Horse Manure Park

Sure, there have been bigger shiners in the world, but my son finally got his first, just to prove he's 100% boy.  I am embarrassed to admit that I've no idea how he got it.   He never cried or fussed.  He was just suddenly walking around with a bruise under his eye.  It's actually bigger than this picture shows... I think he just likes posing for photos. My first official shiner! Okay, I think I should clarify a few things about my "new look" blog.  It might be a little confusing as to just how it works, but it's really pretty easy. To read any of my entries, just click on the entry and it will come to the front of the screen.  When you are reading this "full view," you can toggle to another entry by clicking the arrow buttons in the upper left corner, or just exit out of the screen by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner. To see different views of my blog, use the buttons in the menu bar, which are labeled "Classic,&

Time for a bit of a facelift, huh?  I guess it's my way of celebrating my favorite time of year, Autumn - although I've never figured out why there's an "n" in Autumn.  Sort of like that stupid "n" in damn. Damn. Well, I gone and done it.  I am the happy owner of a new truck.  Thanks to Dan's of Big Lake for getting us an outstanding interest rate on our loan and for a smooth-n-easy purchase.  I'll kind of miss the old Camry, though.  It was a terrific car, much like my Tercel.  Truth is, I've never owned a Toyota I didn't like, but I've also grown partial to Hondas.  And for those who think I'm a rat fink for not buying an American product, only 10% of my vehicle has "foreign parts content," which came from Japan, the rest is from U.S. and Canada. Gosh, there's really not much to yack about right now.  Ava is really enjoying kindergarten.  What a difference a year has made for her.  I think the new, structure

As promised, a new update within two weeks! (gasp) We spent a very fun weekend at the Budahn's this past weekend.  Just before we departed our beloved town I got the call that my new glasses were in, so I stopped by and picked them up to sport my new hunk-o-burnin-love look for the weekend.  (Or something like that). We spent Friday night sitting around Brian and Lindsey's beautiful fire pit solving multiple global issues.  The fire pit was a do-it-yourself project by Mr. Budahn himself and it is awesome.  Of course now I've got the itch to do something with my fire pit.  It is a project that will have to wait until next spring, but I have all winter to plan and scheme.  We went to a terrific Italian restaurant in Champlin on Saturday night, called Buona Sera.  Fantastic food, great service and a relaxed atmosphere.  It was just the four of us, no munchkins - and it was the highlight of the weekend.  Great place. We capped the weekend off by celebrating Brian's

...you might be asking me. Holy Cow... okay, a promise to my blog readers (for those who bother to even stop by anymore because I never update) I will update more often.  Really, I will.  (And yes, I know I said that in the last sentence of my last blog update back in August).  Sheesh. Honestly, two updates in the past four weeks.  This has been my longest dry spell in the blogging world since I started doing this thing back in 2007.  That's just awful.  I guess having a kindergartner and a two year old who keeps me on my toes every waking moment are taking their toll.  So what's new?  Probably not a whole lot.  Ava's first day of kindergarten was on September 6th and so far everything is going very well.  I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that... I had an eye appointment last Monday and the optometrist was younger than me.  The older I get the more I realize that I'm getting older.  So the doc said my eyes were fine, but as I age I will notice