Summer Storm

We finally had a summer storm blow thru last nite. It has been so hot and muggy lately, it was a blessing. We had beautiful thunderheads glowing pink in the sunset, spooky dark clouds and lots of nice cool wind, but the rain missed us by a mile (literally). We watched a lightning show to the east and Venus, Mars, & Saturn to the west in a clear dark blue sky.

NI Week 2010

I spent last week in Austin at NI Week. It's a weeklong geekfest put on by National Instruments. They make all of our test hardware and software. The guy in the picture is hooked up so that he can play Super Marioworld by twitching his eye.

Austin is such a fun city. I can't wait to go back next year.

Pole Position!

I finally gave up on the old Pentium II and escalated up to a speedy Pentium III. 600 MHz and 96 MB RAM running XP!! Whoo hoo. We can now play Pole Position and most of the old arcade games that need a steering wheel.

Saltdogs Game No. 2

Last nite we went to the second company-sponsored Saltdogs game. The neighbors across the street also went. The boys were interested in everything but the game. Until a foul ball came our way - that woke them up and they paid attention for 10 minutes.

More Trees

Last weekend we were wandering thru Campell's and found that all their trees were 25% off. Finally! We've been waiting for them to go on sale all summer. Click on the back yard panorama to see it full-size.

We got a columnar white pine, a norway spruce, and two large river birch. Needless to say, we had to dig a hole in the Nebraska clay for each. I am done with digging holes for a while.

Vacation!

We did our summer vacation over a 4-day weekend in mid-July. It was a whirlwind trip to Illinois to see Nana & the gang there. This is Max, BD's new dog. He is 100% puppy.

BD brought his SKS over for the boys to check out. CP is in love.

We spent one day on Lake Geneva at JP's favorite beach - Fontana. Clear water, soft sand, pleasant people - nice! Our friends from the old hood met us there and we finished the day with a great lunch at the beach bar next door.

Fourth of July Video

Our neighbor put together a fun video of our 4th celebration.

4th of july from Shawn Doné on Vimeo.

Webelos Camp

GP did his Webelos 1 camp this past week @ Camp Cornhusker. We were treated to four days of standard Nebraska weather - rain, heat, humidity, and bugs.

GP's favorite activity was the mountain boarding. It involved riding a giant skateboard with off-road tires and a handbrake down the hill. Needless to say, I did not try it.

CG & BG went with us for the four day blast of fun. I think next year we will try another camp up by Freemont. This was my 6th or 7th trip to Camp Cornhusker and I'm ready for a change.

Fireworks

From 9:00 to Midnight, the neighborhood rumbled with the sound of artillery shells. As far as the eye could see the sky was lit up with starbursts.

16,000 Firecrackers!

We unrolled the second roll of 16,000 firecrackers. It took 8 minutes for them to go. The whole neighborhood came over to watch it go.

After the Rain

The sun finally came out and we had a beautiful evening for fireworks. We abandoned the garage and moved over into CB's driveway. As if we weren't full enough from the sliders we had for a late lunch, there was another feast to be had for dinner.

What would the 4th be without a few rounds of Cornhole?!

Big Wheel

We hit the fireworks stand at 10:00 when they opened. The overnite rain soaked the cornfield they were set up in and made rivers of mud that flowed through their tent. There were holes in the tent, and it was a total mess. Since we were the first ones there and since it was my sixth visit there, the fireworks guy gave us two huge slightly damp 16,000 firecracker wheels.

We shot off the first one in the wheelbarrow. It lasted maybe 30 seconds and could be heard in South Dakota. Wow!

Wet 4th

It rained 2" overnite for the Fourth and didn't stop there. It rained all day until 5:00. We didn't let that slow us down a bit. The boys blew stuff up and we all sat in the garage.

We moved all the deck furniture into the garage and enjoyed the day. The kids played didn't let the rain slow them down at all.

Goodbye Xterra

We traded in my old Xterra last week. It had 120,000 miles on it and was in great shape, save for the headliner that sagged down. I will miss it.

Anniversary Dinner

Gramma & Grampa treated us to a dinner at the Japanese steak house. The boys absolutely loved it! They had some training wheel equiped chop sticks and really got into eating the food. CP even tried sushi.

Saltdogs

Again this year we hit the Saltdogs game with tickets from work. Before the game my department went out for dinner @ Buzzard Billy's in the Haymarket. Both boys tasted gator for the 1st time.

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.