Daddy’s Day

My oldest daughter Alsatia decided that she wanted to give me a good Father’s Day and had it planned for days. First thing she woke me up with breakfast in bed – coffee, toast, strawberries and the newspaper. It was really cute. Then she asked me to take her creeking in the larger part of the creek behind our house. She packed water, granola bars & towels and we headed off. We walked up and down the better part of a mile of it. It was a little flatter than I thought it would be, but it was a really easy hike. Here are a couple photos.

After the creeking I came home and did a little yardwork, which most people loathe but I really like (it’s soo nice to have a yard!), then the girls corraled me and wanted me to open up my presents. There was a huge green box in the living room and they were all very excited. I opened it and it was the king of all charcoal grills – a Weber! Now, you may be thinking – “Greg, don’t you alredy have a grill?”. The answer is yes I do, I have a great 5400BTU Perfect Flame grill, it’s practically the size of small car. But, for all of you who are not a grill aficionado’s you have to realize that a good chef can’t cook from a single pot. Gas grills are great, but every once in a while you need to cook off of charcoal. Try this sometime – marinade a good flank steak or chicken breasts and when you put them on the grill take all that marinade and just dump it on the white hot coals to let the flavor smoke up into the meat – you will have yourself a masterpiece!

It was a great day!

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Crazy June Storm

Wow, this was nothing like the tornadoes or some of the other storms that ripped through the midwest this month – leaving tens of thousands of people homeless – but then when you think about the very tiny watershed that feeds our creek this is really impressive.

Notice that in one of the photos the creek rose up almost to our compost bin, which is about 3½ ft. higher than normal!

Linky to the full slideshow

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A Unimotorcycle that can save the planet?

I first saw this contraption on the cover of Popular Science (or maybe Popular Mechanics, can’t remember which) and I thought it was one of those futuristic mockup machines that don’t really exist. But it turns out that not only does the Uno really exist, but it’s battery-powered and the 18 yo designer got the idea for it while visiting China and watching all the locals driving the popular 2-cycle smog-cycles.

It works just like a high-perfomance Segway, it goes up to 25mph and is made mainly for short trips around town. It’s also non-polluting, though not zero-emmissions since it still has to be charged up and that electricity has to come from somewhere. Still, I think it’s a great concept.

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Alsatia “Survives” Elementary School

On the last weekend in May this year my daughter Alsatia graduated Elementary school. Since my wife has no idea how to put on a small party, we ended up with almost 40 kids here for “Survivor Beechgrove”. For those of you who are completely culturally clueless when it comes to the “omni-directional sludgebox” ¹ Survivor is a reality game show where contestants compete against each other in physical contests and vote each other out of the game via clique contests all while on some deserted tropical island or desolate location. The goal is to be the last one standing (and product-placement).

Think Gilligan’s Island meets corporate outdoor survival training weekend meets Beverly Hills High…

Linky to the full slideshow

They were split into two “tribes” – the Kickapoo and the Shawnee (in keeping with the tradition of using local aboriginal names for the teams) – and there were several challenges that the kids had to do. One challenge was to stand on a large can for as long as they could until there was a winner. First two feet, then one foot after two minutes. You should have seen the faces on the kids when I told all of they had to do it barefoot!

Another challenge was to eat gummy fish; they started out with teh fish in a cup but they ended up eating them off the grass. One kid barfed them right back up (along with a little Coke- yeesh).

The last challenge was a race that entailed running through hoops, then over a balance beam, up & over a waterslide, then knocking over a coconut monkey idol. Complete chaos.

The kids had fun, and Alsatia asked when she could have a party like that again. I think I mumbled something about “when you’re in your 20’s”.

¹ [quote from Sideshow Bob in an episode from The Simpson's where he rants about his "sucksess" compared to Krusty the Clown and how he is not being taken seriously as a thespian]

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Not even tornadoes could keep us away…

Here is a linky to the full-screen version

Samantha got an email from a Lyn Henry about two months ago telling us that she was going to give her husband Brian (aka Buck) a surprise 40th birthday party and wanted to know if we could come. Since they live in Kansas and one can never pass up the chance to have a real reason to go there, we said “sure, of course”.

Buck and I have known each other for over 20 years, not that matters to the story I just like saying that I have known someone long enough to say that. He and I met in the late 80’s when we were both in the Navy. He was stationed on the USS Ranger (CV-61) and I worked with him in the CVIC (the Intelligence Center). He used to come up to Pacific Beach and hang out with Brian (Pooh) Smith, Dan Haywood and I. He would also bring along some stragglers from the Ranger to give them some relief from the monotony of ship-life. Everyone was welcome, as long as they paid dues – which was either cheap beer or cigarettes.

Embarrasingly now, for the most part all we did was drink beers at Kahuna’s or the Down Under, swim or surf at Wilbur/Law or Tourmaline Surf Park, or just hang out at our tiny one bed room crashpad. In fact, that apartment was so small and on most weekends there were so many people that stayed there on the weekends that to make room on the floor for them to sleep we woud strap our surfboards to the ceiling. Great fun/good times.

OK – back to the real Mid-West.

The last time that we saw Buck and Lyn was when we moved from San Diego to KY in May 2002. They were living in Nebraska and we made a special jaunt into the land of prairie and cow fields to see them. We only had one night there but it seemed that we had stayed a week we felt so “at home”. Iit was such a short stay that we said we would have to get together again sometime soon. OK, well it took six years, but we made it to see them.

We left NKY right after the kids got out of school and drove just west of St. Louis where we stayed the night. (Parenthetically I want to note, do NOT stay at the Embassy Suites if you want a decent sized bed).¹. The next morning we started towards Kansas only to hear on the radio that there had been a huge tornado on I-70 the night before adn more were predicted for Saturday. Of course this is on the very same stretch that we were headed! We saw some very ominous clouds and wehit some torrential rain, but we didn’t see any twisters (whew).

We got to Kansas around noon and since we couldn’t check into the lodge we decided to head north of town and go Pirtle Winery (a winery that we visited when we drove from San Diego to Cincinnati). The had some of the best Seyval I have ever had and I wanted to get some more. The winery itself is an old converted Lutheran church and there is a brewery as well as several bed and breakfast’s places within very short walking distances. We had a great French-peasant lunch – wine, cheese, bread and summer sausage (the kids hated it of course). If you ever find yourself travelling through Kansas City this is a “must do”, and the next time I go there I hope it’s just Samantha and I.

After the winery stop we went to the Great Wolf Lodge to settle in. This is an indoor waterpark and a resort. It had five water slides (three that you use a tube in and two that are “solo”) and a huge “fort” that has all kinds of water sprays, buckets and rope climbs. I have to give it medocre marks for the cost vs. amenities but overall it was fun and the kids liked it.

The Surprise Party
Well, now comes the big event – Buck’s surprise party. We got to the bar where it was being held and of course we didn’t know anyone there, but there were several people that knew us. Buck’s Mom and sister were there and welcomed us right in. Other people heard that we were coming and that we kind of the surprise-in-surprise and introduced themselves.

So then Lyn got the call from her neighbor that was brining Buck to the party that they were headed into the bar. he walks in adn the first thing out of his mouth was “I knew it!”. The second thing out of his mouth was ‘Wedge!’ as he saw me. ². It was a great party (in the holy-guacamole were old and responsible now kinda way).

The Next day…
…we slept in and met up with Buck, Lyn and their boys at GWL. We had an awesome time chasing our kids and getting waterlogged and catching up. We ate pizza, pretzels and got severely waterlogged. The water park was pretty fun, and I am sure that it would be a total blast in the winter after being cooped up or snowed in for a couple weeks.

After the day of slip-sliding-away we went over to Buck and Lyn’s for a “Trailer-Trash weekend party” (they called it that!). They live on street that dead-ends into a huge open field and all the neighbors hang out in their drivewaysm, barbeque, drink beers, play ‘burb horseshoe and just BS. What a great time. In fact, I was a little jealous until Samantha told me on the drive home that she has already planned one for our cul-de-sac! [more to come...]

We left the next morning for the long drive home (estimated at 9-½ hrs) and after desperately searching for a Starbucks we finally got on the feeway and headed East. We stopped for lunch at the occasional winery one of which was another waypoint that we made on our trip East in 2002 Turtle Run. We called ahead knowing that they were usually closed on Monday and they were definitely open because of the Memorial Day weekend. The owners Jim and Laura were there. Even though they were obviously exhausted from a long weekend, Laura and her Mom dutifully let us sample anything we wanted (except their coveted Cab Franc!). We certainly made it worth it for them and bought a case and a half of wine not because I felt sorry for them waiting up for us, but because they have such great wine – especially the Chamboucin!

After a quick stop in Louisville for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory (a family fav) we scurried home and collapsed.
It was really great seeing Buck and Lyn and their boys, and it was a terrific getaway weekend.

¹ [Yes, I know that said parenthetically within parenthesis - it's a tribute to KV, you get it or you don't.]

² [Small explanation - Wedge refers to a really shitty haircut that I got in the Navy at the time that Buck and I were thick as thieves. I was trying to grow my hair way longer than Navy regulations allows on the top and keeping a "high-and-tight" on the sides. The result a wedge-shaped head. HEY - it was the 80's!]

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