Last week Tuesday, my youngest and I dropped off our little corgi with the newlyweds. They agreed to watch him while I took her sister back to Florida. Good exchange. Watch a dog, so your sister could be in the wedding.. More on that when I get the full story.

We then drove to Toledo to spend the evening with the rest of my family, and to get an early start the next day. The truck was full of stuff to get to Florida, so packing our clothing was an adventure. I should put an ad in for the Space Saver Bags. They gave us a more room for more stuff.

Travel is always and adventure, even more so with two (or more) young children. I didn’t know how they would react to a long car trip, so I was prepared for anything. Plenty of kid friendly snacks (somewhat healthy too), and dr. inks. Our early start was later than I would have liked, but we did have time for a good and filling breakfast. (Not me, the pizza we had for dinner the previous night did not agree with me, some way to start a trip.) Loaded up and on the road at around 9:00.

My youngest had a sore neck from some sleeping arrangements or playing with her niece and nephew (not sure which). That made an interesting note to the trip too. We stopped for a break and to pick up a pillow for my youngest about 2.5 hours into the trip. Good timing. So far the grandkids are behaving very well. They would sit and watch out the windows or color (Color Wonders are a marvelous invention). There were a few are we there yet questions, but they were great.

We stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places in OHIO. A little side jaunt took us to Cedar Falls State park in the Hocking Hills area. A quick walk down the path showed us that the falls were indeed falling. This time of year, the falls are usually reduced to a trickle. Back on the road for more driving.

We took an easterly route to Florida this time, picking up Interstate 77 in West Virginia. The trip through the mountains was breathtaking. I really like that area. Beautiful country. Easy sailing well past dinner time and then we ran into fog in the mountains (or were those clouds?) This would add a good hour or two to our drive time. We pulled into the Hotel around 10:00 PM. My grandson was worn out and ready for bed (sort of) and my granddaughter wanted to explore (she fell asleep first). Me, I was happy being with my family. It was a good day (even with the fog). Our stop was just north of Charlotte NC. More fun on the second day of driving….

Here there be spoilers!!!

A friend and I went to see The Hangover last night.  Going in, I was not expecting much: undoubtedly an unremarkable plot hopefully with a few laughs.  Not expecting a big award winner, I did have a good time.  Three of the actors I was familiar with: Bradley Cooper (from his days on Alias… I didn’t know he was in it going in), Ed Helms (from The Office), and Heather Graham.

The movie centers around Doug (who is two days away from being married) and his  trio of buddies traveling from LA to Las Vegas for the bachelor party.  Doug is entrusted with his future father in law’s Mercedes (hmm…).  The morning after arriving, three of the four wake up and discover that they remember almost nothing that happened the night before and learn that one of the companions is nowhere to be found.  Hilarity and some groans ensue as the three go on a whirwind search for their friend and their lost evening through the streets of Sin City.

At times, some of the situations reminded me of a combination of Three Men and a Baby and License to Drive.  As with most buddy comedies of today, there are a number of gross out moments (one involving a tiger… one of those groan inducing segments).  Another memorable bit takes place at an LVPD precinct in which the three are subjected to some police brutality at the hands of a group of youngsters on a school field trip…. don’t remember seeing a teacher.

The best part was the three leads themselves.  Each of them had a distinct personality that was rarely dull.  Cooper plays Phil (rhyming with Will… his Alias character.. coincidence?) the leader of the band of partiers and must have been quite the ladies man back in the day before getting tied down.  Zach Galifianakis plays Alan, the loner of the group who is along because he is the  brother of the bride.

Helms is the highlight of the movie.  Stu is a doctor who is in a relationship with a domineering woman who thinks the little getaway is to  Napa Valley wine country.  I really enjoy seeing some of the actors from my favorite comedy on television on the big screen.  John Krasinski is in a limited release this summer called Away We Go. Wonder why the distribution was not wider.

Overall, I thought The Hangover was  fun.  It had lots of laughs even if there were moments of mindless ridiculousness.  Any movie featuring more than a cameo by Mike Tyson (even playing himself) is not going to be the greatest movie ever made.

Don’t wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

WOW!

I’ve made 500 blog posts here on My Food Chain Gang!  That is A LOT of rambling and a ton of tangents!  Thank you for reading; especially those of you who have read all 500 posts, if there is anyone who could stand me for that long!

I think after that many posts, I’m entitled to a generic one, noting nothing other than my 500th blog post, don’t you?

We made it back from Florida in one piece, but the trip back was a bit of an adventure. This will be a short update with more to follow.

Today started out well. I spent the night with my oldest sister and we were able to talk about this and that. Just sharing some family time. It was a delight. My youngest and I got up early to try to avoid the rush hours in Cincinnati (some 7 hours away). The initial drive started so well. Light traffic, wonderful weather and plenty of coffee. I was good to go.

It was all good until we got to Kentucky. Somewhere near our entry to the State we stopped for lunch and a bit of a stretch. All was still good, and then it started to rain. This was somewhere near the Cumberland Gap on I-75 (if anyone knows their geography). A good bit of rolling hills, steep grades and steep rock faces on the side of the highway (complete with ‘falling rock’ notices). This slowed the traffic considerably. And it also had the benefit of bunching it up nicely. It rained about halfway through the state of Kentucky and then we had a lane shift to go from 3 lanes to 2. Traffic slow down. Little did I know there was a bit of construction just ahead that took the traffic from 2 lanes to 1!!! Major traffic stoppage!!. We were bumper to bumper stop and go traffic for 15 miles of Nowhere Kentucky. No exits, no rest areas, no way out of the middle lane. That took over 1 and 1/2 hours.

Needless to say, we hit Cinci just at the beginning of rush hour…..

We were playing in the back yard yesterday when we saw something furry laying on the ground.  Thinking the dog had gotten an animal, I put the dog inside and made myself scarce while my husband investigated – I’m sensitive about animals, and if the dog had killed a furry little creature in the back yard, I wanted to pretend like it didn’t happen.  So I come back outside a few minutes later, and my husband is still kneeling over the fur, saying he hasn’t figured out what it is yet.  What?  Clearly the fur was not moving; why couldn’t he figure out what it was?  I fetched him a stick, and when he poked it, he found that it was just fur.  And underneath the fur was a hole containing teeny tiny baby bunnies – live ones!  They are incredibly cute, and they even hop!  After some investigation on the internet, we found that the best thing to do is to leave them alone and that their mother didn’t abandon them.  Baby bunnies only get nursed for 5 minutes per day, and if the mother were to stay near the nest, she would alert predators to the babies.  I couldn’t resist pushing aside the fur to take a picture.  It’s very inconspicuous yet also in the middle of the open yard.  I sure hope nothing happens to those babies.  The first one is of the nest, then you move the fur, and the second picture is of a little head, note the white blaze on the top of the head.  The third picture is a baby bunny face with eyes closed, see if you can find it in the middle of the fur:

I’m too afraid of hurting them to examine them closely enough to count them or take better pictures, but aren’t they cute!  From what I read, they will venture out of the nest at around 3 weeks old, and they will leave it altogether at 6-8 weeks.  Judging by the size of our babies and the fact that we didn’t see the nest before yesterday, I’d say ours are probably only days old; perhaps they were even only hours old when we found them yesterday!  I am so glad we have a fenced yard now to keep the neighborhood cats out – we have a few, and I’ve been feeding one of them.  I feed her at the front of the house though, so I wonder if continuing to feed the cat will encourage her to come over here or if it will distract her and keep her in the front of the house, away from the baby bunnies?

I’m excited to watch them grow – they already look bigger than they did yesterday!  Maybe I’ll post their progress on my blog – stay tuned!

there was the original J.J. Abrams creation, Alias.  It began in 2001 and ran for a total of five thrilling seasons.  Its debut was actually delayed after the events of 9/11.  Tonight, while others watched a race (snooze), I decided to revisit the series courtesy of the DVD collections I received as Christmas presents over the last 8 years (I only have the first three seasons).

In a nutshell, the series centers on young, very attractive, very talented college student and full-time “bank employee,” Sydney Bristow (played by the very attractive, very talented Jennifer Garner… Ben Affleck is one lucky man is all I’m sayin’).  The bank employ is actually a cover for her role as a government operative.  Miss Bristow believes that she is working for a “covert division of the CIA” known as SD-6.  However as Sydney learns in the premiere episode, SD-6 is not at all what it appears to be.

As with Lost, there were many plot scenarios that if you missed one episode you became seriously confused.  I honestly cannot remember if this is the way the entire series played out, but each of the first three episodes ended with a cliffhanger.  This is reminiscent of other television shows’ practice of leaving the audience hanging  at the end of the season.  Just one of  the many series that you wish you could revisit for the first time.  But enough time has passed that it almost seems fresh.

Ms. Garner does have a tie to the area.  She performed in summer stock at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan along with such notables as the late Jonathan Larson, creator of the musical Rent.

So… the entire family (well the extended immediate… siblings, neices and nephews, parents, and I) went out for dinner this afternoon after I got off work at 2.  Because I did not relish the chance to sit in the back and be squished, I decided to ride with big brother and two of his three little ones (E-beth rode elsewhere).  The trip back was much more exciting than the trip there.

Jeff decided to take country roads (take me home) aided by his GPS (help us all… she did have a rather familiar voice).  We came across a closed road so we turned onto yet another back road.  He happened to glance ahead to see vehicles coming from the opposite direction on the closed road.  Apparently, they were in the process of repaving… HMMM… where have I seen that before.  So, he decided to turn around and go back.  The road was only SLIGHTLY more narrow than he expected; consequently, we ended up in a ditch (It wasn’t me this time).  To make matters worse, the ground was still soft following the storms we had a few days ago.  We were STUCK!

Along comes a helpful young man willing to go retrieve his tow cables.  Unfortunately, they would have done more harm than good as his small car has nothing to hook a cable to without tearing off a bumper.  Moments later, another vehicle pulls up.  This car had a connection to my intelligent brother as one of the passengers is a student at the school he is employed at.

It was decided that my 13 year old nephew would gently push on the accelerator while four stout-hearted gentlemen pushed and guided the car to relative safety.  I think someone forgot to tell Joshua what gently meant.  We got the car out of the ditch; however, the car continued to accelerate, move in a circle, and come within inches of going into the ditch on the other side of the road.  I think the young guy finally figured out how to stop the car or else decided that taking the car for a joy ride was not such a good idea after all.  I wonder if the helpful sultry, seductive voice was offering directional advice at the time.  I forgot to ask what her name is

Joshua told his father that he hopes that he is not put in that position for at least three years.  It only added 15 minutes to the drive… enough however to make everyone else curious.

Would you take one look at me and say, “Send that boy to camp?”  Well, whatever your answer that is precisely where I am headed.  Six days in Michigan taking charge of 5-7 nine- and ten-year-old boys.  There are roughly 100 campers going this week and we are headed there a couple hours earlier than last year.  Previously the buses were scheduled to leave at 11, now it is a bright and early 8:30, which by the way is when you should see this post (central time).  However, we are headed home early as well- Friday after dinner instead of Saturday morning.  As usual there are some new things to see when I get there, but probably the most anticipated is seeing the buses go all the way down to the game field so we don’t have to walk a mile to get to our cabins.  Ahh…

I suppose I will have to write up my tale when I get back just for you readers 😉

I was thinking about writing up my week ahead of time, 3-5 posts for the week using the delayed posting feature, and then see how accurate I was at the end since I have been there four times before after all, but I ran out of time.  Sorry about that.  It’s not as if I have gone a week without posting before.  Sigh.  Well, assuming I survive, see you in about a week!

I think it was the 20th of June.

HELLO EVERY PEOPLE.  Morat is a back in country of strange people.  I a come to go to the Droobile with sister of strange person and the little people. I a would a like to go to parade but I a go to the church to hear a strange person sing. I a ride many rides that go a very fast and I a get dizzy, but they were a very fun.  Morat also a meet people from other country who a work for the people at the Droobilee.  Two little people win a blow fish when they pop a balloon.  In Liswathistan, we a have Droobilee.  Morat almost ride one ride.  You a get in car and it goes over a steep cliff.  WOOLY SHEEP!  I a no try that.

Later,  a woman yell out a to Morat.  She a say she saw Morat on tv box and say Morat and friend very funny.  She a ask if group do hiring out for a party.  Morat say he a not know so woman give Morat card and Morat say he ask around.  She say she and her husband were a planning party for little people and a like Morat very much.  Maybe Morat no ask group and find out when a dis party is and ask friend to help… if he a free (OH, SURE!)  Morat a think about this.  I a not sure how long he a be in OHHO.  I a guess some people want a more Morat, yes?  Others a not so much.

At a ten of clock, we a watch the show of LASER.  I a no see anything like a dis before.  Lots of light and a smoke, and music.  I a see map of America country, picture of a Superman, and man bopping head (he a strange laser man).  I a hear number one song of Liswathistan, Jack and Diane by Cougar man.

Strange person he a say tomorrow is day for fathers.  I a not know what this a mean.  Another strange custom in OHHO.  And it also the day of birth of brother of strange person

This weekend being the one in which we all honor our fathers, I thought it would be fun to take a peek at fictional dads who have been presented in television.  In the beginning, it seemed as if families were shown as perfect, squeaky-clean and conflicts could be resolved in 30 minutes or less.  Conflicts like how to get your son to eat brussel sprouts (don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to taste them).

I’m not sure when the switch from perfect family to more realistic family took place.  I’m thinking in the 70s with All in the Family.  I think ultra-conservative Archie Bunker was one of the first fathers to have more to solve than a scrape on the knee or to ease a bruised ego.

Today’s  popular, fictional fathers seem to be lovable buffoons who somehow manage to fumble and stumble through parental misadventures but somehow come to a somewhat happy ending.  Homer J. Simpson has been working at the power plant, drinking Duff beer at Moe’s, and going home to his interesting family for 20+ years.  A highly inflated picture of the blue-collar everyman… must still be working.

My own father is a combination of the three, not so much the idealised father of 50-70s television more like the Al Bundy type… HAHA.  Wouldn’t trade him for anything, although…