Meet the Abercrombie’sJamon … Jen … Taylor … Jordan (and a few others sprinkled in)

Head pounding. Skin hot to the touch. Can’t keep from shivering. Throat sore. Too dizzy to drive.

No that’s not one of the greeting cards from Mr. Deeds … that’s how I was feeling Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It was so bad that I even pulled over and let my wife drive the rest of the way home!

I was pretty much out of it from about 3:00 on Saturday until Tuesday morning. My wife dragged me to the doctor on Monday. I was prepared for an onslaught of lab test b/c I couldn’t pinpoint one thing that felt worse than the other. So many things felt wrong, they could have had their own sickness. But, Doc walked in and did nothing but stick a light in my mouth and tell me I have strep throat.

Two minutes tops. In. Out. On with life.

Good thing is, I’m feeling better. The medicine is working. And that’s good b/c I’ve got to sing tonight and Saturday and Sunday … so it would be good if my throat was with me.

Don’t turn your back on February

click to enlarge

Here it is February 13. Kansas City and the midwest are just melting away from the last snow pounding we received (it was 45 degrees just a few days ago). We still had the remnants of a deformed Frosty (not the Wendy’s treat) in our yard, and he was sure to be gone soon.

But it wasn’t to be. Turn your back on February, think you’re out in the clear and Emeril (BAM!) shows up with six inches of snow. My four-year-old even asked me on Sunday if we could build another snowman when it snows. My response … sure we can, but it’s not going to snow until your birthday (his b-day is in December)! Oh well, I’m familiar with the taste of my foot. Probably won’t be the last time, either. We had drizzle, then rain, then sleet, then snow. Winter has some more time left. The biggest snowstorm in KC history occurred in March.

I thought Punxsutawney Phil DIDN’T see his shadow this year!

Kansas dropped the ball

I don’t know how the roads are on the Missouri side of Kansas City, but I do know how they are on the Kansas side, and they blow! I saw better cleared backroads in southwest Missouri than I did this morning in urban Kansas City. What are all of our tax dollars paying? I can understand if streets in the residential neighborhoods aren’t cleared – that’s fine. But, not one road I drove on today (two major streets and one major interstate) were barely touched.
Grrr … that’s all.

TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America.

MARIA: Here it is.

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

CLASS: Maria.

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell “crocodile?”

GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L”

TEACHER: No, that’s wrong

GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday y ou said it’s H to O.

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t
have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN: Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you are.

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with “I.”

MILLIE: I is…

TEACHER: No, Millie….. Always say, “I am ”

MILLIE: Alright… “I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.”

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree,
but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn’t punish
him?

LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.

TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on “My Dog” is exactly the same as your
brother’s. Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, teacher, it’s the same dog.

Well, we finally had to put the ‘89 Olds out of its misery … at least its misery in our care. We gave the car to an organization here in KC called Cars for Christmas. They take donated cars, junkers (like ours), fix them up and provide them to families that are in need of transportation.

NOT FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT PROVIDES FREE BASIC TRANSPORTATION TO DISADVANTAGED INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE NOT ABLE TO OBTAIN IT ON THEIR OWN
–Cars4Christmas.com

So we took a day and drove all over the Metro and finally, the last place we went, we found something suitable. Every other place we went to it seemed like they really just didn’t care. Cars weren’t all that clean (yes, we were looking for something cheap), and one car even still had a couple of McDonald’s cups in the cup holders! But I guess that should be expected from the places we were going.

The last place we ended up was actually through a referral from another dealer we had talked with. It seems this salesperson’s husband owned a wholesalership. This place wasn’t easy to find, but their cars were cleaned up just like the big-boy dealers. All their cars run through service checks, and we found more cars that we were willing to test than we did at the other 10 places we stopped by earlier in the day. This place also closes at 4:00 on Saturdays, and we didn’t get there until 5:15, and didn’t leave until after 6:00.

So, what did we end up with? The Abercrombies have taken the plunge into practicality and efficiency, and went with a 1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette … mini-van.

I don’t have any photos just yet, b/c shortly after we made the purchase, it started acting real weird (shifting hard, whining). So, now it’s back at the wholesaler getting checked out. My wife’s only requirements to getting a mini-van were:

1. CD player
2. heated seats

It didn’t have the heated seats, but it did have the remote open/close side doors (actually only one of the side doors are automatic).

Now, we’re rolling with a 1995 Chevy Blazer and a 1999 Oldsmobile Sihouette.

What’s your rig?