Goof... but a cute goof!

After the Credits Roll

It sure got quiet out there.
Movie dialog stopped.
Credit roll music stopped.
I waited a couple more minutes thinking they'd left the living room
and went to ask if they wanted a late snack...

..and found;



zzzz...

Boutonnieres

Are tricky the first time you tackle one...

Creative MiniMe

Give her a pottery wheel and a kiln...
She'll make cool stuff.

Txt Convo

Me: Where my O.G.s at?!
MiniMe: Mom, ur so lame.
Me: That did not sound like a holla.
MiniMe: I ain't no holla back girl.

I have been remiss.

MiniMe brought to my attention that she's the only one who hasn't gotten a chance to shoot the H&R 676 yet.
I shot it. Spousal Unit shot it. Nephew shot it. Friend shot it. But not Mini.
It was on the verge of raining...so what to do, what to do?!
RUN to the range, of course!
She finally got her turn.

New Hawtness

Shotgun traded off? Check.
Employee discount? Check.
New lurve purchased today and dragged to the range?
CHECK!!! (Even let MiniMe shoot, because she brass-dawg'd for me)

Enjoy the awesomeness that I now bestow upon you for your viewing pleasure...
You may click for embiggenation!

Muse

Just some music from a band that MiniMe likes.
This is not her favorite song, but I like it. :)

I love a good 4th of July Parade

Watchin' the Mini do her thang...

You see some crazy stuff!

And sometimes Elvis!

Don't Text & Drive!!

MiniMe: Mom!! Don't text and drive! It's against the law now in our state!

Me: I'm not texting! I'm taking a picture!

MiniMe: What?! DON'T DO THAT EITHER!

Me: There's nothing that says I can't take a picture.

MiniMe: There was a cop *right there*!! And it LOOKS like you're texting. He's going to pull you over for texting and you're going to go to jail or something!

Me: I wasn't texting.

MiniMe: Argh!! MOM! Quit messing with your phone! That cop is RIGHT THERE!

Me: Then how come I see cops texting and talking on their cell phones all the time?

MiniMe: Because they're hypocrites!

Me: So you're saying...I might beat the rap, but I won't beat the ride...

MiniMe: What...no...what? MOM! Just DRIVE.

The face of teen mother-henning
(and she tells me to turn down the radio, too):

The Stick

When I was younger, my uncle started collecting walking sticks.
He had all kinds from all over, and they were neat to look at as a group hanging on the wall. Some of them were really expensive and were never meant for anything other than to display. Some never made it on the wall...but they were taken in hand for walks or just messing around outside.
When he passed away this January, my aunt set aside a walking stick for MiniMe to have. All of his grandkids came and took ones that were special to them for one reason or another, but the very first one he ever got was put away for Mini.
I spent the day with my aunt yesterday and she passed it along to me to bring home for MiniMe.

I put it beside my front door for now. Mini left it there. I think we like it there out in the open to pass by all the time.

I thought I'd share.
Here's a close up of the rough hand carving at the top:

igpay atinlay

I had to fill out a pre-registration packet for the MiniMe for the 2010-2011 school year.
Page after page after page of questions.

Finally, I got to the page about languages.
"What is the student's native tongue?"
"What language does the student have the best comprehension?"
"What language is spoken primarily in the home?"
"What language is the blah blah blah blah blah..."

I just couldn't take it...
So when I got to "What language does the student speak most often at home?", I wrote "English, or igpay atinlay!" and signed it!

It happened!! Finally!!

~~UPDATE! (storage pics at bottom)~~
Awesome, awesome, and more awesome... that's the only way to describe it.
Remember when I got my press and took it to Jay's? Remember when I bought my bench and a net friend shipped me tumbled brass?
I went to a gun show after that and met up with Jay and with Shooterchick, and I got a GREAT deal on .45ACP Carbide dies (RCBS) from 21st Century. Only problem was that the instructions to set the dies were written for people who already understood what they were doing.
I turned to the gun forums...not enough help.
YouTube...not so much again.
Finally, when I figured out that I couldn't do it all on my own, I asked Jay, and his lovely assistant Lynne for help.
By the end of the morning, I knew which dies did what, how to set them, and how to use them. After lunch, a quick trip to the swampy range (lots of rain on top of melted snow)...and I ripped off some of my very own reloads. OMG did that feel good!

Shortly after reloading school was over and the teacher went home, I got down to doing some homework!
I bumped up my charges by two tenths of a grain and started reloading a few more...without a net!!
Here is my set up and my first five solo reloads.
I'm just. That. Cool!

After MiniMe got home from school, she was excited to try her hand at it. I went through the function of each die, and stood behind her while she followed my directions...and now she has her very own handloaded cartridge. She FaceBooked it.
Silly teenagers. Don't they know that's what blogging is for?? :D
And wouldn't you know it...EVERYbody want's in on the act:


Update: Inside and outside of my very cool stuff! :D

My Uncle

When I was a kid, my uncle would sometimes bring my aunt and my three cousins (all girls) to visit us in Florida. Every summer, we'd drive back to Indiana and his house is where we'd stay.
I remember all sorts of things about those times. Like there was this giant hornets nest that he'd found and it was preserved and hanging in the garage. Sometimes he'd pitch pennies with us kids for fun if we were bored, or just do stuff outside with us.
He always included me with his girls.

When my parents split up, my mom (his sister) came back to Indiana and brought me. We had nowhere to go, and even though his oldest daughter had moved back home with three children (and his youngest was still at home - she's a couple years younger than me), he took us in. It was cramped, but a house full of love.
That house was on the channel of Lake Wawasee. He had a Ski Nautique boat that he let us kids take out on the lake whenever we wanted, and when my cousin and I wanted to go into Syracuse, he handed me the keys to his car. Even my dad never did that.
When my mom and I found an apartment, he helped us move...and then came over all the time to check on us and see if there was anything we needed. Some of those visits were my favorites because they'd often reminisce about growing up. I loved listening to stories about them living near a reservation and going to school with Indian kids, or his funny stories about his travels in the Air Force.

My mom and I moved back to Florida when I was 17, but I knew I wanted to come back. I didn't wait until I turned 18 and she knew wherever I landed, my uncle would keep an eye on me. Since my mom and dad were so far away, he sort of took me under his wing. I was always included in his "family" plans...right down to Father's day.
Those Christmases where I go to the lodge aren't extended family reunions; they consist of him and my aunt, their daughters (and their families)...and me. He never thought twice about me not being a part of things.
He really made me feel like I wasn't alone up here. I think that's why it wasn't so scary...at least in part.

My parents live so far away, when Minime was little in school, my uncle and aunt would show up for grandparents' day for her so she wouldn't be the only one without a visitor. They came to all of her basketball/soccer/volleyball games and most of her band concerts. They took her home for some weekends and always had fun times planned for her. She's never gone to stay at my mom's or dad's before, so this is really the only experience she has like other kids get. I'm so grateful they gave that to her. Along with many rounds of her and my uncle tree-golfing or building traps in his back yard for any stray kangaroos that happen to be wandering through the city.

Being an advocate of the Second Amendment, my uncle always carried everywhere...usually a .45 in the car and a Beretta .32 on his person. We never did get to go shooting together and that is my only regret.

My mom called me this morning to tell me he died in the middle of the night last night due to an aggressive cancer he was fighting.
I know he's not suffering any more, and my grief is only a selfish one...because I will miss him.
These are a couple of my favorite pics of him;

He and my aunt would have been married 50 years in just a few weeks. They are the most loving couple I've ever met...


This is me with him at a college graduation party for one of his granddaughters...


This was Thanksgiving...my mom flew up for a week to spend time with him. She kept telling him she thought he looked like Sean Connery.

This was at Christmas...he always played "Santa" and had a gift for EVERYone. Even now that his grandkids bring "dates" along, there's always a gift with the date's name on it.

Awesome man. He will leave a void on this earth that no other person can fill.
And heaven is now better for having him there.

Chaos Christmas Morning

Presents were opened.
Chocolate from Christmas Stockings was consumed.
Christmas music streamed from the surround sound.
Wrapping paper all over the floor...cat going nutters from it.

The Mr. had purchased a bunch of "prize" gifts a couple years back for our family gathering where we play games for prizes. He forgot one that he purchased for the "kids pick" table. A Christmas video featuring the cartoon "Pink Panther".
He forgot it last year, too. So there it sat for a couple of years ...
THIS year he remembered to take it and was so glad he remembered to get rid of it so it would quit staring at him and taunting him with neeners.
When MiniMe won one of the games, she covertly picked that video off the prize table and hid it... guess what he got for Christmas this morning?! Bwuahahaha!

Off to the kitchen to make breakfast for the Chaos Clan...
MiniMe is not vegan, so she likes over-easy eggs for breakfast.
This is what was looking at me from the carton this morning...
Gotta love her sense of humor (and her artistic talent!)

Because I'm Just. That. Cool.

So I was forking over some lunch bucks to the MiniMe today and she said, "Oh! I forgot to tell you about the coolest thing a kid had yesterday..." and she proceeded to tell me about a dollar bill that was folded to look like a shirt.
She went on and on about it...
So I took one of the bills I'd just given her and whipped it into shape.

When I handed it to her, I said, "You're welcome".
I. Am. Teh Awesome.

Classic Cars, a Copter Ride, & a Snotty T-shirt

Today was the day that the husband unit worked a shift with the MiniUnit at the Band Booster's concession stand at Kruse. Afterward, we all walked around looking at all the neat cars. I took lots of pics.

First I must address the punk in this snotty shirt...if you don't like our small town, mister... STAY OUT. Problem solved.

Also, I think that I saw some RFC Texans hanging around here:

And this was definitely a pic I couldn't pass up for the vegan hater over at LITGMW (heh heh)...
I mean really - how often do you see "Pork Parfait"??

I have to take a moment to wax nostalgic while I post this little Honda.
This was just like the one I had when I was a kid. Same color and everything. Wow, it takes me back.
See, the thing is, I had horses and this.
I never learned how to ride an actual bicycle until I was about 10 years old...I never had to. The only place to ride was dirt road or grassy pasture - not very conducive to pedaling and learning balance. The Honda and the horse both pretty much stayed up on their own:

Oh! There was a guy making ice cream...without having to wear out his arm turning the crank!
Yankee Ingenuity!

Now for the helicopter ride! MiniMe was only a couple years old when she took her first ride. She doesn't remember it.
She went up in one today and got to sit on the open side. I think she dug it.
Here are some still frames:

Here's a quick video of it:

There were a couple funny signs I snagged pics of:



OK, on to the classic cars
{Yes, reader John...I took many pics!:-D }
Although there are a bunch, I didn't even see one tenth of what was there.
It was truly massive...
You can click on any pic to make it bigger:































And finally,

OK, that's not a "Classic"...It was just my ride home. But I sure was glad to see it, too. :p