KateOhKatie blogs

Mom and Dad came up today to visit, and it just happened to be Easter (we don’t do the religious thing–when I was growing up, Easter was all about chocolate and springtime and baby animals and Peeps).

Did I mention Peeps?  Check out my basket from Mom and Dad!

Dad and I were chatting online the other day and he asked me, “what is your favorite color of Peeps?”  to which I replied, “All of them!”  and this is what happened

I’m gonna be on a sugar high from now ’till when we move in June!

Notice that basket they came in?  Well, now that I’ve removed the Peeps, the basket has become home to:

That’s the LB Homespun to make two mobius wraps for Mom.  Soon.  They shall happen soon.  I promise, Mom!

After a great lunch at a restaurant on the lake (The Lodge at Thousand Hills), we did some light antiquing.  Where I found these:

Aren’t they cute?  They’re not old, they don’t exactly match but I love ‘em anyway.  This is my 4th pair of salt and pepper shakers.  I better watch out, or pretty soon I’ll have a collection…and I *really* don’t need to do that!

Finally, part of my right boob.  And a button:

Consider it a sneak peek of what tomorrow shall bring

PS>Did you know they make chocolate Peeps now?

I’m off to conduct a highly scientific taste test!

I’m home!  From my grand Kirksville>>Kansas City>>Baldwin City (that’s in Kansas)>>Lawrence>>Baldwin City>>Lawrence>>Baldwin City>>Kansas City>>Kirksville trip!  And might I say, I’m now intimately acquainted with the finer nuances of the rural highways of extreme eastern Kansas.

I’m certain this will come in handy when I appear on Fox’s new game show “The Rural Highways of Extreme Eastern Kansas.”  Sure to be a winner!

I started out my trip with the fastest stop at my parents house EVER.  I was in and out in 4 minutes, flat (yes, I timed it).

Walk in the door.

Leave with said water, bars, apple, pillow, and blanket.

After that, I partook in a fun adventure called “I-35 in Rush Hour” (this will NOT be a Fox game show), which encompassed chapters called “Miss my exit because of that bitch in the Geo” and “forget if I’m on the north loop or south loop”, as well as a sequel entitled, “Momentarily consider taking the 12th St. exit, finding a jazz dive at 12th and Vine, and spending the rest of my days bemoaning such blues-worthy themes as “I lost a DPN in the couch cushions” and “why the hell won’t the cats shut up?”  It fits rather tidily with the ongoing theme of life as tragedy, no?

Ultimately I ended up in Baldwin City, home of Baker University and my good friends Stef and Mandi.  Unfortunately, I was supposed to be in Lawrence–20 miles away.  After a few quick phone consultations, I determined how to get to Lawrence from BC, and in no time flat was at my cousins house.  From there, we quickly left for dinner at the Free State Brewery (yum!!!), where Kaitlyn (flower girl #2 in the youngest>>oldest procession) and I got this cute photo:

And this Just Plain Funny one:

Kaitlyn colored a lot, and I watched:

Then I colored, and she watched.  But I don’t have a photo of that one.  Also, I just realized that I rather resemble Cousin Itt in the photo above.  Oops.  I had my head turned toward Kaitlyn, and was resting my cheek in my hand.  Really.

My hosts for the evening, and Kaitlyn’s parents:

That’s my cousin Susan and her husband Mike.  I am forever indebted to them for showing me such a good time in their fair city.  Also, Susan reads this blog:  Hi, Suzy!

After dinner on Friday night we went back to their house, where I shamelessly bribed Kaitlyn with a Barbie movie (Barbie Swan Lake, I believe).  She and I watched it and cuddled and had a grand old time.  I love that little squirt.

Saturday morning, my hosts gave me a grand tour of the University of Kansas campus, and other points of interest in Lawrence.  For example:

Hunter S. Thompson’s house:

And a WWII memorial.  I didn’t take the requisite “stand waaaay back and get the whole thing in the image” shot, so y’all can’t really know what it looked like, but I did take a photo of Kaitlyn inside the memorial:

(after seeing this image, it shall be literally impossible to deny her resemblance to her Great-Grandma J.)

and one of the ceiling:

Followed by a couple of the muses (?), humanities (?) which adorned the memorial’s walls:

The one on the right is “science.”  I don’t remember what the one on the left is.

Then we had lunch at the Aladdin Cafe on Massachusetts St., where I had the best combination of felafel/hummus/pita EVER:

It was so good, I forgot to take a picture until I’d already eaten half the thing.  Damn.  Wish I could eat it again.

(by the way, it’s YEE-ro, not GY-ro or GEE-ro.  For the record.)

I almost got the Jasmine vegetarian special:

Yum.  Vegetarian dolmates, anyone?

After lunch, we wandered up and down Mass. St. and looked for ways for Kaitlyn to spend her worldly treasure of $6.  Along the way, we stopped in The Toy Store (that’s its name), where I couldn’t help but get a pic of these wooden dolls:

So “Asian” isn’t an ethnicity now?  Only African American/black is?  Really?

A case of PC-ness taken too far, methinks.

But it gets worse.  Because check out the white/caucasian family:

I’ll address each problem separately:

1)That caption, in case you can’t read it, says “Modern Doll Family.”  So, now what?  Are the “Asian Family” and “Ethnic Family” not “modern”?  Must you be white to be modern?

2)It is genetically impossible for two red-haired people to have a dark-haired child.  OK, so they adopted.  How modern.

3)What about families with two mommies or two daddies?  Or no mommy?  Or no daddy?

They should just have mix’n’ match families.  Grab bags. Big bins against the wall.  “Yes, I’d like one black mommy, one white mommy, two black girls, and one hispanic boy.”

If you’re gonna do it, do it right.  That’s all I’m sayin’.  Don’t judge the legitimacy of one family type over another.

Stupid dolls.  When I was a kid, there were 4 kinds of dolls: white with blonde, white with brunette, medium-skinned with dark hair, and dark-skinned with dark hair ?  Leave them all generic enough looking, and there’s something to please everyone.  Bah.

Damn, I’m sounding crochety again.

Moving on…

We stopped in here:

Where I came this close to buying this:

But I didn’t.  I did, though, get one that says, “One duckling, two ducklings, three ducklings”.

Yes, for the nonexistant Hooplings.  The Hooplings we don’t even intend to have for years to come.  Those Hooplings.  Jeff doesn’t like me to talk about it.  So I won’t.  Except to say that the onesie is VERY cute (yeah, yeah, no photo), and very tiny.  That is all.

I can’t wait to have Hooplings.  Well, yes I can.  But you know what I mean.

But back to my scintillating narrative…

After we finshed our tour of Lawrence, I had to get going on the next leg of my trip:  to Baldwin City (for real this time!) to celebrate Stefanie’s birthday.  For that, we went back up to Lawrence, and had dinner at On the Border:

Birthday Girl Stefanie is on the far right, there.  See me waaay at the back?

Then we went to a bar, I sober-chauffered people around, and then I crashed on the couch watching Clue with Mandi (in the blue and black shirt in the photo above) while everybody else partied the night away.  I was tired.  And, also, an old lady

I didn’t get to stay in BC very long, so I sort of felt like a bad guest or something, but I had a lot of fun while I was there!  I was glad to be able to help Stef. celebrate her birthday.

Sunday I woke up bright and early, and headed up to Kansas City for a brief hair-dyeing session and Stitch Knitch sale-visiting session with Mom, as well as a broken computer looking-at session with Dad.

The fruits of my LYS sale labor can be found on my Rav stash; it’s the three skeins of Borroco Comfort sock, the Cascade 220 for a hat for Jeff, and the Di.Ve Teseo to make myself a Calorimetry.  Lurve!

And so ends the nearly 500 miles logged on my odometer.  I’m glad to be home with my new yarn yumminess.  Knitting shall ensue–worry not, my friends!

Yeah, we graduated.  Yeah, it was as painful as I’d anticipated.  The ceremony, not the whole day.  I don’t do ceremonies well.  Exhibit A:  my wedding ceremony video (which contains evidence of me clearly NOT LISTENING to the people talking).   Exhibit B:  there is no exhibit B.  But hey, cut me a break…I’ve got like 60 or 70 more years to embarrass myself

I forgot to tell my dad about holding down the button halfway to let the camera focus.  And about holding it still.  Oh well.  That’s me and Jeff, in the back row, on the far right.  He’s the cute one.  I’m the blurry one.  ::sigh::

Professors.  Getting my doctorate would be worth it if it meant wearing a bonnet and giant hood and marching around all solemn-like.  Mm-hmm.

Me and Jeff walking up to the stage:

There we go, phonetic name pronunciations in hand:

Shaking somebody’s hand.  Heck if I know who.  See?  I suck at ceremonies.  Truth be told, I spent most of the time twirling Jeff’s wedding ring and thinking about the celebratory cheesecake that was awaiting me back home.

Jeff shakes the university president’s hand.  And yes, I realize these photos all look the same…a sea of black robes and a flash of freakishly-bright red hair, right?

So that’s the end of that.  Now here comes the really gorgeous stuff…

With Mom and Dad…it is here that I realize how horrible I look in the mortarboard.  And the gown makes me look fat.

Oh yeah, and I look like a total goon, in general.  But at least my mom is cute!

I should have worn this instead:

Anyway, apparently Mom doesn’t like Jeff as much as she likes me:

Yeah, we’re in love.  Yeah, I’m a goon.

I think I just figured it out.  #1:  Those earrings were a mistake, considering you could hardly see the shirt underneath–and really, the earrings need the shirt.  #2:  Both my ears are showing, with my hair down.  That hasn’t happened since, like, 3rd grade.  BUT in my defense, it was either that or a weird bang-y poofy thing and I figured that would be worse.  But you know what?  It’s too late to do anything about it now, so I’ll shut up, mm ‘k?

With our (empty) diploma covers:

Awww, isn’t Jeff cute?

He’s such a snappy dresser   (I picked out that tie…don’tcha like it?)

Hey!  I look *slightly* less goony here than I do in other photos!  Right, guys? (hint: lie to me)

And since I know y’all like pictures of my dad, here ya go:

Funny, you’d think he would seem happier about the fact that I’m finally done bleeding him dry, financially.  Hmm..time for grad school?

So, that was it! Jeff’s parents came into town that afternoon (a snowstorm had prevented them from arriving earlier…and in fact, it was doubtful for a while that *either* set of parents would make it at all), and we had a yummy dinner–I’d set out appetizers of pinwheels, cheese, crackers, Dad’s Chex mix, and Linda’s spinach artichoke dip.  Then we had a chicken alfredo casserole, salad, and my Red Lobster-esque biscuits, followed by Mom’s cheesecake, and champagne.  Mmmm!

My Monday anecdote:  Why I Never Believe My Mother.

When I was a kid, my brother and I were fascinated with stories about Mom’s childhood.  She grew up in the country, on a farm.  She even had a pony!  A real pony!

“Mom, didn’t you have a pony?”

“Yes, kids, his name was Sambo.”  (that wasn’t racist in the ’50s, by the way)

“What happened to it?  Why doesn’t Grandma still have it?”

“Well, kids, we were poor.  So we had to kill it and eat it.”

We believed that story for *way* too long.

Too tired to PS any of these tonight, but I think I’m gonna want to in the morning

So, SOOC (and not too bad for such low light, if I do say so myself)…

And because we can’t forget her, one of the cat who can’t come into the great room anymore (Eliza tries to eat her)

::sigh:: I loved taking those, but I still have so much further to go before I’m any good.

So yeah…I’ll PS those a bit tomorrow.  What do you think?

EDIT:  “Wooly Bullies” –knitting versus crochet.  I almost peed my pants laughing…put on a diapey and watch it!!!

To continue celebrating my newly-renewed ability to post photos, here’s a dump from the past few weeks.

What I did the other night:

If I go to an early grave, you can bet it’ll be a dumb reason like this.

Best place for a catnap:

Giant cat and tiny Katie! (excuse the mess in the background!–which you probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I hadn’t pointed it out, right? )

Hypnotic:

Jeff’s (and now my!) cousin Katie and Aunt Adele at Adele’s 90th birthday!

Picture I drew of Jeff in the Macaroni Grill:

I got skillz.

Speaking of Jeff (and who doesn’t love doing that?), here he is sexily installing a new fan in his computer:

Grrr stampa stampa!

Finally, a face which can cause 3-year-olds to fall over laughing:

Yes, that’s what being a good teacher is all about.

If I get bored later, well, more equally-riveting photos might be forthcoming.  I know y’all can’t wait, right?

I’m back in the saddle again…

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!!!  It really made my day…no honestly!   <3 ya’ all!

First of all, I’ve decided to stop doing that whole protected thing.  It was no fun, and besides–why blog if I don’t want people to read it?  It’s not like I post anything that I don’t care about the whole Internet seeing, and being amazed by .  I’m reducing my protected list back to those core people it consisted of already, and at some point in the future I’ll probably get around to making allllll my old posts public again…but we’ll see how soon I can make *that* happen.

So to make up for the craptacular picture-less entries as of late, and to celebrate my discovery of another cable compatible with my camera that was buried amongst the crap on Jeff’s desk (I think it originally went with my old Dell Jukebox)…pictures!

Oh yeah, and here’s *why* I have time to make a massive picture post:

Yes, that’s a foot.  My foot, to be precise.  Injured while walking off my front porch and attempting to carry a conversation at the same time, my ankle took it upon itself to twist in a most painful direction, resulting in Jeff laughing at me and our upstairs neighbor–the awesome med student–hearing my stifled whimpers giant sobs of pain and coming downstairs to check it out and make sure it wasn’t sprained.  Have I mentioned I love our upstairs neighbor?

Anyway, with this handy excuse to avoid doing laundry, I’ll finally post about my birthday weekend!

Friday when I came home from class, Jeff had our gift bag (the same one we always use when exchanging birthday, anniversary, whatever gifts) ready and waiting for me!  I opened it up to discover all this:

Yes, that’s “I Love Lucy” season 1, Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, and a ginormous bag of peanut M&Ms. 
He loves me.  He knows me and he loves me.  How could I have been so lucky as to find someone who’s 2 for 2?

After I stopped squealing, we headed down to KC where my parents had fixed me a yummylicious birthday dinner of slow cooker chicken, biscuits, mashed potatos, green bean casserole, and creamed corn.  YUM?  YES!  omg.  I still drool just thinking about how delicious it was.

Saturday night my dad procured tickets to a Kansas City Wizards game for me and Jeff:

We’d never been to a pro soccer game before, so we were really looking forward to it!  The team plays in Arrowhead stadium–home of the Kansas City Chiefs–and all the seats to Wizards games are general admission, so look how close to the field we sat!

That’s seriously 12 rows up.  I know people who would give their left nut for seats that good to a Chiefs game, but for the Wizards they could barely give ‘em away.  Why is it that the most popular sport in the world is one of the least-popular ones in the US?

See that pink dot in the middle?  With the legs up in the seat in front of her, and the red hair?  That’s me.

We were cold.  Very cold.

And happy.  Very happy.  Oh, how young we were then!

It seems that they let anybody who wanted to, stand on the field before the game to greet the players as they ran out.  This included lots of random mascots (for Wonderbread, mongolian barbeque, and a few local high schools), some ghetto cheerleaders, and a bunch of kid’s soccer teams:

As well as a few people who, I’m sure, thought they were just in line for the bathroom.

In that picture above you can also see how well-attended these games are.

We unknowingly sat next to a section designated for rabid fans…several of them had drums that they beat throughout the game, confeetti, and flags with Che Guevera.  No really.

Listen and see for yourself!

Aside from that, the best part of the game was *definitely* at halftime, when all those aforementioned mascots played a game of soccer:

and another video:

Maybe you’d have to have been there, but it was the funniest thing I’d seen in a long time!

The Wizards won, 4-2 or 5-3 or something like that, and even though we hadn’t really considered ourselves fans two hours prior, we sure did cheer!  We’d love to go to another game sometime…maybe they’ll play the LA Galaxy?

When we got back to my parents’ house, an angel food birthday cake with lime glaze was waiting for me!

I really was happier than I look here–I promise!

It was like the wedding all over again!  Except this time, I didn’t have Jeff to help me (he was behind the camera):

Mmm…sprinkles in the cake!  My favorite!

Also, lime icing!  My favorite!

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go to:

RenFest!  My favorite!  See?:

Not at all creepy, is it?

Enjoying our $3 sodas.  Not as bad as ballpark prices, I admit, but still.  $3?!

Then we tried on hats:

Lots of hats:

I tried really really hard to make Jeff buy this one!

Then it was time for the joust.  And Jeff never misses an opportunity to check out the maps!

Always with the maps.  And if it’s not maps, it’s instruction booklets.  I just don’t get what he’s thinking sometimes.

The queen announcing the joust or something. We couldn’t really hear what they were saying:

And because I’m a certain kind of special, I failed to take any photos of the joust.  But you know what’s it’s like.  Watch A Knight’s Tale if you want to see one.

But I did get a shot of Jeff learning to shoot a bow and arrow!

And my souvenir:

I call it my ‘tankette’ and it’s to go with Jeff’s mankard (man’s tankard), which we bought at RenFest 2 years ago.

We’re also big fans of the cutout head thingies.  See?

(Henry VIII)

Merlin:

I always wanted to be a mermaid!

This is my favorite of Jeff:

And my favorite of myself:

I always wanted a unicorn, too.

Finally, ’cause I know y’all love my dad, here’s one of him and his second favorite daughter (I fluctuate between being third or fourth favorite, depending on if the cat has puked lately):

Besides this:

I also got lots of other great birthday gifts!

Back in Kirksville, I took a couple pictures of my birthday gifts from Mom and Dad.  Part I:

and Part II.  These were made from vintage fabric given to my mom by her third grade teacher, way back in the day–I love ‘em!:

Part III was supposed to be a deposit into my checking account.  So on Sunday I went to the ATM to check my balance, and it read “$6.51″.  So I called my parents to ask where the heck my birthday money was, and upon telling my mom there was six dollars in the account she started singing…”Happy birthday to you…”.    Then Dad deposited the money.  And it’s all going into Katie’s Camera Fund!  (feel free to contribute ).

Oh, did I mention my new camera?  Guess what?  I get to order it on Oct. 1!!!!  Squeee!!!!!!!  I got my Bright Flight refund check on Friday, the price of the camera has dropped $40 since I last checked…life is good   I should have it in my hot little hands before my cousin’s wedding on the 7th!

Finally, I’ll leave you with an image so cute, yet so disturbing, that you’ll never be the same.  I promise:

Yes, I really did.  And all for this.  More pics coming soon.

Yesterday we drove down from Kirksville, and Mom and Dad drove up from KC, and we all met at my grandma’s house in Sumner.

Never heard of Sumner MO, huh?  Well you don’t know what you’re missing out on

Sumner is home to the honest-to-goodness World’s Largest Canadian Goose.  Behold, Maxie:

(no, that’s not where we got the idea for our dog’s name)

Jeff was the smart one, relaxing in the shade while I ran around taking pictures:

Yes, I’ve been reduced to taking pictures from afar, where he doesn’t notice what I’m doing and usually can’t catch me and wrestle the camera from my grip.

Pulling up to Grandma’s house:

I love grandma’s house.  It’s so cozy:

She’s been living there for 60 years.  Wow.

I also love Grandma’s quilt shop.  It’s so cozy, too:

(more on that later)

Oh yeah, and I love Grandma.  Even if she doesn’t smile in pictures:

And while we’re on the topic, I suppose Mom and Dad aren’t too bad either:

Grandma feeds us cookies and cinnamon rolls and sends all the leftovers home with us:

Grandma’s house is full of pictures of her kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and I think a few of people she doesn’t even know   (ok just kidding about the last one)

Our big 8×10 senior portraits:

And a close-up of my cousin Susy’s, just because it’s so awesome:

Love it. 

My dad built this shelf for her:

Family picture, circa 1962:

Let’s see…I think Aunt Judy was 15 or 16 here, Uncle Gene was 21 or 22, and Mom was 8.  Love the expression on her face!

Mom’s senior photo:

Excuse the glare

Uncle Gene in his Navy days:

What a hunk!

Mom painted this.  I didn’t know she can paint (though I do recall, as a child, being amazed at her coloring skills.  She would color with tiny circles so the color would stay even.  Wow!)

And then we go into Grandma’s quilt shop (aka one of my top 5 favorite places in the world!)

Grandma is a professional quilter, working on an old frame and machine.  I can’t even begin to fathom how many thousands of quilts she’s quilted over the years:

Jeff looks happy, doesn’t he?

Now, I of course have absolutely *no* experience with this, but I would like to point out that *in theory* these giant rolls and piles of batting would be absolutely wonderful to take a flying leap into, and to tumble around in.  I mean, I think that might be the case.  But since I was such a well-behaved child, I would of course have absolutely no experience with such activities.  Oh no no.

(that’s a massive roll of batting in the front there).

Some of Aunt Judy’s quilts for sale:

Posted in the shop:

Sidewalk between Grandma’s shop and her house.  This sidewalk is *perfect* for learning to rollerskate, for the record.  I’m pretty sure she could rent it out for that purpose, if she so desired.

I love Grandma’s house, and Grandma