Patrick's Birthday Weekend

Yeah yeah it's my birthday. At least I am that much closer to retirement. Really though, besides just going completely out of her way to make this weekend all about me, Laura gave me the best surprise ever: My friend Cody will be coming to visit the last week of February. I can't wait. We decided to go out of town for the weekend and went up north to Savannah, Georgia. It is a really beautiful city where more than 70% of the buildings and homes are historic sites. You can really get a feel for what it was like to walk the neighborhoods in the early 19th century. We do not have many photos because it was raining real bad and we did not spend as much time there as we would have liked. We will definitely be going back.

Then we headed off to Brian and Tina's in Atlanta, which I must say reminds me a lot of Portland. Looks like a great city to explore. We were only there for one night but had a great visit. Young Rohan is getting so much bigger. It is really cool to see. I think he remembered us this time. Brain and Tina are expecting their second later this year. We are really excited because it is a girl!! How lucky for them. Laura and I are sure to get twin redheaded boys. Someday.



Old Car City, USA. Even if you are not a car guy it is amazing to see cars that have been there so long that trees are growing out of them. This was my heaven. There over 4000 old cars here from the early 1940's and up. The only way to see any of it is to pay for the tour. Our guide was great. He loved the Oldsmobile's like I like Chevy's. We drove around the lot in a busted caddy. Some times getting so close to the trees you could hear the paint coming off as we slid by. The tour took about two hours. We found many 67's for my Caprice, including a SS convertible that we managed to get a complete AC system out of, which took another couple of hours. All in all, Laura was stuck deep in the woods surrounded by 4000 dying cars and two car guys for like 5 hours. Needless to say she had a blast. She gets all the awards for making this trip so much fun. Baby, I love you.

This car here is a 1969 Plymouth Fury 3 two door hardtop. This is the same car that I bought for $900.00 in Roseburg, OR with $400 dollars down and a promise to bring the rest of the money in a few weeks. The guy signed the title over to a 18 year old and let me go. I did go back and pay him. It was my first muscle car. Metallic blue with a white vinyl top. Blue interior with 318 V8. It is what started my love of these big cars. When I traded it straight across for a 1980 Volvo station wagon I was going to use to go snowboarding. My Dad came over to me and simply said "You do not want to do that. You will regret it." Dad was right. Probably one of my top 5 regrets. That wagon never went snowboarding once.

Are cats better than babies?

Well, kittens are apparently only one step down from a newborn. The only difference I can see so far is the they are much harder to catch and can take care of their own poo. I am a huge fan of the second one. However, that being said, the little guys wake up at 4 to 5 am everyday and start wrestling on your face. I can hardly imagine something more annoying. One of the kittens was sick when we got him which made everyone else in the house sick, which means all the animals in the house are getting up to 4 meds twice a day. Also a big difference: last I checked, babies do not have claws, which probably makes it easier to administer medications without injury. It is a good thing that, like babies, they have one quality that seems to make you forget about all the rest: they really are just completely, irresistibly cute. The black one is "Turbo" and the Tabby is "Mr. T". Come down and visit our new twins.

New Years Family Visit

Wow, we had so many family members here. It was awesome. My Mom, Dad, and T.J. came down from Oregon and Mom and Bob came up from Arcadia. Laura's parents Linda and Richard live here in town. It was great. We went on a really cool canoe trip down the Santa Fe river. We saw lots of springs and had a blast, despite the sky opening up and dropping as much water as it could on us for the last half of the trip. Not that it mattered to T.J. and I because I managed to get us tipped over and totally drenched just after lunch. I thought it would be cool to ride in the canoe down the embankment and slide right into the water. However, it did not work when we high centered on a log just as we were going into the water. Despite all of T.J.'s cussing I think he had a really good time. I can not wait to do it again. Thanks for everyone coming down.