KBRA Christmas Special

So yesterday as we were opening presents, Abra noticed me writing down a list of who got what from whom. She came over, looked at the list of everyone's presents, and said "Who's winning?"

Santa Just Left!

Here's how it looks at our house, after Santa has left and before we leave it to the cats:



Merry Christmas, all!

Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!

OK, today we start a new recurring blog theme called "cheap cheap cheap!" As many of you are aware, I am one cheap bastard. I'll go out of my way to save $5 (as long as I dont have to spend $5 in gas to do it!). Perhaps the only person I know that's cheaper than me is my buddy Mark -- and it's close.

So whenever I score some particularly cheap savings, I'll crow about it here. Today's feat of cheapness, courtesy of Walgreen's, was a doozy.

Last Wednesday, I notice (courtesy of slickdeals.net) that the Walgreen's website has a "$5 off $20 in in-store purchases today-only" coupon. So I print it out, go to the local Walgreen's and load up on some on-sale knock-off meds (you think I'm gonna buy the brand-name stuff??).

When I get to the checkout counter, the clerk says "sorry, we dont take internet coupons."

Say what? It's from the Walgreen's website and can only be used in-store.

Naturally, I tell the kid to call the shift manager. The shift manager agrees, they don't take internet coupons.

OK, so I walk out (leaving everything behind -- I'm not buying things after that!) and go home. The wife comes home to find me drinking a 7&7 and typing out an email to Walgreen's corporate office. You can imagine the content: "false advertising", "bad customer service", "i'll continue shopping at CVS after this", all the usual.

Yesterday morning, I get an email from the head store manager apologizing, saying the clerk and shift-manager i dealt with were wrong, and that they *do* accept the coupons, and here's a $20 gift card for your trouble. OK, that works for me.

Then today, again courtesy slickdeals, I see that Walgreen's is offering an even-better "$10 off $30 today-only coupon". So off I go to Walgreen's to stock up on on-sale store-brand meds and vitamins. And here's the haul:

Equivalent price of name-brand meds :~$75

Pre-sale price of store-brand meds: $52

On-sale price: $43

After $10 coupon: $33

Final price, after $20 giftcard: $13

Oh yeah, that's sweet. And to think they could have had me at $5 off!

Cognitive Tips from KBRA

Abra, to Thalia this morning while unsuccessfully searching for a toy:

"Hang on, Thalia, I've gotta go potty. That will help me think better."

School Picture Time!

Yes, it's kindergarten school picture time! So before we get started with this little tale, let me take you back, oh, about 37 years ago to a small hamlet named "Annandale, Virginia" where a young, aspiring astronomer-to-be in kindergarten was going to be getting his school picture taken. So his father cut his hair. Yes, you read that right -- nothing like a Dad-haircut to get one ready for a school picture. I think he put a bowl over my head to do it. (God love you, Pop, but I honestly think you did.)

Anyway, you can imagine how that turned out. And I'm sure that one of my oh-so-helpful siblings will be happy to post the picture online for everyone to see. It's the kind of thing that ends up first in an FBI-file somewhere before eventually being burned into the social consciousness of a nation after an unfortunate event: Faculty member snaps, beats pre-med student senseless with salami after one too many requests for extra credit; tragedy traced back to psychologically damaging childhood picture. That sort of thing.

So when Abra came home clutching the order form for her upcoming class picture, I was very excited to see how it would turn out, of course. Being as cheap as I am, I naturally instructed doting mother to buy the minimum, and I'd just scan them. (No, I'm not going to pay an extra $4.95 for a sepia print with wild west borders, the $8.95 it would take to get the keychain fob, or the $15 for the mousepad. Yes, I'm a bad, cheap parent. Go fix me a turkey pot-pie!) So we sent her to school on the big day (no, I didn't cut her hair), prepared for full entertainment value in return.

We were not disappointed. When she brought her pictures home, Brenna immediately send me an email using the phrase "horribly awful" if I remember correctly. I was pleased as punch -- she looks like a kindergarten Clint Eastwood who had a few too many boxes of Juicy Juice and is now being made to sit still:




Priceless!

Brenna of course insisted we send it back for a retake, which you can bet I was only willing to do after I scanned it. I mean, this thing is going into the long-term files so that I have it ready for the first time she has a boyfriend over.

Anyway, so we sent it back and had her do a retake and here's how the next one turned out.




Aww, very cute, this will be the one the grandparents get. But I'm never gonna give up the Clint Eastwood shot -- it's a classic. Plus, the FBI might need it at some point down the road....

Maybe I yell too much?

So yesterday Abra was drawing pictures and decided to draw a family portrait that involves, yes, me yelling at Thalia.

(be sure to click on the picture to see a bigger version!)

I can't help but think that Dad looks like a homicidal Fred Flintstone, while Mom is portrayed as a Cyclopian Stepford Wife with the Marilyn Quayle hairdo -- I shudder to contemplate what this says about Abra's view of her parents. Thalia clearly is not taking her scolding well, and I must say that Abra has captured little sister's expression quite well! Meanwhile, Wacko has left the house and is off running around in the yard -- maybe I'm yelling because Thalia let the dog out?

Anyway, just another typical day of peace and tranquility at our house.

I should point out that, unlike most of Abra's drawings where, upon completion, she proudly shows it around, I found this one sitting quietly on the dining room table after she and Thalia had left to play. Hmmm.....

Yet Another KBRA update

(left: Tom Waits. right: not Tom Waits)

So I'm listening to some Tom Waits ("...i got sixteen shells from a thirty ought six...") and Abra walks into the room and says "Why is Oscar singing?"

If you've ever heard Tom Waits sing, you know she is pretty much spot-on with that comment.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

So today I walked Abra and Thalia (and Wacko) to the bus stop, where we met Lily and her dad Richard. After Lily and Abra got on the bus, Richard and I walked back with Thalia, both of us holding her hands, as the stream of morning traffic passed by.

It occurred to me: two men, walking down the sidewalk with their dog and a child of chinese-extraction, we looked like the perfect example of the modern gay family.

So we started scratching our crotches and loudly talking football. (OK, not really. At least not the crotch-scratching part.)

She's Out of the Will -- Part II

In school last week, Abra was asked to draw pictures of food she liked and food she didn't like. Here is one of her pictures:


DOESN'T LIKE SUSHI????

Gawd.

Well, the sushi lovers still rule this house 5-4. It's a good thing I have the cats on my side.

(I will say, however, that she drew a pretty good likeness of herself whenever I cook.)

Calling Bob Vila

Anybody know how to fix this? It's on the upper story roof, which means it will be a pain to get to. Do I sawzall out that whole section of rafter and try and shape a new piece of wood to fasten into its place?

KBRA broadcast update

So we're in the rec center last night waiting for Thalia's ballet class to finish. Abra sees this rather well-sculpted gentleman working out on a weight machine and says (loudly):

Wow, look Daddy! He has big muscles! I'll bet he'd be good in a bar fight!

Cat Thoughts

Cat Thought #1: Nelson needs to go on a diet.

Before:

After:

Hmm, Iams weight control cat food is now being served!

Cat Thought #2: the other day I saw Tango and Healy sitting on the couch together.


Given that they hate each other with the white hot searing heat of a thousand suns*, the concept of them sitting peaceably on the couch together kind of made me think of this picture:


Oh, and Healy: you need to go on a diet, too...


(* the "white hot searing heat of a thousand suns" phrase has been shamelessly stolen from the inestimable Dr. Walter Harris.)

REDRUM!

So Thalia is working hard on her letters, but has this tendency to write mirror images. Perfect mirror images. Case in point, her writing this morning of "Mommy, Thalia, Abra":



It's exquisite, both the letters and the writing is perfectly backwards. Here it is mirrored:

What's going on in her eye/head/hand to do this? I dunno, but it fascinates me. And at age 4 (in a few days) this is not really a worry. Or so I thought, until I remembered Danny Torrance.





So if I wake up and see this on my door any time soon, I'll be quite worried....

The Holiday Reddi-Whip Oral Injection

So for the kids in our family, one of the traditions at holiday meals is the ever-popular shot of reddi-whip straight to the mouth from Papou. (To the non-Greeks out there, "Papou" means grandfather in Greek....) The grandkids would line up for the shot, and then run to the back of the line to see if they could double-up on the dose. The tradition waned in recent years as the grandkids got a more.... discerning palate(?), but now Papou has new grandkids to indoctrinate. So sure enough, this Thanksgiving Abra and Thalia lined up, and the results were rather unique.

First up was Thalia, who was a bit unsure about the whole process, but was game at first....


But then, she wasn't sure about what to do with a mouthful of reddi-whip.


And so it got spat out. Infidel!

Then Abra got in to the act. Having witnessed the operation on Thalia, she was a bit readier for what was coming.

But even she gave the reddi-whip rather mixed reviews, while Thalia looked on, still in rather stunned disbelief.


Rather odd reactions, if you ask me. Ah well -- we will simply have to keep trying until they succumb to the power of Reddi-Whip.

See See C.C.?

So Abra comes home from school with "sight words" -- words that she has to use to make stories or draw pictures, etc (don't ask me the details, I don't understand half of the homework assignments she comes home with....). Anyway, her latest sight word was "see," so what does she come up with?


SEE SEE SABTHEA! aka C.C. Sabathia, the Cleveland Indian's Cy Young award winning pitcher:



Heh, her mom and I both laughed out loud at that one. I will admit there is a good bit of sports on the TV around our house, and Abra and Thalia are soaking it up like little sponges....

Buckeye's is good spelers!

Yes, it's Ohio State - Michigan week again. Time for the battle for the Rose Bowl, played in lovely Pasadena. Or, if you are the Ohio State Buckeyes, I guess it's played in "Pasedena", at least according to this article in the local paper. Is that Pasedena, North Dakota, maybe?

This reminds me of the episode of Cheers where Norm and Cliff go out for dinner at the Hungry Heifer:

Norm: Yeah, Cliffy had himself the "Ton O' T-Bone". For less than four bucks you get 24 ounces of USDA Choice "bef".

Cliff: Bef? No, you mean beef.

Norm: Beef? Don't be ridiculous, Cliffy. That stuff is "bef". You see it's a Hungry Heifer trademark for a processed, synthetic – what – meat-like substance.

Cliff: Ah, no.

Norm: What do you expect for four bucks? You see me complainin' about the "loobster"?

Maybe that's what's gonna happen to the Buckeyes. They'll go to the Rows Bowl in Pasedena, while Michigan will get to go to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

And how much do you want to bet that Doug Lesmerises has an English degree from Ohio State?

I had no idea....

So I found this picture from a while back. This was taken on Nov 16, 2002, the day of the Michigan-Wisconsin football game. Brenna (and Abra) had come to Mark's for the game, as had I. This was the first I had ever met little Abra, she was quite the cutie.


I had no idea at the time that I was holding my daughter-to-be. Wow.


As it turned out, Brenna was very sick that day, so it was just me, Mark, and Matt that went to the game. Michigan won, of course, 21-14. Anthony Davis had a good game rushing for Wisconsin, with 154 yards, but Chris Perry eclipsed him, rushing for 177 yards for Michigan...

Mouse in Da House!

So I used to get mice in the house pretty frequently, but since Nelson and Healy showed up, there have been no mice sightings, at least not in the living area (a few mice have been seen in the basement...).

And now with Pearl and Tango around, we now have four cats. Add in the fact that Wacko is part terrier and we now have five mousers in the house. So you'd think the mice would stay far, far away.

Well, now that the weather is turning cold again, guess who tried to move into the house today? Here is the first sign that we had a small visitor:


So looking under the radiator, there was a little mouse squished up against the wall, trying to avoid Pearl's terrifying wrath.



It must be admitted that, from the mouse's perspective, Pearl can be a particularly worrisome sight:



And then the other cats decided to come over and help out:



(You will notice that Tango is not there. Tango seems very pleased that all the other cats are in the dining room so she has the living room to herself, thank you very much.)

So here we sit; the cats are camped out by the radiator, and the mouse is trying to make itself as small as possible. I imagine this little stand-off will last... as long as it takes.

Stay tuned...

Update: Pearl finally caught the mouse, and was running around with it in her mouth. She dropped it for a second, and I (to her extreme frustration) snatched her up and the mouse ran away. She's peeing in my shoes tonight for sure....

Dear Sparty

28-24 Michigan

Halloween postmortem

The latest from your favorite radio station and mine, KBRA, broadcasting day and night:

Abra: You know the best part about Halloween? You get all this candy and you don't have to pay for it.

Heh, daddy's girl!