A Cincinnati spring weekend

Last weekend Grandpa Ferrigan came to town and we had a Cincinnati Spring weekend (sans an in-person Reds game . . .). First up, a trip to Krohn Conservatory for Butterflyfest 2009. They had all kinds of Indian (dot, not feather) butterflies. As gay as the whole thing sounds, it was kinda cool.
At the very least, the kid got the shirt right, no?

Grandpa Ferrigan is a total butterfly magnet. They FLOCKED to him. Must be his natural good looks . . .

He trys to show the boy what the magnetism is all about:

This guy hung about for quite a long time.

Another flutterby lands in Grandpa's hair:

Here's one on someone's arm:

Colin, due for a nap:

So that was Saturday. On Sunday, we walked in a 5K for Aunt Mollie's neighborhood, Northside. We walked through one of the largest cemetaries in North America. It was kinda cool. Colin rode in the wagon for most of the trip.

He had a grand time

We had breakfast at Boswell Alley after the fact - and it was WONDERFUL!!!

Colin walked probably 2.5 of the 5K. He's going to be an athelete. Period.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay classy.

Bubblemower, bitchez!!!!!!

Uncle Johnny and Aunt Robin sent a bubble mower from Morgantown for Colin's second Easter. Here's the record of that whole thing:

More video of the kid torturing various Buckeyes with his bubblemower:

Colin, takin' it into a covered position:

The last installment of Colin's first whack at the world with the Bubblemower:

Clearly the kid enjoys cutting grass. Daddy's gonna put him to work tootsweet! Thank you, Johnny, Robin, Adam and Ryan!

Der Schwingset part, um, der Zweist?

Picking up from the last post - we're gonna go in reverse chronological order for the rest of this madness.

As soon as I complain about the sub-par performances by my two Stanley cup playoff teams. THEY BOTH LOST GAME 1 BY A 4-1 SCORE!!!!!!!

That has to count for something, right?

Here's to hoping that the Canes or Jackets can turn their series around!

On with the pix: These are pix from Saturday, 4/4:

We put the roof struts up:

A different angle:

And now we have the roof on. Needless to say, Mollie and I have busted out the pilsners at this point, so you know our work is soon to be done. But the roof is on, so there's that, right?

Mollie puts the finishing touches on the 'Lemonade Stand'. (That's what Mommy calls it. Everyone else understands it for what it is - 'several hunks of wood to be ignored by the boy for the length of their existance.') But still, BRAVO, Aunt Mollie!

The 'fort' part of this thing, a bit further along.

SSSD from a different angle:

Eventually, we ran out of daylight that Saturday. Fortunately, we were nowhere near running out of beer. That swing hanger on the left - it's held in there by a clamp at this point. The boards that make up the swing holders were as warped as a Republican 'Family Values' Senator.

So, we took it into the garage and built what we could on the inside:

Inevitably, Sunday morning arrived, and a very hungover Aunt Mollie decided that she didn't want her image recorded for posterity. So first, she ran:

Then, she slept on the couch while Daddy put the swing part of the swingset together. Once Daddy made the whole thing work on his own, there was much joy in Mudville, and Aunt Mollie . . . did whatever it is that Aunt Mollie does:

OK, actually, part of that was unfair. Aunt Mollie helped me get the whole swing part of this apparatus together through a series of ingenious dis-assemblies - to the point where we were taking beams off of the 'tower' part of the thing. She was the linchpin in the whole operation, honest. But you'll notice that our blog's namesake was tickled with the result:

And here we are with the final assembled product (that's one of our awesome neighbor kids, Abby in the swing):

Abby helped me immensely through the last furlong of this project, so thank you, Abby!

Here is the 'curvy' slide on the set:

Colin's first trip down the slide:

He's still trying to figure out the whole 'slide/ladder' thing:

Cayden tries to show everyone how the climbing wall works (even though Mollie and I put the handles in upside-down, originally):

Daddy enjoys the final product in the foreground:

Neighbor Kelson looks through one of the windows:

Colin tries the climbing wall:

Kelson on the slide:

Kelson at the end:

A gaggle of neighbor children in Der Schwingset:

The fat bastard who put this clusterf*ck together, enjoying himself for five minutes between the completion of a mediocre job done and the puck dropping on a Blue Jackets game:

In a just world, my wife would understand the importance of PLAYOFF HOCKEY!!!!!

Anyway, here's some videos of the remainder to complete the circle:

This is Colin's first time on Der Schwingset:

And here he is the first time down the slide:



And here are Colin and Kelson enjoying the swingset:

Lastly, here is the boy explainin' how amazing the whole thing is: