Jalapenos

I got tired of paying $3.00 for a little jar of jalapenos, so when I saw this @ Sam's Club, I nearly wet my pants! Five pounds of spicy goodness for $4.80!!

Rocksmith!

Where did February go?!? Life has been crazy busy lately and I haven't put up a post in 6 weeks. Time to catch up!

For Christmas, we received Rocksmith. It's a video game similar to Guitar Hero, except that instead of using a little plastic guitar, you plug in a real guitar. It's truly incredible. I only get to play it a couple hours each week, but even with that small amount of time, my guitar skills have increased by an order of magnitude.

I'm hoping that the boys will get interested in learning to play. It's never been easier.

Fall projects in January

We've had record high temps for the last month. It's been above freezing every day for the last month. We're running 40 degrees warmer than January 2010. It's too hard to sit inside on days like these; the to-do list becons...

We've been looking for a Danish-design media storage cabinet to go under the big screen in the basement. All that JP has found are several thousand dollars. Ikea has exactly what we're looking for for $400, which is great, but it ships in 14 boxes and will cost an additional $350 to ship. That won't do. The nearest Ikea is up in the twin cities, seven hours away.



We hit The Home Depot last nite and purchased a sheet of 3/4" plywood (the nice sanded birch stuff), two 1/4-sheet pieces of 1/4" pretty plywood, and two 1/4-sheet pieces of 1/8" hardboard. I spent all day in the garage (with the door open!!) and cut, routed, trimmed, drilled, sawed, glued, etc. all day. We now have our Danish-design media cabinet. When the weather warms up enough to paint, we'll finish it up. Until then, we now have a place to stash all the xbox games in the basement.

Christmas 2011

We had the full crew here for Christmas this year, as well as an absolutely gorgeous day outside. Two years ago, we had a blizzard; today it was sunny and 50 degrees. My Hawaiian Tropic was calling out for me...

Christmas Tree

Yesterday was the ultimate Christmas Tree setup day. It snowed all day, and it was Saturday. CP really helped out this year and put 90% of the ornaments on the tree. GP decorated the kids' tree in the kitchen.

As usual, the dog slept, and the cat helped.

Snow!

I know I'll be cursing the stuff within a month, but the first snowfall of the year is always exciting. It snowed all day on and off. Big flakes, small flakes, wet flakes, and slushy flakes. We ended up getting about four inches. It's supposed to remain below freezing for the next week, so it will be sticking around for a while.

The dog likes to run around in it, but the cat prefers to stay inside. She had fun watching the giant flakes swirl around on the deck.

Thanksgiving

On the way back to IL, JP texted her bff, MN, that we were just passing thru Des Moines. MN texted back that she was an hour east of us, heading west. Half an hour later, we stopped for gas in Colfax, and 2 minutes after that, the N's pulled in, too! We couldn't have planned it any better.

Our first nite at Nana's house, we ordered "the Titanic" pizza. The pizza shop's sizes are 14", 16", and then 24". We knew a 16" would cut it for the five of us, so we figured we'd try the 24". GP's eyes popped out when he saw the box. Never in his life had he seen such a pizza.

For Black Friday, we hit the shops of Galena and had a nice lunch at one of the pubs. GP got a Brown Cow, and CP got a Black Cow.

CP's Birthday

CP had all his buddies over for his B-Day party.

Packer's Game

I was able to make it to the Packers vs. Vikings game this year. What a blast! It doesn't get any better than tailgating at Lambeau.

CP's Friend

CP finally got to meet Justin Beeber at the mall. He was so excited!

Fall Color

This year we actually had some fall color on our tiny trees. The maples turned bright orange instead of the dull brown that everything else fades to. We had to run the mower to pick up the leaves! It's starting to look like a real yard, finally.

GIE - Expo

This year I went to the Green Industries Expo in Lousiville. Every lawnmower manufacturer on the planet had their products on display, along with every other type of turf management equipment. It was 40° and rainy outside, so some of the areas got a bit muddy over the two days.

Highlight of the trip was seeing Charlie Daniels perform downtown for his 75th birthday.

TMCO Open House

TMCO, a Lincoln fab shop, hosts an open house each October. Of course, the big draw is a beer-pouring robot, but there are also lots of other cool things to see there. This year they showed off their waterjet cutter cutting thru 2"-thick Aluminum.

This portrait was made on their turret punch. Each dot is a different sized hole in a sheet of aluminum that was painted black.

Models

Both boys received model planes for their birthdays. Each had a fun time putting them together.

Last Cub Scout Rocket Launch

Yesterday was our last cub scout rocket launch. Of all the activities we've done with scouts, this has been my favorite.

CP put together his own "der Red Max" this year and it looks great. He is uber proud of it, and he was able to get a couple great flights with sucessful recoveries. It was fun to see CP fired up and having fun. There was a guy with a hi-power version that flew on three 29 mm H-engines. Somehow he was able to get at least two of them lit.

Two years ago we bought a hi-power kit and built it up. Fiberglass fins, tubular webbing shock cord, plastic body tube, etc. It's pretty beefy. Last year I sank another $40 into it and got the 38 mm motor mount & casing. This year took another $40 and I got motor spacers and a G-motor (biggest you can get without being certified). The flight went off without a hitch, despite a 20 mph wind. The G-motor took us up probably a bit over 1,000 ft. Next year we'll get certified and fly it on some bigger motors that should be able to get us up to 5,000 ft. I need to get started on building an altimiter, accelerometer, radio tracker, ...

Kohler

I went with my boss to the storybook village of Kohler, WI. Normally we stay at the Kohler hotel on the Kohler campus. This time, however, they were booked solid, and I couldn't get approval for the $500/night American Club, so we stayed in Sheboygan. Our hotel ,the Harbor Winds, was right on the Sheboygan river and only a few blocks from Lake Michigan. The riverfront has been renovated and is beautiful. We dined at all four of the "Stephanos" restaurants: brick oven pizza, organic foods diner, English pub, and his flagship Italian place. Tasty!

Kohler has a Lola race car in the lobby of their engine facility. Pretty sweet little car. Kohler powered, too.

I had a chance to play at Blackwolf Run, but my game isn't up to PGA standards. We had lunch at the clubhouse on the 18th greens. Everyone on the course was struggling as they finished up. If good golfers were playing that poorly, I can't imagine how I would have fared.

Airshow

Gramma & Grampa came to town for the boys' birthdays and the airshow. We got to see the Blue Angles perform, which is always awesome. We also took home a piece of history, which was even cooler than the Blue Angles. The Confederate Air Force (or whatever it's called now) had their "Fifi" B-29 on display. Grampa took the boys thru the cockpit tour, and then we got to meet a real live WW-II B-29 pilot that was signing autographs on actual pieces of Fifi for $10. How cool is that?!? We now have an actual piece of the aluminum skin of a flying B-29, complete with grease & dirt on the unpainted side.

Game Day!!!!

Today is the first day of college football season. Nebraska is taking on Chattanooga in Memorial Stadium this afternoon. Before that, Penn State is playing someone (?), and our old neighbor JRO is in town and coming over to watch it.

We're busy getting the basement cleaned up for its inaugural party. I can't wait to watch the Huskers in HD on the 132" screen!

GO BIG RED!!!