HELLO

He has been pretty quiet recently. He is planning. Also, he is excited to see HENRY soon. HENRY is his good friend that sails around the world, sucking. Bob hangs out with Henry Jr during the day and talks about dirt.

Bob likes the 4th of July. He likes the boom booms and it's funny when the dumb dog thinks it's WWIII or something.


Look at the fire he made! He made a fire, and it was good, and he was pleased. No salmon to cool on it, though.


Here he is playing with sparklers. He is such a little firecracker!! BOB!

Hobbies, or fleeting whims?

I've been trying to find some things that interest me so I'm not sitting on the couch as much this summer. I also need more reasons to keep myself outside getting sun before the I get hit with the brutal, tropical August insolation during the cruise next month. Of course, I can't be outside all the time...and usually I can't even SEE the outside from my windowless sarcophagus of an office.

Anyway, I am playing softball in the Science Park softball league at Raytheon. I'm trying to ride my new bike farther and farther to burn some fat and get some sun. I'm puttering in the garden here and there, but not keeping up with the weeding like I should. But I'm realizing that the things I'm interested in are typically boring to other people my age.

For example...

Everyone knows that 1.) I'm a scientist (at least by degree), and 2.) We have been geocachers since 2004. But I also like things that are relating to genealogy...which I guess isn't typical of people my age. So how do I tie those interests together? I'm volunteering to take measurements of old marble headstones to examine the effects that weathering, pollution and climate have on them. Here is more info on the Gravestone Project for the two people who might be interested. So yes...I drive around, find cemeteries, and take measurements of marble gravestone thicknesses with calipers, and mark their locations with the GPS. Yeah I know...it's not terribly exciting, but I enjoy it for whatever reason.

Continuing on the genealogy theme, I have also recently realized that Family Search is digitizing a TON of records so researchers can get access to them. The issue is that someone needs to input the data from the images so they can be searched. So I decided that I should volunteer to do that too. This is partially motivated by the fact that I like researching family history, and partially motivated by the ridiculous fees that are charged by Ancestry.com and other online genealogy sites to search their databases. When a particular set of images is finished being indexed by the volunteers on Family Search, the searching and document images are available to the public for free. That's something I would like to see. I think charging for public record access is ridiculous...even though it is a convenience thing. I've had a discussion with Karen before about the "price of convenience," but I guess that's a more in-depth discussion on the matter. I just started the record indexing thing yesterday, and so far I've indexed about a hundred records from the 1905 NY State Census, and about seventy Delaware birth records. It's small progress, but I think everything helps.

Also, I've always been interested in how people who call themselves bird watchers could possibly be entertained by their hobby. To me, that sounds almost as boring as indexing genealogical records. The other day, while at a retirement party for one of our superiors, he listed twelve things he was going to attempt to do during retirement. One of those things was to identify one hundred bird species just by sitting on his patio. I thought that was a rather far-fetched goal. Certainly there can't be one hundred species of birds in Central PA that would all be visible in one location. So I'm making it another goal of mine to identify as many bird species as I can while I'm doing other things out in the yard. I'm not going to do anything special to see them...but if I notice something new while I'm puttering around, I'm going to take note of it to see if I can come anywhere near one hundred. Of course, I think being in a more "suburban" setting here, compared to the other guy's more rural locale might put me at a slight disadvantage, but we'll see. If anyone is interested, these are the birds I've noticed so far (because I don't feel a post is complete without a bulleted list).

• American Robin


• American Goldfinch


• Northern Cardinal


• Mourning Dove


• Blue Jay


• American Crow

Not a very impressive list thus far. There are other birds that I know I've seen in the back yard since we've been living at our current residence, but I won't officially count them until I see them again. Another problem is that a bunch of the finches and sparrows I can see flying around move too fast for me to positively identify them. And when they're sitting still, they're roosted too far into our neighbors' trees so I can't see them. Anyway..

If any of you have actually read this all the way through...I'm sorry. You probably thought I was lame before, and now you think I'm REALLY lame. Sadly, I'm ok with that. As noted in the title of this post, I'll probably grow bored of doing these things, and move on to another "hobby" that I won't do long enough to actually call a hobby. That's typically how I operate.

Random Update

We've been pretty lax about updating the blog...which is really no surprise, given our propensity for laziness. Honestly, there hasn't been too much to update about, except maybe for my NASCAR weekend at Pocono with the MIL.

These next few weekends should see a distinct increase in activity, and possibly blogg-about-able circumstances. This weekend we are traveling to WNY to visit with my family for my grandma's 80th birthday. My aunt, uncle and cousins are coming out from California, so everyone is merging for a very rare family get-together.

The weekend after that we'll be traveling to DE for annual birthday celebrations for Kathryn (who's birthday is actually this weekend) and Karen (who's birthday is next weekend), and probably some late fathers' day stuff thrown in there too. I think there is going to be some amusement park action in there, and I will try to sneak away to do some waymarking of Delaware historical markers too...because I'm that awesome.

Alright...that's all for now. I know this was terribly informative and insightful, and everyone is richer for having read it. You're welcome.

The Great Flying Circle!

So I have learned something great! Once upon a time way before the fence grew, there was this circle thing. It wasn't a ball, balls are fun. It was round but flat and not very fun. When it came flying at me, I was scared!! My mommy and daddy would throw it to each other but when it came near me I didn't like it.

Then one day I watched it land on the ground and I ran up to it and pounced on it. It was dead! My mommy and daddy laughed and told me I was cute. Then a little later when I pounced on it, it wasn't dead! It flipped up and I took it! I could run around with it in my mouth! Like a ball! But not a ball.

And then sometimes when they threw it, it would roll around on the ground and I grabbed it! Then I ran some more! It was so much fun!

BUT THEN! I stopped being scared! It flew at me and I ran really fast after it and then I GRABBED IT FROM THE AIR! I did it! And then I did it again and again and again and again and again and it was so much fun! My mommy and daddy were so proud of me! I could catch it all day!!!




Do you see that? I'm a flying pup! My daddy isn't home right now, but when he gets back I am going to play more with the great flying circle! It's my favorite thing!!!!

Picture update!

Head on over to the Photos Page to see the updates!

Extraction!

I had my wisdom teeth taken out on Tuesday morning. After fighting dentists for years, saying I had plenty of room, I gave in when I heard the word "impacted." To be honest, I didn't see any sign of this so-called impaction when I looked at the panoramic x-ray, but that's probably because I'm not a dentist. What really helped me be okay with the whole process was Jeff - he had a tooth removed by the same surgeon a few months before and it really wasn't that awful. I found out they would put you out and then you'd wake up numb and not remembering anything. Sounds almost fun. Almost.

My mom and sister drove up from Delaware on Monday to take care of me. My "last meal" was at Perkins, which was delicious and probably provided enough calories to last me a few days of eating very little. Well, that plus the insane amount of Easter chocolate I devoured that evening as well.

The next morning we drove to the surgeon's office and I waited for way too long. After 15 minutes, I was called back to pay them (money first, right??) then sent back out to wait and get more nervous. I finally went back around 8:15 and two women strapped me in and hooked me up to a monitor. I prepared for the IV but it wasn't to come. I sat. And waited. And waited some more. After staring at the monitor, I figured out the blood pressure cuff inflated every 5 minutes, so I counted down and tried to get my vitals as low as possible, just for fun. I set off the "low resp" indicator once. And kept waiting. FORTY-FIVE minutes later, everyone descended upon me and everything happened very suddenly. After thinking that the IV hurt more than I expected, I felt very drunk for about 3 seconds and then ... I woke up numb. It was weird.

Recovery went pretty well, thanks to my mother who kept me full of things to not make me feel. The worst part was the next morning when eating nothing but 3 cups of Jello the day before caught up to me. I slept through feeling like I was going to die and things have been uphill ever since.

I really appreciate how nice everyone was to me. Although sometimes I wish we didn't laugh so much playing family games - laughing hurts! But seriously, I got to stay in bed and sleep as much as I want. If I wanted mashed potatoes, I got them (they were delicious and a welcome change from Jello!) So thanks Nee, Kamoo and Jeff for making an experience that could have sucked turn out to be not so bad!

I also do not feel ashamed to say that after eating yogurt every day for breakfast, and Panera soup for lunch the past two days, I've also had ice cream for dinner. In fact, I'm probably going to have ice cream now.

And in case anyone was wondering, no, I have not eaten that bunny!

New Photos

My parents came down to visit us this weekend, so of course there are new photos on the PHOTOS PAGE.

Guess what??

I'm Special Galen!!!

My daddy told me I was Special Ed, but I said "daddy, my name's not ED, it's GALEN!"

So I'm Special Galen!!

Nice Weekend

We didn't have any big Easter celebrations, or family get-togethers over the weekend, but it was still a good couple days away from the daily grind.

We have been working on a small patch of garden, and it has taken me forever to till the area by hand, 1.) because I'm out of shape, and 2.) because I'm lazy. I am, however, just about done with it now. I need to go through it one more time to loosen up the dirt and add some nice organic material, and then I'm going to go ahead and start planting some things to get our garden started!

The prospect of a garden is exciting on several levels...several, bulleted levels...

• Taking care of the garden will get us out of the house, i.e. away from the refrigerator.


• Fresh vegetables are always a good thing.


• Karen will be able to make a garden spreadsheet.


• If the gardening endeavor is successful, we will have some sense of accomplishment...something our jobs don't give us.

On to the next matter it hand...

Karen looked out the kitchen window on Saturday morning and noticed something I hadn't. There had been a pile of lattice and 2x4s in our back yard from the fence we took down in preparation for our new fence. This pile was now replaced by a bare patch of slightly dying grass. Where did said fence materials go? I think it was Leon's guys who were supposed to take the stuff away when they start the new fence. Karen thinks someone came into our back yard and stole it. Either way, it's a little weird. I'm going to talk to Leon soon about his perceived progress and ask if he has been in there to take the stuff away. If he hasn't, there are some pretty ballsy people around here if they walk 50 yards into someone's back yard to take eleven 4'x8' sheets of lattice, which were all still attached to 2x4s and nails and whatnot. It was no simple or quick task to take these things, either...because the way our cars are parked, you can't get a truck anywhere close to them. Anyway...

We also planted blueberry bushes over the weekend. I'm not expecting much, if anything, from them this year, because they're still very small. Maybe next year we'll start seeing some berries from them. That would be delicious. Until they're ready, we'll be heading into Bear Meadows around July for wild blueberries, and to Jackson Trail around the same time for blackberries. Also delicious. So if anyone wants to come berry picking with us this summer, let us know!

I guess that's about it for now. Tomorrow is our 2nd anniversary, but we're still not exactly sure what we're doing for it yet. Hopefully whatever it is will involve leaving work early and going somewhere nice to enjoy each others' company. I'll probably post something g-rated about our anniversary date later in the week. :-)

Weekend!

My weekend was fun!! There were a few scary parts, but mostly fun!


First on Friday we went to find a cache, but my daddy is REALLY GOOD at finding them so he found it fast. It was really windy but we decided to play in the park!! I walked past a sign that said "No Dogs" and marched up these stairs. Then I sat and looked down and there was this weird thing that looked like it should have been stairs, but there were no stairs. Then my daddy picked me up and we went DOWN! It was scary! But it was kind of fun! Look at how cute I am!!!!!! Then we left because it was cold. That was Friday.








WOOSH now it's Sunday and here I am being really cute! We went to another park! I walked up these stairs again, really happy because I LOVE WALKS. But just wait, here comes a scary part.
SOMETHING HAPPENED! I got on top of the stairs and I looked down this green tube and I saw my mommy but I was scared! I started slipping! I tried to grab on to the walls of the tube, but I couldn't! There wasn't anything to hold on to! But then as quickly as it happened, I was safely outside again.










I was NOT happy. My daddy felt bad so he
decided to swing with me. I don't mind swinging. But I like WALKING better!!


























I'm so cute!!!!

Sweet Justice

Last night he was laughing really hard! Jeffrey rolled over last night in bed and it made the dog fall off! Bob always falls off the bed and sometimes he can't get back on. So it was funny to see someone else "take the fall." HAHAHA


hahahahaha

New Calendar Application

Hello everyone who pays attention.

As some of you know, I've been tinkering around with calendar applications on our website to find one that will actually work without giving me a migraine.

I just ran across another one, but before I put it into the website, I'd like everyone to look at it and give me some feedback. Just check out the new calendar page that is temporarily set up.

Compost Bin

We decided to construct a compost bin today so we have a more convenient, and less Whiskey Tango solution for holding compost for our garden. Having a big pile of rotting crap in our yard just wasn't working for us.

Anyway, I think the construction was a success. You can see pictures from the event over on the photos page.

Commercials

We have been watching a lot of TV lately...I don't know how good that it, but it has made me realize just how many commercials annoy the crap out of me. I guess that makes us appreciate the TiVo that much more. Anyway, here is a list (I love bulleted lists) of commercials that I can't stand, thank you NCAA tournament for making some of these possible.

• The Chevy Traverse commercial will Howie Long and that little redheaded girl. She makes me not want to have children ever. "That's a little seat....I'M A BIG GIRL!" She needs a huge dose of stfu.


• The Geico Caveman. It may have been a novel idea the first time. Now I just want to punch them in their hairy faces. This is a problem for me, because the Geico gecko is still one of my most beloved commercial characters, so it pains me to see a single company with such good and such bad marketing all wrapped up into one.


• Enterprise Rent-a-Car. I will never, and I mean NEVER rent a car from them. Their commercials are so horrible that they should fire their entire advertising department. "Looks expensive! Mommmmmm, they pick us up for free! If it's no expensive, why didn't you get me a bigger car?!?!?!" HAR HAR HAR HAR kill me.


• He went to Jared! Another place I will never buy anything from. "OMG he went to the Walmart of jewelry stores and bought something completely unoriginal....I LOVE HIMMMMMM!!!"


• Spaghetti Jimmy. I guess this applies to all Capital One credit card commercials, but this one in particular annoys me. It's the one where the mom asks his kid which picture of him she should put on her credit card and it warps to all the little jimmy's eliminating each other in a game of dodge ball. Good concept, until you get the kid with spaghetti on his head at the end talking with his young-child-unable-to-speak-clearly words that so many people think are cute. If Capital One didn't have such an excellent rewards program I would shred my credit card (that I use maybe twice per year).

That's all I can think of at the moment, but I know there are more. If I can think of anything else I'll add it later.

Test

We got ourselves a real domain! How snazzy.

A country song in the making

Yes, it's true. I will be the focal point of a country song in the near future. If someone actually writes a song like this, I will be compelled to go after the rights to it.

What, exactly, will be the subject of this song?

I'm going to see a NASCAR race with my Mother-In-Law.

That's right, on June 7th MIL and I will be headed to Pocono Raceway to take in the Pocono 500, and we'll be doing it in style. Pit passes, air conditioned lounge, the works. I'll have to see if they have any camera restrictions in there. If they don't, I'll have to get some sweet pics of the cars, and maybe some drivers...except for Jeff Gordon, because he's a douche.

So, I'm excited. Call me a redneck if you like...it's probably at least somewhat true.

I Love Peanut Butter!

I went to Shingletown earlier! More on that later. I was such a GOOD BOY that Mommy and Daddy gave me the peanut butter jar to lick! I'M SUCH A GOOD BOY! Watch me lick it!!

Fence Watch, Day 26

The fence is still not here. Every time I wake up, I run to look out the back door, hoping I'll see a fence. Or whenever someone knocks on the door, I run and bark and tell them where we want the fence. So far, it hasn't happened yet. I'll keep everyone updated. But now I thi...

BALL! THERE'S MY BALL!!

The Fencing Process

We have finally started the process of getting a fence put up around our back yard.

This SHOULD make Galen happy. Every day I have to listen to him telling me how the fence didn't come today and that he would continue to look for it every day. I hate that he has power over me. I also hate how he can speak languages other than Dog.

Our real estate agents (Jacki and Cathy) called and e-mailed me last week, just checking to see that they still had up-to-date contact information, so I took the opportunity to see if they knew of any contractors they were willing to plug.

After they talked around, they came back with a contractor I hadn't heard of yet, but hey....we might as well give them a try. If we end up going with them, and they're good, we might even be nice enough to give them some props on this high-traffic blog of ours.

Hopefully we will be able to talk to the guy sometime soon and see what he thinks the job will cost. We're not looking to put up a brick wall with gold corner pieces, so if we are lucky it won't cost us an arm and a leg. Now that I think of it, a brick wall with gold corner pieces would be wonderfully tacky.

Anyway...updates and pictures will come later.

Cute Pic

I'm cleaning up my work computer today, because it needs some serious housekeeping. As I was looking through some files to see what they were, I ran across this image that Karen made using some site that tried to replicate the techniques used to make the Obama Hope poster. I thought it was cute, so I figured I'd share.

My weekend!

This weekend was so weird! I had an adventure! We got in the car and my people told me I was going to Delaware and then we stopped and I peed but I got back in the car and we didn't go anywhere! Then a big loud car showed up and then my car started flying! Then my mommy got into the big loud car and I jumped right in! It was really high off the ground, not like a normal car! I didn't like it, it was hot and loud and it smelled funny. But my daddy cuddled me the whole time and told me I was good. Then the man told me that I was being really good! I am a good boy!

We finally got to Delaware and I ran in and saw Shila and we ran around outside just like old times! We spent the whole weekend running! Well, sometimes she laid down when I wanted her to chase me. I'm not sure why she doesn't want to run all the time and never ever stop! I like running! I slept cuddled up next to my grandmommy and then I woke up and ran some more!

I slept the whole ride home and then I slept that night and I am sleeping most of today too. Running really makes you tired!! But my people said we're going to Delaware again next weekend and I'm so excited! I'm going to run some more! Maybe I will take a picture too. I am cute!

Getting chummy with the dental hygenist...

Ok...everyone who knows me also knows that I don't get chummy with anyone, so my post title is both untrue and completely ridiculous. She does remember where I work and what I do though, so clearly when she sees my awful teeth she is reminded of my past visits.

Speaking of my visits, I have now been to the dentist three times (or is it four) and the oral surgeon twice, all since November. I guess this is what happens when you don't go to the dentist in nine years.

For a little bit of back story, I've always known that I've had bad teeth, but I've hated the dentist since I was about 10'ish. At that time, I had four baby teeth that didn't want to leave the warm, salivary confines of my mouth, even though the other teeth were firmly in place. Maybe they decided that they wanted to stick around to replace the two congenitally non-existent front bottom teeth. That's another story. Anyway, those teeth had to come out, so they decided that it would be great to rip all four of them out of my mouth at one time with a little bit of local anesthetic. Needless to say, I wasn't a very happy pre-teen, and I hated dentists ever since.

Later down the road, I told my mom that I would only keep going to the dentist until I was 18. I kept my word. And now I'm paying for it.

November 2008 rolls around, and I had a tooth that had been hurting occasionally, and I was actually thinking that it might be a good idea to get it looked at, even though I didn't have a local dentist. I kept putting it off. That was mistake #1. One night, for old time's sake, we went to Sheetz to get soft pretzels, a task we would often do when we weren't trying to be so weight-conscious. Now, normally I would have gotten a pretzel that is stuffed with jalapeno cheese product that is generally soft and delicious. This night, however, I decided to get a normal, salted pretzel. Mistake #2.

We start driving home, happily numming on our pretzels and I bite down on a piece of salt. It was noticeable, but it didn't cause any undo pain. We pull into the driveway, and I have finished most of my pretzel, and I feel around with my tongue and notice that half of my tooth is missing. My first reaction is "oh s**t, where is my tooth?" My second reaction is "oh s**t, I swallowed my tooth!"

(Paraphrased conversation)
Me: "Honey...I think I swallowed my tooth"
Karen: "Are you sure? Did you google it to make sure?"
Me: "Umm...yes, I'm tonguing the hole right now."
Karen: "Oh s**t!"

So what is the next logical step when one breaks a tooth? Of course...you take pictures of it and send it to your friends. We got out the camera, took some pics and sent them to the Schuiers (one of whom is in dental school), and they forwarded it on to Mrs. Schuier's father, who is actually a dentist. This was a good scenario, because 1.) they loved the picture, 2.) Mr. Schuier got some good dental speak time with his father-in-law, and 3.) I got a good idea of what I was in store for. Of course, everything changes once you get into the actual dentist chair.

To make a long, boring story short and boring, breaking that tooth got me to the dentist for the first time in nine years. Turns out the examination (appointment #1) revealed that I couldn't get the tooth crowned as originally thought, so I had it extracted at the oral surgeon (appointment #2). Then, because I had to much build-up on my teeth I needed a full mouth debridement (appointment #3). Then I had an exam to discuss my other issues (appointment #4) which included two cavities that need to be taken care of relatively soon, and two cavities that are less urgent. Today, I had a fine-scale cleaning (appointment #5).

In my near future, I have an appointment to get a pre-consultation and x-rays with the oral surgeon to discuss and schedule the implantation of my new tooth. After that, I will be getting my cavities filled (in two separate sessions). And who knows when I'm actually going to get my tooth put in. *sigh*

That's my story about dentists and my current battles with oral health. Exciting, huh? Oh yeah, and I got yelled at again today when I admitted that I hadn't been flossing as much as I was told to. I figured she'd be able to tell if I was lying, so what was the point, right? Alright...that's all for now.

BOB

BOB IS EXCITED THAT HE GETS TO PUBLISH HIS THOUGHTS FOR EVERYONE TO READ!












GET READY FOR BOB!

Hi!

I like to go on walks! Will you take me on a walk?

My first official post!

Maybe we need to get more exciting lives so this will be entertaining to read! Perhaps also it'll get Jeff to take more pictures so we can always be updating things :)

We can start tonight with some adorable pictures of our adorable pup sporting some sweet Mardi Gras beads!

Testing the new blog

Hi everyone. This will be the location of our new blog, that both Karen and I will be maintaining. Totally awesome, I know. So to test a few things, I'll put in a bulleted list and a picture.

• Bob
• Galen
• The brown fox jumped over the moon with a spoon and a thumb in a blackbird pie...or something similar to that.