Hooray!!  I have successfully rid our house of all the evil wallpaper.   I believe the attack on the entryway ivy began back in May - again, in painfully small steps - but now it’s done.  I was telling Lloyd on the phone that I’d like to do some work on the downstairs bathroom while he was gone - maybe rip out some flooring, put in a steam shower or something - and he said (with a heavy sigh), “Why don’t you just finish the entry?”  That’s crazy talk, mister.  Who finishes a project before starting another?

It involved applying primer this time.  The old owners didn’t prime the walls before they put on the paper, so I did a little damage removing it.  We call that ‘character’ when you live in an old house.  Just ask Beth.

It’s not the best picture of the finished product because it’s not daytime.

Now, on to that steam shower…..

In other news, Lloyd is home with his family, and they’re up to their dam tricks again.  (Really - they were building a dam.  Here’s proof.)

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The other day I noticed my razor was getting pretty dull, so I replaced the blade.  I noticed that it wasn’t working as well as the old one, so I looked at it closely.  Of course.  This one only had three blades, not five.

Seriously.  Five. I am not making this up.

Does anyone remember the old Saturday Night Live skit about the razors with tons of blades?  I believe they were making fun of double-bladed razors, which were the new thing back then.  “The first blade shaves close, the second even closer.  The third blade digs into your skin and holds it tight, while the fourth blade cuts out the hair’s root.  The fifth blade is there to frighten away any new hairs who might be gettin’ ideas.”  That’s not how it went, but you get the drift.

I think I’ve been buying razor heads without actually checking to see if I’ve run out.  Currently I have samples of old three-blade, new three-blade with wraparound moisture collar, and the new five-bladed model.  I can’t wait for six-blade with in-door ice maker.

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Good grief Lloyd’s been gone a long time.  He’s having fun in Missouri now at the annual Sommerer Family Reunion at Heit’s Point.  I’m sad to not be there for the music, fun and bacon. (mmmmm…. bacon)  I don’t miss the mosquitos, though.  If you didn’t catch it last year, here’s the movie we made about the 2007 reunion.  Hope you’re having fun, Lloyd, but come home soon.

I missed the giant breakfast.

And the hanging out on the boat.  Lloyd was supposed to bring pop - I hope he remembered.

Here are Mom and Dad Sommerer watching the traditional softball game.

Are you thirsty?  They must have put Lloyd in charge of spelling.

Lloyd’s cousin Katie said he could have this tie rack if she made it to the website.  Anytime, Katie.  (Is that Vincent beside you?  How’d he get so tall?)

I just have to say, how on earth is Lloyd able to check the internet from his iPhone out in the middle of nowhere, but he doesn’t have a phone signal in our house? Something is wrong with technology.

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UPDATE UPDATE:  Lloyd, I’m sorry the pictures haven’t been put up!  I’ve been distracted by all the hottie hugging and whatnot.  Lloyd’s at Heit’s point with his family this weekend, and tomorrow I’ll have a montage of his time there.  That is, if he’s still speaking to me.

UPDATE: I’m putting this update right at the front, because it totally trumps all the other things I wrote about in a sleepy stupor last night.  I LOVE a parade, as I’ll say later.  I believe in being loud, cheering, clapping, waving and generally making a scene. My favorite part is yelling the names of politicians and beauty queens so they’ll look right at us with a confused face and wave back.  We have a good crowd around us, and Brent and Sandra’s house is becoming known as an active corner of the parade route.  Anyway, Brent was stealing my thunder yesterday by not just waving at the politicians, but actually going out to the curb to shake their hands!  He had a photo taken with Jeff Fortenberry (I?? I think that was his name ??), and then went out to shake Scott Kleeb’s hand.  Now, you must  know that Scott Kleeb is a Democrat (running for Sentate), “Satan’s representation on earth” - depending on which Republican you talk to, and a total, total hottie.  He was holding up the parade because he was shaking so many hands!  Yeah, Brent got to shake his hand, but our yelling made him come up on the lawn, and I went in for a big ol’ hug (with the super-hottie.) So, my apologies to Lloyd, my little Republican delegate - I’ve turned to the dark, handsome side.

We now return to the original post:

It was another successful 4th in Seward.  For any new readers, the 4th is a BIG deal in Seward.  Our little town swells in size to gigantic proportions.  We have activities up the wazoo.  You can see last year’s post for some pictures of our goings-on.

I don’t really attend too much of the stuff.  We walked the square and looked at the crapcrafts, and then… the parade!!  My very favorite part.  If Brent sends me a picture he took, I might have an update later.  Anyway, here’s a picture of the Concordia float we worked on.   That looks like a bell under the cross, right?

And lastly, a link to a little video of some music at the bandshell and Brad enjoying a funnel cake.  In the video it looks like no one was watching the band, but they had all skeedaddled to seats in the shade.  (Not like us.)  We missed you, Lloyd. Go to Bradaptation to see how we did with the beverage pond.

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So, now Lloyd’s down in Missouri having fun with his family - trimmin’ trees, eatin’ BLT’s, shootin’ the breeze & watchin’ TV’s, - and I’m left here to deal with all his fan mail. The Republican convention is happening next week, and people who are serious about being state delegates are sending out cards & flyers to get lots of votes. I’ve assembled quite a stack so far, and while I would never, ever tell Lloyd what to do or think, there are some definite “no’s” in this pile.

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A year ago today, Beth gave birth to Tim and the Pester family grew a little. Beth once remarked, “Would you please do one of those that will makes Tim’s first year of life fly by in a minute and a half?”  I gave it my best shot, but it’s actually closer to two minutes and a half.  Thanks, sneaky Uncle Brad for helping to take photos.  Hee hee.

As you all know, my regular tech guy is out of town, so here is a grainy version of the movie.  I’ll try to fix it later.

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When I’m working, I eat breakfast at home and then breakfast again with the children. I’ve become used to that, so on my days off I get a bit peckish an hour or so after breakfast. Today Brad was working in the garden and I was burning sticks in the chiminea. (I do so love fire.) I wondered, “Surely you can cook an egg in there, right?” Well, turns out you can - as long as you aren’t afraid of ingesting lots and lots of ash.

We split the lone egg, and Brad pronounced it delicious. I pronounced it ‘ehg’.

In other news, Lloyd has been doing some gardening of his own in Texas. He wrote, “Tell Brad to plant me up one of these in our yard.” I think having an agave would be great, since I could brew my own tequila from it. That would be a real timesaver.

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