Being Entertained by Erin & Jill

The house is quiet. Erin and Jill spent the night last night, and now are home, no doubt getting ready for trick or treating. And once again we had so much fun with them. We put the mattress to the hideabed on the floor and they slept on it - something different. Erin was reading a mummy book, and noticed strange shadows. What fun. Or at least she really seemed to think so. She's an avid reader and told me about the Cam Jansing books she's now interested in. We also played battleship, Erin and me against Bobby and Jill. Erin loves this game, and Jill played for the first time and also played the entire game and liked it. However, this blog is mostly to write about a specific dinner conversation. We were talking about the years we were born, and Bobby asked them if they could imagine that he had once been a little baby. Jill looked kind of dubious, and said...a baby with a mustache?

This, That & Everything

Don't have anything special, but feel like blogging, so here goes. Last night Bobby and I ate supper out, then went to a 2-hour seminar on medicare. Wow!!! Do we know how to live it up or what. But it was informative, expecially since I knew absolutely nothing about the process or about medicare. Now, at least, I retained a little information. Bobby, of course, will be on medicare before me because he's Older than me, and always will be!!!!

Then we went by Brian's softball game. We got there during his second game, got to watch him bat, and then only stayed a very short time. It was so cold and windy. But Julie was there for the duration. What a trooper she was out in that chilly night. Still don't know if he won the second game or not (the one we were watching). If so, he was going to be playing the third game. Hope they won. But I'm sure Julie was frozen. Brian also dropped the necklace by the house that I''d ordered at Julie's jewelry party. I love it. Thank's Brian for bring it by. If I'd known we were going to be at your game, I could have saved you the trip.

We had dinner last week at the Village Anchor with friends...very pricey restaurant. But lots of fun. I've actually been doing a little Christmas shopping here and there. And tomorrow night Erin and Jill are sleeping over - which is always fun. Baking bread again today - isn't that interesting to know? I'm reading The Fall of Giants, which has started out really good and holding my interest, thankfully, since it has almost 1,000 pages. Finished Game Change, which was really interesting. The renovation on the house next door goes on and on. They're spending thousands of dollars on it. And we think the big tree in their yard is scheduled to be cut down soon. Good to know because in a storm we're always afraid of the branches that fall from it.
Ben sent me some newspaper clippings about him and his opponent running for metro council there in Florida. He called and said it was supposed to be a very close race.

Well, I'm off to the grocery. Reading this was a couple of minutes you'll never get back.

Yard Sale Bargain

Saturday morning yard sales are almost coming to an end for the year, boo hoo hoo. But this Saturday morning I found this bargain. It cost me $3.00, and it's a gift wrap holder, and it contained 4 rolls of Christmas wrap, never opened; One roll with a little used off of it. Two packages of gift tags unopened, (contained four each); package of 4 boxes, unopened; large pkg. of tissue paper, unopened; a really neat round gift box; and lots of pretty ribbons, enough that I won't have to buy any this year. What a find! This lady also had a small Christmas Yankee candle that she sold for 5 cents, never burned. I would have paid the $3 just for the container.

Spelling Game With Erin & Jill

Erin has a tooth that is so loose that it's comical. It leans out over her lower lip, just hanging by a thread, but it just won't come out. So in the car today, the conversation had been about teeth when we decided to play a game. One person would spell a word, the others would guess what it spelled. Kim, Judy, Erin, Jill and I were in the car.

Erin spelled t-e-e-t-h. Jill guessed teeth.
I spelled t-o-o-t-h. Erin and Jill both said tooth.
Jill said I have a good one. l-o-o-t-h. Silence in the car. Judy said looth???
Jill laughed and said, yes...looth tooth.

St. Columba Grade School Reunion

On Saturday, St. Columba Elementary had their "All class Reunion." If you didn't attend St. Columba or grow up in the West End, you won't be much interested in this blog. I'm posting it mostly for Julie. In this photo is Tommy McNally, Me, Kathy, Kathy's brother Terry, Kathy's sister Mary Ann,, then Rose Lanning, and Nick Lanning.

On this photo: Back row - George Lanning in sunglasses, Nick Lanning in blue shirt, Bill Higgins, You can just see the top of his head, Mary Ann McDonald in the very back, Mike Hardesty in hat; Rose Lanning in tan dress; Donna Becker, the blond, Marinell Francis- with the dark hair; Mary Lynn Wagner; Judy Graf in the plaid jacket; Kathy McDonald next to Judy Graf: Larry Mettling on the far right end; and Tim McDonald stooping in front.

All except Donna and Judy were our neighbors, but I also went to high school with Judy and Donna.

Julie, George Lanning was hoping you'd be there, thinking maybe you'd pick him some dandelions. He said he must have been that irresistible older man. Julie, I talked to Ann Z. - she's cute and sweet as can be. Your 8th grade class graduation picture was posted in the basement along with pictures that people had brought along and hung up. The McWilliams were all there from 32nd street - wasn't Tim there one who was your age? We had a tour of the school building. Remember the yellow steps? The school is now a home for the elderly. We didn't see an elevator, but there must be one somewhere, because there's no way elderly could climb all these flights of steps. The choir loft is now an apartment area; I wonder where that big pipe organ is. And the Epics didn't play - I guess that didn't work out. It was fun and a lot of people were asking about you.

Julie, I didn't know that the Lannings had 8 kids, did you? I only knew George and Rose. And Mr. Lanning must have been a scream. George told us that for gifts, Mr. Lanning gave Mrs Lanning: one year a pony: one year a St. Bernard: and one year a monkey! And the monkey used to throw its poop at people and so they finally had to get rid of it. Gee...really?

A lot of neighbors were there, I guess because so many neighbors attended St. Columba. When we went to school, I'd leave my house, go to Kathy's, and Linda and Diane would come down the street, and meet at Kathy's also, then the 4 of us would head down to Judy, then across the street to Sharons, then down the street to Maureens, then we'd all walk the three blocks to school together.

And at this time, Ben was in high school, I guess Mark was walking with his friends, and little Julie hadn't even started to school yet. She was home picking flowers for the older boys.

There had been three houses built on part of the playground. Reeds Ice Cream Store next to the school is still standing, but not an ice cream store, and Mannings Grocery Store across the street is still standing, but not Mannings. Mingus Grocery is boarded up, Dearhoerfer Drugs is boarded up, lots of shabby looking places, kind of sad. But it had been a great area to grow up.

Cute Little Halloween Dude

While putting the other Halloween photos back, I remembered we had one of Mark with a mustache, so I browsed the albums until I found it. Admittedly, this was a lot easier to come up with than a fire eating chipmunk or a rainbow costume. Maybe that's what happens when you don't have creative parents, but what a little doll. And Bobby claims that he still has this tie. There's no date on the back of the picture, but I'd judge Mark to be four on here, don't you think?

A Sincere Compliment?

About two months ago, Bobby was going to get a haircut and run some errands. I told him that while he was gone, I also was going to get my hair cut. However, I changed my mind, but he didn't know I had changed my mind. When he got home, this is how the conversation went:

Bobby: Your hair looks nice.
Me. : I didn't get my hair cut.
Bobby: Oh. Well, I tried.

So this morning when he left to play golf I told him that this afternoon I'm getting my hair cut, colored and highlighted. He wanted to know:

Bobby: Should I tell you your hair looks nice? Are you really going this time?

Halloween's Coming

These are pictures of pumpkins Mark painted in 1992. They are soooooooo cool. And they always remind me of the Blue one he painted for me, that I took to work at Hilliard Lyons to sit on my desk. I carried it up in the elevator, and it was the talk of the building. People I'd never met were coming by my desk to see that pumpkin. Just from carryiing it up in the elevator, word spread all over the building. It was the creepiest thing you can imagine. I have another Halloween blog after this one. It was going to be all one blog, but I had trouble getting all the photos on one. Sometimes I have trouble with technology, hard as that is to believe.

Thinking About Halloween

In 1995, when Kevin was driving the pick-up truck, he drove around in October with this skeleton in the passenger seat. Silly! Mark sent us this Halloween card in 1994.

The photo of Brian as a clown was taken in 1989, and Brian and Kevin were getting ready to trick or treat dressed like KISS in 1979. Mark's wearing the mask in 199l, and the other costume in 1992. Strangely enough, I can't find pictures of Mark dressed to trick or treat as a child, but we also don't have but one or two of Brian or Kevin, either. I spaced these photos thinking I'd be able to type between them, but can't figure out how to do it.