Friday Funny - Cats, Ferrets and Facebook, Oh My!

Happy Friday - Time to smile!! I haven't come across anything that really split my sides, but here are the ones that I squirreled away to cheer me up on the gray rainy days... like today! And as usual, a hungry cat brings a smile to my face!



This cat may have been hungry at one point, but I suspect by the time the picture was taken, its thoughts had turned more to sweet revenge in the night!



Here we see that while cats are commonly known for being the cunning kings of captioned pictures, you can't forget about the ferrets!



My tolerate/hate relationship with facebook continues, and this handy chart illustrates why I rarely go above ''Tolerate'' in the relationship...



All that useless facebook nonsense leaves a bad taste in my mouth... Why not wash it down with a refreshing bottle of...



Happy Friday! Keep smiling!!

Like Sheep In The Night

Commercials don't have to be grating, claw-your-own-brain-out torture segments, interrupting almost equally grating "entertainment".

Every now and then, a commercial comes along that gives me hope, that actually seems more enjoyable than the "entertainment" that it's interrupting. I think that big football game they have every year is a good example of that.

Here's another example. Take a bunch of sheep, put them in sweaters made of LEDs, and synchronize them into the dazzling displays you see below.



Until the tagline at the end, I wouldn't have guessed this was a commercial at all! Just incredibly cool!!

We Got Leprechaun'd!

For years now, March 17th has been a day of chaos and disorder around our house... Especially down in the daycare!! From sun up, til the parents come in the evening, nobody's quite sure what's going to happen.

It all starts off as good clean (and green) fun... White milk magically turns green when it's poured into cups at breakfast time... Pancakes do the same!

But then, with the kids safely off at school, the fun turns a bit sinister...

May I submit Exhibit A - The Daycare this morning:




At some point between the kids leaving for school, and coming home six hours later, some pesky leprechaun (or leprechauns?) wreaked absolute havoc on our tidy, orderly Puddle Jumpers space!! Don't believe me? Take a look at Exhibit B:






That's an awful lot of carnage... Click on any of the pictures for a close up view of the destruction!! The veteran Puddle Jumpers have been through this before, but were still shocked at how drastic it was. The newbies - well, it's a good thing Ms. Cindy is CPR certified!!

You'd think the kids would be extra devastated when they find out that it's their job to clean everything back up. But it doesn't take much time in the tidying process before the first kid spots a gold coin, or gold egg (both filled with delicious chocolate!) and then it's a cleaning frenzy, with nobody resting until every single piece is back in its rightful place!

I guess in hindsight, it may not be such a bad thing that those pesky leprechauns keep trashing the daycare year after year... It's the one time all year that everything gets thoroughly re-arranged, and Cindy doesn't even have to be the one who does it!

Oh, and in case any rumors start swirling around that Ms. Cindy was in some way responsible for these shenanigans, she was at the doctor's office with Ellysa, who has been battling flu-like symptoms for a couple weeks (despite all the water polo and pep band commitments). She has testified, under oath, that when she left the house, everything was still in order.

I think they'd been watching the house all day, just waiting for their opportunity to strike!!

Finally, as the last kid was picked up, the magical hijinks seemed to fade away, and we had a peaceful - and crazy delicious - dinner of corned beef and cabbage!

...and I just realized as I typed that, that I've gone through the whole "Green" season without enjoying a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's.. Wonder if they'll stick around a few more days??

St. Paddy's Day Funnies!

Good News!

The phone rang today with Good news. Our Final Adoption court date is here!!

The court has approved everything and Danee will officially be a Brinkerhoff,


Friday March 27th at 9:00 AM!

Mike and I, along with our attorney and any family that would like to join us will take our oath, sign our order and take our picture with Danee. We are so excited and feel so blessed that this day is finally marked in ink on the calendar.

We plan to have an Open House to celebrate our little girl joining our family saturday March 28th in the afternoon from 4:00-8:00 with food, drink and of course yummy chocolate!

We will have Danee blessed Sunday the 29th of March during our sacrament meeting at 1:00. We would love to have friends and family join us for this very special day.

Sunday Funnies - Happy Anniversary, Rodney & Jim!

One year ago today (err... tomorrow, but ya know, Sunday and all...) Andy's comic strip, "Rodney and Jim" made its big debut! Counting extra strips for holidays and special events, they're on their 57th strip today! Andy still has lots of fun ideas for them in the coming year! Congratulations Andy, on reaching this milestone!

Commenting on Your Comments

It's time once again to turn this whole blogging thing inside-out! Normally, we post things, and then you respond to them. But every now and then, your responses are so great, that we want to respond back - but don't know whether or not you'd actually check back to see if we had, so we do a post like this. Got it? Good!

First up:

Last week I posted some info about Ellysa playing Water Polo. My cousin Amy responded...



Thanks, Amy! We love it too! Ellysa had tried Soccer and Softball, but she is a true Water Baby. Her sports are Swim Team in the fall, and Water Polo in the Spring. Also, she just received her lifeguard certification, and hopes to spend this upcoming summer down at the neighborhood pool, working as a lifeguard!

---

Also last week, I posted a picture of our Jasper kitty snuggling in our (his?) recliner. There were a couple noteworthy responses to that, from my wife and my sister...




Yes, as Cindy stated, he is the best Mighty Hunter Cat we've ever had - which is cool, although it is kinda unsettling that those vermin are around in the first place... And Susan.. Oh Susan... Rusty the guinea pig is no longer with us... But don't worry, he's in a better place. A much better place! One of last summer's daycare kids has a dad who fell head over heels for Rusty, and they adopted him from us! He's so spoiled now that he even goes to grandma's house every day so he's not home in an empty house all by himself. The only downside in this situation is that I don't have any pics to put up here for you!

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I'm sure by now, all of you went and entered my niece Heidi's contest, where the winner will receive a mythical Box o' Awesome! Her rules stated that I had to promote it on my blog, which I did. I didn't think I did anything special, but Heidi said...


Thank you, Heidi. I look forward to opening the Awesome! The unboxing ceremony will be shown here!

---

Heidi also asked a good question about our upcoming trip to the Temple, where Cindy and I will be Sealed...



Like I said, it's a good question! We don't have a set date yet, but we're getting close. What we can tell you, is that we'll be doing it at the Seattle Temple, and that's a good thing because there appear to be a lot of people who want to come with us, and we've been told that Seattle has a large Sealing Room! We're waiting until the adoption is finalized, and it's looking like it'll be sometime in April.

---

My cousin Debie just had a baby of her own last week! I've been thinking for a while, that it would be really nice if we lived in the Tri-Cities so that Danee and her Emma could be friends. What is it they say about great minds??



Yeah... Some day, hopefully not TOO far down the road, we'll get a chance to be neighbors!

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My sister Susan, always willing to give out loving, sisterly advice, was very concerned that we let Danee fall asleep in our bed...



Oh don't kid yourself Su!! I could NEVER forget the terror that was Brian being weaned from Mom and Dad's bedroom! I shared a room with him at the time, so when they locked him in the room, who do you think got to hear the screaming the loudest??

I love Brian dearly, but that was a kid with issues, man!! You weren't around for some of the worst, but Janice and I could tell you stories - oh, the stories!! Anyway, Danee doesn't ALWAYS go to sleep in our bed, but it is her favorite place. She also does a good job of laying down in her crib and putting herself to sleep. Right now, as I type this, she's doing that. I hear her in the monitor occasionally pretend-crying, but she's been quiet for five minutes now, so I think she's asleep!

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And finally, to top off my blogging week (and this post) my cousin Kendra, a long time lurker, first time commenter, had this to say about my Friday Funny post this week:



THANK YOU!! Obviously, I already had the funny pictures... But I love sharing the fun, and all it takes is an occasional comment like that to remind me that it's worth doing. When a comment like that comes from a normally silent lurker, I know that the Friday Funny post serves a vital purpose and must continue!

So there you have it! Your questions and comments have been answered, Danee went to sleep without snuggling in our bed, and I actually had enough time on the computer to put up a post about all of it! AMAZING!!

Finally Friday!

This has been one heck of a hectic and long, crazy week...

Now that Friday's finally here, it's time to kick back and laugh a little! Thankfully, the good folks of the Cheezburger Network have come through once again with a few gems that have been cracking me up all week long!

First up, you all know that I love the Wii... So do cats!!



Next, back on our 5th of July American Idol Wii Karaoke Revolution SmackDown Party Thing, one of the highlights was my niece Heidi (as in Box o' Awesome Heidi) singing the full 6 minute version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Some of the lyrics get pretty tricky in there, because your one voice is supposed to replace the dozens of voices in the original recording. This handy graph would have been a big help!



Finally, another of my favorite things is definitely Mr. T. I even produced a tribute song for the T a few years ago, and shared it on the 'net, and within a few months, it was sent to me by someone who had no idea that I'd created it! Perhaps it needs to be the SotD soon... Anyway, this image didn't make me laugh, as much as it made me appreciate the T even more!



Hope you all have an AWESOME Friday, with a matching Saturday and Sunday!

Adoption Update!

I know that despite the many assurances we've posted here, some of you are still holding on to a little bit of doubt and/or fear that something could go sideways and turn our adoption process into the worst heartbreak imaginable.

FEAR NOT, GOOD KEEPERS-UP OF THESE BRINKERHOFFS!!

Yesterday, we got Happy Mail!



That's the cover page of the Adoption Social Worker's follow up report, in which he says that Danee is doing great, our family is adjusting well, and that she "should do well in this family."

Allow me to paraphrase:

Dear You Guys,

Danielle Grace is so clearly a Brinkerhoff already, and her family is indisputably HER family. So let's not take any longer... MAKE IT SO!

Thanks! You're Awesome!

Hopefully that's how the rest of the system will read it too - because now the final step is to get this into the judge's hands, get us a court date, and go take an oath to always love, cherish and support our sweet baby girl.

I can't wait for that to happen!! Cindy and I were talking the other night, while Danee was snuggling between us in our bed (which is her favorite way to fall asleep at night), and we both are amazed at how deep our love for her is. There is absolutely no distinction between our feelings for Danee compared to our feelings for our other kids... That realization was such an awesome moment! She's truly our baby!!

Last night she was having pretty bad tummy trouble. Spitting up, Crying hard while tensing her body so tight you could bounce a quarter off her normally soft chubby tummy. As a result, her "snuggle with Mommy and Daddy in their bed" time was longer than usual. And Mommy and Daddy both ended up falling asleep before Danee finally did... which seemed perfectly okay with her! When my alarm went off this morning at 4:30 (Racketball!!) I realized that I'd spent the entire night on the very edge of the bed - and I have the stiff neck to prove it! For a very brief moment, I wasn't sure WHY I was crammed into about 6" of bedspace... Then I heard the most content little sigh I've ever heard in my life, and looked behind me to see Little Miss Daneekins on her back, under the blankies, hands up by her head, looking like the perfect vision of good sleep. By the time we got the camera on her, she'd pulled her hands down, but you still get the gist here...



And soon, VERY soon, she'll finally be OUR baby!! OURS OURS OURS!!!

Win a Box of Awesome!

My niece Heidi is having her first Blog-Giveaway!

She's not giving away a blog, but something much, much better!

She is giving away a prize inspired by my beloved Woot's Bag o' Crap, and she is calling it...



THE BOX of AWESOME!!

Click on over and enter. Just don't win it out from under me. I crave the awesome!

In case you've already entered, I wouldn't want to waste your time. So here's a picture of Jasper sleeping in our recliner. 95% of the time, this is where he can be found.

She Works Hard For It, Honey!

Water Polo Season is upon us again, and Ellysa is representin' well!

After the initial "Hell Week" of practices at 5:00am as well as after school, I picked her up last Monday with a great big smile on her face - as a second year player, as a sophomore in high school, our Ellysa has made the Varsity Water Polo Team!!

This is a BIG deal, because Curtis' Water Polo teams pretty much rule the league in general, and the Varsity squad quite literally owns the competition. I talked to one of the opposing coaches last year after a JV game, and he said that he likes to come play us because it gives his girls a serious reality check, and they play harder against their next opponents.

That was JV. The Big-V is a whole other level of play!

Last night was the first game of the season, an away game at Rogers High School in Puyallup... When I picked Ellysa up at the pool after the game, I asked her how the game went. Her reply was, and I quote, "We slaughtered them!"

Now, I've learned that the term "slaughtered" can imply various degrees of slaughtitude, so I expanded my questioning to include the actual score.

Try 25 to 3. Yeah, that's a slaughter in any vocabulary I've ever encountered!!

And to top it off, Ellysa scored one of those 25 goals!! She needs to score 8 goals to Letter in Water Polo, and with two more games coming up this weekend, she's well on her way!!

We are so incredibly proud of her!! So proud, in fact, that rather than get mad about this...



or this...



or even this...



...we just shrug it off with a smile, and marvel at the fact that she still gets up (mostly) without incident every morning and lugs her 75 pounds of gear (books, flute, water polo bag, lunch, etc, etc) off to school.

The season will end all too soon, and then we'll get back to being concerned about whether or not her bedroom has a floor!

FYI - In case you forgot what Water Polo looks like, here's one of my favorite pics from last season, where Ellysa refined her skillz.



(thanks to Jan for the inspiration behind the post title!)☺

Sunday Funnies

American Idol Week on Song of the Day!

It's been a long time since I've done a themed week on Song of the Day, and since the 8th season of American Idol is in full swing (and sucking mightily) I thought it would be a good time to look back and appreciate the many good songs and artists that none of us would know about if not for their climbing the ranks from obscurity to idoldom - although as we all know, some of the biggest successes were never crowned Idols at all!

I'm not just spinning the same songs you get on the radio though - we'll be featuring some remixes, some that may not have gotten big exposure but are still good, and we're kicking it off with a preview of original Idol Kelly Clarkson's amazing new album, which comes out Tuesday.  

Click Play Today, then Click Buy on Tuesday!

Blessings

I'd originally hoped to be posting from the Tri-Cities this morning, but the whole "March Comes In Like A Lion" thing made the mountain passes so unstable that we didn't like our chances of getting back home on time, so now we're home, about to tackle a long list of household chores... and the blessings of visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins won't be ours this weekend.

However, we received many awesome blessings from right here on the wet side!

My sister Linda (like many of my sisters) is very, very handy with a sewing machine. When she heard we were adopting little Daneekins, she offered to make her Blessing Dress, and we gladly accepted!

Thursday night, Linda called saying that she was having a sewing day on Friday, so she needed us to take some measurements for the dress. When Cindy called back to give her the numbers, she ALSO snuck in a night of babysitting so that we could (finally) go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary! (yeah, that WAS back in December... but December was a bit crazy last year!)

So there was a big blessing - we dropped off little AngelCakes with her Aunt Linda (and of course, her cousin Alicia happened to be over too - she's never one to miss out on some Danee time) and then headed out to the Olive Garden. Another blessing - one of the parents in our daycare had given us $50 in gift cards to the O.G. for Christmas, so our dinner was pretty much paid for!

But those two blessings were just the warm up for the big one...

When we got back, Linda proudly announced that she was just about done with Danee's Blessing Dress. When she held it up to show us, we were awestruck at how beautiful it is!!





Sorry, you don't get to see her in it until her Blessing Day, which can't happen until the adoption is finalized. That should be in a couple weeks, and of course, all the details will be here as they unfold.

Oh!  There was another big blessing to top all that off...

Danee slept all night long for the second night in a row!  And by "all night long" I mean longer than the 6 hours she routinely sleeps anyway...  Nope, for two nights now, she has slept a good solid eight hours!  And believe me, when she finally wakes up, her diaper is about ready to burst, and she is 100% convinced that she's the hungriest baby that has ever existed in the history of hungry babies...  This morning she downed her normal 4 ounce bottle, looked around for more, and then polished off another 2 ounces.  Then promptly went back to sleep for another three hours!

She feels noticeably heavier today than she did yesterday - I think all this eating and sleeping is making for a good old-fashioned growth spurt!

Welcome Back!!

The dark days of blog privacy are over!

Welcome back to all who weren't able to get their google accounts working, all who never got invites, and all who otherwise haven't been here for the past week!

New Danee Pictures!!

When I made the blog stupid annoying private, and sent out invites to everyone to come view it, I said we'd make it worth your while...

Well here is the moment you've all undoubtedly been waiting for, a fresh new batch of Danee Pics!!

Last weekend (actually any time he's around!) Tyler was a huge help with the little babykins...



He even helped out by taking some pictures while I was playing "SuperBaby" with her!



Today, Cindy got a bunch of REALLY good shots while Danee was having some fun time in her bouncy chair!









See?? Totally worth your while!!

Finally, we have a friend who is the assistant manager at our local Build-A-Bear Workshop... She came over yesterday and brought Danee a bear made just for her!

Jasper thought maybe - just maybe - it was also for him.

Finally, You Can Comment On The Song of the Day!

Well here's one more reason to come to the blog in person, rather than just reading it via Email, Google Reader, Facebook, or any other methods.

Ever since I added the Song of the Day feature, several people have told me they would like to comment on the song itself, not just whatever post happened to be on top that day. 

I've had some ideas brewing in my head for a while, and finally got around to executing one of them!

In the top-left corner of the blog, there is now a Random Chat box, where you can leave comments about anything - but since it's right next to the SotD section, it's the obvious place for your music related comments.  

Enjoy!  Chat it up!  Comment!  Hello???

p.s. I am not liking the private blog thing.  Chances are very good that it won't stay private much longer...