It is simply incredible how television has taken over even college sports.

Case in point:  Charles has sent out an urgent email to family
members, requesting a ticket to the upcoming Texas Tech-UT game on the
22d.

Mercy Maud, but everyone's proud of those tickets, based upon the eBay prices! 

Dad asked if it's a day game or a night game.  I replied I didn't know, but would check and see.

TBA.  Two weeks before the game, and there's no time set, presumably because the schools are hoping the game's picked up by a network. 

I'd think this makes it tough for attendees with children to plan
babysitters and all, not to mention those who come in from out of
town.  Are they gonna need a hotel room or not?

In fact, there are three games with start times in limbo....Tech versus Texas, Baylor, and Oklahoma State.

No tricky pix here, just a party celebrating our precious Margaret's second birthday:

Which included a bounce house!  Here's the birthday girl on the left, and her sister, Marebear.

Here's Bethie taking a flying leap, having been inspired by this child:

Not a bad picture, huh?    That's Brianna in the back.

Kirstin getting an enthusiastic greeting from Bethie, who spent the
weekend with Brianna; there's Don being equally enthusaistically
greeted by his daughter, Jessica.  ;^)

Caught this photo at the perfect moment. 

Margaret taking her birthday cupcake's measure, prior to the candles being lit.

Blowing out the candles turned into a group effort, with her having several willing helpers.

It was a lovely party! 

I hate things like this. 

Presumably there's "a man" in the following picture...

Received an email which said:

Find
the man between the coffee beans.

Yeah, well, I've looked and stared but can't see a darn thing except a mess of coffee beans. 

Can anyone else see the alleged man?

Has anyone seen "Flightplan"?

If so, would you kindly email me and tell me where the heck the kid was on that plane?

I have absolutely no interest
in or intention of seeing the movie, ye ken, but will acknowledge a
certain curiosity as to where the writers stashed Whatshername so she
appeared to have disappeared.

That's all I wanna know.  Don't need to know the plot, or who the
villain (assuming there IS a villain, but there usually is), etc. 
Nope.  No curiosity about those points a'tall.  Just want to
know where the kid was. 

Heard a Toby Keith song that I really
enjoyed, and wouldn't be surprised if my masculine readers would like
it, too:  "I Wanna Talk About ME!" 

If you have access to Yahoo! Music or Rhapsody, give it a listen. 

I Wanna Talk About Me
(Bobby Braddock)
 
We talk about your work how your boss is a jerk
We talk about your church and your head when it hurts
We talk about the troubles you've been having with your brother
About your daddy and your mother and your crazy ex-lover
We talk about your friends and the places that you've been
We talk about your skin and the dimples on your chin
The polish on your toes and the run in your hose
And God knows we're gonna talk about your clothes
You know talking about you makes me smile
But every once in awhile

I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one 
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you, usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me
I wanna talk about me

We talk about your dreams and we talk about your schemes
your high school team and your moisturizer creme
We talk about your nanna up in Muncie, Indiana
We talk about your grandma down in Alabama
We talk about your guys of every shape and size
The ones that you despise and the ones you idolize
We talk about your heart, about your brains and your smarts
And your medical charts and where you start
You know talking about you makes me grin
But every now and then

I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one 
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you, usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me
I wanna talk about me

You you you you you you you you youyouyouyouyou
I wanna talk about me

I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one 
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you, usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me
I wanna talk about me

The bananas are in the kitchen, a new package of Ellis pecans came home
this afternoon, I've got eggs and sugar and flour....all I need now is
the COOL FRONT:

It's 92° at 4:45 p.m. as I type this, but the forecasters are promising
the first real cool front of the season to blow through tonight. 
High in the lower 60's tomorrow!  Lows in the upper 40's and lower
50's!

It's almost banana bread time, by jingo. 

Might even make some cocoa to have with it.  Cool weather at long
last!  We cannot wait!  The continuing, seemingly-unending
heat wave has been enervating, and, I'd think, hard on retailers. Who
wants to even look at sweaters when it's close to 100° outside?

Building is all around the place, it seems.  First, the steeple is in place at Christ Chapel:

It's covered with copper tiles or scales or whatever, but the
cameraphone didn't capture the color too well.  It's going to be
interesting to see how this expansion is going to work out, since
they're adding the new part in a wraparound fashion to an
existing building. 

Just north of Arlington Heights High there is a veterinarian clinic
(since it's multiple vets, I suppose "clinic" is an appropriate word)
which has added a new feature, I noticed:  the Grand Pet Resort.

Pet Resort?  They're kidding.

Except that right spang next to this building is another one under
construction and the sign in front identifies it as the Hulen Hills Pet
Resort.

One "pet resort" is bad enough, but TWO?  Right next to each other?

What the heck happened to kennels?

Sometimes Vika (the beautiful young lady who was our adoption trip
translator and was here for the past two Bright Futures camps) and I
correspond via email, and since I sent her a link to some pictures, she
returned the favor.  Turns out last month she took a trip to St.
Petersburg and Turkey:

I'm fairly certain the above photos were taken at the Hermitage (maybe Mom'll know?  she's been there, I believe).

Presumably Russia's got its retired-battleship-turned-tourist-attraction, too.  ;^)

Considering the sudden change in attire (from chilly weather to warm),
I'm guessing this one was taken in Turkey.  Neat waterfall in the
background!

Today is the second anniversary of Dmitry's adoption day! 

For his celebratory dinner he chose Wan Fu's Chinese restaurant. 
He loves chicken Lo Mein (carefully saved half of it to take to school
tomorrow for lunch; cold Lo Mein wouldn't be my idea of a tasty lunch,
but oh well) and hot tea.  Asked what he likes best about America
(outside of family), he immediately answered "Video games!" 

Asked what he misses most about Russia (again, excepting Svetlana), he said snow. 

Snagged the waitress to snap a photo of us.  ;^)

This morning the parents-to-be of Viktor and Vladimir came over
(unfortunately Don and I had to leave for church so couldn't see them)
and they called the orphanage in Ryazan, with Dmitry to act as
translator.  He said it went pretty well, once they were able to
get the woman who answered to grasp which Viktor they wanted (that is
an extremely common name over there, so most orphanages have at least a
few).  They brought Dmitry a Snickers bar, which pleased him a
lot. 

He'd do more than THAT for a Snickers bar. 

P.S. I have no idea why there are three photos missing in the posts
down there. It's puzzling.  Hope this one doesn't inexplicably
disappear, too.

You know, I'm torn between wishing y'all could hear Dmitry's newest way to torment his mother, and being grateful y'all can't.

The boy has turned fifteen years old with an absolute vengeance. 

His current fixation appears to be on what he refers to as "the
ladies," only he says that with a Slavic leer, often prefaced with
"Hello", as in "Hel-LO, LAY-deez", waggling his eyebrows in a shameless
manner. 

Bluntly, he knows it gets my goat, big time, and positively revels in his ability to jerk my chain.