Aches & pains: n/a

Current reading: High Fidelity by Nick Hornsby

Recent listening: Hot Rats, Ten Years After, Back To Mine (Krafty Kuts), James Brown, New Roman Times, The Pizza Tapes, Kitaro

Recent viewing: 30 for 30, House of Cards, 7 Up, Killing Bono, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Middle, Modern Family, Touch, Raising Hope, Larry King Now, The Office, Fringe

Recent playing: Letterpress, Bloons 5

Recently accomplished: Can & bottle recycling, birthday interview, bought iPad Mini

Imperative To Do: Appointments, Troop 820 accounting, sell OG iPad

Aches & pains: none

Current reading: The Big Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

Recent listening: Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Jane Siberry, Sam Cooke, Donovan, Nanci Griffith, John Frusciante, Deadmau5, Florence & the Machine, Earth, Wind & Fire

Recent viewing: Dexter, Twin Peaks, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Winnebago Man, NFL Playoffs

Recent playing: DropZap, Words with Friends, Temple Run

Recently accomplished: Mowed lawn to remove most leaves, taxi service, Christmas tree recyling

Imperative To Do: Finish Neil Young “liner notes”, finish 2011 FY for Troop 820, clean office, pay bills, call DirecTV, Troop 820 can recycling

Bike odometer: 2567
Aches & pains: lower back
Current reading: Beginning iPhone 3.0 Development by David Mark and Jeff LaMarche
Recent listening: John Coltrane, Public Enemy, Liz Phair, Dan Fogelberg, Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Grand Funk Railroad
Recent viewing: Jazz (Ken Burns), The Messenger, Precious, The Jacket, Masters of Horror, The Machinist, Moon, Surrogates, Brothers, The Blind Side, August Rush, Doctor Who, Medium
Recent playing: Words with Friends, Plants vs. Zombies
Recently accomplished: Harvested compost, pulled dandelions, planted grass, removed blackberries, fixed attic door, created Troop 820 IS infrastructure
Imperative To Do: Make doctor’s appointment, iPhone app, bank, post office, Troop 820 Treasurer’s report

Bike odometer: 2567
Aches & pains: itchy tattoo
Current reading: George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking
Recent listening: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, Michelle Shocked, Muddy Waters, Dio, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Waits
Recent viewing: Lost, Modern Family, Doctor Who, Glee, Fringe, Moon, Iron Man 2, Donnie Darko, The Big Lebowski, It Might Get Loud
Recent playing: Words with Friends, Plants vs. Zombies
Recently accomplished: Collected summer camp fees, finished Iowa vacation planning, learned to solder, fixed 1 of 2 broken LCD displays, unclogged traps in both bathrooms, job interview, endured first tattoo, setup Troop 820 website
Imperative To Do: iPhone application, pay speeding ticket, weed and feed, groceries

With only two weeks of summer remaining it’s high time I updated you about what’s been happening in the Ring household.

For the second year Troop 820 (Thomas’ Boy Scout troop) held an unofficial “family camp” in June. If you recall, last year we went to Idaho for three days of biking. This year we drove to La Pine, OR, where we camped in the “high desert” at 4100 feet. I was huffing and puffing there for two days before I realized that the altitude was the problem. During a bike ride to the shower I figured out that deep breaths counteract the lack of oxygen. Once I knew that, I no longer dreaded getting off my ass and walking to the next campsite. While we were there, the boys enjoyed a long bike ride and floating down the Deschutes River. It wasn’t really that warm but I think the altitude made it feel warm.
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Last night Graham and Thomas had their final orchestra concert of the year. In anticipation of the event, several months ago I invited my mother to visit us at this time so that she could attend. Graham’s fourth grade orchestra was the first to play and they did a very nice job of showing how much they had improved during the year. After they took their bow, they all started off stage to make room for the fifth grade orchestra. As Graham stood near the edge of the stage waiting for the rest of the kids to move, he chatted and laughed with his nearby friends. I looked away for a second to talk to Tina and then we heard a crash in front of the stage followed by a gasp from the audience. Somebody fell. Tina asked, “Who fell?” Scanning the group near the commotion, I realized Graham was no longer on stage. “It’s Graham!” I told her as she stood and then rushed down the stairs to the stage.

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Bike odometer: 2523
Van odometer: 154556
Aches & pains: miniature frost bite on my elbow (turned black), back in spasm for 3 days
Current reading: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Cross-platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
Recent listening: Coverville, Live from Austin, TX by Neko Case, The 99 Most Essential Beethoven Masterpieces, Weird Al Yankovic, Final Boss by MC Frontalot
Recent viewing: The Thing, The Tick, Numbers, Coraline, The Daily Show, Battlestar Galactica, This Week with George Stephanopolous, Meet the Press, Firefly, Welcome to Macintosh, Fringe, Confessions of a Superhero, Lost (Season 1)
Recent playing: Chain Factor, Galcon
Recently accomplished: Can recycling for Scouts, Coldplay tickets for Thomas, found outlet for Boy Scout can recycling, yard debris, Valentine’s Day plans, volunteered to be Troop 820 Treasurer, visited Evergreen Aerospace Museum
Imperative To Do: Freecycle, get rid of MacRenewal Macs, recover network functionality on old Tivo. Read their multimeter reviews for more information.

I didn’t take many still pictures when I was in Iowa for my birthday with my Uncle Lorell because I was preoccupied with my new Flip Video camera. I did take a few though and have posted them in the Rynosoft Gallery for your viewing pleasure. In case you didn’t notice when they appeared this summer, there are also a bunch from our trip to Idaho to bike with the Scouts. Of course, there’s always three random pictures from the gallery on the right side of this blog.

Thomas left for Camp Baldwin on Sunday and will be gone for a week with Troop 820. Tina and Graham just got back last week from three days at Gilbert Ranch with his den in Pack 4. Tina blogged extensively about the latter starting here. While she was there, she twisted her ankle again but I think it’s been healing pretty well since.

I hurt my back while at our neighbor’s BBQ over the weekend and spend all day Sunday laying flat on my back hoping for the best. It no longer hurt to stand up on Monday morning but it still feels a little “tight” at times. I have to be careful not to strain it any further. As I’ve mentioned before I heal much more slowly since I turned forty.

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I’m sitting beneath the picnic shelter at the Wolf Lodge Campground in the beautiful Idaho panhandle near Lake Coeur d’Alene. Today it’s just me and the dog watching over the camp as everyone else in our party cavorts at the Silverwood Theme Park and Boulder Beach Water Park. I didn’t bring a laptop with me but the dog’s owners brought several so I bummed one for the day. The dog is completely deaf and not a good conversationalist so I will amuse myself with some blogging, assuming this HP laptop doesn’t drive me crazy first (windows keep popping up every minute and it chooses to ignore many of the letters I type).

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