Friday, April 11, 2008
"Kiss me a lot of times"
That's how Emma requests one of her favorite things. The kissing attack, where I'll cradle her and kiss all over her face and tickle her and she'll giggle and squeal with delight. Pure music to my ears. And then she'll say..."Do it like Noni does."
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Treadmill "repurposed"
Don't worry, it was very temporary. I was able to put in an hour on my new toy this evening.

Creepy harbinger of Spring
In the earliest spring days we're afflicted by flies. They're drawn to the warm surfaces that are reflecting the sun. Emma can't even go outside and play on her toys because the flies are all over them. In the evening, when the shade passes over, the flies completely vanish. Yuck. Thankfully this will only last a couple of weeks.




Mike's response
I told Mike I'd written about him and my college years. After reading it he wrote back. He said I could post it if I wanted. It took me a while to decide, but I finally figured why not? If nothing else, it demonstrates that I know how to pick good friends.
(Sigh, I just wish they were closer.)

I just read through the College Years. What a great way for me to wind down a great week. Thank you so much for those kind words and expression of our phenomenal friendship. It was interesting to take such an in-depth trip down memory lane through your deep thoughts. I learned so many new things about how you were feeling at the time. I, too, had many concerned thoughts during the dark parts of that time about your well-being. You amazed me with your strength to persevere. Challenges often can lead to opportunities. I have just personally witnessed this over the past few months. For you, the challenges you faced then actually played a major role in the development of our deep friendship. Every contact that we had was well worth any effort as I got so much comfort from us having the purest form of friendship. Your company and dialogue was always good even when you were obviously running low on energy. Of course, we both could run on a lot less back then. I think I would collapse if I ever again tried to regularly converse with a friend until 3 or 4 in the morning and then get up for an 8 am class. As I reflect on this now, we actually have something to be grateful to Don for....the challenges you faced with him yielded a deeper friendship for us; and, of course, contributed to your learning how to pick a better spouse.

As you know, I am not really into the whole blog thing mainly because I usually am not much into computer stuff after work. Your writing is incredible and makes one yearn for more. I still remember the awesome Circle K scrapbook that represented much of your growing artistic and literary talent at that time. I am so proud of you as well and so appreciative to have known you for over two decades. You are welcome to share these comments on your blog should you so desire.

Love always,
Mike

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Monday, April 07, 2008
Step off, bitch!
Which is what I'd like to have said, however, it went more like this...

Today at work I encountered one of the least popular women in the whole county. She's a minister's wife who is notorious for saying the wrong thing, and she's generally unfriendly too. As long as I've know her I've known her reputation but managed to remain unperturbed at her comments.

Today I helped her out and when we were about to part ways she said that she'd been watching some show and there was a girl on there who had done Weight Watchers and they showed her Before and After pictures. The girl looked really good and was modeling a bikini in the pictures.

Then she says, "You ought to do that. You did Weight Watchers once and it worked for you. If you can't do the meetings you can do it online."

A red mist exploded in front of my eyes and I managed, "Well as it happens I'm doing it right now and have lost 14 lbs. but it doesn't exactly all come off at once."

As she headed for the door she kept stepping all over it. All I could think was "Begone, woman!"
"Yes, Miss Daisy"
"Mommy, keep your hands on the wheel."

I hear this from the back seat whenever I have my hand in the 6 o'clock position on the steering wheel and Emma can't see it.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Saturday at Noni and Popi's
On our way over the mountains Emma asked if we could go shopping. Why, of course. I asked her where she wanted to go. "Costco." Well, if you insist...

We took off with Noni while Popi played with his yard. We hit TJMaxx and Fashion Bug. Then we invited Popi to come out and meet us for lunch at Wendy's. After that the girls went to the mall. I bought a copy of "Shaun of the Dead," so I'll let you know what I think when I see it. I ended up buying more stuff for Emma. Four hair bands, a third swimsuit for this summer and a Speedo flotation vest I found for $6.99. I couldn't pass that up. We caught Target at the end of the mall and made it through without popcorn, so it is possible. Finally we stopped by Costco, where I was able to gas up for $3.12 a gallon, a bargain since prices at home are $3.35.

We went back to the house and Emma wore out Popi and then turned to Noni for some swing time. Around 6:00 p.m. we all went out to dinner at Golden Corral. After dinner Noni and Popi headed for a contra dance down the road and Emma and I headed for home. All in all it was a fun day (and very typical).

In these pictures Popi is throwing Emma around out in the Wendy's parking lot.


Butt crack wants to be free.


Oops, too free!

Alumni basketball
The day ended with M's alumni basketball game to benefit Relay for Life. Emma was psyched about the game all day long. My strategy was to go to Noni and Popi's for the day because she always comes home from that wired. I figured since the men's game didn't start until 9:00 p.m. that might be a good way to make sure she would be in decent spirits that late. It worked quite well.

Daddy poses for a picture while Emma is anxious to get inside the gym.


M is warming up with his team.


M would swap out with the other oldest team member and sit on the bench for a rest. Emma would invent reasons to go see him. One time she wanted to show him the hearts on the lining of her jacket. The next time she had to show him the buttons on her shirt.


Daddy's team won this time. He gets a congratulatory kiss.