1st Day of the Last Year

GP was excited for his first day as a senior. He's loving his truck and driving it all around town. 

Suite Dorm Room

Friday, we moved CP into his new dorm room. This year, he's on the top floor in a four bedroom suite with three other guys. They each have their own rooms and share a living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It's really nice!

A Day in the Life of a Puppy

Being a puppy is such hard work. There are so many holes that need to be dug. Fortunately, he likes to dig in the gravel of the sun deck, which is relatively clean and easy to smooth out.

A normal day consists of 30 minutes of up time followed by 60 minutes of down time. So far, we haven't had a lot of interaction between the cats and their new friend other than a few territorial squabbles. He's learning respect.

No Coast Derby Girls

GP's band, Mamabird, played Saturday night at The Icebox for the halftime entertainment for the No Coast Derby Girls roller derby game. We have never seen a roller derby match, so it was all new to us. At first it was confusing and lame, but as we began to understand the rules and strategy, we really got into it.

The guys sounded really good in the arena. They were worried about acoustics with the concrete walls and floor, but I think the natural reverb added to their sound. The video is part of one of their original compositions.

New Puppy

This week while I was in Indianapolis, I started getting texts from JP & GP with photos of a cute little dog. When I got home, he was here to greet me.

He's a 9 week old Shiba Inu that goes from crazy to full sleep and back again every 30 minutes.

More pics to come!

Squirrelly

It's hot! says Squirrelly, our backyard squirrel. He naps like this on branches and the fence.

Boots

Here is Boots, Nana's new kitten.

Pulling My Chain

This morning we installed a six-foot chain on JP's new roller blind above the front door. She was having to pull out a stool every time she wanted to adjust it - now it's super easy.

Snowball Bush

This year the roses are on life support due to beetles, but the hydrangia has really gone to town this year. We need to add some stakes or a tomato cage to help keep it upright.

Pretty Guitar

I traded in a guitar that JP didn't like and got a nice pretty one that I can keep in the living room. When I brought it home, GP's eyes popped as he opened the case for the first time. I didn't get to play it for an hour.

New Strings

CP has been wanting to play his bass, but it has had issues with the Rocksmith game. I've always passed it off as technique, but we started looking into it and discovered that his bass needed some attention. After setting the intonation (way off) and neck action (not too bad) and installing some nice new flatwound strings (silky smooth), it sounds like a champ. We ended up going through two sets of strings - even though it's a short scale instrument, short scale strings don't work on it due to the strings running thru the body at the bridge. He played it for hours last night.

Cabinet Speaker Cabinet

The cabinet we ripped out of the laundry room had some nice oak doors and trim on it that was too nice to use as firewood in the firepit, so I turned it into a speaker cabinet. I had a set of four matching 6.5" speakers that have been waiting for a home and I used the mesh from one of our deck chairs that had split. It came out nice, but it's HEAVY! There's a reason that stuff isn't made out of solid oak.

Shrubberies

JP took the boys to IL for a long weekend. I stayed behind to work and relax. Saturday morning I pulled out the boxwood that has been growing for the past 12 years. JP has been complaining about them for a while, so I made it so.

The boys put down some fresh mulch, and JP planted some new purple flowers in the blank space. It really opened up our front walk.

New Window

Last year, the arched window above the door cracked the inside pane. We've been trying since then to find someone to repair it. One of the things about home repair is that with each project, you learn the tricks to fixing things. The thing I learned when we replaced the big rectangular window above the door was this: hire someone to replace big windows.

JP contacted the window company and found that the glass was still under warranty, so we got a new window no problem. Six months later, Elmer the window guy come to replace it. He started getting into it and then realized that our replacement window was the wrong size. The glass company had shipped us a window for the upstairs bedrooms. Three weeks later we had the correct window and Elmer returned and installed the new window (before 8:30 AM!).

We went to The Home Depot yesterday to find a new blind (the old one died) for the rectangular window. Should be here in two weeks.

Trapped

Coming back from Indianapolis last week, I had the chance to give up my seat on the 3:45 flight and take the 7:00 flight for $300. Sure, why not? 

Within a couple hours, the sky turned black and a huge storm blew through. The 7:00 flight turned into a 9:00 flight, then 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00. I finally landed in Lincoln at 1:00 and got home by 1:30.

New Laundry Room

JP painted the laundry room and the new fridge was delivered in time for the holiday week. The plan is to install some cabinets above everything and replace the utility sink with a vanity. 

Momma Bird Plays Ceresco Days

We would have hit Zoofest for day 2, but GP's band Momma Bird was playing at Ceresco Days. GP had to get there early to help set up the equipment, so we had time to explore the festival and downtown area of Ceresco (30 minutes north of us, pop. 850). That took all of five minutes. However, there's a furniture store there called Ernie's that took 40 minutes to walk through. Next time we're looking for furniture, we're going to go there.

It was scorching hot, and we were all cranky, so we went to "That Place" and chowed down before the show. JP & I split a Rueben that was out of this world with in-house smoked corned beef. CP had a cheeseburger, and GP loaded up on pulled pork mac & cheese.

The stage was a flatbed trailer. I think there were more parents and friends of the bands there than Ceresco residents (especially once the music started playing). GP's band had their first drunk heckler - he was giving them a hard time about not playing country music. They are going to need to learn at least the "Theme from Rawhide" if they are going to continue to perform in Nebraska.

The video is of one of their original songs called Worm. It's in D drop C tuning, and it sounded awesome in person! This was the first time they performed it live.

This video has the heckler stumbling towards the stage at the end of their second song. If I had known how entertaining his exchange with the band would be, I would have kept filming. 

Zoofest 2018

When the boys were little, Zoofest was different. It was at the Milwaukee County Zoo and it involved strollers and lots of walking. Now in Lincoln, Zoofest is a different event entirely. It's a 2-day blues music festival on 14th street in front of the Zoo Bar. We caught three bands Friday night: Evan Bartells, Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials, and Los Lobos.

Lil' Ed was AWESOME! He's a true Chicago blues performer. He and his band put on an incredible performance. See more about him here: Lil-Ed-and-The-Blues-Imperials. Our favorite song was "Chicken, Gravy, and Biscuits"

CG & DN had a good time, as usual. CP was hating it until we got a burger & fries into him and Lil' Ed started playing.

Old Neighbors

D&MN and J came out for a few days over the 4th. 

Part of our tradition is lunch at Leadbelly in the Haymarket.

CG took us fishing on his ponds. DN cleaned up.

Mellow 4th

This year the 4th fell on a Wednesday. Bleh. Our old neighbors from IL, the N's, came out for a visit. We spent the day @ the pool and then returned to our own hood for a cookout with the D's next door and, of course, fireworks all night.