Bad Time of Year

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Unfortunately, another family member passed away. This is turning out to be a bad time of year.

This time it was my Grandma. Today would have been her 84th birthday. Instead of celebrating with a party, we are attending her funeral.

Grandma and Evie, in happier times

It was certainly not surprising, and we were all fortunate to have time to visit and say goodbye. In fact, people have been predicting her demise every day for at least 5 years now.

Aunt Sue: “I’m not really sure why she still hangs on.”
Me: “Are you saying she’s stubborn? Now there’s a shocker.”

If I had to describe my Grandma in one word, it would be fierce (and not in a Tyra Banks kind of way). Stubborn would certainly be fitting, but I think fierce is more accurate. A stubborn person doesn’t give up. A fierce person fights like a cornered badger. A stubborn person is solid, like stone. Grandma was full of fire.

When my Grandpa died, it was hard to imagine the family without him. However, Grandma took over as the matriarch of the family without missing a beat, keeping everybody in line. She was not a person who was afraid to tell you how she felt. Even towards the end, she didn’t miss anything. Because of her frail appearance, it was easy to forget that her mind was still as sharp as ever, until she would make a comment that was right on the money. I’m glad that she got to meet my kids.

I haven’t talked to anybody yet who wouldn’t agree that this was one of those situations where her death truly was a mercy. Being confined to a bed is no way to live, and even before that, she hadn’t been able to get around easily for a long time. Her health was on the decline for so long, and there really wasn’t much left to give.

So Grandma, we’re so sad that you’re gone, but we understand. I know how much you missed Grandpa, even after all this time. I know, in the end, he came to get you, just like you always said he would.

Rest in peace.

Betty J. Halbach, Janesville  (1928 – 2012)

January 20, 1928 – January 12, 2012
Betty J. Halbach, 83, of Janesville passed away Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, at her home. Betty was born on Jan. 20, 1928, in Detroit, MI, the daughter of Elmer and Elizabeth. She graduated from Dominican High Academy in Detroit. She married Frederick W. Halbach on July 3, 1948. Betty was formerly employed as a teacher at St. Mary’s School, Janesville, then later worked at Fairbanks-Morse Company and the Janesville Janitorial Service. She later managed the Regency House Apartments in Janesville. She was a member of St. Mary Catholic Church, Milton.
Surviving are four sons and three daughters: William F. of Janesville, Susan (Terry) of Janesville, John C. (Sharon) of Warren, IN, James (Becky) of Hanover, David A. of Janesville, Mary of Janesville, and Cathy (Terry) of Janesville; 19 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Frederick, on June 12, 1997. Her parents and her twin brother, William, also preceded her in death.
“A special thanks to Agrace HospiceCare and Senior Services of Rock County for their many kindnesses to Betty and her family.”

In this economy, we gave *ourselves* a raise

/ Shane / Leave a comment

As I have discussed several times on this blog, we have been making an effort to simplify our lives lately. This entails not only physically decluttering our house, but also just trying to cut down on the number of distractions and complications in our life.

A lot of these things are cascading: we get rid of one thing, and that makes another thing less important, so we get rid of that thing, etc. An example of this was dropping satellite t.v., which eventually led to drastically downsizing our television, which made our Netflix subscription expendable. (You could argue this was a a chicken and egg thing, because really it was the decision to watch less t.v. that made all three of these expendable, but this is sort of the order we went in.)

Anyway, just like getting rid of junk from your house makes you want to find more things to get rid of, canceling services does the same. The more things you get rid of, the more you start to question other things that you paid for. And the more things you start to cut, no matter how small, start to add up.

Between canceling cable, switching our cell phone plans, getting rid of our land line, canceling Netflix, and a few other non-essentials, we realized the other day that they all add up to roughly a 2-3% raise! It’s kind of amazing how much you spend on all of these little things, and how much you take for granted that you just have to have them.

I can verify we’re doing just fine without them. Better, even. (2-3% better, give or take)

Zenni Optical – Round 2

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Just about a year ago, I bought a couple of pairs of glasses online from Zenni Optical. They were so cheap, and the experience was so good, it was literally unbelievable. I do mean literally, because I have told so many people about getting glasses from this place, and they don’t believe me. It really does seem inconceivable that I can get a pair of glasses for less than $25 (including shipping) that would cost > $300 at a store.

Well, all I can do is put the information out there.

I just ordered another 2 pairs of glasses from Zenni. Last year I tried out a pair of plastic frames, and they served me well. Unfortunately, Oliver slapped them off my face, and they broke on the floor. I don’t blame Zenni for that. They weren’t “cheap” frames, they were just slapped off my face and onto the ground with a lot of force. The style I chose had little brackets or clasps at the corners, which were thinner than the rest of the frame, and one of those broke.

Since they were so inexpensive, I had ordered an extra pair last time as a backup. Those got me through until I could place an order for another two pairs. This time, I was even more adventurous in my selections. I dub this the “zenni-effect”: the glasses are so cheap, why not try something crazy? Get a frame you would never have thought of before. This is something you could never afford to do when the frames were $400 and you could only afford one pair. If you’re paying that kind of money for frames, they better be a pretty good, solid, risk-free pair!

The only complaint I had about my first order was that the lenses seemed particularly hard to clean. On my previous, store-bought lenses, I could just clean smudges off with my shirt tail. These glasses required a cloth at least, and even still they never quite seemed to get clean.

I did some research online, and found out that the anti-glare coating that I paid extra to add (recommended, especially if you work on computers all day) works as a smudge magnet. So I thought perhaps I might risk my eyes and go without the anti-glare coating this time. However, Zenni offered an additional smudge-resistant coating for $10.

Both of my new pairs have the new coating, and so far they seem to be perfect! Just as good as my old, expensive ones. So my one caveat is that, if you are getting the anti-glare coating, go ahead and spring for the anti-smudge coating as well. Best $10 I ever spent.

So anyway, unless you hate money, order glasses from Zenni Optical. I get nothing out of this, other than the satisfaction of saving my readers money. It’s just too good of a deal to keep under my hat!

Google Search Term Rollup

/ Shane / Leave a comment

“random things nobody would ever think of” – Good luck with that search.

“swashbuckling chicken” – I just…I…wow.

“so i stopped the apocalypse” – …and now I’m looking for something else to do.

“things that are going well in schools” – Aw, this made me so sad! I just imagine some depressed parent looking for just one example they could point to that something was going well in our schools these days…and only able to find my blog.

“rocket propelled banana” – Not sure what it has to do with me, but I’m in!

“advantage of pseudopods” – Plastic surgery has gotten so crazy these days. People are actually weighing the merits of attaching pseudopods?

“von trapp dog training” – So long, farewell, arf wienerdog, goodnight.

“just simple drawings of different types of puppets” – That’s all I’m looking for. Is that so much to ask, Internet?

“zombie narwhals” – This one captured my imagination. I googled it myself and found a surprising number of hits! There’s a wealth of information about this topic. I never knew narwhals were such staunch zombie fighters! And the possibility that all their zombie fighting might inevitably lead to a few zombie narwhals has come up a time or two before. Absolutely fascinating.

“zombies vs jedi” – I’m sorry, but this wouldn’t be much of a fight. I don’t know how I’ve never considered a lightsaber as a zombie fighting weapon before, but I’d be hard pressed to imagine anything better for slaying zombies!

“The first snowfall of the winter of a boys 18th year means he must take his first step towards manhood.” – This was actually a spam comment, but it is definitely the strangest one I have ever received!

Quote Monday Screams for Ice Cream

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Me: “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!”
::Ollie lets out a bloodcurdling shriek, all activity in the room comes to a screeching halt::
Ollie: “Ice cream!”

::Evie, looking at a family of gingerbread men::
Evie: “They must be the bacon family.”
Sara: “Why is that?”
Evie: “Because, they all look like bakers.”

I guess that was “bakin'” not “bacon”.

Me: “Roaaaar!”
Sara: “Ollie, do you want to be the lion now?”
::Me putting the lion towel on his head::
Me: “Okay, what do you say?”
Ollie: “Thank you, welcome!”

I guess he’s kind of trained on that “what do you say?” phrase.