From a certain point of view

Quick Recovery

2012-02-10T11:25:00.002-05:00

Both the dogs ended up staying with the vet this week. Luke got a snip and Leia got the full spay treatment. She was a bit sore for a while but appears to be back to full strength now. They are both starting to get more rambunctious now, sleeping less and playing more. Sometimes it sounds like I have a pack of wild dogs in the living room as they growl and bark at each other. Having two pups together is turning out to be a mixed bag. They keep each other occupied but I can see how as they get bigger, their play is going to get destructive. They tackle each other and roll around. It might not be a bad idea to invest in some Nerf lamps. Their tails are also a bit long in proportion to the rest of them as they were never docked. Their tails have a lot of personality, I'm glad they still have them. I can forsee some tail related damage to both personnel and property.
The house training is coming along well. They regularly go to the door now when they need to go out.

These two pictures represent just over three weeks' growth.

Jan 18

Feb 10

Grow you magnificent beasts!

Ballroom Blitz

2012-02-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

8 weeks old

Tomorrow Luke has his appointment to be neutered. It's set up by the rescue shelter. He seems kind of young, but I did a little reading and this is what I discovered.

Early spay/neuter starting at 8 weeks of is endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Humane Society of the United States, the American Kennel Club, the Cat Fanciers Association, the American Humane Association and many other organizations.
As long as a pup or kitten weighs more than two pounds and is 8 weeks old, he or she can be neutered or spayed. Many veterinarians practice safe early sterilization. Some of the many benefits of early sterilization: faster healing and recovery time, and the earlier a pet is spayed or neutered, the less chance of developing a number of serious diseases and disorders. For example, a female spayed before her first heat (six to nine months of age) has one-seventh the risk of developing mammary cancer as does an intact female.
In the 1970s, the veterinary medical and other animal protection communities began questioning the standard age minimum of six months for surgical neutering of dogs and cats. Altering pets between 6 and 7 months was based more on tradition than on medical reasons. Among reasons to revisit the minimum age: many young animals were being adopted out of shelters without being neutered at the time of adoption. Unfortunately, some adopters failed to abide by their adoption contracts that called for them to have the adopted pets neutered, resulting in more litters of unwanted animals.
Some veterinarians began practicing early-age sterilization in the 1970s when safe pediatric anesthetic techniques became available. With the advent of early-age procedures, shelters were able to have young animals neutered before or at adoption. There has been no evidence of increased risks to cats or dogs sterilized as early as eight weeks of age. An increasing number of shelters and animal rescue groups have adopted the practice of early-age neuter/spay, enabling them to make sure all of their adopted animals are sterilized. paw-rescue.org

Outside at last

2012-02-03T11:09:00.000-05:00

I can add a caption?

Yesterday marked 2 weeks with these infernal beasts.
These pictures were taken the day we got them and they've grown pretty fast in two weeks.

a caption you say?

Saturday
They are now in their seventh week and getting more active. Yesterday was a the first full day of housebreaking, although they have had short trips outside before to get familiar with the scary outdoors.
Right now, it's simple. They both eat, drink and sleep at the same time so it stands to reason... So far so good.

I see their personalities coming out now too. Luke is pretty rough with his smaller sister. He bites her ears and gives them a shake. He also bites her in sensitive places. She has discovered that she is more mobile than he is. She likes to get a running start, attack him and retreat. She runs into the "deep" snow where he isn't as agile or runs into a space where he can't fit. She's diabolical.

Luke would like to go inside

It's Tuesday and holy crap they are growing fast now. I'm not certain when I weighed them the first time, but Luke weighs ten pounds and Leia is right behind him at 9. You can see Luke is a roly poly puppy. I think I named him after the wrong Star Wars character. He looks more like a Porkins.

This morning when I was up and getting ready to leave the house, they came running out of their kennel and made a beeline for the door. They catch on fast.

Friday and the outdoor bathroom is coming along nicely. They know where the door is and eagerly run to it when they have to go most of the time. Today I wanted to take them for a little ride and walk. Leia made it. Luke was not happy about the leash, he acted like it was made by the nasty elves of

Lothlórien. I thought it was best to just leave him at home.

Just taking a break from writing about puppies

2012-02-01T21:09:00.001-05:00

Distracted driving

2012-01-28T21:01:00.001-05:00

It's been a very mild winter. We got a couple inches last night but the snowfall has been pretty sparse so far this year. I had to go to the library this morning and was out before the county had a chance to get to all the side roads. Traffic was moving along slowly, almost everyone seemed content to take it easy. I took this picture when I saw traffic was slowing behind the front end loader. A couple miles ahead of this, I came across an accident. There is no point to the story, I'm just experimenting with using Google Maps.

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Other Pictures

2012-01-27T22:32:00.002-05:00

At almost 7 weeks old, they still sleep most of the day and all of the night, but are a bit more active when they are awake. They play fight and can be brutal to each other and then go back to their den to crash for a couple more hours. Getting braver about going outside. As of today, outside is the preferred pooping place.

Much more adventurous today than last weekend. A rare sunny day in late January.

The Pups

2012-01-27T12:50:00.001-05:00

Man, it's hard to take pictures of puppies. It was next to impossible getting Reese to slow down enough for a picture and the only time these two are sitting still is when they're sleeping. The puppies in this picture are our latest attempt at getting our family equipped with canine support. The last attempt, Reese, didn't quite fit in. We found out that she wasn't a pointer like we thought, but a Plott. I've always been a bird dog guy, their temperament fits in well with our lifestyle. They like to go for nice quiet walks in the woods and play in water, fetch things. Plott Hounds like to bark and chase things up trees and bark. I said bark twice because they really like to bark. I didn't want to take her back to the pound, but the dog and Anny couldn't see eye to eye on a couple of important issues. For example, Anny didn't want to get bit in the face and Reese thought she did. There was never any real biting but Reese made it very clear that she intended to. I talked to the director of the pound about Reese and her personality and reluctantly returned her. They found her a home a couple weeks after that. I would assume it was somewhere where there were no small kids or heavy traffic. I learned a lot from that experience. I learned that Link was one hell of a good dog, the kids learned that dogs don't just show up doing what you tell them to do. So now we realize we have to start over at square one.

It would be more accurate to say square one and two. The picture above is the two pups we fostered for a rescue organization. They are orphans from a litter of thirteen born around Dec 10. I don't know much about the situation. I know they are Boxer/Lab mutts but I don't know which dog was the mother. I don't know how big they are going to get, I don't know about the parent's personalities. I know I can get the answers and am interested in knowing. I do know that a very nice woman took the newborn puppies in. I think they divided the litter between two families, one group got to eat with a litter of pit bulls. I don't know if these pups did or not, but they sure are rough with each other. See how I just contributed to an untrue and negative stereotype?

So here they are, our new pups. The brown one is Luke and the tan one is Leia. They look and act a lot like boxers, particularly the way they hop around and bat at each other like cats (or pugilists). In a few weeks, they will be old enough to adopt and we'll go from fostering to owning, at least as much as you can own a dog.

I need a bigger car.

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Freaky

2012-01-06T17:51:00.001-05:00

Pepperland and the Blue Meanies

2011-11-24T12:14:00.001-05:00

I find the irony amusing.
?

Anny And The Jet

2011-11-05T10:59:00.001-04:00

We have had Reese for about a month now. She's a high energy hunting type dog that sees, hears and smells everything and then wants to dash over and get a closer look. I don't think she'd ever really walked on a leash where she came from. Anny's first attempt to walk her lasted about twenty seconds. Reese pulled away going after a squirrel and Anny ended up with a sore shoulder and hurt feelings. Anny, Reese and I have been going out for walks together every day for the past three weeks (rain or shine). The picture above was taken with my phone in the early morning light and we were both moving so the quality is only slightly better than this film, Today is the first time Anny has held the leash since that first failed attempt. I was pleasantly surprised to see they are starting to figure each other out. Of course, this puppy has ADHD and she will revert to being a clydesdale on our next outing, but we are making progress, Reese is joining the family.

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Halloween Weekend

2011-10-28T14:06:00.001-04:00

Because Anny doesn't like Michael Jackson

Update- After viewing the video, Anny decided that Michael Jackson was cool but his music isn't. That is the opposite conclusion I wanted her to reach.

Pure Michigan

2011-10-18T05:53:00.001-04:00

Something occurred to me today

2011-09-22T21:32:00.000-04:00

As the father of a teenage boy, I realized today that if I had a rake with tits, I wouldn't have any leaves in my yard. click here

Good parents have happy kids

2011-09-03T18:08:00.001-04:00

At the Marina, Labor Day 2011

Today is sort of a gloomy, overcast day. Summer is winding down, the kids start school soon. They have been spending quite a bit of time together lately and get along as well as you could expect them to. We were lingering around downtown, I was listening to them squabble about everything and anything. The only thing they could agree on is that they were both hungry, although the range and intensity of the hunger was still a hotly debated issue. I sat down on a bench and got out my camera/phone/tether. I told Jon and Anny we weren't getting anything to eat until I got a picture that looked like they love each other. I spent the next ten minutes playing Angry Birds while they groused about who was the bigger brat or something like that. Either way, the picture you see is what good parenting looks like. We also had hot wings. I think I'm going to build a Skinner Box.

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The Shelter

2011-08-27T07:28:00.006-04:00

Four years ago we celebrated Anny's birthday out at the Ghost Forest. When we go t out there, we were pleasantly surprised to find someone had built a simple lean to shelter from the abundant supply of sticks and logs. We sat in the shade and enjoyed our picnic and birthday cupcakes. Every year since then, the shelter has gotten a little bigger.

Yesterday we ventured out to our old playground and found the shelter elves have been busy again.

The weathered structure has been a regular stop for us over the past few years and looks to be as durable as any other part of the dunes.

Rock on Ghost Forest Fort

We go bump in the night.

2011-08-21T09:50:00.008-04:00

Being in the woods at night is fun. It's dark so the trail is harder to see, the sounds are different and sometimes it's a little spooky. We have never taken Jon or Anny out for a "night hike". It has more to do with bedtimes and logistics than anything else. The kids have wanted to go out at night for a while now, yesterday they got their chance. Yesterday’s date has some meaning for my family so we thought we’d find a secluded beach to launch a few sky lanterns. We decided to go to a place near Lane's old house. It's at the end of a lonely dirt road and a half mile or so through the woods. We've been there plenty of times, a very nice, secluded spot. We got out there about an hour before sunset and started a fire, made smores, looked for rocks, Jon swam. After the sun went down, we sent the lanterns up to celebrate Special K's birthday and packed up for the walk back.

As soon as we entered the woods, it was dark and spooky, the full leaves of summer blocked out the hazy light of the moonless sky. With the flashlights off, we couldn't see anything. The kids stormed ahead, excited about this new twist on a familiar trail. The whole way back to the car, they shouted and played. I want to do that some more. The woods are indeed cool at night and my family is cool all the time.

Spock is not impressed with this kind racing

2011-07-30T21:23:00.004-04:00

This guy directed me to a web site called Spock is not impressed. I made one or a few.

Evening Treat

2011-07-22T08:28:00.009-04:00

The kids have been out of town, spending some summer vacation time with relatives. The wife and I have been acting like a couple of old empty nesters. She's been spending her days on cleaning/gardening/college and I've been at work. This week has been one of those rare oppressively hot weeks in Northern Michigan, too hot to have much energy left at the end of a busy day. We settled into the honey I'm home, dinner for two, small talk, watch the Tigers routine. We thought we should break the rut by going out for a night walk before we reunited with our brood. For a lot of obvious reasons, being in the woods at night with kids can be an extra challenge.

Yesterday was a slow day at work so I cut out a couple hours early, came home for a shower and hopped in the car with my better half. We headed up to Empire and had dinner here. I don't know if I would go as far as to call them world famous, but they have some tasty burgers. Then we spent a couple hours visiting with my parents before we headed out to the Treat Farm Trail to watch the sunset. The Treat trail is a wide half mile path that winds through the dense forest to the site of an old farm. The trail continues through a field and back into the woods where it climbs to one of the best panoramic views in the area. Let me pause the story for a minute and tell you that we have had an increase in reported bear activity in the area. Nothing scary, just a bear in a tree or digging through garbage, and doing general bear things. There are also whispers of cougars in the area. Of course, I'm not talking about a 50 year old woman in a cocktail dress who wants help with her yardwork. As we walked through the woods, we talked about bears and cougars. Kids make enough noise in the woods to announce their presence to every animal for miles around. We rarely come across anything bigger than turkeys when we go out with them. Moving quietly through the woods at night must improve your odds of seeing wildlife, although a scary encounter is still pretty unlikely, it never hurts to have a plan. We made our way along the path, trying to make it to the top before the sun went down at 9:24. We decided to take the long trail around, the direct route is a challenging climb and although we've gone that way many times (even with kids) we didn't want to reach the summit drenched in sweat. The long way followed the base of the bluff in a gradual climb. At one point, the path was directly parallel to a steep outcropping. I've been told this is prime mountain lion pouncing territory. I kept a sharp watch. After we cleared the steep ridge, we passed through the biggest blackberry patch I have ever seen. I made the decision then to avoid this route when we returned to the car. No sense in tempting fate. After we cleared the berry patch, the view of the approaching sunset kept our attention and we plodded to the top of the hill. Of course, the sunset and view were perfect and well worth the climb. It reminded us how lucky we are to be healthy enough to walk to a place like this. Beautiful view, great company, I am a lucky man.

After the sunset, our mission was to make it back through the woods to the car before any scary monsters could get us. Except for two porcupines, a snorting buck and a galaxy of fireflies, we didn't see anything and made it to the car un mauled.

Life with Anny

2011-07-09T10:37:00.001-04:00

This week my daughter turned seven. She wanted to dress like a princess with her friends and go to a drive in so everyone can see how awesome she is. That is what she does. She has many hats and the one thing they all have in common is that they make you look twice. I can guarantee I will never hear her say "I don't want to wear that because it draws attention to me".

I would like to share a little insight on life with Anny by telling about the velcro issue. Most kids shoes, wallets and toys employ velcro in some way or another. The word velcro (although a brand name for hook and loop fastener) is a part of our vernacular. At one point, several years ago, Anny thought it would be funny to pronounce it vaw-crow. As parents, we get in the habit of correcting toddlers when they pronounce words wrong. Anny has always insisted on saying vaw-crow, even inventing an alternate spelling (vahcro). Over the past few years, that pronunciation has been one of her longest running gags. I like watching the way she can deliver the argument straight faced, almost convincing you she believes she's right. That gag resurfaces when we least expect it and always makes me smile. Last month we were going to the park in my car to ride bikes, Anny was sitting in the back seat with her helmet. Out of the blue she said, "Dad, the people who made my helmet don't know how to spell, they spelled vaw-crow, V-E-L-C-R-O, what do you think is wrong with them?" She caught me off guard with that, my girl is growing up.

The Princess Dialog

2011-06-26T10:09:00.004-04:00

In the summer of 2008, my Mom bought Anny a doll for her birthday. Anny named the doll Princess and put her right into the rotation. I use the term rotation because the scheduling system for the pitching staff of a baseball team is the closest metaphor I can summon to describe Anny's relationship with her dolls. That is a different topic altogether. Anyhoo- Anny is the kind of girl who often carries a doll. Yesterday we were having a little picnic and Princess joined us. I noticed that the years have not been kind to Princess. It wasn't hard to find an older picture of the two of them together, see for yourself.

For some reason I have the urge to read "Of Mice and Men".

2011-06-16T20:39:00.001-04:00

Flatbread Things That Kick Ass

Ed almost got to kiss a pretty nurse

2011-05-15T16:12:00.001-04:00

We have a situation in The Situation Room

2011-05-15T09:31:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I don't know when to quit.

Foolishness at work

2011-04-07T22:21:00.013-04:00

Every workday morning at half past eight, we all gather for our 8:20 meeting. It used to start at 8:20 but that's an even longer story than this one. The 8:20 meeting is where supervisors from all departments meet in the break room to communicate about the workday. Sometimes the meetings are filled with strife and frustration but usually they are lighthearted and fun. This morning was fun. There wasn't a lot out of the ordinary going on. The meeting ended and somehow in the post meeting conversation, someone suggested an experiment/bet. We bought a package of Raspberry Zingers and left them in the center of the large table. The bet or experiment was- How long will they stay there? One of the guys wrote down predictions. I guessed it would be gone by lunch. There were about ten of us in on it.

The 8:20 was over by 8:45 and we all went back to work. First break was 9:00, around 9:30 Bill checked out the break room and reported via email that the bird was in the nest. I imagine a few other people popped in to check. Some time before 11:00, Robin visited the vending machines and noticed that the delicious coconut Zingers were gone. A mass email trumpeted the news. It was decided that I won. What did I win? The underestimate the level of morality in your coworkers prize?

The next thing we did was start a rumor. We bounced a couple ideas around and landed on this:

The vending machine company asked us to remove the Zingers from the machine because there had been a recall. They were on their way to pick up the tainted goods.

Then we planted the rumor on one employee. The rumor spread like wildfire although there was some speculation about the authenticity of the rumor. Someone smelled a rat. By early afternoon, we had also figured out who the culprit was. Toward the end of the workday, someone got the idea to print a fake news story about a recall of Zingers.

This is what I came up with.

Dolly Madison Announces Snack Recall

Dolly Madison Bakeries Wednesday announced the largest product recall in the company’s 65 year history.

The announcement was made shortly after seven people in Southern Michigan reported similar symptoms after consuming Raspberry Zingers®.

“We need to look into this situation, it could be an unrelated issue but in the interest of public safety, we like to err on the side of caution.” Announced Thomas Heinger, public relations manager for the Wisconsin Bakery.

The recall is limited to a 4 state area where the suspect products were shipped and includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. The two products that have been removed from the shelves are Raspberry Zingers ® and Donut Gems ®. No illnesses have been linked in any way to the Gems but both products came from the same facility.

Dolly Madison urges consumers from these four states to discard any Zingers or Gems purchased in the last two weeks and to go immediately to the hospital if they experience dizziness, nausea or anal bleeding after consuming their products.

It looked pretty good. I took a Word class at the college and I have a few skills. I had a picture and everything. Then we planted the "article" on another mule (actually the same mule). That spread around the shop. After that, it kind of fizzled, the workday was winding down, everyone had a good laugh and the weekend was upon us.

I think I went too far when I added anal bleeding.

Anny's princess story

2011-03-20T12:40:00.001-04:00

Anny was killing time on the internet and wrote a story. Her teacher said she does well telling a story and being entertaining but has a hard time putting it on paper. She wrote this story last night while I made dinner. I helped her spell a couple of the words, most of them she sounded out.
I decided to upgrade the production a bit from the online version. I used the free Windows Movie Editor. I think I would like to work on editing the music. I look forward to doing more projects like this with the kids.

Anny wrote a short story.

2011-03-20T10:03:00.001-04:00

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Definition of Banal

2011-02-19T15:37:00.000-05:00

ba·nal
[buh-nal, -nahl, beyn-l]
–adjective
devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite: a banal and sophomoric treatment of eating soup in a tent.

This is how accidents happen

2011-02-08T20:15:00.001-05:00

I took this driving around lunchtime today. The roads are not as bad as they look.

The Agent

2011-01-30T19:52:00.001-05:00

Jon has been searching for something as long as I've known him. There isn't anything he really likes to do. We tried Little League, wrestling and football. He loses interest, sports are hard. It takes practice and conditioning. He doesn't feel like it's worth the effort to play. That's a shame. He treats school the same way. He's bright enough to get good grades but getting him to put forth an effort is an uphill battle. We have been hounding Jon to do homework, pay attention in class and put his best foot forward since Kindergarten. We will probably have to until he graduates. My hope is that someday he finds something that grabs him, something he feels is worth the effort. I don't think he's that different from other kids his age except he got a double dose of stubborn.

Below is a short skit from his Creative Dramatics class. He got an A in that class. I asked him how he got that grade and he told me it was easy. Is this something he likes? I enjoyed watching him and have told him over and over I'm proud of him.

I've always thought being a parent is hard, being the parent of a pissy, hormone driven teenager is really hard. Still, compared to some of the stories I hear from my friends, Jon is a model citizen. Keep prodding, pushing and guiding. One foot in front of the other. The gem below is what I hope will be the first of many. I think he's going to be just fine.

2011-01-29T15:53:00.001-05:00

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A good picture of an unfortunate situation

2011-01-25T18:33:00.002-05:00

This is a picture of a broken circuit board from a linear transducer that was discontinued in 2004. I still have to find one to get a machine running. FML... I took this picture to send to someone that is trying to scare one up. I think it's a pretty cool picture.

It's Snowing

2011-01-22T17:52:00.001-05:00

It usually is around these parts between November and April.

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The Fire Down Below

2011-01-15T21:02:00.002-05:00

Furnace trouble. Anyone that lives in a place that has a snowy winter can understand how ominous that sounds. I've been having furnace trouble lately. It started with a phone call from Tina. The house is 62 degrees and the furnace isn't coming on. I came right home. I found the pilot had gone out, no big deal. I re-lit the pilot and the furnace roared to life, filling the house with warmth. I returned to work but when I had a moment, I read up on how my kind of furnace works. The pilot had never gone out before and stuff doesn't just start happening to machines without a reason. I learned that the most common failure that causes a pilot to go out is faulty thermocouple. They cost about $10 and can be changed in minutes. I picked one up and kept it handy in case the pilot went out again. It did and when it did I replaced the thermocouple. After that, I wasn't able to keep the pilot lit, it was very weak. During my reading, I learned that the second most common cause of a pilot going out was a dirty pilot nozzle, so I took the nozzle off and cleaned it. When I put it back together and lit the pilot, it stayed on. Yeah! I noticed the pilot seemed really strong. I hadn't payed much attention to it before it gave me trouble so I sort of figured the nozzle was just dirty so it had been weak all along. I still made sure the CO2 detector was working and did a little more reading. I couldn't find anything about how intense the flame should be, just descriptions of the appearance.

On next call from Tina with furnace problems, I decided to call for help. I had done all the novice things I could. I called GTR, the same contractors I use at work. I've been dealing with them for a long time and they have always done a good job for a fair price. They sent a tech right over. I left work to meet him at the house. When he got there, I told him about what had happened, what I had done and what was happening now. He checked a few things and took a couple readings and determined we weren't getting enough gas to keep the fire burning. The gas valve was bad and he couldn't get one until the next morning. He left me with a space heater. Bummer. Tina had gone out and picked up a couple space heaters when I told her this problem was beyond me. We actually had a nice cozy night when the furnace was down. The rest of the house got cold, but the bedroom area stayed nice and toasty.

The next morning GTR came back with the new valve. They put it in and everything started working. Our house warmed right back up and there was much rejoicing. We had a $320 bill but I noticed the labor and parts had been figured a bit low. The tech shaved off a few dollars here and there. Like I said, I've been dealing with these guys for a while. That was nice of them.

This morning I woke up to a cold house. Damn. The pilot was out again. I couldn't get it to stay lit either. Today is Saturday. Service calls come with an extra high hourly charge on weekends. I had to have heat, I called GTR again. Mike, the on call tech showed right up and looked things over. He took some readings and found I had very low gas pressure coming into the house. My problem was with DTE, the gas company, Mike was sure of it. He left and I called DTE. I felt better about that. DTE pays to fix their stuff, not me.

About 15 minutes later the on call guy the gas company called me. I gave him a brief rundown on what had transpired, complete with the pressure readings and concluded with "the furnace tech told me the problem is with the meter." The voice on the other end of the phone replied "He's probably wrong" and explained their stuff is reliable and so on and so forth. He had it figured out before he even got here! He sounded like a grouchy know-it-all. I've worked with these kind of guys before. In fact, until recently, I had one of these kind of guys working for me. I know how to deal with the grouchy know-it-all. I got my Carhartts on and went outside to wait for him to arrive. When he got there, we walked around to where the gas line enters my house. It is simply a pipe coming out of the ground that hooks to two devices and then to a pipe that goes into my house. He used a wrench and took off the gas meter saying "If there's good pressure here, the problems in your pipes." When he opened the valve, we could hear the gas rushing out. "That's good pressure, you got other problems." He beamed.

I pointed to the other object that came after the meter. "What's that thing?"

"That's the regulator" he said matter of factly as he wiped the snow off, "They hardly ever go bad." As he wiped the snow, he noticed there was a protective cap missing. "This cap is gone, these things get ruined when ice and snow gets in there." He said.

"So that may be bad?"

He disconnected it from the pipe and shook it. "It sounds like it's broken."

hmmmm

The grouchy know-it-all went back to his van and got a new regulator. He was pretty quiet the rest of the time he worked. I've found that grouchy know-it-alls don't like to admit they were wrong. You have to lead them into discovering that on their own. I wanted to give him a little "in your face" lecture but I fought back the urge. I'm trying to remember to take the high road when I can.

The furnace has been working all day. I don't want to say everything is fixed quite yet because we've thought that a few times. My fingers are crossed.

PS-I started this blog entry a few days ago, the working title then was Sh*t F*ck Furnace.

I should be ashamed of myself

2011-01-14T18:37:00.001-05:00

Here I sit in a coffee shop with my wife, the kids are at the school across the street being entertained by aPTO fundraiser. We have some alone time. I'm blogging on my stupid smart phone.
Cool
I'm a loser.

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2011-01-08T22:07:00.001-05:00

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Much Ado About Nothing

2011-01-08T09:08:00.004-05:00

Upgrades are cool. It doesn't matter what you upgrade. New car, new shoes, even a new pen is a bit of a joy to use the first couple times. I just got a sweet new monitor on my computer at work. I was so impressed with the upgrade, I set a macro image of a cylinder I took looking for a part number as my desktop image.

Not so long ago, cell phones were just phones. The extra fancy ones had cameras. I got my first cell phone about 5 years ago when I started working where I am now. It was an LCD display Nokia that would call and text. My next work phone was a Razr. At the time, that was the phone to have. When I first brought it home, Tina and Jon were green with envy. Since that time, they have had a couple phone upgrades. Tina's last upgrade was the qwerty/internet route. If it weren't pink, I would have been envious. She can check sports scores when we go camping. Through all these changes, I've stayed with the Razr. It's a tough, reliable mule that works just fine for calling and texting. It's a work phone after all, it's my tether to the job. I'm always available. I get calls in the middle of the night from the alarm company. I get calls on the weekend when something goes wrong. I get calls when I'm sick and calls when I'm celebrating. My number is available to everyone at any time. That is the price you pay for a "free" phone. It also comes with the turf in some professions. Mine is one of them.

I just got a phone upgrade. I got me one of them Android smart phones. Going from a Razr to that carries a pretty significant gee whiz. The free apps are sort of overwhelming. I played Angry Birds a bit and found a way to use my $300 phone as a $35 compass. I did find one that gives me a pretty neat alarm clock. It also does all that multimedia/internet/facebook stuff. Lots of people have this kind of phone now. Some people try to claim their phone is a valuable tool that boosts productivity... blah blah blah bullshit. It's a neat shiny toy that hypnotizes us with a steady flow of brain pollution. I like it. I like checking the sports ticker while waiting for an appointment. I like being able to find out who won the 1952 Kentucky Derby while I wait for a table. I like being able to hand my phone to Anny when I want to ignore her for a while. I like it because it's easy. It's easy to look down at a 4" screen and tune out the other people in the waiting room or restaurant or dinner table. I like it so I can't resist. A friend commented on this a while back and I caught myself doing it too. Look around and you'll see people sitting together, looking at their lap and ignoring each other. We'll have to text each other across the table to have a dinner conversation. Ahhh the evolution of the species.

Here's an example of me screwing around with my phone

Sometimes I Go Too Far

2010-10-30T16:56:00.012-04:00

Halloween weekend. This year Halloween falls on Sunday, the worst night to do anything with kids. For that reason, it started on Friday afternoon. Downtown stores handed out candy in a distribution event that would rival the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort. We parked on the third level of a parking garage because parking downtown is an exercise in jackassery.

As we were headed tot he candyfest, I had the kids line up for a picture next to a railing. I noticed I was taking the picture facing the sun. That's good because it reduces squinting, but bad because it destroys the background. The kids were anxious to get started so I decided to get a couple shots and fix it later. When we returned to the car, I took a couple shots of the view with the sun at my back. When I got home and looked at the pictures, I found one I liked except the background washed out and Jon didn't look very scary. I made Jon look a little more sinister and used the background from the other side of the garage. I like the way the new picture turned out. The new background really made the costumes pop.

I decided to fool around with other backgrounds- This is the result-

The apple right under the tree

2010-08-21T19:41:00.003-04:00

The other night Annie and I were sitting on the couch watching A Hard Days Night. She is familiar with the Beatles' music and while she was watching them "act" their way through one of their early commercial ventures, she fed me a barrage of questions. "Why is George wearing those shoes?" "What kind of guitar is that?" " Where did all those girls come from." I sat there trying to explain the culture of the early 60's and the image of the band at the beginning in terms a 6 year old could understand. It was nice cuddling on the couch. She wasn't asking question because she wanted to know the answers, she just wanted to talk. She likes to talk.
There's a scene in the movie when the band is in a dressing room and they're being silly, using makeup and trying on costumes. Prop comedy. John Lennon had a fake beard on and she asked "Why does the Beatle have a beard?" She paused and started laughing as she added "Because the earwig won't let it be. See Dad, I made a joke."
I thought about it for a minute, earwigs are nasty little creepy looking bugs that hide in damp places during the summer. Earwigs are her #1 least favorite kind of bug. She made a pun that connected the musical group Beatles to the type of bug called a beetle. Nice connection and it was especially clever the way she used a song title to tie it in. She was right, she did make a joke. It wasn't a particularly well crafted joke, it didn't flow and the premise was awkwardly revealed. Still, she made a joke and I laughed with her, feeling the same swell of pride any father feels when he sees his child swing a bat or play the piano. I see her learning how to do something I do well. My girl is funny, like her father before her.

Why it's easy to have a 3 year old daughter.

2010-08-01T12:44:00.002-04:00

I found this old video, it's from 3 years ago.

I don't understand

2010-06-22T20:06:00.001-04:00

Homicide suspected in death of infant

I went to this funeral today. It was a small graveside service. There were a few people there, mostly police and employees of the funeral home. I don't understand.

Knowledge is power

2010-06-06T16:40:00.003-04:00

This morning, Annabeth and I went downtown to walk around. To her, the best part of downtown is a store that sells candied up popcorn -blech- She asked (like she does every time we go downtown) if she can get some popcorn. This is how the conversation went.

"Dad, will you please buy me some blue popcorn?"
"It's closed" I said pointing to the sign in the window.
"What is today?" she asked.
"Sunday"
"It opens at 11:00" she said, pointing at the other sign in the window. "What time is it now?"
"10:45"
Annabeth knows knowledge is power.

Glenn Beck is a moron

2010-04-29T21:15:00.001-04:00

I believe in Yesterday

2010-03-28T08:09:00.004-04:00

The kids are downstate for spring break, visiting their grandparents. Tina wanted to get out for a grownup hike. That doesn't mean anything weird like clothing optional or lugging around a frosty twelve pack. It simply means we can walk as fast as we want without having to lug around all the accessories that accompany kids. We've always encouraged them to pack what they think they'll need and let experience teach the rest.
After making a couple sandwiches and some trail mix we filled the water bottles and hopped in the car. We decided to visit Shalda Creek. That location was the subject of some controversy last year. You can read about that here. By the way, this is the way it looked yesterday. Here is an older picture of that same spot, taken in May. We drove out there and walked the short trail to the beach. We snapped some pictures, skipped a few stones and enjoyed the view. A couple miles down the road is a trail that leads to the start of Shalda Creek. That short trail runs parallel to a steep wooded hill. Back when I first met Tina I took her to this same spot. She asked me about going to the top of that steep wooded hill. I replied by pointing to her very fashionable but un functional shoes and said "You'll never make it in those shoes." Just to show me, she walked up that hill in those ridiculous shoes. I didn't realize it at the time, but I triggered a stubborn episode. I've learned through the years that I will never talk her out of anything by telling her she isn't able to do it. Jon is the same way.
Yesterday, she declared that her footwear was suited to going up that same hill, so we climbed to the top. Wow, that was hard. I have sore legs the next day. Sitting here, I can't imagine how she made it up that same hill wearing goofy ass shoes. I do know that over the years, she has learned how to change her obstinace into determination.
After that adventure, we stopped by a small lake to eat our sandwiches. They were delicious.

So it begins

2010-02-23T20:18:00.004-05:00

Annabeth is doing elementary wrestling. She's one of 5 girls at the practices. There is an older girl there that seems to be mentoring her a little. Enjoy this short summary of tonight's practice. I love her even if she is a fish.

Disney and Dessert

2010-02-22T21:52:00.003-05:00

This weekend, I took Annie to a show put on by a local high school that featured performances of classic Disney songs followed by all the freakin' dessert you could eat. This video is a friend's daughter. The sound isn't that good but she sang beautifully.

The dryer vent

2010-02-06T09:00:00.005-05:00

Last week our dryer dried it's last towel. That dryer is older than Jon, so I figured it was time for a new one anyway. The repair would have been more trouble for me than a 14 year old gas dryer is worth. Tina shopped and found the one she wanted at Lowe's and arranged for a delivery on Friday between 1 and 5 pm. They were also going to haul away the old one. I planned to spend most of the morning clearing snow off the back porch, getting the old dryer ready to travel and clearing a better path to the laundry room through our cluttered basement. I also had a Dr appointment to go to at 11:15. I took Annie to school at 8:30 and came home to start moving snow. After that, I moved the old dryer away from the wall and relocated the baskets of dirty laundry that had started to stack from last week. That's when I heard a truck near the house. At first I thought it was the garbage truck, but it was lingering too long so I looked out the window. I was surprised to see a Lowe's delivery truck backing into my driveway at 9:30, three and a half hours before the scheduled delivery time. In my line of work, things don't always work out according to plan and I often have to go with the flow. I was still certain they would be able to get the dryer down the stairs and into the laundry room without too much hassle. When the delivery man knocked on the front door, I answered and told him he was a bit early but we should still be able to make a go at it. I asked him to give me a minute to move my wife's van so they could get the dryer to the back door where it would be a straight shot to the basement stairs. He seemed a bit annoyed, I'm not sure if it's because I told him he was early or if he thought carrying it to the back door was a bad decision.
When I walked outside with Tina's keys in my hand, I saw the men coming around the corner with my new dryer on a dolly. They decided to carry it around the van. When they got to the door they stopped to look at the back door. The older guy (I'm gonna call him Grumbly Joe) muttered something under his breath and measured the door opening. "This door is going to have to come off." he announced, "That thing will never fit through here." Over the past 20 years, I have moved a fair amount of welders, presses and other bulky objects through crowded factories. I think I have developed a pretty keen eye for what will fit where. I looked at the dryer and looked at the doorway.
"Are you sure?" I asked "The old one went in that door without a problem."
"This ain't the old one." Joe groused.
Now I was starting to get pissed. "I can clearly see this isn't the old one." I replied, "I think it can make it, do you want me to help?"
Grumbly Joe muttered something under his breath and they picked up the dryer and started to jockey it through the doorway. They made it with less effort than it would have taken to remove the door. Then they carried it down the stairs to the basement. When they got to the door of the laundry room, Joe stopped and announced that there was no way they could make it any further without clearing a bigger path.
I had enough. "Just leave it right there, I'll get it myself." I barked.
"Are we still taking one away?" Joe asked.
"Yes, get out of my way and I'll bring it to you." I walked to the old dryer and lifted it up (gas dryers are pretty light) I put the dryer on their dolly and said "There you go, how hard was that?"
They strapped the dryer to the dolly and quietly carried it up the stairs and out the door. I picked up the new dryer and placed it next to the washing machine. Then I went outside and signed for receipt of our appliance.
When I got back in the house, Tina got to listen to me rant for about 15 minutes, I would have continued my tirade for a bit longer but had to leave in order to make my Dr appointment.
I stopped by Lowe's on the way home to talk to someone about the way that delivery went. I had calmed down enough to hold back the stream of F-bombs Tina got to hear. The manager apologized to me and offered to refund my delivery fee. I told her delivery was free but I wasn't there to get anything out of it, I just wanted to share the tale with her. The truth is, the whole incident was probably triggered by the early delivery. In three hours, Tina and her van would have been gone, the route to the laundry room would have been much wider and I would have been less likely to snap.
The reality is, it will be a very long time before I shop at Lowe's and every time someone mentions the store to me, they are going to have to hear this story. The last time we bought anything from Lowe's they screwed that up too and it was a hassle getting it fixed. If Jimmie Johnson screwed up as much as his sponsor, he'd be Kenny Wallace.

This is even funnier if you have a niece that has one of these blankets.

2009-12-28T20:27:00.000-05:00

Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share

2009-12-11T07:19:00.003-05:00

We are digging out now from our first winter storm. It followed a very cold summer and fall, but a mild early winter. A week before this storm hit, I used my snowblower to make sure everything was working as it should. It works just fine. When the storm did hit, I went out to clear the first round with a great deal of confidence in my snowblower.

good news- it started on the first pull.
bad news- the recoil (starter) rope broke.
good news- it stayed running so I could do what I needed to do.
bad news- I burned my hand taking it apart.

That's about it, as repairs go, the recoil rope is inexpensive and fairly easy to replace. My hand doesn't hurt that much, I feel dumb more than anything else. I don't work on many hot things so I'm not accustomed to being wary of that sort of thing.

The summer winds down

2009-09-07T07:07:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a great day to be in my family. We piled into the car and headed for one last adventure before school starts. Tina and I have been going to the ghost forest for many years. Here is an old picture from way back when. Link looks really young. We stopped going because the walk was too much for a young Jon but a few years ago we discovered a shorter route and have been going back every year, even last year when Tina was super pregnant, we trudged out for a visit.
A few years ago we went out to celebrate Annie's birthday and discovered a small shelter that someone had built. Every year, it seems to get a little bigger. This time it was huge. Maybe next year it will have a fridge or mini bar. The kids played in the shade, munching on blueberries and granola bars.
The day was perfect, the weather was comfortable and the large holiday crowd stuck to the beaten path so we had the place to ourselves. Jon learned that chokecherries are edible but they taste like crap. We let him lead the way back and he also learned that if you get lost, just climb the biggest hill and look around.
When we got back to the car, we found a picnic table and ate. Annie called it lunch but it was 5pm so we never agreed on what the meal should be called. Either way, the meal was great, and the view was spectacular.
We capped the day off by finding a beach and taking a brisk dip in Lake Michigan. There- summer is over, now get your skinny butts to school, mom is getting tired of your bickering.

You can feel it fading fast

2009-09-06T09:05:00.002-04:00

Last weekend was gloomy and stormy, summer has returned for Labor Day. We packed up a picnic and went out looking for adventure. You never know when winter will drop out of the sky. We decided to try Empire Bluffs . The parking lot was crowded- holiday weekend- go figure. The view of Empire Beach from the overlook is one of the most common pictures of the dunes. I took one anyway, the cool thing about mine is that if you look real close, you can see the beach is teeming with fudgies.
Annie thought it would be neat to walk to the beach. She had the logistics all figured out. "Mom and I can walk down the hill, follow the beach to the park and Dad can go back to the car and drive to us." the road less traveled That is the plan they used, the only detail Annie left out was Jon going swimming with his cell phone in his pocket. I fear it is ruined. We met at the beach and grilled some burgers and dogs. Just us and about 1000 other people. We had fun, today we're going to try to go here again. It's far enough off the beaten path to be somewhat fudgie free, they seem to come back thicker every year though.

Brrrrr

2009-08-29T20:55:00.002-04:00

It's been a cold summer. I don't want to complain because it's still warmer than last winter was.
We heard there was a shoreline flooding advisory today so we took a walk down by the bay hoping to see some big waves. Nothing spectacular but we had fun all the same.

It's a start

2009-08-28T17:52:00.002-04:00

I've been lax in my blogging responsibilities lately. I'm trying to get back on track. Found this video of Steve Martin doing a song from his collection of banjo music. I always enjoy Steve Martin.
I hope to actually write something entertaining soon...

Jon's summer haircut

2009-07-30T18:37:00.002-04:00

1 picture=1000 words

Run Fatboy Run

2009-07-11T11:44:00.004-04:00

Today I ran my second 5K, the last one was last July. I've been running in the morning, about 2 miles a day. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to do that in preparation for a 3.1 mile event but I did. I finished with dignity, I finished strong and I can still use the left side of my body. I feel alive.

Happy Birthday Annabeth

2009-07-06T19:24:00.003-04:00

Here's to 5 years of doing your own thing

The mice will play...

2009-06-19T11:03:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow we get one of the kids back. I miss them but I admit we have enjoyed our "freedom" this week. Yesterday I took the day off work and we ventured up Old Mission Peninsula. Tina has started to appreciate the local wines and we decided the best way to find out what you like is to try as many as possible. The are several vinyards on the peninsula. Our strategy was to visit one on the way up and one on the way back. Each tasting room lets you try 6 different wines (except Black Star, Madonna only lets you have 5). We ended up stopping at 2 each way. By the time we got back into town, Tina had tried 23 different wines. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, good wine, scenery and conversation.
We came home and regrouped before heading out on the second half of our adventure. It's been years since we have gone for a walk at night. We dicided to go back to this trail. The last time we were there, Tina was less than 3 weeks from giving birth. She had a much easier time with it last night. We walked a couple miles and made it down to the beach right around dusk. Not a spectacular sunset, but it was better than anything on TV. We headed back towards the parking lot in total darkness and although we found the trail, we followed it in the wrong direction for about 20 minutes. We corrected our course and headed in the general direction of the car. This ended up being a mistake as we lost the trail completely. I have told the kids how easy it is to get turned around without the sun at the dunes. When you go into a valley, all the hills look the same. Fortunately, it's even easier to find your way on a peninsula. Just climb a hill and look around. Easy as 3.14159
Today the old people will recover from yesterday.

Missing the kids

2009-06-15T21:33:00.002-04:00

Summer's here, kids are at Grandma's for a short visit. Check out this sweet pano.

This is for Ed

2009-06-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

The Creepy Cup

2009-05-24T23:51:00.004-04:00

My daughter is a tomboy. She has always been somewhat oafish and physical, I figured it was just because she was a size bigger than most kids her age. Today I realized that I am the proud father of a damn the torpedoes, I don't care if it's icky, 4 year old girl.
Every few years, the tent caterpillars launch a major assault around here. This is one of those years. Annie noticed all the tents in the trees and asked us what it was. We showed her the tents up close and how they were teeming with nasty little caterpillars. Her little eyes widened and she asked us if she could touch them.
"They're soft", she said and told us she was trying to get one to walk on her finger. After that, the coffee cup she had been using as a butterfly transport became a home for any caterpillar that was fortunate enough to cross her path. Our progress slowed to a crawl as she stopped regularly to deposit new friends in what Tina called the creepy cup.
Today when I looked at her with her freshly scraped knee and the patchwork of bruises on her shins reaching for a caterpillar, I realized she's a tomboy (like her mother). She enjoys wearing dresses and pretty bows. I still get kisses and she loves to draw me pictures, but I don't think frogs and snakes are going to be safe in her company over the next few years.
Another thing- here's a picture of me helping her negotiate a patch of poison ivy. Notice she's opening the cup to view her wiggly little chums. How much different would this entry be if she had unintentionally dumped the creepy cup?

Fact finding mission

2009-05-23T18:03:00.007-04:00

Creek at Dusk
Originally uploaded by tylershumway

This picture has been the topic of some discussion on Ed's blog. It seems there was a dispute over where this picture was taken. I was certain that it was Shalda Creek in Northern Michigan. I've been there many times, in all kinds of weather. One of our friends doubted that it may be Shalda Creek and I would be inclined to agree since he lived right there for many years. Curiousity got the better of me and today I took the girls to Shalda Creek so we could get to the bottom of the mystery ourselves.

If you want to see all the pictures from here today, go here.

OK I stand corrected, there was never any dispute about where it is, just when it is. The title of the picture is "Creek at Dusk".

Here's to another year

2009-05-16T20:39:00.004-04:00

This year started at 5 this morning when Annie crawled into the bed. She squirmed and wiggled her way between Tina and me and said "Dad, cuddle". How could I resist? She kissed my forehead and wished me a happy birthday. After she drifted back to sleep, I got up and made some coffee, then I went out to the back yard and watched the sun come up over my freshly mowed lawn. Life is good. After that I went to the gym and ran a few errands. When I got home, Tina and the kids were getting ready for my birthday hike. I decided I wanted to walk from Lower Pyramid Point to the top. This short walk is somewhat challenging, even more so with a couple kids in tow. Nonetheless, I was determined to prove to someone that I'm not that damn old yet.
We parked at the end of Lake Michigan Rd (where Lane used to live) and walked probably a mile over a flat trail through the woods to the lake. Jon and Annie frolicked and scampered around for this leg. They were happy to be out. When we got to the edge of the lake, we met a couple guys that were kayacking around Lake Michigan. They were forced to stay out of the water for a few days because they were encountering gale force winds. It was damn cold on the shore, we stayed out of the wind today as much as possible.
The next part of the walk was up and down several dunes. Both the kids showed a lot of stamina and climbed some difficult hills with little complaint. I am so proud of them. This hill that Jon went up is much bigger than the dune climb the tourists visit. We always laugh up our sleeve when they ask us if we have ever climbed the big hill. Rubes
The whole round trip probably took around 4 hours. My birthday feast was turkey sandwiches in the car on the way home. The girls made me a great cake.
I couldn't ask for a better birthday than the one I had today. We spent the day together in the fresh air. We are all a little tired and sore now and I'm sure we'll get a good night's sleep. Life is good.

Beating a dead horse

2009-05-13T21:36:00.002-04:00

So that's how it's gonna be then?

2009-05-13T18:55:00.003-04:00

This guy has been pushing my buttons the last few days. I think things have escalated to presenting mass destruction. Although the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force, this will have to do.

Message for Ed

2009-05-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

Lost civilization bitch

Not to be outdone

2009-05-11T19:40:00.004-04:00

This is a tribute to Dom Deluise, Phil Hartman and Chris Farley.
A tribute hat trick.
Note- I had forgotten that Johnny Carson is no longer with us too. That makes 4.

Happy Mother's Day from Justin Timberlake

2009-05-10T07:08:00.005-04:00

This is funny

Thank you

2009-05-02T20:45:00.004-04:00

Today was the March of Dimes March for Babies. My wife raised over $650 for this cause. Her team was sponsored by Hagerty Insurance who matched contributions. Her team raised around $2000. Thanks to everyone who helped her exceed her goal.
I guess the 5 mile walk just got her warmed up because after she got home she badgered me into going for a walk with her. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. We even saw 4 deer (I think it was the same 2 deer twice) and a pair of snakes. I haven't been on this trail in quite a few years. I had almost forgotten about it.

Number Time

2009-05-01T06:54:00.002-04:00

This is how we sometimes occupy the round headed kid when she gets bored. Give her a phone and let her make up numbers. It can also be called "Making the phone sticky" or "Running down the battery"

Mystery solved

2009-04-17T11:40:00.006-04:00

I have a friend that buys old slides on ebay, at first you would think that's an odd thing to do but he has gotten a couple nice pictures out of the deal. One group had an old shot of Tiger Stadium that was taken from a moving car. I couldn't tell you how many times I had wished I had a fuzzy, out of focus picture of Tiger Stadium. Another time he got some vintage Nascar pictures. I enjoyed looking at them. His latest find is this picture. At first, I was puzzled by it, I thought " What sort of event could get all these people to stop milking and branding long enough to gather in this hall?" It looks like a big event that grabbed the entire community. My curiosity got the better of me and I turned to my secret CIA photo enhancing software. I thought the key to this gathering had to be in the sign that was on the open door in the center of the right hand side of the photo. The picture that was displayed above the piano could hold some clues as well. After hours in the lab, I was able to get this from the antique image. These people congregated to pay homage, it made perfect sense, so many of the men were styled similar to the person in the picture.

"I've got the obligatory Hendrix perm,"

2009-03-29T16:20:00.005-04:00

Jon hates his hair. Everyone who hears this can't believe it because he has such cool hair. It's the old grass is always greener argument. Last night my 12 year old niece got enough hair tools for her birthday to open a salon. One tool was a flat iron. Jessie was just itching to try out her new devices and when she asked Jon if he wanted his hair straightened, I could see the light in his eyes erupt. "Straight hair is not a myth, I have seen it!"
So it began and Jesse went to work on Jon.
I didn't think it was possible but she got it straight.
After that, things got a little silly.
I still love him, maybe more than he wants.
By the way, I think this is the obligatory Hendrix perm Roger Waters was talking about.

The latest fad

2009-03-18T19:30:00.002-04:00

My wife is making a video, it's not done yet. You are welcome to join in if you want.

Could it be...

2009-03-15T19:20:00.002-04:00

Maybe but probably not. Spring looks like it has arrived but I bet we are in for at least one more blast. Still, we went out today and walked around downtown and out by the breakwall. The bay is still frozen but the warm sun felt good. There were lots of people jogging and walking their dogs. I tried out our new camera. (I dropped the old one moments after I shot this video.) The camera that was great a few years ago gets outdated quickly. The new one is 12 Megapixels and has some neat features. One of them is a panorama feature that will stitch together 3 shots. It does a pretty good job as you can see here. I'm looking forward to learning how to use the rest of the stuff it does too.
I think we also found the place where someone was screwing behind a tree. At least that's what it looks like in this picture.

March of Dimes

2009-03-07T09:14:00.004-05:00

My family will be participating in the March for Babies on May 2. It is a 6 mile walk to raise money and awareness for a good cause. If you would like more information, or would like to make a donation, either follow the new link I put up under the picture of the goose, or go here.

If you donate $5 and give me a mailing address, I will send you one of these handsome commemorative bracelets.

Thank you for your support.

Happy Anniversary

2009-03-04T05:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday marked 6 years of wedded bliss. We cleaned up the kids and went out to Red Lobster. Those kids sure like their expensive crab legs. It was cold yesterday, it reminded me of the day we got married. It was so cold that day, my tauntaun froze before I reached the first checkpoint.

I'll see you in hell.

Snow keeps coming

2009-02-22T11:14:00.003-05:00

This is interesting if-

You never get to see snow
You like Led Zeppelin
You are starved, no famished for entertainment.

This video bores me and I made it, I got a new camera and was trying out the video mode. This is only slightly more interesting than watching someone open sports cards. Blogger has a 100M limit on videos and I came close.

Winter bares it's teeth again

2009-02-21T18:58:00.002-05:00

Another weekend, another storm. Not the storm of the century but we are starting to get tired of being cooped up indoors. I had heard about a sports card show going on today so decided to check it out. I used to collect cards back in the late 80's and early 90's but my cards have all been packed away for over 10 years. This is what happens when you start having kids. Since Jon is out of town for the weekend, I took the girls for a drive to the Civic Center which is where the show was. When I walked into the room, I noticed right away that the three of us were probably the only people in the room that knew what a girl looked like. I bet these guys could all tell you the difference between a Klingon and a Romulan. OK I know that one too. What I did learn today is the hobby of collecting sports cards isn't about being a sports fan anymore. It's all about opening a bunch of card packs looking for a rare insert card- the ones the card manufacturers print on a limited basis to drive up their price. I tried to talk to a couple guys about sports but all they knew was which player had limited edition cards worth the most money. Dorks

We didn't hang out there for long, we decided to go check out the museum. That was much more fun, we managed to kill a couple hours there, eating lunch and poking around a bookstore. Every time we got back in the car, I had more snow to brush off the windows. This all added up to many new inches of snow waiting in the driveway when we got home. Yay!

Puppet Show

2009-02-20T22:04:00.002-05:00

Big Bird learns a lesson about passing out at a Duke lacross party.

More of the same

2009-02-14T18:00:00.004-05:00

Last week Jon's great grandmother (his vacation dad's grandmother) passed away. Tina took Jon downstate so he could attend the funeral. Annie and I have been on our own this weekend. Of course we had our big night last night. Today we went downtown to check out the winter festival. We saw some ice sculptures and sampled a bunch of different soup for a contest. The soup tent had a live band. I never get tired of watching Annie's reaction to live music. That explains why I post so many videos of it.

Don't watch this unless you like barbershop quartet or adorable 4 year olds

2009-02-14T11:41:00.003-05:00

Daddy Daughter Dance

2009-02-13T21:44:00.003-05:00

For the past two weeks Annie has been looking forward to the Daddy Daughter Dance at her school. Yesterday her and Mom went shopping for a dress, tights, hair ornaments and a bracelet for the event. This morning she got up before 7 and curled up on my lap and whispered in my ear "I am super excited about the dance today!" The girls went out today to get her hair done up real pretty and I bought her a corsage. We stood in the cold yard while Tina took our picture and we went off to the dance. We danced a little, had some refreshments, danced some more, another cookie. After 40 minutes, my date started to yawn and rest her head on my shoulder. She'd had a long busy day and had run out of gas.

Parenting by the seat of my pants

2009-02-13T07:09:00.004-05:00

The other night the family was in the car. We had been having a good light hearted conversation, telling jokes and laughing. Jon started to tell a joke. "A fish was jumping out of the water, trying to catch a fly. A cat was on the riverbank watching the fish..." I know that joke and I knew where it was going. I barked at Jon- "That is not the sort of joke you tell your mother and sister!" Needless to say, the jovial mood was gone and we rode the rest of the way home in relative silence.
I remember being that age and quoting a Cheech and Chong bit in a family setting. My dad barked at me too and forbid me to listen to that record ever again. Several years later, I understood what I had done wrong. This morning I talked to Jon about that incident. I explained briefly why saying "wet pussy" around ladies is not acceptable. I also told him it is time for us to talk about The Birds and the Bees and we would have that talk in the next few days. I knew this was coming when he thought it was comical that I called a bag of almonds my nutsack. I think I'm going to get a book from the library to help. This would be easier with pictures and all my pictures have chickens in them.

Holy giant picture Batman!

2009-02-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

Check this out. You can see Aretha Franklin's hat from the moon.

The yellow face, it burns us

2009-02-08T16:39:00.002-05:00

We are in the midst of a heat wave. OK it's been over 40 for the weekend. I'm not going to break out the sunscreen just yet, winter will soon rewrap it's grey fingers around the scrotum of Northern Michigan. That last line is some of the worst writing I have ever seen. I took advantage of the tropical blast by cleaning my car. The kids can stop wearing wool socks on their hands because the hoard of mittens and gloves they left in my back seat are inside again. I've removed the block of ice that accumulated on the driver's side floorboard and washed away the coat of salt on the exterior. My dusty white car is blue again. Ready for (hopefully) the last push of winter.
While I was out and about today I saw people driving with their window down, pale legs dropping out of wrinkled shorts and the smiles of huddled masses finally feeling the warmth that seemed so distant. It's all just a facade, it will be back below freezing before next weekend.

Goodbye annoying self starting shoelace video

2009-02-06T05:53:00.002-05:00

Bump to the next page, good riddance.

It's never too late

2009-02-05T20:20:00.003-05:00

After 41+ years of turning up my nose at cottage cheese, (it always looked to me like the stuff you dump down the drain if you leave the milk out overnight) I tried cottage cheese. I found I like cottage cheese.

Super Bowl 3D fever

2009-02-01T19:56:00.003-05:00

Annie had her 3D glasses on for most of the first half, she sort of looks like one of the Crazy 88s.

Weekend breakfast

2009-02-01T08:33:00.004-05:00

Jon is not a breakfast eater, we have to force him to eat in the morning. Annie on the other hand, wakes up with food on her mind. On the weekend she gets out of bed and gets me up to make her something to eat. She always has a specific menu in mind. The conversation goes like this.
"Dad, will you get up and make me breakfast?"

"What do you want?"

"Eggs, bacon, sausage and toast."

Her tastes go in cycles. Lately it has been oatmeal (not instant!) with a little brown sugar on the side, and half a bananna sliced with the tip off to the side because she doesn't like that part. I lay it out like this. She adds the brown sugar and bananna at the table. They say girls marry a man and expect him to treat her as well as her dad. I feel sorry for my future son in law.

Little known fact

2009-01-30T19:53:00.001-05:00

If your wife has 3 tattoos or more, you can refer to her as your old lady regardless of her age. I don't write these rules, I just abuse them.
My old lady got #3 today.

Peta

2009-01-28T20:28:00.003-05:00

Let me expand a bit on that nutjob comment from my last post. I am not against the ethical treatment of animals. My definition of ethical treatment varies from that of the nutjobs at Peta. Here are some of my bullet points-

Fur is not murder, fur is comfortable and warm, I'm sorry a racoon had to die for my coat, but after having to pick up my garbage for 2 weeks straight last summer, those bastards are on my shitlist. If I could, I would drink rum out of his skull too.
Eating meat is what we are supposed to do, it's our position on the food chain. It's one of the perks we enjoy because we're higher mammals.
Animal testing is how we cure diseases and help us live better. If someone had told me my sons could live if 10 cute monkeys died, I would kill them myself.
Putting a sweater on your dog is not an example of ethical treatment, how do you think other dogs would treat a wiener dog in a cardigan?

Latest Super Bowl ad to be banned

2009-01-27T16:05:00.003-05:00

Brought to you by the nutjobs at Peta

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad
"If God didn't mean for us to eat animals, why did he make them taste like meat?"

I had no idea

2009-01-25T10:18:00.003-05:00

I have been tying my shoes wrong all these years.

Now in 3 months when the snow melts, I'll be ready.

2009-01-11T13:50:00.001-05:00

Putting 2008 behind us

2009-01-02T12:58:00.005-05:00

We got the new year off to a great start. Bundled up, we braved the elements and took a quick walk along the river. We are not a winter family, we live in the frozen tundra and find plenty to do indoors when the temp drops below freezing. We do get tired of looking at each other after a while and have to get outdoors to remember how nice it is inside.

I also was able to update this picture to a winter version.

Next week he's going to fight a rooster

2008-12-29T12:55:00.003-05:00

Last week we got some rain that melted some of our snow and turned the driveway into a sheet of ice. I mentioned how slippery it was and Jon offered to go out and bring the dumpster back up. I accepted his offer and warned him again to be careful. When he asked me if he could wear his new Heelys to go out, I answered "I double dog dare you." I admit it was irresponsible of me to goad him into wearing roller skates on ice for my entertainment. It was even more irresponsible to videotape it and edit in some comical music. Still it's kind of a side splitter.

Rug Cutting

2008-12-25T22:54:00.008-05:00

"...Dance like no one is watching..."

That apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Nine days before Christmas

2008-12-16T19:37:00.003-05:00

Today would be Michael's 6th birthday, over dinner we talked about him. We wondered what kind of cake Grandma Pauline made him.

Mom and Dad miss you.

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-07T09:33:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in many years. I got stuck in my own driveway. We had a snowstorm in the forecast and I wanted to get some more bloody mary mix before it got too bad. While backing out of the driveway, I hit the bank and drifted in. Visibility was getting bad, a neighbor drove her car into the ditch because she couldn't see the road about the same time this happened. My car came out much easier than hers did but I still felt like a dumbass. I also still went and got my supplies.

We got a generous helping of snow last night and it's still coming down. I will still take snow over cockroaches and hurricanes.

Beerfest

2008-11-14T20:57:00.001-05:00

Who among us can't relate?

These are great days we're living, bros.

2008-11-01T18:06:00.002-04:00

There are two new fitness fads for women right now that have my attention. The first is a show called Shimmy that airs on FitTV. This program teaches the techniques of belly dancing to tone the hips and thighs. I sometimes watch that late at night. The second is called fitness pole dancing. This concept is sheer genius. Imagine having your wife ask you to put a brass pole in the bedroom so she can work out. I think if you throw fitness in front of any activity it will catch on. Fitness vaccuming, fitness mud wrestling, fitness beer fetching.

Florocarbons - I won't leave home without it!

2008-11-01T14:57:00.004-04:00

For the first time in a long time, we didn't have to put snowsuits under the kid's halloween costumes. Usually we make sure the costumes are big enough to accomodate the extra bulk but yesterday the weather was great. During the day we went to the library for a small parade/party. Later on we picked Jon up from school and went downtown for their trick or treating. Most stores staged someone on the sidewalk to hand out candy so we just had to walk from door to door. High density trick or treating. From there we came home and ate dinner before canvassing the neighborhood. No gloves hats or boots. Yay for global warming!