Holiday Road

What would summer be without the a good old American Road Trip? Nothing. So with that in mind I roused the children and loaded up the family truckster.



We pointed the car due south and decided to see what we could see. We faced some challenges: we were racing the rising waters of the mighty Mississippi south and all of my references to Vacation were falling on deaf ears as my dear wife to be has never seen the movie.

Agast, at this obvious oversight and really wondering if she could ever really understand me if she had never seen the movie I planned to base our child rearing on, I began to try and find a way to ask her to screen this masterpiece prior to us tying the knot. As we passed through southern Illinois my mind was racing. We decided that, in order to avoid the rising waters of the Mississippi as we passed out of Illinois we should divert from U.S. Interstate 57 and take U.S. Interstate 24 toward Paducha, KY (You will understand the need for detail later). As previously stated, I was off in my own world and not paying too much attention to what was going on (yes, I was driving). And then as if she were meant for me, it happened. She said, Keeler the next exit is for Metropolis, IL and they have a 30 ft. statue of Superman. OMG, OMG, OMG. With the eagerness of a boy whose father just gave him a nickle to buy a coke down at the soda shop (you like the nostalgia??) I drove to the next exit and followed the signs for the giant Superman statue. The road was winding and actually much further off the exit than one would think but we made it. Typical to any good small Midwestern town, the town hall sat in the middle of a large square with all (read 4) roads arriving at the hall at one of the four corners. As you enter the square, his head can just be scene over the top of the two story town hall. As you make the first corner he casts a glorious shadow over the courtyard in the front of the building. As you make the second corner, there he is. Your welcome for the details.




Metropolis, IL promises a giant Superman statue and Metropolis, IL delivers. We took our time taking it all in, OK just me, but Kelly had fun laughing at me. We browsed the museum, took some souvenir photographs, and Gatsby tried to pee on the town's volunteer of the year award monument.

By the way, I later learned that Metropolis, IL has a newspaper, and it is none other than....

The Daily Plant. Isn't that freakin awesome, and even better the grandmother of a guy I work with used to work for the paper. No her name is not Lois.

Kelly didn't see the clinched fists, otherwise she would have looked much tougher.

I think I look pretty freakin tough.

We blew out of town and grabbed a Sonic on the way. For those readers who are not Southern, Sonic is a fast food joint but they have these drinks called Cherry lime-aids. Anyway, Southerns and those of us who associate with them, love them. The North, who knows why, does not have Sonics and thus when one is found, it is stopped at.



We continued our trip for its intended purpose of going to Corinth to plan our wedding and managed to pull that off fairly successfully. We are still short a place to actually get married but everything else is cool. The place will hopefully be one of two great little chapels in Corinth. They are currently racing to see which on will finish its construction on its sanctuary so it can host our wedding. OK, that isn't true. We are waiting, but we have some calls in and have mobilized the local women groups who meet in the sanctuary to start yelling at the church board that decided to shut the place down. Anyone who knows anything knows that angry old women can get some crap done. Especially when they are complaining to old men who are just too damn tired to listen to it.



That is my rant for the time being. Have a good one. And remember to keep fighting for "Truth, Justice and the American Way"

You can do it, Put your back in to it

Some may be wondering about the odd choice of blog titles. Fear not good friends. The poetic lyrics of Ice Cube not only make incredible booty shaking music, but they also describe Kelly and my last few weeks. We will start this journey with our trip to Destin, FL (booty shaking).

Known for its white sand beaches, clear water, and multiple Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf courses, Destin, FL aka. the Redneck Riviera, is also the sight of the annual Policy Punisher's reunion. For those of you who don't know who the Punisher's are, we will save that story for another time. Back to the matter at hand. Kelly and I, along with about 14 of our friends from Washington DC descended on Destin for the Memorial Day weekend. Fun was had by all and a huge thanks to the Goudeau's for allowing us to stay in their condos and cooking some of the best dang Gumbo and Healthy Pancakes (they are fried and they are spectacular) a person could ask for. We spent a few days on the beach, I played a couple rounds of golf (Fred Couples got a bit cocky on the GPS but we were able to over look it), Kelly shopped, and everyone enjoyed Memorial Day at crab island, punctuated by 4 fly byes by 4 F-15s in formation.





Dinner on Sunday night was spent at AJ's. It took a bit of time to get seated so we enjoyed some cocktails on the upstairs deck. After suffering through one of the worst winters I have ever seen, it was great to sit outdoors and enjoy some drinks.
















On Memorial Day the crew rented a few pontoon boats and despite our best efforts managed to find our way to the infamous crab island for a day of fun and sun. Our fearless leader decided it would be nice to take a trip around the bay before settling into our spots at crab island. Our pontoon took on a good bit of water but Captain Connors piloted us to safety. It would not be long after 1 pm when the good times began to roll.


First a bit about crab island. It is a rather large area in the bay that ranges from 3-6 ft deep. Basically, everyone anchors their boat, breaks out the beer, footballs, grills, etc and parties like its 1999. Those of you who know me, know I can't party like its 1999 anymore but I supported the efforts very well. Above was one of my greater contributions to the weekend. The floating beer bucket, seen here being enjoyed by Mr. Page. And again, below by Mr. Karr. In this picture we have tied the bucket to Mr. Karr because the group was going on a walk around crab island.

A good time was had by all. We dominated the whitest boat contest. The one guy who actually looks a little tan lives in Milwaukee, what the crap is that. Fellas, we really need to get out of the offices a bit more.

So that was Memorial Day weekend, we followed that up with a weekend of backbreaking work in the front yard (see above Ice Cube reference, get it, I thought so I just wanted to make sure). As the previous post showed, we decided evergreen bushes weren't our thing a long time ago and decided to make some changes. Well, we finally figured out how we wanted to get started. Here I am putting my back in to it.

So on Saturday morning, very early since our dogs have decided it is not really necessary to sleep past 6 am on the weekends. As I write this, I am listening to both of them snore. Jerks. But it did get us to Home Depot before most people had even had their morning coffee. Kelly picked out all the plants and they look great. I provided the back for digging. In economics I believe they call that comparative advantage. Not great for me, but hey we all do what we can. We worked most of Saturday and some of Sunday to get it mostly done. We have yet to put the edging in but we are having fun doing it. Just having the sun on our face and seeing how well the house is coming together provides us both with a great sense of fulfillment.

After getting the plants in the ground we added the weed protector and then the mulch. The grass is also coming along very nicely.

And as we wrap up for the night because I am really freakin tired a full frontal shot of the house. For the nonobservant ones, the awning that was over our bedroom window is now gone. It takes about 20 years of the house and it wasn't even that hard to get down. I am just thankful we have a superb scrapping crew here in Chicago/Oak Park. You put some metal out by your trash and someone will come haul it away.