Nice site

What a great site!

You turn around and two weeks pass by...

So here's what has been happening. The house is being painted and should be done this weekend. Dylan has been really digging the whole thing. The folks doing the painting have been great with him. He wanted to help so they gave him a brush. I believe they also gave him a short turn on the sprayer. 5-year-old boy heaven. The house definitely now stands out from the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Much darker than the different shades of beige to be found nearby. We picked a color called "Virtual Taupe" and the main house color and "Van Dyke Brown" for the trim. It's going to take some getting used to but I think I'm going to like it.


The bike is finally built and at the house. I ended up going with the Expedition because it really is a bit more versatile than the Sirrus and will be better for some minor trail riding with the boy when he decides to go off pavement.

My mother-in-law flew in from Vermont for 10 days to help us with the boys while the daycare lady was on a vacation with her family. That's a good mother-in-law. She must have felt like she was being punished on the way back to Vermont though. She had an 11:20 PM flight back. Since any trouble would necessitate long stays in airport terminals, you KNOW some came to find her. First, the emergency chute on her plane decided it would throw out a malfunction alarm before they even left the departure gate. Of course, the area the repair folks needed to access was right on her row, so she and three other people were offloaded while the two hours worth of repairs took place. I suppose two hours off in the terminal beats two hours sitting inside the plane, but it stinks no matter how you cut it.

Amazingly, leaving Seattle two hours late meant that she missed her connection out of Chicago. So she got booked on to a later flight which, you guessed it, got cancelled. So now she's on stand-by and waiting patiently with six or so other people when it turns out that the new flight's departure gate got moved to a completely different terminal and no one from the airline (Thanks United!! Great customer service) bothered to inform them until the plane was about to board. So they rush to the new gate and get there just after the door to the breezeway was closed. And they weren't going to open it back up until Crazed Mother with Three Children threw an absolute melt-down hissy fit. So they get on the plane and the MIL gets home about 14 hours later than scheduled.

Thanks for coming out, Mary! I know you're dying to return!

You've gotta fight for your right to partaaay

At least he's taking it well.

My thoughts go out to the victims of the bombings in London.

Hope you like guitars

Hope you like guitars

Thought I would give this a go. Here is the stuff I was listening to today.

Goes down easy

Sometimes, despite your best dietary intentions, you just have to dig into some greasy fish and chips. That's right, I said you HAVE to. Mmmmm mmmm.

The new toy

Today, I found out that for my birthday my wife and older son want to get me a bike. This is the bike I think it's gonna be.


The Sirrus

We went to the bike shop and test rode it and this...


The Expedition

I liked both bikes a lot. I think I'm leaning toward the Sirrus because it will be a better road bike. The tires are skinnier and the frame is quite a bit lighter. The Expedition has its good points as well. It can go both on and off road and it has grip shifters. Those just tripped me out being that I haven't purchased a bike since about 1990. Your hands never have to leave the handlebars. I used to ride my bike (a Trek 930) a lot before we moved to our current house. This new bike should re-kindle my love affair with riding. I sure enjoyed the test ride.

Of course now I'll be needing to wake up a bit earlier for a little road work...

What it's all about. That's Dylan on the left and Andrew on the right. And for the record, I'm not smiling. I had gas.

Le Tour

The Tour De France is one of my favorite sporting events. An amazing test of endurance. I've been following it every year for a couple of decades now and I never get tired of watching it. What could be more boring than watching a bunch of men ride bikes? I mean, they don't do any tricks or anything! And yet it just fascinates me. They say (whoever they may be) that Lance Armstrong is looking at least as good as he ever has. If that is so, as long as Team Discovery Channel can keep him safe, I think number 7 is a pretty good bet. Yesterday, he started out well. I'm sure he de-moralized Jan Ullrich as he blew by him in the opening stage. Won't mean a thing to most people, I suppose, but I LIKE it.

When phlebotomists go bad.

Bruises are fun!

I really need to clear the back yard.