Yard Work

For the past month and a half, Anke has had me out in the yard doing Yard Work every weekend. I had no idea that owning a house would entail quite so much of the stuff. First shoveling snow and now this.

To help with the job, I picked up a Craftsman racing mower from sears. It has a 6 3/4 pound feet of torque Briggs & Stratton engine. Big directional tri-spoke wheels. And a parachute on the back to help me slow down. On top of all that, it's menacing black, with a fire red engine cover. Maurice may have a faster car than me, but my mower smokes his. One thing that does confuse me is that I can't find the rabbit and turtle to control the throttle.

See those bushes behind me? They used to be huge. Anke thought that they were too huge, and had me wack them down to nearly nothing. She says they'll come back bigger and better than ever. All I know is that it was a lot more work than I wanted to do. And now I have a big patch of dirt that used to be covered by bush.

Notice how tall the grass is here? That is in my swampy area that nearly never dries off. At some point I'm going to have to do something about that, like a French drain. Or something. But my racing mower took care of that 8 inch wet grass like it was nothin'. Torque bitch!

Here is the obligatory picture of Corwin trying to help out. He loves water and therefor he loves the water hose. He's also getting taller and talkier.

Anke has also had me planting plants galore. Two rose bushes. Two currant bushes. Transplanted a blue berry bush. Weeding, weeding, weeding. Ripping out Virginia creeper and a couple of poison ivy vines by the root. The yard really did need a lot of work. Since the house was unoccupied last summer, the yard was a bit neglected. We also planted two bamboo plants, one of which is shown. I'm actually excited about the bamboo. They are small now, but they should reach around 6 or 7 feet in height. The bamboo photo was taken with my new phone. It isn't quite camera quality and very far from our DSLR, but it's much better than my old phone.

Weekend Images

We have bonus images this week, but Dinner is the official photo of the week. Slow cooking the beef ribs wasn't so easy as a hurricane rolled during hour two of the ribs cooking. The patio is located underneath the deck and I put the patio furniture umbrella beside the grill to help keep the water off, and my grill temperature up. And marinated vegetable kabobs is a yummy way of eating my veggies, which Anke says I need to do a better job of in order to set a proper example of Corwin and the soon to arrive Scotty Version III.

Corwin has a ball on his little swing that he got from his Opa.

Finally starting to get some green in the forest.

Corwin is all about learning how to drive. But it won't be in this car.

Weekend

I completed my first home improve- ment project. While Dad was in town on Saturday we mounted the kitchen cabinets that I picked up for $50 and a case of beer. Anke won out and they ended up in the laundry room and not the garage. The look really nice though. Dad and I ended up buying a new hammer drill to mount them into the concrete wall. The difference that the hammer drill made, vs. the old average drill in attacking in the concrete wall was shocking. The right tool for the job.

The cabinets still need to be cleaned up a bit, but they do look nice. Now I have to find a new storage solution for the garage.

For lunch Dad wanted to order food from the Thai Kitchen. A little hole in the wall place in South O. It's a bit odd to me that the best Thai that I've ever had would be found in the Mexican neighborhood of Omaha. But I am so proud of Dad for broadening his culinary horizons. I never thought the day would come when my father would say, "Let's get Thai."

Sunday was a good day too. Anke, Corwin and I took a walk on the Fontenelle Forest board walk Sunday morning. That afternoon I had a couple of beers with Maurice at the Horseshoe casino and we discussed the finer points of IT in the insurance industry. That afternoon Casa de Parker had a winged visitor in the basement. The poor little fellow was scared out of his mind. He found a nice retreat in one of Anke's plants for a while. I eventually shooed Mr. Sparrow into the garage and he was able to find the great outdoors from there.

For dinner I fired up my new Webber grill for the first time. I'm a slut for aesthetics, and that is kind of how I ended up with an expensive charcoal grill instead of a cheep gas grill. All of the cool looking gas grills are north of $300. But I got this groovy retro Webber with the blue enamel coat for much less than that. But still more than a sane person should pay for a charcoal grill. I cooked some chicken breasts that had a Turkish rub on them, along with some onions and potato kebabs. The chicken breasts turned out freaking phenomenal. The best chicken breast that I have ever had in my life! Charcoal does rule. They were so good that I broke out my last bottle of Eibauer (Scotty's favorite beer in the whole wide world, but only available on the other side of the world) to complement my dinner. Sometimes I think that I may lead a charmed life.

Happy Birthday to Me

Normally my birthdays tend to suck. It's my own fault because I generally want something grand to happen and, really, grand things rarely happen. But sometimes they are nice. Last year I got an unexpected card on my birthday that made the whole day brighter. This year it looks like we are going to have some kick ass warm and sunny weather. Internet tells me- and Internet never lies- that it will be sunny and 76 today. I can recall one other birthday where the weather was so nice, I think it would have been '95. The weather was warm that day and I had a birthday party at the old Ottumwa house on Church street. Many of my friends were there. Cold beer was on tap. I made out with a cute girl at the end of the night. Good times.

Times change however, but this is going to be a good birthday too I think. I have, I can say with absolutely no impartiality, the world's coolest little boy. I have a lovely wife, that drives me nuts on occasion but loves me with all her heart, brewing another little boy for us. And if we do nothing else well, we make good kids.

Anke's sister Inga is visiting with Andre and their daughter Anouk. We went to view the sandhill cranes on Sunday and Monday. More on the later, I promise, but it was pretty cool if you're a nature dork like me. It makes me happy that I'm able to share silly things like watching birds with my wife.

There is a cake waiting for me when I get home and lasagna on the menu for dinner. It shall be a good day.

Napping

Little Corwin wasn't feeling so well on Sunday. At one point I picked him up when he was whining and he fell asleep on my shoulder. So I curled up on the couch with him and took a nap too. Somehow he managed to sleep with the sun shining on him through the window.

Truck

Saturday morning I took Mom and Dad's old battered truck (In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I did a bit of the battering to it myself. With a boat.) to get some cabinets for the garage. But first I had to shovel snow out of the bed. The cabinets were stored in a barn down a snowy hill in Iowa. But said battered truck climbed up and down the hill in 4 low like a billy goat. I was a bit surprised and impressed how easily it handled the short off-roading trip. Having the truck here has been really helpful the past couple of weeks. Thanks Mom and Dad.

The cabinets that I picked up are rather nice. Anke thinks that they are too nice to put in the garage, and wants to place them in the laundry room instead. I should have gotten the ugly cabinets.

Robin

I saw what must be the first robin of spring yesterday. Or a bird that was simply too stupid to fly south for the winter. It was perched on a branch outside the kitchen window, puffed up like a little gray and orange ball. The robin says it is spring, but the snow on the ground says it isn't.

Pictures from Home

There are deer sleeping in my back yard

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Moving is not a pleasant experience

96.5% of my possessions are now at my house. Hunter's cage and Hunter still have to be moved from the apartment, along with my tool box that I have left there for the dismantling of his cage. I have 8 wheels and tires in Maurice's garage that are to be moved. And also some speakers that I'll take out of his basement. Oh, and my weights are still in his basement too. But everything else is there.

We got most of it moved on Saturday. Special thanks go out to Maurice and Matt for helping load and unload the U-haul. It was bitter, freezing cold and I'm sure there were lots of places they would have rather been. Especially Matt who spent the entire night fixing a cycle problem at work. He only got 2 hours of sleep. Thanks, guys. After moving multiple boxes consisting of my burgeoning book collection, Matt suggested that I invest in a library card. Who knew paper was so freakin' heavy. Thanks to Mom for watching Corwin during the move, that allowed Anke to pack and me to load and unload. I had intended on documenting some of the move with pictures, but I was too busy actually working and at some point the camera got packed into a box somewhere. I'm still not sure where the damn thing is.

On Sunday Anke and I went back to the apartment to finish packing and moving stuff. We did three pickup loads and two Vibe loads. All loading and unloading done by your faithful blogger, due to Anke's delicate health situation. There was more stuff after the U-haul load than I thought. I did get the TV hooked up and found my bunny ears right away, so was able to catch the second half of the Super Bowl. On the plus side TV reception is much better in Bellevue than Dundee.

On Monday there the house was still a wreck and there was still more stuff at the apartment. Two Vibe loads and one pickup load later, everything is nearly moved. Thanks to the guy that lives above the apartment for helping me carry Loki's cage out to the pickup. Thanks Guy Who Used To Live Above Me. Maurice and Bernie stopped by Monday evening to help move Loki's cage into the house. Bernie got there just in time to see the 10 deer in the forest behind the house. I wish I had known which box the camera was in. Bernie had never seen deer before- having grown up in Hawaii and all. She was excited.

All in all, it was pretty exhausting though. Going back to work on Tuesday was a relief. But then I have to go back home and continue unpacking.

But the house is nice and I'm happy being there.

Live from Bellevue, NE

Welcome to the first post from Casa de Parker. I'm sitting in a mostly empty house waiting for the gas and water guy to come and read the meter to show up, typing on my bare bones PC that's only real purpose is for logging into work when necessary. The cable and phone guy clearly came first as I do have Internet access to post this.

So anyway, I am now a 20% homeowner as of yesterday. And that number will start climbing by ever so minute amounts monthly. And I have the joy of paying property taxes. The property taxes in Nebraska are rather high, too. Especially when the redness of this state is taken into consideration. But Corwin and Baby will be going to public schools and I want them to be nice schools so I'll pay with little bitching involved. But getting to this point made it an interesting week.

On Sunday we did the final walk thru on the house, with our buyer's agent Galya Leathers. If you do any real estate transactions in the Omaha area, I cannot recommend her enough. Anke and I couldn't be happier with the job she did for us. So we get to the house and it is COLD inside. Like really cold. We check the thermostat and it is set at 40. I guess the stupid sellers decided to save themselves a couple of dollars and turned the heat down now that the house was sold. We go to the kitchen and there is ice formed on the tap. Damn. We turn the heat up and call the seller's agent. She comes buy to check the house later and sure enough, the damn pipes between the kitchen and the garage broke. They get a plumber in to fix them that day and promise to have the ceiling of the garage, which sustained substantial water damage, fixed by Friday. Gayla has her own plumber come and check out the work done by the buyer's plumber on Tuesday just to make sure. I would have preferred that disaster not have happened, but it's been taken care of.

So the plan is to go ahead and close on Tuesday. My lender phones and tells me that everything looks good. But my documents have to go through some sort of "quality control" by the underwriter before everything can proceed. And that won't happen today. What the hell is going on I think. They've known for 5 weeks that we are closing on the 30th. What do they think I'm a terrorist, needing to check all of my documents? Damn Bush and his Patriot Act. The sellers are now freaked out too, because this is the second time that the house has sold. The first deal fell through at the last minute, too, back in June. Tuesday comes, and they still aren't sure if they will get to my documents today. Well after much hand wringing my Indian lender finally calls at around 3:15 to tell me that the underwriter finally signed off and we can close tomorrow on the 31st. Hooray! Everything finally comes together and I can stop stressing.

Home

You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land. - Delmar O'Donnel (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

I am on my way to becoming some kind of man. Anke and I signed a contract to buy a house today. Hooray! We hope to close at the end of January. We'll be located in Bellevue - which is just south of Omaha- near Fontenelle Forest. My commute to work will probably grow from 15 minutes to 20 - 25 minutes. And there is no covenant. I've had this discussion with friends before about how I don't believe in covenants. And it's usually me against everyone else in this, but I believe in personal freedom over property values. I believe in hanging engine blocks from trees . And I now have a tree (see the above picture) to hang one from. Just do me a favor and don't tell Anke about this plan. I'm not quite sure she would understand, and she may attempt to thwart me.
The back yard goes right up to this public hilly foresty land. There should be lots of wild life for nature geeks like me and Anke to enjoy.
The inside is very nice with high vaulted cedar ceilings and an open floor plan. The master bedroom is decent sized, but smaller than we have now. Our current apartment actually has huge bed rooms. The two kid bedrooms are rather small to my eye. But that is ok, because kids are small people. And I won't be the one living in the small room. Oh, and there is a wet bar in the basement. The back of the house is the really cool part. Look at those huge windows! Anke and I are really excited about this house. It will be a bit stark with furnishings in the beginning, but we think we can be happy living here until Corwin gets out of school. So that'll give us plenty of time to decorate. (Photos a borrowed from the real estate listing.)

Thanksgiving

As some of you may or may not know, Mom and Dad are getting ready to sell my childhood home. They are planning on moving to the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro area. Many people ask how I feel about this when I tell them and my answer is that this is a good thing. I love my parents and have a great relationship with them. I think it will be nice for Corwin to see his grandparents more often too. Plus they have a couple of dogs, and I can borrow one to take to the dog park on days when it looks to be a good doggy in the park day. So it was decided to go back to C'town for one last Thanksgiving in the old house.

Unfortuately Anke got sick on Wednesday night and was still Ill Thursday morning, so she wasn't up to making the 3.5 to 4 hour drive. So me and Corwin- and all of his gear- piled into Maurice's new Jeep Commander with he and Bernie. This is a great road tripping truck with plenty of Hemi power, a smooth comfortable ride, and amazingly quite inside, considering it has the aerodynamics of a brick. It could also tackle the Rubicon Trail should it jump out in front of us.

It was a good day. As soon as we got to town Dad, Corwin and I went to Aunt Dorris's to say hi. We don't get over often and she and her family don't get to see Corwin much. Of course he was a huge hit, as always. Aunt Dorris gave Corwin a couple of Uncle PJ's old Beenie Babies. He got a nice little bear and a monkey. Corwin was pleased.

Dinner was up next at Mom and Dad's. The food- standard Thanksgiving fare turkey, stuffing, potatos and such- was great as always. Thanks Mom. Corwin and I went to visit the Milani family at around 3ish. Ostensibly the reason for the visit is to see Bill, Pam, Tony and the newest Milani Jen along with all of the others. But the real reason is for a slice of Pam's Apple Pie. The best pie I have ever had. I shall miss that pie on future Thanksgivings.

Toward the evening Corwin wanted to play outside some, so we went for a visit to Maurice's farm near Rolling Cove, Lake Rathbun. His farm isn't really big as farms go. And it isn't really farm like in that he doesn't really grow any crops but grass and poison ivy. It is really more of a giant camp site. But it is pretty big as far as camp sites go. One actually forgets how big it really is living in the city. The weather was wonderful for late November. Corwin kept lying down on the grass as if it were the most comfortable bed on earth.

All in all a good Thanksgiving. Shall I include the obligatory list of things I'm thankful for. Sure, why not.

I'm thankful for my wife, Anke. She is beautiful, smart, crafty(in the arts and crafts way, not the con you out of your lunch money way) and a good mom. I'm thankful for Corwin. He is just perfect, all I could ever ask for in a child. Well I could ask that he sleeps in maybe an hour later, but that's it. I'm thankful for my family. They know how much I love them. I'm blessed with wonderful friends most of whom I don't see enough. I have a good job that I usually don't hate going to in the morning. I'm not making mad cash, but I can pay all of my bills. I have the toy car I always wanted. But that doesn't stop me from wanting more cars. Like an early 50's Oldsmobile that I could drive across Mexico in a rally. But I digress. I think it's important to make lists like this on occasion in order to remind me that even when I'm feeling down, life isn't so bad.

Halloween

Corwin was an exceptionally cute little cow for Halloween. Instead of trick or treating on Halloween night we went to Uncle Maurice's and helped give out candy. Corwin rather liked Aunt Bernie's Hello Kittie bucket. Some day Corwin will hate me for this picture.Thursday was Corwin's last day with Miss Crystal, his daycare teacher. She is moving on to Nursing school. Crystal is great and we are going to miss her. So far we have been extremely lucky with the daycare providers that Corwin has had and we hope this luck continues.

Not at Work

I'm at home with Corwin today. The daycare called at around 9:30 to let me know that he has a tempreture. I picked him up, and we came home. This illness probally explains why he (and Anke and I) slept so badly last night. But he didn't feel warm last night. I just checked it again and it's down to 100.0 f. So nothing serious, but the little guy isn't in top form.

It's not all bad though. We played a little this morning. Just in the past two days, Corwin has discovered the joy of giving. Here he is giving me one of his favorite toys. An old water bottle filled with silver bells.

It should be noted that I'm typing this all with my right hand, as someone insists on being held in my left. He just leans against my chest occasionally uttering a little pathetic whine. The upshot is that if my left hand ever gets lopped off in a tragic scimitar juggling accident, I can still probaly type well enough to continue being a programmer.

I've also got a picture of Corwin playing with his friend Maia, before leaving daycare last week. Don't tell Anke, but I think Maia may be in love with me. Everyday when we pick up Corwin, she runs up to me with her little arms in the air wanting to be held. And she is so cute- clearly the second cutest tiny human at the daycare- that I just have to oblige her.