Meg tagged me while I was on vacation and I am just FINALLY getting to it!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to name of person that tagged you.
2. Include state and country you live in.
3. List top 5 favorite local restaurants.
4. Tag 5 other people and let them know they’ve been tagged.
Okay, I've linked to Meg. I live in Minnesota, USA. There are not 5 favorite local restaurants, only two, so I'm going to pretend I'm in Denver visiting dad.
1. Olive Garden -- my all-time favorite
2. Black-Eyed Pea -- another good restaurant, although not very healthy because of all the deep-fat fried stuff
3. Cracker Barrel -- see number 2
4. Dino's -- Italian restaurant on Colfax in Lakewood. It's been there FOREVER. They have homemade spaghetti noodles that are fat and it is absolutely THE BEST.
5. The Armadillo. Yummy Mexican food. Started in LaSalle CO (or Greeley) and last I knew there were two or three in Denver area.
We do have two local restaurants that are pretty good. One is a bar that sits on one of our lakes. It's a really good hamburger and deep-fat-fried place. We don't eat there often, though. They serve one heck of a pork tenderloin sandwich. This restaurant is very homey -- knotty pine walls that are probably 50 years old, old ugly carpet, ugly tables, but the service is great. It is really fun to go there in the winter because you're on the lake and you sit there watching all the ice fishermen. You watch the fisherman driving their cars on the lake. It's freaky watching that.
We also have a good Mexican restaurant. We have some fast food, too: McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Taco John's (gag!, but my boys love that place) KFC and Starbucks. We lost our Taco Bell and I'm still mourning that! We at at Taco Bell so many times at my dad's house that I actually got sick of it -- something I never thought possible.
So Meg, when you come to visit, McDonald's is right on the interstate. The lake restaurant is clear on the other side of town, it's a bar, and people smoke and drink in there. You'll have to choose where we "do lunch". Of course we could eat at my house, but I hate to cook and any excuse to get OUT of my house I grab. =)
Once again, I tag anyone who wants to play!
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Do I hafta??
Do I have to get ready for school? Do I have to place my order PDQ so that it arrives in time? Do I have to sit down and figure things out? Do I have to THINK about school?
Argh.
Actually I've got it all planned out except for language arts.
Thomas got his CAT scores back (and yes, he's a brilliant child -- a mother can brag, right?) and something really knocked my socks off. He scored post high school on language expression. I don't even remember what types of questions language expression covered. He got grade level with spelling (I thought it might be lower) and he got grade level with the grammar part -- I forget the correct name of the sub test.
So anyway, I knew this before I got those test results back, but we have to work on English. Yes, we've done Rod and Staff, the "granddaddy of 'em all" but we really hated it and retention started going down the drain. My enthusiasm died shortly at the start of last school year. It was the dreaded subject.
I used to like Rod and Staff. It's a good program. I think I may have blogged how great it was before...but in reality, it's not a very good fit.
So it's time for a crash course. Well, it's time for an intense focus. Now I just can't figure out which books to get.
I'm looking at:
Grammar Rules!
Better Sentence Structure Thru Diagramming 1 and 2
Exercises in English Grammar Book 1
Mechanics of English Straight Forward Series
I'm linking to Christian books and Rainbow, but CB has better samples.
Any comments, thoughts, ideas? Anything better out there?
We need to review parts of speech and mechanics, both. I want something straightforward. I don't want to have to this every single day, like we had to in Rod and Staff (and didn't.)
Thomas will be starting 6th grade. Where does time go? Sixth grade is the time I really start remember being human. lol Now he's there...complete with brand-new pierced ear. (I need to blog about that as soon as I snap a picture! -- traumatic for mom.)
Argh.
Actually I've got it all planned out except for language arts.
Thomas got his CAT scores back (and yes, he's a brilliant child -- a mother can brag, right?) and something really knocked my socks off. He scored post high school on language expression. I don't even remember what types of questions language expression covered. He got grade level with spelling (I thought it might be lower) and he got grade level with the grammar part -- I forget the correct name of the sub test.
So anyway, I knew this before I got those test results back, but we have to work on English. Yes, we've done Rod and Staff, the "granddaddy of 'em all" but we really hated it and retention started going down the drain. My enthusiasm died shortly at the start of last school year. It was the dreaded subject.
I used to like Rod and Staff. It's a good program. I think I may have blogged how great it was before...but in reality, it's not a very good fit.
So it's time for a crash course. Well, it's time for an intense focus. Now I just can't figure out which books to get.
I'm looking at:
Grammar Rules!
Better Sentence Structure Thru Diagramming 1 and 2
Exercises in English Grammar Book 1
Mechanics of English Straight Forward Series
I'm linking to Christian books and Rainbow, but CB has better samples.
Any comments, thoughts, ideas? Anything better out there?
We need to review parts of speech and mechanics, both. I want something straightforward. I don't want to have to this every single day, like we had to in Rod and Staff (and didn't.)
Thomas will be starting 6th grade. Where does time go? Sixth grade is the time I really start remember being human. lol Now he's there...complete with brand-new pierced ear. (I need to blog about that as soon as I snap a picture! -- traumatic for mom.)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tagged =)
Mama B tagged me. This was more difficult than I thought, and I didn't give it a whole lot of thought either 'cuz I'm tired.
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
My Middle name is Gail.
G - Groceries -- I'm constantly buying groceries.
A - Antiques -- love 'em, especially if they were in the family, such as my kitchen table and Hoosier cabinet.
I - Incognito -- love being incognito on the net. Frankie is not my real name, but Gail is my real middle name.
L - LOVE. That says it all.
I tag: anyone who wants to play!
(I never know who wants to play. If you like being tagged, let me know, and I'll make a list. I do like to play, so feel free to tag me.)
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
My Middle name is Gail.
G - Groceries -- I'm constantly buying groceries.
A - Antiques -- love 'em, especially if they were in the family, such as my kitchen table and Hoosier cabinet.
I - Incognito -- love being incognito on the net. Frankie is not my real name, but Gail is my real middle name.
L - LOVE. That says it all.
I tag: anyone who wants to play!
(I never know who wants to play. If you like being tagged, let me know, and I'll make a list. I do like to play, so feel free to tag me.)
Monday Ramblings
Last Friday I thought it was Saturday. I got up at 9 am (late!) and wondered where Bob was. I figured he decided to hit the office while no one was there, a time when he can get a lot of work done.
At lunchtime he came in the door and laughed his pants off at me. He thought it was very funny that everyone else in the office had decided to work on a Saturday, too.
Hmph. I'll blame it on the summer, and the fact that we haven't turned the TV on in ages. I haven't been reading the newspaper, either.
It's actually kinda nice to live in a bubble.
Last week I bought Anvsoft DVD slideshow. I became obsessed. I have worked on genealogy nonstop. I organized then scanned all of my grandmother's ancestors, cropped, fixed, labeled, and put them in the slide show. I had to go to the store and figure out the difference between all those CDs and DVDs and DVD-RWs and DVD+RWs, etc. Way out of my comfort zone.
I am thrilled with the results of my project. Except that I fear it will never be done. I keep tweaking. This will be my Christmas present to my sisters and brother. I have tons of work remaining, I have to do my granddad's ancestors, then my father's family, then photos of my grandmother and grandfather's life together...
A happy little hobby. Hopefully it will make my siblings happy as well.
It's also a huge relief, getting those photos scanned and saved. Once they're done, they'll be "safe". I worry about such things. I mean you just cannot replace civil war photographs, tin types of your great-great grandparents, etc. Plus the fact that everyone can enjoy them.
Half the photos aren't even mine, they're jpegs that have been shared with me. I love the internet for that purpose alone. It will be nice to share.
The back-to-school sales have started again. We went to Shopko yesterday and picked up four bottles of glue for 10 cents each. I was a little annoyed because they had a "limit 4" sign. We go through a lot of glue in this house. We also got some spirals for a dime each, although we have never used those in our school because Thomas is a lefty. Will see how that works. I plan on going back to Shopko and getting four more bottles. Shame on me.
Our Walmart will be opening next month. Let me just say that I am tremendously excited.
Thomas has been playing nonstop. The neighborhood has changed as the younger kids have grown up a bit and two of the pain in the you-know-what kids have moved. Now all the remaining kids have a blast together, even though their ages range from 6-12. That's a good thing.
Thomas also has a friend, who happens to be a girl, that he's known since kindergarten. She calls every day, several times a day. They talk for hours. I think she's very lonely as her parents work. She's been coming to play once a week since we got back from vacation. Those phone calls are mildly annoying to me, but I figure it's part of growing up.
I've started looking at my sixth-grade list. I need to place my orders. I am just not ready to think about school right now. Our school room is still a pit. Piles and piles of stuff from the end of the year are gathering dust. I need to get away from the genealogy this week and defeat the messy room. It is very bad.
I'm looking for some great books to buy for Thomas to read this year. At this point I'm clueless only because I don't want to think about it. Thomas isn't a child who goes to the library and drools over the books. However, if I pick something that I think he will like, he'll read it and get into it.
I guess that's about all the rambling I have this morning. It's 11:30 and I'm still in my jammies. I love summer. I need to get moving because we have friends coming over this afternoon.
At lunchtime he came in the door and laughed his pants off at me. He thought it was very funny that everyone else in the office had decided to work on a Saturday, too.
Hmph. I'll blame it on the summer, and the fact that we haven't turned the TV on in ages. I haven't been reading the newspaper, either.
It's actually kinda nice to live in a bubble.
Last week I bought Anvsoft DVD slideshow. I became obsessed. I have worked on genealogy nonstop. I organized then scanned all of my grandmother's ancestors, cropped, fixed, labeled, and put them in the slide show. I had to go to the store and figure out the difference between all those CDs and DVDs and DVD-RWs and DVD+RWs, etc. Way out of my comfort zone.
I am thrilled with the results of my project. Except that I fear it will never be done. I keep tweaking. This will be my Christmas present to my sisters and brother. I have tons of work remaining, I have to do my granddad's ancestors, then my father's family, then photos of my grandmother and grandfather's life together...
A happy little hobby. Hopefully it will make my siblings happy as well.
It's also a huge relief, getting those photos scanned and saved. Once they're done, they'll be "safe". I worry about such things. I mean you just cannot replace civil war photographs, tin types of your great-great grandparents, etc. Plus the fact that everyone can enjoy them.
Half the photos aren't even mine, they're jpegs that have been shared with me. I love the internet for that purpose alone. It will be nice to share.
The back-to-school sales have started again. We went to Shopko yesterday and picked up four bottles of glue for 10 cents each. I was a little annoyed because they had a "limit 4" sign. We go through a lot of glue in this house. We also got some spirals for a dime each, although we have never used those in our school because Thomas is a lefty. Will see how that works. I plan on going back to Shopko and getting four more bottles. Shame on me.
Our Walmart will be opening next month. Let me just say that I am tremendously excited.
Thomas has been playing nonstop. The neighborhood has changed as the younger kids have grown up a bit and two of the pain in the you-know-what kids have moved. Now all the remaining kids have a blast together, even though their ages range from 6-12. That's a good thing.
Thomas also has a friend, who happens to be a girl, that he's known since kindergarten. She calls every day, several times a day. They talk for hours. I think she's very lonely as her parents work. She's been coming to play once a week since we got back from vacation. Those phone calls are mildly annoying to me, but I figure it's part of growing up.
I've started looking at my sixth-grade list. I need to place my orders. I am just not ready to think about school right now. Our school room is still a pit. Piles and piles of stuff from the end of the year are gathering dust. I need to get away from the genealogy this week and defeat the messy room. It is very bad.
I'm looking for some great books to buy for Thomas to read this year. At this point I'm clueless only because I don't want to think about it. Thomas isn't a child who goes to the library and drools over the books. However, if I pick something that I think he will like, he'll read it and get into it.
I guess that's about all the rambling I have this morning. It's 11:30 and I'm still in my jammies. I love summer. I need to get moving because we have friends coming over this afternoon.
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