Kudos to Mom

Lisa, who is a huge Oprah fan, believed this to be the day of the finale, and yet still gave up watching it to cook with Junie and Smiley once they showed interest in 'helping' Kudos Mom.

The new Bachelorette

Watching The Bachelorette w/ Lisa. Short and bubbly women annoy me, so Ashley is gonna be tough to watch, but drama abounds.

3 Slapinions

Elizabeth Taylor? Attractive, but nothing close to as hot as people claim, and her whole vibe makes me wince. Arnold Schwarzenneger? He did some ahole things, but I have no interest in other people's martial problems. Rihanna's 'S&M' - I like sex, and I like Rihanna, but maybe she could try lyrics that don't read like a letter to Penthouse.

Rain Rain Don't Go Away

sitting on my front porch enjoying the rain

Celebrity Apprentice

watching the finale of celebrity apprentice. Big storm brewing outside update: boom baby! Congrats to John Rich!

The President Is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo

The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth by Matthew Algeo is not nearly as florid and long winded as the title would have you believe.

It's the true story of the clandestine cancer surgery undertaken by President Grover Cleveland during his 2nd (non-consecutive) administration. It was a time of economic depression and turmoil, fueled largely by the divisive issue of whether to base American currency on gold or silver. Cleveland was entrusted with getting the country back on its feet, and in an era where cancer was seen as invariably fatal it would have been suicidal to his efforts to go public with the surgery.

Which is where the book slips the rails. As evidenced by the title, part of the narrative arc is showing the error and hypocricy of Cleveland's actions.But Cleveland was an unusually honsest politician. He did have legitimate and unselfish reasons to hide the surgery. Yes, one reporter paid the price for the lie, but even he was vindicated in time. All of this is stated and shown to be true in the text.

So, interesting tale, but . . . there is no villian to be found. Which is just as well. It's a swell read without that aspect, and Algeo does an exemplary job of bringing the issues of the past into sharp focus here in the present.

One major complaint - he uses quotes extensively, but provides no footnotes. That irks the history major in me, and I wish it could be corrected.

Finally: above all else the book proves yet again that there are no boring Presidents. Smart ones, brave ones, dishonest ones; but not a dull one in the deck.

outside church, dealing w/ a crying jag by Smiley

Welp. Still Here.

I'm a little alarmed at how disappointed I am that the world is still in business.

Summer Camp!

@ trefoil gs camp, dropping off my girls

Lisa & the kids hit the Milwaukee Public Museum

During Easter Break this year Lisa took the kids down to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the sights while I was at work.



This is a picture of the Art Museum, by the way, not the Public Museum. Apparently the camera made its way into little hands on the drive downtown.











One of the hightlights of the musuem is the live butterfly room. The kids had a blast enticing the butterflies to land on them.



























Then there was the bug room, full of roaches, centipedes, and worms. Here's how YaYa described the experience on her blog:





i find this so funny lol! we were @ the mpm and I was brave enough to hold beetles, millapedes, and other bugs ! But Ive never had much problems with bugs ' cept ants!





Yech!

Afterwards, Lisa had the Fearsome Four pose for group pictures. Not all the pics were great by our standards, but so what? Given that they featured all four of my youngin's, they were stupendous!