Monthly Archive for June, 2006

charmaspice

Summer Driving

So, it’s been a while since I’ve written to those that actually read this blog. Don’t know who you are, but you sure must enjoy reading about the life of a boring house wife! Actually, my life isn’t so boring…I keep busy most of the time. Let’s see, what’s been happening around here for the past month. Earlier in the month we went down to the land of Niles to help celebrate Brad’s grandparent’s Watson’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. It was celebrated in normal Watson style…tons of food, and out on the deck eating some Grillings. I was so stuffed, I think I could have fasted for 4 days by the time it was all said and done. The next day we went to Chicago with our friends Beeko & Jackie (they came in from CO to spend a week of vacation in wonderful SW MI) to go see the King Tut exhibit. I really wasn’t all that thrilled with it, maybe I needed to do the audio tour to make it wow me! They really didn’t have anything big from his tomb, and most of the exhibit was stuff on his relatives. It was kinda neat to see his family tree and learn more about it, but I thought it was the King Tug exhibit! And the music, it was horrible. They had the same 4 chords being sung in a repeat for like 5 of the rooms that had stuff in it. I thought my brain was going to explode! After the Field Museum we went over to the Aquarium to see the fishies. That’s always lots of fun, and they have some huge fish in the circular aquarium in the front. I think we are going to take Clare for her 4th birthday to see the dinosaurs and fishies in Chicago. At least that’s the plan for now!

Our “We’re Turning 30 Party” was a huge hit. We made about 150 jell-o shots, many pitchers of margarita’s, and various other things were consumed by our guests. Brad’s mom made an awesome chocolate cake torted with strawberry filling. It was frickin’ huge, but amazingly it was all eaten except like 3 slices. And there were some other wonderful things brought by our guests to fill in the missing spots around the pizzas I baked from Costco. The main thing was that everyone looked like they had a great time, and helped us eat our way through a bunch of food! The next morning we strolled down for some breakfast at the wonderful Wolfgang’s with our sleep over guests Beeko, Jackie, and Brad’s brother Dan. Afterwards we walked the Bizzare Bazzar in Eastown. It’s a yearly event in our section of town where they have quite a fewl local artisans there with their goods. Jewlery, pottery, glass work, and various other things can be found.

And then I got the phone call that my Grandma Boman wasn’t doing well again. Apparently over the weekend she was put in the ICU in the hospital, as her blood pressure was extremely low. They put her on meds, and she began to do better. During the weekend they found out that she’s had Ovarian Cancer for 2-3 years, and had no clue. I immediately drove to Port Huron on Monday to be with her, as they were keeping her on the meds in the ICU until I got there. I was supposed to bring Clare with me, as my Grandma wanted to see her quite badly, but she was sick with what I am thinking was a flu/tummy bug. So, she stayed home with Brad while I went to Port Huron. They admited her up to the Oncology Unit while I was there, and by Wednesday she was at home where she wanted to be. They didn’t know how well she’d do off the meds to keep her blood pressure where it needed to be….but apparently she’s prooving them all wrong! On Saturday we drove back to Port Huron to see her again, and she was able to see Clare. My brother Larry flew in from AZ for the weekend, as she had been asking to see him too. My mom said tonight that she’s hanging in there, but her time is coming. Then on Saturday night after visiting with the grandparents (we had to go over and see my Grandpa Morden too….as he hadn’t seen us in a long time) we went out to the Karokee bar with my Aunt, cousin, my brother, my mom, and Brad and I. I didn’t think Brad would make it….but he even got up there to sing a song. Karokee isn’t exactly our style…but we had fun none the less. I sang “Love Shack” with my aunt, “Rainy Day Woman” by Bob Dylan with my brother, and “Like a Virgin” & “Ice Cream” by myself. My mom even got up there to sing with my aunt. I think we all had fun, and Larry picked up a 63 year old woman. Pictures are in the photo gallery of him, under phone pictures. And then on Sunday, it was back home.

This week has been filled with much the same, classes at the YMCA for Clare, Yoga for me, and a few MOMS Club things here and there. Clare is taking a new class at the Y called Sports Sampler, they learn to play soccer, basket ball, floor hockey, and baseball. She of course is the only girl, but she had fun none the less on Tuesday afternoon. And she was tired afterwards, bonus for me! This weekend we are staying home for the 4th. We were origionally going to Chicago to stay with the Geeks for a LAN party, but after thinking about the money it’d cost us…we had to cancel. I’d much rather spend that money on gas getting us out to CO. I think that’s about it for now. Nothing too exciting, pretty much the same ol’ around here. Brad put some new pictures up, so be sure to check it out. Hope all is well out there!

charmaspice

Apparently I like cookies

You Are Cookie Monster
Misunderstood as a primal monster, you’re a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth.

You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you’ll eat anything if cookies aren’t around.

You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking

How you life your life: In the moment. “Me want COOKIE!”

dead headphonist

Our Weekend.

Sorry I didn’t post this earlier, but I didn’t really go through our crazy weekend for all you cats.

We started out Friday by getting a babysitter for Clare and went to see Brian Vander Ark perform and Schuler’s bookstore. It was a great show. He played his entire new album beginning to end, acoustic, with a guy playing upright bass for some of the tunes. It was -very- nice. We got his new disc signed. I was unbelievably geeked. BVA is just one of those guys… he’s a real honest-to-goodness rock star in my mind, especially since I lived in EL just prior to and during the Verve Pipe Villians days. TVP was still playing at some of the local bars just prior to “hitting it big” and I remember seeing them at Rick’s in EL, then about two months later, they were on MTV and playing big arena shows. It had to have made their heads spin.

After BVA, we went to Billy’s for a quick drink and saw some local guys called Root Doctor put some jams down. They are really excellent. I look forward to seeing them again.

Anyway… on Saturday, we headed to the folks’. My Grandparents Watson celebrated their 60th wedding anniversay! Man… I hope I live that long, not to mention still being with the same person. Hats off and all that! Saturday eve, Dan and Karyn hung around with us while we created fiery mayhem in the fire pit at the folks’. A little beer was consumed and most of the bottles were melted in the fire. I don’t remember melting glass in a campfire before, but it -is- possible.

Sunday we got up early to see the Tut exhibit in Chi-town with our good friend from Colorado, Beeko & Jackie. The exhibit, while better than the usual permanent one, was a pretty big let-down. They had really no large artifacts, no coffin, and mostly just Tut’s jewelry and minor stuff. It was worth the trip, but certainly did not give a good sense of the wonderous treasures of Tut’s tomb.

After the lackluster exhibit, we headed to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a Spanish Tapas restaurant located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The food was excellent to say the least. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I dare say this place is better than Grand Rapids’ San Chez (a very sad thing for me to say because San Chez is one of my favourites). We had a good selection off of the menu and Char and I had a cup of white aparagus soup that was beyond excellent. The sangria was top-notch… probably the best I’ve ever had.

After this, we drove back to Niles, stopped by the folks’ to say hello, dropped Beeko and Jackie off, picked up Clare, and headed back to GR. It was quite a weekend.

dead headphonist

New photos!

The photo gallery has been updated with new pics. Check Clare’s Spring/Summer of ‘06 gallery and the Misc. gallery for new stuff from the house of Wat.

In other news, the stupidity continues… the cops have set up a mobile station and the fine upstanding youth (likely similar to those trying to kill everyone) set fire to it last night.

Nice. At least this was pretty far away from here. Maybe someone needs to institute some vigilante justice… hehe.

dead headphonist

gah

Wonderful… stupid people trying to kill one another again… this time, pretty close to our place. It’s weird… this year has had a marked increase in gun violence that seems to have come out of nowhere. In google-searching crimes related to property, it seems there are a lot of stolen Illinois cars ending up in GR… makes you wonder if this latest crop of violence is being imported directly from Chicago’s gold coast sprawl.

Apparently, though, it appears that this shooting is related to a whole string of other shootings over the past weeks involving some of our city’s more upstanding youth. Apparently, GR is taking a nod from the likes of LA and growing up into a “real American city” repleat with weekly accounts of young people being gunned down in the street. Pleasantville… to be sure.

We attended Festival this past weekend, which was alright. At least we got out for a nice walk and some sunshine. I think we must have hit the bluegrass power hour, because every live band had some mid-fifties nasal cowboy singing the virtues of some incomprehensible subject that has my ears ringing to this very hour. Oh, well. It was alright, except for the Asian gang members sitting around being annoying and getting harassed by the cops… oh yeah… and the crooner bluegrass. Yeah, that sucked too.

I wanna move to Denver, where there’s just as much stupidity, but I get the opportunity to look at mountains every day…

charmaspice

Hot Town Summer in the City

So….even though the official date hasn’t passed, it’s feeling like Summer around here. Things have been pretty well around here. The beginning of the week was filled with much the usual of the YMCA and Clare & I went thrift store shopping for some shorts for her. There’s this awesome store here in GR called Once upon a Child that buys peoples used clothing and baby things. Most clothing is anywhere from $3-8 depending on what it is, the larger sizes may be more too. But I bought a bunch of shorts, some jeans for the Fall, and a cute little dress. We hit Max 10 to see if there were any pj’s for cheap to complete Clare’s summer wordrobe. Unfortunately there weren’t, but I did find a pair of jeans for me as well as a shirt for Brad for cheap….because everything is under $10. My sitter came Wednesday afternoon, and I hit the mall for an shopping trip. I don’t usually shop, but I am cat sitting for the next couple weeks and had some money that was burning a hole in my wallet! So, I found some reasonably priced capri’s for summer….since I hate wearing shorts with my psoriasis. I figured if we were heading out to CO in July again…..I need something that breathes a little more than full length jeans.

On Thursday we took my car in for repairs finally. Good thing too as the struts needed replacing, some kind of boots needed replacing (they hold grease in around the joints on the axle if I remember correctly…..I don’t know much about cars!), and the Serpentine Belt needed replacing as well. So…..thank god I got a credit card recently! I hate doing things like this, but we have no choice as the Audie is our main car that we drive all over the state, and we are planning to drive out to CO in a month. So, I would rather charge the money than break down in the middle of Nebraska or in the middle of nowhere MI. We’ve also learned that Brad’s VW is not completely fixed. After driving it for a while it will no longer start….like it thinks it’s too hot when the temp gage says otherwise. So…..after we pay of my car’s debt we will be getting Brad’s car fixed, hopefully for good. It drives fine, you just have to plan on turning it off somewhere you plan on being for over a half an hour, unless it’s a short trip…because it does fine on short trips. We found that out after trying to leave the dealership when we dropped my car off. So, we headed home, made dinner, and I decided to walk to my hair appt….as I pay for it whether I’m there or not. I’d much rather enjoy spending that money on me than nothing. It wasn’t too bad, I walked about a mile (I think it’s about 9-10 blocks there) in 25 minutes. I was a little hot when I got there, but the walk did me well! But now that we know what to expect with the VW, I think it’ll be okay to drive it. So, until Wed I get the clown car to drive around town….Woot Woo!

This weekend we headed downtown for Festival of the Arts. It was kinda fun to walk around downtown and watch all the dancing or musical performances going on. We watched and Umpah Band…..shorts & suspenders check! Clare went in and painted a picture, and we drew on some sidewalk with chalk. There was a ton to eat…..ranging in price and type, all smelling pretty yummy! Then we went to Q-doba for some dinner, and drove a very tired Clare home to do some sparklers and ground flowers in the front yard. It was a good start to summer! She hit the bed early, as she was TIRED. Brad and I had margarita night while watching some Engineering Disasters on Modern Marvels.

On Sunday Clare and I did an art project…..it’s kinda cute, but looks nothing like a giraffe, as I can’t draw very well. Had some lunch, and lounged around the house for a bit. I started my new book for book club, The Virgin Suicides…very good, and looks like it might be a quick read if I ever get an afternoon of quiet time to do it. I used to be able to sit in the back yard and read for hours while Clare played, now I have to run around and get her things or stop the dog from being annoying or whatever. Children! Today I think I will mow the lawn, and catch-up on some laundry. Hopefully, it’s a peaceful day in the neighborhood, and I can keep my sanity.

dead headphonist

hey there cats n kittens…

Long time no blog, but that’s how it goes around here. I don’t really have much other than that we’re preparing for our annual throwdown in GR and I’ve completed the music playlist for the party. Check back early this week for the drink menu. We’ve decided to make this year’s party partially BYOB to save some cash for vacation, but we’ll still probably be providing margaritas and jello shots for everyone’s enjoyment.