Happy... Happy Birthday to Me

Tonight the girls and I are headed out on the town. My prediction is that in the next 24 hours the following things will happen:

1. Loud singing and crazy dancing to Green Day, All-American Rejects and Blink-182 covers.
   
2. Some guy will talk to us because he thinks Susan is hot.
3. I may hug or even kiss Kristi to keep the annoying weirdo away.
4. No one will believe us when we tell them we're nearing 40 and happily married with kids.
5. Some guy will talk to us because he thinks Katy is hot.
6. I will wink, smile and flirt with the bass player only to find out later that he's gay.
7. Katy will want to hear a song, mention it to us and the band will immediately start playing it.
8. Kristi will use her contacts to get us up close and personal with the band during their breaks.
9. Susan will drink one too many gin and tonics.

Most importantly when I spend time with these girls, I'm guaranteed to have a good time. Thank you my good friends for celebrating this occasion along with me.

Hide-N-Seek

I was thinking of saving this box until Sanjay found it and deemed it his new hiding place. He's really into hiding these days. Although he never asks me to seek. He just thinks it's funny when I suddenly realize he's missing, then start wandering around the house calling his name and looking for him. He maintains his silence and starts laughing hysterically when I finally find him behind the laundry basket, for example.



After what seemed like hours of him getting in the box, out of the box, leaning back in the box and playing in the box, it now looks like this. So instead of storage in the basement, this box is headed to the recycling center.

Priya's Art Gallery

Almost a year ago, I noticed a commonality in Priya's drawings of people, namely that they all seemed to be leaning to the left and wearing bell-bottoms. Hippies possibly?

This year there's something new that I see in her artwork. The rays emitting from any sun she draws seem to have a nice girlie curl to them. Check out this watercolor she brought home recently...



And in this depiction of people working, I noticed that her people still only have 3 fingers, just like last year.

Handyman Hubby

In his own words, straight from his Facebook status, "Bartee is now painfully aware of his handyman limitations." This realization came when he tried to install a new sprinkler head in the front yard back in September. It only took 2 days, but he did manage to get the thing to spray water in the coverage area that he selected.



Weeks having passed, and the frustration of that day having dwindled, he attempted yet another homeowner repair. Time to quiet the vibrations in the garage door. He lubricated the chain, tightened some bolts on the hinges and cleaned the sensors. He gloated when it was done, closing the garage door and then asking me if I could hear it. I have to admit, it was barely audible. Success!

Well, not really. The next day when I tried to close the door, it got stuck at the first hinge. By holding the door opener button down, we managed to get the door shut. "Probably I tightened the bolts a little too much", he says. So, some adjustments were made and again the door seems to work. A day or two later, same thing, the door won't close. Since then, I think he loosened the suspicious bolts about 4 different times and still we are having problems shutting the thing.

The new conclusion is that it must have something to do with the sensors. So, today it was time to break out the manual to find out how to adjust the sensitivity. Some more time spent in the garage. Now we've got a garage door that closes 100% of the time on one push of the button, even if something's in it's path. Not exactly the fix we were looking for. He'll be working on that later this week. :)

I gotta give it to him though. He has the utmost patience with this kind of thing. Although there may be glitches and it will likely take him longer than the average person, he always manages to solve the problem.

Biking on Two Wheels

Recalling a video from my childhood, I thought it would be fun to sort of reenact it this summer when we went home... only this time starring Priya. I asked forced my Dad to go outside and push her around on the two-wheeler while I videotaped the whole ordeal.

I may have actually been expecting a bit more success since she wouldn't dare throw around the sassy attitude with Pappy that she usually reserves for Mom and Dad. No sassy attitude, but no matter how much encouragement we offered... she really wasn't into it. Lots of the footage included her on the bike with her feet on motionless pedals while my Dad pushed her around the yard. Sorry Dad, you were a real trooper.

Disclaimer: This video shows partial nudity*, so please use discretion when viewing.



* Apparently partial nudity was perfectly acceptable for girls of a young age in the Fredneck of the 70's.

Diwali Performance

Last night was the culmination of hours and hours of weekends spent practicing with other 6-8 year olds the art of Indian dance through Bollywood songs spanning the 1960's to the present.



Here is Priya in her 6 minutes of fame... she's the one in the red top and blue skirt. The music montage has 5 songs, she's dancing in songs 1, 3 and 5.