Have you ever felt like a ton of brick just fell from the sky at some random point in your journey in life and landed smack dab on top of your noggin? This weekend is the "final" garage sale for the Mrs' mom who is moving out of her house. We accomplished a feat that I think was near impossible. Take 35 years worth of accumulated hoch ( that's junk to you out side the family Smeag) and either sell it, trash it, give it away or store it. I am grateful to say that we successfully got mucho dinero' for the majority of it and several scrapes, bumps pulled muscles and raging headaches in the process. The accumulated hoch is now located in a concealed bunker in a top secret location that conveniently charges a nominal fee for access. If I told you were it was at I would have to kill you, I mean like go spider monkey on ya.

Oh now that the heat has been turned up in the dessert southwest we have butted about the idea of having our own garage sale to try and recompensed ourselves for travel time, labor and general self satisfaction of being able to stand in the garage and see the floor. Stay tuned I may be sending out a may-day for a gallon of Gatorade and a moist towelette.

To start this funtastic story I have to give you a little back ground. It rained this week ,not much, just enough to put a slight dusting of snow on our beautiful Sky Island Mount Graham. By the way in case no on noticed it's May and we live in Arizona, snow is never included in that equation. So this week was our annual ward Father Son Camp Out which just happened to be at the top of that beautiful sky island, pause for dramatic gasp. You got it all week long that great creation rising from the desert floor was assaulted by wind and rain and snow. Let's just say Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I kept glancing up at the summit thinking to my self "am I really going up there in this?" Friday morning came and the promised sunny weather did not arrive the top 3000 feet or so of the 10000 ft tall Leviathan could not be seen due to dense clouds. Might as well have been the Scottish Highland. UGH! again I think "Am I really gong up there in this?". However the day turned brighter and the hour long drive up the winding road was both refreshing and relaxing. I watched the outside temp gauge dropping as I climb though.

Arriving at "Treasure Cove" the 3rd one there I had my choice of spot which actually turned out to only be 4 or 5 since the road was a little washed out. Not to fear though I found one of the only level spots in there with a fire ring in front. Bammo Zamo my great instant pop up tent worked great (except it is now missing the rings for stakes, plastic does not do well in storage apparently). I set up camp and got to build a nice cozy fire while the ward fathers trickled in. There was a great big group bon fire, however it's just not camping if you don't have your own fire. Supper was cooked for us and we had delicious Indian Fry Bread with chili beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and hot sauce. And for dessert Indian Fry Bread with butter and honey. MMMMMMMMMMMM delicious! Well as the sun dropped so did the temperature. By about 9:30 it was probably 40 degrees (To those in colder regions this is cold in AZ). Some of my fellow campers and I stayed up late talking and shared some hot coco that I whipped up (thankfully they had some at the gas station on the way). Bed time was an adventure, thanks to some great foresight on my part I brought 2 sleeping bags for moi' and a nice 3 inch air mattress. So it was time to snuggle down and stay warm off the ground ( no rocks or pine cones) and go to sleep. NOT! Some one forgot to turn off the lights,LOL there was a full moon last night and it was like some one had their flashlight pointed at my tent. Finally I drifted off to little camper land and woke up around to 35 degrees at 6 am. We had some more hot coco while breakfast was cooking and then chatted for a while. I left about 9:30 and took my time driving down stopping to pick some wild flowers and pine needles for Mrs. Smeag to scrapbook about and also found a little stream trickling down the hill with moss growing all over it. She loved the moss more than the flowers ( Note to self : Future mothers day gift).

So I am home now after shaking of the "natural man" smells that you get camping I can tell you that showers are so cool! What would we do with out them.

Due to recent natural disasters and man made catastrophes in South East Asia North Korea and Kim Jung Il have announced they are going to start patrolling the sky's on the look out for potential danger. The are looking for a few good little men. Here's the recruiting video.




They are expecting at least 3 good recruits and at least 300 grown American men who live with there mothers to tell their online girlfriend they are part of the new Top Gun program.

Hola, well another Cinco De Mayo has past and gone and millions of college frat boys have used it as another excuse to get wasted, throw up, fall down and sleep in it (as my high school psychology teacher used to say). In order to add humor to an otherwise misunderstood imported holiday I would like to divulge the history of Cinco de Mayo to Y'All and also tell you why Seis De Mayo is even a better holiday.

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "5th of May") is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla. It is not an obligatory federal holiday. The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 (per Wikipedia)

What most people misunderstands is that in Dec of 1861 French,English and Spanish forces invaded Mexico due to the fact the current Presidente' Benito Juárez had vowed to cancel all debts owed to European Countries. Yes the French were just collecting a BILL. unfortunately the French never known to be the best tacticians in the world led a up hill charge against a fortified position without any artillery support. The results were like a WalMart day after Thanksgiving sale. Quite tragic. However the English forces and the Spanish forces called it quits and went home. The french hung in there for a year and finally succeed in putting a puppet king on the throne of Mexico (Pause for laughter) Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico (Emperador Maximiliano I de México) (July 6, 1832 – June 19, 1867).

Max had an ill fated reign he was born in Austria to royalty ( maybe) and then ,to have the past presidente' Benito Juarez not recognize his authoriti made life quite difficult for Max. While trying to escape a mob in June 1867 he was capture and then beheaded. (Ewww). Must really be depressing to have a past leader of a country go around telling everyone that your not really president and that the Supreme Court chose you for the Presidency and then to make bad fiscal choices.....oh wait were talking about Mexico here not Washington DC... I guess those borders are coming down sooner than we think. Sigh.... well at least we get to have fajitas and guacamole!

I saw these two videos on My Pet Jawa and had to share with the rest of you. The force has been working hard lately. LOL this is some fun stuff so enjoy.


R2D2 DVD Player/Robot



The Empire Stikes Barack