Fathers Day

We started the weekend at Al and Kathy's cabin near New London, MN on lake Norway. For more on that see Mels Blog.

I can't think of a better way wrap up the weekend, on Fathers day, than sitting at the "Last Stop" bar with my Dad and Brothers, sorting through Grandpa's old fishing tackle. He had a lot of stuff. A lot of old stuff. We divided it up 4 ways. I thought that there would be some arguing over some of the stuff, but everyone was very generous about it.

I ended up with a lot of old tackle. I plan on making a little end table with a glass top and a drawer in it so that I can display some of the stuff I got. It's hard to pick a favorite lure, but if I had to it would probably be one of the old red a white bass plugs.

Happy father's day Dad and Dad in-law! I had a fun weekend!

Cover songs

Cover songs are a touchy subject. When you do a cover song you have to do the song justice by not totally ruining it, but you also don't want to make it a clone of the original.

That being said. There is one song in particular that has been getting some air play, that I really like. That is Green Day's cover of Working Class Hero. They did an awesome job with this song. Every time I hear it I like it more and more. For those of you that don't know, I'm kind of a big Beatles fan, and with that, I like each one's solo career. Particularly George Harrison, but John Lennon's is nothing to overlook. It was short lived but he really made some great songs. For this song to get covered is great, cause it's not a song that gets played relentlessly.

I keep saying to myself that I'm going to make a "cover songs" CD but I never get around to it.

What are some of every one's favorite covers?

Puppy progress pics

This is the night we picked her up.

The was a couple nights ago.

Had her one day.

Tonight.

Tongue.

Cuddling with pheasant.

It's a celebration!

Happy birthday Mom L.

Bike

This one's for you E.

I've been working on a new (to me) bike. Nick found this GT Rebound frame in a junkyard, and decided he didn't want to do anything with it. So I grabbed it. 3 or so years later I've done something with it. I took all the components off my Giant Yukon and put them on the GT. Anyway, it's much lighter and simpler. I've got a SRAM 9.0 8 speed rear derailleur, LX cranks with a 32 tooth chain ring on the front and Pro Max V Brakes. I decided that since I rarely ever shift the front when on the trail I figured that I didn't need one. It's much easier. Oh year I've got an Easton bar and stem, sooooo nice.

So, E. When you get back we have to hit up some trails. They've completely redone Murphy. It's got a beginner, intermediate, and advanced loop with table tops, bridges, and boardwalks. I can't wait to ride it!

Here's the bike pics...

Update

Nothing new here. Been busy at work, and at home. I'm redoing the rock rails for my jeep. Rebuilding my M80 and building up a new (to me) GT Rebound. Oh yeah, and been playing with my RC rock crawler lately, too. I went to my buddy Josh's and broke it in 5 mins, so I had to fix it.
Now it's fixed so I've been driving it around the yard. I wish I had a rock pile in my yard.
That's all.

Quick Heep update.

I replaced the thermostat housing, thermostat, and temp sensor. Nothings changed. Everyone says it's the fan, but while I was dinking around with all that crap. I opened the radiator. Huh, the coolant looks low. There's plenty in the overflow tank. That's weird. Maybe it's just not showing in the top. The fins are wet so I know there's fluid in there. So I start it up without the cap on, and let it reach operating temp. Still no fluid. The hoses are not that hot. I turn on the heat and rev the engine a little. Ah, there's a little fluid coming through now, but not that much. At least the hoses are hot.

The above mentioned leads me to believe that the coolant is leaking into the engine at a very slow rate. HEAD GASKET!!!! DAMN!!!!

Tonight I decided to ignore the problem at hand and take my 'rusted to hell' rock rails off and try to remove the rust and paint, and prep them for a fresh coat. Well, I got them off and got the paint stripped off, but the rust is a different story. I should have done this last summer, but nooooo.....I'm to lazy. So this is the price I pay. Now I've either to to take them to get sand blasted somewhere, or try this "electrolytic rust removal" process that I found on the interweb. Looks like I've got my weekend planned........Poop.