Oh Happy Day!!!! I got paroled!!

Today was the first day of school!!! Matthew started high school today and so far, so good. He got to take the bus this morning for being snotty and disrespectful, which for him was a very uncivilized 6:30 am. I've never known anyone who can sleep through almost 10 minutes of a buzzer alarm clock, but Matthew sure can! It took me a while to wake him up. Kristen got her bus at 7:30 and Alice around 8. Now that I know the timing, I can safely be nice to Matthew and drive him in the mornings, which will mean him waking up at 6 instead of 5:40. I reserve the right to make him catch the bus in the future, though.

Now, I can use my countdown for other important matters, like a certain football game in Pittsburgh the Sunday before Halloween!!!

Boston/Styx

I'm a little late posting this, but Maria and I drove to Roanoke Rapids, NC, for the Boston/Styx concert. I have some of Boston's music, but the real reason for us going is Tommy Shaw, Maria's other "true love". She scored 3rd row seats, which is the closest I've ever sat for any concert, so that was really cool. Note to Carolina Crossroads, you could streamline the process if you'd combine the wrist bracelets that mark which section a ticketholder belongs in with the security/ticket taking. That would have been the efficient way to do it. But, no, they did the wristbands at the gated sections, which backed us up in lines long enough that we weren't yet in our seats when Styx came on.

I have to say, Styx put on an excellent show. I know very few of their songs, but by the time they were done, they'd found themselves a new fan, so I will be looking to score a CD soon. Maria got her Tommy fix and I took lots of pictures and a few short video clips. Here are a couple photos. Maria, these are for you...




Boston came on second and it was interesting to find out if they'd sound really different, since their lead singer died last year. They did sound a little different, but one of their newer members sounded very much like the guy. He was a guy that Boston found from watching a video clip on YouTube. This guy grew up listening and singing to their music and is taking a leave of absence from Home Depot to tour with the band. Very interesting backstory. Boston also has a chick guitarist, which I never knew, and she was really good. Anyway, they sounded good, but I actually thought Styx had a better show overall.




It was a great night and a lot of fun. Dare I say that I might be getting a concertgoing itch now? Although, Maria could make even a trip to Home Depot entertaining. She's definitely my fun buddy!

another great ending to a day, more gifts!

I got another fabulous present this evening when Will was able to stop by our house between work duties. My car is now classied up with some Steelers fuzzy dice, which are so festive hanging from my rear view mirror. (I'll have to add a picture of those tomorrow) Thanks, Will! You are the best!



.....and here we are with the dice....so cool!!!

Happy birthday, to me..(yesterday, that is)

This is how I had to earn my birthday present extraordinaire...

...then came the cake....



.....and the gift extraordinaire...



...out on the town that night...

Happy Birthday, Kristen!!!

My lovely daughter turned 12 today! Kristen had a couple friends over for dinner and tonight are at the roller skating rink, the favorite destination for preteens around here. Earlier in the day, my dad took her out to lunch and a little shopping for her gift.

Since Kristen already got her gift from us last week, in the form of the concert, today was more low key. But she is happy today, which is a gift in of itself (to me, anyway).

Kristen's early birthday gift

A couple days ago, I took Kristen to her first concert for her birthday. It was Avril Lavigne and the Jonas Brothers. We got there really early, which was a good thing, because it was packed and we were surrounded by screaming,rabid teens and preteens, all swooning over the Jonas Brothers. (they are 3 teenaged brothers, for those who don't know who they are, and if you don't ever watch Disney channel, you might not). I saw countless handmade shirts professing their love for one brother or another. I figured they will have to live in Utah or Montana or whereever it is that allows multiple wives, because from the shirts I saw, and various text messages that were displayed on the big screens before the show, these boys probably have almost 100 'wives' each. :-)

The opening act was by another girl who Disney is pimping out for exposure since she starred in a Disney movie recently on tv, Demi Lovato. She sang 6 songs, only one of which I could actually understand what she was singing. Not so impressive but I feel compelled to cut her some slack since she's starting out and therefore doesn't have much material. Either way, that was about 20 minutes, followed by another 15 to 20 minutes of changing up the set.

Avril came on next and she was a drastic improvement. I knew most of her songs that she sang since Kristen has all her CD's, so I've heard them before. She did a good job and the crowd was much more into her. That was a little over an hour, I believe.

There was a longer wait while they broke down her set. As I mentioned before, there were big screens and they kept flashing various text messages that people sent in to whatever number. Many were shoutouts to friends, but there were also many that suggested "scream if you love (insert jonas brother name here)". And people did scream. I was rather amused by it, thinking lab rats responding to commands. There were about 3 that stuck in my mind. One was "scream if you love cheese." huh? Then there was "oink like a pig if Nick's the one you dig". I didn't hear many takers for that particular display of affection. My personal favorite was "scream if you think your mom is hot". Um, yeah. I highly doubt that there were going to be any kids out there who thought "yeah, my mom is really hot!" not so much...

I have to say, the Jonas brothers put on a really good show. Their special effects were really good, with the lights and pyrotechnics and moving platforms. They had a good interaction with the audience. I'm not likely to run out and buy their music, but I did like a few of their songs and whether you're a fan of their music or not, they put on a good performance. They also let the fans sign the outside of their tour bus. Kristen did not sign it since I didn't have a sharpie in my purse, but I got a picture of her standing in front of the bus. (taken on the cell phone so I don't know how to post it here). At any rate, I enjoyed the concert more than I figured I would and Kristen had a great time, so it was a win win situation.

And the new seeker is.....

That would be me. I have spent considerable time today vacuuming up fruit flies. They are too fast to smush with a napkin and I found them hanging out on surfaces that you wouldn't expect. Like my bathroom, for example. You would think that I use ripe fruit to polish the mirrors and doors. So I stood there with the vacuum hose in my hand, carefully stalking these pesky, tiny bugs. Tracking them visually when they fly around. Perhaps I should lend my talents to Gryffindor as Harry Potter's backup, except for the fact that I can't fly on a broomstick. Although, with the mood that my kids put me in, me on a broomstick might not be too big of a stretch. I have not yet figured out where they are reproducing, but in the meantime, I am armed, will vacuum........

feeling more at home

I've been finally hanging up more photos on the walls and it really has made more of the house feel like home. I especially like the one of Grandma's quilt and the Davies pictures I hung around it. I'm very proud of my family tree.

Random birthday greetings of the day

Here's my shoutout and Happy Birthday greetings to my favorite Syracuse and Steelers alum.

Happy Birthday to you today, Gary Anderson!!!

Some post-trip musings

As I slowly catch up on sleep, some of the misplaced details from our trip are coming back to me. For example, if you fill up your tank in Minnesota, they try to tempt you with gas, bait, leeches, tackle and worms. If you fill up in Wisconsin, it's all about the cheese, and if you need a place to stay over, you can choose accomodations such as Camp Whosyurdaddy, or you can drive through the towns of Dairyland, Cozy Corner and Swiss. With temptations like these, who needs to travel out of the country? Especially when you get to use a composting toilet like we did at Mr. Sykes' house. (Somehow I couldn't bring myself to take a photo of it, though.) I will say that even though you don't flush the thing, there was no stink like you get from an outhouse. Everything he's added on to his house, he's used recycled materials. Very cool stuff.

In Indianapolis, we drove past the new football stadium and it is gargantuan in size. It makes the RCA dome look puny and I would venture a guess that if you went to a Colts game there and got the nosebleed seats, you'd come down with a raging case of vertigo in addition to that nosebleed.

Home stretch, and it's a lonnnng stretch!

Left Indianapolis and headed to Louisville in hopes of seeing our great-Aunt Ann. When we got there, she was sleeping (as are many 90-something-year olds), so we went to grab lunch and come back. When we got back, she was still or again sleeping, soundly, so Maria left her a letter saying we had been there. By now, it was almost 3pm, so we were going to be hauling a$$ to get home. All the nights of bad behavior from various kids (not always the same one, they all took turns) had convinced me that no matter what, the next beds we slept in would be our own.

I have to say, I wanted to weep with joy when I saw the Welcome to North Carolina sign, however I contented myself with a fist pump and a cheer. Of course, the heavy rain that I got to drive through when I got back into NC wasn't so cheerworthy, especially east of Greensboro when I could barely see the dotted lines marking the lanes from the rain and fog. By the time I dropped off Maria and the girls, it was 12:30 am and we got all the way home a little after 1 am.

All in all, it was a successful trip, in spite of all the bad behavior, pukefest, potty stops, and gobs of driving time in the car. We saw Diana get married to Ken, drove in 8 different states, put almost 2400 miles on the car and managed to squeeze in some fun. I don't think I'll get the itch for a road trip for a while now, though. I am happy to be back home, with Chris, my own bed, food I'm used to eating and hoping to catch up on sleep the rest of the way this week.

The priciest gas we found was in Louisville, KY, not in Chicago, at $4.29 a gallon, and the cheapest was in VA at $3.89 a gallon. IN, NC and MN were just under 4 bucks, while IL, WI, WV, KY, and VA were over 4.

On our way home for sure now

Our side trips had us stopping for the night way before Rockford, IL, our original plan. Since Maria and I were not feeling too adventurous with 5 kids in tow, we opted not to check out the accomodations at Camp Whosyurdaddy off WI Hwy 53 and kept driving. We ended up an hour east of Eau Claire in Black Creek or something. There was a giant orange moose outside the hotel. We then made it as far as Indianapolis, staying in a hotel downtown with a primo view of the July 4th fireworks on the 8th floor. At that hour, it was really great to be able to just stay in the room and look out the window.