A picture is worth a thousand words

But you have to imagine all of the screaming and yelling that went with this one.

Vice President

Liz Lemon?

Another movie that looks good

The Linguists

(Maybe a little better even than Land of the Lost.)

Jeffrey!

Land of the Lost

Captain Morgan at the DNC

Gary had a calculus tutor in college who was a big Captain Morgan fan. He was a great guy. He was a funny, funny guy who had found his niche and a way to make a living in order to live in a college town in perpetuity. We envied him. But that's not my point. My point is that this article confirms my suspicions that political conventions are, in part, big drunk fests. I may have mentioned that my best friend and I attended the 1980 Iowa Republican Convention in Iowa when Reagan was nominated. We ate pizza on the floor of the hotel hallway where we were staying. And some fellow student delegate BOYS passed some notes under our hotel room door! We weren't drinking anything but the whole atmosphere was PARTY-TIME for the adult delegates. It felt SCANDALOUS.

Biases?

Has anyone noticed that FOX News peeps are sporting pale peach-colored microphone headsets (that look like skin tags - blech) while CNN news persons are wearing black ones?

Relativity

You don't really know how bad your dog smells until she's in the presence of two freshly bathed neighbor pooches. It was clear this morning that my nose had grown tolerant of a too-high level of "eau de dogge" so I splurged on a dog bath session at our neighborhood groomer. The $25 was well worth it; she smells like a big bouquet of gardenias and peonies!

Early morning tidbits

1. Entertaining book I started last night: Hit and Run

2. First run in the rain for the summer (it's August 27!) and I came home to find Hank in bed with Gary because of the lightning and thunder. I leaned over to kiss him, thinking he was asleep, and he said, "Please tell me that's rain wetness and not sweat that just dripped on me."

3. Why does it always seem like the first three quarters of the summer zip along at 80 mph in the HOV lane but by the end of August I feel like I want to yell at the elderly driver ahead of me to get the hell out of the passing lane because I need to GET THESE KIDS TO SCHOOL.

Baker girl

Well, the three friends she called to come play all seem to be busy so we decided to make bread.

Michelle vs Barack

Why isn't she the one running for president? She gives a good speech!

Cut your heating bill this winter

Draft guard pups

Last Blast of Summer

We went to Valleyfair last night and had some fun.

Inspiration

I wish I was motivated to make a cute lunch every now and then. I like looking at these. I vaguely remember the first time I ever made supper for my mom, dad, and brother. I think there was a cottage cheese salad with a face.

Wants nothing to do with cheerleading

She's no cheerleader
Originally uploaded by WkHanson08.

She spent the hour tackling the little brothers of the big brothers who play on Hank's football team and informed us on the way home that she wants to play football when she's in 3rd grade, too.

Colorado vacation video

If you haven't made a music video out of your family pictures using Animoto yet you better run right over there and do it now.

Better than a yo-yo

Click on the ball

Happy Birthday, Hope!

I have never known a child happier to be 6. It feels like she's been 5 for three years. So far the sixth year has been a good one. Hope celebrated at camp, her brother's football practice, and at Fuddruckers which, by the way, is hanging on by a very, very thin thread. I have never been there when there have been more than five customers and two employees. Not my favorite place to eat a dinner (let alone a birthday dinner) but it was a request. And we did get to play DDR.

As for presents, I will report on one of them: The Leapfrog TAG Reading System. It's like a reading teacher in a magical pen. A-maze-ing. I just hope they will come out with interactive books for adults using the same system! It's WAY too much fun. Highly recommended for you beginning readers out there. (You know who you are.)

Football, hair, and pain

Look what Hank decided to do today. We though we were so smart. Hank had grown very attached to his shaggy mop of hair so much so that Gary and I came to the conclusion that the threat of a short haircut might be an effective deterrent to what we call sassy mouth. Then football season rolls around and Hank decides that he needs a short haircut to make his helmet fit more comfortably. So there he is.

Part Two: Pain. Look what the little dude had stuck in the back of his upper leg after he slid down off of a cedar chest this evening. Yeow!

Home

When I'm standing still I still feel like I'm on the train. California Zephyr #6 sure did rock and roll its way across Nebraska last night. It was a bumpy, bumpy ride. We're home and pooped out. Here are some scenes from the trip.

Beach vs. Gym

Watching men's 6-person volleyball and wondering why all the players of both sports don't wear two-piece suits and Speedo-style briefs? Is it that much colder in the gym?

According to this site I am 7% female

Estimating gender by analyzing your browser URL history

Vacation report continued

Day 2: Glenwood Cavern Adventure Park. Highly recommended. Hope had fun but was disappointed that the Canyon Flyer alpine coaster wouldn't go faster. Hank liked it at a slower speed. Both kids liked the mechanical bull ride. Hank wanted it to go fast enough to buck him off but we had to ask the operator to slow it down to a gentle twirl for Hope.

Day 3: Relatives in Denver and Colorado Rockies v. the Diamondbacks. Nice ballpark! Relaxing dinner with Aunt Karen, Uncle David, cousins Derek and Kirsten and Kitty, and all the second cousins. We made the most of a short visit. We were highly entertained by a persistent Rockies fan who got a wave going in the stadium after trying over and over and over. Kept Derek up WAY too late talking and reminiscing.

Day 4: Drove through the Garden of the Gods and made a brief stop at Santa's Workshop on our way to Royal Gorge. Awesome. A storm blew up midway through our visit at the park and when we crossed the long suspension bridge it was bouncing up and down with the whistling wind. Scary but fun. There was a petting zoo consisting solely of miniature goats and one cow. There was a flatulent gold and silver prospector who deserves his own blog post at a later date. There was a merry-go-round.

We are here in Salida now enjoying a discounted suite at Holiday Inn Express where we have a room for the adults and one for the kids, who have been very well behaved, I must say, but they talk a lot and let's face it: Gary and I are not the best listeners. Oh, and there were two run-away horses trotting through the hotel parking lot, followed by a police car and a cowboy when we arrived.

Vacation report: Day one

We picked up Hope's amoxicillin to treat her convenient, vacation-day-departure case of strep throat from the Cub Foods in Golden Valley at 12 before departing to Iowa in time to make the train at 8:09 p.m. As luck would have it the train was only about 1.5 hours late departing Osceola and it was able to stretch that delay out across Nebraska to make it three hours late arriving in Glenwood Springs. Our sleeper car was great and the children LOVED it. They both had upper bunks for the 30 minutes of sleeping that took place during the night. At around 1 a.m. Gary exclaimed, "Why is it raining Pizza-flavored Pringles on my head?" Because you were the one who bought the chips so that the kids would have something crumbly to wash down when they drank their Fanta -- strawberry flavored/red colored. Did they spill some of it in the sleeper car? You bet they did!

Day two is going well. We have major fear-conquering happening with an 8-year-old boy we know. Here's a scene from today's achievement:

I don't know what to think of this

I must admit that I've had two standard pedicures in my life and it still grosses me out to think of other people fixing up my feet. So I don't know if this would be better for me, or even worse:

Fish pedicure

I think it would be worse.

Have you seen your blog in Arabic?

Someone in Qatar translated mine. I guess it really is the world wide web. :-)

I love this

I don't know why I like this so much but I do:

Fold Loud

For your consideration

If you live in 44B consider this candidate for Minnesota State House of Representatives in November:

Brad Kadue

I saw this on dooce

Unbelievable story.

Key phrase: generosity of strangers. Thank God for "strangers" like the adoptive family in this story.

Speaking of dance

Stay hydrated!

I let each kid vote one time for his and her favorite dancer tonight in the penultimate "So You Think You Can Dance" episode. (Something weird was happening with the editing for the first duo's dance. One minute Joshua was covered in sweat and smiling at the judges comments and the next he was dry and scowling. What up?)

Anyway, Hank and Hope each voted one time for Twitch, who seems like a super nice guy on top of being an amazing dancer.

Bustin' a move at the block party

Sliders

Hope and I are exhausted after an afternoon of frosting hamburgers for tonight's neighborhood picnic. We hope everyone likes mustard AND ketchup. More delicious burgers.

(Don't go thinking I'm creative; I stole this cupcake from here.)

Agreed

And I'm REALLY going to enjoy this snack because I'm watching a WONDERFUL show.

What makes it so wonderful?

Hello? Muppets?

36%

Good thing we won't be in a hurry to get anywhere.

The Zephyr, which was prompt for just 29 percent of its routes in the 12-month period through May, did improve its punctuality to 36 percent in June.

Today is Ironing Day

Price gouging

Mom, can we buy some lemons? I wanna make a lemonade stand. I'm gonna make a sign so the lemonade costs one dollar. And if they want SUGAR it's gonna cost FIVE dollars. If they want just plain water that will be one dollar, too.

Swimming

Gary came home from work Friday with an autographed picture of Mark Spitz for each kid. At least Hank was inspired. He wondered how old he has to be before he can grow a mustache for swim team.