Caught

Regular readers might remember that we've had groundhog issues for the past couple of years. We borrow a "have-a-heart" trap from the borough, trap 'em and then release them on the other side of town in the back side of the boro park, not far from a creek. Can't catch the biggest and most destructive of the groundhogs, but we're trying.

On another critter note, our little town has more than its fair share of skunks. Made the front page of the big-city newspaper for it about ten years ago. Boro manager wore a skunk costume in parades for years afterwards. We're having a bad August - it's mating season - and skunky smells are frequent thru the night (hard to sleep thru!) and skunk pancakes are on the roads.

This morning, before he was about to go to work, my Nod woke me up around 5:15 am.

Yup, we'd caught a skunk.

What to do? lamented my dear husband.

Well, the dddragon was fearless enough to catch a bat in the house 20 years ago. Naturally she would be the one to drop a sheet over the cage, carry him to her van, drive him to the park and let him go. (Took some persuading to get him/her out!)

So our block is less one skunk. If only the groundhog would go, too.

Appropriate

This is the birthday card that my mother TLP sent.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This photo is from 1979.

Yup, it's my party and I can blog if I want to. Naturally, I have a Girl Scout leaders meeting tonight. And no, I can't skip it because I'm half in charge.

At the moment I'm listening to Carole King's Tapestry album, courtesy of sister AP3 - Thanks, Sis! Actonbell was the first to wish me a happy birthday (in the post comments below), and I see that she already posted a Happy Birthday!. And my parents, TLP and Nikn, just called to sing Happy Birthday to me.

My age now happens to be the favorite number of bloggin' buddy Sar ... can you guess?

So, please, everyone have something yummy today and enjoy!

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that Michael Jackson is 48 years old today. (It's kind of a minor curse to always know how old he is . . .)

Back to School

Well, it's back to school for my Girls - as 10th Graders, they are no longer low-men on the high school totem pole. Goa'uld will be driving to school: woohoo!

Old Photo Weekend

Sorry that I'm late today - I was out running errands, and I'm about to go out with The Girls to get some last items for school.

This photo is from November 1971 when we visited the then-new Magic Mountain in Southern California.

Now ... gotta shop!

Outdoors

One of the activities was a bit of a scavenger hunt, where we were sent all over the camp and had to take photos of ourselves doing something. The instructions for this particular place was to have a picture of the group on the bridge but without our feet actually on the bridge.

This mushroom was growing in a much be-holed tree.

What's So Punny?

Actonbell told a story about how I had a laugh-attack because I "got" the pun with a local radio-personality's name. Someone wanted to know what this name was.

First, I must explain that I have known this guy and his wife since 1990. Not only do they live in our town, but they also have a set of twins (boy-girl) a couple of years older than my Twins. I was trying to remember their real last name - I can remember the first names of all four in this family, where they live, and what letter their real name starts with ...

And as I was sitting at the table in Red Lobster musing all this information, trying to talk my way into remembering this last tidbit of info, I said "... and way, way back he and that other guy had a morning radio show called Coffey and the Jammer ..."

That's when it hit me. Coffey and the Jammer. Coffee and Jam!

And that's when the laugh hit me, so to speak.

Yes, red-in-the-face-gasping-for-air-laughing. Quite amusing to watch, I gather.

ADDENDUM: This weekend I'm off the the annual outdoor Girl Scout leader conference. Here's a post that covers some of last year's. Since I've still things to pack and then to get on the road for the two hour drive, there won't be an old photo to post. Have a good weekend everyone!

Pez Picnic Pictures

Here is another installment of Pez Footography:

First, the men folk. Actonbell's hubby Ekim












and AP3's ex-but-still-our-brother Mron












and here's daddy Niks . . .












And now for the womenfolk

Can you guess who is who? In alphabetical order: Actonbell, AP3, Bookworm, dddragon, Em, Goa'uld, Norash (Ekim's mom), TanLucy, & Ydnic (Ekim's friend's wife).

And here's Actonbell with a birthday gag gift from AP3

As for my migraine(s) - Thanks for your kind words and advice. Last week I had a headache each day, but not for a whole day at a time. This week seems to be faring better.

Headache Break

It's now officially a week since this particular migraine streak started. Oh, here and there I get a break for a short time - this morning I had about four hours of freedom, but then it came back.

To answer some queries or comments, I do think that my migraines are influenced by barometric changes and my mentrual cycle . . . but it's not consistant. It may be that I'm eating something that triggers it. I know that there have been times when overwhelming perfume or cologne has started a migraine sometimes. I suppose I really should keep a diary to see if I can track it somehow.

Anyway, I'm taking a little bloggin' break. Not that I've been blogging a whole lot lately. Things have been pretty busy all summer for me and my family and there's really no end in sight. I've been scanning most of everybody's blogs but not posting many comments lately, so I might continue doing that to keep up with y'all.

Now, a quiet and darkened room are calling my name . . .

Old Photo Weekend & Happy Birthday

This week's offering is of Nod's grandfather, on the right, with friends whose names we don't know. This is the same guy in this old photo.

And it is also sister Actonbell's birthday! Happy Birthday!!


Well, the heat wave finally broke. After suffering 100 or near 100 degrees for four days, band camp's final day was considerably cooler. The week ended at a pool party for the kids at the boro pool. They'll still be rehearsing alot, but not six hours a day.

I've had a migraine all week. I thought that it was finally going away yesterday afternoon, but it came back last night and it's still with me now. Ugh.

Today is the art center's Student/Teacher Exhibit reception. All summer I've had kids work on the exercises that I assigned, but not a one actually did a whole, finished piece. Ugh, again. Oh, I know that many of them enjoyed and some really got something out of my sessions with them, but it would have been nice to see some concrete results.

oh, well, c'est la vie.

My (other) Kid is Wednesday Guest

"Baby A", aka Bookworm, aka Tok'ra, aka ... is Doug's Guest Blogger today. So go read.

I know that some of you have been confused by the Pez Family and all the names we use. (I posted an explanation a while back, but I can't find it now.) Basically, AP3 gave us all Pez names. Goa'uld gave us Stargate names. And some of us gave ourselves our own names. I'll make a diagram sometime, okay?

Yesterday was very hot and today might be hotter. The local paper had an article about band camps and how the kids were out in it. The photographer and reporter were out at my Kids' band (Goa'uld's photo is in the paper), mostly. Unfortunately, the article was a bit negative, with a good bit of it dedicated to how kids get sick from it (naturally they talked to the one girl that keeps NOT eating breakfast and then she vomits ... grrr).

The photo is from my van - I know that vehicle thermometers aren't accurate, but it was scary to see, nevertheless. The weather guy just reported that today's heat index is expected to reach 112 degrees F.

Rabbit Rabbit Hot Hot

Naturally, Band Camp is once again during the hottest (thus far) week of the year.

Camp runs three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. Yesterday morning it was in the 80s by 8:00 am. Last night when I dropped them off at 5 pm, it was 97 degrees F, dropped down to 90 by 8:40. The Band Boosters provide water and orange slices. In the morning, a couple of stupid girls (the stick-skinny ones) admitted to not eating breakfast after they threw up water and oranges due to heat. There is a heat advisory for today and there will probably be one tomorrow - both days are expected to be 99 or 100 degrees. The Boosters will have a "heat triage" today.

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Art Camp this week looks promising - only four kids in my afternoon session (tho' it's three girls and one slightly younger boy - poor boy!) and they seem to be a fun bunch.

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Last Saturday I drove by the park and noticed that a large, yellow rental truck had backed up to the dumpster (the Little League's). A man was throwing what appeared to be sections of paneling. I could see that a mattress and a chair or loveseat was on the far side. I had dinner on my mind and kept going, but by the time I got home a couple of blocks away, I was bothered by what I had seen. (Here in our boro, we are allowed to leave one Large Item at the curb for trash pick-up. If someone on our block has more than one, then the rest of us have always taken in their extra large items if we didn't have any ourselves.)

Since it wasn't a 911 call and our police office is closed on weekends (the police are out, but no one is in the office to call), I called our mayor Lou and explained what I had seen. He made a call and then called me back to ask if I could run back over and try to get a license number. I did run over, but the guy had gone. I waited for a police officer to come by, and in the meantime took a look at what was left.

Two upholstered chairs and a full or queen-sized mattress and a dumpster full of broken, jagged wood panels and sheet rock, much sticking out of the dumpster, and a mess on the ground around. This is an area that gets lots of people with children, too!

Unfortunately I couldn't give the officer a licence number, but I described as best I could what I had seen. He took the info and drove off, hoping to catch the guy still in town. I resolved that next time I would park a short distance away and wait for them to drive away and then get the license number (if dinner wasn't so pressing I would have probably done it this time. Dinner was late anyway!!).

ANYWAY, last night while I was waiting for band to finish, I got a call from Mayor Lou (actually, a buzzzz ... I had my cell phone on vibrate and it was in my back pocket - gave me quite a start). Lou told me that the police had caught the guy and he would be emptying out the dumpter!

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