Let's Go Mag-glio

How cute is Matt in this picture? Love it.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm just back from a quick trip to Michigan to visit the in-laws. My dad came up from Iowa on Friday afternoon and brought Breadeaux Pizza with him. My favorite! I was very excited because we can't get it here in Chicago. We set out for Michigan about 6:30 - hoping to avoid the worst of the Memorial Day weekend traffic. There was still a lot of traffic but I do think we did ourselves a favor by waiting a little bit before we took off. I remembered to take the portable dvd player this time and the trip really flew by for me!

The weekend was fun. I went shopping at Wal-Mart. That may sound pretty routine but it was a treat for me since we don't really have them here in the city. I needed some cheap summer clothes and I was able to get them. Plus I stocked up on underwear and socks! I also bought a Detroit Tigers t-shirt so that I could fit in with Mike's family. I have a lot of work to do, though, before I will be able to convince anyone I watch baseball. For starters, I can't remember the name of the guy whose shirt I have. I think it amuses Mike because even when I'm wearing it (it has the name and number on it) I'm like, "what's this guy's name again?" He's a pitcher. Justin, I think...something that starts with V? I'll ask Mike again in the morning and we'll see how long I retain the information. Hey...I'm making an effort, all right? :D

Mike was also amused at my expense because his mom told me I should have gotten Magglio's number because he's her favorite player and I came home and said that they didn't have any of his. Mike's like, "Yeah, they did." And I said, "Mike, I checked every shirt there when she said that he was her favorite...there was no Magglio shirt." Mike thought this was just hilarious. Apparently Magglio's his FIRST name. Geez - how do I know that? Yeesh.

Sunday was the b-b-q and dicey tournament. Mike lost his Polska crown to my dad. That's right! The title is currently held by a non-Polack. My father-in-law accused me of bringing in a ringer. I blame Laurie - the only Kurczewski-Piekarski member who didn't show. I have no real logic for this - it's just fun to blame Laurie. :D

I was, of course, knocked out in the first round. Boooooooooo. The top three places made it to the final round where they'd meet the top three from the other table. I traded second and third place back and forth with my brother-in-law, Scott for most of the game. Mike, Kristie and Uncle Gene had trouble getting on the board with a score and so I thought I was pretty safe. Then Mike rolled this HUGE 4,050 point roll in the second to last roll of the game to pass both me and Scott. Scott managed to stay ahead of me long enough to slide into the third place spot, effectively knocking me out of the running.

I didn't really mind being knocked out, though, as it gave me some free time which I spent outside playing with Baby JO-ey. He tried to convince me to play freeze tag but since he told me that I had to stay frozen until the sun went down if he caught me, I declined and we played I Spy instead. I'm pretty sure he cheats. Sneaky.

After the b-b-q, my mother-in-law and I got together the cloth swatches we'd gotten from Joann's to send to Sara for her quilt.

Note to Sara: We didn't trim down the fabric, we sent it all because I couldn't 100% remember the proper dimensions.

So those are packaged up and ready to be shipped out (hopefully tomorrow). I rely on Mike to do my mailing for me. It's such a pain for me to get to the post office and it's never a pleasant experience.

Then it was back home today. The cats were glad to see us but not as excited that my dad had come back with us. Meme is absolutely horrid when he's around and I don't understand it. The only thing we can figure is that she smells the puppies on him.

I took a 1.25 mile walk this evening which I was pretty psyched about. I plan on taking this walk every day this week and then making it longer next week and so on. Plus (theoretically) it's back to the gym tomorrow.

Mike has discovered this show called Man vs. Wild. Every episode, the guy..."Bear"...strands himself somewhere and has to survive. The first episode Mike watched, he was in Kenya. I happened out of the computer room and Mike said, "This show is awesome! This guy showed how, if you really need water, you can get it from elephant poop." I was like, "Excuse me?" Mike said, "For real. He picked up elephant poop, squeezed out some water and DRANK IT." If this wasn't enough for me, as I was standing there, he happened upon a dead zebra which had been brought down by lions and started to tell you how you can tell if the meat is still good to eat. I already knew that no good could come from this, so I headed for the kitchen. As I started to sort through some things we'd brought back from Michigan with us, I heard Mike yell from the front room, "Awwwww.....he's gnawing on it!" "Oh, gross...raw?" I hollered back. "Yeah. Oh...now he's putting some in his pouch to eat later." I refused to hear anymore. I went back into my little hidey-hole to block it out. I may not know what to do when a rhino charges you or how to get water from elephant poop but somehow I think I'll be alright. Every once in awhile, I heard Mike's "Heh heh heh" laugh and I'd known that "Bear" had done something else I consider to be gross or incredibly stupid but which Mike merely finds, "Cool." Like jumping into a frozen lake to show you how to survive hypothermia. That was in the second episode Mike watched.

Must be a man thing.