So, what are everyone's plans for Thanksgiving? I'm trying to make plans with my inlaws as well. Will many of you be in algona/whittemore? If so, when? P
The Jayjacks and the Richardsons and the Ellen-and-Andys are coming for Thanksgiving and probably leaving the next day.
I would believe JoeIV except that he wore that attractive frock all night and to mass the next day. The person in charge of costumes practically had to come and rip it off him.
Don't forget, challenge-accepters! November 11 - 17 is Live on a Food Stamp Budget Week! $2.50 per day per person. Can you do it?
Solidarity Family Challenge November, 2007
We have a good assignment this month! Those families who choose to participate are challenged to try to eat for a week on a food-stamp budget. In this exercise, we can live in solidarity with those in our country who depend on this help for their daily bread.
In order to be in “solidarity” with each other, all the families are urged to meet the food-stamp challenge in the same week, the week beginning Sunday, November 11 through Saturday, November 17. The week before we all enjoy the Thanksgiving feast of abundance is a good week for us to live in the austerity of limited means, to try to know what it feels like not to have whatever you want to eat, any time you want it.
There is a wide range of “average” food stamp funding. Depending on what source you research, the daily average per person ranges from about $1.60 to $3.00. We decided to average it out to a budget of $2.50 a day per person. Thus a family of four would have about $10.00 a day or $70.00 a week to spend on food. This is not a starvation diet, just a privation diet. Some careful shopping and planning before the week begins will help you to meet this limit fairly easily. Let you children help with the planning and shopping for this week. You might want to save 5 to 10 dollars from that amount for emergency fast-food dollar-menu items some busy weeknight, but mostly you should be eating at home together, sharing the experience.
Because families who qualify for food stamps probably also qualify for free or reduced cost school lunches, you need not budget school lunches into this total. But Mom and Dad had better count on lunches made from last night’s leftovers. Prepare to do more cooking from scratch than usual, and be prepared to want to quit halfway through the week, when the novelty has worn off. Perhaps your family could write a prayer to say together at that time, to help you all to stick with it.
Helpful hints you probably already thought of:
It’s easy to eat to fullness on little money, but it’s harder to eat nutritionally. Stick to whole grains or whole grain combinations (for example, ½ half brown rice and ½ half white for better texture) and sneak veggies and fruit in wherever possible.
Save the grocery ads from this week’s papers to get the most out of your limited dollars. Use store brands instead of name brands, frozen or canned vegetables instead of fresh, saving some money for occasional “treats” of fresh fruit. Have some meatless dinners, and save leftover bits of meat and bones for soup stocks and casseroles.
If you have special dietary needs, such as family members on gluten-free or dairy-free diets, or those with multiple allergies, this might not be the best challenge for you. Crunch some numbers and decide if it’s wise for your family. We want to develop our sense of oneness with the world’s poor and hungry, not engage in needless or unhealthy sacrifice.
Good luck, families! There are some reflection questions on the next page for family discussion. We are going to want to share some of your thoughts and reactions to this challenge at our Generations session in December.
We could eat food from Sarah's all week...'cuz the boys think the food is FREE. Speaking of Sarah's...I don't think that Joe2, Mary, Joe3, Mary Ellan and Mike should participate...if they did...WE may HAVE to go on food stamps. Ha! BTW: Thank your for your patronage. :-)
The mighty Creighton Bluejays open their season tonight against the despised Depaul Blue Devils. Creighton has lost all but one starter from last year's team and is picked to finish 4th in the MVC by the foolish sportswriters.
Re: Gossip. It isn't the only thing that seems to move quickly in Algona...I understand that houses do too! Congrats Mary and Mike on all of your sales! :-) Re: Oxymorons. We were watching Little People, Big World and they were all a tizzy about this guy on the, "little people," basketball team that was a giant. :-<> Re: Snowing in St. Paul...whatsupwihdat? Today turned out beautiful here in Algona. The boys worked at Sarah's (11:15-1:15) and now we're home enjoying the last few days of sweatshirt weather. :-)
On Sunday the 18th, I'm decorating Sarah's with a little Elf friend. This will be the 6th year that she and I have been doing it together and the 7th Christmas altogether. I can't believe it's that time of year again. I just finished, a few months ago, organizing/storing away the last of my home Christmas decorations! Sigh.
Pat, what a nice piece about you in the newsletter. You should put it in your resume. I just heard a commercial about Cavit wines (sp?) being imported through Boca Raton and sighed wistfully, thinking about palm trees. Then I crunched happily through the two foot pile of yellow leaves to get to my front door, so it was okay. Just went to parent teacher conferences - all the kids are very smart, but the boys won't stay on task or finish work. Familiar territory. Braden is excelling (she likes school). All the teachers think we have nice kids. Zane's teacher even called him a good role model! Braden's teacher said she's very sweet and looks out for all the littler kids. No coal in their stockings this year, they're good!
Creighton Wins! After being down by 17 in the first half the Jays defeat the Blue Deamons by 12 getting help from 23 second half points from Freshman P'Allen Stinnett.
Here's a good reason to live here...I just went to Farmers State Bank( drive thru) and wrote a check for $100 cash...After she greeted me by name I asked the Teller to check my balance...she came back and said I was $9 over drawn...then she counted out my $100, gave it to me, and asked me to be sure and make a deposit by Tuesday at 2:30! Wow. So,I had to celebrate the goodness with an egg mcmuffin!
Half time of the Notre Dame game. Randy, Mike and Stevo are moving boxes and small items in our van, Randy's rental van and Brian's truck. Brian had to work. Lisa's over at the house trying to keep the girls from dropping each other down the clothes chute and waiting for the dryer delivery guy. I don't have a car. Ho, hum, guess I'll grab a little nap. ND's looking a little better. (In self-defense, I was outside since 7:30 putting the lawn and garden to bed for the winter since we had a truck available to haul it all away and babysitting the girls) Mary and Emma played in the leaves for hours and the whole time Mary was singing' "I got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." They were carrying little bunches of leaves to throw into the truck and by the time they threw them in, they got maybe 2 leaves in, and all the rest would blow back in their faces. Fine autumn fun.
It looks less like a dress and more like the Muumuu Homer Simpson wore when he was extremely overweight. If I ever made the decision to let myself go, I would stock my closet full of them and never leave the house. Then, after several years of lethargy, they would have to remove me from my home with a crane out my bedroom window.
I went up to St. Paul Saturday night...I saw Pat and Josh's house, it's sooo nice. And then we went to a Russian restaurant, good food and vodka flights!
Next day on to Mankato, I took Don out for brunch and then went to look at his home. He will be back there Nov. 20...WHO WANTS TO MEET PAT AND I NEXT SATURDAY TO GET HIS HOME READY FOR HIS RETURN!!!PLEASE CALL ME AND RSVP!(we could go Friday night and paint the town red and then work it out on Sat.) haha
Edward's campaign manager (Rep. so and so) was here at Sarah's this morning to have a meet a greet coffee. The interesting thing was that the young Edward's employees who booked the event with me told me at least 3 times what a fantastic speech Biden had given the night before in Emmetsburg. One of them said it was the best political speech he had ever heard.
Yes it was great to see Mary - we went out to this place that makes their own vodka. We each got two different shots. Mine were pepper infused and tiramisu flavored. Mary had horseradish and caramel. P
Get this. I was watching Divorce Court (we only get about 5 channels and I was folding laundry-not just laying there watching it) and this guy starts telling how he proposed to his soon to be ex-wife. "Well, she was in the batroom doing her bidness and I goes in and gits down on one knee and axed her to marry me." How in the world could anyone think of marrying someone who proposed like that? The marriage was doomed. The thing is noone really reacted to what he said. It made me laugh.
Anyway, we are coming home for Thanksgiving on Wed. I think.
A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death—an act he believes cursed him—a newspaper reported Tuesday. P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.
"After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," he said in the report.
The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.
Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.
The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.
The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.
We hope to finish moving all our stuff into the house this weekend and then we will barely have had a chance to breathe before we head to Michigan to see Randy's family. Yikes!
Yes, Joe and Mary Laurel do look amazingly alike, however I hope and pray that Mary does not look like that in a dress when she is 16.
SOUTHWORTH, Wash. - A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.
The 66-year-old man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for two weeks at his home northwest of Southworth, about 10 miles southwest of Seattle, and had gotten all but one of the lug nuts off the right rear wheel by Saturday afternoon, Kitsap County Deputy Scott Wilson said.
"He's bound and determined to get that lug nut off," Wilson said.
From about arm's length, the man fired the shotgun at the wheel and was "peppered" in both legs with buckshot and debris, with some injuries as high as his chin, according to a sheriff's office report.
"Nobody else was there and he wasn't intoxicated," Wilson said.
The man was taken to Tacoma General Hospital with injuries Wilson described as severe but not life-threatening
Monica you can watch divorce court any time you want (allowing for the lack of channel choices) and you can even do it without doing anything else at the time. Just sit down in front of your TV tray with your PBR and skins and knock yourself out.
After a decade of writing commercials for greeting cards, tampons, face wash, cheese, video games, cow meat and breath mints, I've finally decided to hang up my hat at the Leo Burnett Company.
My partner, Julie, and I have taken a job at a place called Element 79. We'll be working on a lot of Gatorade and running the Propel Fitness Water account. It's a nice opportunity.
I've never quit a job before. It felt good. I might do it more often.
Congratulations on quitting your job. It does feel good, doesn't it?
Maybe now you could have a trajic love affair, quit your new job and become so bummed out that you ride the rails for a few years. Let me know how it goes 'cause I was thinking of doing that.
Joe3 - here's a snippet from my novel. It's near completion. I expect a bidding war from the major publishers.
*******************************
"The big, huge meteor headed towards the Earth. Could nothing stop it? Maybe Bob could. He was suddenly on top of the meteor - through some kind of space warp or something. "Go, Bob, go!" yelled one of the generals.
"Give me that!", said the big-guy general as he took the microphone away. "Listen, Bob", he said. "You've got to steer that meteor away from Earth."
"Yes, but how?" thought Bob. Then he got an idea. Right next to him there was a steering wheel sticking out of the meteor....
Hello, I asked all of you for some information via email but I have received very few replies. Please check your emails and respond ASAP. Joe IV has had a good week. We heard on the radio that he has been named first team all district defensive tackle in the coaches' poll and then JoeIII told us that he's been inducted into the National Honor Society. He had to miss the induction ceremony yesterday at BGHS because he's been sick all week. We are looking forward to seeing many of you next week. Don and Donny will be here. Dad
Joe IV is sick. Strep throat and a staph infection. He has lost about 10 pounds this week and has had a fever for several days. I doubt he'll be back in school until Monday. Burning the candle at both ends with football and the musical caught up with him.
And Joe 3, too. He also has strep throat.
We are all washing our hands a lot. They should both be better by Thanksgiving. :-)
Congrats to Des! So, if you've never quit a job before, does that mean your parents fired you when you worked at Art+?
Sorry to hear about Joe's illness. It sounds absolutely miserable. Congrats to him for his academic and athletic achievements.
We will not be home for Thanksgiving. If Scott gets the job in St. Paul, we will probably be there for Christmas. We expect to hear any day now. So, Lisa, if we move to Minnesota, I need mittens, hat, scarf. If not I need a small sauce pan. The size you would use to heat up one can of soup - small.
For those of you not in Algona, we have had a sustained northwest wind between 30-35mph all day. It is pulling the heat right out of my old house. The thermostat is set at 69 degrees and I am still wearing a coat. The only good thing is that all the leaves I should have raked the past few weeks blown away. *eg*
Yeah, the leaf thing is huge for us. If it's not windy we can count on filling 75 bags of leaves (or 2 truck loads) but one or two nice windy days like today and they all end up at the top of 5th Avenue. We took one load to the dump last weekend but there were more on the trees and in the driveway that I'm hoping will be gone when I get home today. Hope the joes are OK by Thanksgiving.
Joe IV: You have many accolades, congratulations to you as well.
Kelli - build a fort with couch cushions. If not to stay warm, then just for fun.
Lisa: Safe travels to Michigan. Are you going to Big Rapids?
Emily...My parents fired me from Art + for stealing. They figured I cost them nearly $200,000 over the course of 22 years.
Stevo...do you know the Aon building in Chicago (formerly the Amoco building)? It's the 3rd tallest in Chicago (pre-Trump). It's the one next to Grant Park that looks like two Woodmen Towers on top of one another. That's where Element's offices are.
Granny/Grandpa/All: Regretfully, we will not be making it to Algona. The saga of my broken Range Rover continues. I just had a new transmission and radiator installed and I don't want to do anything to it (like a road trip) for force any other repairs. I just want it to be running perfectly when I sell it to some unsuspecting sucker. My plan is it to have a new set of wheels by Christmas.
Mom/Dad: Let me know if you're still interested in buying my car. She's a beaut!
It's exasperating when you don't send me information that I need for YOUR benefit, especially when I've asked for it more than once. PLEASE send or call me with your social security numbers. Dad
Monday morning I threw a chopped up ham slice into big crock pot with sliced potatoes, onions, a bag of cheapo frozen green beans, salt, pepper, and a can of cream of something soup. I've been eating off this not awful glop since then and it's about half gone. The purest form of this cuisine (call it a lifestyle) calls for the original pan to continue to rotate between the fridge and the stove until the glop is gone or until the glop is no longer the least bit savory. I've cheated a bit, actually using the microwave for reheating. Anyway, that plus milk plus oatmeal twice and a couple cans of green beans and I'm well within the food stamp limit.
That's funny. I threw a can of crushed tomatoes with chicken thighs and canned garbanzo beans and some spices in to the crock pot and the last of it disappeared last night. Washed the crick pot this morning. With pasta and frozen green beans (ok a stretch for the budget) I'm somewhere in the ballpark. P
Happy Anniversary Pat and Josh...and, us. :-) Liam asked this morning what we were gonna do tonight and we said, "kiss on the couch." Liam was grossed out...Eli smiled like a kid that knows something about something that we haven't talked about yet. Hmm. Congratulations, Desmond, on your new job!
Oh and Congratulations to Joe4! :-) How are you feeling? What's staph? I thought staph was something yah got from an infected wound? I must be wrong. My girlfriends' Mom had a staph infection in her toe...after a bunionectomy (word?)...it was real icky. I hope you're feeling better. :-)
Desi - congrats on quitting! Was it dignified or did you burn bridges in a spectacular and irreversible manner? I doubt you did, but make up a story for us anyway. Happy anniversary to Pat & Josh and Tom & Nance. :) Joes - hope you feel better soon.
Happy Anniversary and Congratulations Pat and Josh. Pat, is a crick pot something you cook crickets in? Hey, that might be a good way to stay within the food stamp budget.
Happy Anniversary and Congratulations Nance and Tom. Smooch'en on the couch is only acceptable if you are playing a Barry White CD.
My recomendation to each couple and anyone else who has an anniversary coming up is to take the day off (no matter what)and spend it together. You can never go back and you'll be glad you did.
Des, I know that building well. Cathy used to have to go up there when she was a Draftsperson(Draftsman? Drafter?) for a firm that did alot of work for Amoco at the refinery in East Chicago, In. Also my Mom worked up there in that building when she worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Co. (They rented space in that building.) My uncle Gene worked in that building when it was still called the Standard Oil Building, and so did Jim (Slam) Slamkowski's Mom. Uncle Gene and Evelyn Slamkowski worked for Standard Oil for a long time. I was in that building quite a few times.
Emily, we take the truckload of leaves to the Council Bluffs recycling center. It only cost five bucks to dump there and it is a heck of a lot easier than filling up 75 lawn bags.
I hope everyone is over their illness and if not yet, then by Thanksgiving.
Congratulations to everyone that was able to stay within the food stamp budget. I think we did but you'll have to check with Cathy for verification. We didn't count beer in the budget as we (I) pretended that we picked up beer cans to buy the beer.
I want to brag- Last weekend Andy made a homemade peanut butter and chocolate pie. It tasted just like a reeses. He roasted the peanuts and made the peanut butter himself. I got him an already made pie crust, which he was mad about, but when he makes it again for this weekend, he will make his own pie crust. I'm not sure if he actually will be coming for Thanksgiving next weekend, but I'll have make another pie to bring anyway. And he doesn't even like sweets- he only had a bite of the first pie! Hope everyone is feeling better! Does the food stamp budget take into account that some people on it might also be on WIC? That could stretch the money, too.
Let me apologize right now for my smug post about cooking a big glob of food and then gnawing off it for a week and sliding in under the food stamp limit. Last night I looked at the stuff, couldn't face it, looked at the kids, they're hungry, Off we go to the oriental buffet for all you can eat. I'm out. who do I pay?
The food stamp budget...obviously we will blow it this weekend when all our children and significant others meet for a pre-Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. Stevo already confessed how he didn't count beer in the budget - you can't buy it with food stamps anyway - and I presented at a couple conferences where I got a delicious free lunch and Lisa and Randy provided food while we were helping with moving a couple times, so although sincere about the experiment, we sure didn't suffer any. One of my catechists has a freezer full of venison, duck and other animals - can thay eat that? So of course as a challenge there are always going to be other sources of food available. I get free food from work all the time and I never turn it down - today for lunch we're having the leftover turkey dinner from last night's Go-Getter's holiday dinner - so whatever. Basically the point is to try to know how it feels to want something to eat and maybe not be able to have it. Right now I want a Peanut Buster Parfait (influenced I'm sure by the description of Andy's pie) but I am very virtuously not going to go get one. I always liked going to the Standard Oil building. It was very easy to find, so white and pure and tall.
90 comments:
Handsome kid...even in a dress! :-)
I was forced to do this at gunpoint.
Must be the same gunman who forced me to post this to the entry way of Sister Sarah's.
Please, help!
Tom
So, what are everyone's plans for Thanksgiving? I'm trying to make plans with my inlaws as well.
Will many of you be in algona/whittemore? If so, when?
P
I will be in Chicago all weekend.
Here is an amazing stat for you: Number of ATM machines within a block and a half of where I sit now (at work): 39
I am sure that I missed counting some too.
The Jayjacks and the Richardsons and the Ellen-and-Andys are coming for Thanksgiving and probably leaving the next day.
I would believe JoeIV except that he wore that attractive frock all night and to mass the next day. The person in charge of costumes practically had to come and rip it off him.
Don't forget, challenge-accepters! November 11 - 17 is Live on a Food Stamp Budget Week! $2.50 per day per person. Can you do it?
Solidarity Family Challenge
November, 2007
We have a good assignment this month! Those families who choose to participate are challenged to try to eat for a week on a food-stamp budget. In this exercise, we can live in solidarity with those in our country who depend on this help for their daily bread.
In order to be in “solidarity” with each other, all the families are urged to meet the food-stamp challenge in the same week, the week beginning Sunday, November 11 through Saturday, November 17. The week before we all enjoy the Thanksgiving feast of abundance is a good week for us to live in the austerity of limited means, to try to know what it feels like not to have whatever you want to eat, any time you want it.
There is a wide range of “average” food stamp funding. Depending on what source you research, the daily average per person ranges from about $1.60 to $3.00. We decided to average it out to a budget of $2.50 a day per person. Thus a family of four would have about $10.00 a day or $70.00 a week to spend on food. This is not a starvation diet, just a privation diet. Some careful shopping and planning before the week begins will help you to meet this limit fairly easily. Let you children help with the planning and shopping for this week. You might want to save 5 to 10 dollars from that amount for emergency fast-food dollar-menu items some busy weeknight, but mostly you should be eating at home together, sharing the experience.
Because families who qualify for food stamps probably also qualify for free or reduced cost school lunches, you need not budget school lunches into this total. But Mom and Dad had better count on lunches made from last night’s leftovers. Prepare to do more cooking from scratch than usual, and be prepared to want to quit halfway through the week, when the novelty has worn off. Perhaps your family could write a prayer to say together at that time, to help you all to stick with it.
Helpful hints you probably already thought of:
It’s easy to eat to fullness on little money, but it’s harder to eat nutritionally. Stick to whole grains or whole grain combinations (for example, ½ half brown rice and ½ half white for better texture) and sneak veggies and fruit in wherever possible.
Save the grocery ads from this week’s papers to get the most out of your limited dollars. Use store brands instead of name brands, frozen or canned vegetables instead of fresh, saving some money for occasional “treats” of fresh fruit. Have some meatless dinners, and save leftover bits of meat and bones for soup stocks and casseroles.
If you have special dietary needs, such as family members on gluten-free or dairy-free diets, or those with multiple allergies, this might not be the best challenge for you. Crunch some numbers and decide if it’s wise for your family. We want to develop our sense of oneness with the world’s poor and hungry, not engage in needless or unhealthy sacrifice.
Good luck, families! There are some reflection questions on the next page for family discussion. We are going to want to share some of your thoughts and reactions to this challenge at our Generations session in December.
We could eat food from Sarah's all week...'cuz the boys think the food is FREE.
Speaking of Sarah's...I don't think that Joe2, Mary, Joe3, Mary Ellan and Mike should participate...if they did...WE may HAVE to go on food stamps. Ha!
BTW: Thank your for your patronage. :-)
Two Irish hunters get a pilot to fly them to Canada to hunt moose.
The lads have a good trip and they bag six Moose.
As Fergus and Mick start loading the plane for the return trip the the pilot says, "Sorry, the plane can only take four of those."
The two lads object strongly. "Last year we shot six, and the pilot let us put them all on board and he had the same plane as yours."
Reluctantly, the pilot gives in and all six moose are loaded.
However, even with full power, the plane can't handle the load and
down it goes and crashes in the middle of nowhere.
A few moments later, climbing out of the wreckage, Fergus asks Mick, "Any idea where we are?"
"For sure, I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year," says Mick.
What I like best about Joe IV's outfit in the above photo is the hat he is wearing. Anyone know where I can get one of those?
I'm glad that you didn't say the hunters were Polish. However, it appears the Pilot was.
Joe 3 You're leaving us hanging with the complete story and statistics UNavailable online at algona.com
p
It's snowing!
P
The mighty Creighton Bluejays open their season tonight against the despised Depaul Blue Devils. Creighton has lost all but one starter from last year's team and is picked to finish 4th in the MVC by the foolish sportswriters.
Eli always reminded me of Little Joe...but, now...yah...I'm seeing Mary Laurel! Cute!
Little Joe...oxymoron.
I don't think you should call Joe names like that.
Gossip moves quickly in Algona.
Go Bluejays...we sold our seats to Jon Lorkovic, I hope he wears them well!
Pickles Elbert is nice...He told his sons that Charlie Weis had a good reason not to go for the field goal.
Go Jayhawks!
What gossip?
The quickly moving gossip.
Re: Gossip. It isn't the only thing that seems to move quickly in Algona...I understand that houses do too! Congrats Mary and Mike on all of your sales! :-)
Re: Oxymorons. We were watching Little People, Big World and they were all a tizzy about this guy on the, "little people," basketball team that was a giant. :-<>
Re: Snowing in St. Paul...whatsupwihdat? Today turned out beautiful here in Algona. The boys worked at Sarah's (11:15-1:15) and now we're home enjoying the last few days of sweatshirt weather. :-)
On Sunday the 18th, I'm decorating Sarah's with a little Elf friend. This will be the 6th year that she and I have been doing it together and the 7th Christmas altogether. I can't believe it's that time of year again. I just finished, a few months ago, organizing/storing away the last of my home Christmas decorations! Sigh.
Pat, what a nice piece about you in the newsletter. You should put it in your resume. I just heard a commercial about Cavit wines (sp?) being imported through Boca Raton and sighed wistfully, thinking about palm trees. Then I crunched happily through the two foot pile of yellow leaves to get to my front door, so it was okay.
Just went to parent teacher conferences - all the kids are very smart, but the boys won't stay on task or finish work. Familiar territory. Braden is excelling (she likes school). All the teachers think we have nice kids. Zane's teacher even called him a good role model! Braden's teacher said she's very sweet and looks out for all the littler kids. No coal in their stockings this year, they're good!
wherefore art thou all?
p
Creighton Wins! After being down by 17 in the first half the Jays defeat the Blue Deamons by 12 getting help from 23 second half points from Freshman P'Allen Stinnett.
Thanks Nance!
Here's a good reason to live here...I just went to Farmers State Bank( drive thru) and wrote a check for $100 cash...After she greeted me by name I asked the Teller to check my balance...she came back and said I was $9 over drawn...then she counted out my $100, gave it to me, and asked me to be sure and make a deposit by Tuesday at 2:30! Wow. So,I had to celebrate the goodness with an egg mcmuffin!
Oh...hooray Bluejays. How does the announcer say that name? P makes another bucket!
P'Allen sounds like the mom had hiccups.
Half time of the Notre Dame game. Randy, Mike and Stevo are moving boxes and small items in our van, Randy's rental van and Brian's truck. Brian had to work. Lisa's over at the house trying to keep the girls from dropping each other down the clothes chute and waiting for the dryer delivery guy. I don't have a car. Ho, hum, guess I'll grab a little nap. ND's looking a little better. (In self-defense, I was outside since 7:30 putting the lawn and garden to bed for the winter since we had a truck available to haul it all away and babysitting the girls) Mary and Emma played in the leaves for hours and the whole time Mary was singing' "I got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." They were carrying little bunches of leaves to throw into the truck and by the time they threw them in, they got maybe 2 leaves in, and all the rest would blow back in their faces. Fine autumn fun.
Joe IV ,
i say this because i care about u,
NEVER
WARE
A
DRESS
AGAIN!!!!!!
Sereousley,dont EVER!
i agree with grandpa,(stevo)i like the hat!oh yah, before i forget,Bob,what do you want for X-Mas?I have your name on the list.
It looks less like a dress and more like the Muumuu Homer Simpson wore when he was extremely overweight. If I ever made the decision to let myself go, I would stock my closet full of them and never leave the house. Then, after several years of lethargy, they would have to remove me from my home with a crane out my bedroom window.
It's a good look, Joe.
I went up to St. Paul Saturday night...I saw Pat and Josh's house, it's sooo nice. And then we went to a Russian restaurant, good food and vodka flights!
Next day on to Mankato, I took Don out for brunch and then went to look at his home. He will be back there Nov. 20...WHO WANTS TO MEET PAT AND I NEXT SATURDAY TO GET HIS HOME READY FOR HIS RETURN!!!PLEASE CALL ME AND RSVP!(we could go Friday night and paint the town red and then work it out on Sat.) haha
Oh, I'm so happy for Don...I bet he's excited to get home. Will he be at Thanksgiving?
Edward's campaign manager (Rep. so and so) was here at Sarah's this morning to have a meet a greet coffee. The interesting thing was that the young Edward's employees who booked the event with me told me at least 3 times what a fantastic speech Biden had given the night before in Emmetsburg. One of them said it was the best political speech he had ever heard.
Tom
Yes it was great to see Mary - we went out to this place that makes their own vodka. We each got two different shots. Mine were pepper infused and tiramisu flavored. Mary had horseradish and caramel.
P
That sounds great, but who won the vodka fights? Is Don coming home at Thanksgiving? Can't wait to see everyone.
Get this. I was watching Divorce Court (we only get about 5 channels and I was folding laundry-not just laying there watching it)
and this guy starts telling how he proposed to his soon to be ex-wife.
"Well, she was in the batroom doing her bidness and I goes in and gits down on one knee and axed her to marry me."
How in the world could anyone think of marrying someone who proposed like that? The marriage was doomed. The thing is noone really reacted to what he said. It made me laugh.
Anyway, we are coming home for Thanksgiving on Wed. I think.
That's crazy but what about this?
A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death—an act he believes cursed him—a newspaper reported Tuesday.
P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.
"After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," he said in the report.
The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.
Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.
The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.
The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.
It's funny that even when you are marrying a dog the marriage is arrainged by your family.
We hope to finish moving all our stuff into the house this weekend and then we will barely have had a chance to breathe before we head to Michigan to see Randy's family.
Yikes!
Yes, Joe and Mary Laurel do look amazingly alike, however I hope and pray that Mary does not look like that in a dress when she is 16.
Any Christmas gift ideas for Emily, Eli, Jim and Peter S. are all welcome.
SOUTHWORTH, Wash. - A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.
The 66-year-old man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for two weeks at his home northwest of Southworth, about 10 miles southwest of Seattle, and had gotten all but one of the lug nuts off the right rear wheel by Saturday afternoon, Kitsap County Deputy Scott Wilson said.
"He's bound and determined to get that lug nut off," Wilson said.
From about arm's length, the man fired the shotgun at the wheel and was "peppered" in both legs with buckshot and debris, with some injuries as high as his chin, according to a sheriff's office report.
"Nobody else was there and he wasn't intoxicated," Wilson said.
The man was taken to Tacoma General Hospital with injuries Wilson described as severe but not life-threatening
Who is coming to thanksgiving?
the pilgrims.
and the natives.
p
The Steve-and-Cathys, the Ellen-and-Andys and the Richardsons.
That guy in Washington should marry a tire iron and toast it with WD-40.
Monica you can watch divorce court any time you want (allowing for the lack of channel choices) and you can even do it without doing anything else at the time. Just sit down in front of your TV tray with your PBR and skins and knock yourself out.
Correction: probably not the Richardsons.
We (natives) will be there with one Pilgrim (Donny). :-)
The Richardsons must come.
P
I agree and concur with Pat. :-)
I QUIT MY JOB TODAY!!!
After a decade of writing commercials for greeting cards, tampons, face wash, cheese, video games, cow meat and breath mints, I've finally decided to hang up my hat at the Leo Burnett Company.
My partner, Julie, and I have taken a job at a place called Element 79. We'll be working on a lot of Gatorade and running the Propel Fitness Water account. It's a nice opportunity.
I've never quit a job before. It felt good. I might do it more often.
Congratulations on quitting your job. It does feel good, doesn't it?
Maybe now you could have a trajic love affair, quit your new job and become so bummed out that you ride the rails for a few years. Let me know how it goes 'cause I was thinking of doing that.
Tom
Joe3 - here's a snippet from my novel. It's near completion. I expect a bidding war from the major publishers.
*******************************
"The big, huge meteor headed towards the Earth. Could nothing stop it? Maybe Bob could. He was suddenly on top of the meteor - through some kind of space warp or something. "Go, Bob, go!" yelled one of the generals.
"Give me that!", said the big-guy general as he took the microphone away. "Listen, Bob", he said. "You've got to steer that meteor away from Earth."
"Yes, but how?" thought Bob. Then he got an idea. Right next to him there was a steering wheel sticking out of the meteor....
*******************************
What do you guys think?
Tom
You're amazing.
woohoo. my vacation request just got approved. i'll be home for thanksgiving.
Congrats Des. That's awesome! Will you get a lifetime supply of Gatorade?
Tom, a novel needs to be fictional. Start over.
P
just went back and read the posts previous, congrats Des. that's great.
So does this mean Matthew McConaghey won't be coming for Thanksgiving?
Congratulations!
Hello, I asked all of you for some information via email but I have received very few replies. Please check your emails and respond ASAP.
Joe IV has had a good week. We heard on the radio that he has been named first team all district defensive tackle in the coaches' poll and then JoeIII told us that he's been inducted into the National Honor Society. He had to miss the induction ceremony yesterday at BGHS because he's been sick all week.
We are looking forward to seeing many of you next week. Don and Donny will be here.
Dad
Joe IV is sick. Strep throat and a staph infection. He has lost about 10 pounds this week and has had a fever for several days. I doubt he'll be back in school until Monday. Burning the candle at both ends with football and the musical caught up with him.
And Joe 3, too. He also has strep throat.
We are all washing our hands a lot. They should both be better by Thanksgiving. :-)
Oh, that was me. Guess I clicked the wrong circle.
Congrats to Des! So, if you've never quit a job before, does that mean your parents fired you when you worked at Art+?
Sorry to hear about Joe's illness. It sounds absolutely miserable. Congrats to him for his academic and athletic achievements.
We will not be home for Thanksgiving. If Scott gets the job in St. Paul, we will probably be there for Christmas. We expect to hear any day now. So, Lisa, if we move to Minnesota, I need mittens, hat, scarf. If not I need a small sauce pan. The size you would use to heat up one can of soup - small.
Congrats Joe IV! Hope you get better soon.
Congrats Des! Will you still be working in downtown Chicago while you Propel Gatorade at Element 79?
Hope you are better soon, Joe and Joe!
Wow, Des! Enjoy life!
Dad - I don't have an e-address right now. I won't be home for Thanksgiving... we will be driving to Michigan.
Right now Randy is with the movers loading our furniture into our new home.
For those of you not in Algona, we have had a sustained northwest wind between 30-35mph all day. It is pulling the heat right out of my old house. The thermostat is set at 69 degrees and I am still wearing a coat. The only good thing is that all the leaves I should have raked the past few weeks blown away. *eg*
Yeah, the leaf thing is huge for us. If it's not windy we can count on filling 75 bags of leaves (or 2 truck loads) but one or two nice windy days like today and they all end up at the top of 5th Avenue. We took one load to the dump last weekend but there were more on the trees and in the driveway that I'm hoping will be gone when I get home today.
Hope the joes are OK by Thanksgiving.
Where do you take a truck load of leaves?
Thanks for the words of Congratulations.
Frank - congrats to you on your vacation.
All Joes: Get well soon!
Joe IV: You have many accolades, congratulations to you as well.
Kelli - build a fort with couch cushions. If not to stay warm, then just for fun.
Lisa: Safe travels to Michigan. Are you going to Big Rapids?
Emily...My parents fired me from Art + for stealing. They figured I cost them nearly $200,000 over the course of 22 years.
Stevo...do you know the Aon building in Chicago (formerly the Amoco building)? It's the 3rd tallest in Chicago (pre-Trump). It's the one next to Grant Park that looks like two Woodmen Towers on top of one another. That's where Element's offices are.
Granny/Grandpa/All: Regretfully, we will not be making it to Algona. The saga of my broken Range Rover continues. I just had a new transmission and radiator installed and I don't want to do anything to it (like a road trip) for force any other repairs. I just want it to be running perfectly when I sell it to some unsuspecting sucker. My plan is it to have a new set of wheels by Christmas.
Mom/Dad: Let me know if you're still interested in buying my car. She's a beaut!
It's exasperating when you don't send me information that I need for YOUR benefit, especially when I've asked for it more than once. PLEASE send or call me with your social security numbers. Dad
Happy Anniversary to me. And Josh. And Tom and Nance.
P
Des,
Remember The Vitamin Song I wrote?
Will you be advertising vitamins at the new place?
I tell ya', kids LOVE The Vitamin Song!!
:-)
Kelli
Monday morning I threw a chopped up ham slice into big crock pot with sliced potatoes, onions, a bag of cheapo frozen green beans, salt, pepper, and a can of cream of something soup. I've been eating off this not awful glop since then and it's about half gone. The purest form of this cuisine (call it a lifestyle) calls for the original pan to continue to rotate between the fridge and the stove until the glop is gone or until the glop is no longer the least bit savory. I've cheated a bit, actually using the microwave for reheating. Anyway, that plus milk plus oatmeal twice and a couple cans of green beans and I'm well within the food stamp limit.
That's funny. I threw a can of crushed tomatoes with chicken thighs and canned garbanzo beans and some spices in to the crock pot and the last of it disappeared last night. Washed the crick pot this morning. With pasta and frozen green beans (ok a stretch for the budget) I'm somewhere in the ballpark.
P
Happy Anniversary Pat and Josh...and, us. :-)
Liam asked this morning what we were gonna do tonight and we said, "kiss on the couch." Liam was grossed out...Eli smiled like a kid that knows something about something that we haven't talked about yet. Hmm.
Congratulations, Desmond, on your new job!
Congrats, Des. That sounds like a great job.
And don't worry. I'm sure someday you'll make it to the tallest building in Chicago. But 3rd is good, too.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...now I need a place to hide away...and that was BEFORE he met Heather Mills.
Des...Element 79, isn't that gold??
ha, I'm so smart...congratulations and I hope you love the new job!!
Oh and Congratulations to Joe4! :-)
How are you feeling? What's staph? I thought staph was something yah got from an infected wound? I must be wrong. My girlfriends' Mom had a staph infection in her toe...after a bunionectomy (word?)...it was real icky. I hope you're feeling better. :-)
Staph link...I like the Mayo health site for a lot of things.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/staph-infections/DS00973
Desi - congrats on quitting! Was it dignified or did you burn bridges in a spectacular and irreversible manner? I doubt you did, but make up a story for us anyway.
Happy anniversary to Pat & Josh and Tom & Nance. :)
Joes - hope you feel better soon.
Happy Anniversary and Congratulations Pat and Josh. Pat, is a crick pot something you cook crickets in? Hey, that might be a good way to stay within the food stamp budget.
Happy Anniversary and Congratulations Nance and Tom. Smooch'en on the couch is only acceptable if you are playing a Barry White CD.
My recomendation to each couple and anyone else who has an anniversary coming up is to take the day off (no matter what)and spend it together. You can never go back and you'll be glad you did.
Des, I know that building well. Cathy used to have to go up there when she was a Draftsperson(Draftsman? Drafter?) for a firm that did alot of work for Amoco at the refinery in East Chicago, In. Also my Mom worked up there in that building when she worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Co. (They rented space in that building.) My uncle Gene worked in that building when it was still called the Standard Oil Building, and so did Jim (Slam) Slamkowski's Mom. Uncle Gene and Evelyn Slamkowski worked for Standard Oil for a long time. I was in that building quite a few times.
Emily, we take the truckload of leaves to the Council Bluffs recycling center. It only cost five bucks to dump there and it is a heck of a lot easier than filling up 75 lawn bags.
I hope everyone is over their illness and if not yet, then by Thanksgiving.
Congratulations to everyone that was able to stay within the food stamp budget. I think we did but you'll have to check with Cathy for verification. We didn't count beer in the budget as we (I) pretended that we picked up beer cans to buy the beer.
I'm just gonna say it..."I love Stevo." :-)
Lord,
We humbly ask Thy blessing
on the turkey and the dressing,
on the yams and cranberry jelly,
and the pickles from the deli.
Bless the apple pie and tea,
bless each and every calorie.
Let us enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.
Tomorrow we can all get thinner.
For all Thy help along the way
we're thankful this Thanksgiving Day.
We're thankful too, for all our dear ones,
for all the far away and near ones.
Although we may be far apart,
we're together in my heart.
Keep us in Thy loving care,
This is my Thanksgiving prayer.
P.S. Anyone who wishes may help with the dishes.
~~Author Unknown~~
Another look at my novel:
***************************
...As the snow started to fall he tugged his coat tighter around himself. Too tight, as it turned out.
"This is the fourth coat crushing this year", said the police sergeant as he outlined the body with a special pencil that writes on snow.
************************
Tom
I want to brag- Last weekend Andy made a homemade peanut butter and chocolate pie. It tasted just like a reeses. He roasted the peanuts and made the peanut butter himself. I got him an already made pie crust, which he was mad about, but when he makes it again for this weekend, he will make his own pie crust. I'm not sure if he actually will be coming for Thanksgiving next weekend, but I'll have make another pie to bring anyway. And he doesn't even like sweets- he only had a bite of the first pie!
Hope everyone is feeling better! Does the food stamp budget take into account that some people on it might also be on WIC? That could stretch the money, too.
Let me apologize right now for my smug post about cooking a big glob of food and then gnawing off it for a week and sliding in under the food stamp limit. Last night I looked at the stuff, couldn't face it, looked at the kids, they're hungry, Off we go to the oriental buffet for all you can eat. I'm out. who do I pay?
The food stamp budget...obviously we will blow it this weekend when all our children and significant others meet for a pre-Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. Stevo already confessed how he didn't count beer in the budget - you can't buy it with food stamps anyway - and I presented at a couple conferences where I got a delicious free lunch and Lisa and Randy provided food while we were helping with moving a couple times, so although sincere about the experiment, we sure didn't suffer any. One of my catechists has a freezer full of venison, duck and other animals - can thay eat that? So of course as a challenge there are always going to be other sources of food available. I get free food from work all the time and I never turn it down - today for lunch we're having the leftover turkey dinner from last night's Go-Getter's holiday dinner - so whatever. Basically the point is to try to know how it feels to want something to eat and maybe not be able to have it. Right now I want a Peanut Buster Parfait (influenced I'm sure by the description of Andy's pie) but I am very virtuously not going to go get one.
I always liked going to the Standard Oil building. It was very easy to find, so white and pure and tall.
Oh, Joe, you can pay me. Just give me $50 at Thanksgiving.
We did have a chicken-flavored (thank God for bouillon cubes)rice-and-veggies thing more times than I want to say.
Joe3 said, "Off we go to the oriental buffet for all you can eat."
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