"Kill Da Wabbit!"

Growing up, one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons was the one where Elmer Fudd and Bugs spoof Wagner's opera Die Walkurie (or The Valkyrie for you non-Deutsch sprachers). Most of you have probably heard the most famous song from the opera, fittingly titled, "The Ride of the Valkyrie". (Francis Ford Coppola's also used it in Apocalypse Now during Colonel Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) helicopter attack; they play the song from their helicopters.) Bugs and Elmer adopt new lyrics for their version in which Elmer sings, "Kill da wabbit. Kill da wabbit...."

Some of you may know that we've had rabbit "issues" in our yard. Well, the other night our friends were over at our house and they had their Jack Russell Terrier with them. To make a long story short, the dog saw the rabbit and did exactly what Jack Russells are bred to do--dispatch rodents.

The whole thing did kind of whip everybody up into a frenzy, so to speak. And we certainly were not doing anything to stop the dog. But the whole time I just kept hearing Elmer sing, "Kill da wabbit...!"

Chicago

I finally convinced Stacey to join me on a business trip. Although, I can't really fault her; I suppose Chicago is much more fun than the bustling metropolises of Bismark or Boise. We went a couple of days early and had some fun in the Windy City. Here are a few of the things we did (or Stacey did while I was working).

• The Field Museum, we saw Sue--the most complete T-Rex ever discovered as well as some cool Pacific Northwest Indian totems.
• The Lego Store on Michigan Avenue--Full-sized Lego Vader/Darth Lego and R2D2
• The Hancock Tower
• Lake Michigan and Navy Pier
• Walking around the Inner Loop to see the Chicago Theater, Berghoff's (German restaurant where JoAnn liked the Wienerschnitzel much better than the Sushi I made her gag down the night before--ah, the LeeMaster adventuresome palate)
• The Chicago Art Institute (Van Gogh, Seurat, Wood, O'Keefe)
• Museum of Science and Industry
• Downtown (Chicago River, Wrigley Building, big chrome bull moose sculpture)
• Oak Brook--Frank Lloyd Wright house and studio and houses
  

Legos!

Sam really wanted to post a picture of his lego collection on the blog. So, here it is. He has a lot of fun with them and it is a great excuse for Dad to shop for and play with legos again. The flagship of the collection (pun completely intended) is the Black Pearl (on the far right). He also has an airport firetruck, a submarine and tiger shark (very cool) as well as a new police helicopter. And, of course, he has them arranged from smallest to largest--I wonder who he gets that from?

Minor Renovations

Another thing that has taken up a lot of time lately is re-doing some rooms--including changing things up to give each kid their own room. After several years of sharing a room, we figured it was time for each to have their own space. And it has worked like a charm for bedtime.

This is what we did.... We took all of the toys out of the old toy room. The old toy room turned into Maren's room. Of course, the old toy room needed some girl-ification. And, since we no longer had the huge closet in the old toy room we needed someplace to put all those toys in the new toy room.

Then we dismantled the old guest room and turned it into the new toy room. Stacey will also use this room for preschool when she teaches that this Fall. We also moved the art nook into the new toy room. (At some point, the old art nook, a.k.a. "loft" will become the 12 square feet of the house that is mine--well, at least until it is taken over by everyone else.)

Naturally, we couldn't just move stuff from the old toy room to the new toy room. This move required some shelves to organize bins (imagine that). So, I constructed a couple of shelves. They seem to have turned out okay and they certainly serve their function. I also got some new tools out of the deal. Not bad. Maybe I'll use the new tools to also make a door to my new 12 square feet of space so it remains mine.

Time for the Quarterly Update

It looks like it is about time for the quarterly update--seeing as the last update was in mid-February. So we are busy, what can I say. Here are a few things that have happened since...well, February.

Sam and Dad went to Moab to go jeeping with Grandpa Lee and Uncle Todd. We saw all kinds of cool things, like, Newspaper Rock (with hieroglyphics), the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, lots of great rock formations--including Uranium Arch, and some great time in the Rubicon.

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Sam made a sweet diorama of a habitat for a school project. Naturally, he chose the ocean for his habitat. He was particularly pleased with the cave for the octopus (in the lower left corner).

Maren graduated from pre-school. She is so excited for kindergarten.

Air Methods

One of our friends here designs "Rescue Helicopters" and invited us to go and see a finished one. It was a weekend, so no one was around and we had run of the place. It was really cool to see how, and where, a good number of the air ambulances in the nation are made. This one was only a few million dollars.

At the Zoo

I came across this photo while looking for blog updates. On New Year's Day Sam looks up from his cereal and yells, "Dad, there is a fox in our back yard!" Smart Dad, replies with a half-hearted, still sleepy from too much Guitar Hero the night before, "Oh, okay."

"No Dad, I'm serious. Really there is a fox!"



Yep, he was serious alright. And I should have known better than to doubt my son who knows all things wild, furry, scaly, and/or finned. So, he was right and off I ran to grab the camera. The fox spent about five minutes in the back yard before it leaped the fence. Maybe this will help with our rabbit problem.

So it is February...

And, apparently it is time to update this blog. Linda, this one is for you so you will get off my back for a few more months. Besides I have to finally get my butt off the sofa since I've just been sitting there eating bon bons for the last several weeks. Also, Stacey has been begging me to pull "that goofy picture of me" off the blog. So here it goes.


Instead of the new haircut and color, I thought I would put Stacey's new left shin. (And, before I get any feedback about me being mean, etc., I will say that she told me to put it up.) How did this happen, you ask? Well, in a nutshell, it is a perfect example what my dad always said, if you are going to do a job be sure to have the right tools.

Stacey had most of the right tools. She was hanging a curtain rod. She had the right drill; she had the right screws. She had the right level.... She did not have the right ladder. In fact, she did not have a ladder at all. She did have one of her new stools. A tall narrow stool. To make things worse the leg of the stool was on the drill's cord. One thing we found the new stools are good for is landing on. Well, actually, they are not so good for landing on. They do not break your fall very well--as you can see by the photo. Stacey asked that I not post the pictures of her black and green thigh; I will oblige. She is doing better now and not limping. I am personally grateful that she did this to her leg and not her face, as I am sure that someone would have called the police on me.

Stacey's New Hair

Stacey is probably going to be upset about me posting this picture on the blog; but, we've had some requests for some pictures of her as a brunette. Here you go; it looks great. Also, please note the sweater and shirt combination. Gifts from the kids and me.

The New Year....and the Wii

So, it is 2008, can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday I was a first-grader in LaGrande, Oregon. Now, I have a first-grader. Go figure.

In the spirit of New Year's resolutions (or revolutions depending on your opinion) we sat down as a family and made some goals for 2008. Each member of the family got to contribute one goal--we're starting easy here; we don't want to overwhelm ourselves.

When we got to Maren she said, "I think we should go bowling more often this year." [What, where did that come from?] Then Sam pipes up, "Yeah, and I don't think we should go to the bowling alley to bowl. I think we need to bowl at Taylor's on their Wii." Nice.

So now, not only do we have a first-grader, we've got a first-grader who is, whether he realizes it or not, beginning to be influenced by the "but the neighbors have one/keeping up with the Jones" mentality. Since the Taylors are not going to be overly keen on us showing up anytime to bowl on the Wii we're faced with the dilemma of do we get one or do we become the only family on the block without a Wii? Taking the latter approach sets my kids up to learn the fine art of mooching--not entirely a bad skill. (After all, mooching is pretty much how I ended up riding the bus only a handful of times in high school when I didn't have a car.) With careful planning and time management, Sam can effectively bowl at just about all of his friend's houses and never have to step foot in a bowling alley again.