Driving Me Squirrely

Been a few days since my last blog mostly because nothing blog-worthy has occurred. At least on a daily basis. But once a pile of less than bloggable events occur, they attain blog-worthiness and here we are!

Elliott's coach hosted a nice pizza party for the team last Saturday. It went nicely and I would love to show you the very nice trophy he got the players but Elliott's name was spelled wrong! Missing the second "t." So I spoke to the coach and took it back to the trophy place myself. They were very nice and agreed to replace the tag part for free. It should be ready Monday.

My newly crowned tooth is doing pretty well. I am wondering why I should go back for the permanent one - the temporary tooth looks and feels fine.

Today was pinewood derby work day at the church. I thoroughly embarrassed the kids and myself the first time we entered cars a few years ago - I had no idea how serious they were about their derby cars here! The cars are airbrushed and weighed to within grams of the allowed weight, etc. So ever since that episode, I have been hands off. With no interference from me last year, Elliott won first place for the best designed car (it was in the shape of a guitar). It may have helped that I bribed one of the judges with a donut...! Anyway, this year Elliott decided to take his block of pine and turn it into a billiards table! He had the vision but not the tools or the means. I have none of the above. So we went to the work day and our friend really steered Elliott along. He was a great help and instructor. We worked on that there and got it cut out and sanded and primed. It needs weight so we went to WalMart and bought some fishing lead weights. I cut a soda can into a little tray and we melted 3 grams of weights over the firepit like Mel Gibson in The Patriot! Elliott will put some felt on the table with balls and cue sticks. I will post a picture when he finishes it but it is coming out really well. Very creative.

That same friend just got an offer on their house and put a bid in on a new place today. It is a really nice looking house in DE (they live in Maryland now) and they are pretty excited about it. We sure hope it works out.

Basketball went well this week. I played OK and had some good blocks.

I went to a webinar at the local chapter of the national security organization I am a member of. I get continuing education points for attending and I need a certain amount every 3 years to maintain my professional certification. So I networked a little there and got a free lunch. I have a couple of exciting work related potential possibilities developing. I hope they come in. And fast.

A snow storm is coming this way tomorrow afternoon. They are calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow! We haven't had any snow all season to speak of.

The software and site hosting service I made the vacation videos posted on the Hale Family Web Page is being canceled effective March 30. So I had to download them to myself and am in the process of re-creating them to re-post using different software and hosting site. Kind of a pain in the neck.

Now if you wondering what that picture at the top of this blog is all about, it is a picture of Bill Murray in Caddyshack. And as you well know, Bill Murray's character was on the hunt for a groundhog in that movie. Lately I have been accused of bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bill in my quest to defeat the squirrel invasion of the bird feeder. Just when I think I have them beat, I am foiled again! First, it literally was foil - aluminum. I wrapped the tree with it but it blew off in a storm. So then I hung CDs on a string to deter them. That slowed them day for a couple of days, but now they just jump right through them. Today I bought some "No Trespassing" fabric signs and stapled them to the tree. No, it is not for them to read! The fabric is slick and I hope they can't get footing on it. If I can keep the varmints from getting their feet near the bird feeder, they can't jump to it. The signs were like $0.37 each and are made to be weather proof. It is actually kind of funny battling with the squirrels. I don't want to kill them but I may load up the paintball marker and ping them if I don't get them under control!