9-23-07

Blog #157

David

Ski doooooooo!

  I bought a 1972 Ski doo Olympique on Ebay last night; Papa and I drove to the Northeast corner of Ohio to pick it up today.  Out of 700 plus snowmobiles that have been listed/sold on Ebay in the past month worldwide, this one had the lowest selling price of any sled not listed as a "parts" machine.  If that's not an indicator of quality, I don't know what is.  I got it for $105 and it runs, sort of.  The previous owner said that it is pretty hard to get going, but it does run.  I got it to fire and can tell it will run.  I plan on giving it a tune up before winter.  It's also pretty rusty so I plan on painting all of the rusty parts.  I've been hoping to find a snowmobile (that's a snowmachine to all you Alaskans) to pack a ski trail around our yard and house this winter provided we are lucky enough to get more than a few dustings of snow.

Orange Crate Home Decor

   Last weekend I went to a garage sale hosted by a vintage crate dealer.  He had a variety of intact crates and some crate label end boards.  I loved the artwork and knew that Joan would as well.  I went home and brought her back to the sale.  We picked out ten crates to hang on the soffit above the computers.

June 26th Island Update

    I went for my first paddle in a long time yesterday.  The top of my island is covered with bird poo and the rocks at the water line have a nice layer of green slimy growth on them.

Another Balloon Set Free

Whole Bowl!

   Last night we had pineapple slices along with our grilled chicken.  Annika apparently did not recall what pineapple tasted like.  She ate one bite and her eyes lit up.  "Whole bowl!" she exclaimed.  We all looked at her.  "Whole bowl!" she repeated.  "Whole bowl!" she said a third time and pointed to the bowl of pineapples.  "I want the whole bowl!"

9-18-07

Blog #156

David

Letterboxing

  This weekend we went letterboxing in Goodyear Park and found a letterbox.  For the girls' sake, we always hope there is a letterbox at the end of the directions.  They so enjoy the "treasure maps" and clues.  One of these days we will hide a box of our own. 

Some of the pictures below can be clicked on to enlarge to 1024x768 resolution.

A happy group having completed the 1.4 mile Alder trail.

Annika

  Earlier this week Annika walked into the living room and calmly told Joan, "I cut my finger on some glass and I put a Kleenex around it".  Sure enough, blood was seeping through a Kleenex that she had bound around her finger.  She had found a shard from a glass that Svea had broken the day before in the porch.  Her ability to remain calm and reasonable often amazes up.  Then again, we can only compare her to her sisters at her age.  Not always, but often, she can be calmed by reason while she is crying or frustrated.  For quite some time Svea has claimed that Annika knows the difference between right and left.  I didn't believe her enough to check for myself until Svea insisted; sure enough, Annika knows.  Anni has even started referring correctly to right and left regularly in her speech. 

Svea's & Brigitta's Balloon

  Svea and Brigitta brought balloons home from a birthday party a few weeks ago.  After Svea's balloon had pretty much gone flat and lost its lift they talked about what to do with Brigitta's before it met the same fate.  They bounced ideas back and forth and ended up putting a note, with our phone number on it, in a plastic baggy, and taped the baggy to the balloon's string.  They did this in secret and of course set it free.  Walter Floyd, who operates an inn in Star Tannery, Virginia, had found their balloon and was kind enough to call.  Harriette received the call and relayed the information to the rest of the family; we were all quite amazed.  Initially, the four adults in our home thought that the children had set the balloon free at the party along with the other partygoers.  I was a bit puzzled why our daughters were afraid to tell about the event; I hadn't realized that they had organized this all on their own.  I was also puzzled why the mother who threw the party seemed to not fully understand what I was talking about when I explained that Brigitta's balloon had landed in Virginia;  I thought she had organized it as a party event.  I would like to thank Walter Floyd for calling us long distance with such exciting news.  I also invite readers to check out the Floyd's "Country Bed and Breakfast with a Distinct Flavor of Japan" website: PEMBROKE SPRINGS RETREAT.  It looks like a fantastic place to visit and relax.  I don't think that we will ever set another helium balloon free without first affixing a similar note.

9-15-07

Blog #155

David

Tour De Itty Bitty Ohio Cities

  OK, maybe they all aren't itty bitty cities, but today I biked through at least itty bitty portions of 10 local cites, just for the sake of doing it.  Lately I've expanded my regular ride from 17 miles to just over 25.  While looking at Google Earth I realized that my new 25 mile route passes through six cities and comes close to four others.  I thought it might be fun to hop across a few borders in one ride at least once.  I also had never biked East of the main trail loop to where it ends in Portage County, so I did.  This added about 7 miles to my new route.

   My ride started in Northeast Tallmadge, nicked the Northwest corner of Brimfield, into the Southeast corner of Kent, North through the East side of Stow, East into Franklin Township, back across the Northeast corner of Stow, across the Southwest corner of Hudson, poked into Peninsula/Boston Heights, back into Hudson and South through the West of Stow, South through Silver Lake, clipped an East portion of Cuyahoga Falls, East across Munroe Falls, across the Southeast corner of Stow, back into the Southeast corner of Kent and then South to home in Tallmadge.  My trip meter read a little past 32 miles and my maximum speed was 35 mph for a brief downhill instant.

9-12-07

Blog #154

Joan

Anni's First Day of School

  Today Annika began her "Mommy and Me" class at Treehouse Preschool.  She will attend one day a week for two and a half hours. There are seven other children in her class, three of whom are girls and she has made friends with them already.  Her teacher, Mrs. Jones, is a speech therapist by training, but seems very comfortable leading this group of toddlers.  Today they made play dough, learned a song, ate a snack, rolled and bounced balls indoor as well as played outdoors and earned a helium filled balloon to take home.  Anni was actually shy at first.  She stayed pretty close to me during the free play, but warmed up and soon played with all of the children.  This picture is the "before" picture, taken at home, showing her excitement and willingness to go.

This is Annika's "Don't Mess With Me" look - in case she encounters any bullies at preschool.

Doesn't she look like a brute?

This is about a half an hour after we returned home - just after she ate lunch.  I guess school just wore her out.  One of her favorite resting spots - on Papa's lap.

9-10-07

Blog #153

David

Oktoberfest 2007

  We spent most of the weekend involved with Oktoberfest.  Svea and Brigitta danced on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday Joan served dinners in the Schnitzelhaus and I grilled bratwurst and German franks well into the late evening.  At one point I ran the youth group tent and sold corn on the cob, made pretzels and lemonade. 

Click picture to view in 1650 X 1024 resolution

Click picture to view in 1024 X 768 resolution

Remote Computers

   My latest project was this basement computer rack.  The wires run up through the floor to the monitors, keyboards, mice, etc.  There were several reasons why I wanted to do this: Both computers ran hot; the older one actually ran very hot.  Our computers have lived under the built in desk in the living room for years.  Our un-air-conditioned house gets pretty hot in the summer and the desk area becomes a sweatbox.  I've pumped air from the basement into the area under the desks for the past year or two and it has helped, but the computers run noticeably cooler directly in the basement.  Another issue has been white noise.  The older computer has six fans and the ducted air from downstairs made even more noise.  Now the living room is silent (except for the crickets outside).  Lastly, we have more foot room in the desk area and less clutter.  The drawback is that we have to run downstairs to get to the CD/DVD drives or power switches.  We leave our PCs on 24/7 and only shut them down during lightning storms.

Jane - Our semi-adopted-semi-feral cat

Happy Anniversary Joan & David

(#11)

9-2-07

Blog #152

David

Happy Birthday Tallmadge

  Tonight we went to a fireworks show and celebrated Tallmadge's 200th anniversary.  It was a fantastic show and we had a great time.  I think this was the first time I've tried to take digital pictures of fireworks.  Click any picture below to view in 1024 x 768 resolution.

9-1-07

Blog #151

David

Evening Letterboxing

  Last night we went letterboxing.  Letterboxing involves reading clues as to where a box is hidden alongside a hiking trail.  Inside is a book and a stamp.  Once found, you stamp your own homemade stamp in the book and write your name and the date.  You use the stamp in the letterbox to stamp your own book, where you also record the date and location.  Joan researched letterboxes at Hudson Springs Park, printed directions, helped the girls make stamps and gathered little booklets.  We got started a little late, but had a great time.  Actually, the girls pretty much went nuts.

Hudson Springs Park - dry marina

On the trail

Stamping the books

Dating the books

Hiding the letterbox

Up and running

   The parts for the new PC arrived last Saturday.  Unfortunately the power supply was defective.  I bought a new one at a local store and sent the defective one back.  The computer went together very well; I was really amazed as to how easy building a PC has become.  Most of the work was researching the specifications and qualities of the various parts in order to get the most bang for the buck as well as reliability and compatibility.  I'm planning on using this computer to play my old/new flight simulator game online as well as common tasks such as building this site.  Another important task is preparing my lessons for school.  To do this I really need the computer to run Microsoft's new operating system: Vista.  Vista consumes a great deal of resources, which is fine for general purposes, but games often really require everything a computer has to offer.  Most folks I know who build their own gaming machines load the more stable and less resource hungry Windows XP.  I have yet to play my game, Aces High, but I can already tell that this machine runs the same tasks as my old game machine at a much faster rate.  I was reluctant to like Vista, but I really am impressed with many of its improvements and enhancements.  They have done away with a few great features that were standard in XP, but in general I'm liking Vista.

29 Days Until Grandma and Grandpa Visit!

   I just spoke to my father this evening, they just purchased their airline tickets and will be visiting us during the first half of October.  We are all very excited; but I think that we have a basement and guestroom to clean.