Who cares about gas prices?

I filled my truck up with gas on March 23rd. Since then I have spent a whopping $30.33 on fuel. Riding a bike to work has its perks. With 1/2 tank left, I could make it well into May without buying gas for my truck.

Busy Busy

Who isn't busy, right? We spent the weekend around the house this weekend working on projects. I had to tack up the final bits of woodwork in the bathroom, that I can now say is complete on my end. Stacey is the touch up person, and has a lot to do there and elsewhere in the house.

Mara had her first catastrophe on Saturday. See, I bought a new toolbox on Friday. One of those on wheels kind. Well, Mara and Ellen were playing in one of the boxes, when somebody's (probably Ellen's) weight shifted. The box fell over and Mara cracked her head on a corner of the tool box (that was out of it's packaging) sitting on the livingroom floor. Now, I was across the room, but it was a thud that made me a bit concerned. That's when I saw the chunk of hair and skin stuck on the side of the toolbox. Then came the screams, then the blood. Now, I'm from the school of hard knocks when it comes to these things. Not quite as old school as my Dad, but pretty old school. I figure bumps and scrapes are going to happen and sometimes it's best that they do. But the way the blood was coming out of Mara's head made me open my eyes real wide and say, "Holy Shit." In my mind I was ready to head to the ER, but once I got a look at the wound, it was pretty clear that there was nothing there to stitch. The bleeding stopped rather quickly. I got her cleaned up and put some antibiotic stuff on it, and away we went. Mara was quite the trooper through the whole thing which usually isn't here style. So, I treated her wound and my guilt with some mid-morning chocolate pudding.

The girls played outside almost all day on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. They played hard all day. Ellen is riot outside, and get's royally pissed off when it's time to go inside. It's great that they like to play out there, but it's got me thinking about fencing in the backyard. I can't keep up with them all the time.

Beverly Park

There's a little local here trail that my buddy Ken and his pals have been developing for years. It was all on the DL until last year when LAMBA (Linn Area Mountain Bike Association) was formed and is now legally able to build trails in Linn County. I was recently appointed as a board member by Ken and two other board members. I asked them why they wanted me to be on the board, and they told me they needed someone who has ridden a lot of different trails and who is not afraid to voice their opinion. Check and check. Anyways, Ken and I and a couple of other members started dreaming up this trail that would put this park "on the map". We have been marking it for weeks in our spare time, but the time came today to start actually building it. So today a group of 12 of us went out with rakes, McLeods, chainsaws, and weed-wackers. We got a lot done and I am happy to say, this trail is going to be awesome.

The bad news is, I've been spending a lot of time doing stuff like this and not with the kids. I've also been working my ass off in my garage. I took Mara out just me and her on Friday night to Menard's. She like going there and so do I. I took Ellen out tonight to Sears with me and we ended up eating at a local brew pub. I only had one (small) beer. Ellen had Fettuccinne Alfredo and loved it. She got a little antsy, but the service was really slow. Hopefully I'm going to make up time for all this stuff next weekend, but I'm heading into a severely busy time at work.

Can't wait to show y'all my garage, and if anyone is up for it, I'd absolutely love to show you the trail we built.