Well the end of my home hunting / Father's Day visit was at a Pappi's Pizza in Lee's Summit. I have a lot of great memories of pumping quarters into the arcade machines there and eating pizza with my dad until I was ready to bust at the seams. However, this visit was mostly about my uncle David. Somewhere within the last year he decided to start singing and stunned everyone when he turned out be pretty darn good at it. I've got several short videos of hims singing different songs but until I find a place to host them this picture will have to do. Enjoy.

Two things were going on this Father's Day. One, the search for a house for my mom, and two, Father's Day plans. I don't like to put much on here that would indicate my life was anything but peaches and clover, but my mom has herself in a bit of a financial pickle. The best solution my dad and I could come up with would be for me to buy her a very cheap home, fix it up, and have her live there. We took a look at a lot of different cities within about an hour of Kansas City, and came up with a promising looking HUD home in Butler, Mo. After much gnashing of teeth, and many weeks later, I ended up actually buying this house and when we are done with it, it will look great, and be a good investment as well.

The strange thing about this day is that we set out knowing the address of the house, but not how to get there. I don't care what search engine you tried, you couldn't find this rural route address on any map. But my dad figured, let's just get down there and home in on it asking the locals as we go. Somehow even Joe agreed to go although I'm sure he had misgivings about the ride. Well the plan didn't actually work that well. We drove to Butler, and Appleton, and every community around there and couldn't find it. We took every back road we saw, tried to map out whether we were getting closer or not by looking at the box numbers, but most weren't marked and the few that were seemed to have no organization whatsoever. We flagged down people in their front yards and asked directions, and after they got in their cars and took us where they thought it was, still hadn't found it. It was a real mess. We eventually found the place around 4 to 5 PM. We left around 10 AM. Joe was not happy one bit, but we all felt a sense of deranged accomplishment at having found it. I wanted to plant a flag or pee on it, I'd earned it. Well that and I'd been holding it for about 4 hours. Argh!

Well having found the home, taken many a picture inside and out, we set off to go back to Lee's Summit with a few pit stops along the way whenever Dad spotted a real estate sign. While Dad was out looking at one of the homes we stopped at, Joe and I managed to arrange a surprise get together at Tequila Harry's. Everybody managed to make it on time, and so Nathan, Joe, Chris, Kyle, Tasha, and myself all managed to squeeze into a booth with Dad for some good Mexican food. Dad never saw it coming and we actually had him convinced that Chris and Kyle had left to hang out with their friends before we could invite them to dinner. I even managed to sneak the check. Long day, but a productive one.

I'm a little fuzzy on whether Helen and I had already gone to bed or not, but I started to hear a rhythmic buzzing noise that didn't quite sound like either of our cell phones. We turned the lights on and started looking around when we found this VERY large moth. And let me tell you, the moth wasn't having a good night either. Apparently the moth was in the process of squeezing out some pale green little moth eggs. So we grabbed the camera, took some pictures, waited for the moth to finish it's business, and then gently escorted the moth and the eggs out of the room onto a tree just off the back porch.

The next day was a typical day on the farm. I drove the tractor, Curtis played foreman and was in charge of opening and closing the gate as I went to and fro. Catherine and Helen worked in the garden. Everything was fine, and Helen got some nice nature shots while going about her work until we received a phone call asking if we had any donkeys. Had being the operative word. Somehow the donkeys had managed to walk through the gate to the back half of the farm, right past the house, out the front gate, and then walked along the road for about half a mile to a neighbors property. They weren't sure who's donkeys they were, but they were certain that the animals weren't supposed to be running around wherever they pleased so they corralled them and started calling folks.

Curtis, Helen, and I all jump in a car with a few short pieces of rope, and no plan, and head up to make somehow get the donkeys back. Luckily the neighbors had real harnesses, good rope, a trailer, and a herding gate where you could pen one donkey at a time while you got charge of him and then led him into the trailer. It wasn't easy actually, the donkeys were quite irritated that we were interfering in their holiday. Anyway, all ended well with the donkeys back on our property and us owing the neighbors a big favor if the opportunity every comes up. Good times.

Helen and Monica decided to take Lauren out to see the animals at the farm, because she's all city slicker-fied and they thought that would be fun. As far as I can tell, because I wasn't actually there, it was fun and Lauren managed to jump in the mud puddles, chalk up the front porch, and drive the dogs bonkers while they were looking at the donkeys. Here's a few snaps Helen took that day.

I don't remember if there was anything special about this day. Obviously Mike and Kristie were over during the first half of the day, and Helen and I ended up having dinner with June, Curtis, and Catherine that evening. Just another sunny day, and a few pictures to prove it happened.

PS> Poor Kristie. She knocks out a good photo, even squeezing in a 'girl' pose, and she's got that goofball in the background... hehe.

I hate that I've waited so long to post these pictures but hopefully I can remember most of the important stuff, so here goes. Helen, Kristie, Mike and myself all went to the Renaissance Festival in Muskogee. It's about as large as the one I'm used to from the Kansas City area and has pretty much all the same stuff. For all I know, the same people hop back and forth between the two.

Nobody brought enough cash so we ended up picking up some cash at an ATM across the street from the fair, and managed to get hit by the largest ATM fee any of us had ever seen. I think it was 4.50 or something... argh. Then parking was a bit of a mudpit, but we got in none the worse for the wear. The day was a solid gray, overcast, and muggy but we really didn't care as long as it wasn't actively raining on our heads.

Short story, we had fun. I made a fool out of myself trying to climb the hard section of the rock wall. Mike threw axes, and didn't manage to make even one stick. Helen bought me a cute little compass, which apparently I don't pronounce right. I bought a shirt that Helen was shocked I would buy / wear. See the picture for a laugh. I managed to let my inner carnivore / flintstone loose on a large turkey leg. We cheered on some of the jousting knights. And a peacock strutted his stuff for all to enjoy. That was pretty much the day in a nut shell. Now enjoy the pics.