(a)musing 186 - Boom!!!!! June 3, 2002

Like the new header up there? Hee Hee Hee! That goat's head was in the freezer at cateringman's. He got it for nothin' and planned on making a soup with it and forgot it was there. Everytime someone new comes to work there, this guy Chris tells them he'll give them 20 bucks to lick the eye. With the wrapping off. No one has taken him up on it yet. It's quite funny, so I had to take a picture. I have a feeling this is a joke that will follow us all summer at cateringman's place.

We've had quite a run of thunderstormy weather, which for me is fine. I'm all for it. But it makes using the PC a tad difficult. I took the left radar picture off the web, just before our collective asses got kicked on Friday night with a wicked boomah. We were over at the church helping set things up for the rummage sale, and the sky turned black as night, the wind churned up, and the children went screaming into the building. Looked rather foreboding, and not one person missed the chance to say "boy, it's good to be in a church at this time, just in case... you know."

Part of what I love about New England in the Spring and Summer. Last Thursday morning at about 4:45 a thunderstorm started out nice and slow, but by 5:15 it was a raging storm with super thunder... woke all of us up. Lasted another half hour. Normally storms in these parts move past rather quickly. Lately though we've been treated to celestial delights, with great lasting power. My favorite kind.

Saturday I worked for cateringman, several events going on that night from graduations to weddings. I worked 8 - 3 and could have stayed a lot later. Chris, the "head" guy got there at 5am, was going home to shower, work as a server, and then come back to the shop to unload.

That's Dedication.

But I got out of it because Saturday was also our wedding anniversary. Doug and I have been married 11 years, which in and of itself makes me proud and shocked. 11 years is a really long time this day and age. And I wouldn't trade him. We went to dinner in Lowell at the Mill City Brewhouse, dinner was great and the waiter was funny. We were going to go out to a movie, but it was after 9:30 by the time we finished up so we basically just came home. Old and tired. One of the highschool girls who works for cateringman sat for us. The kids loved her. It was nice to go out and know that Geoff wasn't making someone's life a living hell.

Our VCR died last week, and we got our cable feed through the VCR, so we've been sans TV for a few days. We borrowed the VCR from our friend's car, which is in our driveway (and has been since October when we told him we'd house it for him while he went to rehab) and tried to get the cable through it, but no dice. We were able to watch videos though, which was good, because the kids wanted to watch Iron Giant and Chicken Run over and over (by the way, Tess, your boy Vin Diesel does the voice for the Iron Giant, and I never noticed until just the other day when I was watching the credits... thought of you)...

But as our luck goes, after viewing 10 hours worth of tapes over the course of two days, the Iron Giant got STUCK in the VCR. Yup. Favorite movie, stuck. No TV whatsoever in our house right now. It's been kind of weird, because I feel completely out of touch with news, but I'm sleeping better because I'm not getting all this "NEXT TERROR ATTACK WILL BE SOMETIME, SOMEPLACE MAYBE NEXT WEEK MAYBE AT AN APARTMENT BUILDING" kind of news stories.

And the kids are far better behaved. Aside from missing Alton Brown, and a few other choice shows, I don't miss it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going off TV all together. I'm just saying I find myself not as panic driven and upset.

Plus, we've played a lot of UNO. And that's always a good time.

On Sunday we did our Sunday School end of year program, and the kids got to star in the production. Here are some pictures:

Geoff and S. as disciples of Jesus... Geoff knew I was watching him.

Jessica was the narrator, did an UNBELIEVABLE job, I might add. She reads aloud so well. In the past the older kids have been the narrators, but we don't have a lot of older kids, so Jessie was asked. Her ability to not read in a monotone straight voice added a lot to the presentation... she read with sarcasm when the text called for a slight taunt, joy when it was happy, and sorrow when it was sad. You go girl!

I added the braid to her hair... she never lets me play with it. It's all long and such, and she never lets me do anything with it!!!

Geoff was in the process of raising his hand to give me a thumbs up. Looks like he's shaking his fist at me.

Jess and M. getting ready... M is tan already. How did THAT happen?

This book "10,000 ways to say I love you" was sitting on the back pew, and this boy thought it was "funny." I asked him if it was a comical approach to saying I love you, and he said no... that it was in a make you throw up because it's so sappy funny way. All the kids were looking at it and squealing. I took his pic posing with it.

Last night Doug told Jessie to make some cookies, so she did. She forgot to put in flour though. Totally forgot. So the cookies came out... gross. They melted into one big flat piece of lump, and essentially would be good at the bottom of a cup of icecream, but nothing else. Aw too bad. Great try though!

But like cateringman tells me, "Practice makes better..." and we laughed heartily and fully at this failed attempt. She took it really well too, which thrilled me. I'm sending this one off to American Homebody.

Today (Monday... June 3) Geoff and I had coffee with a friend of mine and spent time with the farm animals at the farmstand... they have a lovely playground, and the animals are an extra plus. We then went to feed the llamas at the farm in Haverhill, and went to the market. I'm pretty shagged out right now. Whew! Four straight hours of animals and groceries. Who woulda thunk it? Here's the gory evidence:

The farmstand has this lovely border collie who keeps watch over the place. There were thousands of kids to play with, tons of animals to pet, and my son zooms in on his one true love... a dog. The dog was really sweet, and in addition to hanging out with Geoff he kept those scheming chickens in line!

This llama looked like he wanted to spit at me, and did not like the camera.

but he did like the llama food.

And once Geoff got over his initial fear that the llama would eat him alive, he had a blast feeding them. A small handful of feed was a quarter... I think I fed them four dollars worth of feed, or I should say Geoff did.

I want to get a nice marinade going for dinner. Doug has another 2 weeks of school, Jess is done on her birthday, so she's extra psyched to have a half day for the occasion. It's like someone gave her a special gift! We're thinking of some sort of trip in August. I'm teaching (co-teaching really) a class at a local college the first week of August, making tons of dough from a professor there who is totally pimping for me... so my summer will be busy busy. I should get a second computer so that I can get some work done and the family can have their own PC set up.

Speaking of which, Doug bought a cordless mouse, which rules. I've never had one... this one is like buttah. Like BUTTAH I tell you. Smooth as silk, runs on my leg far from the receiver... I love it ! So thumbs up to Doug for his purchase.

Alright. Gotta go. Ciao.