My clothes hate me

I recently had a conversation with my clothes that made me realize that they really do hate me. One shirt in particular. This is what happened- I opened my closet hoping to find a friend. My blue button-up shirt glared at me.
"Don't wear me- I don't like you." the shirt said .
"I know- you tell me every day." I reply, trying to find another shirt so I can shut the closet door and walk away.
"You are going to try me on anyway, though. You think that I will change my mind- I won't."
I roll my eyes. I am not going to try that shirt on- it hates me. The shirt won't let it go, though. "I'll make you look bad. And you know what? I'll do it on purpose." I am getting frustrated- I start to pull at a different shirt who says to me quickly, "I hate you, too. I will pull too tight on your belly and slide up on your love handles. Your jeans will help me."
Arrghh- these clothes used to be my friends! I try for another shirt and it says snidely "Really? Cuz I didn't fit yesterday- but good luck." Finally I just grab one and ignore it snickering lowly as I put it on. Throughout my day I can hear it muttering about how the closet or even DI is better than being with me all day. I then resolve to never wear my clothes again- and quickly recant my resolve. I don't want real people to hate me, too.

добро пожаловать домой Jacob!

Ann-Michelle's long lost brother has returned from the Fatherland. Jacob arrived at the airport here in I.F. around 8:40 on Saturday evening. We had made him a big Russian sign, but he walked into the terminal almost exactly the same time we did, so we didn't even get to hold it out for him.



Needless to say, the following was had in large quantities by all present:



I'm sure Elise will have something to say about the "quality" of these pictures, but hey, this is what we got.






Jacob got to meet his newest niece and nephew for the first time. Thats right, we actually had _two_ babies while he was gone.



While waiting for Jacob to re-acquire his luggage, the cousins had some shenanigans on a baggage cart.

The whole experience was just a little weird for me, because I realized that it was only three and a half years ago that I was returning to the same airport from a former member-country of the Soviet Union.

Welcome Home Jacob - рады, что Tы дома

Sharing the Joy

I just love that line, "My project is a flailing corpse of misery."

Girls playing in the snow

Well Christmas has come and gone. For lack of a better topic I am dredging up some photos from about a month ago of the girls playing in the snow.



We haven't gotten a ton of use out of the yard we fenced off over the summer, but at least we have been able to let the kids play out in the snow some.






Just because its cute.

BEEM me up Scotty!

Last year between semesters I created this game called Beem. I just realized today I haven't looked at it months so I thought I would post it up so maybe it can get some use! Here's a screenshot of what it looks like



Basically you have a set number of mirrors and prisms to place onto the board with the goal of reflecting and refracting the laser beam onto the target(s) - click on "How Do I Play?" once you get there for a more complete explanation.

No download - it plays right in your web browser. Runs in IE 7 and Mozilla Firefox. Heres the link.

Icicles of Death

Before . . .



. . . And After




I noticed this huge icicle growing over our doorstep so I decided to take steps to protect us from the impending disaster. I know its obvious from these pictures, but I didn't realize that the entire bank of ice is connected to the large one. I was able to knock a piece off of the big one, then I stood on the porch step to throw the pieces up - directly under the rest of the ice bank. Needless to say, I was able to jump clear just in time, and what you see above was the result.