The (second) moment we've all been waiting for--(the first being the wedding (obviously!!))

I'm honoured (and more than a little humbled--and that's saying something for me) to be part of John and Tracey's wedding party!

So with much further ado, the wedding party brings you the 'Party before the Wedding Party'--the 'John and Tracey's Stag and Doe' show!!

If you want to have a fantastic time with food, fun, and festivities, book Saturday, September 27th on your calendar.

Find someone that has tickets for this event (Rick, Maryann, Mark or even me!), have 10 bucks in your hand and get yourself a ticket!

Or should you not have the ability to find us before the Grand Happening, just show up at the Fruitland Community Centre at 7 p.m. on the aforementioned Saturday, September 27th--again with the double-fin in your hand and you--yes YOU!--can partake in this fantastic phenomenon!

Everyone's invited!

Contact me if you need directions or anything else--my e-mail addy is on this page (somewhere) or just hit the 'Comment' button

A reminder as to what we want the kitchen to look like

Sandy and I did some more work in our kitchen. We added some upper cabinets.

This is what it looked like before we started--

White cabinets anyone?

And then off the wall

Can see where they painted

I couldn't pull out the nails, so I just grinded them off

Grinding marks

Then you have to put the Ikea cabinets together

Just like LEGO bricks

And then put into place

First cabinet up

All cabinets up

That was a bit of work

And then the doors

Almost done

Then we decided to take the plunge and change the counter top as well

Now it's done

We'll do some sort of backsplash later. For now we're good with lots more shelf space!

See all cabinet goodness here--Kitchen cabinets

More here as we do it!

A small--but to me not insignificant--coincidence occurred.

We went to a BBQ at a friends abode--that was the fantastic bit.

One point of the evening--whilst walking about the vast estate we happened upon a hole.

I, being of the curious sort, happened to look in the hole.

Not much surprised, I saw what I took to be a deceased furry critter at the bottom of the hole (the hole being about 2-3 feet deep)

So my friend and I start talking about other things and were about to walk away. I cast one last look down the hole with a thought of sad passing for poor small furry critters when I noticed that the furry critter moved!

It wasn't dead yet.

Well now this is a whole other kettle of fish.

At this point in the story I should mention that the jury was still out on what part of the animal kingdom this critter derived from. I mean, up until now it was dead so what did it matter.

Now, however, that it was moving, knowing what the critter was would go far in the 'how to remove said critter safely' endeavour that we were about to partake. I mean, getting a muskrat out of the hole would involve somewhat more, shall we say, lengthy protective procedures than if it was a stray cat.

See, we couldn't discern what the critter was because it was pretty much caked in mud--the hole had a very muddy bottom and it looked as if the critter, in it's continuing endeavours to get extradite itself from the hole, made itself into a muddy mess.

My best guess, from seeing what I could, with the button nose, the black hair (that I saw under the mud) and the tapered snout, was that this critter was a baby skunk. That was my best guess. A possum would've been another guess but I've never seen a black possum. But it definitely wasn't a rat.

So with a little fuss of trying various things--sticks, shovels, whatever was lying around the yard--I ended up just asking for a pair of work gloves and stuck my arm down the hole.

Turns out that it was a little more difficult than that--the critter (which I presumed to be a baby skunk) had his 4 paws and his belly stuck in the now drying mud. Trying to get my hand under the critter whilst not trying to harm it was a little difficult.

The good (and sad) bit was that the creature was very weak and made no fuss at all when my hand came to get it.

With a little coaxing and pulling, I managed to pull the critter out of the hole.

So now I'm holding it in my gloved hands and I see a little tuft of white on the top of its head.

Yep--definitely a skunk.

Thankfully (and again, a little sad), it was too weak and tiny to do any skunk-like behaviours. IT just sat in my hands and looked at us.

As well, its mud soaked tail was under it and it wasn't moving much.

Now the regret happens right here. See, hindsight's always 20/20--I should've attempted to wash off the mud.

Instead, I just carried the little skunk to the 'back 40' and let it go. It did manage to crawl away towards a nice shaded spot under a tree (presumably, that's where the grubs and stuff that skunks eat are hiding) in the field, so it was capable of moving. But after it was out of sight, I thought about the mud, and the fact that it'll harden--creating a not-needed impediment to the skunk’s locomotion.

So that was sticking in the back of my mind the rest of the night--I was hoping that the skunk would be fine.

Here's where the coincidence comes in.

The fate of the baby skunk has been drifting around my mind since last night.

I get on the highway this morning, and the very first car I see had a licence plate--

SKUNK U

Yeah, I didn't need to see that.

New cabinets!

Once again into the breach (see if it works this time)

Sandy and I have been talking a long time regarding what to do with our kitchen.

Well, we finally took the plunge and purchased 3 cabinets from Ikea to start us down the road to the eventual destination of having a kitchen that we actually like.

The good bit is that Ikea has a kitchen planner right on their website--

The Plan

So we started the plan with the 3 cabinets

The Plan Starts

One of the points of our plan is that we had to hide that very obtrusive pipe coming up through the floor.

So we included one of Ikea's high cabinets and just kind of, well, hid it

Hiding the Pipe

The high cabinet is now a broom closet

Clean sweep!

Yeah, there's nothing like buying a 300+ dollar cabinet and then taking a skill saw to it to make it fit. One wrong slip of the blade...

Just in case you forgot, we now remind you what our kitchen looked like before

Old Kitchen

And what it looks like today--

New Kitchen

The plan is to add cabinets as time and energy permit. In this fashion, we won't make a complete disaster of the kitchen.

For now, however, we got a good start and really increased our storage space in the kitchen!

See all kitchen related goodness here--Kitchen Cabinets

As we add more to it, we'll get pics up here.

Wondered... whatever became of me...

For the friend that wanted an update to the website...

Hello Cincinnati...

I'd like to take you home and....

Well, we'll go elsewhere...

How 'bout pics!

Sunrise waaay too early in the morning when driving to the airport

Some sculpture in the hotel

The fountain in the credits of 'KRP

Steamboat on the river

Big steel fish

Cincy at night

So there you are. Maybe more pics in the future.

See them here--Cincinnati Trip