New Furniture!

Do you suppose it is strange to love the smell of leather in the morning? Well after a month of looking and fretting over what to get we finally decided on a leather sofa and loveseat in the color called "spice" - let's be honest - it's brown. We ended up finding it in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a store called Mathis Brothers. Loved that store, reminded me of Nebraska furniture mart with tons of choices. We had a very knowlegable salesman named Charles that was wonderful. The boys were with us and were more than happy to "try out" all the furniture. As a matter of fact they both fell asleep on the set we ended up buying so that was a selling point for me.

Well, it seems picking it out was the easy part. We agreed to have it delivered and were promised it on the next Wednesday. That morning the store called and there was not room on the truck, look for it the following Monday. I stayed home from work on Monday - ALL DAY! and finally it was discovered, oops, not today either. They apologized and refunded the entire delivery charge. Ok, that helps. Then told me it would be here on Wednesday. Wednesday comes, no furniture - alright, enough is enough already, give me the furniture or not but quite yanking my chain. "Well, Mr. Fast, we are very sorry it was a computer error, would it be acceptable to deduct another $180.00 from the price". Well heck yes it would be acceptable. What's another day? Maybe before long we will end up getting it free, we already have had a total of $400.00 deducted!

Thursday comes and the furniture does manage to get here, YEAH! I love it. The dogs hate it, double YEAH! I got material that day and made curtains and throw pillows. It looks great.

I am the new Marlin Perkins

You know if I keep having these animal rescues, I might just very well get my own tv show. I mean Marlin Perkins (come on you old people, you remember - Mutual of Omahas, Wild Kingdom, it came on tv right before Walt Disney?)

I had not been asleep long, before that I was playing several rounds of Bejeweled Blitz via my Facebook page. That has become a favorite pastime of mine. Not because it's stellar intellectual stimulation, not because it hones my lightning quick visual skills but because I have the need to be at the top of my friend list in the score total. Don't lie, that is the only goal of this game, beat your friends -a virtual nod to the challenge. I had just achieved an ok score, at least enough to put me above my friend, Michelle, so I could rest peacefully. I was somewhere deep in REM sleep when Murphy, who is kenneled in the kitchen area started barking (which is highly unusual) and then woke up and started Austi (who was sleeping in our room) barking. Well after this 21 kinds of H*^% broke loose, someone needed to get up and check what was going on.

Greg kindly let me check on it, so after donning my pink robe and taking my scared -of-everything dog as protection, I set out to find the cause of this disruption. I went from room to room turning on every light in the house warning the intruder I was on my way and it would be best if he just left before facing me. Of course, any self-respecting robber would have run away screaming after coming face-to-face with me and my scary out of control hair. They would swear they faced Medusa herself.

Well, not seeing anything or anyone, the dogs were jumping to go outside, I flipped on the patio light, bracing to see the cause, but there was nothing. I opened the doors and the dogs flew out with a plan in mind. I heard one yelp and went out the door and saw (with my limited middle of the night sight and no contacts in) they had something, a bunny? no, didn't look like that, a cat? perhaps but I heard no yowling, a possum? it really didn't look that creepy. I went out and yelled at them, I was afraid to out to the yard where they were but I got their attention and they let go of it. I got them to come in the house and then had to decide what to do.

I went and put on shoes because I need to see what this beast is, it could be a rabid animal that would sit and wait until morning and attack again, it could be a wounded animal that might die and stinketh out back, or it could be some sort of animal that is wounded and needs my assistance. When I returned and went out back it was very apparent what the animal was, a really cute older calico kitten. A very slobbered on, quite stunned and frightened kitten. I went out and with a towel picked it up, and other than mental trauma, it seemed fine.

I put it out front under the bushes along with a dish containing a torn up hamburger patty soaking in milk. Mother Nature - do your thing.

Well, in doing this I notice Brett was not home yet and it was well after his curfew time. I called him and he informs me there is a meteor shower and he and some friends are at the park watching it. Part of the conversation went like this:

Me: Where are you?
B: At the park with friends watching the meteor shower.
Me: Oh, which way do I look?
B: lol, mom, look up silly.
Me: Oh, yes, I see one, cool.
B: Yes, it is.

OK, I know it was a dumb conversation but it was 2 freakin o'clock in the morning!

SO, I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to deal with the cat, but I ended up getting to see a light show from God himself. Cool. Unintended consequences, sometimes a beautiful thing.

WOO HOO KU

Well, I have recovered from my black eye and are now on to the bruised heart. No, no accident, it's just both boys will be leaving to go off to school. Empty nest. My feelings flucuate between pride, sadness, and pure joy. I mean, I am happy they have progressed to almost adulthood and moving on to the next phase of their lives, but they do keep life interesting. I am also happy to have moved to a new level or phase in my own life. One back to just the two of us at home, not worrying about cooking a square meal to keep SRS away. Maybe having time to take a few classes or start a new hobby. Maybe even leaving in the morning with a clean house and returning in the evening and it be as I left it. Maybe cooking with icky green peppers and onions. I don't know exciting? yes - scary? a little - an new adventure on the horizon? - most definitely.

First up on the agenda, clean house.

Rock Chalk.

Red, White, Black and Blue

I know, I know, it is not right to have 2 posts in one day but I have another story to tell. And I DO love to tell stories. Yesterday, my husband was trying to do the husbandly thing and help out around the house a little. (I think it was just guilt for him going to be gone to Waynoka riding all day today) He knows I struggle to get the slip covers back on the sofa cushions because it fits so tightly and was trying to of help when calamity struck. I use safety pins all along the zipper because the fabric pulls and I don't want the zipper to break or come apart. He was putting a safety pin and I pulled on the fabric but when I did it yanked his hand and he sliced himself with the safety pin.

Now at this point you are probably thinking, "what a big baby, getting sliced by a safety pin, get over it". Well that is not the point (ha ha) of the story. He reacted by yanking his arm back in full force and unfortunately my face was in his direct flight path. He cold cocked me square in the eye socket with the back of his hand and his wedding ring making complete contact. I managed to stay on my feet but was reeling somewhat. We both must have had complete stunned looks on our faces. He tried to blame the whole thing on me until the black and purple set on then he kind of started saying he was sorry and it was an accident, no ones fault.

Anyway, staying close to home today to avoid the stares and people thinking I'm some sort of gang banger or something. You know, there is never a dull moment here......

Oh yes, I did go give a little attention to the old eyebrows after viewing these pics.

His Eye is on the Sparrow......

OK, does anyone else think it's weird that dumb wildlife crisis happen to me all the time? This time a sparrow was in my house. He wanted as desperately to escape as I wanted him out. Murphy, the blonde greyhound was trying her dead level best to assist but only achieved scaring the poop out of the little bird. The black greyhound watched all the hubbub from her Egyptian Lion pose as if to be nothing more than amused by our scramblings. The bird flew right by her head and she looked at me as if to indicate, "I am retired, I will not chase the bird for you, and I am getting annoyed".

Finally, armed with a mixing bowl and a straw basket, I managed to corral the frightened bird and set him free into the wild of the back yard.

There should be some sort of manual......

I knew getting ready for graduation would be somewhat stressful, I mean, I had already muddled through Aaron's so I was kind of up for what to expect with Brett's. I did not, however, remember that the whole invitation thing was such a big deal. Maybe to the average bear it's just another piece of the puzzle but to me, this was very definitely the single biggest brain drain of the process.

I mentioned earlier the stress of the "perfect" invitation but I think we've all agreed that is just a personal problem I have and it does not affect others across the grad planning board. Another part of the invitation thing that totally messed me up and caused WAY more worrying and fretting than it probably should have was the guest list or not. I personally hate getting invites from people I don't know or barely know or I know the parents but wouldn't know the kids if they were selling magazines on my doorstep. With this type of thinking, I tried to be selective on the guest list. If the person in question had never had at least 2 meaningful conversations with my son or if I had not forced them to hear about him on a daily basis, see pictures until they would be able to successfully pick him out of a line up or if I hadn't told of his accolades and/or cried over his mis-steps, they were nixed from the list. I tried not to send them to every relative near and far I could think of and keep it only to those that were immediate in location or bloodline. I thought I was being very considerate for others. I did tell Brett to invite any of his friends he wanted to the party - I really didn't want anyone to feel pressured to bring a gift or send one, and I hoped by him just inviting them they might alleviate some of that, and I think it did to some degree.

Well, you know when you get a Christmas card from someone that was not on your list and you quickly get one sent back to them? That kind of starts to happen with party invitations. I didn't do that though, I guess some might call it bull-headed (NO, MOI?, no way) but I drew a line in the sand and did not reciprocate. We go ahead and attend a couple of parties that we didn't invite them to ours, but we took a gift- oh, let's call it like it is - a card with money- to those parties. It became somewhat awkward when they asked about our party and I hope no one got offended but if I had a third child I think I would do the party thing a little differently.

I would include the phrase- no gift necessary the we would simply like you to share in the happiness and celebration of this occasion. Then send it to anyone and everyone we know. Those that want to give a gift can, but no one would feel obligated. But I don't have a third child and I don't have the opportunity to try something different so I hope any persons that felt slighted by no invitation let that pass quickly and understand we did leave people out intentionally but because we didn't want to include them, but that we didn't want to put any additional pressure on anyone.

If you were given as much paperwork with a child as you are when you purchase a toaster, this would be included in the manual they give you when you bring a baby home from the hospital.

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

OK, OK, several people have asked about the cake balls/truffles and I know most of them could look it up on this newfangled thing they call the “internet” but just for kicks and giggles I’ll share the whole process here. First, the recipe:

Cake Truffles
* 1 (18.25 ounce) boxed cake mix
* 1 (16 ounce) can prepared frosting
* Almond Bark Coating or Confectionery Wafer Coating or the melted chocolate of your choice.

Prepare and bake the cake mix according to package instructions.
While warm, crumble the cake into a bowl to a fine texture- I just rubbed it gently between my hands. I took the “skin” or outer layer that didn’t crumble quite so nicely and chopped it with my chopper or you could put it in the blender. For me, the chopper was WAY easier to get to and I am all about easy. Mix in frosting to make a paste.Using a melon baller, your hands, or a 1 inch scooper, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place the balls on wax paper; freeze at least 6 hours. (I used 4 different cake mixes and got 50 balls out of every cake.)

Almond Bark Coating is a funny thing. It almost has to have the goldilocks test and be “just right” to work properly. I tried several different methods and what I like best was 3 squares of bark melted in a small bowl for about 2 minutes. After that I stirred it until smooth and added with a bit of vegetable oil. Working in small batches remove the balls from the freezer and roll the balls into warm, melted almond bark coating or confectionery wafer coating, using toothpicks or forks or a dipping tool to manipulate and completely cover the balls.

Remove the balls.
Place balls on wax paper to harden. I used a rack the first round and decided that was a dopey idea, the cakes stuck and pulled off the coating. After spending that much time putting the coating on, I sure didn't want it to come back off! Idea rejected - new plan - plain old wax paper.

Although this recipe was fairly simple, it was pretty time consuming. I was not very happy with the way the first few rounds of finished product looked but my son assured me they tasted fine and I could say he was the one who put the coating on them if I was ashamed. You can tell he’s really growing up, willing take the blame to protect ole mom's ego. I decided that it didn’t matter any way - I was doing all of this for him anyway - that’s the ony approving nod I need. Bon Appétite.

Free at Last, Free at Last or adventures in frogland

Free at last, free at last, thank frog almighty, he's free at last.

This morning I had an adventure, I wasn't planning on an adventure but....... anyway, I normally do not take my son, Brett to school. He is 18 almost 19 and has a car of his own. He will graduate in 4 days and generally does not require my assistance in this area. However, his car is in the shop getting the air conditioner fixed so I was going to drop him off on my way to work. I was excited because I haven't gotten to work this early since I stopped taking him to school. Everyone was going to be shocked.

On the way to school, Brett informed me that he thought there might be some sort of animal in his basement window well. He had heard thumping noises in the night and wondered if it was a toad. I asked if he thought it could be a bunny or larger animal and he said the noise was pretty loud and could be. He did mention he got up and making sure to brandish his ceremonial machete he got on a missions trip to Mexico, he made sure it wasn't a person and after deciding it wasn't, went back to sleep.

Now, I had a decision to make, - go ahead and go to work and worry about it later or go back home and see what's up or in this case, down. I did the usual internal discussion that went something like this,
Me: What if it's a bunny and you go on to work he might die, then when you get around to cleaning out the window well of the leaves, you will find his bones, very sad.
Me2: No, you won't because it will start to smell long before you get the leaves cleaned out, you will find a bloated carcass.
Me: Hmmm, that is only about 10 feet from the outdoor grill, not a very appetizing thought. I should go and see.
Me2: or you could wait until after work and maybe he's still alive.
Me: but what if he is very weak and so near death, you have to watch him take his last breaths in a towel lined cardboard box.
Me2: Yes, I should go check.
Me: But what if it's something you don't want to find, like a rabid skunk or opossum?
Me2: If I can escape the spray, I call animal control - but then I have to wait and instead of early - I'd be really late. Still, I should go check.
Me: But what if it's something slithery - some sort of venomous asp or long-fanged viper? What if it is hidden beneath the leaves and when disturbed leaps out of the 5 foot deep hole and attacks? Then I'd be really late for work and it would probably mess up Brett's graduation festivities. But..... I should go check.
Me2: Yes, you should.

So, I go home, pull the cover off and find a frog. A very scared-looking frog. As the dogs and I peer into the hole, I try to figure out how to get him out, because I'm NOT going into that hole, no way. I get a broom, however when one touches a bull frog with a broom, he jumps - he does not sit patiently on the broom waiting for you to wisk him to safety. So, plan B. I go to the garage and look around - no, no frog rescue equipment here - but wait! I think I can McGyver something, I'm a resourceful type of person. And besides I hate to lose a battle - so let this frog die?- Not today - not on my watch.

I decide to fashion a frog rescue bucket from a plastic basket, a swiffer dustmop, and some leather cord. After I figured out that getting the frog in the basket was only half the solution, I learned I had to cover the basket with the broom and raise him out of the hole.After a few tries, operation wild animal out of the window well, was a success.


And I made it to work by 8:30.
Frogs WELL that ends WELL.
Hope you find victory today as well.

Obsessive or Thorough?

My youngest son will be graduating from high school in approximately one month. While most parents would play the game and order the announcements and accompanying paraphernalia from the designated vendor, I just can't seem to follow the norm. I look at all the cookie cutter graduation announcements and think, I don't want to be like every one else. I want my kid's to stand out in the crowd. (As if refrigerators across the country will be so laden with graduation announcements that my kids' will have to fight for recognition.) I seem to have this innate drive to be different, to not be like all the other lemmings headed to the sea, which is quite astounding since I find myself wanting to blend in when in a crowd and not be the center of attention. Anyway, I have been working steadily to come up with an announcement worthy of the .42 cent stamp. I'm sure I could tweak and revise until my grand kids graduate but I finally had to just say good enough. I wanted a certain kind of paper - not because of the grand way the print looks but the way the paper feels in my hand. Weird? probably but I found what I wanted - sort of - not exactly but does feel good in my hand - it is a water color paper. And I am happy with the outcome so I will claim that as a victory.

I also am working on a digital scrapbook for Brett for his graduation. Boy is that ever time consuming! I started in the fall and have 72 pages done. Going through pictures and scanning them in, you know people told me to keep them organized from the beginning - I should have listened.

The next thing on my list to is figure out the menu. Do we want substantial food or snacks or what? I think we have it narrowed down to a mexican flavor but we'll see.

So obsessive or thorough? Call it what you will, I know what I want and am determined to get there or at least make an honest attempt. Oh BTW, Brett is happy with the results as well, so I'm really not being one of those freakishly controlling moms. Really, I'm not. For real.

Wear an ugly shirt day

Last Thursday was "Wear an Ugly Shirt" Day (or the alternate choice was to wear your easter bonnet) at our office. I thought about making some sort of KU bonnet but didn't get it done. As I pondered what I was going to wear, it dawned on me that I could potentially choose something that someone else considers quite lovely. It was definitely an aha moment. Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder.

Message to track team

Sorry about this I was going to just post these on facebook and for some reason - probably me - they won't upload. So I'm going to give this a whirl. I tries several different ideas with the pictures you sent but these were the only ones I liked. See what you think and give me some feedback.

Getting back in the swing of things

Wow, time sure has a way of marching on. My last post was done just before Aaron was to leave for college. Now here I am writing again and Brett's almost to graduate. All of the old ladies of days gone by were right, it'll be gone before you know it. We had a major snowstorm here yesterday, and when the flakes cleared we had about 18 inches of beautiful white pennies from heaven. I say that because in my husband's line of work - snow is included - but not budgeted, so it's like a little bonus. It is decidedly an earned bonus though. Not some cheapened AIG-type bonus. Greg and Brett will work their buns off today moving that heavy white stuff and hopefully bring home a little extra green when it said and done.

That leaves me to answer the phone here on the home front and do a little cleaning. But now that I'm bored with that, I thought I'd do a little updating. Have my main course for lunch all prepared. It's actually kind of fun to cook when you haven't worked all day. But as usual, I didn't really have anything in mind when I went to the store so in order to make a real dish, I will have to be creative. Well, by golly, I am creative and I can do this - so let's do an inventory of the cabinet.

The only meat I seem to have is chicken breasts or meatballs. I'll save the meatballs for when I'm really in a pinch. Chicken.... some sort of casserole would be good. It will have to be something that can be reheated tomorrow (or tonight if the guys are hungry when they come in). I have a few egg noodles but probably not enough for anything. I have rice but I made jambalya last week, I don't want rice. Spaghetti.... ummm, cheesy chicken spaghetti - or as my friend Bob likes to call it - Bobalinos Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti. OK - Chicken, spaghetti, velveeta, onion, and then the recipe falls apart - no Rotel, no cream of chicken soup. That's ok, we're big kids let's make it up.

I am going to boil the spaghetti while I am cooking the chicken. First I put about 1/4 butter in a pan and dice up about 1/4 - 1/2 c onion and saute. I had (about 4) boneless skinless chicken breasts so I just cut them in small pieces and tossed in with the onion. I sprinkled with salt, pepper and little cumin, a bit of a cajun spice I had and a little Lipton onion soup mix. While that is cooking I will melt a large block of velveeta in the microwave. While all of this is happening I am going to find substitutes for the rotel tomatoes and the cream of chicken soup. What I found was a new jar of Pace black bean and corn salsa and some sour cream - however I also had a sour cream based dip that was a tex mex. Sounded interesting so I pulled it out of the fridge. After the cheese was melted, I added about 2/3 of the jar of salsa, a can of black beans and a can of white corn (both drained). Stirred in about 1/2 - 1 cup of the dip and stirred well, added the chicken and onion mixture and poured it over the cooked, drained spaghetti in an 11x15 baking dish. I gave the whole thing a few pokes to make sure it got down into the spaghetti and baked it for 25 minutes at 350. UM,UM, I like it just as well as the other recipe.
I'm going to call it TexMex Spaghetti Casserole

Long time, No blog.....

Now, seems like a good time for a long overdue post. Much has happened since my last entry in May. Summer came and was a busy time around the Fast household. Aaron graduated and was set to go to KU. He spent the summer earning the almighty dollar doing outside work during one of the hottest summers on record. Brett played a little baseball and Greg and I tried to keep our sanity.

Aaron is now settling in nicely at Battenfeld Hall at KU. He is adjusting to 3 new room mates and hopefully they are adjusting to him.


I think Brett is missing his brother a bit but enjoying being an "only child" for a while. He wasted no time in moving in to his brother's old room.

Now, seems like a good time for a long overdue post. Much has happened since my last entry in May. Summer came and was a busy time around the Fast household. Aaron graduated and was set to go to KU. He spent the summer earning the almighty dollar doing outside work during one of the hottest summers on record. Brett played a little baseball and Greg and I tried to keep our sanity.

Aaron is now settling in nicely at Battenfeld Hall at KU. He is adjusting to 3 new room mates and hopefully they are adjusting to him.

I think Brett is missing his brother a bit but enjoying being an "only child" for a while. He wasted no time in moving in to his brother's old room.

Murphy is as crazy as ever but Austi seems to be mellowing in her old age.

I think maybe the dogs are missing Aaron a bit also.

New York, New York

After reviewing this post, it is an absolute mess. But when it takes you over an hour to make a tiny little post, it's time to surrender. I'll try again tomorrow....maybe.


Well, it is taking waaayyy too long to upload photos but I'll keep trying. We got here yesterday about 3pm. We had a delay because of FUEL PUMP PROBLEM on the airplane. They fixed it, yes, I felt comfortable with that....right. Then "traffic" problems in the sky! not only lots of traffic in the streets of New York but apparently lots of traffic in the sky above new york. Anyway, we finally got here and I had forgotten how small rooms are here (at least if you don't want to sign over your first born - wait a minute, that wasn't an option...) We are 4 blocks from the conference center which isn't a big deal if it doesn't rain, which it is supposed to only Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We went to see "Wicked" last night. That was terrific. Then this morning we went to Chinatown. Ask Deb Bether about that. It was kinda fun having clandestine meetings in little back rooms of abandoned buildings to buy knock off or stolen purses. Now I'm not into trafficking stolen merchandise but I don't speak Chinese and couldn't really get a clear idea about the true source of the goods......

Oh well, another new adventure to put in the memory banks. It was kinda fun living on the edge and all. : )








This is their idea of car parking, a big lift kinda thing, very odd, can't explain it.

The pre-conference started at 1 and went until 5. Good stuff. I hope my brain doesn't become too saturated before it's over.







Tonight we walked all over and went to Times Square and ate at Bubba Gumps Shrimp. Fun, Festive and great tasting! Sat by the window and looked in the ABC studios. They weren't doing anything so it kinda lost it's appeal pretty fast. And the naked singing cowboy wasn't out so it was busy, but calm. Did a little shopping, and saw where our after-hours party is tomorrow night.

We thought it was a good sign when they placed the office mascot up on one of the jumbo tron thingys.



Now we are back in our room,.....ha, ha, ha, makes me laugh to even call it that. I slept with my suitcase on my bed, because if I put it on the floor, we wouldn't be able to get to the bathroom. We aren't in here much anyway, it's fine, just funny.

This is the outside of our hotel.

Easter Weekend

this is my easter weekend stuff

Practice

GOING TO NEW YORK!!!!

Well, It's official. I have been given the permission to attend the MacLive Conference in New York City in May. WOOO HOOOO. This is the same conference I attended last year in Tampa and it was wonderful. The people that actually write the books on different applications are the presenters and boy do they impart knowledge. You come away with your brain absolutely saturated with "stuff". This year they have strands about podcasting. Which I hope to attend. I will be attending with web/video person, Deb. Her and I attended together last year and had a good time. We will be staying at the New Yorker hotel, which will be close to the conference. It was very difficult to find a hotel because I am so unfamiliar with the area and everything seemed so expensive.

I wish they had some sort of class that would give you confidence and no fear - that's what I need most.

I don't know why I freak out so much when speaking in front of people. It's definately a negative.


I think if someone were to just give me a script and say "here teach this" specifically, I would be fine. I just have trouble organizing my thoughts into a box. I guess I should have never thrown the "proverbial" (sp?) box away.

Maybe I'll come back pumped up enough the fear will be overtaken with excitement. Yeah, right. Fear always wins. Darn fear.






Anyway - should be an interesting few weeks. Conference in New York, next week graduation, two weeks off then the big Kan-ed conference in Wichita. Then I will probably sleep. A few weeks of catching up and then getting Aaron off to college. Where has the time gone. Seems like just yesterday he was a little baby and throwing a fit. Oh wait- that was yesterday. ....

Molly and her "bouncers"

Well, I have complaints from extended family that I have too few pictures of my boys on this site. It seems like we take a lot pictures, I guess they just aren't in them. I will try to do better.


I was hoping they would dress up and at least shower before we went to take Molly's pictures last weekend. And since they had no interest in taking pictures of them, they weren't in very many. But here are a few.

Trying to look all tough.













Her loyal drivers.





















Her bodyguards.

Prom dress shopping

Murphy liked Molly, she just didn't want to share the couch with her.


Had a great time with Kelly and Molly. Got to experience Parrot-fa-anlia. It's a store that sells special event dresses. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about, if not, there is just not a way to explain it in words.....


I absolutely love the dress. She looked very stunning.

The weather was really crummy but we down to the storage building and took pictures of Molly with the car.



I had fun taking the pictures and turning everything but her dress and eyes, to black and white.



She makes it easy to have a good picture, very photogenic.

NEW CAR!!!!

Here IT IS!!!!


Here is a picture of my new car!! It is a Pontiac Solstice. Greg went to Independence, MO yesterday to pick it up. We sold the Corvette. It isn't exceptionally fast but a very sweet ride.













And here is my wonderful husband. He bought me the car because he loves me. (Or at least that's the excuse he's using). Oh well, who am I to argue??? : )

Go here for another view:
http://www.pontiac.com/solstice/index.jsp


Kelly and Molly are coming to visit this weekend. Should be fun. Crummy weather expected though.
More later.

Not quite the Olympics....

Well, here we are at the State swim meet in Topeka. Although our guys had some good times, believe it or not there are actually some others from around the state that are even more amazing. It was fun to watch. The finals are tomorrow. You know what I do not like about attending a swim meet? It's like sitting in a terarium. Remember those things? They were poplular in the 70's. My grandmother had one. It's kinda like an aquarium only for plants. The pools are like that hot, enclosed in glass- my hair can be looking really good and 5 minutes in there and I look like a bad perm specimen. My throat hurts from breathing chlorine fumes and it's COLD outside. Enough grumbling. Time for bed. I'll leave you with a few pics.