Antique Roadshow

Sad news I am afraid. We lost our camera so I have not been able to make my usual videos. My brother got married and I was unable to take any pictures. I suppose it was just as well. I would have had that big bulge in my pocket during the whole ceremony and what would people have thought.

Anyway out of boredom I made this spoof on Antique Roadshow. The intro song is from the British version which I did watch once while in London. It sort of puts the US version to shame. We don't really have anything over 200 years old were as some of the smucks on the UK version were like yeah I think Henry the VIII use to pee in this bucket. Not often you can say something is several hundred years old.

Stairway to Heaven

My cousin Dan is a major led zeppelin fan - as we all should be! I know at one point he had aspiration's to become a singer - he still might, and there is nothing wrong with that. I recall one evening years ago he tried singing the stairway. This You Tube video is a very close approximation to Dan's performance that night.


Enjoy!

Morgan's 6th Birthday

It's mighty weird to see your little girl go off to school. When she tells me stories she expects me to know all about the people she is dealing with and how her school is setup. She hasn't come to the realization yet that others do not know what she knows. Some never come to that realization in life.

Katie went to a "blessing way" Sunday afternoon. A blessing way is like a baby shower but you don't give gifts. Her friend is on baby number 3 so there is no need for more baby crap. So anyway I had the two girls for the afternoon. I thought I would be the good dad and take them to the playground were they could run around get tired out and then nap the rest of the time. We walked down to the playground and Morgan wanted to show me the monkey bars and how well she could climb them. So as soon as we got there she got all the way to the top and promptly fell off landing flat on her back. I had to carry her and Gwen back to the house. That is about 90lbs of wiggling crying children. So the rest of my time watching them was torture as both of them were crying at the top of their lungs. Morgan is fine now...I think anyway.

Also I apologize for the spelling errors in the subtitles. I had to redo them and I was in no mood to check on them.

The 1st day of School

Morgan started Kindergarten today at Spaulding Elementary aka Primary school for you Brits. Katie is going back to work soon and Morgan and Gwen will have to go to daycare in the morning before school starts. This means that even though we live less then 100 feet away from the school Morgan has to take the bus. Oh well its Morgan's first lesson that when you enter the "machine" aka US educational system many things don't make sense. We also got some fun pics and videos of Gwen. She has become very daring recently. There is a shot of Gwen and I going down a slide at the end of the video which is not evident but its a really long tube that twists and turns. After we went down together once she went as fast as she could to get back up to the top and then wanted to go head first by herself. Morgan never would have done that at her age. Its amazing how different two kids can be.

The state of Maine

Hi again, Its been a busy time of year. Gwen's real birthday has come and gone so she is officially a year old. Morgan and I went camping in the backyard. We had a campfire, made smores, hotdogs, and slept in my tent. It was freakin' cold that night, but good times were had by all.

We climbed Mt Watatik which is a small mountain located in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The rangers marked the state line on the mountain so you know when you cross. Morgan made it all the way to the top without complaining. I'm very proud of her as it must have been tough for a five year old.

Last weekend I went up to Maine. My uncle Rick has a cabin on Hancock pond in Denmark Maine. Its really a lake not a pond. For those of you not familiar Maine is the most northerly state in New England. Its nicknamed vactionland and is a popular destination for camping and other outdoor crap. Its also known as the lakes region for all the lakes carved out by the glaciers during the last ice age. Similar to the lakes region in the UK.



Here is my cousins video on the same subject matter.

The American Dream

If the American Dream is to own a house, have nice cars, and 2.4 kids what is the British Dream? I'll guess that it is the same. Although you may want to dream of better teeth. Just Kidding...sort of.

I wish kids would do cute things long enough for me to record it. Gwen is prentending to drive and making brum brum noises... and now she is crying. Well that was a short lived bit of happiness.

Below is a video of my house. We bought it three years ago and have done a ton of work on it. There is still a ton left to do. We've been lucky and the structure of the house is solid and in good shape. Many of the mechanical systems are also of top quality but the electrical, insulation and general decor really needed to be upgraded...bad. I didn't film every room. I guess you don't need to see the boiler room, tool shed, and my office in the basement. We also didn't film the "master bedroom" as I honestly forgot about it. There is nothing master about it. Its just slightly bigger then the other bedrooms and it has a larger then average closet even for modern standards. We have not done any work in there either. The room has no insulation and in the winter you can feel the cold breeze come thru the wall.

Happy Birthday

Thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday. Its the first year I have ever received a global happy birthday. I had an excellent Birthday meal - Lobster, steamers, and corn on the cob. Yummy!

Gwen's birthday is on August 10 but Katie's Grandmother was up from Tennessee. That is the skinny state below Kentucky. The Appalachian mountain range runs through it and Elvis' house is located in Memphis. Since she was up we celebrated Gwen's 1st birthday already. The four us will do something on her actual birthday.

Check back soon. I will be posting pictures of the house soon.