so...

So, my boss (not just a boss, but THE boss) has a pet peeve. He hates when people start their sentences with "so..." I'm in a lot of trouble.

Some recent pics:

Baby birdies in the nest right behind our deck.  They're gone now.  Our little babies are all grown up!

Lucie bear. 

Lucie bear at the 4th of July shindig.

Andy maxing and Mel relaxing.  

The cat was wanted on the phone.  

Man Land

I made an impulse buy about a month ago.  You know that huge playset for sale at your local warehouse shopping facility?  The one that looks like it would take a month to build?  Well, it did.  And it is awesome.  I built it almost entirely by myself (not bragging...wait, yes I am) with a bit of help from the mrs., Brad, and Andy.  It came in 5 huge boxes that took 2 minivan trips to cart home.  The first page of the instructions reads "This project will take 2 moderately skilled individuals 20-24 hours to build."  Or one painfully inept person about a month.  I'm pretty sure the neighbors think we're nuts.  Check it out:

After one day: not very encouraging.

Not much to look at yet, this was after 2 days of work, I think. I took great pride in ignoring the advice in the manual: "This step requires at least 2 people." HA!

In one more session the upper deck was finished.  

The beginnings of the playhouse.

Now with some walls.

A roof!  And Camera tricks!

More roof.

Slide and bridge.  There's a "rock climbing wall" on the right.  The rocks are plastic molds, but close enough.  

The tunnel!  Would not have been possible without Bradley.  Thanks, dude!

The finished product (finished tonight!)  I'm on one of the swings.  This picture was taken in the dark (13 second exposure).  I'm so proud, I could cry.  Just wait till Lucie gets home to see it!  If you look closely there's an address marker and a doorbell.  And the lights are on.  

I'm working on getting a gas generator and a refrigerator/tv for the upstairs.  

Filmfest

No caption could live up to this. Just watch.

Sweetest PC

Why didn't apple come up with this first? I feel like NASA after Sputnik.

Thank you, Conan

Who knew Jesse Jackson was an aspiring urologist?

Haven't been depressed for a while...let's try this:

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Swingers

Business class.

Lucie's first trip to the ER

It was bound to happen. Our daughter practically bounces off the walls most days, so she decided to try it literally yesterday. My poor mom was watching her and she fell back and hit her ear on a stupid brick ledge in the basement (which has since been covered in nicely forgiving pipe insulation). Mom felt so bad, despite me telling her that it could've happened while any of us were watching her. Anywho, we had a pleasant outing to the Emergency room and Lucie scored 6 stitches. Daddy was an idiot and let her eat so they couldn't sedate her. Instead I got to pin her down while they worked. All of the doctors were wonderful and the finished product looks great. She recovered almost immediately and is back to running around like a meth-head. All I've thought about since then is what a miracle it is that she doesn't have scars everywhere. Here are some pics of the blessed event. WARNING: some of them are not for the squeamish!

The waiting room.  She ran around trying to wound herself further. 

The wound!

Playing with syringes and gauze is fun!

Now with topical anesthetic on.  Still smiling.

It's about to not be fun.  Daddy knows.  Lucie's starting to figure it out.  

There was a lot of this going on...


And this...

All better!

I wish we had a picture of all 6 of us trying to keep her still and "happy" while she got sewed up.  It was work!  But Lucie took it like a champ.  Check that one off the list of rites of passage!

Roids

Finally, the Polaroids. All credit to Brohawk for showing me how easy and awesome it is to acquire one of these old school cameras. Grab some popcorn and milk duds.

The first shot with Brook's camera.  After becoming accustomed to digital, and the gluttonous luxury of taking of 800 shots to get the right one, the stress of getting each shot right was nearly overwhelming.  Especially with polaroid film being difficult to find (not to mention expensive: $1.50/exposure!).  So my first couple of forays were not pretty.  Still, even crappy polaroid shots are cool.  Here we see Lucie, Dad, and the beast.  

Shot #2: Mel and Lucie.  

Finally a shot I was proud of.  I love this shot!  Doesn't it look like it could be from 1958?


Lucie electrified on the tramp

Photo by Josh.  Incredibly intimidating and seemingly complicated watercolor paper image transfer by Brohawk.   

The first pic (not counting a couple of pitiful attempts now stuck on Dave and Toni's fridge :P ) with my own Polaroid 250.  Unlike Brook's, my camera only has one view finder with a central square that shows things malaligned if not in focus.  Also, my camera required an extremely rare battery that looks like this:

and had to be special ordered.  Talk about your delayed gratification!

Sweet wind turbines in Kansas.

Hee-hees in Kansas.

I think this is my favorite roid yet.  Lucie on our front lawn today.


Alas, no camera is able to capture her mania.  

Lucie on the deck

Mom on our newly patriotic porch. 

Mom in the backyard. 

I call this one, les vaches.

continuing the cow theme.  There were so many of them!  They were very timid at first but then millions came right at me.  I got just a little bit stressed.  

Thankfully I was protected by some wire.  Cows are pretty cool.  

And there you have it!  Polaroids!!!  Man, it's so fun.  I'm going to spend a fortune on film.  

Oh, btw, here's what the camera looks like:

Old-schooly enough for you?  

Mel and I saw not one but 2 movies in the theater last night.  The Happening (which was pretty scary, but not quite on par with previous M Night films) and The Love Guru (which was ridiculously funny).

Yay, Sarah!

Thanks to sherbet for this sweet idea.

Me:

Mel:

Luce:

need sleep

I have been told that some of the text colors on this here blog were practically illegible. I hope you will find that this has been remedied to your satisfaction, all ye who read this. (I'm so tired...who knows why I'm talking, er...writing like this.

A few quick pics then off to bed:


Super blurry. Not only is this sweet corn, it is totally BODACIOUS!


I'm Ron Burgandy???

The next two are of Lucie latching onto me in fear during our little thunderstorm today.



Ok, off to dreamland.

No! Wait! I can finally scan my meager (pola)Roids! Check it:
crap...my puter is trying to do too much. I'll scan them tomorrow.