How I became a sorta Buckeye: a scarlet and gray MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Back from conference and now after dinner (homemade mac and cheese, if you’re interested).

The teacher was very good. She reassured me as to “the Trouble issue”, and his performance. He is making progress that she has noticed, but also she gave me tips on things he can do for extra credit. She also thinks he is tactile learner, which is news to me, but I’m game.
I did indeed get teary eyed, but no biggie. Now I am off to write page 2 (at least!) of my Paper. You all are jealous, I just know it.

Re the underwear debacle. I confess that I am so cheap and stingy, that to spend money on something that never sees the light of day (sadly enough) is hard for me. BUT I draw the line at holes and safety pins. I find shopping for undies about as fun as dental work (note the smooth, elegant inclusion of another MMPers concerns), but it is Something That Must Be Done (at least more than once a decade!).

Are we supposed to post what we’re thankful for? (see, nothing gets by me!).

Well, it’s an odd list, but here goes: sunshine, clear blue skies, cold snows and warm spring days. Baby’s laughing and kid’s losing teeth. Sparklers, and fireflies candles and Christmas lights. My daughter giving me a hug last noc when I came home from work; #1 son smiling at my lame joke tonight at dinner. #2 son’s helping me make brownies today and my husband’s cleaning of the kitchen last noc. I am also grateful for the intellectual stimulation that is grad school (sorry, swampy --there are parts of it that I love), and --well, that’s enough for now.

82

Huh. Even though it’s not my Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for all sorts of things. Right now, I’m thankful that the hospital just called and wants me to come in early. I think that’s unprecedented in medical history.

I’m also thankful for homemade chocolate pudding. And gingerbread. The gingerbread’s good, too.

83

Okay, I have recovered from my bout of self-pity over my upcoming dental tortures. I guess I’m thankful that we have dental insurance that’s picking up most of the tab, right? Although if they could come up with a way to do comatose dentistry, I’d be a much happier camper.

Our Thanksgiving plans are to to out to eat. With just the two of us, we’re not anxious to cook, so we’re going to the same lovely place we went to last year, which is on the water and has all kinds of beautiful sailboats to look at as we eat our yummy turkey and fixins. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving, so give me turkey, dressing, sweet **N.O.T.**s, cranberry sauce, vegetables, rolls, and a pumpkin pie, and I’m a happy camper.

I’ll still have to work on my thankful list, though; I’m so dentist-phobic that it really threw me for a loop for most of the day.

84

Wow…busy Monday! I’ve read through the whole MMP and was everything from amused to interested in continuing the conversation to hmmmm I think grossed out was in there too, to thankful that I can come here and hang out with fun and interesting friends. So, of course I’m thankful for all of you. So where’s Nava today? Moving already?

Dear QuasiDaughter:
You don’t know us, but we know about your underwear and we unanimously believe that it’s time to replace all of it. As MagicEyes (Hi ME! Nice to see you stop by!) so accurately pointed out: safety pins sometime come undone, and then…“ouch.”

Please listen to your friend LiLi and obtain replacements. Really, you’ll thank her later.

Your friends,
The MMPers

Nope, not all cow colleges call their ice cream shops “The Creamery.” At my cow college (Michigan State) it’s The Dairy Store. But maybe it’s because they sell cheese in addition to ice cream. And yes, yummy.

LOUNE! Getting you to stop by was the entire purpose of my OP. It took weeks to come up with a topic that I knew would guarantee your participation. OK…that’s a lie, but it’s still lovely to see you here. And how’s our retirement plan coming along?

rigs is clever…underwear and dental work all in a single sentence. Caring AND economical. Glad the P/T conference went well.

MBG, no fair hiding under piles of paper! How’s it going? Remember us? Just checking.

Spats: very important distinction: Michigan State University (cows, pretty campus, two medical schools, green and white, GT got two degrees there, good); (the) University of Michigan (no cows, campus in the city-ish, one medical school, LOUNE cheers for them, maize and blue, bad). Two very different schools.

To all you non-sports fans…take heart, I’m pretty much not a sports fan either. Really more of an amused observer.

Hey, Bumba, hope you enjoy the sweet potatoes/yams. I’m going to make them tomorrow. Can’t take them to Thanksgiving dinner because a couple people attending are allergic to nuts. But I still have to make them, cuz they’re yummy.

I know there are lots of people I missed…hi everyone!

GT

85

Back from the Coach’s Show. I’m taking a break from finding clipart to use on an invitation to the Booster Club Christmas party. Our president decided we needed to send invitations to the players this year, even though it is a command performance for them. Oh well - shouldn’t take long.

Tomorrow I get to go watch the guys paint - each player will get a 8 x 10 canvas and his choice of paint. The paintings will then be varnished and sold at a silent auction, with part of the money going to help a family in serious need of help. I hope they sell for lots of money; this family has a seriously ill child and needs all the help they can get.

I think I’m going to read for a bit, then head to bed. See ya’ll tomorrow - or later if I can’t sleep.

86

Spats, gt lies. East Lansing is a place of pain, suffering, and couch-burning. It may be green, but that’s because they spraypaint all the blight that color. With that being said, it’s still a very very very good school.

Columbus is bad. First of all, they hate Michiganders in Ohio. They’ve got different driving standards. If you have a Michigan license plate, they ticket you and search your body cavities for drugs, even though you’re 13254879 years old and are incontinent. They simply don’t care.
See, I don’t dislike Michigan State. Actually, I root for the Big Ten above all. Michigan is highest on the priority scale, Michigan State is next, and after allllll the other Big 11, there’s Ohio State.

Notre Dame gets no love from me at all. Not now. Not ever.

Campus in the city-ish? It virtually IS the city. AnnArbor has these squirrels, though…they’re so used to human interaction, they don’t abide by The Rules. They’ll snatch a bistuit out of your hand…they just don’t care.

And I’m afraid of squirrels (shh. you didn’t read that) so squirrels and I have beady-eyed staredowns.

87

LOUNE, have you tried feeding the squidgels biscuits coated in laxatives? That’ll show 'em who’s boss. We have lots of them in the park near home, they’re very tame and used to people so they’re quite likely to run up to you demanding food…one day I’m going to entice them closer to the pond and watch them fight it out with the Canada Geese.

I went to the gym last night and today I hurt. That’ll teach me, I haven’t been down there for two weeks as I’ve been unwell so I finally decided to go back again. I know I should have stayed at home and baked pies instead. Oh well, there’s always tonight.

In fact, tonight the veg man brings my delivery so I could have all sorts of exciting stuff. Must find something to do with all the stuff left over from last week. 'im indoors has threatened to make bortsch so I’m expecting total devastation in the kitchen. I hope he realises he’s clearing it up!

88

Well, yeah, LOUNE, I actually meant that Ann Arbor, as pleasant as it is, isn’t quite a city. :stuck_out_tongue: Of course, I haven’t been there in a few years… And, even though I haven’t met you, I was very amused by the stare-down idea…

I’m hoping to be off tomorrow, so this is sort of Friday, maybe. (I’ll be working on Friday cuz no one will be there to bug me.)

GT

89

Drive By Hello to all. Grampy Grumpus has been in hospital. Barbee and I took him home yesterday. He is terribly weak. Cannot get up or down by himself and Gran cannot help. We are going to try getting an aide to come in for four hours daily to get him up, bathed, dressed and fed, etc. Barbee and I will have to take turns coming by to get him to bed at night. Our only alternative is a rehab unit where he will most likely get worse. Not good.

I am thankful that I have my health and family. What else does one need? If I don’t get back this week have a lovely Thanksgiving Day my friends.

90

I spent a week in Ann Arbor one afternoon . . .

Off to work - will check in later

91

Morning, everyone. Time to put together a stupid amount of bread.

Lemon cranberry
Cinnamon walnut
Ham and black pepper
Focaccia (maybe)
Semolina
White with potato
A couple of batches of the 20-hour rise no-knead bread, to be baked tomorrow

I am going to check The Bread Bible for proportions, and then spend the day covered in flour.

92

Next time you’re around these parts, we need another Doper Dinner.

still bitter about the traffic and the previous Doper Dinner

93

Haven’t tried the laxatives. It’s actually sad. I stare at the squirrels, and for some reason, the squirrels have NO fear when it comes to me. They stare right back until someone budges first.

That’s almost always me budging first.

94

This is weird. I distinctly recall posting here last night. I commented, cajoled, sympathized and offered witty comments, and it’s not here?

Wonder if I previewed, said “yup, looks good”, then left before submitting. I do that sometimes, and do NOT look at me like that, you do too.

Ok, today looks not so frantic and overworked, so I’ll drop back later.

95

They only do it because they know they can. They’ve got nothing else to do all day except play with nuts. (Sorry, Vundernuts, I know this is a painful subject for you…)

96

Mornin’ y’all!

Nice sunny morning west of The Big Smoke today, even if it’s still chilly. The one Window to the World my office has is streaming light into the adjoining foyer. Sadly, the window is positioned above the outside door that leads into the foyer, and it’s perpendicular to my office, so I can’t see jack out of it. Still, the sunlight is nice.

Rigs - glad to hear the conference went okay. Your #2 son sounds an awful lot like me when I was his age. Aptitude testing claimed that my discontentedness and apathy towards school work was the result if being too smart for my grade. From that point on I skipped a grade, then was placed in advanced classes for the rest of my school career. In retrospect I realized that yes, I probably was bored with the curriculum, but the real underlying problem was that I was maladjusted socially. Skipping grades and putting me in advanced classes just served to push me ever further into social outcast territory. Hell, by grade 9, every lunch I was forced to eat at the “loser table” with, among one or two other people, a boy named “Boeing.” He wore the same jeans and jean jacket and ate squirrel for lunch every single day. I couldn’t have been more obviously an outcase if the table had a sign that read “Here there be dorks” on it.

Not to suggest that #2 son may be having trouble socially of course, but poor academic performance isn’t always (or even usually) the result of the academics alone. Hope things get sorted!

LiLi - Um … yes. New underwear is definitely in order for QD. I mean, I’ve worn underwear 'til the elastic begins to snake its way out of the waistband from a hole therein (which may or may not be the only hole in the garment), but as lazy and man-like as I am, even I feel compelled to chuck them at that point. It’s just more comfy having nice new (or at least whole) undies.

Socks … those are a slightly different matter, considering I’ve worn socks that have eventually achieved supreme divinity in their holiness.

97

You must have dreamed it.
How’s your head? have the headaches gone away yet?

98

No no no no. It was real. I mentioned QD’s undies, cats, beer and cheesecake.

Most of the time, I have nothing lingering in my brain (HEY!, I heard that), but once in a while, something will set it off - something stressful, noise or bright lights and next thing you know, I’m pounding my head against the wall because THAT feels better than not.

99

I was quite sure I posted, too, after I got back from the hospital. Mass delusion?
Six batches of dough rising, and I’m trying to decide if I can stand doing cinnamon bun dough and 20-hour dough right now, or if I should wait. Six batches is a lot of standing around in the kitchen, getting tense, and thinking, "I get to clean all this up! Lucky me!
The handle on my teapot broke. :frowning: I know you can get ceramic cement- can anyone recommend a type?

100

Brainpasture -(see how clever I am? or something).

Um…squirrel for lunch? Gag and gah and yuck. (hey! BooFae --there’s your answer! squirrel for lunch).

Unfortunately #2 son’s test scores are not showing that. He is above average in his grade and that’s all. The other two did, but only once did I have a “I’m so bored; I am so not doing this work-what do you mean I am in lower math” experience (with #1 son). I got him placed in the higher math, and told him to not lose his place. No problem.
It’s not that #2 is not intelligent or less “gifted” (god, how I hate that term), I think he just doesn’t care all that much about school. So, the problem is twofold: get him motivated, and get him to show that he is capable. The teacher was very reassuring re the behavior problems (of other kids etc)-and doesn’t think that #2 will be tracked into that group (at least that is what I got from our conference).

Off to work at library.