Mystic Lake Camp

Yes, I'm a bit old fashioned...with a blog..go figure. I don't text message, and have never even thought of venturing onto Facebook....but..... When an old friend of mine, Jeff, suggested I go there to find the Mystic Lake Camp group, how could I refuse?

So, Facebook has this group full of Mystic Lake alumni! How cool is that? Lots of pictures and stories, and memories.

It's all good. This internet stuff is so cool sometimes.

School already?

Wow...I haven't posted since July? I guess that just shows how busy our summer was this year. It didn't seem that busy at the time, but with work and summer camps and a vacation here and there, it all adds up.

We went to northern Michigan at the end of July for a week that just went too fast. Came back to stifling heat and humidity, which was really depressing. The weather up north was perfect, and we spent plenty of time at the beach, and canoeing, and just hanging out eating our baskets of walleye. This year we broke up the drive by staying in Champaign on the way up and back, and even stopped at the Lincoln museum in Springfield, which was a pretty neat place, with very cool exhibits...make a trip if you are ever passing through Springfield, IL!

Next thing you know, school starts!! Travis had his first day yesterday and it went well, so far so good for 5th grade....we'll take it one day at a time, but I think he'll have a great year.

Wall-E

Pixar has gone and done it again.....just totally outdid themselves. We have watched the evolution of Pixar movies...from Bugs Life, to The Incredibles (with others mixed it)...then came Cars, and now this! Wall-E was amazing.

The Black household is pretty frugal, and we do fall into the "oh, it'll be on DVD in a couple of months, we can wait". But, over the weekend we decided to suck it up and splurge on the early show...that would be 10:30 AM...all seats are $4.50, which shocking to me - is a good deal.

Wall-E was so worth it, we loved it and it just was so good on so many levels...hard to describe. Overall, it is just darn good, and yes....we'll still go out and buy it when it comes out on DVD. At this point, frankly I don't see a reason to see movies with real people in them anymore. Well, except that Harrison Ford movie was good.....

Solar....so cool it's hot or is it so hot it's cool?

Our latest home improvement project involved going solar. Not totally solar as in 'off the grid' but a little solar. We decided to do solar hot water. Had Dan at G2 Power Technologies put in a couple solar panels on the side of the house and route it to a hot water tank. That tank will heat up from the glycol lines running through the panels.

The new hot water tank will then feed our existing tank, thus the existing gas heated tank won't have to fire up as much since the incoming water is hot! All in all it is pretty cool, and with our tax credit and hopefully a good break on our gas bills from not heating the water...it should pay off..well, someday. Just doing our part to lessen our carbon footprint I suppose.

Here are our panels:

We're home!

Wow...what a trip. We drove to Colorado last week to take care of a long to-do list. We did it all, well not all...we never did make it to Trail Ridge Road to see the 20 foot snow drifts.

We did visit our friends Miriam and John and the kids at their new house in Highlands Ranch, what a great house!! It was a fun night grilling burgers and watching the Redwings win.

Then on to Boulder to do the Bolder Boulder 10k which was a blast... painful after a few miles, but fun!!

Spent time with Ginny in Longmont, met up with friends at their new house in Estes Park and did a short hike in the snow up to Bear and Nymph Lake. Shopped at all the trash and trinket shops in Estes...what fun!!

We managed to stop in Lawrence KS on our way out to visit the Kansas hall of fame to see pictures of Steve's grand-dad...

So...whew!! We are home now...ready to mow, shop, do laundry and all the other fun post-vacation stuff we need to do..

I need a vacation!! :)

Keith Olberman

Wow...my hero. He says what's on his mind, and means it and people listen. Well, I listen. I think he is awesome... Here is his latest commentary, and I hope you all read it...not like I get that much traffic on my blog, but in some small way I hope I can contribute a bit to show the world that Bush is an idiot....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24632990/

May update

So things haven't been too exciting around here. This past week Travis had a banquet to attend. His stock picking team in his gifted class scored 2nd in the elementary region that their school falls into. Pretty impressive for 9 and 10 year olds. So, we went downtown to the big banquet where they received medals! Photos are on Snapfish, send a note if you want me to send you the link.

Travis had his first visit to the ER last weekend. Not sure it was entirely necessary, but there is a certain piece of mind having professionals look at a cut and tell you how bad it is. He sliced his thumb while cutting a bagel. They said it didn't need stictches, so that was good. He got a really spiffy bandage that kept it clean and dry and I think, in the end, made it heal way better than what we would have done at home.

Steve is mowing...again. It has been raining on and off for the last 3 days..or more..heck, maybe the last week. Well, a lot more rain than sun lets just put it that way. So the lawn is out of control.. it may even get mowed again on Monday at this rate.

Tomorrow we go to the symphony for Carmina Burana. It will be a great performance including the St. Louis Children's choir. How cool is that?

School will be done in 2 weeks, and it is hard to comprehend! This year has just flown by. I suppose me getting the new job has made it go faster also.

More updates as stuff happens I guess.

Earthquake!!!

Yes, you heard me....earthquake!! Here in the middle of the country, pretty amazing. It was my first earthquake, and I'm not sure I was all that thrilled with it. Steve was pretty excited, saying we need more...lots of little ones are good... he says.

Earthquake map

So, yes... 5.4 in southern IN and we felt it all the way to St. Louis. The shower door was rattling, the glasses rattled...and just felt the house move in a way it just shouldn't move. As far as we figure, there is no damage to our place.

Hopefully we are done with earthquakes for awhile. There are reasons we don't live in CA, and that is one of them!