It's rained almost every day for the past 2.5 weeks. It's getting old.

Despite the weather, we (as in the boys and myself) managed to pull out quite the morning. We concocted our own Rube Goldberg. What's a Rube Goldberg? you might ask. Think Mousetrap, the game. Or watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RouXygRcRC4

Ours was AWESOME. Well, not maybe compared to some of the professional ones, but the boys did so well in thinking up everything. Their task was to feed the dog. They essentially designed the whole thing, I served as a logistics consultant but they did 85% of the work. We started by placing a matchbox car racing ramp on the ping pong table. We also put a remote control truck on the table, and tied a string from the truck to the lever that controls the gates on the ramp. When we drove the truck forward, it pulled the string that pulled down the starting gate, and a ball rolled down the ramp and off the table.



The ball hit a cardboard brick, which fell down and knocked down a line of more bricks, dominoes-style.



The last brick had a bottle cap attached to it via silly putty, which held another ball.



When the last brick fell, it went down a ramp and hit a fly wheel type contraption.


Attached to the flywheel was a string that pulled on a can of chicken noodle soup that was just barely balanced on the handle of a foosball table.





When the ball hit the fly wheel, it would pull the string, which would pull the can of soup off.




The can of soup then acted as a counter-weight that turned the foosball handle so that the soccer guy kicked a ball into the goal.



The ball would go into the goal and hit a special collecting ramp and go down the track.


At the bottom of the track was a plastic cup of dog food, which would dump into Marley's bowl.



It was so cute and awesome and I can't believe how hard they worked on it. It took about three hours but they were so diligent. We had so much fun1

The family is in New York this weekend watching a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, so I have the house to myself. Thankfully I have the best dog in the world with me though, because this big house gets lonely with only me in it. On weekends where I have the house to myself, I drag his bed down into my room so he can sleep. It's a treat for him because normally he isn't allowed in the basement. Sometimes he'll just sit beside the side of the bed and rest his head on the bed. Usually though he'll get me up at 4:30am or something to be let out, but it's worth it.

In the morning I'll wake up and have a slow breakfast, watching Sportscenter, and then turning on CMT while I clean up. Sometimes I'll shower in the upstairs bathroom, because it is such a beautiful shower. It's granite or slate tiled, has two shower heads and good water pressure. It's very relaxing. I'll steal one of the boys portable cd players and listen to some music.

Despite all the plusses of having the house to myself, I still miss them. If it weren't for the dog, I'd have nobody to talk to. The driveway has been quiet. I was kinda hoping the kids would be out in the field so I could go play with them, but I guess everyone is enjoying the weather away from home today.

Today I spent a lot of time cleaning, including vacuuming and dusting. It was a nice sunny day, so I spent some time outside on the hammock. I have a lot of small boxes saved up. It's amazing how many I have racked up over the past two years. I'm saving them for when I have to move, whenever that is.

I'm listening to Superstition by Stevie Wonder. I love that song. I mean, is it just me, or is it incredibly hard not to bob your head along when you hear that?

When I got the mail today, I was intrigued by the cover of Time magazine, which was featuring an article of Twitter. After reading it I joined to see what the big fuss is about. I'm thinking it's probably just a big fad, so I doubt I'll be on long. In five minutes I was following Rainn Wilson, Shaq, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Lance Armstrong; and I had two internet prostitutes following me. Interesting. I had to change security settings after that. You can follow me at bpinkham.

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If you are wondering where I have been lately, I've been predominately posting on my other blog (paflame.blogspot.com). Otherwise, there is nothing going on in my life that anyone would care about hearing.

:)