Gates Open at 1 pm

and radios go on at 1 p.m. (if not sooner!). And for baseball fans all is right in the world today. At 1 p.m. fans will begin to fill Progressive field. Will it be a new name for a new era? Time will tell. And at 3:05 CC Sabathia will throw the first pitch of the 2008 season to the Chi Sox's lead off hitter. Tom Hamilton's golden voice will fill my family room and I'll have a smile on my face and a light hope in my heart and fun on my mind.

Yesterday was special too. Thank you, Pistol Packin' Presbytera for remindng me that yesterday was the Artist's baptismal birthday. We took the occasion to enjoy some brownies!

To all baseball fans, A good season to you!

It looks like this opening day will not be a repeat of last year's Snopening Day.

"The Silly, Wonderful Me"

The Artist is using a watercolor instruction book for art class this year. I really like the book, and she does too. So far it has made her art classes a delight for her, and a fun way to end her school week every Friday.

Today's lesson was called Techinicolor Beasties. She made some sweet flying parrots and posing frogs, even a crocodile leaving a trail of footprints behind himself.

One tableau I didn't quite pick up on, so I asked for her explanation.


Tell me about this one.

That's a colorful cliff, and this (left) is the water.

What are the green and yellow in the water?

The green is part of the water's color, the yellow is sunlight.

What's going on on top?

This is a person pushing another person off the cliff.

Oh. And what is this? (the top right black figure)

That is a "No Diving" sign.

Oh, well, I guess they didn't dive, did they.

Nope. That's the silly, wonderful, me!

No home school students were suspended or expelled for this egregious threat of violence.

Buttons

At long last I have found some buttons that will work with the Audrey sweater.For three weeks I've been scouring Joann's supplies and found some perfect buttons that were too small and, no, I cannot order a larger size. Or I've found some absolutely beautiful buttons that I could use, but for the fact that I could only locate two. And, no, I cannot order more because the computer said they had more in the store. Why is it, if they get buttons on their truck every week, will it take at least two weeks for my order to come in considering I can only order things they stock on their shelves?

I finally opted for an internet search. I went for gold tone, because I didn't want to trust a color match on the screen. I bought this attractive scroll design.There was a very similar floral button at Joann's, but they would not order more for me. The scroll buttons I found on line are less expensive, but because they come in lots larger than I need I ended up paying slightly more for 15 buttons than I would have paid for 5.

My needles have not been quiet through the button search. Slow progress is shown on the Millicent socks. I have eight more rows to go on the pattern chart of the second sock.

After that I'll have a new challenge. The instructions say to turn the work so you are knitting in the other direction. I'll have to figure out how that is going to work.

Kids and Casserole

Aren't children and casseroles usually dire enemies? When I make a casserole, usually once or twice a week, the "Dinner!" call is not greeted with cheers. Sometimes, I'm treated to shouts of joy and children full of excitement running calling "What are we having?" When I pronounce the sentence, their faces fall. One reverts to If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. The other whines and complains and is shortly given a choice of eating with the family or not eating in his bed.

What happened last night?

I was so impressed I almost got the camera out. Then I thought I'd better not draw attention to what I was observing, in case it should disappear forever.

I served my family a roast pork loin, mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. And this time I even disappointed them by not making the Italian breadcrumbs sauteed in butter to top the asparagus. Apparently they like the vegetable with or without the breadcrumbs.

As I was enjoying my dinner I noticed the Artist making a well in her mashed potatoes. I reminded her that I did not have a gravy with this meal. That didn't bother her a bit. She filled that well with slices of asparagus. Then she covered it over, hiding the asparagus. Then she cut her pork slices into bites and topped the potatoes with the bites.

Imagine her surprise when I told her "Oh, You made a casserole."

"This is casserole?"

"Casssserrrrollllle?" the Engineer inflects a question despite his chewing.

"Sure, you have your meat, starch and vegetable all in one dish." I refrained from adding If I'd thought to cook it that way we'd have fewer dishes to clean up. She is not yet responsible for kitchen clean up enough days of the week for that statement to have a full impact, so I'll save it for later.

The Engineer thought the self-built casserole looked like such a good idea that he made one too.

I wonder what we will be having for dinner tonight.

March Madness, Math Madness

We do not really follow college basketball too closely in our family. Rick and I were happy for Cleveland State when they had a good run this year, but we are not so invested that we were affected by their not making it into the tournament running.

Rick occasionally reads ESPNs website. I occasionally hear news and sports sound bites at the tops and bottoms of hours through the day. The Artist and the Engineer don't have much in the was of sources of information about college basketball. Although I probably should let you know the Engineer forgets very little of what he hears about sports records. (Getting him to understand that the team that has the ball is on offense. The team that does not have the ball is on defense. And it will change hundreds of times during the course of a game is more difficult to get across to him!)

Anyway, Rick had all four of us fill out brackets this year. Rick claims dereliction of duty because he went to sleep last night before recording winners on our bracket sheets. Don't worry, Hon, this duty is so far down on the list that it really does not matter.

But so far, Rick is doing well with 27 games picked correctly. I'm having some kind of luck streak, because I've picked 30 games correctly. I've never done better than Rick before with the brackets, and I don't expect it to continue. And I think it's funny that I've done so poorly in the Midwest, where we live.

The Artist is plugging along with 25 correct calls, and the Engineer has 29. Rick did allow both of the kids a mulligan. One of them chose Kent state to be the national champion, and the other had Kent in the final four. He warned them this was the one and only time they could make bracket adjustments.

So now, Memphis, UCLA, Louisville and Xavier, someone in our house is rooting for you to win it all! Go Team!

Math Madness:
What Engineers like ours do to amuse themselves during the sermon.

Easter Eggs

I did the cop out this year.

The idea of boiling dyeing and drying Easter eggs with the kids was too daunting for me this year, when I'm trying to cut a great deal of stress. So I bought some candy and located the hoard of formerly useless plastic eggs in my attic.

Today the kids had a ball putting a surprise in each egg. There was more cooperation and fun in this activity than we've ever had with egg coloring before. Some other time we may be making some durable painted wood eggs we can use for years and years. This year I will miss the beautiful creations, but I will not miss two week old hard boiled eggs for breakfast, again.

Sad, Not Surprised

I am saddened by the Keischnick regime's decision to get rid of Issues, Etc. How spiteful of them to get rid of all the archives too.