rosco vs the possum

that's fine. you can sit there and pout all you want. you deserve what you got.

one of the gates to my backyard doesn't shut fully. and it has a small gap under it as well. usually i check it after a storm to see if it has blown open, but i didn't today. after letting rosco out before dinner, i wish i had checked it.

a few minutes later i walked past the back door and realized i'd better call him in. sometimes he gets into trouble back there, like digging muddy holes or chasing rabbits and getting stuck between the fences. i called and called. no rosco. crap. i bet the gate blew open, i thought.

i suited up and went out the front, because he usually makes a bee line to the neighbors festering wildlife preserve they call a yard. i called and called, then heard barking in the back. had he gone back to our back door? i walked between the houses and caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye lunging at something. sure enough, it was the possum that we had seen scaling the fence in the back yard the day before.

rosco had the slow, lumbering beast cornered and i knew that was trouble. the eerie hissing noise the goofy possum makes pales in comparison to their bright white choppers. i reached for rosco but thought better of it...putting your hands between two animals, however small, with mouths gaping is never a good idea. they engaged again and i panicked. i swung around looking for something like a stick, and grabbed a head sized rock. i threw it right between the little monsters, which startled them enough to cause a gap between them and i grabbed rosco and ran.

keep in mind that while all this was going on, the ground was saturated with water, and i was standing in a couple inches of mud between my house and the wild life preserve. rosco was covered in mud. i tossed him into our yard and went into my front door. the beautiful mrs k was already checking the little cage fighter for bite marks when i walked into the kitchen. she really didn't want to touch him because he stunk so bad. i promptly took him to the bathroom and bathed him. he hates baths, and i hate giving them to him.

but, he asked for it.

what christmas can do to a kid

waaaaaay to much of this....

can lead to a lot of this!

what's a girl to do?

hanna has different interests than the boys. music, clothes, accessories, computer stuff...just a different creature altogether. it's a refreshing thing, and everyone loves sissy.

christmas day 2008

hey mom, aren't we sweet? we're very sure we deserve all of those cool presents down there under the tree. VERY SURE!!

rubik's cube. santa did not bring tyson's new hair style, that was free courtesy of his pillow.

you see, eli? even elmo has figured out this potty thing. what do you say we give it a go? (rosco believes that 'mater makes a great sleeping companion.)

whoa, dad! mom got tired of watching those tired old tour de france vhs tapes, too! she brought you right into the 21st century!

dad, from my vantage point that 8" screw should go in on the handlebar, but hey, don't listen to me, i'm only supervising. hey, how much wattage do you think this baby will handle??

wait, dad, i'm going to need a little serotta fit school action on this. my saddle height is way off. where are my speedplay's?

this program is hella cool, mom and dad! check out the curves and the scenery. this thing is going to help me get into the HTFU power challenge in 2015, for sure!!

silly boy stuff. nothing says christmas like a real live karaoke machine!

fluffy little critter

how am i supposed to get any work done on xmas eve with this on my keyboard? LBOH (little ball of hate) brought HOLLY by to visit. holly appears to be an 8 week old westie. whatever she is, she is cute.

more dog news...hanna got a dog for christmas, too. no photos yet, but the word on the streets is that he looks like our dear rudy. i'll let you know.

orbea onix

after the beautiful cross bike left (a moment of silence.....), i was in need of a road bike. i've always admired the orbea onix for it's low price and nice content, so i bought one. it's the cheapest road bike i have bought in 15 years, i think. it's only seen the trainer up until yesterday. i put in about 30 miles before my toes froze, but it was a nice change from all the off roading and trainer miles.

because it was so cheap, and i made such a good decision, i decided to botch it all up and put money into it. it now sports ultegra sl and the most beautiful cranks, the dura ace 7410's. i looked on ebay for a month to find some 175's in good condition. no luck. then i chanced upon a pair in the decatur craig's list for $50. they appear to have hardly any miles. pay no attention to my rusty 8mm bolt! i've always admired these cranks and the fact that they still shift so good even with 10-speed stuff is a plus. next stop, new powertap.

boy scouts

tyson got an award tonight at a boy scouts banquet. it was a pretty sparse turn out, but that's understandable with the weather. we got a nice catered meal and cheered for tyson. doesn't he look a lot older in his uniform??

miracle grow

it takes a week for me to experiment with new sideburn lengths and styles. don't like it? shave it off and come back in a week for an all-new iteration. one thing that has been a growing concern is the amount of grey hair cropping up. i mean, DAMN, i'm getting grey!

POLL: grey hair makes author look:

a) distinguished, because older men's looks improve with age
b) unkempt, nothing says "well groomed" like Just For Men
c) old

this poll is unscientific and may or may not ever have results posted...or discussed.

hanna

cute green eyed girl

mommy and eli

cute brown eyed people

hanna whacko kid sequence

if you take these photos in sequence, hanna resembles some kind of whacked out feline coming toward the camera man (in this case tyson). it's always a treat to pick up the camera after it's been unsupervised for a period of time around these sawed off pranksters.

screw you guys, i'm sleeping in a basket

on friday night, eli was terrorizing the house at bedtime. he was so completely recalcitrant that rosco finally had to seek shelter. i saw him hop up into this basket of clean bed coverings and go to town smoothing out a new spot. no matter how many times i've watched him do it, it still amazes me. he'll paw at the covers for 5 minutes straight to get the feel he wants. when he plops down, though, it's lights out.

julia childs has nothing on saturday night cookies

tune into cable tv and you're likely to find stuff like julia childs and this fish. tune into our house, on the other hand....

and you're likely to get in on some christmas cookies to die for.

omg

this is what goes on in my house when i leave the kids to their own devices for a few minutes.

tim judge

my friend todd sent this photo to me, and it sent me down memory lane.

the great timmy judge was originally from florida. not only was he an accomplished bmx racer in the early days (late 70's, early 80's), but he was quite prolific. he was a complete motor mouth in a good way, and his jumping antics were legendary. he did a lot of photo shoots not only for his sponsors, but for magazines as well.

for some reason, in 1983 or so, tim lived in st. louis. i think his girlfriend lived here for a while. anyway, todd and i, as well as the great mark hildebrand, had the pleasure of riding with tim a few times and it was comical. a rock in the road was reason for a tabletop bunnyhop. any item with an altitude of 2mm or higher could be used to launch this guy into orbit. surely, higher things, like sloped curbs or real dirt jumps, were awesome.

after those days, i think mr. judge to into jet ski racing. naturally.

EDIT: here is his water sports business website- da judge

thanks todd!