TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I have been nagging the Beast about pictures from Chewlee's graduation but, wouldn't you know it, he fell and hurt his arm.  He is having a tough time using his right arm except for a few minutes here and there.  That happens after he's soaked it in the tub for a half hour or so.  He's spent his good time working on just clearing out his email or on his darn phone.  It seems that a former client of ours from when we owned our AC business has suddenly rediscovered his phone number.  He DID tell her within my earshot that this would be the last time he would make himself available because...darn it!  He was retired!  I doubt he would have been so direct with her except that his arm was paining him just then.

So Chewlee got dropped off around noon today.  She didn't go to school because her teacher told the Princess that NO ONE from her class was showing up (it's not required, I guess.  They DID graduate after all...!)    She was in a happy mood although she kept telling me that she didn't go to school today.  I kept telling her I knew that but she kept bringing it up.  She got to play outside for a bit with Baron and the little neighbors dog.  Our RV-ing friend, Dennis, came over to meet with the landowner today.  I don't know why but the Beast took off with him to hit the health food store to pick up a couple things.  Then they ate lunch there. 

I found out later that the Beast had been riding Dennis's motorcycle and told Johnnycakes that it was HIS new toy.  Poor Johnnycakes was so excited over that he had to tell the Princess all about taking a ride on it with the Beast.  It had to have been when he dropped off Chewlee because I doubt the Beast would have ridden it as far as their house.  And I am sure the ride was just around the circle here.   He's just a bit too shaky to trust himself much further.  I told the Beast that was just too mean of him to let Johnnycakes think he'd bought something like that motorcycle.

Chewlee had to make a BIG decision today.  It was about her birthday cake.  Yep.  It's that time of  year.  Her birthday party will be this Saturday and the Princess is renting a bouncy house for her.  She's invited a few of her school friends so she will have friends to enjoy the bouncy house with her this time.  I'll be going (and Chewlee told me once again that she wants marbles for her birthday.....go figure that one out!)  I'll pick her up some socks and an outfit or two and try to find some marbles for her, too.  I have no idea why she wants them but you can't have a disappointed great-grandchild, can you?

Chewlee knows that Baron was born a few days after her and the Beast asked her if she was going to come to HIS party.  Chewlee said she would but she didn't know what to get him.  Then she got this *bright idea* look on her face and said, *I know!  I'll get him a big, disgusting bone!*  When I told her she could always get him a couple of raw turkey necks, she looked a bit green and got this awful look on her face.  I told her that it's the only kind of bird meat he can eat....it has to be uncooked.  The vet told us that and I felt the way Chewlee looked because it just didn't seem like it could be true until you thought about it.  When dogs were wild, they ate birds...and they didn't die from it.  It's only COOKED birds that have sharp points when chewed that can kill a dog.  Their bones are brittle after cooking.  But you should see how a dog will just lay into a raw neck or even a leg that's been cut apart.  They act like it's manna from heaven.  Who'da thunk it?

Then the rain came pouring down.  Lots of thunderings with it but no lightning that you could see.  I decided I had better make my spaghetti while I could in case we had a power outage.  It got done and the Princess and Chewlee ended up eating with us when the Princess got here to pick up Chewlee.  The Princess loves it when she doesn't have to go home to cook.  Who doesn't?  At least it was also nice to visit for a bit.

Love you all.  Have a wonderful day.  I know most of us had rain today but that will soon pass.  Be good.  Stay dry. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

She made it!  She graduated from kindergarten.  A lot of the grandparents, families and friends of the children were talking before the program started and some of them talked about how different things are now from when they were kids.  We really had no idea what the program involved except that Chewlee said they were going to sing and it was a surprise.

A surprise it was, indeed.  The kids didn't just sing ONE song, there were 10 different songs in all.  The kids sang well and enthusiastically.  We could see Chewlee who was on one of the back benches that were tiered so you could see all the kids.   She was actually one of the taller kids in her class so she was on the back bench.  We were kidding around and hoping she wouldn't come up with an idea of mooning the audience (she didn't.  She behaved well and we watched her singing like she was an opera star).  The kids (9 kindergarten classes total) even sang a song where they were signing so that deaf people would know what they were saying.  I think everyone was amazed.  Who knew they could all keep it together and sing so well as a group.

The Beast realized he had brought the wrong lens on his camera.  He got a few good shots of the stage but I haven't seen them all yet.  I'll still try to get a few to post tomorrow.  I don't think he got a close shot of Chewlee but, like I said, I haven't seen all the pictures yet.

Afterward, we drove to a local restaurant to eat and talk about the program.  Chewlee was actually doing a word search problem that was on the restaurants kid activity/coloring pages.  She would circle the words and then color them in so you could see all the words she found easily.  She was also doing a maze problem that was giving her fits.  She decided to save it for later to do at home.

We were exhausted when we got home (my excuse for not doing this earlier) so we put our feet up and took a nap.  Mine ended up being for four hours....sorry!  I don't know about you but being in a huge crowd of people (especially after the program was over) just exhausts me.  You have so many bodies to get around and we were parked so far away from the auditorium.  I spotted the Princess and Johnnycakes and they had found Chewlee so I made my way over to them.  I got a big hug from Chewlee.  The kids all had different color tshirts on for each class and the kids were on the grassy area with all of their classmates so you just had to look for their class color to find your child.  With nine different classes, they took up a lot of lawn area.

Everyone was in a good mood because the program was just so cute.  I think everyone was amazed at how many songs the kids learned AND remembered all the words.  Only one song had an adult voice that sang with the kids.  There was one little boy that looked like he was going to cry all the time.  Later on, when he was outside, I saw him with his family and realized he looked like that all the time!  When he finally smiled, he had the cutest face with big dimples.  When they handed out the certificates showing they graduated, some of the kids were Mexican/Spanish and they had long names because of the mother's surname being a part of it.  One little boy ... and I mean he was very small....had this LONG name.  He wasn't the only one but he was the first.  When he strolled out on the stage, he just didn't fit his name.  I remember his first name was Ulysses.  He looked like a little elf.  So cute.

I guess you can tell I had a good time.  I also had some of the best French onion soup I've had in a long time when we went to the restaurant.  It was extremely cheesy.  I loved having to wind the cheese around my spoon because it was nice and hot when I got it so the cheese was very stretchy.

The weather was great...no rain to ruin the time after the program.  Tomorrow we should have more of the same, including hot weather.  I am watching the late night weather channel coverage of the tornado damage in Moore, OK.  It's incredible and I am so sorry for the loss of life as well as the kids that were injured because they were in school when the tornado hit them.  So many acts of heroism by teachers who ended up injured protecting their students.  Please remember to add them to your prayers.

Gotta get this posted now.  Love you all.  Be careful and stay safe.  These storms are not good ones. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

We can all have a change of plans on occasion and this time is one that I figure I can make.  After due consideration since no one seems to want to hear MY side of anything (and people have such short memories about their own complaints), I am cancelling plans about seeing any of my siblings when I fly up to Chicago.  I will try to forget all the fat jokes that they did NOT make about me when I was fat (including measuring my butt to compare with others).  Memories are not what they used to be it seems.  I will spend time with my much loved sister-in-law, Kay and take her and her hubby out to dinner.  I will spend more than a few hours with my girlfriends.  I will make contact with my cousins from my biological father's family.  I can cut my time short and fly back sooner.  It won't matter then if I bring Chewlee along or not as long as I can keep HER from finding out I saw Kay....LOL.  That way, I will not have to intrude on Kay's family for very long although I will have a rental car and can always move to a motel if I feel I am creating a problem in any way.

I was never allowed to say sorry for a tasteless joke about someone being stolen from her bedroom only if the thief had a crane.  It's something that the Beast has said about me more than once and I'm only 158 lbs (I checked today) and wear a size 14.  However, he's gotten weaker as he approaches 70 and I tell him he's just not the man he used to be.  I take the crane cracks as a joke.  I guess I am the only one that does.

Love you all.  Take care. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

It started last night when Bratfink and I were watching Undercover Boss..Epic Bosses.  We spent more time crying over the things they had done for others in their employment than was believable.  It was heart-grabbing.  Then, later on, Bratfink got mad at me...not that I blame her because I said something rather rude and she didn't give me a chance to apologize.  She's not talking to me now and I already miss her.  But it is what it is.

I went to bed on the late side, waiting to be tired enough to sleep through the rest of the night without oversleeping.  Alas, I got hit by an episode of IBS so that wasn't going to happen.  At least I didn't poop in my britches.  I made it to the bathroom just in the nick of time two or three times, including early this morning.  But that was around 8:30am and when I went back to sleep, I didn't wake up until after 10:30am, which really wasn't all that bad.

Needless-to-say, I was keeping very close to the bathroom all day today.  But I decided to do something I haven't tried before, which was eating something cheesy to stop the IBS process.  I decided to try some chile con queso and tortilla chips to snack on.  Cheese works like that for other people, so why not me?  I'm not going to say it did but....I seem to have less *urgency* now.  That's an improvement I can live with.

An old friend of mine and I were talking online today and she was sending me links for really cheap airfares to Chicago.  She found a bunch of cheap fares for her family members all over the country down to the Gulf Coast of Florida where they meet up for a week every year.  That's their form of family reunion and they usually rent a couple of time shares to stay in and they share the cost.  Wish our family could have been doing something like that for our family reunions.  Many of us would probably still be doing it.  Perhaps.  Maybe.  Who knows?  But I have to admit, the prices on the flights are enticing.  It just wouldn't allow me to make the stops that I wanted to make on my way up.

The day here was alternating between overcast and sunny, like it couldn't make up it's mind what it wanted to be.  I had washed some clothes yesterday that the Beast threw in the dryer today but he just threw them all in the basket without bothering to hang up a couple of the dresses for Chewlee.  When I chided him over that, he got all snarly and said, *Well, at least I took care of them (huh?)!*  I turned to him and said, *I* washed them and was coming out to throw them in the dryer.  At least Chewlee's dresses would look decent if they had been hung up.  Now I need to redo them because I am NOT going to iron dresses that don't need to be ironed.*  He had the good grace to keep his mouth shut.

So what is his idea of making things right with me?  He goes out to the store and buys some decent toilet paper.  He had bought the Walmart brand because it was cheap and it wasn't until it was opened that he found out why it was so cheap.  It's the crappiest stuff I have ever seen.  It's not only single layer but it's thin and stiff.  Even if you wound it around your hand a dozen or more times, it would still be crappy toilet paper.  I kid you not.  I've seen that stuff in some public washrooms that seems kinda cheap....this stuff is even cheaper and a lot less durable.  It IS absorbent...so absorbent it can dissolve in your palm.  That might be good for an RV or trailer but not home usage.  Chewlee didn't even want to TOUCH it.  She thought it felt *funny*.  I couldn't blame her.  It felt funny to me, too. 

But he comes home from the store and says to me, *I bought you a surprise!  Just for  you.*  Yeah, right.  I've heard that shit from him before.  Now if he continued to use up ALL the Walmart stuff himself, then I might say he really meant that.  But he brought in two rolls for the guest bathroom out of the big family pack that's out on one of the garage shelves and he also had two rolls for the master bathroom.  I use the guest bathroom most of the time since it's next to my computer room.  He uses the master bathroom AND the guest bathroom (when he's watching the living room TV).  So who do you think he REALLY got the good toilet paper for? 

I was eating some of the store purchased chile con queso and, since the toilet paper hadn't unthawed me, he made some of the Velvetta/Rotelli chile con queso which is nice and hot plus it's spicy like I like it.  It didn't work but I did thank him.  All it would have taken earlier was for him to say what was probably true...*I'm sorry but I didn't notice the dresses.*  I would have forgiven him.

Chewlee was cute when she was dropped off today.  She walked in the house and announced that she couldn't get her clothes dirty because they were NEW.  I knew her mother had bought her some new play clothes because the kids store she sometimes shops at was having a big sale.  Chewlee had a new shirt on and either a skirt or a skort and she wore her little girl play heels, too.  They make her feel so grown up.  I have her flip flops here but she wanted no part of those.  When she went outside, it was in her *high heels*.  All you could hear was *clack, clack, clack* as she went from place to place here in the house and it wasn't any better outside.

She played with Ian for a bit but, since he's still a little boy, he takes naps.  Then his parents took him with them to have dinner with his maternal grandparents so that was the end of her playing with him.  Johnnycakes came at 7 to pick her up which confused me because I thought she was supposed to stay overnight so it would be easier to get her ready for church in the morning.  I ended up giving him one of Chewlee's dresses, her fancy socks and her church shoes (nice patent leather ones).  But I finally ended up calling the Princess since it IS easier for the Beast if she's HERE.  She was going to call Johnnycakes to bring Chewlee back but he didn't want to do it so she said to just leave it the way it is.  The Beast can just come by the house at 9:30am and the Princess will have her dressed and ready since SHE has to be up to get ready for work. 

  The little dog I've mentioned before was out of his yard again today (and no one was home) so the Beast brought him into our backyard and let him and Baron play.  That is...until the little dog jumped into the strawberry planter and then the Beast was watching him like a hawk.  He jumped up into another planter (the squash one) and that was when the Beast decided to put the little dog outside again.  Later on, he was back in his own yard.  I told the Beast that I think those people let the dog loose when they go anywhere.  I think he should tell them they have to stop doing that around here or someone (probably me) will be calling animal control.  We get too many dogs dropped off around here every spring and summer to put up with any of them being turned loose without an owner to keep an eye on them.  No one around here does that any more and it makes for better neighbors.

It was up to around 81 today and they say it will be hotter tomorrow.  I'm happy but not sure if the Beast will be.  He and another friend are going to be mowing the lawn of a sick friend IF the ground has dried enough.  He'll check ours out before he loads up the John Deere.  He's tried twice before this to get that lawn mowed and couldn't.  I hope the hotter weather makes a difference, especially since we've gone a couple days now without getting rain.

Love you all.  Time to get this posted.  Enjoy the day. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I admit it.  There are nights that I am up until the cock crows.  That will be when it hits me....I NEED sleep.  What usually happens is I sleep for two or three hours and then I am up and busy for maybe six or seven hours.  I'll take a short (1-1/2 hr) nap then I am up until around 10pm and it hits me.  A really bad case of heavy eyelids.  I will actually catch myself falling asleep at my keyboard.  You know what I mean.  Your whole body jerks itself awake and you shake yourself and try to continue whatever it was you were doing.

I have finally started giving in to it and just getting in my recliner, covering up and falling asleep.  If it's around 9pm or so, I will wake up around midnight for the inevitable bathroom journey.  That's also when I will remember that I have NOT blogged about my day for YOUR edification.  Thus I find myself HERE and I will head right back to bed when I am done telling you all the boring details of my day.  Yes, we had Chewlee today and she looked around when she came in the house to her surprise.  She wasn't used to seeing our window units installed and running.

I've told you that the Beast does not do well in the heat.  Today we hit the mid-80's and he was miserable.  This may have been the last summer that he is able to install our units.  I watched him struggling to carry each one from the cottage, up the deck stairs and into the house.  I held the doors open for him and opened each window for him.  Once it's on the window ledge and we close the window, he just has to screw the unit in place and plug it in.  He carried all three of the window screens out to the cottage once they were installed so they weren't a pain in the ass here in the house.  We now have a unit in our bedroom window, the living room window and the dining room window.  The Beast said he'll get me an oscillating fan for my room since I have told him more than once that I don't want a unit in here.  I don't mind the heat and my window fan works just fine for my needs.  I can pull cool air into this room just by having the fans pulling air from the other rooms and out the window.  I control that by either leaving my door open or closing it so I don't keep pulling cooler air into the room.

The AC window units work well for us because this house is as small as it is (1250 sq. ft.).  We just leave the door open into the guest room and have the overhead fan on to keep that room fairly cool.  When the days are really warm, the Beast will close the Master bedroom door and keep that room very cool for sleeping.  He spent more time laying down today than he normally does because of the heat.  What do *I* do?  I use the oven to bake our dinner...LOL 

I really did.  We had some chicken thigh cutlets that I lightly fried up (for color) then placed over some partially boiled penne pasta in a large casserole dish.  I added a large can of mushrooms and then a sauce of mushroom soup blended with chicken broth was poured over all.  It was baked at 325 degrees for an hour and served with some boiled cauliflower, broccoli and carrots on the side.  The Beast pronounced it delish but I think he was just too hungry to be critical.  I happen to love it because the thighs are always tender and they absorb the sauce as do the penne pasta.  Bratfink said I could have used rice but I was craving some pasta.  It tasted fantastic to me and it's an easy dish to make for a family.  We'll eat it for lunch tomorrow and any remaining leftovers will probably be fed to the dog since there's nothing in it he can't eat (like onions).  Waste not, want not.

Chewlee was in a good mood when she came home from school today because she gets to go to Fun Day at school tomorrow.  I'm not sure what all is involved but the kids have all been told what will be *fun* for them and that's good enough for her.  We won't have her tomorrow because it's her mother's day off work and we won't have her on Monday either.  That's Parent Picnic day and the Princess has it off since that is also the day that Chewlee graduates.  Yes, there is going to be a cap and gown graduation but it should be cute.  The Beast and I are going and so is Tara.  It's going to be held at one of the auditoriums at the college campus in Boaz.  That's not all that far from us and I imagine we will go out to grab a bite to eat afterward.

Chewlee isn't going to be happy that she won't be here after school tomorrow.  She had her day planned once she got here and it included riding her bike until Ian gets home from Day Care.  But her mother plans on picking her up and that means she won't be playing with Ian (or his electric car).  She will be here on Saturday, however, and Ian should be home all day and there's always the possibility of playing with Olivia across the circle.  Our RV friends should be stopping by and we'll find out about how the offer on the property across from us went.  HE is a talented engineer and will probably have already drawn up house plans for the two builders he's found.  I know him and he will probably have them bid on the price for building the house they want.  And, trust me, he will be here every day overseeing the actual building of it, too.  He's almost anal about building everything as perfect as can be.  He personally built his dock at his house in SC and it was a sight to behold.  Just gorgeous with lights built into the pilings.  Every step was inspected and the inspectors were impressed.  Like I said...anal.

Even their RV was built to his specifications.  He had done his research and knew what they wanted/needed.  I was speechless the first time I saw it after it was finished.  He really did do his research and the end result was amazing.

I'm debating quitting smoking.  I realized a couple weeks ago that I wasn't enjoying smoking like I used to and more than half the time, I was grabbing a cigarette just because of habit.  If I do quit, it will be right around the end of this month since that is about when I will be out of tobacco AND the tubes.  I also have this problem with not wanting to waste things and that includes the tubes and tobacco.  I just CANNOT bring myself to just throw them out.  That's just me.

Got to get this posted now so I will leave you.  Looks like we will be getting some rain and thunderstorms tomorrow.  The weatherbug tells me it's a 40% chance and that usually means we're gonna get hit by those storms that cruised through Louisiana today.  Oh well.  However, we are still supposed to hit the 80's so it will be very muggy, too.

Love you all.  Have a great Friday and be happy. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I have been nagging the Beast about pictures from Chewlee's graduation but, wouldn't you know it, he fell and hurt his arm.  He is having a tough time using his right arm except for a few minutes here and there.  That happens after he's soaked it in the tub for a half hour or so.  He's spent his good time working on just clearing out his email or on his darn phone.  It seems that a former client of ours from when we owned our AC business has suddenly rediscovered his phone number.  He DID tell her within my earshot that this would be the last time he would make himself available because...darn it!  He was retired!  I doubt he would have been so direct with her except that his arm was paining him just then.

So Chewlee got dropped off around noon today.  She didn't go to school because her teacher told the Princess that NO ONE from her class was showing up (it's not required, I guess.  They DID graduate after all...!)    She was in a happy mood although she kept telling me that she didn't go to school today.  I kept telling her I knew that but she kept bringing it up.  She got to play outside for a bit with Baron and the little neighbors dog.  Our RV-ing friend, Dennis, came over to meet with the landowner today.  I don't know why but the Beast took off with him to hit the health food store to pick up a couple things.  Then they ate lunch there. 

I found out later that the Beast had been riding Dennis's motorcycle and told Johnnycakes that it was HIS new toy.  Poor Johnnycakes was so excited over that he had to tell the Princess all about taking a ride on it with the Beast.  It had to have been when he dropped off Chewlee because I doubt the Beast would have ridden it as far as their house.  And I am sure the ride was just around the circle here.   He's just a bit too shaky to trust himself much further.  I told the Beast that was just too mean of him to let Johnnycakes think he'd bought something like that motorcycle.

Chewlee had to make a BIG decision today.  It was about her birthday cake.  Yep.  It's that time of  year.  Her birthday party will be this Saturday and the Princess is renting a bouncy house for her.  She's invited a few of her school friends so she will have friends to enjoy the bouncy house with her this time.  I'll be going (and Chewlee told me once again that she wants marbles for her birthday.....go figure that one out!)  I'll pick her up some socks and an outfit or two and try to find some marbles for her, too.  I have no idea why she wants them but you can't have a disappointed great-grandchild, can you?

Chewlee knows that Baron was born a few days after her and the Beast asked her if she was going to come to HIS party.  Chewlee said she would but she didn't know what to get him.  Then she got this *bright idea* look on her face and said, *I know!  I'll get him a big, disgusting bone!*  When I told her she could always get him a couple of raw turkey necks, she looked a bit green and got this awful look on her face.  I told her that it's the only kind of bird meat he can eat....it has to be uncooked.  The vet told us that and I felt the way Chewlee looked because it just didn't seem like it could be true until you thought about it.  When dogs were wild, they ate birds...and they didn't die from it.  It's only COOKED birds that have sharp points when chewed that can kill a dog.  Their bones are brittle after cooking.  But you should see how a dog will just lay into a raw neck or even a leg that's been cut apart.  They act like it's manna from heaven.  Who'da thunk it?

Then the rain came pouring down.  Lots of thunderings with it but no lightning that you could see.  I decided I had better make my spaghetti while I could in case we had a power outage.  It got done and the Princess and Chewlee ended up eating with us when the Princess got here to pick up Chewlee.  The Princess loves it when she doesn't have to go home to cook.  Who doesn't?  At least it was also nice to visit for a bit.

Love you all.  Have a wonderful day.  I know most of us had rain today but that will soon pass.  Be good.  Stay dry. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

She made it!  She graduated from kindergarten.  A lot of the grandparents, families and friends of the children were talking before the program started and some of them talked about how different things are now from when they were kids.  We really had no idea what the program involved except that Chewlee said they were going to sing and it was a surprise.

A surprise it was, indeed.  The kids didn't just sing ONE song, there were 10 different songs in all.  The kids sang well and enthusiastically.  We could see Chewlee who was on one of the back benches that were tiered so you could see all the kids.   She was actually one of the taller kids in her class so she was on the back bench.  We were kidding around and hoping she wouldn't come up with an idea of mooning the audience (she didn't.  She behaved well and we watched her singing like she was an opera star).  The kids (9 kindergarten classes total) even sang a song where they were signing so that deaf people would know what they were saying.  I think everyone was amazed.  Who knew they could all keep it together and sing so well as a group.

The Beast realized he had brought the wrong lens on his camera.  He got a few good shots of the stage but I haven't seen them all yet.  I'll still try to get a few to post tomorrow.  I don't think he got a close shot of Chewlee but, like I said, I haven't seen all the pictures yet.

Afterward, we drove to a local restaurant to eat and talk about the program.  Chewlee was actually doing a word search problem that was on the restaurants kid activity/coloring pages.  She would circle the words and then color them in so you could see all the words she found easily.  She was also doing a maze problem that was giving her fits.  She decided to save it for later to do at home.

We were exhausted when we got home (my excuse for not doing this earlier) so we put our feet up and took a nap.  Mine ended up being for four hours....sorry!  I don't know about you but being in a huge crowd of people (especially after the program was over) just exhausts me.  You have so many bodies to get around and we were parked so far away from the auditorium.  I spotted the Princess and Johnnycakes and they had found Chewlee so I made my way over to them.  I got a big hug from Chewlee.  The kids all had different color tshirts on for each class and the kids were on the grassy area with all of their classmates so you just had to look for their class color to find your child.  With nine different classes, they took up a lot of lawn area.

Everyone was in a good mood because the program was just so cute.  I think everyone was amazed at how many songs the kids learned AND remembered all the words.  Only one song had an adult voice that sang with the kids.  There was one little boy that looked like he was going to cry all the time.  Later on, when he was outside, I saw him with his family and realized he looked like that all the time!  When he finally smiled, he had the cutest face with big dimples.  When they handed out the certificates showing they graduated, some of the kids were Mexican/Spanish and they had long names because of the mother's surname being a part of it.  One little boy ... and I mean he was very small....had this LONG name.  He wasn't the only one but he was the first.  When he strolled out on the stage, he just didn't fit his name.  I remember his first name was Ulysses.  He looked like a little elf.  So cute.

I guess you can tell I had a good time.  I also had some of the best French onion soup I've had in a long time when we went to the restaurant.  It was extremely cheesy.  I loved having to wind the cheese around my spoon because it was nice and hot when I got it so the cheese was very stretchy.

The weather was great...no rain to ruin the time after the program.  Tomorrow we should have more of the same, including hot weather.  I am watching the late night weather channel coverage of the tornado damage in Moore, OK.  It's incredible and I am so sorry for the loss of life as well as the kids that were injured because they were in school when the tornado hit them.  So many acts of heroism by teachers who ended up injured protecting their students.  Please remember to add them to your prayers.

Gotta get this posted now.  Love you all.  Be careful and stay safe.  These storms are not good ones.