Your craft

I have for a long time now been wondering what happened to all the craftsmen (and women, I am ranting so get off my case) in the world. If you know where they went, please call me and let me know. I need a few to do some quality work.

We have had much work done to our house and cars in the past year. No one really gives a shit. I detest all those non-give-a-shitters. Look it it is really simple, if you are going to do something and you are planning to charge me money for that something, make sure you are at least as good as me at your something. Charging me a premium only pisses me off if you suck at your chosen craft. Know that I am watching. Know that if the gutters leak after you put them up that you will be coming back until they do not leak. Know that if you replace my roof and there is an ice dam in the corner I will be calling you. Know that if you replace my transmission and there is a funny noise in the wheel well where you took the front wheel assembly off, you will fix it.

Also know that if you chose to mess with me about it that I will call your bitch ass out. Lets say that you happen to replace a computer cluster in a Ford and you don't do it correctly, not once, not twice but three times, I will come back. Also know that if you refuse to complete your work like, say, Lakewood Auto Electric on the corner of Kipling and Colfax and I have to pay someone else to get the seat heater working after you pooch the job, I will bad mouth your service to anyone that will listen. Don't treat me poorly, take my money and expect me to lay down. One less auto electric service shop? So what.

So there I was cleaning the bathroom and one thing led to another. Pretty soon the walls were down and the ceiling off and the carpet (and old linoleum) were out.So this is why men don't clean the toilet.

Family Days

Sometimes we plan to do something big for the weekend. Sometimes those plans don't exactly get executed. Last weekend we were sure we needed to go camping since we can feel summer drawing to a close.

Instead, we worked on the house, made a new sage garden with the plants Moma and Papa gave me for my birthday this year, and cleaned the garage. Not exactly a big camping adventure, but we did manage to go out to dinner up in the mountain town of Evergreen, where the temperature was a balmy 78, compared to the 93 we were experiencing down here in Denver. Thanks for dinner Mom, I used birthday money for that too!

After dinner we went for a walk around the lake and played and talked and had some more family time. I love being a Dukesherer!

I took this photo of Ace while she was climbing on a children's statue near the lake. Often she is in the right place at the right time when I snap pictures. Sometimes everything is perfect. The light. The composition. The kid. This was taken with a camera phone. It makes me wish I had a real camera to work with. More on that some other time.

It is sufficient to say that I had a great weekend. The kids helped us with all our projects and the feeling I get when I look at this picture tells me that the love is big, even when the adventures are small.

I promise to listen

Last evening something came up and I heard a few things about our children's behavior that made me squirm a little. No one's kids are perfect right?

So here is what I did. I listened. I listened to my beautiful wife weave me the tale as it was presented to her. I listened and tried only to interject, if I had what I felt was an important question, to clarify the issues.

Then we talked about it. I listened to Margo's words and feelings as she tried to sort everything out. When it was my turn to speak, I was careful to guard my tongue and my tone. That makes everything nicer, you see?

Then we took the time to listen to our children's memories of the events.

From all this listening we have formed a plan to correct the past and improve the future and we have been able to act on our plan as a family. A well informed family.

I love being a Dukesherer!

Hail, hail the gangs all here. And safe

We had quite a storm last night. Big hail. 1.25 inches at it's biggest would be my guess, though I did not measure any.
That green strip is the gravel driveway covered in leaves from the cherry tree and the tree of love.
Extreme close up!
The shades are wrecked. Looks like a trip to the store for more. The roof is trashed too.
This is what is left of our garden. Last night the beans and peas were anywhere from knee to hip high.

Last night we experienced the most intense storm I have ever seen, here or anywhere for that matter. We are safe and sound and that is all that matters.

I promise

Gacie?

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of posts to my children and wife. In these promise posts I will make promises to my family. Important promises.

I promise not to skip summer this year.

I promise to rage like a little kid this summer.

I promise to watch out for my family.

I promise ride the roller coaster 3 times!

And for you adoring fans (both of you), I promise to try to remember to hold my phone upright instead of sideways while taking video of us not skipping summer.

Love,
Jay

Two of my favorite things...

O.K. So for those of you that don't know, I love bacon. There. I admitted it. I might be the only person you know that has ever made another person physically ill by eating bacon. That would be me eating, other person getting the urps.

That said, I believe that my addiction to bacon has been reduced to a more healthy appreciation at this point in my life. I also believe that with the Swine Flu pandemic, pigs are getting a bad wrap through no fault of their (tasty) own.

All of these things have come together to allow me to do my first blog food review.

I received this candy bar at a baby shower for some dear friends in a gift bag. Thanks guys that was really sweet of you. The baby should be here any time now and we are waiting to hear.

I love this bar. Mostly it is that salty, sweet thing that I crave, and since I love bacon, putting bacon, salt and chocolate together is super great. FOR ME. You not likely to enjoy it the same way I do. My wife and oldest daughter are on the no list.

Mom, I will be sending you one soon. You are going to love it.

I get my bacon thing from my Mom, who inherited it honestly from her father.

The bottom line, try it if you are a bacon aficionado. If you like mint in your chocolate, you might want to steer clear...

First Holy Communion

Memma took part in a service this morning to receive her First Communion.  The girls were nice enough to try to stop chewing the butter mints that they had found so I could take a picture of them next to the flowers.

Father Jeff took some time to bless the Rosary that Memma's God Parents gave her.
E only wanted to have a picture with her God Mother.  And Boss.
The kids were all lining up for a big class picture after Mass, so I quick, snapped a picture.  What a great day.  Congratulations kiddo.

Photography and Composition

Sometimes you see a photo and you are drawn to the way things work in the picture. Composition. I love the these pictures because they are of my children, but more than that, I find the pictures striking for the way they present the subject and surroundings.

The picture of Ace was a lucky shot (I think, I don't remember if I put that much thought into the picture when I took it) that I grabbed with my cell phone.

The picture of Little Dude was taken by a friend while Margo and I were out biking. Maybe that is why I love it. I keep returning to this picture to try to figure out what I love about it so I can file that in my mental picture taking reserves. Thanks Tory.

Pictures that I really love from Moab

I really love these pictures that Tory took in Moab last weekend and I thought you might like them as well. Above, Smallest Monster was enjoying some bop the balloon game and when Tory got down on the floor to take some pictures, he jumped right at the camera and he was able to capture this picture. So perfect!
Here we have a great picture of two beautiful women out on Moab Rim, obviously enjoying themselves. Checkout the girlie WaltWorks head tube sticker.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Margo. Ever. This is how I picture Margo in my head. Happy. Laughing. Lovely.

Moab

Last weekend we went as a family to Moab and it was so good that I feel the need to tease you with this super bitchin picture of, well, me. Margo took this picture with my cell phone while we were out enjoying some time on slick rock, just the two of us. Huge thanks to our friends Tory and John for taking care of the kids yesterday morning while we rocked some slick rock.

Here is a video of Margo ripping some fun Slick Rock riding for your enjoyment. I am working on a way to do better videos. Sorry for the low-fi. I will continue to mess with the video settings on my phone and different uploads. If you don't see this video, then QuickTime is not your default mp4 player, I will work on that too.

Busted Knuckles and a new bathroom

So my beautiful wife says something to me about finding out if there really is beautiful stone wall under the plaster in our 1/2 bathroom. 

BOOM!  I spent half the day getting plaster off the beautiful stone work in the 1/2 bathroom.  

Pics to follow.

Super Cool!

Whistling in the shower...

Whistling in the shower is great. So is singing in the shower.

Whistling in the shower at the gym in a community 10 person shower and making a yoo-hoo sound is gay. Really gay.