And now, for something completely different...

This weeks Blog is a literary piece that I read in a design magazine. I really liked its style and I like the subject. It is just kind of odd, but fun reading.

"When at cocktail parties, the conversation turns from the fleeting news of the day to the subject of sublime beauty, I often find myself smiling, for soon, I will speak of mulch. Although I like all kinds of mulch-pine needles, straw, leaves, shredded tires- I think most highly of double-ground hard-wood mulch. Hardwood mulch is humble, which is ironic because it come from trees, and trees are quite proud. In fact trees make fun of mulch as they flail about dramatically in the breeze. Trees can be such jackasses.
But trees fall down, and then who’s laughing? A fallen tree is no longer quite a tree: It’s a disappointed, tree-shaped collection of wood that’s suddenly out of options. Not quite ready to be dirt just yet, it makes a last-minute, desperate deal with the earth: Grant me a couple more years before you take me back completely. I’ll sacrifice myself to the cause and perform many beneficial tasks in return. I’ll keep you tidy and free of weeds. I’ll control erosion and keep you moist. I’ll stop being a jackass.
Like the lone survivor of an airplane crash, hardwood mulch finds priority-shifting energy in its new life. Pride eroded, it learns to suck it up and get to work. Like Ernest Borgnine, it sets up the drama so that others can shine. We can learn much from mulch, just as we can learn much from Ernest Borgnine. We should honor and respect mulch, for we too shall one day fall down. We should buy large quantities of it, fall to our hands and knees and spread it around with great care and heartfelt words of thanks. Later when the subject of sublime beauty comes up at cocktail parties, we should smile knowingly. Embracing our inner Borgnine, we should stand up straight, limbs outstretched, and start taking the conversation down a notch."

-Dan Magnin, Dwell 4/08-

Everything else is going well. I love being a designer/Prject Mgr. Next wekk I start my largest project to date. It is 14 days and $26k worth of work. I will put up some pics later.
* Henry Update- He now likes to eat brocolli too. He aets about everything we ask him too. We keep thinking "Who is this Kid?" Can't complain.
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Memorial Day play

Canoeing at UW arboretum

Holy busyness Batman!!

Busyness is the name of the game. I have been putting in more than 55 hours a week for the last several weeks. I am the top producing Project Mgr at my company. I set a goal of selling $100,000 this month (which is more than double average) And to everyone's surprise it looks as if I will achieve it! I can't keep this up but I want to show everyone that I know my stuff and that I am good at what I do. But any how here are some pics of my favorite project to date.




I am really happy with how this one turned out. It was basically a little bit of terrible grass. I particularly love the many shades of green. I did not want to use colored bushes, I felt that they would detract from the form of the garden. I love the green Japanese Maple at the end of the lawn, it looks fabulously bright and happy. I think that the stone choice for the patio was a good one too. [even if I do say so myself] [The owners were just thrilled with it and considered it well worth the $16k they spent on it]
Oh, I guess I will share with you the newest excitement in my life, besides the fact that Henry has developed a LOVE of spinach lately. As most of you know that I used to be very interested in Off-Roading, but since my Rodeo was T-boned I have not yet ventured into it again. My Trooper has been a good car, but is getting tired, and needs about a Grand in repairs. I happened to stumble across another one and I purchased it. Here it is:
For anyone not interested in "Cartalk" go ahead and tune out now.
It is sitting on 32/11.50r16 Goodyear MTR's. It has Calmini torsion bars, Old Man Emu shocks and an Indy4x lift. It has a new fuel injected crate 2.6L motor with Pacesetter headers, high flow exhaust, and a K&N air filter. Terra Low crawling gears are installed in the tranny. The front bumper is an actual ARB Bull Bar with a Warn winch. Also included are Superwinch manual hubs. This is the Trooper of my dreams. I have a couple of things that I hope to do to it to make it into the ultimate family adventure rig. But I'll keep you updated on that as it progresses. Oh the best part of this truck is the screaming price of $1,800.
Happy is me. Well that is about it. Lyn is looking forward to visiting Utah in a couple of weeks and Henry and I are going to the 'Father and Sons' camp out on Friday.
Oh and one more cool thing; When my mom was over here on Saturday we saw a Mercedes Mclaren SLR.
It is valued at $497,750. It has a supercharged 617 horse power motor. Top speed 206 mph! in case it isn't apparent it is quite a large car, I think that the hood was well over 6 foot long. This is the most expensive car I have ever seen. I see Lamborghini's and Ferrari's often but they are only a mere $250k. !?!
Uh not much else. Talk at ya later.
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Good, Better, and Best.

Hello friends and family, We greet you from the glorious month of May. Where does the time go? Anywho not alot has happened that's cool, really just the "same ol' same ol' ". We did get our garden space tilled in yesterday. I t should be ready to plant in a week or so. We are trying a new method to reduce competition from weeds. What you do is let the first flush of weeds sprout and the gently scuff the soil to remove them, being careful to not disturb the soil too much. Then the following weed growth will be significantly reduced. Our plot is 15'x 45' . We will be doing all kinds of veggies, including an Artichoke this year. I am soo excited.
Well television has been weighing alot on my mind lately. Here is a Link to some data complied on TV viewing. PLEASE read it. Americans watch 6hours and 47min a day, cumulatively 250 BILLION hours of television a year. 54% of children would rather watch TV than play with their dad. :(
I think that TV is tool that Satan uses to misguide us from what we should be doing. I think maybe that is one reason why we have heard so much of talk of "Good, Better, Best" .(in the church) I know that there is nothing wrong with TV, but what better things could we be doing?
As a family we have decided to find out. Yesterday we donated our television to charity, and we will go 6 months without watching TV. Instead we will play games, read books, have conversations, exercise, go to bed early, basically really weird stuff! But what fun it could be. I would encourage you to find out also.
What would YOU do with 6hours and 47min a day more?"

Side note: Henry is now on day 14 of no accidents, Yippee!
On another side note: Unfortunately everybody in the house besides me is sick today. 3 barfing people in the same house is hard to deal with. I can't really think of anything else to write about so, till next time>> Adios mis amigos.

Just a little update. Me and Henry (that would be Caleb and Henry... remember him? he used to be the writer of the blog before he was ousted. :) Anywho, me and Henry went to downtown Seattle on Saturday to go to Benaroya Hall to listen to the Seattle Symphony. They played several pieces and finished off with Henry's current favorite song "Peter and the Wolf". We got balcony box seats, first row = cool. It was quite fun. Henry sat in rapt attention the whole time. After that we walked around downtown. We saw some cool things and some weird people, and some remote controlled pink, furry wedding cakes that would chase after anyone who got near. We purchased some See's chocolates for the ride home. It was a great day. It was sunny and around 63.
On a VERY positive side note: Henry has gone 9 days of "listening to his body" Meaning he has pooped in the toilet for 9 consecutive days. HOOORAY for us... uh, I mean henry..! At 4 and a half, it's about freakin time.
Work is going great as everything else too. We love you guys. Happy spring.

We're still here :)

It has been a while since we've updated this blog...so today is the day to get caught up. (guest writer Lyn here, since Caleb is quite involved in work--50+hours a week) Caleb is so tired when he gets home from work, but finds it a little difficult to nap...not sure why...The last bit has been very interesting weather-wise. It snowed the end of March, a week later it got into the high 70's, then it snowed the next week for three days (along with hail and thunder...odd!) I think the kids are getting spring fever--whenever the sun shows up Henry yells, "the suns out! let's go out in the [wading] pool (or blow bubbles, or work, or ride trikes)!!!" Luckily today the sun stayed out for a while and we were able to play outside, weed, cleanup stuff and plant ferns. Fern attempted to eat a berry from the sarcacocca shrub (which happen to be poisonous--but she is OK since she spit most of it out--lovely...i disposed of the rest of the berries while she napped...) Henry splashed around in the wading pool with his boots and helped plant ferns. It was so nice to be outside!!!

We have had some fun times visiting with family the last couple of weeks. We went to Ephrata where Caleb's whole family was together (except for Caleb's brother Logan). Later on Kaynie, Audrey, Carli and Jenna came over to visit us in Woodinville and we all went to the Tulip Festival and Deception Pass. Henry and Fern had a lot of fun stomping through the muddy fields and dipping discarded tulips in mud puddles in Mt. Vernon. Deception Pass was a rock throwing paradise (just watch out where you stand...) On the way back we stopped by an alpaca farm as an afterthought and that ended up being the most talked about event...funny how that is!!!Fern had her first experience with painting...and what a lovely time she had! The paint was initially on the paper until she discovered how nice it felt to paint on her face...and hands...and oh, wouldn't it be nice to squish it between the fingers...finger painting was discovered and very much enjoyed! This is what she looked like before I (carefully) put her in the tub.One other funny tidbit: Fern likes to pretend to be a cat. She crawls around making a funny whining noise similar to a newborn baby/cat and as soon as you acknowledge who she is she will come up to you and want you to stroke her hair and snuggle. It is very sweet.

The kids just woke up, so I've got to run :) --time to play.