Repressed Memmeries

My Birthday, circa 2009

Well, we survived the trek up Beef Mountain last night (aka. "Jim's Peak"), and more importantly, the kids got their steak fix on.

So, one shiny new garden tiller, one "National Treasure" on Blu-Ray and more than one Best Buy gift certificates that will soon be put to good use later, we got Laura all packed up for her birthday trip to Vegas. She's leaving right after work today for four fun-filled days Sin City with mi madre! (Whatever happens in Vegas stays there, honey. Unless, of course, you hit the million-dollar slot. That you can bring home.) :)

Like I was telling my Mark and my Barbara last night on Facebook, I'm just amazed when I find that I've actually made it to the next one! I took one of those "What's your real age" tests last night and it said that I was actually 31. Clearly, I'm assuming what it did is find the median between how old I feel and my mental age.

Finally, a Big Thanks to everyone for all the nice cards, kind words and encouraging thoughts. I think I'm gonna need them this weekend when it's just me and the punkins....! (Just kidding, honey - we'll be fine! Go - have a good time!)

There are times when I really wished I believed in Hell.

After three weeks, the search for Duncan and Jack Connolly, the two boys kidnapped by their father, came to a tragic end yesterday as the bodies of all three were found in a remote field in Putnam County, Illinois.

People here are pretty shaken up about it. LeRoy is a small community that is home to many employees here at The Farm. My buddy's wife is a therapist that works with schools in that area, and she found out first yesterday when they pulled all the teachers and staff in for a meeting early yesterday morning.

This was the first "unsupervised" visit that they boys' father had in awhile after a long history of abuse, restraining orders, misdemeanors an the recent loss of his employment. His wife had expressed her concerns for the boys' safety several times with the judge, apparently.

I've been shaking my head for the last 24 hours in disbelief. How could any man do that to his own children? How? If he was that screwed up, why was he ever given unsupervised visits? This was clearly premeditated, as the father had made statements about wanting to punish their mother, his ex-wife. So, this stupid bastard had this planned for a long time, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he had been putting on a good facade for the courts and everyone else just to get the one visit he needed to carry out this fucking tragedy.

All this to murder his own fucking children. I want retribution. I want this evil motherfucker to pay. At times like this, I really see the appeal of believing in things like Heaven and Hell - it's for situations like this that our ancestors created those concepts. They don't exist, though, no matter how much wishful thinking we put towards it... all we have is what we have, here, now, in front of us.

I've been making sure to give my kids extra big hugs and kisses over the last day.  Things like this remind me just how short life is, and how little time we have with each other. Things like this remind me to make everyday count, and to try my hardest not to sweat the small and ridiculous daily things that we often find ourselves fretting over.

Things like this remind me of what's really important.

Obviously, all eyes will be on the investigation while the grief continues to swell here. I'll try to keep things posted here as new developments come out.

How To Plan A Successful Surprise Party In Only 82 Easy Steps!

Okay, straight to the skinny: everything came off smashingly! That said, it came perilously close to being the Party That Wasn't, since our little Miss Thing came down with a 102 temp Saturday morning.
 
Jeannette started feeling punk on the drive over Friday night. She said her head and belly hurt, just like Alex had last weekend. Luckily, we made it to Indy without a vomitous incident and she went to bed still fairly perky. I could tell she was starting to get hot, though, and that was giving her the chills.
 
When she woke up on Saturday morning, she was all blotchy and hot to the touch, so we loaded her up on Tylenol and went off to our haircuts. I knew that if I was going to have to pull the plug, it was going to be a lunchtime at the latest. When Grandpa Bob called and said that Jeannette was feeling better and that her fever had gone way down, I made the judgement call to go forward, damn the torpedos!
 
We went about our afternoon's business in regular order. Unfortunately, Jeannette's fever had gone back up, so Grandpa Bob offered to keep her at home so that we could go to dinner.
 
So, we piled into our cars and drove down to the Lotus Garden. As we were pulling in the parking lot, I noticed Laura's grandfather's widow wobbling her way inside, so I took the slooooowwww route around to find a parking space. We all went inside and were escorted to the back room, where the restaurant had drawn the vertical blinds. That kind of tipped Laura off that something was going down, and when the veil was lifted and we walked in, there were roughly 70 people that yelled "Surprise!" and began to applaud. She just stood there for a couple of seconds in shock. It was kinda nice.
 
After that, we just went about the business of feeding 70 people. Fortunately, there were 3-4 waiters assigned to our party alone, so things went pretty smoothly, all things considered. I sprang for 1 eggroll and 1 crab rangoon for everybody. I thought they were going to bring them out before we got there, but they waited until we got there. Other than that little hitch, dinner went very well, and we were able to mix about and commingle with everybody. Everyone that said they were coming actually showed up. There were a few extras that ended up tagging along, but since I built in a buffer in the total, it turned out just fine.
 
Once dinner was done and people were getting their bills, I pulled Laura up front and clinked my water glass to get everyone's attention. I dispensed with the pleasantries, credits and cast of characters and moved on to the next event: her birthday present. My mom had wrapped all the trip paperwork inside of one box, so when she opened it up and began to read it, she kept looking over at me. "Just keep reading!" I told her. Finally, her eyes drifted far enough down to the money shot: the words Las Vegas! She stood there kind of stunned once she realized what I'd gotten her. :)
 
At that point, people started to file out to head over to Mark and Barbara's house for the "Jeannette half" of the party. We'd gotten a call from Grandpa Bob that Miss Thing's fever had disappeared and that she'd been turning handsprings in the front room, so we figured it was probably okay. Ultimately, we had about 40 people show up at the house, and much ice cream cake and yummy pies were consumed. That, and we played Rock Band until, oh, about midnight-thirty or so. :)
 
Needless to say, we were all pretty wiped out by the end. We slept in until about 10-11 am the next day, and then we got Jeannette all cleaned up so that she, Auntie Barbara and Mommy could go down for her annual birthday trek to the Build-A-Bear workshop. This year she decided to add Elizabeth the Zebra to her menagerie.
 
I took a nap while they were off playing with cotton batting. :)
 
From there, we piled back into the van and headed home. We got home around 6:30 pm last night and proceeding directly to Jeannette's birthday presents from us: a swimming dog toy, a Hannah Montana bed comforter set and... her shiny new bike! However, we found out pretty quickly that Daddy is a terrible approximater of height, as the Hannah Montana bike I'd picked out for her was waaay too big. Since I needed to do a little grocery shopping, I took the bike back in and traded it in for a Princess bike of a more appropriate size.
 
After that, the only thing left was to make up the birthday snacks for her to take to her class today, and I went a decidedly French route: small bag of sliced apples, some string cheese and some pretzel crackers!
 
We went to bed, and while the missus conked out pretty quickly, I was still wired and couldn't get to sleep until just past midnight.
 
I'm still draggin today. We need a vacation. :)
 

Excuse Me While I Blow The Dust Off This Place

Geez... hiring a cleaning service, John. You've really let this place go.

It's damned near criminal!

We're gonna have to get all Servicemaster on your butt, man. Get off yer duff and do something!

More soon...!

Here's a note I just sent to the far-fallen Today Show

To the Today Show’s Production and Editorial Staff,

 

I’ve been watching your coverage since President Obama took office, curious to see if your patented tried and true journalistic incuriousness and forgiving nature of all things political – as long as you had the word “Republican” in your job title - about that office that you displayed during the last eight years. I’m not surprised to see that your corporate governing board has gotten on board with the Republican playbook once again.

 

It’s almost comical, your virtually transparent fealty to the GOP and their corporate sponsors. Your show – nay, all of your network’s “news” shows – have become a running joke in our house. Anytime you have a story about President Obama or Democrats in general, you will inevitably give the first (and usually only) response to the discredited Republicans. Have you forgotten the public opinion tidal wave that has swept them out of office in two consecutive elections? Have you not realized that every tired sound bite they offer has been so discredited that they have become nothing more than fodder for the late-night comedians?

 

If you must know what set me off, finally, after all this ridiculous pandering you’ve provided to a shamed political party, it was this morning’s lead story. You make all these obvious sniping remarks about the President’s efforts to begin fixing what 30 years of Republican ideology has done to this country, and instead of actually having somebody from the administration to talk about their ideas, who do you pick?

 

William Kristol, newly-fired ex-columnist from the New York Times, neo-con extraordinaire and war cheerleader. William fucking Kristol.

 

So, that’s it. I’m done with you, and my family is done with you.  We will no longer watch any NBC news (or, in your case, newsertainment) programs until you demonstrate the ability to break free from your Republican sponsors and give the President and Democrats a fair shake.

 

We don’t expect you to be cheerleaders for them. No, not at all. We just expect you to do you fucking job and present the news fairly and accurately.

 

But that might be asking too much.

 

UPDATE: It looks like Eric Boehlert over at Media Matters agrees with me:

 

"Pulling a collective Rip Van Winkle, the White House press corps has awakened from its extended nap just in time to aggressively press the new Democratic administration, just as it dogged the last Democratic president during his first days in office back in the 1990s. Conveniently skipped over during the press corps' extended bout of shut-eye? The Bush years, of course.

 

Suddenly revved up and vowing to keep a hawk-like watch on the Obama administration ("I want to hold these guys accountable for what they say and do") and all of a sudden obsessed with trivia, while glomming onto nitpicking, gotcha-style critiques, Beltway reporters have tossed aside the blanket of calm that had descended on them during the previous administration, a blanket of calm that defined their Bush coverage."

UPDATE #2: Digby says it even better!

And a Nation - And a World - Heaves a Huge Sigh Of Relief

Good people, I missed my introduction!

But please... Please I pray you, hear it now, for I would lay rest the grace in my tongue and speak plainly. Days like these are far too rare to cheapen with heavy handed words, and so, I'm afraid without any ado whatsoever... Here he is, one of your own, the 44th President of the United States: Barack Obama!

Hunkering Down in the Deep Freeze, Day 2

Apparently, the local school officials thing that having a high of -4 degrees Fahrenheit is not condusive to the student's well-being. Hence, Day Two of Dad's Snow Day Adventure with the Monkeys.

Yesterday wasn't quite as bad, really. It was more just a swirl of powdery snow drifting over the roads - continuously - that caused them to call school off. Today, however, it is cold - even by the ol' Repressed's standards! As of the time I started writing this, it was -15, and the wind chills were hovering near -35 to -40-ish.

So, whereas yesterday I was able to get some prime Snow Monkey action shots like this (and please note the snowball in the upper middle left winging its way towards my head):

Or, this one of a very happy Ice Princess:

Or this one, the old favorite:

No, I predict that today will be a day spent entirely indoors, by the fireplace, wrapped in a blanket and watching some Disney channel.

The only downside is that with me having to stay home both days - Mrs. Repressed is getting certified in Six Sigma at work and can't miss any of the classtime being held only this week - is that I'm having to wait to hear whether or not my interview last week was successful. I think it went pretty well, honestly, but I'm probably the worst gauge of actuality when it comes to these kinds of things.

So, we'll see...!

Of All The Things To Have Mentioned In The News About Your Town

Our flatfoots go off and arrest Chuck Yeager, er, Sam Shepard!

The amazing thing is that they can seemingly catch a celebrity driving under the influence, but they somehow always seem to manage missing the 99.9% of all the other crappy drivers in this town! Seriously - both Mrs. Repressed and I are astounded just how incredibly bad the drivers in this podunk little burg seem to be with frightening regularity.

Anywho, when did Sam get so... old?

Christmas Lists 2008

Sorry, guys. I know I said I would get this up last week, but I'm a hopeless slacker at times. So, here's the barebones version of the Christmas lists for which y'all asked:

Laura:

Clothes (size 18 in pants, 20 in dresses and 22/2X/3X in shirts), slipper socks; Spode Christmas dishes, new Steve Berry book, "Realities" perfume

Gift Certificates: Barnes & Noble, Borders, Macy’s, Sears, Penney’s, Outback, Logan’s, Olive Garden, Target

Jeannette:

Anything Barbie, any stuffed animals, any baby dolls and/or accessories, Wizard of Oz toys/dolls, jewelry (no earrings), lotions/bath gels

Alex:

Anything with "Family Guy", Playstation 2 games, books (especially Space, Science, or Animal), anything Star Wars, anything Transformers, Game Stop gift cards

John:

I actually *did* set up an Amazon wish-list under my Hotmail account address: memmer1814 at hotmail dot com (I wrote it out to keep the creepy crawlie spybots from picking it up for spam!). Other than that, I always like kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, gift certs to Best Buy or any store of that ilk, and I've really developed a love of family recipes. You know, things that your family makes that are yummy and loved by all, but may never have been seen outside of your home. Or recipes for little dishes you take to parties, food days, etc. I dig on that kind of stuff. :)

Update 12/18: Is it too late to add a couple of things? Colgone - always good, the wife liking Nautica the best (and really, it's for her, right?)  :) Also, my constantly sore neck is telling me that one of those recliner-type pillow/cushion/apparatuses for the bed would be most welcome. You know, something I can prop my carcass up against whilst watching TV or reading in bed? That'd be divine...!

A Decade Together Gets You A Yummy Steak (aka. funny things heard at Jim's Steak House)

Having already gone out for our 10th Anniversary Date last weekend while the kids played at Victory Academy, we ventured out last night en masse for our actual anniversary dinner. We ultimately settled on Jim's Steak House, one of the oldest and nicest restaurants here in Bloomington. Old enough and nice enough to have figured out how to make a damn fine steak, might I add.

After rolling in from the frigid winds outside, we only had a short wait - maybe five minutes - before we were seated on the main floor right next to the fireplace. The inside of Jim's is exactly what you would imagine a Mafioso's favorite steak place should look like - lots of dark woods, subtle, indirect lighting and fine artwork adorning the walls while snappily dressed waiters and hosts flit around the multiple-level eating areas like checkerboard butterfiles, lighting from one table to the next.

We ended up ordering the same steaks - the 10 oz ribeye, one for both the missus and myself and one to be split between the punkins. The first course was a hot, fresh loaf of crusty bread, which our ravenous progeny gobbled up before it had barely had time to settle on the table. Next came our salads with homemade dressings. The kids have actually started to incorporate salads into their diets, which we'll encourage as much as they want to eat. They're both lettuce & cheese kids at this point, and whereas Sissy likes to dip hers into ranch, Alex likes to roll it into mini Alex-wraps. But at this point, we don't care - they're eating vegetables!

When our steaks came out, they brought out a separate plate for Alex, as we were just going to halve it. They had already adorned the plate with a layer of au jus, so when they put it in front of the boy, he looked at it for a second, then lifted his eyes up slowly, and with just a hint of poutiness in his voice, he said, "My steak melted!"

Needless to say, that got a round of the gigles going, not only for us, but for the waitstaff that brought the food. However, once we actually got the steak halved between the two kids, it didn't take more than a bite to prompt this from Jeannette: "This is the best steak I've ever put into my mouth."

It wasn't long before they had completely Hoovered their respective dishes, and we even left a little room for desserts. Alex got a brownie-pie with ice cream and honey-roasted walnuts, whereas Sissy's got the mini-chocolate bundt cake with raspberry coulis drizzled under it. Mommy and I were more than happy to help them finish them off, of course.

Sure, it was a little expensive. But then again, how often do you get to celebrate your 10th Anniversary? We came away happy and satisfied, and we even got to be entertained by the house piano player who had broken into peppy renditions of Abba's "Dancing Queen" and Toto's "Africa" while we were enjoying our meals. Really - you can't beat that!

And since the kids hit their sugar cliff on the way home, we were able to get them right into bed without too much of a fight, and we did the same not too long thereafter. :)

Happy Anniversary, Honey! I love you!