Weekend Activities AKA I need a nap

Friday night, I went to Maddy's town to attend one of their free summer concerts with her!  They try to go every week but Matthew was out of town and Maddy didn't want to go alone.  She got more knitting in and we got a lot of chit chatting in.

The Death Stranding birthday party for Ryan and Jen, on Saturday night was a lot of fun!  

SO much pizza and goodies!  Leon had even made a cake.  I made the buttercream frosting for it.  Thank goodness Maddy brought a veggie platter.  I made a salad using lettuce and the toppings of a couple slices of pizza & said vegetables.  

mmm  and snuck a few boneless bbq chicken wings.  I need to knock THAT off!

Meri and Josh were there too and even Aggie joined in on the living room fun as Ryan forged his way into the sequel for the game.  Even though Matthew was several states away at a conference, he was able to connect via Twitch and watch the action too.  He texted several times about events going on in the game.

Sunday, after church, some church friends stopped by and helped me work on my rider mower to fix the bent wheel.  They ended up using the two parts I'd purchased after all and identified another crutial piece that got bent also. The front axle.  I asked a neighbor for a tool I didn't have and he came over and fussed over the mower along with Seth.  So much grease!  I felt so bad for getting them into the nitty gritty of it all.  I thought it was going to be a quick fix.

Seth will be back later this week with a pipe wrench to see if he can bend the axle back into place.  

In the meanwhile, I mowed the front yard afterwards and it handled SO much better than it had been doing!  Instead of a ten point turn at every corner, it was only 3!  PROGRESS!!!

Oh, plus they tightened the steering wheel!  So it's not so jiggly! Whew.

While Aggie and Jen played in the kiddie pool, I pulled thistle weeds out of my hostas and cement hill and finally planted my hydrangea plant that Meri gave me for Mother's Day.  It actually broke apart into two plants! So winner winner!

I opened a bag of mulch that had been sitting there all last winter to spread around it and low and behold there was a mass colony of ants living inside and they spilled out all over my tennis shoes and gloves!  Yikes!  and they were biters! 

That was about when I decided I'd had enough for one day.  Besides sweat was dripping off my face like a faucet was on.  I left my shoes on the porch so the ants could go find another home.  yuck.  

OH and I sprayed the air conditioner with the hose a lot!  I'm guessing that's why it's not keeping up very well with the heat.  It was pretty dirty.  So now we wait again to see if it made a difference.

Got a lot of weeding in this morning before work.  If I can get 30 minutes of weeding in a day, I think the yard will be good by Christmas.  You know.  Under a foot of snow.

above: dressing up with Mom
below: reading to herself.

I cried at church yesterday. Widows being given back their sons.  I'm not jealous but well, maybe.  It's a widow thing.  Always rehashing the actual day, wondering if I missed something or didn't pray at the right time or not do the right things.  And wouldn't you just know it?  The first service I hadn't brought tissues to the pew with me.  Even though I didn't get Robb back, God has been taking good care of us and Robb is having a beautiful time while he waits for me to catch up.

Well...

Back to work Mr Zook!  Thanks Dave!  * Robb always rolled his eyes at me for quoting that old Sioux City car dealership commercial!! * :)

Death Stranding, concerts and birthdays

 I'm looking forward to a great weekend!

I'm heading to Maddy's tonight to attend a concert in a park.

Then hanging with Aggie over lunch tomorrow so Ryan and Jen can go on a birthday date.

Probably mow my house that afternoon.

THEN the sequel to the Death Stranding video game came out on Ryan's birthday and we watched/played it as a family 3 years ago.  Love me some Norman Reedus!!  AND Mads Mikkelson although I know he won't be in it much this time.  Ryan usually runs the controller and the rest of us watch.  Restarting that tradition tomorrow night!  We'll probably play once a week until we're through it. * 6 months later *

Sounds boring huh?!  Not really!  It's exciting to see where Norman's character goes and where the story line goes.  And I KNOW who that child is and am anxious to see what becomes of her!

And we'll have food to celebrate both Ryan and Jen's birthdays this past week.

Did you know that the official Leon's Day was on Wednesday?  It's halfway between here and Christmas so it's NOEL backwards!  But who actually gets their own day and it's not their birthday? 

My grandson!

I'm starting Christmas shopping now!

And will start lobbying for a Valerie's Day.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Making Tracks

 Another truck driver just drove into our quiet burg again.  Sigh... When will they learn to read signs??  The bridge is out, no thru traffic...  sigh...  Oh well.  At least they're not turning around in my driveway!

Meri and I worked out this morning and picked up the external hard drive full of all the personal stuff from Robb's office laptop.  We almost went on a walk again this morning but there was tons of thunder and rain when we left the house this morning.

Leon took a bubble bath a couple days ago and ran the blowers too long on the whirlpool tub.  For some reason it drips into the dining room when you run them too long and apparently he didn't believe us...  

So the envelope with important docs got wet before Ryan noticed the dripping and got a towel and pan under it.  The documents themselves were safe, but I'm thankful he noticed it or a lot of other stuff I have on the table would've gotten wet too.  I should probably wrap up the rest of those thank you notes...

Meri and Shub came over last night for Taco Tuesday.  I made taco meat and had all the fixings. All six of us had a very fun meal together.  Then four of us played Catan until Leon had to go to bed but the rest of us were just getting into it.  Of course Meri won.  But Shub was a close second.  This was his first time playing the game and had just figured it out.  He can be pretty ruthless when he wants to be! :) Almost as ruthless as Ryan and this game.  I was in the game but just for spare parts for the others.  Yeah, I'll trade you my one brick for a sheep...  Whatever...  Can I go to bed now?  But really, it was a lot of fun with the banter and competition.  I was just along for the ride. :)

I can't believe it's Wednesday already.  I read John chapter 13 last night and will reread chapter 14 tonight, Maddy and I read it together last week when Meri couldn't make it for our devotions.  We've got a grieving devotion book (Purposeful Grieving) that we've been reading one out of each night together on DUO.  My "homework" today is relive that last day of Robb's.  Will wait until I have time to myself.  Maybe over lunch. and grab a box of kleenex to have around.

I also read a chapter out of a Mary Higgins Clark book that I found in the garage.  Reading an actual book is nice.  I see enough screens during the day so old school is a welcome change.

It's hard to think that Easter will be here before you know it. Less than a month.  But at least we won't have an Easter egg hunt by tucking the eggs into a snow bank.  Well, not that I know of so far.  The temps are in the 70s recently and it would be a shame to dip back into the 30s or less.

Well, need to wrap up some things so that next week I won't be as stressed and can spend more time with the girls.  

later.

Making up the rules as you go

 Leon likes to make up games and his own variations on the rules.

That's ok...

Meri, Robb and I played along with it on Monday night.

Leon is an artist and loves to draw so he selected Pictionary Junior.

We divided our paper up into squares so we wouldn't use so much and got to it.

Robb was the judge.  He played fairly and everyone won one until the final round.

Here's how you play Leon's Pictionary Junior.

You roll a die.  

If you roll, 2 or under, you select a red card.

If you roll 5 or above you select a blue card.

If you roll 3 or 4, you roll again.

This really has no bearing on the game whatsoever.

Anyway, you select your card and there are 5 or so different things you can draw.

Here's the difference...

You have to select 2 different words and put them together and THAT'S what you draw.

For example...

See below.

This one was Meri's.

Kitten Lamp.

As you can see, she cheated and added labels so there would be no mistake as to what it was.

Ice polar bear

This one was Leon's.

The cracked ice was the giveawaay.

Happy Horse

And this one was mine.  Even though everyone said that my happy horse's head looked like the horse had an alligator head, I still won with my drawing.  Robb was playing fair.

After three rounds, Meri chose THREE words and put them together for our final challenge.

Swimming - Body - Bowl

Mine won!  I think the little marks around the arms sold it.  Even tho Robb said that the swimmer with gall stones won...

This one was Leon's.  The swimming arms were pretty great! 

AND Meri's.

Leon could make a fortune if he created games for a living! 

I wonder who will actually READ the rules for them?...

It's all fun and games until...

On Saturday, when we got back from Mom and Dad's, we found Ryan, Jen and Leon playing the board game of Life.  

I worked in the kitchen and overheard Jen tell Leon that his wife died.  ??  What kind of reality game is this?!!!  I didn't remember any sad cards like that when I used to play it.

Apparently his wife had fallen out of his little blue car and someone ran over her.  sigh...  Too sad.

Later Leon was bragging about how he won at Monopoly ea

rlier because he had the most ones!

Good job!!!  I'm not sure that's how you win, but if you're six, it is.

It's like playing the penny game with my niece, Naomi, when she was two.  You both tap pennies onto the table until she cries out "I win!"

I was playing Battleship with Leon the other day and he said, "Now let's play by MY rules this game."  I think that meant moving the ships when you want to...  

Let's just stick to the usual rules... huh?

The same way with Operation.  For a while we were playing that if I drew the "butterflies in the stomach" for example, and if I couldn't' do it without making the nose light up and buzz, then we'd put the card to the bottom of the pile and the next person could take their turn.  After thinking about it for a while, I said, "Hey, let's read the instructions, because why should a patient wait five more turns before getting that butterfly out?"  

You think the doctor's just going to stitch it up and say, "Better luck next time!" and move on to the next ailment?  Yikes!

Well, we were doing it wrong.  Each of us takes turns trying to get the butterfly out until it's completed.  whew!  That made better sense.

Got lots of work to do today, so I'll bid you adieu.  Got to get the bulk of stuff done before I leave on Thursday.  YAY!!!

Will the rest survive without me?  yeah...

Taking on Water

I played Battleship with Leon last night and finished up the game this morning.

 I was pretty impressed that he followed the rules except for one. Every time I sank one of his ships, he insisted on removing the ship and putting the hit indicators directly in the water. It showed that the ship was sunk and there was blood in the water.

 It's only going to attract sharks... And take extra time.

Meri and I are headed to my hometown tomorrow and I only have one thing left to so today for that project.

Wish us luck.

When Leon gets back from his mom's this weekend, he wants to play Battleship with his grandpa. All of the ships will be bunched up in one corner of the board.

 Apparently it's a new strategy that I've never heard of. Leon has invented it.

Have a great weekend, and sink those ships!

Meeses and Mouses

Work was crazy busy yesterday!  I did get away for lunch with my bestie.  Her treat this time, but the rest of the day, I was glued to my computer.  AND at 5:30 when I was trying to log off, I realized that a minor issue was actually a major issue and I had to call my boss about it.  He was on a layover between flights...  We'll be discussing further today. 

Finally got downstairs and we had leftover Meri's birthday dinner.  There was plenty left.  I don't know if Robb took the rest for lunch today, but he should have.

Leon and I played a rousing game of MouseTrap.  My SIL brought a bag full of games that her daughter had outgrown, so Leon and I had a blast trying to trap each other in the trap.  The trap takes an hour to put together and 25 seconds to destroy...

Leon won.

Eh.

Meri came over last night too and we started putting together the airline tickets for our trip out to America's Got Talent next month.  Probably should have done this months ago...

Thanks everyone for your kind words about my mom's health and the weird way our family deals with it.  I do appreciate it.  It's definitely a journey...

I hope to have a little time today to get some sewing done on the project.  Not sure though.  

Who is Jack?

This is what my front yard looks like after our blizzard yesterday.  The big hole in the snow is from where Leon made a snow angel before getting on the bus...  The blizzard was so bad that it caused a huge car pile up on the interstate not far from us.  At least one fatality and several injured.

THEN this is where one of my sisters was this weekend.  I think she's flying back into this mess today.  But isn't the ocean beautiful?  Some day... some day...

 And Brooke in all her glory.  She got 96% on her report on James & Dolley Madison! 

Way to go Brooke!!!

Doesn't she look authentic?  Kristin found that hat at a thrift store.

On another note.  Since Ryan and Meri were both snowbound with us last night, Ryan insisted that we play the "You Don't Know Jack" game on one of his game systems.  Robb and I used to have the computer cd version of this game way back when Ryan was 5 or so and it wasn't appropriate for him at that time!  You play this game using the game system, a tv and your smart phones.  Hilarious...  

So we let Leon play Roblox in the living room and we got into our game.

We played a few weeks ago with Jen, Ryan's girlfriend.  Here is how one of the games went.  There are several different types of the game, but one was the "pointing" part of the game.  So everyone is sent a command to their phones.  For example, "Point to someone who is the last to lose their temper?"  And then one person is the "faker" and they get a totally different question or it says to pretend to fit in and point to someone randomly, the faker not knowing what the real question is and they point randomly.  So it's a clue as to who the faker might be and everyone else can vote for who they think the faker is.

Well, during one of the questions, Robb was found out to be the "faker" and we didn't get to the rest of the questions, which was just as well, because as an answer to the next question, he'd answered Jen without knowing the real question.  Which was, "Who in this group have you seen naked?"    

That could have been awkward...

So anyway, if you get access to that game, try it out.  It's a hoot!  Especially with a crowd.

And after a few games of that and then time with the boy, I didn't get any sewing in at all.  Maybe over lunch today.

I can only hope.

Worn out

It truly was a Maddypalooza weekend!  Maddy and Matthew arrived in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday and we finally got to visit with them over a late breakfast later that day.

Meri took us with her on a dog sitting stint for a friend, then the kids and I went over to an outlet mall that is closing soon.  Part of Maddy's birthday present was to go on a shopping spree of sorts.  Meri got a limit too, which she hit brilliantly.  Maddy didn't get up to her limit or even close.  fine.  that means I have to be more  creative with her Christmas presents.

Ryan got off work, so he and Jen arrived in time for lunch.  Robb had made smoked pulled pork for sandwiches.  SO good.  

Then as usually when we all get together, we played Settlers of Catan... I surprised even myself and I won!!!  and then a new game that Ryan had borrowed from a friend, Betrayal at the House on the Hill.  It's kind of a cross between Dungeons and Dragons, Clue and a Scooby Doo movie.

It was pretty fun, but then Ryan had to leave for work so that meant Jen was leaving too.  Robb came up with a new way to see who won and everyone rolled one die.  Everyone with a blank die died.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting and preparing for a grand birthday SSSN(Super Secret Steak Night) for dinner.  Maddy and Matthew liked the curtains I made for them.  I even heard her play on the piano for a while.  Nice....  I miss that.

I think I did dishes four times on Saturday.  Not my usual...

Had a great dinner and our nephew Josh even came from campus to join us.  Maddy got a cake with the community candle in it and she has no boyfriends as she was able to blow it out with one puff.

Matthew was relieved.

Meri had wanted us to use a squat scented candle and place it in the middle this year, but yuck...  Robb suggested Citronella.  again yuck.  

We'll stick with the usual candle.

 Then we played Ticket to Ride and Meri kicked us all by winning big.  Wow...  

Ryan came back to the house about the time I was ready to crash and the kids all played one of the board games, but I don't know what or how late.  I went to bed.  Eventually, I'm sure everyone did.

Ryan had to work the next morning early, so Maddy, Matthew, Meri and Jen went for second breakfast there at the pub where he works, before church.  

My children and their loves.

There was a potluck after church and Robb had picked up Leon early from his mom's so he could see Maddy and Matthew a little bit.  Leon went back to the house with them and Robb and I helped clean up.  

Meri took a college girl back to the dorm and then called us.

"DON'T LEAVE THE CHURCH YET!"

Okey doke.  but why?!  Apparently her car was making sounds as if she had a flat tire, but she and Cari, the college girl, checked all the tires and they looked good.  The sound went away a little bit, but then came back when Meri got on the highway.  oh yuck...  So Robb and I waited for her in the parking lot.  We had sent the bigger car back with Maddy, so all we had was Meri's truck.

Robb got in with Meri when she arrived and I followed in the truck.  By the time we had gotten five or so blocks away, Robb called me.  "Yeah...  we're taking it to XXXX's." (Our car guy)  He's only about a mile from the church.  So we did.  He'll get a chance to look at it today, we hope.

THEN crammed all three of us into Meri's little Ford Ranger with me in the middle, holding the leftover tator tot casserole and relish tray on my lap.  It was the most uncomfortable drive I have ever been on...  Except for the time Robb and I drove back from Kentucky with a table in the back seat, pushing our seats all the way forward and Robb sick as a dog in the front seat.

Meri wasn't too happy about the situation either.  BUT it is the first time in MANY years, I sat in the middle of the seat next to my honey!  I probably didn't even sit THAT close back then...  

Maddy and Matthew took off shortly after that, in order to get back home and ready to take on the Monday.  I spent the afternoon building a helicopter with Leon out of an erector set he'd gotten for his birthday last February.  REALLY?  Don't you have some Legos you want to build with or a  movie to watch??  I was wiped. 

Meri had to work, so I represented her at the 4H meeting and then picked up Robb and Leon to see Ada at the nursing home.  Leon was a booger.  He DID finally sing for Ada and her husband, but only if he could be in the bathroom with the door shut.  He knows Baa Baa Black Sheep really well and belted it out from behind closed doors.  Not sure how famous he'll get with that kind of act.

But I'm holding out hope that he'll give up the budding singing career and be a chiropractor so we'll get free adjustments...

Wouldn't that be sweet?!

Ryan and Jen came by the house just before dinner and talked us into playing the Betrayal at the House game again, this time with Leon too.  Leon's character turned out to be the mummy and after continued attempts to pull his attention back to the game, it FINALLY got completed two hours later.

Laundry and dishes can wait, right?? yep.

WHAT is she DOing?!

What am I doing??!!!  Ask me in a private message and I may or may not tell you.

But I will for sure tell you in 6 months.

Ryan was home last night and pulled out his Catan board game and insisted that we all play with him, including Leon.  Leon got bored about a half hour in, but his only other option was to go to bed.  It was getting late.  So he stayed in the game and won...  

Ryan and Meri ganged up on me and it was all I could do even build a road.  cripes.  

my kids are rotten...  

I'd never played before and neither had Leon, but his dad was helping him out.  

NEXT time, I'm going to kick their bricks!

Bad Influences and other random bits

I'm running out of time...   I've got general house stuff to do as well as sew several buttons on the bowling shirts and I'm not entirely sure where the buttons got off to.  PLUS I still need to complete the dinosaur painting on the back of Ryan's shirt.  PLUS + I need to finish the sewing newsletter.  That'll probably happen Sunday night. Maybe...

I just hung up on an automated phone call...  I think it wasn't a good idea to bombard Iowa with phone calls in the weeks leading up to the caucus.  I'm totally desensitized and will hang up on anyone now.

Leon has discovered that he loves each and every one of Meri's dogs and thinks Meri is giving them all to him for his birthday.  He hangs on Reedus and Reedus loves it.  He just loves someone paying him attention!  Silly dog...  But Leon is regretting it when Reedus chases him everywhere wanting to lick his nose.  Duke, at least, will just lay there and let Leon hug him.  Only getting up to find Leon when he runs off.  Ellie, well, she's just a blinkety blank...  She's gotten moody in her old age and I have to separate her from the boy dogs unless we want a dog fight in the house.  Leon can't tell them apart sometimes and for a while ALL are Ellie unless we tell him.

I picked up some fabric at the last sewing meeting and it's gorgeous.  But I'm having difficulty deciding what it should be.  It's a raw silk and seems more nubby cotton than anything else.  I was initially thinking of making something that didn't require button holes, but now I've decided that that shouldn't stop me.  It's opened up a world of ideas!  hmmm...  

Well, I can't think about that yet as I have other things to finish first.  

When my twin nieces were little, my MIL gave each of them a game.  They'd been begging for Hungry Hungry Hippos and she gave one of them that and the other one Hi Ho Cherry O.  

That started a fight between those girls, that has lasted 15 or more years...  Well, not a serious one.  They joke about it now.  But I think the Hi Ho Cherry O game evoked Sarah's first swear word.  

So I picked up Hungry Hungry Hippos last night to give to Leon this weekend.  As well as a couple other things.  He'll just be begging for people to play it with now!  And that's ok!  I'd LOVE to play that game!  And I bet the twins would come play it with him.

Making people swear, one kid at a time...  ;)

Sucker Bowl

Another day on our Stay-Cay!  We found where you can go bowling for just the cost of the shoes and play as many games as you want on weekdays around the lunch time...  Cool!  So we rounded up whomever was free.  Was only Robb, me, Tiffany, Meri & Leon.  Robb and Leon don't bowl, so it was just us girls actually playing.

It's rare I break a hundred.  For a few frames I thought I was going to do a Perfect Game!!!  But then got a big head and a spare and that thought passed quickly...

Did I mention we used bumper pads just for the fun of it?...

Oh, I won!  Someone cleared the screen before I could get the one with all the frames filled.  But you can see the previous game totals in the far right column. 

Add caption

 The girls went to play Laser Tag while Robb and I found some food in the cafe court area.  Leon showed off what a big boy he is by sitting in a highchair and holding his own Bah bah! (which he doesn't actually call it because he can't talk...  But I speak baby talk for him...  How's your widdow face?!!!?)

The girls have been back there a couple times now that they're hooked on Laser Tag and Meri happened to have some gift cards for that place.

They lure you in with free bowling but the food & Laser Tag is how they GETCHA!

Your Move.

Have you ever played Chess?  

I learned in the 9th grade from a the youngest brother of our head teacher.  I come from a small church school where 65.4% of the students were either my cousins or siblings...  So when the new teacher came AND brought his younger brother, it was SO cool!  The brother was a couple years older than me and was/is very military minded.  Watched MASH every night, ALWAYS wore fatigues and once handcuffed a problematic student to the flagpole when he was being a jerk at recess.  Then we left him there when we went back inside...  Kind of like A Christmas Story, but set in the late 70s, early 80s.  And it wasn't the middle of winter.  "Where's Phillip??"

Alan taught me how to play chess during recesses and I'm still pretty good at it.  Haven't played in a while though.  I recently found him on FB and it's been interesting seeing how his life unfolded.

 

So.. That's how I learned Chess.

Back to the present...  Life is a LOT like Chess.  How do you know where the next 10 moves are going when you play a single move?  And how can you start a game again when someone, in a rash move, has swiped all the pieces from the board?

Very carefully...

The board has been reset and ready for more moves.

And no, this is not about me!  But a situation that is constantly on my heart and in my prayers.

And now for a little Leon!

 

Have a wonderful Fourth of July!!!  

I'll catch up with you guys on Thursday!

Find Daughter!

Well, Maddy is off to Girls State!  After church on Sunday, I dropped her and a friend who was also attending. 

So ever since then the only communication I have from her are texts that say, "Wake me up at 6 ok?"  or responses like "No WAY!" when we texted that a friend of hers is now working at Subway and again "No WAY!" when we asked if this meant we now get free sandwiches from there.

I've joined a group on FB for the event and have been scouring the photos for pics of my girl.  There are over 200 girls there this week...  And I've seen her in two so far!  They've been posting photos every day.

Don't think she's a mayor or I would have seen pics of her getting sworn in.  I'm sure she's holding out for a governorship office of some kind if not Governor herself! There's also the butler or Lieutenant Governor... 

Didn't everyone watch Benson!

So today instead of Where's Waldo?, we're playing Where's Maddy?  

We'll start off easy.  

1) Pic I took of Mad and her friend J while dropping them off.  Taken with my cell phone in the glaring sun.  I accidentally chopped off their heads...

2. back left against the wall.

 3. No clue.

4. Bottom left.

 5. Haven't the faintest!

6. Your guess is as good as mine!

 And let me know if you see her in any that I had no clue!  I only have a few ideas as to what she was wearing on those days...  

Good luck!

The Game Is Afoot...

Have you ever watched a Sherlock Holmes show where they mention blogging? Yeah I KNOW! It doesn't typically happen... Robb and I have been watching a modern take on Sherlock lately on Netflix and it's pretty cool. There are only 3 90 minute episodes, but I hope they make more.
Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) needs a roommate and takes on John Watson (Martin Freeman). Watson has just returned from Afghanistan and is a doctor with some issues. He turns slowly into Holmes sidekick and they solve crimes in modern day London.

Oh and Watson has a blog where he started out using it as therapy but eventually does write ups on their adventures. Holmes says something about "now you can inflict your opinions to the masses via your blog".

Is that what I do?! hmm..

I love watching BBC stuff. It's refreshing to hear their accents, for one thing. And none of their comedic episodes are based off the Lucille Ball show... I kind of think they're based on French and Saunders.As we're watching the show, one character stands out to me. Sherlock Holmes brother. I ask Robb, what has he been in? He tells me I'm mistaken. Apparently that man doesn't look like who I'm thinking. But how do you know who I'm thinking when I can't remember where I've seen him?

Then suddenly the mole on his cheek reminds me. AHA! He's Auntie Val (aunt evil) from A League of Gentlemen! Robb never watched that series. It's dark and mysteriously funny with occasional very crude humor and I have to wince a lot when I watched it. Oh and Sherlock's brother looks vastly different from Auntie Val, except for that mole.

But if he had watched it, then he'd know immediately who I was thinking of. He's brilliant at placing people. We were watching the series Alien Nation in the 90s and Robb could tell that one of the aliens with tons of makeup and the whole getup on was actually Kurgan from Highlander. Ye old zipper neck himself.

I love playing "What's he been in?". But especially love winning. And in looking at IMDB today, I'm thinking he was wrong...

I Want To Play! Badly!!

Saturday, Meri wanted to play some board games. She settled on the game of Clue.

A big THANK YOU to Kshotz who gave us probably 3 different versions of it over the years. She is my bestie from my college days! My family loves this game! We love that movie! Here's a clip of the movie that we constantly quote from and coincidentally named my eldest daughter after. Madeline Kahn, not Clue...

So, Robb, Meri & I are playing the game. We're pretty good at deducing who is the killer and so forth with little sneaky things. I may guess a person and weapon card that I already have in my hand to find out if someone else has the room card... Or cheat and sneak a glance to find out which part of the sheet my daughter is marking off...

I get down to all the people marked off my list! I don't know how that happened... I must have assumed wrong or Meri held her paper upside down again to throw me... I am also down to two weapons and 3 rooms. Meri gets to the ballroom first and says she's going to solve the mystery. Okey! I'm bummed, but what can you do?

As she announces that the killer is Colonel Mustard with a candlestick in the ballroom, I shake my head and hold out my Colonel Mustard card for only her to see. Meri looked shocked and grabbed my arm, pulling me into the bathroom where she proceeded to get after me privately for not showing it to her before!

I do remember her asking about it before, but I also had the room or weapon card at the same time and showed her that one a second time instead... She claims that when I told her, "I will not help you", instead of meaning "I can't help you", I WAS truly saying that I wouldn't... Anyway, she was upset so we got back to the game and she pulled the cards out of the envelope to see what the actual cards were. She pulled out 5 cards! 2 weapons and 3 room cards! A couple I had already seen a few times...

Suddenly thinking that we had accidentally combined a couple games, Robb started laughing and said that he had slipped in two of his into the sleeve while we were in the bathroom. But there WERE only two weapons and a room in the envelope to begin with. I must have screwed things up when I was shuffling!

When I shared part of this story on FB, a friend suggested that perhaps the murder we were investigating was actually a suicide. hmm.. She may be right!

But Robb was curious that we're wandering all over this house and we don't even know if there is a dead body! Wouldn't someone have found it sooner than later? How do we know that we should be investigating it?

Good questions that deserve answers!

Sunday night, Meri wanted to play another game, so we dug out Scrabble. We agreed before hand that if the word made sense to any of us, then it could stay on the board. OR if we could find it in the WorldBook dictionary. And that dictionary thinks QE and VG are words!! YES!

So anyway, we hadn't started the game until 8:30pm and by the time we were half way through it we were all getting pretty tired. Maddy came in about that time and wanted to join, so we let her. I mean... How can SHE win when we're like 50-90 points ahead of her already??!

Let me tell you something... She's a cheater! THAT'S how!

Oh and YAKSTORM was mine... :) You don't want to be in the middle of one of those types of storms... Trust me! Someone else made it REYAKSTORM, so I consider that cheating. Because... WHAT'S that?!Robb had NEEDLE at the bottom so he'd get the triple word score in the corner. He and Meri worked together for her to use FINENEEDLE as opposed to DULLNEEDLE I guess... FINE! I was tired, I let it slide. Then later when she was desperate, Maddy tried to bring her Spanish language into it and made it ELFINENEEDLE... I tried to stop her, but Robb let it go and at that point I was at the "eh" level, so we let it go.

It reminded me of the Scrabble game when we were first married where he convinced me that QUAILCOLD was a real word.

It also reminded me of Little Britain when Kenny Craig is playing Scrabble with his mother at the hospital. He thinks he's a hypnotist but everyone just plays along... Kenny plays the word CUPBOARDY.

Too bad it's in German, but you get the gist. Watch it anyway. We're BIG Little Britain fans! Of the English variety of course. Ja!

Oh! And Maddy came in 2nd place, only 4 points behind Meri.

My future as a tomb raider

You guys are SO nice to me! What did I do to deserve such wonderful imaginary friends???

My husband showed me this Youtube video last night and as soon as I saw the characters in it, I had to chuckle and be impressed at the same time! It was done by my very computer savvy nephews who are anxiously waiting for this video game to be released next summer.

What do you think?



Shoot! Now I'm looking forward to a video game! The last one I really played was the Lara Croft Tomb Raider series, but started getting freaked out by the mummies and had to quit. Also had to give it up when Maddy (3 at the time) asked Santa for some buets for Mommy. (that was how she said bullets... you know. pchew! pchew!) Santa's helper almost called social services on me...



I loved exploring through her mansion and you were supposed to learn all her tricks and how to do certain things. Meri currently likes playing in the mansion now. I won't let her play the games but her favorite thing anyway is locking the poor butler bearing lemonade in the walk-in deep freezer. He follows you everywhere...

Ah reliving my past follies and time wasters... priceless...