Senioritus: its not just the kids, its me!

I am in the process of planning a graduation party for my son. There is no way around this activity. Harry wants one and I just cannot let him down. And, this is a big deal around here. because there are three seasons in this area: Winter, Summer and Graduation. For a month this spring, every weekend will be filled with breakfast brunches and open houses. Mostly open houses. Its ham sandwiches, potato salad and cake, the scrap book, the sports medal,s and the 4H ribbons. People get knew carpeting, resod their yards, put on additions, and plan years in advance. I AM NOT KIDDING.

When I started thinking about this I thought, we are going to have a big party, no wall of fame, no ham sandwiches and no cake, but we are going to have a live band and invite the whole universe. As time goes by, I find that my interest and involvement in Harry's school year is waning. I have gone to a few of his track meets. And to think of all those years I coached soccer teams in 30 degree weather, and taught religious education to all those kids (my son included!), its hard to believe i could be so disinterested, but its true! I am ready for him to fly the nest. As for a party, I'm thinking Harry can just invite his friends and i'll buy pizza! Well almost. I do have a few things up my sleeve. I am going to borrow some tables from the neighbors, and I'll pull out the bowling balls and pins, volley ball set, croquet, horseshoes and have at it I guess. Some of my family members are coming so I think they will help me set up. I guess its not so bad.


HERE IS WHAT I DID THIS WEEKEND:

I went to a mosaic workshop and loved it. I have been dabbling in this activity for about ten years, starting when my son was very young. I would give him a hammer and let him break the tiles. He loved it.

What was great about this class was that the instructor gave us her formulas for grout and tile adhesive. Many of the pre-mixed varieties and other brands found at local hardware stores or tile stores have cancer causing substances (like latex) that are highly toxic. The instructors formulas do not have additives, are very strong and can stand subzero conditions. She gave me alot of information about tools, where to find quality, and techniques. It got me over a serious hump. She also offers classes in Puerto Vallarta in the winter and I am giving it serious consideration. I feel recharged and rejuvenated. Oh yeah.


(Pictures above: first one is my work area in the basement. I used to have alot more panels, but I gave them as gifts to friends and family at Christmas. The second picture is of the shoes I covered: mostly shells and some buttons and a buckle. I white washed the shoes with paint. One of the things she talked alot about was using negative space and how to achieve it. Also, I didn't have to grout between the objects. I am also working on a metal cigar box - humadore? that i am loading up with little porcelain animal figurines .. a zoo!)

HERE IS WHAT MY SON WAS SUPPOSED TO DO BUT HAS NOT DONE YET: He needs a new car, but has to clean up this one so we can sell it or give it away. Its got some serious problems and I don't want to put any more money into it..Harry's got some money saved so we'll just get a new one.

Fifty is Nifty

This is a picture of my older sister on her fiftieth birthday which happened a couple of years ago about this time of year. We went to some kind of review in Chicago. I am sure you can tell the kind of review. Jenny posed with some of the entertainers. The club and this review have been around since the 70's and we heard that one of the entertainers (the "girl" in the middle) used to date Dennis Rodman. This night club, and I can't remember the name, is a popular event for bachlorette parties and the girls wear plastic lauas?help) and the emcee has them stand up and the "girls" prance with them or tell jokes. It was fun. My sister was surprised. The bigger surprise though was that I showed up.

My sister is the oldest of four and the first to hit the big 5 0. My brother is a year younger and turned 50 in 2006 and I am turning 50 this year. My little sister (who was always taller than me) will turn fifty not long after that. Yikes!

What I get the biggest kick out of though is the kids, our children. They think we are just such old turds, like we don't know what they are doing. Sheesh! Like we've never done what they are doing or know what they are talking about. Times change but not that much.

My niece Megan (proud owner of Pufkin the hamster, and winner in the Egg Decorating contest) is in the process of moving out of the house and into an apartment near Wrigley Field. We are all very excited about that and I wonder how she'll feel every weekend when several of her Aunts (and me too!) show up at midnite looking for a place to crash because they don't want to drive back to the burbs. I can't wait for the day my mother and Mario show up for the same reason. In our family it doesn't matter how old you are, you never lose it.

How we spent our weekend....

It was a warm, er well 40 ish and sunny Saturday afternoon so I went down our fencelines (we own the property on both sides for now) and cleaned out the bluebird boxes. I don't expect the bluebirds for at least another month, but when they come home for the summer they will want their houses move in ready.... I use a cordless drill with a phillips drill bit, and of course I always carry a refreshment.

We spaced the bluebird boxes twenty five feet apart, but swallows will also use these boxes as nests and usually every other box will have been occupied by a swallow. There is a difference in how they build their nests. The bluebirds fill them fuller. None were empty so I was quite satisfied.

On Sunday my son invited his buds over for a little male bonding. They cooked Gumbo. Someone's mom gave them a recipe and helped them with the shopping (where to go because it is hard to find ethnic foods like anduoille sausage in this area).

They cooked what normally takes about four hours and condensed it into two with tricks like high heat and the boys each did a 15 minute rotation on stirring, like every 15 minutes it was someone else's turn. I offered suggestions like, you should brown the meat first for better flavor but i was over ruled.

The put the minute rice in with the water and then boiled it (sigh).

I think they were happy with the results. I went out before they were done and while the kitchen was pretty neat when i left (they were cleaning as they went) it looked like a hurricane went through after that, even though amazingly all the dirty dishes were in the sink.

Egg Results are tabulated

First, thank you to all the Judges in this event:
Blackbird , gmcountrymama,those member of my family who always post ANONYMOUS comments so shall remain anonymous, erika, sharryb (who has two great web sites), ginnie, palm springs savant, suzy, kate, kaywag, and MizMell. You guys were great, even those of you who liked all of them!

HERE ARE THE RESULTS:
Bulimiegg and Night of the Living Egg tied with 4 votes!
Eggceptional Ride and Eggy Rider came in with 3 votes! A close second.
Dirty Egg-tini finishes third.
Clown Eggs, Spartan Egg, Plaegg, and Eggstreme Lack of Time all recieved an honorable mention.

So the winners are: Megan (niece) & Me (YEAH OH YEAH!)
Jim (brother in law), Jenny (sister) were second.
Shannon (Megan's sister my niece) came in third (oh yeah!)
Me (again YEAH), Harry (my son), Mike (my brother in law) and Kelly (niece) all recieved honorable mentions. In truth conceptually and ironically some were pretty good. We completely missed the whole Spartan thing .. I thought the concept was LAZY, and not sure what Mike was thinking...probably his egg looked sick to begin with like uh yeah color. Eggstreme Lack of Time was simply clever, which is how I would describe my niece always.

Have to go out now and check out the neighborhood ..er find Peter Rabbit and his family and have a discussion with them about the garden. There have been quite a few of his family members at the birdfeeder this spring.

Thankyou EGG JUDGES There is still time to vote

Thank you all for your input. I am going to tally the results and get back to you with the final numbers. There are still probably a couple more days for voting if anyone feels compelled.
We've had two more snow storms since I last blogged, and last night the temperatures were in the 20's, but it warmed up to 40 something this afternoon. Next week it will be in the 50's so say the meteorologists.

The ground is still frozen but the birds are singing up a storm. Chatting up their mates and what not. Its going to get pretty crazy around here, just wait and see.

I'll keep you posted, I promise.

The EGGS are in! Please help us and VOTE!

Above are all the entries anxiously waiting your comments. Below are the individual entries. EVERYONE participated, including my Brother in laws (i heard the drill and several power tools coming from his work area - we all sequestered ourselves to our own personal spaces to avoid detection and maintain the element of surprise). I am missing one entry but she is an OVERACHIEVER and we can do without that.

(ABOVE) Eggstreme Lack of Time (from a college student just returning home from Spring Break Ski trip in Colorado....)

A Couple of Yeggs (below)....

HAPPY SPRING!!! Your comments (and opinion) are most welcome!

I love Craigslist

My life is a little bit crazy right now... we just put our dream house up for sale. Here is the listing. It is way too much work for me living out here. As much as I love this lifestyle and all the birds and bees etc, I need a change. I am seriously thinking of either putting everything up for sale (furniture etc) or having an auction and getting rid of it that way. I want to do something like move downtown (big city right) and rent for awhile. My goal is to simplify my life. I am going to walk away from this one and do something completely different, er like... buy furniture from Ikea ... (I feel like the opening scene on the Mary Tyler Moore show where she throws her hat up in the air and they play that song..well eventually ..things are pretty bad right now).

Anyway, I love Craigslist. In the last year i've sold so many things: a VERY HIGH END tandem (bicycle built for two), a 20 year old car top carrier from Sears, a 300 gallon water tank, a xylaphone, a drum kit, a chainsaw, a keyboard, almost sold the drum set but oh well, and I just put an advertisement for MAX the WONDERDOG out there and have had two inquiries. I LOVE CRAIGSLIST. I've taken pictures of everything in my house. It is so tempting....

MizMell tagged me for a 4x4 meme. I thought someone was going to help me with this but they never did so here goes:

4 jobs I have had: Yarn winder, plant waterer, waitress, waitress, coctail waitress, waitress (oh thats more than 4!)

4 shows i watch (i don't tivo): American Idol, Seinfield, hmmm Seinfield, hmmm John Stewart (well that is sort of 4)

4 places I've been: Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington D.C (worked all these places and lived in them as well...i don't do vacations, i visit relatives.)

4 foods I like: well thats tough Coffee, strawberries, pinnapple, kiwi ...not sure if coffee is actually a food, but I like mocha alot (is that a food?).

4 tags: Jami (she is one of my favourite commenters over at Hollywood: Where hot comes to die), Ginnie , Erika, Blackbird (i know she'll say yes ..well i hope so).

From the kitchen...

This is one of my favourite pictures of recent history. It reminds me of a picture you might see in a religious education book ..... like the kind we used when I was a kid in CCD, the catholic version of Bible school. I can't remember what the acronym stands for. This picture reminds me of that because we seem to be having fun doing something constructive. Actually I think my mother was getting irritated with us for not focusing on the dishes.

My mom always had lots of energy and enthusiasm and was tenacious as a task master. When I was young, every Saturday, she would get us kids up and we each had a job to do. I had to clean the bathrooms. I remember using a toothbrush to polish the chrome. Now whose idea was that? Not mine, I am sure of it.

The girls took turns doing the dishes at night as well. We would have done them together but we fought too much. I can remember complaining bitterly, as we all did, that my brother didn't have to do them. Well he's got his now. He does lots of them. His wife is very modern.

Hey we have another two months of this...

I mean, well, March is usually the snowiest, most unpredictable month here in southeastern Minnesota. It doesn't start like a lion..it just looks the same as February, which looks like January. The end of March looks like, well, if we're lucky, mud. So anyway, I borrowed this from another favourite site of mine HOW ABOUT ORANGE?

Can you tell a fake smile? I got 16 out of 20 right. Thats above average. How about you?
Take the quiz...

Which Jane Austen heroine are you?

Ok, I love Masterpiece Theatre. I found this on Poeticat's blog link via MizMell's blog. I don't normally subscribe to this sort of thing but I love Jane Austen. I've read her novel's and I love all the adaptations of her work.

Take the Quiz here!

Winter drags on... I am running out of inspiration

The picture you see above is a corner of my front porch, to the left of the door. Our front porch is wide enough to have a glider and chairs for sitting. There is a rail that goes across the front, so it looks homey. My stuff is sort of thrown in the corner there. It is winter and this area has been neglected since November. You'll notice that my decor is pretty tacky. There are some frogs I bought in Myrtle Beach and a dwarf (in honor of my son who steals lawn ornaments from his friends' houses). I put refrigerator magnets on the barrel (where else would you put them?) and sea shells, because I can't help collecting them on vacation, sit on top of the barrel along with some tacky metal yard art sculpture. What can I say? I grew up in a neighborhood with religious statues, chrome balls and pink flamingos. If a tree died sure enough the next day your neighbor would paint it white. Its hard to lose those early influences. I still love those neighborhoods with their heavily manicured evergreen shrubery (japanese yews). In fact I put those same green bushes in my front yard and I keep them neatly trimmed. Our house, which is out in the middle of nowhere looks like it fell out of a suburb from the 1950's, except the yard art has been updated for the new millenium.

As you can see also, the Christmas Owl, my dog Max's best friend, is still around. I told myself that when the temperature got over 32 degrees I would get rid of him. Well it hasn't.

Below is a picture of our cat Tiger and her best friend. Its a weasel that came off some kind of battery operated rolly ball. A christmas present no doubt from one of my nieces or nephews in years past. I tried to wash it once and that was a big mistake. Tiger carries it around with her. I will find it on the couch or the bottom of our bed. This is what she does with it when she's eating her dinner.

My maternal grandparents (again!)

Left to Right: Unknown woman, Henrietta Kappus Fitzgerald, Frances Kappus Reilly, Unknown man, Amelia Caroline Kappus (mom), Dennis Francis Moroney (dad).

Left to Right: Aunt Henrietta Kappus Fitzgerald, Unknown womand in black, Aunt Frances Kappus Reilly, Amelia Kappus Moroney (mom), Dennis Francis Moroney (dad)

The Easter Egg Contest: will you help us?

Nearly every year now for at least three or four, my family has an egg decorating contest.
We are very competative and we have trouble finding individuals willing to judge the eggs under that kind of pressure.
This year my son and I will not be going to Chicago, where the rest of my family resides, so we will be competing in the egg contest remotely, and I suggested that we do the judging using pictures, or I was going to ship our eggs down there early. What my family has agreed on is my posting the pictures to this BLOG and asking my vast readership to do the voting. This will probably require me to learn photoshop and also how to post pictures and text in the proper sequence. Anyway, would you folks be willing to help us? We would be so appreciative. To give you an idea of the nature of the competition, here are eggs from past contests.

SUN BATHING BEAUTY

As you see this grouping all have titles but I cannot read them. Perhaps my family will let me know what the titles of these various entries are.

Here is another grouping from a different year. The red/black egg to the left in this picture is a lady bug and I believe that entry won for that particular year.

Here is a close up with bad lighting (my flash wasn't working) of the lady bug entry. The Beatle eggs are off in the distance.

I have to ask my nephew what the name of his entry was, its the one with the plant material mixed in with the egg. The other eggs in the picture are mine. I rolled them with glitter and then got nervous because I saw my niece and her sister meticulously puting sequin by sequin on their eggs to create the lady bug and the the sun bather, so I added some sequins to my entries as well. Needless to say, I did not win.

La Galena (chicken in Spanish?) My niece did not win, and she is still bitter about it.

LORD OF THE EGG ... this is the entry that won for that year (up against entries like 'La Galena' for example). This was done by my other niece who is cousin to the niece who is still bitter.

Winter Garden

This is the view from my kitchen window. I sit and drink coffee and look out on this every morning. This is how its been since November.

This is my youngest sister's daughter. I love these pictures. Last fall they took a trip to Madison County, Iowa and visited all the bridges that were popularized in Robert James Waller's novel "Bridges of Madison County". My sister told me that some of the streets in the area around these bridges had names like "Francesca's Way" and "Robert Kincaid Way" after the characters played by actors Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in the movie. If you didn't know this, the plot of the movie is that a bored housewife meets a passing stranger (a national geographic photographer) and has a really heated affair that lasts a weekend. Her family is at the state fair so they know nothing about it. I've been thinking about this for a long time and what gets me is the whole idea that a local government would ok impropriety by naming streets after the characters in this movie/novel. My sister disagrees with me on this point, but I think the government should be above reproach. What people do in their personal lives is their own business and as entertainment I am ok with it. I am an idealist I guess. I also think Clint Eastwood was really hot in this movie.

Amelia and Dennis Moroney

This is my mom's parents when they were older. Amelia was about 55 and Dennis was in his 60's.