Wet June

We got stuck in a weird rainy weather pattern in June. It rained almost every day. We even started getting our afternoon storms in the morning. This was taken at 6:30 AM when I got to work. Normally we never see storms like this until later in the day.

Summer Day

After putting together the new berm, we drove around town looking for deals on shrubs & plants. Shopko came thru with 50% off everything. We picked up two spirea, a weigela, and some really cool purple/yellow day lillies. All we need now is some mulch and the first berm will be done.

Last nite the neighbors had a family movie nite in their back yard. There was a huge storm 200 miles away in Kansas that kept threatening. We had sprinkles on and off and crazy lighning from horizon to horizon and everyone was OK with that, but when the wind kicked up and blew everything over, we abandoned ship and called it a night.

Although the sky was dark with stormclouds, the sun was able to poke under as it set. It lit up the clouds underneath and made the neighborhood glow yellow.

Busy Morning

For our anniversary, JP got us eight more yards of black dirt. It was dropped off this morning at 9:00 and with the help of both boys, we were done by 11:00.

While we were all digging, the topic of father's day gifts came up. GP said that he wants to get me a sense of humor.

JP is ready to go tree shopping again. . .

New Tree

Yesterday JP got her new white pine for the new berm. We put it in and it looks great! On either side are dwarf burning bushes. Can't wait for it to grow and start blocking our view.

We have four pots of gerber daisies on the front porch. We've had trouble with the petals staying on the flowers; every day each flower loses some of its petals. One day JP noticed a beautiful little orange and black bird on the front porch. How beautiful, she thought. Until it hopped up and started to deflower her flowers. Now that cute little bird is public enemy #1.

UNL Quarter-scale Tractor

The UNL Quarter-Scale tractor team stopped by work the other day with their machine. We help them out by laser-cutting and powder-coating parts for them. They did the entire design and all the fabrication work. This year, they went two-wheel drive with four engines and a CVT. They tweaked the CVT and it pulls like crazy and will go 20+ mph.

They took 1st in the pulling category, but due to being late for an inspection, took 6th overall. Hard lesson to learn about the importance of being on time...

Busy Summer Days

This weekend, I took Friday off - half a day vacation and half a day from working extra hours earlier in the week. I worked on getting the sound working on pole position, went to the pool with the family and watched the boys go off the high boards, and then played 9 holes @ Wilderness Ridge in the 94° humid sunshine.

JRO secured a 100 lb roasting pig, which was much more difficult than either of us expected, and I built a spit, and his friend had a pig roast Saturday. I only got to taste some of the skin, and it was fantastic. We had to leave early to do the Saltdog nite with work.

When we got to the pig roast, the boys complained endlessly about everything. Then one of them found a frog, and then they got to move straw bales around, and by the time we had to leave, they wanted to stay.

We had dinner with the guys & their families from work at Buzzard Billy's - the boys actually tried (and liked) some gator. After dinner, we watched the Saltdogs pummel the Shreveport Captians. Highlight of the game was seeing the boys on the big TV screen for 10 seconds.

Arcade!

With the return of non-winter, arcade season has returned to the garages of the neighborhood. SD is taking his time and restoring his 1978 Asteroids cabinet to better-than-new condition. Can't wait to play it!

I brought Pole Position back from work and moved Tempest up from the basement. We now have a real arcade straight out of 1982!! There's nothing better than having all the neighbors over playing at the same time - it actually sounds like a real arcade.

Memorial Day

After we all recovered from moving the dirt pile from front to back, we spent a perfect day outside playing cornhole in the backyard. All the neighbors came over and decided that the new berm needed more than a single burning bush, so they planted a beer garden for me.

Despite watering and miricle grow, nothing took off. We need GT's magic Budweiser touch.

Dirt Pile

While JP was in OK City, we had 8 yards of pulverized black dirt delivered. It made for a rather large pile on the driveway. I had planned to wheelborrow it to the backyard over the three day weekend. I wasn't in any hurry, and knew it would take a while. The neighbors all took pity on me and chipped in, and after 90 minutes, the entire pile had moved from front to back!

The boys were quick to build a reenactment of most of the famous WW-II battles. Somehow we also had Germans vs. British vs. Japanese vs. Russians. Not sure what battle that was, but it was a doozy!

No more dyed hair

When GP got his hair dyed at school, it did not all quite wash out. JP's yellow sofa did what shampoo could not - get the black dye out of GP's hair. We had to unstuff some cushions and wash them. Valentine was happy to help monitor the stuffing for us.

Busy Weekend

Friday nite I stayed late at work to finish up part of a project I've been working on - a microcontroller-based blade stop timer. It measures how long it takes for the blades on a mower to stop spinning. One of the challenges has been that the 8-bit microcontroller is not well suited for doing heavy-duty math, and part of my program is that I need to do a little bit of math. I ended up writing some routines that allow me to work with 128-bit numbers. I can now add/subtract/multiply numbers from zero to 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. Nice.

Our project for Saturday was to replace the 4' x 5' window above the front door. Sometime during the winter it started to crack on the inside pane. Our builder gave us a new window and said good luck. At first we thought that we would have to peel back the siding and pull it out from the front. Turns out the replacment was only the glass thermopane (no frame at all) that we could replace from the back side without tearing apart the entire window.

It has been rainy and in the 50's all week. Friday nite it started to clear off, and by 8:00 Saturday morning we were back into normal Nebraska weather - windy. It blew 30 mph non-stop all day. JP & I popped the old pane out and nearly dropped it as we were trying to hook up some slings to lower it. The wind was pressing hard on the 2800 square inches of 70 pound glass. We hollered for CP to go get CG from across the street. He came over and helped up lower it safely. After that, we realized that we needed to close all the windows in the house so that the wind wasn't trying to blow thru the window.

I went to the home depot for supplies and found that the eight-year old battery in my car had finally died. JP & the boys came to my rescue with jumper cables. CG came over again to assist with the installation of the new pane. It was spooky, but it went in without a hitch.

Notice the wind-blown small maple. It blew non-stop ALL day. After the window, we cut the grass and then went to Sam's Club for cookout supplies and a new battery (only $65 !). We had CG & family over for a cookout.

New Webelo

This week we had our final pack meeting for the year at the outdoor education center (OEC). BG & GP are now officially Webelos. Only two more years!

The OEC is east of town and is a beautiful facility owned by the local scout council. Their main offices are there as well as meeting rooms, a nice climbing wall, and some campgrounds. Thursday nite I helped out with a climb - I need to help out with five climbs before I am officially a climbing instructor there.

Growing Like Weeds

Both boys ran in the Mayor's run again this year. It's a one mile run around the state capitol grounds. I think every kid in Lincoln shows up for it. We were running late, but were able to make it all the way from our place up there in ten minutes. That's what I love about Lincoln.

CP finished up his B-29. He painted everything as well as doing all teh decals himself. What's next? Must be the B-36...

JP volunteered me to work a shift at the boys' school's family fun night recruiting potential new scouts for next year. GP went with me and had a blast. Not only did he get his face painted, but he also got his hair painted green & black. One of the raffle prizes was a football signed by both Bo & T.O.. We didn't win.

Omega Racing

With the warm weather and sunny afternoons finally here, I can work in the garage again. The first project of the season was to get the spinner on omega race working. I used an optical mouse and a cardboard disk. Simple, but it's working great.

I installed a 21" flatscreen CRT monitor in it last fall. The PC & hardware went in this spring. I still need to build a wheeled base so I can move this thing around and raise it up so a normal size person can play it without stooping over.

Springtime

The animals are all shedding their winter coats.

The first storm of the season passed just to the east of us. To the west we had a beautiful sunset, to the east it was swirling black clouds and a tornado warning. Straight above it was a mix of blue sky, thunderheads, and the moon.