Who eats bread like this??? And what's with the squirrel??

Angelcakes and YaYa

TV watching

AI - I think Lauren won the night, but Scotty ruled the season . . . what to do, what to do?????? 

DWTS - what bs on dwts. Chelsea deserved better than 3rd. Shameful. 

 Hines wins! @ least it wasn't Kirstie. He's a heck of a dancer.

This makes me sad

This is, of course, refuse, left behind our garbage containers in the hope (and near certainty) that someone will see it and take it to a new home. But boy oh boy, those are a lot of memories going away. 

There's the Hello Kitty tricycle I bought my girls from 7 Mile Fair.  Smiley's Radio Flyer retro rocket scooter. The blue Graco stroller that held all my kids. The double stroller that has taken us to Florida, the Bahamas, and everywhere you can think of in town. 

I gotta go. I'm about to tear up. 

Gnomeo and Juliet

To forget about an awful day yest (Lu's fault, but who keeps track?), I rented "Gnomeo and Juliet" for the kids. The verdict: "That was a freaking great movie!" [YaYa], "We need to buy that Daddy!" [Lu, w/ a thumbs up] "Good!" [Smiley & Junie]

Yowsers

Some oil dripped in the oven and while the smoke was negligible, it was enough to set off all the alarms in the house. Hard-wired alarms are great for all that "don't want to die in a fire" schtuff, but suck ass for cooking miscues.

Quote of the Day

What worries you, masters you. - John Locke

The New Nook

I'm in awe of what I've read of the Nook that debuted today. W/ that & the Color Nook on the market, Amazon's board should quietly start dumping their shares.

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!

Is this the eve of the End of the World?

YaYa, who even at nine seems poised to eclipse my natural paranoia, is worried about the world ending tomorrow. She says she isn't, & think intellectually she knows better, but I know the signs: frequent 'casual' questions, a look of panic on her face, etc. If it ends it ends; if it doesn't the struggle continues. What's to worry about?

Randy "Macho Man" Savage

RIP Randy "Macho Man" Savage

Delicatessen

If you're looking for that perfect French film about an apartment building full of cannibals who are desperate to kill and cook a circus clown mourning his deceased monkey, look no further than Delicatessen. Quirky, funny, and oddly moving, Lisa and I both loved it.

on a bus en route to holy hill w/ lu

Arlo and Janis, the best comic strip out there. Why aren't you reading it?

- by Jimmy Johnson

Hey - we saw this on The Apprentice, and now its in the grocery store!

What the heck!!!