10:45 p.m. supper.

I spent most of the weekend at one church or another as a relative of the family got married this weekend. Basically it was the biggest party of the summer. I did some video and still camera work and stayed out of the way.

Maxim fell head over heels for the flower girl from Kansas, and also liked her brother a lot because he liked to play Super Heros. It was a great weekend for a wedding because the weather was not the best if I wanted to play on the water.

So this afternoon I get an e-mail from Cousin Erkel asking if I can come out and play tonight...I got permission from Steph and while they were at an after-wedding-party-party, Erkel, C-Hof and I spent the night on liquid. It was the best night of riding I have had all year.

Brecken with a little help from G-Pa Roger caught a 16" walleye tonight, he was so stoked!

That made me hungry for fish, so after a long day at the office and a night on the water I finally just ate some frozen fish for supper at 10:45 p.m.

Tomorrow morning is gonna be a big coffee morning!

Bumper Boats

G-pa Bob got Maxim a bumper boat for his birthday. I was a little skeptical about it's quality, as was Grandpa...the reason he only purchased one.

I pumped it up and put the small fortune in batteries into the control panel and Maxim took off with a perma-smile. Brecken seems to think he needs to wear goggles when he rides in it, which makes the people who drive by in boats laugh at him even more.

It goes pretty good and has a water gun that shoots about 15' as well. So when Grandpa got the news that his purchase was a hit, he bought another one. Now Maxim and Brecken or a buddy can terrorize each other and the folks on the dock with their water-shooting bumper boats.

We have enjoyed cousin Cassidy in town for the last week and are looking forward to her brother Carson coming next week. Should be a busy 4th of July again...just hope we don't burn down the houses.

Coke + Peanuts = Pure Pleasure

I try very hard to eat healthy and limit my intake of junk, but I have a strong sweet tooth.

Yesterday a co-worker had a huge jar of Planter's Peanuts on her desk, and asked me to help her eat them. (Like you have to ask me to help eat things) I declined, trying do the right thing nutrition-wise. It worked, I went the whole day without eating any...but all day, all I could think about was getting a Coke and putting peanuts right in the glass.

Last night around 11:30 p.m. it even crossed my mind that if I would ride my bike to work again on Friday, I would reward myself with a Coke/peanuts cocktail. I rode my bike to work today.

The peanut jar is more than half full, and I am trying to come up with an excuse to have another Coke. (Thanks for giving me this addiction, Dad.)

You are thinking about going to get a Coke and peanuts right now, aren't you?

The Shadow Chaser Turns 6 Today.

Maxim turns 6 today.

Last night as we sat on the dock, in the moonlight with a big fire keeping us warm, it hit me that he is no longer a toddler. When you are 6 you are kind of a grown up kid. He sang himself to sleep on Steph's lap around 11 p.m., and we just sat there for a while laughing about "Maxim Stories".

6 years ago today we were at Sioux Valley Hospital watching the U.S. Open and waiting for Maxim. Funny that Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open that year, and he won it this year as well.

I took the above picture about a week ago and it really sums up Maxim. Barefoot, chasing his shadow, free-spirited and carefree. So much artistic and creative energy in that skinny little body running under the big sky.

Right before we put out the fire last night, I said to Steph, "Where will this boy be in 20 years?"

She said, "Probably living at home."

...if only we should be so lucky...kids are pretty amazing.

Shopping With Brecken.

Shopping with Brecken is never a good thing.

For the most part Maxim is cool with the process, as long as you can hit the toy aisle or the comic book section.

Brecken feels like most men while shopping...let me sit on the floor and cry while you do this shopping thing.

By the way, in this video, he is crying because I wouldn't let him have Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles...real tough parenting...he went with the Fruity flavor.

Father's Day Weekend.

We had a brilliant weekend at the Living On Liquid home front.

Deck & stairs building, boat lift floating and installing, kayaking, cage wrestling in the trampoline, horse riding, shooting gophers with a Red Ryder BB gun, Kathy's (AKA - ByronBum) world famous grilled walleye, no wind, temps over 75, and a great Father's Day present from an unlikely source.

Saturday was an amazing day, no wind and warm...I was busy building some steps and a deck landing into the boat house when I noticed a motorcycle pull up to the house and this tall, helmet wearing, "yellow-coated" person gets off. For a minute I thought the guy had the wrong house or something.

Then the helmet came off and it was my buddy Brian Wipf (AKA - HUB). He rolled out to Byron on his new Suzuki V-Strom.

Brian and I go way back to my first real job, he and his family lived just down the street from us and I always looked up to him and his brother as they were and still are great athletes. Hub is like 4 or so years older than me and we worked at the City Water Department together. Which means we drove around in a yellow pick up for a summer.

One day we were conserving gas or something over our lunch hour, and I jumped on the back of his motorcycle. He popped a little wheelie, and the little backrest bar behind me snapped, and I got dropped right there in the middle of 3rd street...one little scratch on my elbow was all I got.

I don't think our folks ever knew about it until a few months ago when I blogged about it. Sorry, Verlie and Bob. I am sure you 2 did some dumb stuff growing up too.
Anyway Brian gives me this great Father's Day gift...he used to ride and race the non-motorized version of bikes and he had all this great gear left from those days, and he brought me a couple of jerseys and coats. I can't tell you how excited I was to get this stuff from a real bike athlete, thanks HUB, hope the hot dog and chips paid the bill!

I wanted to jump on my bike right then and there with the new gear, but I had work to do...I am a little dissapointed that I won't be able to wear the coats until the weather gets a little cooler.

We talked bikes and motorcycles for a couple hours and just caught up...something I think we don't do enough with old friends. So thanks to HUB for spending the $.96 in gas it took the V-Strom to get to the lake and back. Nice bike buddy. Have fun in Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas and where ever your 15,000 miles of travels takes you this summer.

Storm Chasers.

I kind of understand storm chasers, it's all about the adrenaline rush of the chase, capture, escape and understanding of something bigger than you. Kind of like rock climbing, or a super fast downhill on a mountian bike. I could see myself with a video camera trying to get pictures of the tornado.

The deadly tornado last night in Iowa shows exactly why we should respect the weather, and also why we need to understand the storm more.

I only have one question, were you guys "in the tornado"?

I think the guy says it like 15 times...I lost count...kinda funny video.

Becky Hammon...To Russia With Love.

OK - It's another sports blog.

When I worked in TV there was this young, fun, energetic point guard from Rapid City that went on to play basketball for Colorado State. She was, at the time, our female version of Mike Miller. The South Dakota kid that turned heads on the national basketball scene.

Becky Hammon went on to play in the WNBA for the New York Liberty, and we continued to follow her every move. She was your typical South Dakota kid...hard worker, polite and an absolute joy to interview.

As a sports journalist you get to build a pretty cool relationship with these kids. I had great working relationship/friendship with athletes like Chad Greenway, Thomas Vanek, Brock Lesnar, Chad Lamer, Mike Miller, Jimmy Kleinsasser, Chad LaRose, Kris Tschetter, Becky Hammon, Corbin Lacina and Mark Ellis to name a few. For a brief period in their life, we were their ESPN.

The athletes on the above list all went on to great careers and represent South Dakota quite well. Including Hammon, who at the moment is receiving a little backlash because of what she will be doing at this years Olympics.

READ THE STORY HERE.

I think she made the right decision, I would have played for Russia. She is making a living playing basketball. A great living, I might add. I will be cheering for Hammon and I hope her team of fellow Russians get the silver medal.

Steph is happy.

So the Stanley Cup Finals ended last night with Detroit winning another cup.

Steph, being a Red Wings fan, was happy. I am not sure if she is more happy with Detroit winning the cup or that NHL Hockey is over for a few months. Now I have only 3 reasons to waste time in front of the TV...the Cubs, Twins and cage fighting.

Sports Blog...

I try not to blog too much about sports, sporting events or anything related because that's what most people expect out of me, but I can't control myself. The Cubs have the best record in baseball.

We are on an 8 game win streak and I will say it again...this is our year. That being said I am sure I have just "Bartman-ed" the whole thing by blogging and getting excited about it, but it's nice to celebrate the success a little bit. I like to think it's because Steph and I cheered the Cubs on so well at Spring Training in Arizona, but I'm sure there is some other reasons as well.

On to hockey...the quest for Lord Stanley's Cup almost ended last night around 9:20 pm, with the Red Wings ahead 3 to 2 with :30 some seconds left...but Maxime Talbot's hard work behind the net tied the game up and sent it to a triple overtime before the Penguins scored again.

My son Maxim was watching the game with Steph and I, and he was excited that a boy named Maxime scored such an important goal, and that he played for the Penguins. He even wore pajamas with a penguin on them last night. However, he was very disappointed to find out this morning that nobody won the "big trophy" last night. I was happy because that means there is at least one more night of hockey.

Finally a day that felt like Spring.

Yesterday someone mentioned that it was the 3rd Sunday in a row that was warm and not windy, which are the 2 things you care about while living on a lake.

I have always been a somewhat social person, and would never pass up a social gathering or party simply to get home. Sunday after church all I could think about was getting home...in fact lately, all I want to do when it's nice out, and I'm not at home, is to simply go home.

We had a pretty cool offer for a party at some friend's house on Sunday night, but we had to bail on them because the LIQUID was calling.

Yesterday after church we had lunch at mom and dad's with an old friend of mine who is visiting from MLPS, but at 2pm I couldn't find the door fast enough. Brecken and grandpa had a "cowboy day" which took them to the horses for a long ride, so we were down one boy.

By 5pm we were in the water with a loaded boat, having a great time. Although my 3rd wakeboard session of the year was anything less than stellar, it still felt good to have some fun on the water.

We threw together another impromptu party, grandma and the grandpa delivered a sleeping cowboy to the house, he woke up we put him in the boat and he turned into the boat party chairperson.

Maxim had a pretty big day too, he was playing on one of his favorite spots, the roof of Vic and Peggy's boat house. I think he was up there for 3 hours straight, making big battles with his action figures.

We capped the night with a pull behind cousin Erkel's Malibu and one last run across the lake. Maxim drove the boat the whole way, he did remarkably good, of course I didn't let him run the throttle, or today's post would be very different!

42 mile bike to work.

Living On Liquid guest columnist "Cousin Brent" submitted this video post about a guy that bikes 42 miles to work each day.

Click HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO FROM CNN.

Yes, he saved $400 in gas, but from experience....he probably ate about $200 more to fuel the machine that pedals his bike.

My motto lately...BIKE BIG, EAT BIG...

Thanks Brent.

Kayaking Byron.

I have pirated our neighbor's kayaks. I planned on returning them on Sunday when I borrowed them, but it is almost easier to keep them in our boat house, because I have been using them more than they do.

Last night Steph, the boys and I kayaked for about 2 hours...3.5 miles to be exact...using my mapping tool. It was somewhat chilly, but we had hats and long sleeves, and when the wind died down it was perfect.

Kayaking is so different than what we usually use the lake for. A more organic experience, you see things you would have never seen before. We scared a fox up the shoreline...Maxim got to see him running over the rocks as he ran away from us. He didn't know they were more orange than red.

The highlight of the night was when we found his Dora The Explorer ball washed up on shore about 2 miles from our house. It had blown off the dock late last fall and we had no chance of retrieving it. We rescued it from the rocky shore and he stowed it away in the hull of the kayak...somewhere there is still a basketball of ours out there too...we will try to find that on another adventure.

I was wrong on my facts...

I know...details are important when you are writing a story. So I have to admit that I inadvertently lengthened the bike ride distances traveled from last week, as was correctly brought to my attention.

A year or so ago I used the Subaru trip-ometer to figure out the distance between the office and home. It came up at 18 miles, the problem was that I zeroed it out at the gas station D&S Mini-mart. Which is about a half a mile from my office.

So to keep things legit on my website, I did not complete an 18 mile ride 2 different times last week...they were only mere 17.59 mile rides. I did not want to lead anyone astray. (Of course I post this with the utmost humor, funny story telling, and good intentions for the 3 people involved in this story, you know whom you all are!)

To attain my goal of riding my bike 18 miles to work I will, from now on, continue south on Dakota Ave. to the Donut Shoppe, grab 2 cream filled chocolate long johns and a Mountain Dew, then return to the office, making it a true 18 mile ride. But then again the trips to the Donut Shoppe is the reason I need to ride my bike in the first place.

Here is the map for documentation

Memorial Weekend Repeat.

Anyone remember last year' s Memorial Day Weekend weather? From what I remember, we got an exact repeat this year...but with a bonus 15 degree increase in temperatures on Sunday.

We spent Friday and Saturday in Sioux Falls with friends. Saturday morning we were planning to head to Newton Hills for a good mountain bike session, but we got rained out. Riding Newton after a rain is a muddy mess...to the point where your forks build up with mud and it feels like your are riding your brakes all the time. We ate raspberry and blueberry crepe's and sipped gourmet coffee instead.

On the way home we detoured north to Brookings to see Cooper, the newest addition to Dr. Schneider's family. Everyone was sleeping so we just looked at him through the glass, like we were watching him play hockey...it dawned on me that I should pound on the glass and yell, "Cooper, Cooper!" (Like the NHL commercial) but I didn't want to get thrown out of a hospital again.

Sunday was the day...I think I put 4 miles on the kayak and I have the life jacket sunburn to prove it. We worked around the yard and played outside all day Monday. I knew the boys had a good day when around 9:45 pm, by his own will, Maxim climbed into bed, then called us in to pray with him so he could go to sleep.

Maybe we can boost the temperatures to the high 60's this weekend.

Biking to work...

If you have visited my friend over at Minus Car Project you know his dedication to riding his bike all the time, to reduce his carbon foot print and save the Earth. I have those same tendencies, but it is hard not to rely on a car when you choose to live 15 miles from town. However, 2 days this week I have biked to work. 18 miles door to door.

Don't go thinking I am going to drive my bike full time, but I will make a conscience effort to bike to town if Steph and the boys are also coming in that day. I'm not doing it to save money on gas, or so much to reduce my carbon footprint, those are just nice things that go along with it. I am more doing it to help recycle. Recycle some clothes that didn't fit about 5 months ago that is.

I have been running 3 miles 5 times a week and lifting 5 to 6 times a week for over 3 months now, and I read something the other day about shocking your body through new additions to your work outs.

Believe me, my body was shocked this morning. At mile 14 I hit a wall, and it was time to go to my happy place and just pedal. I sat in the hot tub at the office for about 10 minutes before I showered...that was the pay off.

Jay Leno Headlines

I want to say I was tempted to send to Jay Leno's Headlines the "Syrians will blow" advert the Wagner paper ran a week or so ago. I didn't send it, but somebody did.

Living On Liquid readers have informed me that Jay did indeed run the advert on his "Headlines" segement last night. It garnered a good laugh from the crowd as well.

Here it is again in case you missed it the first time, and on Leno last night.

Guilty Pleasures On My MP3 Player...

I learned something about myself today...I have guilty pleasures right there on my MP3 player.


Guilty pleasures in my circle of friends would be described as something that you like, but don't tell your buddies about it. Be it figure skating, home decorating, flower planting, Celine Dion's music, any movie with Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant...you get the picture. Basically un-manly things. (For the record the above named things were simply examples and do not reflect my guilty pleasures in any way, shape or form. With the exception of figure skating during Olympic years)

So during a lull in a meeting today somebody mentioned that they couldn't get this Brittney Spears song out of their head today. When interrogated about the lingering tune, it turns out that this person has 2 albums of Brit on HIS (yes...HIS) iPod.
So it was "come to Jesus time" and around the room we went giving our "guilty pleasures of music" that is loaded on our MP3 players. A couple of folks had 'NSync, and an over 60 lady had 98 degrees and Color Me Badd! Some other notables...The Chipmunks, Boy George and Milli Vannilli.


It came to me, and I had to actually think pretty hard about the music that would get me ridiculed in a hockey locker room. I came up with Pink, the Dixie Chicks and Vanilla Ice's "Extremely Live" album. The last one of the 3 made me the butt of every ensuing joke for the meeting. So as soon as I got done with the meeting I deleted every Van-Ice song from my MP3 player.
It wasn't a peer pressure thing, I just don't want aliens to find me someday running around the lake listening to "Ice, Ice, Baby". Pretty sure any chance I had of being abducted, taken on a space voyage and then returned to Earth to write a book about it would be shattered if they thought Earthlings listened to that kind of musical junk. I would much rather have them find me listening to Johnny Cash or mewithoutYou. I think they would think I was smarter than most that way.
I kept Pink and the Dixie Chicks on the player, because of their musical talent and vocal range. I think the aliens would agree with me on that in theory anyway.

Screaming + Puking = Lots Of Coffee

Last night was one of those nights where you kind of wish you slept so hard you don't hear a thing. Unfortunately for me, I hear everything.

Brecken started the night off right At about 1:30 am he wakes up screaming...not any words, not light cries of need for his mommy...straight horror movie-type screams. 5 minutes later he is still screaming so Steph goes to get him and the screaming ensues for another half hour. Finally he settles down. I'm back to sleep.

2:30 am I hear the pitter-patter of Maxim's feet...then those words that test every parents athletic ability. "Mommy, I'm gonna throw up." Steph picks him up like a football avoids the pile of clothes and my gym bag that I leave lying around, and runs him into the bathroom...spiking his head in the toilet like a running back celebrating a touchdown just in time for the full puke in the bowl. (ESPN's da-da-daa...da-da-daa was playing in the background as this is a Top 10 play of the night)

Brecken was still in our bed from his scream-a-thon, so Maxim wanted to go back to his own bed. So Steph sets up his room for the full barf on the bed or floor experience, equipped with a garbage can, just in case his 5 year old mind thinks..."Hey, I'll save the carpet some wear and tear by puking into this trash receptacle." Yeah, right.

Brecken gets put back into his own bed around 3:00 am, and I fall back to sleep...3:30 am another pitter-patter and the unforgettable sound of "chicken noodle puke" hitting the carpet. Steph tended to the boy, I cleaned. At 4:30 am I was using Resolve and our carpet spot remover vacuum to clean up the evidence. I am sure I set a new standard for cleaning up crime scenes, but I can't stand the thought of germs.

After my Martha Stewart moment, I was wide awake, so I pulled a blanket and pillow and watched a re-run of WEC Wreckage cage fighting on Versus. I think I slept 2 hours on the couch. I'm on my 3rd cup of coffee this morning.

2 milestones this morning...

This morning was an exciting one in Living On Liquid history.

Brecken woke up with a dry diaper and wanted to get on the potty. So Steph hustled him in and sat him down. About 2 minutes later he did his job, we celebrated, took some pictures (of Brecken, not the toilet) and helped him flush it down. 10 seconds later he finished his job on the bathroom floor, I have no idea how a body that little can hold so much pee. I let Steph clean it up.

Also today is Maxim's last day of PreK. I told him he is getting to be a pretty big boy and that next year he will be really big and in Kindergarten. He informed me that you are not big until you lose a tooth, and that most dinosaurs were herbivores. Random thoughts, but pretty spot on for the transition he is making from pre-schooler to school-boy.