Found in Fishers

Sound of Music - yellow hair style

Yellow Hair made an appearance. This time with her new beau. She has a boyfriend! She has not had much attention lately with all that has been going on. And, since we have been spending all our time hiding the chicken, we forgot about poor Yellow Hair.

On Easter weekend, she became the topic of conversation and with her boyfriend Beaker. What a perfect couple! They are officially dating at this time.

She sat on the dining room table when we started talking about movies that are shown on TV during holidays. When we were kids we really looked forward to those special movies enjoying every moment on the floor in front of Grandma's big console television in Highland.

For Easter this year we were not disappointed as the tradition of showing the Ten Commandments and The Sound of Music remained. Too busy with our Wii Bowling Tournament to watch either show, we decided to act out The Sound of Music with Yellow Hair and Beaker. I am not sure who laughed the hardest but it was a lot of fun. Jeeze, do we find goofy ways to entertain ourselves. What's worse...acting it out with dolls or taking pictures of the dolls?

Bowling comes to Fishers!

Over the weekend, we had a family bowling tournament. It was a very good time. Of course it left many of us rather sore but worth the pain. We bowled in a Wii tournament. As a matter of fact we had so much fun, John went out and bought a Wii for us in Fishers.

The funniest part for me with the Wii was watching John box. It was a hoot!

The whole family played in a Wii bowling tournament. We each created a Mii, your electronic "person" who you can choose from thousands of different facial features. Then we set up teams for the challenge. Four at a time would play. The team with the best score would keep going on. Our best bowlers were Mark and Liam. I was... well, ok, I need practice but now that I have my own Wii I can practice to my heart's content. Actually I am seeing it as a way to reduce stress. It does not require much thinking, it is better than vegging out on the couch and it feeds my competitive nature.

Sarah, you asked for it. You got it!

I was talking to Sarah yesterday after the first blog posting of the infamous "lamb that really looks like a dog" cake.  She reminded me how good it tasted and then wondered why I did not photoshop the cake so that it would look much better on my blog.

Ok Sarah, this is just for you. I did a crude photoshop quick fix on the cake. Click on the photo to see the new image.

Happy Easter...woof

We spent our Easter weekend up north. Imagine 8 people in a small space for three days! We sure did have a ton of fun but we all had to adjust to the lack of our own space. I have lots of great stories to share about what we did over the weekend. We had a bowling tournament, we re-enacted the Sound of Music, and we even had a fashion show. Just wait until you see the pics.
But first, let's celebrate Easter. Liz and Liam dyed Easter eggs on Saturday. It would not be Easter without dying eggs. We did not leave them out for the Easter bunny however because Sarah and I cannot imagine eating eggs that sit out overnight in the house. That is how we left eggs for the bunny as children but we just can no longer do that so we dyed the eggs and refrigerated them to eat for Easter breakfast.
Another tradition that Sarah started but abruptly stopped a few years ago was making the Easter lamb cake. But come on Sarah...it looks like a puppy. Boy did we have fun teasing her all night on Saturday about making the Easter dog cake. The problem was that she made a banana cake with banana frosting. What she did not expect to happen was that the icing would not get stiff because of the banana extract making it somewhat oily.

The last time we teased Sarah about her lamb cake it was several years ago and this was the first time she made a lamb cake since then! We were at Grandma's house and she arrived with the cake. My brothers and I stole one the the eyes centering just one eye on the lamb and wrapped a rubber snake around its neck. She got ticked off and went storming out of the room! Yikes.

We had better be nice to our baker because the cake was really good today and if we don't knock it off she will stop baking. You have to admit it Sarah, it was worth a great laugh Saturday night even before the wine.

Picture perfect

It is interesting what you think of doing when you are looking for something free to do. When Sarah and I woke up on Saturday during her last trip to Fishers, we wanted to do something that would cost no money. We went through the morning paper looking for some good options.
We actually found one that we almost tried. We were going to go to a free glucose testing site. We thought we would first eat a bunch of sugary sweets and go saying that we fasted. Ok, that was just too weird. Instead since Liam went to lunch and ice skating with Liz, we thought we would take care a some errands and go to lunch on our own. Besides lunch was kinda free since we had a gift card.

Sarah and I went out that evening and were being silly. We were actually on our way to pick up a pizza when I realized I did not have my camera to document my quest for the perfect pizza. I did have my phone. That is what started it all.
Sarah grabbed my phone and we both started laughing about the photos teens put on their My Space page. It drew from an earlier conversation we had about finding these old family photos and the poses people had describing them as Blue Steel. Picture the two of us in a car taking these photos. It was absolutely hilarious. There are far too many photos to share so I picked the best of them to share with you all.

The hunt for the perfect pizza continues

I decided over the weekend to recruit Sarah and Liam on my quest for the perfect pizza. Folks around town talk about Greek's Pizza so I thought I would give it a try. Because Liam is not into any kind of pizza but cheese and Sarah and I don't like meat on our pizza, I ordered a large half cheese and half sausage and another large with onion, green pepper, mushrooms.

Sarah and I went together to the other side of Fishers to to pick up our newest taste sensation. I also found a coupon for free breadsticks in the phone book, so that was an added treat. When we got home and opened the boxes, I was very surprised that when I ordered peppers, Greek's put on banana peppers instead of green peppers. I looked at the menu and they actually have both kinds so I wonder why they put on the banana peppers? Or, why did they not ask what kind of peppers? The crust was soft and chewy, much like Papa John's but with garlic salt sprinkled on it. The cheese was a bit disappointing to both Sarah and I. It had a stiff texture. The banana peppers, we were surprised we actually liked them on the pizza. So overall, we thought the pizza was ok. Pizza of any kind is good. But, it was not great. Liam must have liked it. He ate HALF of a large pizza all by himself. Thank goodness he does not eat the end crust or he would have exploded. Jeez Sarah, what did you do, starve the kid before coming to Fishers? I would probably not order it again. The quest for the perfect pizza continues.

Stay tuned. Sarah and I took our own "My Space" style photos Saturday on the way to the pizza place.

The chicken flew the coop

After being up on my garden shelf in the master bedroom since New Year's Eve, thanks to Pat, the chicken finally was taken down. Of course, Sarah thought is was hilarious that I was not able to get it down. I can't decide which was worse; looking at that darn chicken near my ceiling for 2 months or looking at those goofy pajamas Sarah wore at my house.
After feeling sorry for me that I could not get the chicken down due to foot surgery, Sarah assisted me. Of course as soon as she got him down I tried to get the chicken back in hopes of hiding it in her house next week. I tried hard, even chased her around for a bit. No chance, she has the chicken again. Sarah claims the chicken is hidden again in my house in a really hard place so that she can hide it again the first weekend in April when she returns to Fishers. I did a quick run through upstairs, but I still have not found him. For a while on Saturday, she would not even let the dumb chicken out of her sight.
I got even. I helped her carry her bags downstairs before she left. While she was upstairs, I packed this ugly wooden tiki statue in her bag for her to find at home. It was pretty funny. Wait until you see our "My Space" photo shoot pictures.

Pizza not that Good for this Fella

Our quest continues for the Holy Grail of food: Perfect pizza. I was a bit excited when I saw an local cable commercial for Goodfellas in McCordsville, not far from Fishers. They announced a great pizza made in a wood-burning oven. I expected that it would be New York style with the big triangular pieces that could be bent in half.

Mark and I were on our own so I ordered a half mushroom/half sausage pizza. The crust was chewy' reminded me a bit of Papa John's. But the rest was nothing special. Rather bland tasting actually. I was very disappointed. Mark said the Italian sausage was good, but he wasn't that sold on the pizza either. Mark left John a piece to try after a long day of taking photos and he agreed: The quest must continue.

Lookin' for wheels...for Mark

Mark is finally taking driver's ed this spring. The Marching Band schedule made taking classes challenging, and Mark wasn't especially interested. Weird, I know. But now that Liz is in college, her schedule doesn't allow her to be Mark's wheels. So he's going to need to get his license. Personally, I'm looking forward to sending him on errands and not having to get him back and forth from school. Another driver's license in the house will mean yet another car, which means higher car insurance, but what's a parent to do?

Juan and I thought that we would buy Mark a beater for now. And, we found one! This is Liz's boyfriend, Adam's, car. Can you see why they usually take Liz's car when going out? Adam told me he would sell me the car for $50. But Juan says he needs to throw in enough spray paint to get the car one color. What a deal! However, the more and more I see it in front on my house, the more worried I am neighbors will complain. And, this is just the side view. From the front you can see all sorts of graffiti on the car's hood. Think I will save the $50 and keep looking.