Two Cities Marathon

Ha ha ya right would I could I run in a marathon. For those of you who don't know I used to work at Eye Q and while working there I had the opportunity to help out with what used to be the Trail of Two Cities half Marathon. In years past I was well compensated for my time, this year with my new job I wasn't compensated for my hours I put in. I still had a blast, and found a different way to make some money on the whole deal. The CFO of Eye Q asked me to create a rack system to hang their medals on. So I designed and fabricated a couple of steel racks for the volunteers to hang the medals on. He was very impressed and wants me to make a couple more since he plans on double the participants next year. He also asked me last minute if I knew of a way to hang the Finnish line banner over the Finnish line. His original plan was to use rope and hope it didn't sag too much. I told him I would try and create something last minute, so I went to the steel yard and was able to create two 30 foot long steel beams to hang the banner on. Its nothing too hard to do if you know how to weld and have all the tools, lucky for me I do. Everyone was pleased with the way it turned out and also commented on how great the Finnish line looked. Next year I have to add a time clock. Finnish Line. That part hanging was fixed after this picture was taken.

Rack with the Medals on it.

Mustang Update

Well its been a few months and the mustang is still in the body shop. It does have a fresh coat of primer on it and the body is pretty straight. Well as far as I can see. Every time I see it its stuck in a corner and there are other cars being worked on. I do see a little progress every time I see it. I hope it will be done soon, but I don't see it happening before Christmas or New Years.

Yes it seems the trunk is getting used.

Evan's new Adventure

For those of you who don't know already Evan has taken up Tykwondo. The idea is to help give Evan a little more discipline, and hopefully keep him busy. Since I am the one who has to take Evan everywhere I go, to give mommy a break from her first born son, I get to take him every Saturday to Tykwondo. The first day I took Evan I was afraid he would have a tough time learning and paying attention to the instructors. I was wrong, since he has began Evan has done great. I have noticed that he doesn't mix up his left and right as much, and I may be wrong, but I think he is doing somewhat better in school too.

The Other day I was able to work the morning shift so I could have Friday evening off. We all went to see Evan participate in his first Belt advancement. I knew this would be a big deal for Evan so I was ready to call in sick if I had to. Evan was pretty excited, he kept asking if it was time to go to. Evan had quite the crowd to see him show off his newly acquired skills. He did great he remembered all his blocks, punches, steps, and kicks. The best part of the whole night was Evan demonstrated to everyone that he can break a board, and he broke it the first try. So now Evan is not just a white belt anymore, he is a yellow stripe.

CONGRATULATIONS EVAN!!

Evans New pads.

Luke trying out Evans Pads!

Evan and Master Thackery

Evan breaking his board.

Evan getting his yellow stripe.

Pismo Beach

We recently had the opportunity to go to pismo beach, it was supposed to be just stef and I for our ten year anniversary, but we were unable to find anyone to watch the kids so we took them with us. It was Lukes first time visiting the beach so it was alot of fun to watch him. The first thing he did was run to the ocean and get all wet. I thought he would run away once he felt the water hit him, but instead he just wanted to go in farther.

We didn't waste anytime and went sleight to splash cafe and had the world greatest bowl of clam chowder. Later we went to F. McLintocks and had dinner where evan and I enjoyed a nice glass of water... Luke just made his regular mess on the ground.

Instead of staying in a cheap grungy hotel we rented a nice little condo that had a kitchen and was close to the beach. We had a lot of fun.

Luke making a run for it!

Evan gets a drink of water.

Evan chasing this pelican.

Mustang Update

Well today i went and checked out how the mustang was doing and it seems that not much has changed since the last time I went and saw it, but I do have to admit some of that is my fault, since I am the one who let the truck roll into the jeep. But the truck is repaired and now stef's car is broken and I am stuck driving the jeep until the Mustang is done. I was told hopefully two weeks, I have my fingers crossed.

On another note I have been debating on what color to paint the mustang and I believe I have finnaly made a decision. My first idea was to go midnight blue and add some ghost stripes or flames. I was never 100% on this color selection, so I began buying every magazine that featured older mustangs trying to find a color scheme that caught my eye. I began leaning toward a midnight blue with silver stripes or two toned. I then thought Silver with midnight blue stripes or two toned.

Not too long ago I was driving somewhere when I saw a nice blue mustang all one solid color it resembeled the truck, but not as dark. A couple of weeks ago I saw a magazine and on the cover it had a mustang painted in the same color with nice white stripes. I read the article and found out it was Britney Blue with a Wimbleton White stripes.

I hope that it looks great when done, I can't wait to see it. It has been some time since I have driven it and evan can't wait to go for more rides in the "Hot Rod".

Most recent picture of the Mustang AKA "Hot Rod"

Car troubles

I'm sure we all have been there at leat once, I unfortunately have been lucky enough to have another car die. I can say this, never again will I buy a burgandy colored car they seemed to be jinxed. First it was the thunderbird, thanks to my brother nick who was using it at he time he drove the car low on radiator fluid and I believe the cap was also off, it blew a head gastket. So we sold it to some migrant workers who had plans for it, I think we got $500. Then there was Hey Baby (our Expedition) after a nice trip to lake tahoe where it was giving us a little trouble on the way home, we tried to diagnose the problem replaced sensors and finally fixed one problem then one day I was driving to lunch with some co-workers and we heard a big pop. I blew a spark plug right out of the engine. I took it to our mechanic since I knew I wouldn't be able to do the repair, $600 later he fixed it, but less than two months later I blew the same plug out this time it was $4000. I took it to ford this time let them replace the head. The day I got the expedition from ford I drove it off the lot and something seemed wrong so i turned around took it back, we later were told the transmission was bad another $4000 to get a new one. So we drove across the street and bought a new toyota tundra. Which brings me to our most recent failure, stef's pontiac has slowly been wanting to leave this world. About 9months ago the car was having symptoms of aver heating, i couldn't figure it out so we sent it to the mechanic. The mechanic flushed the radiator and told us that when a dexcool antifreeze is mixed with green regular antifreeze it becomes sludge. Now why would GM create a coolant that does this? Anyways somewhere down the road someone put regular antifreeze in the radiator and it became sludge, hence the reason it was getting hot. 7 months later we had the same problem, so i called the mechanic and he told me to reflush the radiator and I might have to do this every 6 months. Si I flushed the radiator and actually replace the radiator a few weeks lator because it started to leak. Two weeks after replacing the radiator stef is telling me the low coolant light was comming on, i checked fluid levels added water a few times. Well last friday stef called me telling me the car was overheating on her three mile drive home from school. I checked it out kept adding water and finally I noticed it was leaking out of the engine block somewhere. I checked the oil it was ok except for it seemed like it had way too much oil in it. I called a friend and he told me to bring it by his shop on saturday morning and he would check it out. So I went and visited him saturday and my suspecion was correct another car with a blown head gasket and a leaky intake and shot crankshaft bearings.

Stef wants to sell it or give it to pick-a-part for a little cash. I would like to call up MYTHBUSTERS and see if they would like to blow it up. I just don't think its worth putting any money into fixing it.

For now I am stuck driving the jeep until the mustang is out of the body shop. I don't think we will be buying a new car anytime soon.

The One and Only Hey Baby....

RIP Pontiac

What am I doing?

I really do not know why I am doing this but it would be fun to try I am joining the bloggers world. I thought it would be fun to play around and see what I could create. So please do not laugh or expect too much.