Well, Call Me Uncle!

I would like to introduce to you my first and only Niece, Eden Marie Storer. She was born on Sunday July 24th daughter of my brother Troy and his wife LaRae. I am an extremely proud Uncle.

Last Softball Game of the Season

Last night the church softball team had its last game of the season. It has been a fun season and we played better than we did the previous year. Of the two games in the double-header last night we lost the first game but won the second game after coming from 2 points behind in the last inning. It was quite exciting.
The picture of Kim and I was taken just as Michael Martin was running home during a hit. Needless to say I was a bit distracted. But we finally got it right. We took two pictures as a team. One was supposed to be serious the other silly. Well, the silly picture came around and only two people were being silly so I had to take matters into my own hands. I gave the two people next to me a nice shove and it created a nice tumbling effect. You must notice however, that Bob (far right) was able to keep his composure throughout.I am kind of glad that the season is over because it has been so busy lately and we need to get work done on the house. But, it was great to end with a great win. It will make it exciting to come back to play next year.

Oops! Badge+Fan=No access to Building!

Just a note to remind you. If you happen to wear a badge hanging from a lanyard, you may want to beware when you are leaning over a computer that is being cooled by an external fan. If the badge happens to get sucked into the back of the fan it could be rendered useless in a matter of seconds. It also may startle you because of the loud noise. Not that I have an exorbitant amount of experience in this realm of activity or anything.

I was reaching over this fan to get some measurements for a power supply that I was supposed to order. Now I have to go to the Badge Office to get a replacement before I leave today so I will be able to get into the building tomorrow. Something interesting I noticed when I fished out the tangled wreckage from the fan was that there were small wires hanging out of the broken spots in the badge. I didn't know my badge had wires in it. That was cool to find out.

Anyway, I advise against doing what I did. Unless you are curious if your badge has wires in it too. Sorry I couldn't get the picture to show the wires. My pocket pc camera leaves many pixels to the imagination.

Who are they?

Thanks to my Mom, I realized that the family picture wasn't very detailed in it's uploaded state. So from Grandma's 80th party picture, listed from left to right is:

Micah, Kim, Robin, Brian, Jared, Christy, Lynette, Mark, Connie, Ron, Jack, Denise, Grant, Tory, Jennifer, Christina, Dan, Laura, Michael, John, and Julie.

Or,

Me, my Wife (Kim), my Dad (Robin), my Dad's brother Mark's son (Brian), my Dad's brother Mark's son (Jared), my Dad's brother Mark's son Brian's Fiance (Christy), my Dad's brother Mark's wife (Lynette), my Dad's brother (Mark), my Dad's Mom (Connie), my Dad's brother (Ron), my Dad's father (Jack), my Dad's brother Ron's wife (Denise), my Dad's brother Ron's son (Grant), my Dad's brother Ron's son (Tory), my Dad's brother John's daughter's best friend (Jennifer), my Dad's brother John's daughter's daughter (Christina), my Dad's brother John's daughter's best friend's Boyfriend (Dan), my Dad's brother John's daughter (Laura), my Dad's brother John's son (Michael), my Dad's brother (John), and my Dad's brother John's wife (Julie).

I you made through that paragraph still sane, I commend you.

Mom - Thanks so much for your comments. I am glad you helped me realize that the picture was a guessing game and that not everyone would know the people pictured. I will try to get a more detailed one to post as well.

Doors, Floors and Cabinets

Today was another day of working at our house. Greg (the Cabinet Guy) brought the cabinet boxes to the house so I have to show a picture of them. Mike and Lyndsay, Al and Caroline, and Kim and I worked for about half of the day. Greg hung doors, Lydsay, Caroline and Kim painted the doors and closets, Al replaced the electrical hardware, Michael installed lighting and I cut holes in the floor for the vent covers. We got quite a bit done and things are starting to look finished.
In the pictures you can see Al in the kitchen with some of the cabinets. The "office" with part of a new door, the new flooring, and a finished vent hole. The green room is the master bedroom with a new light fixture and a floor that is not cleaned up yet. And the last picture is of me starting to cut a vent hole in the dining room.

Grandma's 80th Birthday

Thursday the 14th was Grandma Connie's 80th Birthday. Boy was it fun. We were able to have a good majority of the family together and I got to be "in" on one of the best surprises ever. It all started last week when my Dad called and said, "Micah, you know Grandma will be turning 80 on the 14th? How about I come out there and surprise her and the whole family." "Wow!," I said, "that would be fun." Then he said, "Oh, and while I'm out there I think I will climb Mt. Rainier." Wow! Wow! My dad has wanted to climb Rainier for as long as I can remember (which isn't very impressive because of my not so impressive memory). But, he did live out here when he was a kid and my uncle Ron (his brother) climbed it over 15 years ago. I think I remember him saying that he wanted to climb it then. So I think that is enough proof. But more about that later. Back to surprising the family and Grandma.

My dad flew in from Missouri in the afternoon on the 14th. We immediately started surprising his brothers. Mark was at work at the tow truck company and so we headed over there first. We park across the street and I see Mark driving around the corner. My dad hides in the trunk and I get a phone call. It was my Cousin Jared. He was in the office watching the whole thing. "What is your dad doing here, and what is he doing getting in the trunk of your car?" he asked. I told him to "shush" and wait a second. So I tell Mark I have a present for Grandma in the trunk of my car and I need help with it. So he comes around the car I open up the trunk and there is my dad. Of course, Uncle Mark acts nonchalant and says, "Oh, Man, that makes my present look boring." So we continue to the other brothers houses and enjoy surprising each in a different way. John, that smarty pants, guessed that my Dad was in town before we got there but it was still good to visit with him. Ron, wasn't home so my Cousin Tory helped get my Dad into their basement. Then when he got home we told him that the surprise was in the basement. He was very surprised as well.

However, none of these compared with the surprise for Grandma. After everyone arrived Dad called the house on his cell phone and asked to speak to Grandma. She got on the phone and because there were so many people in the room she plugged her ear. So Dad was in the kitchen and slowly walking into the living room. As he came closer he was saying, "I called to wish you a happy birthday.... Can you hear me? I am on my cell phone. Can you hear me?" So everyone started to hear him as well. Only Grandma was concentrating so hard on trying to hear and plugging her ear that she didn't notice him walk into the room. All of a sudden, she finally saw him, screamed with surprise and straightened up in her chair. It was quite a sight to behold. The evening was filled with good food and lots of visiting. My Uncle Ron took lots of pictures and he sent me a few to post. He is a great photographer. He was the one who took pictures at Kim's and my wedding.

So my Dad is preparing to climb Mt. Rainier right now. He has one day of training, then Sunday he will climb to Camp Muir then Monday early morning he will climb to the peak and back down in the afternoon. A small part of me wishes I could go with him but with everything else going on it is probably good I am not.

A Comment on Comments

An Ode to Those Who Comment

Comments are a wonderful thing
They make me want to laugh and sing
Letting me know that people care
And are enjoying the words that I share

Every time I check my gmail
I clap and cheer when comments avail
Reading every poignant word
Neglecting to reply is quite absurd

So in conclusion, it was easy to see
I needed to tell everyone with much glee
I love your comments every-one
Please continue, never be done

I wanted to thank all of you who have been reading this blog. It has been a pleasure to share my experiences with you. I have been remiss in my expression of appreciation for those of you who choose to comment. So this is my thanks. I hope that my silly poem gets the message acrosss. It is dedicated to you. (especially to the one person who likes invented poetry, you know who you are)

dopad - Thanks for the insight on using the Brush Cutter. I really appreciate it. The funny thing is that as I was working with it and getting frustrated I was thinking that you would be the perfect person to ask the correct method of using this tool. If only I would have had more than 2 hours of rental time calling you would have been an option. Also in response to your suggestion adding links to certain areas. The links that are provided are labeled as to the name of each post. Adding more may be quite a task and I am not sure I am ready for that learning process. Right now I am leaving the site as default and I may play with more settings later.

Luke - In response to your questions - It is a little more difficult to balance three bottles than one. You have to really concentrate on moving as little as possible because you don't want the bottles to separate and move indepenantly. Also, in response to your question as to the start of the Yard? Work? It didn't quite happen like that but I really enjoyed your story about how it could have happened. It actually went something like this:

"Hey Micah," my co-worker said, "My neighbors are starting to revolt. Two ladies came over with a petition from the Homeowners Association asking me to cut down my wildlife reserve. And it needs to happen before the weekend." "Well, I may be able to help," I said. And that is how I got involved. I know it is not nearly as exciting as your story but hey, this is real life, not make-believe.

Christy - I think you should go to both Laos and Brasil. And I think that going to try the food would be a noble quest. And in response to Luke and I being alike. I am honored and humbled to be compared to him. He is a great brother and I think his creativity is something to aspire to. Don't tell him that though because he might get a big head.

In conclusion I wish to share a picture with you. It will disprove all accounts that those people who write or draw on dirty vehicles have no sense of creativity or beauty. I was driving on Hwy 167 southbound and I look over at the back of this semi and see what is pictured. I had just enough time to whip out my pocket pc phone and snap a shot of it. I appologize for the low quality of the picture. But I hope you can still see the details.

Yard?-Work?

One of my co-workers who shall remain nameless really dislikes yardwork. He was informed that he should do something about his lawn. When I asked him how long it had been since he had mowed it he said "Well, at this point mowing will be a bi-annual event." Meaning it hasn't been mowed in over 2 years. As you can see from the picture along the side of the house his yard had issues. The fence you see at the bottom of the picture is 6 feet tall. I couldn't open the gate because the blackberry bushes (that is those green things with leaves on them are) were pushing against it.

Anyway back to the story. I rented what is refered to as a "Brush Hog" from Home Depot. It looks like a push mower on performance enhancing drugs. Two big wheels in the back and the front just has metal skids instead of wheels and a large platform under which is a big beefy blade. I put it in the back of his truck and drove to his house. However, when I went to try to start it, things didn't go optimaly. It would start but then when I went to engage the blade it would quit. Unfortunatly every time I tried this the mower wouldn't even start for 5 minutes. So I tried 4 times before giving up, returning it to Home Depot and quiting myself for the day.

The good part of that experience was that when I saw the yard, I realized that that machine might not be the best with which to start. So the next day after work I went to another rental place and rented what looks like a weed wacker but at the end where the string goes there is a metal blade that looks like it belongs on a table saw. WoooHooo! That was a fun toy. I could cut through blackberry bushes, Big sticker weeds, small trees, and the drain pipe only to get lodged in the side of the house. Ooops! I am glad drain pipes are cheap and made of aluminum. Well, that was hard work but fun. Once I cut down all of the big items I tried the really tall grass but that just got wrapped around the saw just like a python and made it stop working. So I cut some grass, untangled it, cut some more, untangled it, cut some more ... you get the idea, until my rental time was done. I then loaded up just the grass and weeds from the small front yard into the pickup. If there was no fence around the front yard you could park a maximum of 2 cars on the grass (or the area that should be grass but is mostly weeds, ivy and more weeds instead). So we are talking about a really small front yard. And look how much it filled the back of the pickup! In the next few days I still will have one more load to take away the blackberry bushes from the side yard but you can see what a difference it was once the blackberry bushes were chopped down. It was a lot of hard work but very fulfilling. I really appreciated this chance to help him plus he compensated me for the work quite generously.

More Pics Posted

I have been quite busy since getting back from Brasil but I have been able to add some more pictures to my blog. So far I have the first half of the trip updated to the point where we left Caruaru. Be sure to check them out. You will have to scroll way down on the blog or go to the posts via the shortcuts on the left of the page.