Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle! It's our birthday!

Dragon Mood? -- excited!

Today, I celebrate calypsoDragon13's blog birthday! Wow! I looked at my very first posting and my, my, how things have changed!


P.S. The photo is from September, 1980. We were visiting Doris and Hemie at the farm. It was still so doggone hot in September in Texas, they put Ruth, I and the kids up at a local motel. Ruth must have taken our picture. Caroline was four at the time, Josh two. And contrary to my perpetual negative body/self images, I look trim and healthy.

Flying monkeys, flying beds?

Dragon Mood? -- not scared of flying monkeys!

If you've ever watched TV, I presume that you've watched the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. And if you've watched The Wizard of Oz, I presume you remember the scary flying monkeys, right?

Have you ever seen a flying bed? If not, click this link and see some not-scary, actually-well-designed flying beds. Really!

"Eureka!" while making the bed

Dragon Mood? -- slightly embarrassed

Making our bed this morning, I re-acknowledged to myself that I am one of that group of people who do like their beds made. Not messy and unmade, but tidy and made. Tidiness is not as self-righteous as godliness, but it's definitely a rather self-congratulating preference.

Now, right after I made the bed, I had this wonderful realization, a "Eureka" moment, immediately upon which I thought, "I should blog about this!" Wonderful moment, enlightened opportunity to share .... (heavy sigh) .... and you know, I can't remember a damn thing as to its content!

I do promise that if it ever comes back to me, I'll update this post!

Winter Storm, basketball & Oscar Sunday

Dragon Mood? -- warm, cozy and relaxed

The title of this post pretty much sums up what I'm doing today. S and I are comfortably ensconced in the pied-a-terre here in Motown because of nasty weather predictions between now and Monday morning.

As far as basketball, Louisville is just about to beat Connecticut. Immediately after that, it's Duke vs. St. Johns. And the BIG game for today is #1 Ohio State against #2 Wisconsin. I can't stand Bo Ryan, Wisconsin's coach, so I guess I'll root for Ohio State.

As for the Oscars tonight, I'm rather ho-hum about the affair. I may read, I may do some sudoku, -- who knows -- maybe I'll be back upstairs, sitting here at the computer, posting to calypsoDragon13?

Wetpaint

Dragon Mood? -- now a Wetpaint devotee


One of the delightful and unexpected dividends of our family trip to Texas is a renewed interest in our family's Wendish/Sorbian heritage and family immigration history in Texas.

To that end, we have created yet ANOTHER website, a website devoted to our family. It was suggested by Josh, not one of his typical areas of interest (those being actuarial math, Spartan basketball and girls?) It was created by -- who else? -- Carolina, and she and I are populating its pages and authoring much of its content. It's entitled Kunze Family History and Notes, through Wetpaint. I hope you'll check it out.

A returned slacker blogger

Dragon Mood? -- sleepily stunned at my long absence


Wow, have I ever been a slacker blogger! My last post was -- how long ago? -- three weeks ago? Hard to believe! I guess I've been a bit preoccupied.

One of the things I've been busy with is job hunting. Since my last post, I've applied for eight to ten jobs. At least. The good news is that I have a phone interview today for a job in northern Indiana. The bad news is that I have insomnia, it's 3:20 a.m. right now and I'm not sleeping. ArrrghH!

I think the even larger thing that has occupied my psychic space, so to speak, is my flying trip to Texas, to the family farm, weekend before last. Seven of us (everyone except S and Luke) flew down to the farm for the sheer joy of it, just to be with our extended family, aging aunts and uncles, and of course, to see our dad/grandpa.

It was an accelerated trip, and yet, the time down there felt like just the right amount of time, given the HIGH intensity of the gathering and all the attendant emotional drama that went with it.

What emotional drama you may ask? Angst over what airport to fly into; a stuck cow; tachycardia attacks from emotional anxiety; a swirling, spiraling toilet problem that ended in complete and utter sewer failure; misplaced cheddar cheese -- the list goes on.

But, in the same breath, I can cite lovely, enjoyable moments like sitting in the farmhouse kitchen on the old wooden bench, watching sleepy-eyed adults stumble into the tender morning bonhomie like they were five-year olds again, hearing Aunt Doris's, "Well, good MORNING!" greeting, smelling the tantalizing fragrance of Uncle Hemie's venison sausage, feeling the oh-so-familiar good energy as people scrambled about the house, walking down to the pond dodging the cow pies, seeing the blue, blue Texas sky, listening to people laugh and laugh and laugh with one another -- well, there were many, many moments like that, moments that thankfully far outweighed the 'problem' ones.

I must confess that I had entered the weekend with my own emotional trepidation, feelings that, for the most part, evaporated once I was with my family members. The weekend was lovely, just the kind of experience that I had hoped for even though I couldn't imagine nor visualize in the days preceding the weekend.