Liam got in on the Earth Day action in his spiffy new "Save My Planet" t-shirt.



By the way, can you guess what film & TV actor Eddie Albert has to do with Earth Day?   Ben over at Environmental Graffiti notes that, due to the actor’s extraordinary work with environmental causes & groups, when International Earth Day was being organized in the early 70s, it was decided that the holiday must be held on April 22nd — Eddie Albert’s birthday.   Puts a whole new spin on Green Acres, doesn’t it?
 

Labels: environment, holiday

You’re never too old to have your picture made with Santa!

We ran into jolly ol’ St. Nick at our work "Christmas Tea" last week and after some convincing, Rob reluctantly stood up with me to have our photo made with Santa.

Santa got off light with us this year since we’ve already received the best gift ever from Russia for Christmas!


 

Labels: holiday

We are still in pirate mode after last night’s Halloween party.

Continuing on with our trend of DIY costumes (aren’t those always the best kind?), I put together a salty pirate outfit to go along with Rob’s borrowed costume. I was amazed at how much mileage I could get out of an old red t-shirt. I cut off the sleeves and some of the neck to create a vest. One of the left over sleeves was then used to create strips for cuff ties and the other one could have easily been used as a head scarf but I had already purchased one. I would have liked to have painted a skull or something on the back of the vest but we just ran out of time.

Linda’s Halloween parties are always loads of fun. That girl goes all out on the holiday. There were a lot of new faces at the party this year and a lot of GREAT costumes. Be sure to check out our photos from the evening. And Linda, if you’re reading this, thanks for giving us a reason to dress up every year...you rock!


 

Labels: holiday

Everybody be sure and send Rob good wishes on his 40'ish birthday!

Labels: holiday

We went to Brady last weekend for the annual Labor Day Goat Cook-off and although we never actually went to the cook-off, we sure enjoyed the long weekend with our friends.

We joked about the weather before we left because the last couple of times we’ve gone down there the weather turned bad and we’ve had to come home early.   There was even a freak snowstorm during last Easter and we ended up driving home in a blizzard.   This time we thought we were safe so our only plans for the weekend were to hang out in the pool and soak up the sun.   Well, here’s the view of the pool about an hour after we jumped in.



Yep, it rained for most of the afternoon on Saturday but luckily that was it.   The rest of the weekend the weather was perfect for a relaxing time at the pool.

Our friends Glenda & Bryan in Brady aren’t night owls and rarely have overnight guests, so I think we pretty much throw their life off-balance whenever we visit.   Since they didn’t own any boardgames (who doesn’t have any games?), I insisted that we purchase some for a game night on Saturday.   Amberly helped me pick out some electronic music trivia game.   Everyone loved it and we sat up late playing it until the questions started repeating.   The next day, we purchased another game, Imaginiff and it was awesome!   I can’t wait to play it with some of our friends here.

We also got to see Amberly’s new guitar and hear a few performances from her.   Here she is with her Ibanez guitar in her happy place.   ;-)


 

Labels: holiday

Rob gave me a Crayola Executive Pen for my birthday. It is a perfect gift for me because it combines 3 things that I love: pens, crayons and the color red. It also came with the little rubber monster finger puppet thingy shown in the picture. Not sure what that has to do with Crayola but hey, I never turn down a toy. I can't wait to use this at work in my next important meeting!


 

Labels: holiday

Please join me in wishing Dede a Happy Birthday today!



Coincidentally, Dede not only celebrates this birthday on a Thursday, but she was also born on a Thursday!   Do you know what day you were born on?

Update:   Be sure to check out Dede’s Growing Older While I Wait post over on our RAJ.
 

Labels: holiday

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary yesterday.   You might recall from my 8 Random Dede Things post last month that August 3rd is also my parent’s and grandparent’s anniversaries.

The day started on a GREAT note with Rob sneaking out of the house early to get me a fresh cup of Starbucks coffee.   Then, I arrived at work to discover that part of his sneaking out early also included a bouquet of 11 roses on my desk along with 11 hugs and a romantic card.   Did I mention how much I love this man???   ;-)

The morning flew by quickly and then we had a department pizza party luncheon that included cake & ice cream to celebrate our department winning the fundraising Springfest event held earlier this year for Children’s Miracle Network.   Did I mention how much I love cake & ice cream???   ;-)

The afternoon took a turn for the worse with the Murphy’s Law set of computer woes on a Friday afternoon.   After dealing with those problems, we left work a little early to meet up with the cable guy to fix our Internet (it had been down since Wednesday morning).   When we got home, we hit the garage door opener button but the door only opened about halfway and then stopped.   The cable pulley thingy chose that moment to break and come undone and wad up the cable in between the cracks on the panel of the door.   We did our best to try and fix it and quickly discovered we are lacking in garage door repair skills.   It was now after 5:00 p.m. so I figured there was no way that the door was going to be working before Monday but I went ahead and left a voice mail with the garage door company.

A few minutes later, the garage door people called and said they would get their crew to stop by on their way back in.   Wow... I couldn’t believe it!   The next thing we knew, they were here and working on the door - they just showed up and started working without even telling us they were here!   The cable guy also showed up and the front of house now looked like a work zone with all the repair vehicles parked outside.

The garage door guys finished up and left without saying goodbye or leaving a bill. They were just get in, get it done and get gone kind of guys I guess.   It must have been beer:30 for them.   It took the cable guy a little longer (he had to make a second trip to get another modem) but eventually he got everything going again.

We finished up the evening by going out to an Italian dinner with some friends to celebrate our anniversary and they served us ice cream and made up an anniversary song to sing to us (similar to the Happy Birthday song).   Did I mention how much I love ice cream????   ;-)

Despite the few inconveniences yesterday, it was a wonderful anniversary, as is everyday that I share with my husband.
 

Labels: holiday

1 + 1 = 11?

Ordinarily, that math wouldn’t work, but on this special day, it sure does.   Y’see, today is our wedding anniversary.


 

Labels: holiday

Labels: holiday

I’ve gotta give a big shout out to the "Insane Gravedigger" on this special day...

Labels: holiday

Rob & I took our Moms to Furr's Cafeteria for Mother's Day lunch. This is far from our favorite place to eat but they sure like it. They passed out long-stemmed carnations to all the moms but mine got taken away when they discovered that I was not a mom yet.



 

Labels: holiday

 

Labels: holiday

We hope everyone had a fun & safe St. Patty’s day celebration. Tis a grand day indeed! While we didn’t do anything special today, there was certainly the wearin’ o’ the green!

And especially on St. Patty’s Day, we’re reminded of our incredible trip to Ireland back in 1999. Click here to view photos from that trip.
 

Labels: holiday, travel

Labels: holiday, Snoopy

Labels: holiday, Snoopy

We took Clems (and Soph, of course) out tonight for steak and coffee to celebrate Clems' 30-something birthday. Here he is at Logan's after the whole restaurant gave him a big yee-haw!

Labels: holiday

Labels: holiday, Snoopy

Labels: holiday

MCH held their annual employee Easter Egg Hunt last weekend. Sasha met up with Mr. Bunny and it looks like he made out like a bandit with the eggs!

Labels: holiday

With a last name like O'D— well, you know the rest — how could I not post an entry on this, the day that honors Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland? Although he was born in coastal Britain and enslaved for much of his early life by Romans, Patrick became one of the first Christian missionaries in Ireland. He established schools and monastaries throughout the country and converted a great many of the pagans to Christianity using, most notably, the shamrock (a three-leaved clover) to symbolize the concept of the Trinity in his teachings. But even in pre-Christian ancient Ireland, the Celtic people had held the shamrock in high regard as a sacred plant because it symbolized the rebirth of spring.

Unlike its American counterpart, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland has primarily remained a religious festival — with nary a drop of green beer to be found in any self-respecting pub. But whether you're Irish or just wish you were, here's hoping you'll have a great St. Patty's Day!

Labels: holiday

The photos from our annual Christmas get-together have been added to our Kodak EasyShare Gallery. It was another great year and it was nice to have the old group back together again. We also initiated newcomers Shannon, Linda and Clayton.

Click here to view the photos

Labels: holiday

Labels: holiday

Labels: holiday

We went to a couple of Halloween parties last night. This year we went as skeletons. We made our own costumes and I thought they turned out pretty good. The only thing that we should have done different is use paint instead of stick on paper. We kept dropping bones all night. I think by the time we got home this morning, I had completely lost one leg bone and had another one falling off. Rob lost 3 leg bones, it's a wonder he could even walk! Here is a link to our Halloween photo album if you want to view more pictures.

Labels: holiday

Labels: holiday