Awesome Is Back

It's obvious the pressure of taking over the mowing responsibility is too much for some people. The thought of living up to the standards of lawn care that I have set can break a normal man.  In fact, some have been known to flee the state.  You had a good run Eric.  Lasted longer than most.  No need to be ashamed.

Front Yard

Behind the Wheel of the Mighty Canyonero

In other news, I'm sure everyone took a half day vacation on 10/4 to see the Apple news conference on the new iPhone.  I wanted to, but Captain Buzzkill said no.  I don't know if you remember, but I opted out of a birthday present in April and instead said I'd wait for the iPhone 5 to come out and have that as present.  Kate did the same.  Well, you can imagine the glee on my dad's face when the new (awesome) iPhone was named the 4S.  He said, that he promised the iPhone 5, not the iPhone 4S and that he didn't want to "let us down by not sticking to his word"  and that maybe in 2012 the iPhone 5 would be released and we'll have to wait.  Torment! See what I have to live with?  But give me a call next Saturday when the phones will be here (hopefully he didn't screw that up) and I'll be on the cutting edge of technology once again.

Technology Is Awesome

Starting Labor Day Weekend 2011

Evil has a new face:

Just saying, are you sure you want this guy in charge of your landscaping needs:

One More Time Before The Boss Gets Home

No pictures, but it looks great!

Too Hot, Too Wet To Mow

You can tell it's hot by the proliferation of the neighbor's pools

Hot Hot Hot

Too hot to mow this week.  

Hot and Dry!

It's been so dry the lawn really didn't need to be mowed, but I'll let you guess who said we should do it anyway.  Here's the pictures

Street has been paved!

Dry

Sidewalk Repair - When Will They Restore the Grass

This is the landscaping restoration?

The Old Pool Spot in the Backyard

In action

A future apprentice

Ask me about this sometime

Patriotic Videos Poll

If a country could be awesome like me, it would be the US.  And what better way to celebrate the 4th of July than a series of awesome patriotic videos.  Over the next couple of days, I'll post several videos and ask that you vote on the most awesome. (now posted below)

So here's videos:

Video 1 - Smoke Bomb

Video 2 - Sparkler

Video 3 - Legal Sparklers

Video 4 - Patriotic Mower

Now He's Just Messing With Me

What's A Permit Holder To Think Of This?

Curb and Asphalt in Place

Front Yard After

Back Yard After

Sidewalk Fixed

The village is slowly getting around to fixing the street and the curbs.  The sidewalk is fixed, but there's a lot of restoration to do in the parkway.  Here's some pictures

Apron Still Not Fixed - But note the new pink line!

Sidewalk is Fixed!

Sidewalk Gets the Awesome Seal of Approval

The Arborvitea aren't looking so good

Front Yard is looking awesome as usual

I'm not sure why my grandpa has a head stuck to a stump.  Maybe it's a warning to others.

Uhhh.  Did you want to tell us something Grandpa?

My sister got to go to Minnesota with my Dad last week for "Bring Your Daughter/Son to A God-Foresaken Wilderness Day".  Here's a picture from the trip.

Nice Gloves

Driver's Permit Obtained!

It's been a busy couple of days and I wasn't able to mow the lawn to until Sunday this week.  The big news, of course, is that the State of Illinois has recognized my awesomeness by awarding me piece of paper that permits me to operate a motor vehicle.  Yep, it's now official, that I'll be taking to the street to get 50 hours of behind the wheel (that's BTW to you noobs) in nine months so that come next April, I'll be driving by myself.    After getting the permit on Friday afternoon I logged an hour with Mr. Critical (you know who I mean, don't make me say his name).  It was a bunch of "this is a privilege, not a right" and "you know that was a stop sign" and "get over!"  Jeez, doesn't he know that once I get my license I'll be able to drive myself to the Apple Store?

Anyway, on Saturday, we went river rafting on the Vermillion River.  Despite ads that promised "white" water, the river was pretty brown.  When we asked about the lack of rapids, we were told the river was broke or that the dam was being repaired.  Since we were leaving leaving our car in the guys front yard and thought we might have heard some banjo music, we didn't push the issue.  It was still a pretty good trip and Captain Buzzkill even popped for some Redbull so of course I got to show off my excellent karate skills on the raft as seen in the picture below.  Click here if you want to see the whole set of pictures.

King of the Dojo

Here's the pictures from today's mowing.  A lot of construction going on, but I was able to still do an awesome job.  And thanks to Grandpa for upping the weekly rate from $25.00 to $30.00

Street Work

More Street Work

Sidewalk - When will it be fixed?

That's a lot of dirt

Nice Depressed Curb

Awesome Mower

Mower Man in Action

That's a Big Yard

What the ???

Dodging the Rain

We had to mow on Friday night since it's been raining pretty much nonstop for most of the week and Saturday didn't look much better.  I suggested that maybe we should just skip it this week, but guess who said no way.

Here's some pictures in the awesome panorama mode:

Car?

Arrrrrrrrrggggg!

New Car, Caviar, Four Star Daydream Think I'll Buy Me a Football Team

Finally the money is starting to show up.  I've been mowing my Grandpa's lawn for a month and haven't been paid.  When I said to my Dad "where's the money", he reminded me that I should be mowing for free and then said "Father's Day is coming up you know"  Right.  I was thinking of getting him something from the Apple store, but I only have a couple of hundred dollars and there's not really anything that Apple sells that for that amount, except maybe that rubber band they "gave away" to make the iPhone work.  Anyway, he finally forked over the cash.

Sweet!

Speaking of money, did I mention that my school "awarded" me a $25.00 gift certificate from Best Buy?  At first I thought that they had finally recognized my awesomeness, but it was instead for being careless enough to go to school.  Yep, since I had perfect attendance I was entered into a drawing for the gift certificate and I won.  Of course, my Dad says that HE should get the gift certificate since he ordered me go to school despite the bomb threat and if he had listened to me I wouldn't have got the gift certificate.  How do you respond to that? 

A Major Award from Glenbard South

Last week when my Aunt Holly was in town we went to WhirlyBall since it was a way that, according to my Dad, you could "ram into your relatives under the guise of fun."  Here's a clip of the action

As I was crashing into a bunch of old people with brittle bones and creaky joints, I was thinking that this would be an awesome way to mow a lawn.  If you replaced the bumper cars (excuse me, WhirlyBugs) with lawn mowers you could charge a bunch of people to play WhirlyLawn and get the lawn mowed at the same time.  I sure my Grandpa would like to invest.  I probably need six or eight more lawnmowers and some basketball hoops.  Luckily my Dad tells me that my Grandpa sent a check so now that I have his signature I basically have a blank check to get started.  I'm planning on calling it "The Original Buck's WhirlyLawn"in his honor.  I'll be sure to keep you up to date on the progress as long as my Grandpa keeps his checking account full.

What Happens In Woodridge....

If you ever wondered what happens in Woodridge during the day, here's a glimpse.  Yes, pretty exciting.

By the way, I know people people think I spend most of my days in school, but sometimes I jet-set around the country as an expert witness.

Best. Grandpa. Ever.

My Grandpa knows I'm starting Driver's Ed this June and that I'll was going to drive my Dad's 2001Camry, so you can imagine my surprise when we came mow today and I saw that my Grandpa had obviously felt that someone as awesome as me shouldn't be learning to drive on a car that is already 10 years old and that I have to share with my sister.  There it was, in the driveway, a car as awesome as me:

Thanks Grandpa!

Of course my Dad (aka Captain Buzzkill) told be not to get my hopes up and that maybe it was just parked there, but there's no way that my Grandpa would do that.  The only way I'd be disappointed is if the car was gone next time I came to mow the lawn.  (I'm so excited that I'll probably knock $5.00 off the weekly fee).  I guess I'll just wait for my Grandpa to send me the keys!  Woot!

Here's the car I was supposed to drive.  Kind of lame by comparison:

2001 Camry

Here's the pictures from this week.  Note that even though the it was starting to rain, my taskmaster made me continue while he sat in the garage (typical):

Working hard despite the rain

Front Yard - Before

Front Yard - After

Back Yard - Before

Back Yard - After

I toad'd you it was raining (ha ha)

Public Service Announcement

May 21, 2011 Mowing

Week Three and the mowing continues.  I've been doing an awesome job, as usual.  Sure my Dad helps a little, but mostly he points at the areas I missed and grunts.  My Dad could be cool except for a) he refuses to acknowledge my dominance of the Apple iOS and b) everything his says and does irritates me.  For example, just this year he ordered me to go into a building (my school) scheduled for demolition.   You know it was serious since the demolition notice, which was VERY specific, was scrawled on a piece of toilet paper in a the girls bathroom.  What was I to think, other than he obviously didn't care about my safety or even if I died?  Of course, his response was that 1) "stay away from the girl's bathrooms around 10:00 am" and 2) "you are very fast and I'm sure you could outrun the explosion"  See what I mean!  So frustrating, since ALL of my other friends said that they were all going to use the "don't you love me" act on their lame parents and I'd be the only one at the bus stop.   For some reason their parents made them go too.  I guess we are all unloved.

Front Yard - Before

Front Yard - After

Back Yard - Before

Back Yard - After

Front Sidewalk - Still Not Fixed!

Your Humble Gardener