I must confess, I don't care about parades. At all. Maybe it's because I spent a great deal of my childhood marching in parades, both for the Robinette's (I was a baton twirler) and for the Templeton Middle School marching band (I played the clarinet and the flute). Once I got to high school, I quit the band because it was mandatory that we had to march, and I'd had enough marching.

On the way home from work yesterday I took note of all the people along the Menomonee Falls parade route who were scouting out their spot for tonights parade. It almost made me wonder if the parade was last night, instead of tonight. This morning all the stakes and string and caution tape and lawn chairs, and other marking devices were there. My daughter, who is seven, asked me: What is going on? Why are all these people in areas that are marked off with caution tape?? And I had to explain to her that it wasn't police tape in this instance, it was areas that people were marking as their own for the parade which is later tonight.

And this is what she said to me: But it's just a parade.

My point exactly. It's just a parade. I don't get it. What ever happened to showing up for the parade right before the parade started? Where the kids sit on the curb as it passes by, and the adults stand on the sidewalk? Does that not happen anymore?

Today is my birthday. I’m not sure what my entire day will bring, but it’s starting out at the eye doctor with my daughter, Zoe, then we are going out for coffee. Well, she’ll most likely have chocolate milk and I’ll have coffee. The rest of the day is up in the air. Perhaps we’ll bum around at the Lakefront Art Festival, it begins today and we’ve never gone, but Zoe is way way WAY into art. And, I am too, but she’s at least got a shot at being an artist, I’ll have to wait until retirement to pursue it. And now, since it’s my birthday, I am a year closer to it. Right?

I already got my birthday present two weeks ago, an iPod Touch. It’s, in a single word, AWESOME! I love it!! It’s probably the coolest gadget I’ve ever had. It has wifi on it and I can connect anywhere there is a hot spot. We were driving home from Door County on Tuesday and I needed to get an email from one of my classmates, did you know that Two Rivers has hot spots in the city? It does. All of a sudden I had connection and I’m telling my husband: “Stop the car! Pull over!”

Anyhow, the iPod Touch is so very very cool.

Did you get me anything? I am accepting gifts, iTunes is a great idea ya know. Or bottles of red wine. That’ll work too.

Have a great day!

I'm so tired of the snow. Will it ever be spring? I can't believe Easter has come and gone and I haven't seen a single tulip sprouting out of the ground yet. I'm so over winter! Aren't you?

The photo hunt was the street lights located at the confusing intersection where Appleton Ave., Menomonee Avenue and Pilgrim Road all come together. Both Paul Wickesberg (Paul's Falls) and Margie R. correctly identified it this week! Paul told me in his email, "Did you know that years ago former public works director, Dennis Droese, actually named them? They were known as Huey, Dewey and Louie." I, of course, did not know this. Did you?

I was gambling with the photo this week. I thought it would be either too easy, or very hard. Every day I drive down Appleton Avenue as I head home from Germantown and can see the glow from blocks away! However, my husband never even noticed the lights until I made him stop the car so I could take a picture. I wondered how many others have passed them countless times without really seeing them.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and my plans are quite simple. My husband's grandmother is taking the family out for dinner. This is the second time we've done this, the first time was about five years ago, and it was when my husband's grandfather was still alive. It was his [grandfather's] idea, and while it seemed very very wrong to be eating Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, it actually was very enjoyable. I won't list all the perks, but I'll get to the most important one: NO CLEAN UP! It was heavenly.

I'll most likely start out the day tomorrow with a quick workout at the YMCA, then I'm going to park myself on the sofa and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I've watched the parade for the past two years, I don't really know why I haven't watched the parade prior to that because I really enjoy the performances.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I wrote this a couple years ago, and since it's (almost) Halloween I thought I'd share it with you today. Boo!

Do you like scary movies? I love scary movies! Except for when I’m watching them, scared out of my mind, then I wonder why I love scary movies so much.

I think it’s the adrenaline rush that I get from being scared? Or maybe it’s the cuddle-factor? I love to cuddle up with my husband while watching a movie.

Years ago we rented Scream, and within 10 minutes I was curled up on the sofa with him, and the two dogs. After the movie we had to walk the dogs. In the dark. On a summer night. He tried to get me to walk them, I tried to get him to walk them. Finally, we walked them together. Every little noise made us jump. It was breezy, so even the rustling of the leaves was enough to get our hearts racing. Every shadow became a dark cloaked figure. We learned our lesson, no more watching scary movies at night, in the dark.

When we rented The Others, we watched it during the day.

All the lights were on.

All the blinds were open.

And I think we played music in the background.

It was still pretty scary. I didn’t see that ending coming. Did you?

There have been plenty of scary movies since then, the last was The Grudge. We saw this in the movie theater. Hello!? What in the heck are you thinking??? This was clearly a dumb idea. Have you seen this movie? There is a scene where Sarah Michelle Gellar is in the shower, and a hand comes out of the back of her head, which she touches while washing her hair. THAT was creepy! Can you even imagine??? Here you are, alone in the shower, relaxing, washing your hair, probably even singing a little tune, right? And all of a sudden there is a hand behind you! That would totally freak me out.

And it did.

One day I was in the shower, alone, relaxing, washing my hair, not singing a tune because I can’t carry one. I was standing under the showerhead, facing the back of the tub, with the water spraying down onto the crown of my head. My hands are washing the suds out of my hair, when all of a sudden I feel something behind me. I barely grazed it, but I touched it enough to know that it wasn’t my other hand, nor the wall, and the showerhead was above me about 6″. I jumped out of my skin, and might have even let out a shriek! As I snapped my head around, looking for the guilty Grudge hand I saw not a hand, but the other showerhead!

Oy! The other showerhead. Yep. I picked the damn thing out, and paid extra to have it installed when the bathroom was remodeled. It’s adjustable, sliding up and down on a vertical bar so that shorter people (like kids) can use the shower. Or I can shower without getting my hair wet. And it comes off the bar all together so you can rinse the shampoo off a kids head who wants to take a bath instead.

Whoever used showerhead #2 last (that would be me) didn’t swing it in towards the wall, so it was sticking out and the rest is history. Creepy. Scary. My-heart-skipped-a-beat. History.

What about you? Anything creepy, scary, your-heart-skipped-a-beat, ever happen to you?

Don't forget about the photo hunt!

The Trick or Treat for my subdivision is being held tomorrow night between 5 p.m. and  7:30 p.m. The only thing I need to do to participate is turn on my outdoor lights. It seems to be a simple task. It's not.

All of my outdoor lights are the kind that automatically turn on when it gets dark, and off when it's light. They are also hardwired and I don't even have a switch to turn them off and on.

It gets even more complicated because my house is the very first one in the subdivision, my driveway is the only one on that particular stretch of road, and you can't see my front door, or porch, from first street corner where the other homes are located deeper into the subdivision. It's a tough call for a kid. Should they walk all the way over to my driveway to see if I'm indeed handing out candy, or assume I'm not and hurry on to the next house.

Last year was the first Halloween that we were in our house, and it took me a good hour of not having many kids ring my bell before I realized that I needed to do something to attact their attention. First I hung a pumpkin basket at the end of my driveway, on my mailbox, which did bring a few trick or treaters my way. Then I opened my garage door so they'd know we were indeed home.

One of the parents asked me, why don't you turn on your lights? To which I explained, as I was applying electrical tape to what I thought were the sensors on my lights, that I couldn't because they turn on automatically as it gets dark. (The tape did not work, by the way.)

So I went for my last option. My house came fully equiped with Christmas lights strung all along the soffits, and they are controlled with a timer in the garage. All I had to do was turn on the timer .... and like magic, wah-lah, my house was lit up like a carnival ride at the State Fair.

Tomorrow night my house will be lit up with Christmas lights yet again: Christmas Lights = Halloween Candy.