Category Archives: Just stuff…

Antlers! My Kingdom for Some Antlers!

Posted on December 2, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning everyone!

A Working Mother

Picture, if you will, a working mother.  No, that description’s not specific enough.

Picture, if you will, a working mother with a cold.  Well, we’re getting closer, but we’re still not there yet. 

Picture, if you will, a working mother in her mid to upper 40’s with a (bad) cold who has to find some sort of festive holiday hat for her child to wear on the class field trip the next day during her lunch hour, and you will have a pretty good idea of what I looked like yesterday.

Caroling

Kayla and the other Purple Ambassadors at her school are taking a field trip to the nursing home today (Friday) somewhere to sing Christmas Carols.  She mentioned to me Tuesday night at 8 that they were supposed to wear a Santa hat, reindeer antlers or elf ears as part of their wardrobe for said field trip.  Before you start admiring my child for telling me in advance, bear in mind that Wednesday nights are always filled with church activities and Thursday night this week was blocked off for her new basketball practice, so telling me at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night is the equivalent of telling me at the last minute.

Oops!

I admit that perhaps I should have looked for it on Wednesday during the day, which I took off, but my cold had started and I was trying to get it beat before I went back to work on Thursday, I had to take Tyra to the vet and get the oil changed in the car and I just didn’t have it in me.

Of course, my cold was worse on Thursday, but having left it until then, there was no choice but for me to venture out into the cold, cruel 50 degree world from my office in search of a holiday hat for my child at lunch.  The biggest problem was that I was anticipating having to go to the Super Wal-mart to find what I needed, and entering the Super Wal-Mart is always an other worldly experience.  No matter how determined you are when you walk in (I am going to go to the battery aisle, pick up one package of double A batteries and walk out) it never happens.  A mental fog gently descends upon you three steps into the store and you start wondering if you might need a toaster, new house linens, a new fishing reel (and I don’t fish!), a new TV, steaks for the next three months or other assorted items.  If you’re lucky, the mental fog breaks just enough for you to remember what you originally came there for – batteries.  This process is not helped by the fact that Wal-mart rearranges everything periodically so that you have to hunt for it.

As you can see, the Super Wal-Mart on a good day takes a great deal of effort and willpower, but the Super Wal-Mart on a day when you feel like you’ve been run over by an 18 wheeler and you’re sporting an attractive cherry red upper lip and nose from all the Kleenex you’ve been using seems like Mount Everest.  I told our receptionist when I left that if I wasn’t back in two hours, to please send help. 

So, to go back to the beginning of my story, I sallied forth into the cold cruel world in search of a holiday head adornment of some kind.  (Oh, I forgot to mention that Kayla had expressed a preference for reindeer antlers – I admit my self-control broke just a tad as I told her that I would look for reindeer antlers but if all I could find was a Santa hat, then a Santa hat it would be.) 

I went to the local Hallmark store first.  (Don’t laugh; you’d be surprised at all the odds and ends those stores have tucked around them in addition to cards.)  They had Santa and Elf hats.  I probably would have bought one, but the hats said “Ho, ho, ho!” and sang “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” when you pressed a button, and Kayla has at least one hour of regular school today before they leave on the field trip.  My bet was that with a singing hat, she would be on four conduct numbers by 8:15, nixing both the field trip and her future membership in Purple Ambassadors, so I did what was best for her and let them go.  The clerk at Hallmark looked at me rather strangely when I asked if they had any hats that didn’t sing as if that were an odd request.  I guess I missed the fashion switch from non-talking to singing hats.

Winter Hats and Scarves

The same strip mall has a Goody’s that used to be a Peebles, so I went to it next.  That store had a few hats that, strangely enough, were designed to cover your head and keep it and your ears warm, but were not designed as holiday adornments, so that was a wash, too.  At least the hats didn’t sing!

Just when I was facing the inevitable conclusion that like it or not I was going to have to drive down to Wal-Mart, an angel whispered into my ear that perhaps I should look at the Dollar Tree store at the end of the strip mall that I never enter.  It was two shops away, so I decided to give it a whirl.  You can just imagine my delight when I saw, in a bin out front, headbands with reindeer antlers!  I snatched a pair up, went into the store to buy them and came out having accomplished my mission for the grand total of $1.09 (9 % sales tax here) and no trip to Wal-mart!  (Do I hear applause at this happy ending?)

Of course, the reindeer antlers have bells on them but nothing in this imperfect world is perfect!  (If you do not have children, please consult with the parent next to you as to why the bells are problematic!)

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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A Highly Biased History of Bowling, Part II

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning everyone!

Today we are going to pick up the threads of the Ugg Clan’s history.  As you may, or may not, remember, in September we discussed Ugg the First’s invention of bowling.  (See, A Highly Biased History of Bowling.  For those of you who don’t remember the first appearance of Ugg and Uggette on this blog, please look at A Highly Biased History of Washing Machines.)

Alleytiri's Lost Bowling Set

We will pick up the threads of the story many generations down the road, with a member of the Ugg clan who had migrated to Egypt.  Ugghotep had a baby girl, Alleytiri, who was the apple of his eye.  (I should explain that the best historical records we can find indicate that early on, the Clan of Ugg was united by marriage with the Clan of Alley.)  As the oldest son in that generation of the Ugg clan, Ugghotep had inherited the original bowling stone Ugg had used, although by this time it was much smaller and smoother, having been worn down through the ages by so much use.  Since trying to bowl down Alleytiri was unthinkable, and with only one child would have been really boring anyhow, he invented a series of blocks that he and Alleytiri could bowl down together.  Unfortunately, as all children do from time to time, Alleytiri managed to lose the ball and pins, and they were found centuries later by archeologists.  This set of a round ball and pins is considered to be one of the oldest bowling type artifacts ever found.

King Edward III

We will lightly skip ahead in history to the mid-1300’s in England, when Sir Alley Ugg of  Diffing Green couldn’t help but notice that time was hanging too heavily on his archer’s hands, when arrows started appearing through the flags flying off the roof of the castle (not to mention the one that went through Lady Uggette’s of Diffing Green’s skirt on her way to church – it was shot by a particularly bad archer) and so introduced his family’s game to his archers.  The game quickly grew in popularity, and spread to other parts of the country, to the point where King Edward III banned bowling because his archers were spending too much time bowling and not enough time practicing archery.

King Henry VII on horseback, chasing after a stray ball rolled by one of his ladyfriends

A few hundred years later, though, it is reported that Lord Ugg Oop of Diffingshire (Diffingshire included the original lands of Diffing Green) introduced Henry VIII to the sport of bowling where it became very popular in King Henry’s court and thence throughout England.

Nine Pin Bowling Set

Eventually members of the Ugg-Oop clan emigrated to America, where unfortunately some of them slipped closer to the wrong side of the law.  Ugg Oopone, one of the seedier members of the family, saw a ….. ummmm… “business”  opportunity in the game of bowling, and set up a parlor in New York where people could bowl with nine-pins, and bet on the results.  This activity spread outward to places like Connecticut, which eventually banned nine-pin bowling because of the gambling problem.

A Modern Bowling Alley in Bowling Green, Ohio. Not owned by the Uggs of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

However, more reputable members of the family from Kentucky (where did you think Bowling Green got its name?) decided to use ten pins and reestablished the game as a more family friendly activity.

Pin Boys in Brooklyn

In the 1950’s, Oop Ugg Smith was working as a pin setter in his father’s bowling alley.  After a close call involving an airborne bowling ball and an argument between a husband and wife patron, his enthusiasm for the game dimmed.  Still, he didn’t want to leave his father in the lurch, so turning his very talented mechanical mind to the problem, he, along with his friend Gottfried Schmidt,  invented the pin-setter.  Gottfried, with Oop Ugg’s blessing, later patented the invention and sold the rights to the patent to the American Machine and Foundry Company (now AMF), which at that time was a maker of machinery for tobacco, apparel and bakery businesses.  Now, AMF Bowling Centers, Inc. is the world’s largest owner and operator of bowling centers.

Pinsetter patent excerpt

Although Oop Ugg Smith never came back to the game after his narrow escape, his children learned to love the game from their grandfather, and one of Oop Ugg Smith’s grandchildren, Alley Uggette Smith, loved the game like none of the Ugg clan had ever loved it before.  There was only one problem – Alley Uggette simply could not bowl.  No matter how hard she tried, her balls continually veered right or left in time to reach the gutter.  However, being as mechanically minded as her storied grandfather, Alley Uggette studied the problem carefully and came up with what I consider to be the greatest of all bowling inventions (because without it, I too would bowl only gutter balls), the GUTTER GUARD!!!!!  After that, Alley Uggette could bowl with the best of them; in fact, she became the expert on using a ricochet off the gutter guard at high-speed in order to conquer that most awkward of all bowling set-ups, the split.

Bowling Lane with Gutter Guards Up

And with the gutter guard, and the split, we have come full circle in the history of bowling.  You may not remember from the first post, but the first turn in bowling history by Ugg the First resulted in a split, with the smaller children scattering to avoid the ball, but the oldest two standing tall and firm.

Until the next time  we have a chance to explore the history of the Ugg clan, or until I think of something else to write about, have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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New Math: 3 Equals 1, 1 Equals 2

Posted on November 17, 2011 | 11 comments

Good morning everyone!

Today, we are going to explore the mysteries of new math, as discovered by Kayla and me.

  • 3 equals 1

About three months ago, someone (we don’t know if it was Mark, Kayla or me, since each of us refuses to claim responsibility) grabbed a large container of individual chip bags at the grocery store.  This is not unusual for us, as the chips make great snacks to send to school – the teachers have sent home notes requiring the students’ snacks to be dry snacks, and you can’t really get much drier than chips.  What was unusual, however, is that whoever grabbed the bag didn’t grab a bag of traditional flavors, but by mistake picked up “Bold, Spicy Flavors”.  Kayla doesn’t like any flavors contained in the “Bold, Spicy Bag” and neither do Mark or I, so it has taken a long time for us to work our way through that set of chip bags, expecially since someone – no names, but her initials are M-O-M – took pity on Kayla  and has supplemented the Bold and Spicy pack with regular flavored chip bags all school year.

Recently, though, the bold and spicy chip bags started disappearing, fast – so fast that the only bag of chips left in the house Monday was “Hot Spicy Nacho Doritos.”  I mentioned this to Kayla, explaining that the Hot Spicy Nacho  flavor was all we had. 

Kayla said, “That’s okay. I trade them with my friends.”  When I asked how and for what, she told me that she traded three bags of bold and spicy chips of various kinds for one bag of dill pickle chips.  So, in the local elementary school’s fourth grade barter system,  three bags of chips do equal one.

  • 1 Equals 2

I walked into Pizza Hut Tuesday with some trepidation.  In fact, I made sure before I left work for lunch  that someone would be manning the phones in case I ended up somewhere where one phone call is a constitutional right.  The reason?
I ate at Pizza Hut Monday, also, and had the buffet.  I took my computer in with me and did some work on a project.  Even after I finished eating, I concentrated on my project, comfortably tucked in my booth.  Of course, eventually, I had to go back to work, so I scooped up my computer and headed to the car.

It wasn’t until Tuesday morning at 10 that I realized that I had left Pizza Hut on Monday without paying for my meal.  I had no choice but to go back to Pizza Hut on Tuesday to pay for Monday’s meal, even though I wasn’t at all sure how understanding they were going to be about my lapse of memory.  (It’s almost as bad as the time I paid for my meal at Zaxby’s, got my drink, and drove off without my food, except that day it only took me one block to realize what I had forgotten.)  For time reasons, since I had to go to Pizza Hut anyhow, I was going to have to eat there again, and the buffet is the best deal they have.

When I entered Pizza Hut, I was relieved to see that a different waitress was there, so I wasn’t immediately identified when I walked through the door.  I also took a deep breath of relief when I saw that the police were not waiting for me.  I put my computer in the booth I was sent to, sidled over to the cash register and shamefacedly explained that even though I was only having one buffet that day, I was going to have to pay for two.  The cashier was gracious; she said with a smile, “I saw you leave yesterday, but I just figured you were in a hurry to get somewhere.”  I, on the other hand, have rarely been so embarrassed in my life.

It goes without saying that I paid for Tuesday’s buffet in advance. 

So now you know how I discovered that 1 equals 2.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Panic! (Only 39 more days until Christmas Arrives!)

Posted on November 15, 2011 | 14 comments

Good morning everyone!

Kayla asked me yesterday whether we were going to have any company over soon, and as I listed what we had planned for the next few weekends, I came to a stunning realization – Christmas is only six weeks away! Thanksgiving is next week!  How can this be possible?

Christmas

It seems like only last week we were coming to the end of summer vacation and the start of the new school year,  only last month when summer vacation began, and just a couple of months ago that I started writing this blog and Mark and I were enjoying Key West.  It just isn’t possible that 2011 can be getting ready to leave us, and yet it is!

Panic!

Once I realized how close Christmas is, I had a brief moment of panic.  Beyond an idea or two floating out there for one or two gifts, I have done nothing towards preparing for Christmas.  (Yes, Mom, I know – you probably are only one gift away from finishing your Christmas shopping now, if you haven’t finished it already, and I admire you and the others out there who are in the same state of preparedness  – but somehow that gene just didn’t get transferred to me!)

After a brief moment though, the panic subsided.  Even though only three of those weekends may be available for shopping, the internet has changed the way I shop.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing for chronic procrastinators such as myself.  While I can reach a much greater array of products than I could otherwise, the fact that many sites proudly announce that you can order your gifts as late as December 21, 22 or 23 and still have them arrive by Christmas doesn’t exactly spur me into immediate action.  And yes, I still do a fair share of gift buying at local merchants as well, which conveniently will be open as late as the morning of Christmas Eve.  (However, even I prefer not to wait that late if I can help it!)

Well, thank you for giving me just a minute to share my panic attack with you.  I feel better already!  Do you?

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

P.S.  What do you do to get ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas or the holiday of your choice this time of year and when do your preparations start?

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A Trip to the Corner Drugstore, Pens and Copyright

Posted on November 14, 2011 | 11 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Here are some odds and ends from the weekend.

    • A Trip to the Corner Drugstore

Yesterday I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  I had to wait just a few minutes, so I walked over to a revolving rack that sold little paperback books.  I started laughing out loud when I read the title of one of them – How to Live Successfully with Screwed Up People.  I thought about buying the book just to see how the author carried through with such a unique title, but the thought of someone close to me wondering why I would need such a book decided me against it. 

 However, once my prescription was ready, I told the lady behind the counter about the book.  To my surprise, she smiled and nodded and answered “Yes, my mother bought it.”  She added, “She has marked sections in it and put the names beside it of each of her children she thinks the section applies to.”  That’s a real confidence builder, isn’t it?

  • Pens

Some time ago, I told you about the mysterious disappearance of pens from my junk drawer.  (See, Of Waves and Pens).  Recently, I found where some of them were hiding – I have a little pouch I carry in my purse for writing utensils, and about 10 of them had fled there, I can only assume for protection from the evil pencil conspiracy.

    • Copyright

I learned something about copyright in the United States this weekend while reading the 2011 Writer’s Market by Writer’s Digest.  Did you know that everything you write is immediately protected by copyright as soon as it is written?  You do not have to have a registered copyright in order to be able to use the copyright symbol!  (There are advantages to having a registered copyright, but we won’t go into that.)  I thought that was way cool, and have immediately availed myself of this new piece of knowledge to proudly display my own copyright symbol at the bottom of my blog, just because I can!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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And the Answer Is…..

Posted on November 8, 2011 | 8 comments

Good morning Everyone! 

I want to thank everyone who played “Guess Which Tree” along with me yesterday.  It was really interesting to read everyone’s answers, and I learned something in reading them, too.  

I’ll give any of you who didn’t participate yesterday one last chance to take your guess – the question was, which one of the two trees shown in the picture is a pine tree?

Trees 1

Trees 2

And the winner is …..the tree on the left!  As several people commented, it is the bark on the tree that gives it away as a pine tree.  It also occurred to me as I studied the pictures after I took them that I don’t recall ever seeing moss grow on a pine tree in the Southeast United States before, but that may just be because I haven’t been looking.  (My more woodsy/hiking friends – does moss usually grow on pine trees?)  Mark says that the tree on the right is an oak tree.  I wouldn’t know; I can recognize and name a pine tree, a ginkgo tree, a dogwood, a Bradford Pear Tree and a magnolia tree, and that’s about it. 

Fortunately, whether you chose the correct tree or not, you still won this challenge.  How?  To even make a choice, you had to really look at both trees; you had to admire the difference between them in terms of bark texture and bark color; you had to discard most of the ideas our mind automatically “sees” when it hears the word “tree,” such as branches and leaves, and recognize a tree. 

In a nutshell, then, the point of the exercise was to remind me (and maybe one or two others out there) that sometimes, it is okay to forget about the forest and admire the trees.  I hope you got a chance to do that yesterday.

And, of course, the view of the forest is worthwhile too…..

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Not Again! (a/k/a Time Change)

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

As I am sitting here writing, listening to Tyra bark softly outside because she is ready to come back in, I am looking outside and noticing that it has gotten to where it is dark in the morning now for quite a while after we get up.  From the fall equinox until the start of winter in December, here in Alabama we lose about one to three minutes of sunlight a day, which doesn’t seem like much, but slowly adds up.  Fortunately, we still have some vestiges of light once I start home from work, which I do enjoy.  That’s all about to change.

Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, which  means that here in the United States most of us will be moving our clocks back one hour.  This is annoying, because for at least a week I will be looking at clocks calculating  “If it is one p.m. now, last week it would have been 2:00 p.m.”  (I never said I was a particularly deep thinker!)

Daylight Savings Time is one of those really stupid strange inventions I don’t understand.  I know the reason Congress started it (in World War II, no less) was to help save energy, but has anyone really done a study to see how much energy it saves?  It seems that the energy we save by lopping off one hour in the spring should be equalled by the energy we use when we add that hour back in the fall.  I think it was Dave Barry who said something like “Try as you will, you can come up with no logical explanation for Daylight Savings Time.”  My favorite description of it, and I’m not sure whether it was by Will Rogers or O. Henry or someone else, is the comparison of it between a blanket where someone cuts off one foot from the bottom of the blanket to add one foot to the top so it will cover their head!  I really think we should just do away with it – I don’t really care whether we keep summer hours or winter hours, I just wish we’d stick with one or the other.

One of the most amusing things to do on the spring end of Daylight Savings Time is to park outside the day care of your choice and watch the kids as they enter on the first Monday after it begins.  The kids don’t care what the adults told them, they know that something about the time is not right, and it is a sleepy passel of young ‘uns that pass through the day care portals on that day.  (I suspect the adults are sleepy too; we’re just better at hiding it! )

I do like getting the one extra hour back this weekend, although each year it seems like the extra hour slides by without any special recognition.  That’s probably because I spend it sleeping, one way or another.

I am grateful to the person who invented the memory aid “Spring forward, Fall back.”  Without it, I wouldn’t ever remember which way to turn – uh, the clock, I mean!

Have a great weekend folks!

Nancy

P.S.  For a while, Indiana and Arizona (I think) refused to recognize Daylight Savings Time.  Does anyone know if they still do, or if there are any other states/regions out there that have decided to march to the beat of a different drummer?  Kudos to them, whoever they are!

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Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front

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From the Archives: This and That

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 8 comments

I had some posts I wrote early in my blogging life that I would like to pull back out from time to time since most of you were not following me then.  I came across this one tonight; it was written on February 28, 2011, 6 days into blogging, before I had figured out how to get pictures on the page.  I hope you enjoy it!
1.      I forced a very sleepy little girl out of hibernation this morning and into the cold, cruel world of getting ready for school, and she did NOT like it!  Her latest fad is to get up, grab her clothes, turn on the fireplace in the den and huddle in front of it while she gets dressed.  (No, it is not that cold in my house – well, sometimes it is, but not right now.)  It looks quite pitiful and Dickensy – I keep waiting for her to bring me her empty cereal bowl, look at me with mournful eyes and say in a tiny voice, “Please, ma’am, can I have some more?”
2)     Wednesday is our busiest day, because Kayla has dance after school, which finishes up at 5:50, and then I have to feed her, get her home to change into her sneakers and then be at the church by 6:15.  We usually are home by about 7:45 p.m.  Unfortunately, homework does not regulate itself according to our schedule so on Wednesday nights when she has homework, I am trying to cram her head full of (usually) math in 15 minutes and still get her to bed on time.  It can be quite a drama filled experience.  Last night when we entered the car, I asked if she had homework, and Kayla said yes.  Once we were on the way to the church, she announced that she didn’t have homework after all; the teacher had decided to keep them from pulling the homework page out of their book after all.  The dilemma:  Should I double-check the homework file to investigate the mysterious disappearing homework, or just take the statement at face value and hope for the best?  I’ll let you decide what I did…..
3)     Isn’t it nice to see families doing things together?  Last night the three of us participated in a joint parking project.  I was driving and trying to swing into the garage without hitting the other car.  I got advice from both Mark and Kayla (Mark:  Cut it as hard as you can to the left;  Kayla:  You’re okay on my side!)  Of course they were sitting on the same side, so the instructions were a little conflicting, but I decided to go with the more experienced driver :).  Regardless of whose advice was better,  since everyone participated, it qualified as a group project.  Everyone was still speaking to everyone else when we finished, too!
4)     I have now seen about five tulip trees in full bloom.  They are so beautiful!  I really hope we don’t have a killing frost this year.  The Bradford pear trees buds are starting to get full, but they’re not ready to bloom yet.  It would be too early for them, anyhow.  I still haven’t seen any yellow bells, which is sort of odd for this time of year here.  If anyone has seen some, I sure would like to know about it!
Since I now do  know how to insert photographs, I will include one of a tulip tree, so you can indeed agree with me that they are beautiful.

Tulip Tree in Full Bloom

Close-up

Have a great day/evening everyone!
Nancy

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Life in a Small Town: The Homecoming Parade

Posted on October 23, 2011 | 6 comments

Hi Everyone!

Last week was a very off week for me, since I managed to develop bronchitis (yes, again, for those of us who have been with me since April and before) but I am going to try to get back into the swing of things.  Today, I’d thought I’d share with you the homecoming parade that our town held a couple of Fridays ago. 

Homecoming in a small town, especially one as small as mine, is a very special occasion.  With only three schools – one elementary school, one middle school, and the high school – you can pretty much expect the whole town to either participate in it, or to watch it.  This year was no exception.  The schools let out early the Friday afternoon before the game, and the parade started promptly at 2. 

Here are some of the people starting to congregate about 30 minutes in advance.  This was one of the less densely populated spaces but by the time the parade begins, both sides of the road are solidly lined with people for the eight blocks of the parade route:  from the high school, through downtown, over the bridge by the dam and then by City Hall and the town library. 

Veteran's Park

Parades in my town usually begin with a police escort, so the excitement began to build once we could see the lights of the police K-9 unit leading the parade in the distance.

Once the first police unit came by, a few other police cars followed, then trucks filled with city councilmen throwing candy at the bystanders came next.  (This is a tradition apparently unique to our town, but every parade has people with boxes and boxes of candy to throw out to the crowd.)  I especially like it when you see someone particularly enjoying himself while he does it. 

Having fun with the job!

The next group to arrive were the high school varsity football players.

The High School Football Team

The football team was followed by the high school’s marching band, which is a very good band, especially considering the size of our town and our high school.  The band consists of the majorettes, the flag corps, and then, of course, the musicians.  Their uniforms, which sport the high school colors of purple and gold, are resplendent in the sun.  (I suspect that an LSU fan who wandered into our town during the parade would have an eerie deja vu sensation, since the colors are very like those of the LSU Tigers, and our team is named the Tigers also.)

The Band Approaches

The band is led by the majorettes and flag corp.

The musicians come next.

And the Drums Play On

Eventually, the Homecoming Court came by on their own float.  This float is always Kayla’s favorite, and since her baton class participates in the parade, she expects me to take good pictures of it.  I never really thought about it before, but it must take a great deal of poise to sit on a truck-driven platform on a folding chair wearing an evening gown and waving gracefully.   (Obviously, the tiger behind the Homecoming Court is NOT wearing an evening dress; he is one of our mascots.)

The Homecoming Court

I found out later, in the following week’s paper, that this lovely young lady ended up being Homecoming Queen.

A number of other groups and floats passed by, including the varsity cheerleaders riding in the back of a pickup truck, several baton groups from the various groups around town, and the class floats.  In front of each class float were class representatives, mostly riding on top of convertibles.  My favorite class float was the Freshmen float and representatives. 

I liked the representatives because they had the courage to be different:

The Freshmen Representatives

And the Freshmen float because it had a more original slogan then the other three – all of their themes involved either harming Eagles or making them mad.  (Our town doesn’t have anything in general against eagles; that was just the name of the team our team was playing.)

Beat Down in T-Town

The Freshmen Float

My other favorite float was the Future Farmers of America’s float.  I just thought it turned out nicely.

Future Farmers of America Float

From my perspective, though, the most important part of the parade had yet to pass.  Before that part reached me, though, the Youth Football League put its players on display:  the Midgets, the Crickets and the Termites.  Some of the squads have age-matching cheerleaders, too.

TYFL Midget Cheerleaders

TYFL Midget Football Players

The Cricket football players were throwing candy enthusiastically with an eye to strengthening their arm:

TYFL Cricket players

But the Termite players showed more restraint – or then again, maybe not!

TYFL Termite Players

TYFL Termite Cheerleaders

Then the moment I had been waiting for arrived – Kayla’s baton group showed up!  I almost missed it, too; somehow Kayla looked so much more grown up in the parade then I expected her to. 

Kayla's Baton Group

I managed to recover in time to get two pictures though.

An array of the middle school players and cheerleaders and other organizations followed as well, and then the parade that began with a police car ended up with a fire engine.  

The end of the parade

So all was well that ended well, and a grand time was had by all – and we won the game that night, which now puts us into the high school playoffs!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Random Thoughts, Part Deux

Posted on October 13, 2011 | 12 comments

Good morning Everyone! 

Here are a few random thoughts/questions.

1) Where is Old Zealand? 

2) Why do we have New York, New Jersey, New Bern but not New Birmingham?

3) Did you know there is a road in California called Zzyzx Road?  I passed the exit for it once when I was a child.  I also thought of it as the end of the road!

4) Spell check is really unhappy with the term “Zzyzx.”

5) There are nine cities and towns named Atlanta in the United States.  They are located in Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas. 

6)  If there is anyone out there who works full-time, has a child/children, commutes over 30 minutes each way to work and is not perpetually tired, could you please let me know how you do it?

7)  People who search for the terms “basset hound/Siberian husky” are NOT very good at explaining why they are looking for the information.  It’s driving me nuts!

8 ) Never let the copier at work know when you have a project that has to be completed that day.  If it knows, the odds of it breaking before the project is finished go up astronomically.

9) It is even more important to keep your computer in the dark about projects that have to be completed that day.

10) I can’t speak French.  I hope that I have spelled “deux” correctly and that it does mean two and not something else.

11) Mandy is a great footwarmer.

12) Science has proven that it was, in fact, the egg that came first and not the chicken. 

13) There is nothing much funnier than watching a 90 pound dog with legs he’s not very good at controlling rounding a corner at full speed on a wooden floor and losing his balance because he can’t get traction.  (Picture Darwin in a Scooby Doo cartoon.)

14) The expression on his face once he recovers from the slide is even funnier. 

15) The expression on Mandy’s face when he loses traction and she doesn’t is funniest of all!  

16) If you decide to make Christmas gifts, and they’re not finished by December 1, give it up and go ahead and buy them instead and save the hand-made gifts for next year.  Your life will be much easier.

17) Why isn’t an in-house masseuse a regular perk at businesses? 

18) If it is a choice between your job and your child with a very high fever, the child always wins.  He/she makes a lot more noise!

19) Why do children get sick at 2:00 a.m. in the morning or on the weekends and not at 5:00 p.m. in the evening when you still have time to make it to the urgent care center?

20) Even the worst of days can get suddenly better with a smile, a kind word or a hug from someone you love.

That’s enough for now since I need to get ready for work.  As Kayla said the other day, “It’s time to rock the roll!” 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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