Nice Long Weekend

Got off work Friday morning and met some work friends at Riverbend Golf course... The weather was cold and windy. I haven't golfed since last October. I have been golfing almost once a week for about 8 years straight. This is the longest layoff from golf during that time. It was enjoyable to get back out on the links. The course played well considering the winter we are "enjoying!" I shot a round of 91, finishing the par 5, 18th hole with a nice one putt birdie!
Saturday morning Katie and I and our newest family member Cub, hopped in the suburban and went for a drive to Kent. Katie and Cub (and me) had our first canine manners class.

It is a beginners course in dog obedience. It is geared towards the novice dog handler which would include myself and my daughter. Cub was one of the more relaxed dogs at the class which includes six other canines and their handlers.
I have been spending many hours lately trying to get the back yard totally fenced so that we can leave Cub outdoors unsupervised. We have an interesting fencing development because we have three different fences. Chain link on one side, a standard wooden fence along the back and a rail fence on the other side. I had to replace the chain link fence because of the windstorm of a few years ago. Two very large trees from our neighbors' yard came crashing down taking out the fence. We decided at the time to totally get rid of the fence. So, I dug up all the posts and rolled up the wire fabric and now have been digging like a dog to replace it all! Tired and sore, sore and tired I am! I stapled a wire mesh like a heavy chicken coop wire all along the rail fencing on the other side. Almost done!!!
I took Monday off because Ryan came home for dinner Sunday night and to see the new dog! I got a lot of work done on the fences Monday, but still have a long way to go.
Hope the weather stays clear and dry!

Here's a SCARY Thought!!!

Don't read further if you are squeemish! But this could be our next president. Heaven forbid. These people will ruin this country! They already are with their twisted, theiving ways.

Remember when her and her husband left office eight years ago? They took everything their staff and themselves could carry, it was your property, but they helped themselves. You'l find it on Ebay!

Drop & Give Me 50!

Haven't felt much like writing lately... I had to work the weekend, the money is good but sometimes I wonder if it is worth it! Time is becoming more important to me as I get older. I once heard someone say, "when you are lying on your death bed, are you going to wish you worked more overtime and had more money, or are you going to wish you would have spent more time with your family and friends?" Pretty obvious which one makes sense!
Spent the weekend outside of work with our new dog "Cub." He is a five month old Australian Shepherd. He is a new addition to our family and it is going to be an interesting time with him. Our daughter has a very tender heart and felt bad having to put Cub b into a kennel while she went off to school. The kennel is in her room. So, instead she thought since the dog was so wonderful all weekend that he would be wonderful when no one was around. She decided that Cub would be alright by himself in her room alone and not in his kennel.(prison, she called it)It's a good thing Joan went to check on him because young Cub was only left alone for an hour and a half and made a pretty nice mess of things. So, now we think Katie has learned a valuable lesson without too much pain.
Eric sent a nice photo the other day, see if you can figure out who he is with!

Big Day Today!

Katie is FINALLY getting a dog today!!! YAHOO! YIPPEE!
We are picking up a five month old Australian Shepherd this afternoon. For the last several days we have been going over to the owners home and taking the dog for a walk, trying to acclimate the hound to Katie. It is a nice way to do it as the dog is five months old and very much into it's pack. Just taking the dog out of it's environment and placing it into another home is quite traumatic for dogs. So, this has been good, besides, the animal had not ever been attatched to a leash before. These are a very smart breed I'm told!
It's going to be interesting as we learn to adjust to the dog as he learns to adjust to us.


Photo's from yesterday when we took "Cub" for a walk!

Crane work

Here are a few pics of what I sometimes do at work. I do not get to operate the crane too often. So it is always an interesting night. Here I am removing a stabilizer from the rear of the plane and replacing it with a different one.



These cranes are an awesome piece of machinery. They can be very dangerous and require precision on the part of the operator. Especially when operated inside of a building and around airplanes and people.

With The Professor

Couldn't sleep yesterday. Woke up early at 11 a.m... three and a half hours into the snooze. I had the professor on my mind. Professor Gizmo that is. I had scheduled an appointment with the good professor for Wednesday night. It was quite a drive to his place. 44 miles thru sleet and rain and snow... No kidding! We had a blast.
Professor Gizmo has been street performing for many years and has written a street performing book. He also works his brand of magic at street fairs and the like.

I enjoyed his mentoring and also in sharing a few things with him. I believe teaching is a two way street and that the teacher often learns more than the pupil. Gary isn't really a mentor to me, I just look up to him and admire him for his working the streets and his longevity! We Talked about such inane things as clothing you wear while performing. Performing styles. Personna and much more. We did magic for each other.
Made a few trades of magical ideas and magical props and learning tools. We basically just got to know each other a bit better. It Was a nice one on one session. I needed it. It helped kindle the artistic flames a bit! I hope it was good for Gary as well!

And now a word from my sponsor... After the session I worked my way out of his snow covered driveway and made it to work on time. Good thing too because I immediately had a mobile crane job. I had to put a replacement stabilizer under the fin of a 737. I don't get to drive the mobile crane very often. Probably haven't driven it in the last two years. It is intricate exacting work putting airplane parts on the airplane with the crane. All went well! The best part was running into an old Friend named Bob Newton and another hook tender named Lyle. I had the opportunity to share my magical talents with them. I got on a roll and had a blast, so did they!

Must Be Global Warming ;)

I remember in the '70's when everyone was scaring everyone about the coming ice age. We were being given a steady dose of global freezing. Nowadays it's all about global warming and how bad The great 'ol U S of A is. As I look out my window I see the effects of this global warming! I also read somewhere a few months back about how this last hurricane season was going to be the worst on record. Some fuzzball by the name of Gore wrote a book about it. I think there was not one hurricane last year. You know what they say about false prophets and what should be done with em!
Brrr.....
Remember being a child? And how much fun it was, here is Katie using icycles to be different imaginary animals....

In My In Box

Thought for the day...And every day after that.

In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England 's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said:

"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in ... And how many want out." Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. Many seem to forget BOTH of them.

ALSO...

I'm told that there is a huge rock near a gravel pit on Hwy.25 in rural Iowa. For generations, kids have painted slogans, names, and obscenities on this rock, changing its character many times. A few months back, the rock received its latest paint job, and since then it has been left completely undisturbed It's quite an impressive sight. Be sure to scroll down and check out the multiple photos (all angles) of the rock. I thought the flag was draped over the rock, but it's not. It's actually painted on the rock too.

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Here's the artist Ray "Bubba" Sorensen

While Eye was sleeping!

Yesterday while I was sleeping, my daughter took our camera and went out shooting! Here is what her young eyes saw!

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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

White World, Bout time!

Yesterday the snow finally arrived! I've always loved the snow. I think it must be the little kid in me... Snow always meant missing school! Yeah Baby! It never snowed during summer break! Snow meant sledding with your friends and snow ball fights, snow men, snow angels and hot chocolate when you got home from playing! Wet clothes hung up to drip and dry! We never had enough money for everyone to have gloves so we wore socks on our hands to make snow balls and play in the snow... A roaring fire in the fire place, no air tight wood burning stoves with electric blowers, just a roaring fire and we all took turns sitting around it! Ah the memories! I remember when I was sixteen and had my first car... We put chains on the tires, tied a rope to the door handle, and I pulled my friends around on skis while they held on tight to the rope! One of the chains broke loose and beat the hell out of the fender well of my car! Whenever I saw that thrashed fender... I remembered the fun in the snow!
Another thing we loved to do was something we called "hooky bobbin"... A truck would go by and we'd run to catch it and grab onto it's rear bumper and go for a free tow. We tried to make sure they never knew we were there,,, what a blast!

Just about two weeks ago some birds were eating berries from a bush in our front yard. Wonder where those birds are today?! Have to warm the berries up in their mouths no doubt!

Tuesday Night Session

Jose opened up his home for a session last night. In attendance were Mark Storms, Isaac Louie, Jose Floresca, Randy Sill and yours truly.
Tom Frank was their in spirit as you can see. If you look closely you just might be able to make him out sitting in the chair!

Mark brought several sugar packets, so we all worked on a nice trick dealing with a signed quarter from a sugar packet.


Mark is intersted in improving his technique and repertoire as it relates to impromptu magic. Things you can do on a spur of the moment.

Isaac came up with a couple of great paperclip moves or routines that fit nicely into this category.

Isaac never fails to amaze us with his depth of knowledge. He finds stuff to share that is buried somewhere deep inside from his vast amount of reading as a youngster! He came up with a great paperclip onto a spinning quarter. We all loved it, and now he thinks he will "write it up." Right on!
He also shared with us something called the Sylvester pitch. It ain't easy but it was fun to watch us newer magicians trying it out! Haha! Needless to say the quarters were landing on the floor quite a bit!

Seahawks 21-- Cowboys 20

Boom chucka lucka BOOM! Wow! What an exciting game. No holds barred fast action non stop excitement. Edge of your seat thriller, down to the wire... Who will make the last mistake!?
When Tony Romo misplayed the snap for the go ahead (and maybe game winning field goal) I jumped out of my seat and yelled "FUMBLE FUMBLE FUMBLE"... Just as quickly, as he began to run with the ball towards the end zone, I was screaming at the t.v. yelling "GET HIM GET HIM GET HIM!" They got him... Now will the Seattle Seachickens make use of the gift they've been given? Time will tell, but they live to fight another day!

My first inclination after the game was to pick up the phone and call my brother Ted. I knew EXACTLY what he was doing at that exact same time. He was yelling the very same things I was yelling. I mean, the very same exact things! It was as if we were in the same room together! We would often call each other after sporting events that had grabbed us emotionally!
My wife told me it was probably not a good time to call him, I said something like "why?" It can't make anything any worse." About that time the phone rang, I reached for it but it did not ring again. Maybe it was my brother Ted? Maybe he "felt" the same things I was feeling and then stopped himself... I'll never know. I don't have caller ID. Whoever it was didn't call back. Perhaps a wrong number?
Life's a blast ain't it!?

Happy New Year!

Went to church New Years Eve. Heard an excellent sermon from pastor Bill. It was about the pursuit of holiness. Why pursue holiness? God is holy. To be allowed in His presence, we must be holy. We cannot be holy. That is why Jesus came, so we could be admitted into the presence of God! Amen!

After church I began the process of rebuilding our chain link fence that was demolished by some trees two or three years ago. Katie helped a lot and it was nice working along side her. We got the end posts cememted and dug the holes for a few other fence posts before darkness haulted are work.
Dale, Jean and their daughter Jeni joined us for dinner and fireworks
Actual photo's of fireworks in our back yard, taken by Dale, his camera has a "fireworks" mode!


to celebrate the New Year! Great food, flank steak, crab mushrooms, baked potaoes, salad and for dessert,

"Irish Potatoes!" (Baked apples with brown sugar and cinnamon) with Vanilla Ice cream!
YUM YUM!