The Big TV Adventure

Last Wednesday night, Maggot came home all excited. She proceeded to tell Batty and her friends that she found a Big Screen TV for FREE!   Wha???   Really???

"Dad, this is a really BIG TV.  Almost as tall as me!!"

 When pressed for details, she shared that this TV was sitting by the curb, three blocks away, with a giant sign that said FREE.  The people in the house were moving. 

"Dad, can you help us move it, and bring it home?"

You know that saying, "If it's too good to be true... then it must not be true" ?  I said "nope".  "If you want that TV, you get it yourself.  There are enough of you girls, you have a car and a driver.  You figure it out, but I want nothing to do with this. You are on your own."

"Then we can have it?"

"Yep, but I will not lift a finger to help.  You figure it out."   And off they went.

About 15 minutes later, we hear the girls at the front door.  A lot of banging and thumping and moving going on. Dogs are barking and going nuts, Ick is all excited and running around like only a nine year old can.  I'm looking at Sidetrack just shaking my head.  Smelly has also joined the mix... and the TV is loaded into the front hallway.  It required the efforts of all six girls to haul this thing and get it moved.

Yep... it's a big one to be sure. The TV is a first generation flat screen; it sits on the floor, is about 4 feed high, 12 - 18 inches wide.  A 55" TV!!! Sort of a hybrid between today's flat screen and yesterday's console TV.  The kind of TV you'd see in hotels and hotel bars for karioke etc...  BIG and Ugly and unwieldy.

Once in the hallway, secure... the debate begins.  "Where do we put it?"  In the basement was the popular idea.  Ick suggested that it be put in Smelly's room since she is going off to school.  Then the room could be a theater and great place to play wii.   Of course Ellie objected to this because it would take up roughly 1/4 of her room, not to mention the loss of floor space.   Where would she through all her dirty clothes?   Nope, this idea was met with vehement protests and objection.  

So I asked...  "Has anyone plugged it in and turned it on to see if it works?   And if it does work, how are you going to hook it up to the satellite?  You'll need a hook-up.  How about the internet?   You need to figure this out.  I'm going to bed."

"DAD!  We'll figure this out!  We're keeping the TV"

With those words echoing in my head, I went to bed. Sidetrack stuck around just to listen to the discussion.  Marpy showed up and things hit a fevered pitch. But as clocked turned past 10:30, the discussion slowly wound down, and logic started to kick in.

According to Sidetrack, the girls reached the end of discussion, when one by one they turned on The Maggot.  "What were you thinking?"  "This was a dumb idea".   "This will never work!" etc.... On that note... Sidetrack headed up to bed.

THE NEXT MORNING
I woke up early the next day to take the dogs for their "constitutional."  I got back, fed the hounds, grabbed a cup of coffee, and went up stairs to shower.  "Hey Sidetrack? What happened to the TV?  It's not in the hallway". 

"Hmmm, no idea".  She gets out of bed and goes downstairs to get her coffee, and comes back about five minutes later. "No TV anywhere. Not in the basement or anywhere."  We both looked out front.... nothing.

So when Batty got up to head out for Cross Country practice, I stopped her right before she left.  "What happened to the TV?" I asked.

"Oh.  We took it back to the house where we got it."   

 

But wait, that's not all... [late breaking news].  It was well after midnight when Maggot (left) and Marpy (right) rolled the darn thing, down the middle of the road, more that 5 blocks, back to the curb where they found it.  Where did the picture come from you ask?  Ellie took it.  She follow these idiots in the van!  (thanks for the help Ellie!).  Amazing!

Sigh....   I reserved the right to say "I told you so."   But for the time being, I'm enjoying the laughter and amusement of it all.  What a bunch of stooges!   Three hours of cheap entertainment, and a life time of crap to be dished out at my leisure for the stupidity of it all.   And so it goes...

Baking Outside and In

90+ degree weather drives some people to the pool. But a voids chunk of our weekends are baking biscuits.  No complaining here, business is good and growing.

We do chuckle that despite the warm weather, we're baking x-mas trees, and soon, snowflakes and snowmen.

We're opening a kiosk in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, and may have to move into a large baking facility a bit ahead of schedule.

X- mas biscuits and moving... Who says time stands still?  And so it goes...

Dog Daze?

Summer has gone to the dogs, to be sure.  These two rascals have carved a powerful existence in the already chaotic Taylor household.  Budda (left) and Pipsqeak (right) have consumed a few house plants, a couple of throw-rugs, one dog bed, a parakeet and a shoe (or two). 

It's particularly difficult to look at this picture of Pip (below) and think of her as ornery.  She's a pistol to be sure.  Buddha now weights 37 lbs on his way to a projected 160 lbs.  Pip is about 27 lbs on her way to 120 - 130?  We'll see.  Despite her feisty ways, she was the runt of the litter so it seems she has something to prove.

Not sure if we'll take 'em to the mountains or not.  But that's where we'll vacation at some point this summer.  It'll be a nice reprieve from the daily grind in Iowa City.  As soon as we return, classes resume in DSM for the Exec. MBA program, and the following week in Iowa City.   Kids will begin School and Ellie heads off to KU.   Whew.   

Between now and then, we've got to replace a parakeet and keep our garden watered.  It is very, very, very dry (drought) here in Iowa City and surrounding area.  Corn is very stressed. 

Things at the shop (Woofables) continue do challenge our abilities to control the growth.  We may be forced to expand capacity a bit ahead of schedule. No matter, we'll figure out a way to get 'er done, but it'll be a push.  We'll keep you posted.    And so it goes..... 

Big Dawg with Big Dog

BD having a bonding moment with Tootsie.  Girls are in Pittsburgh for a youth group project, so it's BD, Sidetrack and me.  Quiet.

This year for the Fourth...we.te heading to a Cedar Rapids Kernels game.  Hot and fun. 

Happy Fourth everone!