Thursday, August 30, 2007

JM & H Productions presents...

JAN MICHAEL
VS.
MANDIBLES OF DEATH

The epic tale, re-told by Jan Michael:

I was on my way to the kitchen for a bowl of lentils when he appeared out of nowhere. He paid no heed as I put my foot down to stop him from scuttling behind the desk. It was time for step two of Operation Stop the Spider, which entailed waving my arms wildly about in a frightening manner, much like a bird of prey taking flight, and yelling at the top of my lungs. Much to my disbelief, this didn't faze him either.

Before he got too close to my foot (60 inches), I fell back to a more defensible position. By then he had stopped going for the desk; instead, alerted by soft pink flesh, he headed for me.

Stumbling back, I reached into the laundry room with the horrible thought that there might be more of his minions waiting for me. My hand came to rest on my excalibur - four feet of solid plastic, capped with an army of deadly yellow bristles.

I felt the power,thoughts of Castle Greyskull sweeping through my mind. As the spider raced for my exposed flank, my swift pole-arm of justice raised up overhead, as if by its own power, willing me to slay this fiercesome beast.

Realizing too late that death was imminent, the spider tried desperately to sink it's fangs into my slippered foot. But it was not to be, as the whoosing deadly bristles finished him off. Exhausted yet elated, I slumped into my desk chair, secure in the thought that for now, I was safe and the Pearson way of life was preserved.



Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Evidence..

that fall is just around the corner:
-It's completely dark by 9:00
-The last few early mornings have been foggy
-The draft for fantasy football is on Saturday
-We saw Halloween costumes at Costco this week
-I can feel it in the air
-And...

We have our own little orchard in the front
and back yards,
which the deer are helping to eat.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Hold on to your hats! And your spare change, and your lunch...

Ooh, what a Saturday. Here's the deal: After a quick & dirty few hours at the building site, Jan Michael, Brent & I bazzowmed up the freeway to Enchanted Village. All three of us have happy memories of visiting there when we were younger, and since we're really just little kids trapped in grown-up bodies, we thought it would be a good place to spend the day. Our first stop was the Tip-Top, which is just like the teacup ride at Disneyland (and one of my very favorites), and watching the people already on the ride while we waited in line was almost as fun as the ride itself. One woman was crying by the time it ended, and there was a teenage boy who looked positively green (I'm not sure if I've ever seen someone look so ill) but managed somehow not throw-up all over his friends. And then it was our turn. Jan & I sat back while Brent spun us faster than the speed of light, and that is where the hysterical laughter began, as well as the desperate attempt at preventing whip-lash. Next was the Timber Axe, which is like a huge tomahawk. People are strapped into the axe part, and then you're whipped around and around in 360 degree circles at very fast speeds. Jan had to do some fast talking to convince me to get on this one, but his convincing & my feeble courage paid off because it was super fun. SUPER FUN. However, about half-way through the ride it began to rain in earnest (there had been a couple of sprinkles earlier) and by the time we hopped off, we were soaked to the skin. (It is not, by the way, wise to wear white pants on a day in which showers are forecasted, because the showers inevitably turn into a downpour, and then you are in trouble.) We decided to take shelter underneath a tree by the men's bathroom, but high-tailed it out of there when Brent was almost hit by a falling limb. We spent a few minutes hiding under a covered area in a ride that was out of order, but then we decided we didn't care since we looked like drowned rats anyway, so off we went to the bumper cars. Poor Jan ended up in a car that didn't work - it wouldn't go anywhere, of all the dumb things - so I, being a chivalrous wife, rescused him by ramming into his car from behind and pushing him around for the duration of the ride. After that it was several more rides, including a wooden roller coaster and a metal roller coaster with lots of upside-down loop-de-loops and a really lame ride on the Octopus, which used to be my favorite but is now at the very bottom of the heap because it was so slow. We strolled out of the park at the end of the day with hoarse voices from all the screaming, sore jaws from smiling and laughing the whole blasted afternoon, and more happy memories to add to our list. Next stop is Six Flags in California :)

Friday, August 24, 2007

Thursday date night takes us to the fair :)

We are very lucky ducks because the fair is just a few miles down the road, and as everybody knows, the fair is LOADED with fun.
We saw a Clydesdale show...
and some neat things carved out of logs with chainsaws...
and a lumberjack show, complete with axe-throwing at a bullseye, log-sawing contests, log rolling (and for that, they even called two people out of the audience to try it, and Jan & I were VERY GLAD it wasn't us), and tree climbing.
It took this guy about 8 seconds to get up that tree,
and much less to get back down. Maybe Jan will quit his job and we'll run away to seek our fortunes as a lumberjack and lumberjill :)
And we also saw lots & lots of animals, including cows and ducks and geese and sheep and goats and a zebra, but my very favorite are always the brand new pigs.
This litter is only two days old. And, there was another great big mama-to-be in a nearby pen with a sign above her that said "Lady in waiting" :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A jolly good fellow

Happy Birthday to our best big brother. We love you & wish you 75 more :)

Let's take a look back in time to 1973, shall we?
Average cost of a new home: $32,500.00
Average income per year: $12,900.00
Gas per gallon: 40 cents
Chrysler Duster 340: $2,822.00
Jaguar Series III E Type V12 Convertible: $8,470.00
#1 song: Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree
Fads: backgammon, CB radios, pet rocks
Nonfiction best seller: The Living Bible

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Weekend fun

It's scandalous, really, how good friends can live only a few miles apart and hardly ever see each other. Tonight, somehow, the two of us plus Bill & Sheryl all managed to converge at Eric & Tessa's for games, a barbeque, and the breaking in of Tessa's new fire pit. We pretended we were camping - it even rained, making it all the more authentic :)
Chief cook & bottle washer (and corn husker, too)
Too much smoke!
Taboo winners, recipients of the coveted foil-marshmallow-on-a-fork-trophy...
and the losers, who don't look too terribly sad about it :)
S'MORES!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Maybe you'd like to know...

about a few of the things that illicited rather strong emotional responses from me this week. I'll let you guess the emotions.

- Two fawns in our backyard Wednesday morning

- A garbage/recycle man using the side of the road as his urinal

- A sign advertising manure, except the writer ran out of room, so M-A-N-U-R was written in huge letters, followed by a tiny, squished E

- The second in a long line of Thursday date nights with my favorite person on the planet

- A marionberry pie at Fred Meyer for $2.99

- An ad on the internet for "Poof Stretch Pants, a fashionable addition to any casual wardrobe"

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Fairy tale

This is the story of Little D, who wanted, wanted, wanted to go wading in the river. But even though he's growing to be bigger and stronger and more of a boy-wonder by the minute, he still needed a hand to hold while he ventured into deeper water. Kind, unsuspecting Auntie Sara volunteered for the job, and off they went, traipsing and splashing over the smooth river rocks. But river water is cold, even during the hot months of summer, and very quickly Little D decided that instead of holding Auntie Sara's hand, what he wanted was to scale Auntie Sara like a lumberjack in a tree climbing contest. So he held his hands up, scrambling about, shrieking and pleading with Auntie Sara to rescue his dripping, sopping little self from the Arctic waters. And while Auntie Sara had originally signed up only to hold his hand, in the end she realized that resistance was futile, and so hoisting him up, she and Little D made their way back to shore, both considerably less dry than when they started. The end :)




Monday, August 06, 2007

Saturday afternoon

Here are the goods from our time at the river on Saturday. Stay tuned for a most funny series of Auntie Sara & Little D wading.






Saturday, August 04, 2007

101 pictures

We spent just a few hours with Brent working on the house this morning, and then the three of us met Danny & the boys and Sara at Derek & Sara's house. We messed around there for a little while before heading to the river - we have lots of good pictures of wading, so check back in a couple of days :)
Derek has a fine time pretending to drive. He started with our car, but then upgraded to the mini van.
Next he decided he needed some passengers, so Uncle J and Caleb hopped in. It makes me laugh that Derek was pretending to drive while eating a nectarine. So young, so observant!
Caleb has feet of steel. He likes to walk everywhere, shoes or not.
Uncle love
Hahahahaha!
Derek naively thinks he can turn me off with a click of the ceiling fan remote. His uncle can tell him that it takes far more than that to keep me quiet :)
Snaps to me for capturing such a moment :)
Derek wanted a horsey ride, so his obliging uncle took him around the block. He instructed Jan to "go faster than Daddy" so Jan began to trot, but Derek was soon asking him to walk instead. He's a man that likes a smooth ride :)
I like this one, so I'm turning a blind eye to the blurry-ness.