HIghtower Gig

For those of you who knew we were going to Hightower Saturday night for a karaoke gig, it turned out okay. Crazy John's parents were there, and his dad sang a lot, and did very well. He has a great voice. His mom, too. As for CJ, he is down in N'awlins heppin' out the po folks (he probably has a scam going) and according to his parents, he isn't coming back here to live. We also saw an old acquaintance of ours from the old Griff's karaoke gang, and a former neighbor of Mom and Jim's, a gal Mike's age who used to be in love with Mike when they rode the bus together back in his Whitehall School days. She married some guy and had a passle of kids, but her hubby died, and now she is a biker country gal up in the Walkerville area. It was great to see them! We got lots of hugs. Fritz and I dropped Val off in Montague just as the first few flakes of moisture hit the windshield, and while we stopped for oil for the old Ford buggy, it really started coming down. We did get home safely and spent all day Sunday laying around. Our cable went out for a few hours so we watched DVDs. Thanks Mike, for working on the brakes, we had a safe trip and got paid for a full night!

Jumpin' Jupiter!

The wheels just keep on turnin' at the rink and just to slow things down, they have a special event every so often. In the top picture, they skate to music until the whistle blows. Then they have to lay on the floor and do whatever the refereet says, like wave your arms and legs in the air. That's Danny Sr. in the striped shirt with Danny Jr. in background.

Dad and His Birthday Princess

Samantha is the just-turned-11 daughter of Jamie's friend Danny. They put together a skating party for Sam and her brother, cousins, and some of the kids in our family. We went to Jumpin' Jupiter, and it was great! They got to skate for two hours, and wonder of wonder, no one even got hurt (although a few knees and butts will be sore!)

Here, Sammy and her dad share a special moment of skating together.

Jinx at the Rink

Aunt Jamie I can't get my skates on! Grandma, I can't get my skates on! Hey, my skates won't go on!

Well, let's see....are they too small? Let's hold them up to your feet. OH! They ARE a SIZE too small! No wonder!

Our Great Little Crew All Warmed Up

Here are the kids after skating, almost all in one piece....Sammy and Danny's cousins went skating with them, too, but only Ali got to come back to the house. We also missed the Veenie babies, who had another party to go to.

The Cake

The cake was a way-cool Harley Davidson style with a motorcycle on it. 11 candles....now she is the same age as Brandie and soon Grace (who turns 11 in 5 weeks).

Tossin' the Beans

The teams discuss their strategies. There were the Rainbows (striped bean bags) and the Sunshines (orange bean bags). The first team to score 500 points won! (Congratulations Rainbows who started out behind and a nod to Fritz the scorekeeper). They got to reach blindly into a bag for a prize and they all got the same thing!Ha ha!

Cheek Puffing Fun

What's a party without balloons? Brandie and Danny found something to do while cooling their heels.

Limbo Lower Now!

Grace and Samantha take their turns and made it under. The stick got lower and lower, and the kids got more and more creative when it came to figuring out how to get it! There was some crab-crawling, jumping over, rolling under, and sliding....

Beating Spongebob

Samantha wanted a Spongebob pinata, so Jamie and the kids got some flour and water on their hands and turned a cereal box into a trove of treats. Everyone got one whack, and then Spongebob spilled his guts.

The Macarena

Grace, Hailie, Emily, Ali, and Samantha do the Macarena almost all in sync'! The monkeys on either end of the dance line were just watching...

And Then The Horror Movie.

What is better after a long and busy day than hot chocolate, popcorn, and some good old-fashioned horror? Grace, Hailie, and Emily bunked down in front of the tube and watched an old favorite of mine that is scary, but not TOO scary.

It was the Madam

Okay, you didn't play the game, so it's only fair I spill the beans. It was me, Silky M. Adam, who did away with the gangsta Hal Coppone. He done away wit my husband, is why. So now you know.

Dere's Been A Moider....Guess Who!

Hal Coppone wound up dead in his own safe, in his vault. Dere's a whole party of suspects who all had a motive and an opportunity. If youse wants to know da answer I'll tell ya...but first ya gotta guess! Oh, and here's a hint.....Eddie "Socks" R. Gyle and Billy (Da Kid) Thrower know who moidered Hal Coppone...but they ain't talkin'!

Go Figger!

Okay, so dere's Ernie "Bet A Million" G. Ambler. Dresses nice, smokes a big cigar, and flashes his wad around da gambling tables. Could his high stakes be woith....moider? And then dere's Malissa F. Orthott, otherwise known as "Scoop." She's a hot-on-youse-tail reporter who wants ta get da goods on the bad guys....but when you get da scoop on her, it should be headlined in the Chicago Trumpet!

Doity Pool Goin' On Here....

They might look like some fine upstandin' playas, but let me tell ya, looks could kill! Billy "Da Kid" Thrower can pitch a no-hitta, but if you wanna pitch him, ya betta have deep pockets! Anna Maria Carlotta Sassine, AKA "Torchy," she can sing da blues, and dats what you'll be singin', too, if ya mess wid her.

Is Dis Da Moiderer?

Molly M. Mawbster, otherwise known as "The MOLL" may look like a doll, but trust me, she ain't dat innocent! And then there's Eddie "SOCKS" R. Gyle...what he ain't got his doity fingers in ain't woith fingerin....and one a' dem might be the guilty pahty!

Whodunit?

Was it Silky M. Adam, who owns the Everlay Club? Or the U.S. District Attorney, S. Treighton Harrow?

Your Thoughts?

Whatever the tabloids/authorities finally claim as the cause of death of Anna Nichole Smith, my personal belief is that she died of a broken heart. I'm not saying drugs didn't contribute, they likely did, remember she fell in the bathtub/shower stall just hours before and that suggests a drug-induced state. However, I think ever since her son died she has gone steadily downhill. She has not shown herself to be the kind of person that could cope with such a tragedy. And there are whisperings that it was her constant companion, H.K. Stern who provided the drugs to both her and her son. Add a few lawsuits, and that she probably didn't even know who fathered her baby girl....well, let's just say that she had enough grief and trouble in her life, and for an addict, that just smooths the road to self-destruction. As Tony said when his friend fell off the bridge in Saturday Night Fever, "There are ways of killing yourself without killing yourself. " Did the amount needed to kill the pain help her to slip away from her world of pain and sorrow? I think one of the thoughts to come out of this tragic event is that you have to live for yourself. If she didn't build strength and meaning into her life, and further weakened her coping ability by taking illegal drugs, how could she survive such a loss without taking more drugs? I think her heart was so broken she didn't care how many drugs it took, or how they might interract, she just wanted to escape the pain. And she did. I wasn't personally a fan, however, I believe what John Donne said, "No man is an island." She was human, a mother, a person with a heart and a soul who lived very much in the limelight, so you can't help but have feelings about it, and an opinion.

Moider Most Foul

By Sunday night, we should know who moidered Hal Coppone. One of my brilliant guests will be the one to put all the clues together and the villain will be exposed! Tune in next week and find out who, what, where, when, and why! In the meantime, don't take any wooden nickels or youse might be sleeping wid da fishes.

Cruella DeVille

Why did I choose to publish this? Well. I was looking for a nice picture of Laura without her birth control glasses and found this. So this is what she looks like now except for the Cruella costume. Nice, huh? Oh, I forgot to tell you, she got new contacts.

Check Out The Ice

Lake Michigan's shores were devoid of ice buildup until just a few days ago. One day I drove down there and the shores were bare. The next time I drove down there, I was absolutely amazed that in just two days time, the ice pack stretched way out from the shore! And the waves are still constantly building up more ice. That means the beaches will be restored by the sand that is trapped in all this built-up ice, which is good news.

On another note, we woke up today to find our driveway and sidewalk had been shoveled out. Someone left a message written on our snow-covered car window, "I (heart) U." Hmmm. Fritz said it was snow angels but I later found out it was Jamie and Dan. So here is a big snow angel hug for saving our backs and tempers. Well, Fritz's anyway, I probably would not have attempted it myself! 

Fritz Getting A Snow Tan

We are in the midst of a major weather change. All through the holiday season we didn't get snow. Nor did it get very cold. But Ol' Man Winter finally remembered us. Not only did we get around a foot of new snow over the past couple days, we also got high winds, and below zero wind chills. Blizzard conditions, including whiteouts. Thankfully, the worst weather was on the weekend when fewer people had to travel. However, the weather is now so cold almost every school in West Michigan will be closed tomorrow. I had to cancel a dinner get-together Tuesday due to heavy snow, and I didn't get to see Red Eye Saturday night up in Hesperia. Matter of fact, even though the band members risked life and limb to get there, they ended up not playing due to the bad weather and the bar owner's fear that no one would come. So how about you? Did your car not start? Did you get a backache from shoveling? Pipes freeze? Had to rescue someone? A good date get canceled? Did you get stuck, or have a fender bender? Or did you get out and revel in the exhilarating cold? By the way, the picture of the navigational light isn't foggy...that is blowing snow.

The Soccer Mom Syndrome

Emily and a number of other girls signed up for a new hip-hop class session which was to have started on Wednesday. I walked Emily into the school, as I usually do, to make sure the class would be held. Good thing, because the instructor never showed up. Several girls had just been dropped off by their parents and were left with no supervision. An office worker made frantic calls to the NORP, which is the recreational department which handles these after-school programs. And they sent a lady over to supervise the kids and make sure they got ahold of their parents.

The reason I am writing about this is because it appears the parents put so much pressure on the student teacher she just up and quit with no notice. Several times while I was there, outside the gym where they practiced, I heard the intstructor take one or more girls aside and speak to them about their behavior. Some of these girls were beginners, and they complained that the instructor went too fast. The ones who had already taken the class were somewhat bored while the instructor worked more with the newer girls. And finally, there were some girls who complained and even burst into tears, and told their mothers they didn't want to be in the class anymore. Of course, there are no refunds once the class starts! These mothers complained to the instructor, and apparently called the director of the aforementioned NORP. Bottom line, these complaining, misbehaving, and might I add somewhat spoiled girls and their mothers put so much pressure on the young teacher that she quit. Yet, most students had no complaints at all and just loved the class. They were excited about it and signed up for all 3 sessions. The class was so popular it was expanded into beginners, advanced, and this session they added a boy's class. Now there is no instructor. Of course, I am assuming she quit because of the pressure, I don't know that for sure, but I can say I saw her having to explain herself to some of the mothers and even some of the students, and it sure appeared as though she was always trying to placate someone. My point here is that teachers who correct disruptive students who don't listen are going to get angry parents up in their face. No matter that those who are there to listen and learn get cheated. There are parents out there who drop their problem kids off for someone else to deal with, and then get up in the teacher's face because she tries to settle them down so they can learn the activity they signed up and paid for. I haven't put this very well, I know, it's late and I'm tired. I just wanted to vent.