Blocksma Christmas Card

Seeing as how it is the end of the year, we are all due for a little recollection and time looking back.. and also, i know we are copycats of others who have already put together end of year videos, but i hope you enjoy it anyways.

College Bowl Pickum Tournament!

So, yes, there are lots of pictures on Flickr that i've uploaded of late, and puhlenty of stories that i've been to lazy to convey here, and yes, I'm sure my guilt of blog despondency will overwhlem me soon enough, but, until then, i have the following to anounce:


I've decided to open a Bowl Pickem' tournament over at yahoo: click HERE to go to the registration page - come up with a pick set and lets see who can guess at random the best! You do need a yahoo account to play along, but, lets face it, if you don't have one from 1997 that you setup when yahoo was the coolest thing on the block, signing up for one isn't too much trouble. (if you just go to the yahoo sports page, our group number is 28221 and the password is: spartans, and you can sign up that way)

The cool thing about this is that you can assign your picks an order of how confident you feel about them, and subsequently each pick is then ordered and quantified with different point values, ranging from 1 to 32. For example, if you're punch positive that Michigan State will roll Boston College you would set that at the top of the list to make the correct pick worth 32 points. But, if you're up all night trying to decide how the Boise State - East Carolina game will turn out, you can set it lower in the set for a total point value of 1 or 2 if you get it right. (hint: Boise State.)

Let the games begin! The first bowl game is Navy v. Utah in the Poinsettia (manly!) bowl on December 20th, so get your picks in before then! I think I'll put the same bounty for winning as i did last spring for March Madness - that said, winner will take home a pound of primo Bean Cycle coffee to celebrate with. Happy Pickin!

HO HO HO!

Mornings are fairly routine in the Blocksma household - arising at the sound of my wife's hairdryer, i schlep into the shower, have some cereal and grab some coffee on my way out the door for my 20 minute bike ride (if i'm not lazy) or my 10 minute car commute (if the weather looks bad... and if i'm lazy. I usually am.) to work.

In both scenarios, i have NPR giving me the lowdown on Pakistan's current political turmoil, some market news about how the sub-prime mortgage market has doomed us all, and usually at least one vapid hollywood star's birthday announcement. Sometimes, though, they report something that is so brilliant that i can't help but blog about it... so help the world.

In Australia, Santa is no longer allowed to utter the merry-making phrase of 'Ho-Ho-Ho'. That has been deemed "frightening to children" and also possibly offensive to women. Santa is now supposed to substitute the Ho's for Ha's, which, apparently is not frightening at all.

If you ask me, i'm not going to see a Santa who is standing in the middle of the mall, eyes red and sagging, bellowing at the top of his lungs:

"HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!!"

You know why? Because that is how Lex Luthor laughs, not Santa Claus. St. Nick is not a maniacal super-villian, he's a fat guy who hands out toys. It is so much more frightening to me to imagine a santa laughing like that than with the traditional Ho's. Am i alone in this? But, in the least, the story is able to give us wonderful pictures like this:

Happy Thanksgiving Merry Christmas everybody!

Why i am a hypocrite

Well, there are probably a number of reasons i could list here to prove the theorem in the subject line.. that i'm now ordained though never actually taken a bible class, i like to rock climb and drive a subaru like a coloradoan but i'm really a michigander, and, oh yeah, i hate television, but, we now have a satellite dish.

And the thing to drive me all the way to the publish post button was the sadness i felt just a few moments ago, when i turned on that tv and perused through the channel guide and I made the mistake of actually looking at what was on. Dancing with the stars, biggest loser, the unit, some terrible reality show on ESPN about people playing video games in a Winnebago (like road rules! wow!) ... all of which making up this terrible confluence of Tuesday night programming that makes me want to turn this new dish into a charcoal grill.. that is, until i saw my saving grace staring at me from channel 78:


Bubba Ho-Tep. It's a movie about Elvis (played by Bruce Campbell) fighting a mummy/zombie thing that is eating the souls of the retirement castle that he is still alive in. As i click the button to switch the channel, i check in to the part in the movie where Elvis points his electric wheelchair at the zombie, they tumble down a hill, and then Bubba gets set on fire.

Movie? Awesome. Evening? Saved.

Pumpakins!

So, we're a bit nuts around here. This past week we hosted a carvathon on our kitchen table, and the results were quite wonderful. Well, that is, the ones that i didn't touch. Mine was pretty derivative.

Can you guess which one is mine?

In any length, we are actually attempting to carve again tonight, if only so the pumpkins will not be dead again for the trick-or-treaters come around on Wednesday.



And, so nobody yells at me, the comic of the week this week is a wonderful explanation of why i don't find the Family Guy as funny as the next guy in our perfectly-target-age&gender-demographic: they ignore fundamental rules in storytelling and is simply a litany of old pop culture references. Thanks Diesel Sweeties, for agreeing with me.

Happy Halloween Ya'll!

Saturday comic of the week: Single Panel Goodness

Friday morning found lizzle and myself in a strange, unkown predicament: a mutual Friday off. Zounds! We celebrated by cracking open the new Local coupon book and getting spoiled by going out for Breakfast. Liz ordered (and ate) an entire brick of cooked Brie drizzled with raspberry sauce. It was impressive.

So, you get a saturday cartoon. I'm also a little surly, since I just finished watching the first Michigan State Football game that has been sent to our house by some satellite miles above us... and suffice to say, it was not pretty. Let's not dwell on it, shall we? Hey, look, Jesus riding a dinosaur!

Smile folks, Fall is here.

Friday Comic of the week: Please don't yell at me

"You're behind on your blog, Doug."

-My mom

So, how do you make up for such an unnecessary break in communique? Bible themed humor, that's how! :


But, I suppose some fairly important news is in order, as well:

My Fantasy Football team is now 4-1, and in a close second place in the 12 man league that Dustin invited me to play at the beginning of the season. I've noticed 3 things about playing fantasy football thus far: 1. It's made me oddly interested in watching football games between, say, the Cleveland Browns (for Braylon Edwards) and the Baltimore Ravens (Kicker Matt Stover) 2. I spend too much time thinking about offensive/defensive matchups than any human should, and 3. No one cares or really wants to hear about any of this. Moving right along...

I've been spending more time up in Wyoming for work, and have gotten the hang of getting to climb towers and calibrate weather sensors. It's actually kinda fun, in a hang-in-the-air-at-80' and having to manipulate little bolts and washers kind of way.

Other big news is certainly that Mr. Brian Bishop has asked his new **edit** belle to go ahead and marry him, and she agreed to it! Life's full o' surprises, aint it?

Lastly, we won't even go into the classic Spartan meltdown that the football team has been preforming in the last two weekends against Wisconsin and Northwestern, but i will simply mention that Breakfast In Bed is riding on the Indiana game with the missus... and i had better not be making eggs on Sunday morning two years in a row. All i'm saying.

Friday comic of the week: Kennel Club Distaster

A joke about getting shot? Done!

I've often debated how much of my love for graphic art and comics i should parlay onto this particular soapbox, and pretty much these Friday strips are as far as i've decided to go. You'll have to notice, though, that they are all exclusively webcomics, and not print comics (with the exception of Diesel Sweeties, which, as of this summer, became both) because the funny pages in the newspaper.. well.. suck.

And it seems that other people have noticed: The funnies just aren't funny anymore. And it's kinda sad, but, utterly true. I saw a trade of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes on the counter at the comic shop this week, and it made me pine for the good old days where I would digest the entire comic page of the Grand Rapids press in a single five minute sitting every day - while eating that just-before-bed bowl of cereal on the laminate dinner table tablecloth. Those were certainly the days.

Speaking of whining, i suppose i should take a moment and introduce my fantasy football team!

(click on the pic to make it readable. That is, if you honestly care. It's ok if you don't.)

While they don't look terrible on paper, they scored a middling 7th highest score of a league of 12 this weekend, and sadly the guy i was facing happened to be high scorer #5, and defeated Team Sobchak Security (we have a sponsor!) 123 to 114.5. I had a chance for hope with Larry Fitzgerald playing on Monday night, needing him to have at least a decent game for me to pull out a last-second-victory, but it was not to be. Poo.

Comments and prognostication appreciated equally. Happy weekend everyone!

MOOSE!

Well, maybe that isn't an appropriate title. I mean, it wasn't the focus of our adventures this weekend, but simply a wonderful moment on Saturday morning.


Friday night saw Liz and I bundle up and strike north to meet up with Dylan & Ann for some Vedauwoo camping and climbing on Saturday. Fast forward to saturday morning, as we're sitting around the campfire enjoying coffee and the nice sunrise, some large shadowy figure comes down the hill next to our site. Dylan and Liz look up, shrug off the tall shadows for someone on horseback, and do the civil thing and return to conversation. I, on the otherhand, like a racoon with tinfoil, continue to stare at our new neighbor as he comes closer, and then properly exclaim (with probably too much enthusiasm) - MOOSE!!

I immediately get up to run to the car to get the camera, and then realize that by running to the car i was within 20 or 30 foot of this giant bull moose and should probably not be moving so quickly. But, the moose seemed not to care for us, as he came down the hill into the clearning, and kept on moving with giving us a second thought. It was a wonderful way to start out a day.

A day that only got better, as we drove over to the Beehive Buttress, an unknown treasure trove of moderate sport climbs!! We split up, boy-boy and girl-girl, and Dylan and i proceeded to run up 5 or so routes, trading red points for pink points. I even managed to get a flash lead of a route that was supposedly a 5.10a, but then did it again on toprope to see if i could make it prettier.

Liz and Ann had a great day too, with Ann leading a handful of routes and liz dutifully following and perfecting her cleaning skillz. Upon returning to camp that evening, and after dinner was made and eaten, we decided to head home and sleep in bed instead of faring the cold weather we figured imminent. We may seem hardcore through these blog-colored glasses, but i promise, we're weenies.

For the weekends pictures, go here.

YES.

Is it just me, or does Ryan look Cuh-reepy?

What, me, post?

Hi Internets, sorry for the delay in contact. You see, i have a very good reason, it has to do with a renegade trucker on one of the more boring patches of I-80, apparently boring enough to drive him to the brink of insanity:


Ok, so, not really. But i do promise that we got on airplanes since i last talked, and went to go see Erik & Kara (college buds) go and get hitched. As this was a suburban Detroit affair, we saw some High School peeps as well as Aunt Jen and Uncle Ken in Milford with their criminally cute kids Asher & Isaac. Isaac rode his two wheeler for the first time. It was a pretty big weekend, all told.


I've also been up in the middle of nowhere (read: south central Wyoming) for the better part of a week a few weeks back, installing a 20 meter tower and big air quality shelter. I get to climb said tower a fair amount in the next couple of weeks as we hang sensors and what not on it, and the funny thing is that while i'll be doing that for pay, on the weekends we'll be doing our best to get out and climb up to heights as well.

But you know, for free.

It is also coming down the pipe that I may be traveling this Fall for work, probably to the Portland area, some time in Montana, and also to the southeast corner of Ecuador and also a couple trips over the next year all the to Tanzania. It's a little bittersweet, for as much as i love free travel, i'd love it even more if they were all happening over the summer months, so liz could accompany and also improve her abilities in ordering a beer in spanish. So, as things continue rolling with this new job, i'm sure that i'll do my best to post a personally-taken picture of a giraffe.

I've also begun my first-ever season of Fantasy Football (with a disaster of a draft story, as well) that began with last night's Saints-Colts game. So, while i've never posted much of anything about the NFL in the past, i'll apologize in advance for all of the whining I'm going to be doing about Reggie Bush. (My #2 back. If last night is any indication, well, ... yikes.)

What's that? It's Friday? And i've missed two weeks of comic posting? Well, aren't you astute. Try this to cleanse your palette - it's a comic from a new strip that i've begun reading about a couple living in San Francisco, called Real Life Comics. This made me chuckle, due to its nerdy/social-stereotype nature... which means about two other people will find it as funny as i did. Oh well.


Ok, here's something from a few weeks back, so i suppose it fits to post as a make-up for my missed weeks. It's a guest strip from Scott Kurtz's strip PvP, which is based around a gaming magazine for geeks. BUT, this particular gem revolves what cats are really thinking when you give them catnip.


Alright. I'm out of here.

Friday Comic of the Week: Twofer!

Oh Girl, of Cat and Girl, your personal introspective meta-narrative commentary makes me chuckle. Probably more than it should, but, who am i to stop from enjoying your brilliance? Am i made of stone?

And, well, to add insult to injury of my decision making abilities, the comic that was posted today was also simply too good to pass up. It stars one of my favorite characters from the Cat and Girl library - Bad Decision Dinosaur. So, in case the troubled, self doubting tirade of the comic above doesn't make you laugh, here's some more comedy, but with a history twist! Histo-medy!

Another Vedauwoo Party

Its funny, the amount of time that I've been spending of late in the equality state since i broke all employment and residential ties with it last year....

But, common sense be damned, we tromped back up to Wyoming last weekend with the regular crew of Dyl-ann and Mar-kate and camped out Friday and Saturday night. Liz and i were excited to get onto the crags, if only to relieve stress, but also to inaugurate the newest member of the family - our new rope!

Saturday morning saw us heading over to the Lower Blair Formations, where, after meeting and picking up Sean as well, we spent the majority of the day dancing between shady spots and belay positions. We shimmied up three climbs the first part of the day, which were all directly in a line and in respective difficulty ratings of 5.7, 5.8+ and 5.9-. (In case you're not familiar with the climbing grading system, here's a good page to reference. If you haven't noticed, much of the posts found here have something to do with this Yosemite Decimal System.)

After these wonderful climbs, we decided to set a top rope on one last route for the day: Intimidation, 5.9+. The climb turned out to be a 100 foot grunt fest of a crack, and certainly put me through my paces by the top of it (read: exhausted me) and sent home for the day with a wonderful Vedauwoo souvenir: exfoliated skin.

Sunday morning we rolled back over to the same spot once the tent was rolled up itself and did a pair of fun crack climbs before liz and i bolted in the afternoon. The first was a big, fun roof-prone crack 5.7, and the second a glorious 50 foot 5.6 handcrack that I could have spent all morning doing laps on, if only to hone the mystical art of crack climbing.

I put a few photos up on flickr here, but, per usual, Kate, Dylan and now cousin Ann all recorded much prettier shots, the favorite of Dylan's ill handily steal and post here.

Friday Comic of the Week: Coconut Dreams

Sorry to be so blank of late, but, truth be told there weren't many adventures had to speak of from last week and weekend, as I got to take a three day tour of South Central Wyoming (pretty, but, well.. you can tell why the settlers didn't stop the wagons) and then Liz and i spent the weekend cleaning the house. You know, a little Late-Summer-Cleaning.

So, we'll be up in Wyoming again this weekend, for a friends wedding in Cheyenne tonight, and some climbing and camping over at Vedauwoo to do our best to escape reality for a few hours.

I'll leave you with a little Natalie Dee - who, while may not make you bust a gut with laughter, i defy you not to smile at this little picture. Happy weekend, all!

Friday Comic of the Week: We welcome our maniacal overlords

Getting in near the end of the day here (it's still Friday! Lay off!) due to the fact that i've spent the last three days in the rockin' town of Rawlins, WY for work - setting a 80 foot tower base and pouring 16 yards of concrete. Just another week in paradise...

This weeks winner has to be from Diesel Sweeties, which never fails to illuminate the honest to goodness truths of life.


Also, as an update, my wounds are doing better and i now only have major road rash covering most of my chin, though it is getting better every day. I'll be pulling myself up to the top of hills with my face in no time. Happy weekend everybody!

Friday Comic of the week: Remember Bomberman?

If you haven't deciphered the puzzle of the things that i personally find funny, they usually are 1. nerdy 2. involve throwbacks to my growing up in the late 80's and early 90's. Luckily, this weeks winner manages to incorporate both numbers 1 & 2 (and even the constantly resurgent #3: Violence!) in which Super Bomberman of video game fame (he starred in puzzle games predicated upon the need to blow obstacles up) is brought in for questioning by homeland security.


You're welcome.

As for this weekend, miss liz and I are most likely off to see the new Simpsons movie tonight, and possibly some hiking around somewhere south of us on Saturday, until we get to gather up sister Rachel on Sunday once her Denver Stamping Convention concludes. Smell you later, internets!

On weekends and bike maintenance...

Sorry i'm late again, but, i figured i'd best give a report of what i did with myself while liz was off having shenanigans with the fam last weekend.....


Of course, in all of my running around last weekend, i didn't have a camera, so, all of the pictures in this post have all been jacked from Brian's Flickr page, and you can read his version of the hike we did on Saturday over at his blog. (Careful, as i've been saying for years, Brian is a born and near perfect engineer, and as such writes even his jovial reports of outdoor meanderings in the very direct, non-flowery tone of a technical paper.) (It's the weekend, Bri! Relax!)

Ditching work in the mid afternoon on Friday, i flew down to Estes Park to meet Gerg, Christina, Brian and Sarah at the very last reservable camping spot in Rocky Mountain. When they arrived on Friday night, hamburgers and cans of Labbat Blue abounded, and we sat around the fire and told some lies about how cool we all were back in college.


The morning came, and we bound up our gear and shoved it all in the car in our quest to get up to the Mt Chopin trailhead before all of the parking had disappeared. As we were leaving though, i saw the most Ah-mazing thing that i have ever seen at a campground -- certainly the most American thing i've ever seen. The gentlemen who had arrived the night before around 10:30 in the adjacent camping site with his Gigantic RV had arisen sometime around 7:30, and came bounding out of the spring-driven door of his rolling McMansion gripping a drip coffee maker in his right hand, and set it down on the picnic table.

I stood there watching this development, with my own morning coffee in my own right hand (created with the french press for our awesome JetBoil) wondering how he was planning on plugging the end of that coffee maker into the firepit and somehow coax freshly made Java out of it with sheer willpower and moxie alone. But, of course, he had a plan, and after slipping back into his RV briefly, he came back out with a wonderfully shiny 5 hp diesel generator. He sat it down, started it up, plugged in his coffeemaker, and sat back in his camping(!) chair and awaited his bounty. I couldn't believe it. Incredible. Half a gallon of gas for a few cups of brew.

So, after doing my best to shake this now permanently-grafted image in my head, we head to the trail head that eventually led us up to the top of Mt Chiquita (13,060 ft). Gerg and Christina are newly transplanted Coloradoans, so the 8 mile round trip hike that took us into the early afternoon turned out to be the perfect length, challenge, and gave us some wonderful views.

Oh, and i met a yellow-bellied Marmot!


On the way out of the park, we ran into the, oh, 3 or 4 Bajillion people at the top of the park at the Alpine Visitors Center, held hostage by out of state license plates and single-lane construction. Ugh. Upon escaping, we headed to Estes for some pizza and distributed hugs goodbye, and i found my way back home.

Sunday morning i packed the climbing bag, and with brewed coffee once again clasped in my right hand headed up to Veaduwoo, Wyoming to meet DylAnn & Markate at the Nautilis to get some routes in. I managed to do a fairly decent lead up the pinchy 5.10a Stand And Deliver, and then follow the group up Ted's Trot, a big, gutsy 5.7 offwidth crack. As the rain began to fall, we headed back to the cars and moved back south to prepare for the upcoming workweek.

The top of Chiquita

I spent Monday and Tuesday, though, oddly enough - back in Wyoming, 20 miles south of Rawlins, where we're installing an 80 foot meteorological tower. We dug a big hole which will eventually be the new home to 16 yards of concrete, and assembled the big tower which i will eventually be shimmy-ing up to install some sensors. Wednesday was a fairly plain workday, though, so this morning i decided to mix it up by losing my front bike tire as i left the curb on my commute - and safely landing directly on my face.

Wait, did i say safely? I meant incredibly painfully.

Luckily, liz is home this week, and after picking myself up and walking the remaining 300 foot to the office, she picked me up and we took a trip to the ER. I got three stitches in the new gash above my upper lip, and managed to remove most of my goatee by way of the pavement, in order to replace it with a pretty large piece of gauze. I'd post a picture, but, um, it wasn't pretty. Kinda the opposite.

That said, I'm ok, mostly annoyed, and looking quite Marv-like with these bandages on my face. First time i've ever gotten stitches, though. So i suppose i can cross that one off the life accomplishment list. Phew.

Friday comic of the week: Yaarrgh..

Ah yes, the periodically updated Perry Bible Fellowship wins my heart again - I can't help but love anything that Nicholas Gurewitch draws up when he uses this style, especially if he's depicting a pirate. Extra especially if its one of my all time favorite pirates:


Look at the undead eyes of those milky white sea monsters, their unapologetic maws filled with fangs, undoubtedly about to end the brief, but historic, life of this sugary sweet cereal purveyor. So sad. So sad. Per usual, click on the image to get the whole strip, be a little patient, though, the PBF can take a second or two to load even with broadband connections.

As you may have heard elsewhere, miss Liz is currently away on Holiday back to the great mitten to see Dad get hitched! So, congratulations to you two! In the meantime, as briefly minted bachelors are wont to do, I am going to see some old college buddies down in Rocky Mountain National Park tonight to camp and hike on Saturday. Afterwards, I may be heading up to Wyoming on Sunday to get some routes in (it's been nearly a month since i've climbed a rock, and this is a seriously terrible thing..), and then I'll actually be up in Rawlins, WY, from Monday to Tuesday for work when my blushing bride returns to the centenial state. Stay tuned for lonely and sad poetry til then.

Weekend Adventures

Even though Liz has stolen my thunder a bit, (wink!) I feel the need to share some shots of our hike this weekend, up to the top of Mt Bierstadt, which was Liz & Joana's first and my fourth foray into the world of peak-bagging 14ers.

The day started a little later than we would have liked, and we encountered more construction and and over-filled parking lot than we would have preferred, too. Bierstadt is south of Georgetown, on I-70, and little more than an hour west of Denver -- which makes it a very popular hike for city folks and out of towners who want to boast of making an elevation of 14,000 feet without committing to an overnight stay in the wilderness. Due to these factors, there was easily a few hundred people tromping up and down the trail that day, chatting up their cell phones at the top and making for a bit of a traffic jam in multiple spots.

But we eventually found the view that we had been hunting all morning for, and Liz and I have a summit shot for the first time, that is, together.


Sunday was rounded out by a cookout at Rotary Park (completely decked out by cousin Ann!) and a little bouldering, if only to remind me that i haven't been on rock in three weeks, and that skin peeling off my fingertips used to be helpful callouses.

Friday Comic of the Week: Superman is classy

As we were on the lam last week in the great state of Michigan, you'll (Rachel) have to accept my apologies for the void that was the comic of the week entry. Sadly, due to this travel, and my current workload, I'm still behind in most of my online-nerd-reading, but, luckily this gem from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal shone brightly from my feed reader a few days ago:

And, Ok, just because i love you, here's another one from Three Panel Soul, exploring the truth and wonder of airport security.

This weekend we are doggie-sitting for Mark & Kate, and are planning on letting little Liv the trail hound lead us to the top of Mt Bierstadt. Be sure to tune in for self-congratulatory pictures and wonderful vistas.

Quality time in Nebraska

Phew.

We made it back from the homeland this weekend, and in record time, I might add. Bolstered by the addition of Joanna to the caravaning roster, we set off from Middleville Saturday morning, bright eyed and bushytailed.

Well, at least until after we got bagels in Kalamazoo -- then the two of them requisitely fell asleep and magically woke up in ... wait for it.. Iowa!! Getting through the plains proved fleeting enough, and we decided to continue on, besting Nebraska's best efforts to lull me to sleep and got home in a single, 19 hour day of driving.

In your face, endless rows of Corn!!

Of course, the whole of the time spent at home was usually around food and toddlers, as is our joint family's wont. I'm sure that now we are home there will be a little less time eating candy, playing peekaboo, and possibly ice cream. Ok, maybe not that ice cream part.
As for culture - we listened to Bill Bryson's memoir: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Bryson's story of growing up in the 50's, in Des Moines. (What is with all of the Iowa references in this post?) It was read by Bill himself, and was a great choice for eliminating miles and miles of freeway. Funny, timely (that is, 55 years ago) and over the top, we really enjoyed it.

OH! IO!

While we don't get as lavish as vacations as some people we know, I am indeed writing you, my dear friend internets, from the Buckeye state. (What's a Buckeye? A giant Nut!) (Sorry, old MSU Hockey jeer..)

Miss liz and i piled into the car on Friday afternoon and hightailed it to the lovely land of Kansas with grand intentions of camping out at some free lake-side real estate pointed our direction by our wonderfully good looking friend Sean. Coming off of the freeway for the Lawrence exit, though, we discovered something that never comes into thought at all for Colorado camping: rain. And lots of it.

We decided, due to said rain, to just find some shelter at the closer state park and debate just sleeping in the car or actually setting up camp under some trees. It was 10:58 at night, so we figured we would simply just roll in and find somewhere to go uncounscious. Not so. Those Kansas State park window guys are vigilant, and upon entering the park discovered their still-lit toll booth and promptly gave them $13 for a day pass. Awesome. Upon driving around and deciding that the rain was too bad, and we would just simply sleep in the subie, we went to see if we could simply get our entrance fee back and be on our merry way to a rest stop.

Well, you see, since we time things so wonderfully, it just so happened that when we swung back around (11:09) -- it was closing time! Nobody there! Great!

Absolutely livid at myself for being two minutes early for the first time in my life, we head back into the park, find some locale with at least some semblance of cover, and set up the tent. (honestly, i'll be tarred and feathered before i pay someone money to simply sleep in my car.)

Of course, we woke up to yet more (and even harder) rain, and in packing up got not only soaked but covered all of our gear and selves in the mud like pack we had been sleeping on. Extra Awesome.

Luckily, Sean also pointed us to Miltons in downtown Lawrence, and a big plate of French toast (and a change of clothes in the bathroom) cheered us right up. Back in the wagon, we saddled up and got to Ohio sometime around 10 p.m., EST. Which, of course, led to the surprise early birthday party for Gradma J yesterday, and a big day spent at the Columbus Zoo today with the Hillman clan. Its been great to be back in the humid, buggy, and rainy midwest - and that is mostly due to the fact that we are surrounded by family who (has no choice but to) love us intensely.

In my typical fashion, i forgot to bring the laptop battery charger with me (currently on Gma's computer), so i shall be sans connection most of this week. Luckily, my pretty wife took it upon herself to cover our last weekends adventures, so, i'll just wiggle off the hook with that and simply point you to the pictures, found in the flickr badge on the side of the screen.

We're skating northward to the mitten tomorrow to see the rest of the clan, i have no doubt plenty of hugs and overeating will ensue. Florence 'yall!

Friday comic of the week: Wow, I never thought of it that way..

Ah, internets, where its entirely possibly to spend every day reading something new about your childhood that someone else has completely dragged into another direction.

What am I talking about? What, you didn't hear the one about the theological trappings underlying within Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego? Man, where have you been?

This week is brought to us by Matt and Ian, formerly of MacHall Comics, now of a little site called Three Panel Soul. Most of their work has (you guessed it) 3 panels, and are constantly making the most wonderfully cynical, off kilter, and fanstastically styled art in webcomics.

In other news, the missus and i are embarking on a cross country trip this afternoon, where i will be able to most likely craft a few lengthy posts that i simply haven't had the time to make this week - and we'll be sure to document the excitement this is Kansas, Missouri, et al, as we cruise by. We'll be back in a week with the notorious JoJo in tow - see you then!

Momma Bird Visit

Though i am late with the recap and some of the pictures, my wonderful momma came out to visit us kids last week, and we even managed to convince her to cook dinner one night before she escaped.

Oh, the other things we convinced her to do: sleep outdoors two nights in a row, (bathrooms and running water? what's that?) fly a red eye home, climb up to a mountain lake with a wonderful vista at Gem Lake, and also put up with the fact that we don't like using our (wonderful) Central Air.

Liz posted some pics of the hiking already, and click here for some of the other festivities on flickr.

Barry Bonds' unusually large head

This was on NPR last night, and easily qualifies as the funniest thing i've ever heard on NPR. Well, besides most anything that David Sedaris adds to an episode of This American Life.

Its a rendition of what it will be like when Barry finally breaks the homerun record, and the multitudes of fanfare he will receive.. kinda...

Click here for the goods.

Comic of the week: Lil Buddha

Aw, look how content he is! I also enjoy the fact that he walks his little cloud around. I think that Ishuda's Jesus and Buddha would get along pretty well.

Comic of the week: are dinosaurs immune to zombies?

This is one of my favorite comics, as it is a little different than most running webcomics in that it is only done in full length story arcs, and it is actually full of action, banditos, gorillas, pirates, and of course: NINJAS.

To truly get the comic, you have to know a fair amount of backstory: Dr. McNinja is a Ninja who is also a doctor, he has a young sidekick named Gordito with an impressive mustache (who also rides a velociraptor named Yoshi), a large Gorilla name Judy for a secretary, and a Honda Accord.

Oh, well, i guess that's not too much.

A day in the life

Due to a recent challenge found over at the Cousin Council Blog, I took some time last week to attempt to encapsulate my daily life into six pictures, which proved itself more challenging than you would think. (Also, you can see Liz's entry here) But, i pushed along, and while i forgot to grab a shot that day of the lunch that liz and i shared on the lawn that she so graciously brought for me to my workplace, i believe that everything else was recorded.


Of course, the morning begins with Mr. and Mrs. Blocksma's rocket fuel of choice: Coffee from the french press and English Breakfast with a spot of milk and sugar.


Directly afterwards, I'm off to the races in my daily commute -- part of which is the Poudre River nature trail. I regularly see multiple types of geese, ducks, swans, cranes, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons and last week: a turtle!


At work for the day, you can see that from my vantage point that i am attempting to design the first flying desk, but have yet to be successful. Further tests are going to happen next week.


Eventually i make it home, and try to catch up on some email and news of the day in the office along with a nicely hoppy and fermented India Pale A... Apple Juice. Yeah.


Dinner with the missus! Aren't we just pure americana? (that is, without the dog, the kids, i don't wear a robe around enough in the mornings and we both enjoy hanging off of rocks more than we should, but, you get what i mean.)

And finally, the post-dinner-end-of-day gaming throwdown. We've collected quite the library of games in the last year, and here you can see from my viewpoint what it looks like to face off nightly against the genius that is Liz. Here she is scheming the easiest way to take me in Backgammon, Cribbage and Scrabble at the same time.

Home, Home on the (front) Range

Another day, another sunset. Not a bad closer for a Tuesday night.