Tag Archives: Fun

A Member of the Club

Adventure, Family, Fun, ,

We harvested honey this weekend (more about that later this week) at Emily’s grandparents’ house.  I keep 4 hives at their place and they have a perfect setup in their garage for our honey extraction.  Emily and the kids and I were joined by Emily’s parents and her grandparents to make the extraction a family affair.  We started around 9 in the morning and finished by 6 in the evening.  So, we had an all day affair.

The kids were super well behaved in spite of the work and the heat (we finally had a hot day among all the rainy days) and the apparent boredom.  Under Emily’s grandparents’ house is a crawlspace in which an adult can almost stand upright.  The kids discovered that and found that it made a perfect hide-out.  The best part is that their hide-out was naturally air-conditioned.  The coolness was a great escape for them and they loved playing under there.

In time, they decided that their club needed to be a little more exclusive than it was when the started it (an hour earlier).  Isaac and Abigail were, of course, members and they decided to invite their great-grandmother to be the first non-founding member.  She happily obliged and helped them move in a table and chairs and met with them in their first members’ meeting…yes, Emily’s 82 year old grandmother crawled under the house and sat around a tiny table with the kids.  She is definitely a member of the club!

Though her birth certificate says she is 82, she certainly doesn’t look or act like it.  Both of Emily’s grandparents are built that way.  It’s so much fun to hang out with them and watch as nothing slows them down!  That’s a club I want to be in!

I tried pot

Fun

At my age, you would think I wouldn’t be messing around with new things…you know, experimenting and all.  But I had such a cold for the last few weeks that I needed to do something drastic.  A few folks I know suggested pot but I had no idea where to buy it.  Wait, did I say pot?  I mean the pot…the neti pot that is.  What kind of guy do you think I am anyhow?

Ok, so what is a neti pot, you might ask?  It’s like a bidet for your snout, a watering can for the snoz, a beak wash…it’s a tool to perform nasal irrigation and to bring you closer to our prehistoric ancestors.  It’s a caveman way of clearing your sinuses while, at the same time, giving you an out of body experience!  Basically, you mix a saline solution and, using a neti pot, pour it through your sinuses.  Pour enough in and you get a river of…well…boogers.  To see some robot-like people demonstrate this thing, click here and here and here.  I cannot imagine how real people could looks so placid as they pour salty water into their own heads so I figure they must be robotic.  Anyhow, please watch the first video at least.

Like I said, this cold was ridiculous.  I was getting desperate and, apparently, pretty whiny.  Emily said, “go get a neti pot you big baby.  The nurse at school swears by them.”  At that time, I really didn’t understand so I decided it was worth a try.  The local drug store had plain old pots, but being a guy, I opted for the turbo pot.  It seemed best since I wanted to not only have an out of body experience, but also wanted to really experience my throat chakra.

Mohinder was not impressed

Ok, enough foolishness….I got down to business and tried this thing.  I suspect I lost 25 pounds or so and now have enough room in my head to stow a carry-on bag for my next flight.  A neti pot, and especially a turbo neti pot, will clear you out!  I have done this a few times and indeed, my cold is much better.

So, Isaac, wanting to one-up me, decided to give his own version of nasal lavage a try.  Some day he’ll crawl down from that tree that he launched himself into when I turned the hose on!

An evening…shot

Adventure, Family, Fun, ,

The kids have been involved in an archery instruction program at their grandparents’ church all summer.  Last night was the final night of the program for the summer (but it restarts in September).  The church uses the Centershot curriculum which is pretty neat.  The kids love to shoot and have improved imensely.

Isaac has advanced into using heavier bows and shooting the full length of the range.  He hits mostly in the colored part of the target and really, most are very near the center.  Abigail, who is smaller of course, shoots at a softer and closer target and has improved in her ability to stick the arrows.  They love shooting and will definitely continue in the fall.  I think that we also plan to buy them bows so we can shoot during the off-season (whenever that is)

Since last night was the end for this round, we went to see how everything works and the instructors let us shoot as well.  I shot first and did ok.  It’s been a long time since I shot a bow (25 years?) so I was pretty pleased.  Emily shot next (her first time ever) and shot ok.  We went again and Emily shot much better than me the second round.  In fact, she shot the only bullseye of the evening at the range.  That’s pretty typical of us which is pretty funny.  I am a pretty good shot with a rifle and pistol but she is even better.  But hey, I am thrilled.  If the times ever get tough, I am sending her out to hunt and gather!

Anyhow, I think we have found a new family hobby as all of us enjoy shooting and there are plenty of opportunities  to practice.  A few weeks ago, Abigail said she wanted to hunt with me.  Last night, she recognized what hunting was…”Dad, why can’t we just leave the animals alone?”  It was a good opportunity to talk about the source of our food.  Still, I think we’ll be a target shooting family more than a hunting family initially…

A regular hootenanny

Family, Fun,

Emily is the counselor at a year round school in Charleston.  In WV there are only a handful of year round schools so her schedule is pretty unique.  Basically, she is on for 9 weeks, off for 3 weeks, all year round.  That fact pretty well guarantees that we take vacation in the middle of June.

The funny thing is that Emily’s birthday is also always in June.  It never seems to vary.  So, once again, we celebrated Emily’s birthday at the beach.  It’s a little strange to celebrate a special holiday away from home.  All of the best gag gifts have to be hauled in for the event.  We seem to have a tendency to play jokes and horse around a good bit…in case that surprises anyone, we are a bunch of goofballs.

Anyhow, my Mom and brother also have birthdays in June so we decided to have a regular hootenanny at the beach this year.  Mom brought a bunch of luau stuff and we dressed up and then danced (really loudly and obnoxiously) to bluegrass music that my sister-in-law had brought.  It was an absolute blast.  Some had liquid courage to help with dance moves but everyone had a blast.  Folks walking past from the beach certainly gave us funny looks but we put our best West Virginia on and hooped it up at the ho-down!

Somehow the porch on our house survived the dance and we finally settled down when the cops came…just kidding.  We finally settled down when the sugar highs and liquid courage ran out.  We wandered back in and crashed for the night.  I am pretty sure that we honored Emily’s birthday appropriately.  She’s pretty old though so I don’t know if she’ll remember!


(Note the touchless hug)

The color of idiot

Family, Fun,

Did you ever wonder what the color of idiot looks like?  Read on friends and I will show you…but a little back story first.

We made it to Tybee Island near Savannah on Saturday. Our house is nice and right on the beach so have spent a lot of time in and near the ocean.  Dolphins come by each morning eating the small fish that seem to be everywhere.  They tend to jump in the air which makes no sense to me.  I have taken to calling them suicide fish.  Pelicans and seagulls fly over all the time and the silly jumping fish are just advertising their location.  I guess it’s their business but really my fish friends…life is worth living.

At low tide we found that there are hundreds and thousands of sand dollars in the shallow water.  Isaac started collecting them planning to sell them on ebay for a dollar a piece.  You should have seen the dollar signs in his eyes.   Since they are living creatures, I made him return them to the ocean of course.

We also found sea stars all over the place.  I seemed to be able to find them every step I took.  No one else had the sensitivity in their feet I suppose.  I always knew I had rosebud feet.  It’s kind of silly I suppose but I sort of feel bad for these creatures that must be under foot all of the time.  I carry every creature I find back out into deeper water.  I know it probably doesn’t make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things.  It just bugs me when silly redneck idiots gather handfuls of sea stars and sand dollars to watch them bake on the beach.  I don’t really have a solution that involves me saving these low-tide creatures while not going to jail so I silently do my part by carrying every one I find to deeper water.

So, back to the original question…the color of idiot.  When I arrived at Tybee Island, my skin color was this:

By Sunday at noon, my skin color was this:

Can you pick the color of idiot?

On the river

Adventure, Family, Fun, WV, , ,

We got a canoe many years ago, shortly after we were married.  At that time, graduate school left us with very little free time so we didn’t use the canoe much.  Then we started having babies and, though I tried to work out a safe way of buckling a car seat into the canoe, we decided not to take wee little kids on the river in a canoe.  Since we moved back to WV, we have been itching to get on the river with our canoe.

I grew up near the Allegheny river and we canoed on it quite a bit.  My hometown was very rural.  In fact, if you drive up to the edge of the Earth and then turn left and go 25 miles, you’ll get there.  Anyhow, we did lots of outdoorsy stuff and I had missed that in Nashville.  Now that we are in WV, we have more opportunity to be in Nature.

So, when we got the call to go canoeing with Emily’s aunt and uncle, we jumped.  They canoe often so showed us a fun launch on the Little Coal River (it’s WV…there is lots of coal here, of course).  The river was up some and moving pretty quickly from recent rains.  As we looked on the river, Isaac said, “Uh…I am not comfortable with this!”  Abigail quickly came down with an upset stomache as well.  They were both so funny and cautious (a definite good thing!).

We finally got the kids in the canoes and got ourselves launched and had a wonderful time coasting down the river.  There were few distractions and the lack of sound actually made my ears ring a little.  It was wonderful.  The kids settled down and we just coasted…and relaxed…and talked.  I loved being back in Nature (with a capital N for its importance!) and hearing birds and the water gurgling.  I loved hearing my kids chatter about the river and their thoughts.  I loved to see my son take his turn in the front seat, paddling pretty well.

(You’re kidding, right?)


So, we’ll get back on the river soon.  We’ll look for chances to slow down and relax together.  We’ll fish and drink too much pop and eat too many marshmallows and we’ll enjoy life the way it is supposed to be!

I’m not dead yet

Fun, Thoughts,

I wanted to take one of those pictures like American Beauty…you know, with the half naked girl all covered in rose petals. But instead of that, it would be me covered in books about the undead. But then I got creeped out and decided to skip that part.

I mentioned yesterday that I was tired and was going to begin my quest for things that make me un-tired. It’s funny, but the undead make me un-tired…at least reading about them make me un-tired. We started reading the Twilight series of books. The Twilight books are about a family of vampires that “go vegetarian” and try to somewhat live in society. You really should read it for yourself (or, if you aren’t a reader, see the movie).

After posting about my interest in the Twilight books, Erica mentioned the Sookie Stackhouse series…a more adult vampire series.  Really, the books aren’t adult in an “adult” way but are probably less appealing to teenage girls than the Twilight books.  Anyhow, I am now reading them as well. The HBO series TrueBlood is based on the Sookie Stackhouse series…it is more adult in an “adult” way. Not too bad, just HBO-style! Anyhow, we’re getting them on Netflix…

So, reading is one of those things that makes me un-tired.  I get a chance to slow down and get lost in someone else’s world.  The best part is that it’s partly my world too. That’s why I like book so much I suppose.  A movie presents it all to the viewer and leaves little to the viewer’s imagination.  A book sets a scene but leaves so much for the reader to imagine.  It’s a wonderful escape for me!

Since we’re speaking of the dead and the undead, I got to thinking about Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie…you gotta watch this clip….”I’m not dead yet”…it cracks me up every time!

So what about it…are you reading the Twilight or  Sookie Stackhouse books?  What other summer books are on your “list”?

Symphony Sunday

Family, Fun, WV, ,


The WV Symphony is based here in Charleston and is really first class.  As a part of their community outreach, they hold Symphony Sunday each year at the University of Charleston.  The university is situated on a beautiful campus along the Kanawha River directly across the WV State Capitol.

(Note my artistic shadow on the poster…uh…I meant to do that)

The symphony sets up on a stage at one end of the green the rest of the area fills with people and vendors (classy stuff mostly) and activities for the kids.  Symphony Sunday is really an all day event where local children’s orchestras and community ensembles get an opportunity to perform. There are kids’ activities all day long and it’s a great family affair.  They have special dinners and brunches and so on leading up to the event.

So, “the event” is the evening performance of the WV Symphony followed by a fireworks show.  This year, the theme of the event was “A Pirate’s Symphony”.  Mostly, the performance was comprised of music that sounds like it would be good in a pirate movie…you know eerie stuff that shivers yer timbers and makes you yell “Arrrrrgh”. Indeed, I had a strange craving for rum all evening.  Anyhow, there was one funny song that made me laugh when it began.  They started the song, “Holding out for a Hero“.  Emily asked what movie it came from and I said, “Footloose”.  The kids both immediately chimed in, “Shrek”.  Huh…yup, I guess so.  But I knew the real right answer!

Anyhow, the kids got some ice cream and completely enjoyed the frozen joy from ear to ear!  We sat along the river eating ice cream and talking and listening to the music.  A regular armada of boats anchored in the river and also enjoyed the music.  We dreamed about pirates and the looming attack from all the “ships” waiting to send their crew to land.  It was a perfect night and we had a tremendous time.

Finally, at around 10 o’clock, the barge from which they launch the fireworks moved to the middle of the river as the final songs started.  We watched and waited, not sure which point in the final number would signal the launch.  We had an unimpeded view of the men in the cage on the barge controlling the launch.  As “Stars and Stripes” got midway through, the fireworks kicked off and we were delighted by the sight!  It was magnificent!

So, summer is officially here and we are ready!  Do you have some similar event that you enjoy that signals summer at your place?

Original Gangsters

Family, Fun,

We went to PA last weekend to visit my family and it was actually warm there. It’s rare that we go to PA and not find snow…regardless of the season. Anyhow, we went and my Mom had bought a few squirt guns for the kids. I’ll mostly let the pictures speak for themselves…but notice that Isaac is often on the run from his sister…that’s gonna haunt him later!


(Is she bad a$$ or what?!)


(the only time they worked together was to refill…and to attack me!)


(this one scares me a little)


(yeah…I am hit!)

Of course, back in WV is raining cats and dogs…and cows and sheep and goats.  We’ve had so much rain and so many bad floods nearby that I think we are due a little more squirt gun sort of weather!