A Day With Dylan

I was called upon today for Grandma duty. When Dylan was a baby I had him at least 5 times a week for 4 or 5 hours a day. It started to dwindle off as he got older. We had a bond. There were things we did together and memories we made. We stayed very involved in his sports activities and have a "grand kids spend the night" about once a month. Today I was asked to pick him up at his coach's house and my son would meet us back at home to pick him up. As we were having my daughter's birthday tonight I opted to keep him around until then.

I went to pick him up and realized that he's not that little baby anymore. It was around 8 years old that my son stopped giving me a kiss goodbye when I dropped him off at school. It was as we were driving up, but not in front of his friends. I walked into the coach's yard and Dylan came up to me and we walked to the truck. As we were getting into the truck without asking I got my hug and kiss. I had to make a stop at Kohls (big sale STB) and taking Dylan to the store used to entail him asking for something. Nothing...not so much as a book or toy. No complaining that I was taking to long, no heavy sighing..just idle talk. On we went to Culver's. He wanted to know if I minded if he also got a sundae.

When we got home I started thinking about how bored I used to get at my grandparents house. My Grandpa would always take us for a walk to the park, but if he wasn't home Grandma was not very entertaining. He pretty much amuses himself. We played a few games on the computer and a card game or two. Around the time my daughter and family were scheduled to arrive he went outside and sat on the front steps. This got to me as I remember when he would sit on the steps and wait for Arnie to come home from work. I went outside and sat with him and told him about how he'd wait for Grandpa to come home. As we were sitting there he leaned his head on my arm and simply said " I love you Grandma". Not to much could have made my day any better.

Tomorrow is the Race for The Cure walk. Ms. Gambino informed me tonight that she intends to sprint the last 3 blocks. I'll be the one trying to catch up to her. There's still time to donate to this cause!

What Is A Friend?

A few times a week I will receive emails with all this stuff about being friends. At the end of these email is always the message "If you are my friend I will get this back". They're all cute and say meaningful things but chances are if you send me one you will get my standard reply. "I do not have to prove I'm you're friend by sending this back to you". That to me proves I put more effort into the friendship then just clicking and forwarding back. I received one today which really got me thinking. What is a friend? Am I a worthy friend? I came up with some thoughts about the friends I have and why I care for them:

I'll do the mushy ones first. You hurt when your friends hurt. You can talk to your friends about anything. You can laugh and cry with your friends. You care enough about your friends to inquire as to the state of their spouse, children and parents. You can joke about misfortunes but yet realize the seriousness of them. You can be a sounding board and a listener. You will go out of your way to hook up with them. You will fill their Ti Ki torches. You will give it your all on you first pudgy pie cooking experience. You will make sure your friends are warm and have enough to drink. You do not lie to your friends. You will not let harm come to your friends or someone will be in the doghouse. You will accept phone calls at any time and under any conditions from your friends. Even though you don't care for their favorite team you find joy in their celebration of victory. You don't have to talk to them everyday to know your friendship in intact. You don't hurt them. You can tell when your friend has had a bad day and can usually talk them through it. You appreciate the friend that talks you through it. You all like the same drunken songs( or at least you pretend to). You have similar morals. You pick out the same clothes from catalogs. You can pass on shopping tips.

And that my friends is all I got!

Woke Up...Fell Out Of Bed

This song was in my head all day (no points for the artist as I'm on it). The story is simple...Around 1am this morning I heard a loud thud and a groan. Yes folks, once again my husband took a tumble. As I try not to laugh while writing this, I remember rolling over and seeing him on the floor flat on his face. I did not laugh!. I had concern as he didn't move for a moment. He then made a hasty run to the bathroom. He came out moments later with a nice gash right on his eyebrow line. The man was injured. I still did not laugh ( I was a bit groggy which could explain that). I inquired as to whether or not the ER was in need. He said he'd let me know in the morning. There wasn't really any blood, just a nice gash. Morning rolled around and at first I didn't remember it. That is until I was in the shower and immediately started chuckling to myself. When I got out and woke him up I could tell he was in a little bit of pain, so I had to compose myself. I also expressed my concern in him going and having this checked out, which I knew was falling on deaf ears. Upon my arrival home tonight I noticed that it was not taken care of. Some Neosporin was blobbed on it. This is a good thing. I was told that no doctor visit was in order...."It will heal". I then noticed a large rip in his pants. He had a bad day!

My drive to work found me switching radio stations as usual. I held up through the long commercial break only to be amused by the Beatles much fitting for the day song. I haven't figured out how to tell him that yet. Not sure he's in that kind of mood. I'm also not real sure how to pad the floor and night stand next to the bed to prevent this from happening again.

Who Turned The Heat Off?

Yes folks, it was cold. We've camped in mid-September before but this was late October weather. On the way out there I discovered that I had brought along the wrong tennis shoes. Hey we were meeting up at Cousins and how convenient that Kohls was a few doors down. I sent the hubbie in for the subs and made a bee-line for the store. I got a great deal on the shoes and while walking to the check-out saw an entire rack of thermal shirts on sale also. Picked up two which totally came in handy for the frigid weekend. A bargain was had.

Friday night was nippy, but with good company and a nice roaring fire I managed to stay warm. The heat was turned on in the camper and I had my crocheted blanket from my mommy. I'm sure I looked like a mummy as my hood from my sweatshirt was up and the blanket was covering my face. I sleep the furthest from the heater on the outside wall of the camper so I'm always the coldest. Sometime you gotta take one for the team.

Saturday we were joined by P & K and we hit the picnic area. Sweatshirts came off as the sun was warm and boche ball was played. R & I took the win. I must again apologize to K for the bobbled throwing of the Palino. Hope she's healing well! Somehow I managed to get a little sunburn on my face despite the cold. It wasn't as chilly Saturday night due to no wind and again a roaring fire. We must have all had our share of fresh air as everyone pooped out early. The mosquitoes were out for awhile but the bees were annoying. Once again, good friends, good food and a good time.

Next camping trip is planned for the last weekend in September. Hopefully it won't be snowing by then. The only thing that could have made this one bad would have been rain. Cold and rain don't mix well when camping. You just get the "never can get warm again" feeling.

Don't forget the run/walk Race for the Cure this weekend. A group of us are walking with my sister-in-law Gambino and in support of many others. You can donate to this cause by visiting

Komen Milwaukee Race for the Cure® . We registered and picked up our shirts today. I chuckled when the woman asked me if I wanted to be timed. I shall walk with my friend and try to keep the pace. There's a Packer Game to be watched by noon so that will get me
motivated to keep my ass moving.

Other than that it's back to work tomorrow. I'm still wondering how weekends can go by so fast.

The Possum Has Left The Yard

I'm pretty much thinking that the trap can be returned. It's pretty obvious that the possum has either left, is way to damn smart for that trap or different bait needs to be used. There in my driveway sits one big old empty lonely trap.

Had a pretty busy weekend. I just know that when my alarm went off at 5am this morning I wanted to throw it. My drunken Omega dinner did not sit well. Someone neglected to hang the phone up on the charger all the way and it kept beeping every 1/2 hour or so. Rather than reach over and fix it, someone just moaned every time it beeped.

I think we need to train Sadie to handle a few things around this house. Kind of like earning her keep. This laying around all day long crap has got to end. She needs a purpose in life, a goal, something to do all day. I seriously thought about setting up a video camera just to see what she does. She is in the same spot when I get home that she was when I left in the morning. There's nothing chewed or out of place and she'd pretty much penned in the same three rooms everyday. Our bedroom is off limits as she thinks she owns the bed. What cracks me up is when she gets up and moves from one area to another, lays down and lets out this huge sigh. Is it boredom, is she depressed? I also can't figure out how they say that a dog will forget what they did within a few minutes, but yet she will sit by the basement door and cry until we open it. Down she goes and retrieves the bone she left down there the day before.

Good weekend in sports except for Dylan's game. They lost 31-20. The coaches forfeited in the 4th quarter as three of the players were injured. Not seriously, but enough that they didn't want them to play. All that matters is that the kids had fun. I'm not quite sure I'm going to make it through the season listening to the step-grandfather trying to call all the shots from the sidelines. I'll just have to do a lot of walking up and down the sidelines so as not to hear his big dumb ass mouth. He is the equal of the annoying fan in the stands minus the beer.

Lean & the 5 S's

We are going through some changes in our manufacturing practices at work. At first, I was a little doubting that this would work. I still am. Don't get me wrong, I am all for finding a way to make things run smoother because Lord knows I am getting tired of the overtime. When I started my working career it was as a papergirl. My own boss I was. If I didn't get my ass out to collect I didn't have money. If I didn't treat my customers nicely, I didn't get tips. Things were good for a short time until I wanted more money and all my friends worked at the local Arthur Treacher's. I joined the team. For 1 1/2 years I was the smiling girl behind the counter. I reeked of fried fish and found that my life would not be in the fast food industry. I then went on to work at a Hardware Store. That was short lived as the manager of the store was a fucking pig and hit on everyone that worked there. I don't think there were many laws supporting sexual harassment back then or I know my dad would have had this guys ass in jail. I took a little break , graduated High School and went to work full time the day after my graduation as a secretary. Seven years. I did like that job but the company was going downhill. Had second child and went on to work in the manufacturing industry.

I can't say I don't like this industry as I do. I more so enjoy the R&D part of it. I'm into wanting to know how things work and trying to get them to run more smoothly and efficiently. I have learned that this is not possible without the support of everyone involved. When I worked at ET they would constantly implement new programs only to have them wash away within a month or so. As Production Leaders we were constantly required to attend self-improvement meetings/class's only to have that all wash away also. So at times I may go into something with not such a positive attitude. Yesterday I saw this negative attitude from one of my co-worker/friends.

We have a fairly new Process Engineer who was given the job of trying to make some sense of our new line. I like the guy, but he needs to assert his authority rather than shrink back. I like the fact that he is all for input from the operators and does listen to us. He has his butt out on the line and is known to help out. We run several different products on this line and yesterday we were changing products. He had a plan. His plan came from a book. I was also given this book to read and read it I did (Lean Manufacturing & the 5 S'S). My co-worker was also given the book, claims she read it but I have my doubts. I could see what he was attempting to do and I went along with it. She fought it tooth and nail. He came to me a little upset and expressed his anger toward her not wanting to cooperate. No one else but her had a problem with his plan. I told him that if he could get this change over more organized and down to 1/2 half the time it was taking us that he should consider it a success for now. My attempt to explain to her to just go along with it and if it does not work it's not our fault, fell on deaf ears. I'm thinking that she may has just been having some major PMS issues or that this was a power struggle. At any rate I was out of there at 3pm yesterday and things were still moving slowly. I guess on Monday at the changeover process meeting I will be filled in on all the details.

Speaking of mosquittos...I think had I stood in the Applebee's parking lot for one more minute they may have carried me away. Holy Crap! Next weekend is a camping weekend. I'm hoping for a frost before that. The weather is supposed to cool down a bit and stay dry. I was told today that the requirements of each camper is one can of Yard Guard. The little bastards are so hungry that I doubt it'll help.

Dylan has his first football game of the season today, grandma must go cheer.

The Trap Is Set

I had some crappy hours today. 9am to 7pm. The day went by fast as we're short-handed and a little busy. Actually the last hour dragged by. That's the point when we're all stocked up and just waiting for the next shift to come in at 6:59. Then of course you have to go through the events of the day and hear some boring chit-chat before you can leave. I got myself a little extra ot by not actually punching out until 7:20. I was immediately attacked when I walked out the door by the giant blood thirsty mosquito's. That's pretty much the topic around Milwaukee and outlying areas this past few days.
I managed to get myself behind a sheriff pretty much the entire way home. I was fine with that as he was cruising between 65-70 most of the way. I just chuckle at the brake lights when people see a cop. It just says "I was speeding" all over it.
I was informed when I got home tonight that the "trap has been set". I need to "stay away from it" when I got out in the morning. If I hear hissing or squealing I should just ignore it. Between us...I have not intention of messing with the trap or what's in it. It's baited with the neighbors tomato's as they figure that the possum is the creature eating all their tomato's. Duh..why should he go to the trap for them when they're right out in the open. I'm not sure what's to become of the ugly rat but I'm sure it will make it's way back eventually. It's probably out there right now sitting on top of the trap, legs crossed and munching down some delicious tomato's fresh from the garden.
It appears that we have vandals in the hood. Two cars on our street had their windshields smashed last night. This isn't the first time. It seems every couple years someone goes on a little window smashing spree. They don't take anything, just cause you the inconvience of shattered glass, calling the travling glass man to fix it, and your loss of work or $$. Some people have to get their rocks off in different ways!

Booing the Boys

Does a die-hard baseball fan boo at their team? Do we boo because of a bad decision a manager made or is it at the actual players? I could see if they were standing in the outfield counting the blades of grass or staring at the girls ta-ta's in the stands( that job is for STB and his friend) but these guys seem pretty intent in winning a game. While watching the game Monday I was a little angered at the booing after the game. What kind of fans does Milwaukee have? It's actually disrespectful and down right rude. I'll admit I booed in the past for players on other teams, but I've never stood with my hands around my mouth booing my own team. How rude! Good game tonight.

So who wants to wager on how long the possum will take to get back to our house once it is trapped and let loose elsewhere? I was chatting with someone at work today that told me that they had trapped a raccoon once and first took it 1 mile away, then about 2 1/2 and the third and final time took it over 5 miles away. He claims he knew it was the same one. They all look the same to me. (no pun intended) So maybe this weekend when the great possum hunter sets out the trap and then wonders what the mess to do with the hissing animal the next morning I should just stand back and not say I told you so. Somehow I picture him running past the window several times with this thing stuck to his body. Here's to you Mr. Excuse Me But Can You Get This Possum Off My Back Man.

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!