Archive for July, 2005
The picnic was loads of fun! OK, so not a lot of people showed up. I know that Breanna and Rebecca Marie had health issues that prevented their appearance, but why no one else? Feel free to leave explanations as comments to this post. I mean, I wasn’t even able to give away all the wide-screen plasma TVs and Sony PSPs that I had as door prizes! OK, so there were no high-end door prizes. Actually, there were no prizes at all, even for the winners of the two games I had available for everyone to play. I’m not sure who won “Guess The Blogger” (thanks RM for the most amazing artwork), but I’m pretty sure I speak for all of us in attendance when I say that Stephanie was the winner of the “How Many Words Can You Create From The Letters In Blogger Picnic” game, based solely on being the first one to write down “boner”.
Even though we couldn’t setup a live webcam (no wi-fi within range in the area), Gabe and I were still able to geek out. Each of us used our Blackberry to leave a comment on the previous picnic update post while we were munching on chips and yelling at our kids to stop leaving the cooler open.
Is there a second Blogger Picnic in the future? I’m not sure. There was a lot of preparation that went into this, just for almost no one to show up. Summer’s winding down, anyway, so if I am going to try to plan another get-together, it will probably have to be something indoors. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted if anything comes to mind.
Still, even though there was a very low turn out, it’s always a party when the two Hayes families and Justin and Stephanie get together, so of course we had a blast. There’s a whole bunch of pictures in the Photo Gallery, just click on Blogger Picnic.
July 31st, 2005
Update: Click here for a report on the Blogger Picnic!
The park that I had previously reserved was not available on July 30th, so I’ve moved the blogger picnic to Mt. Scott park, picnic area D. Here is the park on Google maps. Directions to Mt. Scott park:
From the westside:
Take Hwy 26 east through downtown Portland to I-84 east
Take I-84 east to I-205 south
Exit I-205 at SE Foster Rd, turn right at the bottom of the off-ramp
Take SE Foster Rd to SE 72nd Ave, turn left onto SE 72nd Ave.
From east county:
Take I-84 west to I-205 south
Exit I-205 at SE Foster Rd, turn right at the bottom of the off-ramp
Take SE Foster Rd to SE 72nd Ave, turn left onto SE 72nd Ave.
From Clackamas:
Take I-205 north
Exit I-205 at SE Foster Rd, turn left at the 2nd light at bottom of the off-ramp
Take SE Foster Rd to SE 72nd Ave, turn left onto SE 72nd Ave.
From Sacramento:
Take I-5 north to I-205 north
Exit I-205 at SE Foster Rd, turn left at the 2nd light at bottom of the off-ramp
Take SE Foster Rd to SE 72nd Ave, turn left onto SE 72nd Ave.
Feel free to email me (link is at the top left of this page) for any more specific info, or if you would like my phone number for more specific directions, or whatever.
The park has an indoor public pool, which is open on Saturdays from 1:00-6:30. The cost is $2.50 for little kids, $3.00 for teens, and $3.75 for adults, so bring your suits if you think you may want go in for a dip.
Plan to show up at about noon or so. I have picnic area D reserved all day, so we can goof around all we want. I have at least one fun activity planned for everyone, and I may try to get creative and plan more. I also have goodies for all the kids, and prizes for the activity winners.
I will be supplying hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments, plates, cups, napkins, and utensils, as well as the barbecue stuff (like briquets and starter fluid, etc.) I would really appreciate everyone’s help with the rest of the picnic-type stuff. Here’s a list of what I was thinking:
- Potato salad
- Chips and dips
- Watermelon
- Drinks (soda, juices, bottled water, whatever)
- Anything else you desire (Gardenburgers, chicken, brats)
Please leave a comment here to indicate what you can bring (like a high-tech sign-up sheet), and also to confirm once more who is coming.
July 29th, 2005
At work, I drink a lot of Coffee Mate Hazelnut creamer, flavored by adding a few drops of coffee and a few packets of sugar. Recently, out of frustration, I had to tape a note to my bottle of creamer in the fridge:
I truly am a generous person (ask anyone who knows me), so I honestly don’t mind if folks help themselves to a swig of my creamer.
But PLEASE close the lid when you are done! TWICE now I have had to clean creamer off the side of the refrigerator (and the counter, the floor, my pants, my shirt) when I “shake well before using” only to find that lid has been left open.
-Bill
July 27th, 2005
Years ago, before Billy and Matt were even in school, we lived in a tiny rental house in SE Portland. The house was really old and drafty, and we soon discovered we had a mouse problem. Before even getting in touch with the landlord, I figured I’d try to be mister responsible and take care of the problem myself, and I bought half a dozen or so mouse traps. These were the old fashioned, spring loaded, wood-base, Tom and Jerry cartoon style mouse traps.
We knew we had mice in the house because the boys’ pet hamster’s food was being eaten. (This was the replacement hamster, by the way, after the first one was found teats up in his cage early one morning for no apparent reason.) See, the hamster was a picky eater, and would only eat certain seeds from his bowl of expensive pet store brand hamster food, and he would shove the rest of the food (usually dried corn kernels) out of his cage, where it would gather on the top of the dresser until Kathy or I would clean it up. At some point we started noticing droppings outside the cage, and along the walls on the dresser and the floor, and so we knew that a mouse was coming in and eating the hamster’s rejects.
So I set the traps, and loaded them with, what else, swiss cheese. (Seriously, everything I knew about unwanted rodents, I learned from cartoons.) The cheese was never touched, and dried out and got moldy, but we knew the mice were still around, because we were still seeing droppings along the baseboards.
I next loaded up the spring traps with peanut butter. Same result, mouse ignores the peanut butter, still eats the hamsters rejected corn kernels. By the way, the irony of trying (unsuccessfully) to kill an apparently intelligent rodent with a strong sense of self-preservation that ate the unwanted rejected hamster food, while at the same time trying to keep alive another rodent that didn’t appreciate the food I worked so hard to put in his food bowl, and that was seemingly so fragile that a stiff overnight breeze would kill him, was lost on me.
Anyway, for round three, I tried embedding the corn kernels in the peanut butter. The next morning, the traps weren’t sprung, there were little kernel shaped holes in the blobs of peanut butter where the corn used to be, and more droppings along the walls. These were the same traps that took me like 15 minutes each to arm, and that would snap and spray me with peanut butter if I so much as looked at them the wrong way.
Finally, I gave up, and had the landlord bring over some kind of poison traps he set up around the perimeter of the house. Within a few days, there were no more visits from Jerry or his friends.
The best part of all this, however, was how jumpy Kathy was when she knew that there were rodents running around our house at will. She was taking a shower one day, and I sneaked into the bathroom, reached my hand into the tub under the shower curtain, and very gently tickled her toes while her face was lathered up and she couldn’t see anything. I think she might have actually left shampoo on the ceiling from how high she jumped. Oh, and I was very lonely for the next couple weeks, if you get my drift.
I sometimes wonder why Kathy still loves me…
July 25th, 2005
Something about this flash animation/applet makes me feel dirty, but it’s hypnotic. I just can’t turn away.
July 9th, 2005
Today is our 17th wedding anniversary. Kathy and I have now been married longer than either of us had been alive when we first met. (Huh? Did that sentence even make sense? Here’s a translation: We were each 16 when we met, and we’ve now been married 17 years. Better?)
It’s kind of amazing, really. In so many ways, we have grown together, and are more alike now than when we met. I imagine this is true of any couple that has been together this long, especially a couple who grew together from such a young age.
But what is really interesting, to me at least, is how much we have grown apart in so many ways. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, like we don’t enjoy each other’s company, or anything like that. Quite the contrary. However, we have each developed our own hobbies, different tastes in some things, etc.
For example, I live and breath everything having to do with computers, but to her they are pretty much just a tool, like a coffee maker or dish washer.
When we first met, in 1985, we were both pretty much on the same page as far as music was concerned. Neither of us really liked the new wave stuff that was popular, like Flock of Seagulls or Duran Duran. We were both into more mainstream rock and roll. Now, our musical tastes have greatly diverged: She likes country, and I like much harder rock.
Differences like this haven’t acted as a wedge driven between us; on the contrary, they have allowed us to have our own separate interests, which I now understand is very important for any couple. It allows Kathy to have a wonderful night out with her best friend Lori attending the Kenny Chesney concert, without worrying about whether she should feel bad that I wasn’t there with her instead, ’cause she knows I wouldn’t enjoy the concert much anyway.
It also allows us to playfully rip on each other. She’ll theatrically swoon over Tom Cruise (she still hasn’t gotten over that underwear scene from Risky Business), and I’ll point out that he’s what, like 70 years old now? I’ll try to explain that country isn’t really “music”, and she’ll point out that she can’t understand the lyrics that David Draiman is shouting in the latest song from Disturbed.
The bottom line is, I love her more now than I ever have, and I don’t see how that love won’t keep growing forever.
Happy anniversary, sweetheart.
July 9th, 2005
I was thinking of giving this silly idea up completely, as the anti-picnic forces seem to have been against me from the start. But, I’m going to make a fresh start, and try to tackle this project again.
I’m going to try once more to organize the huge bash that will become known as the Blogger Picnic. Now, I’m writing this kind of spur of the moment at 11:00 or so Thursday night, after being spurred on by Tanya Kristine and Tabitha’s comments on Tabitha’s site. So, at this point, I haven’t yet confirmed that I can reserve the same park as before. I also haven’t yet confirmed that everyone that I want to show up will be able to. Here is a list of who I consider mandatory attendees:
Gabe and Danielle and family
Justin and Stephanie
Rebecca Marie and family
Tabitha and hubby
Breanna and hubby
And of course, Kathy, Billy, Matt, and Lexi.
If at least these folks can’t make it, I will probably give up and try for some other get-together at some other time. Here is a list of attendees that I also very much want to attend if it is at all possible:
Janni Laine
Tanya Kristine
Ted
Shanna
Rebecca Jeane
Tim Lewis
Mike Lewis
I also want to extend this invitation to those friends of mine who read this but are not active bloggers, you know who you are (Jeremy, “Bob McMasterson”, “B”, “S”).
For now, let’s tentatively plan for July 30th. As I can confirm a few more things, I will post more specifics. Please, everyone, help me get the word out, and help me extend a (virtual) invitation to everyone on the list above.
July 7th, 2005
- A campfire can be made hot enough to melt an aluminum can.
- A 6′ 2″ 270lb man can still outrun his 13 year old son.
- However, his feet can’t.
- Grass is not very soft when you fall at a full sprint.
- Shoulder injuries hurt.
- Shoulder injuries are made worse by batting balls.
- I am not nearly as good a batter as I thought I was.
- Slingball is one heck of an interesting made-up game.
- Slingball is hella fun.
- Camping with more than 30 of your close friends is about the most fun you can possibly have.
July 4th, 2005
Woo hoo! Three day week-end of camping!
Have a safe 4th of July, everyone, and I’ll be back with more posts next Tuesday.
July 1st, 2005