Last Day of Summer Break...

It was a very pleasant final day of summer vacation for the boys and I. We ended the day by launching our parafoil kite in the park down the street. It rapidly caught the evening wind and soared to a height of 300 feet (the length of the cord) and we almost got dizzy looking up so high. It could have gone much higher had we had any more line. It looked quite splendid against the sunset with its multi-colored streamer tail hanging down. Aaron was pretty cute too, saying, "This is a quality Father/Son activity, right Dad?" (He can say the most grown up things sometimes...) They both got a couple of turns flying the kite (almost dragging Daniel across the field) and at one point, Daniel just sat indian-style on the lawn and held the kite string. A few people slowed down on the main drag to catch a glimpse of the kite overhead too. We then rode our bikes home and got the boys tucked in early for school.

Aaron was so excited for his first day of school, he couldn't fall asleep for over an hour after he went to bed. Andrew rattled our collective cage at 20 minutes to 6:00 and the boys got dressed in their new school clothes and had their backpacks on about an hour before we had to leave for the bus. Attached to the blog is their first day of school picture from in front of the house.

Apparently, the first day of school went off without a hitch as neither of them had anything "exciting" to relate. Daniel's backpack was about 5 pounds lighter, though, when he returned home without all of his school supplies. He had to have FIVE one-subject notebooks, which weighted it down a bit.

Now we have only one more day to go to the nice holiday weekend. Of course it won't be the same this year, with the Labor Day Telethon being overshadowed by the recent events down in Louisianna, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. in the hurricane aftermath. I even read a story today that "Fats Domino" is missing from his home in New Orleans (for those not familiar with him, he sang "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill"). I am very thankful to live in an area relatively free of natural disasters other than the occasional blizzard as I read and hear about so many tragic stories from down South.

On a brighter note, Aaron did mention he's excited to get his "Prowler" shirt as he says all third graders are supposed to get one at Challenger. He said sometime during the year, coaches from all different sports, i.e. Hockey, Football, Soccer, etc. come to visit the classrooms to talk about school sports. Aaron mentioned he wanted to play football "because in Hockey you can get hurt!"

Well... It's now time to get the boys in bed for school tomorrow, so I'll sign off for now. Take care, everyone...

Back To School....

The summer break is coming to a graceful end here in TRF. First day of class for the boys is coming up on Thursday, September 1. The only controversy surrounding the school year has been settled too: An elderly lady whose house sits directly in front of last year's bus stop was upset about its location, so the school district moved the sign approximately 20 feet South of last year's spot. We wondered for a while where it would be moved to, but thankfully it's still very close to home.

Aaron received a letter from his new third grade teacher last week, Mrs. McGeary, introducing herself and inviting him to complete a "word-find" puzzle with his new classmates' names in it for a special treat when he comes to class on Thursday. No letter for Daniel yet, though. Their open house at Challenger Elementary is going to be on my birthday, August 30th, so we will probably take the bus out there that day to meet and greet everyone for this year's school-term. We got the back-to-school supplies a couple weeks ago and their respective backpacks are fully stocked and have (amazingly) remained zipped ever since I told them not to touch anything before school starts. We still need to get a few more clothes items, though.

As for current events, I've been working on catching up around the house. Yesterday, I bought my Martha Stewart manual hedge clippers (Can't get away from that blasted woman at K-mart these days) and spent part of the afternoon trimming down the front hedge so I can clearly see the porch again, then caught up on mowing the front lawn. Every time I see Ken Murphy across the street on the riding lawnmower, I'm reminded I need to get on the stick. Now we just have to catch up on the backyard. Aaron helped me mow the front and was quite proud of himself. He's getting the hang of keeping it in a straight line without missing any strips of grass. Maybe in a couple three years he'll be doing it on his own for allowance... He already asked for $1.00 for helping.

Daniel lost his good bicycle helmet and his spare helmet he unfortunately ruined. It was kind of funny, actually. We had a thunderstorm again this past week and he had left the spare helmet outside in the rain. I brought it inside the porch to dry, but when we rode into town later the next day, it was still wet. He put it on his head and for the life of me, I couldnt' figure out why it always sat cockeyed on his head as we pedaled through town. It wasn't until we got home and he took the helmet off that I realized he had ripped all of the foam padding that serves as a spacer for a snug fit because they were wet and he didn't want his head to get wet... We ended up going to K-mart and got him a new helmet, so he's back in business.

We went out tonight for another bikeride, but I unfortunately changed out of shorts into pants right before we left and ended up locking us out of the house again... We saw Andrew delivering for Domino's, though, so we stood on the opposite side of the sidewalk, waiting for him to return to his base. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later, there he was going the same direction as when we saw him last! He had taken a detour, so we missed him again. About an hour later, we met him at the Domino's store to get his key from him. It was at that time I noticed for the first time there's a beautiful playing field covered in lush green grass by the railroad tracks on 3rd next to the old school that was made into a church. We've been looking for a close park for some time now that we can take the football and a kite to and we finally found it! We're probably going to head back out there tomorrow afternoon and have some fun before school starts again. Should be fun. The grass is the perfect length too to go barefoot in. :o)

As for the injury report, Daniel has slowed down from several Band-Aids a week to one every two weeks or so now, but Aaron was coming down the stairs last night at home with a shoe only half on and ended up twisting his foot pretty bad. He's got a bruise on the inner ball of his left foot that looks like it could be a bone bruise. He's limping around a little bit, but still made it on our biking trip this evening, so he should be fine. No other major injuries this summer season, knock on wood.

Like I mentioned above, Andrew has gotten a job driving for Domino's and has been enjoying good tips so far on top of hourly pay and gas money. He also picked up an application to be a dealer at the Seven Clans Casino. His goal is to eventually quit the St. Hilaire Seed Company if he can as he's had his fill there. He's not sure when he's going to start school yet.

I've told most people already who read this blog, but Daniel lost his other front tooth a couple weeks ago, so now he's toothless for Christmas. We'll see how long it takes for the new chiclets to arrive.. I'm posting a pic of him after his mud pie for your enjoyment. He's quite proud of his new toothless look and surprisingly doesn't have a lot of trouble eating without those teeth either.

Other than choir starting up again at Trinity probably in September, there's not much else going on over here. Just small town living at a small town pace, enjoying the gradual passing of summer into fall. We did get ourselves a new guinea pig recently from the Humane Society in town here. Her name is "Snowball" and she's an albino guinea pig, almost entirely white with pink eyes. She fits in well with Funny Bunny in her cage. We bought her a medium purple igloo that she can go and hide in when she wants. She loves lettuce like you wouldn't believe. She's my/our first guinea pig and is fairly low maintenance. She also makes funny sounds too when she gets excited, unlike Funny Bunny.

The boys are looking forward to the leaves falling as we happen to have one of the largest Dutch elm trees in town right in front of our house. Should make for a nice pile of leaves to jump in. I'll be happy to get a long respite from lawnmowing too.

Take care, everyone... :o)

VBS Is Over!!!

It was an eventful week of vacation bible school, as illustrated in the nice pictures below of our activities. They boys had a great time and made some new friends, some older, but most about the same age. Andrew had fun too doing the recreational activities outside on the lawn next to Trinity. We had our last day actually on Thursday night and capped it off with a big pizza party from Danny's Pizza. We're all looking forward to next year's activities and hopefully more music then.

We did our back-to-school shopping at K-mart yesterday, getting new backpacks for both the boys and some clothes and school supplies. It wasn't as expensive as last year either, as we have lower sales tax and for some things no sales tax as compared to Washington State. The boys return to 1st and 3rd grades respectively as of September 1, two days after my birthday. It'll be different having a quiet house for half the day once again. I've just gotten used to a noisy one over the summer.

Aaron and Danny in front of Trinity Lutheran. 

Future Hall of Fame foosball players, Dusty and Daniel... 

Madison 

Karlee Jorgenson, Avery Azure, and Madison 

Aaron making his welcome mat.  

Danny making his welcome mat... 

Karlee Jorgenson and Madison. 

Brock Drevlow (looks like the "Problem Child" boy, huh?) and Phillip Onkka (11?) with Avery Azure on the far right.  

My group is the second row, just behind Joe Drevlow there. Only Daniel, Aaron, Karlee, and Madison are shown. 

(L to R) Karlee Jorgenson, Unknown, Madison, David Szeto, Unknown, Brett Drevlow, Unknown 

Plato Octavius...Grandson of one of the senior choir members. 

Aaron's Welcome Mat 

VBS Day Two

We just completed our second day of Vacation Bible School at Trinity. I was drafted to be leader of the "Lion Tamers" group of kids ranging in age from about 1st to 5th grades. Aaron and Daniel are in my group (Aaron cheated). It started a day earlier than I had anticipated (Sunday), but it's been taking off well ever since. We go from learning station to learning station watching a video, doing crafts, singing, outdoor games on the grass next to the church, bible study, and then closing. The kids have all been enjoying themselves there and I'm getting to know some more names of people at Trinity, most significantly the Onkka family (Phillip, son of David Onkka, is in my group) and the Joppru's who are apparently cousins with the Joppru family that has the butcher shop in town. Kristi Joppru is one of the leaders. Mrs. Joppru previously had Charlie, our old terrier mutt on the farm.

We had goulash for dinner tonight at the church before VBS and apparently the older ladies in the kitchen personally designated the leftovers to "The Hustads" per Kristi Grochow so now we have a half gallon of it in the fridge for lunches... We seem to have more than one guardian angel at Trinity, it would appear.

Dusty was over here on Saturday night and now we have a good week of freedom. He and his family are heading to Duluth this weekend for a few days too. Kevin just left after his week-long visit. I'll try to check back in towards the end of the week and let you all know how bible school wrapped up.

Take care everyone.

Summer Vacation Is Ticking By...

Hard to believe there's just over a month left until classes begin again at Challenger Elementary. The summer has gone by much faster than expected, but we've managed to cram a lot of fun into the summer break so far. Next Monday brings Vacation Bible School at Trinity and both Andrew and I have been roped in to helping by Kristi Grochow. Andrew's helping with games/snacks and I'll be assisting with corralling the kids and moving them from one "station" to another. It runs Monday through Friday next week in the evenings after dinner in the fellowship hall so it will keep the evenings occupied for a few days. I think Andrew's a little hesitant, but he acknowledges kids seem to gravitate toward him, so he should do fine.

A quote from Aaron this week:

"What's wrong with you people?!!"

Daniel's two cents (about his toy laptop):

"It frozed up, Daddy!"

We have started a new tradition here in the evenings otherwise. As of last night, the boys and I have begun taking a walk around the neighborhood. If I can just get Daniel to keep his shoes in one place so he's not stuck wearing his cowboy boots... Aaron looks forward to it and I think Daniel will too once his tootsies are comfortable. We headed North on Duluth about 4 blocks and then West towards Arnold and actually found what appears to be a Christmas tree farm down there last night. We'll have to mix it up with some bike riding to keep it interesting, I figure. A fair amount of the playing the boys do with their buddies is stationary, i.e. throwing a ball around, sitting in the sandbox, etc., so I thought I'd add a kinetic element to things and add in a daily walk. Should do us all some good.

Andrew is making up a scrumptious dinner for us tonight consisting of a 14-egg scramble with tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, and cheese topping and hashbrowns. We're having at least a couple vegetarian meals a week thanks to him and they have been pretty delicious, the last one being a fried rice dish with scrambled eggs (He's not vegan, so he can have eggs, cheese, and milk).

Four bad lookin' hombres... :o) 

Aaron's caricature drawing at the fair. 

Kaylynn (left) with two of her cousins, Scott's sister-in-law's kids. 

Scott's mom, Shirley. 

Scott Grochow with his 40th birthday cake. 

That's a cat on the trailer... Don't have any names, though. 

A Whirlwind Visit

Yesterday marked our last day of visiting with Mom, Jen, Nick and Jake. We took in a few activities during their time here, spending a long time at the waterpark down at Seven Clans Casino the end of last week and on Friday we saw the Pro Bull Riders Association bull riding event at the Pennington County Fair. That was a sight to behold. Andrew got a big kick out of it to say the last. The bullfighters/clowns were pretty funny too. We all went over to the Grochow's for Scott's 40th birthday yesterday before we said our goodbyes. They finally got to meet the kids I talked about on my blog, i.e. Dusty, Kasey, and Kaylynn. We were probably out there until 9:30 last night the way time flew. Now we're back at home about to enjoy some ribeye steaks on the BBQ ($5.88 a pound on sale) with a fresh garden salad. It'll be a perfect finale for a great week.

I'm going to post a few pictures here to update you all on this past week's activities in a more
"visual" way.

It's Hotter Than Blazes Here!

Boy, yesterday was quite the scorcher. We had Dusty and Kasey Grochow over all day yesterday and we all took a walk down to Taco John's in the early evening about 4 blocks down and Kasey didn't have any shoes with him. It was like walking on coals. When we got back, it was 86 degrees in the shade and the "feels like" temperature was closer to 91 degrees. The central air conditioning really made a difference when we got back It was like stepping into a deep freeze from the outside.

We went to church this morning and everyone at coffee hour was comparing notes on air conditioning, who had central, who didn't, etc. Shirley Grochow was telling us they just got a box air conditioner this year, I think, and have been enjoying it immensely. Speaking of Shirley, she's excited to see her son, Kevin, and the grandkids next weekend. We'll be heading out there later today too as Daniel spent the night over there last night. They didn't make it to church, so it looks like we need to go get him. During coffee hour, Carol Delap came over to tell me the church "caring cooks" were in the process of making us another meal in the near future like the last home-cooked one they did for us last month. Apparently another lady in the church baked us a bunch of cookies as well and told Carol not to tell us who she is, just to give us the cookies "anonymously."

The service this morning was rather hot in the sanctuary, even with the windows all open. They had nice special music this time with a violin and piano duet. It would have sounded nice with the addition of a cello, I think. We sat near the back of the sanctuary this time for a change. At the end of the service, just after we finished the last hymn, this lady in her late 40s or early 50s who I didn't recognize turned around with her teenage sons and said to me, "You have a beautiful voice!" Apparently she heard my bass harmony. I suggested if she liked good voices, she should join us in the choir. She responded she had been in the choir previously, so I just welcomed her to return this fall, which she just might do. I also suggested she get her sons involved too as we could sorely use guys as well in the tenor section if not bass.

The boys with Uncle Andrew after our July 4th BBQ. 

Tyler, Zachary, and Daniel with King's Corner. 

Funny Bunny with her two favorite caregivers. 

Just Call Danny "Butta" 'Cuz He's On A Roll...

Today marked yet another summer milestone for the boys, or more specifically, Daniel. I removed his training wheels at his request and he rode his bike across the front lawn. He refused to go down the sidewalk, sticking only to the grass, but he did a fantastic job. I got it on videotape.

Dusty's back again for a sleepover tonight, though he'll be heading home tomorrow night so he can go to church with his folks on Sunday.

This week's been fairly productive with Spring cleaning in July. I'm posting a pic or two from July 4th last week. The bunny got a little fresh air out on the front lawn while I worked on clearing off the porch. It was back inside, though, as we've had a bit of thunder and lightning lately. We must have gotten a good several inches of rain in just the last 24 hours. I've got even more flowers blooming outside the house I didn't know I had besides the orange tiger lilies I have these 4 foot tall things with purple blossoms all up and down the stems.

Not much else is goin on over here, I'm afraid. Until next time...

Worst Day Fishing Is Still Better Than Best Day Working...

Last night was another heckuva lightning storm with not as much thunder. Aaron crawled into bed followed shortly thereafter by Danny and then last, but not least, Duchess at the foot of the bed. We didn't get much rain, though.

Today we headed out fishing for the first time after lunch. We went down to the dam behind Northwest Medical Center to throw our lines in first and didn't have any luck, though the guy and his boy standing next to us were reeling them in. We didn't think we were in a good spot there and the water was pretty rough with the dam open so we headed North of the bridge on 8th towards Northland Community College and threw our lines in there. Unfortunately, we were far better at catching the grass along the shore than anything else. One of our lines snapped after getting caught on something a little ways out (log?) and we lost a $3.00 lure and barely escaped with my favorite daredevil lure from childhood. We then headed to the South side of the same bridge just in front of the Indian chief statue and Andrew fished off the dock while Aaron and I fished off the bank about 25 yards South of Andrew. After about a half hour, Andrew's rod stopped casting, so we were down to one functional rod and decided to call it quits at that point. We were situated right across the river from the old swimming buoys Jenny and I used to swim at in town here. I'm thinking it would have been more fun to take a dip over there instead. The weather was sunny with only a few cotton candy clouds in a powder blue sky. The wind was pretty quick today too. It's been a chore keeping the flag unfurled out in front of the house.

We're back home for the evening now and the boys' buddies from the corner house are back from their camping trip so they're playing with them now. We'll see what the holiday brings tomorrow. Probably a little housecleaning downstairs and on the porch in preparation for Mom and Jen's arrival in just over a week.

Oh... I almost forgot. I already told Dad yesterday, but we managed to catch one gopher with our two traps out by the old farm. The trap worked pretty good, though we shoulda made it up there sooner to take it out. That minimum maintenance road back there gets pretty muddy after it rains and Andrew's Honda isn't the best "ATV" when it comes to mud.

I think that's about it for news that's fit to print at the moment. Hope all of you have a wonderfully relaxing 4th of July!

ka...BOOM!!!

Holy schnikes!!! Andrew got initiated to a Minnesota thunderstorm big time! He was fixing dinner, Daniel was off at the corner house and Aaron and I were in the dining room. It had been thundering most of the day and raining off and on when all of a sudden, abut 45 minutes ago, there was a brilliant flash of light that seemed to completely surround us in the house followed by what may have been the loudest crack of a thunderbolt I've ever heard. To illustrate how close it was, we were unable to count to ONE... It was DIRECTLY OVERHEAD and the house shook as if we were feeling God's wrath focused on 716 Duluth Avenue North. Shortly after, I got a call from the pastor's wife three houses down to advise me Daniel was scared witless and needed to come home, but it was a torrential downpour the likes of which Seattle has never seen and he didn't have an umbrella, so I escorted the eldest Widerski boy, Tyler, over there under the golf umbrella and brought Danny back. I saw a Pennington County Sheriff's cruiser drive by us with his lights on and stop only a block down by 8th. I'm wondering if a tree may have been hit down there...

I was beginning to wonder when we were going to get some more good thunder going. It was supposed to be thunderstorms all week and late last night they streamed warnings on the television screen of flash floods, floods, and tornados in about 12 different counties across the tri-state area of ND, SD, and MN. I guess today was the big day for it. I knew it was going to be some bad weather when the dog elected to do her business just inside the back door entryway rather than ask to be let outside... I think I saw her tail stuck between her legs last time I let her out to do #1... :o) That's an indoor dog for ya.

As for me, I'm healing well from the other day's visit to the dentist. I don't have anymore pain, but I still have 98 Percocets left over for "headaches." :o) I even called the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to verify the script and he told me yes, the doctor wrote it out as "hundred," so it couldn't have been a mistake. Maybe they just dispense pain medication in TRF in advance for the year...?

I gotta go now as the power is flickering again.

Ciao!

It's Gopher Season, I think...

I think I've already told most of you out there of my dental problems these past couple of weeks. For those who haven't been filled in, I've been looking for a dentist to take care of a tooth broken in half for some time now and haven't been able to find anyone in town. It's made getting any work down around here a challenge as it's hard to concentrate with the at times all-consuming pain. I did find a nun who's also a dentist in an outlying town, so hopefully I can get in to see her next Tuesday. If not her, I'll be looking in North Dakota (Grand Forks). I never considered how difficult it might be to get a dental emergency taken care of locally.

We just got back from setting a few gopher traps out West of St. Hilaire on the old 80-acre field. I thought I may have lost my touch as in order to set traps you have to be able to find the entrance/exit hole to the burrow by shoving a stake into the mound of dirt. I was able to set a couple within 5 minutes, though, so now we'll just watch and wait a little bit and see what happens. We have Dusty back over again tonight, so the house will be active a bit more. Andrew picked up a few ribeye steaks since yesterday was his payday, so we'll be firing up the grill for the second night in a row now (brats last night).

We have new neighbors already that just moved into the house our old neighbors moved out of only a week ago. They have two small children, a boy and a girl, the boy a year younger than Daniel and they happen to be friends with the pastor's familiy on the corner and go to his church in town, First Baptist. We helped them move in their 32+ inch television set and entertainment center to put it in.

As for other happenings in TRF, there hasn't been much different other than having to mow the lawn every week and an ever rising mosquito count. It was 86 degrees on yesterday or the day before so air conditioning has come in handy. I'm looking forward to the next three weeks following which at long last we'll be seeing Nana and Aunt Jen, Nick, and Jake. I don't think I knew this before, but it appears they'll be coming to town right at the start of the Pennington County Fair!! Nick and Jake will get to see some 4-H animals and have some small town fun with Aaron and Daniel. Yet another thing to add to their travel itinerary besides the water park.

I gotta go play some football right now, though, as Aaron is beckoning. I bought myself a bike so I can also ride with the boys, but it's nice to mix up the activity a little and throw the ball around now and then. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers! :o)

An Extraordinary Accomplishment!!

Today brought a most joyous accomplishment in Aaron's life. Aaron has been diligently working on learning to ride his bike. Last night, I witnessed him coasting all the way down to the neighbors with his legs just hanging down barely above the ground. He didn't touch the ground the whole way. Today, just about 5 minutes ago, Aaron and his buddy, Drew, came running inside to announce he has just learned how to ride all by himself!! I went out to watch while Drew gave him a little jump start and off he went down the sidewalk... The look of pride on his face was literally priceless! Today was truly a milestone of which Aaron can be most proud. Especially so as he never used training wheels and did it 95% on his very own. I am so happy for Aaron also because he has come home so many times this spring and early summer with a dejected look on his face, commenting how all of his friends could ride their bikes and he couldn't and therefore couldn't play with them as much as he liked. Now he's opened up a whole new world to himself. Three cheers for Aaron!!!

Dusty and Duchess last night... 

The 2005 Mosquito Season (MN State Bird) Is Upon Us...

It's amazing how fast they show up with a half mowed back lawn. The grass got to over a foot tall in sections because I wasn't too excited to mow over toys left from Spring and anyone who knows anything about mosquitos knows what that means...a virtual Motel 6 for laying eggs. Andrew got a citronella candle to "protect" him while enjoying a cigar by the back door, but found it was pretty ineffective. We picked up some newfangled OFF! mosquito lamps with something else we're going to try. In any event, I finished mowing about 95% of the back lawn today, so hopefully that will help bring them under control. The nice thing is I can still count the number of bites with one hand and there's none on that counting hand.

We've settled into summer quite nicely here with the boys' first week off from school last week. That is, once I had corralled Aaron from going to his female classmate's house 4 blocks down across a busy street. I think most of you already know I met the local PD again when I got a ride home from them when looking for Aaron last week. Then a couple days later meeting the same officer again as he politely knocked on the door and advised that Daniel and his little friend Zack had climbed out the upstairs bathroom onto the back roof (lower roof). With their second week of summer, they've been on much better behavior, knock on wood.

We had Carol and Roger Delap deliver us a homecooked meal from church last Friday, a goulash with melted cheese and pepperoni, homemade whole wheat bread, watermelon, grapes, and freshly baked cookies. It was a special program our church does, bringing home-cooked meals to people they think could use and appreciate it. We all really did enjoy it immensely.

We headed to church this Sunday after I took a couple weeks off sick and had a substitute pastor, Frank Ehly. He was kind of funny in the beginning, saying most people at the early service were thanking him for "coming out of retirement" to help. He responded each time with, "I'm NOT coming out of retirement...I'm just helping! He also enjoyed the new microphone like telephone operators wear, stating he felt like Garth Brooks at a concert without the cowboy hat.

We went to Dee's afterwards for brunch and spotted Jerry and Marilyn Wigness a few tables down. We discovered the nonsmoking section this time, so it was a little more pleasant to eat in. Following that, we spent the afternoon relaxing and come evening, we met Scott Grochow and his boy, Dusty, at the Galaxy Twin Cinemas and watched the new Star Wars movie. Dusty left about midway in as he got a little scared and Daniel just went with him because he wanted to play at his house. Aaron made it through and enjoyed seeing the whole progression from Anakin to Darth Vader. I think Andrew liked it too. The casting was pretty accurate, I think, as I imagined the much older characters from the first three movies and could easiliy envision the younger versions as older. I'm looking forward to the DVD so I can catch more subtle nuances of the movie and see more of the "behind-the-scenes" footage and special effects.

Dusty spent the night last night, sleeping on the couch with Duchess. Above is a picture of the two of them. Quite comfy, I must say. He might end up spending another night as I haven't heard from Scott or Kristy yet if they're expecting him home tonight.

Today was the first day in over a week we've had nice sunny clear sky weather and it made for nice mowing weather. All last week it was like living in Seattle all over again with overcast cool days and a dreary feel. It's nice to get back to the dry stuff for a change.

Well... It's back to work for me and shortly to bed for the boys. Hope all of you out there are enjoying your collective summers, wherever you find yourself "at home."