KT, smell your armpit.

Do it. Do it now.

Sheila Check Your Email

Do it.

Reminds me of a lamp I once gave to Sheila...

Sharing is Caring

The pic is from the (first use of the phrase, to my knowledge) original Club 852 project. The girl on the left is Mike & Joe's former roommate Sarah.

Danny's mom bought our cats Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia cat grass for Christmas. It's like the Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia pet, but it's grass you grow for your cat's eating enjoyment. Strange, but true. We let Stanley (my big, fat, gray & white cat) eat some of it on Friday night and were laughing our tookeses off watching him mow down. He LOVED it. They go nuts for canned cat food b/c they don't get it that often, but this was much different. He was just overwhelmed with his love for this grass. This video was taken on Saturday morning. I tried to get Jasper (Danny's darker cat) to eat some of it, but Stanley wouldn't share. So Jasper gave up and decided to play instead, as you can see in this video. [Notice- this video was taken by a cruddy digital camera and I was lying on my stomach trying to get the cat's-eye-view, and it was kinda hard to move around that way, so it kind of explains the shakiness of the camera.] [Kinda]

how my day's been going so far

moar funny pictures

But thanks for the birthday sentiment, KT! And that pic! How old is *it* again?

MeiPing is taking me out to dinner tonight. I go up to "America Junior" tomorrow morning. Maria and I will do something in Montreal. And then I'll just be 42, sigh.

Happy Birthday Sheila!

Ok, 2 More

Again, here are some pictures from the Corkery Christmas, and me with nothing funny to say.

Underpants.






Ok. I tricked you. Here are 2 more pictures. I just couldn't NOT put up the picture of Charlie singing about a derranged rabbit, or a lunatic squirrel. Or some weird combination of the two. I can't remember.

Hi Kyle!

Attention Kyle Anderson! Welcome to Club 852: Not just for Lisle anymore! Sheila said you had an interest in this blog, and we have an interest in you! I've been trying to think of something funny to say, but I haven't been very funny lately, so you'll have to deal with the corny crap. And here's a picture that has nothing to do with anything, but it's nice.




Merry Christmas from Joe and Lucy.

Zee Double Oh

amy what is your address

Amy,

Can you please email me your address? I need it. Thanx, Sheiler

Guess Who's Two?

Our little Lulu!!!!!!! She's modeling a Santa Barbara T-shirt from Ain't B, and saying "cheese" for the camera.

First Big Snow in Illinois

When you're tallying the positives and negatives of homeschooling, here's one for the plus column! You can have a snow day, and a school day, all on the SAME day!

Gobble, Gobble

So...we bought a camera last spring and SWORE that we'd bring it to more places so we'd take pictures everywhere. I swear, we bring the camera with us, we just never get around to taking many pictures. Or there's a lot of the same 5 minutes and then we give up. These are a few of the pictures from Turkey Day at 852.




Amy: "Well Lucy, what do we have here...Monopoly, Diet Mountain Dew, Wine, a dog, now what did you say you wanted?...."

Amy: "Oh yeah. Crackers."

They were begging for turkey. And honestly, they're the ones who put themselves in there. It's just that Joe's the one who locked the door.

Sara and her new poochie. She doesn't listen to anyone at 852, but boy is she cute!

visa lottery merry go round, part 4

Dear US State Dept.

I have a question regarding the diversity lottery for 2009, that hasn't been addressed in anything that I've read online at the US State Dept site. My partner (female) who was born in Algeria, but is living in Canada, would like to apply for a visa to live and work in the US. We are legally married in Canada, but are obviously not married in the US. I am an American citizen living in the US. There is a section in the lottery instructions that say she must state her marital status, and to provide spousal information and a photo. I feel that we are in a bind, since she would like to answer the questions truthfully and accurately, but our marriage is not recognized in the US. Can you please advise as to how she should answer the question, and whether or not she needs to provide info and a picture of me?

Thanks for your help in this matter.

What I'm bringing to Thanksgiving at 852

Mom let me borrow the big pot to bring potatoes...but Lucy has commandeered it for her own purposes. Think mom will notice?

a man I'd like to have dinner with

I love Barney Frank. He's funny, wicked smaht, fair. He puts G's in front of his L's like a certain brother I once knew (Glouie, Glouie), and sometimes he talks a might too fast. But I love this guy and wish he were in my district so that I could say that I vote for him.

Andrew Sullivan writes this about Barney's work on ending job discrimination for homos:

The Republicans - exempting 35 of them - did their best to link employment non-discrimination to marriage rights, expressing their usual spite toward those gay couples who have dared to commit to one another in law and love, by a legislative distraction. But they failed in the end. And most of us are used to the abuse by now. We do not need their affirmation to love one another. But some do still need some framework of protection in order to work without fear - especially in those states where gay couples have been targeted as public threats to the family.

I haven't always supported this legislation, and my libertarian heart is not thrilled by it. But every other minority is federally protected from discrimination in employment; it is increasingly a form of prejudice to say that gay people can be fired at will from their jobs just for being who they are.

I don't subscribe to much of Sullivan's beliefs, but everything he writes on the subject of fairness for all, is usually right on.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

Yes, it was yesterday, but it was a busy day! Happy Birthday my favorite 6 year old boy!

money for nothing and the chicks for free

In high school Lynn Yuell made a sort of trademark pink splotch dyed on her shiny golden bangs, like a married woman from India who got a little too punk. And a little too lazy to lift up her hair to anoint her forehead. She came Monday mornings to the bus stop with the splotch freshened up for the week. “I saw Frida’s video again last night.” She knew it would drive me crazy, and it did indeed drive me crazy. I had seen Culture Club, I had seen Talking Heads, I had heard Cruel to be Kind, and Angel of the Morning. I had sat through Money For Nothing and the Chicks for Free, all to catch Frida’s solo I Know There’s Something Going On. All to not catch it. I suffered through REO Speedwagon, and through Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. For what? To have Lynn explain through chartreuse eyeshadow and blue splotch dye on her little chick hair, that she had MTV on every hour of every day and managed to catch everything I had been unable to catch.

Why oh why couldn’t I catch it? It felt as if I were busting a vein in my forehead, staring at the screen, willing for it to play. I never did homework. I never participated in anything after school. I had no life. I was the perfect candidate to view on numerous occasions Frida’s video.

And now exactly one hundred years after this event comes YouTube. Sure, they have Abba videos, but those all kind of suck. Abba was very serious about their music, but a little too literal about their videos. And Benny always lipsynched as though he were chewing marshmallows. I was never convinced that he ever sang, despite evidence that he did sing . To portray the line in Super Trouper, "feeling like a number one", Agnetha lifts up her index finger. To portray one.

“Live” performances that they did for tv had them lipsynching their own songs, when their voices were flawless, in the studio or outside. I never got that. Even when Frida put out the dreadful song written by Jon Lord from Deep Purple, the last song she's done, it’s canned, on German or Swiss tv. But with a full band backing it.

So what’s different about Frida's video from the 1980’s? It’s emotional. It shows a dramatic portrayal of the song, rather than just razzing the song, and is excellent, on her own.

How could I forget??

Yes, I admit it here folks, I literally forgot about the existence of

ABBA!

I mean the outfits, the lipgloss, the songs....too funny!

Here's some selections I chose for you, the people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hskKIsf-PAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WauFkb4jmCI&mode=related&search=

New family member adopted at 152

Her name is Pearl.