Wisconsin Rapids River Flood in HIGH DEF

Ashley shared this video of the flooding in Wisconsin Rapids. Uncle Bill is in the video.

Wisconsin Rapids Flooding 9/24/2010

Wisconsin Rapids got hit by a flood.  Nieman Photograpy was the worst hit for our family.  They moved what ever they could upstairs.  Their basement is flooded, but I heard today the waters were decreasing.  You only think stuff like this happens to other people.  Matt...you can check out other YouTube videos to see other areas hit by the flooding. 

Cleopatra and freind

Cleopatra is always out back making friends in and around our yard.

Here she is on a play date with her buddy squirrel.

Yesterday she was hanging around the neighbors fence because their dogs were out back and she wanted them to come out and "play".

Anxious to see how she and Keesha get along.

daddy-o

Lap (or Mattress) of Luxury

A final blog today about what I had posted before...what I had prepared for mom's visit. Was talking to Jihye before mom's trip and thought I should get myself something for working so long and nearing the one hundred thousand dollar mark...a little reward for myself. She suggested a new bed. I've only had hand-me-downs from other foreigners or slept on the floor for over six years...so I thought that sounded just fine. Spent some time online and shopping around the Seoul for a while before settling on a frame from the internet which was pretty cheap, and managed to find an AMAZING mattress at a little shop just down the street from Jihye's house. We'd tried box-spring mattresses, memory foam, pillow top, and some other kind of mattress, all priced WAY too high before discovering this little gem. A double box-spring pillow top mattress for less than half of what the others were going for. This little shop had three floors, we met the guy on the first, he took us downstairs to try out several...then after hemming and hawing and about to leave, he said, 'Well..come upstairs and look at this...' So we went up two flights of narrow stairs, snaked our way past bed sets, mirrors, and full-wall lengths closets to a hidden back corner and one random mattress. As soon as my ass made contact I was pulling out my wallet..just loved it. The firmness of the boxspring, the pillowy-ness of the pillow top, and the breathability that memory foam mattress don't provide... Mom might attest to it..but I just love sleeping on it. Also bought some nice beddings to go with it and a really, really nice coolmax bedding pad that sucks the sweat off of you while you sleep and keeps you dry...a necessity for 90+ degree nights. I hope mom and Jadan enjoyed it..although they had a tendency to sleep on the cheap sofa bed that I'd originally bought....ay caramba! :)

The bed is usually made and looks much better, but my furry better half didn't want to be interrupted and as she is heading for another 'heat' soon, I am mid-removing the nice linens and using crappy stuff that can hide blood better....oh joy!

Welcome to 3-D

Here are some of my students before a class the weekend I got the new TV, I got 2 free battery-powered 3-D goggles with the home theater system..and 2 more pairs with the TV...so I'm up to 4 pairs now!! You're always welcome to come join in for a viewing of Monster vs. Aliens...tickets are available for all screening times...discounts after 11pm and before 9am when I'm actually home...

Farming Update

Was really inspired to read dad's post the other day about all his crops...thought I should share a brief update of my plot(s) over here. With the extreme heat of Korean summers, we had to do a scorched-earth policy and rip out everything down to the roots last weekend. Basically nothing survives all the way through August here...I still had some eggplant flowering, and looking like peppers and tomatoes might grow a few new veggies...but everyone here rips out everything, turns over their plot, and this time of year everyone is planting cabbage and radish in preparation for kimchi making season, which is usually in the winter, late November to December. So I cajoled Jihye into joining me, she REALLY didn't want to...but we got out there this past Sunday, and after about 3 hours of me nearly over-heating, and incredibly as the first drop of a fierce thunderstorm fell, we put the finishing touches on planting 46 heads of kimchi-making cabbage. Wow...really a strenuous workout...I had to stop and sit down for about 15 minutes during it out of sheer exhaustion and some fears I might pass out. It's still hot here, and the ground is wet from all the heavy rain, so it was like ripping out veggies, shoveling and turning over, and creating planting beds out of modeling clay. Thanks for the blisters Mother Earth...I owe you one...or 4!!

Here are a couple photos of some of the last veggies we harvested before ripping it all out. Excited for next year already, to get an earlier start, to know what the hell we are doing, and to experiment with organic fertilizers and perhaps some different and new veggies. We lost all our spinach to the heat this year, missed harvesting them by a week...so, next year could be much more bountiful. Happy growing!! And welcome to the self-sustenance way of life April...hope we can trade some notes on what works and doesn't...it really is a wonderful hobby.

New Home Goodies...

I finally had my 18 year old man tech. orgy recently....as you may or may not know, mom was kind enough to buy me a new computer and large monitor on her final day here. I didn't know we weren't suppossed to share when someone did something so nice for someone else..I'll have to remember that...or not! Anyhow, her gift got me to thinking, what else could someone who has ground away and lived on floors and in closets for six years without spending a penny do for himself....the obvious choice was a new home theater system. So I bought Samsung's top-of-the-line 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound home theater system. (Funny, Samsung sells different products in Korea that they do in the US...and Korean-made products are much more expensive here than they are there...odd...but something to do with the ABSOLUTE monopoly they have on the market here...)

Anyways...so I had my home theater for a week and let me just say that having 7 full-powered speakers and a giant sub-woofer in a small one-bedroom apartment makes for some AWESOME sound. I joked with Jihye about getting a big-screen TV to round off my new home entertainment system, but bagged the idea. I was feeling internally guilty for having bought a new top of the line bed, getting a new state of the art computer w/ 27" HD monitor, and now a cutting edge home theater system...I should cool off for about a year and get a nice big screen next year. But of course, I was bit by the bug and splurged. I ended up getting a Samsung 50" HDTV with 3-D!!! There is not much content available in 3-D yet, but even watching the one movie that is produced Monster vs. Aliens is breathtakingly gorgeous!! Also, Samsung's 3-D TV's allow me to turn any HD content on regular broadcast into 3-D with the simple press of a button. So HD soccer games, 'click'...3-D!! HD movies on TV, 'click'...3-D!! They're not as good as content originally produced in 3-D...but still adds some depth to the viewing.

So..I finally caught my breath this morning, and will try a couple blog posts...but thought I should lead off with my bragging...err...sharing report of my new home entertainment system...felt nice to drop $$$ and not really have to sweat it at all. What an odd, well-deserved sensation to enjoy...

Oh, I almost forgot...but as a cherry on top..I bought myself a Nintendo Wii and 4 games...really cool to golf, joust, and play Mario Kart on 50 inches...wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.....