Endless Love

Dedicated to crazy lady's sister, who generously cooked a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner and opened her Texan home to the clan. I will forgive the endless love she has for her Evil Ones. For now.

A Tasty Thanksgiving of Evil Ones

Do you know what crazy lady and her folks did, while I pouted at the boarding house last week? They were lured into duplicity by Evil Ones:Including 4 pounds of wickedness from a baby Evil One:To add insult to injury, they ate TURKEY while I suffered on kibble:Traitors.They will pay. I don't know how, and I don't know when-- but, it will happen SOON.
Perhaps Wild Dingo will give me some ideas? She has, after all, already placed a flamethrower in my paw-- see here for more details.

From another dimension

Crazy lady has a sister who writes children's books-- and a very adult blog. This was posted 12 minutes ago, and she felt the need to share another dog's indignity:I suspect crazy lady's sick mind is a familial trait. What makes her sister's blog "adult?" She touches on sensitive and funny issues about everyday life. Check it out, if you have a moment: http://cecemeng.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Lisa!

Crazy lady's sister, Lisa, just finished her first triathlon. She's already a wonderful climber, and came in first during the Limestoner Monster Rock event earlier this year. She wanted to give swimming/running/cycling a chance. Here's a brief snippet from her blog:

"...Actually, my initial perception of triathlons was shaped by growing up and seeing the first Ironman races on television, so when I talked to a friend who’d done the Danskin and heard what distances were involved, I remember thinking, “That’s not a REAL triathlon.” But I also remember thinking that it was a triathlon I might be capable of doing.

I still wasn’t sure if I’d want to do it, though. After all, it involved an open-water swim. And I am not a swimmer. When I was in college, in preparation for becoming a counselor at a kid’s camp one summer, I took a water rescue class. At the end of the class, the teacher handed me my certificate, but then she looked me in the eye and said, “I’m giving you the certificate, but I don’t want you to ever try and rescue anyone.” That sums up how bad a swimmer I am.

I think the most swimming I’ve done since that class in college was the brief 200yd swim required to get my scuba diving certification. Now, if I decided to do the Danskin, I’d have to somehow work my way up to a continuous 800m swim in Decker Lake. But at least it sounded more do-able than a continuous 2.4 mile swim in the rough seas near Kona.

While trying to decide, I talked to a friend of mine whose wife had raced in the Danskin the year before, grilling him with all sorts of questions. What if you have trouble during the swim? (Lots of women don’t swim well, so the water is full of Swim Angels offering you noodles and kayakers waiting to keep you from drowning.) Do you need a wetsuit? (No, the water is warm.) Are most of the women riding fancy road bikes? (No, only maybe a third of them.) Finally, he looked at me and said,

“Most of the women are just there to see if they can do it.”

That decided it for me. I was in."You can read more about Lisa's training here. Congratulations!

Oh, and the line about "lots of women don't swim well?" Crazy lady assumes that it was the friend talking, not her sister Lisa. Plenty of women are fabulous swimmers. She still has the scars from losing "water chicken" against Lisa, while they were wrestling in the pool growing-up. Crazy lady insists, "Lisa has always had freaky strong legs for a girl."

Happy Father's Day!

Plus, some twisted humor from 30 Rock on Father's Day (completely unrelated to crazy lady's father and family, but still funny):

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Fire! BBQ!

During the week of insane travel, crazy lady went to her brother's for a family BBQ. She managed to seriously burn the ribs:She loves to barbecue-- and, I know she's an awesome cook-- but wow. What a hot mess (haha). When she opened the grill and discovered that they were ON FIRE, Max told her, "don't open the grill. You add oxygen, which feeds the fire. Can I hold the tongs?" She moved the flaming ribs to a plate and handed her eight-year-old nephew the tongs. She figured he might have better luck with the food. The surprising thing? They actually ate the ribs!Humans. They'll eat anything...
Well, we are off to Connecticut and the "Cape" this week. You probably won't hear from us for another week or so. This time, crazy lady hopes to take plenty of pictures of my adventures at the beach. Bye!

1978

Family Day

Sunday was Family Day. It's rare that all of us are free, but crazy lady's sister-in-law wrote to say they could visit from Maine. I stayed home while crazy lady went to the Princess' house for the impromptu party. The visit coincided with granny and grandpa's 46th wedding anniversary, so we video conferenced with the family in California:Pretty cool, huh? Here are more pictures:Crazy lady had to leave early, but she had a great time.

Crackberry Anonymous

Go Erika!

Crazy lady's niece from California (the wonderful Princess Erika) is a fantastic gymnast. Here she is, practicing her new floor routine for local and national competitions: