Bo's Area...

So yesterday I got the post holes dug for the chain link fence for Bo's little play area...

Today I got all the posts set and the gate hung... Now I just have to let those posts set for about 48 hours, then I can hang the chain link...

I suppose that is a big enough area, plus he'll have that garage there because I'll put a doggie door in that side door there... :)

Kids Daily Routine...

Of course this is how the kids like to spend their days... Going around, and around, and around on the dirt bike and gokart, and occassionally jumping in the pool to cool off... Summer time!! :)

The Party...

So yesterday was Chance's birthday... I can't believe he is 11 already, but they grow up quick!

It was Canyon's birthday last week, so we celebrated his birthday as well... 13 years old!

Chance LOVES anything about science, so we got him that Celestron LCD Digital Microscope along with some other stuff like a human skeleton, etc... He is quite stoked, they were dissecting bugs yesterday and looking at the pieces with the microscope... :)

We normally take the kids somewhere when their birthday's roll around, but Chance was like, "Instead of going anywhere, can you just give me the money you would have spent instead?" So we did... :)

Happy Birthday Chance!!

Chance 1997 - 2008

How To Give A Cat A Pill...

1) Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2) Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3) Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

4) Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5) Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

6) Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7) Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

8) Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

9) Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10) Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11) Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus jab. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss-back another shot. Throw Tee shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12) Ring fire brigade to retrieve the f------ cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil-wrap.

13) Tie the little bastard's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14) Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15) Arrange for SPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and ring local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

*****
How to Give A Dog A Pill:

1) Wrap it in a piece of cheese.

How True...

As If I Didn't Have Enough Going On...

Carolyn found this fence on Craigslist... So I have to put it up... :( We are going to make an area for Bo so he doesn't have to stay on the cable...

I'm going to put it on the side of that garage there. It will be about 50 feet by 20 feet, and I'll put a doggie door in the door on the side of that garage (you can't really see it in this pic) and Bo will be able to go in and out as he pleases... Plus, Chance is going to get a dog, and that dog will also be in there with Bo. So Bo will have a playmate and they will be able to run around and play without the cable... :)

Now I just have to clean this out again!! Of course that flagstone will soon be out of there, as will those boxes, which is the furniture for our deck once that gets done (yeah, it's been sitting there for a year). So it should work out for everyone!

Of course the BEST news is I got the refrigerator hooked up in the pool house, so I went and stocked it today with beer and water! :) I also cleaned the pool house out because I am nearly ready to lay the slate down... Of course I STILL have to finish the deck, get that boulder out of there, blah, blah, blah... The GOOD news is though that once I get the yard smoothed back out, Cory knows some guy that he can get sod from for $86 a pallet (it's usually about twice that or more) and he is going to sod the entire back for us... So SOON you might not recognize this place!!! :)

Speaking of Cory, he just got back from Wyoming and Montana... I haven't seen the pictures yet, but will post a few once I get them. Funny, I've been to most of the states in the US, but those are two I've never been to. Cory has been to both of them twice now.

George Carlin - Religion is bullshit.

I wonder how this guy is feeling about now, seeing as he died Sunday... Perhaps a bit like the rich man in Luke. Not that you can't question God, Gideon did, and God provided the sign Gideon asked for, not just once either...

Taylor's Turn...

Taylor wasn't having any of it, she wanted to drive the excavator, and why not? So drive it she did, and did a great job I might add! I just hate seeing people who can't or won't do shit, and I try to teach my kids how to do it all...

What A Day...

Exactly... What a weekend actually! It's got to be done though, and no one is going to do it for me...

One of the drainage issues I needed to resolve, and yeah, I severed the ethernet, cable and phone line AGAIN! LUCKILY I didn't hit the electric! Oh yeah, I ALSO messed up the water line... Whatever, easily fixed, all of it... :) Chance has been a trooper, he has been helping me all weekend!

Finally got that nightmare solved as well!

Carolyn has been busy as well, planting bushes, etc around the pool house... Looking good too!

What is the Suburban doing there you might ask, or not, who cares. I got that excavator stuck and had to break out the chains and use the truck to pull it out... Worked out though...

And then there is the boulder... Still not sure how I'm going to go through that yet, the kids want me to blow it up. We'll see how that solution works out. I just can't believe it's 12:14 and I'm still up! I have to get up at 5 AM... Whatever, sleep is overrated! :)

The Backyard Mess!

Wow! What a day, and more of the same tomorrow... Chance was a GREAT help today, and says he will help again tomorrow... Of course I'm paying him $6 an hour, so I suppose that helps... :)

While I'm At It...

This IS our next President... Like it or not...

Ugh!!

Went and got the gravel this morning... Doesn't look like two tons, but that's what I paid for...

Careful Matt!!! I thought it was a rock or something, I was trying to find where I had left off with the drain from the pool house and I severed the ethernet, phone and satellite cables... LUCKILY I didn't do the same to the electric, which was RIGHT below it!! Whew!

Moving right along though, although, there is a HUGE rock about where I am right now, and I've tried to go around it, but it isn't working out... :( I wonder if anyone sells dynamite?? Back at it early, we'll see how it works out... :)

Just Projects...

Yeah, not much else going on around here... Chance is LOVING his Extreme Science camp, so that is good! They are going to 'explode' the volcanoes they have made tomorrow so he is quite excited about that! The go-cart was out of commission for a week, because I had to order new parts for the front suspension, they came today, so the go-cart is back in business... The dirt bike? Yeah, I had to order some new parts for it on Monday, they called me today and told me, um, they don't make those anymore... Not sure what I'm going to do there yet, try and repair the broken part I suppose, it looks like it can be done... We'll see how that works out... :)

I went and got the slate today for the pool house, not sure how long it will sit where it is, but probably at LEAST a week or so because this weekend is BOOKED! Should look nice though, and I'm thinking about just using the slate on the bottom there, thoughts?? It will cost me about $200 to put slate on the bottom around the pool house as opposed to about $600 or more for stacked stone or ledger stone... Yeah, I think I'll do that... :)

So yeah, on my way home from work tomorrow, I'll pick up the mini-excavator and try and resolve all the "drainage" issues that I have here... Bury a LOT of black drainage pipe, so who knows, maybe I'll get it done, maybe not... Time will tell... :)

Other than that? Just life as usual around the Goodling household here in Acworth!! Fun stuff! I did actually go swimming with Carolyn and the kids for about 10 minutes today, which is about how long I actually even want to be in the pool... Hmm... :)

Oh yeah, the guys both have camp again next week. Chance is going to basketball camp and Tanner is going to football camp, and now Taylor wants to go to camp to do something, so we'll find her a camp to go to as well!

Perspective...

I don't think I've ever taken a picture from this angle... Kind of puts it all in perspective though...

I'm STILL putting those deck boards on... :( It's a chore, and it's SO freaking hot out, but I hope to have it done tomorrow or the next day... :)

Another shot from behind the pool...

Congratulations Carolyn!!

Carolyn finished school today, had a big test she was kind of nervous about, but she did GREAT! One more quarter to go and then I can retire!! :)

Happy Father's Day...

This was in the card my kids got me for Father's Day...

I wonder if I will actually be "Out Of Order" today or not? Time will tell I suppose... :)

Carolyn submitted this pic to WSB, and this is how it turned out...

Happy Birthday Taylor!!!

Of course it's not actually until tomorrow, but she wanted to celebrate it today, so celebrate we did!!

The Birthday Girl about to blow out the candles... Or rather, just having blown them out... :)

Taylor kept wanting to know why the boys got games (Xbox, PSP, Nintendo, etc) and she never did... So she finally has her own, which she seems quite happy about I might add!

The party attendees...

Then we took them all to DACkids, which is basically a huge indoor playground. They had a blast though. Actually Carolyn watched them play, I helped my neighbor tape over the windows in the Sports Bar he is opening next door while the kids played... :)

Tanner's Gallery...

This is some of Tanner's work from "Art Camp"...




Tanner and TJ are glad it's over, but I think they probably learned a thing or two... Creativity, an interesting thing... Give ten different people a canvas and a pen/pencil/paint/ect and they will all come up with something different...

What Were We Thinking??

Tanner has been wanting a gokart for a while now, particularly since Chance is tooling around on his dirt bike... He found one on Craigslist (the whole family loves that site! :) and begged us to get it for him as an 'early' birthday present, which was stretching it a bit if you ask me, his birthday is in September... Would almost be like asking for an advance on next year's Christmas presents on New Years Day... That's just me though... He DID talk us into it though... :)

Here Tanner is taking Taylor around the house...

Chance broke out his dirt bike and Tanner was in hot pursuit...

That is what they did for a while, chasing each other around the house...

I told them they could ONLY ride around the house today!! I can just see the huge track around our house if I let this continue, so I suppose tomorrow I will HAVE to find a place for them to ride in the back... May have to fire the Bobcat up for that one... We'll see...

Yeah, Okay...

Putting those deck boards on, as it turns out, is a little harder than it sounds... Well, if you want a straight deck it is... Then add in the 'those boards have been sitting there since last April' factor and, yeah, it's a little more complicated than just screwing them in...

I got 3 and a half rows done! Yay Matt!! Not!

I wonder if I'll get any done tomorrow? I want to, but we'll see how that works out... :)

Of course I DID waste an hour or so swimming with the kids, but what are you going to do?? It's 95 degrees outside! :)

I THINK The Rest Is Easy...

So anyway, I haven't felt like blogging lately, or rather, once I get inside after working, I'm too tired to... :) I've been toiling away in the baking sun trying to get this deck up... FINALLY to the point where I start putting down the decking, which will start here in a few minutes...

Throwing in a few 'extra' nails just to 'make sure'... Although the deck ISN'T going anywhere! My neighbor thinks I WAY overdid it, but whatever... As you can see, I have just about baked myself to extra well done... No where to hide though where that deck is, it is right under the baking sun pretty much all day, so I'm sure I'll be extra, extra crsipy by tonight as it is supposed to be 97 degrees here today...

Cleaned up and ready for the decking...

The decking should go on rather easily, the post/rails MIGHT be more of a challenge, who knows, we'll see... :)

So Anyway...

I'd say I've been busy, but I really haven't been... I suppose by some people's standards, possibly... Or rather, if you are talking about the general populace of this country, yeah, I'm freaking BUSY, BUSY, BUSY... :)

As many of you know, I'm building a pool house... It's NOT done, yet I've moved on to the deck... Then the other day or week or whatever, we decided to also fix the 'other garage' because the roof had started rotting on the ends...

It's actually almost done though, we hired the neighbor kid to do it... I've had to help him some, but really only for direction, but that didn't really take me away from anything other than running around getting shingles, etc...

Then the other day Carolyn and the kids took Bo to get a haircut, Bo was thrilled I might add!! He was getting HOT in this 80+ degree weather, and with 90+ degree weather coming tomorrow and likely to stay, I'm sure he is happy! He looks like a different dog though...

Of course I'm STILL working on the deck!! I did get the beams up, was going to bolt them to the posts, but I didn't have a long enough 1/2" drill bit so I decided why not let that wait until tomorrow... I just wonder how long this is going to take me?!?! I thought the posts were the hard part, then I had to notch 12 6" x6" posts... Who knows, the rest LOOKS easy, we'll see...

Of course the whole time I'm doing all this, the kids and half the neighborhood kids are all swimming and making a mess... Carolyn has laid down the LAW about towel usage... One towel, per kid, per day!! I don't blame her though, I got up this AM to take a shower and there were no towels?!? I did find one on the dryer though... These kids want to swim for thirty minutes to an hour, then stop, then swim for thirty minutes... ALL. DAY. LONG. :)

Chance and Tanner are about to start camp... Chance is taking an extreme science camp and Tanner is going to some art camp... It's just day camp, they start at 9 AM and end around 2 or 3... Our neighbor has her grandkid all summer, so she is going to take them to and from the camp, so that worked out GREAT!! Other than that, same old thing going on, just trying to finish these projects, working, tending to the family and half the neighborhood kids, etc...

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Yeah, I haven't much felt like blogging lately, perhaps I'll post something tonight... :) In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of our next President...