Dogsitter

We babysat our friends' dog while they went on vacation. He got along well with S and L.

Laundry Room Expansion

JP has been wanting to continue to expand the laundry room, so we ripped out the utility sink and put in a nice 24" cabinet. Now we have some storage space for dog food, dog treats, dog chewies, laundry soap, and bird seed. 

Hired Guns

We bought a large rock to go on the berm in the back yard. How do you move a 640 lb rock from the street to the back yard? You call up your son's buddies and give them a few bucks.

Same goes for digging a trench from the deck to the berm.

End result: we now have a large rock with lights on it.

W is Gone

W passed away. He had a good life with us and his other two homes. We will miss his furriness and good nature.

Go Away, You're Bothering Me

UCO Class of 2019

Last weekend we went down to OK City for MK's graduation from the University of Central Oklahoma. It was really fun to see everyone. 

We will be back in a couple months to see these kids get hitched. Can't wait!

We'll see these two next weekend at GP's graduation party.

More photos here: UCO Graduation

Seafood Mower Repair

Last week was spent in northeast Florida working on mowers. There's nothing more exciting!

This is the best view of the beach that I had while there.

The upside was that we got to eat amazing seafood at every meal. 

Spring Storm Season

We had a beautiful day after Easter, and then a small storm popped up and gave us some hail and a small tornado. It touched down out by Pioneers Park and took out an ice cream stand. We didn't get large hail, but my friend west of town had significant damage to his house from hail. Tis the season!

Yardwork

Yesterday started off somewhat pleasant. At 9 AM I mowed the grass with my shirt off. Then the sun went in and the wind picked up and the temperature dropped 20°. By the afternoon, we were moving plants indoors and covering the ones that were too heavy to move. While fixing a leak on the irrigation box, I scared up a great big toad. He, too, was complaining about the cold.

We picked up some nice metal LED landscape lights from Lowes to replace the temporary plastic ones we got three years ago.

Senior Design Showcase 2019

I had a Dr. appointment in Lincoln last Friday, so I worked from home and then met CP on campus to check out the UNL engineering senior design project showcase. It was located in the club level of Memorial Stadium and featured projects from all of the engineering disciplines. 

This is an anti-shake pen for people with hand tremors. It has a servo that moves the pen opposite to the direction it's shaking so that you can write even if your hand is shaking. It's similar to the smart spoon that is now on the market. 

CP & I really enjoyed seeing all the cool projects. After the show, we hit the used bookstore and Honest Abe's for a $16 burger.

Safe Side of the Fence

Now that the fence is up, the neighborhood peanut gallery gathers in the dark to sit in the neighbor's yard and watch our dog bark at them. The fox came by at 11 PM. The fluffy cat came by at 5 AM.

Dog Day Easter Saturday Brunch

This year our friends hosted the Easter Saturday brunch at their place. We had a beautiful day of sunshine, warmth, and of course, wind. S played with his buddy all day and then they napped together in the shade.

The pool was only up to 60° (at the surface). I jumped in and it wasn't too bad. No one else joined me.

The day was filled with good news: K's boyfriend got a promotion to bank branch manager, and K bought a house! We are so excited for them.

Cat Scratch Tool

W likes to sit with me at the computer and purr. I found the ultimate tool for scratching his chin - the pins of a vacuum tube! Need to market this and sell it @ Petsmart.

Backyard Season

JP & S are ready for summer! It's finally warm enough to bring the plants out from indoors and let them breathe fresh air. The fern has become a monster. Last year our chairs started to collapse on themselves, so we had to get some new ones - what a difference!

The fence we were supposed to get before Thanksgiving was installed this week. Finally!! 

Spring Game

CG's possible future son in law got us tickets for the Red & White spring game. We had perfect weather for the crowd of 86,000 fans.

A Boy and Our Dog

This is B. He lives a few doors down from us and he LOVES dogs. He discovered S in our backyard and played with him for three hours last weekend. Most kids are skittish around dogs, but not this kid. He took control and was trying to teach him new tricks. I'm not sure who wore whom out - they were both beat by the end of the day. 

Windshield Time

Another trip up to Windom, MN. Lots of travel this year, but no Delta Skymiles.

House Hunting

We spent a day with CP and his friend looking at apartments for next year. One of the places had this nice comparison matrix. The prices shown are per person, not per apartment. CP has put a deposit down on a place next door to campus (and across the street from GP's dorm) so that he can walk to everything.

St. Patty's Day

This year we stayed home with friends for St. Patrick's Day. JP cooked up three pounds of corned beef that disappeared in about 15 minutes once we started into the Reubens. Mmmm.

Girl's Best Friend

Our friends gave us their old robot vacuum cleaner. JP is in love with it! The cats & dog don't really care about it; just one more thing to pick up their fur.

How to Get Home?

I spent last week in Windom, MN. It rained/iced/snowed the day before I went up. There was a solid two feet of snow on the ground when I got there. Later in the week, it warmed up and rained a couple of inches, which melted all the snow.

Thursday night, things started getting bad in the upper midwest. The western part of Nebraska was pounded by a blizzard, and the east got a ton of rain. If a road wasn't snowed over, it was washed away. I-29 and I-680 were closed by Omaha. All but two bridges across the Missouri were closed. Same for the Platte. A dam up by O'Niel broke, bridges were washed away, and levees around several towns broke. This is going to take a while to fix.

The drive home was pretty. In NW Iowa, the flood waters were calm and blue in the fields. By the time the water got to the Missouri, it was churning and black.

Southbound (the road I'm on) highway 60 across Iowa was open. Northbound (the submerged road to the left) was not. I had to take some backroads to sneak past the flooding in NE - all the while the radio was awash with fresh reports of road closures and evacuations. 

We are safe, sound, and high & dry in Lincoln.

Amp Repair and the Couch Guitar

While shopping for speakers for GP for his gig, I ran across a cool guitar that called out my name. It's a smaller-bodied acoustic with cat inlays. When we got back, I scrounged up whatever unused gear I could find and traded in the old cheapo acoustic for the one with the cats. The new guitar has found a home in the living room where it has become the couch guitar.

One of the pieces of gear I traded was an old 1974 Peavey bass amp that I had repaired. As soon as I lost it, a friend at work asked me to look at his 1974 Peavey guitar amp. It's got power tubes that run at 500 volts DC. Yikes!!! It took a day to clean it up and resolder all the components and now it sounds pretty sweet.

With all the snow gone, it's time to sit & strum on the deck.

Tolerance

When it's cold out, the cats tolerate the dog. Sort of.

Snowy Day

We ended up getting around 9" of snow. It was so nice to get it on the weekend rather than during the work week. Although everyone had their driveways cleared off down to bare pavement within a few hours, the City of Lincoln took an entire week. The belief in Nebraska is that salt doesn't work if it's below 20 °F. Even the major streets in town were solid ice for three days.

S loves the snow & cold!