Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

Jenelle here…

In honor of my parent’s 30th anniversary, here’s my dad’s rendition of how the two lovebirds met (originally posted on the Walter Family web site five years ago.)

“Since our 25th anniversary is coming up soon, I have been asked to tell our ‘how we met story’. So here it is.

It all started back in the fall of 1970. It was the beginning of my senior year at Reynolds High School. It was also the start of Pam’s freshman year at the same school. Like most observant high school seniors, I was checking out the new freshman class.

Pam and I met each other in orchestra class where I was the hot young trumpeter and she was the fresh young babe that played the violin. I was famous enough to have my choice in those days but I will say that she took my breath away. Being a trumpeter and full of myself, I didn’t realize then that she would be the one for me. She was gorgeous, but she was also very young, and I was intent on staying out of trouble.

Soon Reynolds was over the loss of me. I left Pam with only the memory of my handsome frame and long hair. Occasionally the rock band I was in would play a sock-hop at Reynolds. This was my chance to win her heart, but only from a distance.

Eventually fate had its moment in our lives. It was a night when hunger for my favorite #2 Chinese dinner overtook me. Unbeknownst to me, Pam had a after school job as a waitress at the Chinese Gardens Restaurant (famous for their #2 Chinese dinner). When she came to the table to take our order, I was overwhelmed. This windbag was rendered breathless for a second time.

Well, I don’t know how she knew, but she came to the table and told me about that day’s special on the #2 dinner. It may have just been my ego, but I sensed that she might have been flirting a little with me. That was it for me. I was in love. Beginning that day, and for about the next two years, I lived on Chinese food. Yep, mostly the #2 dinner. That fateful night at the Chinese restaurant, I asked her for her phone number.

Later I called her to ask her to a Chicago concert. Chicago had a trumpet player even better than me, if you can imagine that! Two years later I asked her to be my wife and the sound of wedding bells rang for us on March 22, 1975. We still enjoy going to Chicago concerts and remembering that first date with fondest memories.”

— Dave Walter

Two birthdays from late February —
On the 23rd: Happy Birthday, Uncle Mike!
On the 28th: Happy Birthday, Dyan!

And, finally, here are the top ten snowball throws from our fun snow day on February 5th. Some of the names may have been mixed up because it’s been so long, but I guarantee I got the important ones right. 🙂

10. The Gut Shot
Though we were aiming at the snowman’s head most of the time, quite a few throws ended up a little short. Every snowball that hit in the snowman’s chest area made a loud thump as it exploded into a million pieces. Eric and Dan’s throws, which had above-average velocity, sounded quite impressive, and often caused one or more of the snowman’s mulch buttons to fall off. THUMP! “Oooooohhhhhh!”

9. Point Blank
We really wanted to keep Hunter involved in the fun by giving him some chances to hit the snowman. Of course, since he’s only 3.5 years old, he should get the benefit of being a little closer. So, we gave him a snowball while he was standing a mere three feet away. For the extra advantage that every kid deserves, one of us proceeded to LIFT HIM UP so that he could throw downward at the snowman. Hunter did not disappoint at all — he connected several times. Nice work!

8. Battle Damage
As I mentioned above, when a snowball impacted on the surface of the snowman, it made a loud thump. What we soon realized is that each successful throw causes him to lose a bit of mass. As the snowman’s face was hit more and more frequently, he began to look gaunt and thin, almost like a skeleton. To keep the party moving, we took a short break and made the necessary repairs. Once the snowman had a significantly pudgy face, we resumed our attack.

7. Crash!
Okay, this is more of a SLED impact than a snowball impact, but it definitely belongs in the top ten. After pulling Hunter around the house a couple of times, he asked me to pull the sled directly into the snowman — with him in it. After assessing the potential of injury with this stunt, I asked Hunter, “Are you sure?” He quickly nodded his head, “Yeah!” We lined up the sled as best we could, and we were off. I ran right at the snowman, moving to the side at the last second. CRUNCH! The sled, which went up in the air a little bit, actually got stuck in the snowman’s lower third and needed to be pried out. Hunter laughed and smiled throughout the whole ordeal. In fact, I don’t remember why we didn’t make another attempt. Oh well.

6. Have a Cigar
This was one of my best throws (I think). The carrot nose had fallen off several times during the course of the afternoon. One of these hilarious incidents is detailed in the top five. Before getting to that, I’ll write about my well-aimed throw that connected, literally, right on the nose. I wasn’t throwing excessively hard, but this throw of mine was the straw that broke the camel’s back — as the snow dust cleared, we noticed that the carrot had split in two. One part of it was still in the correct place, but the other part had fallen to the ground. Uncle Dan quickly found a quick and easy repair solution — the snowman had a smaller nose AND a cigar next to his mouth (which, by the way, was made of pine tree leaves).

5. The Tommy I “Super Size” Throw
As we continued to pelt the snowman, we noticed that my dad’s throws, though not as fast as Eric or Dan’s, made a more significant impact when they connected. A bit of careful observation showed us the cause — Dad was heaving softball-sized projectiles, and doing it rather well! We all joined in the foray, throwing the occasional grapefruit. The battle damage was extreme. 🙂

4. The Arm-Splitter
Causing a carrot to break in two is one thing — Uncle Dan one-upped that accomplishment when one of his blazing-fast snowballs split the snowman’s left arm into two pieces. Ouch. One would expect the entire arm to just fall out of the snowman’s body. It must have been well-embedded, because after this throw, the arm was still stuck there — half of it, anyway.

3. The Blurred Face
What happens when someone with the power to break wood with compacted snow happens to throw said snow in the perfect spot on the snowman’s face? SPLAT! Uncle Dan connected with a snowball somewhere in the mouth/nose area, and it caused EVERY facial feature to fall to the ground. Two eyes of coal, a carrot nose, the pine mouth, the cigar, and the hat all flew off. Our snowman suddenly had no face at all. Time to rebuild again!

2. Put It Back Where It Belongs
This was far the funniest moment of the entire day. One of our early throws knocked the carrot to the ground. When Hunter saw this, he immediately ran over to the snowman, planning to fix the situation. We obviously stopped throwing at this point — and I began walking toward Hunter, planning to lift him up so that he could repair the nose. Hunter, however, decided to do it all himself. He placed the carrot in the snowman perfectly — well, except that it was a bit low. So, the carrot wasn’t sticking out of the snowman’s face anymore. It was… uh… somewhere else. Hunter moved away from the snowman so that we could resume throwing, but we were all laughing too hard. We laughed even harder when we saw Grandpa Milt peering outside from the living room window. His “what’s going on out there?” look said it all, and it made us laugh even harder. Grandpa Milt eventually walked out on to the porch with a bit of advice for us:
“Someone better put that carrot back where it belongs.”
Hey, it wasn’t our fault — Hunter was the one who put it there. And it was obviously a representation of the snowman’s bellybutton. Yeah, that’s it. 🙂

1. The Throw to End All Throws
We were all getting a little bit tired, but we were enjoying this little game too much to quit. I can’t remember the last time so many of us in the family were together and having this kind of fun. However, when Eric made the throw to end all throws, we knew we were done. Eric hit the snowman with a speeding bullet right between the eyes. The force of the blow caused the snowman’s head to lean back and separate from the snowman’s body. The snowman paused for a moment… as if looking toward the heavens… right before his head CRASHED to the ground. So, call it whatever you like — the decapitator, the clock-cleaner, whatever — I’ll always call it the throw to end all throws.

We quickly rolled a new head for the snowman and fixed him up as good as new before calling it a day. Good clean family fun — there’s nothing quite like it.

That’s how I felt on Monday night after spending over two hours on a treadmill. I successfully completed a half marathon! I ran about 12 miles at a pace of 9:22/mile. After that, I slowed down the treadmill to a steady walk for a couple of minutes to regain enough strength to complete the rest of the distance (13.1 miles total). I haven’t run since then, but I’ll probably do a few miles sometime tomorrow.

Things are looking good for me to continue training and run a marathon sometime in October. The Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon is on Sunday, October 2, and the Chicago Marathon is on Sunday, October 9. There’s also one in Portland around the same time.

MILWAUKEE
Pro: Not too many people.
Con: Not super-exciting.

CHICAGO
Pro: Lots of excitement and tons of people cheering you on.
Con: Tons of people running alongside you.

PORTLAND
Pro: Amazing scenery.
Con: Lots of hills.

Right now, I’m leaning towards the Milwaukee Marathon because it’s the closest. We’ll see if my opinion changes in the next few weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts as well!

Jenelle here..

We live in a pretty quiet complex that is literally filled to the brim with old people (And not cool old people like my grandma, just boring old people hooked on bingo) so when we find out that new people move in, we typically are pretty eager to learn more about them. And to spy in their windows to see how they’ve decorated their kitchen. But that’s beside the point…

Our newest neighbors came in the form of a car lot. One day we had a beautiful forested lot to gaze out upon, and the next day nothing but rows and rows of Hyundais. (Did I mention it is currently a GM Sell-abration at our other neighboring car lot?)

That’s right — now we have car lots to the north and east, a national guard base and maximum security prison to our south, and public storage to the west. We’re a realtor’s dream.

I don’t really mind the car lot(s) next door. I’m perfectly comfortable wandering around the house naked knowing that only a 2005 Elantra will be looking back at me. The thing that intrigues me most about the dealership is their choice of music. It’s always of the elevator music variety, never anything top 40, and always really loud.

As I pulled into the driveway after work today, Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” wafted over. And I started thinking about what an ironic song that was for a car dealership.

If I Could Turn Back Time… cars wouldn’t lose half their value the second they’re driven off the lot

If I Could Turn Back Time… Nobody would buy a Hyundai.

If I Could Turn Back Time.. all these pre-owned cars would be shiny and new

If I Could Turn Back Time .. I would have bought this lot and preserved the beauty of the forest. Or at least built something useful. Like a Starbucks.

The basketball game tonight was a lot of fun. We only lost by two points. And I was whistled for a technical foul. That’s right, a technical foul. I’ll share that story in a few days, but for now, I’d like to have a little guessing game. In the comments entry, post what *you* think is the reason why a technical foul was called on me. Good luck!

And make sure to read the first two parts of the snow day story below — part three coming soon!