Daddy Post!

You read the title correctly, its time for a post on the blog from Dad.

You (the reader) are about to be taken on a literal adventure, think of it like a flight - please observe the no-smoking sign and prepare to fasten your seatbelts

Strap in.

Where do I begin? I suppose I can summarize the events which have been going on in our lives over the last few days/weeks: Claire is now 11 months old, it is crazy to think that its been almost a year since she was dropped on our doorstep by a stork. A stork which was almost a week late (doesn't the stork association understand how "due-dates" work?) Actually, now that I think about it, that stork which dropped Claire on the doorstep looked a little bewildered, maybe he got lost and thats why Claire showed up almost a week late. Or maybe because of the slow economy the stork association had layoffs and were behind in their deliveries. It's a mystery, an unsolved mystery at that.

Either way, the little tyke showed up on August 1st, 2009. Which was really quite fortunate, because she got to be born in August, which everyone knows is the best month to be born in. Whats that reader? You didn't know August was the best month to be born in? Well, let me educate you.

August - also known as "Auguste" by a small part of southeastern France - is the month in which probably the most important people in history were born in. For example - Thomas Edison (guy who invented the glass, airless sphere with a small wire wound inside of it - aka, the light blub) was born in August.

Another great American icon - Hulk Hogan - was born on August 11. Wow. I dont know how you can even put into words how important this person is to America. I mean, the guy's theme song is "I am a real american." There's no argument to this fact. Here is the link to the song on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj7izIKF-Oo&feature=related

Also Kobe Bryant, probably one of the most dominat NBA players ever was born in August. Maybe you have heard of him, he just won another champoinship a few weeks ago.

So, what does this have to do with Claire? Everything. We have just learned that Claire will be a hybrid of Thomas Edison, Hulk Hogan and Kobe Bryant. So she will be an amazing athelete, incredibly smart (probably invent something, like world peace or something important) and if we are lucky, she will be a real american - just like Hulk Hogan.

Now on to other thoughts. I want you to think of a a key resource of the earth - water. It can be used for good - like hydration, boating, showering and in the winter - ice hockey. But it can also be a deadly foe. This is the water we encoutered a few weeks ago - the evil kind. Water invaded our basement and damaged our newly installed (2 years ago) finished basement flooring. It had to all be pulled up and is now in the process of being replaced by an experienced contractor - me.

Claire is moving, she is pretty quick too. She really enjoys crawling and anytime she can get close to an object taller than herself she stands up on it. She really likes to stand up and has gotten to the point of letting go and standing by herself without support for 30 seconds and longer. Lauren says she attempted to move a leg forward the other day and fell over. Wow, if she starts walking soon then I think measures will need to be taken to protect the house from Claire (or is it to protect Claire from the house? I am never sure).

We went home to Mason City over the weekend. It was the 4th of July, if you are not aware of what this holiday means, then maybe you need to watch the youtube link I posted a few lines above again (see hulk hogan section). What did we do? Well, if you are patient I will tell you.

The weekend consisted of visiting lots of relatives. Almost all of them. Laurens family from Germany (the motherland) was in town. They were over at Lauren's parents house on Sunday night for a great feast of pizza. What kind of pizza? All kinds. 5 different topping combinations, including, but not limited to, hawaiian, pepperoni, combo, and two other pizzas with veggies on them (one with white sauce). After the relatives departed for the night we watched the fireworks on TV.

This morning (Monday, July 5th) we watched the parade in Clear Lake. This is a grand parade, it lasts almost 2 hours. There were many excellent floats and plently of candy to go around. I even saw a few people I knew, including our friend Jeff who gave us a good helping of frutie tooties. After the parade we went to Lori's house in Clear Lake for some of the most american food you can find - thats right - KFC. After the feast we conversed, took a walk, and around 4pm we left for home. Its good to be back home, and I am not looking forward to work in the morning. But who really gets excited for work anyways? Santa Claus - thats who. His job is awesome, he works one day a year and they takes the other 364 days off for vacation to rest up for the next time he has to work.

I dont know how to post pictures, but I hope to amend this post with some.

I found this song the other day, I really enjoy it. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HoDRbZvOcM