Starry Night

Today we drove up the Two Rivers to visit with Kris’s birth mother and her husband.  I don’t know if I ever explained that Kris is adopted and years ago (about 19 years ago now) we found her birth mother.  But it is a long story and I won’t go into it.  But after a nice day of visiting with them, it was time to head home.  As we were driving, I happened to look out the window and mention that it was a very starry night.  I forget how many stars there are living in the city and having the light pollution drown out most of them.  I never used to think that we lived in a large town, but we do get all the light pollution from Milwaukee.  It really reminded me of growing up in the Valley.  We didn’t live in the boondocks, but we could at least see the big dipper, North Star and other constellations.  That just doesn’t happen in Menomonee Falls.  I think we need to make a point of getting out of town more often (probably more in the summertime than winter) and just enjoy the night sky. 

Pre-Check Change

Just before Christmas, Kris suggested that we go thru the process of getting TSA pre-check.  When I looked at it and saw that it lasts five years, I thought it was probably a good idea, especially with the travelling I do for work, it would be much more convenient to not have to go thru and take stuff out of my backpack and remove my shoes, etc.

I had looked at it right before Christmas and found out I couldn’t even go get it done until just after the first of the year (I think the 15^th was the earliest appointment we could get).  SO I thought I would wait until after Christmas to schedule it, that way I would have a better idea of our schedules.  Plus, Kris is only off on Wednesdays, so that would be best for her.  I had checked with my boss and she said, go ahead and schedule it and if I had to leave early one day to get it done, that would be fine.  So on December 30^th, about a week after I initially looked at it, I went through registering both of us for our ID/background check.  Now, the soonest I could get in was on Thursday 1/24, and even then there were only three appointments.  Kris said to book them and she would have to work out how to do it with work since we were hoping to get it done before leaving for Florida in a month. 

Then I was talking with my boss earlier this week about it and she said she knows how inconvenient the times are, and that it takes 2-3 weeks to get your pre-check number so having to schedule so far out ahead is just ridiculous.  My thought was, huh?  I thought the 2-3 weeks was the wait time to get in to have it done.  She said, nope, it takes 2-3 weeks AFTER you go in in order to get approved, and the 2-3 weeks to get in to have your check done is just a bonus.  That means that even if we would go in on the 24^th it would still be unlikely we would have our traveler numbers before we left.  After discussing it, we are going to reschedule and push the day out for a Wednesday since it won’t matter.  I ended up doing it the day before we leave for Florida, so I’ll be running around between there and work trying to make sure everything is done before we leave, and Kris will be doing the same with packing.  But if we didn’t do it then, it would be at least another two weeks since right after we get back I have to leave on another trip for work for a few days.  Isn’t the government great?!

Edward Scissorhands Day!

Happy Edward Scissorhands Day!  Oh, you don’t know what Edward Scissorhands Day is?  Well it is the anniversary of my first date with Kris.  On January 4^th of 1992 she came over to the house I was living in near UWM and we watched Edward Scissorhands on a VHS tape that I had rented from Blockbuster. 

For a while the date came and went without fanfare, but a few years ago I started keeping track of it on my calendar.  This year, when I got home from work, I had sat down and it dawned on me I had forgotten to stop and get some flowers (not that they are needed, I just thought it would be nice).  I said, “Oh shoot” out loud and Kris asked what was wrong.  I asked if she knew what day it was, and right away she said it was the anniversary of our first date, and that she had actually mentioned it at work.  The new women she works with all thought it was neat, and sort of weird, that she would remember that.  Anyway, since it was a Friday night and we didn’t have anything else to do, I suggested breaking out the DVD and watching it, but I was shot down.   Kris said, when you think about it, it really isn’t all that great of a movie.  I have to agree.  It is just a little bit bizarre, though what Tim Burton movie isn’t? 

So Happy Edward Scissorhands Day!  It’s hard to believe it has been 26 years. 

Logos

We got an email from Ali's cheer coach today saying that she is going to be ordering Wisconsin Cheer Nationals shirts for all the girls.  Every year, someone (not sure who) designs a shirt that represents all the teams from Wisconsin.  While it is nice, I would rather have one that just refers to our team.  I snapped a picture last year at one of the Disney Parks of a family that had cheer shirts made up for their team that listed the team name, all the girls names, etc. on the back, sort of like a concert t-shirt.  My plan is to make one just like it, but I need to put something on the front.  Since 1) don't want to ask for permisssion to use the "official" Falls logo and 2) I don't want so give the boosters any cash to use any of their designs (not sure if I would need to, plus I don't like the Falls' logo), I made up a couple of my own.  Now I just need to decide which one to use.

These are a couple of my choices:

I have a couple more I am working on and I think I still have some editing to do on these, but I need to get it done quickly so I can get them made/ordered asap.