Ahoy!

Caroline and Nathan, my future son in law

Brian's friend Kevin and his wife Lori just bought a new lake house. They invited us up and we went out on their new boat. So fun! For the last couple of years I have been planning a match between Caroline and their son Nathan. He is 4. He informed me this weekend that he is not going to marry Caroline, he is going to marry a girl from his pre-school. We'll see about that.

The fish was this big...

Brian's dad is a tournament fisherman and this is his old fishing partner. They won a boat together once! This was yesterday's update from the tournament he was fishing in. He did wind up winning the tournament today and the prize was $200, 000!

Steve Clapper is just 1 day away from a wire-to-wire victory in his first-ever FLW Tour event.
The Lake Erie stalwart from Ohio caught a 23-03 bag today – the best of the tournament – to forge an advantage of nearly 3 pounds on day 3 at the Detroit River. Conditions were as nasty as expected – a steady 25 mph wind that gusted to 30 at times created 7-foot rollers on Erie – and Clapper got beaten up as badly as anybody who ventured out there.
But he came back with a sack that'll make him real difficult to beat tomorrow.

Clapper paid a price to catch his huge sack, and the toll was purely physical.
"I've seen it worse, but it was plenty tough out there," he said. "I'm so sore I can hardly move. My whole body's sore, but it's mostly in my legs."
He'd been alternating between a dropshot rig and a tube throughout the tournament, but the tube was predominant today. He fished the ISG goby-colored model on a 3/4-ounce Bite-Me Big Dude jighead.
"It's easier to fish than the dropshot in the wind, and the fish seemed to want the bait more on the bottom today."
He caught about 10 keepers, and the biggest was a 5 3/4-pounder. He had a limit in the livewell in just over an hour.
There's a chance his primary area won't be as productive tomorrow, despite the expected calmer conditions.
"It could be muddied up from all those big rollers, and I might have to go another way. I might have to go to something I haven't seen in the past few days."
The five-time Detroit River BFL winner said he'll likely be a little nervous tomorrow with $200,000 on the line.
"I'm sure I'll be a little jittery until I catch that first one, but I'm just going to go out and go fishing."

Caroline's green thumb

The playhouse is done!!!

Thank you Mike D'Angelo! (The guy who can do anything)

If you need anything done to your house Mike is your guy! He has now done our basement, kitchen and the playhouse.

614-313-7181 Mike D'Angelo

Cabbage anyone?

A guy who works for me, Ken is a SERIOUS gardener. He grows unbelievable tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, etc... People start asking ahout his garden early in the season and he brings boxes and boxes of fresh veggies to work. I have seriously seen people get in arguments over who gets what from his garden. Here is what he calls a "small" cabbage. You can see that it weighed in at 12.5 pounds!

Busy day

Tessa rolling her eyes at Caroline's dance moves at the Lane Avenue outdoor concert

Today we:

1) Went to "Messy Day" at the library. It sounded better than it turned out to be

2) Went to the park

3) Went to an outing at the zoo sponsored by Brian's company. (Thank you OCCH)

4) Went to an outdoor concert at the Lane Avenue Shopping Mall. They have them every Thursday. On the 26th of July they are having an OSU tailgate.

Welcome back Gordon Gee!

Happy Birthday Traci!

Today is Traci's birthday. Yay! In addition to having a birthday today she is having a baby in a few weeks. Double yay! If you don't know Traci, we work together AND she gives me good recipes. What is even better is when she just makes them and brings the leftovers to work. (Also, I was informed that Traci shares a birthday with Jessica Simpson)

Hole in one

Brian and his buddy Scott went golfing the other day. Scott got a hole in one! And they put it in the newspaper! Pretty cool!

Golf: Local holes-in-one
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 6:24 AM
Golf
Golf scores, tee timesTuesday, July 10, 2007
At Champions--Scott Beilharz aced the 161-yard No. 17 with an 8-iron.

Joke for the day

There was a mamma mole, a papa mole, and a baby mole.
They lived in a hole outside of a farm house out in the country.
The papa mole reached his head out of the hole and said, "Mmmmm, I smell sausage."
The mama mole reached her head outside of the hole and said "Mmmmmm, I smell pancakes."
The baby mole tried to reach his head outside the hole but couldn't because of the two bigger moles.
The baby mole said, "The only thing I can smell is mole-asses!"

Getting closer

Carolines playhouse is almost done. She started putting some toys in it this weekend. We're going to have a housewarming party when it is all said and done.

License to drive

Poor Janet. She called to tell me someone drove through her garage. If you know Janet, she is quite the storyteller and sometimes you have to factor in a little room for embellishment. There is no embellishing on this one. The lady drove through the garage door and somehow made a right hand turn out of the side of the garage. Janet's place is still for sale and will now come with a new garage. She is also open to the idea of renting it out. Her email is f1080@aol.com if you or someone you know is interested. It is Dublin, 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 baths, finished basement and a screened in porch.

Another Happy Birthday message

This one goes out to 50 Cent. Happy 31st birthday.

Spent the evening with Matt Damon and George Clooney

OK, that might be an exaggeration. I really spent the evening with Brian but we did go see Oceans 13 with Matt Damon in it. If you haven't seen it you should. It's a good movie.

Happy 4th of July

The UA Golden Bear

Caroline and Lucy

And a special parade appearance by our neighbors Jack and Marty.

Happy Birthday Athanasia!

Today is my friend (and neighbor) Athanasia's birthday. We had a fun party. Here is a picture Caroline took of some of the neighbor kids that came. Just for the record, Athanasia is the only person I know who does not use the internet. We are friends anyway...

ANOTHER new roof...

This one is on the playhouse. Can't wait!

P.S. The chair in the playhouse is now on the UA parade route. We have two chairs in place so we can have rock star seating at the parade. One for me, one for Caroline. Since Brian thinks it is tacky he can stand! (Or stay home, which is what will most likely happen!)

UA Tradition

So every year there is a 4th of July parade that runs down Northwest Blvd. And every year people start lining chairs up and down the parade route. This starts about a week in advance. No joke. And it doesn't matter if it is your yard, people put their chairs in it. Sometimes they even rope off their area. In front of your house. And they don't even have to be lawn chairs. Any chair will do. Again, no joke. And if you don't get your chairs out early you don't get a seat along the parade route. And if you put your chair there, it stays there. No one messes with it. It's kind of like the honor system. As of this evening most of the good spots were gone. Brian thinks it's tacky to do but my neighbor Marty has taken chairs with me the last two years. You really pull your car up in broad daylight and set your chairs up in front of someone's house. We saw chairs as early as last Thursday. Next year I'm putting mine up Memorial Day to beat the crowd.