rudis dot net

Well, I had some time post-4AM and pre-leave-for-work and had been wanting to make it so I could actually eat breakfast at, you know, the breakfast nook in the kitchen.

All of us in the house have a bad habit of just tossing stuff on available horizontal space and leaving it there and this counter is an extremely good target.

I took it upon myself to be the one to clean it up this time and I thought it would be a good surprise for Mary. Well, the kids got up and out without supervision and managed to turn my nice surprise into an lovely AM annoyance for her and my mom. There were two vases, one with a rose and one that Jarrod made (“pen flowers” in dry beans). Because I made the stools accessible and the counter area free to access the items, Ian took the beans and scattered them all over the floor.

Sigh.

We both got a good post-event laugh out of it, tho, and the space is clear now (for how long remains to be seen)…

I think even Spider-Man would have some trouble against this sand-man and his evil cohorts.

The mercury finally dipped low enough the past couple of weeks to get in some "ice hikes" up at Jacobsburg State Park. The first few photos in the set are from hike #1 and you can see that there is a distinct lack of ice. However, we were definitely not disappointed on the second hike. We managed to trudge up most of Bushkill Creek (that is in the park) directly on the creek itself. The layer of ice was almost three inches thick in some parts.

The kids especially liked the brittle, crystalline formations on the top of the more fluid areas and the big icicle formations towards the end of the hike.

It may not be the arctic or even close to what folks in more snowy regions are used to, but it's fun here nonetheless.