Happy 4th of July

Tonya celebrates her 28th birthday in the most festive manner.
We took the camper down to Don Adams field, right on the parade route and setup "head quarters". It worked out great. The fireworks where shot off right behind the camper so we had a great view of those too. Kiehra enjoying an ice cream bar.

My friends the Hopp's granddaughter Olivia is all dressed up for the occation.

Jessi, Mike and Lindsey watch the parade and wave their flags. It looks like Mike has a firework going off in his face. It's Lindsey's headwear.

Smokey Bear was in the parade.

Kaylie is the statue of Liberty with something tattoo'd on her forhead.

The kids watch the parade. Kaylie is very excited about whatever is coming. The rest look a little grumpy.

Wnuk's Blog

Anyone interested in keeping up with Lorrie and Brad's construction project can take a peek at their blog: http://ursapines.blogspot.com/

There's a link on the right hand side of my blog under "Links to Kimkay's interests" too.

Trip to Lake of the Woods

Last August Bill and Shirley Bruers and Makita and myself were invited up to Ralph and Ellen Vonasek's island on Lake of the Woods. We had such a good time. We were lucky enough to get invited back this year.

So this past Thursday morning we met Dick Valentine, captain of the Special Ed Boat, (rightfully named) for breakfast at 7:30 am in Blackduck. Then we all went up to Canada and Ralph Vonasek picked us up in his big boat at Mileys resort. We went out to the island and had a absolute great time. Ellen Vonasek never quit feeding us. Their 12 year old Grandson Reed was there. He is an awesome kid. He is very quick witted and funny. He helped with everything. Went fishing by himself. Cleaned his own fish. It was nice having him around.

They had a big old party friday night with around 25 people that came from other area islands and some from mainland. We ate and drank like there was no tomorrow.

Fishing was good. We had two big fish frys and brought home our limits of walleye. The Special Ed boat didn't do half bad.

Here's me and Captain Valentine on the Special Ed boat.

I'll put a slideshow up tonight or tomorrow with more photos.

Kaleb's 4th Birthday

Last Sunday, June 22nd, was my Grandson Kaleb's 4th Birthday. Tonya and Josh had a little get together for him. I would guess there were over 20 kids there. It seemed like 120. We got him a Spiderman life jacket and a Nitendo game he wanted (yes Nitendo... I'm not completely dumb. I know that Nitendo is over and out. But only after the kids told me).

Speedy shows...kinda

Well Speedy showed up yesterday and cut for a few hours. He left with a promise to return with a chipper and stump grinder. Makita, Mike, Kyle and myself worked and worked to clean up, cut wood and get the piles of brush ready for Speedy's return. Guess what? We never saw him again. Bad news: it's a huge mess until he returns (hopefully today). Good news: I haven't paid him a dime yet.

Speed Racer

There I go zoom-zoom'n on the motorcycle they borrowed me during rider class last weekend.

Still No Tree Guy

Another week has passed and I have not heard a word from SPEEDY. Starting to wonder about this guy.

Boston Celtics Win Championship

With a 131 to 92 blowout, the Celtics claimed the NBA Championship title. And here's crazy: Boston's 39-point win surpassed the NBA record for the biggest margin of victory in a championship clincher; the Celtics beat the Lakers 129-96 in Game 5 of the 1965 NBA finals. Congratulations KG! Minnesota loves you!

Whew...Passed Motorcycle Rider Course

Holy crap...it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. But I got it done. All I have to do now is to the Licensing Bureau and pay the licensing fee and I'm have a motorcycle endorsement!!! Yippy. Now on to shopping for a bike (I need a lot more practice)!

The class I attended had 10 riders in it. I thought they were going to be all women but I was very much mistaken. There were 7 guys and only 3 gals. One gal was about my age and the other slightly older (we must all be going through some mid life crisis). The guys ranged from 16 years old to 79. Yep...not a typo. Albert was 79 and had never been on a motorcycle before. I don't know if he passed or not but he gave it a hell of a shot. Just in case he did pass....look out on the roads for both of us!

Busy Weekend

Tonight we rode our ATV's over to the Mississippi and found our second Geo cache. I know it's not much but it's a start. It was a good find. But let me tell you, it was a ways out in the woods and the mosquito's where fierce.

Last night I went to the classroom portion of Motorcycle Basic Rider training. We learned a bunch of stuff and were tested on it. I got 96% on the test and so it's on to actually riding a bike Saturday and Sunday. Lets hope I don't embarrass us all and crash. If everything goes as planned I will have my Motorcycle Endorsement by Sunday afternoon.

Saturday night we'll be going up to Crosslake to the Manhattan Beach Lodge to see Glen Fry of the Eagles preform. That should be a good time. I'll report back later on that.

NBA Championship

Wow! What an incredible game. If you gave up at half time because you thought it was over you missed some incredible basketball!

The Boston Celtics completed a stunning comeback from a 24-point first half deficit to beat the LA Lakers 97-91 and take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, a magnificent win that is the biggest Finals fightback since records began nearly 30 years ago and leaves them one victory from a first title in 22 years.

The guy I'm watching, Kevin Garnett, is finally getting a chance to get the Championship title he deserves.

Garnett was drafted with the fifth pick of the 1995 NBA Draft by the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves, and became the first player to be drafted directly out of high school since 1974. After joining the NBA for the 1989-90 season, the Timberwolves had not won more than 29 games in any season. In Garnett's rookie season, the Timberwolves were in the midst of a transition phase; they replaced Bill Blair with Flip Saunders as head coach early in the season and made several trades. Garnett initially came off the bench in his rookie year, but moved into the starting lineup soon after Saunders became head coach. In his rookie year, Garnett and fellow newcomer Tom Gugliotta carried the scoring load. Despite having some promising players, the Timberwolves suffered through their seventh consecutive sub-30 win season and failed to make the playoffs. At the time Garnett was the youngest NBA player in history at 19 years and 11 months of age.

On July 31, 2007 Kevin Garnett, now wearing #5, was traded to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, cash considerations, Boston's 2009 first-round draft pick (top 3 protected) and the 2009 first-round pick Minnesota had traded to Boston in the Ricky Davis-Wally Szczerbiak trade of 2006. The 7-for-1 deal constitutes the largest number of players traded for a single player in league history. At the time of the trade, Garnett had the longest current tenure of any player in the NBA with one team, having played for the Timberwolves for his first 12 seasons (a total of 927 games).

Speedy My Ass

I've been waiting for "SPEEDY" Tree Service for about six weeks now. Each week Kevin (Mr. Speedy himself) says that he'll be coming around the ghetto "next week". So now it's become a flipp'n joke.

There is a large tree in front of the house that needs to come down, a larger tree hanging over the garage that needs a lot of trimming and there are the little cedar bushes/trees that were damaged this past spring in a snowstorm. They're bent over and need to go. As a matter of fact one of them is being held up with a big stick.

So I'm not holding my breath...just my temper.

Holy Puppies Batman

This past weekend we went down to Bob and Joys (brother and sister-in-law) to see their new place(s) and deliver Dad's camper. The homestead is awesome. Lots and lots of outbuildings and lots and lots of puppies. 23 to be exact. And that's not counting the adult dogs.

We also visited Bob's new venture, Cottonwood Creek Shooting and Hunting Preserve. That was awesome as well. It will definitely be keeping them busy!

Wings survive Penguins to claim Stanley Cup

Oil up the Winged Wheel, it's time for another victory parade. Hockeytown is home to the Stanley Cup — again. For the fourth time in 11 seasons, the Detroit Red Wings are the Stanley Cup champions. They used experience and grit to knock out the young up-and-coming Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory in Game 6 of the finals.

I personally would have liked to see the Penguins win but I suspected (and would have bet on) the Red Wings winning.

Now on to the NBA playoffs! Go Boston...go Kevin!!

Some of the Ox

Here's just a few of the Ox photos we took this past Sunday. People throughout the photos include Kiehra, Kaylie, Kaleb (all my grandkids), Tonya (my daughter), Jessie (Tonya's friend) and Coral (whom came with Jessie).

Ox "O" located at Lakewood Bank Baxter. King of the Lakes. Artist Nate Einck. Pictured here is Tonya, Coral, Kiehra and Kaylie.

These two photos are of each side of Ox "Q" located at Lewies RV, Baxter. Another Day and Night in Paradise. Artist Duane and Angie Barnhart (happens that Duane is my third cousin. His mother and my mother are first cousins). Pictured in the second photo is Jessie, Kaleb, Kaylie, Kiehra and Coral.

Ox "N" located at Insty Prints Brainerd. Jackson PoolOx. Artist Millie Engisch-Morris.

Ox "J" located downtown Brainerd. Oxygen. Artist Chip Borkenhagen.

Ox "T" located at Russell Herder in Brainerd. Ox in Sox. Artist Brian Herder.

Ox "C" located at Brainerd Savings and Loan. Babe's Bank is Best. Artist Josh Johnson.

Ox "R" located at Minnesota School of Diving. Scuba Ox. Artists Evelyn Mathies & Jane Matthies-Holtman.

There's a bunch more Ox (or as Kaleb says "moose") that we visited but I tire of this project now.

A note from the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce: "Babe the Blue Ox, the larger-than-life legend of the Brainerd Lakes Area, is on the loose. Sightings have been reported at numerous locations throughout the region and are being described as an "oxpedition of art" due to Babe's clever disguises. Your mission: Find Babe. And you only have a few months. Babe will be out and about beginning Fishing Opener until Labor Day. While on your search, record the unique ID codes that are located at the base of each ox statue on your official Oxtrot Registration Form. Collect as many of the unique ID codes as possilbe. Then, mail your registration form to the Brainerd Lakes Chamber to be entered in a drawing to win an exciting Brainerd Lakes vaction package."

http://www.explorebrainerdlakes.com/

Stay tuned for actual photos of the ox. The grandkids went on an ox hunt yesterday.

Jerry gets a new bike

Here's my friend Jerry Katz from Alabama showing off his new bike. It would appear that the guy he's showing it to is looking at it like "you expect me to believe your actually going to ride that"?

Here's Jerry's old bike. Let's hope he takes better care of the new one.

I dragged out my bike as well. It needed some dusting off, air in the tires and a seat adjustment but overall it was ready to go. Makita, who is in terrible need of a bike as he's riding his dad's old bike, (what the hell) and myself rode over to Lum Park the other night and found a cache stashed there. And the best part was I didn't even fall off or crash into anything.

Kaylie Graduates from Kindergarten

Kaylie (my middle Grandchild) gives a wave as she marches around the High School Track with almost 600 other School District 181 Kindergartners.

Kaylie's the one in the braids. It would appear she's chosen an albino as a friend.

Wheel'n in Effie

Here we are, from left to right: Me, Mark, Pat, Nikki (Mark and Pat's Beagle), Kurt, Robin and Makita. We went up to Effie and joined Kurt and Robin Hopp on Friday. They had gone up on Wednesday. That evening while we were sitting around the fire our "next door neighbors" camping beside us came over and introduced themselves. They are Mark and Pat Neurauter from Bemidji. We rode with them for the next two days. Nikki road on the front of Pat's wheeler in the purple bucket. Crazy dog.

Mark and Pat are Geocacher's and they showed me the ropes. It was a blast. I found the first one we were looking for. Mark left something and Pat took something. We sought out two that day.

Here I come through the mud. The trails were really really wet.

Check out the complete slideshow of the trip on my blog.

Ladies Start Your Engines

Memorial weekend is a big weekend in racing with both the Nascar Sprint Coca Cola 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway Charlotte NC and the IRL Indy 500. Watch #7 Danica Patrick (above) starting in row 2 in the #5 position. She's on fire. Also look for Sarah Fisher (below) car #67 , she's a record setter and a regular on the open wheel circuit.