Fireworks

Elena and I went to see the fireworks at Nordic Fest last night. It was a really good show with many that I hadn't seen before. Olivia and Zach spent the evening with the Grandparents and I'm told did very well while they were going on.

We took everybody out to Cho-Sun for lunch today. It was a good meal except they ran out of many of the buffet items for my second trip so that was a bit disappointing.

Not as disappointing as watching the Cardinals again today. Getting swept by the Cubbies is not a confidence builder.


We saw Dana on Saturday in from California. She was in for the Fest and to see family and friends. Mark, she tells us, took the weekend to head to Tijuana. Crazy kids.

Zach is getting into the hand everything to somebody else phase when he is done with it. He also is deep into the phase that he isn't going to take pushing from his big sister. He just pushes her back or initiates it if she is getting to close. She is quick to point out the rules to him though. She'll shout out things like, "No pushing, Zach!" or "Move, Zachary!" Of course, she can stand in his way and shove him all she wants.

Nordic Fest

I got off work today and we buzzed down to Decorah for Nordic Fest. We had a nice supper with the folks and then headed downtown. It has been an awfully hot and humid all summer and today was no exception. We walked around for about a half hour and tried the rumegrat. We said hi to Todd Walter and his girlfriend but didn't see anybody else we knew. After that the kids were getting hot so we went to the Whippy Dip for some slushes and ice cream.

We were going to meet up with Ben and Steph at their house but we went on a little adventure up Palisades Park and Olivia and I looked over the edge over Decorah. She wanted to climb over the rock wall and look even further out but I stopped that. Nothing like a 40 foot drop onto brush and limestone to ruin a nice evening.

We then went over to their house and chatted for a bit and fixed their failing shower. I had purchased a new cartridge for them and we put that guy in and the shower is as good as new.

As we were walking in the door coming home we heard the phone ringing. I rushed in to hear the start of a message from Aunt Debbie. I picked up the phone and got the news about Nate and Kim getting pregnant. Good for them! We talked a bit longer about their living in Cali with all the posh movie stars. I guess I was boring her because she hung up on me but I guess I don't blame her. What, me from MinnesOta and all. Elena tells me that it was probably a cell phone problem but I'm unconvinced.

Speaking of MinnesOta, the Vikings signed Chad Greenway yesterday!!! He should be a big stud at outside LB for years to come. Hopefully. Vikings are looking good this year. Both OL and DL should be rock solid so I'm looking for good things. Hopefully Brad Johnson can keep it going another year. I think he's 43 so he'll need all the help he can get from the OL.

Cards lost to the Cubbies again today. Don't know what is in the water at Wrigley but they have the Card's number. Still like 5 games up on the Reds though.

Scooby-Doo

We've been watching a lot of scooby doo lately. Olivia loves the "Snow Ghost" episode and will ask for it over and over. "Watch Snow Ghost?" she will say with all the hope and eager anticipation that a three year old can muster.

There have been some really nasty looking black flying bugs living in a crack in our driveway near the garage door. They haven't bitten or stung any of us but I've seen them feed on grasshoppers so they must have some sort of bite. I tried to mess with them by spraying some expanding foam down there but I must have missed their spot because they are still around. Maybe time for the gasoline and a match.

I've been having a lot of luck with cleaning our siding and putting sealant on it. I've finally pressure washed the whole house and gotten two walls sprayed with some Ultimate cedar sealant. I was told by the paint guys that it was good stuff and would last 5-6 years which is a lot better than the 1 year with Thompson's.

The Twins have been on a tear and swept the White Sox to get tied with them in the AL Central. Still 8.5 behind the Tigers but looking good.

Floyd Landis was questioned about having elevated testosterone after having won the Tour de France. This was supposed to have been Jan Ullrich's year but he and a slew of other top riders were dropped due to doping questions. I really liked watching him compete this year. He had a meltdown on the fourth to last stage and lost a lot of time but came back on the next race to take most of it back.

Pirates

Went to the latest Pirates of the Caribbean with Elena yesterday. We dropped the kids off at daycare and went out to lunch at Dos Amigos II. Then we went downtown and parked. We were walking and in the middle of central park I noticed a used orange condom. We stopped by the used book store and I picked up a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. We missed the opening promos and first minutes of the movie so we found a seat in the dark. I liked the movie in all. It was very entertaining but I don't think it was as good as the first.

Zach is goofy. Elena told me a story on how he snitched Olivia's juice glass and hid behind the couch. Not only that but he sipped with one hand and held his other up to hide the glass. Unfortunately, he was hiding with wrong hand so the thought process was there but not quite right.

Feeding the Ducks

Everybody is in on picking the Raspberries. Mmm. Purple diapers here we come.


Tossing moldy bread. There were some fairly solid chunks of bagel that they managed to swallow. I hope that was OK.

I think that it would be a bit discerning to run about with these creatures looking a guy right in the eye.

Lots of geese and ducks.

We went out picked the berries and walked the trail. Then off to feed the ducks and back home for a nap. I'd been pretty busy with work and haven't been home as much so it was good to get out with the family. It has been really hot around here so we spent the afternoon indoors just hanging out watching movies and playing with toys. I had some really good luck with pressure washing the siding. I don't think that it had been cleaned or treated ever and there was a lot of dirt and mold ripped right off. The house now looks brown instead of dingy black. I was planning on putting some treatment on it but it rained today for the first time in a while. We were in an official drought I think so what are the odds.

A guy at work told me that our car can take the E85 fuel. Good for us because it is going for a cheap $2.699 instead of the $2.999. Cripes. 

Out and about

A good fun time for us to guarantee child enjoyment has been to go hunting those pesky raspberries. Today, I had Zach on one arm and picking with the other. He would gobble them up as soon as I picked them and grunt angrily at me if I was slow with the picking. If I still wasn't up to speed he would lean over and grab a fist full of whatever he could get. I discouraged that due to the thorns but he didn't seem to mind.

Olivia has a blast picking as many as she could find and showing Zach how to do it. Again, discouraged due to thorns and his inability to chose red from blue.

Olivia has also been trying to reclaim her upstairs room. I think that she gets nervous or scared sleeping downstairs so she has been much happier sleeping in her old room.

We watched Good Night and Good Luck the other night. It was about Edward R. Murrow and how he and his news station dealt with McCarthy. It was an OK. I think I would have enjoyed the story as a History Channel documentary compared to the movie format.

Raspberries

We went on our first raspberry hunt the other day. Olivia, Zach and I went wandering in the meadow and picked a bunch of them. I wasn't sure if the kids would like them but they gobbled them as fast as they could be picked.

We have a cherry tree that was full of beautiful red cherries and leaves. It had a chicken wire fence around it to protect it. Elena and I decided that it looked big enough that it didn't need protecting. We were wrong. Very wrong. The next day we saw that there weren't any leaves or cherries below six feet. The whole tree is about ten feet. The deer had eaten everything. Now the tree looks very insignificant and sad.

I went over to Paul's to help with his siding project. He had some old hardboard stuff that was getting rotten and had gotten some cement-board stuff for free from some relatives who work at a plant that makes it. I felt at times that we were in a Three-Stooges show. We put housewrap on the side of the garage and that went up well but everything afterwards just went downhill. We cut some starter strips and laid them out and had most of them up when at the far side we were running into the cement foundation and we weren't going to nail through that. So we ripped everything out and started over. Nothing was going our way. The sheathing behind the siding was rotten so we needed to nail through the siding and into studs. AJ ran the stud finder and marked what he thought were the studs. Last time he ever runs that machine. Anyway, we made chalk lines on his mark and started nailing away. We had gotten about three rows up when I noticed from the other side that we weren't hitting the studs. On top of them being poorly marked they weren't 16" on center. Man alive. We spent most of our time hunting for the studs and marking up the housewrap with different notes on where the studs were. The siding only covers 5" vertically so going up is a very slow process. We struggled through getting it to about seven feet up and then I had to get going. We hadn't even done one side of the garage and he has a good sized house.

We went to Elena's 10 year high school reunion at The Oaks. I talked with Jarred Scheridan whom I haven't seen in a good long while. We were in boy scouts together and in lifeguarding. We sat with some of Elena's old friends Darcy and Jamie and their significant others.

Vacation

Been on a vacation the past week. Olivia and I have been catching up on a lot of soccer. We've curled up on the couch to watch some really good games. Zach hasn't been so interested. He just likes to take naps.

We went to Decorah for a few days and played with Grandma and Grandpa. Ben bought a new plasma TV so we saw some shows on that. We also played cards of course. Paul and I did fairly well against the aggression of Ben and AJ. I think we tied in games but won on point differential.

We went to the neighbors for a birthday party. That was good fun but the kids were tired and it was hot and humid and they just couldn't take it.

I've been having fun just hanging around the house. I haven't done any projects or anything really so I should be rested up to go back to work. We went to the farmers' market this morning and bought some bread and veggies. This was the first time that I have gone and not recognized anybody.