frustration is trying to do melty (fuse) beads w/ your 5 year old when the 2 year old "helps".....ugh!!!!!!!!

[I'm] sad tonight. Sick of short tempered husbands, cranky ungrateful kids, forgetting important things, and a host of other things. *sigh*

- Lisa

TV NIght

According to media writer Tim Cuprisin, Time Warner is taking reports of cable problems from Milwaukee to Oconomowoc. Here in my house the image keeps freezing and restarting every few seconds, but our main TV is dark. Not good on an AI and Lost night.

AI: A srong night for the women, and I much prefer the terse one hr format to the dragged out 2hr crap. Lacey saved herself this wk, and I think it's obvious Haylie has to go. 2nd elimination is harder to pick this week - maybe Katelyn for her good vocal/no personality performance?

Lost: After last weeks yawner, it was good to see Lost back on track. I'm happy Ben is a good man in the flash-sideways. Note also that on-island he rejected neoLocke/devil?'s offer & been accepted into the (good) group simply by confessing his sins. Jack's transformation has begun as well; on the Black Rock it became clear he is now a man of faith, and a believer in destiny. The lines have been drawn. It's showtime.

On Sunday I caught YaYa using "BRB" (as in 'be right back') in actual, human to human conversation. Our culture's decline is all but complete.

Horns by Joe Hill

Ignatius “Ig” Perrish isn’t having a very good year. Born the son of modest fame and privilege, and once blessed with an abundance of love and friendship, his life has collapsed around him. Merrin, his first and only love, was brutally raped and murdered, leaving Ig as the only suspect. Although never charged with her murder, his community seems convinced of his guilt - with some people going so far as to pray for his death. It’s hard to imagine how things could get worse.

That is, until the morning horns begin to grow out of his head.

That’s the premise of Horns, the second novel by Joe Hill, author of Heart Shaped Box and the short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, and the son of novelist Stephen King.

Appearing the morning after a night of drunken violence, the horns are unquestionably and frighteningly real. They inspire the worst in whoever sees them, encouraging sin and drawing out hateful thoughts unmitigated by compassion or conscience, but leaving the memory of the conversation as little more than a haze. Within a short time Ig’s status as the town pariah is confirmed, but the horns also reveal the darkest secret of all, one that hits very close to home: the name of Merrin’s true killer.

While revealing the killer early in the story removes the question of “Who dunnit?”, the novel successfully builds suspense by keeping you guessing at the motives of everyone involved. Through flashbacks, the long and ultimately doomed relationship of Merrin and Ig is revealed, culminating in that tragic night. Although the disturbingly creepy history of the killer all but screams “Danger!”, you’re left wondering if Merrin was as innocent as Ig would like to believe - or if she was hiding a secret of her own.

If there’s a noticeable flaw in Horns it’s the inconsistency of the spiritual journey that drives Ig‘s actions. He himself admits the Devil he mimics is a trickster. Yet he obligingly takes the dark confessions he inspires at face value, abandoning friends and family along the way. Likewise, he’s abandoned a belief in a conventional god, considering the brutality of Merrin’s death as justification for his action. Yet, in the end his friends and family refuse to be so easily discarded and rise to his defense. The god he resents is not so vocal, yet even in Merrin’s murder there may be proof of hidden mercy. Taken as a whole it’s a bit of a philosophical jumble, perhaps too much like real life to leave the reader satisfied.

Joe Hill is a talented and able writer, and there are snippets of prose that linger in your thoughts long after the book is closed. If there is such a thing as a sophomore slump for novelists, someone forgot to tell Hill. Horns is solid proof that he is far more than a flash in the pan, and is likely a voice of horror for years to come.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

 I finished *One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich*. The blasé acceptance of the gulag as normal and "just something to bear" is as much an indictment of the Soviets as the injustice of the camp itself.

 Where's my donut?

update: 

Thanks to Roger a friend from STAA I got my raspberry sugar patzke (or however you spell it!)....I guess If I don't pre-order them we don't get them. And since my ass is broken it didn't get done. sigh.

- Lisa

 Happy 5th birthday Smiley!! - Lisa

Smiley's Party

 3 words to describe Smiley's bday party (in progress): pretty dang lousy.

update: It turned out OK, and Smiley was very pleased with it. Just My kids and my niece fill a room by themselves, so it didn't look empty, he loved his gifts (and we even set up and played with them) and the food was good.

Not nice Danny. Just because you think it was pretty dang lousy doesn't mean SMILEY DOES!!!!:) - Aunt Katie

I know what you mean Danny, it would have been nice if every child showed up....and I'm sure that Parker if he was older would have noticed....He is just young, Grandpa and I had a great time...at the adult party . Food was great.. - Grandma Jeanne

The kid party is done. 1 hr 55 minutes until the family party for Parker starts. I think I'm going to try and nap. Or watch the Magic-Lakers game. Either/or.

Don't take a nap Danny or Lisa ...... rumor has it the future holds the fact cupcakes will be EATEN !!! oh yeah blue frosting on a cake will be coming - Aiunt Katie

Funny! It all worked out, thank goodness I can whip a cake together like that! - LIsa

Smiley's name appeared on Sprout's Birthday Wishes at ~9:32 this morning, but (so far) not his card.

My Apple Cake Recipe. Wellll, Redbook magazine's recipie actually, but it's mine now.

Here's the apple cake recipe I've been talking about on Facebook. I've made it twice and was never 100% satisfied w/ the result (once too dry once too, er, wet), but I'd chalk that up to my tempermental oven, not a flaw in the design.


Chopped walnuts or pecans
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 large apples, peeled and sliced (I use 8 small/medium, mainly because that's what I usually have on hand)
1 tbsp bakingpowder
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs.
1/2 cup veg oil
1/2 cup/1 stick melted butter
1/4 cup Orange Juice
2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degree F

Combine apples, cinnnamon, 2 tbsp of the flour, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and toss.
In another bowl, combine remaining sugar and flour, baking powder, OJ, oil, vanilla, butter, eggs, salt. Beat until smooth.

Spray pan with nonstick spray and sprinkle bottom liberally with nuts. Pour in half the batter. Cover with a layer of 1/2 the apples. Spoon the remaining batter over the apples and top that with what's left of the apples. With luck you might have some left over for the kids (apples that is).

Bake 1 hr and 20 min or untl toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Today is Smiley's 5th Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday little guy! We love you!

Smiley is a huge fan of Sprout, PBS's all-preschool TV channel; Caillou and Barney are recorded and watched endlessly around here. Another thing he likes about Sprout is their wonderful practice of announcing birthdays on air, and showing off homemade cards parents create and send in. As a surprise, Lisa made a card and sent it in last month. I know it breaches the no-names policy established here, but I can't resist showing it off.

Note: something is goofy with our scanner, and so bits of the card look to be in shadow. The original looks great. [front cover, left inside, right inside, back cover]









We still have to wait and see if his card is shown on air (we've set the DVR to take nearly the whole day of Sprout), but at the stroke of midnight a scanned copy of the card * DID * appear on the Sprout website, as they promised! Card

Again, we love you little man! It's been a pleasure being your Daddy these last five years :)

Our Day

I woke up at 6 am, got dressed, scraped the frost off the windshield and drove to work, ready to start at 7 . . . only to discover my shift didn't start until 10.

D'oh.

After a busy day at work I came home, chilled for a bit, then noticed we were down to only 2 kids (after my niece's bday party YaYa stayed over, Smiley is at Gma). So I packed up & burned part of my paycheck on dinner at Villa Roma. Click on that link for a review of our experience. Lu and Junie were dolls. A nice end to the day.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Today our youngest niece (on my side) turns 9 years old. All blessings to you Stacey, and we hope you have a great birthday!

In other news, it is also the 14th anniversary of my cousin's horrific car crash (he's ok now, but still walks with a limp)

- and -

The 174th anniversary of the Fall of the Alamo. May we never forget their sacrifice.

 My parents just left. I'd invited them over for a Lenten meal of cajun style salmon cakes, rice, salad, and that homemade apple cake I made yest. Personally, I think the cake was a little dry, but everyone seemed to like it.

Lisa: loves fruit roll ups!

Facebooking my life Feb 15th - 17th

Feb 15th: There was a Future Celebrity sighting on Match Game this morning. Jenny Jones, future talk show host, appeared in today's 1978 episode and won the grand prize. Interestingly, she stated she was born in Bethlehem (Palestine) to Polish Catholic parents.



* Want to feel older than your years? It's been 15 years since WISN and Fox 6 anchor Vince Gibbens unexpectedly died of a heart attack in 1995. Remember all the on-air memorials at the time? Yikes. Fifteen Years.

* Red beans & rice + sausage for dinner, then an hr of the most scuffles ever recorded among the kids. It was like Wrestlemania Slapinions. But good can come from bad. As they were all nuts anyhow, we picked today to break Ginger of sleeping w/ the room light on. She slept in the dark from birth to 2, then picked up the... habit when she moved 2 her own rm. 2night: darkness. & a lot of crying. It might be a long one. Note: It was a complete success. While I did have to unscrew the bulbs in the overhead light to keep her from turning it on, she's now sleeping in the dark, and falling asleep faster than ever.

* Oh hell yeah! Neil Gaiman to write Dr. Who Episode.

Feb 16th: Mitt Romney is threatened on a flight out of Vancouver. Mitt's new book comes out March 2nd. I can't wait!

* [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 a...ve night'ares tonight, it your 'ault" :)

* (linking to a $250 plate dinner w/ Jeb Bush] It's well outside my price range, but if your situation is different:

* [a 94 year old convict on death row dies of natural causes] The man was in prison for armed robbery, shooting a cop, and murder. He escaped and killed again. By the time he died he'd been in prison (all told) for nearly *79* years. $'s never a reason to kill a man, but try and convince me this wretched life was worth what it cost taxpayers.

* Lousy link, grumble. Anywho, this is about the "Betty White to Host SNL" movement, including some comments by the busty Mrs. White. Er, did I just put that last part in print?

Feb 17th: Good luck, and get well soon. (on news that former Bucks coach George Karl has cancer)

* [on yet another article critiquing the Olympics] I think most people need to just shut up and enjoy the Games.

* 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 superflous @ best. Well done.

* Zahi Hawass is everything the last 3 letters of his name implies, an ego-mad Egyptian who views everything in a Jingoistic light. King Tut could not be effeminate, as theorized, you see, regardless of what facts may or may not have been, because that wouldn't jibe with his world-view of manhood and Egyptian royalty. That said,the video doesn't include his take on the subject, so what's the point of the link at all?

* [on news that an 'ancient' Arabic inscription had been found] It was some Call me whackadoodle, but 1,100 years old doesn't qualify as "ancient" for anything historical. Heck, Alfred the Great was busy burning cakes by then.

Note: that post brought up a great discussion w/ Socialist. He asked me what I'd consider 'ancient'. I said at the earliest, anything B.C. "Excuse, me (airquote) Before the Common Era (airquote)." I said.

Later, I realized how idiotic that sounded. "It makes no bleeping sense to go around changing the name from AD and BC. Why? You're still dating things from the birth of Christ, right? Basically you're just farting around, saying you want to be tolerant and this and that and all you're doing is slapping some paint on it. You want to be PC, go ahead and redate every bleep thing. Just pick a random starting point and go at it. Or better yet, STFU."

He agreed.

We also discussed Truthers, those fair-haired kooks who believe the government conspired to fake 9/11 by various means. I still run into a guy who proudly wears a 9/11 Truth t-shirt, nevermind that it erases all respect for him in the minds of people he meets. We both agreed Truthers were nimrods, for a number of reasons. We both agreed it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of accomplices to pull off such a conspiracy. Presumably, those reams of volunteers were not only cool with killing thousands of their innocent countrymen, but were sooooo trustworthy they've all kept mum before and during the attack, and for the decade afterwards. Get out of here - Washington can't run Amtrack, much less plot 9/11.

TV Time

The kids accidentally erased this weeks Lost from the DVR, and in retrospect I'm almost grateful. Now that I've watched it on ABC.com I thought it did little to move the plot and next to nothing to develop the characters. C-

Meanwhile, American Idol  (women): an up-and-down night. I liked Bowersox but don't understand the mad love the judges have for her; no way she'll adapt to the weekly themes to come. Lily was good, on par or better than Bsox, but Shiobahn was spectacular. Plus she's a short -haired kooky brunette? Hell yeah. Adios to Haley, Lacey or Didi.

Nirvana on Ice

I've got nothing against figure skating, OK? I might even admit to liking it as a spectator sport. And I certainly have nothing against U.S. skater Scott Williams. But this . . [weeps] . . . this . . is a MONSTROSITY. Why Scott? Why?



To make things worse, it's not even a cover, which I think would be slightly kosher, it's the actual album version. Therefore *someone* gave permission to use it, which means I have one more f*ing reason to hate Courtney Love.

Facebooking my life Feb 13th - 14th

Feb 13th: Selena Roberts is a hack who wrote an A-Rod bio that had to be pulled from the shelves in bulk when it tanked. Here she does a hatchet job on the IOC, trying to sell us the idea a) they murdered the luger b) pushing the envelope is bad and c) all sports should be played as if your Grandma was suiting up. SI - can her already.

On a serious note, this quote from [Roberts']lead-in: "The International Olympic Committee's need to push the envelope is sewn into its motto Citius, Altius, Fortius - or swifter, higher, stronger - as if to be swift enough, fast enough or strong enough were a weakness" is an arguement for mediocrity and stagnation. It is not the Olympic spirit - it is not the human spirit - and I find it vile that someone that believes such a tepid idea is paid to comment on sports.


* Former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas officially retires: When I went to Brewers games as a kid, Thomas was the only hitter who inspired genuine anxiety in me every time he came to the plate. I always thought he'd ice the game for the Sox.

* The Ginger is running around saying "Oh my Got" this morning & ignoring our efforts to switch to "Oh my gosh". I don't understand where she gets it. I'll swear like a drunk trucker, but I almost never use the Lord's name, even for that kinda stuff. Which isn't to say I'd be ok with her saying "you m.fer" - at least un...til she's four. Three at the earliest ;)

* To anyone hearing rumors that Facebook will be charging $ starting this summer: it has been labeled as FALSE by snopes.com, and in fact the site is warning that some of the 'protest' groups here on FB are fronts to push hidden, malicious code. If and when FB decides to charge, I'm sure we'll hear about it from mainstream sources.

* [Frederick C] Weyand was a good battlefield commander with a knack for correctly analyzing intelligence data. He was responsible for US forces moving closer to Saigon prior to Tet, enabling the U.S. to hit back @ the VC hard - & possibly saving the captial. He also yapped too much to reporters, but that's another story. RIP.

* Damn (refering to Dana Patrick crashing in her Nationwide debut)

* It looks like I'll need a new water pump for the Escort. Anyone have an idea about how much it'll cost? It's one of the few items I haven't had work on over the years.

Valentines Day: Damnit. Dick Francis was one of my favorite mystery authors. All the good ones are passing away this year. RIP.

* How Catholic Are You? Quiz
Result: Ready for Catechist
Wow! You're knowledge of the church is impressive! You should consider teaching CCD!

* I've liked this catchy little diddy since I first heard it on WARP AM back in college. [Cannonball by the Breeders]

* What'd I get my wife for Valentines Day? 8 hrs home alone w/ four kids while I worked. But on the way home I did pick up 2 'Heart' pizzas from Papa Murphy's for dinner. Were they good? We wouldn't know. Our oven tanked so we couldn't bake them. And then Gionger wizzed all over the dining room and the bathroom. Good times, good times.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my sister Katie! I love you!

A Mixed Day

Yeah, one of the worst afternoons with the kids in months. Junie is screaming at me and pulling at my arm right now, Smiley is banished to his room after a crybaby fit that lasted the length of a city block, LuLu is arrogant and short-tempered, YaYa is just plain lazy and jerky - and they've destroyed my house. 

Good times, good times.

update: Things have improved and everyone is smiling. 

The reason? 

It's pretty disgusting. YaYa ran into the house screaming "I have to poop!", then a moment later bragged about her handiwork and is *still* trying to convince people to go check it out. Hard to be angry at people when they show such pride in their work.

 AI (men): much better than last week, & Ellen finally looked comfortable. Kara: please stop the neck motion and get out of Simon's shot. Ugh. On the hot seat: John Park, Jermaine, and Todrick, *maybe* Garcia (can't ride the 'Straight Up' train 4ever). Casey will stay, but vocals were weak. Alex was much improved.

Shutter Island

I finished "Shutter Island" today. I was right - I'd guessed the ending after only a few chapters. It was still a good bk, but w/ all due respect to those who rave about 'the twist', I don't think you had to be Hank Aaron to see that particular curveball coming.

Dinner

Smiley  just Shake 'n Bake'd the chicken I'm prepping for dinner. He was dancing around the kitchen shaking the bag like maracas. Did a pretty good job of it too. btw, on the menu tonight: baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade cheese and garlic biscuits, and pudding.

Not too sound all girly, but when a man makes his family a dinner and says be home at 5:30, it'll be on the table then, the clock should *not* read 5:49 w/out so much as a phone call. I [pretend to] slave all day, and for what? I feel like putting down my frilly apron and going home to Mother

update: Let it be noted that she strolled into the house w/ the kids at 6:27, nearly a FULL hour late. And I ALWAYS called.

Suess' Birthday

In honor of Dr. Seuess' birthday, Smiley's class is having a different Seuss activity everyday this week. Tomorrow is "Silly Sock Day", where you can wear silly, mismatched socks.

Thank God. We usually do that anyway, but tomorrow it'll look like we did it on purpose.