Art

I call it Fur on Hardwood.

Mmm Cake!

There's a lot of cake to eat with 2 birthdays so close.

But it sure is good.

Today on Oprah

Is toilet water the same as tap water? That's the teaser for today's show. I heard it with my own ears this morning while I was getting dressed for work.

Why of course not Oprah. Didn't you hear that tragic story about the family who moved into their dream home and 2 months later they had all died from a mysterious bactireal infection? Turns out the problem was the plumbing. The contractor had mistakenly hooked the city tap water source to the toilets and the toilet water source to the tap. New building code legislation is making it's way through 26 state legislatures.

Someone please watch and let me know how it turns out.

Back in the Day

Today we get High School Musical, back in the day they had the T. A. M. I. Show. Wow! Watch the short clip courtesy of trailers from hell and you'll see what I mean. I consider the AC/DC For Those About to Rock tour the greatest concert I ever saw (in spite of the met center acoustics). How can live music with cannons and bagpipes ever be topped? But I dare say the unbelievable list of performers in that show would put it to shame. And it was marketed at the teenie bopper set!

14

Happy 14 number one son.

Countdown to 14

Number one son, 1 year ago.

Countdown to 14

It's 3 days until number one son's birthday. So I thought it would be fun to do one of those internet aging time lapse deals. Only I didn't plan ahead so you only get 3 pictures, each 1 year apart. This one from 2005. Check back tomorrow for 2006, and if I remember you'll see 2007 on the big day.

What's in a name?

I decided to change the blog name. We can call it AHOB for short. It's been over a year since I started this blog so it's far more clear to me what it's about. It's certainly not a professional blog. Where given my profession, the old name would have been more appropriate. Rather, it's simply a personal journal. My hill of beans. Doesn't amount to much in this crazy world, but it's the stuff that matters to me. Now my regular readers don't have to ask what's up. But I bet you both will anyway.

I have also been tagged. Not being big on the rules for such things, I'm not going to follow them. But I thought it would be fun to share some random facts about myself. Besides, I have to outdo Ranger Paul. So here goes...

- I caught a foul ball at a Major League baseball game, twice. Both at the Big A. The first one was hit by Pags, the other during a Wally... Wally... Wally... chant.

- I once drove from Fargo to Minneapolis just to attend a DEVO concert. I also drove back to Fargo after and made it to class the next morning. It wasn't worth it, they weren't very good.

- I learned to downhill ski by taking the gondola to the top of Mammoth Mountain. A friend was certain I would know how once I made it back to the lodge.

- I chipped in from 20 yards on 17 at Braemar a couple weeks ago (for double bogey - don't ask).

I think that's quite enough of that.

Summer Vacation - part 4

The day we had to head south for home had arrived. So we did the only logical thing. Drove north, nearly as far as you can and remain in the continental United States. We went to Crane Lake at the edge of Voyagers National Park. Yes, we could see Canada from there. Wasn't my idea. OK - well, maybe it was. But I never intended we wait until it added a couple hundred extra miles to the trip home. Then, what would a family vacation be without some serious windshield time?

Vermillion Falls was the reason for the side trip. The pictures really don't do it justice. The entire river finds it's way through a crack in the rocks not much more than a foot wide. If I were insane, I could easily have jumped across. Rather than attempt that, we exerted our energy on the plentiful climbing rocks.

On the road home, we learned the meaning of the word melancholy. Even as a kid, I remember feeling blue when the family vacation had to come to an end. I guess not everyone shares that experience. My wife and eldest child both found it rather silly. But at least one of my children is sentimental like her Dad.

The End.

Summer Vacation - part 3

The weather started getting rough
our tiny ship was tossed
if not for the courage of her fearless crew
the minnow would be lost
the minnow would be lost

Enough of that silliness. As you can see, Tuesday the weather took a turn. The wind kicked up and didn't quit. So we found several other attractions to keep us occupied. There was the wolf place in Ely, Glensheen, lawn bowling, and my favorite - breakfast at the Tower Cafe. We even got to say hi to Wayne.

I had my morning coffee on the dock, no matter what the weather. And Deanna had her pass time.

It was tough on the older 2 kids though. They only get 1 TV channel up there - can you imagine?

Summer Vacation - part 2

Like I mentioned, our first night in the cabin was a little on the hot and muggy side. Not the best sleeping weather. The little girl on the left isn't used to sleeping with no A/C so she let everyone know. But it cooled off nicely on Sunday. Comfy fishing weather.


We caught a lot of perch. It looked like that's what the bald eagle nesting on the island was catching as well. The 3 loons that hung out in our bay all week must've been feasting on them too. I was hoping to luck into the fish of a thousand casts, but can't count that high. At least not on vacation.


Lauren hooked a really nice smallie right off the dock. Made the guy who lugged his big bass boat all the way up there from Tennessee real jealous. That's what he "was up here for" after all.

Other than the heat on Saturday, the weather was great our first few days at the lake. The afternoons were warm enough to get a little wet. And the nights perfect for sleeping.

Summer Vacation - part 1

We took our time getting to the lake last Saturday. Check in time at the cabin was 4pm. It was a beautiful day. A little on the hot side. So we took advantage of the cool breeze off Gitche Gummee by splashing around a bit at Gooseberry Falls. We also took in the tour at Split Rock where Matt and our guide were both ginormous (our guide's word) hams. If you can't be corny on vacation, when can you?

We found our accommodations on Lake Vermillion quite to our liking. So it was time to get down to business.
Different members of the family had different ideas about which business to get down to.

to be continued...