Friday Night Fellowship

Friday Stella had the Fellowship over for some good eats on the grill. She had a delicious roast and some scrumptious shrimp kabobs.

Nick kicked back in the royal pink throne.

After oink'n out and playing a game of Catch Phrase (which I'm pretty sure the girls won hands down) Stella broke out the fireworks and sparklers. Makita seemed especially excited with the sparklers.

Eddie's Reappearing as the Headquarters

Last year we set up camp down by the High School Football field for the 4th of July celebration. This year we'll do the same thing which includes celebrating my firecracker daughter Tonya's 29th Birthday. We'll take Eddie down there and use him as our headquarters. There's always lots of activities throughout the day down there on the field. Then the parade is at 4pm and fireworks at dark. We'll grill some brats and dogs and hangout. Stop by if you're in the area. Might be a cold one in the fridge for you.

How to Find the Crab

Deadliest Catch's Captain Phil explains how to find the crab. Good humor.

Awesome New Camera

My birthday came early when Jim (Makita's dad) heard me bitch'n about my digital camera and went out and bought me a new one. And it's a dandy. A Nikon Coolpix P90. I love it. It's very nice. I've committed myself to reading the entire manual.

Hey Jim, Thanks a bunch for the new camera. PS: I hate my truck.

Grandkids Get a Puppy

Tonya and Josh got the kids a puppy. She the cutest thing ever! Sorry but her name escapes me.

Cancer on $5 a Day

If you haven't read Robert Schimmel's "Cancer on $5 a Day (Chemo not Included)", you should stop everything and read this book. It's a very short read (I read it in just a few hours) and it's hilarious. Robert, a long time comedian, gets Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He writes about his experience. It's very inspirational, motivating and in true Schimmel style, very funny.

Lindsey Catches her First Fish

Yesterday my 3 year old granddaughter, Lindsey, caught her first fish (happen to be a largemouth bass) while fishing with her dad. She hooked her first lunker with her new Barbie fishing rod we got her for her birthday.

New Patio Furniture Construction

Makita and his Dad Jim assembled the new patio furniture. Oh boy..... I think it may stay together. I hope it's not like when, while working at Pamida, Brian Moon assembled a bike and the kid that bought it ended up in the hospital.

Kaleb's 5th Birthday

Yesterday was my grandson Kaleb's fifth birthday. We celebrated last Saturday with cake and ice cream and lots of hustle and bustle. Boy oh boy they grow up fast.

Jerry's Helping GM and Sporting a New Truck

My buddy Jerry Katz bought a new GM Sierra full size pickup last week. He's moving up. When I met him he was driving a Volkswagen Bug (gay). Then he moved up to the Colorado pickup. Now he's running with the big dogs.

Arches National Park

Last week while in Moab Utah, we went to Arches National Park.


Arches National Park preserves over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, like the world-famous Delicate Arch, as well as many other unusual rock formations. In some areas, the forces of nature have exposed millions of years of geologic history. The extraordinary features of the park create a landscape of contrasting colors, landforms and textures that is unlike any other in the world.

Geocaching on Casper Mountain

Erin, Makita and myself did some Geocaching while we were in Wyoming. Erin is a really good seeker. This cache was awesome. We walked by it a few times before we actually realized it was the cache.

Eddie's Grounded

Eddie is grounded. He can't come out to play. Don't expect to see him roaming the roads anytime in the near future.

He is a relatively good boy. He works perfectly. No problems on our trip last week...except he only gets 8 miles per gallon. Which would be okay if we were going to Duluth. But Eddie ate an incredible $900.28 worth of fuel last week. Granted he went a whopping 2961 miles. He's grounded and that's all there is to it. Good news is: "Shitter's Empty".

Matt's Graduation Openhouse

Last weekend was Matt's Graduation Openhouse. He's preparing to ship off to the Airforce in just a few weeks. It actually snowed up there on the mountain that day.

Whitewater Rafting the Colorado

Yesterday we went rafting on the Colorado. It was a hoot. Everyone did really well. Only Lorrie fell out! OMG.........

Eddie's Newly Improved Spare Tire Cover

Mike recently painted Eddie's spare tire cover and installed it last night. It's so darn shiny it's hard to take a photo of. I love love love it! So does Eddie. Dresses his hinder up. The perks of being a parent.

Luke and Samantha Borden Graduation Open House

Saturday was Luke and Samantha's Graduation Open House.

There were lots and lots of people that stopped by.

Maggie was a dancing queen.


Monty played and sang for us. Dick was a Dancing Queen.

Tom stole Monty's guitar and played for us.

Kimkay was a Dancing Queen.

Kyle Graduates from 4th Grade

Congratulations Kyle for Graduating from Lowell Elementary 4th Grade. Now he's off to the new Forestview Baxter school next year.

If you look real hard at the photo below (my camera is a piece of crap), Kyle is the third from RIGHT in the bottom row of students. As usual he isn't smiling.

Makita Trys to Save GM from Bankruptcy

Makita trys to save GM from bankruptcy with his recent purchase of a 2009 GMC Sierra truck. Thanks for your patriotism big guy. A little apple pie and a hotdog should finish the deal.

Sammy and Luke's Graduation Party

This upcoming Saturday is my nephew Luke Borden and Niece Samatha Borden's High School Graduation Open House. We'll be making the trek down to Danvers for the party. We're taking Eddie and at Joy's request, my singing voice. Sounds like the party may last well into the evening.

Trout Lake May 2009

Trout Lake was exactly as I remembered it. We did a jog on Vermilion to the Trout Lake Portage where they picked us up with a four wheeler and drove us across to the BWCA Trout Lake. We had the canoe on top of the boat (as you can see from the photo above).

In honor of Mike, whom made me promise not to break tradition, we cracked our first beer on the portage at 9:10 am.


My friends Ellie and Dave had come in a couple days ahead of us and secured us a great campsite. Thanks goodness they did that because the sites where pretty much all taken. We met a guy from Belle Plain and Ellie had to break it to him.... "dude you're (in trouble)".



Nikki like to sleep really close to the fire. She also liked to eat sticks and throw up in the middle of the night.


Fishing was pretty good. The weather was pretty good. Everything was down right pretty good.




Look for the complete slide show of photos on the left hand side of this blog.

Happy Birthday Bob

Tomorrow, May 22nd, is my brother Bob's birthday. He will be celebrating it over in Afghanistan. Yesterday I received an email with these two photos from him. He says he's doing good and "It is very hot here. It runs about 110 to 115 degrees right know. That's the good news, the bad news is it's going to get a lot hotter". Oh boy. The first photo is of Bob (second from the right), some of the guys he works with and some ABP Soldiers.



This second picture is of Bob with one of his interpreters and a local.

Ellie and Dave made it to Trout

Let me start by saying it's about as windy as I've seen it. That being said, somehow Ellie and Dave made it out to Trout Lake in the BWCA this morning. I received a call from Ellie before 8 this morning saying they were having trouble getting their permit. Evidently the place (Fortune Bay Casino) where we've picked up our permits for years, doesn't issue permits until June 1st now. So they drove to Cook to the Ranger station and were able to get it. Then she called about 10:30 am with a garbled message. All I got out of it was "channel" and "life jackets". This I interpreted as they had made it to the channel between Trout and Little Trout (where we usually stay) and that she recommended wearing a life jacket in the 30 mile an hour winds. We'll be going up Friday to meet them. I hope they stay hunkered down now until the winds subside.

Above is a photo of the channel.