Banana Relay

For 20 years, Genoa/Kingston High School has had a tradition to end each track meet with a banana relay race.

 It is the last race of the day and it's only for the boys who throw shot or disc.

Those events are the first things on the schedule and then these boys (if they are not runners too) sit around and watch the rest of their teams compete in all the running events until the meet is over and time to go home. Sometimes that is 3 hours of sitting.

It doesn't count in the standings and teams do not have to participate, but they all do.
It's a favorite among the boys and the fans.

It's 4 boys, each running 100 yards around the track passing off a banana instead of a baton. The last runner must peel the banana as he is running down the stretch and eat it after he cross the finish line.
First team to show an empty mouth to the coach is the winner.

Well Genoa/Kingston has a secret weapon this year. My Grandson, Dylan, throw the shot and disc, but he also is a damn good runner.

He didn't want to be the last runner and have to eat the banana, because he had just finish his 200 yard dash, so they put him in the #1 spot.

Dylan holding the "baton"

On Your mark - Get Set - Go.

The starting gate

Dylan's team was not the first to cross the finish line, but Jeremy can eat a banana in 2 bites and Genoa/Kingston WINS the banana relay.

Thank You Mother Nature

I got this beautiful dresser with a marble top as a gift from Bryan's great aunt on his father's side around 1972. Long before we were married.

Aunt Bea gave it to me. She was a round, short (5 ft) lady that made the best pork roast with sauer kraut. We just got each other. We spent time together in her kitchen, laughing. She loved me and I loved her.
It moved with me 5 times and it weighs a ton (marble top and all). Lately it has been in our spare bedroom holding everything that I can't throw out.
We got new furniture for that room so, I offered it to Bryan, seeing that it came from the Flory family originally and they now have room for it.
I was secretly happy he said no, because I love it and it reminds me of her.
I wanted to move it into our living room. It just needed a little clean up, both on the inside and outside.

I started with Murphy soap. With a lot of scrubbing and wiping and scrubbing and wiping I got the first drawer clean.
Before putting the drawer back together again, Mike caught me waxing the old wooden tracks on the bottom of the dresser with a old candle and asked me where I learned that. Internet? Nope, my Mother taught me that little trick.

I decided that using Murphy soap was too much work and got on the internet to find a better solution.
Mineral Spirits! Only problem there is, it STINKS. I didn't want to move this bad boy out into the garage so I just open up my windows and got started on the clean up job right here in my living room, in the sunshine, with the windows wide open.

SO Thank You, Mother Nature for this beautiful warm spring day!

That'll Be a $100

That's what the "helpful" lady told me at AT&T when I called because our internet was down.
Looks like we have a bad modem and it will cost $100 for a new one.
The conversation took 50 minutes and I was transferred 3 times, because the "helpful" lady thought I was in Alaska.
Sorry, You are pissing me off and I am not paying $100. Goodbye!

I called 3 other places, 2 weren't available in our area and the other 1 was $69.99 in our area (don't believe their $19.99 commercial on TV, just saying).
After I calmed down I called AT&T back ready to pay the $100 and be done with it.
I got Matthew. I told him to just send me out the damn modem. He explained, in old people speak - that means he had to repeat it more than once to get through my thick skull -  that we have DSL. They are discontinuing DSL and we had to upgrade to u-verse. Why didn't the "Helpful" lady just tell me that. Why all the run around and aggravation?
Ugh - And how much is that going to cost us?
Nothing... This is where he had to repeat himself.

The installer will come out and GIVE us a new modem with faster speed and for a cheaper cost. Like 1/2 price cheaper.
I asked him if he was allowed to do an early April Fool's joke on customers, because after talking with the "Helpful" lady I was in no mood?
He laughed, apologized to me for her, and told me all he was saying was true and scheduled an appointment.
Derrick came out to the house and set us up. It took a couple hours he had to rewire the house for the faster and cheaper service, but as you can see, we are up and running.

I want to call Matthew's boss and tell him what a great employee they have and then I want to hunt that "helpful" lady down and hurt her.

Now that we are back among the cyber world I think I will just email AT&T and tell them.

Ham Dinner

My Husband and my Twin love ham dinners.
Sharen had a 7lb. ham in her freezer (a gift from Dup) and has been teasing Mike with a home cooked ham dinner since Christmas.

St. Patty's Day - perfect time to cook that bad boy.
Sharen, at the last minute, realized that 7lbs is a lot of ham, and invited Linda and Deanna for dinner too, and we all sat around our OLD dining room table and remembered.

Growing up Mom would take a cheap cut of ham and cook us all a boiled dinner, one of Dad's favorites. Ham butt, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots, cooked in an enormous pot,  and we would sit around this same table.

Sharen cooked Lugan cabbage, a recipe from her Mother-in-law. She made some mean dinner rolls and a debate happen on who loves bread the most. Linda and Deanna voted Mom. Mike chose me. I admitted to my love for all breads, but Dup can keep up with me (we each had 3 rolls). Sharen agreed that my love for bread goes unmatched, until Dup brought up Dave, their son-in-law. He seems to be the clear winner. I hear he can put away multiple rolls in one sitting.

Linda brought a delicious wine to share. Turns out just Dup and I shared the bottle. Thanks Linda, It was yummy!
It was a nice spontaneous dinner party. Something I think we should do more often.

Get This Off Me

When out I went out to get the paper and yesterday's mail this morning I thought I heard a noise that sounded like crying.

It was very faint, but I am pretty sure I heard something.

When I walked out onto the front porch when Linda was leaving I heard it again.
I finally figured it out.

It was my daffodils and tulips screaming to get out from under all the snow. It was time for blooming.
It was way past time for blooming - they wanted out.

So being the thoughtful, conscientious gardener that I am. I went and got the shovel out and reverse shoveled the driveway.

Yes, I took the snow off my front flower garden and threw it into the driveway.

With the weather in the 60's it didn't take long for it to melt and now my flowers can feel the warmth and make an appearance soon.

Family Game Night

I once told my nephew to grab every moment with his kids and spend as much time with them as he could, because life does go by so, so fast, and things change so quickly.

What kinda person would I be if I didn't follow my own advise?

So when Mike and I both got texts messages from Stacy to join her and the kids for family game night I told her Yes.

Mike wasn't feeling so good and wasn't up for it, but that shouldn't stop me - Right?
I got to spend the day with the Flory grandkids and thought what better way to cap off my day than to spend the night with the Kribs grandkids.

I grab a bucket of KFC chicken and head out to Genoa.
Here we are deciding on just what game to start with. Logan just got back from baseball practice so yes he does NOT have a shirt on for dinner.
We had to wait for Brian to show up so our first game (decided on by Kaylyn) was Apples to Apples. Grandma won!
We started game 2 (Name 5) with teams of Me and Logan against Stacy, Dylan and Kaylyn. Logan and Grandma were in the lead when Brian showed up. Game halted.

We partnered up for a cut throat game of personal preference. Mike and I found this game way back when and we played it whenever we went camping with our kids. Told you time flys! The kids all loved it, but it got so outdated.
For Christmas this year Mike and I updated it with 2014 version of people, food, activities and phrases and gave it to Stacy. Now it's a favorite again.

Team Brian and Kaylyn

Team Logan and Stacy

Team Grandma and Dylan

 It's Saturday night and Dylan had plans. He's 15 and wants to hang with his friends. He agreed to just one more game as long as he could be my partner. So sweet! We didn't win though, Stacy and Logan were victorious on that  game.

Dylan is gone and on to Kids vs Parents!
Yeah, the team of Brian, Stacy and Grandma won!
Kaylyn said "No offense Grandma, but you're old and you should know more than me"  That got me laughing - I couldn't disagree with her at all. But truth be told, Brian and Stacy were answering most of the questions.

Team Kids

My teammates

I had such a great time!
Yeah, I am so glad I took my own advise. I got to see all my grandkids that day and spend some quality time with them all. Lucky Me!

On Your Mark. Get Set. Go!

Linda has been supplying me and Sharen with puzzles these last few weeks and we both are enjoying, fixing, and sharing them.

One of the boxes had a piece of paper in it with a website that you could go to and comment on that puzzle. That got me searching the web about all things puzzles.

One website caught my eye.
Jigsaw puzzle fixing competitions.
Wow there is really something like that out there? Could Sharen and I be good enough to compete?
We have been fixing puzzles together since we were toddlers.

There is only one way to find out.
We asked Dup to pick out one of the 500 piece puzzles that Linda had given us, so we wouldn't be biased on what it looked like. We decided to time ourselves, like in a race, to see just how fast we can get it together.
We worked pretty good together (I know, no surprise there).
We both turned pieces over, then Sharen got started on the frame while I separate all the colors into piles.
She likes to work on one big object and then fill in around it. Me I like to start at the corners and work in, so we think we have a good strategy figured out. She does the bird I work on the background.

Sharen fixing the bird in the center while I sorted the pieces.

If we felt stuck or like we were slowing down we switched places at the table.

We are having so much fun

When we were done we both admitted to being a bit nervous and anxious.
We finished the first puzzle in 1 hour, 28 minutes. Both of us were disappointed in our time. We knew we could do better, so we decided to try again the next day.

 

puzzle #1



We only had a few 500 piece puzzles to choose from. Our second attempt, that Dup chose, also was of a bird. The pieces were shaped the same as the first puzzle, so we knew we had a slight advantage with this second one.

Puzzle #2

Same routine as the first one. We both turned the pieces over - I separated the colors and Sharen got busy on the birds. I did the flowers and frame. We both filled in the green background. This time we talked a little more and helped each. My favorite part (and I'm sure Sharen's too) is when we get a piece surrounded and both raced to find it. We cut 15 minutes off our time. 1hour and 13 minutes.

Maybe we do have what it takes to compete.

Just to be sure - we changed locations - we did this last one at my house. We changed puzzle designs in both picture and pieces.
While the boys went to the movies, Sharen and I got together for puzzle #3. Here is the last one we raced to finished.

Puzzle #3

 I had just finished a puzzle with these funky pieces so I was lovin' this. Sharen wasn't too keen on the cut, but she likes to fix by color so she did the face and beard, and presents while I worked on the greens and burgundy. Together we did the fruits and holly.

Funky puzzle pieces

Time was 1 hour 20 minutes.
This was so much fun. Spending an afternoon with my twin and fixing puzzles, just like when we were little.
I think we need to try a 1000 piece puzzle next time. Stay tuned!