New Guitar and George cleans the upstairs room Edition!

Some of you know that I bought a new guitar last week. I discovered that I could record myself on this program called Garageband that I have on my Mac laptop. So, in order to facilitate recording, I had to buy 1. a new acoustic-electric guitar, 2. An amp (really more for playing in church but I got a good deal on it with the guitar), 3. A mixer that I can use to control the guitar and a microphone for recording, 4. A microphone, 5. A mic stand, 6. a few assorted patch cords. Fortunately, I don't have to find a new address.
Friday morning, I began clearing the old waterbed frame in the upstairs bedroom. Today, I stayed home from work so I could finish. Below is a picture of how the south end of the room looks now.
Here's a closeup of the Taylor 210e model that is now mine.

It sounds amazing. I've downloaded the words and chords to lots of the songs on the album Prime Prine and am enjoying singing them. Also I've been singing Across the Universe (Beatles) and Pretty Woman. Of course, I don't have anything memorized but I enjoy playing and singing from a song sheet.
The waterbed is now in the back bedroom waiting to be re-assembled. Think I'll wait for Geoff to help with that. I now have enough room upstairs to have a permanent "music room" where I can record myself and just plain sing to my hearts content without bothering anyone else.

Woo Hoo!

Ciao, babies!

33rd Anniversary / Easter 2006 edition!

Liz and I were married on April 14, 1973 so this year, we celebrated 33 years together. We put together a weekend getaway kindof at the last minute. I thought heading for the Mississippi would be a good idea so we got a motel in Prairie du Chien. We stayed at the AmericInn and I highly recommend it. Though the rate was about $90 per night, they bought us a free pizza of our choice (well, they paid $10 toward what we ordered) and their breakfast was anything but Continental. They had scrambled eggs, GOOD donuts, fruit, coffee, juice, bagels and you could even make your own waffels. They had a large selection of free DVD movies to watch (we chose Walk the Line on Saturday night) and they even called the restaurant we were interested in to see if their was a wait. Again, if you ever stay in Prairie du Chien, the AmericInn is the BEST!
We didn't arrive until about 6 p.m. on Friday so after we ate (we were very hungry due to it being Good Friday) we took a walk over to St. Feriole Island. It was only about two blocks from our motel. We learned that many homes had been razed and families relocated due to the frequent flooding that occurs there.
Saturday dawned sunny and warm. We first went to Pikes Peak State park in Iowa, just south of McGregor. Here is an example of the amazing panoramic view of the Mississippi were the Wisconsin River enters.
There was a tow going by (they've always fascinated me). You can see the mouth of the Wisconsin in the upper left of this photo. I managed one photo with my digital camera and then the batteries died. I had just bought extra batteries at Radio Shack last week when I picked up a digital hygrometer (measures relative humidity, more on this later) but, of course, didn't bring them along. We relied on Liz's camera the rest of the time and I did take some pix with my Treo.
Here is a view upriver toward the bridge at PdC.
The day was incredible and so were the views.
After we took some pictures and just stared out into the beautiful warm sunshine, we decided to take a hike to Bridal Veil Falls. There was a wooden path with railings all the way to the Falls. It wasn't too dramatic as all it could muster was a few drips.
What we have here is a picture of the Bridal Veil falls and a man with very little hair on his head taking a picture with his camera/phone.
Just after the falls, we headed up the trail to view some Indian burial mounds but we had unexpected company.

What you see there is about a four foot rat snake that calmly crossed the path right in front of Liz. I was about 20 yards ahead of her at the time. I heard this "eek" and then went back to investigate. I took a couple snaps with my Treo but you can't make out the snake in either one. The resolution (.3 megapixels) is just too low.
After Pikes Peak, we went up the road about 10 miles to Effigy Mounds National Monument. We walked about an hour on a trail that also had some incredible views of the Mississippi River. All the places near the bluff were equipped with railings and warning signs. We saw a Turkey Buzzard feeding on a dead raccoon. Liz got a snapshot of the ugly bird.
Next, we headed back to PdC and had a little fast food lunch. Then we went down to Wyalusing State Park on the southeast corner of the intersection of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers. We wanted to do a little more hiking so I chose the Bluff trail because it promised good views and wasn't as long as the other trails. By this time, we were getting a little worn out. WHAT A MISTAKE!! As you know, I'm afraid of heights and this trail was a nightmare for me. It was about two feet wide, covered with leaves in spots and rocks and sticks and if you fell to your right, there was no way to stop your fall until you fell to your demise. I have never been in such danger for that long in my life. When we reached the end and I walked up the stairs to the top, I wanted to kiss the ground and thank God that Liz and I were OK.

Here is the blessed stairway to heaven at the end of the Bluff Trail. I never walked up a nicer stairway.

Here is a picture of the happy couple at the famous marker at Wyalusing.



Ciao, babies!