Baseball It Is

I can't even say it was a dilemma. Pre-season football vs. the Brewers playing the Cubs. I choose the Brewers. I tuned into the game at the end of the first quarter, checked the score, saw that Rogers was in and switched back to the Brewer game. Not a big fan of #12. There's money involved in the football game but not much excitement in watching it.

The wonderful people I work for were so gracious as to let us out at 3pm today. That's twice this week. I am so rushed when working until 5 that I didn't know how to handle getting out 2 hours early. My first thought was to do some shopping. That was short lived as I can squeeze that in this weekend. Second thought was go home and read an Operators Manual that was given to me at work. That went down the tubes. I opted to catch Dylan's football practice.

I found myself seated on my lawn chair in between my son and his current girlfriend and Dylan's mom and her husband. They all get along well but the subject of who gets Dylan on what days for Christmas came up. This is a hassle that I went through for years with my ex also. After listening to them for awhile my head started to hurt. I thought to myself...this is 4 months away, let's let it go for another few months. She has a large family that needs to understand the Dylan can't be at every one's house. My family understands. But when her husband busted in with "My parents and grandparents want to see him on Christmas also" I snapped inside. I have natural grandparent rights. There are a lot of times that I back off as I don't want Dylan to feel this pressure. He's a kid and shouldn't have to. But if you tell me that I have to step aside so a step-grandparent is not unhappy it jerks my chain. My son's girlfriend has the right idea-she takes him to her families home a day or two before the holiday so as not to add anymore visits to the boy's already full plate. The final outcome was to find out who's doing what and when and talk about it at a later date. Let's focus on the reason we came to the football practice. We then switched to the bickering over who he was going home with after practice. It seems he's been with his dad for the past 4 days and mom wanted him to come to her house before she turned his bedroom into a den. As we were leaving I decided to settle the whole thing and told him to hop in my car. His plan was that I'd take the day off tomorrow and we'd go fishing. It was tempting. In the end the torn between his parents child went home with Mom. His parting words to his dad "Pick me up at 7am tomorrow Dad". Ahhhh the memories.

Buy A Truck!

I had to make a stop at the local garden center after work today. During my shopping I happened to notice a couple purchasing a large tree. The thing was hanging out of a shopping cart. I wondered why as the store has several wagon type carts that they could have stood the tree up in. As I was loading my four bags of wood chips into my truck (I am so glad I'm not a girlie girl and can hoist these things up) I saw the couple attempting to load the large tree into the back of some type of hatch back car. It wasn't going to happen. They were arguing quite loudly. She wanted to call someone, he was sure they could get this thing home. I overheard her say they had to go all the way to Highway 100 and Morgan. Ding!! There is a Steins Garden Center on Highway 100 and Beloit. I thought of mentioning that to them but I figured why add fuel to the fire.

I've come to the conclusion that all the weathermen should say on a daily basis is : A chance of rain. That would cover their ass. I watched the weather this morning and heard nothing about rain today. I listened to the weather on the way to work and heard "chance of rain tomorrow". It sure did rain. I'm not sure what was going on but the weather radio at work was going nuts around 11 am. Obviously there was no need to take cover or someone would have run out and told us.

The camping trip was a good time. The hot firemen at Muster Fest were pleasant to the eye. A fan may have come in handy a few times (to keep the bees away). I found the Grumpy Troll Bar to be a little stuffy. I found the dive bar to be fun. Thankfully we only had rain upon our arrival, the rest of the weekend was great weather. I had doubts that raccoons still existed as we hadn't seen any evidence of them so far this year. They made a little visit to us on Saturday night. Ken was able to save the cake but the little rats made off with a bag of Doritos (we never found them) and a bag of bad peanuts (which we found a few feet into the woods). I partially blame this on us for leaving the stuff out in the first place. See what happens when E doesn't come and Ken goes to bed early. There is no one on food patrol.

I have found my Bible and highliter and will be reading and highlighting all the "knows" in the Good Book. I found that bit of trivia to be quite interesting and amusing. I must though share one verse I have found so far: Genesis Chapter 4 vs 1- And Adam knew Eve his wife: and she conceived, and bare Cain. This is as much as I read today

L

No cook, no cleaning person, no gardener, no pool boy, flat out no win. I am a looser once again in the Powerball drawing.

The other day I was browsing and read some stories about previous lottery winners. These stories make want you buy tickets so you can prove statistics wrong. There was a story about a woman who won twice and is now living in a trailer park. Apparently she gave a lot of money to family and now they're all living it up while and won't help her. After further investigation (another article on her) it is revealed that she gambled away a large portion of her winnings. What the articles fail to tell you is how these people got into these situations. Take for instance the man who suddenly became a cocaine dealer. He was shot. Hello?? On the lighter side, the Mormon people in Utah that won built a house across the street from their old home, still have the same friends and live a little better. Their big thing is to take a family trip every Christmas. They all looked pretty happy. So for now, I'll just continue to spend my measly two dollars on Powerball tickets. I'm 0 for 245 now. How bad can it be?

Off to camping tomorrow. Hopefully we won't need to take a pontoon boat to our site. I'm a little nervous about the amount of mosquito's we may encounter. So far this year it hasn't been bad. There's some prime breeding ground for the little bastards now. We will certainly miss our friend E who won't be joining us this time. I feel a song coming on. Something to do with Spam, filling torches and gas.

Hey Noah!

I had bad timing today. I turned on my niceness and stayed a little past 5 to help out our Process Engineer with something he wanted to run. I could hear the weather radio going off and figured I had time before the mess hit Wauwatosa. At 5:20 as I was walking toward the exit door I saw that is was very dark outside. For one moment I had a flashback of working 2nd shift. Of course today I was loaded down with not only my purse and lunch bag but a box with Kringles that came today. As I part-ran, part-swam across Bostik Lake to my car my only thought was to protect the $7.50 soccer (I hate soccer) fund raiser Kringles. To my fellow campers you will be happy to know they made it home safe and sound and not even soggy.

I opted to take Highway 100 home verses the freeway as I could see traffic was moving very slow. This is where driving a truck may have been a good thing. Many cars were having great difficulty in the lakes that had formed on H100. In some areas the water was up to the curb. The closer I got to home the less severe the weather was. As I pulled onto our street I was a little shocked to see tree branches laying in the road. Hubbie confirmed that our area got hit pretty hard in about a 10 minute span. According to weather man Vince...there is more to come and it may be worse. (why or why am I so responsible that I just put new batteries in my alarm clock in case of a power outage).

Saturday's weather looks good for camping. We're hoping that we miss Friday's rain. It sucks setting up camping gear in the rain. Although the nice little sports bar near by would make a good waiting area.

A Little to Much of The Boxer, Joe

We've had this college kid working with us for the summer. This is a fairly new program that was started this year in the production area. He's been with us since early June. Since early June I have seen his boxers hanging out of his pants every day. I could tell you that he has 4 different pair and hopefully duplicates or he does his laundry often. The boy is tall and needs to possible wear a tall size tee shirt. Today marked the first day that someone mentioned the showing of his drawers. One of the guys on the line mentioned that he may want to wear a belt or hoist up his pants as we were all getting tired of looking at his drawers. He turned a little red and actually came over and apologized to me. He has two more days of work left. I kept telling my female co-worker that it could be worse, it could be butt crack.

I've come to the conclusion that I hate working until 5pm. By the time I get home it's 530-545 depending on traffic. I'm usually hungry when I get out of work, and will plan out what to make for dinner. By the time I get home, it's all down the drain. I walk up the drive way in complete hope that maybe, just maybe my wonderful husband either took pity upon me or is so hungry that he made something. Tonight there is nothing. So I have consumed to a piece of salami and cheese. He is at his other job and probably ate something quick. I see no evidence of cooking.

I'm beginning to think that the first thing I may do when winning tomorrow night's Powerball is hire a cook.

Soggy Lambeau

The trip to Lambeau to see the Packers in preseason was actually quite fun. The nasty misting rain only lasted until the middle of the first quarter of the game. My trusty Totes raincoat kept me dry except for my arms. That I could not figure out and it was annoying as hell. I was warm except for the wet soggy arms on the shirt under my raincoat.

I find Lambeau very interesting. It doesn't matter how many times I go but when I walk into the stadium I still get the chills. Kind of like at Miller Park. It was my friend's first trip to Lambeau and she mentioned the same thing. We had some slight nose-bleed seats but had a great time. The ride back to Manitowoc was a little long and frustrating. I guess we haven't been there enough to know all the little short cuts yet. I do need to mention that when I got to the game my sub-sandwich was safe and sound in my cooler.

I don't want to steal anyone else's post but I need to second the motion that Milwaukee radio sucks. On my way home the other day I was switching between 3 stations at 5pm. This is when a lot of people are getting out of work and just don't want to hear 6-8 commercials in a row, then the weather, then the traffic and continuous promises of commercial free music. It was truly 12 minutes between songs and then one song and back to about 5 more minutes of commercials. We drove up to Green Bay and picked up radio station right before Sheboygan which had two commercial breaks for about 2 minutes in over two hours. They also played some good music. What is the problem in Milwaukee?

I forgot to mention the tailgaters we were next to. Two guys in their early 20's that were cooking these burgers that had to be 6 to 8 inches thick. One guy kept complaining that these things were taking forever to cook. He had to yell to the other guy over their blasting Iron Maiden music. Sweet!

Tis The Season

Yes, it is upon us again. In February it seemed so far off. We couldn't figure out what we were going to do on Sundays or Mondays nights for the next 6 1/2 to 7 months. Well my time was filled up pretty good but once again Football is upon us.

Dylan had his first practice last week. In fact he has 3-2 hour practices for the next several weeks. Tonight was the first practice in pads. Those boys just want to hit someone and hit them good. The coach was explaining that it's okay to do so as they're all padded up. There were a few skeptical kids but once they did the initial hit they were enjoying every second of it.
It may sound kind of goofy but this year again I get this feeling when he comes running over, helmet in hand for his 2 minute break. Little sweaty head and covered in muck and grass stains. He loves it and I'm glad for him. He will be in the full-back and rotating half-back position. The little tank should be able to carry the ball well. He did get signaled out for his half-assed pushups. There is a little practice needed in that area.

We're taking a trip to Green Bay tomorrow for a pre-season game. I was a little hesitant at first but figured that this may be our only chance for tickets this year. Hopefully we won't get to wet.

Kicked Out of The Club

I spent the last two weeks being just a little nervous. I received a phone call the day after my initial boob squashing asking me to return for more scans. Of course it took two weeks to get in as they wanted me to come when the doctor was there also so he could immediately review the new scans.

I had plenty of conversations with J during the past two weeks and believe me I tried to put the whole mess out of my head. Going away with the grandkids for a few days helped a lot but the issue was still in the back of my head. I must have been completely tired out from the camping trip as I can't say I lost any sleep over it last night. In fact I didn't really break down until this morning. Had my 5 second cry and went on my way.

"Don't be scared" must be the standard issue comment made by all screening personnel. Either that or I don't hide it well. After 3 very intense squashes I was told to have a seat and the doctor would be in. In what seemed to be eternity he came in and gave me the all clear. It appears that whatever they saw two weeks ago was either a shadow or now gone. This didn't convince me quite fully so I asked a lot of questions. I will now be returning in 6 months for another repeat flattening of the boob.

In my call after the results to J she sounded relieved that another Kasinski girl would not be honing in on her title. Guess my mom got the exclusive invite. I mentioned that I tried to have my own hip club but my brother butted in on that one. I can handle just being a non-member of any club for now. This was a big enough ordeal for me.

I do have to say that being nosey while J went through all this did give me some education on the subject of breast cancer. One just is never prepared for the outcome. J and I were discussing why all of a sudden it seems that almost everyone we know has had to go back for additional screenings. Is it because they are being so careful? Is it because so many of the films are bad? She wants answers....so do I.

Splash

We have survived the camping trip with the grandkids! They were very good and not to demanding. I was a little shocked at how afraid the girls were of a little spider, yet would crash through the woods to catch a frog.
Our fishing escapade proved to be a little scary for a moment. Dylan has no problem putting worms on a hook and was willing to do it for the girls. I let it be known that he could show them the first time and then if they wanted to fish they'd have to put their own worms on. One of the girls lost her worm on her first cast. We then had to have "casting " instruction. She was casting like she was throwing a football. After assuring that she was now doing okay I went back to fishing. Then there was a little tangling of the hook problem. I got that all fixed and adjusted her bober. I turned my back to pick up my rod and heard this giant splash. There she was in the water, arms thrashing around with a look of sheer panic on her face. I had to do a quick rescue. After a second of grabbing her arms, I reminded her that she was in 3 feet of water. She then was screaming about the fish that were going to bite her. I had to remind her that we weren't catching any fish. Gramps then came and aided in the rescue. It was then that we noticed my fishing rod floating away. She had enough time during her rescue to grab on to her pole and hand it to me, but mine was pretty much floating away. Dylan just simply jumped off the pier and grabbed it. The next hysterical scream was let out when it was discovered that her flip-flops were also floating away. They were to far for Dylan to save. I could do nothing at that point but sit on the pier and laugh. We all did, even "splash". A couple of people came over to see what all the commotion was about and she had no problem telling them she took a dive. The flip-flops were rescued by a couple on jet ski's and all was good. This ended our 1 hour fishing expedition.

The weather held up pretty good until 1am Tuesday morning. We got pounded pretty good. There wasn't much concern from the kids. I saw their heads pop up when a loud thunder boomer and lightening show lit up the sky. That was it, heads bob up, right back to sleep.

Let it be known that the farting contests are not just for the adult camping trips. Those kids were just as bad as the menfolk.

We were all ready to be kept up until at least midnight and woke up by 6am. These kids were sleeping by 10:30 and not awake until 9am. There was an attempt by Dylan to get up at 6am to go fishing. He made it as far as waking up, heading to the bathroom and coming back only to climb back in bed for another few hours.

In all the places we've camped I have to say that Kegonsa has the weirdest bugs. I saw them all this weekend. Those lime green grasshopper things were all over the bathroom door. Had it not been for my trusty flashlight and that I looked at the ground I may have stepped on a snake. Little bastard had teeth! I do believe it was a milk snake. Not one I want to encounter again. Not a single raccoon or skunk in site but a crane and babies walking through the campground. I'm pretty sure we were one of ten campsites that were occupied. Camping during the week could be a new option. No rangers, no shower lines, clean bathrooms and quiet.

We're Outta Here

Gramps and I are taking the 3 grand kids camping until Tuesday. I'm hoping their parents have somewhat "trained" them in this area. I think Dylan will be okay as he's a seasoned camper. The twins...well they may be girly girls, but that will come to an abrupt end. I think we planned this out pretty well so they won't remember this as being a horrible trip.
I got a list of food from all three of them which had me chuckle a bit. It was all snack foods with some pancakes thrown in. The drink choices were all soda which I know their parents don't let them drink. I had to change some things up a little or gramps and I would be awake all night trying to settle down the sugar rush kids.
The weather looks promising. The beach is open, water is not contaminated and we're hoping the bee's stay put for the weekend.
All in all I think it could be a good time. Gramps mentioned to me yesterday while getting things ready that he was leaving the "booze box" behind. Taking the bottle of rum though. That in itself should free up some space in the truck.

It's Days Are Numbered

I made a huge mistake. I'm thinking I may be able to plead temporary insanity. Back in the birthday month of my husband I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday. I had already purchased a grill for him which was already put together and used by his birthday. I just thought it would be nice if he had something to open on his birthday. "An alarm clock" was his reply. A few days later I stopped at the local Target and began the search for a new alarm clock. I'm pretty sure I wrote about this in a previous post, but let it be now noted that I didn't just purchase any old alarm clock. I went for top of the line complete with weather alert. I think the only thing it doesn't do is reach over and give you a nudge. Along with this clock came a user's manual that must be the size of a paperback book. It kept him busy for a few hours.

I am not that complicated of a person. I want to buy something, bring it home, plug it in and have it work. I hate that something requires hours of reading to figure out. Simplicity is the key to my heart and pocketbook. This is where my mistake comes into play. I don't think he can figure out how to turn the alarm off. Every morning at 5:10 am this annoying sounding alarm goes off. I can time myself in the bathroom every morning . First alarm...get in the shower/10 minutes later (snooze) be out and drying off/10 minutes later be dressed and exiting the bathroom. This has become a routine. After the 4th time hitting the snooze I calmly walk into the bedroom to sweetly say "time to get up love". (not in those exact words-I may be stretching it). The man does not work on Fridays so this morning when I left at 610 the snooze was once again hit. If I were a betting person I'd say this continued until 8 or 9 when he got up.

I'm done asking him if he knows how to reset the thing. I remarked about the annoying sound on the alarm (perhaps I should have checked that out before buying it) and he chuckled and told me that he was wrong when he thought his old alarm clock was broken. It was something that went haywire with the radio on it. I offered to take this one back and find a different one. Well no, he's getting used to it now. I'm not... God forbid I should touch it or try to figure the thing out for fear I'd screw it up more. It's rough to live in this high tech world and feel like an idiot.

Twelve Hours of Fair

My company picnic was held at the State Fair yesterday and I must say it was a wise choice. We arrived at the fairgrounds around 9:00 am after a nice tour of West Allis by my husband. Apparently his mission was to avoid the traffic lights on Greenfield Avenue. As we all know it was smoking hot Sunday and humid. My first beer was consumed around 10:30 a.m. It just wasn't sitting right. Too early or too hot was my reasoning. Water was going down great. We walked around a bit, went through the animal areas before it got to hot and headed for the air conditioned Expo building. We ran into P & K and I must say P is looking quite well for a man of shingles. As K put it "they were there to eat".
The company had some good food and door prizes (I have a big "L" as usual). After this was over we headed back out. Different foods were consumed. Deep fried cheese curds were yummy, R & J' s deep fried oreos were a little on the sweet side. By that time the beer started to go down a bit better. We found a spot inside the Miller Sports Bar to catch the end of the Brewers disaster and met up with another guy and his family from work. Couple more beers and we headed over to catch Pat McIplayateveryfairand festival. Quite a funny little number about South Dakota. Cream Puff was consumed, not recommended with beer.
Then it happenend...my husband vanished..I was afraid of what he'd come back with. We all look and see this man grinning from ear to ear carrying a little cardboard tray with something deep fried. I knew there was trouble when I heard R chortle. Fricken DEEP FRIED SAUERKRAUT!!! "This can't be happening" was my first thought. "Shit! We are so out of air freshener"
He ate it. He claims it was "quite tasty". The effects were taking place as we were walking to the car after our 12 hours at the fair. He was nice enough to not gas me out on the way home. Tonight he was telling my niece about it and explaining how it was made. There will be no making of the DFSK while camping. This is not something that our already gaseous group of friends should consume while camping. Open air or not!