January 2006 Archives

a.ka. Lily Sue; part Border Collie, and part Australian Shepphard. She is Chip's wife, and the mother of his invisible puppies. She was wondering what I was going to do with the camera and barely sat still for this moment. I chased her around the kitchen and just snapped as soon as I could.

Robbie, I seem to have overcome all of my computer issues very mysteriously. Thanks for all of your help this past Sunday. You are so modest about your computer skills. You should know that I think of you as a computer geek. In my world, that's a compliment.

One of the lovely camellias Katie gave me basking in the sunlight this morning after an all-night rain.

Just seeing if we can post this kind of music link here. Looks like we can. Turn up your speakers and enjoy.

Happy Birthday to my mom yesterday....even though she won't see this. She turned 76. I talked to her yesterday and she was having a nice day. She and my dad were trying to decide where to go to dinner to celebrate. Truly, I never thought she'd make it to 76, so each added year is a treasured blessing. Carol

I suppose every little bit helps.

After church on Sunday, I went to see "Brokeback Mountain." I am on a new kick where I try to figure out where the director fits in. There is such praise heaped upon, for instance, Clint Eastwood, and the director of this movie, Ang Lee. I watched "Million Dollar Baby" twice last week, each time from the same point halfway through the movie. It was inadvertent both times, but I have to say now I'm going to try and watch the beginning too because there are some things I can't figure out. Anyway, I've been thinking about BBM for three days now, wondering if I liked it or if I did not and I have finally come to the conclusion that yes, I did like it. Whether or not I recommend it, I'm not sure. But it's not for children and yes, Stephen and Kellie and Brianne, that includes you too!! And my job of finding the director in these movies would be graded "F" I believe. I just don't get camera angles, shadows, low-key, long looks and so on. I know a film has to be directed, but I can't tell one director's work from another.

Franklin didn't mind one bit if I put him on the family blog. He wouldn't smile, though.

I dragged him kicking and screaming and after all the complaining I had to listen to, it practically looks like it did before we got it cut. Can you just about hear him saying, "did you take it yet?" through his clenched teeth.

So, I asked Aaron if he minded that I posted that precious picture of him. It never occurred to me to ask him if I could post it. I thought I told him what it was for. Maybe I said it was for his Uncle Joe in Michigan. It took me several snaps before I got him to smile like that. After several cajoling pleas this morning, and his angry protests, I had to remove it. He is shy. Or something. I think, possibly it is because he is 13 and I have it coming because I knew how to dish it out when I was 13. I see the future and am kind of nervous about it.

You should feel vindicated, Mother. Don't laugh.

We watched The Terminal last night. This is Tom Hanks at his best. He’s believable throughout the film even though the situations are not particularly believable. The movie is a bit too long but it has quite a few fun moments. Hanks is in just about every scene and that may be the only reason to watch it. This is a film where I was rooting for the happy ending but I suppose the bittersweet one it delivered was fair, too. I have something to say about one moment that I’ll put in the extended entry for those who haven’t see the film but want to. I surely recommend seeing it.

What do I mean "I'm back!"? I had a major malfunction of my computer. First I had no modem or at least that is what the computer was telling me, so I get a new one (modem) and it still tells me I had no modem. Ed (Joan's husband) worked on it at least once a week and couldn't get it to work. Mike came by and tried to fix it and he finally said that it was probably the mother board and that I would be better off with a new computer. I took his advice and called Dell and I had one delivered on Tuesday of this week. I installed everything, read what has been on the blog and responded to and deleted about 350 email messages. I really missed my computer!!!

It's possible the grandsons and great grandsons of Grandpa Tompkins may have been descendants of an Irish king. It's also possible (More likely, actually) Kevin Erickson is, too. I don't think any tribute should be required but I'll go along with the rest of the guys.

Here are a couple of photos I took this past weekend. We were in Northern Minnesota (about an hour north of Duluth) for a snowmobile weekend since the girls had Monday off from school. There has been little snow around home so we were happy to find the trails actually had snow. We had a great time. An added bonus to going north this time of year is that there still is "open water". I had never seen such huge waves in the winter so this was amazing to watch. I just love Lake Superior!! As you can see by the gear Dan and Ashley are wearing (their snowmobiling outfits), it was rather chilly by the water. That said, I could've stayed for hours. I LOVE watching the waves. That truly was icing on the cake this weekend. Carol

Joan ran the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Phoenix on Sunday and finished! I haven't talked to her yet, her plane gets in later tonight. I found the results on their website. Enter Race # 6336.

Her chip time was 4:48:55 with a pace time of 112. Her age division 40 - 44 had 529 runners. Her place was #277. The website says there were 33,000 runners and walkers.

She'll now be forced to comment a second time with all of the details.

Way to go Joaners!

Getting his hair cut...

After the haircut...

Getting into mischief already...

Joey and Samuel got their hairs cut on Wednesday. The girl in the picture is a friend of ours. She owns a shop where Joey always gets his hair cut. Samuel was a perfect angel. He sat perfectly still and was so adorable the whole time. He never fussed at all. Now he looks like a little boy, not my sweet little baby anymore. He has started to walk behind his push toys and walk around furniture. He might be walking by his 1st birthday. Where has the last year gone? This time last year Joey and I were attending Lamaze classes. So much can change in a year's time!

So I stopped at the Pearl River Shell station to fill up tonight. There was a welcome sight on one of their shelves that has been empty for several months: Hubig’s Pies. These are a New Orleans institution and I’ve been missing them since Hurricane Katrina damaged their bakery. They’re back in production now although the first place I tried earlier this week was sold out. I grew up on these. They’re sold everywhere in the Greater New Orleans area. I’ve even seen them at hardware stores. They’re delicious and they really knock the edge off if you’re hungry. I started on their apple pies as a kid but in my search for one at some store, I came across the last pie on their shelf. It was a pineapple pie just like the ones you see pictured above. The buying public really did save the best for last. That pie converted me to pineapple and that is all I buy now. I was so astounded to find five of them on that shelf at the Shell station tonight that I bought all of them. I’m not sure what happened to those other two. They disappeared somewhere between Pearl River and Bush.

I'm going to attempt an entry while two of my three children sleep. Murphy has a bad cold and has only been taking 1 hour naps since she coughs too much to actually sleep. So hopefully while she sits in my lap, she won't have the urge to type herself. She has stopped asking for me to bring up Mickey Mouse, so I think I am safe for now.

I am having a spaghetti dinner party with friends on Saturday and turned to my handy-dandy N'Awlins cookbook thinking there would be several Ferrara family Italian favorites. Much to my chagrin, all I found was Uncle Sam's recipe for meatballs. So, I have two questions, which I'm sure a Ferrara can answer for me. How many meatballs does that recipe make? And second, does anyone have a meatless marinara recipe. I have several vegetarians coming. My spaghetti sauce recipe has meat in it. It's a fabulous recipe and unfortunately needs the meat to make it fabulous. Any submissions would be greatly appreciated.

Next weekend is a big hockey tournament on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. I think Aunt Ginnie took some of you to that lake when you visited for the reunion last year. Anyway, Daniel is playing in the tournament with some other "ex"hockey players. However, with the warm weather we've been having the Pond Hockey Tournament may have to be cancelled. For once, I actually hope the weather dips below 32 for an extended period of time, so we can get a frozen "pond" for some good hockey spectating. For those of you around next weekend, look out for Daniel on the ice.

One last request, I need Sue's boot camp method on potty training. Murphy has been ready to go since 18 months and I have had to put her off because of the twins. I've got the twins pretty well trained to hang out for extended periods of time without me holding them, so I thought I'd give it a go. And if the rumors are true about your method, I should only be purchasing toddler diapers for a short amount of time.

I will attempt to make an entry. I have no one here to guide me and it seems like everytime I try this, something about how to do it is changed. Anyway, Bunk wrestled in the county tournament Friday night and ALL day Saturday. There were 16 schools participating. Bunk placed 3rd and he was happy with that. His team placed 2nd. We hosted the after tournament spend the night party. I had 11 boys spending the night who had been cutting weight all week so they were ready to p-a-r-t-y. They went through 6 large pizzas, 5 boxes of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes, 2 packages of Oreos, 1 package of Chex Mix, 6 cans of Pringles, 10 boxes of Kool aid drinks, 2 packages of Starburst candies. If the coach only knew! For breakfast I made 3 different egg casseroles, grits and biscuits. There will be a tournament every weekend from now until the State Tournament which is the last one and that is on February 10th and 11th. Bunk is wrestling at the 112 weight class. Last year he wrestled 103 and began the season weighing 89 pounds. He has finally started to grow so now he is having to watch what he eats to stay at 112 lbs. That bothers me a lot. I will be glad when the season is over!

I find it a little disturbing this morning looking at the weather stuff at the bottom of the blog here. Of the four places I have listed, Bush at 25º is colder than Minneapolis (27º), Stockholm (27º), and Lawrenceville (30º). If you’re reading this later than 7AM this morning, that undoubtedly has changed. It was true, though, I swear.

Hi,
Here are a couple pictures. The first one is all of us on New Year's Eve at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre taken by Dan's sister. The second one is of Wishbone taken by me with my new camera (Dan gave me for Christmas). It's a Nikon D50. Still experimenting with it. Lots to learn.
Ok, Aunt Ginnie, here goes...
Christmas was at our house as Nancy mentioned. Funny how we can fit 39 people in our house...all in the kitchen. Well, ok, we did venture off from the food. All went well and it was fun to meet Pat's girlfriend. New Year's Eve was a musical West Side Story. The play was so-so. The tough guys seemed to be trying too hard to be tough. The dance scenes were great and so were the girls' costumes. Then we stayed and watch an improv comedy troupe. They had four rooms set up in which you could go to any and all. At the end of the comedy thing, Ashley and Nicole went to the area that had a DJ and went dancing. We only were able to spy a little which was fun. We got home at 1:45 am. Man, I'm gettin' too old for that.
Now the girls are back at school and anxiously awaiting the end of the semester next week. Ashley has had a heavy load this quarter and likens it to being burned at the stake, slow and painful. She said she'd prefer the guillotine, quick and painless. Can you tell she's into history? Nicole will have a French final and maybe a science one, but we don't hear much from her. She does well and doesn't share much. Conferences are always interesting as we find out what she's like at school....very studious. Hmm, guess she saves the horomones for us at home . Well, that's all for now. Back to the ironing while I wait for the dishwasher repairman. Carol

I had surgery yesterday to remove a bit of a bulge I had on my left elbow. It didn’t hurt but it was a tad unsightly. To me, anyway. Most people never saw it until I pointed it out. In fact, the nurse who prepped me yesterday didn’t see it and she knew which elbow was going to be operated on. The bulge was caused by blood which was the result of an injury to my elbow. I don’t remember injuring my elbow but that’s not uncommon for me. Unless it stops me from what I’m doing, I don’t remember minor injuries. The orthopaedic surgeon drained it and gave me a shot of cortisone once but it came back in a few weeks. When he saw it the second time, he said I could live with it or he could perform a minor surgery. Just a small incision with “a little novocaine” is what he said. I took that to mean I’d be sitting in a chair looking away as he sliced open my elbow. It was a little more involved than that. He used general anaesthesia on me and “a little novocaine” on my elbow. Anyway, I’m told it went well. I have a pressure bandage on my arm that’s making that arm feel very heavy and I have some restriction of motion but I feel fine. I hope it worked. Among the many waivers you sign before surgery is one that says the surgery may not achieve the desired results.

People who formerly have been johnny-on-the-spot in providing new material in this spot have now fallen by the wayside. This is no way to start the new year. Carol? Janice? Nancy? Laura? Beth? Come on now. Tell us about Christmas. Tell us about New Years. Tell us about anything. Just tell.