Feminist My Butt

How come if we are all equal, and no jobs are designated as one person or another, do I always have to be the one to take this:
and make it look like this.
Every Single Freaking Time!! How come?
How

Random Photos

Through the windshield on the way to Scout camp. Western Wisconsin.Rainbow crossing the Mississippi River.
Clouds over Wisconsin.
And yes - A DIME! I also found a penny, so the grand total is up to 24 cents.

Stuff I Love

Thanks to a TIVO suggestion , I have discovered my new favorite show, Corner Gas.It is a very funny Canadian sitcom featuring the extremely small town of Dog River. Every time I see this guy, Oscar Leroy, I say to Lisa that is the kind of old guy I want to be.
You have to watch the show to appreciate that, but let me just say it will be a lot of fun being me; maybe not knowing me though. But that is how it is now anyway.

For those of you keeping score

I haven't been able to get pictures of them all, but I am now up to 13 cents in found money.

Early retirement is just around the corner.
These last two photo's are just funny images I have been sitting on for a while and haven't found a place to use them.



If only indeed!

Still a Kid

I jog 4 miles at lunch everyday. The course I run takes me under the interstate via a small tunnel. Depending which direction I take I either hit this at the beginning or end of the 4 miles.
If I hit this at the end of the run I am totally imagining the Olympic Tunnel at the end of the marathon.
I am coming in for the Silver (I may be imaginative, but I am still humble)
Is this last picture what death will be like? Go towards the light!!

Any Excuse

Do you notice that when a couple decides to get their act together it is always the wrong one who finds an excuse to rip their shirt off? Below is a shot of Karl at a family BBQ at Steven's house who decided he would be the lone adult at the slip and slide. Come on Kristi!! BTW big props to Karl for guest posting over at Feast upon the word blog.

But that wasn't the problem. Steve wasn't going to be out done at his own party so he ripped off his shirt too.
Now Steve will complain that I am not being fair, so since I do not have a good shot of me handy I am a cross between this guy:
And this guy:
I am probably closer to the second. Am I right?

More Home Gym Equipment

This bad boy is an old tractor tire and weighs several 100 pounds. You deadlift it up and then push press it over. Then repeat.

Primary Activity

Cenny & Claire on the track
Cenny broad jumping
Deni & Dad
And the great JT at the softball throw.
To see all 105 photos go the the main album

My Commute

2.5 miles of pure excitement.

My Town

Flood Slide Show

It Kind of Speaks For Iteslf

Latest Discovery

Found in the crawl space.
What a resourceful young man Randy turned out to be.

Remodel Update

We slowed down a bit with end of school year activities. And speaking of that - isn't it just crazy?!?!? They don't mention that in the "You want to have 5 kids" handbook they gave us. Every single day it is one activity or concert after another. Anyways, the main gutting is done and I am on schedule today to reframe the doorways (for crawl space entry and the main door). Here are some shots (mainly for those of you who are familiar).

Looking into the room - old crawl space entry at right.

Looking out the doorway to the hall. New door will be 36"'s and will have to be reset about 6"s to fit.

This is where the old closet was.

This is looking in from the hallway into the room.

If you click on that last picture and see the color of the hall on the left, and the wallpaper style on the right; it will be self-explanatory on why we are gutting this house room by room. Not that I blame the in-laws, because if you see the condition of the plaster under it I think stripping off the 100 years of paper and paint on the walls would have caused them to fall down anyways.

Fun with Rental Cars

Dodge Journey

Part of the fun of business travel is the opportunity to test drive various new cars. This last trip was no exception as I was given a brand new Dodge Journey. It is a cross between a car and a minivan. Overall it was an excellent vehicle, and if I had one less kid I would consider owning one.

The downside is the new keyless starts. Basically you stick the plastic key fob into the ignition and start it that way. All was well until 10pm in a HyVee parking lot when I pulled out the key fob from my pocket and all the alarms on the car went off. This included the horn sounding of for 3 minutes and the lights flashing another 15 on top of that. When the car finally calmed down it would not let us in, it had locked up tight and the remote was nonfunctional. So giving up we hiked the 1/2 mile back to the hotel so I could go on-line and look up the service number for the rental car company.

I called the company only to get a operator in India, which wasn't that bad as growing up in England made the accent easily understandable. The problem was they had a script which they would not leave, or maybe it was could not.

ME: I am locked out of my rental car.
India: What is the rental agreement number?
Me: I don't know as it is locked in the car.
India: Where did you rent the car?

Now this gets interesting as my company is large enough to have a private lot at our corporate office, but technically they rent it from somewhere else. The problem is I do not know where that somewhere else is.

ME: I tell them the town of our Corp. Office.
India: We do not rent cars from there. Where did you get the car?

And so the circle went. After several rounds of this game and several operators I was finally transferred to a service department in America and they shared that there was a hidden switch on the key fob and an emergency key would pop out. I could manually unlock it with that. Another 1/2 mile hike and we were in. Bedtime was after 1am.

Take That Heather!

Some may of thought we were too rough on Heather's cooking skills for children on her blog, but just look at the masterpieces that Lisa makes up here.

I present Octopuses on seaweed.

Bow down to Lisa's culinary greatness!!

Walking with Parker

One of Parker's favorite activities is going for a walk - so unusual for a dog, I know.
He likes seeing the sights, like our own outdoor amphitheatre.
But occasionally something will get him real excited. Just look at the burning passion and desire in those eyes. Yes, that's right.
Free (and Tasty) roadside treats. So the next time you are annoyed by the abundance of goose poop on the sidewalks, just remember that somebody is in doggie heaven.
I also have another found money update as I scored a nickel. I am now up 7 cents!