The weekend Thread

[sunvalleylaw]

After a long soccer season with lots of travel, we had a weekend home. I had hoped to take the boat out and try out a new (to me) waterski, and a new (to the family) wakeboard, but the weather was like this on Saturday:



So we did not go. Did some stuff around the house, set up the bindings on the waterski, and practiced some guitar.

On Sunday, the weather was nicer, but still too cold to go boating, so I did chores around the house, got a mountain bike ride in, and practiced guitar some more. Had a cookout outside next to the new little fountain my wife and kids built as well. It was nice to be at home, and have time to get multiple practice sessions in.

[Commodore 64***]

White bass were hot and heavy Saturday. I only kept about 2/3 of the ones we caught. Was tough to keep the bait down there long enough to get a walleye on, but we got a few nice ones.

[Brian Krashpad]

That's a lotta fish!

Folded laundry Saturday, show Saturday night, went pretty well other than a broken string causing me to have to switch guitars, haven't had time to do a gig thread.





Skipped church Sunday since I wasn't playing, blew the afternoon fecking with a re-plumb out in the garage due to a leak. Ugh. Saw The Avengers Saturday night with the boy.

[Brian Krashpad]

What a difference a week makes. After a long cramped drive yesterday we're on the St. Joseph Peninsula overlooking St. Joseph Bay, across from Port St. Joe, FL, for a week of lounging, as my daughter also gets in some recuperation from a bad flu (unless it's mono), hopefully not infecting us all, haha!

[deeaa*]

Yeah...this weekend has been the first the AC has been on in cooling position quite a lot. Proper summer finally!

[guitartango]

Just came back from a Chillie Fair, yep you got it lots of things to eat made from chiliies. Chillie Chocholate, Chillie Beer, Chillie Jam..... and even a band playing.... can you guess.

[deeaa*]

I had a long 'weekend' indeed.

First we drove across the country to the capital and spent the day shopping there, frozen yogurt and such, and spent the night at my sister's and all the kids (6 in total) played together all night. In the morning we went to this cruise and went to Sweden to see Stockholm for a day. A few nights on the ship, shopping for beer and whatnot. Big ships these, ten floors etc, great food. Visited an army museum in Stockholm; quite interesting!

Then we drove across the country again to see this airshow and midsummer festival; bands, airshow, you name it, fun fair and such. The next day we went picknicking to some old quarries nearby and just visited my wife's relatives etc. And also we went to see this 'everyman' rally race, crazy stuff, kinda like a demolition derby...lotsa fun. I'll maybe post some pics later when on a faster connection.

[deeaa*]

King's castle in Stockholm


My son getting familiar with some weapons at the army museum


At the airshow


Some crazy tight formation flying there


'Summer beard'


Kids loved the rally cars


NO high-tech there...

[deeaa*]

Passing some tiny foreign cruisers


Rally in action


Sometimes they'd bite the dust


Lining up for a heat

[deeaa*]

At the quarries

[Brian Krashpad]

Great pics Dee!

Saturday morning we drove back to Gainesville from Cape San Blas. Here's a map of Florida, Cape San Blas is like the southernmost point on the "panhandle," Gainesville is a couple hundred miles directly east, right in the middle of the peninsula:




We had a swell week. My bro-in-law and father-in-law went fishing several times daily, coming in for lunch and dinner, so we had lots of fresh fish:





I went out with them once, but didn't catch anything. Watched all the Euro 2012 matches at the house Kim's parents rented. For the simultaneous matches, there were 2 tv's in adjoining rooms (one a bedroom that could be opened up into the living room), so if I sat in just the right place, I could watch both matches at once. Here's some shots of the beach house interior:



Second TV is out of the shot off to the right, in our bedroom:

[Brian Krashpad]

View of the bay from the deck, that's the end of the dock where "our" boat was docked, in the lower right:



We rented a golf cart with beach wheels and the kids and adults drove it around, to go to the beach and store and stuff.



Both my brother-in-law and I had to kill a couple pygmy rattlers that wandered too close to the house. This is the one I had to kill, I tried to flip him across the road into a vacant lot, but he made a run for the lawn where he could've hurt or even killed someone who stepped on him:



One day I built a sand castle, but it wasn't as elaborate as I wanted. Went out around midday and did a couple seaward walls and moats, then came back after dinner for the more landward walls, moats, and keep:









Yesterday I watched the Euro cup as soon as we got home and mowed half the front yard. Today I played guitar in church, including banjo on one song (I didn't try to chord along, just made something up that worked, something between a lead line and chording). Stayed after for a long practice for a service we're doing down south of town on this Wednesday, at a very poor church that our college kids are visiting and working at this week. Came back for the second half and end of the England-Italy match. Couldn't finish the lawn since it's been raining all day, with the rain bands from the tropical storm that fortunately just missed our vacation week.

[sunvalleylaw]

Friday - took a short cycle down to dinner at a local eatery. Hung out with some friends on a back deck later. Found out that the early sat. morning swim meet for the kids was canceled due to some kid letting loose in the pool. No baby ruth this time.

Sat. - Played chess on our new out door chess board and had breakfast. My 14 yr. old is better than I am and knows the rules better.



Enjoyed not having to rush off to the swim meet. some guitar practice was also had. A little later, took the kids boating down to Magic Reservoir. They all learned to get up on the wakeboard we got used a couple weeks ago, even my 9 year old, at least for a few feet. I skied and wakeboarded. It was one of those special days down there where the snake river plain winds are calm and the lake was calm all afternoon and into the evening. Beautiful!

Sunday - some guitar practice, some yard work (attacked extra Cottonwood trees growing in the berms), took my 14 year old on a mountain bike ride, then for a malt at the local diner Bruce Willis used to own, helped the boys get ready for Scout camp. I will join them later this week. To bed relatively early.

[Tig***]

Found out that the early sat. morning swim meet for the kids was canceled due to some kid letting loose in the pool. No baby ruth this time.

[Tig***]

Saturday, after I slept in 'till 10:30, we went to the local seafood market right on the bay and bought flounder, trout, red snapper, and shrimp. Mrs. Tig cooked the trout for dinner (plus a great salad and corn on the cobb), and the rest was frozen for other meals. I continued my lazy day with some guitar playing and watching the Astros beat the Cleveland Indians.

Sunday, we continued painting the living room from the former home owner's baby blue to an olive color. Played guitar and watched a second round of the Astros beating the Cleveland Indians. I cooked up some cajun boudin for dinner.

[Katastrophe]

Great pics, all! Woke up yesterday at noon from working the night shift. Had a great meal, then drove 6.5 hours round trip to go get Older Kid Kat. Older Kat just went through an Air Force JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps) leadership event, and was an Honor Graduate! We are proud of her.

So, my weekend is extended through today... Baby Kat is at a gymnastics camp for the day. Older Kat is still asleep.

I'm gonna play some guitar!

[sunvalleylaw]

Great new color Doug! That is similar to the color in our family/entertainment/music room. I love it.

[deeaa*]

Went to see Apocalyptica.



One of the guys, Paavo, came to visit us at a Tapas party we held before the show, a very nice fellow. I talked with him about his feelings on piracy and Spotify etc, very interesting. He said he used to hate Spotify, saw it as a completely legalized form of piracy, but then he realized it's inevitable. For them, it mainly means they gig a lot more, like from that days gig they were leaving within 15 minutes of the show close and head for Istanbul. Plus the other guy had a second gig of his own elsewhere between the two. So that's more than a gig a day even, and in separate countries....



Then it was off to the cottage and since now it's already too warm the kids could not be kept off the water, they just ran around naked all day long, swimming and having waterfights.
I bought a new phone on Saturday too, a HTC One X, and the camera on it seems very promising indeed. I don't think I'll be using my regular camera at all any more. Also in other ways it feels like it was a great choice; everything works super well and it's got loads of power, makes my buddies iPhones look like toys :-)

Here's a couple of panoramas I took from the cottage as well:

[Tig***]

Took the family to the Galveston Pleasure Pier Friday for rides. It is a new boardwalk attraction created on an existing pier that had a hotel on it until Hurricane Ike.




This roller coaster was quick but incredibly intense!