Who’s In The Katzer Family Doghouse?

Here comes trouble…

So the other day I called my daughter Leane on the phone and the first words I hear are, “you’re in time out, go back there in the corner”… or words to that effect.  In the background was all the kid yelling and daily commotion that I usually hear (and love) with a call to their house.  Then came the normal “hello dad” stuff.

Almost without thinking, and already knowing the answer, I asked, “Who’s in time out”?  With a sigh Leane answers, “Duke Duke”.  ”He just doesn’t listen”.  (shocker!)

Of course I immediately started laughing because I was instantly transported back to my childhood and a nifty little wooden plaque, that hung near our kitchen table…  So for every one besides my mom, who is already laughing as she reads this, here is the rest of the story:

These wooden plaques have been around for 50 years

The photo at the left is a replica of the original little Dog House plaque that we had, I just fabricated this one up a few seconds ago, but you get the idea.  I think my dad brought it home from work one day and hung it up on the wall.  Each of us 3 boys had a little dog with our name on it, and when we misbehaved our dog would get moved over and hung in the dog house.  Well, as you may have guessed by now, my little puppy had an almost permanent spot in the dog house.  In fact I can’t ever recall a time when anyone else’s dog ever found itself in the dog house.  Then one day I discovered that my dog had now been glued into the house with wood glue!  I was in there to stay!  Forever!

To this day, more than half a century later, no one has ever “copped” to doing the glue job.  You know the remarkable thing was I never really got bent out of shape about it.  I just figured… “Hey, now I got a cozy little dog house, all to myself”.  ”Looks like I get to sleep out in the back yard”…

Duke Duke

I wonder if that had something to do with my love of camping?

Anyway, as I write this, days later, I am still laughing.

I think it’s pretty clear at this point Duke certainly got his fair share of my DNA.

Duke and me

So, Duke Duke, I’m hoping that our shared DNA turns out to be a good thing.

Love Grandpa

The Seattle Bicycle Expo

The Dudes

Here is a little movie of our excursion to the Seattle Bicycle Expo yesterday.  The tag line for the day has to be, “You’re never too young, or too old, to begin dreaming about your next bicycle adventure”.

I know what you’re asking.  What about the SWAG?  S.W.A.G. = Stuff We All Get…

Well, we hauled out loads of SWAG.  Stickers, buttons, pencils, tattoos, water bottles, and a continuous supply of candy.

Have a look:

Press Passes

…and how about this for cool SWAG.  We each got issued our own individual “big shot” press passes with our photograph on the front and our group pic on the back.

“You’re never too young, or too old”

Kat

Booker’s Table & Chairs

For the last several months my wife had been searching secondhand stores for a pair of old chairs that would make the perfect addition to the little front porch deck at our son and daughter-in-law’s new house.  Well finally she found them… two well used, and thoroughly scuffed up, wooden chairs with green vinyl upholstered seats and backs.  They looked like they might have lived their first life in a doctor’s office waiting room.  Visualize “ridden hard, and hung up wet” and you’ll have a pretty good idea.

Within a few moments of seeing them it was decided that Booker and I would build some kind of cool little coffee table to complement the set.  What follows are some photos of our project.

Sanding down the old finish

As you can see I didn’t even bother to photograph the chairs in their original condition.  I thought they were kind of hideous when I examined them in the thrift store, but they were strong and well built.  I knew I would be scraping off all the old finish anyway, so we brought them home and disassembled them.

Next step was sanding them down to the bare wood.  Always a pretty gnarly endeavor, but always worth the effort.

While I was sanding the wood parts Susan was scrubbing the upholstered parts… I gotta think, just about as gnarly as my job.

Scrubbing

Table legs

Susan bought me a new router for our 36th anniversary a week earlier, so I used that cool tool to put some detail on the table legs.

We assembled a small frame for the little table and I notched in the legs.

Eventually, Booker and I would attach the legs with screws, then use wood plugs to cover the screw holes.

Notches

Booker checking the clamp

Booker’s new level

Ok, don’t look too close at the level because one of the table legs…. Ah, never mind.  Did I mention that we drilled in adjustable metal feet in the bottom of each of the legs, just in case the deck boards were out of level… Yep, good idea.

For the tabletop we purchased a pre-cut 1-1/4 inch round top that only needed some 220 sanding and it was ready for stain.

After that Booker turned his attention to helping Grandma Suzie with the staining and finishing.

Checkin the top

Several coats of stain later things were really starting to look good.

Somehow Mr. Happy got in on the job

He’s such a determined little guy

Suzie and Booker

Finally the re-conditioned chairs and the new table are waiting at their new home on the porch for everyone to come over and sit a spell.

Kat

The Northwest Railway Museum

Kingston in the turbine

“All Aboard”!  Well with the little Dudes out of school for the week it was the perfect day to round up our bigger Dudes (sorry Remy, maybe next time) and head out to the town of Snoqualmie, WA to visit the Northwest Railway Museum and the world famous Snoqualmie Falls.

We brought all the cameras we owned and everybody took turns shooting images and video for the highlight reel.  Once again I was just amazed at how interesting and creative the minds of our little grandsons can be.  Let me roll the credits first and then follow up with some images…

Booker Duke Cadence KIngston

Cadence – Camera, stills and video

Kingston – Camera, stills and video

Booker – Camera, stills and video

Duke – Camera, stills and Stunt coordinator

Leane – Camera, technical support, transportation… the list goes on.

Suzie – Key Grip – with 4 dudes and 3 big people someone had to alway keep a grip on the dudes.

Kat, Camera, stills and video.  Editing and final production.

Lots of stuff to climb on

Lots of levers to pull

Lots of machinery to inspect

Leane and me – Photo by Cade

Photo by Kingston

Underwater Camera

This is Cadence looking through a water glass.  We put his Pentax WP camera inside the glass, tinkled it around in the ice cubes and snapped this shot.

Of course he was delighted with the demonstration and I was relieved that Duke didn’t see me do it because he would have then had the “go ahead” to start putting everybody’s cameras, smartphones, iPods, whatever in the toilets, bathtubs, sinks…

Yep, that was a close one!

And what trip to Snoqualmie would be complete without a visit to the falls.

Snoqualmie Falls

Here is the little video we made:

Grandma Suzie – Photo by Duke

How about this wonderful picture of Suzie, taken by Duke.  The guy is only    2-1/2 years old.  Amazing!

That’s it for now.  Kat

The Birthday Sessions

Today is my daughter’s birthday.  I though I would repost this little video her 3 little Dudes (my grandsons) and I made for her.  It is sort of a year-in-review of some of our 2012 adventures.  Hope you like it.

Thanks for watching, Kat

Skiing The Backcountry

Old Man’s Beard

I was up and out early today, headed up to the snowy backcountry for some cross-country skiing.  The nice thing about leaving at first light on a weekday morning… I had the wilderness all to myself.

Here is a little video that I made:

Frozen Waterfall

Until next time.  Thanks for following along with my Adventure Journal.  Kat

The Snow Geese

Snow Geese

I spent the morning up in the Skagit River Delta watching the thousands of wintering snow geese.  Have a look at this little movie.

Thanks for watching.  Kat