Elser Family Blog

We went to the official Sno-Cap 40th anniversary this weekend. Wow they had a lot of cars there! Here is just a sample. They came and went throughout the day.

(Click on the picture of a full size version)

Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to blog..I guess I’m going though a phase.

We went to the park yesterday here is an action photo of H sliding on the roller thingy.. Too bad it looks like she is sitting still… Gotta’ get a camera that I can control exposure AND shutter to get the affect, I guess.

And then there is M, wondering what she will play on next.

and here M is just looking cute, as usual.

Here is M’s imagination in action.. She builds some strange things sometimes… I guess you gotta see her in action to understand.

And finally, I made a deal with H yesterday, that if she read 20 books, I would take her bowling. Well, she did not waste any time.

I got into my first “confrontation” with H’s principle this last week. Evidentially, there are three parents that have been making a habit of escorting their kids to class… I’m one of them. (I’m not sure who the other two are, I though I was the only one…) So, they had a teacher cutting us off in the hallway saying:

“let them go by themselves, they have to learn to do it themselves”

I responded:

“Its not for her, she can do it fine. It’s for me, I want to see what is going on.” ( I wanted to say “She would be happy to walk to school alone if I would let her”)

And she responded:

“We don’t want parents doing that”

and I responded:

“OK. How about if I do it once a week?” (expecting her to say, “that would be fine”)

But she just repeated herself.

Then the Principle stepped in and said:

“By visiting, you cause separation anxiety in the other kids”

And I said,

“I just want to see what’s going on…”

And she said:

I’m in charge here, I’ll make sure every thing is all right”

And I said,

“Well, for instance, the teevee (that the kids that get dropped off early sit and vedge in front of) is supposed to be off after 7:30. It is now 7:35. Is it off?

She wouldn’t tell me.

(I’m confident it WAS on)

At that, I just left. No need to get into a pissing match. However, she WILL get a letter from me inquiering as to what my rights are…

Just to give R some equal time…

Long time no blog… Sorry.

The latest and greatest news?

HMR have a new Cousin!!!!

Lars was born on the 18th in Geneva Switzerland!

August 18th at 00:38. He measured 51cm (that’s 20.1 inches) at birth and weighed 3.45kg (that’s 7.6 pounds).

Here He is with the proud Papa, Juerg.

This week, H started School- First grade! She really likes school, and was looking forward to it.

She insisted on riding her trike there.

Here she is, waiting to be let into her class for the first time… I’m not sure what’s is going through her mind at this time..

Here is M playing with the Lincoln Logs… We have a BUNCH of them. Gotta love Ebay.

Talking about Ebay, that is part of why I have not written in a while.. I’m approaching day zero for my Ebay Drop off store grand opening. Not familiar with the concept? Ask me about it on the debate forum.

I guess I will show this one to show the proud new parents what NOT to let your young children play with..

This week, I hired a couple guys to paint the 713 house… It REALLY needed it. Fortunately, the lead guy is really picky, and if they do as good of a job painting, as they are doing stripping the place, its going to be a great paint job.

And finally, Today we went to the “park with no fence” as K likes to call it. Its a really nice little park, on a busy street – with no fence.

Well, I finally got a copy of the circus photos from last week. Like I mentioned, it was fun. It started with the stereotypical circus stuff, like elephants

And went on to acrobats. That was fun. Part of it was under black lights, in the dark.

Then there were the guys on the two big circular cages… But the act has progressed from the last time I saw it years ago. Now they are doing flips while on the outside. Quite impressive.

We are much more interested than we look 🙂

This was near the end. The strong man who has the cannon ball shot into his stomach. If you look at his feet, you can see he is stepping back, to flourish the impact.. All in fun.

Here is the Mother Duck with her baby duck.

Tomorrow is H’s first day of first grade… Wish her well.

Just in case your curious, here is a picture of the kids from the same set that the winning photo was sent from.. (this scan was not very good.. The contrast and saturation are too high… The original is much better)

Get this.

K got a certified letter from Sears yesterday.

She figured it was coupons for when they lost the photos (see the blog from a couple months ago.)

She opens it up, and, it’s notification that a picture of the kids won the grand prize in the Sears Portrait studio Smile Search contest

Can you believe that? 5 grand, a digital camera, a library of children’s books and free photo sessions. I guess the photo will also be used in their national advertising campaign in 2005.

And I got a 150 dollar check for travel to Charleston for jury duty.

Over all, not a bad mail day, I’d say!

This morning, The kids found a spider that had made residence on our porch.

We hear that bangs are coming into vogue… Well, in that case, here is what we think of bangs…

Sometimes I don’t post because there is a dearth of information.

But this time I haven’t posted because we have been too busy!

Sunday we went to the Circus. (again) Barnum and Bailey came to town, so we went. It was quite a polished show, not as earthy as the other one this year, but quite entertaining. I got some free tickets from work… However, they must think they are going to make all of their money on the klotchkes… They were so expensive!!

A small cotton candy was 6 dollars!! a large was $11!! What the?? The lighting toys were no lower than 15 dollars, and they had a scam going where they advertised special sno-cone cups for 7 to 9 dollars, but they failed to mention that the snocone that goes in them were $3!! So the bill was no lower than $10 for a lousy sno cone.

I had a pocket full of money, and didn’t spend a dime.

At the end, I found a manager and showed him the 100 dollar bill in my pocket and told him I didn’t spend any money, because the prices were beyond reason.

Pictures of the circus to come later…

Sunday afternoon Grandpa Sideikas visited. He rode the sportster from Charleston. The guy has an Iron Butt.

Tuesday, I had to go to Charleston to get kicked off a grand jury (media people just do not get picked to serve on juries.. go figure) So, I took an extra day off work and we went to the beach. We figured we would catch some decent sized waves from the remnanats of hurricane Alex, and we were right! That was quite fun.

(for more of these pictures, check out the cell phone picture page at

elserblog.textamerica.com)

Then, On Wednesday, we had movie night at church again. This time we watched the commercial mouse’s “Dumbo”. It was fun.

Any one recall the mouse’s name?? It was “Thomas T. Mouse”

There really were some adult themes in this movie (As it seems the commercial mouse seems to insist on in just about all of his movies… sheesh.)

Here are the “elephants on parade”, part of the pink elephants that Dumbo and Thomas mouse see when they get Drunk off their butts. Anyone remember where they wake up with a major hangover?? Tell me on the debate page.

Today we went to a local churches luau summer party for the mothers morning out kids. It was quite fun! Here are R and M watching their big sister go down the slide.

And here is a quicktime movie of H going down the slide

Did I forget anything?? hmm. No. Other Than I got a call from Cousin Roy Elser giving me an update on the genealogy search, that is always welcome!