Strings n' Things...

As with most projects, what starts off as a small project blossoms into a bigger-than-expected-costing-more-money-than-planned project.  This was no different, but not as bad as it sounds either.  

Can't see but one guitar in this photo, but you get an idea of how many hundreds of cd's were on the wall behind "Hollywood RongBo".  Peeling them off the wall and picking the remaining glue off took the longest because the discs would get behind your fingernails until they bled, meaning you may have to put a week or two in between peeling sessions to let the digits heal.

But alas...

Woooo - Hooooooooooo!!!!  It's been a long process of peeling cds, picking the glue, fixing the holes and missing paint, painting, repainting since the white I chose went on EXACTLY the same color as the old white, but dried with a tiny hint of blue in it, so it looked like crap, and so on it went.  But with the help of the boys, and getting to show them some "Ted Math" on how to figure out spacing and leveling, we got'er done!

R & C's Big Weekend

Grandma & Grandpa Bushman came down this weekend and we had an early Thanksgiving Day dinner which also included my Mom, Grandma Elaine.

On top of that, we got some snow on Saturday so Sunday morning after worship, the boys were out on the back hill taking advantage of their new found flakedness. 

I took pictures thru the screen because every time that I tried to take one out of doors, the lens would fog up and aggravate me.

See all them tracks from the sled?  That's because Caleb insists on starting a new trail every single time.

I tried to get the boys to go down on the sled together since the snow wasn't very deep.  But they don't understand the concept of leverage and as a result, Caleb is too far up in the sled, causing the front end to have resistance in the snow.  They never listen...

Grandma and Grandpa were down an extra day due to the weather and the fact that we had some nutjob shooting up some surrounding neighborhoods on the same morning that there were social media threats for violence at the high school by our house.  Robby also had a swim meet on that Monday night so Caleb stayed home with G & G while Mom and Dad took Robby to his swim meet.  When we got home, Robby was chilled, more from the fact that G & G were snuggling with Calebber watching a football game, so he had to get some of that action.

And thus concluded another fine weekend in which I started playing pool hot and ended up losing to Grandpa Jim.  Some things never change...

Why We Call Him Monkey

Yes, that's a banana in his mouth...

Vacation Post 13 - Mt. Rushmore

So here we are at Mt. Rushmore. It's been a good 22 years since my bride and I were in these parts as I mentioned in the Crazy Horse post. 

That being said, I was stunned at how many changes had been made to this national monument in those years! 

The whole parking lot structure has changed now including a multilevel ramp. And as far as the viewing platform/gift shop area in the past, there wasn't much to see, as I recall.  I remember a building that you sort of walked around the left side of, and you could go into the building from there or keep going directly to the viewing platform, that was simply a big flat cemented area with some pay binoculars.

Not so much anymore...

When you first come out of the parking ramp, this is what you see.  The big concrete areas in front are where they have the bathrooms, on one side and the gift shop/welcome center on the other side.  Once past that, you pass thru the hall of flags which contains the flag for all 50 states and a small carved stone saying when they were admitted into the Union.  Once thru there, then you got to the viewing platforms.

The inimitable Aunt Molly.

The Mobile Chaos Unit preparing to enter the hall of flags.

Two cute varmints... not sure what the one in the purple is up too...

And the view looking the opposite direction from the stone faces...  We would be hiking over "there" in about 1 hour.

...And If That Wasn't Cute Enough...

Update:  Sadly, we were informed this morning (11/8/14) that while sleeping with her momma, the momma rolled on her and she died. Who is to say what our doggy situation will be, but it will not be with this little beauty.  ~~


We can't have her for over a month still as her birthday was October 24th, but we are aching for her and have the occaisional lively debate on what her name will be. The last two were Daisy Mae and Rosey Lynne. There are those pulling for the continuation of the flower theme with Lilly. I am liking Hambone, because I like to eat and I'm fat. I also really like:

That may keep you guessing for a bit...

Anyway, here's a couple of more shots of my 2015 and beyond, football snuggle partner!

Coming Soon To A Hammock Near You!!

Darth Vader in the Clown Wars

The boys (Robby /clown, Caleb /Darth Vader) with their Grandma Schmitz.  See that bag of candy in Robby the Clowns hand?  That's the size of the bag they get from my mom's retirement village!!  We could literally do T or T'ing in a one stop fashion. That's plenty of candy for each kid!

But we didn't. As is our custom, we went over to my sister Dianne and her husband Derek's house to do further damage to our teeth and waistlines.  Sam is the black ninja, Jonah is the red ninja and little Zoe is the butterfly.