Horse Manure Park

It is a beautiful day and I'm doing absolutely nothing. I guess that's not entirely true... I am being a dad, watching my kiddo, but there's so much I should be doing. I know, I should change my attitude and just enjoy my time with her, correct? Right now, Dora the Explorer is on, so she's got the spotlight. Yesterday I did replace our old thermostat with a new digital one. I am hoping it will be a bit more efficient. So far the central air is working and the house hasn't burned down, so I guess I installed it correctly. Tomorrow, Thursday, will prove to be a very busy day. Beth will be home, so I have to cram as many chores into one day as I can. I am going to get up early and go out to the farm and mow/trim. Then I'll come back home and mow/trim my own yard (my lawn is so long it is embarrassing). That will take up a good part of the day. Then I need to open the camper and get it ready for the weekend. We are going to New York Mills, camping at gra...

I saw this and I thought it was too funny not to share. Welsh police released this sketch of a conman, who has a warrant for his arrest. Believe it or not, this is the actual police sketch circulating Wales. You can't get much more detailed than this. Have you seen this man? I think it's Michael Jackson, what do you think?

Today is a sad day. George Carlin died suddenly yesterday at the age of 71. Anyone who knew me very well knew that George was by far and away my favorite comedian; in fact, I blogged about him earlier this year. But he was more than a funny guy. He was a philosopher -- a "world observer" as he called himself -- it's not too much to say the world lost a brilliant mind. Even if you didn't like Carlin's style of comedy, you can't deny the man was a genius. The things he said would make you laugh until your sides hurt, but at the same time, he made you think. The way he played with the English language was brilliant and his "observations" of the world around him -- particularly American society -- were not only hysterically funny, but he said things that most people thought , but were afraid to say because of today's age of hypersensitivity and political correctness. One of his biggest pet peeves was euphemisms, and half of one of his book...

It's been a busy few days for us. On Thursday we went to Fargo and spent the night at the Best Western. We met Jon, Sara and Nora there and we were right across the parking lot from Bennigan's Bar and Grill. Thursday night just so happened to be $2 tap beer night. Let me repeat that, $2 Killian's Red 20 ounce tap beer. YES! Now, my brother-in-law, Jon, professes in the art of beer drinking -- just like yours truly -- so we commenced professing in our art. After a few rounds, we went back to the motel to let the girls go swimming in the waterpark. Jon and I continued to profess in our art while we watched the girls swim and we discovered a turd in the pool, which further confirms my personal policy of not swimming in public (cess) pools. In my Killian's Red-fueled state, I personally reported the turd in the pool to the front desk, much to the chagrin of the desk clerk. The guests checking in started laughing and the clerk turned red -- maybe she thought that I put ...

It's getting late... er, actually it is quite early. I need to go to bed soon. Not much happening in my part of the world. I managed to get my lawn mowed today even though the sky looked rather menacing all day. I still need to trim, I hope to get that done in the morning if it isn't raining. Speaking of.... when Beth got home, we put the little one to bed, then went out to the backyard and I made a cozy campfire. Sure enough, it decided to rain. But we toughed it out, got rained on... but it was kind of fun, too. There we were, sitting in the rain, drinking from our bottles of Michelob, listening to the sizzle of rain drops hitting the coals. We watched The Last King of Scotland last night. Wow, what an amazing film. Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for his portrayal of Idi Amin, and most deservedly so. He was simply incredible. What an actor. James McAvoy, who I had never heard of before seeing this movie, did an outstanding job in his portrayal of Dr. Garrigan,...

It's been about a week since I've written anything. Not sure if very many people read this anyway, but I'll jot down a few things. We got Martha's lab results back and the vet did not have an "ah-ha!" moment. Everything looked normal, so now we're back to head-scratching mode. Martha's on a trial run of Rimadyl right now, an anti-inflammatory which our other boxer Gracie is already on for an arthritic leg. The stuff isn't cheap, but it works well for Grace. It hasn't done anything for Martha and I didn't think it would. I think it was just a "Let's see if it works" idea from the vet. The next plan will be to try Martha on a tapering does of prednisone. I think this is also just a shot in the dark, but I am willing to give it a try. Our last resort would be to get a consult with an animal neurologist at the U of M. But I think Beth and I have already decided that we won't go that direction. First of all, we would ...

We took Martha to the vet today. Over the last couple of months, we've noticed that she has been dragging her left rear leg when she walks, and when she's on a smooth surface (like linoleum), she slips, as if she doesn't have strength or stability in her hind quarters. We waited for a while to see if she improved, but she hadn't (although she hadn't gotten worse either), so we decided to have her checked out. She didn't seem to be in pain, but she just wasn't right. The vet did a physical exam and suggested x-rays, which meant Martha had to be sedated and had to stay the afternoon. Well, this was a case of good news/bad news. The good news is the x-rays looked fine. Her hips were okay and the vet did a lateral x-ray of her vertebrae and they looked in good alignment (suspecting that perhaps she had some type of nerve impingement from a displaced vertebra). So the good news is there is nothing structurally wrong. The bad news, as the vet told us, is t...

It has been a while since I've posted anything. There's just not anything exciting to talk about, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Last week we got HD television, which is great. I am now set for football season. I've been watching baseball, hockey and basketball just because it is in high definition. I really could care less about the hockey and basketball playoffs, but once you see something in HD, it is hard to watch anything else. I know, sounds dumb if you've not had the "HD experience." We got home from camping yesterday. We went to the Gull Lake Recreation Area Campground, which is only about 10 minutes away from our house. It's nice to start off the camping season close to home because there's always kinks to work out with that first trip. On Saturday afternoon we were in a severe thunderstorm warning, which turned into a tornado warning. The park rangers were advising everyone to head for shelter. We had about 20 minutes before...