Happy leaping

I don't have anything special to say today, but I wanted to post another item in February to bring me up to double digits this month. I've been such a slacker, but I'll try to do better in March.

Leap day was today and I watched a story on the news this evening about things throughout history that have happened on February 29th. Of course I can't remember any of them. They also showed one of the newest leap day babies, just hours old. I don't know anybody with a February 29th birthday, but I think I know some people with today as their anniversary date.

The weather this weekend is supposed to be phenomenal, at least on Saturday. So you all enjoy it for me because I'll be at work most of the weekend :-(

I do love me some sunsets

I've been to Maui and there are a multitude of postcards depicting their beautiful island sunsets. Aside from the beaches and crystal clear waters, Maui's got nothin' on Kansas in the sunset department. I've seen some of the most beautiful colors ever in Kansas sunsets. I took these pictures on my trip back home from Ellinwood earlier this month. The first two were taken at approximately 70 mph just north of Sterling out the car window. I must say I'm very proud of these. I love the snow you can see in the second one. Yes, I took them and, yes, I was driving. No, I didn't hit anything, and, no, I don't make a habit of doing this.


This next picture shows the same day's sunset about 20 minutes farther down the road. This one I did stop for: on the ramp where highways 50 and 96 merge for a mile before you get to South Hutchinson. Don't worry, I made sure no one was coming and I was only stopped for a few seconds.

Eat your heart out, Maui.

One opera down...

I was looking forward to seeing Oklahoma City University's production of "The Ballad of Baby Doe" as my first exposure to opera. I don't have any other opera experience to compare it to, but I think the performers did a really good job even with my limited knowledge of such matters. But. You knew there was a but coming, didn't you? But I'm not sure that opera is for me. Even though it was in English, I am glad they were projecting the words above the stage because I probably would have missed a lot of important stuff otherwise. It was kinda like watching live TV with subtitles! But that was just about the most exciting part, sadly.

Don't get me wrong, my nephew Christopher was fabulous in his role as one of the Washington Dandies. My favorite parts were when he was on the stage. But he wasn't out there all that much and the production lasted about three hours. At the end it was almost painful to watch the lead male die onstage. I wanted to stand up and yell, "DIE ALREADY!" but I didn't. It is good to expose myself to this kind of culture. However, my Dad has said that he is done with opera and won't ever see another. I won't go quite that far. But next time I might want to see an Italian opera. It might be better when you can't understand the words.

Here are some pictures from backstage of Christopher looking all used-car-salesman or rough-and-tumble-cowboy in his costumes. I sent my camera with him so I would have some good shots of him in costume. However, I didn't request that they not take these pictures in the bathroom. Live and learn.

Here's another picture of Christopher playing uncle with his nephew (my great nephew) Caden this morning at IHOP where we all (13 of us) met for breakfast. You can still see the rash he's gotten from wearing that weird mustache.

Opera anyone?

Today I'm on my way down to Oklahoma City to see my nephew Christopher in his operatic debut. He's a 5th year senior in the Music Theatre program at Oklahoma City University. He's not an opera singer, but as a student he is required to audition for every production they do. And he got a part in "The Ballad of Baby Doe" which surprised him as much as anyone. This will most likely be his final performance there as a student (besides walking up to get his diploma in May). It's an English opera and is about the mining towns of Colorado including Leadville.

My parents are here and I'm riding with them down there. My sister, brother-in-law, niece, her boyfriend, nephew and his wife, my great-nephew, family friend Doris and my brother-in-law's mother are all going as well in other vehicles. Christopher should have a well-defined cheering section. He sent me a picture last night of him in costume, but it's on my cell phone and I can't figure out how to get it off of there. Look forward to a post about the trip tomorrow night after we get back.

Zach crawls!

Here are two videos of Zach doing his new tricks. I'm not sure why he does his "wounded soldier crawl" during the first and then his real crawl in the second. They were taken just minutes apart. As the first one starts, Katie is annoyed by the fact that he's grinding his teeth, that's why she grabs his mouth. I think it's kinda cute, but it does sound pretty bad when he does it. And it's his Daddy who's telling him that he can crawl the right way. He eventually crawls over to Mommy who is making monkey noises at him.

Caden pictures and video...finally!

My Mom got here yesterday before the sleet hit town, but I was just too tired last night to do any posting. So here they are, without further adieu...some pictures of Caden and some videos of Zach and Caden. Here's Caden eating his dinner served up by his Daddy. Grandpa Kenny's arm is in the right side of the photo. What you can't see is that there are about seven people in the room all staring at him and watching him eat. He puts on a good show.

In between bites, making eyes at Grandpa and Grandma.

After the rice cereal got dumped, Caden was happy to play in it. Looks like he's going to make excellent mud pies.

Here's a video of Caden eating. I have to point out that you need to watch Andrew's mouth during the first bite. Don't we all do that when feeding kiddos? It's hard to see because of Andrew's hand in the way, but Caden's mouth starts going before the spoon hits the lips and that's what all of us are laughing at. And it's his Aunt Katie holding Zach off to the left who gets most of his attention during this video. She's the one you can hear talking to him. The jiggling camera is attributed to Zach because he wanted to see what was going on through the camera.

E-file follow-up

So, I posted about e-file and how my taxes are already done and filed, right. We get a message at work this week that the W-2s may not have been correct and hold off filing until we're sure and get new ones issued for the wrong ones. Let's hope mine was correct to begin with. I sure don't want to file an amendment.

We've got another sick one...

No, it's not me right now, but it could be soon. I'm staying at my friend Jennifer's house this weekend to watch Bella, her almost-three-year-old. Yesterday started out fine. We went to the McDonald's drive-thru (always a hit) and then went to see my friend Joyce's son Chase play basketball at the Y. Both of us enjoyed our outing. We got home and Bella had a meltdown. Hey, she's almost three and her parents are gone for the weekend for the first time in her young life. It's rough. That called for a nap and after her nap things were looking up. Or so I thought.

We were laying on the bed watching TV (K-State basketball game actually) and Bella said she was going to be sick (in so many words). I picked her up and was rushing to the nearest bathroom but we didn't get there in time. Poor thing. Needless to say, as I was cleaning up a bit (me and the floor -- luckily it was tile and I can do laundry) she was sick again. We cancelled the rest of our plans and instead chilled at home. Bella watched "Charlotte's Web" and I finished the book "Songs of the Humpback Whale" by Jodi Picoult. Interesting book but not my favorite that she's written.

Bella's still running a fever and I'm giving her children's Tylenol and a cool washcloth to the foreheard when warranted. After a mostly sleepless night for both of us, she's upstairs taking a nap. I think I'll go join her.

p.s. I promise I'll start posting more soon. My Mom will be at my house on Wednesday and she's got some really cute movies on her camera that I recorded last weekend in Ellinwood. The babies are doing new tricks! Stay tuned.

A model citizen

So this week, not only did I caucus, but I also filed my income tax forms electronically. Now I'm just going to sit back and wait for my savings account to get populated with all that refund money. It's not a huge amount, but it will pay some bills that need paying. I can't imagine having to actually send in the forms. Anybody else love e-filing as much as I do?

Not now, I'm caucussing

Tonight I went, stood, shivered a little in the cold and let myself be counted for the Democratic party's caucus for presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. My appointed place to caucus (I LOVE that word) was the jury room at the Sedgwick County Courthouse.

It took about 45 minutes of standing in line (mostly outside) before I got to this sign which pointed into the jury room where I signed in twice (once for security and once in the official book) for my civic duty.

Shortly before I got to the jury room I ran into this dapper young gentleman named Finnegan who was in line with his parents. He has the most stunning blue eyes which just happened to match his snappy hat, pacifier and I (heart) Barack t-shirt.

Once I got all signed in, I actually found a seat. It was a Caucus Miracle. But shortly after that they called those of us who'd already signed in to go out into the lobby of the courthouse and be counted so they could let the rest of those waiting in line into the room. I'm sure they would have broken lots of fire codes had they not cleared the room out a bit. I struggled with who should have my caucus vote.

Should it be Hillary or Barack?

This is how I look when I caucus:

As I was waiting in the lobby to be counted, the Hillary supporters started chanting "Hillary! Hillary!" and the Barack supporters started chanting "We can change! We can change!" It was a really neat experience and I'm glad I braved the cold for this cause. Once I got the black "X" on my hand I was free to go.

Who did I eventually get counted for? I don't caucus and tell!