Autumn Report

Hi all,
It's my favorite time of year - Fall! Thanksgiving is a few weeks away which = good food. Christmas is a few more weeks away which = more good food AND gifts (seriously what could be better?) Then, we celebrate the new year, and yes, again with the good food! But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Brian had his birthday and is now 29 years old. We had friends over, hung out at the house and watched some Longhorn football. The boys, as usual, had several debates about who's who in the sports world, the when and where of the upcoming Bachelor trip/party, reminisced about past bachelor parties and some chic named Jazzy Faye - boring. Us girls gabbed about weddings, rings, the infamous and yet to happen girls trip, and of course we made fun of the boys. Good times people. Moving on.
Halloween was fun. Brian and Warren (Missy's dad) spent some quality time pumpkin carving with their Guppy (Kellen) at Stepping Stone one afternoon. Brian and I also enjoyed a little Halloween party on the 30th at Kellen's school. He is the cutest animal - no lie. In fact, I've remarked on Kellen's cuteness several times, always qualifying it with the standard line "but I'm biased." But other people always assure me that he is indeed extremely handsome. In light of these disclosures from "others" I am deeming it to be a matter of fact. Let the record reflect that Kellen is cute. And, just to be clear that this is indeed an unbiased sampling, the "other" are people who are NOT friends or family. On several occasions, complete strangers have remarked "how cute" or "he's adorable" or "awwww." These are but a few of the responses the sight of my littlest dog elicits from others.
On Halloween we had a busy day. Kellen and his BFF Lexi enjoyed a two hour sojourn in the park. They played ball, frolicked on the play scape, rode around in the wagon, had snacks, had drinks -all in all - the perfect play date. His butt was dragging and he was all too happy to succumb to his crib for a nappy when we got home. After a 3 hour siesta K was fresh to assume the role of Superman. We traveled to Tera Vista to partake in Halloween festivities with Brian's family. Good times. Then we headed back home to hand out candy. It was a great day. (On a sad note, the pumpkins that were painstakingly carved by dad and Brian were stolen off our front porch that evening. We are offering a cash reward for their safe return.)
I welcomed my "dirty thirties" on Nov 4th. Brian cooked me a special chicken dinner (winner, winner...) and I even went a little wild and had a Mike's Hard Cranberry-Lemonade. Good stuff. But as you can see the thirties are already taking their toll. I remember back in my twenties I could polish off a couple of Mango Smirnoffs AND a couple of Mike's Lemonades. To think that was just two weeks ago. Ahhh the memories.

But, enough about us.
McCranski's Out.

Dog the Bounty Hunter Meet Max the Skunk Killer

Oh no he didn't! Oh yes he did. Skunk Numero Dos went down in flames at approximately 2:09am Monday, Oct. 5th. The poor dude didn't stand a chance. Dogs went out. I heard the splish, splash, as their feet hit the wet weather creek that is our backyard after it rains. Then, there was no mistaking the sound. Rrrrrrurrrrr, RRRRURRRRRR. Max came into view, with a huge, putrid, nasty ole skunk, shaking that mother like a polaroid picture (all you beyonces and lucy lui's get on the floor...) I digress... where was I. Oh yeah. As the stench hit my nostrils it must have also registered in Max's cuz he dropped the skunk and ran around the yard like a chicken with its head cut off. He dove to the ground, army crawling thru the grass trying to rub the smell off his face. Dirty, Dirty, dog.
So - after Uno (skunk number one for those of you who are slow) bit the dust a few months ago, Brian was familiar with my whispered shouting (don't want to wake the kid) "Brrrrr-ian! - Max got another one." Folks, this ain't our first rodeo. We are almost professionals. Brian went to round up the necessaries (plastic bags, hydrochloric acid, etc.) and I went back to bed. Just kidding. We tried to leave Max outside for the night, but stinky started crying (Max - not Brian) so out we went in our skivvies to give Max a quick bath. Then back to bed with our stinky dog in his cage - in our room - and yes - we lit a candle.
The joys of parenting. Raising my dogs has been way more challenging then raising my little boy Kellen. Maybe Kellen could teach Max how to just eat rocks. In fact, both Max and Gus could take a lesson. At least K only eats things he can PASS. Not socks, or underwear, or tampons. Seriously.
Kellen is now opening doors. And lucky for us we have the doors with the easy pull down handles, so if he wants to open the front door and wander out into traffic - he can! Sweet, right? Note to self and any who enter my home from now on: FLIP THE DEADBOLT BEHIND YOU. (This has been a public service announcement).
For all those who are interested or may know someone who is interested - you may purchase our OU tickets on ebay for another 2 days and 9 hours give or take. Bart would be extremely happy if someone would outbid him. Sucka.
FYI - my husband, the love of my life, whom I couldn't live without (ok I could, because I did, for like 16 years - but you're missing the point cuz, I wouldn't want to) is turning the big 2-9 on the 24th of this month - so get out your checkbooks - I mean, be sure to call and wish him a happy birthday.
Later friends.
Missus McCranski Out.

Boys will be Boys

Hola All,

It's finally fall! And I'm so glad - but the office is already alarmingly boring. The phone just stops ringing after school starts. It's nice for the first week, then really boring for the next 3 months.

K-man is growing! According the the Pediatrician he is "chunky." I'm not buying it. Some days he is a little "rounder" than others, but, aren't we all? He's a stout young lad. I'm not concerned. And, I happen to think he looks cute with his little baby pot belly. Hopefully when he gets older he'll inherit his father's washboard abs. Hehehe.

Actually, there may be a good reason he is a "chunky" kid. It turns out, our little dude eats rocks. And he has a serious problem. Some kids are on the juice, ours is "on the rocks". It all started this past Friday. We are hanging out at the house and K's off poopin somewhere (yes, he is wearing a diaper, but he hides to take care of business). Next thing we know, K is crying, soooo sad. We go check him out and lo and behold in his diaper is a little rock and a not so little rock. The latter is about the size of a marble but not as smooth. (ooh!) Turns out passing rocks isn't all that easy.

At this point we are sad for him, but not overly concerned. (wait for it...) Until the next morning. Brian changes the diaper and notices nothing. (here it comes...) But, I change his diaper later on and it's full up of "not so fruity" little pebbles. Like the concerned parent I am, I mention to Brian that we should examine all his previous diapers for foreign deposits. Naturally, I have a poor gag reflex, so the diaper duty is left up to Brian. And wouldn't you know it - he found the motherload. We washed the rocks, bleached them, and put them in a little evidence baggie.

Today I confronted the daycare about my son's deviant eating behaviors (Brian begged off to go to Mexico for work - whatever - priorities, priorites). My little baggie of rocks in hand, I explained to them, both in a letter and in person, that this is very concerning to us, mostly because of the obvious choking hazard. The daycare personnel expressed their sincerest apologies along with wide-eyed astonishment at the number of rocks K-man ingested. "We're so sorry, Marissa. We watch him constantly. He always spits them out when we tell him to. All the kids eat rocks." Blah, blah, blah. Whatever.

Here's my thinking (and several people agree with me) Baby Playground + Rocks = Babies Choking on Rocks. Babies Choking on Rocks + Pissed off Parents = Lawsuit. Follow me? After all EVERYONE knows that kids will literally put ANYTHING in their mouths. Doesn't it just make sense to remove the temptation? Seriously.

What a gross story! Hope none of you were eating while you were reading this!

McCranskis Out

MackBrown-TexasFootball.com

MackBrown-TexasFootball.com: "Days08Hours09Mins32Secs"

Nocturnal Visitor

Hola my friends,

Last night we had a not-so-friendly visit from a di-stink-tly unwelcome trespasser. Brian and I were enjoying the movie Appaloosa, courtesy of our new HBO channels when Max whined to go outside. I removed myself from my comfortable, reclining, couch potato position and let Max and the puggies outside to conduct their "business." I walked back to the couch and was just about to sit down when Max starts whoofing and hollering outside. I knew something was amiss. You see, Max never barks unless there are varmints about. I walked back to the door and vaguely saw three shadowy bodies (it was dark) snarling and attacking our fence. (The three figures to which I am referring were Max and his pug cohorts). I said to Brian "Those pugs've got something out there - go see what it is." Brian grabbed the flashlight and ventured forth into the murky abyss that is our backyard around 9:17pm. "What is it?" I shouted from the doorway. I could see the pugs runnig to and fro barking like mad while Max was viciously scrapping with the culprit. Then it hit me. The awful stench coupled with Brian's reponse "It's a skunk! Max has got it!" Right then, Max ran from the dark recesses of the yard into my line of sight and the light with his prize dangling from his frothing mouth. He was thrashing his head vigorously from side to side playing with his new toy. Brian shouted "Max drop it, DROP IT." Finally, he did. I had run into the garage to get a rake so we could pick up the dead skunk. I was thinking of hurling it over the fence into the neighbors garden (he, he, he - surprise!). But instead, Brian made me get some plastic bags so we could throw it into the garbage can (boring). Luckily, before we did so, I was able to capture a picture of the stinking varmint.

As luck would have it, neither Max or the pugs got sprayed too badly from the skunk. But Max was a mite stinky and got a rather vigorous scurb down with shampoo and the hose. The pugs too, were scrubbed down in the shower - just in case. Needless to say, all the dogs slept in their own beds last night.

My littlest dog, Kellen, slept thru all the shenanigans. Lucky.

~McCranski's Out

Record Temps

Is it hot or what?! Holy smokes - I think all the soles are melting off my shoes because at least two pairs of my shoes have the soles peeling off. Time for new shoes.
Not a whole lot going on lately. Kellen's doing well in school. He has learned several animals and the sounds they make. It is the cutest thing - well to us anyway. It's not hard for him to impress us - I know, we are biased. Naturally, we think he is brilliantly smart and have aspirations for him to be a rocket scientist or a successful business man, or, well the list goes on and on. I'm sure to everyone else he is just your average, run of the mill, little toddler. But what do y'all know?
Work is the same both both of us. Boring. It pays the bills.
Brian's guy trip is coming up very soon. They'll be off to Detroit this year to take in Notre Dame v Wolverines game or something like that. Our Longhorn tickets are in the mail! In fact, they are at the post office this very minute waiting for us to pick them up. It's going to be a great Longhorn season folks. Stay tuned.
My mother has gone green. Yesterday, she turned in her "clunker" for a 2009 Prius. It's cool. She's even going to be able to play her iPod in the car - something I can't even do in my Lexus. You know what I'm thinking...I need a new car... Someone better stop me!! I can't help myself, I have a problem. The first step is to admit it, right? That's something.
My good friend from childhood, Jenny, found me on Facebook. Man that is some kind of website. I must admit I am addicted to a game called Farmville. I have this little farm, with little animals, and I harvest my crops, and get money and buy things. It's quite taken over my life. I'm almost over it. Almost. Anyway, I digress - it was really good to hear from Jenny! I haven't talked to her since college days and it looks like she is doing great. I also tracked down another college friend, Christy on this Facebook site. It's really cool to see how people are faring all these years later. My friends, you can't have too many friends.
Well, I guess that's about it. Here's a short video of my little dancing man! I'm smitten with him (no, it is not Brian)
Laters y'all. McCranksi's Out

Mmmm Spaghetti