Kris and a fountain

Kris attended a magic class at Glen Oak Park tonight, and she and I learned some simple and fun tricks.

Karen's birthday

Yesterday after a lot of work around the house we went to dinner with the Bosmas to celebrate Karen's birthday. Afterward we had a big thunderstorm that finally cooled off the weather. Today Karen had a French toast breakfast and opened presents, then we went to church and had a picnic lunch at Wildlife Prarie State Park. This evening we went to IHOP. Goofy thing: a late night TV rerun was a Christmas episode - Merry Christmas everyone!

Summery things

HOT this week in Peoria with highs in the 90s and heat indices over 100. At the same time Bradley University's science building has HVAC problems and was in the 60s indoors. Bugs has been a little ill this week, but I think/hope he is pulling out of it. Here is a picture of him resting next to an air conditioner vent. Our garden is doing all right: lettuce is fine and we are starting to get peas, black raspberries (big sign of summer peak), a few yellow beans, and five blueberries from a bush extracted from northern Wisconsin. I think this is the first time we succeeded on the beans and blueberries. Everybody has heard about the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson; RIP all of them. I have this dim memory of seeing Michael Jackson doing his moonwalk on TV in the early 80s and wondering "how did he do that"? Tonight we went to the Forest Park Nature Preserve to attend a firefly program (fireflies are another big sign of summer peak). The weather has cooled and dried somewhat, which made it less conducive for fireflies than earlier this week, but it was a nice show and I got a few time exposure pictures. I forgot to bring a tripod - it is hard to hold perfectly still for 15 seconds! Oddly, few signs of cicadas yet.

Cave Point County Park

Sunday, not long before we headed home, we visited Cave Point County Park, on the Lake Michigan side of Door County. The place is pretty, and Karen, Kris, and I find ourselves wishing there was a beach around here (especially with the heat we have been having).

Door County weekend

We camped in Karen's folks' backyard this weekend and had fun.

Matthiessen State Park

On Friday morning, on our way to Door County, WI, we stopped at Matthiessen State Park (see: http://www.stateparks.com/matthiessen.html). This park is close to Starved Rock State Park, which is bigger and more well-attended. Like many, I have not paid to much attention to this place...until a former student sent pictures of her visit. What a joy is was to spend an hour or so poking around in all the nooks and crannies of this place, and with all the rain there were lots of waterfalls. This sort of quiet intimacy with the sandstone dells was what I was looking for in Wisconsin Dells last year, but I just could not seem to get close. When we got back to the van I said to Karen that I was hot, tired, dirty, and sweaty and happy as a clam. Enjoy just a few of the many pix that I took.

Assorted

Here is a picture from 4 years ago today, along the Pacific Ocean in Olympic National Park. It was a beautiful evening. Assorted week. I stuck myself in the hand with a needle in the lab a couple days ago and it left a bit of a welt. I saw a doctor about it and it appears to be getting better. Last night Karen and I attended a CPR and AED class at our church. The resuscitation techniques have gotten simpler over the years. Yesterday the weather started to get quite warm and humid - looks like summer is finally here. The fireflies are really coming out. Our strawberries are done, and our gardens seem to be doing well. Lettuce, anyone? We had a severe thunderstorm rumble through at 5 am (Karen and I heard it coming, but Kris can sleep through just about anything). No hail here, but an inch of rain, wind, and the sky looked like a strobe light with all the lightning. Small branches down here, and a few doors up the street a house has its power line angling down across the street (with plently of room left for a vehicle, however). Karen saw broken and uprooted trees in town. Tonight we are watching "Slumdog Millionaire", it is nice. A couple days ago I saw "Coneheads" (it's been a long time). We saw it a drive-in in South Dakota on our honeymoon and again in Seattle in a hotel near our first anniversary. What is the significance of seeing it now? I found it in the video store!

Watermelon

Kris's friend Sam's family came over for a picnic tonight, producing this cute picture. Kris finally persuaded Sam to try watermelon, but you can see he was not terribly impressed.

Saturday items

Karen and I watched "Benjamin Button" last night - it was OK. This morning there was a hazardous waste collection in East Peoria and I dropped some stuff off. Seeing the people working in the yellow hazmat suits reminded me of the time about 20 years ago my college chemistry club helped collect and organize items at the Brown County Fairgrounds near Green Bay, WI. The people working this event were all associated with a particular company and had no need for volunteers. The event was held at the building where East Peoria stores some of the floats for their famous Festival of Lights parade each November. This small float looks like it has been retired to a field behind the building.

Our firewood supply got so low last winter that I finally bought half a face cord today. I hope to add more from other sources.

Tonight St. Anthony's celebrated its 40th anniversary. Bishop Daniel Jenky presided over Mass, and there was a dinner to celebrate afterward. I think he sort of looks like Santa Claus.

Outdoors stuff

No, not hiking, but a picture of Karen and Kris weeding at St. Anthony's Catholic Church, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend. Also included is a summer morning picture of our backyard. Last picture is of poison ivy, which is popping up in all sorts of places (including in our woods). I started to come down with symptoms yesterday, which means I was probably exposed over the weekend. Saw my allergist today and we are taking steps to deal with it.

Rocketry and fishing

Yesterday Kris and I went to a class where we built and launched a model rocket. We had two shots. The first picture is a frame from footage of her second shot, in which the rocket launched way up over our heads. The second frame capture is of the braking ribbon deploying just feet before landing - in a small puddle in a drainage ditch! The rocket was ruined, but it was kind of funny to hit the one patch of water in the whole field.

Later, we were witness to a con artist at work at a local McDonalds. She would stand next to the newspaper stand and pretend to have trouble opening it. A kind person would give her another quarter to put in the machine. She would pretend to open the machine as they walked off, but hit the return to get the money back and start the whole game over. The manager chased her off. It seems to me that was a lot of work for very little yield.

After that, we went to the mall to attend a cash refund event by the state of Illinois. We found out that we have a little bit of money owed to us by a Seattle utility company. While we were waiting in line a local news crew filmed the event, so we got on the local news (in the background).

This weekend is free fishing weekend in Illinois and Wisconsin, so today Kris and I again made an attempt to catch a fish. I'm a lousy fisherman - I have not caught a fish in over a decade. We have a couple poles and some tackle, so Kris and I have made attempts on free fishing weekends for about four or five years, when we are in town. This afternoon we tried a lake at Wildlife Prairie Park we have never tried before. It appears that the lake was loaded with hungry bluegills, and though our hooks were often robbed of their worms and corn, it was fun to watch the bobbers go under not long after casting. AND Kris caught one! After taking the six-inch bluegill home to measure it and show Karen we let it loose in Kickapoo Creek.

Concert tonight

May Interim is over, hooray! I also worked with a pyrophoric substance today. Karen, Kris, and I went to a free "33 Miles" concert tonight. They were pretty good.

Soccer Camp

Nice weather for Kris and Andrew Bosma at soccer camp tonight. She practiced headers. The Illinois River is projected to drop below flood stage for the first time in nearly 3 months. Tomorrow (Thursday) is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Though some details of the incident remain sketchy, the footage of "tank man" from the day after the massacre is unforgettable. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nXT8lSnPQ

Rainy evening

Severe thunderstorms are rumbling through the area, cutting Kris's first evening of soccer camp a little short. By the way, I checked the robins nest in our front yard on Saturday and found it contains one baby at this point.