For All of Your Revolutionary Ideas…

   Thought that this Microsoft Word 2010 commercial was pretty cute,  the Windows Live chatting is really great!  You’ll have to stay on your toes and read quickly to watch this video.

Week Goes to the Dogs!

Megan with the dogs in her lap

This week we watched my Aunt & Uncle’s Italian greyhounds while they were out of town.  Italian greyhounds look really neat-they’re very tall and thin, but much smaller that regular greyhounds and their long legs make them look like fawns.  My aunt and uncle breed them.

   What was really funny is how much like a pack the dogs were.  They absolutely couldn’t stand to be separated for any amount of time and they would almost always do everything at the same time.  Fall asleep in the kennel, wake up, look at something-they’d do it in pack synchronization.

The greyhounds names are Bella, Israel, Jasmine, and Eve.  I had wanted to do a good ole’ fox hunt while we had all of these hounds laying around, but my wish never came true.  View halloo!

Updates

   Well, I haven’t updated this blog for a couple of weeks and it is no coincidence that the last post was entitled “Crunch Time.”  I’ve been spending quite a portion of my time working on the video project, but I’ve been able to spend more time getting involved in family activities.

    We’ve been up to a few things, but the scorching heat has slowed us down.  I‘m pretty sure it’s been weeks since we’ve had the heat index be in the double digits and we’re also very much in need of rain.  There’ve been 3 rainstorms that passed through our area, but our house only got little to no rain.

   All that to say that I’ll be retro-actively posting a few updates over the next few days.

BIG Burrito

 

I was pretty happy with my measly little enchilada and quesadilla until they brought Benjamin’s order out to the table.

Needless to say we brought some of the burrito home in a to go box.

 

Crunch Time

   Wow, what a week I have had!  I am working on a video project with Mr. Dan Ford about Liberty & Property (based off of his book of the same name.)  The project really began only 3 weeks ago and we’ve been pretty busy since then, but this week was really “crunch time” and we had to get a large amount of the project finished by this Monday.

  Mr. Ford, apart from being an historian and author is also quite the artist and graphic designer.  It had been an honor working alongside him this week as we exchanged ideas, Photoshop documents and video previews with one another.  

   Now that I am nearing the end of this week I am trying to get a grasp on what I did and didn’t do this week.  I did at least 12 hours of work each day.  I didn’t leave the house since we visited the Brewer family.  The kicker is that I haven’t been outside at all except to take out the dog and that was on Tuesday!

   This is probably just my baptism into the world of media and deadlines, but I think that after Monday when we can work at a slower pace, I’ll try to jump on the trampoline while I have something rendering. (That’d be one nice thing about having a slower computer…if rendering ties up the whole computer you may as well take a break.)

  Well, I better take a step outside now before I forget what the sun looks like.  Have a restful weekend all!

Fishing in the Creek

   Benjamin has been fishing a few times a week in the creek near our house.  He’s been able to catch more than 40 fish in one day!  A lot of these are small fish, but he’s also reeled in 11” bass.  He uses his fly rod to make it more of a “fight'” as he reels in the fish.

 

 

Lydia

You’ve got to love her under bite!

Lydia & Lucy

   This week we watched Megan’s little puppy, Lucy.  She’s a mix of poodle and maltese and she is really curly and cute. Mom really liked Lucy’s sweet temperament and her willingness to snuggle; she offered to just keep her, but Megan emphatically declined.

   Lydia got along with Lucy better than any other dog she’s ever met and they had a good time playing with each other as you can see in the video above. Whenever they got tired from playing they’d snuggle with one another.

Fishing in the Creek-Wednesday

 

Mom dropped Benjamin and Noah off at a park nearby so they could fish in the creek that runs near to our house.

It was about a 4 mile walk (via creek) back home, but they each caught at least 20 fish.

 

Benjamin caught some nice sized bass, but we weren’t able to keep any of them because they were under 12”.

Playing in the River

   We (or really “they) drove down to a park today where we used to spend a lot of our time playing throughout the summer with the Marler family.  Megan was with us and she and Noah had a good time digging up clay. 

 

 

 

Noah with clay in his hand…

Benjamin fished in the cool, clear water

…Benjamin with a fish in his hand…

 

….but I am the most daring-Andrew with a mouse in his hand.”

  I can’t vouch for the fact that they all had fun, I stayed home today and got a lot of work done-plus I am pretty good at taking out the dog.  But just to show you I’ve had my fair share of river water fun here’s a picture of us and the Marler family at St. Francis State Park in 2005.

Fishing For Rods & Reels

 

     Benjamin and Noah went fishing yesterday in the creek and pulled out 44 fish between the two of them.  Today they pulled out all of their tackle and organized their fishing rods and their reels. They couldn’t believe it, but they had fished up 17 complete sets between the two of them-and that’s not a fish story!

      Who couldn’t smile after such a day of fishing!

Fireworks on 4th of July

Video of Finale

  We met up with Jo & Megan at the park and got a great view of the fireworks show.

 

The crowds with the band playing “Getting in the Mood”

Wagon rides…waiting for the show to begin

   I like 4th of July and everything, but I guess I can’t see what firing Chinese-made fireworks has to do with Independence Day.  My cruel, practical mind thinks that If we’re doing anything, we’re just celebrating our dependence upon China by increasing our trade deficit.  Most of the time I can just save these thoughts for the rest of the year and have a good time with friends and family-and also remember our nation’s founders and their ideas of liberty.

 

Going home

7/4/11

Setting Up for An Interview

  The day after the CHEF Conference we had to film an interview for the Liberty & Property DVD I am working on with Mr. Ford. Doug Phillips was already in town so he came over and interviewed Mr. Ford.  My brothers were a big help with helping to setup the lights and controlling the cameras.

   Last week we went back and filmed some more footage with Mr. Ford.  It was a very long day for both he and me and it was a 10 hour day of writing, filming under the hot lights and sequencing.

Four Wheeling Weekend

   On Friday and Saturday we camped out with my Aunt & Uncle in Bonne Terre, Missouri.  Apart from canoeing on the Big River and fishing, etc. the best part of the trip was being able to ride on the four wheelers and on the Polaris Razor-a kind of vehicle almost like a dune buggy.

  We all really had a fun time riding the trails as you can see in the video below.  When you were in the Razor you could fly across the field at over 50mph!

7 Jumps Dance

   I believe that the Seven Jumps dance is a children’s dance from Denmark.  (Correct me if I am wrong) This video is from the dance lesson on June 10, 2011 and it really got our hearts pumping .

Happy Independence Day!

     Last night we visited the Suerman family who we had met at the dancing lessons.  They had gotten a whole truck load of fireworks from last year and we really had a blast. 

    My favorite though is when they’d light up sawdust in a bucket and then throw it-it looks like a mushroom cloud from a bomb.

   Naturally, with me being the most cautious one with fire, I am the one who got burned…trying to light a sparkler.

  I’ve got a lot of things to post, but I’ll eventually add a video of our final fireworks show.

   Until I post again…Happy 4th of July!