Friday, October 31, 2008

I'm rerunning a post from last year...

I don't think I have ever rerun a post, but it makes sense today after I took a quick walk around my building.

To read a timeless blog click here.....

BOB UPDATE: Papa Bob is coming home today from the hospital, we are planning a little party at his house, eating his food and drinking his IBC Root Beers.

The boys want to bring over the game Operation to play with him...I actually used the game last night to teach the boys what the doctors did to him. I think Maxim thought that was cool and he wants to show Grandpa how his nose turned red when the doctors took out his old knee parts with a tweezers.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Papa Got A Brand New...knee?

So Papa Bob underwent the knife this morning.

He now joins the likes of Mary Lou Retten, Angela Lansbury, and countless other baby boomers who need help making it into their golden years by getting a shiny new titanium knee.

The surgery went great and the Docs say he should be rolling around on the floor with the boys by the end of the week.

So for all those of you who in jest told Bob at one point in his life, "See you later, when your legs are straighter." Well, the next time you see him will be that time!

Here is a video of what they did to his knee.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Hunt Video

A quick video I made for the guys in my hunting party.



Thursday, October 23, 2008

Class Pictures.

As I look back on some of my school pictures I think I took some of the funniest pictures...like my first grade picture just off to the right...classic school picture, you have seen that one on the blog before.

Maxim got his kindergarten pictures back this week...he looks completely normal. Not that I am disappointed or expected any different, but my pictures were always laughable...Maxim gets his photogenic traits from Steph...every one of her school pictures looks like a Glamour Shot.

So here they are, side by side, Maxim's kindergarten picture and his dad's kindergarten picture.






Friday, October 17, 2008

Gone Hunting.

GONE HUNTING
I might blog in the next 6 days, I might not...check back when you can.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Holy Bloggsville.

Apparently this blogging thing is going around our family like a head cold.

LOL guest blogger Brent started his a few weeks ago, then on the secret down-low "members and invite only" his brother Jon started an invite only blog...that I think Ann might be in charge of editing. Don't look around for a link, that is top secret family only. We have to have some privacy around here.

The latest to get blogging is the one person that probably taught us all the most about computers...Lil' AJ broke his silence with a Dog-Blog...visit that one here. Or follow the link to the right...I put him under his brother simply because of age.

Now I guess we will wait for Uncle Skipper and Scotty to suit-up and start blogging. Scotty blogging might be a stretch because of all that wedding planning he is doing now. So I guess you are next in line Skipper! I think http://www.barnburner.blogspot.com/ might still be open for you!

Opps Skipper, some dude from Italy beat you to the barnburner.blogspot.com URL.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

This one is for Sally...

For some reason Rick Springfield songs have been flying around the office lately. he did play the Corn Palace this year and one of the gals went to the show...so we give her a hard time about getting old.

From the stories I have heard he is pretty good in concert these days, even at 59 years old...the guy is ripped too.

So I was looking on youtube.com for a song to terrorize my co-worker with, and I found this and couldn't help but think of my sister, who loved and most likely still loves Rick's music.


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Messin' With Sasquatch.

If you watch ESPN or any sporting event you have most likely seen the Jack's Links "Messin With Sasquatch" commercials.

One of the newest ones is a favorite of my boys. They come up to me with a pretend shook up drink then say, "here big fella, want a cold one?"

Then I open it pretend to get sprayed in the face and then chase them and push them down...I know it sounds lame, but we do this for hours.

The commercials are right up their with the freecreditreport.com commercials in my book, about the only creative spots out there.

Here is the one we love.


Monday, October 13, 2008

It's like Juneau up in here!

The rain has been pretty persistent over the last 8 days...the sun came out today and nobody knew what it was. Reminded me of my days living in Juneau, Alaska.

One thing that stuck with me from living in Alaska was that when it rains you don't stop your outside activities. If you did up there you would end up inside for weeks at a time.

The boys like it outside in the rain so the other day we went out for a little playing in the puddles.


Sunday, October 12, 2008

Pheasant Tales: Maxim The Hunter

This weekend was the resident/public land opener for pheasant season...kind of the "hey, we live here...we get to hunt our land first" weekend. On Saturday about 10 of us guys from around the lake hunted the public ground just across the road from our house. I wanted Maxim to go with and he was more than happy to get out his new hunting vest and go walk the field with his dad and some buddies.

Saturday was great, a little bit of mist in the air and the dogs worked great. Annie was a solid as the last 12 years I have hunted behind her and Lilly finally started as good as when she is about 3 days tired. Meaning she didn't run like a crazy English Pointer, but she was controlled and solid. Both dogs had 2 points each the first day where birds were taken over their heads, and one was about the coolest thing ever. Where both dogs were pointing the same bird, (Lilly actually honoring Annie's find) and I gave the shot to a friend's kid...he nailed it with one shot and was super excited.

Maxim walked about 2.5 miles with us and loved every minute of it...we did a lot of pretending that we were Clone Troopers and fighting the bad guys. Hey, if Star Wars gets him into the wild, let it be.

Sunday was raining all day long, but I felt the call of the wild to get out in nature again, so with a steady rain falling, I asked Maxim if he wanted to go hunt again, and he was ready with his full-on rain suit and rain boots.

We walked about 2 miles and he loved it. Lilly had the only 3 points of the day...the first was a hen, the 2nd was a rooster that I took with one shot, and the 3rd point was the scariest thing I have ever been a part of...

Right at the end of our hunt, Lilly locked on point and I approached her from my usual 45 degree angle, and I noticed that she started creeping forward, so I stopped about 10 feet from her with Maxim right at my side. Since I thought the pheasant was moving I let Lilly creep without "whoaing" her. As she crept I noticed that there wasn't much cover to the area she was going, so I scanned a little harder at that spot.

In the "wild" your senses are always pretty keen and alert, and I always love the adrenaline rush I get when one of my dogs go on point...it's the rush of the hunt for me. The big pause before the explosion of wings. This was one of those "story" moments. I loved the fact that Maxim was right there with me in the controlled environment of dog, gun, father, rain, adrenaline, nature, and bird.

As Lilly crept I noticed a lump of strange grass that almost looked like a rock for a second...then it dawned on me that it wasn't a rock, and it wasn't happy and Lilly was about 2 feet from a Red-tailed Hawk with about a 4 foot wingspan and a huge open beak. I tried to call her off, but she was locked...so was the hawk. I swear it looked into my soul and noticed the fear it caused me. I had grabbed Maxim's arm and pulled him right to my side. I quickly pointed out the hawk to Maxim and said, "look right there." Just then Lilly was about a foot away from the hawk.

I didn't know what the hawk was protecting, a fresh kill or a nest so I decided that Lilly needed to get away from the area...no sense in paying a vet bill. She didn't respond to my calls so I had to buzz her on her collar, that got her attention and she came right to my side. I called in Annie and with Maxim's hand in mine we slowly walked by one ticked off hawk...about 8 feet away. The closest I have ever been to a bird that size that wasn't in a zoo.

I kind of high-tailed it out of the area since I didn't want it to attack my dogs or my son, and then Maxim and I went into full story mode. We relived the tense moments staring down a hawk and when Lilly went right up to it and it didn't move.

I can't help but wonder if he fully understood how cool today was for his dad, but I think these moments are what makes life on Earth.

Friday, October 10, 2008

New Addition Coming Soon...

I haven't officially blogged about the newest member of the family, because...well, it isn't exactly here yet. We are expecting another kid in February...we have no idea if it is a boy or a girl, but we are pretty sure it is human.

Pretty sure, because we had the ultrasound yesterday, and the technology for that has developed quite a bit since Maxim was in utero. Now with the 3D version you almost can see what your kid will look like before you get it. It does look a bit alien on the video, but at times you can see features and fingers and toes.

With that new technology I invite you to take a look at our new baby on the video below. We will call it Baby G for now.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Bob's Knee 2.0

If you know my dad you know his knee.
It was an old soccer injury from college, back in the dark ages of medicine where instead of fixing the knee, they just tore out everything. So instead of some cartilage between his bones he has bone on bone...sounds like fun.

I think the general public has prescribed a new knee for Bob for many years, but I think he was hesitant to jump on the original "hack and stack" old knee replacement they came up with about 10 years ago. So it is 2008, and he is finally convinced that the Doctors know what they are doing and he will go under the knife later this month.
He went to "knee camp" on Monday which must be a bunch of 60-something former athletes sitting around a doctors office pretending they are inmates at a prison...."So what are you in for?" Then they all give their back stories on how they tweaked-up their knees.
Almost like an AA meeting...the scene at Knee Camp goes something like this.
Bob - "Hi, my name is Bob, this is my first time at knee camp."

The Group - "Hi, Bob."

Bob - "I blew my knee out in the 60's and some doctor hacked me up pretty bad...now I really don't know what to do, I mean people tell me I need a new knee, and it hurts....it hurts pretty bad." (some tears are shed here, and a rather large woman hobbles over to Bob and hugs him...)

Large Woman - "It's OK Bob, let it out."
Bob - "All I want to do is ride my horse, shoot my guns and play with my grand kids...and I am scared, really scared that this won't help."
80 year old golfer - "It's OK Bob, we are all here for you."
And "boom" like that dad came back from Knee Camp with a new lease on life, his knee is getting fixed, which should straighten it back out and make his left leg as long as his right leg while standing. He won't have to buy size 36 x 32 x 30 Wranglers anymore, and Penny won't have to hem up the left leg of his dress pants any more.
I'll keep you updated on Bob's Knee version 2.0 throughout the surgery and recovery process, and I think since I am family I am not violating any HIPAA Laws.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Fantasy Football Team For Sale.

So I complained about the Cubs performance in the playoffs in yesterday's post, but I will not complain about the way they were managed...I love Lou Piniella, and beg him to stick around for another couple years. I believe in what he has done, even when we lose...which coming from my family is pretty good considering that my Grandpa Walt used to say that Tom Kelly was a "dummy", all the while the Twins were winning World Series titles.

So as far as being a manager of a team I am having a slump right now...after a couple years of Fantasy Football success stories, 2 trophies and a couple of great runs in the championship game I have started the year 0-4.

I would fire myself, but I don't think it is my fault, so I want to sell my franchise. If anyone wants to buy them I can put together a pretty good package deal, you don't even have to worry about a stadium to play in...all you need is an Internet connection and a computer made before 1999.

The worst part about my horrible start, is that my brother-in-law is undefeated and leading the league. Thanksgiving is not going to be fun if I don't start winning some games here soon!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Sick from bad baseball, and also a Birthday wish.

I purposely didn't blog about the great regular season the Chicago Cubs had this year because I didn't want to jinx the run for our first World Series title in 100 years. Well, the run is over. In typical Cubs fashion they self-destructed with horrible offensive production and errors all over the field. We were eliminated in the first round without winning a game.

I was physically sick on Saturday night watching they waste away the season with their unpassionate performance...but as a loyal Cubs fan, I am used to saying this..."Next year is our year!"

Now that my sports-rant is over, I must wish my favorite sister a happy 39th birthday. Sal is the reason I love figure skating, the reason I can duck out of the way of flying object while I play the drums, the reason I don't put mayo on my cucumbers or coldmeat sandwiches. She taught me the glory of french onion chip dip, Little House on the Prairie, and the Brady Bunch.

She was a super babysitter for many years, and a super friend...just wish we would get to see each other a bit more.

Happy Birthday, Sal!

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Raccoon Hunting

We live in the country now and part of the deal you get on the outskirts of town include mice, bugs, and other critters that frequent the great outdoors...no big deal really, until a raccoon tries to get into your back door.

We did have one other raccoon encounter at our house...I was gone at the time, but lucky for us our next door neighbors are gun-toting officers of the law, and they had a pretty good time shooting a raccoon that had gone up a tree in between our house and the neighbor's house.

So yesterday around 4:00ish Steph calls all out of breath, "a raccoon was scratching at our bedroom screen door trying to get in!" She thought is was a cat at first, then realized that it's a cat you don't want to pet. She closed the sliding glass door and the 'coon just sat on our deck for a while and then went back by our dog kennel and they were going nuts barking and scratching at it.

So when I got home I got out the .12 gauge, and let the dogs out and it was still there all frightened and hidden under some stuff that is in between our garage and our neighbor's garage...Annie actually pointed it right away, I called them off and got them both back in the kennel and proceeded to throw stuff at the raccoon until it climbed up on some stuff where I could get a good shot at it.

The problem was if I shot it where it was at that point I would have blown a hole in my garage, so I sent Steph in to get the Red Ryder BB gun. I shot it about 4 times with that to make it uncomfortable and just tick it off enough for it to move into a different position. That worked perfect and I blew it's face off from about 10 feet away.

The boys of course wanted to see it so I scooped it up with a shovel and laid it on the road...they gawked for a while and then we threw it across a field in a ditch. As Maxim would say, "Good times, Dad, good times."