'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for ... the most obnoxious tree on the block.

One 10 foot high flowering crab tree, 600 blinking multicolored lights, and 5 large white lighted bulbs.

I win!

Road trip to Battle Creek and O'Neill

After trying for months trying to plan to get out to O'Neill to visit Robin & Tim, okay really just Daniel. Last Sunday I said to SmileChild "Hey, you want to road trip, let's go." Obviously spur of the moment works way better than trying to plan something. We had the added incentive of Smeade is staying in Battle Creek for two months doing a college practical in Norfolk, and hey, it's on the way! We got Viv to come along and it was a plan.

The day started off early, after a late night of dancing. I wanted to be on the road by 0900, and we made it. Not to complain about my friends, but none of them know how to drive a stick, they need to learn how to drive my car.

Evidently, they aren't the only ones who don't know about my car, I pulled into a gas station in Scribner, ran my card at the pump, put the nozzle in my tank, SmileChild and I cleaned the windows, we used the facilities, put the pump away, and back on the road. About 20 miles later, I looked at my gas tank, and it was nearly empty ... *????* ... yep, I had forgotten to actually pump the gas. Fortunately, we were able to make it to Smeade's place in Battle Creek without further incident.

The day turned out to be absolutely gorgeous for November. The sun low in the sky, the few clouds were high, the wind slight, and the temperature in the mid 50°s. Battle Creek appeared to be deserted, which I can only attribute to it being deer hunting season, and many hunters being out on the prowl.

Smeade took us to a local dining establishment, okay, make that the only local dining establishment, Goody's Grille.

The best place to eat lunch in Battle Creek.


After lunch the local constabulary treated me in the usual manner.


SmileChild and Smeade think that the local cops hassling me is humorous.

After lunch, we had some time to kill, so we walked down to the local library where there was a book and bake sale. The sale was heavy on the books, not so much on the baked goods.

I guess I could read something at a library...


The library had computers for use, and I finally figured out how SmileChild keeps winning at Scrabble.


SmileChild thinks she can overload the camera by reflecting the sunlight into the lens. Nice try, but we still know you bought something at the book sale.

We then headed back to Smeade's temporary residence for some highly intellectual discussion and activities.

I had no idea both Smeade and Viv were cheerleaders in high school.


Gravel driveway and boots are difficult to dance in ... having the right partner makes it all good.


Maybe I should have zoomed in a little bit.

We gassed up the car, for real this time, and got back on the road to O'Neill when all of a sudden...

...oh look, a chicken...

...what was I talking about?

We got up to O'Neill in a little over an hour after leaving Battle Creek. I learned from the sign at the edge of town that it was the Irish capital of Nebraska ... cool, lets drink. After only one miscue, we managed to find Chez de la RockinRobin, a modest brick duplex with a meet the neighbors window in front of the shower.

Of course, we didn't come to see the house ... or Tim ... or RockinRobin ... why was it we drove 3 1/2 hours for...

... Daniel ...


... Daniel ...


... Daniel!!!

Oh yeah, there was Danny's mom and dad too. I can almost remember their names.

Kids are so cute when they emulate your bad habits, I mean other peoples kids of course.


Daniel is already ignoring Mom.


A little confused here dad, which way is up?.


I tried to get a nap, but that didn't work so well.

After a visit, we went to see RockinRobin's new daycare facility, Babies & Blossoms Day Care, and the house they are going to rent.

Some of the shots of the inside of the day care facility. I never got anything like this, I had to play with my brothers ... sheesh.


The funny part of the new house is that RockinRobin couldn't find it, and it's not like O'Neill is big or anything like that.

After heading back to their current house, and talking and goofing off, we went to the local Pizza Hut for dinner ... and entertainment.

A bunch of fresh-faced individuals, and the back of RockinRobins head.


Who'd have guessed this group would play cut-throat solitaire? Viv tried her hardest to get us thrown out by being really loud when she won.


At the end of the night, everyone posed for the obligatory group photo ... everyone except Tim, of course.

Thus ended a great day ... almost. Smeade was having car problems in Battle Creek, and needed to get back to Omaha to pick up a car from her folks. So luckily we were able to swing by and pick her up and take her home.
Much thanks to Viv & SmileChild for allowing me to liberally snag a herd of photos.

Lost, lost, (almost) lost, and found

Lost: One pair of dance shoes.
Black and non-descript, mens size 8 1/2, in a olive green bag. Last seen at Cougar lanes near 144th Street and Industrial Road in Omaha, Nebraska. Left there by an idiot who thought it would be funny to try to bowl in dance shoes because so many people dance in bowling shoes.

Lost: My voice.
Kind of nasally, but quite acceptable for vocal performance. Last seen somewhere in between Norfolk, Nebraska and Omaha, Nebraska. Reward for finding: you get to hear me talk. Currently am getting by with a combination of Phyllis Diller and Rod Stewarts voices.

(almost) Lost: One pair of sneakers.
These nearly new white shoes with maize and navy trim were left at the Eagles Club last Friday when they were used as a substitute for the first item lost above. Rescued from sure oblivion by Mae, who gave them to Schmendrick, who thankfully did not leave them in his car. Thanks to both.

Found: One bandanna.
Also known by many other names like handkerchief, snot-rag, sweat-rag, do-rag, or my favorite, the babushka. Color is navy. Probably lost at the Eagles Club last Friday when some idiot (as mentioned in item one above) grabbed the wrong sweat-rag and took it home with him only to discover the next day it wasn't his...

...which brings us to our next item...

Lost: One bandanna...

Spews of the weird

It's that time of year. Time for the visit of our least favorite viral friends, the rhinovirus. Can't we do something about this menace? Well, at least it isn't deadly.

I feel like I have gone from homo sapien to mucus factorius maxii. No pictures thankfully, but I am doing not much but alternating between sinus pressure and sinus disgorging of snot equal to twice my body weight ... no video either.

I'm drinking plenty of fluids and getting lots of rest. I will be back at work tomorrow.

Mermaid

Last Friday night, GAMe planned a bowling night, Jitterbugs had their regular dance. SmileChild talked me into going to the bowling outing first, and then I was going to go over to the dance. It didn't happen that way.

I headed over to the bowling alley. I don't know what was planned by the organizers, but what they got was almost 50 people wanting to bowl. We ended up with seven lanes of six bowlers each.

Check out the form of this bowling genius.


I am hoping this is just a thumb stuck in a bowling ball.


Sheri lucked out and got one of those special floating balls.


What's with all of the cheesey smiles?.

There was so much fun going on with the bowling, I decided to stick with the group and not go dancing. The after bowling party was at Jayme's house, and included ice cream.

What was unknown to me, it also included a game called "Guesstures", which is a timed charade type game. Which we ended up playing with two vaguely defined teams of about a dozen each, with at least a dozen more people watching.

Thought I was kidding about the number of people, didn't you.


Here is Alissa acting out a few of the Guesstures items, none of which I have a clue what they are ... I don't know why there is no sound.

So now to the mermaid reference. One of the features of the game is choosing which of two things on a card you are going to act out. Jayme goaded me into trying to charade a mermaid. I finished off the other three items, and started in on my mermaid charade, which consisted of me simulating certain female body parts, and then making a fish swimming motion. No one got it. The timer ran out. So I asked to keep going until someone did get it. I got down on the floor and flopped my legs around in mermaid fashion. There were some fairly outrageous guesses, for any crowd, not just for the Bible study crowd. It was one of those things that will be talked about for a while.

Just as a note, when I later related this story to Mae, I showed her my charade for mermaid, she got it in about three seconds ... it wasn't me.

Much thanks to Richard Burney for unknowingly allowing me to lift these pictures.

Things I didn't say...

From this CNN article on Somali Pirates quoting Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.

These are not pirates who will remind you of Johnny Depp.

I said what? v0002

I don't often talk about work, but I have had some typing, er make that thinking issues today, and I sent the following sentence in an e-mail to a director:

I have put in a note into the ticket for an update or for them the people working on this for you to contact you.