Emily has another one

Some faves from the photo album for your special day (not in any particular order):
Big sister Em with Jon:
Em with cousins. Let's get the party started!:

Always plotting her next move. Check out her eyes:

Off to school in Hawaii:

Hope she gets another PINK birthday cake this year:

Happy birthday, Emmers.

Fashion Flash!

How's about a little broken foot update? Well, I've been able to wear gym shoes for the last couple of weeks. What a relief it was to take off the ortho shoe, especially at night! You should see the lovely outfits I've worn to church. Fine then, YOU try to find a dress that looks like it goes with big white gym shoes! My new fashion statement is a new pair of BROWN gym shoes to go with my fall ensembles. (No, not trip-and-fall) I walk with a just little limp now, so yay for that.

Oh, and the best part is my temporary handicap tag for the car. If you want to park in the best spots, just ride with ME!

This is my super-busiest time at work even in an average year, but this time I have a couple of extra grant reports to put together in the next few weeks in addition to two shows going at once. Amazing how long it takes to compile your data and information and then put together something that makes sense (The words don't just flow from my computer like they do for Doug and Robert...)

Here is a link to the revised version of our new CTE website if you're interested. She just put the slide slow on this weekend, so that's cool. She only put photos from Pinocchio but hopefully we can get some other shows up there somewhere soon. http://cteelgin.com/NEWSITE/index.htm I still can't make any changes on it, so am itching to be able to launch it and go forward.

So there you go. (Oh, too bad this pushed the TP-measuring contest down a notch...) SH

The MBAs...

...strike again.
I bought Northern toilet paper the other day. They make a big deal about how their 12 rolls are the same as 24 rolls of other brands. (If you say so.)

But I noticed that they are 1/2 inch narrower than the roll I'm replacing. People are going to notice when they shave 10% off the width of the paper.

Now, I didn't buy generic. None of this 25 cents a roll stuff. I feel cheated.

Besides, I'm not getting any narrower.

Somebody at Northern thought it was a good idea.

Eleven Rules

Rule 1. Life is not fair; get used to it.

Rule 2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you
to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3. You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't
be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both. (Remember, he wrote these things in the 90s)

Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have
tenure.

Rule 5. Flipping burgers in not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a
different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

Rule 6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your
mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.
They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and
listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain
forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the
closet in your own room.

Rule 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.
In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many
times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest
resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few
employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own
time.

Rule 10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the
coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

-- Charles Sykes

Good to the last drop

I was finishing off the last of the ketchup in the bottle and rinsing it out when a sweet memory was activated...a memory of Mom and her barbecued beef sandwiches.

You see, coaxing the dregs of the ketchup is properly done by adding a little warm water and shaking the bottle vigorously for a few seconds. What remains is then used to make the sauce for barbecued beef sandwiches.

The recipe is one of Granny's best, used often for family reunions and picnics to Lagoon. The beef is shredded and mixed with the sauce. The only thing else you need is a package of hamburger buns.

You're gonna want the recipe. I don't know it. I know there was ketchup, some mustard, and vinegar. It was prepared in a saucepan. The beef was sacrificed from the Sunday pot roast and cooked separately. It all came together at the end in the saucepan. That's all I remember.

As for other bottles, Granny would often have a bottle of Baby Magic turned upside down for weeks, sitting on the shelf in the bathroom. She could coax every drop out of the bottle if given enough time. An orphan who spent her teen years in the Depression, she knew how to conserve. Al Gore's got nothing on her.

How to eat a hot dog

Kraft Foods has finally given us specific instructions on how to eat a hot dog.

But wait, there’s more.
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/HealthyLiving/Articles/FoodSafety/FeedingYourChildren.htm

How did we ever survive childhood before the lawyers?

Around here were still working on the instructions given by Dirty Harry:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5JIpT4GkyM

And remember, be sure to buckle up your First Grader before eating.

Working to earn the elbow patches

Here's to Robert, working hard to earn the tweed jacket with elbow patches, uniform of the college professor.

And they start them out early. His first semester finds him teaching freshmen.

May the force be with you, son.