That's no space station

This picture of a moon looks just like the death star from StarWars.

Reading an article on Carrie's blog made me think of LRS's private jet (actually one of two) the Citation X.

There are times where I really miss that lifestyle. Flying around the country in the fastest private aircraft in the world, staying at nice hotels, eating in the best restaraunts. But I would give it up again to be home with the family. A great lifestyle for the single person though!

They also sponsor a funny car. The only time I've been to Vegas was with the driver for a conference and we ended up going on a rollercoaster on the top of a casino.

Good times. :)

There is one thing that I have been putting off in the remodel of our house... a slate floor my father put down.
Now, to understand why I have put this off, you have to know a little of how my father worked. If the instructions said to put a nail every 6 inches, my father did it every 3. So taking apart something he built is truly an amazing undertaking.
I started out by buying a special tool to pry up tiles. After 30 minutes, I had a 6"x6" square done. Ouch!
Last night, I decided to go the not so subtle route and used a sledge hammer to smash the tile into small little pieces. Then, pull up the nails one by one. After 30-40 minutes, I had a 8' x 2' section... so this is going much faster!
We went to the fair yesterday as well. We got the kids the "all you can ride" wrist bands for $15... definitely the way to go... not worrying about how many tickerts a ride was and the kids. We also got there right after church (we go to the Vineyard) so there weren't any crowds. Beautiful cool day!

The weather is so weird... two nights ago I was sweating to death and tonight I am wearing a sweatshirt to keep warm... go figure!

Holly decided to quit her classes the other night. She realized that this (Interior Design) is something she would rather do as a hobby rather then a career. Plus, with 6-7 hours of homework a night for 1 class was simply too much. She didn't like have to decide whether to be a student or a mom/wife. When she started, they said this would be 15-20/hours a week for 5 days of classes. But, she has had assignments 7 nights a week and she spends closer to 30 hours on homework.

I can't imagine someone who might take 2 classes (which is full time) and try to work.

We spent the day cleaning out the shed in preparation for a garage sale this next weekend. There's a lot of different things out there... hopefully it will go well.

I had a good time playing with the dogs today and Broderick has spent 90% of the last 2 days on his ATV... he is starting to get a little wild (fish tailing and wanting to jump)... reminds me of me at that age!!

I cut down one of the large pine trees in the yard Thursday night and Don came out yesterday and had a total cow over it... my god! It's a tree!!!

He seems to think I should call him and let him know everytime I do something like that, yet he can't seem to remember to let us know everytime a group of people is coming out... You would think that dropping a quick email saying "People coming out Friday morning around 9:30" wouldn't be so hard... would it? Instead, Holly was woken up (up late from homework) by a van load of 5-6 people walking around/talking... Grrrrr.

www.jibjab.com

Damn... nights like this I wish our A/C was working. With the attic fan running, it isn't terrible, but it is very hot.

Holly is getting very fustrated with her online course. She was up til 2 AM last night doing homework and it will be another late night tonight. She is taking a drafting class and they say it should be 15-20 hours of homework a week... last night she worked for 7 hours. Not just her, all the other people in the class say the same thing. :(

We got Broderick a little ATV today... early B-day present.











He had a blast riding it around the house. I hooked up a little trailer to it and he went out and retrieved some things left from Don's party over the weekend.

Work was crazy today... seemed like we had 2 days of smooth sailing then Wham! William did a great job of keeping up, but wow..

Here is a pic of the siding

I got siding put up on the bottom half of the South side. It's about up to the point where the roof will go for the porch.
Tonight I hope to get the East side done (next to the hot tub) and vacuum out the attic so we can start putting our stuff up there.
  The hot tub has some weird good stuff sticking around the edges at the water line. Just appeared on Friday. I'll have to spend some time over lunch to see if there is a cleaner. It's almost oily, so very difficult to clean off.
  The water also tastes awful, which I don't know if that is normal.
Bridget is finally over her flu. Bridget, Broderick, and Holly rode their bikes up to Meadowborok park and then swam a bit at Windsor Swim Club before riding home. We figure that's about 5 miles... not bad!!

Donald had a big part for Uni High's reunion on Friday night. We ended up making some very ugly signs to point people in the right direction, but there were a ton of cars out here. As much as I wanted to stay at the happy hour with William, Lisa, Scott, and Coree, I am glad I came on home.
  I also stopped by Bridget's softball party for awhile and told everyone that Bridget was still too sick to come. :( Too bad, it looked like everyone was having a great time!
  Yesterday, Amber came out and we got the attic and basement 99% cleaned out.  Then Karen, Donald, and Mom also came out and we went through all the stuff and threw most away.  It's unbelievable to have that space cleaned out after 30+ years. Now, we can finally use it for our own storage.
There were a few treasures found, but most notibly in my opinion was Mom's wedding dress.  We also found a bed that Mom got when she was in 8th grade that she had no idea was up there.
Broderick and I spent the morning at the junk yard. He has it in his mind that I am going to build him a functional mini-semi truck. Complete with 18 wheels, an engine, and everything that he can drive around. We've pretty much convinced him that will probably not happen, but we are looking at ATVs for him. Trent is going to sell his TRX90, so we may buy that, depending on his price.
  The kids all had a good time soaking in the hot tub! The first really party use. :)

A fun site that translates your name (or whatever you type into) into Egyption hieroglyphics. Discovery Kids :: Tutenstein

The last couple of days have been a lot of fun for me at work... a big project for HR went live and I'm finally feeling in my element at HK. So that is a good thing.

Bridget finally got over her fever today... refreshing to come home and find her showered and dressed instead of sleeping.

Broderick had a great time at his T-Ball party tonight. Bridget's is tomorrow. Mary Garrett mentioned that her daughter Ashley (who also plays on Bridget's team) came down with a fever today... I wonder if any other girls have caught it. Hopefully, it won't last as long for her.

I'm just getting ready to hit the Jaquzzi... beautiful night... 68.
Major project at work went live today and for the most part, things went really well... That's the difference of having really good people working with you on something. William and Scott put in tons of time... I just wish I could have helped more with the programming.
I had part of my 3 month review today.. went well, no surprises. I am going to start doing more programming... maybe 25% time or something. The goal is to crank out some of the smaller projects more quickly by acting as both the PM and the programmer. Now, I just got to learn ColdFusion. Looks pretty easy... not that different from the other languages I know.
Last night was nice in the hot tub.. lightening was in the East and it was relaxing to watch. Champaign and surrounding communities got hit pretty hard with the storms last night. :(
Didn't do anything to the house tonight, played tennis ball golf with Broderick and did some mowing for Donald's reunion on Friday.
Bridget has a nasty fever, she was actually hallucinating last night that her room was big and that she was floating around. She slept a lot today, but seems to be doing better. I hope she is well for her Softball party on Friday.

We had a tornado warning this afternoon, so in between storms, I decided that I better get home while I could. I hopped on the highway and saw a huge lightening storm to the East, so I decided to exit off onto Lincoln Ave. Lightening was striking all around, I wasn't too worried since I wasn't grounded.. but at Lincoln and Windsor, I was stopped at a light with my foot on the ground and lightening struck VERY close.. almost no delay between flash and boom. SCAREY!!

Last night was very nice, Holly and I soaked for a bit in the Hot tub and looked at the stars.. the sky was actually clear, very pretty!

Wow! A long day at work today. I got there about 5:45 AM and left around 6:00 PM. But, we got a lot done on our project... still some finishing touches, but I can't do much more until I get feedback.
Bridget's team lost tonight, so we are all done for the year. I'll miss seeing all of our new friends several times a week. Hopefully, we'll stay in touch with people!
Holly has this new diet called the Zone that we started yesterday. Should be a challenge to stay with those foods, but we are going to try!

Finally finished a project! Whoo-hoo!!

I still have to build a roof over the deck to make a porch, but this is an important step. Now, we can start putting up siding on the South and East.

We changed the design a bit.. made it more of a "dock" look. Where the front steps will be, there is a 8' x 8' extension that will have benches on each side. It'll look pretty cool.








Bridget has a softball game tonight (tournament) and then I hope to really get going on the kitchen... I don't think I can find any more excuses. :)

Got an email from Alex that he is in town for the weekend... we chatted for a bit on the phone and he'll come out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to catching up with him. I gave him the 20 minute rundown on things here, but I didn't get a chance to find out many details about his life these days.
He was relocated to South Bend, IN with Bosch, so he is apartment hunting and all of that.

The deck is 99% done! Just 2 more boards that require some wires to be rerouted and it is finished (well... the deck.. I still need to build the roof).
The hot tub is also installed. We soaked for a bit last night, but the rain and lightening kept us from really enjoying it!

Hehe... Mitch pointed me to this site... I like most of what is said about me!!

Googlism

Holly went to court to testify for Leila's divource. The session started at 1:30 and she didn't get home until 9:30. The really bad part is that nothing was decided. The case has been continued until August. :(

On the bright side, I got a ton done around the house. The deck is all framed out and I would have finished it, but I ran out of boards for the top (picked those up this morning at Lowes). I also prepared the spot for the hot-tub that is being delivered today. I can't wait to soak in that.

It is supposed to rain most of the weekend, so it will be inside work.. which needs to get done. Like drywalling the kitchen so we can start installing cabinets.

Here are some pictures of our new pup Sam. Sam is 3/4 Collie and 1/4 Australian Shepard. We got him on July 4th (Hence the same)



Pictures of Sam

The Homer Soda Company - Homer Illinois

We visited this place over the weekend and it is incredible. That have tons of different types of sodas. They have one of the largest inventories in the country, let alone in our backyard!

I set up this nice forum. Hopefully, this will help us all organize things a bit better. :)
Forum

I finally got the album put up. Best way to view is to click on the first picture and arrow your way through!

Summer Vacation 2004

Well... we got back home last night at about 11:00. Not too bad, 14.5 hour drive. Hard to believe we were walking on the beach yesterday morning and today I am back working on the deck.
I am working on the photos from vacation and I'll get an album posted tomorrow.
Tonight is Homer parade and back to Champaign for Fireworks.