Happy Epiphany

I know it's not yet Epiphany, but it's close.

We went out for dinner with Mr. and Mrs. the Photog New Year's Day. We ate at Cafe Adobe. While the service was all right (we got our refills without needing to be asked), the greeters/sitters left something to be desired.

We got there shortly before the Photogs did, and I mentioned that we would need a table for 7. The blonde greeter stated there was no table available yet, but that they had a booth in the smoking section, "but nobody is smoking in there now." I mentioned that we would prefer a non-smoking table, and she said that would be no problem, and it would take them about 2 minutes to put a couple tables together. I said that would be fine and sat down to wait. While waiting, the Photogs arrived while the Brunette greeter was sitting a table of 25. The Blonde greeter was sitting a table of 5 and another group of 8 or so was also seated. I went back up (after mentioning to the Photogs about the offer for the booth that I declined as it was in the smoking section), and asked about our table as they had seated 3 groups before us. Brunette Seater said they didn't have a table ready, but that there was a booth available. I asked if this was the same booth in the smoking section that I had already declined, and she said "yes, but nobody is smoking there right now." Mrs. Photog astutely noted that simply because nobody was smoking now did not preclude anybody from coming in and smoking after we'd been seated. I commented on how I was confused that they had no table for us even though they seated 3 groups each with more than 4 people and two of which were larger than ours even though they said it would only be 2 minutes for us to be seated. Blonde Seater grabbed some place settings while I was asking the manager what was going on, and she went and started setting two tables together for us. The manager commented that it would be no problem for us to get two tables together (the place was fairly empty; it was New Year's after all), and the Brunette seater went to get some place settings and started to lead us to where Blonde Seater had already set the menus down, so she put hers back.

Long story short (too late), we finally got seated. As I said the service itself wasn't bad, though the food took a little longer to get out than I would have normally liked. The company was terrific, as the Photogs are always fun to be with. They even got the Binjo kids a terrific gift - season passes to the Zoo. This is good news, indeed! Thank you, again, Photogs - the kids will have a great time.

Right now, the Boy is ill with whatever the Apple had a couple weeks ago - high fever, some congestion. It's a good little flu or something. Hopefully he'll be okay in the next day or two - I don't like seeing the young'uns sick.

Trivia Question

The answer will be at the bottom - no peeking

You find yourself trapped in a hermetically-sealed concrete room. There is concrete on the ceiling, all walls, and the floor. There are no windows or doors. All that is in the room with you is a flashlight, a wooden table, and a mirror. How do you escape?







Give up?




OK,
First, you look at the table. Then you turn around and look through the mirror at the table to see what you saw. You then go pick up the saw and cut the table in half. Two halves make a hole, and you climb out through the hole.

More from the Saginaw News Courier

Circa Friday, 2/13/1920:
Tire Prices - $8.50 - $19.60. Separate prices for inner tubes.

A comic from 1920 - Freckles and His Friends. A story on the right notes France is denying any alliance negotiations with Serbia/Jugoslavia. Another story is about the Romanian Jeanne d'Arc - Ecaterina Teodoroiu, as related by Romanian Military Attache Major Livinius D. Teiusamau.

The sports page.


And the famous Mary Pickford will be starring in Pollyanna. Fatty Arbuckle is starring in Fatty's Jitney Chase.
Circa Friday, 2/13/1920:

Interesting Discoveries

While my aunt was cleaning out the cabin, she found some interesting things, such as this newspaper from Saginaw.

I don't know if you can read the date on there, but it reads Friday, February 13, 1920. Headlines read differently then than they do now:

I haven't read the whole paper, in part because I didn't want to touch it too much - lest it disintegrate, but I did leaf through it briefly. I saw this ad for a $27.50 suit.

Mostly, I thought this was pretty neat. I held on to it for posterity's sake. I'm into collecting odd little things like this.

Up North

The cabin has been foreclosed upon. The family is clearing the possessions out this weekend. I was fortunate enough to get to see the place one last time. Other than some siding on the cabin, the area looks almost exactly the same. I think the neighbor's outhouse is gone now, though.


My grandparents bought the cabin before I was born, though I'm not sure how long before. I remember it as Grandma and Grandpa's place, and only vaguely remember their living in Sterling Heights. The cabin is where we went to visit whenever we went back to Michigan.

I remember visiting when I was seven, being afraid that there might be Indians on the other side of the lake - if I listened really hard, I could hear the drums beating. At night, I thought they might try to attack.


I remember being chased by friends carrying toads (I'm not a reptile/amphibian fan).

I remember a thunderstorm when I was 10. A bolt of lightning struck right between our cabin and the one next door.

I remember reading a story in Reader's Digest about the New Jersey Devil and trying to get myself to sleep that night, afraid he might have decided to take a vacation to West Branch.

I remember fishing, and catching fish, mostly bluegill with the occasional pike. I also remember scores of pounds of grass pike. I remember catching our dinner.

I remember rowing out all over the lake.


I remember Toutant's General store, where I bought my first fishing lure.

I remember going out to the middle of the lake on that old raft and swimming, feeling the lake weeds with my toes.

I remember running in the woods, playing with friends. I remember Uncle John taking us to Elk Lake bar and getting us Shirley Temples (we were 12).

I remember my first trip to Lost Lake. I was 15. I didn't catch anything. I didn't do much other than row over there and see it.

I remember the feeling of really being away from "it." I remember not having any worries there. I remember spaghetti on every trip. I remember "shit, Earl."

I was only at the cabin for about 16 hours this weekend, but I remembered every trip I'd spent there. I know how unlikely it would have been for myself and my wife and kids to ever get back to the cabin, let alone often enough to justify wanting to keep it, but when I heard the family was losing it, I couldn't help but feeling that way. The good news is that the memories of the place are all fond. And for that, I'm glad.

Tag!

It's been a while since I've been hit with a Meme. I can't actually say as I remember the last one that got to me. Therefore, it was a bit of a surprise when Bookworm stopped by and tagged me, though a welcome one. Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you'd like.

Let's get started:
1. I've gone skiing one time. I'm pretty sure I dislocated my thumb, though I never went to the doctor about it. I spent the day with a giant tear in the crotch of my trousers, and didn't realize until about 30 minutes before we left the park.
2. Technically, I have traveled to or through 26 states. I say technically, because I don't know if you can count Colorado (at the Denver Airport), Nevada (at the Las Vegas airport, though I was there long enough to lose $20), or when I "went" to Maine - we were trying to go to my friend's friend's house for a party in New Hampshire, took a wrong turn, and crossed the bridge into Maine, turned around and went right back.
3. I am a Plaintiff's lawyer by trade, but not necessarily by desire.
4. My wife and I were writing partners in English class in 1987. We didn't know we would end up married at the time.
5. I once thought I killed a cat by driving over it on the way to an ice skating rink with my sister and two of our friends. The laughter from the fact that we didn't feel a bump and therefore thought we dragged the cat on the road was not intentional, but more circumstantial. On the way back home, nobody said anything for about a 2 mile stretch where we were expecting to see cat guts all over the ground. The laughter that came from not seeing anything was huge, and full of relief.
6. Sometimes while in law school, I wondered if I was going to school for the same reason Bernice bobbed her hair. I think I had a different motivation.
7. I am an 8 year veteran of the Air Force.

Now, the image of martial discord, from my trip to New Orleans last year in January, a picture I took in the lower 9th Ward:


For those I tag, I'm going to go with the Family and Alumni +1 approach:
1. One Step Sideways
2. Raise Your Hand If...
3. Jack's Mama
4. Rambling Photos of a Life Lived (who's been rather busy living life, and may not have time for twaddle like this)
5. Red Hot Mamma
6. Cat Bandit
7. Vim and Vinegar

Conversation With the Princess

This morning, as I mentioned in my previous post, we ate breakfast at the Guenther House in San Antonio - by far one of the top 3 restaurant breakfasts I've enjoyed in Houston. We had a bit of a wait to be seated. Fortunately, the house is right on the San Antonio River, with a pretty nice-sized seawall attached, so you got a good view without too much risk of getting wet.

The Princess had been looking over the side at a couple mallards that were swimming about. She walks over to me and asks me if I've ever eaten duck. "Yes, Princess, I have."
"Oh, then those ducks probably don't like you."

After asking Mom the same question and receiving a negative reply, it was back to watching the ducks swim.

I guess I know now why ducks don't come up and start casual conversations with me.

Honeydo

I've been rather busy today. First off, I got up early. This isn't so much an accomplishment as a force of habit. I don't know that I could sleep in if I wanted to.

So we got to work. The wife took They Boy out for breakfast while I went to the gym for the first time in 2 months. I feel bad for not getting in, but the only time I can really schedule a trip is on the weekends, and since I started my job, those have been booked pretty solid. I know I'm making an excuse, but I think it's a legitimate one. Anyway, I found out I weigh essentially the same (about a 1/2 - 1 pound difference) than I did before my sabbatical, which really made me feel good, and I got a decent, though not great, workout, because though I haven't gained weight, I have lost cardio fitness.

Then I got home, and we had to take the wife's minivan in to get checked out. There have been some problems recently, and we've needed to get it in, and today was that day. So we loaded the kids in the minivan and the wife followed me in my car to get hers to the car guy. When she got stuck one red light behind me, I decided to stop at the hardware store and get a new dryer hose so that we could perhaps have clothes dry in less than 3 hours. I approached this with some trepidation, due to my last encounter with the demon dryer, but it had to be done. So I got the hose and pulled into the car shop just as the wife was calling me to figure out where I was, as she already dropped her car off (I only lost about 4 minutes, so it wasn't a long detour). Then we went to the grocer to buy some pizza rolls and coke (because while I'm trying to get in better shape, I'm not trying THAT hard), and went home where there were tasks to be accomplished.

So the wife immediately took a shower. I used this time to get all the kids occupied on random games while I sorted out what I needed to do. First up was the cat litter. I'm not certain, but I'd bet if I actually killed, skinned and sold the cats as "teriyaki" at a 3rd Ward seafood restaurant ("You buy, we fry!"), then 3 weeks later, I'd still find myself changing the litter box. Now, to be fair, I wouldn't kill or skin the cats, and I wouldn't sell them to a seafood restaurant unless I got a pretty good offer for them, but you get the idea. After changing the cat litter, I had to sweep the area so that I could move the dryer out to accomplish The Feat. I managed to change the dryer hose with a minimum of swearing (actually with nary a curse), and, being the multitasker I am, I managed to take out the pizza rolls, serve them, and place the new batch in the oven at the same time. Then I went upstairs and glued one of the broken crossbeams on the Apple's bed. As soon as I got this taken care of, the second batch of pizza rolls were done, so I put them on the plate for the kids to attack, and discovered that the Wife was getting out of the shower (this suggests that I finished quickly, not that she showers slowly).

After we picked up the wife's minivan, which we will have to take back in next Saturday, because they needed to order the part and we need both cars, we got home and I got to refill her tires, which have been running low on air for a couple months. They didn't need much air, but they did need air. Fortunately, the Apple decided to come out and help. Unfortunately, he decided to come out and help with no pants or underwear on. Fortunately, after I sent him back in, he did a giggling jig and ran off. Unfortunately, he didn't go right back in the house, instead he stood next to the patio gate and played until I checked on him and sent his giggling naked butt inside.

Now we're just biding time until dinner. I'm ready for bed.

I'm "uber cool"

And I swear, the lightsaber I had was when I was like 5, so we're talking from back in the '70s.

Trains of thought

I tend to jump around a lot in my conversations. I will have a discussion on one topic, then switch to another topic in the natural progression of the conversation, then I will suddenly bring up the prior topic as though we had never left that subject. It takes my friends some time to get used to that.

Another thing I do is think about something while I'm talking, and use that as a random jump from one point to another, which makes perfect sense to me, but none to the person with whom I'm conversing. For example, We could be discussing lunch, and perhaps we had chinese food with shrimp. I would then (in rapid succession) think about how I once had shrimp at Bennigan's and thought that the batter was bland. Then I would think about how there is a Bennigan's in Seoul, and how we never went there, but we did go to OB Station, which had all you could eat Mongolian BBQ, and that there wasn't an all you can eat at Osan, or in Songtan (the city next to Osan AB), and that we often would just hang out at the Skivvy-9 lounge on base, and then I would remember that we almost always played Euchre while at the lounge, which would remind me that just about everyone in Michigan plays Euchre, and then I would think about how it would be nice to go back to Michigan to visit again sometime, and how the last time I went, my pa and I went fishing with my uncle Bill up at the folks' cabin on Mud Lake, where I caught three Pike, though none of them were keepers. I would then say to my friend "Pike have some sharp teeth," to which my friend would reply "uh, random." But as you can see - it's not random; it makes perfect sense.

Recently, I've taken to explaining my train of thought for my friends. They seem to enjoy the destination more after they've travelled the path.

It's fun to stay at the...

We joined the Y at the beginning of the month. I needed an outlet for my stress, and the kids can use the time away from home (and the swimming lessons).

I've actually been pretty good at getting a somewhat regular schedule down for going to the gym to exercise. I do 3o minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine, and have even bumped up the resistance a notch, so I'm getting better. Additionally, I try to do crunches each time I go in - I need the ab work, to be certain. And I have been working on upper body weights, arms and chest, as well as calves (I can max out the calf machine, so it makes me feel good).

I notice I feel better now than I did a couple weeks ago - not as lethargic, not (quite) as crochety. I've not lost any weight yet, from what I can tell on the Y's broken scale, but that's OK, if I'm getting in better physical shape - the weight will follow. As it is, I'll keep up with the exercise.

We also bought a couple tennis rackets this weekend. I've not played tennis in about 10 years, though I still know how to hold a racket and hit a ball. I like racquetball better, but tennis is a little more accessible, especially since the Y doesn't have a racquetball court where we live. Now I just have to find someone to play tennis with. The daughter is cute, watching her swing her little racket, but she's not able to serve and volley yet, and she gets intimidated returning serve. Five years old, and such a wimp. ;-)

All right, my break is done - back to studying. Woo. Hoo.

Perhaps this is why I always finish last...

I went to my friend Bookworm's Room, where I found a quiz that tells me that I am most like. I'm not quite sure what to say about that.

Your Score: Jimmy Stewart

You scored 14% Tough, 14% Roguish, 61% Friendly, and 14% Charming!

You are the fun and friendly boy next door, the classic nice guy who
still manages to get the girl most of the time. You're every nice
girl's dreamboat, open and kind, nutty and charming, even a little
mischievous at times, but always a real stand up guy. You're dependable
and forthright, and women are drawn to your reliability, even as
they're dazzled by your sense of adventure and fun. You try to be tough
when you need to be, and will gladly stand up for any damsel in
distress, but you'd rather catch a girl with a little bit of flair.
Your leading ladies include Jean Arthur and Donna Reed, those sweet
girl-next-door types.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the
Classic Dames Test.

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Studdy Buddies

I'm going to go to school today, where I will review with a couple of my classmates the stuff we covered in class last week. This is something I think is going to be necessary for me to pass the bar.

This puts a bit of a burden on the wife, though, as she will be forced to watch the kids while I'm gone. I think I owe her.

Oh, and I got my graduation gifts on Friday. The spouse got me a money clip, which should serve me better than stuffing random dollar bills in my pockets, and she got me cufflinks (I've never owned cufflinks before). Both gifts were sterling silver, and monogrammed, though the initials were GWB, and not my initials. I'm not sure who she was thinking of when she ordered them, but she must really have a thing for him...

(Note: I'm kidding about the wrong initials)

The Times, They Are A-Changin'

My children are currently watching the Berenstain Bears, on PBS, based on the books by Stan and Jan Berenstain. I remember reading a book called "The Spooky Old Tree," when I was the Boy's age. It was a book written by Stan and Jan Berenstein - a Berenstein Bears book.

I don't know when the change came, and I'm not sure (though I have a suspicion as to) why they changed. I think it's unfortunate that whoever made the decision to change the name felt obligated to.

Retreads

Several years ago now, Madonna reimagined Don McLean's "American Pie," in one of the worst remakes of all time. When it came out, my friend and I decided that there were some rock classics that just should never be remade by anyone. Some examples we thought of were "Sweet Home Alabama (which is open season for all karaoke bars, but no single releases)," "Hotel California," "Don't Fear the Reaper," "Tears of a Clown," "Good Vibrations," and "Sounds of Silence."

Your assignment is to come up with other songs that should never be remade, or should never have been remade. Feel free to list as many as you can think of.

It's Not Easy, Being Green

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 50% The Flash 50% Superman 50% Spider-Man 50% Supergirl 45% Iron Man 40% Hulk 40% Robin 37% Wonder Woman 25% Catwoman 25% Batman 25%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Funny

We went out to eat today after going to the zoo. The kids had a great time at the zoo, though I got a little dehydrated, but that's beside the point. We went to Fuddrucker's - which has pretty darn good hamburgers - and ate there.

While we were eating, a family came in and sat down behind my wife and daughter - so I could see them, but wife and daughter couldn't. Anyway, there was a guy who sat down with a shirt that had some clever writing on it, which I thought I'd share with you verbatim:

Stupidity is not a crime. Your free to go.

Even if I had laughed out loud at it, I don't think they guy would have understood why.

Shameful Confessions

I confess that on more than one occasion, I have taken the elevator to go up one floor (e.g. first to second floor).

Your turn.

Weekend Update

The kids played with bubbles today. I don't know what it is about bubbles that kids love so much, but I'm glad for it.

The in-laws came to town Wednesday night. We got the new car Thursday afternoon, and they left Friday morning.

We have a new car. It's a 2001 Chevy Cavalier. It's essentially Chevrolet's version of the Escort, but this one is more recent than the Escort was, had no broken bumper, has a heater, upholstry, and a stereo. So while it's a lateral transfer, it's also a step up, so I guess it's a diagonal transfer.

I like it. It's nice to have something to listen to besides myself in the mornings - I can get boring after 3 years driving downtown.

We're having steak tonight - I'm cooking. Go me.