With summer moving closer and closer to the end I figured it was time to put together a picture video of June and July’s photos. In this episode we visit the Grand Rapids Art Museum during Festival of the Arts for some silly hat making. Founders Brewing Company was a blast with some big band music. We also had another visit to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Camp Concordia. Take a look and enjoy. Remember, if you are interested in creating your own Animoto videos use my referral link to save some money.
The Heart of Summer via Animoto
This video is viewable on it’s animoto page for browsers that do not support flash. All of my photos can be viewed on flickr; videos are on animoto and YouTube.
May has finished and now it’s time to put together the monthly slide show of pictures. May even has a couple of videos thrown in there for good measure.
Our May was filled with visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Holzhausen, the beach at Millennium Park, camping with Grandma and Grandpa Klein, and Drake running around with my camera. I’ll let you guess which photos are his.
All of my past Animoto videos can be found on my Videos page, or on my YouTube channel. One thing that does bother me about Animoto is that there is no public page that displays all of my creations.
If you are interested in creating your own video slide shows visit animoto.com, were you can create free short 30 second videos. For full length videos you can get a discount of $5 off the yearly cost by using my animoto referral link. You’ll be able to get the All-Access pass for $25 per year for the life of your account.
Phineas and Ferb ©Disney Channel
“I know what we are going to do today.”
Drake has managed to get me watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. The basics of the show are two kids on summer vacation that create and do crazy things in their back yard . Like… building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing up the Eiffel Tower, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, surfing tidal waves, or creating nanobots.
Drake’s love of all things Phineas and Ferb has gotten to the point where he calls members of his family names of the characters. He is Phineas, Theresa is Ferb, I am Perry (the platypus), and Garrett is baby Perry; occasionally grandma gets referred to as Candice . It’s odd that Garrett is baby Perry as there is not a baby Perry on the show, but there are plenty of other characters.
If you don’t know the show, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil doctor and 
Perry is a secret agent that is charged with stopping his plans. This is one of the subplots that goes on in every episode. No on knows that Perry is a secret agent, unless he puts his hat on.
Now that I’ve been watching the show for weeks and there are plenty of episodes saved on the TiVo, I do have grown to like it. I’ve gotten the show so stuck in my head I have now changed some notification tones on my phone. Perry has a one liner that gets played in the background whenever he is found out by Doofenshmirtz. The 
Perry line plays on my phone whenever I get an email. The other tone is for txt messages, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.
If you have kids and let them watch TV, I would have to recommend giving Phineas and Ferb a look. Disney Channel has some episodes right online for sampling. 
Phineas an Ferb on Disney Channel
The story that prompted the dream…
Last night while I was watching the Red Wings beat the Coyotes I had another mouse incident. I saw it run behind the TV stand, then I went nuts. I pulled out all of the books and things on the bottom shelf, the mouse ran under one of the couches. As I pulled up the skirt of the couch it ran under the other couch, then I lost sight of it.
My crazy continued; I picked up everything from the floor and moved it into the other room. I flipped one couch over to see if it was hiding under there, no dice. I started looking behind and under everything in the room with flashlights just trying to find the damn thing. This lead me to the two DVD racks in the room. I tilted one of them forward and bingo. It was back there. As I started moving the rack out I once again lost sight of the mouse.
So now everything in that room is away from the wall a little bit for easy viewing if I spot it again.
Now, the dream I had right before I woke up this morning was all sorts of mouse oriented. We were watching TV in a house that was mine, but it wasn’t this house. Theresa, Mom, Dad, Megan, Brooke, and Dax Shepard were all there. I spotted was was a gigantic beetle under one of the tables. I immediately jumped into action to find something to catch this foot long black beetle.
After a second I came across a pink plastic bucket and tried to trap it. After the bucket was over it there were claws coming up from the sided scratching the hell out of my hands. The beetle eventually broke free and darted into another room and behind a grandfather clock. My Dad and I started moving things out as he was mumbling something about “this damn old house.”
We didn’t find the beetle, but we did scare the crap out of a large mouse, which took off running into Megan’s room. I started tearing into the room and must have lost sight of it. The dream ended with dad, Dax, and myself searching with flashlights for holes and other places the intruders could have gone. My Dad was having a conversation with Dax about “this damn old house” as I woke up.
Update: On Sunday the 24th there were no mouse sightings. However, I can hear at least one in the wall between the kitchen and office. After work today I’ll have to do some more investigating.
This weekend was filled with one thing: Hockey. The Griffins were playing three games in three nights. The Red Wings played Saturday and Sunday as well.
After a boring and mildly uneventful day at work we had some dinner and took off for the arena. There wasn’t a large promotion or anything going on, but the Griffins played very well and put the hurt on Peoria.
griffinshockey.com – Returning from a five-game absence due to a concussion, Jimmy Howard made 24 saves to best former Detroit Red Wings netminder Manny Legace and guide the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 4-1 win over the Peoria Rivermen on Friday at Van Andel Arena.
Darren McCarty and Garrett Stafford each had a goal and an assist while Ryan Oulahen had a pair of assists to help the Griffins claim their fourth win in five games and stay within five points of first-place Manitoba in the North Division race.
Saturday started with some shopping and a bathroom project. The valve that controls the shower nozzle failed last week. By Friday taking a shower was not an option due to very little water actually going up instead of down the spout. This situation was a very easy fix. I just replaced the spout with one that has a gate diverter on it. Total Cost: $11.23 & 5 minutes.
I then watched the Red Wings game on TV. They were able to get past the Blues. Then it was off to the arena for day two of Griffins vs. Peoria. This time it didn’t turn out so well for the Griffins.
griffinshockey.com – The game was scoreless until a flurry of goals in the final six minutes of the second period saw Peoria go to the locker room with a 2-1 lead. The Rivermen (34-30-1-1) scored the first two, with Ryan Reaves cleaning up a loose puck in the crease at 14:22 and Nicholas Drazenovic splitting two defenders before beating Jimmy Howard at 17:09.
The Griffins would answer before intermission, as Francis Pare potted his 21st goal from just outside the crease, putting a rebound past Holt. Pare now stands as one of only five rookies in franchise history to score more than 20 goals in a season.
An unfortunate bounce for Grand Rapids resulted in a gift goal for former Griffin Carl Corazzini and a 3-1 Peoria lead just 1:11 into the third period. As Howard skated behind his net to stop a dump-in, the puck took an odd deflection off the end glass and caromed out in front of the vacated net, allowing the charging Corazzini an uncontested goal.
Sunday came and it was promising to be a long day of everything Hockey. The annual Season Ticket Holder Event was going on before and after the afternoon game. After lunch we arrived at the arena around 1pm. We collected our Jiri Hudler jersey cards and headed in. Our first stop was waiting for the next tour of the press box and control room. During this time Drake took a bunch of pictures with my camera. He must really like the flash and screen because he laughed after almost every picture he took.
We all headed up to the press box where we were told that Drake could not be for safety and security reasons. It was basically because there is no barrier keeping him from jumping from the table up there. I call BS, it’s not like I would have set him down up there. From there we were treated to the control room to see the sound and video boards. I even got to press the air horn button!
Down on the ice we were treated to the penalty box, and the chance to shoot some pucks. Drake was so cute and adorable playing with a full size stick. Yes, there are pictures below. After some fun down there we headed up to our seats, where Drake did take a short nap.
The game proved to be as tough as I thought it was going to be. They had to play three games in three nights, and the Admirals are a good team.
griffinshockey.com – The Grand Rapids Griffins suffered the season’s sixth one-goal loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday, dropping a frustrating 2-1 decision in their third game in three nights at Van Andel Arena.
The game was scoreless for nearly 58 minutes until a controversial interference call on Darren McCarty resulted in a power play goal by Milwaukee’s Cody Franson with 2:04 remaining, and the Admirals held on as the Griffins suffered consecutive regulation losses at home for the first time this season.
After the game we all seperated a little to gather some autographs. I sent Theresa to wait for Jimmy Howard. My dad was second in line for Justin Abdelkader, as I waited for Darren McCarty. Once those were completed we headed to the basement where the Griffins locker room is at. Yes, it is a locker room. Yes, it smells like a locker room wehre plenty of hockey players just changed out of game equipment.
Okay, on to the pictures. There are 77 pictures in thumbnail form below the cut. There are also two videos from the locker room. Enjoy!
Tags: Carl Corazzini, Chris Holt, Darren McCarty, Detroit Red Wings, Drake, Flickr, Francis Pare, Garrett Stafford, Grand Rapids Griffins, Hockey, Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Manny Legace, Milwaukee Admirals, Nicholas Drazenovic, Peoria Rivermen, Ryan Oulahen, Ryan Reaves, Theresa, Van Andel Arena