36 hours in Rhode Island

Yo, If Jason ever calls you up and says: "hey man want to come up to Rhode Island for weekend and build some stuff?" You should always say yes! There is something about working with friends that makes it like you are not working at all. Have you ever been up at 2 in the morning putting in the last few screws into a mini ramp... yeah you know what I am talking about. To make it even better Alaska allowed Joe out of their sights just long enough for him to escape. Which made us a perfect crew for drinking. I mean building stuff. I mean building stuff while you drink. yeah. I had a blast! Thank you Jason for letting me come up. I can't wait to see you all again.

Ist Anniversary Pacific NW trip

For our anniversary in September, we went to Seattle to meet our new nephew Hank and spend some time with Mike and Casey. We even got to keep Hank for a day while they were at work. Then we went to Portland to visit the Aeder clan and got to visit Stefanie and Nathan's farm where they do community supported agriculture. Then it was off to the Blue Mountains to the Aeder property. The guys helped Dad work on his new cabin and we all got to enjoy the serenity!! Check out the slideshow below.

Turbo...sooo ZANEY!! Stew anyone?

Going Going Back Back to Cali, Cali....

This trip was so much fun. We really appreciate everyone we got the opportunity to spend some time with. We miss you all. Speacial thanks to the Sue and the Bhavesh for allowing us to crash at their house for the week, it was great. You have our number. Consider this and open invitation to come visit us in Florida anytime. If you all want to get together and move here we will personally fly over and help you pack.

Laura and her Mom

Laura is a terror on the tractor. Just last week she finally cut it a little too close to a tree and had to call in the tow truck (yours truly) to get it unstuck. Luckily neither the tree or the tractor were hurt. Laura came out unshaken by the close call and peeled out just after I got her untangled. Fastest cutter this side of the Mississippi. That grass sure looks good.

Laura's Mom has been coming over to help us out with the landscaping. They really seem to enjoy the time they are spending together. From what I understand you have to worry more about stopping things from growing more than getting it to grow. Must be that humidity.

Vegas Baby!

Went to Vegas for a few days with some of my favorite people. Loved every minute of it.

Kitchen Remodel

Laura and her Mom went for it again in the kitchen. They did a great job. We took out the old fluorescent and and replaced them with some track. Looks a lot better. I will have to take full responsibility for the color. Go Gators!!

Lake Griffin Camping

Laura and I went down to Lake Griffin to do some rain camping. However we seemed to have missed most of the rain. The alligators were kind enough to let us canoe down the Dead River into the lake. We also saw one of the biggest live oaks in the state, 10 feet in diameter. You know you're a redneck if you get excited about oak tree diameter.

Dining Room Remodel

Cody came to visit and only after one day decided he could no longer stand the flower wallpaper. So we decided to help him tear it down. Check out the slide show for the after pics.

Catalina Restoration

Bathroom Remodel

Laura has had it with the flowered wall paper in our bathroom. Laura and her Mom completed the remodel in one day! Wow! Check out the before and after pictures. Too bad they could not make it any bigger.

Mr. T and Turbo

Mr. T on the top and Turbo on the Bottom playing hide and go seek. Just seconds before I had my camera ready Mr. T was fully inside the drawer. Turbo likes sleeping in small areas. He is also a huge fan of the shower and bathroom sinks. Cats are freaks!

Can't we all just get along.

Shady is being a super trooper considering our two new friends do not have any concept of personal space. Try typing while your cat is laying on the keyboard.

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.