I got married!

So you may have heard, I got married! 

And you're probably wondering, Who is she, how did they meet, how did he ask her, and where did they get married? I'll answer those questions, Show you a few pictures from the wedding, and let you know what we've been up to lately (we've been really busy).

Who is She?

Well, her name is Shawna.

She teaches 3rd grade, and has taught at her school in Summerlin for 5 years. She is a bit of a runner.

She has a little dog named Doogle, and she is a terrific bowler.

She's smart, funny, loves to laugh, and is the prettiest girl I've ever dated.

Where did they meet?

That is actually a bit of a funny story. Shawna was Randi's (my sister) roommate for several years in college. When Shawna decided to move to Las Vegas she would call me occasionally to help move this or that, or to help move all of her stuff across town (the joy of every truck owner). Every now and then we would run into each other at church functions, or Randi would come to town and invite Shawna to come hang out with us. The point I guess is that we kind of knew each other, but we never really spent much time together.

One weekend I had just gotten some new camera gear in the mail, and I really wanted to try it out, but I didn't really have anyone who could "model" for me, so I called up Shawna to see if she would be interested to help me out. She came over and we took pictures in the park for an hour or two and then walked back to my house and ended up talking for several hours. I remember thinking how easy it was to talk to her about anything and everything.

It was a few months later when Shawna texted me trying to start a bowling team. It was a midweek league that didn't start until 9 PM, and I almost said no. Staying up til midnight, then getting up for work at 3:30 AM didn't sound very fun, but I decided that the only way I was ever going to meet anyone I wanted to date was to actually go out and do things like join a bowling league. I had envisioned lots of single ladies, and me bowling all night long; It was actually Shawna and one of her girl friends and another guy. It wasn't the single lady fest I had originally thought it would be, but we still had lots of fun!

We started texting like crazy, I was getting charged $20 a month for going over my text message allotment, and that's when it hit me that maybe we should start going out on dates. We went to a drive in movie, and have pretty much been inseparable ever since!

How Did I ask her to marry me?

On June 30th, Shawna and I went to see Hairspray the musical in St George, Utah.

We had made and changed our plans to go somewhere and do something about 5 times that day, and Shawna couldn't understand why I suddenly had an urge to go somewhere. I had had her engagement ring for a few weeks, but could never find the "right way" to ask her to marry me. I just couldn't wait any longer, and I knew it was going to be this particular weekend!
After the play we walked around the grounds of the St George temple. We made one lap around while I tried to build up my courage, and started the second lap for us to find a little privacy. I got down on one knee, proclaimed my love for her, and asked her to marry me.

And What About the Wedding?

We got married In Escondido California, In Shawna's parent's backyard. They have a beautiful home, and a big green backyard
.
The bridesmaids had all come out, the wedding march was playing, and Shawna stepped out of the house looking gorgeous.

I felt my heart do a couple of flips, and then she went back inside! Talk about giving a guy a heart attack! turns out it was a minor wardrobe malfunction, and she came out a few seconds later.

The wedding was beautiful, planned mostly by Shawna's sisters and mom(thank you so much Bonnie, Molly and Lee!). There were Chinese lanterns hanging over all the tables

We had excellent food, and a terrific cake that my dad decorated for us.


I think we all had a great time, and I was so happy I'm not sure my feet touched the ground!


There are quite a few more pictures of the wedding on my flickr wedding album if you care to see them

So I think I've probably answered most of your questions. 

You might have wondered though why did they have such a short engagement?

Well, first of all we didn't have to get married if you know what I mean. I spent the first part of the summer picking out a ring and deciding how to ask her to marry me. I never thought too much about when we would get married, I just knew that if I asked her and she said yes that we would get married eventually. What I didn't take into account was Shawna's schedule as a teacher. Teachers don't really get a few weeks of vacation to use like most people, so we pretty much had to get married on a major school holiday. It was pretty much get married before summer break ended, over Christmas or Spring break, or wait until next summer. Neither one of really wanted to wait a long time, so we got married on her last week of summer break. We got married Saturday, got back home Tuesday night, and she was back to work on Wednesday.

And how am I liking married life so far?

I LOVE IT!
Many of my friends and coworkers have told me that I seem to be pretty happy these days. And Why shouldn't I? I'm married to a great gal!

What have I been up to since the wedding?

We've had several adventures already. 

First was the actual mechanics of merging two households into one. Shawna brought quite a few of  her things to the house over the summer, but big furnishings like couches bed, coffee tables etc. we're too big to fit in her car, so we rented a small uHaul and moved the big stuff just before she headed off to California 2 weeks prior to the wedding. Everything just kind of got brought in and set down. So we had all that stuff that had to be sorted through, plus all of the wedding gifts had to be put away, and things that we now had three of (think kitchen stuff) had to be pared down and the extras donated to Deseret Industries.

Second was what to do with Shawna's house. We knew we wanted to rent it out, but neither of us wanted to be a landlord and deal with renters, leases, and  3 AM calls about broken toilets. So we hired a property manager. We spent a weekend scrubbing Shawna's house, had the carpets cleaned, then had the property manager over to give us any advice on what else we should do to prepare the house. He gave us a list of 15 things or so that pretty much filled the rest of our free time after work that week. His main concern was that the carpet cleaners resurrected the dog urine smell. We tried all kinds of powders, sprays, and magic potions we found on the internet, of which none worked. I called my uncle who is a professional carpet cleaner, and he suggested that the carpets might be ok, but the pad underneath might be storing the smell, and that if the dog only went on the carpet in one place we might be able to pull up the carpet, replace the pad, flop the carpet back down and be smell free. 

So, I pulled up a corner where he seemed to like to pee the most, and it was immediately apparent that a simple pad replacement was not going to fix the problem. The back of the carpet had some dark yellow stains, the pad stunk, and I could see moisture stains on the subfloor.... The next day Rudy and I pulled up all the carpet and padding, and my friend Tom and I hauled all the stinky carpet off to the dump last weekend. The Home Depot will be installing new carpet sometime next week.

While I was working on the finishing touches at Shawna's house I got a call from Shawna who found the air conditioner had died peacefully during the day. And thus began adventure number three... The Air Conditioner

I called the big A/C company that advertises on the radio that promised to be on time or I wouldn't have to pay a dime. The service tech came over and looked things over, and delivered the bad news. The compressor was dead and needed to be replaced. replacement parts were available, but would be more expensive than a new unit. And the air conditioner industry is not allowed to make the refrigerant that it used, so any additional repairs in the future were going to be even more expensive due to the out of date equipment. They sent over a salesman to talk to us about what we should buy to replace the air conditioner and when he left we had charged a little over $8300 for a new air conditioner and coil on out credit card.

It turns out that $8300 is way too much to pay for a new air conditioner. We heard about it from everybody that we told, so we got a second quote for $3300 less and canceled our order with the first company. 

It was pretty awkward when both companies showed up to install my air conditioner. Apparently the install guys for company #1 never got the cancellation notice. The house is nice and cool now, and I learned a couple of valuable lessons. First get a couple of opinions when you are looking at a major repair like this. Second, when it comes to air conditioning a local contractor is always cheaper than a national chain.



We've also had two house guests, and we have both enjoyed playing host to visitors. And though we both live in Las Vegas, neither one of us do the tourist thing very often, so its always fun to go explore the city!


If you were wondering if Shawna and I think alike, the answer is yes. We both grabbed our laptops and began blogging about our wedding within about 15 minutes of each other, without knowing the other was doing the same thing! If you want to read what Shawna had to say, you can check it out on her blog.

A Weeks Vacation!

I've just returned from a weeks vacation. I had to use it before June, or I was going to lose it. It actually worked out very well, I got to go to Utah for memorial Day, visit my parents, and go to California for a wedding!

The week started with a bit of a long day at work. Memorial day is a big weekend for us at my work, and everyone seems to wait until Friday before they realize they might need a little extra for the weekend. I was running a bit behind, and I had to finish packing (some clothes might have still been in the washing machine at this point of the story), and I had to drive up to American Fork that night to stay with Randi and Cassidy. So of course I found something interesting in the parking lot as I was leaving work!


It might be hard to tell, but this the smallest bird I've ever seen!



And of course everyone wanted to see what I found!

Eventually I did get packed, and drove to American Fork that night. The next morning we drove up to Hyrum to put flowers on the graves of my grandparents and great grandparents.



My parents, LaWayne, Randi & Cassidy, Joe & Bonnie, and Wes & Ashurity all made it this year.



Piper is always a big help.



For Some reason, This headstone always draws my attention. I like that 100 years from now someone could bring their keyboard and play the song I see today.



We had our annual lunch at Chili's, and its always fun to hear the stories Joe and Bonnie have about the remodeling projects. I'm always amazed at the common interests we find. This trip it was renewable energy, specifically solar power!

We headed back to LaWayne's apartment and she asked us to take her couch to DI. Her apartment is so strange without that couch! Truly the end of an era!



From Salt Lake I carpooled with my parents to Elko. Its not commonly known, but years ago I convinced my mom to get her ham radio license, so we were able to chat on the radio the whole way back, and it was handy to tell each other we needed a break, or where we were when we got separated in traffic. And My dad was kind enough to let me turn his truck into a geek mobile.

I went to church with my mom and she was on duty as the organist. It took all my will power not to push all the buttons on the organ!



My parents had a few things around the house they wanted a little help with. My dad and I worked on the sprinkler system for a bit, and got it back in working order.

For some reason we started talking about washing the deck. We got the pressure washer going, and pretty soon the deck was hosed off and looking pretty good!



While washing the deck, it seemed like a good idea to wash the siding on the house. So, a few gallons of soap, and a few hours later the house looked terrific!





It wasn't anything that a person could point to walking up to the house, but a few neighbors did comment that we had done "something" to make the house look better!

In between trips to home depot for soap, we also trimmed a few trees in the backyard. My parents also got a new couch this week, and it was time for the old one to go, so tree trimmings, and couch got loaded up, and hauled off!



I got back home and wanted to spend some time on a ham radio project. I have really been into APRS, which basically is a way of telling other hams where you are. You hook your GPS to your radio through a radio modem and every so often the radio broadcasts where you are. I have a tracker that has been mocking me everytime I look at it, and reminds me that I can't get it to work!



It took the better part of the morning, but I finally got it working!

Finally it was time to head off to California for a wedding! Shawna's sister Bonnie was getting married.

Shawna's twin sister, Molly, was in charge of the flowers, and had turned the house into a green house, filled with center pieces, but when we got there at 9:30 she still hadn't made the people flowers; bouquets, and boutonnieres. Molly said hello to us and disappeared back into the garage, where she had set up her flower shop. I chatted with everyone for a few minutes, but then I decided to see if there was anything I could do to help.



My first job I had when I moved to Las Vegas was in a flower shop. I worked there for a couple of years, and learned a lot about flowers.

Shawna has this huge grin on her face, because she still can't believe that I know anything about flowers!



I didn't do much, but I helped with the flowers that lined the pews, and I did the boutonnieres.



Shawna's nephew Cayden, wanted to help and be in the middle of the action. Somehow he ended up in the trash can compacting all the leaves and stems, and watching TV.





Finally the Wedding day arrived. Somehow I got asked to take a few pictures, which was fun, but important stuff like weddings that are onetime only, are definitely not my thing!



They got married in this great Park in Poway, which was all about trains.
The Hall was once the town meeting hall, school, and a church. By the time the ceremony started there was standing room only, with several people standing outside to watch.



It was so funny to see Bonnie stop and pose in the middle of things!





There was a small creek that ran through the park which seemed to interest all the boys, and when the sun set the frogs started croaking, and they all tried to catch one! That's Bonnie's son Cayden who only fell in the water twice!



Here's the happy couple:



And their new blended family!



It wouldn't be right not to leave you without a picture of me and my date!

new antenna!

I don't know if I would say I'm too cheap to pay for TV, but I don't have cable or satellite service to watch TV with. I'm part of a group/movement that is being called "cord cutters" and basically we all watch TV on the internet through hulu, netflix, or through the torrent sites, and/or with an antenna connected to the back of the TV.

I mention this, because I have the TV in my bedroom connected to a modest 4 bay Channel Master TV antenna located in the attic. The antenna slowly sinks in the insulation though, and occasionally requires repositioning. Also, I've always believed that if the antenna were outside I would get better reception, because the duct work and roof wouldn't be in the way.

One day, I realized that there was a satellite dish on the corner of my house!

Since I don't have a satellite TV provider, this is more or less junk screwed into the side of the house, and I could probably replace the dish with my TV antenna!

I thought about this for quite a while, but never did anything about it. Recently I began to re-gain interest in ham radio, and I need to have some sort of outdoor antenna to get a fuller enjoyment out of that hobby. Eventually I figured out that these two projects could go together!

The HOA does not allow any sort of antenna other than a TV antenna, Which meant that the 10 ft tall fiberglass antenna that I have been carting around for the last few years was out of consideration. But, I thought I could find something more low profile that would probably escape notice of a passer-by or official inspectors.

From the street the satellite dish is pretty much out of view:

the neighbor's tree hides it, except for about a foot long space on the sidewalk across the street:

and then the view is hidden by the house itself.

So I began thinking about using a mobile antenna, which looks a lot like the radio antenna on your car, except that it has a small curly-Q in the middle. That would require a ground plane of some sort, which I was confident I could make or buy faily cheaply. But, I wanted something more; I just couldn't wrap my head around what I wanted though, until I was looking through antenna reviews on eham. The very first reviews were about a company called the arrow antenna co and I knew they made small handheld antennas for tracking satellites, but not that they had anything more substantial. There was one for a jpole antenna. I had built a jpole antenna out of copper pipe about 10 years ago and it worked terrific, but it was huge and made out of shiny copper!

This is much smaller and a different design than the one I built, but I knew it was exactly what I wanted

The elements are small and round, and not very obtrusive.

So after thinking about things for about 6 months I knew what I wanted for my antennas. The one problem I couldn't figure out how to solve was getting up to the satellite dish. I own a 6 foot ladder, but that was going to bee way too short. I asked around to see if anyone I knew had an extension ladder I could borrow but no one did. One guy at work suggested I rent one from the Home Depot. I had no idea that they rented ladders, but turns out they do! The next problem was figuring out how to get the ladder to my house. I traded my gas guzzling pickup truck for a sensible Volkswagen while I was stilling thinking about what I wanted to do.

For Christmas my parents gave me a small chest type deep freezer that they promised they would someday bring. Well, last week my dad loaded it into the back of his pickup, and delivered it. I took advantage of his truck and we rented a ladder!

We also made a trip to the ham radio store to buy my antenna. I asked dad if there was anything he wanted while we were there, and he pointed to the store's test station at a yeasu ft-2000; a $4,000 HF contest radio!

Eventually we got the ladder out, and propped up against the house.

Dad isn't too good with ladders, and so it was up to me to go up and take off the dish. I only took off the dish, I wanted the bracket that held it up to hold my TV antenna and my ham radio antenna.

After I got the dish off though. It was pretty obvious that the little bit of pipe remaining wasn't tall enough to hold my jPole antenna above the TV antenna. I had a small piece of pipe in the garage that looked like it might be just the right size to fit in, or over the dish mount, so I climbed back up to find it was too big to fit inside, and too small to fit outside. So it was time for a trip to Lowes to see what they had that might fit. Jamie and Jonathan had come over, and I wanted to let them visit with Dad, so I took off in my car. I found that 1 1/2 in conduit would fit nicely inside the small pipe I had with me and decided to buy it. Lowes only sells conduit in 10 foot lengths, and they wouldn't cut it into a smaller piece for me. I went out to my little car and tried my hardest to get it to fit. I layed the seats down, moved the passenger seat out of the way, but even with one end stuffed under the dashboard I still couldn't get the hatchback to close. Eventually I grabbed one of my bowling shoes and put it over the conduit, and pulled the hatch down. I drove very slowly down the street to my house and the hatch only opened a few times :)

At home I got out my trusty dremel and cut off a 4 foot section. I drilled a hole through it so I could bolt it to the satellite dish's mounting hardware and keep the antenna from turning in the wind. Drilling a matching hole through the pipe at the top of the ladder was a bit of an experience, that I don't want to do anytime too soon!

A few more trips up and down the ladder and everything was in place!

I hooked the ham radio in my car up to the antenna. I had some really good cable, but I was worried I had stored it improperly and wanted to test it out before I returned the ladder. A few quick contacts, and I was satisfied the coax was good. I had Jamie turn on the TV and we worked together to get the TV antenna pointed in the right direction. It looks like I will never be able to watch channel 5 though. The only way I could get reception on the other channels and channel 5 was to stand right in front of the antenna!

Here's the finished product:


I was pretty happy with it, but I was concerned the thick black cable might draw too much attention to it, So Sunday morning I made a few more adjustments. I used some hooks to nail the coax to the side of the house. I thought climbing the ladder was a little nerve wracking before, but this was scary! On the back of the house there is only about 3 feet between the house and the retaining wall. This really felt like I was climbing straight up, and I was worried I might tip the ladder over backwards!

Once the coax was neatly nailed to the house it still looked pretty out of place, so I bought some pink spray paint to make it look more like the color of the house:



It's not an exact match, but you definitely have to look to see it now!

And inside I dusted of my icom 910h all mode 2m/440 radio and I have been having a ball chatting all over Las Vegas and beyond!


I have a friend in Kingman, AZ that I can talk to on his club's repeater, 90 miles away! I made a few simplex contacts with various hams, including one who was in Las Vegas from Anchorage, Alaska!

The best contact I've had though, was with Dan KE7TBB, who surprised me a month ago by sending me a few messages through APRS the ham radio tracking system I use. It was great to talk with him rather than exchanging messages!

(in ham radio speak TNX means thank you, and a QSO is a contact or conversation)

BTW, I really do like using APRS, and you can often watch my travels on the internet. I don't always use it in town, but if I am ever on a trip somewhere you can watch me coming to your house! I'll be traveling out of town for work, and you can follow my semi truck here: KD7MIR-14.