The Good of EVEL.

Growing up my friends and I didn't have the XGames stars, in fact, my generation invented the action sports athlete...but we were around to witness the pioneer of Action Sports.  Evel Knievel was the Original Gangster of jumping motorcycles, and crashing them for that matter.  I kind of remember watching him on TV jump over different things, but if you were a daredevil kid you wanted to be Evel.

Evel grew up in the Rocky Mountain town of Butte, MT, and for the last 11 years the city has celebrated the legacy of Evel with a 3 day party in Uptown Butte.

I was in town for the festivities and snapped a few photos of the FMX show with my iPhone.  Evel would be proud of the new generation of daredevils...they took what he started to another level.

Feature Yard

Stephanie won the Lake Byron Development Association's Feature Yard Award!

She works hard to make it look as perfect as possible and after 6 years of living here we finally have it somewhat under control!

Congrats Babe, I am proud of you!

Ken Block - Gymkhana 5

I think I have posted all of the Gymkhana videos out here, if you haven't seen the new one, crank up your speakers and buckle in for 10 minutes of creativity with a car and the streets of SAN FRAN!

The Amazing Popcorn Man

I am not sure what his special powers are, but this no-shirted, camo shorts wearing super hero fights crime at the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha.  I am pretty sure this is the only place in the world anyone has ever seen this obscure crime fighter.

I don't know where he gets his desire for attention, but he goes about it in a way that makes his dad smile...he walked around like this for at least an hour on a 98 degree day.

My Dad Is Growing Up.

When my dad and I used to do project type work together it always included some sort of verbal confrontation...not the kind you see on American Choppers or anything like that, but just one idea being better than the other (usually mine) and the other person not accepting the reality of the fact.

Well, my dad has been a super big help on an extension of our deck that we have been building over the past 3 days and last night we kind of finished the "big" work of the build and he made the comment that "we didn't even fight while we were building this".

It is amazing to think that about 10 hours of working together resulted in a completed project and no hard feelings.  I am so proud of the way my dad has grown up over the past 5 or 10 years, he is really starting to become a great person.  All those years of me pouring my youthful knowledge into him has paid off.

I am sure he is thing the exact same thing....oppositely of course.

My Intern...

When I was at KSFY TV I had an intern who was later hired by the station.  James "Jimmy Jam" Searls came to us as a skinny college kid with a ton of heart and the desire to succeed in the industry.  He spent some time in the Sioux Falls and Sioux City markets and in Des Moines...now for the last 2 years he has been one of the main sports photogs at the Baltimore FOX station.  He shoots the Ravens, Orioles, and every D1 college in a tri-state region.

By TV industry terms he has outdone all of us that trained him...he has awards from everywhere and he is still in his 20's...for a few more months!

I am proud to say I had a small part of his life and career, he got nothing in life handed to him, he earned everything every step of the way, and his path is still bright.

The picture below shows James and I at Camden Yards in Baltimore.  He finished up with Ravens Training Camp early and came to the ballpark to join me.  If I look like a proud father here...well, that's what I felt like.  When a kid earns his way to the top you have to be proud of him.

Great to see you, pal.  Maybe this is the year you get to go to the Super Bowl???

Lincoln Memorial

My favorite spot in D.C.

Had to check on my old friend Abe today.

Waiting For Grass.

I planted grass seed 13 days ago...and there are some little sproutlets taking off, but I really thought the area would be a little more grass-developed by now.  So I start Googling "how long does it take grass seed to germinate", and I get all sorts of random answers, but most say I am in the window now where the whole thing should sprout off.

It kind of reminded me of taking care of your children, you "water" them and "water" them and get their seed bed and dirt all perfect and they continue to do things their own way on their own time.  You just have to wait for them to come around.

Maxim turns 10 on June 17th and I finally am seeing some real "grass growing" in his responsibility level.  Chores are sometimes done without asking, he is taking responsibilities with his brother and sister.  In fact, last night we were about a 3/4 mile from the house visiting a neighbor and the 2 boys wanted to walk home...which would take them on a busy country oil road for more than half of the trip...I looked at Maxim who has biked and run on that road and we let them go...funny how sometimes letting things go, makes them grow even more.

I guess I have to just give the grass seed some more time, but if it isn't full on growing by Sunday I might have to "spank" some life into it.

Ft. Sisseton's Mascot

Last weekend Maxim, Brecken and I went to Fort Sisseton Days with my dad and his chuck wagon, which I found out is named "Sweet Sally Sue"...more on that later.

Last year Brecken went with dad and he raved about how much fun he had for a year, so I thought Maxim and I had better go this year. (Steph also had a garage sale last weekend so I wanted to get out of town.)

It is a lot like a Renaissance Festival for Cowboys and 1880's lovers.  We spent the weekend living out of a chuck wagon, cooking off the open fire and eating dessert right out of dutch ovens.  It was interesting to actually "live" the life the settlers in this are probably lived, but I'll take my pillow-top bed over the floor of a chuck wagon any day.

Maxim and Brecken played pretty hard, and for the first time as a parent I kind of just let the boys go and didn't parent them, I didn't tell them to "be careful" or when to eat or not to get too far away.  I let them go.  In our world of "bad people" that is tough to do, you always worry that your child is going to get stolen and end up on a milk carton somewhere.  But I have faith in God to protect my kids and so I let them roam the FORT.

Maxim being the less socially-needy of my 2 boys would come back to camp to check in and check out every 2 hours or so.  He would do what all 1880's prairie-bound boys would do...read another Star Wars book or play his Nintendo DS until the battery drained.  (at one point he actually went 28 hours with out some sort of electronic device and didn't complain)

Brecken on the other hand has become a sort of celebrity at Ft. Sisseton.  He is dressed in cowboy gear the entire time and he is gone the entire time.  He lives off of food he begs from other people, candy, the occasional portion of grilled meat and endless bottles of water.  Otherwise it is 90 mph play time.  Cowboys and Indians, good guy vs. bad guy, and just running all over the place.   Fort Sisseton is a gem of South Dakota and if you have never been there it is well worth the trip.  I want to go back sometime when the festival is not going on and just soak in the history of the area...it is beautiful, I even kicked myself for not bringing along a fishing pole...yeah, me wishing I had a fishing pole.

Here are some images of the weekend.

Happy 35th BDay Star Wars

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the original release of Star Wars: A New Hope, you know the one where Luke blows up the Death Star for the first time and Han Solo fights an entire army of Stormtroopers.  We will celebrate the event tonight with a viewing of the original film...POPCORN AND COSTUMES ARE MANDATORY.

You see at our house Star Wars is a spoken and unspoken language.  I found Star Wars from my childhood friends Wayne and Jason and my cousin Brent...they were totally into the movie that I hadn't seen yet.  To tell you the truth I don't recall the first time I ever saw the original movie, I don't think I saw it in a theatre, I think it was on TV just prior to the release of "Empire"...but I remember seeing Empire and when you are 7 and see a movie like that, it changes your view on fantasy, and creativity and what the world has to offer.

Some 20 years later Maxim entered the world and one of the first movies he fell in love with, after the whole Finding Nemo thing was Star Wars.  He was mesmerized, as I still am when I am watching anything that has the SW franchise sticker on it.

Now Steph is a fan of the movie and the cartoon series, Brecken likes to call people "Wookies", and Kolby is our Yoda.  We have lightsaber fights with anything resembling a sword, we have more action figures than Barbies and we even have nights where Maxim puts in a movie and we just watch the battle scenes.  "Fight Night!"

So if you ever hear Steph tell me, "I love you."  and I just cooly answer, "I know."...you will know I am not being a jerk, I am pretending to be as SMOOTH as Han.

The Dangling Carrot Of Dirt.

You have seen the cartoon where a donkey's rider holds a carrot in front of the donkey to get him to move...Maxim has actually done this to Brecken (yes while riding him) with a donut.  Well, earlier this spring Stephanie put a carrot in front of me.

The problem is there is a lot of dirt in the way.

I have been building a retaining wall for a couple years now and slowly adding dirt, and slowly doing work, but this spring the deal was made (truth be told there wasn't much dealing) that the boat doesn't come out of storage until the 1st tier of the retaining wall is back filled and landscaped.  Well, Steph's uncle delivered the dirt last night (THANKS KENROY!!!) and I will learn how to shovel dirt again tonight.

You may ask why don't you just get a Bobcat and spread it around????  Well, the 1st tier is blocked in by our deck and the lake and a hill, so the only "Bob"-cat I could get back there is my dad and a wheelbarrow.

So tonight I begin Shovelpalloza.  If you are bored and want a good workout come on over any night this week and I will get you a shovel.

MY GOAL IS TO HAVE MY BOAT IN THE WATER ON SUNDAY...We will see how that goes.

Crooked Arrows.

I will probably have to wait to see this on DVD because it won't come to the Huron market, but looking forward to seeing it.

Downhill...URBAN STYLE.

Cooper Timm

This is a post to celebrate the next generation of talent in Huron.  Cooper Timm is a kid I know from hockey, who also has mad skills with a guitar and vocal range.  Love it Coop, keep it up and if you ever want to jam with an old guy my drum kit is always there to back you up!

Enjoy.

The Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow.

This was the scene when I left the office today. Double rainbow that ended right at the building...It reminded me of another photo that I took like this...but it was at Fast Farms.

The photographer in me notices the things like the quality of photos...the one of the Fast farm was taken in 2009 with a BlackBerry Storm...the one today with the iPhone 4s.  Someday I am going to do a photo shoot with only my iPhone...I think you would be amazed at the sharpness of it.

Montana...No Vacancy

I shot this photo on a bluebird day last week as I was on another of my tours of the Big Sky Country.  I really love Montana...it is like South Dakota with mountains.

This reminded me of one of those photos you see at a Hampton Inn and you always wonder where that picture was taken.

Catching You UP...

Wow, has all this happened?

Grandpa Bob = Retired
Maxim = Hockey team won last 3 games of season and he scored and had 2 assists that weekend
Kolby = 3 year old
Brecken = qualified for state wrestling tourney next weekend
Steph = married to me for 14 years
Weather = tempting me to go wakeboarding on Sunday...anybody want to un-winterize their boat.
LakeHaus Productions = shot over 70,000 images in last 12 months

Kony 2012

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Stephanie Decker

For some of you that read this but don't know....Stephanie Decker was my Steph's maiden name.  I changed her into a Glanzer and she hasn't looked back, but I would say that if there was a tornado bearing down on our home, she would do exactly the same thing as this Stephanie Decker did.

My Stephanie is a hero like that as well.  Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary to my best friend and wife of 14 years.  Next year we will be on a big trip to celebrate...this year she gets to go to a Region wrestling tournament over the weekend.

Is there another Tom Glanzer??? 3 that I know of.  One is a guy my age who lives on a colony in SD, one lives in Howard, S.D. and was a good athlete in high school and the other lives in Austria.  I am friends with 2 of the 3 on Facebook...I am pretty sure the other one dosen't have a Facebook account.  I'll leave that to you to figure out which one isn't online.

Below is the other Stephanie Decker's story...

The Kids In Their Uniforms...