vacation music

jen o. asked me what kinda music I'm listening to.

well, I'm not listening to much lately. it's too much work to change cds in my car. but...

1. kyw news radio 1060. and yes, it counts. I listen to this more than anything by a margin of 3 to 1.
2. interpol - antics
3. newer radiohead - though this is finally starting to get old for me after 3 years (hail to the thief, kid a, amnesiac)
4. modest mouse's good news for people who love bad news and franz ferdinand self titled - I'm listening to these both but only because I haven't taken them out of my car for 4 months. I really would like to be listening to something else now. I'm done.
5. the cd that I made for my dad for father's day - it has some of the more acoustic and countryish neil young, plus some glenn miller (who I love) and old swing (which I love) and some bobby darin. and a few songs from the o brother where art thou soundtrack, including the song he and I danced to at my wedding - you are my sunshine.
6. bear vs. shark - sean just bought this cd for me when he went to the aforementioned show. I didn't read his whole thingie down there so he may have covered this, but they sound a little like at the drive in and newer cave in, but not nearly as melodic. (ps, when is cave in coming out with another cd? one that's more like jupiter and less like crap, I mean.) the thing that bothers me is that they are from detroit, apparently, but they sing like they have a faint british accent. why do bands do this? you know who does this and it makes me so mad, because they are totally from california??? GREEN DAY. the jig is up, people. if you're giving interviews at the VMAs, people are going to know you're not english, govnah. I realize they aren't trying to pretend that they are from across the pond, but what's with the accent then? annoying.

I know I already went over 5, but I do have to add that I also am really quite fond of the they might be giants here come the abc's cd. I love the alphabet lost and found - the concept is that there is a place where letters can go when they get separated from the word they belong in:

There was an apple that lost his 'a'
There was a zebra that lost his 'z'
There was a chauffeur that left his 'auffer' on the dashboard
Of the car that lost its 'r'
...
Where they gonna go to find their letters?
They're gonna have to get together-At the alphabet lost and found

anyway, if you have kids, it's really a great cd to listen to because it's not inane drivel that will make you go nuts if you listen to it for even one. more. second.

and then there are the songs on the radio that drive me b-a-n-a-n-a-s, like the stupid humps song that I can't get out of my mind. and when did bow wow get all growed up??

and now, I must bid you all a fond farewell until next tuesday. I only seem to blog when I'm at work, and after noon today, I'm outta here, enjoying sun and surf with the eggertses at what philly pholk call "down the shore". like nicole said, I'm going to miss your blogs so much! at least I can be comforted in knowing that I'm gonna have a plethora of entries to read when I get back. maybe nicole and I will find an internet cafe thingie at ocean city. I'm just grateful that my work isn't sending me on vacation with a laptop again this year, though that would be quite handy in giving real-time updates regarding sand in crack and amount of ocean swallowed by bella.

I hope you all have a great week and an excellent labor day weekend.

7 Things And A Show Review

Sean here, and even though I don't like doing these things (honestly, I just don't like spending so much time thinking of myself...not that you do if did this...I just take a while), I'll do it anyway to satisfy your curiosity:

7 things I plan to do before I die:

Visit all desired international destinations (i.e. Japan, Prague, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Europe, Russia, Egypt, South America, Scandanavia, etc.)
Learn a form of Martial arts
Appear on a CD (audio or visual) with a metal band (real or fake)
Learn a second language
Live in another country
Visit all 50 U.S. states (19 down; 31 to go)
Write a screenplay good enough to be made into a movie

7 things I can do:

Care for a baby on my own
Be fooled easily be tricks, illusions, and lies
Sit through the rape scene in Irreversible
Curse
Get along with my stepson's father
Drive while sleeping (never intentional and not recommended)
Tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi

7 things I cannot do:

Make beer
Make music (this includes singing)
Juggle
Lie, cheat, or steal and feel okay about it
Dance
Stay awake while reading
Understand the correct song lyrics

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

Nice-smelling hair
Honest eyes
Selflessness
Self-confidence
Intelligence
Curves
Mean blow jobs

7 things that I say most often:

Boba
Chun chun chun chun (imitating a metal guitar)
Wanna watch a movie?
What the fuck?
I can't stand (Yuengling) Lager
I gotta do dishes
You gotta be kiddin' me

7 celebrities crushes (this part serves no purpose but to cause trouble and hurt feelings, and because I spent too much time carefully thinking about what to say, I'm just not going to list anyone since I have no crushes on any celebrities. Even though I may find many celebrities unrealistically attractive [men and women alike], I do not wish to have sexual relations with them nor do I have fantasies about them. However, I am a big fan of celebrity gossip, and I do find celebrities intriguing. I am interested in celebrity dirt, and I am a huge supporter of celebrities who make more $$$$ in a game, show, gameshow, or movie than I'll make in my entire life.)

7 people I want to do this:

Nobody who has a blog site since you all did this already (if not, feel free). My list includes:

Bella (if she could communicate)
Trent
My dad
My brother Billy
My brother Brion
My brother Vinnie
My grandmom, Mojam

Now that that is out of the way, I want share a review that I wrote about a show that I attended two Thursdays ago at the Catholic Center (of all places) at Drexel University:

Horsing Around

Basically, I attended what turned out to be one of the craziest and best shows I ever been to. Knowing about Horse The Band is one thing, but seeing Horse The Band is a WAY different story. It needs to be seen to be believed, which is why I picked up their DVD after their performance. Outstanding and hands down one of the best bands I have ever seen live. They are instantly one of my favorites with the way they performed.
My main draw was Curl Up And Die from Las Vegas, NV, who were one of the openers. They are one of my favorites, and it's usually impossible to see them since they are a west coast band. With them being in town for the cancelled Hellfest of Trenton, NJ, I had to take advantage and check them out. They were really good and crazy (except when the vocalist ripped the cross off of the wall and smashed it to bits due to microphone problems...that's just disrespectful), but Horse The Band blew me away with their psychotic "Nintendo core". I heard OF their "Nintendo core" before (heavy metal laced with a Nintendo-sounding organ), but I never imagined that they would be able to play it live so well. I never heard their music previously (only heard about it), so that was also a pleasant surprise. The guy playing the Nintendo organ blew me away. He plays so fast during the speed metal parts that I thought that he was going to explode. The battery operated red-eyed bat hanging from the ceiling was definitely a good stage prop that went well with their music. Unfortunately, the convulsing guitar player smacked it with the head of his guitar, and the bat blew into a million pieces before the set was over.
Another band that blew me away was Shark! Shark!, which reminded me of a mix
between Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Mr. Bungle, Ministry, and Refused. No drummer
(2 guitarists, 1 bassist, 1 vocalist), so they pulled the drum machine off live extremely well. Unfortunately, they didn't have a CD, but be on the lookout for them. Good catchy techno metal.
Even an indie rock band blew me away with an impressive performance (Detroit, MI's Bear Vs. Shark). There were marachas and cowbells and other sorts of alternate percussion, and the singer played a little piano, which I dug. The music was spastic, but you can tell it was thinking man's rock. The singer talked about sail boats and Waterworld and other interesting topics...sometimes while preaching from the top of a ping pong table. Good stuff. Reminded me of a mix between At The Drive In and These Arms Are Snakes.
4 solid performances and 2 mediocre performances (Life In Pictures and Philly's The Grand Finals were the other two bands) made for a very entertaining night. But there was more. After Horse played, these three guys got on stage and performed some sort of drum machine induced Viking metal tribute. This guy as skinny as Napoleon Dynamite was dressed in nothing but bear skins, a viking helmet, and a sword holster. He even had a real sword, and his vocals
ranged between death metal and falsetto and Slayer's Tom Araya screams. The 2nd guy
played a mix between Scandanavian and death metal guitar riffs, and the third guy worked the drum machine. They also had a fog machine. I have no idea who they were and who authorized them to play their 1 song/10 minute set. Obviously done in jest, it capped off what was one of the best shows I ever witnessed. The crowd energy was definitely alive and moshiing heavily during the music but dead and pretentious as usual in between sets (must have been that angsty age I can no longer relate to [I was one of the oldest people there at 28]). The lack of stage made it a group huddle type of gathering. It was almost ritualistic the way everyone was circled around the bands going crazy with the crazy music. You can tell a lot of people were friends, so they were doing these rehearsed motions in unison that looked funny (like imitation group buttfucking and passing around the viking helmet). I wish someone was there to experience it with me, but sometimes, it's the shows you go to by yourself that turn out to be
the best.

As always, sorry for the ultra-long post, but as always, it was long overdue.

slackity slack!

okay, to my defense, I am trying to hurry up and finish stuff at work because next week, we're...tadaaaa...going on vacation with the lovely nicole, her tall and manly husband mark, their wee peewee noah, and nicole's wonderful mother carol. we're going to the seashore (she sells sea shells by the sea shore 3x fast) - specifically to ocean city, which should be called You-Might-As-Well-Live-Vicariously-Through-Your-Kids Land Because This Is A Dry County - Yes, That Means No Bars Or Nightlife. not that it matters. we'll all be in bed by 10pm anyways, dead tired. but think of all the pictures we'll be posting.

so ho-anne. sigh. we asked her a little while back (a few weeks ago) if she could watch our dog maggie while we go on said vacation. (we usually ask my dad and KKKathy, but they were already planning on going away themselves, right after they killed wally.) anyways, she said she would do it, which was very nice of her. so this past tuesday, less than one week before we were to go away on the vacation that we needed her help, she informed us that, well, it's just bad timing for her, and she can't watch the dog. you see, she's getting her kitchen redone and the kitchen floor is all messy and the appliances aren't hooked up and there may be men coming in and out of the house. and I know I'm going to sound like an ungrateful bitch, but hear me out. (and then just validate my anger, don't try to get me to see her side, because I can already see her side and don't care.)

she knew when we were going on vacation. I know she shouldn't plan her major kitchen renovations around our plans, I wouldn't ask her to. but if we only asked her a few weeks ago, did she not envision that this might be a problem? how about 2 weeks ago? 3 weeks ago? you know, enough time to actually find someone else to watch the dog????? and then there's the stupid reason. was she planning to cook maggie a gourmet meal, but now can't bear to think of having her eat just plain old dog food since the new stove isn't hooked up? did she think that the opening and closing of doors for workmen would send maggie into a panic whereby she'd run outside and into the delaware river? (she lives in jersey.) was she worried that her messy floor would put off maggie, making the dog feel uncomfortable staying in such a filthy place??

lastly, and confirming my suspicion that she just simply doesn't want to watch the dog, never wanted to watch the dog, and is grasping at straws to make a coherent reason to not watch the dog so that she doesn't feel guilty just saying no, which I wish she would have done....she sent us this information via email. to my non-work address and to sean's work address. on a tuesday. knowing that sean doesn't get his work email until friday and that I may not check my email from work. how lame is THAT?

anyways, brett is going to watch maggie, thank god. but for a day or so, we didn't know what we were going to do. our dog is somewhat sensitive, and even if we felt comfortable leaving her at a kennel, I would expect to pee rainbows before finding somewhere that could take her on such short notice.

and the flat tire - so I take my work friend jarrett to chik-fil-a as a thank you for having him bail me out not once, but twice, when I had no lunch money for our cafeteria. (sounds like high school? you betcha.) chik-fil-a is at the mall, and I offer to drive. no problem when we got in the car. no problem driving the car. as we exit the car, I hear a loud hissing noise. at first, I was worried that it was my radiator cap - perhaps my car was beginning to overheat. I realized it was the tire as I saw it RAPIDLY deflating. we moved the car to a more flat area of the parking lot, thinking that maybe I had run over a screw or nail or glass, but it just kept deflating until it was totally flat - which was only a few seconds later. jarrett, who has my eternal gratitude, changed the tire even while he was in dress clothes for work. when sean took the tire in to our mechanic the next day, he told us that it was a bad valve, and that it was highly unusual for that type of problem to happen to a tire. unless you're me, because in addition to every normal reason for having a flat tire (bad tire, screws, nails, glass, hitting a bad pothole) I have also had a flat due to running over A FANCY TOOTHPICK. you know, the ones with the little plastic thingies on the end that you use to keep a club sandwich together. who runs over a fucking toothpick? I do.

my theory, though, is that ho-anne, wanting to twist the knife, sent the email and then quickly drove to pennsylvania, found me, followed me to the mall, and broke the valve. on purpose.

7 deadly sins

we all pretend we don't really like doing these things where we get to talk about ourselves and show off all of our endearingly quirky quirks, but we love it. admit it.

here's mine, at the bequest of nicole:

7 things I plan to do before I die, which fyi is a tad morbid.

1. travel overseas
2. go back to school
3. become a jogger, if only for a year
4. join a team sport or choir (to me, they are related. don't ask.)
5. I'm hesitant to commit to it, but adopt a child
6. drive across the US
7. try crack. just kidding. learn to cook, for real.

7 things I can do

1. blog
2. lactate
3. whistle really loudly
4. play rudimentary songs on any instrument I have ever picked up within minutes
5. hold my own in a conversation with higher ups
6. give a mean blow job
7. change a flat tire and other manly things

7 things I cannot do

1. remain patient
2. eat fish
3. look through a telescope
4. put my left shoe on first
5. be photographed well
6. wear a bikini
7. keep a secret from everyone (from most people, yes. but not every single person on earth)

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. sense of humor
2. intelligence
3. eyes
4. um...sense of humor again?
5. earlobes
6. uh...
7. pedigree

7 things that I say most often

1. totally
2. like
3. what?
4. you know, the thing/thingie
5. fucker
6. fuck
7. what the fuck

7 celebrity crushes

I don't really have any. seriously. if I had to name one, I'd probably say johnny depp, but that's if there were like a gun pointed to my head.

7 people I want to do this, ONLY if you feel like it

1. jen
2. kodi
3. lonna
4. ethan - ha!! like ethan would do this
5. jo-dee
6. sean!!!
7. kelly

tomorrow: hear about ho-anne and the flat tire...

that comment thingie

I'm doing that comment thingie where you have to type in the word. I took a look at it to make sure it was working, and this was the word it wanted me to type:



fokhl, indeed. perhaps this thing is also a comment unto itself.

the dawning of the age of aquarium (tm)

well, I finally snapped. this could mean so many things, but in this case it means 2 - I finally snapped and pleaded with sean to call out sick on sunday, and I finally snapped out of my funk.

the two are, of course, related.

after a grueling day of doing absolutely nothing on saturday, when sean came home, I asked him feebly if he felt sick. of course, he didn't catch on right away, not until my tears came, anyways. he did call out, but being the honest guy that he is, he told his manager (the night before, even) that he needed to take a personal day for his family, not because he wasn't feeling well. he told his manager it was for me. and that was the truth.

so on sunday, we slept "late" - ie, like 9am - and then trekked off to the aquarium. trent was already planning to go to the phillies game with brett, so it was just me and sean and bella. as we cruised through camden (could be so nice, if only they had less bail bond shops and more, well, anything) we looked at the philly skyline and decided we'd call camden "East Philly" from now on.

when you have a 9 month old baby, a trip to the aquarium is little more than a quick tour of various fish. you can't really read the signs or watch any of the little movies. or even stand and watch the fish. you have to kind of keep moving. but we had fun anyway. bella was totally enthralled with the fish that she could see at her level - the bigger fish in the tanks that reached to nearly the ground. she wasn't as thrilled after about an hour, though, unfortunately. and her arms weren't long enough to touch a shark or a ray. but we had a great time, except for the one thing that always spoils stuff for us - other people and their extremely selfish, crabby-ass stupidity. but we looked past it.

we got home around 2pm and I was really not ready for our day to end, even though sean was tired and so was bella. if I only get one day, dammit, I'm going to make the most of it. so I corralled everyone back into the car and we drove up to the quakertown public pool, which is right across the street from the playground that nicole was marvelling over. their pool is seriously the best public pool I have ever, ever, ever been to. it has a large swirly water-park quality water slide, a big giant mushroom fountain in the kiddie pool, smaller fountains that the kids are allowed to touch and sit on and play in, and a gradually sloped entrance to the kiddie part that allowed bella to splash and play in a small amount of water. but the best part was that the entire bottom and sides of the pool were covered in soft padding. not grody soft padding that harbors mold and other creatures, but soothing, clean padding that saves your feet from getting scraped and is soft on the knees so you can follow your crawling baby around without leaving a trail of blood and skin. it was great.

bella was so thrilled at finally not being hot that she fell asleep in sean's arms in the deeper part of the pool where he walked her back and forth between walls. and she stayed asleep for 2 hours - we actually had to wake her up to leave. if only I had brought a magazine, I would have been in heaven. (I dare not even say "start a book" because I might just evaporate on the spot.)

if only we'd done this sooner. the pool closes on labor day and nicole can't even join us for a day. next year, we're going to buy a membership even though it's 20 mins away from us, it's THAT nice. and they didn't give me a hard time about not living there or having a membership or any of that nonsense. and the snack bar has FANTA!!! god, I love me some orange sodey pop.

we came home refreshed and recharged, in time to be totally dragged down by the season finale of six feet under. I didn't care, though, because I was so happy to have spent the day sharing the parenting burden (I mean priviledge) with sean.

ahhhh. with this, I can carry on through the next 3 weeks until sean has EVERY sunday off.

sounds like an STD

functioning on 2 hrs sleep. hershey good. long. sunburn. had tiny bit of chocolate while there, bought $75 worth to bring home. rode rides. got wet. had altercation with camp teens from brooklyn re: linejumping. ate at 50s style diner in hershey (the town). good trip.

came home to a cranky, feverish baby. the crankiness reached literal fever pitch at about 2am, when I finally told sean to call the pediatrician. the fever wouldn't go down, she was screaming, and she wouldn't nurse, which is odd for her. we took turns quieting her down. sean took her to the doctor today, and it turns out that she has coxsackie virus, which is also called hand foot and mouth disease. the kind she has is the herpangina variation - luckily (I guess) not the kind that gives you blisters on your hands and feet. (lord knows I've had enough of that myself.) this kind is blisters in the back of your throat. babycenter.com describes them, and I'm going to say this verbatim, as "truly horrific to look at." she's just miserable. she insists on being held, is whiny, has a ton of snot pouring from her nose, refuses medicine, and is just generally extremely cranky. want to know what to do for a baby that has coxsackie? nothing. or, more specifically, wait. it takes about 10 days for all symptoms to go away. just in time for the weekend!!

we had to get a doctor's note saying she's not contagious anymore to allow her to go to daycare tomorrow. though they will have to post that a child in the infant room contracted coxsackie, and notes will have to go to all the children. so bella's got a scarlet C. though I'm sure it's daycare that gave her the fucking virus, but whatever. kids get stuff. they get over it. it's life. it won't be the last thing she gets from daycare, and plenty of kids not in daycare get it too.

anyway...it may be allergies or sympathy pain, but I have a headache and a sore throat.

I swear, sometimes I'm totally one with the universe and I display a positive attitude. seriously. please believe me.

riding the hershey highway while surfing the crimson tide

ethan just sent this link out to some of my old high school buddies, who will probably be appalled by the above headline and ensuing story. to you guys, first off, hi! and second, I swear it's not always this vulgar and it doesn't always go into this amount of detail. but sometimes it does. I'm sorry in advance. please continue to visit anyway.

anyway. tomorrow, sean and I are taking trent (but not bella, she will be staying with KKKathy, who will also be watching our dog, meaning I have to restrain myself from asking her very sweetly and politely to please don't put the dog to sleep without asking me first) to hershey park.

as the name implies, hershey park is a theme park centered around hershey's line of chocolate. and today's irony is that I have my period, and when I do, I want copious amounts of chocolate. which isn't ironic. but not being able to have chocolate lest I trigger a horrible ibs bout with all the pain and the tethering to the stanza da bagno, that is ironic. I'll be literally in the world of chocolate, where they pipe in chocolate smell, give out samples, and make even the street lights look like hershey kisses, and not be able to EAT any of it.

weekend at tricey's

or more aptly, better off dead.

did you ever have one of those weekends where you're actually counting down till monday morning when you can go back to work? I have. oh, I have. and this was one of em. actually this was YET ANOTHER one of em.

before I get more in depth, let me just give you an overview. friday night - mother in law visits. saturday - insanely hot day capped by slightly surreal impromptu high school reunion. saturday night/sunday morning - incredibly painful IBS bout. sunday - annoying 7 hour visit to my mother's house.

I realize that I've been bitching about weekends pretty much since I realized that sean would be moving to the weekday shift. it's like when you have to go to the bathroom really bad, and you see the toilet, and that makes you have to go that much more because you know it's thisclose. but seriously, some of these weekends are just way too much for me to handle.

first off, it's been 99F here for days. with humidity, they say it's like 110F. apologies to texans and/or floridians and/or anyone else who deals with this heat all the time. I love all of you, but I live in pennsylvania and we are only supposed to have short heat waves that are tempered by the gloriousness of being the birthplace of independence. the rest of the time, it's supposed to be pretty nice and we forget about all that liberty bell nonsense because we don't have to remind ourselves about why do we live in this burning pit of liquid hot magma again?

second, as sean said, we don't have air conditioning except for a window unit in our bedroom. which makes the first off part that much more of a factor.

and third, I'M ALL ALONE. yes, yes, I did it with trent for years, but for some reason, it's worse when you could have help but don't because of something like a stupid job for stupid money.

adding a fourth, I have my period. so you can all suck eggs if you don't feel like hearing me bitch. you heard me. SUCK GODDAMN EGGS.

so this doesn't end up as an extra long post, I'm just going to run the highlight reel.

jo-anne's (my mother in law) visits are just annoying off the bat because she constantly works into conversation that she never sees bella, as if we have to ask her if she wants to see her. last time I checked, phones and cars worked both ways. plus, she's always got some notion about how things work that is usually so far removed from reality that it really should be comical, but instead it's just frustrating. this time, it was how dvd players work, I think. it could have been cable. I tuned out.

saturday was so unbearably hot by 8am when I had to be at trent's soccer field that I had to leave with bella. so I missed the team's only goal of the day over 2 games, which of course was scored by trent. I fucking hate the heat.

then saturday night was nice, seeing some old high school friends, but I felt a bit disconnected at times when people were talking mass spectrometers and basal ganglia and whether their offices had windows. it had nothing to do with the company I was keeping, it had to do with what every single reunion situation deals with - having to take personal stock in where you are in life. plus, it was still fucking hot.

saturday night into sunday morning, I had one of the worst bouts of IBS that I've ever had in my life. and for the first time in HISTORY, I allowed someone into the bathroom with me so that I didn't a) burn up from the heat, and b) pass out. sean came in to help me even though he was already tired and had to get up at 4am. and we were in there for hours. at one point, he had to go in to make sure bella wouldn't wake up and instead of us having the transmitter for the baby monitor in the bathroom, we had to put the receiver in the bathroom so that he could be in the bed with bella listening for if I was still alive. I may have gotten transmitter and receiver wrong but you know what I'm saying. it was a long, horrible ordeal and I almost considered going to the hospital.

sunday, I had to drive an hour and a half to my mother's so that we could use her pool, only to find out that they don't allow babies anywhere but the baby pool, which was broken. hours later, we found out that they would allow bella in the pool if she had a swimmer diaper, which I had forgotten to bring. robert e lee went to 2 stores to get swimmer diapers but because he isn't very good at locating anything that he doesn't use regularly, he couldn't find them. so he came back, after about an hour, and then I had to go out and find some. and people, my mother lives in the middle of NOWHERE. the town is called bath, to give you some indication. there are only 2 traffic lights in the town, the center of which is about 5 blocks long. so anywhere you have to drive to get something is guaranteed to take at least a half hour. we finally got in the pool, but by that time it was naptime and bella was cranky and miserable. we didn't get home until about 15 minutes before six feet under, which did cheer me up a bit, but my stomach was still not right from the night before and I didn't wind up enjoying it as much as I wanted to.

and then, blissfully, the weekend was over. and every weekend that comes between now and mid september is going to likely be as excruciating, but each one that goes by gets us closer and closer to having sean be a part of things. and that will be HEAVEN.

Summer Home Stretch

Sean here feelin' the heat. Summer and heat go together like "steak and bacon". There's nothing wrong with a little sizzlin' if you're equipped to handle it. When you lack central air in your home, it makes you feel less equipped for coping with the heat (including simple things like breathing easy) unless you have a pool, and sorry folks. The Nemo pool isn't going to cut it for me. Although, it does feel nice to put my feet in along side Bella, but that can only last so long until the pruning takes effect so much that Darwin sends us back to our fishy origins from beyond the grave.

The heat has felt so bad lately that I actually look forward to coming to work to bask in the a/c. I was in such a hurry yesterday that, after merely WALKING down the stairs and breaking a sweat, I vacated the house quickly without breakfast, packed lunch, or my cell phone. At least I had a chance to be cool at work for 12 hours, but Patrice cannot say the same. I'm sure she'll tell you about it tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll have better luck today as she trucks up to Bath, PA with Bella to her mother's house, which has an air conditioner and a non-kid friendly pool.

All of this heat really has me looking forward to The Fall, which is, by far, my favorite season and even more special this year with the birth celebration of a very special daughter o' mine (Strangeafeet and Marksthespot can probably share the same enthusiasm about the upcoming Autumn). To get ready for the big shindig, I've been busy organizing the guest list and tweaking it so that our overall cost can somehow get submerged below the $1000 mark. Right now, staying above this mark seems inevitable, but I think it's a worthy cause because A) She's only going to turn 1 once in her life; and B) Our heathen tendencies steered us away from having a Christening, so we're already one behind on the list of big family occasions to have for baby.

Another facet I'm working on is the song list, which besides The Beatles "Birthday Song" will consist of all Halloween and other spooky/creepy/ghoulish songs I can think of. The list is long so far as I have plenty to work with, but if you have an obscure suggestion for a song that you think would go well at a child's Halloween-themed birthday party, please let me hear it.

As far as the diet goes (not going the distance or for speed right now), I have cheated in two ways this week. A) I have totally disregarded it in favor of eating out and snacking unnecessarily. B) I completely ignored the scale this morning, so I have no idea about the damage of said eating. This is compounded by the fact that Trent has been on vacation with Brett this week, and I haven't played Frisbee in a week. All of this bad eating and lack of exercise has me thinking that all positive steps forward have been followed by two steps back. So, I have nothing to report on that subject this week except that I'll try harder this week. Only a few more weeks until the beach!

Finally, I gave thought to posting the concert list on this site, but seriously. Patrice would kill me for A) Bringing up too many bad memories; B) Taking up too much space on this site; and C) Taking too much emphasis away from the topics that really matter. But, I'd like to honor the request of those of you who would be interested in checking out my 10 and 1/2 pages of former excessive show addiction. If you want to see it, send me an email at seanmilligan31@hotmail.com , and I'll send you the attachment . And, if you have your own list or are interested in compiling your own and need my help, or if you just want to trip down memory lane about more of your experiences, I look forward to hearing from you.

It's too bad for Marksthespot that he saw Pink Floyd and Roger Waters a month apart. If only someone purposely booked both acts on the same day in the same venue so that Waters unknowingly showed up and was forced to play the great gig with Gilmore and his old mates. It's hard to believe that such a treat wasn't made public again until the quartet breathed at this past July's Live 8 in London.

Shine on you crazy diamonds! Stay cool, and if you spend too much time and money keeping yourselves cool, and you still get brain damage, run like hell!

good news, bad news

and the good is really good and the bad is really bad.

the bad news: my stepmother and father put down my childhood dog, wally. without telling me. granted, it's not like they removed wally from my house and had him put to sleep - wally lives with them and has lived with them since I was 18. I got wally for my 16th birthday, so I spent 2 years caring for him while my dad and KKKathy had him for 12 years. kathy was the one who taught him all the tricks he knew, and took him for walks, and groomed him, and fed him, and later in life she would carefully wash him and clean up after him as his entire back end was paralyzed from arthritis. so it's not like they had to consult with me. clearly wally was kathy's dog after all this time. but I loved that dog, too, and I would have liked to know that they were going to do it - or at least that they had. I found out by sean telling me after kathy had mentioned it IN PASSING on the phone regarding something else entirely.

the last time I saw wally was this past sunday. kathy said that this could possibly be the last time I saw him, and I said I knew. he was gray, and old, and deaf, and blind, and couldn't walk. my dad had wanted to put him out of his misery a few months ago, but kathy firmly said she wasn't ready for that yet. and as of sunday, kathy still wasn't ready. in fact, she said she wasn't sure that they could go on vacation at the end of august because she didn't want anyone else watching wally. so you can imagine how I felt finding out the way I did that it was this past tuesday, 48 hours after her telling me she wasn't ready, that wally was put down.

like I said, it wasn't my decision. he was hardly my dog. but I told sean - I think it would be evident by the way I cried when my dad told me that they were even considering doing this; that when I was finally able to, I bought a dog EXACTLY LIKE WALLY, same breed, same coloring, same goddamn BREEDER as wally, because I loved wally so much; it would be evident that I did, in fact, love wally and would care deeply when he was gone.

I took pictures of wally on that last day, and I'll post them here when I download them. wally is much grayer and broader and has bigger paws than maggie, but when wally was a younger dog, he was almost indistinguishable from maggie:


it's not the greatest picture, but it's one where I think maggie resembles wally really closely. from what we know of our breeder, it's entirely possible that maggie is actually related to wally.

I haven't talked to kathy or my dad yet. I don't know what I'll say. they had no obligation to me, and I'm angry, and they're probably very sad, so I don't know what's appropriate. for now, I'm going the avoidance route.

the good news, and I wish it were timed better: bella can crawl. she crawled clear across the room for sean yesterday, and again for me when I got home. she pushes herself up to sitting and can get up and down while holding onto furniture like it's no thang. gone are the days when we could plop her on the floor and quick let the dog out, or keep a fan on the floor, or put her in the middle of our bed while we get dressed. now more than ever, we have to get stuff done with our house. babyproofing, but more importantly - new carpet, new pergo in the front room, and a new kitchen floor.

put on your yarmulke, it's time for lonnica...

(so no one is confused, I'm tipping my hat to an overused but still slightly funny SNL/adam sandler song and "yarmulke" is pronounced "YA-ma-ca" and I'm simultaneously giving an unbidden and unauthorized nickname to lonna.)

yesterday, our living room was bursting with childy goodness. there were babies all over the place. nicole and noah came up first and had some tasty pizza in a somewhat clandestine manner, since mark wasn't there (so they got the white pizza with all the cheese he won't eat) and lonna and ethan weren't there yet (as they are vegans). not judging at all. just saying.

the babies played poker while the adults (sean and nicole) played peekaboo and rolled a ball back and forth between them. I came home around 6, and lonna and ethan came in around 6:30. and then it began!

dermot.
is.
adorable.

I couldn't ever imagine ethan with a child, just because I think he was born a grown up. you know what I mean? but he was so gentle and patient with dermot. lonna is totally confident and a great conversationalist. we all talked while dermot tried to pet and/or rip the hair off our dog and cat, and occasionally noah would try to escape to the kitchen to play with the pets' water bowl. bella, being fairly immobile, just sat there watching everyone.

we all nursed our kids at various times, soothed cries from time to time, and shared alot about birth experiences. that, and sean and ethan talked about hell fest, crazy fest, slaughter fest, metal fest, gore fest, and rock till your ears bleed fest. (only three of those are actual events.)

it was so great to see lonna, ethan, and dermot, especially since they live in iowa now and only get here once a year or so to see ethan's parents. I am sorry to anyone who lives in iowa (and likes it) but I have to say that I would be getting the fuck out of iowa more often than once a year if I could swing it, from what they tell me about it. (and what I've seen on children of the corn.)

someday when I download the pictures, I'll post them so you can see the cuteness that is dermot.

let's talk trent

because I was reminded this morning, while commenting on blogs, of 2 distinct trent incidents, I thought I'd do a post dedicated to the little man we love named trent.

some of the more vivid memories, some not so great and some okay:

the alarm clock incident that I shared on rebecca's blog. trent was about 9 or 10. I was so angry at him for not going to sleep hours after his bedtime that I picked up trent's alarm clock, screamed at him "DO YOU SEE WHAT TIME IT IS??" and then threw the clock against the wall by his head, where it broke. we were both speechless. and then we both cried. I still keep that clock under my side of the bed to remind me to never lose control like that again.

the slurpee incident. I recently told nicole aobut this. an 11ish year old trent and I took our dog maggie for a walk to the local 7-11. I stayed outside with maggie while trent went in to get a slurpee. the slurpee machine went wild and spilled slurpee all over trent and the floor and everything else. trent tried not to cry but a few girls were nearby and laughed at him, and the store manager yelled at him. I watched through the window, unable to do anything because I couldn't take the dog in the store. it was heart wrenching. I knocked on the window and had him stay with the dog while I cleaned up and got him a fresh slurpee, which he no longer wanted.

when trent was about 3, and brett and I were broken up but not yet on completely unfriendly terms, we went to see our friend dave fryling's wedding in poughkeepsie NY and left trent with brett's mother. when we came home, brett's mother came running out, her shirt covered in blood. the first thing she said was "trent's okay." but one look at that shirt, and I could feel my own blood draining from my face. this was one of those times, like amanda said, where you have to be calm so you don't freak out your kid. trent was lying on the couch, face swollen and covered in blood. it seems brett's much younger brother, who was probably 8 at the time, had been swinging a wooden baseball bat in the back yard and trent had walked up behind him and got caught in the face with the bat on a full swing. he still has a scar from the stitches on his cheek - it was right on the cheekbone. the doctors said he was lucky he didn't break it.

I have a thousand more memories, like when trent started to learn to walk while in full leg plaster casts because of his surgery for clubbed feet, and how he ate dog shit and got upset not because it tasted bad but because I made him stop (and the ensuing embarrassing phone call to the pediatrician to ask what to do - fyi, if your kid eats dog shit, just let him drink alot of milk), and all the times he was a sweet boy who would do things for kids who the other kids wouldn't talk to...

but I'll end with one that most of my friends know. when trent was about 5, he created a one man band which he called Trent's Pants. he had been making up "songs" that lasted about 30 seconds each, but he had amassed like 30 of them. one day maybe a year or so later, when he was bored, I told him to draw a poster promoting his new album, because we had set out to tape record his songs and distribute them. which unfortunately never happened, though trent remembers all of the songs to this day. anyway, he wanted to come up with a catchy slogan for his album release, so this is what he came up with, emblazoned on a red poster with a very child-like picture of a pair of pants, in his uneven 1st grade script:

TAKE A TRIP INSIDE TRENT'S PANTS

he thought it was genius. I wasn't going to burst his bubble, so when our friends would come over and ask how the band was coming along, he'd tell them all about his slogan. of course, we all giggled. people wanted me to make shirts, and trent was all for it, but I was afraid of being arrested for corrupting a minor. I still may make those shirts, as trent is on the cusp of puberty and in a few years, unfortunately, it may be something he still wants the female public to do.

the amazing chocolatier

this weekend was both a success and a failure. sunday was a throwaway day, but let's focus on the positive, shall we?

friday - got gigantic ice cream cones. nuff said.

saturday - we gave birth to the BEEF HEAD and saw C&TCF.

sunday - shhhhh.

so saturday. we had plans to drop off bella with brett, and meet sean in frazer, which is exactly as small and obscure as it sounds. it's just outside of west chester, which is totally not the west chester that hillary clinton is from, but is still nice. sean works in west chester and had gone to this place in frazer called Cheeburger Cheeburger, in homage to the SNL skit. they had a burger that is 20 oz, and if you eat it all, they take your picture and put it up on the wall. what we didn't know is that if you're 12 and under and eat a 10 oz burger, you also get your picture taken and have it up on the wall.

of course, we encouraged trent to be a total glutton and do the 10 oz. in fact, I appalled myself by coaching him not to eat the fries that came out and not to drink any of his chocolate milkshake so he would have room for the whole burger. and he came through with flying colors (as I'm sure the burger itself did sometime yesterday). he ate the burger, got his picture taken, was introduced to the whole restaurant, and is now famous.

but the best part? nicole had gotten him a t shirt from old navy that said "BEEF HEAD" on it with a picture of a steak and a little flag stuck into it that says "Prime". and trent happened to be wearing it, completely coincidentally. so he is immortalized on the Cheeburger Cheeburger bulletin board in frazer with his BEEF HEAD shirt. life doesn't get much better than that.

after dinner, we saw charlie and the chocolate factory, and I loved it. I even loved (and laughed at) the oompa loompa songs. I thought it was clever, didn't take itself too seriously, and did enough tips of the hat to the original to set itself apart but not too apart.

and then sunday came crashing down, but sunday is over. amen.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Great leprechauns on ice! Sean here, and I SO wasn't expecting to see the green background replacing the pink. Goes to show you how often I frequent this place (or infrequent, if you will). Sorry I've been away so long. I don't think I legitimately posted since before I left for Atlanta (except for those bitchin' test results). That's alright, though, because Patrice is so damn fine (growlllll....) at keeping everyone up to date, and I value that, and I'm glad that you all do too. In fact, I'm overwhelmed with the amount of blog-love being passed around lately, so I just want to say that I appreciate everyone too, and it's wonderful to meet everyone's acquaintance like this on a daily (or in my case, weekly/monthly/whenever I get around to it) basis. I'll fill you in on details about me lately that Patrice may have missed.

Indicated by the subject line, I'm pretty happy right now. I'm looking forward to going down the shore soon, and much like a topic already discussed, I'm so far from how I want to look on the beach, but at this point, I don't care because at least I'm doing something about it. I get comfort out of knowing that I'm trying hard regardless of the outcome. If I sat back and did nothing, then I would have nothing to blame but my own lack of effort. I'm still at 224 lbs., which is still about 30 lbs. more than I want to be, but I've been feeling good regardless. I'm eating well for the most part. I usually don't go out of my way to eat badly, but if bad (meaning tasty goodness) food comes my way, I have a hard time passing it up. This IT guy (Information Technology...not Pennywise from "It") just came over and offered leftover chicken fingers and popcorn chicken. After working 11 straight hours, my will was weak, so you know the outcome. I've been good for the most part, but tripped up a little by doing a bit of celebrating upon passing the test (beers and going out to eat several times), but I rebounded from that successfully with no weight gained. Although, I try not to think of the progress I may have undone.

The X factor lately has been Trent who, since our recent purchase of a cool Frisbee from Toys 'R' Us, wants to do nothing but run around with me and throw the disc, so I do. A) It's a lot of fun. B) It's good bonding time for the two of us. C) I sweat hella buckets indicating that I'm working out legitimately (or that I'm severely out of shape [a little from column A and a little from column B]). Along with the sweat, I feel my heart rate increasing, and my muscles tightening (like toy-ger). So, the exercise is making me feel better about myself. A few more weeks of this, and I should start seeing more results as I move away from this 224 plateau that I've been stuck on for a month.

Other than that, I've just been savoring the cuteness of Bella. I do this especially with the thought in mind that she will not be like this forever, which kills me, but I'm making the best of it. It's too hot for the walks that we were taking up until two weeks ago, but at least we have that Finding Nemo baby pool to dip ourselves into to compensate for our lack of A/C. If you look at the pool upside down, "Nemo" looks like "Owen".

Movie-wise, we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night, and it's safe to say that we all loved it. I can't wait until Bella is old enough to see great movies like this one with us. I also look forward to her being big enough to run around the field with Trent and I as we hurl the Frisbee at each other. Then again, I can wait because she is such a darling at this point, and she will continue to be (fate willing), but in different, more grown-up forms. I like this form for now, and I never want to forget how wonderful she is at the present time. Ah, the value of a video camera!
Since my iPod has plenty of music on it for now, I found something else to occupy my time, and it' s not reading (despite being stuck in the middle of Goblet Of Fire for the past two years and being 5 months behind on my Decibel Magazine reading). I sat down this time last week and started composed a list of every musical performance (a.k.a. show) I have ever been to. It started back in 1994 at Hershey Park when I saw Bob Dylan, and it brings me all the way to April '05 when I went to Worcester. It was very difficult to tally 'em all, but I think I have succeeded. Then again, I thought that yesterday, and I remembered two more today, so the list will probably continue to grow in increments. I used the Interent (amazing how much archived info you can pull from there), concert promoters (Sean Agnew from R5 productions), and friends (WB and Storm to name a few) for reference, and it's coming along pretty well. Patrice asked me why I'm doing this. Well, A) It will free up some of the space in my mind so that I don't have to waste grey matter for fear of forgetting these great experiences and occassional horrible annoyances. B) I'm sentimental. I like looking back on my life so far and appreciating how far I have come. C) It's a reflection of my personality. Looking at the list shows me how I have grown. For example, I don't go to nearly as many shows as I used to (went to 36 in the year 2001 alone compared to 2 this year). Another example is how the list shows how my musical tastes have changed. Finally, I like to think about the bands I was seeing and who went with me to see them, and if either are even still around or a part of my life. I can recall going to shows with friends and family members who I don't even talk to anymore, and I've seen bands that broke up soon after I saw them (some timely and some deservingly). Reflecting and compiling this info helps me admire the bands that are still around even more so (that is, if they are still around for the right reasons), and I make a special note of the people with whom I still have a strong friendship (most importantly, a marriage with a special author of this blogsite). Thinking back helps me gain massive appreciation for the ones that have made it through all of these years with me. It's not like I was born in 1994 or anything (that would be 1976), but my life definitely did start over that year when I broke out of my NE Philly bubble/cave/vacuum and started tasting flavors of life that I never had exposure to in the one-track mindset from where I came. But, that's a whole different story for another time. I may have gone on too long, but it was overdue. I hope you enjoyed my tangent.

to all the blogs I've loved before

let's talk about blogs.

I started this thing last march, shortly after finding out I was pregnant. it was basically to just talk about what it's like to be pregnant, because at the time, I was the only person out of my group of closest friends to be pregnant, and they wanted blow by blow info. and it was sort of like my diary. shortly after, nicole got pregnant, but I blogged on anyway. my friends, one by one, started blogging, and it was such a great way to keep in touch with all of them. even the ones I talk to several thousand times a day.

then our little network got bigger - either by being nextblogged or nextblogging ourselves. my blogroll (which someday I hope returns to its rightful position over there --> ) is full of people who have contributed something to my day to day life, either by coming here and introducing themselves, or having been introduced elsewhere. now, I have a blogiverse full of people who I keep track of, and who, in turn, keep track of me.

most of you already know where this is going. I would be heartbroken if one of my bloggy friends stopped blogging. and so, I am heartbroken. no excuses are necessary, no explanations needed - but boobecca, please...even if it's a totally new blog, please return to us. and the rest of you, don't stop blogging. it doesn't matter if you have 2 readers or 200, there are those among us who wonder where you go when you're gone. when kodi went to the boy scout jamboree, and we heard about accidents that happened there, I told my husband "I have a friend there! I hope she's okay." and when recently talking about Real World Austin, I told someone "I have a friend who lives in austin, and she loves it." that sums up how I feel about everyone I connect with through this medium - we're all friends. friends who never actually met each other, friends we'd pass by on the street if we saw them unless they were dressed and posed exactly like their little icon, friends who know more about us in some cases than some of our own family.

I guess the theme here, besides convincing missuz j to blog again, is to thank all of you who come here and everyone who I've visited for creating something bigger than bits and bytes on an intangible superhighway.

birthdays and monthaversaries

everyone seems to be getting older all of a sudden.

first off, I'd like to say happy birthday to missuz j, and thank you to nicole for finding her blog and leading me to it. I hear sophie gene's birthday is upcoming as well, and her husband erik just had his own birthday. I wonder if sophie will grow up thinking that all families have their birthdays in the same 4 week span.

second, I'd like to say happy 9 months to noah mccormack eggerts, who is a sweet, sweet boy. noah, without your mom, I'd be insane by now. please do what you can to make her not have a heart attack anytime soon by worrying about you. yes, yes, I know, most of that is completely out of your hands, but I'm just saying. like running with scissors or climbing the baby gate, just don't do it, okay? for me.

third, noah's proud papa is going to be something like 48 thousand hundred years old soon, so in preparation, I want to say happy birthday to mark.

fourth, tracey the scuttleslut is going t be 48 thousand hundred and 3 years old at the end of this month, and even though she'll remind us all 50 times, I wanted to say happy birthday to her as well.

last, but not least, happy 9 months to baby bella, whose 9 month anniversary of being thrust from my womb I did not acknowledge on the 31st when I was supposed to. sweetheart, I love you so much, even though you've already learned how to throw a temper tantrum by screeching and going stiff as a nail when you don't get your way.

so hats off to all of you who are getting older by the second...that means you, too!

EDITED TO ADD:

happy belated to the guy I apparently got into alot of trouble in high school, ethan, and happy 18 months to his wonderful little cherub dermot. (thanks lonna!!) (ps, I don't have the url to a dermot picture - care to hook a sista up?) I can't wait to see dermot in person and to see all of you again! (sidenote: ever google ethan? holy shit! I remember when he was just a kid with glasses who laughed at our english teacher.)

oh yes, weight a minute mr. postman (weight!)

the reality of going to the shore is starting to crash down on me like a wave from the atlantic filled with dead jellyfish. I got my bathing suits from lands end and returned two of them - leaving me with one suit. which sean thinks is completely appropriate, but I am not to be expected to spend 4.5 days at the shore wearing the same suit every day, am I? ladies, back me up here. so I went ahead and ordered 4 more suits from spiegel.com that were, amazingly, $20 apiece. again, whichever ones I don't like, I'll return. I am not holding up high hopes for them, though, because I've been brainwashed by the materialistic consumerism society we live in that if it's not expensive, it's crap.

so about the weight thing, because I haven't been very diligent about my progress or lack thereof. I have weighed myself twice since that original post a while back. and both times, the scale hovered around 2 lbs shy of my original 140. but my clothes have been fitting alot better lately, and I've been complimented by people who aren't quick with the compliments (and some who are very quick with the compliments) saying that I look like I've lost weight. so I consider that a success.

sean, on the other hand, seems to be lacking direction in this area and I think he needs something way more structured. though I think he looks fine, he is disgusted with himself and wants to change so badly. I feel terrible for him because I know exactly how that feels and I want to support him. it's just that I can't put myself through the counting points thing again.

I am definitely not where I'd choose to be, especially given the rear look on my bathing suits, but it doesn't seem to matter as much to me, either. (though, ask me again when our beach blankets are next to some young, nubile bikini wearers - or worse, a mother who is older than me who is wearing a bikini but has 5 young children.)

oh - and a word to the wise about using jergen's natural glow, the stuff I had to buy for $10 a bottle on ebay (but that I saw at walmart the other day for $2.50 a bottle, and there were 40 thousand of them): do not use on creasy places, like ankles or that space where your leg meets your torso. and do not use on skin that's previously used crappy self tanner - it seems to reactivate it. but when I use it on the leggier part of my legs, it seems to be doing a good job making me look less pasty. it does help if you're using it on top of skin that is less pallor than maybe ever so slightly sunkissed. I noticed it looked alot more natural once I had actually let the sun touch my legs for more than a few minutes.

so now all I have to worry about for the beach is the mother with the bikini, the dead jellyfish, and probably bella eating sand. I can't wait!

swingin for the fences

when people today have asked me what I did this weekend, I just look at them with tired, red eyes, over the ridge of my sunburned nose, and say one word.

baseball.

trent's last ever little league tournament started on thursday. they were playing deep run, which is the sports complex that I used to play soccer at. (dangle, you preposition.) I haven't been back to deep run since I was 17, and returning was a little surreal. it's a lot bigger now, and the soccer fields are new and in the expanded area. most of trent's games were played on what used to be the field I played on while in the teen years.

deep run's little league team made it so far up the ladder to the little league world series last year that they were on ESPN. it's not hard to imagine that they were whipping the butts of most of the other local teams, which begs the question of why they were even playing in them. it was more than a little unfair. think of the kids who were on the losing end of a 31 - 1 game. thirty-one to one. and that was in the 4th inning.

so deep run had been crushing opponents this year at most of the tournaments that trent has played. it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that whoever they played, they'd win. so we had low expectations for trent's team, even though they had won their first two games. it was hot, sunny, and dry on saturday when the teams faced off. I had to leave early to get ready for nicole and beth, who were coming to my house later. when I left, it was 4 to 1 in the 4th inning, which was, to me, a total win, since we weren't getting crushed. we were holding our own.

apparently I left the single most incredible game in lansdale little league history, as not only did we hold them to the 4 runs they had scored, but the kid who batted after trent scored a walk-off grand slam to win the game. and trent was on first at the time, so he scored the tying run.

the team's outlook had changed dramatically after the thick-headed coach finally decided to put both trent and the kid who would later hit that grand slam into the game a few weeks ago. I think you remember me saying that trent was benched most of the time, simply for playing the same position as the coach's son. the coach put trent in, finally, not because he was doing well - because he was - but because while the other kids had gotten complacent (because they were hardly ever taken out - only for the requisite 1 at bat or 3 consecutive outs required for the benched players) and trent was still full of hustle, even though he was hardly playing. so as a token gesture, and not because he felt trent deserved it, he started trent at center field and let him be the leadoff hitter.

the rest, as they say, is history. not only did trent keep up the hustle, but he did so well that they kept him at his position, moving him to second base to switch things up instead of moving him to the bench. and he remained as the leadoff hitter for the rest of the season. I'm so proud of him. and the kid who hit the home run got put in, too, because of his good attitude, and they beat the smug, complacent, well-funded deep run team because of it.



in non-baseball news, I had a great time reminiscing about high school with beth and nicole and brett on saturday afternoon. check out beth's son joseph. isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw???

cheerio!