You Can't Go Home Again or watch 80's movies

We recently watched E.T. and Flight of the Navigator with the kids.  Thought we'd introduce them to some of The Classics of our childhood.  It was a little weird to see them again.  Maybe it would have been better not to, as some of the magic of what you thought you remembered about them gets flushed down the toilet.  Actually, I didn't even see E.T. till high school Spanish class, 'cuz there are naughty words in it.  "E.T. telefono mi casa!"  But anyway, all I have to say is special effects and synthesizer and I'm sure we're simpatico.  At least The Princess Bride still holds up well.  Speaking of, a while back the yahoos at youtube took down our Little Princess Bride video for copyright infringement or whatever.  Lame.

post Pan-O-Prog parade

Keep Off The Fish!

What a steamy week.  Feels like you're wearing a wet suit 5 seconds after walking outside.  Blech. 

Anyhoo, we had a nice impromptu visit to Iowa over the weekend to check up on Nate's mom & grandma who are recovering from surgeries.  They are tough ladies!  The kids are getting old enough to play some fun card games with the family.  Once the go karts are out of gas, anyway.

Sunday afternoon Nate & I drove up to the Mille Lacs Lake area again.  I blogged about a previous trip there, back in June of '09.  Even up in north central MN it was too hot to go hike in the state park and revisit our old buddy the tower-of-chicken-wire, but we did drive a bit further north to see the big Garrison walleye.   

We drove by it many times while I was growing up, and we never got out to snap photos.  But hey, that was the pre-blogging and facebook era.  No one can resist the urge to photograph a 15-foot fiberglass fish now.

They even have a bossy little sign on it-

I like how they specify that you mustn't harass the fish, including the fins, tail, and mouth.  'Cuz before I read the fine print, I was all set to dangle from it's teeth.  I had to settle for gently touching the tail.

Happy 4th to ya'll.  Don't blow off any digits.

Cat on a Hot Asphalt Roof

Last week stunk.  The AC petered out on Thursday and our hot water heater sort of imploded on Saturday morning.  Shelled out mucho dinero and had both issues fixed on Monday.  And just our luck, those days without AC were toasty and humid.  We had to make more use of the windows, which Felix took advantage of by knocking out a loose upstairs screen to go explore the magical wonders of the roof.

Naughty beast.  Some day we'll let him back in.  We went to Canterbury on Father's Day and won 60 cents.  Lost a little more than that.  We were by the winner's circle at the end of the last race and a jockey gave Adrienne his muddy goggles.  Maybe he was just being nice, or maybe he was intimidated by her height and girth.

Rounding out a banner week were the 4 a.m. storms Tuesday that rocked the house and hail that made us fear for our windows.  Straight line winds of 60-80 mph, they say.  One of our willow trees partially lifted up and looks pretty bare on one side now.

3 storm chasers went through yesterday while we cleaned up, hunting for damaged roofs and cracked siding.  We came out pretty good compared to many in our area.  Trees are down everywhere and slammed into a few houses.  This pic is from a local news article - it's a street just northeast of us.

Ahh, June in MN.  Hoping that's the worst we see this season.

from the Messed Up files

Article: The Global War Against Baby Girls

"In terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls."

Scary stuff.  We haven't really learned from the past.  We just decide it's okay to kill a different group of people.

Movin' on up

Or down, rather.  We've been working on transforming the basement bedroom from Nate's office/collectibles room to a real bedroom for Michael.  He moved in a couple days ago.  I think he's going to like having more space and a bathroom to himself.

Ugh, painting...we hate painting.  Nate redid the trim too.  But it's done and looks pretty good.  Nate made the shelves when he was a teenager.  To his chagrin, the Star Wars action figures & sets that previously decorated them have been relegated to the closet to make way for Lego Technic etc.  It's the first time since '99 that there haven't been Transformers or Storm Troopers or sports cards actively displayed somewhere in our home.  Poor Nate.  I can't say there isn't a piece of me that's giddy, but I won't gloat.  They are not really gone.  Just like herpes, they merely lie dormant.  The kids will move out eventually, and then I bet the Empire Strikes Back.

Last week I went to an awards ceremony at Michael's middle school where lots of kids were honored for various things.  He and 15 other kids received an award because their History Day In MN projects went to regionals.  He created a website about how the automobile revolutionized society.  No one from his school advanced from there, but it was cool anyway.

And he got braces last week!  We're metal mouth buddies now.  The school year is winding down, too.  Thursday is the last day.  Yay, no homework for 3 months!

angry birds

Pics galore, due to messin' around with the new camera. I'm pretty intimidated by it. I need a DVD that explains the 'How to use this camera' DVD, and a Photography for Dummies book.

The boys helped plant flowers a few weeks ago.  Sanctioned diggin' in the dirt, yeehaw!

 Apocalypse alert?  A bunny takeover in the backyard.

Nate and I took turns trying to snap photos of the robin nest under the deck while the other stood watch to shoo away the dive bombing mom.

Lacey and Christian

Very cool...kleenex a must.

Mother's Day and stuff

Michael's last concert of the year (7th grade band) was May 10th.  He's looking so grown up lately.  I bribed him to hug me in public when he was whining for some bakery treats at Target last week.  I was gonna buy something anyway.  But soon enough it'll be a hug for the car keys, I 'spose.

Mom's Day was nice.  We had lunch in a park, and I got a sweet new camera, and Nate and I watched another of the new Sherlock Episodes on PBS.

We're down one kid right now since A is at camp with her 5th grade class.  A little 3 day bonding/right of passage thing before they move on to middle school this fall.

I'm Gumby, Dabbt!

"Dabbt wants to follow a recipe that needs 1 cup of milk."

Nicky's math worksheets have word problems with weird (er, I mean...cool & ethnic) names in them.  Of the ones I've seen, Dabbt probably takes the cake.  I get it, they gotta use names from various cultures and stuff.  It's only fair.  People in, like, Mongolia do math too.  But it feels like they're trying a bit too hard sometimes.  So what the sam hill kind of name is Dabbt?  Google is not super helpful.  Did you mean debt?  No.  Or dabt either, which is an acronym for a few things:

Acronym	Definition
DABT	Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology
DABT	Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (Florida)
DABT	Daam Aatu Basaltic Tuff (geology)

Maybe somebody at Houghton Mifflin made it up, or one of the kooky people who name race horses or paint colors.

Anyhoo, it's concert season and Michael had a jazz band concert last week.  I have no suitable images of that.  Adrienne had her first official band concert too.  And Nicky had a piece in the district art show, a weaving.  He had me fix the fringe after I snapped this photo.