My Improved Lawn Maintenance Life

When we bought our first house in Olathe in 2003, I asked for and received a trimmer/edger as a gift, as I wanted to edge along the driveway and sidewalk when possible.  But that didn't happen very often, for several reasons.  First, it had a two-cycle engine, so I had to deal with having the right gas and oil mixture, keeping it on hand, and keeping it fresh.  Also, it was really heavy.  I'm reasonably strong, but it was a chore to use. And lastly, I just didn't think that it (or probably more accurately my use of it) did a very good job.  So I basically stopped using it years ago.  Recently though, I saw a combination package with a trimmer/edger and a blower.  I thought about how I spend a lot of time along the back fence ripping out the grass up against it, when really a weed whacker would make the job easier.  So I bought it, and it's changed my life.  That may be a bit strong, but it's been great.  First, it's battery-powered.  The blower and the trimmer share a battery, which is fine.  Before I mow, I put the charged-up battery in the trimmer, and use it as a weed whacker to go along the entire perimeter of the fence, along all the decorative rocks that ring the trees, along the edge of the deck, along the concrete downspout things, along the outside of the house, and basically everywhere that I'd previously been spending extra time during the mowing process.  After that I can then mow the yard very quickly, and the total time spent is a fair amount less than I used to, and it looks better.

On top of that I then edge along the driveway and the front walk (we don't have a sidewalk in this house), so that looks way better.  Then I switch the battery to the blower (I do need to charge it while I mow), and blow the grass clippings off the driveway.  It looks great, and is really easy.  I'm so glad I made that purchase.  Joshua likes to ride his bike in the cul-de-sac when I mow the front yard, and I thought he might really enjoy using the blower, so today I asked him if he wanted to help, and he was really excited to do so.  Here he is helping me out, still wearing his bike helmet.

Shinedown at Starlight

 Shinedown is probably currently my favorite band, so when I saw they were coming in concert this summer, I wasn't going to miss it. But it was kinda weird to me that they were playing at Starlight. Halestorm opened for them, so it was a pure rock concert, which doesn't usually happen at Starlight. The show was good, but it felt a little limited, I think because of the venue.  For example, usually Shinedown has some impressive pyrotechnics, but there was very little of that.  I'm sure the theater has limitations on what you can do, so that probably affected it.  But it was still a good show, as I always love seeing Shinedown.

A Big Ant and a Mystery in the Pool

I took the kids to the pool tonight, which was not particularly noteworthy, except Joshua found an ant on the ground, and it might have been the biggest ant I've seen in Kansas.  Joshua loves bugs, so he wanted to put it on his arm, so he did.  Look at the size of that thing!

Before we got in the pool, we saw this in the pool.  The kids were split on if it was a big piece of poop or a hot dog.  We were the only ones at the pool, so I thought it was feasible that someone pooped in the pool and then left, but I really hoped that wasn't the case, for multiple reasons.  But it didn't look quite like that, but I also didn't think it was all that likely that there would be a hot dog in the pool.  We wanted to swim, so I was going to have to investigate the object before I could clear the kids to get in the pool.  So I jumped in and looked closely.  I was relieved to find out it was just a cattail.  I explained what it was to the kids, and I'm not sure if they were relieved or disappointed that it wasn't a piece of poop, but either way, we got in the pool and enjoyed a nice evening of swimming.

My 20th Reunion

I'm not sure it's right, but the math somehow seems to back it up: I graduated from high school 20 years ago.  As such, my graduating class held our 20th reunion this summer, and it was tonight in Leavenworth.  I went to my 10-year reunion, and I don't think we had a 15-year one.  I had been thinking about what reunions would be like in the Facebook age.  Would people be less likely to go?  One of the reasons people go to reunions is to see how people have changed and what's the latest in their life.  But with Facebook, since most people our age have it, you know that stuff about most other people in your class, though certainly not for everyone.  For me though, it actually made me want to go more.  I feel like I have more or a relationship with my classmates because of Facebook.  So I was looking forward to going.  In the afternoon there was a tour of the new high school, as one of our classmates is an administrator there.  It was fascinating to see how high schools have changed.  They don't even have any lockers!  After that, we had some time before the reunion, so I stopped by my old houses, and also drove around town a bit.  Here's our second house in Lansing.  When I lived there, I never really thought about how oddly-shaped it was with that huge sloping roof.  I met up with Jeff and Josie when they arrived, and we drove by their old house too, which was the house Jeff lived in when we met in 1992.  We then went to the reunion, and it was really quite fun.  It was great to talk to so many of my old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen since the 10-year one, and many not since we graduated in 1996.  It was a fun day, and I'll likely prioritize going to the next one, whether it's 25 or 30.

Summer Trip to the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo today, as the weather was nice and we had some free time.  The food is not cheap there, so we try to bring a picnic lunch when we can.

Our first stop was the ape and monkey section.  The mama orangutan had recently had a baby.  The kids were very interested to see, and you can see why, as look how adorable that little thing is.

Joshua's recent increased interest in snakes made him much more interested in this albino python than the last time we were here.

Clara was excited to get a map, and she wanted to be the navigator.  But that mostly consisted of her staring at the map with a confused look on her face before finally declaring, "We need to go there!" and then she'd point somewhere on the map that may or may not have been a random spot she chose.  Either way, it wasn't helpful, but that's okay.  Hannah agreed to push her in the stroller, which was surprising to me.  She couldn't see over the stroller, so she drove Clara around like a blind person might drive a car.  So we ended up with Hannah blindly steering the stroller while Clara confidently told her where they should go to get to the next place, even though she didn't even know where we were supposed to go. 

The zoo stole our favorite polar bear from us and sent him to a zoo in North Carolina (thankfully for Nikita, it wasn't the Cincinnati Zoo, so he doesn't have to worry about getting Harambe'd).  In exchange, we now have a couple of koalas.  Most people say they are always sleeping and never available to see, so I suppose we got lucky today, as both were awake and visible.  Here is a cute-ish koala looking at us.  I'd still rather have Nikita.

                                              We successfully found both Nemo and Dory in this tank.  

And we went to the penguin house, because penguins are awesome (and not just the hockey team).  All three kids liked watching them, though Hannah did so from the comfort of the stroller.  They asked to ride on the carousel before we left, but we didn't have time.  When I got home, Meghan told me that they were really looking forward to that based on a conversation she'd had with them earlier in the day.  But it didn't seem to be too big of a deal when we were there.  Still, I'll prioritize it for next time.

VBS and CVS

Meghan will post more about VBS later, but I wanted to cover things from my perspective.  Joshua and Clara are both old enough to go this year, but Hannah isn't.  Meghan has to go early to get things set up, since she's volunteering, so I then bring all three kids when it's time for the kids to arrive.  Hannah and I walk Joshua and Clara up to their group, and then we are free to go home, as Meghan will bring the older two kids home with her.  But Hannah is interested in what's going go, so every night we've hung out in the back of the sanctuary for the beginning of the program, which consists of three or so songs that everyone sings, followed by a short skit that Chris does.  So while the large group is doing their thing, I'll hold Hannah and we'll sing and dance to the music.  She really likes it, and I do too.  After that, we decide if we have any errands to run.  Each night up until now, we've gone somewhere, like Walmart, CVS, Home Depot, the gas station, the recycling center, etc.  I tell Hannah the plan before we leave the church parking lot, and she tries to remember it and then let me know each destination as we leave the previous one.  It's been a really fun time for just the two of us to hang out and have fun, first in the back of the room in VBS, and then running errands.  Although tonight was the last night of VBS, and we had no errands to run, and she was a little disappointed.  But we spent some time at home, and it was all okay.  One funny consequence of her learning about VBS and then learning about CVS at the same time, is she can't quite keep them straight.  Like when planning our evening before we even go, she says, "After we drop Joshua and Clara off at CVS..."  She then realizes her mistake and laughs at herself.  Next year she'll be old enough to go, so we tried to enjoy this time while we had it.  I didn't have a picture of our adventures, but I did snap this one of the two attendees in their matching shirts.

Eve 6

At some point, most of my favorite bands from the '90s will be defunct and no longer touring.  But that time is not yet, as I still get some of my favorites to roll through town every now and then.  One of my favorites is Eve 6.  Their self-titled album from 1998 is one of my favorite albums, and I probably know every word on it.  So when I saw Eve 6 was coming to town this summer, I made plans to go.  The concert was in the Voodoo Lounge in the Ameristar Casino, because Eve 6 isn't exactly going to sell out Arrowhead at this point.  And unfortunately for them, there was a Third Eye Blind concert happening tonight in a different part of the city, so that split their already small demographic.  So the crowd was small, but it was an awesome show.  I was able to get pretty close, as you can see here.  But I loved it, and I'm really glad I was able to go and rock out, '90s style.