As Friday night tradition has it, the Taylor's dine on Pizza. Last Friday was no exception. Hefner joined Belly Bean, Chalupa and Buzz Daddy in a pre-race pie at Piccadilly's Pizza in Lake Okaboji, IA.YuuuuuUUUUUuuuummm!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Piccadilly Pizza
As Friday night tradition has it, the Taylor's dine on Pizza. Last Friday was no exception. Hefner joined Belly Bean, Chalupa and Buzz Daddy in a pre-race pie at Piccadilly's Pizza in Lake Okaboji, IA.YuuuuuUUUUUuuuummm!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Hefner goes online
Hefner, adopted by the Taylors a few years ago, modeled after "Flat Stanley" is making his online debut. We've kept a written journal of his travels until now.
Here is Hefner on his recent adventure to Boca Raton. He's getting close to nature. Maybe too close.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
July 4, 2006
With nothing better to do before the Annual St. Peter 4th of July Parade, the Taylor kids stacked up for this photo op. - Belly Bean, Chalupa, Boots and BD. For a two hour spectical, we didn't see any unicycles, only two or three clowns, no horses, no bag-pipes, and only one vintage farm tractor that I can remember. In other words, this parade has a ways to go to match the silliness of Decorah's annual Nordic-mess fiasco.Below BD displays his new definition for political canvasing. By the time the parade ended, you could barely see any part of his shirt under all the stickers.
During the parade Buzz Daddy enjoyed a brief encounter with Al Franken who was stumping for a local politician. When asked if he was going to run, Mr. Franken replied that he might in two years, but today he was helping Waltz run for his congressional seat. That's about as much inside scoop as we'll ever get to pending national politics.
As a side note, the venerable gentleman sitting next to us commented that Al Franken was too smart to be in politics and should stick with his media commentary. A point well taken.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Chillin' Out
When the kids are off at camp, our distractions are minimized. Picutred here is Side Track demonstating a relaxation technique for a quiet evening on the back patio, in the sun, with a beer. Ahhhh the good life!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
At Least Thirty Four Got it Right
I was pleased to see that at least 34 of our State Senators had sense (and courage) to vote against an amendment that would prohibit burning the American Flag. Conversely, I am saddend by the weak-willed politicians who hide behind partison politics or havent' got a wit of backbone to take a common sense stand on this issue.
Yes, the Flag is a meaningful symbol, so is the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and other items of worship or respresentation. I will not deny that men, women and children have sacrificed, fought, and died for our country and the freedoms our country allows and stands for, including freedom of speech. Our flag is a symbol for the freedom of speech... and the right to bare arms for that matter. The sacrifices I refer to were for those freedoms... not the symbol. Or stated another way, these Americans did not fight and die for the flag, but rather what the flag stands for.
That said, we honor those sacrifices not by protecting a symbol, but by protecting what that symbol stands for.
If, for example, someone were to publically burn the Koran or the Torah, there would be armies of people incited enough to take up arms or declare a Fatwah against that person or those people. Consider the pillage that resulted from the cartoon characterization of Allah. Most Amercians labeled these insurrengents as zelots, radicals or religious fanatics. Many Americans vilified these people and called them radicals or extremists because they were fighting for a symbol. Many then accused these upset people of using this situation as an excuse for violence. We admonished these rebels and self-rightously opined our views and penned editorials glorifying our "freedom of speech".
Now I ask, if we were to pass an anti-flag burning amendment, would we not be throwing stones in our own glass house? Would we not be giving our government yet another vague excuse (ala WMDs and 9/11) to incite war or violence? Would we not become perceptively the same sort of "extremists" that we have ridiculed for rioting against those people who exercised freedom of speech by published charactures of Allah?
According to official sources, there were fewer than 15 cases of flag-burning in the U.S. in 2005. By comparison, how many Americans were wrongly denied health-care benefits? And, as a direct (or indirect) result of our governmenal healthcare travesty how many of those tax-paying, freedom fighting, democratic and republican Americans died? How many billions of American dollars were fraudulantly awarded or misallocated by governement agencies which directly or indirectly resulted in deminishing the quality of life that our solders fought and died for? Again, I ask how many American lives have been lost as a direct result of this mismanagement, or other governmental abuse?
Don't you think these are are the important items for our elected officials to spend time and effort debating and resolving rather than trying to whittle away at our first amendment rights?
So, to those 64 senators on the public payroll who normally (despite my polical bent) deserve some semblance of respect, I have this to say about our flag... it's a symbol, albeit an important symbol, but simply a simbol, that's it. The flag is not as important as the feedoms it represents.
And now that this amendment has rightfully been shot down, I suggest you ALL over your partison politics, stop election-year postioning, and get on with legislation that will improve our quality of life, save lives (domestically and internationally), and make this country as well as the freedoms we profess worth fighting for.
Yes, the Flag is a meaningful symbol, so is the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and other items of worship or respresentation. I will not deny that men, women and children have sacrificed, fought, and died for our country and the freedoms our country allows and stands for, including freedom of speech. Our flag is a symbol for the freedom of speech... and the right to bare arms for that matter. The sacrifices I refer to were for those freedoms... not the symbol. Or stated another way, these Americans did not fight and die for the flag, but rather what the flag stands for.
That said, we honor those sacrifices not by protecting a symbol, but by protecting what that symbol stands for.
If, for example, someone were to publically burn the Koran or the Torah, there would be armies of people incited enough to take up arms or declare a Fatwah against that person or those people. Consider the pillage that resulted from the cartoon characterization of Allah. Most Amercians labeled these insurrengents as zelots, radicals or religious fanatics. Many Americans vilified these people and called them radicals or extremists because they were fighting for a symbol. Many then accused these upset people of using this situation as an excuse for violence. We admonished these rebels and self-rightously opined our views and penned editorials glorifying our "freedom of speech".
Now I ask, if we were to pass an anti-flag burning amendment, would we not be throwing stones in our own glass house? Would we not be giving our government yet another vague excuse (ala WMDs and 9/11) to incite war or violence? Would we not become perceptively the same sort of "extremists" that we have ridiculed for rioting against those people who exercised freedom of speech by published charactures of Allah?
According to official sources, there were fewer than 15 cases of flag-burning in the U.S. in 2005. By comparison, how many Americans were wrongly denied health-care benefits? And, as a direct (or indirect) result of our governmenal healthcare travesty how many of those tax-paying, freedom fighting, democratic and republican Americans died? How many billions of American dollars were fraudulantly awarded or misallocated by governement agencies which directly or indirectly resulted in deminishing the quality of life that our solders fought and died for? Again, I ask how many American lives have been lost as a direct result of this mismanagement, or other governmental abuse?
Don't you think these are are the important items for our elected officials to spend time and effort debating and resolving rather than trying to whittle away at our first amendment rights?
So, to those 64 senators on the public payroll who normally (despite my polical bent) deserve some semblance of respect, I have this to say about our flag... it's a symbol, albeit an important symbol, but simply a simbol, that's it. The flag is not as important as the feedoms it represents.
And now that this amendment has rightfully been shot down, I suggest you ALL over your partison politics, stop election-year postioning, and get on with legislation that will improve our quality of life, save lives (domestically and internationally), and make this country as well as the freedoms we profess worth fighting for.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Hi Ho, Hi Ho!
It's off to camp they go! Four nights at Camp Paterson will quiet things down on the homefront.
But before the three hit the bus, we had a marshmallow roast on our new brick patio out back.
Here, you can see BD helping sweep sand into the cracks between the new pavers. For this we sorely missed the volunteer services of Mr. McCurdy, who effortlessly swept sand into the cracks of our former paver patio in Menomonee Falls.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Wed. Night
On this particular evening The Chalupa had the early softball game at 6:15 with Belly Bean playing the night game which began at 7:30. These were the 4th and 5th sporting events of the week with a 6th (soccer match) to happen this evening.This particular action shot shows Challupa alert and ready for any type of hit from the batter. Her focus paid off later in the game when she caught a line drive in the field and then, when she got to bat, she gave Mr. Spaulding a ride just past second base! -- No Steroids, I swear.
By the end of Chalupa's game Buzz Daddy had no voice left, so he took her home and left Side Track to cheer for Belly Bean. A side note to this lost voice thing... I've noticed with an element of chagrin, that most folks seem happy that I've lost my voice. Hrumph! Go figure.
As you can see, these activities take their toll on more than just Buzz Daddy's voice. BD just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. We was down for the count by 7:50 p.m.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Wild Kingdom
If we haven't already got enough to worry about... we can now add this raccoon to the growing list of animals that have been spotted in our yard. This guy was seen last night sniffing around our bird feeder, although I suspect he was after the suet.Of course the dogs went a bit nuts, and Side Track was a bit skiddish about letting the cat out for the night. Well if it's not one thing, then it's another.
It's safe to say that wildlife abounds in our little 'burb up Nort. And if our family can't provide enough entertainment, then sit out on the patio for a while... something will certainly catch your attention.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Starting Up Again
The goggles were idle today, but saw some water yesterday. Slowly but surely Buzz Daddy is creeping cautiously back into his workouts. The summer race schedule was squandered by two injuries. One of which returned to add insult to... well.... injury, I guess.It's been an on-again/off-again affair for the past two months. Ice and heat, and limping around sprinkled with some cross-training and lots of stretching.
After all this, it appears (finally) that systems are on track for a complete return to running mileage next week with hopes of resurrecting a semblance of a running season by the end of July. We shall see. But anything is better than sitting on the sidelines. That is for sure.
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