#1

I spy with my little eye…a strawberry pie!

For the first time ever we truly played a board game as a family. And I loved it. A lot of fun – for all of us. Yes, we’ve played some of my favorites for years but those games either have no strategy (e.g., Pretty, Pretty Princess) or they are stacked in favor of the parents (e.g., Blokus). But this time we played monopoly (the Chicago edition). It took us about a week, but we finished the game. Colleen and Christopher played – and Megan was the banker and official dice grabber/distributor. Christopher started the game off by just going around the board – I don’t think he bought a single property after the first one or two times around the board. He would pause to consider properties but then decided he liked his money too much to spend any of it. Needless to say, I was the first one out, followed shortly by Beth, and then Christopher had no problem trouncing Colleen too. He raked it in. Somehow everything seemed to go his way. He had both get-of-jail cards. He had a hotel on the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) which was the most expensive property on the board. On each of our final turns we thought we were safe because we ended up stopping just before his properties…but then I rolled a 3 to land on the Sears tower, Beth rolled a 4 to do the same, and Colleen (several turns later) also rolled a 4 to do the same. Stinker. And…he could have cleaned up a day or two ago but he didn’t want to spend much money on houses and hotels. That’s the last time we play with him!!!

Let me ask everyone who lives in Nashua this question? Is being ranked #1 in the country by CNN’s Money magazine a blessing or a curse? Is it the kiss of death? Eden Prairie is #1. We’re #1. We’re #1. We’re #1.

We watched a deer eat whole heads of flowers off of plants in our yard in single chomps…and then we sent Orca after it. Lucky for her it ran off – I’m not sure what she would have done if it had just stayed there.

Another firefighter gave us his old 15′ pool for free. So I found a somewhat level spot in the yard and set it up real quick when Beth’s parents were out here last month. The instructions just say find a “level” spot -they don’t say how level is level. After a few days it became apparent that my definition of level and their definition of level were a bit different. To further complicate my leaning pool situation the side that was downhill is of course where I had positioned the drain plug which ended up being about 1′ underneath the pool and impossible to get to due to the weight of the water. We tried this pool out to see if we would use it but it also had a leak in the air ring that kind of supports the pool…so here’s the picture of me draining the pool. I don’t know why they give you a drain valve – my method seemed to work just fine and was a lot more exciting. Just like watching the huge bucket dump tons of water at the Great Wolf Lodge! We then went out and bought a brand new 15′ pool, I moved just a bit of dirt to give a pool a better chance of surviving the summer, and the kids have loved it ever since. Every night they go out there. And during the day with sitters they are in it all the time. Fun fun fun. I love Christopher’s happy dance – he just needs some country music and a cowboy hat and he’d be all set.

One Response to “#1”

  1. Grandpa T says:

    Sounds like Christopher really cleaned house on the board game. Way to go Christopher. We haven’t played Monopoly in years. Come to think of it we haven’t played many games at all. We enjoy playing – maybe we should dig some of them out of the closet. It’s nice to sit down with your family and do things like that together. Enjoy it now. Teenagers may not have the time or may not think it’s cool to do things like that with the family.

    Don’t think Nashua’s #1 status (twice by the way) was much of a blessing or curse. It gave the Mayor, Chamber of Commerce and others bragging rights, and brought in new residents thinking the streets were paved with gold. I imagine some of those people were disappointed to find our streets had as many potholes as the place they moved from.

    I’m sure Casey would chase a deer if she had a chance in our backyard. She’ll chase about anything that moves. For an old girl she seems to do OK. She saw a cat the other night when we were walking that I had a hard time seeing even after she was going wild trying to get to it.

    The pool picture is really refreshing. After the hot humid weather we’ve had the past couple of weeks, maybe we should get one.

    I haven’t flexed in front of the mirror for a while, but last night I did check out the wild rash on my upper body. It doesn’t happen all the time, but sometimes when I get a cold or other ailment I break out in a rash. This cold was one of those times. I think our colds are getting better now. Seems like a funny time of the year to have a cold. I told mom it’s becuase she keeps the house too cool. Of course she doesn’t agree with that.

    OK, you may have me on this one. I do find myself at Lowe’s tapping the back of my fingers on things that I pass. Not my nails, but usually the knuckles. No counting with the tapping though. You must get the counting from your mother.

    Glad you had a nice birthday celebration with your family. Wish we could have been there to help you celebrate.

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