Horse Manure Park

It is time I update, in case some of you think I've fallen off the face of the earth.  I don't think that would be possible with gravity and all, but you never know. We enjoyed an extended weekend at the Bismarck Baumann's over Thanksgiving.  The weather wasn't the friendliest on the way to Bismarck.  The last 220 miles (give or take) looked like this, a snapshot Beth took with her phone: Interstate 94, somewhere between Fargo and Bismarck, ND. Yes, that is a car about 200 feet in front of us.  I was thankful that is wasn't snowing, just windy.  If it had been snowing even a moderate amount, the interstate would have been impossible to navigate.  It is no wonder why the highway patrol closes down the freeway when major winter storms hit. Luckily it was a fairly uneventful trip, except for Ava's usual carsickness.  She only puked once and it was successfully retrieved in the proper receptacle.  No problem, just a quick stop in Hawley to...

We enter another dreaded work weekend.  It's only 72 hours, but it feels like a week.  At least the two squirts were very good tonight.  Things aren't nearly as difficult when the little ones are well-behaved. Ava is smart enough to go to kindergarten.  She had her kindergarten "entrance exam" (or whatever it's called) on November 17th.  She did well in everything, but the examiner said she needed to work on her rhyming skills.  To put it another way, she can't "bust a rhyme," I guess.  This does not, however, mean she is going to be exposed to Eminem or Jay-Z or Pancake-L or Bubble-B or any other idiot rapper anytime soon.  Maybe she can't rhyme, but she knows the Beatles, Kiss and Bon Jovi.  She'll be okay. Oh what an interesting night at work last night.  I, of course, cannot say anything about what I experienced... but I can say I am blown away that certain stuff happens in this very community; stuff that is only supposed to ha...

It is not unusual for us to wake up to animal noises, provided by an imaginative four year old.  So when I heard "hooting" at 7:30 this morning, it didn't surprise me.  I was not happy, however, because it was loud and I was afraid Ava would wake up her little brother. But in a few minutes she came bounding down the stairs and jumped on our bed and the "hooting" continued.  Let me emphasize, it was loud .  By now the dog was awake, so I decided to let her out and go investigate. Once I got outside this "hooting" was very loud.  It was undoubtedly an owl, something I'd never seen in the wild before, so I decided to look for him (yes, it sounds like something Phyllis would do!).  It did not take me long to find him.  I should say them .  Two great horned owls perched high in a tree just across the street from our house.  They were magnificent!  And huge!  And loud! I managed to get a very poor photo of them before they both took...

Gosh, a week has past without updating around here.  Busy with work and doing dad stuff.  Most of the time I feel like I don't have time for anything, yet I seem to get absolutely nothing done.  It can be kind of a bummer. At the end of the day when I'm tired and feel like a full day's work is under my belt, I find the only things I've managed to accomplish is getting the dishwasher emptied and preventing my son from taking a nose dive off one of the kitchen chairs.  That boy has hit his head and bloodied himself more times in the past two weeks than Ava has in her entire life.  Yes, boys are definitely different. Perhaps that's why I've not been blogging much.  My feeling is if I have time to blog, I have time to do something more productive... which I actually am right now.  I'm making bugle mix, although my wife doesn't know it.  Just one less thing that she has to do when she gets home, and the advantage of doing it when she's not here is...

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia:   another one of life's beautiful ironies.

Last night was pumpkin-carving night... Attempting to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time (a difficult task)! Mesmerized by pumpkin guts. Off comes the top!  Neil is much more interested in the corn. Cool!   Big sister being silly. Gross... pumpkin guts. Captain Caveman A couple of days earlier, in my attempt to play Mr. Mom, Ava and I made Halloween cookies... Yes, the cookies and icing were all homemade... just ask Ava, who is decorating her Halloween "cookie snake." Enjoying all the hard work Cooooookie!!

It is a gray, cold, rainy and very windy day.  A large jack pine has fallen in our front yard - it is hung up about 15 feet above the ground.  That's going to be fun to get down... To add to this uplifting weather, I logged onto weather.com to see when this frigid wind and rain is going to end and this is what I am greeted with: Seriously?  A winter storm warning?  Let's see, it's October 26th.  Better download some new music from iTunes, order a couple more good books from Barnes and Noble, and stock up on the Bailey's.  This could be a long, cold winter.