“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” -William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) With all due respect to Shakespeare, this line from Julius Caesar has always bothered me. It has always bothered me because I don’t think that it is true. In fact,… Read More »Memory is Private Literature
This past Sunday was Hedgegeddon (pronounced Yardegeddon in the Jansonian dialect) and it was a complete and utter disaster. It rained all weekend (or so it seemed) and the rain didn’t stop for Hedgegeddon. In the end Hedgegeddon Round 1 – You Win this Time Mother Nature! was a complete… Read More »Holy Hollyhocks!
I broke Day 9 into two post because of the large amount of pictures, if you recall. You are about to see the rest of those pictures. After all the flowers were planted, we all went our separate ways to wash up. Then the family reunited at the Stensland home… Read More »Vacation Day 9B – Mother’s Day Early
On Sunday I descended into the depths of Missouri and Kansas on Sunday to watch Alexis compete in competitive cheerleading. I had spoken with our Associate Pastor Andrea about good barbecue joints in Kansas City and she recommended Jack Stack for ribs and Oklahoma Joe’s for sandwiches. I looked into… Read More »Be Aggressive!
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson I’m sure every Iowa State fan (even those in denial about their fanhood) has seen this video of Iowa State celebrating after their victory at Nebraska on Saturday. But I wanted to post it here, so I would always have… Read More »The Good Kind of Hurt
On Mother’s Day, I hosted the first family event at the new house. I learned the following things. 1. My mom, despite literally knowing me my entire life, will takes something out of my fridge and eat it without looking at the expiration date. 2. If you ask Elainie to… Read More »Mother’s Day
On Saturday, Jason and I got the garage opener put on the garage door. This makes parking in the garage a lot easier. This was a good thing, because when I looked out my back door on Sunday after I got home from church I saw the following: IMAGE LOST… Read More »Saturday’s Accomplishment
I have one loyal subscriber that incessantly complains whenever I post too many posts without pictures. He often sends me an email that in essence “boos” me. I usually tell him that he is a big boy now and that he needs to use his words. But I’m quite certain… Read More »Saturday the 14th
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… Read More »Moving 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… Read More »Primary Painting Day
Day 2 at the house involved a ton of work on the cabinets. Carla put a coat of paint on the bathroom walls. The carpet removal team started their work. I don’t remember the actual name of this color, so we will call it green. I respect Carla and her… Read More »Day 2 – Things Start to Look Different
I have not touched any of my cameras since I left the resort in Arizona. Luckily for me Carla and Alexis did a fair amount of documentary photography on the work that was done on the house. Day 1 consisted mostly of swapping out light fixtures and starting the nightmare… Read More »More Day 1 Fun
On Sunday, January 10, I looked at the House with the Cute Backyard with Jason. I had seen the house with my Mom, Carla and Jay. Plus Teresa had seen it earlier. I wanted Jason’s far more practical perspective. Jesse also dropped by to look for a lead pipe. A… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 4 – A Closer Examination
I drove to Albia on Sunday to watch Elainie play softball in the Little League State Tournament. I was honestly expecting to only watch one game because they were playing Grand View. I can never recall a Boone team beating a Grand View team. But it happened. Boone beat Grand… Read More »Albia, Iowa
On Tuesday Night, Elainie’s Little League team won their league championship. Below are a few photos. The game was at night, so there is some digital noise and blurring caused by slow shutter speeds, but you’ll get the general idea. Elainie made the All-Star Team, so I might have to… Read More »Royals Win!
Jason has relatives in Parkersburg. On Monday, Carla and Jason went up to Parkersburg to help his relatives with the damage to their property after the tornado. Here is a portion of an e-mail that Carla sent out about Jason’s relatives experience with the tornado: Yes, the relatives are all… Read More »Parkersburg
It has been an interesting week thus far. I thought that yesterday I was going to take a major step forward towards fixing my car situation. Jason and I had scoped out a 2004 Buick LeSabre on Car Trader. It was right within my desired price range and only had… Read More »Celebration Nonterminus
Some random images from the Mother’s Day Barbecue Brandon Alexis Brandon Carla Carla Carla Elainie Elainie Jason Johnathan Teresa and Russ Logan Logan “The Perfect Marshmallow” Roasting Marshmallows Russ Russ Grilling Russ and Brandon Russ Teresa Since I know it would be missed if I didn’t post it, the picture… Read More »Mother’s Day Barbecue
I feel like posting some pictures from Easter. Alexis Carla & Mom Watching Egg Hunt Egg Hunt Neighbor’s Dog that Doesn’t Shut Up Mom Alexis Sorting Eggs Teresa Displaying the Maturity of her Years Brandon Johnathan Jason, Carla & Brandon Elainie Logan Teresa Crocheting Vacation Pictures I also had supper… Read More »My Happy Easter
I’d like to think that I had a better than average week this week. It started out poorly as the Padres lost to the Rockies in a play in game and despite the fact that the umpire blew the call that gave the Rockies the win, I accept the loss… Read More »Johnny Consumer