Cat on a Hot Asphalt Roof

Last week stunk.  The AC petered out on Thursday and our hot water heater sort of imploded on Saturday morning.  Shelled out mucho dinero and had both issues fixed on Monday.  And just our luck, those days without AC were toasty and humid.  We had to make more use of the windows, which Felix took advantage of by knocking out a loose upstairs screen to go explore the magical wonders of the roof.

Naughty beast.  Some day we'll let him back in.  We went to Canterbury on Father's Day and won 60 cents.  Lost a little more than that.  We were by the winner's circle at the end of the last race and a jockey gave Adrienne his muddy goggles.  Maybe he was just being nice, or maybe he was intimidated by her height and girth.

Rounding out a banner week were the 4 a.m. storms Tuesday that rocked the house and hail that made us fear for our windows.  Straight line winds of 60-80 mph, they say.  One of our willow trees partially lifted up and looks pretty bare on one side now.

3 storm chasers went through yesterday while we cleaned up, hunting for damaged roofs and cracked siding.  We came out pretty good compared to many in our area.  Trees are down everywhere and slammed into a few houses.  This pic is from a local news article - it's a street just northeast of us.

Ahh, June in MN.  Hoping that's the worst we see this season.

from the Messed Up files

Article: The Global War Against Baby Girls

"In terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls."

Scary stuff.  We haven't really learned from the past.  We just decide it's okay to kill a different group of people.

Movin' on up

Or down, rather.  We've been working on transforming the basement bedroom from Nate's office/collectibles room to a real bedroom for Michael.  He moved in a couple days ago.  I think he's going to like having more space and a bathroom to himself.

Ugh, painting...we hate painting.  Nate redid the trim too.  But it's done and looks pretty good.  Nate made the shelves when he was a teenager.  To his chagrin, the Star Wars action figures & sets that previously decorated them have been relegated to the closet to make way for Lego Technic etc.  It's the first time since '99 that there haven't been Transformers or Storm Troopers or sports cards actively displayed somewhere in our home.  Poor Nate.  I can't say there isn't a piece of me that's giddy, but I won't gloat.  They are not really gone.  Just like herpes, they merely lie dormant.  The kids will move out eventually, and then I bet the Empire Strikes Back.

Last week I went to an awards ceremony at Michael's middle school where lots of kids were honored for various things.  He and 15 other kids received an award because their History Day In MN projects went to regionals.  He created a website about how the automobile revolutionized society.  No one from his school advanced from there, but it was cool anyway.

And he got braces last week!  We're metal mouth buddies now.  The school year is winding down, too.  Thursday is the last day.  Yay, no homework for 3 months!

angry birds

Pics galore, due to messin' around with the new camera. I'm pretty intimidated by it. I need a DVD that explains the 'How to use this camera' DVD, and a Photography for Dummies book.

The boys helped plant flowers a few weeks ago.  Sanctioned diggin' in the dirt, yeehaw!

 Apocalypse alert?  A bunny takeover in the backyard.

Nate and I took turns trying to snap photos of the robin nest under the deck while the other stood watch to shoo away the dive bombing mom.

Lacey and Christian

Very cool...kleenex a must.

Mother's Day and stuff

Michael's last concert of the year (7th grade band) was May 10th.  He's looking so grown up lately.  I bribed him to hug me in public when he was whining for some bakery treats at Target last week.  I was gonna buy something anyway.  But soon enough it'll be a hug for the car keys, I 'spose.

Mom's Day was nice.  We had lunch in a park, and I got a sweet new camera, and Nate and I watched another of the new Sherlock Episodes on PBS.

We're down one kid right now since A is at camp with her 5th grade class.  A little 3 day bonding/right of passage thing before they move on to middle school this fall.

I'm Gumby, Dabbt!

"Dabbt wants to follow a recipe that needs 1 cup of milk."

Nicky's math worksheets have word problems with weird (er, I mean...cool & ethnic) names in them.  Of the ones I've seen, Dabbt probably takes the cake.  I get it, they gotta use names from various cultures and stuff.  It's only fair.  People in, like, Mongolia do math too.  But it feels like they're trying a bit too hard sometimes.  So what the sam hill kind of name is Dabbt?  Google is not super helpful.  Did you mean debt?  No.  Or dabt either, which is an acronym for a few things:

Acronym	Definition
DABT	Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology
DABT	Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (Florida)
DABT	Daam Aatu Basaltic Tuff (geology)

Maybe somebody at Houghton Mifflin made it up, or one of the kooky people who name race horses or paint colors.

Anyhoo, it's concert season and Michael had a jazz band concert last week.  I have no suitable images of that.  Adrienne had her first official band concert too.  And Nicky had a piece in the district art show, a weaving.  He had me fix the fringe after I snapped this photo.

Nicky's 1st Holy Communion 4/28/12

"I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." John 6:48-51

Congratulations to Dominic on his first reception of holy communion, and thanks to our families for celebrating his special day with us!

nerd alert part deux

a milestone b-day

Had a full day on Saturday.  We attended a brunch at church in the morning for the 2nd graders who'll be making their 1st communion soon, then it was off to Iowa to celebrate Duane's birthday with all the family.  He'll be 70 on the 19th.  Happy birthday to my fantastic father-in-law, whose youngest son I was lucky enough to lay eyes on 15 years ago this month.