: Worked all day, didn't even know the outcome of the SB until minutes ago. Congrats N.O.! Meanwhile, my Dad took Grace rollerskating. On the bus trip back a drunk woman got on, stumbled, fell, and then began vomitting blood. The bus was evac'd by police and they stood in the cold for an hour until a replacement bus arrived. I guess the woman was only 16 or 17, so just a girl. My Dad and Grace said a 'friend' of the girl literally pushed her aboard. She spoke no English, and within a mile was doing her Ebola impersonation.
Feb 8th: Tonight we watched the Black Eyed Peas concert from Malta. What a crowd!
Feb 9th: The poster above Grace's bed reads: "School prepares you for the real world . . . which also sucks"
Lisa's take on the poster: Is it wrong that when I saw a picture tacked above my daughter's bed that said "school prepares you for the real world....which also bites" I kinda was proud that she's got the gist of life down? LOL....I mean the resignation that things will be hard but you keep going anyway? Or should I be worried that at 8 she's alr...eady showing signs of my "glass is half empty" genetics? hmmmm....
* On our way out the door to go to Ginger's playgroup, snowstorm be damned. But I still can't believe MPS chose to stay open, not with 14 inches expected to fall.
* MPS cxl'd school halfway through the day for @ least the 2nd x this yr. WTH - either have the foresight to close in the AM or the courage to ride it out. Even tho' the girls attend Catholic school, I went & picked them up. I think we're housebound for the rest of Tuesday.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I Salute U
To the unknown person who donated the coffee maker to the Value Village, which I purchased 2day for $3: Sir/Madam, I salute u. No castoff this, no 'best fit for the rubbage heap but donate it 4 the write-off'. I can see the love u had for it, the care u took in maintaining it. Even on the shelf it shone like a glimpse into the Hereafter, so spotless my efforts to 'clean' it were superfluous @ best. Well done.
A 3rd Grade Photo from 1983
An old classmate posted this picture, dated June 7th 1983, on Facebook. I'd completely forgotten about this get-together in the intervening years.
I'm in the second row from the top, wearing a lovely red-white-and blue shirt with horizontal stripes. In those days I wore a newsboy hat, or a white leather cap that my Grandpa gave me, so the Brewers hat doesn't jibe with my memory. It's a shame I didn't recognize the value of my fantastic hair at that age. I would never have worn a hat and wasted the God-given gift.
The woman in the picture was Mrs. Kusch (sp?), my 3rd grade teacher, and at the end of the year she invited the entire class to her home. It was certainly a more innocent time, as I can't imagine a teacher risking the liability today. I don't remember much of the day. I have a flash of hurrying through her kitchen, and of actually posing for the picture, but that's about it.
Man, its 27 years later and I have a third grader of my own -yikes!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Proud Dad
[wipes tears of pride from my eyes] Smiley just brought me a copy of Dr. Who magazine and asked me to read it to him while he ate lunch. "umtimes I 'ared, umtimes I not" he said. The other day the family watched "Lazarus Experiment" (great underated ep.) and he was petrified but stuck it out, even as he said to me "I ave night'ares tonight, it your 'ault"
It's Paczki Day!
Today is Fat Tuesday, the last hurrah before the solemnity of Lent, and here in Milwaukee Fat Tuesday means Paczki.
Although they look like a jelly donut, the Polish treat* is made from a very rich dough that contains eggs, fat, sugar and (sometimes) milk. A small amount of grain alcohol is added to the dough to prevent the oil from soaking in when it's deep fried. While certainly denser than a traditional donut, the influence of French chefs during the reign of Poland's August III made the dough much lighter than it reads in print.
Inside the paczki a fruit filling - prune, raspberry, apple, lemon, cream, etc - and the outside is sprinkled with sugar or iced.
This morning I stopped at the neighborhood bakery - an Italian one, but Milwaukee-fied enough to promote paczki's. I picked up two dozen, with 18 of those being shipped off to my parent's apartment.
Enjoy your Fat Tuesday!
* (pronounced PAWNCH-kee or PONCH-kee but some speakers pronounce the word as POONCH-kee, PUNCH-kee or PANCH-kee)
Although they look like a jelly donut, the Polish treat* is made from a very rich dough that contains eggs, fat, sugar and (sometimes) milk. A small amount of grain alcohol is added to the dough to prevent the oil from soaking in when it's deep fried. While certainly denser than a traditional donut, the influence of French chefs during the reign of Poland's August III made the dough much lighter than it reads in print.
Inside the paczki a fruit filling - prune, raspberry, apple, lemon, cream, etc - and the outside is sprinkled with sugar or iced.
This morning I stopped at the neighborhood bakery - an Italian one, but Milwaukee-fied enough to promote paczki's. I picked up two dozen, with 18 of those being shipped off to my parent's apartment.
Enjoy your Fat Tuesday!
* (pronounced PAWNCH-kee or PONCH-kee but some speakers pronounce the word as POONCH-kee, PUNCH-kee or PANCH-kee)
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