How does your garden grow?

I have been wanting to answer Allison's post about her garden for some time. I just haven't gotten the chance to get out and take some pictures. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity though with the picking of our first real tomato (pictured above). We are also getting some really sweet grape tomatoes. The basil is growing really well. I can't wait to have some mozzarella, basil and tomato salad.
The rabbits have completely ravaged the lettuce but have left almost everything else. As you can see, the tomatoes are the real stars. We are going to have a ton of them when things really start going. I staked a few of the plant this week using torn up rags. I felt like a depression-era gardener.
Finally, our sweet peppers are also coming along well. I am going to leave these on the vine and let them get red. For our first real garden at this house, it seems to be quite a success.

Earl the boilmaster

As promised in the previous post, here is Earl the boilmaster's comedy routine. You'll also see a video of the boil over. It was sure a great evening in a great vacation.

A beautiful Door County vacation

This week we joined Amanda's mom's family in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. Twenty-five people in all got together for this biennial tradition. We have spent a lot of time outdoors, walking, swimming and seeing the sites. This evening we took part in a Door County fish boil at the Old Post Office restaurant in Ephraim. This is Shirley's favorite meal of all time and we all enjoyed it too. One of our favorite parts of the fish boil is Earl the "boil master". He is a real character and tells some great jokes. I'll post the video tomorrow.

We've enjoyed the last of our summer vacations, especially seeing people that we haven't seen in a long time. You can see all of the pictures here.

Pretty Amazing Grace

On my most recent trip to Starbucks to finish off the rest of my Father's Day gift from Shube with a venti iced mocha, I found all of the CD's were on sale for $7.95. I'm not sure why, maybe our Starbucks is closing. (Alex, according to this map your store is okay. Shube the one near your work is out.) I couldn't help but pick up Neil Diamond's latest CD "Home After Dark". It is his second recording with Johnny Cash's former producer Rick Rubin. I'm not sure that Neil has had the same success with Rubin that Cash did, but I really enjoyed his first outing "12 Songs". If you're looking for some good music, check your local Starbucks.

I must admit that whenever I think of Neil Diamond and even when I saw him on American Idol I couldn't help but think of the Saturday Night Live sketch. I don't think he's really like that though.

They grow up so fast

We spent this weekend with Amanda's family. We hadn't seen them in a few weeks. One of the things that was different was how much James had changed. He has really thinned out and looks a lot older. Both he and Molly are changing a lot these days. See all of last weekend's pictures here.

The bulls and the blood, the stears and the mud

They call the thing RODEO! Last Saturday we joined Shirley at the Hamel Rodeo near her house. It was all of our first rodeo. We saw bareback riding, bronc riding, steer wrestling, and the kids stick horse race (see Ben's picture below). It was an interesting mix of Dodge trucks, beer, patriotism and crass humor. It was a beautiful day to be outside and lot of fun for everyone.

Ben

Ben is our firstborn son. He is inquisitive, always thinking. Yesterday Amanda told me this story. She and the kids were talking after breakfast. Ben loves to pick at his scabs. I know it's a little gross. When the boys were with my mom, she got them in the habit of using hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer was laying on the counter next to some chap stick. Ben said, "When I'm an adult, every night before I go to bed, I am going to use hand sanitizer, put on chap stick and then check my scabs." He likes a routine.