Dad's Day

So...we went to the Illinois Railway Museum for Father's Day and got a lot of sun and had a lot of fun. Heh, that rhymed. Wasn't my intention, but I won't erase it.

Check these out:

















This one reminds me of those molds you can get made at the zoo:
















Some sight-seeing pics:































































Mike revisits his bartender days on the Santa Fe dining car. It was fun because it was the only car that was air conditioned... well, when we went. I don't know if it was air conditioned when it was up and running. I didn't ask.













And now for the fart contest: Who has the best "what the heck is that smell?" face?

Joe...

...Katie...

Or Mike?

The Great Genevieve Experiment

New glasses, no teeth? GREAT disguise girl!

Yep, we've had visitors

buggy in bugland

A newly "hatched" cicada drying its wings on the lilac bushes behind the house.

Mother Nature in full force this week; nice to know that some of her offspring are still able to function properly.

They're dive bombing us here now. Humming like a huge current traveling across very lively wires. The sound is like a rock and roll concert from my youth--when you come inside from the yard, your ears are swathed in cotton and everything sounds distant and muffled for a while. The trees are coated with their bodies and mounds of dried carapaces are strewn on the ground beneath. Eddie and I have fished dozens of struggling buggy swimmers out of the kiddie pool in an attempt to slow the rate of suicides.

I think our kids will not forget this summer.

say you're an onion

OK you're an onion minding your own business on somebody's window ledge. Say you're bored and want some excitement. You want to become part of something larger than yourself. Say you want to join a soup. What might be the necessary steps to participate in joining other like-minded items to become a soup...maybe even a french onion soup.

Anyone?

Post This

Mamba,

You sign in first. If you are not leaving a comment on someone else's posting, then go to the top of the page and click on "Blogger" or where it says "sign in". I've seen it both ways.

Then when you're in you should be on your Blogger:dashboard. If you're not automatically sent there, click on the link that says Dashboard.

You will see all kinds of crappy links then. You want to click on "New Post". Make sure you don't click "Create a Blog" unless you really do want to create something entirely separate from Club852.

You will get to a page that offers you a box for text and a long thin box at the top to add a title. You will also see some editing buttons just below the Title bar that allows you to put words in Bold (b),
italic,(i),
to insert a link

to highlight a quotation from someone else

,
to spell check, and to add a photo, respectively.

You can preview what it will look like before publishing --- by hitting the link that says preview...or you can post it by hitting Publish Post button at the bottom.

Signed,
underpants

Oh I think I know.

It appears that I can post something. But I have no pictures nor videos. So anyhow. thanks

Aaauuuggghhhh!!!! STUPID BLOGGER!!!!

WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!
I know the title of my friend's blog, but I can't search stupid blogger anymore because it WON'T LET ME!!!!!!!!! I can't figure out how to do it and the STUPID HELP SECTION SUCKS!!!! There's not even anywhere to complain to anyone, so you guys are stuck with this. I'm really frustrated. AAAUUUGGHHH!!!

DubWowWow

OK time kill central. I ate a huge piece of cake that someone in the lab left out in the kitchen. It was the kind of cake that's soo good and is probably terribly cloggy. And then I stumbled (let my fingers do the staggering) upon this article about professionals in India who still get grandma's homecooked lunches sent to them everyday...by DubWallas. Which made me upset about eating the cake.

...where long commutes by train and bus are routine, Mumbai residents rely on an intricately organized, labor-intensive operation that puts some automated high-tech systems to shame. It manages to deliver tens of thousands of meals to workplaces all over the city with near-clockwork precision.

Unbelievable system of guys who can't read, but can bike hundreds of lunches and put them on trains and make sure that they arrive safe and edible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/business/worldbusiness/29lunch.html?em&ex=1180670400&en=cc92fb88196f6466&ei=5087%0A

I wonder which little gopher strapped my cake on his back and delivered it to the grocery store?

Florence Henderson and me

Ok, I was standing in the kitchen pouring orange juice for Dave the other day, and it struck me...a picture of Florence Henderson (we call her Flo Hen around these parts) saying, "Orange juice isn't just for breakfast anymore!" and smiling. Kinda like..."Club 852: Not just for Lisle anymore." Finally, Amy gets it!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Skype!

I have SKYPE! Chat with me! Ok, we haven't purchased a mic yet, but we have the camera and the computer part set up. SKYPE me! I have B's name on the thing, but I couldn't find one for Sara or Sheila, and I'm pretty sure you guys said that you had SKYPE! SKYPE! That is all for now. SKYPE!

I heart the Sims

So I've been kinda busy this week and going to bed pretty late, so I'm quite sleepy right now. It's towards the end of my work day and I'm just dragging.
I went to google images and typed in "sleepy" and came up with this picture of a sleepy Sim. I heart this game. It's really strange and really neat at the same time. Just to give you guys an idea of what it looks like, here ya go!

Stop the madness!!

I have received so many emails about Dad's suspenders! Why is everyone clicking "reply all"? Just curious. Kinda weird. Inquiring Genevieve's want to know!

Walker, Texas Baby

Remember that old tv show, "Walker, Texas Ranger" Well, that's Lucy's new nickname, Walker, Texas Baby, because she's walking!!

OKGO

Here's a cute band, OKGO. They're from Chicago and Danny and I saw them open up for They Might Be Giants a few years ago. They win my award for "Best Use of Treadmills."

she isn't Professor Blue but

she is wearing blue, and has a very joyous video.

I bring you: Canadian artist Feist!

Confessions of an underwear thief

I, Lucy Roller, take great joy in stealing multiple pairs of underwear from my big brother Charlie. I like to string them on my arms, and then roam around the house on my knees, selling them to the masses. Mostly I try to put them on myself, or my baby dolls. They're free, any takers?

PS Mom always said there was nothing funny about underpants. I think she MIGHT have been mistaken, in this case.

Look-a-likes

So I saw your cat thing and thought, "I could have that, but that doesn't look like my cat..." and then I had a whole bunch of other thoughts that led me to want to look on google images to find a picture of my gas grill being invaded by stupid birds. I can't take pictures of the real thing b/c we cleaned our gas grill out, but if you look at this picture, it kinda looks like our grill, and kinda looks like our balcony. Luckily, we didn't get a nest as big as this b/c we caught it in time. Thanks to Danny's "Huh. There's a lot of twigs underneat the grill. Wouldn't it be funny if it was because they'd made a nest in there?" Yeah. Funny like dead tastebuds. I'll take a picture of our balcony later for a compare and contrast discussion. In the meantime you can check out this picture.

Then you can also check out the picture of the cat, licking his chops. It doesn't look like either of my cats, but could be a hybrid of the two. Again, I'll post pictures of the real cats at a later date. I don't have access to them right now.

Enjoy.

voting, schmoting

I have no idea who to vote for. Crazy is a loaded term in this family. Maybe we should ask who is the most likely to have his or her cat house out on the sidewalk?

Craziest family member, vote now

Emma was calling Dave "crazy" because of something silly he said. Then she said, wait, Uncle Mike is crazier than you dad! Wait, Aunt Sheila and Uncle Joe are crazy too. VERY crazy. Ok, Uncle Joe is the craziest person I ever met. What do you think? (Katie and I were deemed, "regular.")

Lucy's nearly walking

She's nearly walking...taking 6-8 steps at a time before plopping down. She was, however, enjoying a nice, leasurely ride in the wagon while Jack was pulling her around the neighborhood.

Take what you have gathered from coincidence

Maria with new Sheila'ed haircolor. I turned her into a black and white person, accidentally!

I'm a sad sad toaster made of glass

I used to enjoy reading books and magazines, but am afraid that all that old fashionedism is falling to the wayside. Why? Because I just discovered a new site that will soon suck out all of my marrow and leave me with a shell of a reader.

http://www.songstowearpantsto.com/

Go there at your own risk.

I thought it was Crazy 8's

And now, a message from MeiPing:

'Oh God, I DO suck at cards!!! Mom was just telling me that she can't join a bridge club or game because she has a terrible memory, and that's me too.

Geez, were we playing poker???'

Tookie's Cat Counterpart

This is my friend Erin's cat. His name is Sullivan (Sully), like the big fuzzy guy named Sully in Monsters, Inc. The little cat is her fiance Tylor's cat, Boo, also from Monsters, Inc. Sully...is...huge!

Happy Anniversary

Nine Years! Time flies when you're having fun! Only 56 more years. (Dave calls me his wife of 65 years.)

Going to the zoo,zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?

Genevieve wins, most photogenic!

Emma is a success! Or, studious wonder of the world.

She set a goal to be done with her reading curriculum by Spring Break (we don't take one, but by the local school district's break) and she did it!! Her prize: She got to go to the library today and get as MANY books as she wanted (she's usually limited to 8.) So, she got 33! She wanted more, but Dave's back wasn't feeling so well...so 33 was the limit. Congrats Emma!

the ugliest hair salon

Maria's getting her hair done by an Asian guy who has one of the rings hanging in between his nostrils...I'm on the most comforable and cool couches ever, but inside a really ugly hair salon on Blvd St. Laurent in Montreal. What is up with that.

Last night when I arrived, I pulled out a bottle of dye that MeiPing and I spent about 45 minutes investigating before purchasing. Does she want to go blond blond, or does she want a little red? Meip kept pointing me toward the browns, and I said, let's go white blonde. We ended up getting a really blonde dye - that was supposed to look a bit reddish, only a tinch, when put on her head because of the brown hair already there. We could not afford a fancy hair cut and a dye, so I thought that with the help of Meip on color, Maria and I could dye her hair.

Last night I breathed in plenty of ammonia before drifting off to sleep. I do not recall any dreams.

She just came back to me on my comfortable blue couch with her hair the color of straw and with the consistency of straw. It's Straw Maria. I think ring man has other plans for her, but what do I know. I'm the peanut gallery.

The salon itself has a grubby look about it...all white with basic track lighting on the top and a disco ball in the center. But the floor is gray cement, shiny. And the back wall is fluorescent pink. A desparate pink. Grubby. But the people are all super nice, though they are a bit hip, with white belts on denim, thin narrow boots and tatoos everywhere. I myself am wearing a navy turtleneck, khakis and my pretend My Three Sons suede shoes. Read: frump. And the music is really the kind of synthesizer music you play when you want to make a joke about music with synthesizers. Due to all of this, and maybe despite it, I am so comfortable here I could nap right now.

We're in town because our friend Neil is promoting his new album. We are doing his music video.

He will not be wearing a blue wig, alas.

look, it's a maria

Today is Maria's birthday. I am in Cambridge. She's in Canadiaville, getting feted with / by our neighbors. This is an older picture since I don't seem to have anything recent on my computer here. She's in Toronto at a hot dog stand. All she said while we drove to meet up with her friends Doug and Michelle, "I can't wait to eat a hot dog from a cart."

Hot dog is her favorite food group.

Reports back tell of a smoked-meat eating today, but that has not yet been confirmed.

Update

I cut my hair and put up some pix we took in Philly on my blog. I don't feel like doing it all over again over here (I'm really tired) so check it out on mine:

http://anderschnolie.blogspot.com

Dear Cookie Company,

Love, Sheila

Rapper or cutie?

You decide.

It's a peace sign, silly . . .

. . . with an Iraqu (holding Iraqi flag) shaking hands with an American (holding US flag) across the water. Although the peace sign is upside down, so it might resemble a "Y" to some.

Slow Day at Work

Today's been really slow, and I usually email my friends throughout the day, but 2 are too busy to write much, and the other just left.

There's a pretty corny clock on the wall on the other side of the room and it's got corny looking cartoon birds on it, but the cool thing is that it has a few birds chirp each hour. I heart that. Especially since the weather's been SO awful, it's nice to hear birds. Plus, when the day's going fast I can say, "Wow, is it 11:00 already?" But today, the day's going slow, and I heard the birds chirp at 4 and thought I'd write a post.

Work is going very well. I really like my job and the people here. In fact, here's a picture. I was "voted" onto the Christmas planning committee (meaning my manager was asked to be on it, but was too busy), and helped plan the party. There's a group of us standing around, making sure everyone gets just the one helping. There were a TON of people there that day. That's because it was free from the company. Neat.

In 7 days Danny and I are going out to PHILADELPHIA, BABY!! We're going to see Duke and Linda and their twins. I put up my most recent favorite picture. I can't wait to go hug the crap out of them.

Fun with B

It's about time for 152 to join in, since we were so gracefully invited before and have let two years lapse without remark. Anyway, in the midst of these winter doldrums, we thought we'd bring a little color and vibrancy to 852. So here are some recent photos.

Jack and B at the peace march in DC









Mid-February in the ocean