Washington DC!

Never have I been in a place that was so rich in history, and beauty, and significance to my life than last week. My sister and her family live just outside Washington DC and a couple months ago she highlighted a plane fare sale and strongly encouraged us to take advantage of the free time that we have on our hands and come and visit. So after much deliberation (probably a few more seconds than was necessary) we bought our tickets and worked towards preparing for an awesome week. Little did we realize, it was nothing that we could have expected!

Our First day we went to Mt Vernon - and I don't know what I expected to see or find, but my sister has a Season Pass if that gives you an idea of how cool it was. The expansive estate was impressive - yes. The mansion and the dozen+ out buildings were impressive - yes. But the thing that was the most enlightening about the experience was the insight that we got into the man George Washington. Besides being The military man he was innovative, creative, brilliant, business smart, hard working, an amazing leader, and we also saw proof that he was a loving and compassionate person. Oh, and he was really rich too. His estate was not only totally and entirely self sufficient, he was so efficient, that he sold his products all throughout the colonies.

We took the "National Treasure 2" tour - and saw a couple of the iconic things that were shown in the movie. The coolest of which was the basement of the mansion. We saw the replica of the cornerstone and the vaults that were shown in the movie. The actual cornerstone is now in the museum.
This is where we ate lunch that day. In a forested area next to the parking lot. Beautiful place.

Pregnant Sisters!

Yesterday was dinner at Mom's for our monthly bday party and get together. Jen and Sarah are both looking very cute and very pregnant!

End of the Rainbow

So there's the story about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow right? Well I must have been outside taking pictures too long, because by the time I got to the end of the rainbow the pot was gone....

All for one...

We're getting ready for Halloween!

Many Week Update

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted anything - NOTHING - since I cut my finger in half. Well, since that was the last thing that I mentioned - I'll give an update. I have my fingerprint back. Meaning it's healed just fine. It's still a bit sensitive to hot things, but it's good.

I guess I'll just plop some pictures on here with some explanations - brief - and share a couple of events that have taken place in the past many weeks.

First of all - I got laid off on July 1. Yeah, I know what your thinking - on a Wednesday? Yeah, can you believe it? I'm sitting there working my tail off, and they asked me in to The Boss' office and that was it. So after almost 2 years - I'm out. I last got laid off in June of 2007. It worked out then, so hopefully it'll work out this time. :)

I went shooting with the boys and hope to have a video of some of the explosions, mayhem, and destruction posted soon - don't hold your breathe on the soon part.


I've been boating several times this summer and on this dreadful day I broke my prized slalom ski. :( It wasn't really my fault, I had the ski in the V of the rope and away the boat went with my ski wrapped in the V and it was pulled perpendicular to the boat with the full thrust of the boat pulling on the center of the ski and it "blew".

James was in town over the 4th of July. He brought his friend Melodie with him.




Well that gives me something new - well old, but new to you.

I cut my finger!

So there I was, just washing dishes and I looked down and blood was gushing everywhere! I was cleaning an Apple Wedger that we bought from Pampered Chef. We just bought it so I figure that I didn't realize it's effectiveness until I used it on my finger. We had an old one which is really the culprit in the whole deal. I didn't think that they were sharp. Well it's a razor blade! Oh I should mention that it was my middle finger on my left hand.

So we went down to the InstaCare and waited a good hour before someone took us back (after I was told that they rush bleeding people through. - ha!) By the time a Dr saw me it had been an hour and a half and the bleeding had slowed down! She looked at it and asked whether I wanted to glue it or have stiches. I opted for glue since it was faster and I wouldn't have to come back and have them taken out. She did say that it would have been 4 stiches otherwise.

Well she numbed it and it was still bleedingso she put Silver Nitrate on it which helped the blood to clot. Is still didn't stop bleeding so she put a tourni-cot on it to stop. it worked and she glued it. She told me to take it easy, but alas, the next day the glue blew and the blood flowed again. should make for an interesting scar.

CAUTION - I will inclued a couple pictues for the morbidly curious. They could be considered graphic.

Still Bleeding:


Juiceing it full of numbness:


Post glue with the Tourni-cot still on it:

10 hour days

It's been just over a year since I started working 4 10-hour days. I was thinking about what I've gained and what I've lost. Here's some of my numbers:
50 - Extra days off work (all but 2 weeks)
3,500 - miles that I haven't traveled commuting
60 - hours I've saved not sitting in my car
100 - gallons of gas I've saved not driving to work
200 - hours of sleep I've lost to get up an hour early
150 - hours of sleep I've gained back on Friday
50 - net loss of sleep
50 - 3-day weekends
50 - times I was glad that it was finally Thursday
450 - hours I've gained on Friday
$350 - money I've saved in gas and an oil change
50 - opportunities to take a nap in the middle of the day

So in conclusion, it was an adjustment working the longer days, but after getting used to it, it's definitely been tolerable. Monday mornings have always been hard, but Thursday's have always been very nice!

Air Show

This is a group picture that was taken at two different times, but I wanted to give you an idea of the crew that we had. Our backyard has a mostly unobstructed view of the valley to the West and South. We're about a mile from the Hill AFB runway by line of sight and if it means avoiding a half a million people this is a great alternative to going on base.

In the morning we went on base and enjoyed the static displays.

Even though this was an Air Force party, the Army showed up with their Apache Helicopter. Most of the aerial stunt planes were on display too. We saw this Dragon plane a few hours later doing loops and twirls!

We walked through the cargo hold of a C-5! That's a sight to see. That thing is HUGE! And here I am next to my favored A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog". I lived on a military base in Japan exactly 10 years ago. While I was there I decided for and later against a career in the Air Force. I decided that I wanted to be a pilot, and my favored craft was the A-10. There were several F-16 pilots that were church members that I was able to spend some time with. I gained an admiration for them and sought after that career. Anyway. Then I decided that military life wasn't for me.

Then we went back to the house and watched the remainder of the show from there. The Thunderbirds were an obvious high point, since they were the main event. Other note worthy points was the cargo plane flyover - right over. It shook the rafters. I'm not sure what it was, but it was too close to take a picture with David's zoom lens.

We also had a F-22 Raptor buzz our house two days in a row. That was something else too. You can't understand how a plane like that can sneak up on you until it does.

Thank you everyone who was able to come and enjoy the show!

NOTE: I didn't try to take any pictures of any aerial borne planes because I knew I couldn't do it justice. My bro did though and I hope to get them soon!

Deck Project Update

I had a plan and I worked out the details so that it would work out just how I wanted. We decided that we would do vinyl rails on our deck when we built it last year. Out of a lack of necessity or money or whatever we haven't done it yet. So we decided that it was finally time. So I decided to go through R&L Vinyl which looks like a great place and we had some friends recommend them to us. Well since I have no where else to vent - here it comes.

Notice any problem with this picture? Oh yeah - no rails. Hhhhmmmm, that's because I couldn't buy them. So here's the short of the long. I called them on a Wednesday, and a salesman came out like the next day to give me a bid. I thought that it was a little pricey but that was fine, I took it as though I hadn't priced around enough - whatever. So I got him back on the phone and told him that I wanted to get the vinyl deck rails. He came back on Saturday afternoon to have me sign the contract and take half the money as a deposit. At that point I made it very clear that I needed the materials by Thursday at the very latest, because I had time off of work and had help on the labor. No problem, so I signed the paper and gave him my money.
He also promised a call on Wed to confirm pickup on Thurs - which never came so I called and left a message with both the company and the salesguy. Thursday (delivery day) arrives and at noon I finally call both the salesman and the company back and leave messages again. Finally I receive a call back from the company and they inform me that the materials won't be ready until Monday (days after promised). I was upset, but lets see what the salesman says. Finally he calls me back, realises the problem after I chew his ear off, then after a few calls gets back to me and says that he personally talked to the shop crew and they'll have them ready Friday by noon at the latest. Satisfied with that I let my help loose and wait until Friday afternoon.
Don't worry the story is almost over. Friday comes and after hours of calling back and forth I get a hold of the shop guy who informs me that the salesman never called him about changing my order. Yeah, let me repeat that for a dramatic effect - LIED TO MY FACE. Oh - and it will still be ready by Monday. Not good enough - not nearly good enough.
So here's the problem with Monday. The pressing issue about Thursday was that would give me all day Friday to install them to be ready for our air show party that we hosted on Saturday. Otherwise I don't need the rails installed until our next outdoor event that involves large amounts of children.... So in the end the Manager calls and appologizes and tells me that there's no way to deliver as promised. So what is one to do? Remember that this is after frustrating hour after nausiating hour of back and forth and back and forth then being lied to, then being strung out. So I told him that I didn't feel like his business deserved my money and I wanted my money back.
I would distinguish $1000+ a large purchase. And when I make a large purchase I demand a certain level of customer service, professionalism, and quality. I don't feel like a received a single one of those things of the course of those 10 days.
To the extent of your inconvenience, I recommend going anywhere else.

That's what I call a campfire!

Actually it wasn't a campfire, it was more like a good marshmallow fire. Since it was the last weekend in May we decided that it was high time to have a s'more fire (s'more of what?). So we went to Colette's parents house and camp-fired with Colette's sister and her other sister and families. It was a very nice evening, it was warm enough to sit by the fire with just your shorts and a t-shirt (Well arguably).

We like to make this cinnamon marshmallow biscuit thing. What you do is wrap a raw biscuit around the marshmallow then fire the biscuit until it's golden brown. Disclaimer: the biscuit filled with marshmallow goo will be hot (duh!). Then you roll it in butter then roll it in cinnamon. It's straight from heaven! That's what we were making.

Colette's parents cut down like 6 CottonWood trees this spring so we have tons (literally) of wood, so I hope to have many fires this summer.

Renaissance Faire

I didn't know if this was something that I should admit to doing, but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the unique atmosphere. I went with Colette and my bro David and my Mother. We all dressed up and therefore were admitted at half price. It was also one of those things where I would have felt out of place had I not dressed up.... You know what I mean.

We went to the Renaissance Faire last year as well and had fun enough of a time that we decided to come back.

Here's David. Mom made his shirt and James made his pants. Well James made the pants that he was wearing. They are made out of corduroy, but the funny thing about them is that the grooves run horizontally, so it looks like the wearer has a had sense of direction.


David also tried on a chain mail head piece - looks like it fit pretty good, it weighed like 10+ pounds. He said that it was comfy though. It was a struggle to get off, it was like trying to get Chinese handcuffs off of your fingers. Pretty funny to watch.


We also saw a wedding taking place. Very pretty. Kind of cool. And if you look closely, you can see Mom and David in the background, which is actually on the other side of the watery mass.

Guns and Reactive Targets

First of all - This is the 100th post on this blog! Very cool!

We went shooting. When I say we, I mean David and Kurtis, and his brother Kevin and a friend Ryan and Me (if you don't know who me is, then you don't care anyway).

We went up near Avon, UT. There is a nice open field there next to the road that has been terrorized by the likes of us and our guns before so we thought that it would be convenient.
Ryan brought the makings of some "reactive targets", which was really a lot of fun to shoot at. David brought an old old TV and we used that as a target as well. David made a Clay Pigeon Target that basically drops more targets down as you blow away the ones on the bottom. worked pretty good. It's designed to be shot at with a gun, not a shotgun....


The AR-15


It was snowing when we got there and then the weather tapered off. It was still wet and very muddy though. I happened to catch David doing a little dance in the mud trying to get his shoe back while he was balancing his video camera in one hand, and his shotgun in the other.


Here is a representation of our "Reactive Targets". Enjoy.

and one more

Vegas!

Nothing like a free trip to Vegas (well free hotel stay at the gruesome expense of an endless time-share presentation)! We went with David and Hollie. We had a fabulous time! We did a lot of relaxing and a fair amount of eating and overall, had a lot of fun!

Colette and I flew down in the morning and were about to satisfy our (time-share) obligation early so that we had the rest of the weekend to relax. For those who are curious, we are still time-share-less. Although the idea appeals to us, we're just not there yet. We want to focus on getting a family (children) before we worry about how to spend time with them. And that was our excuse we used for them.

Here I am with Caesar! I had to climb up on the statue to get the picture with him. No trip to his palace is complete without a photo op!

We went to the Shark Tank - Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was quite impressive, and surprisingly extensive for a hotel. Of course this is Vegas - everything is bigger in Vegas. We had a lot of fun there.

Here is an artistic view of our hotel that we stayed at. This is a picture from the pool. Alas, I have no pool pictures to share in a public forum. Now if we were water skiing then that would be different...! It's time to get the boat out - it's boating time!

Little Sahara

Sand Dunes! I went down South to the sand dunes of Little Sahara near Jericho this weekend. Since it was Easter weekend, it is Mecca weekend for many sand enthusiasts. When I say 'many' that is an extreme understatement! As of Friday there were 14,000 people there and they expected as many as twice that!

I went with Sarah and Neil etc (family and friends).


Self portrait with Sarah in the background

Timer Photo: Neil, Brian, Mike, Sarah, Kevin

Overlooking the valley with a HUGE drop off behind us that we wend down!

The stuckest I have ever been in my 4-wheeler. That's because I was driving through the hill. I stopped on the uphill slope (lost momentum) and I wasn't about to back down - hah. So I essentially drove through the cap of the hill. Made for a cool picture - thanks Neil.

Cute Sarah and Neil

Me overlooking the "City" below. - oh and I enlarged the helicopter so that you could see that there were helicopters circling around.

Moab in the Winter - Part II

Part II is complete with pictures of snow! Our snow day consisted of mostly the windows section in Arches. We decided to stick to short hikes and call it good after that. I took a lot of landscape pictures covered in snow and you'll have to ask for a private showing because I took way too many pictures to put on the blog. Here are a couple of our snow in April in Arches pictures.




AND - for those jeep loving fools out there - what is a trip to Moab without some cool Jeep pictures? Well first of all this guy wins the 'Coolest Rig Award' and below is definately a nominee for the 'Jeep that I'm going to own one day Award'.


Then when it was time to pack up and head out the sun came out and we stopped for one last picture.