Britt's big day

So here we are.

Our big girl is going to graduate in two days. And doesn't she look the part? We've got plenty of family coming to town to help her celebrate her entrance into the real world and the weekend party schedule is filling up nicely. A little Wildhorse Saloon here, a little kickin' back there... It's all good.

Next up? A nursing assistant course this summer, a phlebotomy certificate from the Tennessee Technology Center this fall and then on to a nursing degree. Coming soon to an arm near you: Britt with a needle.

Ride cowboy ride...

Yesterday was Rodeo Day at buddy's school and he was definitely dressed for the role. Well, for about 20 minutes anyway...

Cindy went to school to help paint faces, run the various games and keep the chaos factor at a manageable level. It was all good fun and there was plenty of ice cream and candy available to keep the kids up and at 'em.

School pictures!

Uh, there's really nothing else to say, is there...

Hands up if...

...you sucked your thumb as a kid.

We still don't quite know where she got it, but Sophia began doing so a few months ago. Geert will give her a hard time about it, but it's turned into a game, especially in the mornings as he's getting ready to go to work. If he busts her with thumb in mouth, she'll pop it out and hold it two inches from her mouth's wicked smile.

Then, very deliberately, she'll ask Geert, "Daddy, when you goin' to work?" Chances are Geert's on his way out the door, so he'll pretend like he's really leaving, turn the hallway corner and five seconds later pop back into the room just as Sophia is reinserting her thumb. Yell! Scream! Giggle! And Geert's on his way for real this time...

OK, so now this: Hands up if you still suck your thumb...

Da heat is in da house

No, not the cops. Our upstairs AC unit went out a while back. It wasn't that urgent to get it fixed when the highs were in the 70s and the lows in the 50s.

But just like that, the temps jump into the 80s and don't drop below 70 at night, leaving all of us red-faced for a good part of the day. Urgency? Um, yeah. Good thing the Y and its pool are right down the street. And we've got our summer trip to San Diego to look forward to. We'll test that popular notion that it's always 74 in San Diego by heading out there the last week of July. If we all get heat strokes from testing a little too much, you'll see the evidence here first.

So Geert recently got a set of professional shots taken for work. Here's one - and only one - 'cause he's being stingy with 'em.

What else? The kids are counting the days until school is over, Cindy's cousin Nicole is stopping by tomorrow with her baby and Geert is steamed that the American Idol crew of kooks did a flat-as-warm-Coke rendition of 'Paint It, Black' for a Ford ad.

So you're telling us that, even though they charge $625 for a back-row seat, the Stones need the licensing revenue? Besides, there are certain songs you don't cover...

Now he's happy because he just realized that it's less than 75 days until he gets to watch Dan Wheldon and the rest of the IRL dudes and dudettes fly around Nashville Superspeedway. And there's less than four weeks till Indy. Always thinking happy thoughts, that guy.

Diatribe is over and we out.