Weekend

Mom & Dad and Grandma & Grandpa were in town for the weekend. It rained non-stop all weekend so we hung out inside the whole time. I can't remember the last time we got such a constant rain over such a long period of time. There were some issues with flooding in the Winona part of the state but luckily we didn't have any of that in our neck of the woods.

Grandma and Grandpa stayed at our place and Mom and Dad stayed at Chad's. It worked out perfect plus we made some cash in the process. I only charged the grandparents $50 which I thought was fair. Before you say that seems a little harsh you have to take into account that it did include a continental breakfast.

Since Dad was in town I decided to put him to work building a hanging shelf in the garage. We're already running out of room with Junior's stuff and I'm sure it will only get worse. The best part of having a project to work on -- buying new tools!!! Home Depot had a battery operated Ryobi drill, circular saw, and flashlight set on sale for $75 that I couldn't pass up. It'll be just fine for anything I'll ever need it for.

There's just something about powertools. I wish I could convey the Tim the tool man grunt through words but it doesn't translate well. Looking at the picture though it doesn't look that manly since the saw's quite small and I'm holding it daintilly with two hands. Oh well, at least the saw screamed with power as it chewed through 2x4 after 2x4. There, that makes me feel better.


Here's the before shot.



And after. Total elapsed time -- 2 hours 30 minutes.

After the shelf was up we decided to play a lively game of whist. Guess who won. I'll give you a hint -- it wasn't Dad and Chad.

Here's the whole crew Sunday at Chad's.

Well, that's all for now.

Good night,

R&A

27 Week Picture, Painting, Camping

We did a little painting yesterday. We painted the upstairs bathroom and Junior's room. For Junior's room we decided to go with a dark brown. Neither Allison nor I like the way light colors look in our house -- I guess we're kind of earth tones type people. I hope Junior likes his new room. Here's a belly picture of Allison at 27 weeks in the newly painted room.



It didn't take us too long to paint the two rooms. We did the prep work Friday night by moving furniture and removing fixtures, went to Home Depot bright and early Saturday morning, started painting around 9:30 and were done by 3:00.

Camping

Last weekend we went camping in Fort Ransom, ND. Fort Ransom is SW of Fargo. Allison and I took Friday off and drove down to Fargo and stayed with Josh and Christy Thursday night. Then it was off to the campgrounds Friday morning. The weekend was spent relaxing, eating good food, playing lawn games, and kayaking. It was the first time we've ever kayaked and was quite fun. The rapids of the Sheyanne River were formidable but we made it okay.

Here's a group shot of the campers. Steve and Debi with Belle, Josh and Christy with their dog Hunter, and Allison, Junior and me.



Here's the crew playing a game of Bocce ball. The picture looks like something out of a movie with the way everyone is walking toward the camera. It reminds me of Reservoir Dogs.


Steve and Debi were victorious!

It was a great campsite. Plenty of room for two sleeping tents, the camper, the screen tent and of course Norwegian Golf. For those who don't know, Norwegian golf is the white contraption Allsion is standing next two in the picture. It consists of three crosspieces of PVC pipe connected to a PVC pipe stand. There are three sets of golf balls with holes drilled through the middle and connected by string. The object is to throw the golf ball strings and wrap them around the cross pieces of PVC. It's very fun.

Just call me Swatter.

Big Swatter.

Here's our bike parking lot.

Belle was not impressed with Hunter by the end of the trip.

Again, not impressed.

Dinner time.

We went to Brett and Bjorn's today and hung out with Brett, Bjorn, and Mehgan (Meg, sorry if I spelled your name wrong.) Mehgan's parents John and Alice were in town and were there too. I'm not sure if Allison snapped any good pictures but if she did I'll post them sometime this week.

Kyle and Brett got the last post's trivia question correct. If anyone's been unable to sleep at night because the question has been haunting them the answer can be veiwed by clicking on the comments link of the previous post. Congratulations Brett and Kyle, you've won an exciting prize.

Adios.

Ross