We were miserable…and we liked it!
The Marcus Amphitheater replaced a muddy field as the main stage, bathrooms replaced Porta-Johns…
Oh, the memories. The year my perplexed parents took us to see Blood, Sweat and Tears. The night the mud sucked the bottoms off of my huaraches as I searched for my ‘party’ to the accompaniment of the Beach Boys. The Porta-John that started to sway while I was inside. (Little wonder that I tried to drink very little of anything while I was at Summerfest)That ubiquitous smiley face...

Embot's Wedding...
appears to not be the only one in which the symbolic groom lost his head. The little guy highlighted in today's Trib was never reunited with his body.

I Love The '80's

Except for the bad perm-crazy hair part.

Not Really...

You Are 52% NYC

You may call yourself a New Yorker, but there's no way you're a native.

How NYC Are You?

Only because the are some answers concomitant with Chicago living...

Via the Sleepy Mommies.

A note to the girls...
from the front. Where your mother is finally working on entering the information in the confirmation register. Bridget is still the most popular confirmation name, Frances and Martha are tied and, sorry Em, no Emily's.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs…
It’s that wedding time of year. So I was looking over Embot and Big Ed’s wedding pictures. So beautiful…and it all went by so quickly that it is nice to have the pictures to jog my memory. I don’t remember if I posted my favorite pics from the reception; here they are! (not everyone gets to have the priest hand the grooms head to the bride on a plate!)

TGI Thursday...
Not like it has been the toughest week ever. But having put in a semi-solid week as my office's Determined Worker Intense Good worker Hard worker Terrific , I'm looking forward to curling up in front of tonight's Office marathon. I need to lighten up.
Because I think I see that 'Dwight Schrute scowl' looking back at me from the mirror.

Last week was busy and exciting, what with George Weigel coming to talk and all, and it's not surprising that this week has a bit of that "day after Christmas" feel to it. I'm sure I've given my best...a gauge of sufficient vigor is managing to knock my earring out of my left ear while answering the phone at least once.

Now back to pulling things together at home. Planning some summer enrichment studies - besides the cicada stuff. To keep the boys minds nimble and to keep Emily from worrying that her brothers will wind up living on lower Wacker (or, worse, the alley behind her house...)

The happiest days…
Congratulations to Alicia on the birth of her granddaughter Emma.

You won’t find this on TMZ.com
Video Meliora... throws open a meme in which we should reveal 8 factoids - amusin, I presume - about ourselves.

1) My maternal grandmother and grandmfather were both born “Smith.” So I’m 50% Smith!

2) I had my galbladder removed when I was 15 years old. (maybe that’s a Smith thing.)

3) Every school I have ever attended (K thru College!) has been turned into a condo. Well, except for the one building that was made into a senior center.

4) I once licked a hot frying pan. (Suddenly I have deja vu...I may have done this before. Or I have an obsessive need to tell people about this youthful indiscretion. What can I say? I was a literalist. My mother said not to lay a hand on the pan...)

5)I have to sleep with the shades open. Waking up in an artificially dimmed room leaves me with a ‘blue’ feeling all day.

6) Cups and glasses too close to a table’s edge make me crazy. I make my family crazy.

7) I’ve always been overly concerned about my teeth.
Having a daughter who married a dentist hasn’t helped. But he is sweet and patient with my paranoid questions.

8) I’ve birthed children in 3 decades. (alas, only in the 20th century.)

Housekeeping Hint!
Do you find your skeleton difficult to dust? Have you failed to convince your spouse that you need a bigger skeleton - one whose petite floating ribs, carpals, etc won't snag the dust cloth? Have you waited so long to clean him (the skeleton, not the husband) up that compressed air from a can won't do the trick?

Then let me suggest....
1) Stand him in the kitchen sink.
2) Spray liberally with all-purpose spray cleaner.
3) Let stand 5 minutes.
4) Gently rinse with sink sprayer. (Be careful...if you spray too vigorously the top of the cranium will come off and you'll have to fish it out of the garbage disposal.)
5) Air dry.

Wasn't that easy?

Still amused...
by the way Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day is more personally revealing than any two-bit newspaper horoscope.

Today’s appropriate word:
agon \AH-gahn; ah-GOHN\, noun:
A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.

Am I the only person who thought the Word of the Day for Father’s Day (eructation: the act of belching; a belch) was not just coincidence? It is such a guy word. Nobody would use that word on Mother’s Day. No matter how dyspeptic a mother may be, you just don’t invoke her name in the same sentence with “eructation.” Ever.

Now back to the agon.

In other news, Sammy Hagar has been excommunicated for not being able to drive 55.

The Curt Jester expands upon the Vatican’s “10 Commandments” for the road...

#5 (Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.) has always been a problem for me. Occasions of sin galore...from watching them off-load Ferraris at Lake Forest SportsCars to parking between a Bentley and a Jag at church. From the van that had to have its starter nudged from underneath with a long ax handle (not a pretty sight for anyone involved) to the bungee cord securing the Jeep’s driver’s side door. Envy, wrath. Probably all of your deadly sins.

Too much sleep...
plus Father's Day Cake for breakfast makes Ellyn a dull, dull girl.
Maybe I should just go home early, go back to sleep and start all over again tomorrow. That wouldn't help, but it sounds appealing.

Or I could go home. Eat some real food. Work out (after scraping the wax off of the NordicTrack). Go back to sleep. Whatever.

Another Opening of Another Show...

House of Wax...
So much for getting caught up. Work was productive - in the most boring of ordinary paper-pushing way. And then I was ready to throw myself into home things. Hmmm...

I was late getting home. Then some financial snafus - but before I could settle down for some serious book cooking and gnashing of teeth, the power went out. (No, we have five days to take care of ComEd. That wasn't the reason.) Well, it was a good thing that I had neither money nor ambition when I was at Sam's Club Saturday.

Rock scraped up the cash to take us to Culver's for dinner. (Culver's is far enough away that if their power was out, it would probably be a sign of cataclysmic disaster and we would have bigger problems than rearranging our evening's plans.) Still no power when we got home....but lots of ComEd trucks working on what looked like a downed power line.

Rick and the boys found constructive activities. The girls and friends had taken off for a "pub" that would offer AC, lights, entertainment. And I tried to read. Which was lovely, what with the ambient quiet and all. As long as there was still a bit of sunlight. The candles I arranged in my room just didn't cut it for reading. ( I should keep a large print book for just such occasions.) Forget taking a shower...it was bad enough flossing and brushing by candlelight.

The power came on in the middle of the night. I woke up and set my alarm clock. Not that oversleeping is much of a concern when you fall asleep around 9:30.

I didn't notice that wax had flowed over the protective plate I had put under the candles. On to my purse. And some other things. Clean up time shall commence. Now.

Sounds Like Fun...

Yesterday...
I said that George Weigel coming to our parish was the most exciting thing since the Beatles came to town when I was nine years old (and my parents wouldn't let me go!) I take that back. Now I'm feeling more like October 2, 1975, when Springsteen played the Uptown Theater in Milwaukee. Time to go...helping set up with the refreshments and other details. Am not wearing red ROCK 'N ROLL glitter T-shirt.

...what the French call les incompetents.
After several years of high school German, Martha has decided to take up French. The first class left her less than enchanted since she didn’t understand what the teacher was saying. I reassured her and encouraged her to give it a few more sessions. (And I’m still reeling from the $200 text. The Shakespeare text she picked up was only $89 - it looks very cool and quite a bargain. I would calculate the price as being approx. $4.45 a pound.)

Nooo....
Not George Will.
Not Wayne Weible.
Not the Wiggles.
George Weigel That's George Weigel!
If you would happen to be in our vicinity (Chicago-North Shore) on Thursday evening at 7:00PM you have the opportunity to hear this wonderful Catholic author. Live. In person.
175 E. Illinois Rd. in Lake Forest.
(Do you think we should give Mr. Weigel a complimentary souvenir cicada gift basket?)

Fine Art Friday!

Flaming June by Frederic Leighton 1895
Flaming June is an excellent example of the lack of respect given to Victorian art between the years 1920-70. This painting was put up for auction in the 1960s and failed to meet its reserve price of $140.
If I had only known...couple of Kool-Aid stands and little begging and it could have been mine...

It Had to Be "B"
Happy 25th! A day late...

Looking for George Weigel in Lake Forest, Illinois?


Or you could check this. At least to find out where the church is. The website doesn't change much. But it is still a reliable address source.

Aphorism for the day:
Whenever God takes away a ferret cage, he sends eleven cases of Jagermeister promotional material to fill the void.
On that note I will add that I will not draw any conclusions about whether or not the new blood pressure meds are making me depressed. (Flat and affectless, yes. "Oh," was about all I could say as the UPS man approached the door with a dolly of boxes. So maybe the beta-blockers aren't such a bad thing...)

My mind does wander... in the most unholy directions. Yet with a certain predictability. I know that on days such as today I will find a comfort and harkening back to childhood as we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” at the beginning of Mass. Then (within about fifteen seconds) my mind will have bounced to the Church of the Redeemer in Wood Falls Kansas and the handyman telling the new pastor to face his congregation before the choir runs out of “Holy,Holy.” And back ‘home’ again.

“Angel in my Pocket” was supposedly cinematic death for Andy Griffith. (Well, I’ve heard he is quite well received in that new “Waitress” movie, but the days are long past when I can hop on my bike and ride to the Rivoli to see any movie I please. So it may be a good year before I see “Waitress.” Shrek III and the 3rd Pirates have, even with gas station candy and budget matinee tickets done some mayhem to my budget) But it is still one of my favorites. It now does have an IMDB page, though sadly inadequate. It has never been released on video - though Embot was kind enough to find a pirated DVD - complete with Disney Channel bug in corner - to replace the homemade VHS recording that we played to death. It is a sweet and funny movie. A pious little slice of small town life that I now see as reminiscent of the life that I did not truly appreciate when it was mine. On those afternoons when we’d jump on our bikes and catch the whatever was playing at the Rivoli.

The cast is the ultimate who’s who of “that guy” character actors. (Andy Griffith ,Lee Meriwether ,Jerry Van Dyke ,Kay Medford, Henry Jones, Edgar Buchanan, Gary Collins, Parker Fennelly, Jack Dodson, Elena Verdugo , Margaret Hamilton...) And the quotes...the quotes are now embedded in the family lexicon. The IMDB needs to flesh out the quote page. “As soon as the school bill is passed” is a phrase of the depth and utility as “Someday - and that day may never come ...” and deserves its proper documentation. *

* (To be honest, when discussing family finances, “As soon as the school bill is passed” is interchangeable with “Someday - and that day may never come...”