Friday Night Bonne Finken played Ames on the Half Shell. Here are a couple of images.
For about 50 more images, click on the link below:
Bonne Finken
This Friday the band will be Kountertop.
Bonne Finken
Bonne Finken
Category Archives: Sara
Bonne Finken
4th of July
I had a pretty great 4th of July!
I woke up in the morning and headed to Ames at about 9 am. I met Shannon and her cousin Matthew for a pretty sweet breakfast of biscuits and gravy that Shannon made.
Then I headed over to Jen and Derrick’s to drop off some cherry ice cream I made the night before for their annual 4th of July barbecue.
I got to Bandshell Park at about 10 am and worked on Ames on the Half Shell until about 7 pm.
I got a few photos of the event, but I’m just going to post my 5 favorite.
Peg and Angie with Mike Butterworth of The Nadas
Me with Teresa and Logan
Me with Willy
Geri D. re-enacting the stamping of Matthew’s Tongue
Matthew and Shannon’s Annual 4th of July Portrait (Destined to be used as a Facebook Profile Picture with the cute part cropped out of it.)
After Ames on the Half Shell, I headed over to the fireworks firing grounds. Lighting off fireworks was quite a bit more dramatic this year. I saw quite a few fireworks do things that they weren’t supposed to do.
Becky signed up to do fireworks, but after the very first one that Shannon lit blew up only a few feet in the air and flew all over the shooting area, she changed her mind.
I have to admit, that was pretty exciting. The next day I talked to Melissa. She did security for fireworks, so she wasn’t at ground zero. She told me that when she saw that first firework blow up and shoot fireworks all over the area, she said a little prayer. But figured everybody must have been okay, because the fireworks didn’t stop.
Shannon never knew that her firework malfunctioned, but that is part of the training. You don’t watch your firework.
After a couple of minutes, Becky changed her mind and joined in the fun.
Here are a few pictures from the fireworks:
Scott showing off our massive amount of communication technology we had a ground zero.
Hammering Rebar. Rebar is hammered in between mortars to prevent them from falling over and firing into the crowd. Or worse, at the shooters. This is an example of what went wrong in Charles City last year. They used rebar, but they only hammered it in a few inches into asphalt. Because all the mortars were chained together, when one mortar fell over, they all fell over.
Joe unpacking fireworks.
The 10 minute warning. This was the very first firework that Becky ever lit.
Last year, Sara asked me what fireworks look like from the other side. I don’t have a good answer for that question, but this is what fireworks look like from underneath.
Shannon lighting a 5 inch shell. The 5 inch shells were the biggest that we lit off this year. I think this is actually my favorite picture from the day. Even though I’m sure critics will claim that it is slightly derivative of my earlier work.
This is an example of what it can look like when something goes minorly wrong. It might look to some people like this is a series of fireworks going off, but it isn’t. This is what it looks like when a firework doesn’t go up high enough before it blows up. It comes back to the earth before it has completely burned up. The strange thing about this picture is that if you look closely, you can see aluminum foil on top of the mortars. These are the grand finale mortars and they are covered by aluminum foil in case something like this happens. All the grand finale fireworks are fused together, so if 1 of them goes off, they all go off. If you look even closer, you will notice that there is not aluminum foil covering all of the mortars. This happened while people were removing the foil and getting ready to set off the Grand Finale. If you look very close, you can make out Joe on the very right side of the picture. Shannon was also in the middle of this, but she does not appear in the picture.
The Grand Finale going off.
There are a ton of other great pictures from the day. I suggest you either click on the picture below or the link below and check them out:
LINK DELETED
It was a great and safe fireworks show. It was a spectacular show and nobody came close to getting injured!
I concluded the evening hanging out with some wonderful people at Jen and Derrick’s barbecue. I didn’t leave there until a little after 2, but I still woke up in time to usher at church. Take that sleep! Who needs you any way?
Abstemious
On Saturday, June 20, 2009 I headed to Ottumwa with Sara to help Jen and Derrick with the house that they are trying to unload down there.
Before we left, we stopped for lunch at George the Chili King. I had never eaten there, but I called Jen to see if she wanted us to pick up some lunch for her.
Her only response was to remind me that the toilet in Ottumwa does not work that well.
I snapped a few pictures with the phone (although not a great camera, it is the reason I selected the phone) to document my Chili King experience.
One of the bonuses of the trip was getting to introduce Jen, Sara, Jill and Derrick to the greatness of Bonne Finken.
Pictures of Jill and Derrick listening to Bonne Finken.
I wish I had some pictures of the basement powerwashing, but alas, you will have to imagine what that looked like.
Shindy
On May 23, I had my housewarming party. I would consider it a success on some level. 10-15 showed up for it.
I would like to thank everybody that made an appearance:
Baier, Jason
Bardole, Shannon
Bennett, Charlotte
Brannen, Suzie
Daniel, Jeff
Derner, Geri
Degeneffe, Scott
Gorshe, Derrick
Gorshe, Jen
Gorshe, Jill
Henning, Monica
Hiatt, Eric
Howard, Jesse
Howard, Kalista
Howard, Kelly
Howard, Saydie
Howard, Taylan
Janson, Jay
Jauhari, Andree
Jenson, Terra
Johnstone, Jason
Junck, Sara
Kahler, Brandon
Kahler, Logan
Kahler, Russ
Kahler, Teresa
Kewer, Jeff
McAlpine, Willy
Meiners, Alex
Meiners, Barb
Meiners, Frank
Meiners, Trevor
Miller, Bethany
Miller, Jim
Miller, Nate
Mubaidin, Shadi
Parsaei, Nader
Perkovich, Becky
Peterson, Tim
Redd, Ernie
Roberts, Lori
Roberts, Sam
Roberts, Steve
Schmidt, Amy
Schmidt, Corey
Schmidt, Izzy
Strachota, James
Stensland, Alexis
Stensland, Carla
Stensland, Elainie
Stensland, Jason
Stensland, Johnathan
Ungs, Casy
Venema, Barb
Yin, Amy
Of course, some special thanks are in order for some special people.
Thanks to Logan for manning the grill so I could engage in hosting duties.
Thanks to Johnathan for helping Logan out.
Thanks to Shannon for bringing Oatmeal Cake.
Thanks to Terra for bringing taco dip.
Thanks to Jay for bring rhubarb crunch and blackberry buckle.
Thanks to Jen for bringing brownies.
Thanks to Monica for bringing taco dip.
Thanks to Steve for bring homegrown salsa and rhubarb crisp.
Thanks to Becky for bringing mint fudge cheesecake.
Thanks to Jesse for bringing ice, a canopy and running to get more firewood.
Thanks to Sara, whom I think might have brought some vegetables.
I did not really get out my camera for this occasion, but Sara took some pictures with her camera. Below are a few pictures from Sara’s camera.
Admittedly these pictures only include a small spectrum of the party people, but it will have to suffice, it is all that I got.
Monica and I
Monica and Jen
Sara and Jen
Sara, Jen and I
Sara, Jill and Jen
Jen, Derrick and Shannon (Shadi in the background)
I and James
Jesse, I and Sara
Logan, I and Jesse
Logan, Sara and Jen
I and Jesse
I and Jill
Jason, I and Jesse
Jen
Jen and Derrick
I guess now that the house is sufficiently warmed, I won’t have to do that again.
But on the positive side, I think almost everybody who came to the party will leave with at least one memory of my neighbor, Mr. Jason Johnstone. My Kramer.
Housewarming Invites
I had a housewarming/birthday shindig on May 23. I made individual invitations for those that were invited. I’d like to share some of them.
Willy
The Kahlers
Nader
Sara
Shannon
The Roberts Family
The Hiatts
The Howards
Jay
Jeff and Yin
The Gorshes
The Baiers
Bethany and Rebecca
Casy
The Degeneffes
Geri
Geri requested a new picture of us be taken because she wanted a picture where she wasn’t looking at me as if I was the smartest person in the world. I guess I never noticed her having an expression different than what I’m used to seeing by the majority of people in my life…
Better than Work
I took Wednesday off to go down to Tom Harkin’s office with Jesse to meet with one of Tom Harkin’s assistants to discuss the situation in Uganda.
If you are not familiar with what is going on in Uganda, I would suggest you check out a video put together by a group called Invisible Children.
I posted it in a blog a long time ago:
Invisible Children Video
The meeting went well, but it was to be expected. Who is going to come out and support child soldiers?
On our way to the meeting, we walked by an advertisement. I don’t think that there is anything in the world that could have encapsulated what is wrong with our country more.
Ugly America
When the meeting started, Tom Harkin’s assistant presented us with a letter showing both his support for ending the civil war in Uganda and his (staff’s) ability to use Wikipedia.
To see the letter in full size, click the link below:
Tom Harkin Letter
Jesse in front of the Federal Building
After the meeting, we met up with Sara and hit both Ted’s Coney Island and Snookie’s.
It was truly a great impromptu lunch. Including when Sara called nursing homes: “Purgatory with crafts.”
Junck Family Farm Adventure
Last Wednesday night after I celebrated the arrival of spring, I went to with Sara to her parent’s house to take a ride in their new electric car. The thing about their electric car is that it isn’t some boring new electric car like the Volt. This electric car is from 1925.
Besides its age, another interesting aspect of the electric car is that all of the seats face each other. That includes the driver’s seat.
There is no steering wheel. There is a tiller that controls the speed and direction of the car.
Me
Mr. Junck
Mrs. Junck
Sara
The Electric Car
1955 International Harvester Truck
Cruising Ogden in style.
I’m not really sure what this thing was, but we cruised it around the farm a few times.
Sara really wants a matching pink truck to go with her dad’s blue truck. Although he has yet to consent to this idea, Sara isn’t afraid to point out that she will be deciding what nursing home he will end up in.
Maybe she will get that truck when he becomes a bit more aged and more susceptible to blackmail.
The Kitchen
The room that has proven to be the most work by far has been the kitchen. The walls took 6-7 coats of paint.
Cranberry Punch
I originally was considering a color called Raspberry Couli, but I had a lengthy conversation one day with Sara about red paint. She painted her television room Cranberry Punch and after I examined it rather closely, I knew that this was the shade of red for me.
But the walls were just a small part of the challenge. The biggest part of the challenge was the kitchen cabinets.
Luckily, Becky had a great idea that made lots of work, but made the cabinets look a million times better. She noticed that the ugly trim work on the front of the cabinets was only held on with tiny nails.
After knocking off the trim work, the cabinets had to be sanded down and given 3 coats of primer and another 3 coats of paint.
Plus I put on new handles and hinges.
Flat and clean. No ugly trim.
New hardware. A silver metal finish to match the new appliances.
New spring loaded hinges, so that we didn’t have to put all of the magnets back on.
As you can tell, there still are a couple of doors that need to go back on.
The good news is that the kitchen is almost done. A little more paint and hanging up a couple more doors and it will be a finished masterpiece.
Moving Day
There are no pictures from moving day, but I would like to thank the people that gave some effort to make moving day work out.
The Friday before moving day had spectacular weather. The Saturday of moving day was not scheduled to have spectacular weather. I returned to work on that Friday to get caught up on a few projects that I had fallen behind on.
To take advantage of the nice weather, Jason and Carla moved some stuff during the day. Then at night, Jen and Derrick and Sara came over and we moved stuff that I wouldn’t be able to handle the projected rain on Saturday.
So after FNSC, Jay and Willy and Derrick and Jen and Sara and I moved a few things.
But thanks also needs to be given the people that showed up on moving day:
Jason Stensland
Jesse Howard
Steve Roberts
Roger Sebring
Toby Sebring
Jason Baier
Andree Jauhari
Russell Kennerly
Shannon Bardole
Becky Perkovich
Jen Gorshe
Sara Junck
Derrick Gorshe
Dan Dill
DJ Dill
William McAlpine
Jay Janson
Plus a special thanks to Scott Degeneffe who personally delivered my brand new stove.
After a good chunk of work was done, Monica and Jeff showed up. Jen, Derrick, Sara, Shannon, Monica, Jeff and I went to Jimmy’s for supper.
When we returned, Derrick and Jen stuck around. Derrick and I hooked up the new TV and Blu-Ray player. We watched The Warriors. Jen had never seen The Warriors before, but I have no doubt that she now probably considers it to be one of the greatest movies ever made. At least I don’t see another way of thinking about that movie.
Primary Painting Day
Although Carla and Alexis did a wonderful job of taking pictures, one of the downsides of not having taken any pictures myself is that I didn’t get pictures of everybody that helped.
So thanks to my incredible painting crew on Primary Painting Day:
Jason Stensland
Carla Stensland
Alexis Stensland
Jason Baier
Jeff Daniel
Amy Yin
Jen Gorshe
Derrick Gorshe
Sara Junck
Teresa Kahler
Monica Henning
Nader Parsaei
Jay Janson
Jesse Howard
Shannon Bardole
Becky Perkovich
James Strachota
I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. They all did a wonderful job and if it wasn’t for the stupid moisture, I’m sure we would have been completely done on that day. With everything except the kitchen cabinets.
My mom also cooked up a wonderful lunch and supper. I think a good time was had by most.
Some pictures from that day in no particular order:
The Master Bedroom
The Office
Roger taking the tile out to make room for a shower.
Shannon painting the entry way.
Jen working in the kitchen. Notice the swanky green color that kitchen cabinets used to be before the horrible antiquing.
Jesse, possibly high on something, working in the kitchen.
Jesse doing some primer work in the kitchen.
Sara and Alexis toiling in the kitchen. I do not know what I am doing.
Alexis and I painting the living room wall. It might be the accent wall, but I’m not sure if it is still considered an accent wall if you paint two walls that color.
Carla painting in the master bedroom. To the left of her is the family heirloom, our Grandpa Bennett’s painting stool.
Painting the living room. Jesse, Alexis, Me and James.
The guest bedroom.
Jason painting the living room.
Jason and Carla came over on Sunday to do some more painting.
Jen came over and did quite a bit more work in the kitchen as well. I just don’t have any pictures of that.