Engleberts in Missouri [miz-er-ree]

Stuff stacked up to go to the Goodwill. Half finished projects. Lawn equipment. Sports junk. Still too many bikes. Tools. Tools. More tools. Not to mention a million discarded pairs of shoes (not mine!) and other kid-related paraphernalia.

Leaves and grass tracked in by kids. Leaves and grass blown in by the wind because our garage door is rarely closed. It’s like we want to show off the messiness to the world.

Our garage is the bane of my existence. I’ve tried many different things to try and keep it clean and organized. Nothing seems to take. It’s like that Greek dude who had to keep rolling this huge rock up a steep hill. Just as he reaches the top, and thinks he’s done, bam! the rock gets away and he has to start all over again.

That’s our garage.

I spent much of the day today trying to get that rock to the top of the hill. Or at least as close as possible. The motorcycle, ride-on mower and bikes have been banished to an alternative storage location. The half-finished projects have been “finished” or stored in the attic and elsewhere in an attempt to make room for a new project.

A car project.

Now, you may not know the saga of car projects at our house over the last 18 years but there have been many. Working on cars is something that gives Steve a lot of pleasure as well as opportunities to curse, bleed, and purchase expensive new tools.

This latest project is a Plymouth Breeze (photos for demonstration purposes only - actual item may be is different). A guy at work was selling the car for $150. Yes - you did read that correctly.

Steve thought it would be a great car for Vicki. The body is in decent condition, interior is clean and without any major damage or stains, decent tires, new brakes. Only problem is it doesn’t run. Okay - it runs but not well. They were able to drive it home but it desperately needs a new transmission rebuild.

So, our garage will be Steve’s Transmission Shop for the next few days(?), weeks(?), who knows how long. You guys know how many hours Steve works each week. Still, it’ll give him something “fun” to do in his spare time. And a happy Steve is a good thing. Cause when Steve ain’t happy, Virginia really ain’t happy. And nobody wants that!

ps - if you are bored with shoe pictures, take a tour of our garage. Thrills!

pps - don’t forget the Christmas Wish List. Only 37 shopping days left!

Steve got it exactly right and apparently I don’t stink. Happy Anniversary baby.

A couple weeks ago we were over at some friends’ house celebrating their daughter’s 3rd birthday. The conversation rolled around to how much cake we’ve all eaten in the last few months. In our immediate family, we’ve had 5 birthdays since the beginning of August. Then, 3 of our neighbors/friends have also had birthdays. Plus a wedding celebration. That’s a lot of cake.

As Violet licked the frosting off her cupcake, she mumbled something about how wonderful it was that there were so many special days so close together. Then my better half said something like “well, this will be the last cake for awhile since there are no more birthdays until yours at the end of January.” In fact, his comment was remarkably like that. Exactly in fact.

I made some kind of snippy little comment that seemed to go in one ear and out the other - it seemed he didn’t realize that he was forgetting an important fact: there are actually a couple of celebration-worthy occasions occurring long before the end of January.

Sunday afternoon we were out shopping (nothing fun - just groceries) and stopped by Macy’s to pick up the slacks that Violet needs for All City Singers. Now, I had been at Macy’s recently with a girlfriend for a “Girls Night Out” thingy that involved makeovers, cocktails and lots of free samples and gifts. One of the samples that I got was for Sean John (aka Diddy, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Pampy D, Sean John Combs) Unforgivable fragrance. So I decided to take a proactive approach to the upcoming events and steer Steve over by the fragrance counter - nonchalantly of course - and mention how much I liked the Unforgivable scent and drop a few hints about our anniversary and/or my birthday.

Sadly, I was not able to pull off the nonchalant part of the plan. I got all mixed up on where the Sean John counter was, took several wrong turns and eventually had to be directed to the correct location by a saleswoman. So much for subtle!

Still, if I receive the desired fragrance for one of these events, it will be worth it. It was also nice to know that Steve was totally clued in that our anniversary was coming up. If I don’t get the desired fragrance I guess that means that the 3 sample spritzers that I’ve used up over the last few weeks were not appreciated and may have in fact have caused Steve to label me “stinky”.

Hmmm, what to do? Wear the last of my Unforgivable sample on our anniversary or fall back on an old standby fragrance? My choice could mean the life or death of Romance!

What do you think? Take a risk or play it safe?

About three weeks ago, I turned on both of my ovens to preheat them, heard a loud pop, and then the breaker blew. I tried resetting the breaker several times but it just kept popping. After mumbling, grumbling and fooling with it for about 10 minutes I finally yelled for Steve.

Steve whipped off the back of the range and started poking around. I’ve mentioned Steve’s incredible ability to fix things before so I wasn’t the least bit worried. I figured I’d have working ovens in no time at all.

Sadly, he was only able to get the top oven working that day. He needed to bring home his multimeter in order to figure out if the problem was with the relay or the elem…Wawa-wa wawa wa Wa wa-wa … and then he’d be able to get both ovens working.

This is my range (but sadly not my kitchen):

There are 2 ovens. A normal full sized oven on the bottom and a smaller half sized oven on the top. Guess which oven was working and which one wasn’t? If you guessed that I’ve been cooking dinner in what amounts to a toaster oven for the last 3 weeks you’d be right.

I don’t like to be a nag so I haven’t been haranging him about it, still every few days I’d ask Steve if he’d brought home his meter to check the oven with - nope.

With a Thanksgiving feast less than 2 weeks away I was beginning to get nervous. What if it needed parts? It could take longer than that to get them. How the hell would I be able to cook Thanksgiving dinner in that little oven!?!

Finally I resorted to thinly veiled threats. I casually mentioned to Steve that we wouldn’t be able to have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. When he asked why I replied that a turkey wouldn’t fit in the only oven that was working.

Yep - those of you who know my husband won’t be surprised to hear that the threat of no turkey produced immediate results. Both my ovens are working wonderfully again.

I’m thinking that the kitchen floor may be the next obstacle to producing that tasty turkey he craves  ;)

It’s a little sad when the highlight of your life occurred 43 years ago but that is the case for my in-laws. Sure, they’ve done other things since then but none as great as the day a scrawny, squalling baby boy entered the world just a tad bit prematurely. Acknowledging his potential from the moment of his birth, they named their bundle of joy Steven, the Crowned One.

Steve’s are the kings of the world. Most of the great men in the world have been named Steve. In the words of another great Steve “wherever there is hunger, oppression, drought, or injustice there is a Steve for nourishment, equality, uhm… wetness, and justice.”

I am lucky to be married to a Steve. There aren’t enough of them to go around. Only a swift and stealthy woman can snag one. Many women have had to settle for some other Tom, Dick or Harry (Sorry Grandma K). After 18 years, it still makes me happy just to be with him everyday.

You can imagine that the annual celebration of this man is no small thing. Some years it makes the paper, others it only involves family and friends and a few firemen standing by, you know, just in case. This year’s festivities included 2 evenings of parties, thousands hundreds a lot of phone calls from friends and loved ones, and some hilarious gifts (pictures soon- my camera is MIA -ack!).

Since many of you didn’t get to join the festivities, I thought I’d share this little trivia quiz with you on Famous Steves. First person to answer in the comments with all of the correct answers will win a lovely gift certificate to Steve & Barry’s (since they just opened in our mall at the end of August and one opened on Steve’s birthday in Appleton, there’s a store located near all of our family and friends now.)

Famous Steves:

1. The original hawkeye in The Last of the Mochicans (edited to add: Original TV Series) - Steve Forrest
2. Signed the Declaration of Independence - Stephen Hopkins
3. Body builder who played Hercules - Steve Reeves
4. Sang with his wife Edie Gormae - Steve Lawrence
5. The 6,000,000 million dollar man - Steve Austin
6. Father on My Three Sons - Steve Douglas
7. Lost a bet over the theory of black holes - Stephen Hawking
8. Wrote the Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
9. Famous for saying “Book ‘em Danno” - Steve McGarrett
10. Loved fast cars and starred in The Great Escape - Steve McQueen

Good Luck!