LoeschDogg's Xanga

Jacked Up

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:07:04 GMT

As many of you may know, Spaceman started school this year. She seems to be enjoying it even though it is making her pretty tired. I'm not enjoying it for one reason: Jack. I've never met this little guy but I hear about him all the time. Apparently he saw Kayla on the playground during the first week of school and immediately started chasing her. Now she enjoys chasing him. In fact, it is her favorite part of school. It seems that even though they are in different classes they have gym class together. He bonked her on the head with a baton during a relay and everyone laughed. Not me. It got so bad that when I was urging Kayla to get a haircut (it gets super tangly) she looked at me and whined, "but then Jack won't recognize me". Perfect. Lets buzz it all off then.

I thought I would have at least 5 more years before I started hearing about boys. When I was in first grade I remember some girls having crushes on boys and I thought it was weird. I'm pretty sure I still wanted to marry my dog Mopey at that age. Mopey died, so I settled for Kristen. Speaking of Kristen, Kayla did tell Kristen that some boys and girls wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend but she thought that was silly because they were just kids. So it seems like Jack is just a fun friend to run around with. But if you think I'm gonna stay on the sidelines much longer if these stories keep coming home then you don't know jack. Or me.

Anniversary Surprise

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:04:28 GMT

Kristen and I celebrated? our 7th anniversary on July 7. 7 on 7/7. Maybe I should have bought her a lottery ticket. Instead we went to Taco Bell, Costco, and Denny's. So romantic. El Mano would be proud. Kristen bought me the sweetest Kasey Kahne hat ever. Kayla went in on a present for Kristen with me. I was so excited about giving the gift that I had to videotape it. Here is a truncated version (no long video's with dial up internet).

We will rise early Wednesday morning and head off to Michigan for a weekend of kamping with a bunch of Cedarville friends followed by a family reunion in the U.P. I can't wait to sit on the beach of Lake Superior and watch a sunset. Sooo peaceful and relaxing.

Footwear Optional

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:25:59 GMT

After we moved into our new house last year we started searching for a new church closer to where we live. Many church visits later we decided to go deal with the 40 minute drive and go back to the church we were at. Plus it is super close to Costco so we do our shopping after church. That helped make our decision easier (plus we really like our Sunday School class).

Today we went to the earlier and more contemporary service. Before communion the pastor had a little talk about how we have freedom in this country and also freedom in Christ. Agreed. We were then told that if we wanted to we could take our shoes off before we went up for communion (in this service you also walk up for communion kind of like the Catholics without the priest). The rationale for the shoe removal had something to do with being on "Holy" ground and having the christian liberty to do this. I didn't quite follow the logic there. He again said that it was our personal choice whether we wanted to do this or not.

I walked up with my shoes on. Most people were barefoot but the whole situation was very strange.

Would you have removed your shoes? For those that say yes, why? Peer pressure or something else?

Yo Quiero Derechos!

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:57:20 GMT

Today I was oh so close to experiencing the thrill of a derecho. A derecho is a long lived straight line windstorm as opposed to a tornado which spins. There are criteria that must be met such as distance travelled, length of the squall line and windspeed. I'm pretty sure the storm that rolled from Indiana to D.C. today met all of those.

I was watching it on radar throughout the day and once it got across the mountains of WV, the storm just blew up. Best bow echo I have ever seen and it just accelerated all the way to the Chesepeake. Numerous wind damage reports all through northern VA and MD. Possibly even a tornado in Luray, VA where Kristen and I went canoeing on the Shenandoah River last Friday. I saw a 64 mph gust at Fort Belvoir. I'm sure winds were over 70 elsewhere.

Anyway, I am a little sad because the southern edge of the derecho passed just to my north. Nothing for me. There is another line forming to our west right now. Hopefully the first one didn't stabilize things too much. I want some good winds.

This spring is the most fun since my freshman year of college (1998). That was my first real exposure to severe storms and there were plenty that year.

Our cable got knocked out from last nights storms and a few weeks ago our phone line got knocked out for 5 days! Totally worth it though.

Any storm reports from OH or PA? I saw a nasty cell right around Jeffersonville last night. Probably went right through Xenia. Do tell.

Alpha and Omega

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:10:46 GMT

I'm gonna go ahead and leave out many of the juicy details about laying the tile floor. I'll leave that to Kristen. We did get it done before my family arrived last week. There are a few things we learned and will do differently next time but overall the floor does look quite a bit better than it did. It was much more work than I thought it would be, but once you start ripping up a floor there is no turning back.

BEGINNING END

Kayla and I had a fun time last night. I hooked up the bike trailer and we headed down to a rec area by the lake. We found an acorn that was starting to sprout a tree. I'd never seen that before. We then threw acorns at a goose that was in the water. Slightly childish behavior but I found it fun. Yes, I did hit it once before it flew away.

Last week my Dad, Mom, and one of my sister's visited. It was very nice to have them all here. The house stayed much cleaner with more hands on deck. Food was also vastly improved. Come back anytime!

No More Floor

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:37:09 GMT

We are getting ready to tile our kitchen floor. It has been quite the process removing the old vinyl floor. Here is what it looked like before I began.

The vinyl floor was made to look like it was actually wood and for some reason they laid it so that the fake wood was running 90 degrees off of the real wood floors. Kind of ugly.

Here it is halfway done

The hard part about removing this stuff is the nasty sticky glue underneath. It takes a lot of scraping to get the floor clean. Here is the setup I found to work best.

For a family that all has names beginning with K, I couldn't pass up the Krud Kutter at Home Depot. First I peeled up the top layer of vinyl leaving the paper backing. Then I cut a piece of tin foil and used a super hot iron to heat up the paper and glue. The small heated section can then be scraped up and most of the glue comes with it. What is left is a thin sticky layer that can be cleaned up with Krud Kutter and some intense scraping.

The floor is finally all stripped. Now we just need to find the right color tile.

We finally finished our dining room. New table, chairs, chandelier, and paintings. I think it turned out nicely.

Finally, I must end with a picture of the latest birthday girl. Kendall turned 3 on March 8.

Kolorado

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:50:57 GMT

Such a beautiful place. I took a drive from Boulder up to Estes Park this afternoon after my meetings ended. Stunning. I was expecting lots of snow because Estes Park is at 7600 feet. Little patches here and there but not much. There is a hill in the middle of town that has an old rock cabin on top of it and it is surrounded by a nature reserve. I hiked up to the top and sat and looked at the Rockies. Stunning stuff. Next time I come out here I think I'll try to bring Kristen and we can spend some time in the mountains.

Kayla turned 5 a few weeks ago. Here is a picture of the big kid.

Here is Kayla with her first cake of the day. She loved it so much.

Here is Kayla with her second cake of the day. Kenni kooked it.

Why did we have two cakes? Kendall pulled the first cake off the dining room table and the lid flipped off and the cake landed upside down on the floor. Ruined. That catastrophe ended with two crying girls and one yelling dad. Fortunately everything turned out alright.

My newest home project is tiling the kitchen floor. I'm in the process of removing the linoleum. Not an easy task. I'll post pics sometime. My goal is to have the tile down by the time SweetRowles, RealEstatePerson, and my mom come to visit in April. Or I could wait until they come so they can help.

Playoff Time!

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:30:03 GMT

Here we are again. For the second time in three years since moving to the D.C. area my beloved Seahawks are forced to trounce the feel good Redskins. It is a little strange listening to some of the reporting from the enemies camp. People around here are basically dismissing the Hawks as a legitimate team. Redskins should have no trouble they say. I feel the complete opposite. Not even worried that the Hawks could lose.

Seahawks - 37 Redskins - 10

There you have it.

My health is improving. If you call gaining 25 pounds in 6 weeks an improvement. Maybe I'll have to adjust my eating habits back to normal. Or, as Kristen and I have contemplated I could go ahead and put on about 200 more and try to get on the Biggest Loser show. You know a former distance runner who devoted himself to his family and failed to take time for excercise but really wants to be able to play with his three young daughters but can't. I think that story could get me on the show. Then all I would have to do is start excercising and pray that my hyperactive thyroid kicked in. Winner gets a quarter million! Stay tuned.

On the I am a man front. A few days before Christmas I picked up a digital thermostat from Lowes. One of the ones that you can program. Installed it myself. No sparks or ruined heat pumps. Hopefully we'll save some money with this thing. Then on New Years Kristen wanted to rearrange our living room furniture. That involved moving the TV so a corner where there was no cable outlet. There were however three wires coming up through the floor for a satellite dish that the previous owner had. So I played around under the house and changed some connections and now the satellite dish cables are cable tv cables. Plus we get something like 10,000 more channels that we used to. Shhhh. The Canadian Curling Channel (CCC) is my favorite. What's next you ask? Perhaps a garbage disposal. Thats some danger there.

Weekend Warrior

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:58:44 GMT

My hands are torn up something fierce. Digging up stumps is not fun for me anymore. Only more left. We've been trying to make our yard look nice. I think it's backfiring. Time to shell out some cash and leave it to the pros. Please convince the wife that is a good idea for me.

Here are some pictures that Kristen told me to put up. I honestly haven't even looked at them yet but here they are:

Looks like a jump attempt?

Kopy Kat Kendall?

I've been off caffeine for 4 whole days now. Withdrawal is making me very kranky. Either that or it is my thyroid condition that causes irritability. Probably both. Throw in the destroyed yard and a failed attempt at painting some trim and nailing it up and I'm pretty grumpy. I had thought that posting would be therapeutic but it isn't. I bet Mountain Dew would help me to relax though.

The Seahawks played well last night. Why do they tease me like this. I had already decided that they weren't worth following too closely this year because they were just mediocre. Now all of a sudden they look like they could do something. Oh the ups and downs of being from Seattle. Actually mostly downs.

Eureka!

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:23:23 GMT

For the last year or so I was eagerly anticipating the day when Newt Gingrich was going to throw his hat in the ring. He has tons of good ideas on how adress many of the challenges facing our country and he can communicate them exceptionally well. I kind of agree that the current president has mostly good ideas but he does a terrible job of explaining himself and defending his decisions. Well, Newt broke my heart and decided not to run.

None of the other candidates excited me at all. The democrats are all pretty much socialists who want to take all my money and buy votes with it. Um no thanks. The republicans for the most part are strong on security but are phony conservatives on the social issues. I'd still vote for one of them but wouldn't be passionately supportive of them. Tonight I found someone I can enthusiastically support!

Mike Huckabee. Former governer of Arkansas. He's so not like the other former governer of Arkansas who became president. Glenn Beck interviewed him for a whole hour on his show tonight. Great stuff. I have it on DVD if anyone really wants a copy. The guy explains his positions very well. He is adamate that we should not put international law above the constitution (sad that is even an issue huh). He wants to eliminate the IRS, and go to a "Fair Tax", that only applies when you purchase goods. He stands strongly against abortion. He wants to say sionara to the Saudi's and get off of their oil by developing new energy sources and using the oil deposits that already exist in our country. I could go on and on but please check out the link below. It is just a list of topics and a short one or two sentences explaining his stance on the topic. Here is one example

National Security/Foreign Policy : War on Terror

I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. I will fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Home

The 2008 election is perhaps the most important in the history of our country. I believe it could determine if the United States even exists 20 years from now. Please be sure to gain an understanding of the issues and talk to others about them. It is scary how uninformed some people I talk to are about what is going on. The stakes are incredibly high. I want my daughters to live in a safe and prosperous country when they grow up and I'll do my part to ensure they do.