Goin' Hard In The Yard

This weekend we built a patio, leveled the yard, made 9 jars of homemade strawberry jam, painted an hung new lattice, built a staircase and planted cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, sunflowers, cantaloupe, geraniums & muskmelon. That's a years worth for us, but since our parents were all up... we couldn't stop them.








There was rest too, and much food. I think I drank 17 gallons of sweet tea. And we finally had the room to get six people around this table we bought two years ago. Cushy.




Nice day. Good sun. Good food and nice times.



Thanks Mom, thanks Dad. Thanks Mom, thanks Dad.

Eyes: Woody Allen's Manhattan
Ears: The National - Conversation 16

Building & Cooking & Eating & Cooking

We got work to do. I tore down this pool and left an eyesore of a sandpit in the back yard, and with company coming soon, we just can't have that. We decided to try and make a patio out of it with rocks from around the yard. We are foolish kids.



It's coming along tho. Dave wanted to tear down the deck and redo the driveway and turn the house foundation 3 degrees to the east, but I tried to keep it simple. One job at a time. All the while Laura & her mother were inside fixin' us a delicious lunch and sorting thru baby clothes. We have 247 onesies for age 3-6 months. That's 2.7 onesies a day with no repeats.



I love deviled eggs.




Laura also learned how to make the famous Krupp strawberry preserves, a rite of passage, a tradition passed onto the daughters of the family upon their commitment to motherhood. Make a baby, feed it jelly.



I got back to work, laying large stone and moving dirt and digging holes and sweeping sand and lifting rocks. Due to its backbreaking nature I had to take more than a few breaks.



Laura prepared her favorite for dinner: MEAT! Pork steak & homemade potato fries. Sweet tea sealed the deal and I don't remember being quite so hungry in recent times.



The sun started going down and we decided a late night visit to Home Depot would be better than an early morning one. We went to get a few sheets of lattice and came out with two carts of flowers to plant. So much for a quick trip. No such thing when you're shopping with the Krupps.

Travis' Recipe Corner: The Golden Goat Salad

First you take a nice green spring mix, add some chopped up orange & yellow peppers, crumble in a healthy amount of goat cheese, sprinkle golden raisins to your hearts content and top it off with a squnich, just a squinch of olive oil & Parmesan dressing.

New favorite meal!!

Subtitles Stonewalled

Some of you may remember, but definitely do not remember, my gushing over that Swedish vampire film about a year ago. And some of you who do not remember will also remember my semi rant about it being Americanized. Well it's happened. And I'm excited but wary, for a couple reasons.

It has shortened its name to Let Me In (apparently too many words is konfusing for us Amurekins) and cast relative unknowns to play the leads. That can be good. It's gonna be directed by the Cloverfield guy, which is a movie I loved, but his "monster-attacks-NYC" film with helicopter crashes and machine gun toting militants is a far leap from the subtle nuances found in the original Let The Right One In, a movie carried solely by two young kids who don't do much else besides exchange pleasantries. And there's a few key scenes that were masterfully done first time round and I'm curious to see if he simply recreates them or foolishly tries to "make them better". So you've still got about 4 and a half months to go see the original, because the good ol' US version comes out beginning of October.

She Has Love. We Have Groceries.

Neither of us went to work on Tuesday. More pressing matters. And you're only finding out now because, well, we've been making up for lost time since then. But now I think we're caught up. Yeah we're definitely caught up.

We had our second (and final) ultrasound Tuesday at 2:27. This was a quick visit, simply to confirm the change of due date, which is now August 29th instead of the 31. It was August 16th. At this point were just saying "She comes when she comes". They wanted to make sure there were no growth issues tho. There weren't. Baby healthy! Except right now she looks like she's got chicken legs. Maybe we'll name her Foghorn. That's pretty, right? The doctor also encouraged us to start counting kicks. Count 10 in a few minutes and baby is good. I think she did 47 in 12 seconds the other day. I'm guessing baby is good.

Here she be:

That black hole, that's her heart. It's kinda shaped like an upside heart, huh? She has love. That'll be our last sonogram tho. The next time we see her she'll be real and in the flesh and probably screaming her face off. We actually cannot wait.

We also did some much needed grocery shopping. Due to our proximity to a grocery store and our recent increase in busy-ness, we hadn't done this in a while. Which is why we ended up with two carts full of food. In our defense we did have to buy a new hamper to wash my chemical-charged work garb and that took up half of one cart, but we also filled that up with food so.... I guess it's no different. We went up and down every aisle and got all the good stuff, including a few things for around-the-house fixer-uppers. And yes those are frozen pizzas and bags of chips on top of there, but I swear to you, the bottom was full up with fruit and salad. So the cupboards are stocked and the freezers packed, and baby & momma won't go hungry. At least for a week or so.

The Krupps Are In Pennsylvania

proof

Liquid Mountaineering

Hey! Exciting Yes (Not Boring) WooHoo!!

Yesterday started out as a normal day. We had a few errands to run and really didn't expect anything adventurous.

Laura & I left the house with some recycling to drop off. The recycling station lies in the middle of a large cornfield. We never thought anything of it. We dragged some plastic bottles to one dumpster. A bundle or two of broken down cardboard to another. We were about ready to hop back in our car when we heard the faint buzzing of a single engine cessna and it was coming right at us! We took off into the cornfield, narrowly escaping its machine gun fire. Weird huh?



Then we went off to Laura's ultrasound. Just a quick checkup but we could never be prepared for what we found out. The nurse was just starting the checkup when she suddenly shrieked and ran out of the room. She locked the door behind her and we were stuck. We looked up at the screen and this is what we saw...



Then we started to smell smoke and sure enough moments later some grey smoke started to seep under the door of our exam room. The nurse had lit the offices on fire! We had to escape to save ourselves and our little alien. But how?! I used my brute force to break down the door and Laura I just barely avoided the inferno that was climbing up the walls. The heat was unbearable and the building was coming down around us. Another too close for comfort. I sure hope they refund our copayment.



We got back on 33 and headed back towards home knowing we had to make one more stop at the grocer. The highway was pretty open considering it was around 3 in the afternoon, but all of the sudden we spotted a little green sportscar flying up from behind us. I mean this guy was trucking! Then all of the the sudden BANG! BANG! gunfire! At us. We floored it. Weaving in and out of traffic, taking the shoulder on occasion, and topping out around 120mph. Don't worry Dad we had our seatbelts on. After jumping a few curbs and a little off-roading, we managed to run him into the embankment and get away without any scars. Phew.



We finally got to the grocer and we started filling our shopping carts with all sort of goodies. We got to the cereal aisle when all of the sudden the power went out in the building and it was dark. Some faint emergency lighting flickered on and off and we thought after the day we had we should just get out of here and head home, but we'd come so far and didn't want to leave this beautifully stocked cart behind so decided to stay. But that's when we heard the rumbling. We looked down the aisle and there it was. A giant boulder barreling down on us! We grabbed what food we could and ran down the aisle, Lucky Charms flying everywhere! We crashed out the front window of the store and jumped in the car. As we drove away we saw the building go up in a humongous explosion. Just in the nick of time.



We got home, thinking our adventure was over, exhausted and ready for some rest. We saw the cats gathered in the backyard all staring in the same direction. Odd behavior for these guys who are usually asleep or eating. We thought they must've caught a mole or a bird or something. We thought there could be no harm in checking it out...

Moms, The Freak & The Letter J

Happy Mother's Day Moms & Moms-To-Be!

This mom had to work today, hopefully the for the last time. She was in high spirits this morning, but I'm thinking that was because of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I packed her a delicious lunch that weighted about 17 pounds, and it'll probably be gone before noon. Hey, it's Mother's Day. Let them eat.

Mets play their final game with the Giants today. They got their ace, everybody's ace, Tim Lincecum pitching. We got Oliver Perez. Advantage: San Francisco. Big advantage. They call him "the Freak". I don't know that I will watch. It could be ugly. But the Mets have won their last 8 or 9 at CitiField so... maybe they'll be really pushing for it. Protect that home turf. I think if they can at least get a couple runs across they'll have a chance. If the Giants put up 3 or 4, I may switch back the the Law & Order marathon.

Today is also about cataloging some more of the collection. I finished the letter "I" yesterday, but that was an easy 611 folders. "J" is 960. You don't even wanna know about the "M"s. We're talking over 3,000. You have no idea what I'm talking about...

PS - I got the fire going!

Eyes: Lost, "The Candidate"
Ears: Phosphorescent - I Don't Care If There's Cursing

Gabuk's Suitor

Maybe he'll take a tray of lasagna instead...

I Still Can't Find That Glove

At the start of the game they were showing all the kids meeting David Wright and it made me remember my brush with Mets superstar, Mister Darryl Strawberry...

That's Tyler & I in fanboy heaven. We had to refer to Tyler as "Darryl Strawberry" immediately following the meeting or he would not respond. But I still can't find that enormous glove he signed for me. Hey parents... why did I have such a gigantic baseball mitt? And who are the freaky blonde drones behind us?

Extras On Saturday

The painters missed...

Saturday. That's right. Get to sleep in. So why did my alarm go off at 3am? And downstairs nonetheless. So not only did I have to wake up, I had to get up too, and tiptoe my stocking feet all the way downstairs, in the dark to shut it off. So I was up. But I managed to nod off to catch a few extra hours, but still, that 3am wakeup is brutal, especially on a day like today.

But save that curse, it's been a pretty weekend-y Saturday. I've had two cups of tea with extra creamer, cereal with extra sugar, and watched a movie, Sideways, with an extra movie which should be over just in time to pick up the Mets game. Paid some bills and then paid some extra bills that aren't even due yet. Oooh that's a dayful right there. Poor Laura had to go in to work today, but she's home early and we'll catch up on some Lost and probably have some baked ziti for dinner.

And then there's Sunday...

Eyes: As Good As It Gets
Ears: Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt

Fantasick Impossibliss

This has been a weird couple of days. I've been pretty beat not being able to catch up on any sleep this weekend. I need at least one morning where I don't wake up before 5am to function properly. We even missed Lost because we were both so tired. I'm looking forward to this Saturday. A break is waiting. Altho the grass is somehow quite tall again. Damned dandelions.



We got rookie hazing this week. New guys fill the hazardous waste drums. That's my crew Tonya and Broccoli Rob. Oh delicious toluene diisocyanate. But don't worry. We wore these awesome Ghostbuster suits, which complemented my new hair cut quite well because people think I look like Bill Murray. Not sure if that's a compliment or what.



We got rid of a bunch of bulk. Laura drove the truck to the municipal building and pregnant lady didn't even have to leave the drivers seat. We got connections. But now the pool is officially gone, along with rogue toilet and other random knick-knacks.



Today was company picnic day. It seemed last minute, but I didn't mind the 2 hour break in the middle of the day for 12-foot hoagies and a little macaroni salad. Dudes brought guitars and bongos for some musical entertainment, and, well, things went down. Ryan's a cool dude but I'm concerned about him getting whiplash.



Oh! and I got my own stamper. Cue music......... "Movin' on up! To the east side."

Everything came together when I stumbled upon a new Most Serene Republic album that just popped out this week. Those sneaky sneaks! Tomorrow's drive will be a good one me thinks.

Eyes: Family Guy
Ears: Broken Social Scene - Forced To Love

Tase Them All!

Woodpeckers From Space

Why do I love this?

80's beat: CHECK!
far out space laser sounds: CHECK!
bootleg Woody Woodpecker: CHECK!
German rapping: CHECK!
brilliant lyrics: 5 out of 5!

The Annual Chop Job

One of these days I'm gonna shave it off and look much older.

But not this time.

How Can I Get This Job?

One Surprise, Six Sites

We surprised my Dad for his 60th. Muellers to the inlet to the OB diner to Ro's house to Mom & Dad's house to Ty & Melissa's house. The day was a success.

Back To Earth, Hard

After witnessing two of the most painful innings of baseball, in two separate games, I'm in need of a break. Mets pulled into Cincinnati this afternoon, no doubt feeling a little brow-beaten and with Philly playing St. Louis, the best team in the game right now, they're hoping they can make up that half game behind and regain first place. I can't believe I have more faith in Oliver Perez right now that Santana & Pelfrey. You boys got some work to do.

But I guess it could be worse. I could be a Red Sox fan.

I've Been Aiding And Abetting

According to police reports, Conrad Zdzierak, 30, is alleged to have used the $700 silicon mask in an audacious string of six bank robberies in Ohio. Five of the robberies took place on the same day, April 9. Police in Springdale, Ohio released video footage from the banks, appealing for public help in finding what they believed was an African-American male. But after a tip-off, officers found Zdzierak staying at a nearby hotel. Lieutenant Michael Mathis from the Springdale Police Department admitted police were fooled by the disguise and said he had never seen anything like it. "He wore what I'm calling a 'Hollywood quality' mask," Mr Mathis said. "These things cost $600-$700."

We made that mask.

And Now I'm Down $10

Good thing Spike is playing a Star Wars marathon or I might be a tad down for the rest of the day.

I'm Up $10

Ended up being 9-1. Blowout I think. I bet Dave from work $10 a game. At least I won't be out $30. That game was fun to watch. Pelfrey v. Halladay today. Their ace. We'll see. Just started. Would be nice to pocket $30 on Monday morning, but I'll take $10.

Military Funds To Abolish The Dutch Oven

Are the flatulence molecules from your partner's farts eating away at your marriage and causing you to reach for divorce papers? Well, you might as well draw up those papers, because you deserve to be alone if you can't handle a little heat under your nostrils. But before you do that, there might be answer to all your problems. It's The Better Marriage Blanket! From their "official" website:

"The Better Marriage Blanket is made using the same kind of activated carbon fabric found in Military Chemical Suits.

As a science teacher, I had used activated carbon in my laboratory lessons and was aware that chemicals and gasses are absorbed in millions of microscopic pores in each tiny particle of activated carbon. This principal is what makes The Blanket so effective! Activated Carbon is well known in Science and Industry for its odor absorbing properties. It is safe and non-allergenic."

Somebody throw a Better Marriage Blanket over that description, because it reeks like a turd in a sauna. But let's play along anyways!

So basically, the BM Blanket is kind of like a Snuggie, but instead of keeping you warm, it hugs a fart and smothers that poop air until it's dead. That way you won't murder your loves badonk in the middle of the night. If only they made a version for dogs, because that is the real dark-side right there.