The world is a little poorer today

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Sad news for the family this week; my Aunt Barb passed away. Aunt Barb has been a constant in the family for so long, always present at reunions, family gatherings, and, of course, Thanksgiving, even after health problems made that difficult. She provided warmth both figuratively and literally, with the many afghans she crocheted over the years (we have one on our bed right now, and several more around the house). So, goodbye Aunt Barb. Your absence will not go unnoticed.

If anything good can come from Aunt Barb’s death, it’s this: please consider becoming an organ donor. Aunt Barb lived with a transplanted liver for over 15 years. This extra time allowed her a chance to see her kids get established, watch her grandkids grow up, travel, and spend time with her husband after he retired. It bought her time, a lot of time, and there isn’t a price high enough to pay what that’s worth.

—

Barbara, age 61, of Janesville, died on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, at University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison. She was born in Janesville on July 25, 1950, the daughter of Raymond and Geraldine. She graduated from Parker High School in 1968, and married Bernard in St. William Catholic Church on Feb. 22, 1969. She had been a Janesville resident all of her life and was retired from the Data Shop. Barb was a lifetime member of St. William Catholic Church, actively learning Braille, and attended support groups for transplant and loss of sight. She loved listening to books, doing cross stitch and crocheting.

She is survived by her husband, Barney; 3 children: Andrea, Mike and Charlene all of Janesville; 3 grandchildren: Brandon, Samantha and Calvin; 6 siblings: Mike (Donna) of Evansville, Kath of Janesville, Mary (Paul) of Janesville, Carol (Mark) of Milton, Donna (Stephen) of Texas and LuAnne (John) of Janesville; many nieces, nephews, other extended family. She was preceded in death by her parents.

Lasting memorials may be made to the University of Wisconsin Transplant Program, Madison.

Quote Monday makes girls cry

/ Shane / 2 Comments

::Evie was interested in Italian, so Sara and I were teaching her all of the Italian words we could think of::
Me: “What do you think ‘scusi’ means?”
Evie: “I don’t know, what?”
Me: “It means ‘Excuse me’.”
Evie: “Like when you toot, or when you’re passing by somebody?”

I’m not sure Italian is that nuanced.

::Evie with her Halloween candy::
Evie: “Daddy, I just ate a zero!”
Me: “Zero what?”
Sara: “Nutrients.”

(For the record, she meant a life saver)

Evie: “Uncle Ben, you’re my only uncle with hair!” – Take that Uncle Nathan!

Me: “Well, if that’s how it’s going to be, I’ll put away the magic tricks. My magic is not supposed to make girls cry.”
Sara: “Your magic IS to make girls cry.”

Zombie PSA

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Zachary Levi from Chuck reminds us: be wise, shoot between the eyes. There’s no need for unnecessary zombie torture. Remember that zombies used to be people too!

Shel Silverstein

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We picked up a used copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, and Evie and I recently finished reading it.

Although Evie is a little young for it, it went over surprisingly well. There are a few poems that seemed to have captured her imagination, specifically “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too”, “Hungry Mungry”, and “The Unicorn”, among many others.

Actually, I forgot how much I liked this book until I was re-reading it with her. It really took me back to my childhood, when I read this book innumerable times. I felt like each time I turned the page I thought, “Oh yeah! This one!” It felt pretty special to share those with her. And here it was something I had almost completely forgotten about!

Shel Silverstein has a lot of famous books, but the two best in my opinion are “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and A Light in the Attic”.

I don’t know that I’ve ever met anybody that didn’t like the poetry of Shel Silverstein, and I kind of feel like these books are part of the pop-culture landscape of my childhood, in that pretty much everybody was familiar with them. I hope that my kids enjoy them as much as I did when I was a kid.

Based on Evie’s reaction to “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, it seems likely.

Oatmeal – You’re Doing it Wrong

/ Shane / 5 Comments

At our house, we eat a lot of oatmeal. The kids like it, it’s a quick and easy hot breakfast, and it’s one of the healthiest breakfasts one could eat. A lot of times when we mention oatmeal to people, or if people are over at our house on a Saturday (a designated oatmeal day), they always more or less have the same reaction: “Yuck, really? Oatmeal?” Then we proceed to get out all the toppings and condiments that we put on the oatmeal, and they say, “Oh, well, that’s not really oatmeal then, is it?”

Well, why the heck not?

I remember eating oatmeal at home as a kid. We either put honey in it or cinnamon and sugar. Maybe a little fruit or something. I think that’s how people think of oatmeal; sort of bland with an unappealing texture that gets old pretty fast.

Oatmeal (here: oat,water,salt). Danish: havregrød

But who said it has to be that way? There are an infinite combinations of things you can put in your oatmeal. We usually use some combination of walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries, raisins, honey, maple syrup, applesauce, peanut powder, chia seeds, cinnamon, diced apples, strawberries, and bananas. And you certainly aren’t limited to those things. The nuts give it some texture, and if you use fruit, you usually don’t need a sweetener. It’s not uncommon to have a bowl that’s about half oatmeal and half “other stuff”. But, 1) you’re still eating oatmeal instead of something else, like sugar cereal, and 2) the “other stuff” is generally pretty healthy as well (I’m not going to complain about my kids eating bananas and nuts for breakfast!). And if adding in some applesauce encourages you to eat oatmeal, then it seems like a pretty good deal.

So my contention is, if you’re not eating oatmeal, you’re probably not thinking creatively enough about it!