The normally balmy climate on the coast of South Carolina had taken a wicked turn this week. Schools were closed from the threat of a freezing rain and frozen streets Tuesday.
A telephone message left on our home phone Monday confirmed schools were closed in 5 neighboring counties the next day. This was odd given only a forecast of 34 overnight for a low.
Did these school districts know something we did not?
As it turned out, schools and businesses were closed up and down the coast of South Carolina Tuesday. This never happens here!
Police sniffed out a slippery suspect. They were hot on a trail!
Upon further investigation it turns out Princess Elsa has made her way to the historic town of Charleston, like so many other tourists. But unlike other well intended tourists, Princess Elsa left a trail of ice, sleet and snow. Being chased by police all around Charleston, local pol-ice finally caught up with her as she tried to freeze a local town’s fountain in front of their pol-ice station.
Further investigation revealed the Frozen Princess was responsible for record lows all over the state this week. She was apprehended with no further incident.
The cold never bothered me anyway
Want to build a snowman?
Film at 11 on ABC News 4!
My girls are upstairs in shock after seeing their Disney idol being arrested right here in their hometown!
Dylan wants to ask her if she can have off from school the rest of the week.
Anyone who tells you fatherhood is the greatest thing that can happen to you, they are understating it.
~ Mike Myers
That was a perfect quote I found last Father’s Dayabout being a Dad.
And if you couldn’t tell by my Valentine’s Week post, I really enjoy being a Dad to my two little, or not quite so little girls. They are so much fun and I enjoy being a kid again with them. Somehow we have developed a loving family , despite all the daily drudgeries going on. And I feel so blessed with these two gems.
Mom has instilled a love for crafts in the girls and they have really taken off with them. Skye loves to paint while the other likes to draw and create things. When this is combined with a holiday and a loving, sweet, happy child these days are priceless!
I bet I received a hand-made Valentine card almost every day for two weeks before Valentine’s holiday from my oldest daughter, Dylan. And she gets into it so much, trying to do her best to show everyone how much they mean to her.
Heaven help someone if she sees one of her cards in the trash can. She will get upset and tell you about it. I left a hand-made Valentine’s bag (present) of knick-knack snacks in front of the trash can and she questioned me about it and told me I couldn’t do that. She really made me feel bad. But in my defense, I only have so much room on the refrigerator door for these treats. Right? But .night after night she really puts her heart into each and every creation.
How can a Dad not feel good about a good happy child like that?
Want to see what I am talking about? Here are some treats from my first grader. This is the outside of one V-Day card …
Outside
and then this was on the inside…
Inside
Kinda neat although I appear to be a doctor dressed in a green smock that day. Here is another favorite sample…
See all the detail and thought that went into the dress she was wearing? (yes that is supposed to be Dylan on the card, if you couldn’t guess) She then got a little creative with stickers on the other side of the card.
Here is another one that touched my heart a week ago….
A tribute to singing songs on the way to school in the morning. I’m so modest…
Yes it did.
Yes it did.
Yes it did.
Its taken from one of the songs we sing on the way to school that Dad occasionally ad libs on. Know what song I mean?
But you can see the love and passion Ms. Hallmark has in making her cards. I have to guess this isn’t unusual for some kids. But is sure nice to see her be so passionate about something so nice, especially since I am often the receiver of these works of art.
We have built a very special relationship. Yea, Fatherhood’s pretty cool!
Like this….
At school Dylan’s teacher uses a ‘clip-up ‘ chart of various colors designating students’ good behaviors for the day. Last week Dylan was on the highest color 4 out of the 4 days of school. Mommy has told Dylan anytime she can get 4 ‘Purple’s in a row she can have a treat. Dylan said she wanted another “Daddy Night“.
So, on a good night to go out, Dylan and I negotiated and agreed on a restaurant to go to when I got home from work. I just asked her for a few minutes so I can put my things away and transition from work to home.
In the meantime, Dylan ran upstairs and put on her favorite Sunday dress for our dinner date (It was at the Cookout). I was flabbergasted! She put on her favorite nice dress to go out on a dinner date with here Dad…..
And then covered it up with her jean jacket to keep warm, like a lady of the south.
Dad’s Night
We had a nice time. I opened and closed the car doors for her although she confessed, “Daddy, I can do it myself“. After we got home she changed out of her fancy dress and asked if we could do her most favorite thing in the world, Wrestle!
And we did. And I won, She has yet to beat me although that doesn’t stop her from trying amongst all the tickles and tosses and body locks.
This past Friday she had two hours off from school in the morning due to the temperature being so cold (its true). I was getting ready for work as she woke up and walked in my bedroom. She asks, “Daddy, Can I come to work with you? I don’t want our nanny to take me to school today. I would like you to. Can I come with you to work?”
I spent all of three seconds considering my options. “Of course you can Dylan. Go get dressed warm for school.”
I wouldn’t, couldn’t miss a second of my greatest thing.
So since it ’tis the season, and its snowing everywhere, I thought I would offer Snowball for all you kids and searchers.
One of our favorite books to read to the kids is Shel Silversteins’s “Where theSidewalk Ends“. Every night at bedtime we take a few minutes and read some of our girl’s favorite pages to them. Its fun. We act them out or exaggerate the stories, laugh and bond.
Why bring this up you may be wondering? Because my page, Bedtime Stories, at the top of this blog has been blowing up lately from searches of one of Shel’s fun poems and timely poems, Snowball, in the “…Sidewalk Ends” book. See it there on the Hit List on the right? Or maybe this post, Brrr is over there now as being popular? Cause it sure is Brrrrrraround here!
This has always been Dylan’s favorite…
If you like the poem a smidgen and curious about other Shel Silverstein poems you can check out a few on my Bedtime Stories page above. If you think your kids would enjoy them, the book makes a great gift.
Reading(s) Lucky For Me
Especially if you want them to like reading books and learn some things later in life.
As some of you may know by now, I love to laugh. It’s the best medicine. I try to be funny when I can. This past Sunday night Saturday Night Live put on a 40th anniversary telecast. It was a blast!
Minute after minute, skit after skit, it was a star-studded smash. It was an A list of stars that just kept popping up, many times not recognizable until they spoke. They brought back a flood of great memories from SNL. And the parade of stars just went on and on and you didn’t want the show to end.
An A List fish bowl of talent and laughs
To me Saturday Night Live has always been funny and creative. Maybe not every skit but the wealth of creativity has shined through over the years. SNL has been funny, super comedic creativity, edgy, talented, and many times a kind of raw humor you can only find (or get away with) on Saturday Night Live.
Bradley Cooper and Betty White reminisce at the end of a skit. It went viral I understand.
For 40 years now SNL has come on late at night at the end of the week. Almost everyone can identify with someone or some skit over the past 4 generations. Four generations of stars, skits and funny iconic catch phrases (see Wayne’s World below). Most everyone has their favorite hosts or cast members or skits. And the entertainment world was out in full gala to honor this iconic show Sunday night.Spielberg, Swift, and Palin.Where else could this photo possibly have happened?
Maybe even their logos bring back flashbacks of memories or nostalgia…
1975-1976
1980-1981
1990-1991
1998-2000 ..into the new millennium..
2009-2012
The anniversary special went on until the wee hours of the night, at least on my side of the country. But I was able to find 5 of my favorite skits from the evening. I know most bloggers don’t like to take a look at videos on a post but these are worth it. If you don’t have time now to view all five, bookmark it and come back when you have time if you missed the special. Then vote on which skit was your favorite.
Here is an Opening Monologue with Steve Martin that illustrates some of the stars and how they just kept on popping up. It was a hit parade of stars that Steve Martin puts down, one by one…
Tom Hanks, Melissa McCarthy, Peyton Manning, Billy Crystal, Princess Twerk, Chris Rock, Alex Baldwin
Another star Studded skit was SNL’s now famous celerity Jeopardy. Will Ferrell does his famous role as host Alex Trebek and welcomed a hilarious Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds, Justin Beiber, Tony Bennett,and Jim Carey doing a pretty good impersonation of Matthew McConaughey.
Connery struggled mightily with his reading, eye sight and sobriety misreading game categories of “Who Reads” (Whore Ads) and “Let It Snow” (Le Tits Now). Bill Cosby also made and embarrassing cameo appearance pitching his favorite cocktail that Tebek begs was shot “six months ago” during a Daily Double. Categories include “Letters that start with the Letter G” and “State Your Name”
This is the kind of humor you can only find on SNL and I literally had tears coming from my eyes in a LMAO manner several times…
A classic skit that had to appear, but SNL anniversary special took it one step further, was Weekend Update with three lady veteran all-stars from three different generations of viewers, Amy Poehler,Tina Fey, and Jane Curtin. Emma Stone stepped up to do a spot-on impression of an old Gilda Radner‘s Roseanne Roseannadanna skit, Melissa McCarthy literally crashed into the “Weekend Update” desk as Chris Farley and Edward Norton emulated Stefon in a role for him I never would have saw coming.
Jane Curtain explains, there was a time when she was the only blonde newscaster on TV doing the fake news. That she spawned a whole network now doing fake news… Fox news..
As you watched on through the show inevitably you kept on wondering were they going to reprise your favorite skits or characters during the special from over the years, King Tut, Mr. Bill, and so on. Those that stayed to the very end got a treat when Wayne’s World appeared with the now famous Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, who perfectly reprised their characters like it was only last week.
This was some brilliant comedic creative humor I thought. If you remember the skit or the movie it was a big Schwing! They did a special SNL-themed Top 10 list, They delivered some of the night’s most memorable jokes, including an extended jab at Kayne West after telling the crowd Beck deserved his Grammy saying, “I think Beck was one of the best, even better than Beyoncé.”
Finally a great sketch showing off some of the talent found in SNL was a Martin Short, as himself, and Maya Rudolph, as Beyoncé, monologue.
Maya Rudolph nails it when comes to Beyonce impressions, personal wind machine and all! The skit picked up as her wind machine kept blowing the smaller Martin Short off the stage. It all started with Beyoncé singing the phrase “40 Years of SNL” to the tune of “Drunk in Love,” Maya‘s fluid dance moves were impressive…
Which of these were your favorite skit?
These at least were some of my favorite skits from the SNL 40th presentation. Certainly there were dozens and dozens to chose from. What was yours?
The classic JerrySeinfeld closing as he takes embarrassing questions from a tough celebrity crowd? Like who he thinks was the worst celebrity host? He calls on Sarah Palin who he thinks is Tina Fey…
Justin Timberlake’s and Jimmy Fallon’s monologue as they rap out many of the past famous characters on SNL?
Cowbells
Wild and Crazy guys
Richard in a box
Superstar!
Classic!
I am sure, with all this star power, it will be in syndication for the next 40 years!
There was a time, not to very long ago, that Valentine’s Day meant vacation. We didn’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day too much at our house. No, no Valentine’s Day here!
You see she’s allergic to flowers. We still have tons of chocolate leftover from Christmas. And what better gift of love could there be where you can celebrate it close to the equator wearing as little as possible in the dead cold of winter?
But now we have two adorable little girls and we hafta gladly exchanged a trip to the tropicsfor smiles on our cherubs faces.
No contest!
Vacation? Not so much now. This morning, after I handed out all the Valentine’s cards to the ladies in my family, I was unexpectedly ambushed on my bed with two wide-eyed girls. They jumped and body slammed their dear ol’ Dad until I was forced to defend myself. I subsequently wrestled them into submission and then tickled them until they begged for mercy.
And then we did it all over again!
But all these Valentine’s Day shenanigans did not suddenly Sprout up Valentine’s Day. Saturday was just the culmination of a week-long Valentine’s Day of love shared in our family. My girls probably had a pent-up need to release and share their kind of Valentine’s spirit by jumping on dear ol’ Dad….
Monday:
Valentine’s Week began with CHOCOLATE! Mommy made a chocolate fondue for our girls, a Christmas present from this past Christmas.
Happy Valentine’s Day Week girls!
The truth is Mommy had to go out-of-town for a few days on business and this was her way of bonding with the kids before she snuck out in the wee hours of the morning the next day.
Don’t worry girls, you are stuck with left in Dad’s capable hands. Try not to get him in trouble!
Tuesday:
With Mom out-of-town I needed to come up with some kind of dinner for the girls we decided to have OUR Valentine’s Day Dinner Date at our favorite restaurant, Carrabba’s. I told the girls if they behaved themselves in Mommy’s absence they could have dessert.
Angels now
The idea had a coupla merits, besides getting Daddy out of the kitchen after a long day at work. 1) YOU do NOT want to go out for a Valentine’s dinner on Valentine’s Day or weekend. Speaking as an ex-restaurant manager it is very hard to create a memorable dining experience with chaos going on in the busiest day all year in a restaurant. 2) Bribing my kids for good behavior usually seems to work. Hurray for Dad’s parenting skills!
Daddy is such a push over…
Wednesday:
Wednesday night turned into Movie Date Night for my two precious Valentines. I took them to the movies (in our home cinema) to see their most recent favorite movie, Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Why is this their favorite movie now you ask?
It’s because they know all the words to the songs by now and get to sing out LOUD to the songs like Pina Colada, and they get to dance their crazy dances with Dad at the beginning and the end of the movie:
Lots of fun!
Thursday:
Thursday saw the return of Mom from out-of-town but also Valentine’s Gifts appear in the mail. Mom took a back seat to the girls opening their gifts and reading their Valentine’s Cards. They were so enthralled evidently that they didn’t take time to read the instructions…
No, the other way…
They absolutely loved their gifts in the mail (some Valentine’s jewelry) and the sentiments behind the cards from their grandparents admirers.
What does yours say? Did you get any money?
Friday:
Valentine’s Day Eve our nanny called off I decided to take a very special day off from work to spend with my two lovely Valentines. I took them to a Valentine’s Brunch at Chic-fil-a (oh how they hate that place!). Dylan, my ultra perceptive oldest child and well on to my parenting skills asks, “If we are good can we get dessert?”
Me: (sigh)
yea, Dad likes dessert too. I have trained them well!
Pause:
Did you ever notice these at Chic-fil-a? They recycle their Styrofoam cups? I really have mixed feelings about this attempt at Reuse…
I wonder who else has used my cup?
Later that day, during nap time, I had a very important doctor’s appointment. We ALL ended up celebrating with dinner that night!
We went to our favorite pizza joint followed by their favorite ice cream parlor.
OK, it was a celebration, maybe not THEIR celebration, but one just the same.
We invited a neighbor who has selfishly help me wash my car the last two or three weekends. Funny thing, we found out he is grounded, he said, due his grades (sounds really familiar) so his parents won’t let him go out with his friends….. but they did with me and my family…. 🙂 . But he is a great young man and this old man welcomes his help anytime!
We all had a great time, at now the end of a special week, so this Valentine’s party really started to build and the craziness took off…
Gosh, I really look young there, don’t I?
…all ending up with my getting walloped in bed this morning as my two Valentines clobbered me as I ‘peacefully’ rested in bed.
So Valentine’s Day recap for my sweethearts:
Chocolate
Dinner Date
Movie Night Date
Valentine’s cards and gifts (jewelry)
Valentine’s Brunch
Wrestle with your Valentine(s) Valentine’s Day
Check, check, check, check, check!
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE!
Oh, my doctor’s visit?
It was with my Urologist. It was my quarterly check-up to test the PSA’s in my blood, the detection for cancer used. For the record my PSA’s have now gone down from a 7.5 pre-cancer operation to .03 as of yesterday. While I was thinking this may be my last appointment, the my Urologist wants to milk my insurance company see me one more time to see if my PSA can get to a .02, which was his goal.
But!
My PSA continued to lower hence my post last night and the reward this morning:
To those one of you who guessed the donut reward for a positive doctor’s visit, Congratulations! And Thanks for following so closely to 3D.
I have a FREE one year subscription to my blog for your grand prize!
Now here is a question for you, for all of you out there that ask the question, “What can I get my loved one for Valentine’s Day that is something different but still something they will like very much?”
Well my Doctor U. had the answer to that!
While I was waiting to be seen at the end of the day I could vaguely hear my doctor in the room beside mine go over his patient’s options enough to hear the words Viagra and Sample and Valentine’s Day all in the same sentence. Hmmmm…
What a thoughtful Valentine’s gift, or gesture I thought to myself
….not that I need any for Valentine’s Day! Having the time to spend with the ones I love after my cancer scare is living enough for me! But I did like this doctor’s beside manner…
Yes, Valentine’s Day, my lovely girls in my life, and Dunkin Donuts keep me running!
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE!
I hope it is a great, big and long-lasting one with lots of memories for each one of you!
OUR LIFE IN 3D 