First Pumpkin of 2010

So, yesterday I picked the first of this year's pumpkins. Collin was really excited about it so I put it in his room. It weighed in at 7.8 lbs and I named it Gorbert after a furry-faced little monster in one of Collin's current favorite books. Sadly, this rather small pumpkin is in all likelihood the biggest one my pumpkin patch is going to produce this year. Pumpkins, and vine fruits in general, have not done very well this year around here due mainly to an unusually cold and wet June. There is one other pumpkin out there that might possibly make ten pounds but I'm not holding my breath.

Superwife!

So, I would like to take a moment to brag a little about the incredible woman I married. She does so much more for our family than I could ever even begin to give her the proper credit for but I want to mention just two things that she has done recently that have reminded me of how awesomely awesome Alisa is. First, earlier this week we went down to a title company to sign the papers to refinance our mortgage. This was a really good deal we got and it will save us nearly $200 per month. I want you to know that I did essentially nothing to bring this about. Alisa made all the phone calls, set all the appointments. I just signed the stuff she needed me to sign and sent one e-mail that they needed to have from me. This involved an immense amount of work on her part and I am so grateful to her for taking care of it all for us. The second thing I wanted to mention was Alisa's great work on our son Collin's 2nd birthday. She organized the celebration, bought all the presents and made the incredible tractor cake you see below. Yeah, she made that from pretty much just a picture she found on the internet and some very general instructions. Pretty freakin' sweet, huh? She's good-looking and smart. And, I know something about being good-looking and smart. I have come to the conclusion that Alisa must not really be from Idaho. I think she must be from the planet Krypton because she is not just a wife; she is a Superwife!

The Pumpkins Are Coming! The Pumpkins Are Coming!

As you can see from these pictures my pumpkin patch has started to produce a lot of pumpkins. I took these pictures a few days ago and many of these are a lot bigger now and there are a few new pumpkins that have since started to grow.

The first picture and the one above are some of the "big max" pumpkins that I planted for the first time this year. They will not be the traditional dark orange color of the pumpkins most people use for Halloween but they can get to be over 50 pounds so I'm really hoping to have a few really big jack-o-lanterns on my front porch this year.

There are actually two pumpkins in this picture. Can you spot them? Wow, this post is kind of like an "I Spy" or a "Where's Waldo" book!

FINALLY! Merlin Season 2

Well, iTunes finally got their act together and fixed the problem with Merlin Season 2. So, after a long wait I was eventually able to watch those last two episodes. And, it was totally worth the wait. This season was great and since I bought it I now have it forever. Or at least until this computer crashes.

This season had some great episodes. I especially liked the one where Merlin fell in love. Of course, she ended up dead but it was a still a very well done and touching episode. I also enjoyed the episodes with Uther being bewitched by and marrying a troll. The love triangle with Arthur, Lancelot and Gwen got more interesting this season. And, Uther's war on magic got more intense so I look forward to seeing how things go with that next season especially now that Morgana has disappeared and Mordred has a grudge against Merlin.

As great as the season as a whole was I really thought the finale was spectacular. The introduction of Merlin's father and the release of the dragon really makes me wonder what direction next season will take. I look forward to season three being made available next spring.

So, there you have it; the long awaited review. I hope that both of you found it satisfactory.

Come Back Homestarrunner!!

OK, so homestarrunner.com has not had an update in about 3 1/2 months. I know that one of the creators just had a new kid or something but come on, I need some cartoons! I know, not much of a blog post but, I haven't done one in a while.

He he he

Oh, you just gotta love these linguistics jokes! This brings back many happy memories from my phonetics class in college.

The Great Merlin Conundrum - Part II

So, I am sure that all of you have been wondering when you will have the pleasure or reading my review of the second season of Merlin. Well, as you may remember, NBC chose not to broadcast Merlin Season 2 and I don't have cable so I couldn't watch it on The Syfy Channel either. So, I ended up purchasing the season pass on iTunes. This was going along just peachy for a while until we have hit a snag. The season has 13 episodes and the first eleven came to me just fine. They became available for download the morning after they aired on Syfy and I would watch them on my computer the following evening. However, just as we are getting to the end iTunes has provided me with two copies of episode 11 while episode 12 is nowhere to be seen. On top of that, when I downloaded the final episode of the season it ended up actually being the season 1 finale mockingly masquerading as the season 2 finale. Needless to say, iTunes had me a little bit confused and annoyed. I mean, I paid for the full season so I really should get the full season. Anyway, I went to the comments section for Merlin Season 2 on iTunes and found that there were pages of comments from others who also were having the same problem. I wrote a message to iTunes in their feedback section so I'm hoping this will be resolved soon so I can see how the season will end.