Reclaiming the basement, and other mischief

Periodically we have to reassert our ownership of our own basement. What typically happens is we gradually spend less and less time down there until it becomes disorderly, prompting even fewer visits.

Eventually, the spiders take up their natural position as the rulers of the basement, caking all manner of clutter in their cunning and sticky webs.

The time arrived to regain control. The motivation this particular time was to create an arts and crafts area for Robin and T.



As you see, it’s turned out nicely, and didn’t take that long to put together. The spiders were easily defeated.

In other insect-related news, Kyle got stung by a nasty hornet while mowing the lawn yesterday. He later found out he was lucky he wasn’t attacked by the whole nest, which was in a hole in the ground he ran over with the mower.

Kyle figured all he had to do was dump some water down there and cover the hole…they’re only insects, after all. But some Internet research indicated otherwise. Apparently these are robust little buggars.

The two solutions seemed to be poison or fire. Kyle went to the store and found the necessary poison, but was deterred by the extreme warnings on the label. He didn’t want to go through all the precautions necessary to use the stuff and wasn’t confident they would even fully protect him.

Plus, gas and fire is much cheaper.

It also puts on quite a show.

As recommended, he waited until after dark. He, against his instincts, dumped gas in the hole and lit it. It lit easier than he expected, and burned for a long time. He was prepared to run into the house to outrun the flaming hornets, but didn’t see a single one.

Now we wait to see if any hornets reemerge today. Kyle finds it hard to believe they could survive, but apparently gas and fire are not always the cure.

UPDATE: They, survived! The struggle continues.

Oh…and one last thing. T got a doll this week. He likes to carry him around in the Ergo, just like mama and daddy carry him around.

State Fair

If there was ever an ideal day spent at the Wisconsin State Fair, this would be one of them.  T created many a great photo opportunity and now knows about this great Wisconsin tradition. 

Naturally, they spent a lot of time with the animals (T's favorite). 

 
This was also T's first pig racing experience. Since they weren't racing cows, I'm not sure he was all that impressed by the oinkers.

Robin made the mistake of sharing a cream puff with T. She won't make that mistake again next year.



They also saw a lot of their fair favorites like the horticulture building, the DNR outdoor area, and let's not forget the Wisconsin products pavilion.  Kyle and Robin ate baked potatoes, sausages, and an awesome cherry sundae.  T got a grilled cheese sandwich, and also scavenged off of mom and dad.

At the end of this day, this was what remained of T:

Needless to say, he slept the whole ride home.
It was a fun day at the fair with Nana and Grand-dad Bob...sure to be repeated.

Moon Beach Camp

View Full Album

The family ditched me for a week to visit Moon Beach camp near St. Germain this past week.  I stayed at Clint and Brienne's while they were away.  It sounds like they had a great time.

Robin spent many summers at Moon Beach growing up, so she knew what to expect.  Kyle, on the other hand, knew little.  He had a great time, but probably would have been fine with a little less singing and goofiness and a little more time outside.  They did manage to do a lot outside: hiking, kayaking, sailing (Kyle's first time), and even a little geocaching.  Kyle did a little swimming, but it was pretty cool all week, despite the beautiful weather.

T was a hit, as you might imagine.  He hit it off well with many of the other kids and even met a few kids his age.  He spent some time with them in a class each day.  His favorite thing to do was just play outside.  He spent a lot of time in the playground and pushing around a toy cart collecting pinecones.  He also played on the beach and delighted everyone with his blissful screeches.

Kyle and Robin left their work and Internet lives at home, which was good for them, but now they're drowning in work.  Serves them right for ditching me.

The family made some good friends this week, and reconnected with some old friends.  It looks like this will be the start of a family tradition.

Cows

It’s fair to say cows were the big hit tonight.  We looked at all the animals, and T kept sending us back to the cows.

 

View Full Album

While Kyle was suppose to be painting the house...

...he decided to tackle a computer project instead...surprise, surprise.

We recently got a new laptop because the Dell was getting old, needed a new battery, and was generally frustrating to use. The new lappy is wonderful, but left the Dell with little to do.

So, Kyle took it apart, cleaned it (very overdue), scrubbed the hard drive, and put it back together. He's used to cracking open full size computers. This was his first attempt with a lappy.

With a happy healthy lappy ready to go (minus a battery), the next question was what to do with it. Lifehacker provided a lot of great ideas...one of which Kyle used.

The next job is to get all of our recipes in there. Since this will be nice light duty for the Dell, perhaps it will still be around when T needs a lappy to torture.

Yes, Kyle knows he's a geek.

What's happening to our Honda family?

Recently, Kyle's dad thought it would be funny to teach T how to say "Ford Tough". T is a 2-year-old in full parrot mode, so it wasn't tough to accomplish.  He even managed to train T to do a little arm jerking gesture to go with it.

As you may know, Glen loves his Fords...and we're more of a Honda family.  Robin once spoke to him about her zippy little Civic.  He's immediately dubbed it "zappy".

Not to worry.  Kyle and Robin spent a lot more time with T....and they all spend a lot of time in their zippy Hondas.  Something tells me T will be retrained before you know it.

Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Sanuk

 

The Fourth of July was a fun one this year.  T had only been home a few weeks when last year's festivities took place, but this year, he was full-on engaged in the fun (Sanuk).

 

We had lots of guest again this year, like "Grandma cookie" and family friend Rachel.

It rained an hour ahead of the parade, but stopped just in time.  The parade was a hit, but T didn't make it up for the fireworks.  After the parade we went to Milwaukee and enjoyed a community festival there.  Between the parade and the festival, he was running on empty.

I'm not sure what was more fun...the Fourth of July, or watching T enjoy the Fourth of July.