Hair's the story...

Terry did a great grand weeding of the corner of the yard where we have tulips and lilies and other low maintenance things, and he transplanted some of the lilies to a different planter. I don't know if the sun was in her eyes, or if Annie is just skeptical at their odds of survival. And Terry just came in from watering them and confirmed that statistic, they are looking pretty droopy. Evidently when you transplant something you're supposed to water it every day, go figure.


Alyson doing what appears to be work, but don't be fooled. That's the corner thing there, I bought some wildflower seed thing to spread out in that area, hoping that the weeds I actually bought for there will help choke out the weeds I don't want there. Wildflowers are at least pretty weeds, and not just boring overgrown grass.

We had a Memorial Day cookout like we usually do, and our friend Tim opted to be the entertainment this year. He's one of those long haired types, but the hair on top has been steadily disappearing, thus he's kind of been working a "skullet" type hairdo more and more lately. Plus he's in a weight loss competition, and it's getting to the end, so of course getting rid of hair (and going on an all ice cream diet when you're lactose intolerant--thankfully we haven't seen him since he entered that part of his plan) will make the difference. Tim is veeeeery competitive.

Back view of long-haired hippie type freak. Well maybe not so much hippie, because they are all stoned and peace loving. Tim, not so much with the peace loving. :)

Tim's lovely girlfriend Amy doing the honors. She had never done such a thing before, but I think she did an admirable job. I probably would have cut his ears off or something like that.

We get this look from Tim a lot, usually followed by the sentence "God, you're such an idiot," or some other loving phrase.

The results of the near scalping. We kind of think it looks like a dead rat, or maybe something you would pull out of sewer grate, which yeah, could be a dead rat.

After. See, this guy doesn't so much look like a serial killer, and small children may no longer cry at his approach. Now we just have to do something about the scraggly little Satan beard.

Al has been dissecting a cat for her Biology class, a task she has taken great relish in, she likes to come home and tell us the ooky details, preferably while we are eating something. One of the cats in the class (not hers) was pregnant, and the people who were working on it were too squicked out to extract the fetuses, so she did it and of course had to pop one in a jar and take it home. She said it's little face is kinda cute but now it's all curled up so you can't see so much. I thought it was wild that it has those itty claws. And of course we sat around trying to think of a name, and we settled on BANDIT. You know, cuz that's such a cool name, for like, an animal. Not a human being. And not if it's a girl. ( That's sort of an in joke to my fellow MCR fans, well not so much fans in some instances, but just people that know about stuff like Gerard Way naming his kid something strange) But the best part is that this little cat fetus can't poop on my bed like SOME feline in my house did, but that's a story for another time.

F-F-F-Fuh-Field Day

This is Alyson being butt-hurt that her Dad had the utter audacity to strum a couple plinka plinkas on her birthday ukulele before she did. Evidently he sucked the soul out of it and then she could no longer bond with it or something equally dramatic and stupid. In the end it didn't matter, because we ended up sending this one back, because it was supposed to come with an instructional dvd and it didn't, so of course they had to send a whole new package, which of course had no dvd either, so we called and told them that obviously the description was full of wrong, and they gave us fifteen bucks off, so smiles all around. And I don't think I've even seen the replacement ukulele, because we were afraid to even, you know, touch the box, lest our negative energies seep through the packing material and sully the musical soul of the instrument.

Annie's field day was last Friday. Late May, right? Should be nice, right? Oh hell no, not if you live in the frozen pit of the North. Terry wore shorts, and wasn't even going to take a jacket, at which point I gave him the Mom look and he schlumped back into the house to get it, and he was damn glad for it when we got there. An arctic wind howled across the field, rendering us frozen. He couldn't feel his knees by the time it was over. This is Annie practicing for her standing jump. She inherited her athletic prowess from us, so not so much with the ribbons.

Giving it her all in the 100 meter dash. She's probably wincing from the icy cold blast she's getting in the face. Seriously, it was not warm.

The shelf Terry put up for me, and yes it's ever so slightly crooked. Or maybe our whole house is crooked, because he assures me he used a level. And look at that travesty, my Umbrella Academy figures out of the package. Hey, if I pay 40 bucks for itty things I don't need, I'm gonna play with them! Annie did the cool drawing of the moon with a shooting star for me.

My good friend Danielle came to visit me on Saturday, which required her driving a couple hours just to have lunch, so I know she kinda likes me. I think we figured out that it's been a couple years since we've gotten together. Let's put it this way, I think last time I saw her she had short hair! We had a fun time hanging out, eating lunch and going to the liquor store, two of my favorite things. :)

Real absinthe, the genuine article, imported from France. None of that Southern wormwood, this stuff is the real deal. Terry almost dropped a load at the price, but I was all "My prrreeecious," and I pointed out I do have a job so I should be able to waste my money on what I want, so he gave in. I haven't tried it yet though, I'm kinda askairt. Plus I'm going to be like, rationing it out over the next five years. Hope the United States stopper-bys are having a nice Memorial Day weekend.

Happy Birthday Al-ligator!

This pic was supposed to be at the end of the entry, but then I accidentally deleted and I can barely figure out how to post much less move things around, so now my flow is all messed up but frankly it feels like I've been working on this entry almost as long as I was in labor with this child, so it's staying. Okay, the beginning of Al's emo phase. :) Gotta love the Ghoul costume. And considering she wants to be a medical examiner, it's good she has no problem with skeletal things.

The obligatory Oh my God Mom, oh no you dint', oh yes I did well that means you're going in the bad old folks home later on and this blog will be why. Happy 17th birthday to my first born daughturd!

We loved this little outfit so much, not only did we make Annie wear it too, we saved the thing, along with a few other select items. I am really bad at guesstimating ages from pics, so lets just say she had to be older than 9 months, cuz that's when she started walking. She was all precocious like that, although to be honest, she didn't walk WELL.

Getting the infamous ding-dong from her Grandpa. Basically you just pretend like the kid is the clapper in a bell, and you do this sing-songy "Ding-Dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong." And no, we're cruel and all, but there was no version where you throw the kid down and yell "ding-dong ditch" although in retrospect, that totally sounds like something we would do. The kids are always sad when they outgrow this game. Also, I think Grandpa looks like Jean Luc Picard with big glasses (google him if you don't get that reference, and shame on you!)

Getting a pony ride from Dad the same day, evidently we were grasping for photo ops. This was back when we were good about taking pics and videos. Terry and his Dad have matching glasses! And aw, look at that shiny shiny hair on Terry. I think the little jumpsuit thing Al is wearing was made of corduroy, and was a hand me down. We had a lot of those, thanks to my sister in law, because Al's cousin is only a year older than her.

On our old deck at Easter, forced into a dress that Nanny sent. Aw, isn't she cute? She's totally hating on us for shoving her in a dress, not even counting the indignity of the huge bow in her head, which was some old hair clip I had left over from the 80's.

The last day of school one year, young Al was having fun just a-swangin' at the playground. And then not only did she fall off (or maybe the swing broke?) but she nose planted onto the hot playground surface and did a combo burn/scrape thing that took most of the summer to heal.

She still gives us this look, rather regularly I might add. I think in this particular instance, she had the chicken pox and we were taking umpty leven pictures and she was sick of it. I think she was on her way to bed after brusing her teeth, because that looks like a big water spot on her shirt.

Typecasting at the preschool play, she was a little raincloud! We thought it would be closer to reality if the cloud had been black. But, she's looking pretty happy here. I think she liked that preschool. I remember one time they were having their little circle time after the Christmas party and the kids were each saying what they wanted. Everyone else was all reasonable with dolls and footballs and such, and then Al says "I want a cape like a superhero so I can FLY!" and then she got up and started zooming about the room. She's always thought out of the box. :)

I hope you have a wonderful birthday Al. I know I bitch and moan at you a lot, but I also love you, think you are smart and beautiful, and that you can do anything you set your mind to. I'm so proud of you. Oh, and this is from your Dad too, because he scanned all the pics in for me because you know there's no way I can figure that stuff out.

WE LOVE YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Tea with Miss T

My new silver tea service, compliments of my brother and his wife, who got it for um, buying a house? Opening a bank account? I don't know, they did something with a bunch of money and they got this thing which is way better than a toaster, but they didn't want it, so they passed it on to my Mom, who passed it on to me in the big purge of last month. She mailed it to me, along with my shoes that I had left down there including the one dirty sock I had left in one of my shoes. She is nothing if not thorough. At any rate, I kinda dig it. The itty vase has flowers from this reeaaaaaly good smelling bush that grows next to my porch, it smells a lot like jasmine. And Annie is totally going to have her friends over for tea and a Doctor Who viewing, so we can get all Anglophile like up in here. Which brings me to one of my fave Britishers, Miss T. We chat usually at least once a week, tell each other our bidness, and generally have a good time. And she is nursing a nasty treadmill injury right now, so I hope the following cheers her up.

There ya go, Miss T. I know this pic looks photo-shopped, but those are the actual things she sent me for my birthday. Ya gotta wonder, who sees fake moustaches! and thinks of me, but heck, we had a lot of fun with them. Al's is creepily the same color as her hair, and she totally looks like a dude. And we were trying to look all serious on purpose. I think Annie looks like Super Mario or something.

Another part of the Miss T presents, the beloved Chunky Kit Kats. Our store recently stopped carrying these (and ours weren't even these bountiful "duo" types) and Terry had a big time sad going on. But now we have actual British ones, and peanut butter even!! That's Al's hand trying to creep in and make off with the goodness. I'm sharing though, even though Miss T said I didn't have to.

My mugwort and liverwort, but the blooms didn't show up so well in this pic. I totally got these plants because I thought they sounded like something Harry and Hermione would have to hunt up for potions. And they grow in the shade, which we happen to have quite a bit of in Michigan.

A random pic of Ghost that I found on the camera. I'm thinking this was camera shenanigans while I was at work, evidently he had wedged himself into the lowest shelf of Annie's bookshelves, and Al and Annie thought it was like the funniest. thing. ever. because they took like eight pictures of the event. He looks like he's saying, "Seriously?"

Baaaah Bye

The former family goats, Doris and Lily. My mom wasn't too hip on learning how to deworm goats and all the other sorts of groovy things involved in having strange pets, so she found them a new home, specifying that there was to be no eating of said goats. They are now the newest denizens of a petting zoo, in visiting distance.

This one is my fave, Doris. She had a brother named Boris, but he died of something or the other a long time ago. There have been many goats over the years. For some reason, my Dad just wanted goats. I guess it was a better mid-life crisis than say, buying a Porsche or something douchey like that. At any rate, Doris is sweet as pie and will no doubt enjoy being petted and fed by the childrens. Lily is a turd though, and will probably soon be holding some hapless elementary school kid down and eating the toggles off her coat (that was for you, Miss T).

Terry and the cutest nephews in the world. He is telling them to look at the camera, but he's also tickling them, so yeah, duh.

I had slightly better luck, plus this pic totally shows their personalities. I however appear to be squat and troll-like. It is a testament of my devotion to the cuteness of the nephews that I still put this picture up. They were a lot of fun, although I'm told their energy level can become trying over time.

While I was down in VA the second week, Annie got to go stay at the farm, because I thought maybe leaving an 11 year old at home unsupervised might not be the best idea. And then she went and got bit by the dog. It was kind of funny because we called the night before we were going to head back home, and my bro-in-law answered, so Terry asked to talk to his sister. "Uh, she's helping Annie." "Helping Annie with what?" "Ummm...there was an incident." At which point Terry could hear his sister in the background asking "Is that Terry? Greaaatttt!" We had managed to call minutes after something happened so now we can make fun of what a horrible babysitter she is. Annie was fine, I think she was crying harder because she was afraid Ike was going to be severely punished. He got her a pretty good one though, these are crappy pics, but her thumb was all swollen up and purple and stuff. She got much street cred out of the story of the suckiest Spring Break EVER when she got back to school.

The teeth marks. I told her she must have smelled like beef jerky or something, Ike is usually a nice amiable sort.

Now if you all will excuse me, I have to go get some chicken marinating in some BBQ sauce. I think Spring is finally entering the frozen North and I gotst to get my grill on tonight and enjoy the nice weather.

Serenity, and Stuff

Lookit, it's Spring all up in this place down here. I guess I get two Springs this year, because it hasn't so much sprung back at home in MI, at least according to the temps I see on my Weather Bug thingy. Took me a few days before I realized that I was still getting the one from home. I'm going to have to drag my butt to the Mart of Wal for some more short sleeved shirts, I only brought two and one is brown and one is black and I'm tired of depressing colors. Not that you will see me in hot pink anytime soon, mind you.

This cool tree thingy is in the woods behind my Nanny's house. I spent a heckuva lot of time tramping around down there back in the day. You know, in the olden times before satellite tv and Playstations and computers and the interwebs. When kids had to entertain themselves. And we liked it!! In the sixth grade, I had to do some thing called a Science Log, my teacher would assign certain things we had to find, or things we had to observe. The kids who lived in town would bitch and moan, but it never took me long to find weird moss, or spores, or a spider in the act of spinning a web.

If I was twenty five years younger and 100 or so pounds lighter, I would have totally tried to walk across this here log.

And I would have racked up mad extra Science Log points for this baby, a deer skeleton. I know Annie is disappointed she didn't get to see this, she is so fond of finding dead things in the spring, morbid little child.

I do think the antlers are cool looking though. The legs weren't with the rest of the skeleton, they were a bit farther down the gorge, but I didn't feel like hunting about for them. I hope everyone is having a nice Easter. I am going to get a visit from the two cutest nephews in the world later, Terry is totally jealous.

Proving there is nothing I won't blog about

Um, the most recent picture of my Dad. As many of you know, he pulled the most heinous in bad taste non April Fool's Day joke, like, ever, and had a stroke. We thought he was going to be okay and were merrily planning a future where we nagged him and made him quit chewing tobacco and handed him Tofutti instead of ice cream, and then he upped the ante and left us for the ice cream bar on the Other Side where he can mainline Butter Pecan Breyer's all day and nobody bugs him about it.

I know I joke, but these last few days have been surreal and painful, full to tears, but also full of laughter. My Mom and Dad were truly soulmates, a truth you guys probably got an itty taste of from the anniversary post. She is in profound pain and my brother and I are doing as much as we can, but unfortunately, the best we can do is help her find her way to the new normal.

I have been awed at the amount of people who have come by the house, visited, called, showed up to the funeral home for the visitation and service, and they all say the same thing, about how much they loved him and will miss him. And I have also been thankful for the amount of support I have gotten from my "invisible friends." Solly really got it when she said she knew I was overwhelmed, because in the South when someone dies you're totally surrounded by folks and food, no matter where you turn.

The Memorial Service was this morning, and it was nice and all, but I kinda wanted them to play my Dad's fave song but they didn't. So here's the lyrics:

Be young, be foolish, but be happy
Be young, be foolish, but be happy

Don't let the rain get you down, it's a waste of time
A waste of time
Have your fun, live everyday in the bright sunshine
The bright sunshine

Well it's the same old story all over the world
Girl meets boy, and boy meets girl

So be young, be foolish, but be happy
Be young, be foolish, but be happy

Don't let love slip away, slip away
Live your life for today, for today

Life is too short to worry about unimportant things
Unimportant things
Reach for the sky, touch your star, and then you find your dream
Find your dream

Cause dreamin' alone, it's a shame indeed
But if you got love that's all you need

So be young, be foolish, girl be happy
Be young, be foolish, girl stay happy(Repeat fade)



Thanks again you guys. My Mom says thanks too, I have read your words of comfort to her and she was as touched as I am. I promise I will write about something cheerier next time.