A New History

After a very long week we are starting a 3-day weekend.  Woot!  Gwen is on her way from the U.P. and we are going to paddle this weekend.  Today, we are going to warm up a bit by paddling the Wyalusing canoe trail.  It is a 6 mile trail of almost all calm backwaters.  It wraps around the trees at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.  Sunday we are going to run the "Crookedest River in The World"...the mighty Kickapoo!  We are going to put in at Ontario and take out at Wildcat Mountain State Park landing.

It's going to be great.  We haven't seen Gwen in a long time so it will be nice to have her here again.  

The plan for the weekend is to have a cookout here Sunday and a campfire that evening but it looks like we might get thunderstorms instead...bleh.  Not sure what we will do now.  It will be really nice to have a few days off no matter what happens.

Everyone is out putting flowers on graves this morning.  We didn't go...just too tired to get up this morning.  Steph is cleaning the house and I am working hard to get rid of this headache I woke up with.  I will write more later.  I need to find a dry bag in order to take my phone and camera with me this weekend.

Be well...

Canoe Believe It???

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when Steph and I set out for our first canoe trip with the Mad River Adventure 16. When we got to the Wyalusing boat launch the water was calm but very high still from the flooding. We put in and the first thing we noticed is how terribly tippy it was. We spent the first half hour trying to not move a muscle because it would have swamped on us. Initial stability was crazy but we are used to that...final stability was scary since each time it tipped my butt would slide towards the water. It was all I could do to stay upright. We tried to love this boat but there was no way we could put Zach in the middle without capsizing. 

We loaded up and headed all the way back to Madison to return it.  We went to Gander Mountain and found an Old Town Guide 147.  The reviews on this all say the same thing...stable, stable, stable!  This canoe looked better, felt better and was $50 cheaper!  We also got a $100 gift card free with the purchase.  The register jockey ran it up wrong the first time and voided the first transaction...when he ran it again I had hit my daily limit and it declined the card!  How frustrating!  Mom saved the day and used her card so we didn't drive 2 hours for nothing.

Driving home was a total nightmare.  The wind gusts were crazy.  The foam car top kit i bought only had one strap for the middle and that isn't enough.  3 times the wind slammed the canoe and rolled the foam blocks out from under the boat.  The canoe scratched the hell out of my roof and every time it happened we had to stop on the interstate and go find the blocks then re-top the boat.  It was horrible!  We finally pulled in to Dodgeville and I went into China-Mart to get another strap...which of course was too short.  :(  I ended up tying 2 of them together and had Steph inside the car holding the strap tight so the damn boat would stay on.  

Sunday afternoon when we picked up Zach we continued on to Governor Dodge State Park and paddled the new Old Town.  It was awesome!  Very stable and comfortable.  I forgot that I left my phone in my pocket so I did get a few pics even though they are camera phone pics.  Here is a link to the pics I took.

Happy Trails!

Holy Moly!!!

So here I am...in church. At the Methodist church in Boscobel no less. I am here for Darren and Cindy and most importantly Olivia...representing her as God Parents. It is quite an honor for us.

This church is crazy now. My grandma would shit herself if she saw how wild this is. Personally I think it is a much better deal for those unfortunate enough to be a Christian. At least they celebrate thier silly faith instead of mourn it. There is a band here...every week! It is crazy.

I did see a lot of people I haven't seen in years and it was nice to see them.

More to follow...

Breakfast Club

Here is my beautiful wife waiting at Friedericks for our breakfast. I love you my wife!

The Winds Of Change...

I just got to work...man am I tired.  Not sure why I feel like I haven't slept in weeks but yesterday was an insane day at work.  

I downloaded the Smashing Pumpkins' album Siamese Dream last night.  This used to be a staple in my CD library but I lost it years ago and never obtained it again.  Wow this album is so good.  It brings back a lot of memories of that time in my life.  

Sometimes I miss my friends I used to have.  I remember a teacher I had in 6th grade telling us that by the time we graduate high school we will have a different set of friends.  I distinctly remembering looking over at my friend Brent and saying "yeah right!"...I haven't seen or spoken to Brent in 15 years.

It is amazing to me how human beings interact with each other as a species.  You develop extremely complicated relationships and float through all this crazy drama.  For some, you hang onto for a lifetime but for most they come and go like the waves of the ocean.  Every one of them is interesting but eventually they fade back and out of memory.

I have a few of those friends left.  Dana, Shawn, Steve, the Wilson brothers, etc.  We don't talk much though.  Every once in awhile Shawn and I will post some smart-ass comment on a My Space page or through IM but we haven't hung out in way too long.  We used to get together for my Halloween party every year but they usually do not show up now.

It is weird to get old.  Everyone has separate lives and it makes it difficult to make time to just hang out...with anyone really.  I am a firm believer that "Hanging Out" is an art form.  You lose the ability somewhat when you get older to just chill out.  I think the hustle and bustle gets you so worn out that you can't function.

When I get home, I do not feel like doing anything but kissing my family and laying down until it is time to sleep.  It is very hard to get motivated.  On the weekends I am better...a bit more energized.  I can't wait to paddle tomorrow.  My awesome wife got the yard mowed.  We are picking away at the house trying to clean things up.  We got rid of most of our stuff so it helped a lot.

I can feel big changes are in store.  I'm not 100% sure what it is yet but I can feel it.  But it is a good thing.  There are things that should be changed.  We take things as they come and deal with them in the best way we can.

I feel like I have so much to write about but it is distracting here.  I will be back later.

Be well...

Life Is A Highway...

I keep coming back to this picture I took of Akiah on the way home from Wyalusing.  It just reminds me of the word freedom.  I think a lot of the time we forget to stop and look around.  I keep telling myself over and over that it is not about the destination, it's the journey.  Just like the t-shirt that says "I refuse to tip-toe through life only to arrive safely at death".  

My goals for this year are simple.  Every other weekend we will go camping.  Opposite weekends we will go canoeing.  And of course, every Sunday we grill out and have dinner as a family!  There is so much time wasted and I refuse to do it any more.  

My family has always meant the world to me.  Maybe it is because I hit 30 years old...or maybe I am just becoming more aware...but my heart is just bursting with love for my family.  It feels good to stop and look around and enjoy all the times we have together.  I refuse to be sad and negative all the time any more.  

It is the little things that we miss.  Most of us do not realize this until it is too late and things change.  Kids move out of their parents house...people pass away...your grandchildren live in a different state.  Once you do not have it any more you realize that even the things that annoyed the hell out of you now mean the world to you and it is too late.

My week at work is going great.  I keep a picture of our canoe on my desk and every so often I take a break and look at that picture.  I simply cannot wait to go canoeing this weekend.  To be outside in the fresh air and to just slow down.  Not really caring where we are going...not in a hurry to get anywhere...just simply taking the time to look around.  

Everyone say...

BALLHAIR!

Mother's Day and May Birthday Bash!

We all got together at Mom and Dad's house Sunday for Mother's Day and the May birthdays.  We had a great time!  We got a lot of great pictures which I posted here.  Jan made the cake and it was awesome like always!  We setup the wet tents in the back yard to dry out.  Here are a few sample pics from the day...

Here is the awesome cake Jan made!

Here are the mamas...I hope they had a good day with all of us crazies.



And here is the May birthday gang! Me, Jerry, Jan and Zach

I had so much fun. My family kicks all kinds of ass. I hope we get many more days like that together!

Rain Keeps Failing Down, Down, Down, Down...

Well Friday evening it happened...rain.  We got dumped on.  We had a pile of wet wood and only a bit of coals burning.  At first I was discouraged but I thought you know what...to hell with it...I came to camp!  I had on my Cabela's River Guide pants that dry very fast.  I sat out there in the rain and built the fire up until we were able to keep warm.  By the time 10pm rolled around we were done.  Everyone hit the sack.  I slept very well until 4am when Zach started yelling about being all wet.  Steph went and slept with him in the car.  I then realized that my nose was totally plugged up.  I laid around for almost 3 hours before I could breathe again and fall back asleep.  I woke up at 5:30am and saw that everyone but me and Akiah slept in their vehicles.  I woke Akiah up and asked if she wanted to go outside and she just curled back up and went to sleep.  Poor thing had enough of the rain too!  I have posted all the pics I took to my Picasa account.

Ooooooh baby!

Campfire FTW!

This is home...

This is the view I have right now from where I am sitting. We are camping at Wyalusing State Park and the only thing that would make it better is if I could stay for a week or two. I have been taking a ton of pictures with the new camera so I will post a link when we get home. This picture was taken with my Moto Q so better ones are coming when I get plugged back in to the matrix.

They All Float Down Here!

We just got home from Madison.  We got a new canoe!  Yay!  I had to sell mine last year to pay for bills so I was very excited when we found this one on sale at REI.  We had it shipped right to the store for free and we went and picked it up.  It rode really nice and didn't move on top of the car at all.  I will have a lot more pictures to post from the weekend when it is light out but here is one I took when we got it loaded up for the first time.

CatGenie Test Drive

Well good news...when we woke up this morning it looked like the cats had a competition to see who could use the Genie the most! It was full of fun goodies to test the Genie with. We all piled in the bathroom and I hit the button to see this baby in action. It worked beautifully! I took a video with the new camera but that tiny 32mb card filled up in about 8 seconds. I need to order a bigger card today. I will post the video once I get it off the camera.

Oh CatGenie, I love you!

Here it is...the infamous CatGenie!

This is by far the coolest techy cat box ever!  This thing cleans itself...I mean really cleans.  Not just pushes cat turds into a bag at the end.  Check it out here.  Make sure you watch the demo video.  This just arrived today and so far I have not seen the cats use it but they have got in and scratched around.  That is a good sign.  My cats would crap in my shoes if I threw dirt in them so I don't think they will have a problem using it.  I expect Zelda's morning treat to be there when I wake up.  Never again will we smell, touch, or see anything that exits our cats from the back side.  That picture was taken with the new camera.  That arrived today too.  So far I really like it.  It will take a bit to get used to it...it does do fully manual which is killer!  

Sunset

So here I am with my Moto Q getting my Moblog on. This is a picture I took with the phone awhile back. I was driving home and saw this really neat effect. The picture doesn't show it very well but it is neat anyway.

What? Another one?!?

Ok, I admit it...I have a handful of neglected blogs.  Ideas that were once fascinating enough to create a blog and post once or twice have faded into the abyss as things get busy and I lose interest in keeping them updated.  Frankly, Jason was the only one that read them anyway...but the point is here I am starting another one!  This time I hope it is different.  I am really going to keep things updated.  Since this one is for our family and not just for me, I think I will be better at keeping it current.  I also moved to Blogger (I usually use Wordpress) to make it easier for everyone to comment and follow the blog since Heather has one here too!

I just ordered a new digital camera through work.  A Canon PowerShot A590 IS.  

My current camera is an ancient Kodak DC3400.  I paid $500 for it about 8 years ago.  It has been a wonderful camera!  The pictures look fantastic (although small), it is very easy to operate, has 4 AA batteries so they last forever, and I have been very pleased that it is still working as good as the day I took it out of the box 8 years ago.  However, with the selection of cameras we have now, things start to stand out as being very annoying on this one.  The biggest gripe I have is the cable.  It is a standard USB connection on the PC end and a stupid mini-din Kodak exclusive connector on the camera end.  Do you know what that means?  That's right...i lost the cable a few months ago and it will cost me $20+ to replace it!  !@#$$%  Another thing about this camera that bothers me is it is only 2mpx.  That's right...2.  Good cell phones have the same resolution as this camera!  Although this thing takes better pictures than a lot of 7-8mpx cameras I have seen.  The difference is you cannot print anything larger than a 5x7 with it.  

Needless to say, I decided I should upgrade to a modern model and finally ordered the Canon last week.  It is scheduled to arrive Tuesday May 6th.  I am very excited to have a camera small enough to always have with me.  I really do love to take pictures so I have felt weird not being able to for so long.  Once I have my point and shoot camera I can then start saving for a digital SLR and a good assortment of lenses.

I have a lot of good posts coming up.  Things are very busy here and there is quite a bit to share with everyone (like anyone will read this anyway);

Until next time...you stay classy Interwebs!