Because he amuses me....

“Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie. Sometimes black humor is the only kind we can summon, but even dark laughter can sustain.”

-Dean Koontz

Miniature Earth

This puts things into perspective...

CANTON HOUSE (blatant advertising)

So, Breanna's career at McDonalds has come to an end. She turned in her hat and much hated pants on Saturday.

Her new career is at The Canton House.

What is The Canton House? Only the best Chinese restaurant on this side of town! It is conveniently located at 25590 SR 2 (aka Western Avenue), South Bend, IN 46619 and you can call for carry out at 574-232-8182

Some of you are thinking "WOW, I did not know that they were open!"

Well, great news they are, they have new owners but the egg rolls are still homemade as is everything else (which according to Breanna means they can add things to your dish if you request it)

....and the new owners are EXTREMELY CLEAN...Breanna has to test the Ph level in her cleaning water...and she even has to clean window sills! (YAY! No BUGS!) Apparently they are planning on redecorating...the old tacky wallpaper needs to go. The owners are a nice young married couple, Andrew and Carol Lee...and kinda fun from the little interaction I have had with them. Breanna says that they use a squirt gun to take care of any "behavioral problems" with their staff. (She has not yet personally experienced the Chinese water torture first hand but she is amused by it)

If you go in while Breanna is working, she claims she will buy you a round of egg rolls (group limit of 6 people - she makes just over minimum wage and works part time, so it's not like she is rolling in the dough, she is just trying to drum up business here)

SO, since the re-opening of the Canton House seems to be South Bend's best kept secret, help me to spread the word (and keep Breanna at a job she seems to like)...TAKE YOUR CLAN TO THE CANTON HOUSE!

Ohhh, and don't forget the fortune cookies!

The Bridge

Heard this song by Elton John today...

I've seen the bridge and the bridge is long
And they built it high and they built it strong
Strong enough to hold the weight of time
Long enough to leave some of us behind

[chorus:]
And every one of us has to face that day
Do you cross the bridge or do you fade away
And every one of us that ever came to play
Has to cross the bridge or fade away

Standing on the bridge looking at the waves
Seen so many jump, never seen one saved
On a distant beach your song can die
On a bitter wind, on a cruel tide

[repeat chorus]

And the bridge it shines
Oh cold hard iron
Saying come and risk it all
Or die trying

[repeat chorus]

Darn it!

I tried to post one entry at a time from my vacation from the blogosphere but it would post it UNDER anything that I create from here on out...so to heck with it...I have posted them all...scroll down...enjoy (I have said all of this in my head with a tone of anger and sarcasm)

I'm baaaack.....

So, I noticed that I am a couple of days late...the pressure is back...good thing I created a couple of posts while I was on blog-cation.

Anyway, the question of the day:

Is it a sign of insanity when you ask the kids to remind you of the lyrics of the song that two years ago drove you crazy when they would break out singing it in the car?

Oddly enough they could not come up with all the words....anyone want to work around these lyrics to complete the worlds most ignorant song:

"...instead I bought....BUBBLEGUM! Bazooka zooka bubble gum! Bazooka zooka bubble gum!"

Stupid tune in my head...just thought I'd share, and now a post from my time off:

Fog

September 15, 2006

It has been foggy here in the mornings lately. I must say that the team in charge of landscaping our campus must have had fog in mind when they designed it. I would include pictures but they would not do it justice, so I will just borrow this one from Mark Waltz. I feel grateful that when I arrive at work and enter through the back entrance that there is such beautiful scenery to provide a moment of serenity and then God just adds that little special finishing touch by creating fog...it blocks out the empty space and lets you truly see the definition of certain objects, and plants, it forces you to focus on the bigger stuff and look at what is directly in front of you.

Dog's intuition

September 14, 2006

I just wanted someplace to make note of this.

Most people know about our dog Pity. I refer to her as the Dingo. She looks like one and at one time she was one step away from being a wild dog. Anyway, she is not known for being a social creature. Her favorite place to be is under our bed, unless there is a storm brewing then she prefers to be under someone's legs. She greets us when we come home and when she comes in from playing in the yard and she likes to take walks but other than that...under the bed is where she spends her time. So yesterday when I got home, I found it very weird that she would not leave me alone. She did not want outside...she clung to me like velcro...like a well trained dog that was told to heel. She usually stays out of the kitchen but she stuck with me into there. She even stuck to my right leg perfectly as I walked in circles around the living room. She gave up when I went down the basement steps but she stood at the top and watched me and resumed her post when I came back up. I was in the bathroom sorting some laundry and she came in and stood behind me with her head under my arm.... Breanna had to shoo her outside so that I could use the facilities. It was freaky. She did not seem scared as she does when there is a storm coming. She seemed happy, tail wagging and all.

I guess what freaks me out is that I believe animals are very intuitive and can sense things that we can not. I have noticed over the years that whenever I am sick my animals are always on me, the cats and dogs (for Scarlet the doberman it is normal) are usually on top of me or at my feet during any minor illness - I guess they know that I don't feel well and want to comfort me. So when Pity is sticking to me like glue it makes me wonder if there is something going on that she knows about but I don't. It kept me awake last night...worrying that I would not wake up.

I know it's irrational but I just wanted to put it out there...just in case.