havocandmayhem.com

The other side of my college life.    This photo was taken in my freshman dorm room, probably in late 85. The overexposed patch of whiteness I am holding is my very first college paper. Proof that I did study! At least during the first semester of my freshman year. That paper was several pages long. It was typed on this typewriter/early model word processor thing my dad bought me when I asked for an electric typewriter. (Back in the day they had these things called typewriters. The keyboard made the letters appear on PAPER instead of a screen. It had 0MBs of RAM, but an endless battery life. Then they made them electric, which typed a little faster & you didn’t have to reset the paper roll yourself at the end of a line. It did it for you. Word processors, that could save your typing & even let you edit it ON SCREEN, were just coming out. I would own one in 1991) What I had looked like the keyboard half of a laptop. With a very narrow, one line wide, scre...

International Star Wars day! In honor of that here are some of my very favorite star wars quotes. If you follow me on Twitter you might see some of them today in some form or another Darth Vader : I find your lack of faith disturbing. (I use this one on the boys all the time when they demand to see that the cookie jar really is empty when I say it is) Govener Tarkin : You’re far to trusting (Also useful re: cookies) Han Solo: Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you? (Actually used by Havoc last week when I shouted down the hall to them after hearing a crash) Han Solo: Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. (popular around the house) Obi Wan: These are not the droids you are looking for. Move along. (most popular in the house, substituting various items, often cookies) Princess Leia : If money is all...

It’s May already! I swear it was just February and I was sure Feb would never end. It seemed like there would always be piles of snow. It was 90 degrees and humid yesterday. That’s late July weather. Apparently spring has come & gone already. We had to buy Mayhem new shoes yesterday. The ones he has been wearing for the last 6 months are still too big for him. They’ve been worn out too and they literally fall off his feet when he sits in a chair, if his feet don’t touch the ground. I had bought him a  size 1, thinking he would grow into them in a couple months, since he had outgrown the child’s 11s in about 4 weeks and the 12s seemed an exact fit. The 1’s had that thumb’s width of space in them they recommend. Except his feet have not grown an inch. The 12s still fit perfectly. I got the 13s this time. He said they were too tight. Yeah, well you wear shoes 2 sizes too big for 6 months and I’m sure properly fitting shoes do feel tight. Havoc has a new insult word – hippi...

The irises are blooming. Starting to break free Breaking through Getting bigger Spreading their petals Fully unfurled For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom . Thanks for stopping by!

At the end of last April we acquired 48 months of car payments. We bought a 2006 Grand Caravan with 24,000 miles on it and I wrote this post about it. I thought I would update that post with my thoughts after a year of ownership We had looked at 2008 version in an electric blue first & I liked it more. But I didn’t like it $4000 more. It had the same mileage & I like the radio better. I mostly liked that it was electric blue. Because there are exactly zero electric blue mini vans in the Wal Mart parking lot at any given time. But silver? You can’t swing a cat without hitting a silver mini van in the Wal Mart parking lot. However it does have electric doors, so I can stand in the general vicinity of several silver mini vans, push the remote & then go to whichever one’s door opens. ***update*** This losing-the-car-in-the-parking-lot thing is pretty much a monthly occurrence. I regularly find myself standing next to a silver minivan, pressing the remote unlock...

I found this photo from April 1986 while doing some scanning last week & my sons both asked me what I was doing in the photo & I thought I’d share the story with the world. In my little boys’ minds I am watering down my juice, just like I always water down theirs. And I must be on a picnic since I am sitting on the ground. Not quite. This photo was taken at about 8am on a Friday morning in front of the Sigma Chi fraternity house at West Virginia University. (please keep in mind for the rest of the story that WVU was Playboy’s #1 Party School in the nation for 1985-87. The drinking age at that time was 19.) . My sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi had had a ‘Wake Up’ for the Sigma Chis that morning. We arrived at the frat house about 6:30am bearing donuts and McD’s breakfast muffins, fruit, orange juice, tomato juice and vodka to make screwdrivers and bloody Mary’s. Once everything was set up, we ran screaming through the house, banging on doors and waking everyone in the hous...

from my D40. Taken Friday at 2pm. An out of focus shot of me in the mini van. The result of my playing with my quick response remote and various auto focus settings. Had I remembered that I was nearing my 10,000 photo, when the camera counter turns over and starts again, I would have tried to take a more meaningful shot. Or at least a more in focus shot that didn’t give me a double chin. Something that showed how my skills have progressed This was the first shot I took with the camera So apparently I have regressed in my photo skills. The coffee canister is at least in focus. I got the D40 on Nov 4, 2008 , passing the UPS truck headed toward my house while I was heading out to vote in the presidential election and I stuck to my civic duty and did not do a U turn and chase down the UPS truck as I wanted to do. Because I’m all politically minded like that & I had a vote I was determined to throw away on people with an I after their names. (I am under no illusi...