Planet Stahl

Dont do it. 

From September 2008

Ang was all freaked out that we have giant cougars following her on her trail rides…  So, after riding this weekend… She drug me out to the back 40 to inspect some prints she found in the mud.

After looking them over, and taking a picture for my audience, I went back to my handy guide to North American Wildlife…  Looks like a Coyote track to me. 

Ang was relieved.  But she still had me order some Pepper Spray!

Just a quick note this morning.  I was driving the kids in to my Mom’s today…  Summer said “Daddy, I dont want to go to college”. 

Now… My ears perked up to that… Since “going to college” has been ingrained in my child from the time she could walk!  Ang would freak out if she heard this!

I replied, “Well, you have to go to college… Or, you’ll have to go in the Army, or go right to work after school.”

Summer calmy said, “No, I don’t want to do any of that”.

“Well, what do YOU want to do?”

“I want to run free.”

Huh?  Did she just say that?  This is far easier to deal with than someone who hates school!  She is just dreaming!

“How are you going to run free?”, I ask.

“I’m just going to get on my horse and ride away”.

Now, in hindsight, I should have searched my iPod and played Wildfire…  Or recommended that she marry a Native American… But  I pretty much just quashed her dream my saying thats not possible.

I don’t want to come off as a Palin defender here… But I watched tonight’s Saturday Night Live with anticipation of some political/election humor.   Tonight was the season premier, and it started off promising with a Hillary-Palin press conference… But then Weekend Update turned into a slam Sarah Palin segment.  I expected plenty of fodder against Obama and McCain being thrown around…  Wrong!  Not a mention or either candidate. 

Apparently making fun of Palin is instant comedy gold.

Poor Micheal Phelps… I’ll bet this was one audience that his Mom was not that proud to be sitting in!

Word of advice…  Find some writers.  Otherwise the show will degenerate to fart noises and laugh tracks.

This is why you dont leave your Netflix account logged in at work!

Salespeople!

From Back Porch

Click on the Picasa link on the left for more photos from the newly completed back porch.  It will never look this good again!

If you have our home phone number on file… Pitch it!  We have officially dumped our local carrier, CenturyTel, after being led on about DSL service for the past 2 years!

So, its cell phones and satellite Internet service for us.  I am gong to look into a cell phone card for the computer…  See if it makes more sense. 

The weather was really too cold to say it was an excellent time to head north.  When I had originally planned our trip… I had hoped that extreme warmth would lend to us going up to Wisconsin and the Sturgeon Bay area.  Then cutting across the UP, hitting some beach up north etc. 

Once I saw the forecast was for high in the 70’s that hole week…  I knew I was doomed!  It was the coldest week of the Summer!

I changed our plans to hitting lower Michigan shores on the first 2 days.  It worked pretty well.  The waters were nice at New Buffalo and Warren Dunes…  But as we headed up to Sleeping Bear…  It started to get a little chilly!  The water at Sleeping Bear had to be 55 degrees!  Crazy kids were about the only people to be seen in swimming around.  I went up to my neck, and really hoped to use some goggles to check out the crystal clear water…. But man… It was too cold.  I said the Heck with that and sat on the beach assisting in our massive architectural projects with sand.

Mackinac Island is a tourist trap…  Not much else to say about that.  We rode bikes…  Bought too much fudge and left.  Is there anything else to do?

One big plus..  Big Boy resturants…  After doing Mackinac Island…  We stopped at a Big Boy for dinner.  Man!  That is some eating!  They dont mess around with portion size!  I HAD to buy a T-Shirt!

Annette’s family cabin:

First off, let me say that we are long overdue in saying thanks to Annette’s Mom and Dad for their generosity.  They let us stay at the family cabin on the tail end of our Michigan trek.  Any apprehension about feeling welcome was blown away!  These people know how to host!  Actually, they could take it to a professional level!  It was also nice to meet their friends…  Renee and Jim (Memory is fading… I know Joe was the oldest boy, and I am sure Jim was Dad’s name!) were totally cool with us invading their space as well! 

If only Aiden could have dealt with not being in the “click” of boys…  I am sure my son was a little on the outside that weekend…   And that stress probably led to some fights with the other kids.  Not defending Aiden…  Just realizing that kids start to mass and run in packs.  If you are not in that pack.. Its either fight or flee.  So, I think Aiden was a fighter when put in a situation he did not like.  Lets just hope that’s not how he handles these things in school!

One of the things that threw Angela for a loop was the bedding situation at the cabin.  The upstairs was a giant bunk-house with 13 or so beds.  Everyone shared this space at night.  I am sure that this was the item that Ang was generally not digging.  Ang is flexible…  But, man…  Her sleep is sacred.  I could tell this was trying to her.  Not sure what complicated it.  We had big beds, and generally, nobody was noisy or annoying…  But I think the weirdness factor for her was what kept her uneasy.  (Me, I can sleep anywhere… If they had said “Sleep Outside”… I would have obliged)

I know now that she has overcome how uncomfortable she was…  2 days ago she said that when we go back to the cabin (Notice, she did not say “if we ever”) that it would be after a day or 2 at Warren Dunes, and then hitting the Dunes again on the trip home.  So, I found that to be a good sign.

Other things.  Mom pointed out that it sucks that I dont have all those great pages like I used to with family and house pictures.  I am working on that soon.  I wanted to show off some pics of my renovations… And was not able to do that with the Picasa site.

Ran into Teri and Richard Wells at the Delavan Fall Festival today.  Really strange!  But it turns out that Teri just got a new car, and was trying out the navigation system.  They had read about the fall festival and decided to check it out.  Clint and Shawn were said to be doing well.

Summer and Aiden both participated in the kiddie tractor pull.  Summer was 3rd in her class…  So close to getting a trophey!  Aiden was by far the smallest kid in his… But he still did pretty goo with the weight he was asked to pull.  I think he finished in the middle of the pack.

Picture on the left.  Kids getting balloons from a really tall Honest Abe at the Delavan Fall Festival.

Quick News:

Just about finished the back porch.  Pictures of the finished product in the coming days.

Installed a new overhead microwave myself.  This is a crappy job to do solo!  Trust me!

Ordered Ang a new iPod off of Apple.com.  Refurb Nanos go for 100.00 with free shipping.  Dont tell her…  She as been complaining openly about missing it…  I am going to restore her old settings, and leave it in her car.

My car is all fixed up.  Got the body shop to heat up the bumper and reinstall it for No charge.  That was a good thing…  The girl at my work who did it has been FREAKING OUT!

Ang registered for the AERC (I think that is it!  The group that she rides all these endurance rides with) National Championships in October.  She qualified with all of her mileage at the Sante Fe ride.  As luck would have it, the championship weekend is being held in Indiana…  So, it is very assesible for her and Vera to participate in.  (The event can be in California one year, George the next) This was just good luck!