Well, having a much better week now.

Made a quickie trip to Watertown Saturday and got my brother's internet connection set up. The devil's in the typos. And spelling... Now I can chat with my bubbie Don, if I ever catch him online.

We made the state fair on Tuesday. I don't know why I like it, but I do. Now I just have little projects to keep me busy. I think our overnite trip to the lake is off because one of the other girls at work has a sick son at the UofM hospital, so I'll be working some extra shifts.

Trying to get some stuff lined up for *erk* taking over the third grade Brownie troop. Ayiyiyi! Meanwhile, still planning for a musical in February. Off to town for errands and a stop at the dance instructor's open house. Ta!

I am uninspired today. Been keeping up with Housework (ick!). Did a voiceover for my crabby husband. He was great all weekend, then turned into a big 'ol crabbypants. I don't much mind doing a VO, but he never once asked. I "had" to do it, and when he was ready for it, thankyouverymuch. He really hasn't once had an unreasonable thing to say, but the way he decides to say it is driving me up the wall. Ack. OK, 'nuff bitchin'.

Still waffling on the fair thing. Maybe Sunday, maybe Tuesday, maybe not. We'll see. I'd like to go, but it's starting to be a hassle.

I'm a regular ray of sunshine tonight, so I think I'll go was dishes.

Well, I must admit I was sadly disappointed by the small turnout for yesterday's variety show fundraiser. However, the show itself went off without a hitch, we had a great time, and I looked pretty good in a spangly dress loaned to me by a 15 year old. Albeit, I had on the heavy artillery of supportive undergarments. I had the figure of a 15 yr. old once, about 17 years ago. She had a lot of 15 year old friends come to see her perform, so Bruno met a whole bevy of ladies his age. I don't know if he quite knew what to do with himself.
The Lesters came out for the weekend to perform for the show and help install a new tub surround. There are people you just don't get to spend enough time with, and these folks are some of them. She and I were college roomies for a time, we saw each other through growing pains and sucky breakups. We stood in each other's weddings, had kids close together, and they are Thing 2's godparents. They live 2 1/2 hours away, so we try to get together for a long weekend whenever we can. We kick back and relax, order pizza, yell at each other's kids, and don't feel pressed to "entertain". Can't wait for the next visit.
I'd like to get to the state fair this year, if only to take Bruno, but we'll have to see what the money situation looks like. Eek. Usually there's at least one concert we want to go see at the fair, but this year the grandstand lineup sucks, in my opinion. The only thing remotely interesting is Ringo Starr and his All-Starr band.
Well, off to bed and back to work in the morning. I'm almost looking forward to a straight 40 hour work week. Nice to get back to a "normal" routine for a little while. Soon I'll be itching for the next show...

Had a good day today. Things are coming together nicely for the Variety show. Too cool. Now all we need is an audience...
So far we've taken Bruno to Marshall (met the gran'ma's D and Lee, and Pa DeSchep), Willmar (shopping), and the county fair (lame-o). Tonight, Dan and Tracy have him at the demolition derby at the fair, watching the wanton destruction of motor vehicles. I imagine myself looking at things thru the eyes of a newcomer to America. What a bizarre thought, destroying functional vehicles for entertainment. Bruno comes from a large city, so I know he's no babe in the woods, but there are certain things that just must not translate. My friend Darla's adolescent son and his friends were suitably impressed by Bruno. I got a kick out of watching him field the "Twenty Questions" session with relative grace.
The girls and their friends continue to tinker on the playhouse. I was hoping they wouldn't be disappointed by such a junky old thing, but they and the neighborhood kids have been having a grand old time fashioning doors and screens and furniture out of old junk. They show some real imagination. However, they incurred the wrath of dad by ripping out the ratty old carpet squares (not a problem) and strewing them about the yard (problem). Ah well, live and learn. (I hope).

Wow. Busy day, flew by!
Bruno spent most of the day in Monte with Hubs's best friend Dan and his stepson, Jesse. Nice for him to get in a little guy time. The girls really missed him, tho.

Yesterday, I bought a junky old playhouse for my kids. So far, they adore it. Today I dug out some old paint and brushes so they could paint it. I had them get ratty old paint clothes on. I explained to them how oil paint is different than latex, and to be careful not to get too much on them as we had to use paint remover to clean it off. I told them I'd be back in a minute to check on them, and I'd help them clean up when they were done. I expected them to spill some and make a little mess. I did not expect my 7 yr old to cover herself from fingertip to shoulderblade in Red Devil brand Bermuda Blue oil based enamel. Literally. There was no mistaking this for accidentally brushing herself with paint, or spilling it on her arm (both excuses she attempted to use) She was solid blue. Then, she and her older sister came in to wash a little of it off, snuck into the bathroom, and coated both sets of faucets and the towel rack in paint. Not, "Oops, I got some paint on the towel rack.", but, "Hey look, I can paint with my bare hands! I get great coverage, too!" Meanwhile, their 3 yr old sister continued to paint the playhouse, and actually came out the cleanest of the three. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth. I made a big point of explaining that they would not be punished for making a mess, but for not using their common sense. At what point, when you've dipped your arm in the paint, do you stop and think, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea?" And when you reach that point, shouldn't you stop there, and not continue on to the other arm? Argh! Now I know, the argument about common sense coming from the mom who let her kids paint the playhouse in the first place might ring a little hollow to some of you, but I haven't made any judgment errors resulting in bodily harm or accidental death yet. I thought it would be fun for them. I intended to be there to help, but they got ahead of me. Here I thought it was gonna be a "Fun Mom" day. Instead I spent three rounds of mineral spirits and soap on the kids in the tub, then mineral spirits followed by comet on the tub itself. There is no blue left in the bathroom, and some of it was blue to begin with.
Off to bed now. We had a lovely fire in the yard tonight. The weather finally cooled off enough to let us use the firepit comfortably. Several marshmallows were sacrificed, and I must now go to perform the ritual cleansing, or I'll go to bed smelling like smoke, with marshmallow gook under my fingernails. Nitey nite.

The weather has broken, and I can sit here and comfortably type. It's been stiflingly hot and smotheringly humid. We installed central air last year, but we have a big old house, with 9 ft. ceilings on the bottom 2 floors, and no AC fan can blow cool air this far up. The register is under the desk, so you get nice cool feet, but the rest of the loft up here is like an oven. Hopefully once the sheetrock is done and we get a couple of ceiling fans installed, we can regulate the temp a little better. But it's finally comfortable up here tonight.

Bruno caught his first Minnesota fish tonight, a lovely, huge freshwater drum (thats a sheephead to most Minnesotans) He took a picture anyway. Hubs's friend Dan took them out to the lake. He got a small reprieve from the giggle party. They were off at Bible school for a few hours.

Bruno put that bike kiddie seat on for me, so Thing 3 got her first ride on it tonite. After slight trepidation at the wobbly feel of the bike, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

I've been keeping busy getting the variety show ready to roll, so I shouldn't spend too much time here. It's too late to do much more tonight. I'll have to try to talk to people live tomorrow.

Off to watch the rest of Mr. Nice Guy. I'm a sucker for Jackie Chan, ever since the old dubbed or captioned movies. This must've been his first attempt at an English language movie, and it sucks. The actors are SO stilted. You wonder where they got them. But the action sequences are typically Jackie funny. He must've spent hours choreographing them. Wap wap paf!

*Whew* It's been busy. We got Bruno picked up. Check Hub's blog (now defunct) for more details there. We decided to run in Thursday night to avoid traffic and driving into the sun. Spent a nice night in a decent hotel close to the airport for not too much money. I figured we'd have to pawn one of the kids to afford a hotel that close, but there are a few bargains to be had, with enough effort.

These past couple days have been a lot of introductions for Bruno. Yesterday he met most of the Monte folk, and today my (real) brother and his wife came over from Watertown. Now I'm trying to catch up on some housework, and some laundry so I don't have to go to work naked tomorrow. You all have a good night!

I have been a domestic goddess. Cook n' clean, clean n' cook. Running to the cities Friday am to pick up Bruno at the airport. Yikes. It's too dang hot up here to write much, but I wanted to poke my head in. Cole Porter will spin in his grave if I sing "Too Darn Hot"
All of Minnesota is abuzz with news of Korey Stringer's death. 27 is to young to die. I am very sad for his wife and 3 yr old son. Aside from being a Pro-Bowl Tackle, it sounds as if he was an all- around nice guy. We wore our purple today.