New Year's Eve In the "Hood"

New Year's Eve Party at Bernie's House

Tony & Becky stopped by Mike Cramer's home for cocktails...they then proceeded to Mr Bern's house across the street for a fun and exciting New Year's Eve Party.

90% of the people attending this party was related to Andrew. Andrew's parents had a fun time singing Karaoke while the rest of the clan played cards and shot pool

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hoping that Bernie will have a fast recovery so that he can start attending some of his parties in the future.

Christmas Eve 2008

Jim & Pam's Xmas Eve Christmas Party

Jim & Pam hosted a fun and exciting "Hood" Christmas party on December 23rd at their home. It was attended by the majority of the hood-Dave, Jackie, Maddie, Jessica, Tony, Becky, Al, Traci, Josh, Tray, Cameron, Bernie, Danny, and other friends-

The rarely seen Mister Mike also attended

Our former hood kids drove from Indy to be part of the festivities- Billy, Andrew and Nicky

And of course of wonderful host and hostess - Jim and Pam Flannagan

Lots of food was served, cards were played and good time was had by all

Driving Conditions

On December 22nd, many of the hood members had a hard time getting home due to extreme icy conditions.

However, our wonderful network of friends and neighbors kept in constant contact until everyone made it home. (Mike, Stella and Jackie were burning up the phone lines.)

Becky was stuck in traffic on highway 40 for over five hours. At one point, Dave Buchanan called her and said that he was on St Rd 42...just miles from home. One hour later he called her again and said "We are not getting home tonight". State Road 42 was "closed down". He soon found out that State Road 243 was also closed. A very persistent Dave kept trying different routes until he was finally able to get through.

After Becky talked to Dave she turned around and headed back to Plainfield. She spent the night at her parent's home that had been winterized (they are in Florida)...that means it was very cold and had no water.

The three most unlucky hood members were stuck on 70 and 243 until 6:00 am. Jim, Bernie and Al spent the night in their car, but safely arrived home the next day.

Can't we all just move to California?

Spaghetti Night - December 19th

Spaghetti Night was held on December 19th. Mike, Tony and Becky were in attendance.

The special was barbecue ribs, with a salad, baked beans and french fries.



Mr Cramer talked about life on the farm in Kansas....taking baths in the horse trough, eating homemade bread with freshly picked radishes and life with Grandma.



Tony asked Judy (the pie maker) if she could bake him a chocolate cream pie for the next day. (He is celebrating Xmas with his nieces.)

Judy immediately went in the kitchen and started making his pie. Life is good!

NEWS ALERT! Spaghetti Night Update

SPECIAL ALERT

Dawn at Cook's Corner just called and said that she is not having the Barbecue Ribs tonight. She is afraid that due to bad weather she may have to close early.

Barbecue Ribs has been rescheduled for Friday night. She is having baked chicken tonight---unless she goes home. . . then Dawn will be having baked chicken with her family...the hood will go hungry.

Driving Conditions

I love the hood

Love my neighbors

Love the lake

Love the rural setting

Hate the winter drive to work!

Took me three hours to get home last night.

Stella's Birthday Breakfast

Jessica, Jackie, Stella, Tony, Becky and Dave

Though Miss Stella initially forgot about her Birthday breakfast....she quickly dressed and was ready to party. She said the day before her girlfriends took her out to lunch at "Almost Home" in Greencastle,,,,so Stella has had a big weekend.

HAPPY 97th!!!! MISS STELLA,

FROM THE HOOD

Spaghetti Night - December 16th Cancelled

Due to conflicting schedules the Mexican "spaghetti" night has been cancelled on December 16th. It has been rescheduled for December 23rd.

Please mark your calendars!

Miss Stella's Birthday

We are meeting at the Cook's Corner this coming Sunday at 9:00 (December 14th) to celebrate Miss Stella's 97th Birthday.

Hope everyone can come!

Spaghetti Night - December 16, 2008

Now we are really mixing it up! Jackie suggested we have "spaghetti night" in Greencastle at her favorite Mexican Restaurant. Margaritas are only $1.99. Yippee!

However, we have to meet on December 16th as this is the only day they have the $1.99 drink special.

I'm there!

Hope everyone can come.

Jackie - can you post the directions or address? (Remember that you are suppose to be the other author on this blog! HA!)

Spaghetti Night - December 10th, 2008

Spaghetti night was held at Cook's Corner. The special was Meatloaf, corn, salad/soup and rolls.

A special announcement was made at the meeting. Bernie said that he would stop smoking on February 7th. All present agreed, so this idea was passed with a unanimous decision.

Bernie discussed his up and coming visit to the hospital. He explained why it was very important that he get this surgery. Apparently if he doesn't --- it might be more comfortable for him to wear a skirt than pants. (We will all be sending our best thoughts to Bernie on his big day. We are all wishing Bernie the quickest of recoveries. )




The night ended with everyone telling a funny "Danny" story.

A good time was had by all.

Spaghetti night was adjourned and is scheduled for our regular time next Thursday.

Special Counsel Meeting Held

A special counsel meeting was held tonight (by telephone) to discuss a one-time only change to spaghetti night. Due to Mr. Bern's upcoming date with a couple of nurses on Thursday; three of the core members decided to reschedule spaghetti night to this coming Wednesday. Since we had a quorum there was no need to get the fourth member's approval.



However, Bernie is to call Mike to tell him of the change.

Winter 2008

It started out as one of those "kind of days". Much too cold to go outside! What to do?

However soon fate would decide our schedule. The electricity went off. In the country, the electricity goes off anytime there is a slight breeze. On the second hour of no electricity, we decided that maybe it was as cold outside as inside. So I started calling my friends to see who was willing to play outside.

.......I called Miss Stella. She decided that she would climb back into bed, cover up and wait out the electrical shortage.

.......We then called Bernie. He was at Jim’s house picking up some wood to put in his fireplace to stay warm.

.......Mike drove by, but never stopped. Rumor is that he was going to drive around in his warm truck until the lights came back on.

What did we decide to do? Brave the cold. We bundled up and went out knee-boarding. Yes I think this actually confirms that we are hillbillies. We didn’t discriminate --- we gave all the neighbors a good, old fashioned "YARD JOB". We stopped sledding after Tony swerved me into a tree---"head on". I was able to take the brunt of the force by holding my hands straight out….the only problem is that my arms are several inches shorter. Ouch!

Who was brave enough to battle the weather. We saw Tray actually riding his bike. We talked to Mr. Kenny, who stayed outside twenty minutes without gloves. (Probably is in the hospital with frost bite.)




Miss Maddy was making snow angles and Miss Jessica was making a snow dragon.

We then decided to go to the lake to feed our old pal "lucky ducky". Unfortunately for "Lucky" the cataract lake seagulls came to town cleaning up Lucky’s scraps.

Much to our surprise a young lady started walking down the hill. Who could this be? It was "Miss Breezy". As much as I tried to get her to let us take her home --- she declined. She may still be on the hill --- frozen.

Then we saw Mr. Dave who also decided to take a little trip to see "Lucky Ducky". Can you see why we call her "Lucky"? Very special gal!

Al and Tray also got out their ATV and Mr. Tray went sledding.

We then decided it was much too cold to be outside. When it is faster to chill the beer by putting it outside than in the refrigerator---it’s too cold. Think I'll turn on my electric blanket and crawl back into bed.

Spaghetti Night - December 4th 2008

Weekly spaghetti night was held at our favorite restaurant again last night -- "The Cook's Corner" located in Poland, Indiana.

Unfortunately, only the three core members attended. Mr Mike Cramer, Tony Harris and his wife Becky.

Discussions included the improvement of Jim's health. According to Mike, Jim is now up and about. Leaving the house, going to the store etc... This is very good news.

There was much discussion about a tray of cookies that was positioned opposite our table. Mike finally made Becky eat one of the cookies...before dinner was served. (Becky's mother would be very disappointed.)

We had pork tenderloin, with mashed potatoes, green beans and soup/salad. It was delicious.

Pizza Party Derailed

We had planned on having a pizza party at Bernie's house on November 29th....the only problem was that Bernie wasn't home. He went duck hunting. (Bernie--next time we plan a party at your house it would be nice if you showed up!)

We moved the party to the Flannagan's house instead. Al was kind enough to pick up the pizzas.

Tony, Becky, Dave, Jackie and Miss Jessica then continued the party late into the night at the Harris home. We drank a lot of beer. (I have a little headache today. Really a "big" headache.)

It was mentioned that Dave had a nasty cut on his head. No problem---nurse Jessica bandaged him up and he was all better.

Day After Thanksgiving

As everyone knows, Thursday night is "Spaghetti Night". We don't always eat spaghetti, but we always get together. Since everyone spent time with their "real" families on Thanksgiving...we met on Friday at the "Cooks Corner".

Tony was deer hunting so he couldn't attend, but the regulars Mike and Bernie showed up. Former "Hood" kids that attended were Billy, Nicky and Andrew. (These are our older "hood" kids that have left the security of the "hood" for life in the big city. We love and miss them.)

Andrew ate his standard "Heart Attack on a Plate".

....

Jim's Recovery

On November 18th, the President of the hood, James Flannagan, went to Methodist Hospital to have major surgery. Tray Flannagan was made temporary President in James absense.

The Good News...is that all went well and he is back home and is acting as our founder once again. He is very sore, but feels good and is up and about.

All our prayers were answered!

Halloween

Here are pictures of the "Hood" kids on Halloween.

And Miss Jackie!

Todd & Miss Lacie

Todd and Miss Lacie tooling around the "Hood" in their golf cart