Tangerine Ice Cream

Kansas State University fired Head Coach Ron Prince yesterday. The Wildcats are on a three-game losing streak and without an act of God will not make it to a bowl again this year. Worst of all, the latest ugly beating came from rival KU. It was a whopping. They kicked our ass real good. Immediately middled-aged whinney white sportswriters everywhere began calling for Coach Prince to be fired. Sportswriters were the geeky kids in high school who never played a sport besides chess. And now because of them and a spineless old bitter white guy named Bob, Ron Prince has been fired.

Just a few months ago Prince got a raise and a bigger buyout. A clear sign that despite two years of the team struggling, the university wasn’t giving up on Ron Prince any time soon. Soon passed the morning after the Jayhawks beat us senseless.

Ron Prince is a home-town success story. He grew up in Junction City. He’s a black head coach of a Big-12 football team. Ron’s a nice guy with a wife and four kids. His dad died about a week ago.

It’s just not nice to fire the guy right now. Sure they aren’t winning as many games as we might want but Ron Prince’s players are staying out of trouble and doing better in the classroom then any of Bill Snyder’s players ever did. (k-state sports) It’s sad that alumni money is more important than the education of these young men.

Kansas State University should be a place where we play pretty good football and turn out exceptional students. Not the place that fires a guy with a wife and kids the week after his dad dies.

I am afraid I have overwritten some files on my hard drive. Not my computer but my brain. I used to be able to design newspaper pages in Quark. It was more than four years ago. I did it with amazing speed and a fair amount of accuracy. I wasn’t a fabulous designer but I understood the shortcuts, could import pictures and do other amazing things. Okay so not amazing but the point is I have lost that file in my brain. I can’t remember anything.

I fear that as I have gotten older my brain is running out of space and so decided to begin writing over some stuff. Like Quark shortcuts. They must have been replaced by something useless like the password to my facebook account or the name of the guy who does the voice of Kronk (Patrick Warburton). But right now I need the Quark shortcuts not useless trivia or bad song lyrics.

So I have bought some books and will try and learn again. I wonder what fabulous bit of knowledge I will write over to relearn this skill. Goodbye details of Keebler cookie manufacturing process, Hello Shift-F4.

There is now a video of me on the Internet. (Pause here for my mother to have a heart attack) I am fully clothed and talking about my day job as a public relations coordinator for the local library.

I didn’t realize I tilt my head so much. And I picked a terrible shirt to wear. Also I slouch but in my defense it was an old metal stool and my feet didn’t touch the ground.

But overall I was surprised how much it looks like I think I look like talking. Anyways, I’ll be working on tilting my head less, sitting up straighter and breathing or even pausing between thoughts more.

Here is the link, you’ll have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page but there I am.  http://www.themercury.com/Features/SpliceofLife/

After a really hard winter (ice storm, no power, record snow) and a harsh early spring (softball-sized hall, tornado destroying 35 homes) the summer is fabulous at the Big Orange House.

We have seen no less than five different species of animals/insects gettin’ it on in our yard so far this year. A good sign for all, I must say.

We have discovered a grape vine, complete with grapes growing in our backyard. We have surrendered the laundry line and poles to the God de Vino and are hoping for the best.

Each night for the past week has been Firefly Fiasco in our backyard ( so named by Kennedy ) Lightning bugs in numbers I have never seen before give us a great show each night.

I planted a small garden in patches all over the yard. So far the most surprising outcome has been the zucchini in the front yard. I pushed a zucchini seed under the mulch in the front of the house just to see what would happen. I did not water or otherwize care for it, but it is the best growing damn thing in the yard. Come over and see the Incredible Zucchini! I love Mother Nature when she feeds me instead of dumping ice on me. ( we also have rosemary, basil, thyme, jalepenos, tomatoes, and hopefully pumpkin and sunflower)

Jeremiah and I both did something we have never done before this past weekend. We donated money to Barack Obama’s campaign. I realized I want change but haven’t actually done anything to make it happen. $15 isn’t much but it is a start. It made us both feel like we are a part of something bigger. Something different. Yes We Can.

Only this time it’s insulation in three different colors. There are large clumps of yellow and smaller bits of white and pink stuff all over our yard.

I am not complaining.

About seven blocks  from our house the campus of Kansas State University suffered $20 million dollars in damage from the tornado.

My children are skating across the wood floor with wet green scrubbies under their feet.

We touched up the paint in our house for a party we are hosting next week.

This is a great way to get the paint splatter off.

After being stuck inside for the first week of summer because of a nasty stomach flu, this is fun.

They think I am the coolest mom every for letting them skate inside, and I don’t have to feel guilty about the free labor.

Summer is fabulous.

It’s early summer in Manhattan. The college girls are wearing less and less and more less. Professors have donned their sandals but not forgotten the dark wool socks. ‘For Rent’ signs and dandelions are in full bloom.

There has already been a motorcyclist die this year, a young man in his early 20s. It seems there is one every April. Some speeding down Scenic Route, some not watching at the intersection of Anderson and Dennison.  A grim opening to the season.

Manhattan is full of promise. Graduation is almost here. The townies know that in just a few weeks, we get the little apple to ourselves for awhile. Grown-ups who don’t normally go out will have summer beers on the patio at Rock-a-Belly and talk about how little the college girls were wearing this year.

For now, Room Mothers are running on Rockstar. The school carnival, yearbook layout and field day are rolled into a six-week marathon.

Jeremiah bought me a bicycle for my birthday.

I plan on riding my new bike to my new job at the library.

Soon I will post photos of me riding the cutest bike in town.

Our 8-year-old son is getting his tonsils taken out tomorrow morning. We are all pretty excited and nervous. He was super brave yesterday when he had some blood drawn to make sure he clots well. I guess that is important to having your tonsils taken out.

This morning the anethesiologist called, tonight the surgery center will call with our official reservation time for Thursday morning.

Never before have any of our children had surgery. It’s kinda scary for everybody.

Noah checked out books from the library about tonsils and the human body. I surfed the web for information about the surgery. You can see videos that cover the entire surgery from a number medical schools. I decided to wait and show him those after his tonsils are out of his body.

We are looking forward to a few quiet days at home, all together, eating soft stuff.

My girlfriends and I do this while we are out people watching. And now you can do it online.

Take a look at couples and their description and then “vote” on how long you think their marriage will last. Then you can see how other folks “voted.” You’ll feel bad about doing, it but it is fun.

 http://www.weddingbetting.com/

You can even post your own photo and description if you’d like to know how long other folks think your marriage will last.

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