Get Your Hand Off My Eye!

Here's my latest creation. It's taken from craftster.org, with some modifications for my fat yarn.

Not Your Granny's Crochet

I just found this site, and I think she's got something here. Be warned, though, there are some disturbing pieces here.

What's The Score?

For the past couple of months, there has been a mouse pooping in everything we own in the basement. We've only seen the scatological evidence and a blur once as he ran across the garage. He's eaten all of our birdseed, and he's left shells in storage bins and inside car hoods. Well, we finally found him yesterday:

Last night, we finally joined the Alumni Association at Stats, a new sports bar in downtown Atlanta, to watch the Michigan hockey game (they won). It was a really cool place, so look at the link to check it out. The football games will be there, too, upstairs on the roof. Some of the tables actually have beer taps at them, so you can help yourself, but we didn't get to see those, since we were in a special room.

On the way there, we snapped this photo of the tornado damage. You can see that many of the windows in the Peachtree Westin, Georgia Pacific Building, and the Equitable Building are boarded up.

What Not To Crochet

This is just too funny not to share.

Well, I found out I have to get a new passport because my maiden name is on it, so I got that out in a hurry today. G's is finished and on its way to us, which means that Mom K's must be, too. We picked up a few souvenir-type things the other day to give away in Japan (keychains), and we've booked hotels for the beginning and end of our trip. Things are coming along nicely.

We have more Easter photos, including one of the bunny cake we made. It was supposed to be a realistic, standing-up bunny, but I used double the cake batter and it didn't bake. One good ear and the other good head and body combined to make a pretty decent, and very yummy, Easter cake.

About a month ago, we met a nice woman at the park who works with therapeutic horses. She works with the Special Olympics and is helping with the version in Cobb County this year. She invited us to come to the farm some morning, and we finally got the chance to go this Tuesday. Although G preferred to run around in circles and play with the dog, he did get to ride a pony. The horse nuzzled my face and was very gentle even though he was enormous. Here are some photos:

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited our house last night. Did he visit yours, too?

Yesterday, we met up with Rebecca and Kirk and crew for an Easter egg hunt that turned into a trip to the park instead. We had swinging contests until we thought we were going to tip the swingset.

After the park, we went over to Mark's and Lisa's to let G and Christopher play and hunt for Easter eggs. And, oh yeah, we bought our tickets to JAPAN!!!!!!! Woot! We are very grateful to Mark for being so patient and so thorough with us so that we know what we're doing and stay organized. And Lisa sat with the boys the whole time we were in front of the computer even though we missed out on some valuable girl time. Thank you Brociouses!!!!! We <3 you! (and not just 'cause of the tickets)

We'd also like to wish a very happy birthday today to our favorite fixed wing pilot - happy birthday, Joel!

Happy Birthday Nancy!!!

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the whole world!

[You're older than I am now.]

March Madness

Nothing much to report today, just want to keep the blog habit going... we filled out our NCAA brackets last night for the North University Court Banditos. The name comes from the house Matthew and all his friends lived in in Ann Arbor. Coincidentally, when they lived in that house, I lived in the apartment building adjacent to it (behind) on Wilmot Street and never knew any of them. All that time we were just a few feet away from each other - strange!

And now for the erata section: I guess I didn't say that Mom K was hiking with us, because someone (cough, Nancy, cough) asked if a ghost took the photo...

This morning, Joshie is spending the morning or day with us, depending on how court goes for Skye. I'm discovering that one can accomplish a lot more with two kids than with one because they entertain each other. If only I could produce a second one that's instantly three years old, but for now we'll settle for friends.

Time for a plug for Pandora Radio, the best invention since coffee. I'm listening to Young Pilgrims by the Shins right now.

Food News: We should have saved that potato chip, Laura. A corn flake shaped like Illinois just sold on ebay. Link here. I'm going to go inspect Matt's Special K.

Hiking Season Has Begun

We went to Fort Mountain State Park on Sunday. It was a little chilly, but we made it through without any hypothermia. G climbed a bunch of rocks and is learning how to plan his routes. There were many eagles flying around, and we thought one of them looked like a bald eagle - they are found around here occasionally. It was hard to tell, but they were beautiful nonetheless. That part of the state is a little rural, so there was nothing happening on Sunday. I watched for a loooong time before I finally saw a vehicle on one of the many roads down below, and I was happy to know I live a little closer to "civilization."

Zurt!

I invented a new amigurumi tonight, and I'm thinking of selling it on etsy. I'll provide the link when I have one in case you would like to try your own. Also, it hailed a LOT today so we videotaped it. Just after we did, we learned that there was a lot of storm damage in downtown Atlanta, including a possible tornado at the Georgia Dome and CNN Center. Anyhow, here's what we saw:

New-gurumi

I keep seeing these cute "softy" books - books for a craft called nuigurumi, which is like amigurumi in that you are making dolls, but it's a sewing version, as opposed to crochet. They look super easy, so I decided to try one. It's a somewhat sloppy version of one I saw on the Aranzi Aronzo web site, but maybe they're supposed to be sloppy, er, homemade-looking. Here's my first attempt, having drawn everything freehand and guessed at the sizes. It took about an hour from start to finish. Oh, and I painted the dress, too, if you can't tell: Speaking of crafting, here's a picture of Xavier with his new Muno: Yesterday, we had a terrific day for the park and kite flying. Bun brought a soccer ball and Daddy brought a Buzz Lightyear (inflatable!) kite: And finally, and I personally think we should call the Guinness World Record folks, something amazing happened at playgroup yesterday. SEVEN, yes SEVEN 2- and 3-year-olds played in total silence together. You can hear the one-year-olds in the next room... The room, yes Nancy, gets cleaned up before we leave. This is why playgroup is for the MOMS:

Muno

There hasn't been a ton to post lately, so here's a video of G and Christopher and a couple photos of my latest amigurumi creation.

Oh yeah, I should add that Muno is a character on Yo Gabba Gabba!, a super silly show on Nick Jr.

Painting The Town

IMG_0683, originally uploaded by mpgangle.

Heather, Rebecca, and I were among the first to christen Sips N Strokes, the new "art night out" place in East Cobb. I was so slow that I earned myself a "Type A" t-shirt. When the teacher, Wendy Lovoy, saw how far behind I was, she actually said, "Woah!" She encouraged those of us who were obsessing over the circularity of our circles to go paint the wall instead so our paint could dry for the next step! What started out as clean white walls ended up a big ole' mess. We had a total blast and are looking forward to going again.

The scene

We were there

Poor Kristin, whoever she is. We burned her art.

While standing in line to clean off brushes, R turned around and THWACK! threw her palette against the brick wall. It turned out to be the best art of the night.

We Miss You, Wowo!

Laura was here this past weekend, and we had a total blast. We haven't blogged in a week or so, so we'll include stuff since our last post. Without further ado, here's What's Been Going On:

If they knocked down the wall and combined businesses, they'd be RuPaul's.

G shows his bunny ("ribbit", as Laura would say) to Wo-Wo.

Jim 'N Nick's serves these enormous freakish mutant potatoes as a main course. They're longer than the forks!

Here was Laura's reaction to the potato.

Matthew made me and Laura drive by and take a picture of this sign. I wonder why!

Yesterday, we went hiking on Pine Mountain, which Jack recently discovered down the street from his and Jen's apartment. When we were waiting for Jack to arrive, Mom pointed at a steep hill and dared me to climb it. This is the view from the top; Jack, Laura, and Mom are at the Saturn and G was off the left side of the picture.

We hiked the West Loop trail to the Summit Overlook, and along the way, Jack and Gabriel found a scenic place to take in the view.

Proof that we actually made the summit!

The view was much greener than from Kennesaw Mountain. You could see 41 and I-75 unwinding, and to the right was the city of Cartersville, but mostly it was a sunny and green view. We all got a little color from the sun.

This is typical: Jack relaxes with good posture, Laura sunbathes, and Bun and Gabriel play. Oh yeah, and P takes photos.

Our more astute readers will notice the absence of Dear Matthew, Papa, and Jen from our hiking adventure. Jen was working on school stuff and Papa was fixing the desktop computer. Matthew, however, has had a horrible cold for the past week and we hope he will feel better quickly.

It doesn't take much to entertain us as a group. Here's a game we invented when we found a couple of uneaten onion rings after dinner.

Finally, Laura wanted her very own bit of amigurumi, so I made her Gangsta Bear. He does not have eyes, but he doesn't need them as his do rag is pulled down to his nose. He wears his bling proudly, but isn't a member of any gang. His message is "Stay in school and say no to gangs."

Laura is safe back in Michigan again, and we miss her a ton. Thanks for coming here this weekend!