The price is dropping

I paid $2.35.9 per gallon for gas yesterday. Yeeha, I can finally afford to mow my lawn!

Bleu dinner

Pat and Sandi celebrated Mark's and my birthday with a lovely dinner at the swanky Bleu Restaurant tonight. Pictured are one of Luke's sliders, my Hanger Steak (looks like it came pre-chewed), and Pat's Gnocchi . It was a fine dinner, albeit out of focus.

Homecoming

Pat and I went to Mizzou's Homecoming. We had a great time, but it did get a little cold, and Pat did get a little bored because it was a football game. The game was close for the first minute. Twelve seconds later, Mizzou scored their first of nine touchdowns. They added three field goals for dessert. Colorado scored a big goose egg. I think it is more fun to score 58 than 0.

October 17

Our dogs, Mr. Bojangles and Rosie, gave me an awesome shirt from Hand-Done T-Shirts in Ely, MN for my birthday, which is coming soon. The T-shirt says, "Canoed it, portaged it, camped it, loved it. BWCA - Ely, MN. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is heaven on Earth! 

I think Pat helped them select this gift. I enjoy canoeing in the BWCAW and Quetico Provincial Park with her. Little Rosie tolerates canoeing, but prefers to sit in the back yard and watch the day go bye. Mr. Bojangles thinks canoeing is an unnecessary death defying act. Just after the ice broke off the lakes last March, I took Mr. Bojangles on his first canoeing adventure. The air was 40 degrees and the water was 40 degrees, but the sky was bright blue and spring was promising. We took a little solo canoe to Finger Lakes and all was fine until a flock of geese circled once and landed a hundred yards to port. They were too tempting for a young dog with shepherding urges. We both ended up swimming until we were blue as the sky.

Union Bridge

This is Union Covered Bridge. It was constructed in 1871 for $5000 to complete the freeway between Paris and Fayette, Missouri. It is the only surviving example of a double Burr-arch truss designed, covered bridge in Missouri. That means the bridge has arches in its trusses. For humans, that would be quite painful. The bridge is also noted for being the only known covered bridge in Missouri to have horizontal siding.  Union Covered Bridge was last restored in 1987, but since has been damaged by flooding. Help save this bridge. Send your spare white oak clap boards to me, and I'll reach right up there and nail them in place.

Mark Twain Lake

My birthday is in a week, so Pat said I could go canoeing anywhere in the world. Naturally, I chose Mark Twain Lake. There is nothing like an 18,000 acre, human-made lake completely encircled by 30 foot tall, litter-blotched, progress-eroded cliffs and vast, barren mud flats besticked with drowned trees to capture that serene feeling of getting away from it all.

Trip to Florida

Yesterday we went to Florida. Florida, Missouri. It's really a town. The birthplace of Mark Twain. No one lives in Florida any more, but the nearby Mark Twain State Park has a good museum. There you will find Mark Twain's birth home, a biographical flick about Mark Twain (surprised?), and some of his family furniture from Hannibal and some of his furniture from his second Connecticut home. My two favorite pieces of furniture were the spinning wheel and loom that Mark Twain used for spinning and weaving his humorous yarns. 

CROP walk

Spending Friday and Saturday juking and jiving to the blues was not enough exercise for us last weekend, so we participated in the three mile CROP walk. We helped raise over $17,000 for charity. Are you wishing you would have donated? Well, it's not too late, donate online now!

This was my first CROP walk. Pat had prior experience walking like a crop. She was born and raised in Elgin, NE. I should have suspected she would walk like vetch. Are you doubting me? Watch this video of the event. We appear briefly in the video at the 2:30 mark. Mr. Bojangles, our big, goofy, white dog is walking with us.

Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ, 'n meat loaf too

Pat and I attended the 2008 Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ Festival in Columbia last weekend with 130,000 of our music loving, BBQ snarfing friends. For two days, The District was transformed from a quiet coffee welcome mat for Mizzou's campus to a frothing sea of music maniacals.

Pat and I sampled BBQ from 57 stands, and danced to the tunes of these bands:

• Aubrey and Lori Ghent
• Record Collector
• Roy C
• Ruthie Foster
• Primitive Soul
• Gary Clark, Jr.
• Tab Benoit
• Music Maker Revue
• Buddy Guy
• Jerry Douglas Band

Pat and I wormed and weaseled and slid our way up front of every show, which so impressed the festival judges they awarded us the meat loaf guitar of merit for coolness above and beyond the call of duty. Boogying in the front row, Pat got "the smile" from Eddie Tigner, and I got a free CD for letting Mudcat accidental clock me on the side of my face with Adolphus Bell's guitar. That was awesome !?#*

Stay tuned for our festival video. While you wait, visit the videos and photos posted on the festival website.