James's first birthday

We would like to have a birthday party for James on Saturday, June 17th starting at about 1:00 and going til whenever. It will be kind of an open house with games and food and that kind of stuff. I know some of you are busy with house and yard work so if you can't come it is okay - or if you come late that is okay too. We are inviting lots of people including extended family so there might be people you'd like to see.

i don't understand this stupid blog. i'm trying to add a photo to my profile. i finally figured out how/where to go to add my photo to my profile, but it says the url is wrong, even though i just copied and pasted it from here. and it keeps saying something about i have to click on some "template" tab when i log in in order to change my links. where in heck is the template tab?? and why are there 2 separate sites, one to edit posts and another with the actual blog? and how do i get back to that original edit post site? i don't think i've ever gotten so worked up over something before. the blogger help is almost completely unhelpful, and the way this whole thing works is ridiculous. it's not good for my health to use this blog. i hate this stupid thing. i hate it, i hate it, i hate it!!! now i know how old people feel.

vacation

here are just a few photos from the trip. we had such a wonderful time. i couldn't ask for a better vacation.

james got his first tooth! it came in last tuesday. he is also doing the army crawl very well. he is quite speedy. no new words yet, but he was talking up a storm all week.

All I want for Christmas

http://www.nycgarbage.com/

What Harvard is good for

So I get one of the blah blah blah Harvard Alumni emails (translation: Give us more money! We only have the largest endowment in the entire world!), and I see a link in it to an article recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,
entitled: Obesity levels in U.S. are grossly underestimated.

I'll sum up the SHOCKING findings for you here:

"Based on this new understanding of the survey data, the authors found that, on average, women tend to underestimate their weight while men do not. When it comes to height, young and middle-aged men tend to overestimate their height more than women in the same age groups. "

Women lie about their weight and men lie about their height! Wow! I'm glad someone finally figured this out!

old people

so i got hit by a car today (on my bike). i waited patiently at a light, got the green crosswalk sign, and went on my merry way. an old lady driving didn't bother to look, turned left, and hit me. i screamed, got my back wheel kinda stuck in the car a bit, and so i pushed myself along a bit to get loose. when i did that, the lady started moving forward again!! i had to hurry to get out of her way, and she drove off!! i was kind of in shock, i didn't know what i was supposed to do, so, seeing that i wasn't badly damaged, i started riding again. a guy in a truck behind me flagged me down and wanted to see if i was okay. he took me the rest of the way to uni. he was really nice. i wasn't very upset about it for a while, i was just in shock, but now that i've had time to settle down i'm pretty annoyed. i should have gotten her license plate number. there's a big fine for a hit and run here. and my back wheel is really buckled now. the bike was really crappy in the first place and not completely safe to ride, but now it's REALLY not very safe to ride. so now with less than a month to go until classes are over, i have to pay money to get it fixed, or else pay money and take the bus. grrrrrr. (oh, and as for my own well-being, i've just got a bit of a skid mark on my shin, my leg's a tiny bit sore. but i'm fine.)

Family work day?

How about this scenario: Everyone come to our house for a work day on the 22nd of July (shortly after Tessie gets home) then that evening we all go see "The Lady in the Water"?

Serious Drama

I just got back from D.C. and I am taking a break in my packing for Orlando. Just thought I'd let you all know I got back safe and sound and right on time. I had fun, although I was rather grouchy by the last day. The only thing I can tell you right now is that 6th grade girls have got serious drama issues. It was actually quite amusing what went on within a 2 hour period on a boat ride down the Patomac (sp?). I will update everyone when I have more time. But for now, have a lovely week here in the Ohio weather (or Australian as the case may be) while I am visiting Mickey.

office space

i got chao and brice to watch office space. they thought it was pretty funny, but we couldn't get the subtitles on so they couldn't understand half the jokes. they talked too fast. now i'm preparing to watch a japanese drama. it only has chinese subtitles, so i'll just have to pretend i have a clue what they're saying.

I forgot to mention...

...that I shot myself in the left index finger with a nail gun last week. It was just a finish nail gun, so no permanent damage. It didn't even hurt that horribly.

But every time I see my finger and the scab, I think about Adam Sandler's boss from Happy Gilmore, and then I start giggling.

"And you can count... On me waiting for you in the parking lot!"

An author to check out

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=pd_sc/103-9735302-7747047?search-alias=aps&keywords=harlan%20coben

Harlan Coben.

I've now read two of his novels.

His writing style/diction is a bit stilted; his character development isn't the greatest; he recycles some stuff from book to book.

But boy oh boy -- 5 pages into it and he has you totally hooked. I can't put it down. I have to cover the bottom of the page with my hand so I can't see what's coming. I find myself disoriented when I stop reading, because I was so sucked into it.

Definitely worth picking up one of his novels.

And then there were three

So how shocked are we that Chris is gone and Katherine McPhee (sp?) is still on Idol, after her bad performance Tuesday night?

Honestly we thought Elliott would be gone this week because, well, he's the ugliest one left, and that's how Idol works. But then Katherine did so poorly on Tuesday, we thought maybe it would be her instead.

And now there is no more Chris!

Gift Ideas

If you are scratching your heads over ideas for Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts for your parental units, be advised that we are anxious to do some landscaping around the cabin. I think your father would be very pleased to get another flowering crabapple tree, like the one you gave him several years ago and which is now flourishing in our front yard. As for me, I would appreciate some hardy shrub roses in deep pink or burgundy shades. Make sure they are hardy shrub roses---I have a few from last year that are doing very well in the flower beds in front of the house. We also plan to plant myrtle on the slope in front of the cabin, and I could use one or two "Petit Bleu" for the border in front of the house. That is a small variety of spirea, also known as Blue Mist spirea, that is available at The Greenhouse Shoppe in Wooster.

And if you are short of cash, a couple hours of free labor in the yard would also be appreciated.

In case you were thinking of getting us anything. Not that I am asking. Just being helpful :)

Graduation Day

The grad and her very proud (and somewhat relieved) family.

Margaret receives her diploma and a handshake from the University president (the diploma is worth more).

The traditional graduation photo, under the crabapple tree in our front yard.

Family that came to Moose's graduation

I didn't realize we had some from the "Mullet" side come to the ceremony.

No Words Necessary

Here comes Peter Cottontail

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/giantrabbit.asp

and

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1541732.html

comments

i don't know if anyone goes back through their posts and reads comments posted, so i just decided to create a new post for my comments.

first, to carrie, of course i have already used my 25 maximum votes for the all-star game. you know what i find strange, though, is that they put all the positions for both national and american league on there. you don't have to put an entry for all of them, but there's always the tempation, if you're a trouble-maker, to vote for the best players in the league you like and pick crappy ones for your rival's league. if you're a true fan you'd want to pick the best so you can watch an enjoyable game, but there are plenty of people out there that would do so. anyway...

congrats to margaret! that's exciting to be able to work with the team you were a part of, it gives it more meaning. the only thing is, i seem to remember that you didn't think linda gray was the most wonderful person in the world. could be interesting. :)

and third, you should all definitely plan lots and lots of workdays for all the houses in the Miller family. Plan them all in May June, and early July if you like. You should really attack it with full force and get all those jobs done. Yes, most definitely. But I think maybe a good date to stop and be happy with your accomplishments would be...maybe sometime around July 18th. Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

oh yeah, and i've been hearing about this United 93 over here. (Well, just reading U.S news. Australians aren't really discussing it, that I know of.) Lots of people discussing whether it was too soon to make a movie, comparing it to other historical events and how long it took to make movies about them. The consensus seems to be that it's not too soon because it's just important to remember what happened. So does it have any famous people in it? I heard it was pretty hard to sit through, it's mainly just torture on your emotions, not something you'd go on a date to see. I'm not keeping track of many movies. There's some I really want to see, but it's just too expensive, and frankly I don't really care anymore anyway.

On a different note, I'm doing tedious research for my management essay, and really hating it. I went onto the 4th floor of the library and searched through rooms and rooms full of books to get more citations. And in the middle of all these voluminous academic novels, I found...Dilbert. So of course I stopped my research and just read this whole Dilbert book on Management. Chao is also in management, and Brice has a business background, so we were discussing it for a while, and I am now firm in my claim that next week I will make them watch Office Space. They've never heard of it.

K, I've got work to do. Have a lovely day!