Where In The World is Charlotte Monson?

Is she in Daphne, Alabama?

Nope.

Is she in Brent Town, London?

Nah.

Here she is!

Soon, I'll tell you all aboot it.

Photographic Evidence... Finally!

I've been trying to get a picture of our cat Earl and our dog Maggie sleeping next to each other for over a year. I catch them next to each other all the time, but by the time I grab the camera one of them moves. It's like they are embarrassed.

Late last night I spotted them while I was putting the camera away, and my timing was right.

Students often ask how our cats get along with our dog, and I tell them our pets are good friends. That's usually met with skepticism, but now I have proof.

The Opposite of The Ring of Fire

It's universal. Kids are drawn to sit on the splash pad's geysers. Char had to stand in line to sit on this one.

I'm jealous. If I tried that I'd be arrested.

link

Belted!

Someone is pretty excited about earning her first belt in martial arts.

Those scabs on her legs are from trying to climb the slide instead of the ladder breaking baseball bats. The first six weeks of Little Ninjas were way more intense than I thought it would be.

My Rust Removal Team

Pinball machine legs have levelers that are screwed into their bottom. You can make sure your machine is even by raising or lower each leg and checking your work with a level. This is what a typical set of four legs looks like.

My latest pinball machine project came with the rustiest legs that I have come across. I bought the machine from a guy who bought it from a guy who bought it from a guy who had it in storage in Minnesota. I'm pretty sure his storage unit has a floor covered in standing water.

Check out what's left of these levelers.

Last year I would have looked at these and thought, "No way. These legs are toast." But this year I have a new, powerful weapon in my garage. I have Evapo-Rust!

Read the label, and you're sure it's all marketing lies. This stuff is safe on skin, reusable (just funnel it back into the jug when you're done), and biodegradable? And it dissolves rust?

Yep. It's all true.

I left the legs and the levelers in the Evapo-Rust for 24 hours.

I then used my bench grinder's wire wheel to remove what was left of the loosened rust.

For step three I sprayed each leveler with Kroil. Kano's Kroil has gotten me out quite a few rusty spots when I was working on my VW Bug.

I waited 10 minutes, and then I put each leg in my bench vice. I was able to free each rusty bolt after using a Vice-Grip wrench to slowly turn the leveler's bolt back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. You can't rush it. The bolt's so rusty; it'll snap off if you use too much force. The trick is to tighten each bolt a little at first. Then you turn it to loosen.

The chrome on the legs was too far gone for a polish, so I sprayed the legs with a "hammered" silver paint. It's a cheap solution, but I'm not going to re-chrome the legs of a machine I don't know will even work.

The leg looks pretty good with a new leveler installed.

Thanks, team!

What Do You Do All Summer?

That's usually one of the first questions that's asked when I tell someone I'm a teacher. Sometimes I tell them that I teach summer school classes or that I'm taking classes myself, but this summer I just say, "We do family stuff."

Like this.

We play at parks.

Reading books in the backyard "tent" is fun.

We went downtown to watch Char's Aunt Phaedra run the Dam to Dam 5K. This was a bit of a challenge for me. I've run the Dam to Dam 20K nine times, but I've gave up running a few years ago, and I wasn't sure if I could handle watching others run. I eventually decided that if I was strong enough to run, then I was now strong enough to spectate.

Besides, I know how much it means to you when family comes to support your run.



Isn't Where the Skywalk Ends a book by Shel Silverstein?

We also take family trips to Casey's to get ice cream. Maggie comes, too.

Char scored this House of Blues tee at the Salvation Army. She picked it out to be a pajama top. A thrift rock shirt? Dad is so proud.

I scored another pinball machine from Craigslist. I picked up a Williams machine from 1966. 

It has a terrible paint job, it's filthy, and some of the wiring is all jacked up, but I wanted a project to work on. I'm not sure if I'm in over my head or not. Right now I kind of feel like this guy on the playfield.

Daphne wanted some metal patio furniture for the cement pad under our deck. You'd be surprised how fast patio furniture sells right now on Craigslist. More than once I'd contacted a seller who posted their stuff an hour ago, and it was already gone. This set was posted at 10:10 PM, and I caught it at 10:20 PM right before I went to bed.

White wasn't going to cut it, though.

Reminds me of an ice cream shop.

Before the day of spray painting, we added some paving stones to finish off the outside edge of the cement pad. Maggie approves.

Rainbow Play Systems in Urbandale has a display room for all their playground equipment.

We still had a free pass to play in their display room, and Char was tired of waiting for a rainy day to use it. Despite the beautiful weather, we drove over to play inside. Go figure.

When the heat does crank up, we like to break out the lawn sprinkler.

If the water gets too cold, then Charlotte has a "solution."

We also rode our bikes to the local library so Char could get her first library card.

That's a big deal. I remember when I got my first library card back in Rock Valley. My number was 555. Sigh. I'm so old.

Speaking of libraries, it was Mo Williams day at the Johnston Library, and the popular characters Elephant and Piggy made an appearance.

After a few craft projects...

...and posing for a picture...

...Char was brave enough to pose with the stars of the day.

No, I'm not embarrassed that I'm not taking or teaching classes this summer. Look how much I would be missing.