Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial weekend I was working pager duty so I needed to keep close to the house. We grilled out and Harry invited his friends, Muneeb, Damien and Kayla over one night. I grilled steaks and of course teenagers love to eat. These kids are still teens but
barely and they've all graduated from highschool. Muneeb and Harry used to hang out together in high school even though Muneeb lived in Rochester and Harry lived in Pine Island. They started to getting goofy so Muneeb confided in me some of the things they used to do together, like Movie Money. They would say they were going to a movie so their parents would give them money but end up going to an outdoor rink for pickup hockey instead. Harry 's idea of fun was always interesting...

When he worked at the grocery store I used to find bags of flour in his car trunk. One time the whole back of his car was powdered with white. Or another time i found 5 dispensers of Saran Wrap and eggs, both of which I absconded. I found out later that he and his friends had flour fights, or sometimes they would saran wrap each other's cars, and of course the eggs were for mailboxes.

My favorite memory of Harry though has to do with this plastic rubbery seagull that was about half the size of a real seagull with a squeaker inside of it. Harry has had this toy since he was about three or four. For many years he would fly it in the room, its wings flapping like crazy (in his hand running) and knock lamps over as he went. I probably should not have laughed as I was yelling at him. I forget if he ever named it...but always it would cause a commotion. I could never get him to stop doing it...probably because secretly I thought it was pretty funny too. Hey but Memorial Weekend is in memory of our fallen solders... not my son. I think that was Mother's Day where I should have been thinking of this kind of stuff.

A couple of weeks ago... to Cleveland

A couple of weeks ago I went to Cleveland with my sister Jennifer, my mom, and my nieces Megan and Shannon. We had a good time. My nieces are fun and I enjoyed the drive. Jennifer drove for the first couple of hours and after that we unanimously vetoed any offers she made to do some driving. We all wanted to go faster.

I drove at some point on the way and my mother sat up front with me. We share the trait for complaining about everybody else on the roads driving habits (too slow, what the heck are they doing? no turn signals). At one point my mother offered to
flip some guy the bird who was dawdling. I thanked her but didn't think it would be appropriate. Geeze, but it could shake the guys whole faith in humanity to have such a genteel and sweet looking white haired lady do that to him. However, I appreciated my mom's enthusiasm for getting even. On the way back I sat shotgun with her and we were having the same types of observations (thank god we aren't too big on road rage) and I kept offering to give other driver's the finger in her defense but then would (chicken out) er not do it and she realized I had no backbone but was totally about saving face for me, so I would say "should i give 'em the finger?" and she'd say "give 'em three, the bum!" knowing I wouldn't do anything because i was a coward. It was fun.


Jennifer and I went that Saturday morning to see my dad. I was driving. At one point he was in the car with us...we took him to breakfast and his comment to me was "So Anne, are you just showing off?"

I think my driving was making him nervous. He hasn't lost his sense of humor.


This is my dad and his brother, Uncle Robert. We had such a nice visit. They sat and talked about family and old times, how their parents met.. great stuff.

Bill

Billy is a senior in H.S. this year. My sister sent shots of his school prom. She had been out of town the whole week and made it back in time to see him off. She sent me an email with these pics saying both her favorite boys had "dates" that evening.

My sister sent this comparison shot...and he does look just like Andy Samberg. Nice pic.

More of the same...

I am lazy, here is a note i sent to my friend Kate, she was asking
how things were going:

Yes I am starting to blog again. I am back doing some crafts (mosaics - finishing all my old projects..one i got so disgusted with i put it outside). In general people do not comment on blogs..you need one of those counters .. i use HISTATS because it is free ( www.histats.com ) ... My lawyer is $ 4.00 a minute so I don't talk to him. The divorce is not progressing ... so I wrote him a letter and let him know i appreciated how he is driving my issue (he had sent the other attorney a note .and cc'd me on it) ..and that I still wanted a divorce and anything he could do that would not compromise my position financially i greatly appreciated.

We did sell the house! The closing date is May 29 and so far it has passed all the inspections...this weekend Harry and some of his friends are going to move the last bit of stuff out of there and do some light cleaning. Johnny is signing everything on behalf of his dad. Johnny and I have not communicated much but Johnny has gone along with all my suggestions (have two checks at the closing.. 2 1099S forms etc).

Harry is home for the month of May and then will go back to Winona at least four days a week ..he is working at FASTENOL (he got a coop job and its a good opportunity). Its nice having him around ... last night i went for a bike ride with him. I was going to go to a local bar to see SHAWN PHILLIPS (have you heard of him ... cool musician big in late 70's) and Harry was going to drive me up there at around 8pm and then pick me up again at about 11am (I was going alone and I worried about drinking too much - he offered and it saves cab fare ) ..but then I was too tired so i didn't go. But its sooo funny ..only a few years ago i was driving him to the movies to meet his friends or up to the school for a dance and then picking him up when it was over. I love that the whole thing is so reversed. A couple of nights a go i ran into a girl friend of his in the bathroom at 3am. I watched her go back into Harry's room. So then I knocked on the door and Harry answered. I made the girl go home. I told Harry this was not a dorm and we have standards and while i did not necessarily mind if girls slept over they had to sleep in separate rooms. She left. I just can't believe he thinks he can get away with that. I had less clothes on than she did and it looked like they just fell asleep watching TV because her outfit would have been pretty complicated to put on in a hurry. Anyway secretly it made me laugh. He knows that I would go after him with a broom if he was really doing anything. Hope you are doing great Kate. The weather is fantastic. I'll be in touch...planning on taking a few road trips to Chicago this summer. I like your blog too. I love all your stories about your foster pets. Ciao! Anne
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 9:15 AM, Ed and Kate wrote:

Thanks for the comments on the blog. I've decided people read it but don't know how to write comments. That's OK - YOU DO and yours are important to me!
How is life in your corner of the world? New projects? Work OK? Harry home for the summer? Progress in getting settled? Is the house sold for certain? Your family all doing well? Are you starting to blog again?
Kate

Please visit my blog!
http://pawstolove.blogspot.com
Visit our area shelter, www.apl-shelter.org
http://www.fund.org/

Its tough being a single mom..

Oh, I forgot I am retired...

An email exchange with my sister:

Subject: Fw: last night

ME:
I got up to use the bathroom at about 3am and ran into Harry's friend Kayla. (She was fully dressed etc. so I don't think anything was going on...it looked like they just fell asleep whatever). But anyway she went back into Harry's room. So i knocked on the door and Harry was in there and I said Kayla had to go home... this was not a dorm and that there were standards and if he was going to have girls sleep over it was separate rooms.

So Kayla left... she only lives a block away. She's a very nice girl so it was all friendly.
Harry says, well what about you? .... and i said how do you know? And he says well I am just assuming. And I said well has anyone ever been here when you were here? and he said no and I said thats right.

I do have to draw the line somewhere.

LAURA:
you prude!

that reminds me...remember when I told you how they named the roads after the characters in Bridges of Madison County and you wrote in your blog how that was promoting adultery or some bs?
Well, we stopped in the diner on the way home from NE on Sunday. The lady working there met Clint when they filmed but made a point of saying she did not like the movie whatsoever. There were pictures of Clint but NOT ONE of Meryl Streep. Such a double standard....

ME:
Yeah that is BS. I agree. I did really like the movie though.

Laura, I am not a prude! Its just being civilized! I don't mind if Harry has girlfriends over, but I need to consider formality and its not a dorm room. What Harry does at school is his business... and if he wants to have girls in his room fine.

I saw a movie a couple days ago i liked...it was a bit odd though .. Assassination Tango with Robert Duvall. I liked the sex scene.

LAURA:
i was kidding. I agree with you, she should have slept on the couch

Happy Mother's Day

My sister sent me this your tube clip. The guy was dead on. I think he employed every catch phrase I ever used on my kid and step kids. It was scary.

And then there were the other things (that i try to forget). Like the time my son was riding in the grocery cart and it was about halfway filled with food and he was bouncing on the bread and not sitting quietly as i was politely asking (yeah right! I probably was too busy squeezing melons).

At any rate, I was commandeering the cart down an unpopulated aisle. i was planning to give the kid a good crack but didn't want to engender the nasty looks from other shoppers. Just as i was slowing the cart down my son bounced right out of the cart and onto the floor. He wasn't hurt too bad but enough to make him sober up. It saved me the trouble of having to whack him myself.

Oh and like another time...Harry was bouncing in the passenger seat of the car. He was about 4 years old, and i was taking him to day care. I had repeatedly told him to put his seat belt on. I was always telling him to put his seat belt on, and as usual he was jumping up and down and just ignoring me. I was going about 5 miles an hour waiting for him to comply. Finally, i just broke the car hard. The stop was just enough to cause harry to fly forward. He went head first and hit the windshield with his forehead. The sudden impact put a crack in the wind shield. Never mind that Harry had a red bump on his head, I had to take the car in and get the window replaced.