God Bless the U.S.A.

Facebook deemed this video too offensive to allow people to share. Luckily for you, I have deemed it too hilarious to keep to myself...

... but as Great Aunt Margie says, all God's critters got a place in the choir.

Bring it.

For summer eats, check out these morsels of deliciousness...

Cafe Habana in NYC, near SoHo, produces crack-on-a-corncob in the form of Grilled Corn. I have tried to replicate this delicacy at home, finally resorting to the interwebs where I found this beckoning:

Make your own with help from ShockinglyDelicious.com (where I snagged this photo too!)

Limes are not optional, and neither are Mojitos. Last weekend two other couples joined us on the deck for a summer mojito kick-off. Two pitchers? Not even a challenge. Refreshingly perfect on a muggy Saturday night as thunderstorms rolled in. Die-hards will use the mortar and pestal to mash up the sugar, lime and mint. Personally, I'm fine with using a blender...

Blend together the juice from 2 limes, 2 teaspoons sugar, 8 sprigs of mint while slowly adding 1 cup of white rum. Pour into pitcher over 4 cups of crushed ice, mix with 4 cups of club soda. Stir, garnish with additional lime wedges.

Speaking of Saturday's thunderstorms, our neighbors in Missouri were hit hard by a tornado, nearly wiping out the entire city of Joplin, MO. While we Kansans have no mercy for Missouri on the basketball court, off the court is a different story. Please take a moment to send your thoughts, maybe some bottled water or other supplies to these people as they spend their summer rebuilding their hometown.

And finally, with the promise of pool time right around the corner I bring you my favorite summer past time, floating in a pool and pretending I have nothing better to do. The best pool floats don't take forever to inflate and allow you to get wet. Enter:

Yes, it looks like an areola or a contraceptive device, but I assure you it is completely appropriate to whip out at the pool. Everyone will want a piece of the action. $14.99 at Target!

Back to wishing the rain away...

SWM, age 9

I'm worried my dear Luke might never get laid.

Mayday! My daughter is heading for middle school!

And guess who, at the 11th hour, was put in charge of creating the post-promotion ceremony DVD for parents and kids to view during the post-promotion ceremony brunch with a 3-day notice???

I'll give you some hints...

1. She had never created a movie on her computer before.
2. She had never burned a DVD before, legally or otherwise.
3. She was given nearly 500 photos from 26 sets of parents.

... still guessing? How about this....

4. She did no laundry the entire week
5. She still managed to accompany her daughter's class to Worlds of Fun 3 days before DVD-day
6. She still has no clue how to save the show on a jump drive.

... if you guessed me, you are correct.

I ended up putting in 20+ hours, and I know a couple of others before me did hard time too gathering all the photos. But the final product (9 minutes, 42 seconds) (can't imagine how long something like "Titanic" must have taken) succeeded in sharing happy memories of precious childhoods and, more importantly, making parents cry.

Sit back and enjoy:

http://gallery.me.com/juliedunlap#100000

No bellbottoms, no saurkraut

For some reason the by-line is not appearing at the top of this article like it should, which is a shame. It is one of my favorites...

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/may/02/river-city-jules-moms-love-knows-no-boundaries/

Happy day after Mother's Day!

Evil had a Face

I kissed my husband goodbye as he left for work that Tuesday morning nearly 10 years ago. Ellie, then four, did not have preschool that day, leaving me free to hang out in my jammies a bit longer and finish feeding the kids breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen. I waited until after 8:00 to call my mom with sad news that a friend had been diagnosed with cancer, but Mom wasn't able to process it.

"Turn on the news," she interrupted me. "A plane just hit the World Trade Center."

I turned on the TV just in time to see Diane Sawyer look at the off-screen producer with confusion. A second plane had just hit the second tower.

Holding my baby, Luke, and watching Amelia and Ellie play oblivious to the fright one time zone to the east, I sat riveted in front of the television the rest of the morning, emotions of fear and grief taking flight with those of the rest of the country.

Later that afternoon I joined a few friends at church to pray. I prayed for those who had died, I prayed for their families, I prayed for the missing, I prayed for those who had been found.

Over the years I have prayed for those same people and for the safety of us still here on earth.

And over those years I have wondered if the manhunt would end with predator finding prey or if the prey would elude his predators until dying a natural death in some unknown location.

When my husband called me down to wait for the president's speech last night, not knowing what the topic might be, I threw out a prediction.

"I bet they found bin Laden," I said, observing how no one seemed panicked and rationalizing that something catastrophic would have been public knowledge. Daring to speak of this aloud, the words felt unnatural as they tumbled out

But the possibility seemed too far-fetched, like finding Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster. Bin Laden had almost become a fictional character, a piece of tragic lore after nearly a decade of hiding.

Then the possible was confirmed. I never see shit like this coming, but for once I was spot on.

This time it was I who told my mom to turn on the television. I heard her gasp when she read the ticker. At the risk of stealing from Oprah, that Tuesday morning heartache had come full-circle.

But what to do with this?

It did not feel like revenge, for there truly is no such thing when it comes to the senseless slaughtering of innocent lives by a man without capacity for remorse. Effort put into revenge returns as energy directed to fostering more hate.

It did, though, feel like a victory. Cheers for our brave military who plotted and planned for years, finally executing with extraordinary precision an operation that, if future behavior truly can be predicted by past patterns, should save thousands of lives. And the triumph of eliminating the threat of this enemy is immeasurable.

So I celebrate not the killing of a life, but the elimination of certain looming death. And I hope we all can agree that the greatest force our country can show to the world is our ability to pull Osama bin Laden out of the legend to which we had unconsciously assigned him and into the world in which we live, rejoicing that his reign of terror is over and, with our greatest capacity for dignity, leave his judgement up to God.

Sweet Caroline

As I told Caroline this weekend, every time she reaches a milestone, she completes a chapter of our family's life. Today this milestone was First Communion...

... and now that chapter is complete!