When Two Tribes Go to War

Que up the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song. (love the Krushev vs. Reagan video)

There was an escalation in my neighborhood earlier this week. Two (groups) of my neighbors got in to a struggle over territory. One won and one lost. If you have never seen an actual ant battle its pretty crazy. This is the second one I have seen. There's no Minnesota nice in the next few tidbits. This is more of the in the ring with Jesse, the Mind, Ventura type of Minnesota action. 

Here's a still picture of the video above. 

Here's a close up.

You may have noticed in the video that Walter was throwing some stuff on them. This helped us see them better. As you can see on the leaf, they are fighting one on one. Although, to the left side bottom of the leave its two against one. To the top of the left side its more like five to one. 

This picture is just creep-tastic. 

Here is the picture in full motion. If you are as fascinated by this as I am, watch the video a few times. Focus on a particular groups or ants.

 

This battle took place on the base of the three steps of the walkway that leads up to our house. The following video is on the vertical part of the step. There were fewer ants here. It makes it easier to see the action here. 

I wish this one was a little less blurry. At the center its four ants on one. 

Here is the last video. You can hear Harry in the background trying to use the imobulous curse on them. It didn't work. The battle continued. When it was done, I think the ants to the north lost. They seemed to be retreating or it could be ants from the south breaking through the battle lines. 

Nature in the front yard. There you have it. 

NPFP

Nonsense Post-Funny Picture. 

This is a tomato that came from the store. It had a couple of spots and a stripe. Usually these things happen when they rub up against other things I guess. This guy was really happy to see us. 

School is now in session! No More Shenanigans*

Schools in Minneapolis started on Monday, with kindergarteners starting on Wednesday.  It has been the hottest week of the year so far. Many schools including ours have no AC. Many kids are just stuck. Our kids go to a great school. Two days of school, Adrian has already been on two field trips to a local park with a wading pool.

Walter was not deterred by the heat on his first day of school. He knew the day would have some time playing in the sprinkler and end with a trip to the wading pool. He was not to apprehensive since he was used to coming here with me and his brother of the last few years. 

This is Walter trying not to let me get a picture of him in his classroom. 

This is how most people feel about the bittersweat reality of their youngest starting school. 

Our kids on the other hand were having a pillow fight style battle in the back of the car with their towels for the pool. It was crazy. Clemma looks over and goes, "I don't think this is going to be a tearful drop off for us." 

 Instead its worthy of a celebration with a Minnesota breakfast.

We are so excited and proud of our kids. I am not sure they could be in better hands than the loving folks at SSFS. Cheers! 

Extra End of Summer Shenanigans

Walter didn't start school until today. A post about that will arrive a little later. Since he had two days more of summer than his brother I decided to take him for a quick fishing trip to the cabin in Wisconsin.  It was so hot... How hot was it, that we decided only to stay for one night instead of two. Its funny he's such an easy kid to negotiate with as long as you know how to do it and are willing to let him make some choices. I guess most kids are like that. The difference with Walter is that you (the adult) have to think through the implications of the choices. He's not much of a last minute change the plans, sorry we said we would do this, but now we ran out of time, kind of kid. You said we will do this and we will. Thinking about this made our negotiations work well. For example, he wanted to stop at the donut shop in Lindstrom on the way back. Not possible with his desired departure time of after supper. So we decided to leave after lunch instead.
Anyway here's the good stuff.

I caught this Largy on Walter's rig with a big chunk of night crawler. My photographer was carefully cradling the iPhone.

 This wish you were here picture made the little photographer want to go for a swim.

If you look carefully you can see Walter is about eight feet from my bobber. "Hey Walter, Tell some of those fish to jump on my hook!"

 It worked!

 Can't have enough pictures of the sun setting on the prairie. 

The next morning we tried to fish, but our worms had perished in the heat wave. I suggested going to the store for some leeches, but Walter wanted to head home. 

 He wanted to take one last dip in the lake, but I protested. The wind had blown all of the algae to our side of the lake.

Since we came back early, yesterday I took W to lunch at the mecca of board games and old school video games, Chatterbox Pub. We had tasty lunch, frosty brews, (Walter's was the root variety), and played the heck out of the original NES Super Mario Bros.

Last Week of Summer Break Shenanigans II

After lunch we went to the area at Minnehaha Park downstream of the falls known as the deer pen. The kids love playing there. This is the best summer play spot in the Twin Cities. 
Adrian is in the blue swim shirt and Walter is in the white. 

 In the previous two pictures they were doing what they love most. Building a dam with the river stones to divert the water. On our previous visit we completed a gap in a dam that went clear across this half of the creek. (As I am typing this I am having to change damn to dam. I guess I haven't typed the word dam much.)

Then the cousins show up. Calvin helps Walter ford the swifter parts of the creek. 

 Walter, Adrian, and Everett at the deep part of the creek upstream from the bridge. 

 Snack Time!

 This week of Shenanigans just keeps getting better. When we got home I noticed the boys did not follow me into the house, but were squealing outside. They were in Lisa's backyard (Happy 50th Lisa!) playing with water balloons. 

 Adrian had figured out that being fast can be helpful. You can run up to your brothers balloon and squeeze it so it pops all over him. 

 Lisa's turn!

 Special Trick works again!

 I'm gonna get you sucka!

If that wasn't enough excitement. On the walk back from the creek, (yes for those of you out of town, there is a creek with a massive 40ft water fall a 10 minute walk from my house!)their Grandpa Bruce called and offered to take them to the Cabin. They are out for two nights of cabin craziness! May the last week of Summer Break Shenanigans continue in this vein. I know that mine will with the kids gone...

Last Week before School Shenanigans

    Me: You need to pick up your room so I can vacuum in there.

    W: How do we pick up our room. Its attached to the house. 

I can hear noises of large toys being lifted and moved only to find this...

I am not sure what this game is called, but "Pile the toys on big brother" is a contender. Good news is there are fewer toys to pick up in their room. 

W then proceeded to write all over his brother's legs. For the record A did not protest. 

Hey wait a minute that looks good. I wonder...

 W: Take a picture of my face. 

W: Hey! That looks good, I am gonna do some more. 

Now they are making Lego ziplines all through the house. 

Next, Lunch and the Library and the Creek. 

Daddy Cool

I was recently made aware of this song. I hadn't heard it since I was a kid.

Check out the video.

About the video, I am not sure which show this was shot for, but I don't think the audience was expecting this. They seem to not care that there is a man stripping down and getting down with his mic stand. They are also unimpressed with the woman whose dress is topped with the doctors reflective head thingy. Will.i.am fans now know where he got the idea for his hear. Please see the singer in the middle. I gotta say this is pretty much what I expect from a band named Boney M.
After this video aired on German TV, the song went to number 1 (in Germany).

Turns out, not a surprise that the people are all lip-synching. This is an early Millie Vanilli. The male vocals were all recorded by the German Producer, singer song writer Fred Farian. I thought it was funny that a guy from Aruba had such a thick german accent. Still for me the accent makes it.
Peace.

PS totally worth 99 cents on iTunes.

Another pic for the kids at home.

Laying Low on FB

alright facebookies. As I told you before I am getting tired of FB, which is a temporary thing. I am not going to cancel my account, but I will not be on as much. I am keeping it primarily for those of you that I adore but maintain contact with through FB. This is mostly bama and wash folks. If you need me but aren't getting a quick enough response. You can hit me on Twitter @sachamuller or at my struggling blog site http://ramblindad.blogspot.com
My original intent was to have my tweets link to Facebook, but that is not possible if you have deleted your facebook account once already.

Hotel Greatness - El Encanto

I can't say enough wonderful things about this week in Santa Barbara. Just as in my previous post, I could have written extensively about the wonderful things about the Gilbert House. I just wrote about the pie safe. This is because it is a part of that experience that I want to take with me and emulate. I haven't even spent the night here at El Encanto. I checked in about noon and spent most of the day elsewhere. Already I am in awe of this hotel.

It has dawned on me that it is all in the details. The more you spend on accommodations the more details you get. As I carry one sleeping child and the other groggily follows. We enter the room at 10:00 pm. I realize it is not how I left it. It has been turned down. The room had been tidied; towels replaced. Fireplace on. Bed turned down. Hidden secret attached to the headboard reading lights out and illuminated. Water bottles and glasses by the bed (the latter currently being used for whiskey (something out of a modern country song about drinking $15 whiskey in a $600 room)). A caramel left on the bed with a card indicating tomorrow's weather forecast. A pair of slippers left on each side of the bed. I had previously experienced turn down service on the train. This makes sense this this hotel is owned by the Orient Express. 

I can't wait to see what details tomorrow brings. There are many wonderful things we are doing these next five days, but I hope I do get to just chill in this room a bit. 

I realize that I still have to post some notes about the first wedding I did, but second things first. I am in beautiful Santa Barbara. I am currently staying in beautiful very large victorian house. There are many things I could say about the house, but I am stuck on the smart pantry in the kitchen. I am also stuck on my desire to emulate it in my house. Here it is. 

It looks old. The front is old. Open it up.

 There is spice and small bottle shelving in the door. Nice deep shelves in the middle...

The middle shelves each swing out to reveal larger deeper shelves! For those familiar with my house. I am thinking of doing this to the cabinet next to the fridge.

I did it! I figured out how to create an html version of my calendar that would work on the blog. Not bad for an old guy!  look to the left-------------->

36 Parties in 2 years.

Thanks to the generous support of my network of friends and family and their friends. I am now working on getting wedding gigs lined up for the next two years. I have about 7 parties lined up in the next several months so far. Please help me spread the word about what I am doing. Let folks know what I am doing. Let them know my services are available and free!  

I am going to start using this blog site to discuss how this working out. What music I used, what I think worked well. What I can work on. In addition I will figure out how to post a version of my calendar here so that folks can see the dates that are booked. In the meantime, I am feverishly working on slogging through 225gb of music making playlists and getting to know the Traktor S4. 

Speaking of the Traktor Kontrol S4. It is a phenomenal mixer/controller package. It is a little disappointing in its ability to control vinyl alongside digital. This is mostly in that the turntable sound is really low. With that said, I am thinking that vinyl will mostly be at home. With 225gb and climbing of music. There are very few things that I have on vinyl that I don't have in a digital format. This will make me much more portable. I will only have to carry the S4, Laptop, and headphones (and PA if necessary).