You Break It, You Buy It

It never fails that when hubby is out of town on an extended work trip, I fall victim to some sort of crisis.

During his January/February trips, there's always some sort of blizzard or ice storm to shake things up. And last fall, our old Honda Civic went to hell in a "need new head gasket" hand basket and I suffered that traumatic "overheated" drive to and from work. The end result was that I allegedly "broke" the car and we had to buy a new one upon hubby's return.

So why should this time be any different?

Jim left around 3:30 a.m. for the Appleton airport to catch a direct flight to Atlanta. For the next 7 days, he and I are sort of on vacation... from each other, that is. He's gone 'til late Thursday night and I leave midday Friday for Crop-toberfest (scrapbooking, not harvesting).

So we will both be doing the single-parenting role. I just get the football chauffeur and homework dictator duties!

Tonight I went to pick Carter up at football practice and arrived 5 minutes early. I thought I'd sit and listen to the radio. After a few minutes, I remembered that I should probably not run the battery down because 2 or 3 weeks ago, we had a dead battery at practice when Jim accidentally left the lights on for half an hour. Well, tonight it didn't take much.

Carter got in the car. I try to start it and click, click, click. Shhhooot.

Now last time we just called Uncle Joe a few blocks away but I do not know his phone number by heart. Thankfully my son is not the only putzer so there was still about 3 parents left at the practice field. The woman next to me had jumper cables and neither of us knew what to do with them. (No comment.) But 2 coaches were left so they figured it out and jumped me.

I really didn't like facing an hour drive to work tomorrow plus another hour drive to Carter's football game up in Wausau tomorrow afternoon with a battery on its last legs. Since it was after 6 p.m. nothing was open except, you guessed it, my second home: Wal-Mart.

Now you know I'm a gearhead. I can change headlight bulbs and windshield wipers with the best of them. But I draw the line at dealing with anything that could explode or cause my car to explode if I do it incorrectly.

So I pled my case. I was supposed to have to wait 90 minutes or so but I can be charmingly pathetic when I need to be so we got the car in in 20 minutes. An hour later than we should have, we arrive home with my bank account $76 lighter.

I just hope this means the drama and trauma for the week are over early. Please, God?

Thank you.

Homecoming Highlights

Thought I'd share some scenes from the 2011 Assumption homecoming since my boy looks so good in blue!

Pregame festivities started after school on Friday. Above is the burning of the Assumption "A" at the conclusion of the Friday night pep rally.

Here the high school-middle school combined Marching Band assembles to play tunes before Saturday's game against Thorp.

A few snapshots of Carter kickin' some brass (and you can see it was pretty windy yesterday)...

OK, who requested the Village People??

And how did Carter get roped into leading the actions to Y.M.C.A.?

Taking a cue from his instructor Miss Thomas.

I only took one action shot from the game -- which we won, by the way, 10-3. We will be in the playoffs!

Lining up for halftime performance. You can see Carter (2nd row, 2nd from right) is one of the few with a horn half his size... and you can see he's the only one not looking straight on (because he's talking to a girl!).

OK, now he's paying attention!

On the move.

The girls ahead of him and behind him are classmates. Very tall classmates!

Marching and grooving into place as they play a Roy Orbison tune.

Forming an "A" for the school song. I wasn't standing high enough in the bleachers to get a good angle. I was too concerned about trying to zoom in on Carter. (Of course.)

There he is on the right leg of the "A".

I know the wind didn't help their playing, but it sure kept them cool enough in the 80-degree weather.

I may be standing a mile away but I can still zoom in where the son, er sun, catches my eye!

All done! Nice job, everyone! (And thank you, Mother Nature, for a nice sunny day to take decent pictures!)

Loud and Proud

When I got up this morning, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck... an allergy truck. Would have loved to have rolled over and spent the day in bed but there were too many things on my agenda.

First up: Lettie's River Run in Amherst...
The Desperate Housewives of Blue Jay Drive made a return trip to this annual event, sporting loud socks -- and we were quite proud of them. Got lots of compliments! But I will say they don't necessarily make you run faster. Had a dismal outing compared to my last 5K race. But I blame that on the heat, the wind, the hills and, oh yeah, the fact that I felt like crap.

Had to show a picture of the finish line all lined up with pumpkins. Cute. I hardly noticed when I got done. I was just so glad to be done. I still ended up finishing 7th in my age group. So I'm sure I'll do it again.

Got home at noon and had to shower quick and move onto the next thing: Assumption Homecoming. Game started at 1 p.m. but Carter and the band entertained pre-game so he was there early. The wind was nice for them since those heavy uniforms got awful hot. They did a great halftime show -- loud and proud -- and somehow I was able to keep track of him for photos. I will have to post them later because even though I "say" I am posting this at 11:59 p.m., it is actually 1:20 a.m. Sunday already. Yes, our third and final item on the agenda ran pretty late.

After an Assumption football win over Thorp, brought Carter home, changed clothes, ate and went back to town for Jim's 30th high school reunion.

It was a small crowd but I knew a handful of people so that was nice. Obviously, the class of '81 had a lot of fun because they kept the party going way past the bedtime for the class of '86!

Someday I'll be old enough to handle all the excitement.

Excitement in the Air

If you live in Wisconsin, you definitely know a thing or two about nail-biting, edge of your seat excitement this week.

Yes, I'm talking about the Brewers and their extra-inning playoff win tonight that launches them into the final round of post-season play in the National League. Even if our hearts are pledged to other teams, hubby and I still support the Brew Crew and are pretty happy for all our friends celebrating tonight.

Just by coincidence, we were with a gymnasium full of people -- all in blue -- when the news of the final score hit.

We had a pep rally tonight at Assumption for homecoming. I mainly went because Carter played in the Pep Band, but I had a blast. Entertaining games and skits... you know the drill. Now Carter, who can be too shy and nervous to do anything in front of people most of the time, can't wait to be in high school next year so he can take part! (Slow down!)

He especially like the funny "dance" routine by the senior football players, who I must say looked pretty buff. Carter noticed, too, and he's a little concerned he won't look that good when he's a senior doing something like that. "I gotta start pumping iron, Mom!" Yes sir, whatever motivates you.

The other excitement going on -- for some of us, anyway -- is the racing action down in La Crosse. After qualifying very well last night, our nephew Colin went on to win the big feature! How exciting! I am sure he is just walking on air! Of course, he didn't have much time to celebrate since they had to get up today and do it all over again.

Tonight is an interesting 99-lap race that is broken up by 3 33-lap races. They run 33 laps, then do other races in different divisions, then the 2nd 33, then more heats or races, then the final 33. They figure out all the points between the 3 segments to determine the winner. Colin finished about 15th in the 1st segment, then won the 2nd segment! Now we're just waiting for the 3rd and final segment to get going.

I somehow think he's not worried about missing the excitement of homecoming -- or the Brewers. Not one bit.

Seasonal Transition Disorder

I don't know if summer has transitioned to fall and then transitioned right back or what. But it is becoming quite a challenge going to work when clearly Mother Nature is telling us to stay home or detour to a golf course or something.

Today, as it reached 80 again, I wisely did not go out for a walk during lunch. At this age, I know my limitations. And I know I have no willpower to go back inside to a desk job when the mercury is up and there are maybe 4 clouds in the entire sky. So I wistfully observed it out my window.

We kept the summer theme going tonight, though, and had a new flavor of bratwurst from Ski's Meat Market. Remember, this is the place that serves up everything from Beer Beer brats to Bloody Mary brats, Buffalo Chicken brats and everything in between. Their new end-of-summer flavor: Caribbean Jerk. Oooooh, good stuff! A different kind of spicy hot. Me like.

The summer racing season is also officially drawing to a close for our nephew Colin. This is Oktoberfest Race Weekend in La Crosse. He is racing tonight (he qualified 4th out of 46 drivers) and Friday night, then qualifying (keep your fingers crossed) on Saturday for a final race on Sunday. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate so we're hoping he has a super fast weekend!

In the midst of all the summer stuff is a typical fall week of Homecoming activities at Assumption. They really only have 2 dress-up days. Today was cowboy/hillbilly day and tomorrow is spirit day.

Carter put on a straw hat, some fake "hillbilly teeth" and a flannel shirt and was fine with that. I think he was a bit shy and conservative but now that he saw how everyone else dressed, he really wants to go gung-ho for spirit day. I still have blue hair paint left from last year -- but most of it is still on the bathroom ceiling. I know what you're thinking... I didn't exactly think that one through. My bad. We'll do it up right tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'll deal with that other lovely thing that comes with the transition from summer to fall then back to summer, then fall again... allergies. I'm only medicating at night since it tends to make me drowsy while typin.... wish me luc........

Like a Lamb?

We always gauge the month of March as a Lion or a Lamb. Can't we do the same with October? I am loving the lamb these days!

I don't know if it got up to 80 today but I suspect it was close. Hubby and I took a 15-minute walk during lunch hour and it was absolutely gorgeous out! One of those days where we probably shouldn't have escaped the office -- even for 15 minutes -- because it was oh so hard to go back! Shouldn't we be golfing instead of working? Did you hear that sound? I think my deck chair is calling me!

Well, we sucked it up and went back to work.

We did get home in time for me to enjoy a nice run in the sun. I figured I better get moving since I am doing a 5k race in Amherst this weekend. Trust me, there will be no medals coming home with me this time, but I am going to have some fun, I'm sure!

After my run, I showered quick and drove Carter into town for confirmation. I was tempted to take a nice walk. (Dairy Queen is 2 blocks away.) But instead I parked somewhere to "borrow" some wireless and fired up the laptop to watch last week's episode of Modern Family. That show cracks me up. I am sure anyone driving by thinks the old lady in the CRV is a lunatic laughing with herself.

Partially true.

Now I see I still have 15 minutes before I have to pick Carter up. Do I check work email or take that walk?

Hmmm.... should probably enjoy the taste of summer before the Lions of winter return!

Extra Points

It was a red-letter day for Carter. Make that a blue-letter day... as Assumption Middle School pounded Port Edwards 44-8! And #81 not only had at least 2 tackles but in our final score, caught the 2-point conversion pass in the end zone! Whoo-hoo!

Here are some.... well, a LOT of photos from this nice sunny day for football. Most don't need captions. Just look for #81 in action...

The 2-point conversion! Yay, Carter!!

8th-graders only.

Whole Middle School team.

Post-game review. Nice job, boys!