The Infamous Chicken Dinner Story

In honor of my parents' 24th wedding anniversary, a story that shows us how much they still love each other, maybe even a little too much.... A Great Quotes story.

It was a regular family dinner, senior year of highschool. We all sat around the table, Mommy, Daddy, Wendy, Katrina - who was 11ish, Suse and me. Daddy, as usual had made dinner, chicken breasts w/ some sort of side dishes. Mommy was sitting at the end of the table just poking her chicken with her fork. Daddy says to her, "What's wrong, why aren't you eating? I worked really hard to make this nice chicken dinner for you and you're not eating!" Mommy, resting her fork on her table, replied, "I'm too tired to eat, I want something I can just stick in my mouth." To which Daddy responded, "I'll give you something to stick in your mouth."!
Suse's jaw dropped to the table, I got up and left the room, my appetite suddenly gone, Mommy yelled, "Tim" and smacked his arm, Katrina said, "I don't get it".

Uncomfortable

(Original Post)

Name That President

3 down, 5 to go! A break from the norm, and now, a Suse story.

Suse and I had lots of things we liked to do together, especially playing Name That President. We often played at night when we should have been sleeping, at school in the cafeteria, in the car and at dinner we even tried to coax everyone else into playing. This game could go 2 ways, either one of us would call out a number and the other would name the corresponding president or vice versa.

We learned all the presidents together because Suse need to know them for her US History class. As I helped her, I learned them too. We had neat little mnemonics for them. Here are just a few:
20 - Garfield, Garfield the cat weighs 20lbs
25 - McKinley, 25th is Christmas, it snows on Christmas, it snows on Mt. McKinley
26 - Teddy Roosevelt, there are 13 bodies buried in the basement and 13 times 2 is 26
4 - Madison, you can golf in Madison and when you golf you yell "fore"
8 - Martin Van Buren, nicknamed Little Magician and it's a Magic 8 ball
14 - Franklin Pierce, when you are 14 you can get your ears pierced
18 - Grant, 18 is grand
7 - Jackson, the Jackson 5 plus the parents is 7

Awake

(Original Post)

Snow Fight!

Here's another story about snow. Another General Story

Senior year of high-school, Wendy, Suse, our friend Dan and I all carpooled together in the "Owl Mobile" (aka "Ghetto Cruiser", aka "Teen Mobile"), a 1989 grey pontiac 6000 with a kick-ass stereo in it. Every day we would drive to and from school singing and having a blast - but that's another story.

One winter we had all gotten into a bit of a snow fight while walking to the car and in good Schultz fashion, we couldn't just drop it...

The whole way to Dan's house, and then home from there, we rolled down the windows to scoop snow off the roof, opened doors at stops to scoop snow off the medians, and picked up snow from the floor of the car - and chucked it at each other with mad flurry. Except at me (hee hee), there was a "no throwing snow at the driver unless stopped" rule for safety. It was great fun and we all got home rosy from the cold and a little damp from the melting snow (you can't turn the heat off in the car).

[Notice: this story does not have an "UH-Oh, Mommy showed up part because she probably didn't know until reading this.]

Giggly

"Hey, You Footed Me"

As promised, another story to make up for yesterday. This one isn't exactly from childhood, but it is a classic. A Suse Story

Senior year of high school my family hosted a wonderful exchange student named Suse. The epitome of Deutschland, she had rosy round cheeks, blue eyes and blond hair - everything but the German accent. Everyone loved Suse, and with good reason too, besides being absolutely adorable, she was also smart, cute and innocent. Every day our little group ate lunch together at the same table in the cafeteria.

Now, they say english is a tricky language to learn, and I believe them, Suse demonstrated it first hand. You know how when someone hits you with their elbow you say they "elbowed" you. Or if you hit someone with your knee, you "kneed" them. Well, Suse thought that this must be correct for all body parts. Once I kicked her and she said, "hey you footed me."
It didn't take long to realize this misunderstanding could be very amusing. So at lunch, as we all sat eating, I would sit and poke Suse's arm. She would try ignoring it, going on with her conversation...but finally she couldn't take anymore. She swatted my arm away yelling as loud as she could, "Stop fingering me!"
(Talk about getting people's attention)

(Originally posted April 20, 2003.)

Confused