what does this mean?

Ao one of my new years resolutions is to do push ups every morning. so I can do 16 on a good day but most days average about 12 or 13. Last night I dreamed I could 25 pushups and it was easy. a breeze. what the heck does that mean? I dont think it means like I feel like i can do anything as my life is feeling a wee bit out of control right now. any other thoughts?

just another snowy monday

'nuff said. carry on.

colleen - hope y'all made it home last night in one piece. we thought of you at 10pm and wondered.
Kevin, there is left over saag if you want it. LOL.

that is weird

so the polling website i used generates a map so you can see where the votes come from. it showed votes from lansing and kalamazoo... hmmm... but then it showed san diego. boy am I confused. no votes from new mexico, illinois, kansas or virginia. weird. OK, so Im gonna do another poll just for the heck of it!!

As you know Koompa's centurian b=day party is coming up this summer. What should the theme be???

Chocolate anyone?

Im at work right now and Im having a total chocolate attack. I mean if i plan to get any work done I better just go get some or Im going to be wasting my time thinking about it. But I admit Im sort of picky about my chocolate... so I was wondering how do you like your chocolate? (notice that not liking chocolate is not a choice.... at least in this poll!)

Fat Tuesday Michigan Style

One of the things I missed the most about living in Michigan were the paczkis on Fat Tuesday. I don't remember ever having a Paczki as a kid (Mom, sibs, feel free to set me straight.) but it was an annual thing at the GM proving ground when I worked there in the early 90s. I especially remember the powdered, raspberry-filled kind. Yum!

Well call me a homer but I actually tried to find these things in NYC. There was always Star Deli, in Brooklyn, but that was too far for a stupid donut. So either because of excessive discipline, or laziness, or both, we went paczki-less for about 12 years.

So I was so excited about Fat Tuesday this year that I dragged the girls to Goodrich's on Monday to get some paczkis (if you ever have trouble spelling it, just remember Frankie's name is Franciszka! The Z goes before the K!) We got a half dozen, in a variety of flavors to make everyone happy, chocolate-filled glazed for the Frankster (donut!) and plain, custard for Angie. (Bee is just not a donut person, I'm afraid.)

Long story short, I ended up eating four paczkis today, two from home and two from the copious trays of them sitting around work. And we still have three sitting at home looking all forlorn. What should we do with them? Eat them all tonight? Sneak a paczki tomorrow? Feed them to Koompa and Marky? What is a good polack to do?

Anthony and Cleopatra

One of the gaurds at a roman estate found anthony and cleopatra dead a few feet away from each othe at the end of the day. He immediately called Ceasar who confirmed that they were both dead. Caesar ruled out poison and there was no sign of foul play. He did seee a small crack that in the floor, which ran between the two bodies, and concluded that the crack is what caused their death. He was right but how did they die?

Clues:
they had not been strangled or suffocated.
they were both naked
they were both good swimmers
they did not injure themselves by diving into an empty bath or swimming pool

(from the book Lateral Thinking.... we were laughing at how dopey some of these puzzle are so we thought we should share one with you!)

WWYD?

Well, we put up the babygate last night so marky couldnt go outside... but around 11.30pm (which is the middle of the night to me), koompa starts barking like a maniac! Good for our neighbors she's barking inside, bad for us. Needless to say that woke us up! So I went downstairs to see what the commotion was all about., and found her barking at the babygate. She wanted to go outside. I thought maybe she saw the rabbit so I tried to distract her by coaxing her upstairs, but all she did was run to the front door thinking I was going to let her out there. She must have had to really go. So I took down the gate and let her go out. I went to bed but a half hour later still hadnt fallen to sleep because I was worried that marky would go outside, so I went back down, made sure koomps was inside, and put the gate back up. So, honestly, I dont know what to do. I bet koompa goes outside in the middle of the night all of the time. But I dont want to risk marky getting stuck again. Now before you think, oh marks, she wont get stuck again, let me tell you this: I got up around 4:30 this morning, took the baby gate down, made some coffee and went to the parlor to do a few exercises. And what do I hear? Marky barking. So i got up went to the sliding door opened it and called her but I couldnt find her. It was then that I realized that she was stuck half way out the door again! that poor marks! WWYD?

I am so freakin excited!

its getting to 30 degrees this week. Wait. Make it 36. Im running in shorts and a tank top!

Marker BARKER

So this morning I was awakened at 3:50 am by a loud pounding on the front door. I went down stairs, turned on the porch light and looked out the window. it was the POLICE! Yeesh, that freaked me out. My first reaction was oh no, where is frankie? Did she crawl out the dog door when we were sleeping? (that happened in a dream, or rather nightmare, after i heard Nakita's escapades.) So i opened the door bed head and all, and the officer said to me: Is that your dog barking outside? After immediately feeling relieved that this was not about frankie crawling out the dog door, you know what, i listened for a moment and indeed it sounded like Marky. So I said,uh, it sounds like her I will check. I walk into the kitchen where the dog door is and there is marky stuck with her feet inside the house and her head and front feet outside, barking like a maniac. Why her barking did not wake any of us up is beyond me, but that I suppose is another story for another time. So I pulled her in, apologized to the police officer (who said we had a noise violation warning, and next time it would be a ticket). After the police left, I went back to check on marky because I left her splayed on the kitchen floor (her arthritis in her hips is pretty bad, well, and that is the reason she got stuck). Poor thing was still there. Now she is doing better, laying by Scott's feet, waiting for her sunday treat.

Happy Birthday Scott!

We love you! Have a great day! Welcome to the new 30!

T minus 1 day and counting....

Well today is bone day, and there is a song that goes with it:
Bone Day. Bone Day.
Koompa and Marky gonna get a bone.
Bone Day. Bone Day.
Koompa and Marky gonna get a bone.

The idea is to keep singing it over and over until K&M have worked themselves up into such a frenzy that they have forgotten which way is up. Actually you start the song by just lightly whisteling it. then you tap it out. then you add the words softly, adding more volume and beat with each passing chorus. Maybe I should get Scott to sing it, or maybe Bee.

But on to the birthday boy. He has always told me that he LOVES cold weather. And if asked the question: Would you rather be freezing cold with no heat or boiling hot with no AC he picks the cold every time. Me? I pick the heat. but we can talk about that another day. I think that michigan has responded well to his 40th. Yes, Michigan, the feeling's forever!

I just took this off of weather underground for lansing, mi. It's a little hard to see here. that top blue line is the normal high for feb. the red line is the actual this year.

Birthday Boy Report

A proud papa:




We're still working on the MSU Fight Song. Really, I like the dogfight the best. But I'm having trouble remembering the words. Like for example, at the very end I can sing

See their team is weakening,
We're going to win this game.
Fight! Fight! Rah! Team, Fight!
Victory for...
And right there I keep messing up. I guess I'm just not very good at blank verse.

yogurt cupcakes anyone?

Well, lets just say that birthday boy's feb 13 evening surprise (chocolate yogurt cupcakes) was a surprise of many sorts. I have a half dozen to give away. I will pay the shipping.... here is a picture. just kidding.

Birthday boy report

Walking home from work today was a revelation- I realized just why humans (or some of us anyway) evolved to grow facial hair. I had to walk home into the wind during a snowstorm, and darn it if my chin didn't get chilly! At that point, I would not have been opposed to looking like this man ->

The clean shaven look just wasn't working for me. But then I got home and said "Frankie, feel how cold my cheeks are!" and pressed my cheek up against hers. That's a nice way to warm up.

ringing in the birthday week

So yesterday the girls and I went to playmakers to get scott a little present .... you see each day this week scotty gets a special something for his birthweek. We got him a pair of running socks that Bee picked out. At first she picked out these pink ones with little flowers and I tried to explain to her how I though daddy might want something else. So then she picked out these blue ones with a yellow smiley face. they were cute, maybe too cute. thank goodness they didnt have size large! Then we settled on some that had sol y la luna. Of course we are having a winter weather warning today with 6 inches of snow and winds gusting 20-30mph and bitterly cold temps at around 5 degrees above.... so it may be a while before he can test out the socks. anyway, lets ring on in the birthday week with this picture (I might add this is the very end of a half marathon - 13.1 miles! Gooooooooo Scotty GooooooooO!):

still cold....

Should we continue on with the cold weather theme? We're supposed to get 6 inches of snow tonight, with gusty winds, and blowing snow. Anyhow, my flight to texas was cancelled along with tons of other flights i imagine so Im stuck here in the snow rather than soaking up the sun. Thats OK, I prefer to be home with my family....... especially..... because this is scotty's birthday week!! So, everyday (beginning tomorrow), and with his editorial comment, I will post a fun picture with the scottster along with some humor. So, get ready to crank it up, you only turn 40 once!

balmy winter weather

You know it is sad when you go outside and think its warm and you check the temp and its 12.6F.

arctic ice

here is a suggestion. Do not chew a piece of altoid peppermint gum then go for a 1 mile walk home in the -20 windchill. Honestly, i felt like i was breathing in arctic ice!

warming up to 15 today

A real heat wave. But the cold weather does make the crunchiest, squeakiest sounding snow. Bee was trying to put on a concert yesterday afternoon when I picked her up from school. And the snow just shakes right off your pants without melting and getting them all wet. I guess the cold weather does have its ups.

mullets, cont

so the pics that go with the last post.... the first one is frankie in all her glorey. the second pic is the "classic style" from mullets galore.

mullets

there is something that Bee, Franks and I have in common - we're not sure about scott -- and that is that the hair on the back of our heads grows alot faster than the front of our heads. that means we are prone to mullets. So, poor Franks, who has never had a haircut in her life, is facing the prospect of either developing a serious a mullet or getting the whack. (I will note that we are going to chicago this weekend so she should fit right in. Why I equate mullets with chicago, you might ask? I dont really know). a few weeks ago when I got my hair cut I literally said, chop the back only. I should post some pictures. We're still waiting for our camera to arrive home from nyc though.

Since we are on to the topic of mullets, did you know that there were different kinds of mullets? This is what mulletsgalore.com is all about. As I studied the site, I saw that there is the classic, which I am afraid is exactly what Franks is growing: