Rainy Tuesday, Last Day of School for Nick and Marlena

New Snow flake ear rings

Nick goes off to school quite early, at 7:00, an ungodly hour, so say the experts, for learning.  He does get off early, about 2:30 but last night he had basketball practice till 5:30, came home, went off 45 minutes away to a soccer practice and did not get home until 8:30 at night, starving, ready to devour anything put forward.

Every one's up now, Marlena writing on her blog, responding to Aunt Ellen's blog and adding her blog to her list of blogs she's following.  Tom just headed off to work, a casual week to support an employee who was just diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.  You put money in the kitty each day you wear jeans to work.

Marlena's teacher, Mrs. Byrne

Last night, we went off to Grandparent's Day at Marlena's school.  Like a little general, she took control of her four grandparents and ushered us around, confident and fully of personality.  We visited her classroom, met her teacher, saw her work, her writings, drawings, books, storage box, then headed off to meet her kindergarten teacher from three years ago, Kelly, a friend of the family, then her 1st grade teacher, who she gives a hug to each morning.  We then went to the art room, no teacher, saw her drawings, then off to the gym for lemonade and cookies, then home, to watch the Chiefs game, a game only for the first quarter.  After that, they got destroyed by the New England Patriots, to Tom's dismay and blood pressure health.  Unfortunately, he has spent his conscious life a Browns and Chiefs fan, two teams that always seem to disappoint.

The Worst Chinese Restaurant in KC

Tonight, Nick, Tom and I are going off to the Kansas City Basketball tournament, the same one we went to last year and saw Duke play.  This year it's Notre Dame, Georgia, California and Missouri.  We will head off around 6:00 and fortunately, Nick is through with school.

Yesterday morning, Evie and I walked around downtown Lee's Summit, a very quaint downtown, almost completely refurbished and it looks prosperous, with few empty store fronts.  Most of the shops are the usual, clothing, home furnishings, and gifts/jewelery but interesting and different.  Five or six restaurants are sprinkled among them, from a cafe, to a sports bar, to a Mexican place.  It was fairly busy at lunch time, which was nice to see.

This morning we are off to Best Buy, to get our Sirus radio fixed; it went off the first hour of our trip west to Evie's dismay, so we want it fixed for the ride home.