It's that time again .....

Guess what tomorrow is...


Oh yeah....It's play time.

Thursday Thing-along

It's not really a sing-along song, but it will give you something to think about ....



Who is Declan Galbraith?

Way Back When-sday

This picture isn't the most in focus picture my parents ever took, but I liked it for what it says about us. It's my third birthday - I'm to the right - and we are in nice clothes with short pants sitting and playing in the rocky dirt and loving it. In the middle is our neighbor Michelle. Stephen is to the left. I'm digging the hat he has on. It goes great with his suspendered jumper... sassy.

Check out the tricycle in the background. I bet you could get a pretty penny for one like that today. The same goes for the metal seaplane I'm playing with.

First coat of paint is on

BEFORE ... [as always, you can click photos to enlarge] ... AFTER

Now the waiting begins for it to dry in this humidity. There is a chance of thunderstorms. I hope it dries before they hit. Canal Day is this weekend and the porch has to be ready before then.
The porch flooring was in awful condition (at right) from water and sun damage. We've replaced all the boards with tongue and groove fir and primed it on all sides.

Here's an earlier post from when Stephen came down and put in the new boards.

More farting fun for your Friday

The remote-controlled Fart Machine struck again during a visit with my parents on Father's Day. Pops was the first victim of the day.

Thursday Thing-along

This went gold in 1981 and stayed at No. 2 on the charts for eight weeks.
Here's some info about Carl Carlton.

Way Back When-sday

This is a picture of Papa, my daddy's dad. Papa was the first of our grandparents to die and we were all pretty young when it happened. We didn't get to know him like we did our other grandparents. Papa had a vicious form of skin cancer on his scalp and the doctors were unable to control it. I'm not sure how much it had to do with it, but Papa played a lot of golf and rarely wore a hat.

I like this picture because Papa looks like a 1940s or 50s movie star with his open shirt, thin belt and cigarette. Even all the stuff in his shirt pocket makes him look kind of cool in a way.

Happy Father's Day

Photos by Emily

At right is a photo of my feet Stephen's feet in (my) flip flops. The photo was taken by my niece (Stephen's daughter) Emily. Below are links to more photos she took one day while using one of my cameras. You have your choice of watching a slideshow or seeing them in a set.

Click here to see a slideshow.

Click here to see the photos in a set.

UPDATE: [06/14/08 11:45 p.m.] I originally thought they were my feet because they were my shoes and they look like my feet. But as anonymous comment person points out, they aren't. Stephen was seeing if he could walk in flip flops.

Thursday Thing-along

He said I was in my early forties,
With a lot of life before me,
And a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days, lookin' at the x-rays,
Talkin' 'bout the options and talkin' 'bout sweet time.
Asked him when it sank in, and this might really be the real end.
How's it hit ya, when you get that kind of news.
Man what ya do.
And he says,

[Chorus]

I went sky divin',
I went rocky mountain climbin',
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fu Manchu.
And I loved deeper,
And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I've been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin'.

What would you do if you were in the same situation?

MMMMMMM, cupcakes

Autumn celebrated her 6th birthday a few times last week. This is from the party with some of the family on Sunday.

Don't worry Wendy, I checked ... your "cupcakes" stay covered :-)

Way Back When-sday

This photo is of (from left) me, Stephen and Russell playing with some plastic cowboy figures on the floor of a motel room in Nags Head, N.C., in 1972. I was 6, Stephen had just turned 4 and Russell was 2. That may be the top of Brandon's head in the bed at right, but I'm not sure. He was just over 2-months-old at the time. We were on a vacation at the beach, This must have been taken shortly after bath time. The Cowboy figures often came with American Indian counterparts that were red. I'm not so certain pitching that idea to a toy company would go over today.

When I grow up, I want to be a kid again

This video pretty much speaks for itself. This is from a birthday gathering for Autumn.

Replacing the porch

Stephen, one of my brothers, came over Saturday morning and started work on replacing the tongue and groove flooring on the front porch of the house.

Stephen puts down flooring for a living -- carpet, wood, vinyl, tile -- but the tongue and groove flooring he does is usually not outdoors. But since my house was built in 1849, there are specific design and building issues that need to be followed .... including the way the front porch flooring was done. Staying with tongue and groove was historically correct for the house.

The previous homeowner had used pine boards and did not prime them .... that's why it cupped and did not last that long. The wood we are using this time is fir and we put primer on all sides. That should make it last a lot longer.

And one tiny little thing I forgot to mention ... It was effing hot Saturday. [Click on pic at right to read how hot.] It was so hot, this work really shouldn't have been done on that day. I don't know how Stephen did it. I cramped up when I went in to work later in the day and my body temp was way above what it should have been. After finishing the work on the porch, it was one of the first times I took a cold shower because I really wanted to take a cold shower.

When the porch is completely finished, I'll put up before and after pictures.

This is not a political blog, but ....

I loved Hillary's speech ... Go to the link below to watch it. It's 30 minutes but if you missed it, it's worth watching. I'll refrain from any other political statements on it beyond the fact that it was a great speech ...


'We cannot let this moment slip away'

Fun for your Friday

Here's a video of a little office fun using a remote-controlled Fart Machine hidden beneath the seat of Sara, one of our page designers and graphic artists. The fart sound is a little tough to hear on the video because of the camera placement.

I'll post more details about how this was done later. For now, I need some sleep.

Thursday Thing-along

This goes back to 1986-87

Way Back When-sday

It's supposed to be 90+ degrees by the end of the weekend here. Seeing the forecast made me long for the days of backyard pools. This is me in 1968 in our backyard in Grifton, N.C. I'm the one to the left looking at the camera. The others are friends from the neighborhood.

Bo Diddley died on Monday

This is what the Washington Post had to say.

Emily takes over the camera

I let my niece Emily use one of my camera's last weekend while we were at Russell and Wendy's house. This is one of the movies Emily made. I'll post some of the pictures she took soon. I need to upload them to flickr first.

Trevor's tour

My nephew Trevor gives a tour of Russell and Wendy's neighborhood.