The Wilderness

We camped out in the backyard. We had originally planned to campout at an actual campsite, but it turned out that the backyard was a much better idea, since we would have been without things like lighter fluid, and a roof.

Little Nora in the great outdoors.

Little Becky roasting marshmellows over an open flame.

Four girls enjoying nature's bounty. Sort of.

The two older girls actually slept really well in the tent. We eventually moved everyone inside on account of the thunder and lightning.

Damp

For the following pictures, I will attempt to transcribe the thoughts that are running through our daughters' beautiful little heads:

"Ooh, I hope Mommy doesn't think to look under her own socks....WHAM-O!"

"Someday I'll own you, Dad. You take that picture now, and put it on your little blog, but someday, I will OWN YOU and then I'll sell you to Belgium."

Lucy: "I wonder which one of us is going to be more popular in high school?"

Sam: "Me."

"Whenever we come to measure something, we ultimately create that system, by giving it meaning, texture, colour, shape ect - and the information thus floods into our beings/consciousness. The human mind is a dimension of its own, threaded into the external world of reality."

"SPRING!"

A Tribute to Deanna

Everybody else seems to be doing blog postings that honor their mothers, and I was beginning to feel like a slacker. I don't have any good recent pictures of my mother. Most of the images I have are from before she went to New York to get her doctorate and get skinny. She'd be embarrassed if I put up one of her old fat pictures, but she'd also be embarrassed if I put up one of her new skinny pictures, so I'm going to put up some photos that represent her awesomeness.

She's like the statue of liberty, except that her arms get tired more quickly and she hasn't corroded green.

She's like Xena, but she's not quite as handy with sharp frisbees and she's not as much of a Lesbo.

She's like Queen Elizabeth, but her family is a little more functional and she's more anxious for her son to take over for her.

She's like a gazelle, but wears clothing more often and has fewer ticks.

She's like Florence Nightengale, except she believes in the germ theory, and though Florence Nightengale might not be able to beat up your mom, my mom could beat up your mom. And she would, so keep your mom away, for her own safety.

Love you, mom.

Wood

So, I made a porch swing. Turns out, all you really need is some wood, a few power tools, and a willingness to ignore your children for a couple days. It's also helpful to have a wife who's willing to do the more annoying parts like sanding and staining.

Another recent project:

Avid tolmanitude readers may recall that we have a big shed in the backyard where we keep tools, sleds and corpses. Behind the shed, we had this:

<- This picture was taken a couple years ago before the weeds got out of control.

So now it's this.

With cute little squash and pumpkin plants like this.
And now we can do something productive with those decomposing Albanians.