Just a Post.

It has been awhile and I feel like I'm so far behind on things it is amazing. I am looking forward to the day off on Thanksgiving, though. I have had allot going on and it will be nice to relax. I've taken some neat photos with my camera. We have had some early frost around here and it made the cotton field behind the house look kinda cool (no pun intended).

Cotton right after the harvest.

This is the harvester that is used to harvest cotton.

Just some frosty plant at the edge of the field.

The boss' 1985 Yamaha RZ350.

The other big news is the I finally had all of the pine trees removed from my property. Talk about opening the place up!!! Here are some before and after shots!

Before.

After.

I saved some money by taking the limbs from the trees to the dump by myself. What a mess that was. There was definitely more lumber than I expected! I got it all picked up though.

The Pile!

A Lot to Update!!!!

Barack O'Lantern!!

John and Liam enjoying their camping trip!

Hello everyone! I'm going to try to be more timely in my blogs, but life has been pretty hectic! First I've been busy at work and then I went camping with the kids and Mo. Next I drove up to Jersey and got to see my sister and Dad, for a short time. I also participated in the annual Toy Run in Philly on Nov 2!! This is always a blast!

The best thing I got to do recently was vote for Barack Obama on Nov 4th! I'm so excited about what the future is going to hold for this country!!

John and the BB gun.

I will post some pics over the next few posts as I get time. For this post I have some from Halloween and the camping trip.

Buzz Lightyear!!!

Sorry for the Delay!

Hey all!! It has been awhile, and I apologize. Life has been a little hectic lately. I got a call from some old friends this weekend and thought how cool it was to here from them! I can't blog for to long tonight, but I will try to get back to this more than I have lately. I have some neat pictures and some cool stories to tell. Keep checking back!

High Voltage!!!!

Shocking!!!!

First I just want to say what a crazy last three weeks!!! I am going to try to do a few blogs this week on everything that has happened in the last few weeks! The craziest adventure was my house getting struck by lightning! I'm not talking about a power surge, I mean it got STRUCK by lightning!!!! A billion volts right into the side of my house!!! The wildest part was we were inside when it happened! Talk about having the crap scared out of you! Mo and I were just minding our own business, chatting about the day, when BAM, the loudest bang I have ever heard happened. Then the house alarm was going off, and I had no way of shutting it off. Mo called 911 and the fire department came out to make sure we had no fire. All was clear.

It blew the light bulb clean out of the socket!!



The next day we were able to assess the damage and really see what lightning can do. It traveled all the way around the fascia of the house and fried our security lights, A/C (that's a whole other story!), phones, TV, and the biggest reason I haven't blogged, our Internet!! We finally got that back the other day!

BAM!!!


We are all fine and the house will be OK after some minor repairs! Life goes on and the adventure continues!!

Another Great Ride with John!

John. A great companion!

Last weekend, John and I went on another ride with the Southern Cruisers of SC. We had a blast! We first met up with two friends, Ross and Roseanne, that I have met through the shop I work at, then headed to Lake City to meet with the rest of the group. The day started off over cast and was threatening rain, but wound up being a good riding day! It only rained for a little bit and then it was sunny and hot!

Ross and Roseanne

Gearing up for the wet ride.

After a quick stop for some of us to gear up, we were on our way to Red's Icehouse. Once there we had a great time and John really enjoyed the waterfront!

The group at Red's

If I only had a million $ layin' around!

John at the waterfront.

Some kayakers.

John haming it up at Red's!

After eating a good lunch we headed home. We took some really pretty roads and had a great ride. The only mishap was a mirror falling out of one of the bikes and hitting me in the toe! No harm no fowl though! I'm OK. John and I logged about 275 miles that day and we enjoyed every minute of it! I can't wait till the next ride!

The missing mirror!

Me with my Ninja! Photo by John.

The two adventurers, home after a long journey!

p.s. I finally got to use my new Cannon EOS Rebel XTi on this trip!

Camping at the Dragon...continued!

Sorry for the delay all you blogroupies, its been a long week. When I left off we were at the laundromat drying out from the flood!!! After we got everything dried out we headed back to the campsite, and ate some lunch at The Dragon's Den Grill. The food is good and it is right there at the start of the Dragon! They hang up a whole bunch of t-shirts from all the people who have visited on the ceiling, and would you believe that there is a DHY shirt there! I couldn't believe it.

DHY shirt at the Dragon's Den!

The ceiling of shirts.




John and I ready to ride.

John and Liam ready for bed.

After eating a fulfilling lunch; Mo, John, and Liam all went to Fontana Dam while I made some passes on the Dragon. We all had fun and then had dinner and got ready for bed. John and Liam were really cute laying on the air mattress. The night was beautiful, and much less chaotic! That is until two guys went screaming up the hill on their bikes to do a night run! It was only about twenty minutes later that we found out that one of them went down at Catch All corner and the bike went about 60 feet down the cliff! The rider was OK, but the bike wasn't. The rider said that he would just leave it at the bottom of the hill and get it out in the morning! Well the Dragon Pixies struck that night and retrieved his bike and put it in its rightful spot! On the Tree of Shame!

Warning! This could happen to you!!!

Especially if the Pixies are around!!!

The next morning began with a great sunrise and a hearty breakfast! I made one run on the Dragon and then we packed it in and headed home. We all had a great time and can't wait to go back! The next blog will be about John's trip to Grammy & Gramps Camp 2008!

The view from camp!

Camping with the Dragon!

Campsite at the "Dragon"!

Mo, John, Liam, and I decided to go camping in the mountains the weekend before last. The destination was Deals Gap! Mo and the kids went up early on Saturday, while I was at work. While she was up there she pitched the tent and got the camp site setup. The only problem was that Mo couldn't quite get the rain fly on the tent. She decided to go exploring with the kids. They had an awesome time and went to eat. Well, by this time I had left work and gotten on my way. Mo was eating dinner when a severe thunderstorm rolled through and completely drowned the tent and everything that was in it!!! AAARRRGH!! That was Mo's initial response I'm sure, but it made for a fun little adventure the next morning!

The sky right after the storm.

The local laundromat where we dried our stuff.

As you can see from the picture above we had to drive into town and dry out!!! What could have been a long and boring morning turned out to be pretty cool. It's amazing how entertaining two kids in a landromat can be. We watched the clothes go around on the super spin cycle!! What a blast!

Mesmerized by a washing machine!!!

Speaking of severe weather we have a storm coming through right now! I will continue afterwards!

Weekend Ride!

This past weekend was fun. I went for a motorcycle ride with John, and a group of folks from a riding club that I have joined. We went all the way to Myrtle Beach and ate at a place called Captain Poo's. Dad would like it 'cause somebody there is a Pittsburgh fan! They had a flag hanging in the corner for all to see.



The day started off nice, but then on the way home the rain started falling. It wasn't to bad though and I think that John got a kick out of it. This coming weekend will be alot of fun, we are going to the mountains to go camping and to ride a little. There will be pictures and a blog following shortly after the trip.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your ENGINES!!!"

The Pagoda and the "Yard of Bricks"

Ok everybody, here is the long awaited blog about my annual pilgrimage to racing Mecca! What a trip we had! 3,000 miles in 6 days!!! Every year for the past four years we have gone to the Indy 500, and it has been great to include a friend or relative who has not gone before in the adventure. This year we took Mo's friend Dan (what a coinkidink!) to the race. Dan is a friend from Mo's college days who is always up for a crazy time.

Dan and Mo

So the trip got started on Thursday morning, early, and was going well when all of a sudden the Subaru decided it needed to change it's anti-freeze!! The car just started running hot and spewed anti-freeze all over the place. Fortunately we were near an exit with a Flying J at it. I went in and realized that they only had coolant for big rigs, not cars. There is a difference! So I called a NAPA and they actually delivered the parts that I needed right to the truck stop!!! THANK YOU NAPA!!!! I am now officially a Michael Waltrip fan!!! I got the car running and we were back on our way, yippee!!!

We finally arrived at Mom and Dad's, after about 10hrs!! What a long trip, but it was worth it! I love visiting with my folks. We also met Dan there and crashed for the night. The next morning we had a nice breakfast with Mom and Dad and left Liam with them for a nice weekend visit. Mo, John, Dan and myself headed on our way to Jeannette, Pa to visit my Grammy!! She is an amazing lady, 90 years old and still getting around! She is always good for a BIG laugh!!! We went to Eat & Park and had a nice dinner.

Me, John, Grammy, and Mo

The next day it was off to Indy, sort of. We actually drove to Richmond, Indiana and crashed at a hotel for the night. Of course we couldn't have a nice drive through Ohio without having to stop, uh I mean be stopped by one of its finest!! That's right Mo got a speeding ticket!! And you guys thought I was the only one with a lead foot!!!

Sunday is race day!! We got up early drove the rest of the way and started the trek to Mecca. It is about a mile from the parking area to the track. Once we got to the track we picked up our Brickyard Box Lunches and went to our seats. It is always fun to watch all the pomp and circumstance that is Indy! It was great to see Jim Neighbors back at the track to sing Back Home in Indiana. He was unable to attend last year! Florence Henderson sang God Bless America, and the Purdue marching band was present to play the national anthem.

Lining up the cars.

Thank you to our Military!

After that it was time for the most famous words in motor sports, "Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines!" The sound those cars makes is like a symphony!!! It has to be one of the most beautiful sound in the world! The cars do some parade laps and then they're off and they go by our seats at top speed, a mere 235-240 miles per hour!!!! That is FAST!!

Scott Dixon leads the field!

Danica (#7) going into the pits.

Some more action from the pits.

It was a good race and there were some good folks sitting next to us this year! We all had fun! Scott Dixon won, but it was Danica Patrick storming down pit lane that stole the show!!! Ryan Briscoe had run into her on the exit of pit lane and broke her car! She was MAD! It made for a good little bit of drama!


After the race it was straight back to Grammy's. We got in late so it was pretty much right to bed when we got in! The next morning we visited with Grammy for a little and then headed back to Mom and Dad's. We got in around dinner time and had a nice Memorial Day cookout. I hit some Wiffle ball with Dad pitching to me. It was a smashing good time! Literally! I hit some killer homerun shots way into Wendy's yard.


The next morning Dan went on his way to New Hampshire and John, Liam, Mo and I headed home. We stopped a Mo's Mom's in Delaware, and then had a pretty uneventful trip home. Well that was my crazy Memorial Day weekend, a good time was had by all!

The Fam!

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You!!

Hey to all you Blogroupies!!!! I will have a post up in the very near future about my AWESOME trip to the Indy 500. I have been busy with work and so on, and am still waiting to get some film developed. So stay tuned, a new episode will be on its way soon!

Look Who's Seven!!!

Transformers Cake

I know that this blog is about ten days late but I had to wait to get the pictures back and find the time to post this. My son John turned seven on May 9th and had his first sleepover party. It was fun and I'm confident that John enjoyed it too. He had a bunch of friends over and they ran all through the house laughing and chasing each other, it was quite amusing actually! Thank goodness we don't have any Ming vases or other types of collectibles, the way they were running around my insurance company might have had a very large claim!!! It was fun and a good time was had by all.

Madness and Mayhem!!!!

I got a bag!!!!!

Even Liam got in on the Action!!

A good breakfast after a long night of fun and games!