I'm with the Band

So Saturday, I got up early, fed the livestock and went on a road trip! I headed up to the Indy area. My brother-in-law's band, Right on Red, had a gig at the American Legion in Fishers, and my sisters and I were going to go be groupies for the evening. I'd gone up one weekend in October for my nephew's football game and we had a really good evening out with the band, talking, singing along. I've felt closer to my sisters ever since, so when Holly-butt called last week to suggest we have a redo, my only concern was the home-improvement loan I'd have to take out to pay for the gas! (BTW, I was pleased to find gas for $3.39 in Sullivan, IN on both the way up and the way back down.)

Anywho, I had a very nice drive up and got to Holly's house in Fishers about 1:30 pm. Haley-butt got there, we had dinner and set out for our evening. Things were a little slow at first. In fact, when the band started, we three hot, hip, happen' babes (and my nephew) were the only people in the audience. But a feisty crowd soon manifested itself.

After entertaining the bartender by ordering an amaretto and DIET Coke - under the theory that it tastes the same and why go for those extra regular Coke calories, am I right? where was I?

So the band was great - they're a cover band, playing a lot of everything from Elvis to Big & Rich, from the Eagles to Garth Brooks. My brother-in-law, Tom, has this thing where he changes hats frequently during the show. For Christmas last year, I found this hamburger, well.. I think it's a cheeseburger, hat. So I was very excited when he wore that hat. Although I think he needs a more hamburger-related song to wear it for. I suggested Cheeseburger in Paradise, but got a big "NO." I'm not sure why.

So after almost 4 hours of imbibing, talking over the band, and singing with the band, all in a smoky American Legion, my throat was raw. But it was worth it. A good time was had by all. And man, my nephew go to spend his entire Saturday night with FOUR hot, hip, happen' babes! (His sister showed up when she got off work.) I told him that he could boast about it at school on Monday... he didn't HAVE to tell his friends that the babes were his mother, 2 aunts and sister! :)

If the House is a Rockin'...

Ok, so about 4:30 am (CDT) this morning we had an earthquake (5.2 on the Richter). Well, the center was somewhere in Southern Illinois, about 66 miles from Evansville, but it sure felt like it was right here!

It woke me up and in the fog that is my brain at that time of the morning, it sounded like the cats were playing/fighting on the 6-foot kitty condo that is right beside my bed. I rolled over to yell at them to quit it, and I realized they were not ON the condo. In fact they were nowhere to be found. So the infamous sixth sense that animals have about these things obviously made them run for the hills. Now, if only I can convey to them the importance of warning ME before disappearing, then I'll be fine.

Anyway, after the fact that they weren't the cause of the noise percolated thru my brain, I realized that my bed was shaking and the closet doors were rattling. I decided it must be an earthquake. About that time it stopped, I rolled back over and went back to sleep. :) My last lucid thought before going back to sleep was that at least we'd have something to discuss at work today. I'm very brave at that time in the morning, obviously, nothing comes between me and my sleep.

So here I am, at work, and as predicted, we're talking about it, well that and sundry other stuff, when along comes ANOTHER quake! At least this one was much lower strength (4.5 according to the USGS), but its center was 6 miles from where the earlier one was. My bravery is gone, now. I'm sitting here and my heart is still racing over it. I'm not sure how easy it will be to make my mind go back to work-related things...

Whoo hoo!

I'm SO excited! I received my first blog comment from someone who ISN'T related to me! I worked late Monday, and when I got home and checked my email (I was so busy at work, I couldn't check it there!) and I had a comment. Tee Hee!!

Nim's Island - movie review

Ok, so those close to me will know that I am bonkers over the Scottish actor, Gerard Butler. So of course I took off early from work today to go see his new movie on THE day it came out! And I dragged Jennifer, who also has an appreciation of Gerard Butler's body... of work. :)

First, the movie is based on the children's book by Wendy Orr. I'd never heard of her or the book before I found out about the movie, but I have since bought it and it is very skinny. No, I haven't read it yet, but I will. I'm in the middle of a library book, but that's another post.

Basic plot, we have the Little Miss Sunshine kid playing Nim, a very precocious 9 year old (or maybe 10) who lives on an uncharted island with her widowered (sp?) father, a marine biologist, played by GB. Basically, the island is a modern day Gilligan's Island island. They've built quite a nice home on this island and they have the internet and all the modern amenities. Frankly, if I could be guaranteed to have internet and satellite TV, I'd live there in a heartbeat. Especially if GB is available to maybe teach me to swim. But I digress. So dad decides to go off for a couple of days in search of a unknown species of plankton and gets in a storm and wrecks his boat. And while I have seen plenty of GB movies in which his character dies, I was reassured by two things... 1) this is a kids movie, and 2) Jodie Foster's character, Alex(andra) Rover, is a writer of adventure novels and talks to her imaginary hero (Alex Rover) (also played by GB!) So this movie is a GB two-fur!

Anywho, Alexandra Rover sits in an apartment in San Francisco, never leaving it, and writes these novels about her fictitious hero's travels all over the world. She does a lot of Google-ing. She's agoraphobic. Nim loves her books, but doesn't realize that they're fiction. So she writes Rover for help, thinking she's going to get a hunky hero, and instead she gets this very scared woman who spends a lot of the movie arguing with her imaginary hero Alex Rover. It was fun and entertaining.

I should mention that Nim has pets. Not the usual cat, dog, hamster. She has a sea lion named Selkie and a big lizard named Fred. (And I know that it's a big turtle and NOT a sea lion in the picture, but I wanted to get Fred in here somehow, and I couldn't find a picture of both of them! I don't remember the turtle's name. I'm not anti-turtle.) These are very adorable pets and wonderful actors. Especially Fred. I think I'd like a lizard like Fred.. but I don't know how Gizmo would react. I'll have to consider that before I shop.

Again, because this is a kid's movie, based on a kid's book, I can't say the movie was heavy on plot, but it was very entertaining, and I will have no problem adding this DVD to the Gerard Butler wing of my DVD collection. Jennifer asked me if I preferred the father character or the Alex Rover hero character. That's a hard question because the father was great in that sexy intelligent way, but he didn't have GB's Scottish accent (and we all know that "if it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!"); the hero character was rather intense, but he had the accent. So we agreed that the father, if he had the accent, was our choice.

The final vote is 2 thumbs up (or 4 if you count Jennifer) for Nim's Island. Go see it. Take your kids.. or someone else's kids.

Just watching the bunnies and thinking about the week so far...

As I'm sitting here writing this, there are FIVE big ol' bunny rabbits hopping around the back yard, having a good old time. My cats, as usual, are missing it because they're asleep on the couch. Silly wabbits... uh.. cats.

This has been a busy week. Of course the party was Sunday, and it took a lot out of us. Monday, I required an IV of Diet Mountain Dew in order to make it through the day and I still had trouble keeping my eyes open! But never fear, I finally made it home and to bed.

Woke up Tuesday feeling much better and ready for the work week. Uh.. I hope my bosses didn't notice that I basically phoned in my performance the day before. Oh well!

One of the attorneys at my office was giving away his tickets for the Mannheim Steamroller performance Wednesday evening at the Centre in Evansville. I nabbed a paid and mom and I went. We had no clue what to expect, but it was very enjoyable. I'd only heard their Christmas music before, but I enjoyed it, so I figured it would be good, and it was. Although some of the videos they showed to accompany the music were rather offbeat.

When I got home after the show, I had to make brownies and a cheeseball because Thursday (today) was (is) Steve (boss #1)'s birthday. Since he'd previously fallen off a roof, and this week he broke a pinky toe, I figured we better make the most out of this birthday because the boy may not be destined to have too many more. And I'm glad we did. He's sort of quiet, and he probably would rather I ignored his birthday entirely, but I just can't! And my cheeseball was a BIG hit. Several requests for the recipe and people who generally don't even know where the second floor is came out of the woodwork looking for it! Such fun. Although to be honest, the recipe is one I obtained from Arlene (don't recall her last name) who was the receptionist at Bamberger when I first started there. She retired shortly thereafter, but she gave me her cheeseball recipe and now it is know world-wide (or at least in the Barger family) as Rosemary's Famous Cheeseball! It was gone in a little over an hour... and I'm wishing I still had some to munch on. Hmm.

Well it's getting dark, the bunnies are hopping off and the cats are waking up. It's that just the way it is? Tomorrow is Friday and I get to leave work early because Jennifer and I are going to go see the new Gerard Butler movie, Nim's Island. I'll report back on it later.

The Party's Over...

Yesterday was our 50th Anniversary party for my parents at our church. I think we done good. I say we, but frankly they, the 'Rents, did quite a lot of it. Dad prepared his power point slide show, which went over very well. Mom handled ordering the cake and getting party supplies. So I mean the global "we".

Some of dad's sisters and their families came up from Southern Illinois, and two of mom's sisters were there. Although one of them got the time wrong and came a little late, but better than never, and they got there in time for cake! :) Either way, I know it meant a lot to both mom and dad to have them come.

The sisters and I had fun going and picking up the cake, flowers, balloons, and other last minute accoutrement! I think the woman in the floral department at Schnucks was very entertained by our sisterly bickering. Although I was morally outraged by the price of those flowers!

Anyway, a grand time was had by most, if not all, and I'm very happy for mom and dad.

Week-end Wrap Up

Ok, so this has been a busy week, too. Let's hit the highlights.

First, it occurs to me that I never mentioned what happened at my dad's oncologist appointment a couple of weeks ago. Although, since I haven't been whining about it, the astute reader would correctly guess that it went very well. Without going into gorey details, the doctor said that dad's cancer seems to be very slow growing and he should be around to bother us for a long time, and will probably die of something else before the cancer gets him. We all found that very reassuring and I, personally, have done my ostrich impression and put the whole ugly cancer thing behind me. And dad? Well, he's back to being he usual odd self (see pic).

This week I did have another minor medical emergency though. My walking hairball, Sophie, came down with a real hairball. She does this about every 8-10 months, so it's not as scary as it was in the beginning. But she doesn't eat, gets ever so slighty bitchy at her brother when he wants to play, and hurls up frequently. So I recognize the signs. But we're in the middle of trial prep at work, and I couldn't take off to take her to the vet, so my wonderful parents came and picked up their grandcat and took her for me. Their other grandcat, 40-Watt, was slightly bewildered by what was going on, but he was happy to have her back. He's got a stomach of cast iron, so he doesn't have to make semi-frequent trips to the vet for tummy issues. All in all, though, I think he's jealous. After I capture Soph and trap her in the carrier to force down the medicine and then let her escape, he actually hops up into the carrier and looks at me with a "My Turn!?" expression on his face.

I finally finished one of the two pillows I promised to knit for my mother this week. It looks lovely, and has the requisite amount of cat hairs in it to make it from me and the kids. I'd knitted some pillows for my fiend Jennifer as a wedding present last year and I knitted one for the family reunion auction we have every Fourth of July. Mom said she was going to bid on my pillow, and I told her if she didn't win it, I'd knit her one of her own. So she took that as license not to bid on my pillow because I'd already told her I'd knit her one and she could pick the color of the yarn this way! Humpf! Lucky for her, the pillow had other bidders or I'd have been upset. :) Anyway, I have the first (I'm knitting a pair) done and will give it to her at their anniversary party Sunday. I told dad that I thought I'd be able to get one done, but probably not the second, and he gave the expected reaction of "oh, you don't have to get us anything.." Which was beside the point, I've been knitting the pillow, this way it gets to qualify as a anniversary pillow, too! :) Although what mom and dad don't know is that Ho, Ha, and I have gone together and gotten them a digital picture frame and Haley has spent the good part of the past 3 months scanning entire photo albums so as to put tons of pics on the frame so we can just plug it in and have mom and dad enjoy! (I can put this in the blog here, because to my knowledge, mom and dad have yet to discover my ramblings online, and if they discover it after Sunday it won't matter!)

Finally, I just registered to walk in the Walk for Juvenile Diabetes at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana in May. Anyone who would like to support me can go to http://walk.jdrf.org/ and search for me - I'm on Team Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn in Indiana.

And no, speaking of walking.. I haven't walked after work this week. It's been either raining or too cold, or I had to get a haircut after work. I'll resume next week. I promise. Oh, and I found my headphones for my mp3 player this week! So now I have no reason NOT to!... other than I'm just lazy.