December 2003 Archives

Our brethren bloggers in today's issue of USA Today.

Things seem pretty quiet here now that Christmas Day is over. My dad went ice fishing with brothers Dan, Gary, John and Gary's son Pat this weekend, so my mom stayed on here. My Dan went pheasant hunting with some friends in SD for the last time of the season. Right now my mom is napping, Nicole is napping because of a cold and Ashley is at a movie (Mona Lisa's smile). So it truly does seem quiet...kind of nice. Reminds me of when the kids were little and taking naps and I stole a little of "me" time. I'm hoping you had a wonderful time with your families at Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year and all that it brings. Happy New Year! Carol

OK. Ever wonder where that expression came from? There is always something interesting or funny at The Daily Irrelevant.

It's been raining all night, the snow depth is slowly diminishing but it is perfect right now for building a snowman. The forecast today is rain changing into snow with higher temps, around 40. I just sent Danny outside to build a snowman. We never made one last year and our yard was missing something. I saved a cork from a wine bottle for the snowman for his nose instead of a carrot. We'll see what this one turns out like. Danny will be soaked when he comes in even with all of the winter gear on.

Bill (Joan's youngest, 19) left for Korea this morning at 5:00. He'll be gone for about 11 months. I was telling Joan about my "good cry" this morning watching that one part in the movie "Jack Frost" that gets me every time. She of course had to top it with sending her youngest off for 11 months. Ok, she wins this time!

We had our family over here Christmas Eve. Large crowd for us, small for you. There are 15 of us. We had the same group minus the 5 in Mike's family on Christmas Day along with Paul's sister and Dad and a family friend.

Same thing New Year's Eve starting with a sliding party, weather permitting, then poker, games and food and food and food. Did I mention food? I do not think anyone will go away hungry. We tend to over-do...

Happy holidays to all!

The bathroom is finally finished! And none the sooner. We are hosting our fourth annual Bonco party tomorrow night. We’ll have 24 players this year. Every time we invite people over I marvel at how well we all fit in my little house. We’ll have to have two of the six tables in the middle bedroom, but we’ve done it before and it’s worked out.

Joey and his friend laid ceramic tile in our master bathroom. Well, his friend did most of the work while Joey assisted. They also installed a new white pedestal sink and new baseboards. I did all of the painting. It’s been a 10-day process, which I finished today by painting the baseboards and doorframes and doors. I painted the walls “pea” green. Okay, that’s not the official color, but it’s what Joey and I are calling it. It goes quite well with our “school-bus” yellow walls in our bedroom. I like the color though. Now I need a new bathroom mirror and shower curtain. Cha-ching. Who would have known that such a small project could cost so much?

My window treatments for my bedroom are also finished. I’m very pleased with them. We plan to hang them tonight, along with the other million things that need to be done. We’re under the gun now with our party only 24 hours away. We always do this to ourselves. It’s how we get things done around here. We entertain often.

Mary, we are all waiting to hear your baby news. I hope everything goes well.

Welcome aboard Gary!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all take the time to slow down and enjoy a little of the season. Everybody is well at our place. Pat & Laura are off for vacation. Pat will be transferring to St Cloud University, starting in mid January. Sarah will only get off of work today, Christmas Eve. She's asst mgr at Holiday Station Store and must work on Christmas day. Sally is putting in more hours at Health Partners due to lay offs & cut backs - somethings don't make much sense. I took my Xmas present early. I took a week off to rebuild the bathrom at the cabin, a complete redo. Now all can shower without flooding the basement. Well, back to work for the rest of the day before getting to church and Christmas eve with Sally's side. Hope you all get what need, even if it's not what you asked for.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!! Hope everyone travels safe today and tomorrow. Enjoy all your time spent with family for it is all too short. Think of the true meaning of the holiday season. Enjoy!!

Right click and take this little wreath. Link back to the site you took it from. Leave a message in the comments if you do it - She would like to see where it goes!

Let's celebrate the holidays around the web!

We got ours from messygurl.

Asiyah is the only one you haven't seen She turned 11, November 29th. The kids are all off for vacation. I hope to get some painting done. I started patching holes in Hamzah's room this a.m. The pitfall of owning an old house is that the walls fall apart!

(To the “tune” of the Twas the Night Before Christmas)
Twas the night of the big opening and all through the theatre,
many a creature were stirring including the off-duty cops.
The patrons were lined in a row down for blocks,
in hopes that young Frodo would soon appear in his frock.
Eric with his elfin ears and Bridget with her staff
had just settled down to watch the promos at hand.

When in the row behind us arose such a clatter,
I sprung around in my seat to see what was the matter.
Away from the screen, our attentions were drawn,
To a man throwing a coat out of it’s seat and then gone.

The theatre all filled with patrons galore
Gave the idea that we were all in for quite a delight.
When what to my wondering ears should I hear,
But a man picking a fight with a woman who came near.

With a smell of his breath and a check of his red nose,
We knew in a minute this man had to go.
More rapid that cops, several patrons did clamber,
For a chance to get security up there to head him to the slammer.

Okay, that’s all I can do, but suffice it to say our exciting evening out to watch Lord of the Rings opening night, started even before the movie. Despite the belligerent drunk man’s friend trying to get him to sit down, the cops came and escorted (that’s putting it nicely) out of the theatre. Everyone clapped. Finally, some peace and quite just as the movie began. I’ve never been to an opening show and it was crazy how people ran to the theatre when they opened the door. Thankfully we got there a half hour early, but others got there an hour or more earlier and the line was very long. True diehards apparently. We didn’t think it would be that bad, but actually sent Bridget to buy tickets earlier in the day just in case. Good thing!!

My personal opinion, this was the best one! But Eric thought the battle scenes in the last one were of more epic proportions. I just thought the second was frightening, I was happy when it was over.

Katie and I made Christmas cookies on Saturday with my Mom and Maddie and Isabel...okay, let's rephrase that, Betty Crocker baked and I watched her. My recipe for Rosette's was a flop (I don't bake, I cook, but no baking) and I had to throw out my batter, I'm going to try again tomorrow. Katie made Spritz and Peanut Blossoms and by the end of the baking, I believe all had been consumed by the masses that dropped by after hearing of our baking party. So nothing left for Christmas. Since this is my last day of work before maternity leave, I'm hoping a little of Katie's baking talent magically springs in to my body and I can have another go of it before Christmas.

OK, we finished it last night. It’s a very good movie. I give it 3-1/2 stars mainly on the performance of its star.

December 16, 2003
Patsy and I started watching Whale Rider last night but I was too tired to finish. It looks great so far. The girl is wonderful. The New Zealand accents are difficult, however. Where are subtitles when you need them? Did anyone read the book?

29 degrees here in beautiful downtown Bush, LA. Rather balmy December weather for the Minnesotans but a fairly nice change here. It warms up gloriously to about 55 degrees by mid-day with little humidity. I’ll never forget picking Patsy up at work one typical summer day. At the time, she was working at the airport for National Car Rental (National Car Rental has a New Orleans - Minneapolis connection, too. Founded in New Orleans by Dumas Milner, now based in Minneapolis). Anyway, one person got off of a plane from Joplin or Omaha or somewhere in the Midwest where there is zero humidity year round and it must have been her first trip to New Orleans. It was 98 degrees that day with 100% humidity. The walk down the concourse to the rental counter just about killed her. “You people actually live here?”

I am back to being festive again. It was hard over the weekend knowing that the jury I was selected to be on was starting on Monday, 12/15.

We were sworn in on Monday at 9:00, then told to come back at 2:00 p.m. The judge told us they were working on something to speed up the trial. We of course were assuming a plea bargain but still were not thinking that we were going to be released. Two of my fellow jurors and I went shopping downtown and had a wonderful time. I had never met these two people before other than small talk in the jury waiting area. We wandered through the "Charlie and Chocolate Factory" display at Marshall Field's, very festive! We had lunch later and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Jack is a retired school psychologist and Mary is the head nurse at a local nursing home.

We returned to court at 2 p.m. and were dismissed from duty. Part of me really wanted to be a part of the process as it would have been very interesting to see how the defense handled the case. On the other hand, I really wanted to start getting into the holiday spirit of things.

The case was 1st degree murder by reason of mental illness. The crime took place in one of the suburbs. The defendant, (age 41) called his parents over to his townhome then killed his father with a hammer and attempted the same on his mother.

Now I can finish shopping, baking, cooking and cleaning for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my house. On the 26th I have taken a vacation day, to rest...

100 years ago: Wright brothers make historic first flight.

93 years ago: Grandpa Sam Ferrara was born.

Soulmen versus Sharks

Familiar owners to the readers here.

Patsy took this picture Friday, I think. This is one of our Bradford Pear trees. It is an ornamental tree that produces an inedible fruit about the size of a cranberry. They have become very popular in Louisiana because they offer color changes normally only seen up north. They are very nice year round with plentiful white flowers in the spring and bright green foliage throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
Behind it are the pines, oaks, sweet gum, and black cherry trees normally associated with our dreary winters here in Bush.

I’ve added a new link just below the Login link to the right called the “Hall of Fame”. The page is a work in progress. It will be updated constantly. If you have any ideas for the page, shoot me an email. I selected most of the entries due to their timeliness, their profundity, the number of comments they generated, or because I just thought they were fun. It was a purely subjective process.

There’s a lot of fun reading in the archives. I love the idea of having a record. Big or small and everything in-between, we have entries that cover the full spectrum. I think of it as a family chronicle.

WOW!!! Look at this picture!

Well, the shopping is almost done. Yesterday I went to Mall of America with a couple friends. We didn't really have a specific agenda, but were able to find that difficult item. The most fun really was being with my friends as we were laughing and gabbing along the way. Actually I think some people thought we were a little "touched" because we seemed to be having so much fun. (And I really don't like shopping either.) Dan has taken the girls out shopping today, he is a gifted gift giver (always finds just the right item)and so it's always fun to see what they come up with. As to why we stay here in the cold, the only thing I can think of is that after so long of being in the cold, our brain cells have frozen and keep us from thinking there is a better way so we just don our hats and mittens and head out into the cold each year :). Off to wrapping! Carol

Aaron's beginner band played a song at last night's music program. These kids have been without music instruction for 8 weeks, so it was important to encourage them. They got a big applause. It was charming. We have it on video thanks to Julia. Michael had school last night and couldn't be there.

I finished reading a good book yesterday, "The Life Of Pi" by Yann Martel. It's got me thinking...

I did jury duty many times. They love me and invite me to serve all the time. It is supposed to be every two years, but they've doubled up twice on me. I served on one jury during all that time. All the other times I brought reading material, but always wound up getting to know all of my neighbors. The one time I actually sat on a jury was a trial of a family suing an insurance company for a kid's injury at a store. It was a children's store and had a small indoor playground in the back of it where the 5 year old child ran down the slide instead of sitting on his booty. He broke his arm. We, the jury who had heard it all, awarded the family $56,000 for their troubles. After I was selected to be on the jury, I tried to tell them in the jury room that I had a predisposition to saying "tough" to the family. They told me politely to just go sit down. It was an interesting experience that I just had to surrender to. These days if they chose me I might claim ADD would cause me to be a bad juror. Or how about I say that I am a bad juror because I see both sides to a situation and would have to choose based on what they wore and how they acted? What about that? Okay, it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Thanks for that, Laura.

My calender says it’s National Poinsettia Day. Patsy and I will go to lunch today in Mandeville to celebrate. I can’t imagine letting National Poinsettia Day go by without doing something. What does everyone else traditionally do on National Poinsettia Day?

I'm on jury duty this week and after answering very personal questions on the stand yesterday for 40 minutes, I was selected as a juror on a criminal case. The trial starts next Monday, 12/15 and is expected to last all of next week but is currently blocked to the assigned Judge for two more weeks. Hmmm....

In the meantime, I am not allowed to watch local or national t.v. news, read any of the papers (except for the Variety section, good, won't miss Dear Abby or my horoscope), listen to the news on the radio, etc. They have already told us that they will photocopy excerpts of the paper so we're not completely uninformed by the time we're done.

I normally start work at 7:00 and don't have to be to the Government Center until 8:45, 2 blocks away, so I will be at work long enough in the morning to stay out of email jail. I would not have to come into work that early but it's almost easier with transportation.

Details after the trial....

We had about 10 inches of that four-letter-word known as fluffy white stuff fall yesterday and last night. The nice part about shoveling or snowblowing is that it was very light with the exception of where the city snowplows have buried the end of the driveway! Take two Advil and get over it.

The forecast for the next day or two is a high of about 10 degrees, low around zero. In other words, normal Minnesota winter weather. We have not had much snow in the past few years so maybe sliding this weekend will be on our agenda.

Moments ago I read Angela's Disney entry and immediately got jealous that Joey was most likely not standing in line with his boots and earmuffs on! That is one trip I'd like to take, just haven't got around to it yet. Stay warm today!

For those wondering how people find us here. Go to Google or Yahoo and search for “Family blog” without the quotations. "Family blog" is a search string. This blog came up 3rd for me this morning on both. Try “incarcerated hernia” also. Try “NFL byes”. The CrabAppleLane Blog is still the top dog there, somehow.

Google, Yahoo, and other search engines explore CrabAppleLane regularly. They explore every link on the site and catalogue just about every word.

Family blogs are still a fairly new phenomenon sweeping the internet and we’ve been doing it longer than most. Consequently, more people have gone to those search engines, searched for family blog, and clicked our site’s link. The more clicks, the higher your ranking. That ranking is only for that particular search string, however. Just changing your search string from "Family blog" to "Family blogs" could alter your results.

Hope I'm making sense.

Joey and I just returned from Disney World with Christina and the boys, and Elizabeth, Scott and their 4 kids. My sister and I had adjoining rooms at the All Star Movies resort and Elizabeth stayed at a hotel right outside Disney property. Jacob knocked on our shared door every morning and shouted through it, "Open da door Nee Nee!" We would meet inside one of the parks each morning and then we were off. I think we would have had more fun without the kids and the kids would have had more fun without us (the adults). The last time I had been there was 10 years ago when I worked there one summer on the college program. I have been aching to get back ever since, but I must say that it lost some of its luster after this trip. Maybe it's because Joey didn't quite buy into the "magic" of Disney and complained about the crowds the whole time. If he thought this was crowded, we'll never be able to go in the summer! The other thing was that when I was working there I had plenty of time to take in the sights of all the parks at my leisure. This time we had four days and we crammed EVERYTHING into those precious hours. We enjoyed Animal Kingdom even though everyone told us not to waste our time there. Another disappointment was MGM. When I worked there, my favorite park was MGM and this time that park just wasn't as much fun. I think I liked Magic Kingdom the best. Main Street is just beautiful at night and expecially with all of the Christmas decorations.

Speaking of Christmas, I have no tree yet and have not bought one single present. AGH!!!!! I also haven't written one single Christmas card out when I have a list of about 30 to write. The holidays are such a joyous time!

Mary, good luck with the baby. I can't wait to hear all about it. Sorry I can't offer any advice in the labor department... I'll be asking you when my time comes-which may be quite a while longer after this trip with six kids :).

Does anyone here play in office pools? If you do, here is one you may be interested in. I conduct two per year here at CrabAppleLane. It is now online.

Basically, you pick 28 college football bowl winners versus the point spread. The results are tallied live and you can watch your entry against the other entries. It's been a lot of fun the last few years.

Did anyone watch this new show? I only saw the last 20 minutes Sunday night and intended to watch the first part last night, but just couldn't bring myself back to it. Wasn't too impressed with the small clip I did see. Although I was impressed by the many rolls of Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, two actors I really enjoy watching.

I'm anxiously awaiting the return of the final season of Sex in the City so I can see Baryshnikov in action. I'd much rather watch him dance, but if he speaks all the better!

I've been trying to catch up on all the news on the blog and have fallen far behind. I'm sorry to say I missed some good dialogues, but I'll have to keep on my toes for future discussions.

Friday night, my mother, Bridget, Molly and Greg, Tim and Tracey, Margaret and Eric and I went to see the Brian Setzer Orchestra (Stray Cats fame). My mother said she was startled at the beginning of the show. She wasn't expecting such a large sound. There was a large brass section complete with 4 trumpets, 5 trombones and 6 saxophones, not to mention his electric guitar and an upright bass (my personal favorite) and percussion. They mostly played Christmas songs, but the favorite part of the show was some vintage Stray Cats and to my Mother's enjoyment lots of Big Band music, including Pennsylvania 6-5000, one of my Dad's favorites. It was a hoot and kept us all awake and wishing we had room to dance. It was a sold out show so not much room to move around.

Saturday morning, I walked a 6 mile course (was only supposed to be 3 miles but that's another story) for Toys for Tots which I thought was going to induce labor. The pains stopped several hours after the walk much to my dismay, so perhaps I'll venture out again tonight and see how far I get. As long as I have Eric on pager, I'll be fine. Anyone have any remedies for making babies move along a little faster? I was hoping my Dad's birthday, Dec. 2, would have helped bring it about a little faster, but apparently he was of no help to me. And then yesterday at mass, the archbishop was saying mass and I rather hoped divine intervention would come in to play, but again no child. So here I wait...

Molly threw a very lovely baby shower for me last night. Her children were sad to be sent away to Grandma and Grandpa xxxxx's with Kilian kicking and screaming as he went out the door yelling, "I never have fun there." I think he was just sad to have to leave the company of such lovely ladies, especially Mary Tompkins (as he calls me).

I'm hoping to drag Eric out to get a Christmas tree this evening. He has been putting me off since he can't understand cutting down trees. My husband, the environmentalist, just doesn't understand that Santa wants us to have lovely Christmas trees in our homes :) I eventually wear him down and when the tree is decorated, I know he enjoys it in some small way. I try to tell him it increases the oxygen supply in our home.

Happy Belated Birthday Anne,
I thought of you all day Saturday but never got to the computer to send you a card. Hope you had a great day!

Janice

P.S. Anne is Nancy's daughter

I remember my nephew, Stephen, coming across one of my old rotary phones. He said, “Cool! How does it work?”. At that moment, I felt very old. Technology has come a long way since then but I will give those old phones credit for one thing: When you needed to make a call or when it rang, you always knew where it was! Patsy and I have 4 rings to get to a phone before the answer machine picks up. That’s the maximum the machine (I hate that thing) allows. Invariably, we cannot find one of our many cordless phones when it rings or the one we do find needs to be recharged.

I’ve been somewhat avoiding 40 Days and 40 Nights mainly because it looked and sounded dumb. I came across it Thursday while channel surfing and caught just enough of it to decide maybe it’s not so bad. I recorded it later and we watched it last night. As romantic comedies go, you could do worse than this one. It had some scenes that were unnecessary in the last ten minutes but it wasn’t a bad way to spend an hour and a half. I give it 2-1/2 stars.

Is anyone going to watch Angels in America tomorrow night? It’s getting a lot of buzz. I'm going to give it a try. I don’t mind getting hooked on HBO’s Sunday night series. I’m already hooked on Carnivale, Six Feet Under, Arli$$, and The Sopranos. Sunday nights are usually the best night for me to watch TV. The best reason to have HBO is their original programming. Most of it is outstanding.

I have no idea what these "underworld characters" are from. Maybe the Goth following (We do have a Goth following here, don't we?) here can elaborate?

VICTOR: You are victor!

1400-years-old, he is the supreme Vampire overlord
who has been sleepong to restore his power.
Selene trusts him as she trusts no one else and
daringly awkens him when no one else believes
her discovery of the Lycan plot to destroy the
Vampires. Viktor is tall, powerful, haught, and
ostentatious. And ruthless. He had his own
daughter, Sonja, executed when it was
discovered she was secretly involved with a
lycan leader. Many have elevated him to
celebrity status. Many others wish him dead.
But Viktor has his own secrets and a dark side
no other Vampire has ever known ... he may have
been the one who began the ancient battle
between Lycans and Vampires.




Which UNDERWORLD character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Simply irresistible.

For those who want to follow along.

Scott and Jimmy Soule have the Soulmen. Their team is in the playoffs as the top-ranked team. Scott won the championship back in 1998. They'll play next weekend.

Joey Hunter has The Dream Team. They're in the playoffs and have a tough game this weekend. If The Dream Team wins, they'll face Soulmen next.

Kevin Erickson and Dad shared ownership of the Sharks. They're also in the playoffs and have a very tough game this weekend. The Sharks won the championship back in 2000.

Phil and Corey's team, The Dynamic Duo, just missed the playoffs. My team (I share a team with Lars), Ragpickers, was eliminated by Dave's team, Rough Diamonds, last week. Thanks, Dave. Dave's team was eliminated about 6 weeks ago. He had a rough year.

Aaron (and I) just finished his social studies project which he has had months to work on. Did we do it in a timely fashion? No. I fussed at him, harangued, and gave him the evil eye every time I saw him vegged out in front of the darn t.v. all this time. He is unperturbed by me. He would get me to back off easily by asking me to home school him instead of his having to do all these projects. Maybe that is why Mandeville schools have such a reputation for excellence in education; the parents are getting the grades.

Now we just have a science project to crank out. It is not my favorite subject and I have tried to delegate the responsibility to Michael. Plus, we have a lame project, growing beans in different soils (clay, sand, and potting soil), that Aaron put only a little effort towards. It makes me crazy.

I am working the next couple of days at the superdome, selling high end X-mas ornaments. I am looking forward to the break from domestic bliss. It will be long days Thursday and Friday, 9-9, and Saturday 9-5. Yee-ha. Momma will be coming to watch the children after school on Thursday. It does us all good for me to get out and leave them to their own devices for a few days. They will miss me in a good way.

Laura, I forgot to tell you how much my children enjoyed the NorthPole.com.

I worked at Julia's school all day yesterday in Santa's workshop. It is unbelievable to me how parents can send a 6 year old with $40 and a list to buy presents for people. There were a handful of parents there shopping with their kids, scooping up on those tape measure-key chains, the 8 in 1 tools, lollipop lip gloss, decorative items, chinky jewelry, etc. I was what they call a "wrapper", so called because I stuck each purchase in a bag and stapled them, putting who it was from and who it was to. Those kids are so cute. One little boy bought a small toy car for his uncle and a cell phone calculator for himself. (???) Others liked items so much; a couple of kids bought two of the same thing for the same people, like the angel globes were popular and shell angel pins were going like hot cakes. I got one of those one year from Aaron. It is a hard, yet rewarding job to work that event. I have volunteered to work Aaron's tomorrow. The 4-6 graders are just as precious.

What I love most is the feeling I get when I receive a present from my two little people that clearly is a well thought out gift for me. One year, when I was a working Mom, Julia gave me a coffee cup that said "World's busiest Mom" on the outside and "...how does she ever get it all done?" on the inside. At the time Julia was missing me so much (and vice-versa) because of my working 60-70 hours a week running the theater. There was a picture of Tweetie bird on the outside and Julia had a thing for Tweetie Bird then. It was just so perfect of a gift. Yesterday, I wore the snowflake earrings that Aaron gave me when he was 7. They go with everything and came in a little Snowman case, which I still have also.

All I ever ask for is someone to give me a break with the Cinderella duties. I am starting to get that anyway. Julia helped me fold clothes last night. A week ago, Aaron did a mountain of dishes that were too big, or not the right kind, for the dishwasher. He was standing at the sudsy sink with my rubber gloves on, asking if there were anymore dishes. We are definitely turning the corner to independence now. It is bittersweet.

I think, though, that there will always be little ones in our immediate and extended family so I won't ever be deprived of receiving delicious baby love.

How much of this do you remember, Mom?