Ma and Pa's Blog

Caleb’s fifth birthday party at Grandma and Paca’s in Eastlake was fun, noisy, farm-y and unrecorded by Grandma and Grandpa Choochoo.  No pictures of the green and yellow decor.  No pictures of the birthday boy romping with his Kyerlieber cousins (Jen’s mom’s great niece and nephews).  No video of Owen skipping.   Nada.  We forgot the damned camera.  Which ordinarily isn’t too bad, since Stephanie, the Family Photographer Extraordinaire, could always be counted on to take adorable pictures of EVERYTHING and post them on her blog.  Selfishly, she didn’t drop everything at her new house in VA and make the 6 hour drive to Ohio for the event.  Where’s the love, Steph?   We can only hope to snag some of the pics that Aunt Jean, Nate and Dan took and post them, or check for Jen’s  pictures on their blog.    And we promise to somehow make room in our befuddled old brains to remember the camera at future celebrations

THIS JUST IN:   Nate came to the rescue with THESE GREAT PICS from the birthday party.  Enjoy.

With Daniel still in town for spring break, we were finally able to take him out to lunch at the Vegiterranean today, after talking about it forever.  It did not disappoint–we were all very, very happy with our lunch selections.  As we were paying and preparing to leave, who should walk in but Vegiterranean owner and Pretenders lead singer, Chryssie Hynde, resplendent in a Rubber City Clothing hoodie, skinny jeans, and punk rock scowl.  Seriously, she looked like quite the cranky individual.  And she was a mere ten feet from our table.  Dan, with all the smoothness and suavity acquired from his position as talent wrangler for the OSU student board, whipped out his phone and prepared to take a surreptitious picture of our local rock star.  As he was pointing his snowy-white phone that looked remarkably like a camera, the diva turned and directed a disdainful glare at Dan.   He very coolly lowered the phone, feigned a continued conversation with us, and we all slunk out the door, tails tucked.  I was glad to leave the place unscathed.  That bitch has ATTITUDE.

While Larry & I were shopping at The Evil Retail Empire Walmart yesterday, I mentioned an article I’d read that stated  the toilet paper most Americans use in a year is worse for the environment than driving a Hummer.   Americans are toilet paper hogs, y’all: we use like 3 times as much TP as our European and Asian brethren.    Do we use the loo more often?  Sport dryer tushies?  I dunno.  Plus, we insist on planet-polluting, soft, fluffy stuff.  Not cool.   The article  listed the eco-friendly brands (the only one of which I recalled was Trader Joe’s) and the planet-ravaging brands (the only one of which I remembered was my fave, Charmin).  And toilet paper was on our shopping  list.  Because dry tushies are a priority around here.

Well, all Larry had to hear was “…worse than driving a Hummer”.  If there’s one thing that gets his liberal heart a-bleeding, it’s seeing a big honkin’ Hummer (ALWAYS with only one person inside–what’s up with that?) driving along the street or taking up two parking places.  He reasoned that if  the fluffy, foo-foo stuff was a no-no, then HIS fave, Scott’s, should be the solution.  (Some of you may recall Larry’s Scott Toilet Paper Philosophy: “When you use Scott’s, you KNOW you’ve been wiped”).  So into the cart goes a king-sized pack of  Scotts.

When we got home, I checked the article.  Damned if Scott’s isn’t  just as bad as my Charmin!  So I figure that third-world toilet paper is the way the environmentalists want us to go.  But if scratchy-butt Scott’s is too decadent, the other stuff must leave splinters.  This ecology stuff hurts.

This is my second glued up project. It’s a cutting or serving board.

I’ve been looking for this baby blanket since Jeff told us about the woven squares he’d made with the “Weave It” loom Anna Marie and Sebastian picked up at the flea market. It sounded like the loom that, 37 years ago,  Aunt Jean and Grandma used   to make the baby blanket that all of our kids, from Mike to Dan,  were wrapped in at their baptisms.  And, sure enough, it is! I had the loom and the instructions, and Aunt Jean had the blanket (she did have the baby of the family). So, Jeff, here are a few pictures of the “family blanket”! Are you inspired to make an afghan?

Trivet.  Trivet.

. . . [insert chuckle here]

Trivet

I’ve wanted to try something like this for some time.   It was as challenging, as I expected — especially so without a planer to smooth the top.   The pattern was not the most efficient for clamping during gluing, but I like the look.   The top was finally smoothed (after too many attempts) using the router.   A few router marks remain, but I’m happy, and I learned a few things.

Lynda and Bob hosted a wonderful birthday dinner for Poppy.   Here are a few pictures.