Happy Birthday Laura!

Today is my niece Laura's 31st B-day. Had she been born just a few weeks earlier, she would have been a true "Bicentennial Baby". We decided to keep her anyway.

"Free" Cougar's game

On Saturday night we went to watch the Kane County Cougars play the Ft. Wayne Wizards. Pete won 4 lawn seat tickets to the game from the library's summer reading program. We bought a few extra and the whole family went: Me, Jim, Petey, Mitchell, Roslyn, John & JD (Pete's brother from another mother). Well almost the whole family, George had to stay home. The weather was perfect (& no bugs), JD brought glow sticks for everyone, we had good hot dogs, great Summer Shandy beer, nachos, slurpees, cotton candy and then a finale of fireworks. We had a blast.


Petey & JD


Jim & Mitchell


John


Roslyn


Me & Roslyn


Snuggly Ros


'Da Big Boys


Mitchell in his "Ninja glow stick"


Ooooh, I need one of those sparkly things!


The sparkly things. (They remained at the ball park!)


The kids were great, the Cougars weren't!!


Moon rise


Sunset


Post game fireworks

Trout Pond

On Friday morning Jim took Pete & Mitch fishing at a local (stocked) trout pond. The trip was a success because the boys caught dinner. Jim grilled the fish and we ate them. I've got to say though, I'm not fond of trout. I finished what was on my plate with a happy face because I didn't want to disappoint Pete & Mitch. They were very proud that they provided dinner (never mind that Jim paid by the pound for the catch). Too bad there aren't any Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Grouper, Amberjack or Tuna ponds around Chicagoland. I'm feeling the need to return to Key West for dinner!

Can you say "Daddy's Girl"?

Today Jim made cupcakes. Why? Because Roslyn had been asking for them for a few days. However, we had no cake mixes on hand so he just made them from scratch. The first time I made a cake from scratch was for my sister Susan's birthday, eons ago. It had purple frosting, got dubbed the Hamtramck cake & was the last time I made a cake from scratch. BTW, Jim has never made any cupcakes from scratch for me. I think I am now officially "second fiddle" to Ros.

End of a 24 year streak......

No, I'm not talking about the Cubbies. I'm referring to the fact that I have gone 24 years without a traffic ticket. Until today. While driving home from my Biochem class at NIU, one of Illinois' finest decided that the wide open spaces of the back country roads should not be enjoyed too much. Apparently, I was enjoying them 24 MPH too much, which translates into $95 worth of fun. It's just so easy to do in the Passat. I guess the GTI is not the only V-dub with fast .....

..... so when I was pulled over, I was hoping to be able to charm my way out of a citation. Imagine my disappointment when the trooper got out of HER car. She asked me if I had any good reason for going so fast. Of course what I was thinking was, "It's because I didn't see you or I would have slowed down!". How I actually responded was, "No". (I was traveling eastbound, a ways back behind a semi, and the trooper was traveling westbound behind a line of 4 cars, so she was well hidden.) Now, as I recall the event, all I can say is, Farfegnugen!

Form E-mails, yippee.

UIC & VCU have sent me the ever exciting form e-mails that state, "We've received your application, now send us more money, then don't call us we'll call you.". UIC is Univ of IL at Chicago and VCU is Virginia Commonwealth Univ, and yes, VA is still a commonwealth. Nothing official from the other 6 that I've applied to yet. But, no news is better than bad news in this game.

On a brighter note, after 5 tests in Neurobiology I'm getting an A in the class (10 more tests to go though). There's only been 1 test so far in Biochem, but I did get the high score on that one. Yeah me, no ducks involved this time. But the real kudos go to Jim for taking over the kids and the house when he comes home so I can actually get some productive studying done prior to 22:00. Double yeah Jim!!