Rain

Today, something very, very bad happened.

We were at McDonald's play place with Joe and Jack, and Lexi had been saying she needed to go to the bathroom. But every time we tried, she'd be too afraid of the big girl public potty and would refuse to go. I shoulda listened to my instincts telling me it was diaper time, but I didn't.


Suddenly, from 10 feet above, a yellow rain shower fell down from the play place bridge. The place was packed, and parents were freaking. I had to crawl in the thing to get the rain maker out of there and clean up what I could before rushing out in horror.

My sister was kind enough to snap away with her cell phone, ya know, instead of helping me. I guess for this blog's sake, I appreciate it.

We didn't make a big deal out of it, to protect Lexi's dignity and all, but it's going to take a while to recover from this one.

Big day

It was an action packed day around here on Saturday, and it started early at the Race for the Cure 5K. Jaime kept an eye on the kids while Amy and I ran.


Amy finished that sucker in 23 minutes. I was a little, um, behind that.


These three pals spent the whole morning togehter -- chillin' at the race, tearing up Panera and then hanging at Lexi's house playtime.


Annie, Pete and the boys drove down late in the afternoon, and got here just in time for the Friends University homecoming parade, which goes right in front of my house every year.


Also in attendance for candy-catching duty: Annie's friend, Diane and her mom and 9-year-old Kylie, plus Jaime, Carter and Carter's kids Catherine and Colin.


The Friends students throw out about 150 pounds of candy, and there are about 15 kids along the route. Good odds.


After we got the candy divided, it was pizza party time.


And after we got the kids to bed, it was parent party time. Diane's mom stayed back at our house so we could go watch Joe's band at Oeno.


Here's Diane. She grew up with us in Dodge City but now lives in California. Quite an improvement.


Nick survived the evening by playing phone Scrabble with Mrs. Stumpe. Sheesh.

What child is this?

It was picture day at Lexi's school a few weeks ago, and for days leading up to it, I kept reminding her to smile pretty, demonstrating the how-to's of it several times.

When I picked her up that night, I asked her if she smiled pretty. No, she told me, and she demonstrated the demonic smile she claimed she had employed. I thought she was joking.

Silly me.

Yet still so friggin' cute.

Fran, Diane and a very nifty kitchen

Tonight, Lori and I had wine with our favorite retirees, Fran and Diane. Diane invited us over to see her kitchen remodel, which made me quite envious. But then, many things about the high-living retirements of Fran and Diane make me envious.

Above, the two lovely ladies regale us with tales of their world-wide wine and dine adventures.

I was particularly covetous of two if Diane's kitchen acquisitions. First, this sink, which we all agreed could fit Lexi, Norton and the Thanksgiving bird. At the same time.

Double oven. Me want.

Happy Bundt Cake, Karen

We are ALWAYS eating at the Eagle. UGH! Although it's so nice to see a big ole bundt cake about 3 p.m., it's so hard to resist.


Today was Karen Shideler's birthday, so these bundt babies came back from lunch with Lori.


They were good, especially the lemon one. Wednesday -- Lou's retirement party, presumably with cake.

Finally

I had to get firm today with DaNae, the sweet girl who cuts Lexi's hair. She just, for whatever reason, was refusing to cut much of anything at our previous appointments, and Lexi's bangs were out of control just a week later.

This cut, I like. She even looks a little older, I think. Plus, it made for a series of cute pics.

The Marletts

Many of you remember Mike Marlett, who left the Eagle a loong time ago to start his own paper. Last night, Mike got married at the zoo, where his dad is one of the directors.

Nick and Mike have always been good friends. Nick leaves a lot of open air, and Mike is always willing to fill it.


Here are Mike and Kristin just before they cut the cake. The lighting conditions at this wedding were more than my little Elph could handle. Among the people we knew at the reception were Randy Bradbury, Randy and Suzanne Tobias (Randy was the wedding photographer) and Barney Byard, our Gridiron producer.


The actual ceremony was in the jungle building. Mike and Kristin stood above their guests on a bridge, and my Elph REALLY wasn't up to that task. It was hard to hear the ceremony over the cacophony of exotic birds. But I sorta liked that.


It was, however, just a TAD sweaty in there.

Does this guy look, um, familiar?

Who knew Randy B. was moonlighting?

Saw this on the wall in the Timberline restroom.

The taste of childhood

Earlier today, I ate a strawberry Mike N' Ike's, and it got me to thinking about some of the flavors that I remember most from my childhood. Those hard strawberry candies with the strawberry goo in the middle are definitely among them.

I thought of a few others, too, including Fudge Stripe cookies, Fruit Stripe gum and Little Debbie's Nutty Bars.

Okay, so it's not exactly health food, but whenever I taste one of these things, I'm transported back to 1810 Thompson, Dodge City, 1980 something.

I'm thinking about doing a column on this topic and could use some feedback. What are some of the foods whose flavors take you back to childhood?

They need not be cavity creators, either.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Lexi was invited to a party to celebrate her friend Alexa's third birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. When I told Alexa's mommy that Lexi had never been to CEC, she was quite shocked. (She has a 6-year-old, too, so she doesn't even really remember life before CEC.)

Lexi liked Alexa's strawberry cupcakes.

Fortunately, I don't think Chuck made a very lasting impression.

Yet.

F-f-f-freezing at the Fair

We picked kind of a cruddy day to go to the Fair. Saturday was cold and windy, and Lexi wasn't as into it as she was last year.


Things started off rocky. Well, that rooster WAS pretty rude.


A warm barn and a warm baby pig helped improve matters.


And there's nothing a fried green tomato can't fix.

Quonset WHAT?

So in the middle of the day today, I read a brief on Kansas.com saying a fugitive was found sleeping in a Quonset Hut.

I kept scanning the story, certain that it would tell me what the funk a Quonset Hut was. It didn't, so I asked (out loud) the obvious question. "What the funk is a Quonset Hut?"

Lori and Chris acted like I was the most illiterate moron on earth. To me, the object in this picture is a metal shed. I have never IN MY LIFE heard the term Quonset Hut before today.

This bugged me, so I polled the entire newsroom and here's what I discovered: No one under the age of 40 had ever heard the term Quonset Hut. Everyone over 40 knew exactly what it was.

Weigh on on this debate, please. And don't forget to claim an age group.

She probably doesn't need the money now

I doubt many of you will care about this since the only person I know who watches "Big Brother" besides myself and Nick (because I make him) is my OB Dr. Jensen, but I had an interesting Jessica Hughbanks moment tonight.

For those of you who don't know, Jessica is a Haysvillian/WSU student/Thunder dancer who appeared on the CBS reality show this summer. She was just evicted from the house last Thursday. (But will still take home a decent cash prize.)


Tonight, I was going through our SPJ scholarship applications, finding e-mail addresses so I could contact our winners about claiming their checks, when I came across this.

It appears that Jessica applied for one of our scholarships this year. We didn't give her one, but I remember when we were going through the apps we decided that she looked like a promising student but just didn't send us enough examples of her work.

The funny thing is, I've had to write about Jessica several times for the paper, and there were days when I was desperate to find someone, anyone, who knew anything about her. And all that time, this application, complete with her SSN, references, email address and phone number, was sitting in my desk.

I took it

This morning, I got up waaayyyy too early to participate in the Eagle's "Takin' It to the Streets" fundraiser for United Way.

Volunteers must agree to arrive at 6:30 a.m. then dart out into pre-dawn traffic to sell papers. I was at Main and Market, which is a surprisingly dead corner, as it turns out.


One bright spot from the morning -- a lady just happened to show up with a baby pug puppy. His name was Jackson. Awwwwwwww.

Thanks to fellow street takin' it toers Stacey Jenkins Deanna Talbott for their photo work.

Suzanne, I did it!

I finally got the guts up this morning to try to put in Lexi's ponies myself.

So the part is not exactly straight, but I didn't think it was a bad first try. And Lexi was happy with them...


...for the most part.

Pukey cukeys and fried Coke

I spent Friday and Saturday working at the Kansas State Fair, and part of my job is to uncover all the, ahem, unusual culinary offerings.

I've tasted some strange stuff over the years, from Fried Twinkies to Fatballs (don't ask.)

But what I found today... Ugh. I upchuck a little just thinking about it.


The sweet lady selling it calls it "Bling on a Stick." She says she found the recipe on the Internet. Basically, she soaks giant dill pickles in fruit punch for 24 hours, impales them with a stick and then serves them on a bed of powdered fruit punch drink mix. They also come in margarita and grape flavors.


Here they are soaking in their fruit punch bath. The vendor told me that she hates dill pickles but loves these. Claims she ate FOUR of them yesterday! She made me sample mine while she was watching, and it was hard to keep my composure. I can't describe to you how horrendous it was, so I won't even try. But the lady was so sweet, I pretended like I loved it.


Earlier in the day, I'd tried this year's Big Thing -- deep fried Coke.


Not as inedible as a fruit punch pickle, but still pretty craptastic.


Here's the other Big Thing this year. A hollowed out cuke stuffed with crab salad. It looks good, doesn't it?

It wasn't.

A poll

Which meal looks tastier?

Mommy's lunch?


Or Lexi's dinner?

A bloggish moment

The other day at lunch, Lutzy was complaining bitterly that he was never on my or Lori's blogs, (despite the fact that he was my main topic during Name That Tune week.)

In response, we both WHIPPED our cameras out of our purses at the same moment. Needless to say, he wasn't prepared.

I do think he's being won over by our little blogs, slowly but surely. He's even talking about putting photos on his now. If you wanna read it, I can't stop you.

Making Lori nervous

Lori L. was able to shoot this cute pic the other night, even though she was petrified that I was going to drop Lexi.

But I didn't.

Thanks again for the pic, LAL. I rarely get shots of us together.

Teeny tiny graduate

Today, we got news that Lexi will be moving to Toddler 3 on Monday. This means she'll be in a classroom without a toddler door to keep her put -- and that she'll be rejoining some of her friends who graduated before her, including Abby, Harrison and Stephanie. She's very excited.


And speaking of a big girl, while using Jaime's computer this weekend, I found this adorable old photo of a very little girl. Awwwwwwww.