Did He Escape?

No, Odie took dad out for Walkies. Post-bypass recovery is progressing in that dad's doing great and mom hasn't run away from home ... yet.

Here is the Florida boy recording action photos of the ice. He's pretty easily amused, my brother.


Truth be told, the ice was behaving rather grandly.



Lenore's hot flash (note the lack of coat wearing) helped spur the ice melt, not to mention dramatic buckling and breaking in the vicinity of the footbridge.


Sometimes Odie meets us at Starbucks. I think he's probably avoiding mom's chore list. Whatever works!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The hat, the apron, the model -- fabulous! But what is UP with this kitchen? It's so...stark...so clean...so not filled with 97 people at once and an overflowing refrigerator and multiple pots bubbling on the stove. In other words, it's not a McDonald kitchen. Oh well. Tom still looks good!

Total Eclipse of the...

Moon!

These pictures are pretty lame, but since I stood outside in the minus degree temperatures to take them, I'm going to post them anyway, dammit. Actually, this one below one was taken inside; I kind of like the reflection, it's like MAGIC.

Making Tracks

This was a fun little jaunt through Library Springs. Ever the adventurer, Roland blazed a trail over hill and dale (what's a dale anyway?), including across a partially frozen pond (that part we opted not to follow). We're expected to get 6-9 more inches of snow tonight, so maybe we'll get another (dare I say it without jinxing the possibility?) SNOW DAY!

Selling Like Hotcakes

And what better to handle those hotcakes (in a perky potholder apron) than with a perky potholder? It's the circle of shameless commerce, people! I should mention that I had nothing to do with the preparation of this dinner, other than eating it.

Also, you could wear a potholder t-shirt two sizes too small and turn those hotcakes into beefcake, if you know what I'm sayin'. This would be an example of how not to do that.

Perky and Good For You Too!

Pat's grandson, Pete, has found a new use for Perky Potholders: Teething! Hope his big brother John doesn't find out!

Additional Potholder Activity

Hoops was not amused by her new potholder loop Valentine collar.

Here she is checking out the "technicolor dreamcoat" collection of potholders.

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of the many potholders I made whilst recovering from my walking pneumonia/bubonic plague/tuberculosis. Feeling much better now, thanks!

Snowshoeing with Sasquatch

Also known as Odie. Here are some fun pics from our play date taken at Beverly Lake Forest Preserve. This was Odie's first experience snowshoeing, and I think he's a convert. Too bad he lives in Florida!





This one makes me happy because the ski trails were being preserved and not tromped all over, which is usually what happens when hikers and skiiers are using the same routes.

I like these oak trees -- it looks like they're hugging.

*&@%$#!

Earlier last week...I forgot to post this in my feverish state.

So even though I felt like crap and had stayed home from work, I dragged my sorry butt to German class, because I'm just THAT dedicated. And the doctor said I wasn't contagious. And I could sit far enough away from everyone just in case, so as not to spread the joy of my plague. I probably shouldn't have gone, cuz it totally exhausted me, but I still enjoyed it.

But that's not what I'm here to tell you.

When I got home, I thought I'd knock some of the slushy crap off my car before pulling into the garage (because my garage, like the rest of my house, was built by a moron, so it's not vented and any water pools in there like a small lake), only I didn't realize that under that lovely coating of powdery snow was a slick bed of ice. I got as far as putting one foot out and then basically fell out of my car onto the driveway. It was so slippery, I felt like a cartoon cat on ice, I couldn't get up! What's surprising is that I didn't melt the ice with all the swear words I was spewing. Needless to say, I was not amused...until the next morning when I saw the disrupted snow print left on the driveway, then I had to laugh. I hope none of the neighbors was watching though! (Then again, damn them to hell if they were and didn't come help me!)

Sick as a...?

Where did the idiom "sick as a dog" come from? I dunno, I've been too sick to care. It’s something tubercular… altogether phlegmy and most unpleasant. And worst of all, I can’t taste ‘nothin. I made a big vat of chicken soup before the height of the malaise hit, but I have no idea if it’s any good. In between napping and listening to podcasts, I’ve made a small stack of potholders, photos forthcoming. I also watched several movies: Superbad (pretty funny); Ant Bully (stupid); Other People’s Lives (really interesting and somewhat sad); Steal a Pencil for Me (a little slow but poignant); and two episodes of Dexter (creepy and oddly riveting in a guilty way).

Here's one take on the sick-as-a-dog expression from worldwidewords.com. Is this site not potucational?

There are several expressions of the form sick as a ..., that date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sick as a dog is actually the oldest of them, recorded from 1705; it is probably no more than an attempt to give force to a strongly worded statement of physical unhappiness. It was attached to a dog, I would guess, because dogs often seem to have been linked to things considered unpleasant or undesirable; down the years they have had an incredibly bad press, linguistically speaking (think of dog tired, dog in the manger, dog’s breakfast, go to the dogs, dog Latin — big dictionaries have long entries about all the ways that dog has been used in a negative sense).
At various times cats, rats and horses have been also dragged in to the expression, though an odd thing is that horses can’t vomit; one nineteenth-century writer did suggest that this version was used “when a person is exceedingly sick without vomiting”. The strangest member of the set was used by Jonathan Swift in 1731: “Poor Miss, she’s sick as a Cushion, she wants nothing but stuffing” (stop laughing at the back).

So there you go. (sniff)

A Must Have

What kitty doesn't need one of these?
See more wigs for cats here. (How can you not look?)

IL Victory

I wasn't too surprised my man Barack won the IL primary, but I was happy to hear the news nonetheless. I took this picture when he was at MCC a while ago for a "town hall meeting." At that time, he wasn't talking about running, but I still thought, "I could be taking pictures of the next president, sweet!" I got some decent photos that day and even got to talk to him for a minute. Now he e-mails me regularly. I'm sure he's a regular reader of my blog. Hi Barack!

The Tiny Snowman has Been Busy...

And he changed his hat! You gotta love a snowman who knows how to accessorize. I wonder if the mailman was startled...

How to Enjoy a Snow Day

We had another snow day today (score!), and my co-worker, Pat, sent me these photos of her portable snowman. Her grandson lives in Texas and thoroughly enjoyed his snowman-building experience from his last visit, so Pat through it'd be fun to send him some pictures. As Pat explained it...

"I made a tiny snowman this morning on a pizza pan so I could move him around, take various pictures, and send them to John. Who knows what that little snowman might do throughout the day? He might help me do the wash, cook lunch, or even play the piano."



As for me, I been putting the snowblower to very good use every couple of hours. In between, me and Hoops made a loaf of bread, a batch of oat bran muffins and watched three episodes of Moonlight. OK, I also watched part of a Wife Swap episode that was also on my video tape. That's one of those train-wreck shows that, despite its unpleasantness, you can't help but slow down to look.

Yes, This is Actually an Improvement!

With all the snow and fluctuating river levels, I decided it was time to call A & T Plumbing to get the backflow and flood prevention measures in place for the basement. This is phase one: locating pipes under the floor and determining where the sewer line is. It was a little scary at first, but I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Basically, all of the floor level pipes and drains in the basement have been abandoned (including the basement bathroom, but it's a small price to pay), and I now have an overhead sewer line, which means it runs along the basement ceiling instead of under the floor. Laundry or sink water from the basement goes into an ejector pit (kind of like a sump pit) and is pumped up and out. So theoretically, the lowest point for the sewer line is now on the first floor, thereby (hopefully) eliminating any chance of sewage backing up into the house. There's a check valve on the ejector line, though, just in case. I thought the whole solution was very creative and ingenious, because it solved my problem without having to disrupt things too much. And it was a LOT cheaper than a whole backflow prevention system. I got a couple quotes on that, and it was upwards of $10,000.

What's amazing, is these two guys got all the work done in about 2.5 days, including cleaning up all the dirt and rubble, pouring new cement and mopping my floor!

I also had them put in a new sump pit and pump, since groundwater could still be an issue. Behold.



Also, check out my adorable new laundry sink. I had a huge old cast iron sink that took up half the laundry room. I think it weighed about four tons, and it wasn't attached to anything, just perched precariously on a metal stand. They broke that up with sledge hammers and carted it out, replacing it with this little mini sink that serves the purpose just fine. So now I have room for the washer and dryer to actually be located next to each other *and* less risk of broken legs or feet. What a bonus!



Here's the finished system, so to speak. You can see where it goes up into the old main stack and across the ceiling into the next room, where it ties into the main sewer line out to the street. I never thought I'd be this exciting about plumbing.
(Click on the picture to see it bigger)




This is the ever-important backflow prevention valve.

78, It's the New 60

Mom's birthday was a tad overshadowed by dad's little "procedure," but we did go for sushi and had some healthy carrot cake for dessert. Mom and lenore played it safe with salmon and chicken, but Odie and I ate the good stuff. Odie had "Dragon Black," which I will order next time I go, because it was fantastic. I had a platter of three different sushi rolls, which were also really good.

No, she's not falling face-first into the cake, she's putting all that hot air to good use blowing out candles!(One puff was all it took.)





Speaking of surgery, don't scroll down if you're squeamish -- I'm posting a picture of dad's bypass scar. I think the surgeon needs to use a ruler next time -- it's pretty squigly! My mom commented to dad this morning, "gee, you've got the body of a 20-year-old, you're all flat stomached and svelt." And my dad replied, "Yeah, 'til I lift my shirt up, then I've got the body of King Tutankhamun!"

OK, here's the picture. Don't say I didn't warn you!