Mother's Day - Part Two

long haired dog people life

set up a tripod and remote to get the barn swallows

early birthday present for mom.  herbs.  lets see what we got here, basil, curly and flat leaf parsley, rosemary, greek oregano, thyme

this is how you mother's day.  picnic in stony brook park.  cous cous, deviled eggs, gazpacho, meat and cheese board, olives, red and white sangria, potato salad, guacamole and chips, sun dried tomatoes, the dogs, the sun, sunday, a few of mom's favorite albums on shuffle play.  Everyone was actually happy for about 10 minutes.

this is how you don't mother's day.  Thunderstorm quickly advanced on us and the parents fled in one car with the dogs and me and bob packed up and got soaked to the bone.  Mother's day ruined

at least i saved the cheese board, at least I saved the cheese board.  Now we were topless and had to drive home for 30 min.  We made the most of it and enjoyed delectable combos of tapas

a little high low.  Highbrow and low brow.  red necks enjoying the fine points in life.

so all was not lost, we still had corn hole back at the ranch.  The parents actually really enjoyed it!  So in the end mother's day was a success.  The fates have it against us when it comes down to us putting lots and lots of time and effort into doing something nice for our mom.  Last time the power went out 10 seconds into our British the party.  We even got dressed up in suits for that one.

we played 5 games of round robin switching up teams.

after dinner bob and i played more one on one corn hole for the king of the valley title and it was so much corn holin' that we were sore the next day.  I bet I know how hates corn hole.  The next door neighbors.  Cuz the sound of those 1 pound corn bags hitting the corn hole board that's basically an acoustic boom box just echoes off the barn and hill right at their house.

pond full of tadpoles.  It is SO LOUD at night with all the various frogs over there.  I bed I know who hates this new pond, the next door neighbors who get it echoed off the barn and hill straight at their house whilst we have that as a sound barrier at night, all night long.  Ok so mother's day achieved!  Onto the next level.

Mother's Day - Part One

My first mother's day at home in many years.

Brody has a new toy

scouting wood to make a cornhole set

the pond now a couple years old has come into it's own.

he only likes to go in a little bit despite knowing how to swim.  maybe he doesn't like the soft texture of the bottom compared to the lake he swims in?

at the tractor supply store trying to find feed corn to fill the corn hole bags with we found this alpaca/llama feed

cutting circles with a mitre saw is hard!  So many power tools in action on corn hole building day.

happy mother's day mom, now get back to sewing those corn hole bags!

Bob's favorite part of this whole process was making each bag weigh exactly 1 pound with a digital scale.

and bam we have a hand made corn hole set!  I cost us a day of our lives though.

Bob's Back - Part 3

a final round of Bob this time'round NYC

may 5th is children's day in Japan and they fly these carp wind socks.  I got a whole awesome set of these from Fumika's grandma.  This one's a 16 footer.  This is the first time i've been able to fly it.  The only person who knew what was going on was the girl that lives upstairs and to my knowledge no children were delighted so trying to spread culture and joy was a failure.

Bob and Steven are both "nerds" so they wanted to try out the Brooklyn Strategist on court street which is doing so well they just expanded their space.  It's a place mainly for playing board games.  Board games like Settlers of Catan have caught on as well as "nerd" culture in general.  Here in this room is something so nerdy that even bob won't get down with it and Steven is ashamed to have done it in his teens.  Warhammer, it's a game of fantasy miniatures that you buy blank and white and you then paint.  I think it's turn based where you roll tons of dice.  These guys had like 20 dice on the table and steven said that probably wasn't even enough.

we played Ticket to Ride: Europe.  It was pretty simple and i suppose it was fun.  It also is cool that it's BYOB

here is a star wars rebel alliance version of war hammer.  All of these are played on big surfaces and I saw them getting out rulers and stuff for some reason.

I'm sure Warhammer ends up consuming your whole life.  These guys were really going at it with the painting table too.  A younger Jason would say something snarky and pass judgement but the older Jason you see before you today will just let them have their thing.

I like this lady i've seen walk by a few times she reminds me of this nursing home lady character in the movie Ponyo.

Brooklyn Crab in Red Hook is like peter pan's playhouse with beer and seafood.

they have mini golf!

and 3 corn hole set ups.

the atlantic king crab roll was $24 and small :(  Definitely not satisfying.  Their special of the day, a trout bahn mi sandwhich was good though.

yes ma'am I will go do your bidding.

This wisteria in the backyard is taking over everyone's back yard and looks beautiful now but I wonder what it's gonna look like when the flowers are gone.

Bob's Back - Part 2

If you're around in the afternoons on court street in Carroll Gardens you'll see Green Lady and her golden retriever.  She is friends with tall army style cap lady that stands in front of the Carroll Street subway station.  I know this because they passed on the sidewalk in front of Abiline one day and were like old pals.  Crazy pals

Red Hook exploration.  Photo by bob.  he really liked these cats

a red hook in Red Hook

after beers and frito pies at the Icehouse we saw this place and went to peep through the gate and this guy jumped up on the gate barking and scared us!  we was so scared!  he done got us goods

roasting coffee and D'Amico on court street.

Gowanus Canal

Steven is in a Bocce ball league here at Union Hall and these newbie girls we played didn't like that very much.  Also dude on left was wearing vibrim 5 fingers shoes that are like gloves for your feet for running in the "barefoot style".  Wearing them for anything other than fitness makes you a tool or a tech startup employee or a hippee.  It's hard to tell judging from his whole appearance and dancing around to the music but the common denominator here is:  a tool. 

The next day we went clothes shopping on 5th ave in the upper teens.  We scored some new threads and took a break at City Bakery on 18th st for food and what Jen said is the best cookie.  Food is expensive and the cookie is pretty good.  I don't know if it's the best though.  But can I tell you the best cookie i've ever had?  no.  so there you go. 

most agree that this 2nd haircut touch up I gave bob was good and needed.

there have been about 3 waves of flowers going from magnolias to cherry blossoms to dog woods and lilacs and whatever these pink super dense flowers are that make a crazy canopy.  Also Bob is wearing some of his new dudz

court street street fair.  Standard stuff

Chris brought his lacrosse sticks.  First time trying it, I can see how it's fun.

girl boy bunny

Bob checking out Chris's Fender Stratocaster from some year