In the beginning there was bukkit...

First off, let me say that I had an awesome weekend, one of the best of my life. It was so awesome in fact that I can't seem to get all of my thoughts together to gel cohesively so I'm going to need a couple of days before I can compile something worth reading. In the meantime, there seems to be some confusion over the title of the Great Bukkit Tour, so I'd like to lay that to rest.

A little history first....When I took up running, I entered a race in May of 2008. It was the Powell Spring 5k. Miranda and Laela participated as well. On the entry form, there was a place to enter a team name so we wanted to come up with one. At the time Miranda was enamored with the Speed Racer cartoon and wanted to name the team Speed Racer. Laela and I didn't think that accurately reflected the family's less than quick style of ambulation so we asked her to come up with something else. Because of my mustache and the lolrus, Miranda chose the name Speed Walrus. We thought it was hilarious and so it stuck.

The 'Lolrus' is an Internet Meme that started in 2007 with the appearance of the images in the above jpeg. You can read a detailed description of it at the following URL: http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/4480801. It is actually a seal not a walrus (but that is beside the point). We had stumbled upon it shortly after I had started cultivating my mustache and found it to be quite humorous. You can see the images here http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/lolrus/. Miranda and I would check it every day to see if there was a new funny walrus picture and somehow, walurs ended up becoming my nickname. So, there became a running joke about me always looking for bucket. The girls went out and bought actual metal pails for trash cans, etc. We had also shared it with our close friends so that everyone in our inner circle was very familiar with the Lolrus. It's not just a running joke within the family but also our close friends.

When we found out about about my condition and decided to take our vacation Laela dubbed it the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010. The idea was that the walrus was looking all over the United States for his bucket. I had no idea that there would be so many people who would be reading about our vacation and just kind of assumed that everyone who would read it knew about the walrus/bucket connections. While yes, a double meaning could be read into the "Bukkit Tour" that it was about kicking the bucket, that was not the intention.

I'm glad that so many people enjoyed reading our travel log. I hope this clears up any misconceptions about the genesis of the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010.

Kitty Ears (guest blogger Laela)

Many of you asked about the Kitty Ears you saw the show last night. If you've been following the great Bukkit Tour, you probably noticed Miranda wearing a set of black kitty ears in almost every picture. They are (currently) her signature item. Miranda was the only person under 21 at the show. I wanted to find a way that Miranda would not feel weird about being the only kid there, so I purchased several pairs of kitty ears for our close friends. They worked perfectly. In a group of people that large Miranda could see who were her peeps. If she got lost, lonely, or needed a place to hang out, all she had to do was look for someone with kitty ears. Then she would have someone who would give her some love, support, friendship, or even a coke if she needed it. This all got me thinking about friendship and relationships, and how many people are wearing "kitty ears" in support of the Behler Family.

As you all know, we are in a big old mess of a situation here at the house. Everybody who lives here is feeling a little lost, and everywhere we turn there is some horrible challenge to face. However we are finding that there are more people with "kitty ears" on than we could ever imagine. Many of you put your kitty ears on and came over to clean, I have a co-worker who puts hers on every time she drops by with food. Everyone of you makes it easier for us to deal with the mess.

When Kristi Hittepole offered to put the Benefit together for us, Rob and I were reluctant to accept. We have never looked for a hand out from anyone and it seemed weird to do it now. After much deliberation, we decided to look at it like a party. A chance to get together with our friends and hear some music, and hang out. So Kristi put on her kitty ears and stared planning. This small idea grew, and grew, and grew. It seems that every where she went there was someone else with kitty ears on ready and willing to help. Things grew so big, that it seems that every person we ever met wanted their own set of ears. Friends we haven't seen in years offered goods and services. Kristi, and us, were AMAZED and how many people wanted to help.

The icing on the cake is when ALL wanted to be added to the benefit. Who knew that Chad, Karl, Bill, and Stephen would be to willing to fly half way across the country for us? Not only to give us financial support, but also to give Rob one last ALL concert. It is such an immense gift there are no words to describe it. It was the best show and the most fun I may have ever had.

If you didn't have a pair of real life kitty ears for the show, that doesn't mean Rob and I have not been able to see your kitty ears. There were more kitty ears going on at the Benefit last night then can be counted. It is nice to know that when we get lost, or lonely, need a place to hang out, or even a coke to drink all we have to do is look up, and there will be someone with their kitty ears on. Thank YOU! Each and every one of our kitty eared friends.

Bukkit Tour: The Return

We've been back for a little less than a week, but what an eventful week it has been. The Behler family dance card continues to be full. When we arrived home in the wee hours last Wednesday morning, I thought we were on the set of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. We got out of the car and walked to the front door and the whole flower bed had been landscaped and we had new patio furniture on the front porch. Little did we know what other surprises awaited on the other side of the door.

First of all, I want to give a great big shout out to Paul Burns for house/dog sitting for us and holding down the fort while we were gone. Indy was happier to see him on Wednesday evening than she was to see us when we got home early Wednesday morning, so we know she was in good hands.

Next I'd like to thank Tim Birt, Kevin Krahel, Isaac Harris and Paul Burns (again) for achieving the monumental task of repairing and redecorating Miranda's bathroom. The genesis of the bathroom failure is kind of funny.

A couple of years ago, the diverter handle on the bathtub spigot broke. No big deal right? Laela and I went to the hardware store and bought one of those universal spigots to replace it with. It was about a $15 item. So I go to install it and of course the "universal adapter kit" leaks all over the place. I decided that I'd replace the copper pipe that the spigot connects to and then everything would be good. I went out, bought a torch, some solder, and a short length of copper pipe and some fittings. Please keep in mind that at the time Miranda's shower walls were constructed of molded plastic with a built in soap dish etc installed over "water resistant" drywall. Well, I didn't know that you could by material to protect the wall from the torch, so away I go with the torch soldering the pipe through the small hole in the plastic/drywall. A brief distraction later (I think my phone rang and I checked the caller id one handed), the plastic wall of the bathroom is on fire. I managed to douse the flames with cold cups of water but the damage was done. It wasn't enough to structurally damage anything, but the plastic wall of the tub was ruined. Laela and I decided that we'd tear down all of the plastic and tile the walls. It wasn't until we tore down the plastic that we realized the rest of the walls were also drywall. Since we decided to tile, all of the drywall would have to come down so that the wall was strong enough to support the tiles. At this point the $15 spigot replacement turned into a monumental job and went into the "what a pain in the ass, I'll get around to it later pile." We have a functional shower in the master bath so it's not like we couldn't bathe.

Fast forward to June when we found out the the big scarlet "C" and planned a long family vacation. Kevin and Tim devised a plan to refinish the bathroom and get Isaac to paint it while we were gone;because, hey what teenage girl doesn't need her own bathroom? So while we were out of town Kevin, Tim, and Paul replumbed the bathtub to fix the slow drain, put up concrete board to support the tile, tiled the walls, and installed new fixtures. They also fixed the ceiling drywall and Isaac painted the walls the color that Miranda had picked out to go with her curtains, trash can, and towels. The end result is an absolutely beautiful bathroom space. I haven't even showered in my own bathroom since I've been home because I've been so stoked on the new one.

I'd like to thank Valerie Smith for conceiving and executing with Kevin and Tim the landscaping of the front of the house. It is gorgeous and put together with the Behler family brown thumbs in mind. That'll make it easy on the eyes as well as low maintenance.

Next want to thank my sister-in-law Libby Sullivan for organizing the cleaning of our house. Before we had left she had organized a small army of our friends and family to come over and clean the house from top to bottom. The place looks absolutely fantastic and will help me to not become sick when my treatments start. I don't have a list of everyone that participated but I know that people dropped everything that they were doing and even came in from out of town to pitch in to help for two consecutive weeks.

Words can't describe how grateful we are to everyone that helped out whether you played a big part or a small part, every single bit is appreciated. We certainly have no way of adequately expressing the gratitude we have in our hearts for everything that was done for us. We have amazing family and friends and unfortunately sometimes it takes a bad event to bring everybody together and tighten up the circle. You are all loved by us very much.

So stay tuned, I think I'm going to continue to throw my thoughts out there every week or so and don't forget the big concert/party on Friday August 6th at the Ravari Room. ALL/Legbone/Children of Reagan/Dirty Side Down will be rockin the room, so come on down and say hi. Let's party and raise a glass together.

Bukkit Tour Days Seventeen and Eighteen: Homeward Bound

Days seventeen and eighteen find us making our way home. While I was down in the lobby of the Country Inn getting breakfast and writing yesterday morning, Laela had gotten up and packed our belongings in the hotel room. When I had made it back up there at 10:15 she was ready to start putting things in the car. The parking garage was attached to our hotel and we were parked on the same floor as our room so it didn't take but a couple of quick trips out and we were ready to go. We bade Virginia Beach farewell and got going, but we had to make one final stop before we left.

We swung by the Food Lion grocery store on our way out. I was determined to relieve them of their 12 packs of bottled Yuengling beer since we can't get it in Ohio. They had ten of them in the cooler so we grabbed a cart and loaded them up. It took a little bit of Tetrising the Escape I was able to weasel them in. Stoked. Then we jumped back in and set out on our way. We stopped for lunch at noon time and ate at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I am totally a convert to that restaurant. They doubled up on the cajun love on my fries and they were fantastic.

It was around 3:30 when we arrived at Monticello. Monticello was the home of President Thomas Jefferson. He was the third President of the United States. You might also know Monticello as the "B Side" of the nickle. It is situated high atop on of the mountains of Virginia and the views are absolutely stunning. The grounds are vast as Jefferson was also a farmer with an impressive garden as well. We took the tour of the house but the standard tour only allows you on the first floor and into the cellars under the house. There are many gorgeous walking paths around the estate.

After spending a few hours at Monticello, we hopped back in the car and proceeded on our journey home. Driving through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia is certainly a feast for the eyes. Travelling through there on a late summer afternoon when all of the trees are a lush green with low hanging clouds dusting the peaks was breathtaking. Occasionally the rays of the sun would peek through the clouds and it would look like it was right out of a painting.

Nothing really exciting happened the rest of the way home. We tried to get a hotel near Parkersburg to stay the night but they were full. By the time we had gotten to the next area with a decent hotel we were only a couple of hours from home so I made the executive decision to soldier on. We arrived home close to 2:00am. We were all hyped to see Indy.

Apparently the house has been visited by Santa's elves while we were away too. The house is spotless, the front has been landscaped and been given patio furniture, and Miranda's bathroom has been redecorated and the tub area tiled and the plumbing has been repaired. We were totally floored. The place looks fantastic. I have my suspicions regarding the culprits but I'll wait for confirmations before calling them out. Know this though, if you had a hand in any of the household shenanigans, you have our complete gratitude.

We'd also like to take an opportunity to thank everyone who had a hand in making the Great Bukkit Tour 2010 possible. Again, the generosity of our family, friends and co-workers has been astounding. It was a great relief to Miranda, Laela, and myself to be able to put our challenges behind us for a couple of weeks and just be a family out exploring the country and enjoying each other's company. It has been the vacation of a lifetime and I'll cherish every moment of it.

This concludes my blogging of the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010. Thanks for coming along with us and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Bukkit Tour Day Sixteen: Virginia Beach Relaxation

Day sixteen was our decompression day. We've been on the go for weeks and were ready to just have nothing planned. The weather was about ten degrees cooler so it was much easier to spend time outside. We went down to the hotel lobby and picked up an information card for Rudee Inlet Jet Ski Rentals. It was just a couple of blocks from the hotel so it seemed perfect. The girls hadn't eaten yet so we decided that it would probably be best not to do that on an empty stomach.

Right next door and sharing the same parking lot was Big Sam's. We got out of the car and our second casualty of the trip occurred. Miranda's favorite flip-flops blew out. The first casualty was my sun glasses on day one. It was unremarkable "beachish" food. Laela chose the best by having the lobster BLT. I had a crab cake which was fair. I think the girls were happy with the choice of eatery. Due to it's close proximity to the jet ski rentals the view for the ladies was fantastic. There were lots of deeply tanned strapping young lads prepping the jet skis for the day's outings visible from the windows. We finished lunch and ventured next door.

It didn't take long for us to get to the jet skis. Quickly signing a few papers, putting on life jackets, and walking down the dock. They gave us a quick run through on the vehicle's operation. Safety strap, turn left, turn right, start, and stop. It was easier than riding a scooter. There were about five jet skis plus a guide in our group. Laela got her own. Miranda and I shared a jet ski. We idled our way out of the inlet and onto the Atlantic Ocean. It was fantastic! We were instructed to stay 100 yards away from all vehicles including other jet skis and we were given about a mile within which we were to operate. That was plenty of ocean. It was a little choppy and took a few minutes to get comfortable with the rolling of the ocean. I had to remind Miranda that it was like riding a motorcycle and that she was to lean with me as I leaned. She leaned into a couple of turns and we had water gushing over the side and were close to capsizing. We signed up for a one hour ride. About half way through, we met up with Laela and she had bragged to us that she'd had hers up to 48MPH. To that point I hadn't had ours over 30MPH. I took that as a challenge from Laela so we started looking for some smooth spots where we could open it up. It was right about then that the instrument gauge flaked out on our watercraft. I didn't think much of it at the time. I thought maybe some water had gotten into it and shorted it out. We got through the rest of our ride uneventfully and then were instructed to follow our guide back to the inlet. The inlet is a no wake zone so we had to idle once we got there. Not two minutes later our jet ski completely died. We were the last of the pack so we had to yell to Laela that we were dead. She then relayed it up the line until our guide heard. Meanwhile there was a yacht exiting the inlet out into the Atlantic that was headed straight for us. With our engine out and adrift, we were completely at the mercy of the current. Fortunately the yacht was able to change his course and go around us. Our guide came back with a tow rope and towed us back to the dock. Miranda was excited because it was "the cute one" who came to "rescue" us. Once we got onto the dock and met up with Laela she said all of the guides asked if we were on number 15 because they had just replaced the battery that morning. Gee guys, if you are having electrical problems with a watercraft, how about not sending customers out on it? It shouldn't be hard to fix. It's either the battery, voltage regulator, or the stator. Maybe I should have offered to troubleshoot it for them. I was a little miffed, but oh well. We got our ride in and made it back safely.

After the jet skis, the rest of the day's plan was to relax on the beach. We went to the $7.99 surf shop across the street from the hotel. We got a beach chair, a sunbrella, flip flops for Miranda, and body board. We went up to our room, changed and then spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach. Nothing but sun, sand, and surf. Miranda and I spent most of our time in the water. It was awesome just getting to hang out with her for a couple of hours while Laela read. It was such a good time. The shadow of the hotel creeping over the beach and onto the water let us know that our time at the beach was done for the day. We headed back up to the room and then went out to dinner.

After dinner we just strolled up and down the Virginia Beach Boardwalk (which is actually cement) and onto the pier. I think I got some good photos on the pier but I haven't checked them on the computer yet. On the pier we got ice cream and then decided to walk the beach. Eating ice cream with a cookie duster as long and luxurious as mine is quite the exercise in futility. I was a mess. We went onto Atlantic Avenue afterward. We rode some of the carnival rides like the Ferris wheel and went onto the Captain Cline's Pirate Adventure ride. Miranda and I also went into the Nightmare House, but after the pirate ride turned out to be haunted house which freaked Laela out she sat that one out. That essentially wrapped up the evening and we retired to the hotel.

And so ends the Bukkit Tour. Today we'll head off in the direction of home and arrive tomorrow. I can't wait to see everyone!