Banishment

I was reading Molly's blog and some of the comments attached to her post on her recent illness. I really feel her pain and fully empathize with her when death seems to be possible reality any minute. The hardest part about getting ill is I am banished to find another place to sleep and rattle the walls in one breath and then wait for a couple minutes for the next GASP of air. Like that isn't normal for a 55 year old overweight guy with a terrible head cold? Are you with me Molly? Our secretary at the office asked me when I came in one morning when I was going to leave? However, I am over it now... the illness anyway, but I am still banished to the other bedroom as the echos down the hall that Jane hears still give her some justification to keep me banished and all may not be well...

Watch this Youtube video and you will understand why I have placed 999 on my speed-dial and am investing in a good bell.  I am almost sure it will help our marital relationship and Jane will understand even more how much I need her!    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeyZHsqC9AM

Now that you have watched the video, you will know why the banishment may be for a long time. I am just kidding sweetie!

Easy way to find best GAS PRICES

I wanted to blog about this excellent website on gas prices. Here is the URL: 

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/GasStationsBeta.aspx

This allows you to put in your zip code, or one where you are going, and see who has the cheapest gas on any certain day. I just thought I would share it with you... try it out!

I was viewing the blogs of the family today and I think I saw a record... Rebecca had not blogged for 5 days! What is happening down there in Puyallup that I don't know about. I am in total withdrawals. Just kidding... we love all of the blogs.

Ashley: I do want to know how Brig can sleep like that? Nice form Brigham!!

I love my family

To the world I will announce how much I love my wife, children and now our grandchildren. Believe me, it is just as exciting to know what is going on in their lives and to be a little part of it, than it was for us to be with them when we were all growing up together. I say we were growing up together because that is really what happens. I will be the first to admit, and everyone will agree, that I had no idea of what it meant to be a man, let alone Jane's man, when I was 24 and became a father. Sure, I thought I knew it all... but that was not the case. But they showed me day after day what it meant to be a father and a friend. So as our family is growing so am I with them. I guess you could say it takes me a little longer to learn things. In fact, when I look at our children interacting with each other and our grandchildren, I think, "Why are they so good?" Each of them help me feel needed, loved and young. So I continue to learn and grow-up with the next generation of children and I hope I can be as good and smart as they are. Ruby, Hailey, Sarah, Emma, Alice, Nathan, Carson, Jane and Mason are now the ones I will get to watch as I continue to learn from Jane, my greatest blessing, and my children -- Rebecca, Jeff, Robb, Jordan and Braden. Thank you for being my family and Jane my dearest friend and wife.

4th Annual Hamm Boys Hike

September 4th through the 6th, the Hamm Boys, less Braden this year unfortunately but necessary due to the birth of their son Mason (see their blog), Jeff, Robb, Jordan and I went on our 4th Annual Hamm Boys Hike this year to Hyas, Tuck and Robin Lakes area of Washington.

To say the least we had a blast and look forward to the male bonding ritual for many years to come... if they allow me along with them. 

Oh wait, they will allow me to come as I buy lunch for them at a chosen restaurant somewhere near the trail head and prepare a great meal to eat on our first night out. This year's prime first night meal was Stoganoff fit for Emoril! It was chuck full of the finest cow Alberston's could muster, the best sauteed yellow onions grown in the world (Nyssa, Oregon), just the correct amount of garlic and spices to make this mouth-watering blessing too good for words other than "AHHHH"! It was so good as we lathered it over our well prepared Minute Rice. So after all of this, I think I will be invited back.

Here is a picture of the boys just before going into the lake. Notice the beauty of the area. I would imagine the lake was hovering around 45 degrees and they were ready to go.

And they did go in and get completely submersed in the freezing water. You will however notice that one of the hikers is missing in this picture and ventured in only to his thighs. 

We did have a pesky chipmunk bothering us

 in our camp so Jeff devised a little "trap" full of peanuts under the bucket... things worked really well as the varmint was enticed in to the trap, the rope was pulled out and scared the dickens out of the chipmunk as the bucket came down only slightly too late for his capture. Three more times "he" was lured in by the peanuts and the line was pulled and the bucket fell... and he made off with a good winter's supply of peanuts. Robb also was bit on his finger by a mouse in his tent on our second night, which we are sure it was revenge by the brotherhood of varmints.

Our 2nd day we left around 8:30 a.m. for Tuck Lake, a hike of about 2.5 miles in and up to 5,500 feet in elevation, a gain of over 2,000 feet; most of the 2,000 vertical feet came in the last mile of the hike, as this picture will attest. This is one of the more difficult hikes I have been on and I am glad that we were only day hiking with our day packs. We enjoyed a scrumptious meal of summer sausage, cheese, bagels and rolls and water. Howcould life get any better than that?

The lake behind us is Hyas Lake and we were camped at the far end. At this point we are a little under Tuck lake at about 5,000 feet.

We made it out despite the attack on Robb by the vicious mouse in the middle of the night and found our way to eat at the famous Roslyn Cafe. The food was great, the atmosphere superb and the company was the best less one. We hope that next year Braden and Chris will be able to come with us on another high adventure... that is if they invite me along. I love this tradition and the opportunity it gives me to be able to get up in the mountains and outdoors with my sons.

Baby Dill Pickles

Wow, has anyone else in the world discovered the delicate, yet tangy flavor or Farman's Homestyle Baby Dill Pickles? They are the best. As I was just "jar diving", another new word I just made up, for my third pickle in the last five minutes, I was chasing around the last few pickles with a fork that was a little too small for the jar, and it reminded me of trying to catch a gold fish in the fish bowl when I was a little kid.  Anyway, try the pickles... they rank up there with Creamies in personal popularity.

Text messaging lingo

Okay, so I finally figured out what "lol" means and wondered why this new spelling came to be and why anyone thought that up. I mean how long does it take to spell out laughed out loud, let alone why you u (you) would want to tell someone that when you could just tell them that is funny. So I timed it out... it takes maybe 10 seconds to type in LOL on a normal keyed cell phone. Laughed out loud and the true spelling took me... okay a lot longer so that I didn't want to time it out.

But if you had a querty key boarded phone, you could just respond to the email in plain english so everyone could understand it; and or, take a picture and send it to them; or better yet, take a movie of yourself on your phone of your self laughing out loud; or just call the person and just laugh out loud in their ear and talk to them like we used to do. Oh wait... that isn't 21st century thinking. That is like ancient thinking... at least 5 years ago. Ok, it makes sense to use lol, u, i, ummlol, iwicttusichwyvslbiatui, and many others. I am sure you texters can figure out what these other text messaging favorites are but for some I will need to provide a dictionary:

lol - laughing out loud
u - you
i - I
ummlol - you make me laugh out loud
iwicttusichwyvskbiatui - I wish I could talk to you so I could hear what your voice sounds like but I am texting you instead
wwutwucjcmattmitfpswcbdwtcs - why would you text when you could just call me and talk to me in the first place so we could be done with the conversation sooner
jwcwsrtbih - Jane will... ( maybe you can fill in the rest of this text message)

You see how easy this is, how versitile and it just makes so much sense and so you can really communicate your message with ease and save a lot of time and energy so you can get on to the next text. Great, huh?