Grandma
7/31/08

Happy Anniversary, Brent and Karen!!

Feel better fast, Erika, there is still a little vacation left this year! Have Emily bring you lots of ice cream!!

She is still on the couch, eating some jello and watching an old Harry Potter movie, hasn't even taken a nap! I am very impressed.

Also, while I have the stage, here's a little note on yesterday's crawl -- which was "On this date in 1954, Elvis Presley performed in public for the first time." Presley was performing with two friends for some gathering at a public park. The newspaper announcement got his name wrong: "Ellis Presley." Elvis later said he was so nervous up on stage that his legs shook. The crowd thought it was part of the act and loved it, and started screaming. Between numbers he ran backstage and asked somebody, "What did I do??" They said, "I don't know, but keep doing it!"

Still driving the rental car, but a new(er) one could happen any day now. --Gary

Car search looks good. Paul informed me he has found two or three candidates, and is checking one of them out today. This just might happen fairly quickly!

We had a yucca plant in our backyard in Texas. It was huge & dangerous. It was also very dense & we think mice were living in it. We tore it out almost immediately after we moved in. It took Ryan all weekend to get it out.

You can get it in health-food stores and organic groceries and such-like. It got mine at Open Harvest, here in Lincoln (on South Street between 16th and 17th). I looked for it at Walgreens but didn't find it. (But I didn't ask anyone for help, so maybe they have some tucked away somewhere.) It comes in capsule form -- take two or three at a time, twice a day. And the best part is, it's cheap compared to other arthritis medicines: Nine bucks for 100 capsules, which comes out to less than $20 a month. I would have been happy to pay much more than that to feel this much relief. Hope it works for her! --Gary

Bad hot day today, they are predicting -- so hydrate, everyone! :-)

Grandma, thanks for keeping the girls this morning! Tomorrow, Friday can Teghan come from 10-noonish? Just Teghan, and just for that short of time. My mom will drop her off & then Donna is going to pick her up for an afternoon at her house. I was going to use Deedee as Tristen & Livy might go swimming (weather permitting) but Deedee is closed as her brother in law passed away.

Here's the backstory: Those of you who know my car know that it has a lot of little things wrong with it -- radio went out, A/C went out, driver's window doesn't work, covering on the roof is coming off and the fabric on the ceiling is coming down, etc.... It has been to the repair shop recently a few more times than I would like, so I knew another car was in my future, sooner or later. Then in the past few weeks a new thing appeared: It would just die while driving. I'm doing 35 down the street and suddenly it's dead. It would always restart right away when I coasted to the curb, but still... Then yesterday (after having lunch with Tristen and Teghan at Grandma's) it died again on my way back to work. And this time it was difficult to start. Finally got it going, so I turned around and drove it -- coughing and spluttering -- back to Grandma's, where I parked it. Later Paul kindly gave me a ride to a rental place where I got the keys to a 95 Ford Aspire, the above-mentioned rattletrap.

By the way, I'm pretty sure that was the very last rental car available in the whole of Lincoln. I called every place in the book, and they all said they had nothing. Nobody seemed to know why there was such a demand, either. Some said they thought it was because of the rollerskaters convention in town. (But why would they need cars? They can skate!) Anyway, I did manage to get this car at National (formerly Rent-A-Wreck, and the old name still applies), and it was the last one they had.

So the plan is to not repair my old car (unless the car-repair elves visit it overnight) and instead to find a new car with Paul's generous help. (Make that "another car," not "new car," as my meager savings won't allow that.)

And my day was not wonderful either. We were out at the lake all weekend, which was a lot of fun even though I got sunburnt & hit my leg on the propeller of the boat. My mom & I put the boat in the water & took it out of the water ourselves (no small task!) only to have her boat run crappy. She just got it out of the shop too! So, we didn't get to do any boating, but hanging out playing in the water, cooking over a campsite & doing s'mores was great. Then going to bed in the cold a/c of the camper was wonderful.

However, late last night (bout 9:30) Ryan & I came home & we drove my moms Durango to our house for her so she could bring in the camper today and Ryan got pulled over. 10 o'clock at night & Ryan needs to go to bed. What's aggravating about it though is that Ryan swears up & down he wasn't speeding. He had cruise set & even was following a car he knows was going under the speed limit. Whatever, we got a warning (apparently 65 in a 55)& a warning for "visual obstruction" for all the kitchy stuff my mom hangs from her rear view mirror. Oh, and probably for her radar detector that's on the windshield. Oy. Anyhow, home, shower & aloe & I crashed.

Got up this morning, got ready for work, left at 8:20, jumped in my Trailblazer, put the key in, and it turned for 1/2 a second so some lights turned on & my seat moved then the whole thing went dead. I couldn't even get my key out of the ignition. Thank goodness my moms Durango was here! I jumped in it & went on to work. Thank goodness that didn't happen while out at the lake, or at work. It was safe in my garage, dead with the keys in the ignition. Ryan stressed all day that it could be something major, of the electrical sort. However, once he got home he deduced it was the battery. It was fine before, showed no signs of weakness, so he thinks the heat killed whatever life it had in it. Nice...

Ryan's been very busy & stressed at work. Something about trains blowing up... Hmm... Anyhow, he worked 12 hours today and even jumped down the bosses throat (& later apologized citing stress) because of the trains. He comes home & fixes the car. Then he moves my moms boat into our driveway & works on it. He thinks he's got that fixed too. How many people can say they worked on trains, cars & boats in the same 24 hour period? And, remember if there was an airplane nearby he could work on that too. Amazing....

Thanks for the reviews, Livy! --Gary

Sounds like you're lucky the peas didn't blow away on the drive home. :-) --Gary

Yow, what a nightmare drive! Glad you made it through. And thanks again for coming down -- it was a lot of fun! --Gary

Excellent! See you tomorrow, Livy! --Gary

We wish you were here, too. Next time! We are having fun, but one thing we won't be doing tonight is watching a pirated DVD of "Leatherheads," as that would be illegal and wrong! --Gary

First, an old favorite:

Another funny one with a 3-year-old (caution: language issues!):

And finally, a kitten-fight (with a surprise ending):

Sounds very workable, both Thursday and Friday. Everything is still pretty open, I think. Karen and Erika arrived in Lincoln about 1 today I understand, after two fun-filled days at Mahoney Park. Sean joined us for an excellent supper at Grandma's, then we all laughed like crazy people thanks to several games of Password. "Squid" + "Caramel" + "Teeth" = "Chewy!" --Gary

Yes, Gary, I remember Bob's Market, concrete floors, no frills, but what a great place for fresh veggies and fruits, the watermelons in those galvanized tubs of ice water looked as big as barrels and they always tasted so crisp and sweet. Dad took me there quite a bit and I always looked forward to going with him (always a candy bar for coming along and helping.) Too bad it is gone. Donna, have you got your new desk and chair or painted your office yet...it is going to look great. Also, Lori, thanks for the hair dryer, it sure saved me despite fighting the humidity.

Hmmm, yes, "I Love Lucy"... It certainly wasn't an illegal pirated DVD of "Iron Man"! --Gary

Also, check out two new pictures on the photo page.

So, Karen, we will be happy to see you and Erika in a week or so, if you can talk any more of the family into coming, they would sure be welcome too. Got about half inch of rain again this morning, maybe more later. Keeps the humidity up. Will Erika be driving down? Sounds like good practice! I say Congratulation's on finishing Driver's Ed. Now the wisdom teeth, you will be glad to hear school is starting before long, you've had a busy summer! See you next week.

Mom, are you up for a couple of visitors again? We have had yet another change of plans. It is looking like Erika and I can come to Lincoln next Wednesday and stay until Sat morning. Brent's family is having a family reunion in Platte River Sun-Wed., then we have a baby shower in Omaha on Sat afternoon. Thought we would squeeze Lincoln in between. Let me know if it would work out for you. Still in the planning stages -- so I am open to changes. Emily is in Des Moines -- her and 3 friends left yesterday morning. They went to Adventureland and the new water park there. Today they wanted to hit the mall and come back sometime this afternoon. Called a few times yesterday -- sounded like she was having fun.

Oh, I forgot ... Amanda, I tried your new recipe last night. Delicious!! Thank you :)

Quick report -- I'll write more later. H's are here, heading back tomorrow (though Sam is staying on for a few more days I think). Lots of fun and activity since they got here, including a great 4th (on the 3rd), and a nice brunch at the Green Gateau yesterday. Ready for more fun when you guys get here! --Gary

(Dang, I just noticed I erased a couple of recent recipes (Amanda's pasta and Tristen's PB&J Shake) from the page when I put Teghan's on. I'm using a new program to update the page, and I haven't gotten used to it yet. I'll restore the dropped recipes from my backups at my office next week. Sorry about that -- again!)

I'm not sure that my 4th will be too fun. Apparently everyone else that I work with decided to ask for it off, so I have to close 4th of July night... But we will be doing Saturday in the Park on the 5th and on the 6th I am going to Adventureland in Des Moines with some friends. We were originally going to go to Minneapolis, but decided we would save a lot on gas money if we took a shorter trip.

& Gary, I downloaded the Spore creator game a few days ago on my iPod and I have been having lots of fun with it! Thanks for putting up the link :)

Wow, that's cool. What's it like on the iPod?? You ought to try it on your desktop computer too. And it's even worth it to spend the ten bucks and get the full version (by download, or at Best Buy or someplace). With the full version, you have the whole toolbox to play with. Anyway, glad you're having fun with it! :-) --Gary

So, I know Marsha's will just be getting into town on Thursday, but we could come over that night for some fireworks, or we could do it Saturday, though by then everyone's tired of it...

Any ideas anyone?

I just called the Fire Marshall for the lowdown, and here it is: You can shoot off fireworks on the 3rd, from 8 am til 11 pm. (On the 4th, 8 am til midnight.) "But be advised," he said, "anything with a 'bang' is illegal in Lincoln on both nights. [...pause...] Of course, your odds of being one of the few that LPD actually cites is pretty low." So there you have it! --Gary