Why Marshall's Great, part the first

KIDS' KINGDOM

There is an awesome, community-built, playground five blocks from our house.  We've been there half-a-dozen already. 

Phoeb-a-loo will often ask to go and play at the "castle".  Today we walked to Kids' Kingdom and played hide-and-seek.  While walking there and back, Ms. Darkness complained of her tummy aching.  Funny how the time there passed with nary a complaint.  On the way home, we enjoyed the river walk.

It's so fun living in a city where we can walk outside while the sun's up and live to tell the tell.  I guess we can get rid of these radiation suits.

Why Michigan's Awesome, part 2

Biggby Coffee

Formerly Beaner's (ah, inadvertent racial slurs), this East Lansing based coffee franchise is wonderful.  In southwest Georgia any coffee chain is difficult to find.  Our little town had a nice distributor of fair trade coffee with an afterthought of a shop.  It was nice, but there's something about the transcendent nature of a chain that's comforting.  As I travel about my new stomping grounds, I'll occasionally see a big B (clever name, huh?) and smile.  "I could go for a grande Nutty Irishman," I'll think.

Of course, I don't act on it.  I'll need a job before I can do that.

More to come . . . .

Why Michigan's Awesome, part 1

Culver's

Since the home of the Butterburger is Sauk City, Wisconsin, being near a Culver's is a taste of home.  A taste we've been away from for five years.  It's good to be near one again.

Tennessee got one franchise in Murfreesboro about a month AFTER we left.  Georgia is still devoid of the greatest dispensary of fat-guy-food ever.  Poor Georgia.

Phoebe has adapted quickly and now recognizes a Culver's location by sight as we drive by.  Poor Phoebe. 

Actually, she makes better choices when we go for a treat.  She gets the corn dog (38% less calories than a cheeseburger and 33% less fat), white milk, and applesauce.  Those are HER choices by the way.  Of course, she does get a dish of custard with her kid's meal . . . .

Meet Phoebe Darkness

I don't get it. My daughter has decided she should be called Phoebe Darkness.

I don't get it.

Tonight Mthr. M-G, "Darkness", and I were invited to a banquet for the high school women's swim team.  GO LADY REDHAWKS!! We were introduced to the room and Phoebe loudly declared, "I am Phoebe DARKNESS."

Needless to say she was a hit with the high school girls.  She even got to take home a balloon.  Red?  No.  White?  Are you kidding?  Only a balloon as black as the tortured soul of its new mistress could come home with Phoebe Darkness.

Tomorrow she and I will be listening to Disintegration and practicing our glowers.

Welcome to NEWvember

Ahoy!  As you can see, Phoeb-a-loo was decked out a pirate last night.  Not just any pirate.  Phoebalicious was adamant that she was, in fact, Izzy for Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  This is the first year she decided what she was going to dress up as.  An interesting side note, we had all of those costume pieces on hand.  What does that say about us?

Oh wait!  Someone just pointed out that there's an elephant in the room.  I guess I wasn't aware.  Okay, so I've been failing big time on the update front.

This is a new month.  We're living in a new house.  (A new state even!)  Mthr. M-G is in a new church.  Today I'm renewing my my commitment to updating this blog daily.  I'm also restarting my weight loss journey.

The new button in the sidebar links to The Hacker's Diet homepage.  The Hacker's Diet is a no BS approach to losing weight and maintaining a health weight.  I think of it as weight loss for nerds.  It doesn't offer a "magic formula" for getting skinny.  It lays out a system for applying what we all already know.  Eat less.  The system is all about data analysis.  Nerd heaven!  Best of all, it's free.  I'll be posting my daily weigh-ins via that snazzy button.

Also, I'm in the middle of a MASSIVE update to the Phoebe photo album.  Check out the old (sorry, it can't all be new) button in the sidebar.

UPDATE: The photo upload is complete.  There are 349 new pictures of Phoebe in the album.  Enjoy!