It's Raining Again

Ha! That one's for Chrissy.

For the longest time most of my posts had song references in them, if not in the title. And they were often in the title.

But the point here is that this has been the wettest first 6 months of the year on record here. Which hasn't been a problem for us, as we're at least 60' above the nearest creek.

However, we've had some water leak into the basement. Which is finished. So it gets in the carpeting.

It's not huge amounts. But man, it takes forever to dry, even after you suck as much water up as you can with the carpet cleaner vac. Last time (like 2 weeks ago) it took about 5 days to dry completely. The smell's not good. Musty. It really bothers Vicki. I'm not elated about it myself.

This only happens when it rains A LOT. But I think I've figured out what is causing the "pressure" that's findint the weak spot. Could be a combination. The discharge from the sump pump is probably too close to the house. And this morning I found that back gutter full of pine needles. The gutter ends right where the backslope from the front of the house meets the hip that makes up the roof for the back of the house. The gutter runs along that hip. And the leak... the leak in the basement is pretty much right below that junction. Since the gutter isn't taking the water my guess is that it's gushing down that valley and dropping on the ground right below that, leaving a LOT of water that needs to drain away from the house ... but apparently can't do it fast enough.

I must've missed that back gutter when I cleaned them last fall.

So we've got fans going full blast down here drying it out. I'm going to make an underground discharge pipe for the sump pump outside this weekend, and also make a PVC riser... so we don't have to use so much flimsy sump pump hose. It wiggles and vibrates and gets holes in it to easily, and the weight tends to pull the hose back into the area under the house, drawing the end of the hose closer and closer to the house over time. It's been known to get pulled all the way inside. And that's not good.

Trenton Shot!

Vicki bought Trenton a "Baby Einstein" playmat. With animals and a big blinky sun that plays songs and all kinds of things to look at. He's not to the point of actually playing with things yet, but things catch his attention. Hasn't quite figured out the "I can control things outside of myself" yet. Well, other than adults. Who feed and comfort. You get to wish which one he wants at any given time. The women are better at telling the difference. Mommy & Daddy have a different mat that has different stuff. He loves them.

We went out to dinner (adults only!) with Brian and Kristin (Mommy & Daddy) to D. Rowe's last night. Three of us had the fish and chips. I always get the malt vinegar with it. Brian had the cob salad. It's important, I think, for parents to get a few moments of adult time from time to time -- especially moms who are basically with the baby ALL. THE. TIME.

Good dinner. Ok, one more pic. Nice to just talk to them about ... whatever. Norway. Swimming pool management.

Summer Float 08

The Hard-Core Four went on the summer float last weekend. Left Friday morning for the Alley Spring Campground, and filled Skyler (Molly's replacement -- that's Kristie's car) to the gills with the grammy bags on top. They hold most of the actual camping equipment.

We were there by 1:00 or so in the afternoon, got camp set up, and then went down to sit in the Jack's Fork River in the shade with a few brewskies on a beautiful, hot, sunny afternoon.

By 3:30 or so, a thunderstorm peeked over the ridge and we headed back to the campsite. It started to rain shortly before we got there. The rainfall was moderate, but we were able to avoid most of the raindrops by staying under the larger trees and didn't have to retreat to a tent. The lightning stayed distant.

We started a fire to make a good bed of coals for cooking, and Kristie got busy doing BBQ chicken after the bed developed. We just stuck the cans of beans on the grill, open, to heat up. She had also brought a lovely potato salad. Needless to say, dinner was very good.

We had paid for the canoes when we got in to Eminence, and picked up some ice. I also got a sized pair of river shoes -- the ones I'd gotten back in Columbia were merely "large" and too big.

In the morning we had Kristie's traditional pancakes along with bacon and Vicki's boiled eggs. I boiled water with my Heinekeg alcohol stove for coffee, and we went to get picked up for our river dropoff at 8:30 am -- our earliest pickup since we've been going with them.

We were on the river a little after 9:00 am and headed for "the chute" which is only a half mile down the river. It's a sharp bend with a "chute" of water that starts at the bend that you can float on your noodles and ride the current. Then you get out... and do it again. Kind of like a dog chasing a ball. We'd brought the springfloat floaty things for the girls, but it turned out they preferred the noodles and Ryan and I liked the spring floaty things.
After several runs Ryan noticed a Midland Water Snake sunning on a willow root in the water at the beginning of the chute. They're non-venomous ... but at that point Vicki was done with the chute. She's ... not a snake person. I had to do one more run past the formidible 12" monster just because. We continued down river to a gravel bank with a nice swimming hole on the outside bend and just settled down to be outside on the beautiful river, in the shade ... swim ... whatever.

A few groups went by. Nobody was obnoxious. There was a buzzing coming from the woods behind us ... it was a bunch of bees pollinating wild grape vines. And about 11:30 we got a fire going using flint & steel & the vasaline-cottonball method. Got the grilliput out and cooked some dogs about noon. And of course, chips. And cheese cubes.

We headed out again after another dip (we didn't wait an hour, either. shhhhhh!!!!) and found other gravel banks and swimming holes. Float. Swim. Dry. Swim. Float. Later in the afternoon we ran across some paddlefish -- a little unexpected -- in a deep hole maybe 10-15 feet deep. Two of them were about 4-5 feet long, and the other three were 2-3 feet. There were some people jumping off of a large rock by the pool. It didn't seem to bother the fish. We got the noodles and the floaty things out and cruised over the fish and just generally relaxed and talked. Eventually I had to jump off the rock before moving on. I cannonballed in to the 7' hole and we continued to the next inviting gravel bar.

We dragged bottom a few times, but only had to get out once where a tree had completely blocked all but a very shallow portion of the river and it was JUST shallow enough that you couldn't make it through.

I think this was the most fun we've had on the actual float. Part of it was because we got to spend more of the day on it. I think part of it was because we were able to plan the day better. I'd brought the GPS and just left it on the whole time, so we knew where we were on the river at all times. It's only a 7 mile float (6.8, to be more accurate) and our moving time worked out to be 2 and a half hours. Meaning you can basically fiddle-fart around on that float and as long as you've made some progress you're not far from the end if you're really just "done" and want to go back to camp. We stretched the day out well.

Went back to camp and Kristie & Vicki made up the poor boy packs and threw them on the coals of the fire. Dinner was good. Then when it got dark, s'mores. Ryan & Kristie crashed a bit after nine. Vicki and I made it to about 10:00.

Then in the morning the sad breakdown and breakfast at Ruby's T&T. And off to home.

The drive back is always quieter than the drive there. But we talked off and on. And then took the wet stuff out, cleaned the tent footprint tarp. And it was all over.

Praise Mary

I got off work today, got to my bike, and the rear tire was flat. Because this has happened before, I carry a can that has "fix a flat" stuff in it that at least partially inflates the tire. I dug it out, and it worked to some extent. It was pretty messy. The tire wasn't fully inflated. But it was enough to get home.

When I got home, I needed to run to the store. I changed out of my biking clothes and looked for my wallett. It wasn't there. It wasn't in my pants. It wasn't in my bag. I remembered it wasn't in my pocket earlier in the day.

I searched the bedroom, took a cursory glance around the kitchen where my stuff would've been this morning when I was getting ready to go. Down by the computer. On the coffee table. Nothing.

Dang. Did it pop out of my bag on the way home? I didn't zip it back up after I got the fix a flat stuff out. Maybe it came out at work when I was loading the bag.

I drove back to work ... most of the driving route is the same as my riding route. I didn't see it. Looked in my office. Not there.

I drove home through the part of my route that goes through campus. Nada. Vicki called. "Did you find it?"

"No."

I got home. We looked fairly thoroughly all over the house. Still no sign of it.

The phone rang.

It was a lady named Mary who had found my wallett by the Newman Center on campus.

Dumb me.

I drove to her place, where she gave me my wallett and I thanked her profusely and handed her a $20 out of it. It didn't seem like enough.

Thank the Lord there are honest people like Mary in the world.

I really need to be more careful.

I went to Walmart to get a few things, including some real anti-flat goo for my tire.

I ran into Gary Godsy. Hadn't seen him in a while. We stood and gabbed for a while. Discussed the midnight fireworks from the Laurie Wedding saturday night (thought that was a bit rude ... couldn't they have done it at 10? Woke us from a dead sleep, and we heard continuous explosions. I didn't know what was going on until I went outside, sans assault rifle, and talked to the neighbors while we saw fireworks over the trees at the end of Bluegrass Ct. Daryl said it was probalby Paige Laurie's wedding. We'd read something about her being registered somewhere in the newspaper so we knew she was getting married sometime soon. Made sense.

I went back to bed and waited for the display of wealth to subside.

We went to Ray & Charlotte's 50th anniversary party Friday evening out at the Elks (I have to wonder how long Paige's marriage will last). There were no pyrotechnics. A few fireworks in their eyes, though. They are a very loved couple. 200 people there. A slideshow of well over 600 photos chronicling their life together played.

The DJ had a mixing board that was made for, and had -- two IPods plugged into it. How times have changed since my Bro Mark used to DJ events with vinyl records.

Saturday we cleaned house a bit ... I applied fungicide to a wet spot on the basement carpet in the basement that got wet due to a sump pump drain malfunction. It's still not dry, and I really sucked it dry with the carpet cleaner and have had a fan on it ever since. It's getting there. Anyway, we went to an annual BBQ picnic/party out at the Coats' place in the evening. It was a very, very pretty evening. They have a nice place out toward the river where they raise and board horses in a large barn (we were also at the barn-raising party) and raise alpacas and make things out of alpaca fur.

The zoysia plugs finally got here. I planted them thursday evening before the last rain. A few of them are starting to wake up. I'm putting it in the area between the sidewalk and the street where nothing will grow. There are a few clumps of grass, some lespedesia, and a lot of dirt. Later in the summer it'll be hard, cracked dirt with clumps of dried grass. In the winter, it's mud.

Hopefully the zoysia will take over and thrive in the heat. If it's brown in the winter, who cares? At least it won't be mud. And it should look nice in the summer from now on.

It's been raining a lot this spring -- it's been the wettest 6 months here on record since January. I have the veggies out in the garden, but they haven't done much yet due to the wet and clouds... and the shade from the trees in the yard.

Went out to dinner at Angelo's with Kristin, Pam, and Trenton Monday evening. Trenton was in a good mood and well behaved. Brian's in Norway with the Marines.

He loves Norway.

Grass

It's been a very wet spring.

We have this strip of ... well, supposedly "lawn" between the sidewalk and the curb that gets baked in the afternoon sun. It has a few patchy bits of bluegrass in it, and what looks like some lespedesia. And dirt. Mostly, it's the dirt.

In the wintertime when it's wet and above freezing, it's mud. In the summertime, it's depressing hard baked dirt with a few clumps of dried grass and weeds sticking up from it.

So for a few years I've been threatening to plant zoysia grass there. It digs heat. Sun. Does well in drought. grows to choke out everything in its path, and generally forms a nice carpet of green in the summertime no matter how hot and dry it gets.

From November through early May it's likely to be straw-colored. But big deal. It's mud colored now. How is that any better?

I ordered some back on April 21, and it showed up yesterday. If it had shown up a month ago, it'd be quite well established, as -- and I mentioned this at the beginning -- we've had a wet spring.

Fortunately for me, the forecast for last night and today was for rain, and rain all day today. (It's not so fortunate for farmers who are having trouble getting into their fields this year to plant -- or people who live along the river). Anyway, I planted the strip out front last night with plugs, and the rain has come, as promised. Hopefully, that'll settle it in nicely and it'll start taking off over the next few weeks.

I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

The Latest Trenton

Just 'cause ... you know... cute and all.

A Short Sprint

Now where was I?

Oh, yes, Aunt Pat and Kaity came to visit ... they got here a couple of Monday nights ago ... so it's been quite some time since I've posted, eh? They stayed for a couple of days and we did a lot of visiting and they went off to Uncle Eddie's.

Usually it's Tom & Betty who put together some ethnic themed dinner for Mothers'/Fathers' day. This time Jeff, Joel, and I put it together. Tom & Betty had their 25th anniversary that week, and Mom thought it would be nice if we did a Hawaii theme for them as they had planned to go there for their 25th but couldn't.

I cooked a pork butt for the Luau party at Mom & Dad's, and a big loin on Friday night. Made pulled pork and a peach/ginger bbq loin. Jeff whipped up Hawaiian fried rice in the wok right out on the porch on saturday. And Joel and Dawn brought a tropical fruit salad and The Margarator™ and made Piña Coladas. Uncle Eddie & "Aunt Pat 'Missouri'" came with cousin Cierra, Aunt Pat and Kaity were there, as well as Julie and Guy. Quite a crowd. Jeff and I helped re-attach some flashing that had blown off the side of the house during a storm. I got to shoot Jeff's Mighty .22 and his tiny .22 magnum. We also popped a few rounds off with the Kel-Tek and the Walther .22.

Then we took off Sunday to get the Godchildren Cassie & Q from Kim's mom who was babysitting them until then while Mark & Cami went to get Cami's mom from California to move her to KC.

I took them to the YouZeum on Monday. I thought they might be a little bored. I'd never been there. It just opened. But we got there around 1:30 and they closed it down. We were there until 5:00, and I would have left any time they were ready. It was an interesting place.

Monday night we found out that Mark & Cami had done some long haul driving and gotten back two days earlier than expected. We had originally planned to have the kids until Friday. I took them to the pool on Tuesday. But when they talked tuesday night to Mark & Cami it was clear that Nathanial (Q) missed them terribly and couldn't stand the fact that they were home and he was not and he hadn't seen them in almost a week. Cassie wanted to stay until Friday, but she gave in to her little brother and I took them back today. Mark met me in Concordia, making my drive about two and a half hours shorter. That was nice of him, especially after having driven 4.000 miles in the last week.

And now its back to us two.

Home Maintenance

It's spring. Just about summer. And we've actually done some cleaning. I did some carpet cleaning last weekend. Also re-stained the deck, and converted the bird bath over to the summer configuration. In the summertime, I have a modified trash can with a filter basket sitting in a hole in the top ... there's a water pump in the bottom, and I have an overflow with a chute from the bird bath that empties into it. This keeps the water moving in the bird bath to keep mosquitoes from breeding in it, plus it keeps the water filtered and increases the effective volume of water in the bird bath. I even have it hooked up to the automatic watering system on the deck to keep the reservoir full.

I got some hanging plants from Strawberry Hill Nursery, and put the plants from last summer that have been kept alive in "the cave" over the winter out there, plus those that wintered in the living room. Oh, and I got the vegetable garden planted and tarpapered over to keep the weeds down. I need to get the auto-irrigation system all hooked up yet for both the garden and the deck plants.

This weekend we put a sil on the top of the half-wall at the top of the stairs. Vicki touched up paint all over the hallway and kitchen. I repaired one of the hanging lamps in the kitchen, and hacked back the grape vine.

We also managed to squeeze in dinner at Murry's this week with the Williams, and babysat for Trenton Friday night. I think we'll be seeing him again tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be a little happier than he was friday night. The kid was tired but he refused to go to sleep until physiolgoy gave him no choice.

Looking forward to Aunt Pat and Kaity coming to visit tomorrow evening. Going out to Mom & Dad's on Saturday for the Mothers/Fathers day shindig and a general family get-together with Aunt Pat and Kaity. Then Sunday go pick up Cassie & Q to stay here a few days while Mama & Papa go get Grandma Lee from California and move her to Kansas City.

Yeah, it's busy around here.

Which of the Four Seasons?

Heard some folks joking around on the radio... someone asking what "Cumin" was, and the reply was "it's a seasoning". "Well which of the four seasons is it?"

Because I'm a bit twisted, I thought "Was it Frankie Valli, Tommy DiVito, Nick Massi, or Bob Gaudio?

I know. Baaaad pun. Shhh. Hey, "C". Big girls don't cry!

Liquid Nails for Shoes

I have repaired shoes many times over the years using lots of different adhesives, including the famous "Shoe Goo".

I repair lots of stuff. I have kind of a McGyver reputation. I hate buying new stuff if the old stuff will do, especially if replacing the old stuff with new stuff requires a significant amount of money.

I have a nice pair of shoes I like, but the sole material kept coming loose, beginning to peel off the softer sole material at the toe. And I cleaned it with alcohol and used Shoe Goo three times trying to fix it.

Each time, within a few days the bond broke down and the peeling started again.

I don't know when I first discovered Liquid Nails for Subflooring. The name itself has a high grunt factor. Subflooring. Something that contractors talk about. It's tough. It's strong. It's not pretty. We cover the sub-floor with pretty stuff like carpet and Pergo and linoleum. (I'll give hardwood a break... it's about as tough as subflooring. But not quite as rough and rugged.)

I've used it to glue boards to a concrete wall to hang tools from. I even used it to attach a board to a concrete wall to attach a hand rail for a staircase. That's what kind of bond you can get with this stuff.

And each time I tried repairing the shoe, I thought "I should be using Liquid Nails for Subflooring."

I'd even looked at Lowes for it, but I couldn't find it.

Well it turns out I couldn't find it 'cause I'm a guy. And guys look for key shapes and colors when they're looking for things. Since all of it is the same shape, I was looking for a color. Not reading the words on the label, really, unless I thought the color was close enough.

Turns out they changed the color on the lablel for the Sub-Flooring mixture to green. I found it last time I looked (after ALMOST giving up).

I bought it. Cleaned the rubber on the shoes again. And applied it.

After it dried, I colored it with a black permanent marker to make it blend in with the rest of the rubber.

That da*ned rubber ain't goin' nowhere. In 10 million years, after the rest of the shoe has rotted away... the Liquid Nails for Sub-Flooring will probably still be there.

Heat Pumpage

The heat pump is officially replaced. I also had a whole house humidifier added. 13 SEER, non-freon, and q-u-i-e-t. Vicki's going to love that last part.

House still smells a little like chemicals. I know it's wierd to get excited about HVAC. But I guess that's part of being an adult. :-/ Hey, it's GOOD to be excited about something you just dropped six and a half grand on.

Indiana Wants Me

Went up to Fort Wayne to pick Vicki's mom up for Mothers' Day, her birthday, and Trenton's baptism.

Pretty uneventful trip. I did notice the old sign for the old Ramada in Effingham from when it was Keller's, discarded out between the hotel parking lot and the gas station parking lot. That was a very significant landmark over the years in our travels back and forth to Indiana, or just meeting in the middle to send the kids to stay with Papa & Grammy for a week or two, or to pick them up after a visit. We used to eat lunch there at Thelma's restaurant.

There were birthday dinners and a birthday lunch during the week. I started riding my bicycle to work again. But Wednesday after work I came out to a flat tire and Vicki had to pick me up. Then Thursday was the guitar lesson. Friday lunch with the Unraths. I fixed the tire. And monday/tuesday this week we drove Mom back home. And yesterday and this morning the new heat pump is being installed. Plus I'm having an integrated humidifier put in for the whole house. That'll be nice.

Kevin came out Saturday evening sans Angela, who was on call this weekend. So I didn't get the big family pic taken. He went out with a childhood friend and hit a few bars that night. Sunday we went down to Warsaw for Trenton's baptism and stayed for a BBQ lunch at the Carletons' place. Nice group of people. We really like them.

Trenton slept through most of the church service until maybe 10-15 minutes before it was time to be doused. He was NOT happy about the dousing. I was struck by the ... church-inappropriate dress that many people wore, and the general lack of control a lot of parents have over their kids. Even the acolite wore dirty old tennis shoes.One young woman who sat in front of us (apparently oblivious to the "reserved" seating for the baptism) had her two kids running all over, making noise, messing with the candle lighter, and just generally being distracting. At one point the mother bent over and revealed the tattoo on the small of her back and the tag of her underwear. It was hard not to laugh. Kevin and I looked at each other. I know... we're supposed to be happy that they're there at all. But I wonder. Are you really "there" if you aren't prepared and in the proper mindset of respectfulness & decorum?

That being said, I'd say the majority of people there were dressed ok and behaved.

Yesterday I took my GPS apart to try to fix it's little problem with horizontal lines across the display. I've been able to "fix" it by rapping it against my hand when it does this for the last few years, but it was getting worse. It seems better except that now the very top of the screen seems to have the problem permanently now. I want an HCX one anyway.... hmmmm.

It didn't help matters that when we were coming back from Indiana, I was apparently whizzing by the airport just a little TOO fast and got pulled over for my second-ever speeding ticket. I'm usually paying more attention than that. This is a wide section of highway -- "Super 70" -- that they've basically made two separate multi-lane highways each way with ample shoulders that handles the traffic there. And NO on/off access in the section we were on. I've seen pretty narrow stretches of 70 where the speed limit is 70. But here, it's 55 for some strange reason. Oh well. Lesson learned. I imagine it's a great revenue source for Marion county.

Fired Up For Spring

Ryan and I peeled off almost 1,000 rounds of 9mm ammo at a tactical self-defense training course last saturday. My hands hurt, because I was shooting relatively big ammo out of a relatively small pistol. We shot right and left handed, both handed, used baracades as protection -- leaned out from the left and the right and landed shots on steel targets. In a course like this you basically learn where your weaknesses are ... so you know what you need to work on, and the instructors let you know how to go about it.

Apparently Scott is involved in a program with the local police department where he goes and helps the policemen train. He plays a bad guy in live scenarios where he has to act out certain parts. They use real guns with fake, paintball ammo. They apparently hurt. And, being a bad guy, Scott gets to fire back sometimes. I think it's pretty cool. Anything to help the good guys win. Maybe if Molly Bowden had had more training like this ... perhaps things would have turned out differently. Maybe this will help protect the next "Molly".

Scott joined us for an overnight walkabout to "#17" -- a spot Ryan and I frequented a couple of years ago. We chose it because it's relatively near some good morel mushroom hunting grounds. Realistically, though, I didn't think we'd be spending much time mushroom hunting as we'd all have 40 lbs strapped to our backs and it was probably going to be raining in the morning. We did a little. Scott and Ryan found several. I found only one. I'm not very good at it.

There was plenty of downed dead wood for a fire, and we used ye olde magnesium & flint method on some cedar bark to get it going. We brought packets of vegetables and cornish game hens. The game hens were still a bit frozen when we got them out so we thawed them on one of the grilliputs while we gathered more fuel and basically shot the bull. By the time we thawed them and cooked them it was 11:30 pm. But no biggie. It's just generally fun to shoot the breeze around a campfire in the woods at night with a flask of whiskey.

Sunday Vicki and I went to see little Trenton for a couple of hours. He spent most of it sleeping, but that's ok. I got a little grandpa time again.

Monday at work we went to a co-worker's house for a "meeting" where he showed off his homemade brick oven where he bakes bread and pizza. We all made our own pizzas. It was a lot of fun. And they were good. Richard and I apparently share the same taste in Jazz, so we listened to some Bill Evans and Sonny Stitt through it all. I was also fascinated by the oven. Kinda wish I had one. An oven you build a fire in. Pretty neat. It was 840 degrees in there.

Vicki and I went to the Elks for "Washee" Monday after work and had a burger there. And Tuesday morning while thoroughly cleaning the grilliput I found out that I was missing a cross-bar ... one of the specialized ones with the threads and the crooked end. If you're going to lose one, those two aren't the ones you can get by without. Kind of integral to the structure.

So when I mentioned it to Vicki, she suggested we take off early Tuesday afternoon and hike in and find it. I knew excactly where it should be. It was a very pretty day (the various flower pictures are from that hike). We could both use the exercise and the time together, so we went. We spent a very nice hour or so in the woods, and the cross-piece was right where I expected it to be, really no worse for wear.

Then it was back home for leftover pizza and Jeff Corwin's "America's West". Ok, I'll admit it, I sat through an episode of "The Bachelor" with Vicki first. ;-)

Springtime

Spring has sprung. The pear trees on the street are actually almost done blooming, and the redbud has busted out. The daffodils, now that I think of it, are only a memory.

Baby Trenton had a brief period of stuffiness... poor guy. Less than 3 weeks old (well, he's 3 weeks today) and already had a bout of trouble breathing. He is changing every day... we get over there every few days to see him. Cute little guy.

We were going to go to the Black and Gold game with the Williams' on Saturday, but it was pretty drizzmerable. We went to D. Rowe's for lunch, then back to the house to watch the game on ESPNU.

By the end of the game, Kevin and Angela dropped in. They came in to town for his birthday celebration. They went out with Ken for dinner and then stayed the night.

We made waffles in the morning, and Kevin came up with a menu for his birthday dinner ... some marinated chops (courtesy of Alton Brown), potato wedges, corn bread, and waldorf salad. Which we whipped up. Had to replace the burner in the gas grill before that. Brian, Kristin, and Trenton came over as well as Ken, and the Cubs fans all gathered around to eat in front of the game. Cubs won. Handily.

Haven't seen Angela in a long time, so it was good to see her again. She's a great girl ... good for Kevin, I think. Sweet. Funny. Cute. Greg dropped by to drop off my cajun cooker burner and some beer he had made. He brought little Johnny along with him. And it turns out that Angela is also good with kids.

Hey, just sayin'. She is.

The heat pump got fixed, but it sprang another leak. I'm afraid we're going to have to replace it. Can't just keep chasing leaks. We're talking $6,500. It should be offset somewhat by lower energy bills, but ... whew. It'll take a lot of time to pay off. But having a cool house this summer will be some immediate pay off.

We've started up the weekly jams in the lunchroom at work again. Wednesdays. Adam brings his keyboard, and Alan plays a killer recorder. He's a saxophone player, but recorders are smaller and quieter. Wayne usually shows up. Brian. Richard B. on guitar. A guy from the help desk on banjo and guitar. And Jeff drops by to sing along especially on the Buffet tunes. A lot of fun.


I need to start riding the bicycle to work again for exercise, too. I both look forward to it and don't look forward to it at the same time. But I think I'll start Monday, weather permitting.

Yeah, so I can drink more of Greg's beer (left) ... and stay healthy while I'm at it.

Cliffs of Dover

At my funeral, which hopefully will be a long time from now, but...

Ever since I first heard this Eric Johnson tune on Ah Via Musicom, I thought that at the very end, when everybody's leaving, they should play this.


That's the ticket! Thanks for showing up, now get out and go on with your lives and think of this music whenever you think of me!

Baby Time

See, Grandpa Phil gets a little baby time in between feedings and grandmothers, too.

Lately

Lately life's been largely about the grandbaby. We've been over to visit a few times. Kristin's mom stayed with Brian & Kristin for a week while Kristin recovered and they both adapted to having a round-the-clock responsibility that needs feeding and changing every time you turn around. We were over there for dinner ... Thursday night? Something like that. We don't want to go visit too much because they need to get some routine going. But mom & baby seem to be doing great.

Mark & Cassie made a kamakazi visit over the weekend to pick up the Gazelle exercise machine. Ryan and I had gone on a walkabout out at Sam's place, doing the dogs and testing out some firearms (aarrr aaauuurrrr AUUURRR!!!!). Then Bri came over and had a cigar with us out by the chimnea on the deck.

The heating/air conditioning guys came Monday and found a crack in the tubing in the heat exchanger outside and fixed it. That was almost $500, but we're talking $6,000 to replace it... so... we should have more efficient heat again.

Man, there's a lot of stuff to do around the house that I just don't feel like doing. *sigh*.

Incidentally there are more baby pictures out here.

Trenton Edward Marema

There he is!

Dang good lookin' baby. 11:49 am. 8 lbs, 6 oz. 20.5" ... and "only" about 13 hours of labor. (full Walmart Photo Album is here.)

Any Minute Now

This baby's comin' to the station. This morning.

NOO Picture Collage