October, 1982, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Do you know where you were in October 26 years ago?  I know where I was.  I was at the old County Stadium in the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin cheering on the Milwaukee Brewers the last time they were in the playoffs (and the World Series against St. Louis.)  My family had tickets to the playoffs and the World Series, which was absolutely unbelievable!!!  My dad grew up a die hard Boston Red Sox fan (at that time, the Sox hadn’t won the World Series since 1918) and loved baseball.  And my dad taught my brother and me to love baseball too.  When I was growing up, the Milwaukee Brewers had a great program for families, where for a really low price, you could buy something like 6 or 8 tickets a year for children under 13 and the parents would get a reduced price as well.  So going to the baseball games was the big entertainment for our family.  We didn’t take vacations, with my dad working full time and my mom being a full time student getting her Ph.d, and them both doing full time parenting, so being together at Brewer games is really what I remember most.  And then as a teenager, my friends and I would go to a couple of games together.  (Q. and I had some crushes on players as I remember ?!?!)

Back to 1982.  Because my dad had lived his entire life watching the Red Sox lose, when the Brewers made it to the playoffs, my dad told my mom and I quote “if we have to mortgage the house to get tickets, we’ll do it.”  Wow!  Well, they didn’t have to do any refinancing, because when mom went down to County Stadium to see if tickets were available, they had just released the tickets that other baseball clubs didn’t want, so we had tickets for both series BEHIND HOME PLATE.  It really was a dream for all of us (except for the Brewers losing the World Series to St. Louis.)  I think my photos from that time are at my folks, so I’ll post them when I find them.

I was back in M’waukee a year and a half ago and stocked up on Brewer gear for my family (they changed the logo a couple of years ago.)  So I’m set to watch the Brewers.

And my beloved Red Sox made it as the wild card in the American league, so they’ll be playing too.  I don’t know what I’m going to do, with all of this baseball going on!  Luckily I have enough Brewer and Red Sox gear to be able to go a couple of days without doing laundry, I’ll just switch hats and shirts (and even socks!) when I need to!  Thank goodness hockey season doesn’t start until later in the month, otherwise, I’d be really confused!

Watching the Pack

Since I joined Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I’ve reconnected with a lot of my friends from high school and college.  Since I used to live in the Midwest, I was a total Green Bay Packers fan.  (I think I posted sometime last year that my dad would be in heaven if the Packers and the New England Patriots would play each other in the Superbowl.)  Well, I was checking my facebook account this afternoon and I saw that many of my friends were watching the Packers game this afternoon.  Since the Patriots weren’t scheduled to play until later, I decided that I too wanted to watch or listen to the Packer game.  Unfortunately, unless I buy a special football package either on cable tv or on the internet, this would be impossible.  But I went to the NFL website and they have something absolutely cool.  It’s a live action animated play by play of every game as it happens.  So I got to watch the Packer game animated live with the commentary written under the little moving lines.  If you want to catch the games online go to nfl.com and click on the game centers button and then click on the game that you want to watch.  Really cool.

Now it’s time for the Patriots game (on live tv!)

P.S. The Patriots and their new Quarterback Matt Cassel beat Brett Favre and the NY Jets.  Yeah!!!

Democratic National Convention

I watched the Democratic National Convention last night (Monday) on MSNBC.  I think this is probably the 10th convention that I’ve seen on tv.  Actually, I’ll say that this is the 10th one, given that my dad has watched them all of my life, and I got hooked on politics this way.  (And the convention in 1988 was especially memorable because George McGovern’s grandson was in my high school class, and George McGovern would pop into our Political Science classes all the time, which was really cool.)

 

Ok, back to last night… I was really moved by Sen. Kennedy’s speech. I think the fact that my parents AND my grandparents were active in the civil rights movementsin the 60’s and still today, had a huge impact on me.  And we had a picture of Bobby Kennedy hanging in our home.  So I guess I think of the Kennedys as still being a part of our nation’s center.  (Plus he is one of my Senators, and I have voted for him, so that makes me extra interested in what he was saying.)

But I was really motivated by Michelle Obama’s speech.  I guess I’d never really paid attention to her speeches before, but she really is inspiring!  And I did like the way that she incorporated the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling that represented Hillary Clinton’s votes into her speech (Check out minute 9:08 of the video).  That made me feel special (since I voted for Hillary, and have been feeling a little bummed with the choice of Joe Biden as the VP choice.)

So Hillary gives her speech tonight.  Can’t wait to see what she has to say!!!

Happy Day Dad!

Father’s Day was not always celebrated at our house when we were growing up, because my dad’s birthday usually falls around it.  This year was no different.  With me at my home still feeling sick, Dave in Taiwan (but moving to Talahassee, Florida and Florida State this fall to get his Ph.d) and Dad at his home, Dave and I phoned in/e-mailed our Father’s Day and Birthday wishes.  But I’ll post it here officially.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

love your daughter, karen marie

I’m actually getting excited…Bring it on!

All day today I’ve been channel surfing (and calling my dad- the biggest influence in my political ideas and my love of all things political) because within 15 minutes from now, Senator Barack Obama is going to be the official Democratic nominee to be President of the United States of America.  I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it. 

I’ll admit that I’ve been a Hillary fan for many years, but due to to an e-mail to the Obama campaign that ran amock and didn’t quite turn out the way I had hoped, I got on the daily Obama e-mail list and it’s actually been really cool hearing about Obama’s ideas as he campaigned state to state.  (Plus there were always links to videos to his speeches, which was really great to watch and see when I wanted to see them.) 

I also just read an article between Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, and let me tell you, Ms. Obama is such a strong woman and a positive role model, she’ll be an a** kicker in whatever role she decides to play in the White House.  As for Senator Hillary Clinton.  I really do hope that she becomes the Vice President.  I really rooted for her universal health care plan of the 90’s, which unfortunately failed.  (But now Massachusetts, is trying the very same thing.  As of Jan. 1st of this year, everyone in Massachusetts is required to have health care.)  An Obama/Clinton ticket would balance out ideologically, geographically, ethnically, etc.  It really would be the dream ticket.  I think the only ticket from the Republicans that could beat an Obama/Clinton would be a John McCain/Gen. Colin Powell ticket.  I don’t think there’s anyone else out there at this time who could get 100,000 at a rally other than Powell, but an Obama/Clinton could!

The only problem I see is President Bill Clinton.  It’s the same story as when he was President.   He never knew when to keep his mouth shut.  I think the best thing to do is to keep sending President George HW Bush (41) and President Bill Clinton off to try and raise money for disasters, or maybe they could go to Israel and the Holy Lands and try and broker (with President Jimmy Carter) a Middle East Peace.  Let them go off and make their legacies be what they’ve done after being president.

CNN—9PM CNN projected Barack Obama earns enough delegates to win the Democratic Nomination!!!!

Ben’s HOME!!!

Ben came home to Massachusetts last Friday night.  There was a huge crowd at Providence’s (RI) T.F. Green Airport to welcome our hero home!  (My mom Ellen is holding the yellow sign and I am in the center with my head cut off.  Ben’s mom Mary is kneeling in front of me, Ben’s girlfriend Lindsey is on the floor holding the red “Ben”sign and Ben’s daughter Hailey at age 6 1/2 is also on the floor next to Lindsey and Mary. )

 It was such an emotional homecoming.  We all got to hug and kiss Ben individually and then take pictures with him.  As soon as I saw him, I couldn’t stop crying.  Therefore, I am only showing happy pictures.   My sign read that Ben had been away for 221 days, 12 hours, 56 minutes and too many seconds to count.  It was great to see my parents be able to greet Ben too.  So here’s Ben and his “other” parents and his sister Karen Marie.

Ben, you are our hero, and we are all so proud of you and your fellow soldiers!  It’s so good to have you home!

Christmas 2007

I had a great Christmas this year.  This was the first Christmas in many, many years that I didn’t sing in the choir for Christmas eve (I also skipped singing at the 11pm service too.)  And guess what?  I actually got to enjoy the service at Immanuel and being there with my family and then seeing all of my friends after the service.  I think that having not to rush around and be at church at certain times and rehearse made life a lot easier.  I thoroughly enjoyed the church service of lessons and carols.  Then I went to my parents house for a traditional Swedish dinner of meatballs, lingonberries (the equivalent to cranberries,) creamed potatoes, carrots, Swedish Bundost (a kind of cheese) and then cookies.  I was so good.  I skipped the cookies (and ended up losing 3 pounds this week yeah!)

On Christmas morning, my parents came over to my house (after we all slept in !!)  And had Swedish pancakes and sausage, opened our presents.  Hey, Santa found my new house even!  One of the sweetest gifts I received was from my Godparents and I’ve know about it since April.  My godparents are in their 80’s and they had formal pictures taken at Easter and there’s a lovely picture of my Godmother Darlene and my Godfather Jim.  My godmother had a 5×8 picture made for me and she found a beautiful frame to put the picture in.  It’s something that I’ll treasure forever.  Especially since the tag read “To Karen, from your loving Godparents.”  That’s definitely what they are, my loving Godparents.

I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a very wonderful 2008!

Power Tools!

This past weekend was one for the record books here.  I finally got my very OWN power drill/screwdriver.  I have been wanting one for, oh, about 17 years now and after several times when the drill was necessary, but I didn’t have one, I finally got one.  Yeah.  Now here’s the back story.

When I graduated from high school, my graduation present from my dad was a tool box full of all kinds of good things, which was a really great present, and it came in handy A LOT during college, especially.  (There was the incident of the bubbler, which I still remain committed to my alibi that I was at a math tutorial and they used my tools without my knowledge.  Check with Humke or Face, they’ll tell ya, so there.  UFF DA)

Okay back to the tool box.  So having this tool box has been really handy over the years, but when my little snotty brother graduated from high school (just a couple of years after I did AND went to the same college as I did) he got BOTH a toolbox and a POWER DRILL!  I was fuming.  So for the past decade I have been the biggest brat to my dad that he loved my brother more because he bought Dave a power drill.  Every time I needed a drill and had to borrow one of my dad’s I’d be a bigger snot and say something like “If I had my own drill, I wouldn’t have to borrow yours.”  Okay, I know I’m spoiled.  I know I acted like a baby and a brat.  Hey, I’m fessing up.  I’ve grown up, what can I say?

So I got to the point where I’m in my own home and I really could use a drill/screwdriver and I had a Lowe’s gift card (love Lowe’s and Home Depot!!!!) and during the black Friday sales, my dad picked out a good drill for me and then used the gift card to get it for me.  Finally!  Now admittedly, I need help with the current projects, and dad is awesome and willing to help me.  I have to fix some drape rods that have pulled out of the wall.  I don’t have the strength to hold the drill at that height, so dad will help me, but at least I have the proper tools to fix it!

I think it’s just another milestone along the way of growing up!  Go Black and Decker!

Ben’s been deployed for 74 days.  I hope they had a good Thanksgiving!

Love that Chinese food

Tonight my parents come over and brought me some very yummy Chinese food from the Golden Panda restaurant in North Attleboro.  It ’s an awesome restaurant, and no msg in their food.  You can even get the basic menu items steamed (like chicken and broccoli) to make it healthier for you.  (So if you’re ever in North Attleboro, try the Golden Panda- it has both an all you can eat buffet AND a chef makes it for you Mongolian Barbecue!)  Thanks mom and dad!

My folks brought the food over because somehow I came in contact with something this week that I became highly allergic to, to the point of having hives.  The itching was driving me crazy, so the doctors put me on Prednisone, much to my dismay.  So I’m a little sleepy because of the drugs.  After all it is fall in New England and with all of the leaves changing, anything could have triggered these stupid allergies.

As of today, my brother B. has been deployed for 12 days now.

All is well

As of right now, there’s nobody I know in the hospital, although I’m waiting for J. to give birth anyday now.  C’s blood pressure is being controlled with medication finally, although after a week of tests the doctors have no idea what caused the spike.  My dad can finally drive after his surgery, so my life can return to some semblance of order and I now longer have to run over to his house to drive him places.  Baby Kaitlyn is doing awesome in her first week on the planet

So I guess all I can say is that for now all is well, and I hope that this is an uneventful week and everyone stays happy and well!