The Great Outdoors -- With Dennis & Family

This past weekend we went camping with Dennis, Dana, Kendra, and Avery at Chester Woods Park. We had a fantastic time -- Sammy really enjoyed roughing it. The weather was perfect...low humidity, cool. Conversation around the campfire was a delight. Dennis has a wonderful family (we wish Benton could have made it).

Sammy (inside) shows Kendra and Avery his Eureka! Timberline-4 tent

Dennis wowed us with his outdoors cooking prowess...

Good eats!

Dennis playing the uke...

Fleas...

Paul recently got his new ukulele...a Flea Ukulele.  He got just the basic model.  It's an interesting musical instrument (see this review).  The side/back is made of plastic/fiber glass. For its price, it's a nice uke to use on a daily basis for playing.

"The FLEA uke offers easy playability, great sound and plenty of personality. The FLEA is offered in both soprano and concert scale (15 frets). A solid maple neck and Australian pine top are combined with a molded body and fretboard creating a surprisingly big, bright tone, unmatched at this price. Available in cool colors and designs with a how-to-play booklet. Rosewood fretboard and pickup options are available on all models. Proudly made in the USA." - Flea website

Anyway, we found this on youtube...a tour of the Flea factory (the "Fluke" is another model they make):

What could be better?

What could be better than playing the ukulele?  Only one thing...playing the newspaper (just watch to see)...now if we can just get Michele to learn to play the upright bass....

Uke-aposition...

What happens when you juxtapose a soprano ukulele with a bass saxophone in a duet?

At first we were scratching our heads until the sax joined in...

Sammy's 3rd Birthday Party - Cowboys, Banditos, and Mustaches

What would a cowboy birthday be without real(istic) cowboys? For Sammy's birthday we had a whole herd of rip-snortin, darned-blasted cowboys (and cowgirls). Here are a few shots of some of the various hombres at his party earlier in the day.

Gaucho Grant and Demure Diane...
...check the paper for any "Wanted" listings about them...

Groucho Grant, Demure Diane,
Abeline Annie, Frito Bandito,
Juniper Jessica, and Johanna Bandanna pose for a photo...

....only to find out it's lawman Sammy who is the photographer...

All day long Sammy was putting wayward cowpokes in the clink...

This isn't PhotoShopped...
...Veto the Cat actually sporting a mustache...

Gaucho Grant went straight and became a lawman...
(see badge on his shirt)

The good guy always gets the girl...
...at least in Southwest Rochester...

Frito Bandito (sans the mustache) plucking the ukulele...
...he was later apprehended and convicted on being woefully out of tune..

Mahalo Texicana Christmas...

As part of our "ukulele Christmas" theme, we sent painted Mahalo ukuleles to Austin Tx to David & Jacci's kids (nephews/nieces Russ, Dominic, Tricia, Andrew, Celine).  

Tricia, Russ, Celine, Andrew, & Dominic...

Rush showing Dominic some chords...

Here is a video of them opening the presents...

For what it is worth...

We've given a number of ukulele's as gifts this year...most of them inexpensive painted Mahalo's. The Mahalo ukuleles come with pretty lousy strings (something we realized too late before gift-giving came). Even after you've tuned them numerous times and they start to stay in tune, they still sound pretty bad. We tried putting on a number of strings (we ended up getting green and purple Mahalo ukuleles for ourselves...it's a uke thing). We found that we really like the way the Worth Brown Fluoro-carbon medium (BM) strings sound on the Mahalo ukuleles. The strings are somewhat pricey, but they give you enough length to do two ukuleles with one package.

So for what it is worth, we recommend the Worth Brown Fluoro-carbon medium (BM) soprano strings for the cheapie-er-moderately priced Mahalo ukuleles. You can purchase them at Elderly Instruments (a cool shop with a decent ukulele selection).

Yes, these are basically fishing lines.

Reason #4576...

Reason #4576 to convince Michele to learn the sousaphone...

...click here

I'll have a uke Christmas without you...

We celebrated Christmas with Paul's family in the Twin Cities the day after Brian & Vanessa's New Years Day wedding. Sammy had a fun time with the family.

The theme for this year's Christmas turned out to be ukuleles. After Michele bought Paul a ukulele, we thought about it and figured it would be a fun gift for other family members. We found a maker of affordable ukuleles which has them painted in various colors (Mahalo). The strings which come with them are pretty bad, so you need to replace them with better strings.

Some of the painted ukuleles available...

Chris has a friend in Woody...

We video-conferenced-in Anne's grandson Tommy...
Grant, Chris, and Brian provided necessary technical support...

Opening their ukuleles...
Chris (orange ukulele) and Molly (light powder blue ukulele)...

Vanessa with her pink ukulele...

Brian with his yellow ukulele...

Wearing an orange shirt...
...Chris entertains us with his orange ukulele...

Sammy helps with clean up...

Sammy...

Chris shows Sammy how to set up and topple dominoes...

A Uke Christmas...

For some of us, Christmas comes early...

A couple of years before Sammy was born, Paul saw a ukulele for sale at Wal-Mart. It was a cheap, $20 toy/instrument, but he bought it anyway. He occasionally tinkered with it but never made much progress learning it. When Sammy came along, our little boy used the ukulele as his guitar--so we purchased a couple more to have around the house. Through our blog there have been occasional postings related to the ukulele. Earlier this year, Paul started trying to play the ukulele (a bit more earnestly) and Michele decided to buy him a decent quality instrument for this Christmas.

Michele did some research and decided to buy Paul a Ko'olau Pono PSO (soprano) ukulele. She told him before she bought it to make sure it would be one he'd like (hence Christmas coming early). We eagerly awaited its arrival this past Tuesday. It's a very nice instrument and you can tell the difference immediately between that and a cheap ukulele. Thanks Michele!

As it turns out, the ukulele is experiencing a bit of a resurgence in the last couple of years. It turns out, the New York Times is good for more than just telling you how to think politically. Take a look here. The ukulele is fun because it's small, easy to learn (2/3 the number of strings to worry about versus the guitar), and has an uplifting sound to it.

Paul's Ko'olau Pono PSO (soprano) ukulele...
...as Sammy's trains rumble by...

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 was a busy event. We must have had over 25 people throughout the day come through our house. It was wonderful to have friends and family over.

While Paul's mother was at the Mayo (for back surgery this past October), she obtained for herself a new "daughter" named Veronica (one of the nurses at the hospital). Veronica is of Italian descent and she and Paul's mother seemed to hit it off. Veronica came over with her husband and her (real) mother for dessert on Thanksgiving night. Paul's mother continues to reassure her children that she won't leave them for a new family.

Diane the pie maker...

Dinner as Sammy saw it from the end of the table...

Michele and Sammy...

Johanna...

Chris enjoys dinner...we think...

The first ever annual Thanksgiving Day pie parade...
...Michele, Linda, Anne, Diane...

We had a ukulele trio with Kevin, Ryan, and Sammy...

Paul's mother with some of her new family members...
...and a few legacy ones...

Diane realizes she is no longer the number one nurse in the family now...

WildWestDays2008: Five Dollar Fine

Sammy tends to have eclectic music tastes (everything from classical to Dean Martin to cowboy songs). At the Viroqua Wild West Days, he roped us into sitting down for a number of songs by Tex & Mary Shutz. He really seemed to enjoy their singing (as we did). Our favorite song sung by them is "Five-Dollar Fine for Whining."

Tex & Mary...
...can you imagine someday Paul & Michele...
...Michele playing the oboe and Paul (someday) the ukulele?

Sammy watching and listening intently...

Sammy applauds the performance...

Sammy keeps won't be a little boy for long...
...so we try to savor each day with him as much as we can...

The Easter Bunny meets Sammy...

The day before Easter, we awoke to a winter wonderland. A local church had an Easter egg hunt with a guest appearance by the Easter Bunny, so we took Sammy (video to be posted later). Sammy was not too thrilled with the Easter Bunny, an aversion based perhaps in the relentless attacks made by the local hares on Paul's landscaping.

It looked more like Christmas than Easter...

Is this the rabbit that ate our flowers?

A compromise, Michele sits between them...

Duelin' ukuleles...

Sammy imagines himself on a album cover...
...notice the religious tattoo on his hand...
...which he received at the Easter Egg Hunt...

Later on in the day Sammy helped Michele & Aunt Diane colour eggs...

Sammy jamming to Johnny Cash...

Last weekend Sammy put on yet another show for us. This time to Johnny Cash singing "Johnny Yuma". Notice how he checks his reflection in the bookshelf doors to make sure he looks good.

Sammy jams...

Our Son...the Pop Star...

Sammy put on a show for us earlier today...

It's only a matter of time before he has groupies...