Harrison shouts



Harrison laughs



Harrison raps

Harrison had a meeting with his attorney about a month ago. This is his "you better try again" look after learning the legal fees necessary to fix his "situation".

Smiles

Harrison is smiling a lot lately.

Chocolate, anyone?

Danza has a sweet tooth that sometimes puts her in awkward positions. For example, tonight after dinner she got a hunkering for something sweet and no fresh baked cookies or ice cream was to be found in the house. What she did find was a little box of gourmet chocolates that PL gave us a year or more ago. With undivided attention, Danza dove right in. She took a bite of the first morsel, and it didn't taste very good. So she tried another, same result. By the third, she actually looked at the half eaten chunk in her hand and realized that they tasted funny because they had been consumed by mold. The soft gooey middles were enveloped by a nasty green felt.

I was upstairs changing Harrison and I heard her bolt up the stairs and she burst into the nursery with a look of sheer horror on her face. This was 20 minutes ago. I've since convinced her that we don't need to call the doctor and that she might want to swig some vodka to kill the spores. She is currently google'ing what effects the consumption of moldy chocolate could have on a breastfeeding infant.

Anything green and fuzzy in the pictures would be the mold.

I'm assuming she is going to survive, as will Harrison, and I've been giggling for 21 minutes now.

You can't sue a deer

Yesterday a young woman called my office and we discussed a car accident she was involved in. She was a passenger and her driver hit a deer. She explained that her driver could not avoid the accident, and they were in no way at fault. She suffered some whiplash type injuries and has some medical bills to show for it.

She wanted advice on how to get compensated for her lost wages, pain and suffering and the like. I advised her the best I could, but there was no case to make. She did not understand. She knew she could get pain and suffering money, but she wasn't clear on who would be writing the check.

Some of you might remember Wade Blasingame - Dog Attorney. A classic on SNL with Will Ferrell.

After 10 minutes of explaining, I finally had to tell her, and I quote: "You can't sue a deer. Deer do not have insurance and they don't have personal assets for you to chase after."

We get all types of calls at the office, but this one was definitely the best of the week.

The end of "Hank"

Yesterday Danza found the bravery to tell me that she absolutely hates the nickname Hank. "It sounds so 'trucker'." Her words. I tried to explained that 'trucker' was the whole point. Anyway, I'm open to any new nickname suggestions for Harrison. I need several so I can keep some variety in our day-to-day. Let me hear em. I've already nicknamed my friend Andrew Held's new boy Spitfire so that one is out.

And a recent photo of his vaccination wounds. He was happy and smiley during the doctor appointment until the mean nurse stabbed him in the thighs with two giant stainless steel needles. Harrison screamed. Danza cried. Wish I could have been there to soothe...sort of.

Sage post

I was due to get some pictures of Sage up. The first is a ink pen drawing done by Grandma Anne, based on picture number 2 below. The other pics are just random ones that we had.

Happy birthday to Pops, from Hank

Hank finally got around to finishing off Pops' birthday card. He's been doing one word or so per day. He put a lot of thought into it. Pops is going to get it tomorrow. Hank apologizes for it being several days late, but he hopes that the degree of thought that went into its creation will be apparent.

Doozer Danza

Danza's blog has some great content and commentary on Harrison, and typical of Danza it also has "cute" things and proves she has the style-sense in our family. Have a look at DoozerDanza.


Hottie.

Harrison at the office

Harrison joined me at the office for a few hours on Friday while the Silver Fox was getting her hair done and Danza was doing a knowledge test for work. He got a diaper change on my desk, and then as he listened to his bulldog-of-a-lawyer dad berate someone over the phone....he gave me this perplexed "I don't even know you" look.

In reality, there was no telephonic tirade, I am not the bulldog-lawyer type, and I was simply throwing baby-talk at him trying to make him laugh, which wasn't working. Sort of a cute picture though.

Dre's 2007 buck - holy crap

Dre just emailed me the pictures of his buck from last year so that I could post it. My god. Biggest 8 pointer I've ever seen. He certainly has a lucky streak going.

Once again, Dre goes out on opening weekend of rifle season and bags a nice buck. This one is a 10 pointer. Dre compares everything to the 8 point deer he shot last season. It was an absolute monster. The deer's antlers literally crossed in front of its head and you couldn't wrap your hand around the antler base. I'll post a photo once I dig it up.

And so he doesn't consider this one shown below to be big. In fact, he took it to the butcher and just had them saw off the antlers! He admitted they looked at him like he was "different" or something.

This deer would be wall-hanger in my opinion. Nice shooting dude.

Cold feet, high in tree

I spent the morning through the noon hour high in a tree. It was cold this morning and the deer were on the move. I had a two-point and a four-point spike buck walk right under my stand at about 10 yards but I let them pass. In a few years...different story. Both bucks stopped and smelled my "scent bombs" where I hung them in front of my stand. I guess that stinky stuff works. There is nothing better than starting your day with the smell of doe-in-estrus (for you non-hunters...that is the smell of a lady deer who is hot in the pants...or "in season / ready to play / looking to score / singing the love song).

I also saw 5 does, but the bucks were chasing them around and I never had a shot. Here are some pictures from the tree.



This particular spot is a 20 foot ladder stand. It's at the top of a ridge along an old logging road at Barbara Habig's property. Barbara's land is wonderful because she has 360 acres right on the east side of Bloomington two miles from my house. Deer are everywhere as they've been pushed from all the fields and farmland that has been developed over the years.



It's hard to make out in the picture above, but there is a deer trail that runs from the lower left of the photo forward into the woods ahead.




This is typically what I look like after I see a deer.


Since Danza and Harrison are in Chicago this weekend (8 weeks old and he is already well-traveled), I'm going to scout Warren's farm this afternoon, have dinner with Dad (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!) and then get to bed early to rest up for a full day of hunting tomorrow. I wonder if I can get venison baby food for Hank? I'll have to e-mail Gerber.

It's all about the flash

Yesterday I bought an external flash for the camera. In the past, we could never get a good picture indoors at night without either using the camera flash or risking such a long exposure that we would inevitably get a blurry shot due to camera shake. The camera flash makes everything look washed out and it casts terrible shadows.

So I dropped $100 on a decent external flash that attaches to the camera and lets me bounce the light off the ceiling or walls. Here are a few test pictures taken indoors at night (so no help from the sun). Keep in mind, these are my first attempts with the new flash. I hope for even better results in the future.









The two pictures below were taken using just the camera's built-in flash. The harsh shadows are definitely more apparent. Danza tells me that Harrison voted for Obama and he is quite happy about the election results.





Danza and Hank (along with Diane...who we've nicknamed "The Silver Fox") are leaving for Chicago in the morning for a 3 day trip. While they are gone, my job is to arrow a deer and put some venison in the freezer to keep the family fed during the harsh winter months. I plan to be in the tree all day tomorrow and Sunday (awsum).

Wildlife

A few more of my favorite critter shots. The foxes, turtles and rabbits were taken in our neighborhood. The rest are from our trip to Colorado this summer. Click on them to get a bigger view.

Hank "Crazy Legs" Lloyd

A couple videos of Harrison to wrap-up the day.


Walk & Talk



100m hurdles

Halloween ego

So we spruced up the house, turned on all the outdoor lights, and prepared for a night of dozens of children lining up at the door for candy. We had Snickers bars and 3 Musketeers. No apples or raisins or anything healthy here! We were sure the doorbell would be getting a workout! This is how many pieces of candy we passed out:


Three, correct. The first was a precious little girl dressed as a fairy. I saw her parents waiting nervously at the end of our driveway as their little darling walked up to the new atv-riding, bow and arrow toting, salt-lick-in-the-front-yard neighbors' house. Sage surprised her at the door with an enormous bark and I thought she was going to cry. With Sage eagerly trying to push past me to smell our visitor, I held our candy bowl and she was so scared of the giant dog that she forgot what to say and simply muttered "happy....thanks" or something to that effect.

Then we sat around and waited. About an hour later a young chubby lad of about 8 years in jeans and a plaid shirt and his little sister rang the doorbell. Sage barked again, he jumped off the porch and as I opened the door he said "your dog almost gave me a heart attack." I gave them their candy and he followed up by asking "are we the only trick-or-treaters that have been here?" I didn't really have any idea what that was supposed to mean, but I took it as an insult. Is our house not up to his standards? Was the candy presentation lame or something? Then I lied to him and said that we'd had several visitors. I actually lied to an 8 year old who somehow got into my head and made me feel like our house was a big downer on his trick-or-treating circuit. I should have enforced my "no costume, no candy" rule. Then to top it off, as they were leaving his sister one-upped my dog by stating that they had a pit bull. I'm not sure, but I think she was trying to say that her dog could beat up my dog.

Halloween at 521 South Meadowbrook sucked.

Past critters hunted

Coyote from December 2007 muzzleloader season.

Wood ducks jumped off a pond.

My first and only buck. I took him on the last day of gun season in 2006 (Dec. 2nd). 12 points and quite a dandy. After getting skunked last year, I'm working hard at getting another nice deer this year. I shot a buck a few weeks ago with my bow, but I just grazed him and I'm confident he survived.

Some catching up to do...

Me fishing beneath the spillway on the Dix, again in June of 2002.

I've always liked this shot of Danza in the canoe on the Dix River. This was from a trip we took back in June of 2002.


I feel that Critters is missing the past 30 or so years of adventures. Over time I plan to add old-school/poor-days stories and pictures so the blog doesn't feel like it has had its legs chopped off. I'll start with a few pictures:

Drew and I are buddies. At least it appears that way in the pictures. I can't remember for sure, but I have a feeling that each time he hooked that right arm around me it was merely to pull me in close to connect with a left hook. In all fairness, in that first picture I think I had that cart and its cargo headed for a ride down the stairs.