Woefully Inadequate

Some day I'll get around to posting more. For now it's football season and the hope has not yet faded in the Land of Orange (go D'Orange as Emma would say).

Elk Whisperer

My boy the animal tamer....

From Animals

Charlotte, Charlotte, and More Charlotte

Most of our friends and family know that I have been working on a project in Charlotte for the past 8 months. This has given the Seastead Clan the opportunity to grow in ways we never would have imagined. The kids have gone through a phase where every airplane up in the sky they point and said 'Daddy, bye bye' and both Kathy and I truly believe that at some point the kids both believed Daddy actually lived inside the computer (that's where the web cam is you know) as evidenced by the many times the kids would actually hug Katie's laptop. Sad, but it's good to know we are loved and missed.


So, what's my point? Well, Kathy, Emma and Ethan spent the last two weeks with me in Charlotte. We got by in a one bedroom suite at the hotel and had a couple of great weeks. The kids were beyond enthralled by the observation park at the Charlotte airport. I don't know how the City gets away with keeping a parking lot open between two runways but they do and I am greatly appreciative. Ethan could literally barely contain himself. The kid shook with excitement and squealed with joy; everywhere the kid looked there was an airplane. Good times were had by all. Emma discovered Monkey Joe's. For our Denver readers its the equivalent of the House of Bounce, lots of inflated toys, slides, and equipment for the kids to burn of energy. A fantastic use of $12 ($6x2) on a hot and humid Tuesday evening if you ask me.

We caught up with the Murphy's of Roanoke during our weekend interlude. Jason, Kathy and I went to Fredonia State together. I posted about the famed Murphy chickens last year. We had a great weekend on Smith Mountain Lake. The kids got their first boat ride, we bought ice cream from ice cream boat, and generally had a relaxing weekend. I still don't understand why the Murphy chickens weren't allowed to come on the family vacation? Rumor has it they are great with the golf clubs :)

Another week in Charlotte and we packed up the minivan which managed to completely avoid all deer and all animals for that matter, thank you very much and drove back home. I was the lucky recipient of a bit of food poisoning on Saturday/Sunday and spent a fair amount of time with myself contemplating the realities of life on the throne (not my finest weekend).

Visited the boyhood town where I grew up on the 4th. Went to the field days and a less than well attended 20 yr HS reunion. Albeit, I suppose most of the gang found each other at the local bars (plural as in just 2 bars in the town) the previous two nights and had little use for going and sweating themselves in the heat and sun when they could be on the water. But it was good to see my old friend Pete. And the kids got to ride on their first amusement ride.

From E's Ride

Keep living the dream folks!

Good Bye Sara Jane

Yesterday, we lost Sara the second of our two dogs, after 16 yrs. Old age, a bad knee and worse arthritis caught up with one of the toughest dog’s I ever knew. Sara wasn’t always one for showing a lot of emotion but she was tough as nails. I found her while in graduate school bounding across a soccer field one morning after taking Alix out for a morning pee. Katie and I had just finished a 12hr shift at the Lee Jeans factory in good old Springfield, MO. We had just recently decided that we would not get Alix a companion. We had contemplated this at length but had ultimately decided against it since we were two poor college students. Enter Sara. A little fleabag of a dog, she literally fit inside one of my shoes, and we all know how small my feet are (size 7.5 thank you very much), and she was literally covered in fleas. Some dirtbag knew they would find a sucker college kid (me, aka sucker) to take their litter of puppies by letting them loose on campus. Sara came running across this soccer field and started nipping at Alix’s beard (we let the Airdale beard grow long in those days, he was in college we needed to let him express his individuality you know) and wouldn’t let go. So, home she came. I still remember opening the door to the bedroom and the little mutt jumped up onto the waterbed (yes, I said waterbed) and started licking Kathy’s face. I then told Katie to watch out for the fleas…. A laundry day and flea dipping day followed.

$300 in vaccinations later and a bunch of unanswered fliers seeking out an owner we had our newest addition to the Seastead family. Man-o-man was she a project. Somewhere along the line she earned the nickname ‘phycho-sara’ because she could be somewhat aggressive and unpredictable at times. She killed quite a few animals (snakes, baby geese, muskrats, skunks, and attempted homicide on several other beasts) but a few of her more comedic moments included a turtle toss where she was literally tossing a turtle into the air in our backyard in Kansas; a snake toss later that same month in said backyard; skunk sprays, and a huge fight with the Eddie, the redneck neighbor’s dog. Mind you, Eddie’s dog was probably 3x to 4x times larger than Sara but that didn’t matter, she didn’t like him. The skunk incident allowed my friend and other neighbor Jim to use his newly acquired cannon of a pistol to end the poor skunks life before it too was tossed about like a turtle.
You know how some people will say a dog reflects their owner? Well, here’s a story along that line. We were living in this apartment in Overland Park, KS. It was a dog friendly complex, which wasn’t an easy task to find with two rather large dogs. One day I’m letting Sara out to do her business and down the street comes strolling this man who can be best described as Wimpy from Popeye The Sailor. This man was about 5’5” tall and about the same size round. He was dressed in all black with some goofy hat and a shirt with a white stripe (Yes, remember this event that clearly) and I could hear his wheezing from what seemed like 20 yards away. He had a pug like dog that was also short and fat with bug eyes and a heavy wheezing in its breathing. They were carbon copies of each other. Well, Sara was a fast dog and that little pug thing didn’t stand a change. It was one of those moments when the whole world went into slow motion and you just knew what was going to happen but there was no way you could stop it. Sara started off in a trot and before I could yell “STOP”, which would have done absolutely NO good, she was running down the pug like thing like a cheetah to a fat, injured and overweight gazelle. I still remember that poor little pug being tossed over Sara’s head. Yes, she took a chunk out of the pug’s hind quarter. But that’s not the best part. The absolute best part, which I surely thought was going to result in either me going to jail or Sara being put down by the police was the fact that once I caught Sara and separated her from the pug like thing, well, I heard it before I saw it… Wimpy, is trying to run down the road after his poor little dog. He’s squealing like a kid who just had his candy, his tv, and his mother taken away at the same time and he’s wheezing/squealing like a pig with a loudspeaker. I literally, couldn’t contain myself at the sight and sound and burst out laughing for a minute or two. Maybe you had to be there to appreciate the moment. After apologizing profusely to the man I gave him my home phone number and address and told him to send me the vet bill, which I would have gladly paid. I never heard from him again. But that was Sara.

She tore her ACL in her hind leg while trying to run a squirrel down before it could get to a pine tree in our backyard in Atlanta. The dog would literally sit at the base of the tree for hours thinking she was out witting the squirrels. Thankfully, she had enough sense to realize that the coyote’s in Denver were a bit superior to her. What was funny about that was that she knew she was no match for them so she would never even acknowledge their existence. I would be walking the dogs on the trail behind our house and a coyote would be less than 10 feet from us and Sara wouldn’t even look towards the animal.

Once, we were at Table Rock Lake near Branson, MO. We would go there to get out of the heat of summer. We had a couple of cheap blow up rafts to float on and took off out in the water. Alix knew enough to stay close to shore. Sara would swim out and do laps around our rafts until she was ready to collapse. Didn’t matter how far out we would go, the dog would follow. Try lifting an exhausted and panicking 45 lb dog onto a cheap and flimsy inflatable raft while in water well over your head. It was a sight and more than one raft was popped from punctures due to toe nails from the dog.

She was a good dog. Patrolled her yard diligently, was as loyal as you could ever ask and had an innate ability to find a sucker who would pet her for hours. She’d lower her head and scoot herself under that persons hand and eventually end up wedged between their legs and rolled over for an extended belly rub. Sara hated being alone. She would howl when left alone and would lick herself to the point of producing boredom sores when she had to be kenneled. I swear she used to eat remote controls to spite us for leaving her in her early years. The dog didn’t chew on shoes she chewed on remote controls!

Sara Jane, we will miss you terribly. We are glad you are with your buddy Alix and no longer in pain.

This and That

Since we last posted the following events have occurred in Seasteadville (in no particular order) followed by additional randmonness of my choosing:
The wife got a new minivan
Mark wrecked the new minivan (with family inside of said minivan)by colliding with one deer on the interstate. Thank god my sister Tonya only lived a few miles from the scene of the accident. We were driving the family to Charlotte and well, you can figure out the rest. There are still deer hairs on said minivan but all is fixed and good as new.
Took the family to Hilton Head
4 trips to Charlotte
I was in my house for a grand total of 8 days in the month of May and so far 3 days in June (not a good batting average eh?).

the sports world is up in arms over cheap plastic horns at the World Cup, College football super conferences (I just hope SU doesn't end up out in the cold), that Strasburg kid, and the old man Celtics looking like they want to win another NBA title.

Kids travelled like champs! They loved being in an airplane and sadly they now equate Daddy up in the air with the airplanes. Beaches and kids are just plain fun. Watching Ethan and Emma learn about waves, tidal pools and smashing sand castles for a week was just plain fun. They enjoyed seeing their cousin, The Drake, but then again so did Katie and I.

Trucks and Dolls

Our lives are now full of play times with dolls and trucks/school buses. Who would have thought parenthood would be this much fun. We love you Emma & Ethan!

Easter fun for the Es

Emma and Ethan had a blast at the Easter Egg Hunt in Cazenovia. The weather and setting of this egg hunt was fabulous. Having kids makes all the holidays so much more fun!