Tag Archives: War Eagle

Weekend Update- Memorial Day Edition.

Split time this weekend- the lake place and the home place.

Started the weekend in the Dermatologists office, my annual brush with mortality. I came away from that pretty much unscathed for a chance. Actually that makes  two a row, which pleases me to no end.

Friday afternoon Mrs S and headed up to the cabin to work on the pontoon boat. We got the furniture reattached and by most accounts the boat, which will be renamed the SS (Sank Ship in case you were wondering) War Eagle. She’s resplendent with navy carpet and some orange trim the only thing missing a giant AU in the front carpet and the “Beat Bama’ logo on the back.

Personally I’d like to see the youth do well in a couple classes at Auburn before we go all in on the family watercraft if you know what I’m saying. Or rather, Just say’n.

Friday evening we had the first bonfire of the year. Not so much for the bonding effect of a lovely campfire on a summer night, the motivation was rather um, to destroy about 4 years of back checks and documents Mrs S had accumulated and didn’t want to feed through her $8.99 POS shredder that chokes on two ply toilet paper much less more than one piece of paper at a time.

By the time we were done the fire pit was one gigantic pile of ashes which magically were completely gone in the morning after a thunderstorm and some rain.

IMG_0010Saturday Giggs had a friend up for the day, Riley the golden lab from the next door in Apple Valley. Riley hitched a rid up with some of the family members and they had a splendid day, Riley chasing shit around the yard for hours on end and Giggs attempting to herd Riley. They have a great relationship because each dog gets what they want. Giggs did have to draw line however at lake entry. Giggs, having no legs is a bit of wader in the lake, definitely not a swimmer. Riley being a  lab enjoys the water. Giggs had to patiently wait on shore for other dog to swim back, and like a true herding dog waited in the down position like a sheep dog waiting on the next command. Breeding for traits is very interesting.

Then again, no corgi like the water, and Giggs certainly enjoys a good wade when it’s hot outside.

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Saturday dinner I whipped up Lebanese style. Some kabobs which had been marinating in olive oil and spices all day, I attempted my mothers baba ganoush, roasted eggplant puree with tahini, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice. Having no recipe I winged it from a 27 year old memory of an observation of my mother making the stuff. It was decent enough but needs some tweaking. Since nothing as measured I’m not exactly certain how I’ll I do that.. but I will enjoy figuring it out.

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After chow Saturday night Mrs S and the kids all bailed with our neighbors and it then got really quiet up there. If it wasn’t for the thunder and lightning I’d have had to start talking to myself.

Sunday I got up with great expectations of watching the Indy 500 and doing some work. New role at the office has me bringing home a lot of stuff these days and I was pretty sure at least one day of the weekend would be devoted to project work.

As it was we literally had no reception on Sunday. No TV reception for some reason. Now Blake Lake is on the far periphery of Twin Cities TV coverage, and all we have is an antenna, but we had been getting decent TV. I’m blaming sunspots.

After weaseling myself on invite to a friends for breakfast I managed to extend my visit through the morning and enjoyed a gratis bloody Mary while watching the race. Actually one of the best bloodies I’ve ever had. Full meal, marinated tomato juice and vodka. Good times.

After the race I invited the gang over to my place for more feeding and drinking and so it was.

Never mind that work thing mind you.

Sunday night we had a massive thunderstorms all around us, but someway, somehow we managed to avoid a direct hit and only had to suffer through the power going out. For 6 hours of so.

Monday I was home by 9:00. Mrs S met me at the door with a list. Somehow it had slipped my mind that my mother in law is coming to visit on Wednesday, which in my mind was three days away, but wit the holiday is actually only two days away and since we want her think we live in a model home for some reason, there was a lotta shit to do, which we did.

And now I have tiredness.

I did take a moment and think about the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line in the service of our country. The meaning of the day was mentioned at dinner. I did not forget, like I did about my Mother in Law.

Or that we are about to have a high school graduation this week, my son of all people. Now since he’s the middle kid I figured we could ignore it all together and go to the lake, but on further reflection have decided to stick around and congratulate him, and all his class on their great achievement, they have met the most basic educational requirement of our society and have earned themselves the highly coveted Meeting Expectations.

I don’t get the bid deal on high school  graduations.

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War Eagle!

War Eagle everyone.

If you happen to see the middle kid it would be entirely appropriate that you greet him with War Eagle, the official greeting for members of the University of Auburn family, also happens to to be the rally call for the schools athletic teams.

All this means good news at the Casa this week, middle kid has been accepted to Auburn University. We thought we’d wait to see where else he got accepted before we commit, to make sure he selects the school that’s best for him. The kiddo however, was waiting to see if he got accepted to Auburn to see if he had to apply anywhere else. Not exactly my advice to be totally honest. But.. it worked out for him. He applied for early admission. The university web site said early admission kids would notified between October 15 and February 1st.

I explained to him that the letter would probably come later than sooner, that’s kinda how this stuff works, and that he should buckle down and work up the essay he needed for some of his other choices; Oregon, Cal, Minnesota, and St. Thomas. I think Illinois was on that list at one point as well. Write up the essay dude, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The letter came October 17. Way to go Auburn, way to screwup my plans. Still you want to make sure dude, lets follow up on the other schools and make certain you have some choices, you want to make choices. He had me send in the deposit October 18th.

So, basically it’s a done deal. Auburn here we come, or rather “he” comes, I won’t be going down except to drop him off, and if it works out, maybe to catch a football game at some point. That’s a long drive. But to his credit there is a method to his madness, apparently he gets priority for housing based on how early you begin enrollment. I can’t imagine there is anyone earlier than our guy, I’m thinking he’ll get the penthouse room on the Quad.. something called the Quad being his choice.

So as of this time next year, we’ll have one kid in Michigan, one kid in Alabama and one kid upstairs on an iPad.

Before we look forward to reuniting the family here in St. Paul, oldest kid is starting to look at Grad Schools. Grad School!! Kid has good taste believe me, but he also has the grades to back up his dream, which at this point is Leland Sanford Junior University in Palo Alto California. That Stanford. Second choice BTW, The Colorado School of Mines in Golden Colorado followed by the University of California in Berkeley California.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about all these schools, The mean distance between Minneapolis Minnesota and all of these places, about 12oo miles. In other words, the long term prognosis for Sankary kids in Minnesota is poor. I don’t know what the future looks like, Mrs S and I staying here and Minnesota being the central point for family visits and summers at the lake? Will the kids wind up somewhere near each other and we go there, will Mrs S’s disdain for Winter finally predicate a move to warmer climes, will the lure of California and family draw us back, the future is not clear at the moment.

I’m seeing change in the wind folks, the future will be exciting, hopefully not too exciting, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Or something like that.

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