Home Sweet . . . Townhome!

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Charlottesville, VA. We spent three days with our friendly realestate agent Christine. At the conclusion of those three days Rojelio put an offer on a townhouse. The offer was accepted. The inspection was competed this past week and everything seems to be going well. The scheduled closing date is May 31.

Keep your fingers crossed in hopes everything continues to go smoothly!

The outside with a covered front porch.

The living room with a fire place and built in shelves on both sides.

No Doldrums Here

It was a beautiful spring afternoon; not too cold, not too warm, not too cloudy, not too sunny, not too . . . well you get the picture, it was a nice day. The doldrums were nowhere to be found.

We untangled our strings and set out to the field. Rojelio and Annie are our names and stunt kite flying is our game.

Yeah that's right, we have some of our own signature maneuvers. Skippin' the stone, the J-dive, the U-dive, loop-d-loop, figure-8, the Slabbekoorn, and screaming eagle. We plan on touring once our uniforms come in.

We refined our skills well enough to play some games.

Dive Bomb Dandelion. This game is played by one player standing out in the field holding a dandelion over their head. The other player maneuvers the kite to knock the dandelion down. Rojelio won that game by actually slicing the head of the dandelion off with the kite string. Wish we had that on tape for a slow motion replay.

Dandelion Drop. We rigged up some dandelions to the kite. One player flies the kite to it's maximum height, then maneuvers the kite so the dandelions drop off. The other player stands in the field and tries to catch the dandelions as they fall. Rojelio 1, Annie 0 (but 2 did touch her hand).

We are hoping to make it to the Great Lakes Kite Festival in a few weeks at the state park in Grand Haven. Maybe we can show off some of our skills there. And then maybe sign a book deal or make an instructional video.

Rojelio setting up for the screaming eagle with the delta kite.

A shot of Annie from the kite-cam.

Rojelio loop-d-looping Dolly the parafoil.

BUZZ . . . eee!

It was Sunday night. Rojelio wanted his haircut before he started his new and final rotation on Monday (Forensic Pathology). He decided to be daring and bring out the clippers, giving Annie the power . . . eee!

Well we experimented a little bit with the number on the clippers before plunging into it. We went with a 2 all the way around, nothing too fancy here.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. It was looking kinda splotchy . . . eee!

Annie was thinking maybe we should have tried this for the first time while a haircut place was open, you know, just in case . . . eee!

Together we revised the technique, took a deep breath, and it went much smoother. It turned out so well that we just might make this a monthly ritual.
No, that's not a scar from the clippers, that scar is from the GREAT ICE SKATING ACCIDENT of 2006.

Designs by Rojelio

Rojelio was the mastermind behind yet another unique piece of furniture. With some help from his father they created a beautiful coffee table. Butcher block top, copper pipe frame, and even "floating" butcher block shelves. Nice work boys!

You can place your orders now and Rojelio will get to them as soon as he finishes medical school . . . no wait make that internship . . . no wait make that residency . . . no wait make that fellowship . . . well on second thought Designs by Rojelio will not be accepting any orders at this time. Please check back following his retirement.

Goodbye Spartans Hello Cavaliers

All the excitement happened March 16, 2006. Match Day.

There was a countdown. It was noon. It was time. All the future doctors in the room opened their acceptance letters with their families waiting in anticipation.

Rojelio opened his envelop and discovered he matched with his number one choice University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA.

He will start his internal medicine residency in June 2006.

Strong work Rojelio. We are all so proud of you!

Our Brother Paul

Annie's brother Paul is a Seabee in the US Navy Reserves. He was sent into active duty on January 18, 2006. He is being deployed to Kuwait March 22, 2006. He leaves a wife and two little girls at home.

Paul you are in all of our thoughts and prayers.
We are proud of you.
We love you.
The porch light is on waiting for you to come home!

God Bless You
You're there
we're here
we depend on you
and we care.
Because of you
we walk without restraint
we know your fears
without complaint.
You serve us proud
your duty calls
to keep us safe
within our walls.
We pray for you
be safe and strong
and come home soon
where you belong.

By David Serkez
Copyright 2004

You can contact Paul through email paulhokett@yahoo.com

Butterflies

Saturday was such a beautiful day here in West Michigan. We went to Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, a popular attraction here for locals and passersby. Of course this time of year we didn't go to see the gardens in bloom, but to see the BUTTERFLIES. Every year about this time Meijer Gardens has an exhibit, Foremost's Butterflies Are Blooming. Apparently everyone else in the city had the same idea, it was quite crowded.

More than 6000 tropical butterflies from Asia and South and Central America fly free among plants two stories tall. We were walking amongst the butterflies. They would whiz by. They were even landing on some people with colorful shirts. Rojelio was lucky enough to have one land on his hand. And I was even luckier to have the camera ready to get a great picture of it!
We took so many wonderful pictures.After we were done enjoying the butterflies and taking pictures we ate lunch.
We found out Tuesday nights are Flashlight Tuesday Nights. Where you can bring a flashlight and experience the butterflies' nightlife. We're game!

Gotcha!

Looking for something pointless yet fun to do!?
Want to play a funny trick on your beloved friends or family!?
If the answer is yes to any of the above then explore the fabulous world of celebrity soundboards.
There so many soundboards on this site. Some of my favorites are: Napoleon Dynamite Judge Judy Dr. Phil

But the funniest thing is to check out the prank calls people have made with the soundboards.

I thought I'd try to be sneaky and make a prank call with the Napoleon Dynamite soundboard. So first I made a practice call to Rojelio. Of course he knew it was me considering my name and picture comes up when I call him, not to mention he was just in the other room. But he humored me and played along. After a few verbal exchanges he fired back with a soundboard of his own on the other computer. We ended up with dueling Napoleons.

Now that I was a "pro" I thought I would really venture out and try it on someone else. She I rang up my co-worker Shannon. Well she didn't answer her phone so Napoleon left her a voicemail. As he was leaving the voicemail she called back. I was in a slight panic not knowing if I should, 1. Not answer 2. Answer as myself or 3. Answer as Napoleon. I chose 3. Well it started out funny, so I thought. I was able to manage HELLO and HOW'S IT GOING. But her replies weren't going as smoothly as I would have liked. I started to get unnerved and the conversation (if you could call it that) started to not make much sense. She realized something was up I'm sure and began speaking Spanish, probably saying bad things to or about me. I had no idea what she was saying much to my dismay.

I decided to go ahead and try again. This time calling my parents house to play a fast one on my mom. Well my dad answered. As soon as I heard his voice I knew it wasn't going to go well. Of course he asked who it was a few times. Napoleon was prompt and appropriate with the responses. Finally he said "You have the wrong number buddy" and hung up. A minute later I received a call from my brother Pete, who just happened to be at my parents house when Napoleon called. Well unbeknownst to me my parents began getting caller ID a few weeks ago. They saw it was my cell phone number after my dad hung up and called back thinking I lost my phone or it got stolen and some guy ended up with it. Another successful prank call.

So have fun with the soundboards. Post any funny stories about prank calls you try, maybe you'll have better luck than Napoleon. We are in no way endorsing making random calls, its actually funnier and safer to call people you know.

Enjoy, ANNIE

Winter Weekend Adventures

1 frozen lake + 2 cooped up Michiganders = WINTER WEEKEND ADVENTURES . . .

Friday night we went ice shaggin'. We took turns riding the bike on the lake and pulling each other on the sled. We were all geared up from boots to goggles to headlights. Oh yeah we were stylin'!

We had so much fun ice shaggin' we went out Saturday afternoon and bought ice skates. We went ice skating for an hour or so on Saturday night. Because it was dark we were too scared to go out far in the lake. We even made a plan on what to do if one of us fell through the ice. We really didn't have any idea how thick the ice was, all we really knew was that it was holding our weight and not cracking, yet anyway.

So Sunday afternoon we went back out skating. The first WINTER WEEKEND ADVENTURE in the light of day. This time we could see the ice and beyond. We took a chance, venturing out, skating all the way across the lake and back. With our breaths held we made it.

We thought we would be cool and buy some hockey sticks and a puck. We really bought the sticks to help us balance, but ended up being able to skate around and pass the puck to each other. And yes we even had the bright idea to take our stunt kite out on the ice to see if it'd pull us along on our skates . . . no luck with that bright idea!

It was getting cold, we were tired, we had been out playing for hours. Just one more run. You know when you say "just one more" you should have quit while you were ahead.
WHAM BAM SMACK CRACK - that was the sound of Rojelio's head meeting the ice . . . well let's just say that's enough of that . . .

I'm sure we'll go again once Rojelio recovers and Annie gets over the trauma of it all.

All in all a good time was had!

Triumph . . . humph!

Rojelio has developed some very creative household items in the past; tables, lamps, plant stands, vases, a whole plethora of one of a kind custom items. Here's his latest creation he finished today. The base of the lamp is from an old protein purifier made in 1970; "old school" as he would say. He retrieved it from his lab when he was working at the NIH. Can you imagine they were going to throw it away, they thought it was now useless, boy did he show them !

I have to hand it to him, with very few tools, virtually no real workspace, and no formal training, he is able to create some amazing things using a variety of materials.

The next creation he is dreaming up has to do with a butcher block and copper pipes . . . stay tuned to see what's instore!