Gragawat

Thumbs Up For Rock And Roll

Thumbs Up For Rock And Roll

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

Ok, Anybody who knows me knows this is true.

I have wanted a home projector for ever. My lovely neighbors, the Andersons, have a home projector that we have enjoyed for several years.
Now my time has come. With the help of Suzanne, I found a slightly used home projector on Ebay.

To begin, I started looking at blogs and backyard theater websites. I then absorbed as much electronic nonsense that my nonsensical brain could take in. Then I plugged everything in on Ebay, gave Suzanne my password and user name and Kabam. As of 12:30 last night I( I mean Terry) am the proud owner of a home theater projector.

What happens next you may be asking?Where will I project these movies? perhaps on an inflatable screen, perhaps on the Anderson's wall? I haven't thought that part out yet.

I will project marathons, Beach Blanket Bingo marathons, Three Stooges marathons, Shirley Temple marathons,Star Wars marathons(Mary's request)
Tootsie marathons (although tootsie is just one movie).

The neighborhood will never be the same.

I Dreamed a Dream

I think this video is priceless. Never mind the fact that the little boy is capturing how exciting it is to have a dream where you can do anything(boundless).

I think there may be a resemblance to my pal Gabe as a child. Although I don't think Gabe ever had trouble articulating anything, no matter how exciting.
I love it, compliments of my new fave site Hello Giggles(thanks Jiej).

Fly Robin Fly

We had the extreme privilege of watching a mother robin build a gorgeous nest, lay amazing Tiffany blue eggs,sit on the eggs through some of the most violent Spring weather, and birth these baby birds.

There were two that had survived the original three. They were scrawny, downy little things and in what seemed to be a blink they both got to be big fatties. They would sit in that nest all day, with their mouths wide open, while the mother tirelessly worked to fill their big fat bellies. The dad stood watch on the ground just a few feet away.

Apparently there wasn't enough room in that nest for both, so one got the boot.

The poor thing ended up on one of our windowsills with a dog and two very curious cats watching through the pane of glass.

The bird was a little disoriented and every time it sensed Baby Iggy behind the glass, it would open it's mouth as if Iggy would start shoveling the food into its chubby face(Yeah right).

The bird tried to fly off but struggled and fell to the ground. I panicked wondering if I should give assistance to Mr Chubbs but I let him be. He seemed more safe in the cover of the foliage beneath the tree.

I went out to run errands and when I returned I discovered that he had managed to get to a low branch on the neighboring bush and the tireless mama was simply taking the food over to him.

Meanwhile the other big fatty sat in the lap of luxury with the full expanse of the nest.
The next day they were gone. The whole family had moved on to a new life.

Who's That Girl?

The next installment of graduation day chronicles the glorious moment when a precious child walks across a massive stage to receive her degree in English Literature with her minor in business and you miss it.

The Kohl Center is a massive venue that hosts a huge amount of Badger sporting and concert events.

We arrived on time but not early enough to score a main floor seat. So we scrambled upstairs to look for a seat where it was not mandatory for you to have brought your telescope.
We scoured the arena and Terry found a section of seats, empty with a decent view.
They were season ticket holder seats.

Of course we had to scale a fence to get to them but it was worth it. We had paid 5 million dollars for this education we deserved a decent view.
Apparently, we were not the only ones with this thought because numbers of families and well wishers began to hop the fence and settle in for the ceremony.
A very shy young Kohl Center employee was sent to our section to have us removed. "You can't sit here, these seats are owned by season ticket holders". One family a few rows above us argued that they were not budging, they had waited a long time for their kid to graduate and they weren't going to miss their moment wandering around a giant stadium looking for another seat. The terrified young lady digressed, she knew it was a lost cause as the jeers and hot pretzel pelting commenced.

We then used our modern technology to find out where JieJie was seated. We were all texting back and forth, trying to get her exact locale so we could cheer as she walked the long walk to her degree.
She kept telling us she was " in front of the band, middle section third row back".
In the sea of caps and gowns everyone looked the same. Sometimes we could tell if they were boys or girls.

We progressed through the ceremony, listened to speeches and then the procession began.

We kept waving at who we thought was JieJie and she kept waving at who she thought was her family.
Mary and I carefully counted down as the rows would rise and take their place in line. The students name would be called and their beautiful young hopeful face would appear on the trinitron.

We were all anxiously waiting, cameras poised, watching JieJie's line rise to get in the exodus to the stage.

And then all of the sudden,"Paulina Schemanski" was called out. We all quickly turned our heads to the stage and she was already more than half way off of it.

JieJie was at least three sections earlier than we thought. We were waving and cooing at some girl named Julianne Walters.

I thought Jie Jie's father was going to have a heart attack."Is it over?" "Did I miss it?"" I spent 5 million dollars on college and I missed it?"

Yep it was done, she was all graduated and we missed the golden moment,we did see Julianne Walters graduate though and we were very proud.

It's My Life

Terry was leaving for work the other morning and found these prehistoric guys on our roof.
Who they waiting for?


I think one of these birds is supposed to be a Beatle

If We Were A Movie

What seems to be a million years ago, we traveled to Wisconsin to see our precious JieJie graduate(gragawhat) from University of Wisconsin Madison and to move her out of her apartment.

The group consisted of Bill, T Bone, Terry,myself,Mary and Bobby.

We stayed in a local hotel, ate like kings and queens(lots of cheese and beer), swam, shopped and moved her teeny possessions from her third floor brownstone apartment.

I posted most of the goings on of our trip as they happened on my tumbler.

The day that got lost in the shuffle of my emotional hysteria was her actual graduation day.

My nephew Bobby has done great work in the past documenting family occasions on his I phone.

He films special moments, uploads it to his laptop, edits it brilliantly and sets it to a song of his choosing and the montage pulls our guts out.

These films are so touching that even a complete stranger can be moved by what very well could be boring family movies.

So, on the day of graduation, knowing I would be hysterical, Bobby offered to witness the goings on of the day and make a film.
Unfortunately for Bob the camera of choice(his iphone) got crushed in a hockey bar in Chicago a few nights before.

So I hand him my little flip video and told him to go to it.

He began with us leaving the hotel, and he filmed us through the emotion filled day as we watched our precious JieJie receive her college degree.

Bob, at the end of the day handed back my flip camera and informed me that all of the files were uploaded on his camera and that he would put together a short film for us on the bus.

I got home from Wisconsin and uploaded the files onto my computer, not to be viewed for weeks.Life was happening, Jiej was job hunting and moving her big life back into a tiny space. I was dealing with the end of the school year responsibilities , Mary's party, and the passing of her first grade teacher.

I just started going through the graduation files over the past few days and discovered that all of the footage taken, was basically of feet.
About ten different clips of our feet, at the hotel in the morning, on the way to graduation, our tearful after graduation hugs(you can tell because our feet are closer together) and our lovely afternoon of swag shopping.

In Bobby's defense, Terry had the camera for a time and he got feet too.
Were they unknowingly holding it upside down?

I am hoping that Bobby will be able to cobble together our beautiful day with what seems to be footage taken by a foot fetishist.
This is a tiny clip that includes a bit of darling JieJie and the family walking to Kohl Center for commencement ceremonies. I believe there is a glimpse of us from the waist up.
Looking back at this clip I am remembering how freezing cold and windy it was.