The Noblesvillain

A couple of weeks ago, Mark asked to say the Lord’s Prayer after our family prayer.  Surprised, I agreed and Adam, Mark, and I said the prayer.  Not having heard Mark do this before, I was stunned!  He had heard the Men’s Saturday Bible study group pray the Lord’s Prayer, but we hadn’t been working on it.  Perhaps this is something that happens at chapel for preschool.

Tomorrow I’ll post what Mark (and preschool, too, I suppose) has taught Adam.

P.S. This is the first time I’ve used YouTube for embedding video.  Let me know what you think.

No, not me.  Jenny gets to spend 12 days visiting her brother in London.  Meanwhile, we're having a pretty good time here.  Jenny's folks have been looking after the boys the past couple of days.  Yesterday and today the boys hardly spent any time indoors (other than naps).  The pirate crew got to eat their meals on the playset and on the porch.

Mark and Adam both enjoyed the 4H Fair.  The whole family went Friday last week.  Mark, Adam, and I went on Saturday morning (after Bible study), and Mark and I went back in the afternoon to catch the tail end of the tractor pull (you didn't think I could make a post with out a tractor pull reference, did you?).

Last evening I celebrated my 11-year wedding anniversary by going to the tractor pull by myself leaving my wife to put the kids to bed.  I guess that's what you call a nice anniversary present.  My last visit to a pulling event was this same 4H fair tractor pull in 2004 two months before Mark was born.  Ok, we all went out for a nice dinner before I abandoned my family...

Watch Mean Machine throw some flames

Dual turbine engines drive Plumber's Nitemare, in the Modified Tractor Class

The loud (incredibly loud) noises of the tractor pull attracted me when I first saw Holy Cow pull in a Tipton tractor pull.  I also enjoy the old farm tractors pulling.  In last night's event, I saw the mini modified class for the first time (are they really under 2000 lbs?).  These are some small tractors with a lot of noise and power!  The event also ran the four-wheel-drive trucks and Super Stock tractors.

The 'modified' tractors are a bit over the top, but I love the noise.  There were three different drive mechanisms in the modified class.

• Aircraft turbine engine (I believe Plumber's Nitemare won the event) with dual intakes and a combined exhaust all pointing straight up.  Plumber's Nitemare has a 4-cylinder Chevy engine to motor around and only turns on the turbines when hooked to the sled.  When pulling in Noblesville, the exhaust blew some phone wires 30 feet straight up as it passed under them.

• Aircraft piston engine Dual 12-cylinder aircraft piston engined drove Bionic Buzzard to a pretty good pull.  Seeing fire erupt from 48 exhaust ports (not a muffler in sight all night) directed straight up made it look like a two-tiered birthday cake.

• Automotive piston engine (ethanol) Using multiple automotive engines, several pullers combined three 8-cylinder engines for their drive (Holy Cow mounts four Oldsmobile V8's but only can run 3 in this class).

While the old farm tractors are so authentic (and the competition seems meaningful) when they pull, I still have to love the noise of the big boys!

Here are some pictures of some of the Mini Modifieds:

 
Brandy's Toy takes on some fuel

Mini Modified

The Patriot getting to weigh in

The Patriot takes off

I got a Google hit for "interpreting mood rings" (where this blog lands in the #1 search position) on last Friday's post quoting lyrics from Relient K

Hope my visitor left with a smile!

My folks sent me a link to a new Honda advertisement available on the web.  My mom's a choir director and thought I might like the video (I certainly did!).

Clicking on the picture will take you to a site that will play the video.  You can see how Honda has integrated this into their website as well as see a rehearsal video in this link.

Honda had a big hit in 2003 when they produced 'Cog' a 2-minute Rube-Goldberg chain-reaction video which consists completely of Honda Accord parts.  Cog took 606 takes in order to get all of the little details to film correctly.

You can read more about 'Cog' (at Snopes.com) or view the 'Cog' video (creativeclub.co.uk).

Enjoy!