This will have to do

I'd like to post pictures and a full vacation report from two weekends ago, but due to some delays related to my wife's and my brother in laws slowness, I do not have them downloaded to my PC as of yet. You see, the name Schwartz and the words quick, fast, or any other synonomous words rarely collide in the same sentence. Therefore, that post will have to continue to wait. What I have decided to do is post a few other pics, and this will have to do for now:

I took week off which just happened to be the week of the big flood. This is the kids playing in their play house in between storms.

This pic is from after we got back from Wisconsin, taken on my own camera. Mara and I headed to DQ where she bought me a Cherry Cheesecake blizzard for Father's day.

Mara playing in Daddy's truck

This is Stacey's office. This is one of the doors we were hauling stuff out of the Wednesday before the flood. I remember telling myself and a friend that there was no way in hell the water would reach the first floor of this building. As you can see from the water mark that almost covers the front door, I was sorely mistaken.

This is the bike trail that goes under the 8th Ave bridge along the river downtown, taken the Wednesday before the big flood. In less than 24 hours, the water rose another 12 feet higher from where it is in this picture.

Me on the road in Squaw Creek park on the Surly Crosscheck

Ellen hamming it up in the back yard.

Gotta get dirty

If it's that last thing I do, I'm Mountain Biking on Wednesday night. Gotta trailer full of rock to take to the trail for the parking lot anyway (conveniently removed from around my house). The knobby tires have been resting for long enough. Got my gear and some beer ready for Beverly park.

I should have learned how to swim

Just an update on us as it relates the the Flooding here in Cedar Rapids. We live a long way from the flooded area, but Stacey works in the heart of it. On Wednesday when they upped the prediction of how high the river would go, I went down there to help clean out the basement and 1st floor of the building. It's one thing to see pictures of the devestation, it's another to be standing there helplessly watching it happen. Thousands of people, a few of whom I work with or are friends of mine have lost everything they own. Many did not have and could not get flood insurance because their homes were not in the 100 year flood plain. Well, the floods surpassed the 500 year flood plain and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. The floods of 1993 crested at 19.5 feet. The record here was set in 1852 at 20 feet. The pictures below show the river on Friday at 32 feet. 12 feet above the last record and nearly 13 feet above the worst flood this area had seen in a century. It's very sad.


Here are some photos courtesy of the local paper:




An aerial shot of downtown. I380 is the yellow line. The yellow circle is the area that Stacey's office is in.




I380 is the yellow line, the circle with the arrow is Stacey's office.





This is Quaker, the largest cereal production facility in the world. If you're a fan of Cap'n Crunch, you might see a lull in availability.



This is another shot looking North. The yellow lines are where bridges used to be that are now under water. These bridges may not open for quite a long time.


Stacey will be able to work from out of her office for the time being, but I'm sure will be heavily involved in the clean up end of things. Y'all will have to forgive us if we can't make some of the events we planned on this summer. Our livelihood depends on her business, so bet your ass I'll be there helping too.

We did manage do get a weekend in Wisconsin once the water forced us out of downtown. More on that later.

Family Fun day

We hit the Farmer's market as planned this morning. I got some tomatoes, as I've been dying for a good BLT, and the store Tomatoes suck this time of year. Well, they always suck, but when you know summer garden tomatoes are right around the corner, and you're jonesing for them, the store ones seem to suck even more. There's a locally famous breakfast burrito stand there that had a mile long line, so I passed on that. Besides, I'm not sure how you could top my breakfast burritos, but I can't really say till I try one. Otherwise we just walked around checking it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were out. Really happy to see local people getting behind something cool in this otherwise culturally void part of the world. There was a dude there dressed up as Clifford the dog. Mara got a big kick out of that.

A trip to Target was necessary on the way home, which normally makes me grumpy, but I didn't mind today. When we got home I started working on the yard again. My neighbor and I helped each other trim some trees. My yard is looking so much better than last year, but still has some work needed.

To cap off the night, we went to our friends daugher's 2 year birthday party. Roy and Monique Smith, and their daughter Elise. I've been friends with Roy since I was a kid. He's a great friend. I love hanging out drinking beer with him and his family, and tonight did not disappoint. It occured to me when we were at their house how much easier our kids are to handle now than they were last time we were at their house. It's awesome to see my kids make friends with a child of a childhood friend of mine.

Got home around 9, cracked open a new Microbrew from Stanley IA that I found at the store. Very pleasantly surprised. Check out the website, and ask your local booze vendor to get some for you: http://www.hubcitybrewingcompany.com/index.html

More rain coming. Dammit.

Looking forward to the weekend.

This week was a tough one. The kids were both sick with some virus, but are over it now. Stacey stayed home Monday and I stayed home Wednesday. I haven't been on the bike since Tuesday, but that's all gonna change tomorrow. Hoping to get the kids down to the farmer's market on Saturday as well. Might have to drive down at least part of the way. I'm not sure Ellen is up for that long of a trip yet in the Burley.

Summer is here

Awesome weekend at home layin' low with the family. Stayed up late Friday night drinkin' beer by the fire pit. Mara came out for like 5 minutes, but is still very unsure about the fire going on in the fire pit. I guess that's something I'm okay with her being a little scared of. The kids played outside a lot this weekend, and so did I. Did a little more landscape work on part of the yard. I planted a couple bushes and put a Paving stone that my sis painted for us in the mulch between the bushes. Pulled some more rock out from around the house.

We grilled two nights this weekend, and generally laid low. I got in a couple MTB rides and did some trail work today. Getting stoked to start a new trail close to home that could be HUGE. I took the girls to the park today in the Burley as well. They can't get enough of it. I was thinking of getting a swing-set, but taking them to the park gets them around other kids, and they seem to like that. Plus, it gets them out of Stacey's hair for a while.

One more week, and I'm on vacation for a week. I think. Might work Monday and Tuesday of next week, but I'm not sure yet. Heading to Wisconsin to hang out in the great outdoors for a few days. WOO HOO!!!