Jan 13, 2012

Chicago has a lot of stuff to do

Reasons to agree:
  1. Trips to the zoo are good for kids. Chicago has good zoos. 
  2. The Indiana Sand Dunes are cool, and close to Chicago
  3. Chicago has good opportunities to watch sports.
  4. Chicago has good museums
  5. People watching is entertaining around Chicago.
  6. Naperville Last Fling is Fun
Images that agree:
April 2005, with James on the train

Tony and Tina's Wedding, November 2006

2007 Highland games. Very HOT that day.

2008 at the Shedd Aquarium with the baby beluga. James' first animal.

When KC came to visit, I invited myself along for the trip to the city.
We ended up walking, with 3 kids, all the way from the train station, to Millenium Park, and to
The Hancock Tower. We walked back to Navy Pear and caught a water taxi to the train station.

2006 Nextfest

Tastes of Chicago
James on our death march from union station to the Hancock building

Trips for work can be interesting


June 4, 2006 to Las Vegas Lightfair
From my window in Las Vegas
THE FLIGHT

Our plane was supposed to leave at 6:05, but it left the ground at 10:15, leaving me stuck with Red Necks on there way to a pool tournament in Vegas for 7 and a half hours. They took up the plane and acted like it was theirs. They whistled at the stewards the first time she walked buy, and one of them used their camera-cell phone to take a picture up her skirt when she went buy with the cart. These guys were low-life’s. They had BO, BB (bad breath), long skanky hair, tattoos, and big ugly girl friends.

We watched King Kong before we even got in the air, and last Holliday (Queen Latifa) once we were no loner run-way-bound.

Cathy Ed and I get out of the airport almost 2:00 in the morning. I woke up at 6:30 with my tonsillitis hurting and I couldn't go back to sleep.

LIGHT FAIR 2006

Lightfaire was pretty cool; however I wish I would have spent more time. I only had time to hang out at the big exhibits: Lithonia, Cooper, Square-D, GE, and a couple of others. Also I’m not a very sophisticated traveler. For instance, I cut my floor time short on Wednesday to check out on time when I could have had an extended check out.

You should put all your photos from your kids 2nd birthdays on the same page

Images that agree:
Alison turning 2


Jan 10, 2012

It was a good choice for me to work at Camp Morrison in McCall Idaho in 1993, 94, and 95

Reasons to agree:
  1. I learned how to row. 
  2. I got good at canoeing, small boat sailing, and snorkeling.
  3. I met some cool people.
  4. I learned how to Eskimo roll in a kayak.
  5. I learned how to live on my own, and take care of myself. 
  6. You get a sense of who you are living alone and in a new place. 
  7. You get to know people pretty well living with them. I met a lot of cool people (Gomer, Lumpy, Bryan, Brad, Nathan, Emily, 
  1. I made less than minimum wage. I worked more than 8 hours, but got paid minimum wage for an 8 hour day.
  2. I met some cool people, but I didn't spend time with the most important people in my life, my family and the people I was going to school with. 
  3. Rowing, canoeing, small boat sailing, and snorkeling are not marketable, or used very often. 


I worked for 3 summers in McCall on the aquatic staff of Camp Morrison. While in McCall I:
    A drawing Bryan Rich did of me
  • mounted a potato gun to our sail boat
    • A potato gun is made with PVC. A small section with a large adapter. You spray hair spray, or other combustible material (not sure if hair spray is as combustible any more) into the large section. Using a lighter ignite (we used a kerosene lantern igniter) shoots the potato that is crammed into the small end. Mount this to a sail bloat and you are a fricken pirate. 
  • broke helmets while wearing them,
    • Above Fall Creek McCall are some very steep trails. Going off jumps on these mountains causes you to go up in the air, at the same time that the mountain falls out beneath you. Go to the peak, and you'll go past the jump that I broke my helmet on. 
  • worked as a life-guard.  Taught: Canoeing, Row-Boating, Small Boat Sailing, Swimming, Life-Saving, snorkeling
  • played a lot of hackey-sack, 700
  • rode my bike 2 or 3 miles to every meal, 
  • used an outhouse and took a shower in the outdoors, 
  • chased deer, 
  • listened to a lot of Nirvana, Primus, 
  • had my first room-mates,
  • recorded my first sleep-talker
  • and constantly feared running into bears when ridding back to my tent at night on dirt roads
Below are some photos.
On the way to Kayaking down the Middle fork of the Salmon. 0 for 3 combat eskimo rolls. This truck had an 8-track, that played Nirvana nonstop. The year Kurt took his life. 
The row boats tied to the dock. The lake is very smooth, as it typically was this time of night. A troup could borrow the canoes and go to Cougar Island. They could take their tents and backpacks, or just go for the evening. We would help them get into the canoes, and shove off.  
Chris Gonzales trying to look tough. He was the aquatics director after Gomer Williams
Me trying to look tough
Me with cosmetic glasses made from spiral notebook and the
shirt that Megan and I picked out from Sadie Hawkins
Me watching a snorkeling outing on North Beach
There was a hill on the beach with a log and a table to sit and draw, and
write. It was a great place to think about stuff.. 
The entry to the water front. The buddy system/swimmer board, flag pole,
look out tower / storage cabinet.
I'm the 2nd from the right. Adam ?, Nathan Fisher, Brad Bishop, me, Bryan Rich
The Canoes looking @ cougar island. Lake is usually calm like
this in the morning. 
A couple of family of geese on the calm lake
Bryan, behind the life-guard tent

Jan 9, 2012

I have lived in a lot of different places

I have lived in:
  • 2 homes with my parents in Nampa
  • 2 Tents and a "cabin" in McCall (1 tent at the top of the mountain, and 1 tent at the water front)
  • 5 or 6 apartment in Tennessee and Kentucky
  • And 6 places with Megan. Below are some of the places I've lived
Our 2nd apartment, on Boise Avenue. A sketch I did of our front room.

My 1st Home (may be when I came home from hospital)
Home summer of 1994
Home summer of 1994
My dad helping Megan and I moving out of our 1st apartment
The crib in 2004
Home 2004
My current home (Christmas Morning 2011)

You can form emotional attachment to objects that transport you


My son's puddle Line
My son at the Bolingbrook High School Parking Lot
My dad giving my son a ride. My dad loves himself some 4-wheeler,
and knows Owyhee County like the back of his hand. 
James and I, 2006ish, on Meg K's bike
With some money that I was able to get from my job at Miner's RV, I bought my first car when I was 14. It was a 1986 ford escort, 2-door, hatch-back, with automatic seat-belts. I bought it from my dad for $500 dollar (photos of each car to follow later).

Bike in the snake-swamp at Camp
Morison in McCall
At Bogus basin above Boise. I'm the one on the right. 
After getting too many tickets, Al-State would no longer insure me. So I rode my bike to school a good portion of my Senior Year. Nothing says chick magnet like pulling up to school on a bicycle...
My bike with random water-colors and ink
My parents mailed my bike to me in Tennessee


Video of Ali and James ridding a bike we got from the Chipmans
James Chasing Finnley on his Tricycle 
I "walked" for 2 years, ever other week in Tennessee on my Mission, and put lots of miles on my Dr. Martins
My big wheel. Mine.
Big Wheel and Banana Seat Bike

Websites that agree:

The Laubs are good artists

James at my work, drawing the sun saying, "Nice Picture". The moon saying: "all I'm waiting for is night", a cloud saying, "I like to fly", a bird saying, "all I'm waiting for is food", James saying, "I like outside", me saying, "What!", a tree saying, "I like the sun", and a flower saying, "me to". 




















Drawing Teachers: 1992

In Jr. High I started drawing teachers as a way to look at a teacher without really paying attention. I know it is not great art, but I really like the concept of sharing sketches (see Dan Price's moonlight chronicles).

I think sketching forces you to look at the world, and sharing sketches is a great way of seeing a moment of time through someone else's eyes. Its doesn't do anything profound, or teach you any great lessons, unless the subject matter is great, but I think it is sort of fun and interesting.
Jr. Principal, Mr. Beamer with a perm
Jr. Principal, Mr. Beamer with a perm


Mr. Fields, South Jr. High
Mr. Fields, South Jr. High
8th Grade Math Teacher, Mr. Turley
8th Grade Math Teacher, Mr. Turley, South Jr. High
8th Grade Math Teacher, Mr. Turley, South Jr. High 
Mr. Graph, South Jr. High
Mr. Graph, South Jr. High
"Mr. Turley as a punk rocker", South Jr. High
"Mr. Turley as a punk rocker", South Jr. High
Mr. Fischer, South Jr. High Nampa, Idaho Physical Science Teacher
Mr. Olsen, South Jr. High History Teacher
Mr. Olsen, South Jr. High History Teacher

Jan 8, 2012

The Laubs have worn a not of good costumes

Mike has Been:
  1. 1978: Aquaman
  2. 3rd Grade: Pirage
  3. 1981: Cat
  4. 2007: Frankenstein
  5. 2006: Ostrich Rider
Megan Has been:
  1. 1997: French Maid 
James has Been
  1. Oatmeal Bear
  2. Train Conductor
  3. Scarecrow
  4. Killer Whale
  5. Safari Man
  6. Fire Figher
Ali Has Been
  1. Rainbow-tu-tu princess
  2. 2009: Princess
  3. Lion
Phil Has Been:
  1. Lion
  2. Oatmeal Bear


Alison around the house... Don't ask me. We got the goggles for her swimming lessons, but she wears them all time.
Me as some sort of Aquaman. 1978. My parents say I wore those all the time. Robertson's home in the background. 
That outfit has to be home made. Right?
Standing in front of Jessie Ln. Home
Me as a pirate. Hand made sward. 3rd Grade? 
Halloween as a cat, 1981ish. 
Why yes. I will be your Frankenstein. Sarah told me: "You would make a great Frankenstein" and helped dress me.
James-e-bear helping me on my lap-top
James at Church. Halloween 2005
Halloween 2008. James is a train Engineer.
Alison in the hand-me-down Oatmeal Teddy Bear outfit. 
2009 Alison
Alision, Me, and James. Halloween 2010. Alison  was a lion. I rode an
ostrich. James is a killer whale.
Original use of Oli the Ostrich, 2006
Halloween 2011.  Alison is a "Rainbow-tu-tu princess".  James is on Safari.  
Halloween 2011. They asked James to come dressed
as a scare-crow. 


Webpages that agree: