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Current news and recent events in our lives.
| 9/18/09 |
In honor of our fifth wedding anniversary Chris and I are taking a long weekend in Las Vegas. It has been a great first five years. Like any other couple Chris and I have faced our share of triumphs and trials. As a couple, we have been able to face them all head on and even manage to prosper a little along the way. I love my wife very much and realize I could not have done any of it on my own.
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| 9/14/09 |
Chris and I had a nice weekend. Chris was not feeling well on Friday. Saturday we kind of took it easy. Sunday we took a long motorcycle ride that I have been planning for a while. We left the house around 7:30 AM and headed south on the I-5 for Oceanside. When we got to Oceanside we headed East on highway 78. We stopped at the Ramona Cafe in Ramona, CA for breakfast. Chris and I sat out on the patio and watched the people and motorcycles go by. We split a very good cinnamon roll and a Plowboy Scramble for breakfast. The Plowboy came pre-split on two full 10" plates. It was very good, but it was way more than either of us could eat. After breakfast we jumped back on the bikes and rode to Julian, CA. We walked around and checked out the shops. Chris find some very cool decorations. On the way out of town, we stopped at a shop and bought some fresh apple cider. We also found a couple cool wild life pictures for the cabin. On the way be we took highway 79 to highway 76. We took a detour on SR-7 to Palomar Mountain. SR-7 is a nice ride up the mountain. At the top, we took SR-6 back toward Highway 76. SR-6 is a very twisty road that decends pretty quickly down the mountain. There were some very sharp turns. We shared the roade with some "knee dragers" that were driving way to fast on the road. SR-6 was a nice ride, but you had to watch your speed. Highway 76 took us back to I-5 in Oceanside. We stopped at a Rest Stop near Camp Pendleton. We were both pretty beat. The entire rides was about 270 miles. We were both exhausted by the time we got home around 5 PM.
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| 6/30/09 |
Our vacation ended on a bad note. Chris' father suffered a stroke on Friday morning, and passed away Sunday morning. We feel very lucky to have been able to spend some really good time with him and Moe right before he passed away. We were able to take him out for dinner for Father's Day. We were able to go for a motorcycle ride with him on Monday. The day before Alan suffered the stroke, Alan, Chris' sister Shawn, Chris and I drove up to visit with Alan's mother and sister. It's difficult to put into words the emotions that come with losing a parent. We were fortunate to have the time that we did on this vacation. We were lucky to have some great memories of Alan and Moe from this trip, but saying goodbye to a loved one is so very hard.
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| 6/23/09 |
Chris and I are having a good time. We made it to the motel in Stockton, CA just before midnight on Friday. We drove all day and made it to Coos Bay, OR about 6:30 PM. The trailer did great, although I ruined one of my new tie-down straps. The loose end of the strap came loose and I dragged it on the I-5 for nearly 200 miles. Needless to say, it's not new any more. The weather was beautiful all the way through California. You could see dark clouds just past the Oregon border. We covered the bikes with a tarp when we arrived. It rained a little Sunday morning. The clouds broke a little after lunch time on Sunday. Chris was out shopping with her mother, so I unloaded one of the bikes and headed out for a little ride. Chris and I took Chris' father and stepfather out for a father's day dinner.
Monday morning we relaxed a bit and then unloaded the other bike. Chris and I set out for the day on the bikes. We rode out to meet a guy that is kind of a legend in the Kawasaki Vulcan world. He lives in Coos Bay. Chris and I had a really nice visit with Sherm Acord and his lovely wife Pat. We left there and had lunch with Chris best friend Kim. After lunch Chris left a message for her father letting him know that we were headed out to Myrtle Point, OR to meet up with for a ride. He caught up to us on the rode and we followed him out to Powers, OR. That's where I snapped the picture of the two of them in their helmets. After the ride, we headed back to Chris' mother's house. Chris' mother and stepfather took us out for a nice seafood dinner.
Today (Tuesday) we are headed to Eugene, OR to spend a couple days with Chris sister and her fiance Dan.
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| 6/15/09 |
Chris and I spent another weekend working around the house. Saturday morning we ran some errands. We picked some supplies for our projects this weekend, and a few things for our trip on Friday. Chris was doing mostly spring cleaning and I was trying to finish painting the front bedroom. Saturday I wanted to paint the doors for the room. I have a paint sprayer that I have never had very good luck with. The first try was not very successful. It sprayed a little then started to spit paint, resulting in big droplets of paint on the door. I dabbed them with a paper towel, which gave it the same texture as the sprayed areas. In frustration, I turned to the internet. I found a little helpful information. I did a little thinking about how the sprayer should workd, and was able to figure out where I was going wrong. Chris and I picked up some paint thinner that the sprayer manufacturer sells. Chris mixed the paint for me, while I reassembled the gun. This time the sprayer worked great. I was glad that I did not end up having to through away my $100 sprayer. In between coats of paint, I did a little work on my Kawasaki. I am trying to get it all fixed up to take on our vacation. Chris made up a batch of carmel ice cream, and put the mix in the fridge when she was don. We made a late dinner, and relaxed.
Sunday morning we got a little bit of a slow start. I set up the doors on the front lawn again and put another coat of paint on them. I turned my attention to sanding the two door jams and trim. Sanding several coats of paint smooth took more effort than I anticipated. I finished in the early afternoon. I flipped the doors over and hit them with another coat of paint. I was pretty much spent. My mother called while I was working on the jams. They were having a BBQ, and invited us over. Chris put the mix in the ice cream maker and made up an apple cinnimon cake. We cleaned up and took dessert over to my mother's house. The food was great. There was chicken, burgers, hot dogs, steak and deer loin. And of course, cup cakes, pie and apple cinnimon cake with carmel ice cream. I was exhausted, so the BBQ was a nice way to end the day. Well almost. I put a coat of primer on the door jams and trim before I went to bed.
Chris and I are taking a week of vacation next week. We are leaving Friday night and driving to Coos Bay, OR. We are trailering two of the motorcycle, and hoping the weather is nice enough to do some riding while we are up there.
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| 6/8/09 |
We spent the weekend working around that house. Chris was working on spring cleaning and I as still working on redecorating the front bedroom. I painted the molding around the windows a couple of nights after work last week. Now that the paint is dry, I re-installed the hardware for the blinds. Chris and I picked up some new cranks for the casement windows. The previous owners painted over all of the hardware. As we redecorate we either repaint the hardware or replace it. I also replaced both doors in the bedroom. The original doors were the flat doors, with several coats of paint on the door and the hardware. We have been replacing the doors room by room with the faux six raised panel doors. I always have a tough time getting door blanks to fit into the existing jams, and this time was no exception. By Sunday night I had the two doors hung.
We are going to Oregon for vacation in two weeks. I pulled the Kendon trailer that we bought used recently out of the garage, and connected it to the car. I wanted to load up both bikes and see what rigging we needed for the trip. We purchased some tie-downs from PowerTye. We strapped both bikes down and I took a little drive on the freeway so I would know what to expect. The trailer and both bikes are just under the maximum tow limit for the Saturn Vue. It seemed to tow the trailer alright. You can feel it bouncing a bit on the bumps and transitions. I checked the pressure on the tires when I was putting it away, and the trailer tires were almost flat. I'm hoping it will tow a little better now that the tires are proprly inflated.
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| 6/2/09 |
We had a little excitement yesterday. Chris got a call from the city that we live in, informing her that one of our dogs had broken a front window in our house and was injured. They went on to tell her that the police and animal control were at the house. Chris left work immediately, calling me and my mother on the way home. I left work as well, but I had a 45 minute drive ahead of me. My mother and Don live about two miles from our house, so they went right over to see what they could do to help. When Chris arrived, both dogs were in the animal control officer's truck. Chris spoke with the officer and they released the dogs to Chris with a warning and a promise to return to the house and check to see that Rita was treated by a vet and the broken window was secure. I called Chris on my way home and she told me what was going on, she was just arriving at the vet. I called Don and he helped me find a phone number for a glass repair shop. I called the glass company while still driving home, and made arrangements to have him meet me at the house. Everything looked normal when I got home, except for a big hole in the front dinning room window. When I went inside, I found bloody dog prints everywhere. I cleaned up the broken glass, and the glass guy arrived about 15 minutes after I did. I asked him to replace both pieces of glass with safety glass. He measured the window and said that he would have to come back the following day. Chris came home from the vet just after the glass guy left. My heart sank when I saw that Rita was not it the car. Chris told me that she had to go pick her up in an hour or so. I started pulling wood and tools out of the garage to board up the window. Chris went to my mother and Don's house to get Harley. I was still cutting wood when she dropped Harely off and then went to the vet to pick up Rita. You couldn't tell from her behaviour that anything had happened. Despite staples in both paws and one paw being wrapped in bandages, she was hungry and ready to play "fetch". With Chris and both dogs finally home, I ran to Home Depot to get some carriage bolts to board up the windows. It was almost 7 PM before I got the window secure. Someone wanted to come over and buy a trailer we had for sale. Chris and I hadn't even eaten dinner yet. We ran to pick up dinner and diet dog food for Harley, while the guy was on his way over to buy the trailer. We had a few minutes to relax and eat before the guy arrived.
When he got there he looked it over and paid me. When we went to hook it up to his car, we discovered that he had the wrong size hitch. He went looking for the right size, while I rounded up some parts. It was 10 PM when he finally pulled out of the driveway. Talk about a crazy day.
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| 6/1/09 |
Chris found out last night from her sister Shawn, that Shawn is engaged. Chris and I are very happy for Shawn and Dan, and we are happy to welcome Dan and Kennedy to the family.
Last Thursday I stumbled on a smokin' deal on a Kendon Stand-Up Dual Motorcycle Trailer. We went over right after work and paid for it, and brought it home that night.
Friday night we had some dinner and then went up to the cabin. We did not do much while we were up there. The weather was just about perfect, which was kind of funny because it was overcast and cold at home.
We left the cabin Sunday around noon. I really wanted to get the car and the new motorcycle trailer setup so we could use it. It doesn't do us any good if we are not setup to tow it. The ball mount that I already had was too low. We started by connecting the trailer with our existing ball mount, and loading the bikes onto it. With weight on the trailer and the car, we were able to determine the correct ball mount. We picked one up at a local RV supply place. We went to a motorcycle parts shop to look at tie down straps. We did not find any that I liked. When we got home, I blocked the trailer tires and jacked it up off the existing ball mount. I pulled the car forward and swapped the old ball mount out with the new taller one. I backed the car under the trailer and hooked everything back up. The trailer was almost perfectly level. I took the car for a little trip around the block with the biked on it, to see how it handled. Even with my little four cylinder Vue, it felt pretty good. We will have to brake a little sooner and accelerate a litte slower, but it should work well for our trip to Oregon this month. Afterward we put the new trailer in the garage, and rolled the old one out to take some pictures of it. I am going to put it for sale on Craigslist.
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| 5/26/09 |
Chris and I had a nice Memorial Day Weekend. I am still suffering from a little sciatica, so I have been trying to take it easy. Saturday we put another coat of paint on the front bedroom. We still need to replace the doors and paint the trim. The room is starting to look really good. We wanted to smoke some spare ribs and make some ice cream on Sunday. I trimmed up the ribs, coated them in some homemade rub, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put the in the fridge to marinate overnight. The ice cream recipe sounded a little tricky, so we thought that we would make a batch on Saturday. It's a good thing we did. The recipe require that you make a custard as a base. It warned that the custard can curdle very quickly and they were right. The second batch came out much better. We used a Strawberry Ice Cream recipe, but subsituted blackberries. We had a little trouble with the rock salt and freezing. We eventually figure it out and the Blackberry Ice Cream was very good.
Sunday morning I got the smoker/BBQ setup and started the coals. The ribs went on at 11:00, according to plan. I kept an eye on them while Chris and I did some chores around the house. In the early afternoon Chris and I made up a batch of Chocolate Ice Cream. We put it in the fridge to cool, but eventually moved it to the freezer because it wasn't cooling fast enough. The ribs finished right on schedule and looked great. We wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them in an ice chest to rest for an hour. We started the ice cream maker after the ribs had been in the cooler for about 30 minutes. Considering the trouble that we had the day before with the can freezing up, we decided to give it a try without rock salt. After 30 minutes, the mixture was still quite liquid. I put a single light layer of rock salt on the existing ice, then put more crushed ice on top of that. The ice cream started to firm up very quickly and was ready after about 10 minutes. We had a great dinner. Chris made some coleslaw and boiled some corn on the cob. We had the ice cream for dessert. Chris put a couple Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies in with the chocolate ice cream. Boy, was that good.
Monday was a down day for us. We went out to breakfast, the ran a couple errands. My leg was pretty sore the night before, so I was trying to take it easy Monday. Chris went out to run a few more errands. I napped for a bit. After waking from my nap, I masked and primed the window frames and trim in the front bedroom. We had a quiet dinner and took it easy for the rest of the day. Three day weekends sure are nice.
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| 5/6/09 |
Once again, it's been a while since the last update. In fact it has been exactly a month. Chris and I have been keeping busy. We took Friday, April 24th off from work, and went on a three day motorcycle tour. We joined a group of Buell Blast riders, on a trip to San Luis Obispo, CA. (pictures from the ride) We had a really good time. Friday we rode up to SLO on through Ojai on back roads. Saturday we did some more riding with the group on more backroad, through farming and wine country. We also road out to Morro Bay on the coast. Sunday morning Chris and I split off from the group and took our time riding home. On the way home we stopped in Pismo Beach, Solvang and Santa Barbara. It was a lot of fun. We ended up riding a little over 650 miles. We had a dog sitter stay the night with the dogs in our house. After three days, both dogs were very excited when we returned.
This past weekend we went up to the cabin. Other than a trip to Home Depot for plywood on Saturday, we stayed pretty close to the cabin. Saturday the fog was hanging low to the ground. We installed the extreme weather dog door into the new back door that we installed last Thanksgiving. We also replaced some of the sub floor in the mudroom. We just need to pull down a few sheets of drywall from the ceiling and then we can start hanging drywall in the entire mudroom. The mud room had paneling on the walls, and no insulation or electrical in it when we bought the cabin. Earlier this year we pulled down the paneling, put up insulation and added a few plugs in the mud room. Sunday morning the weather was excellent. Clear blue skies and the temperature was about 75 degrees. Chris did some house work, and we both did some yard work.
We have resumed working on prepping the front bedroom in our house for painting. The walls are prepped. We are now working on sanding the door and window molding. Considering that our house if 54 years old, this is going to be quite a job. If the work goes as planned, we should be able to start priming this weekend.
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| 4/6/09 |
Chris left Saturday morning for a conference in Washington DC. I decided it was a good weekend to get some stuff done around the house. Chris and I have been wanting to paint the front bedroom in our house. I figured this would be a good time to start that project. Chris and I had already begun moving some of the things out of that room. I moved everthing that remained except the bed, the dresser and two night stands. I put the nightstands and the dresser on the bed and covered them with a sheet of plastic. There were a couple cracks in the plaster walls, so I gouged out the cracks and filled them with some repair patch called Fix-it-All. Sunday morning I took the dogs to the dog park by our house. We had the dog park all to ourselves. Afterward I went back to work prepping the room for painting. I was removing the hardware from the windows when I noticed a pretty big hole under the fence. Apparently I stumbled on an escape attempt. I made a quick trip to Home Depot for some 16" pavers, and had their "cell" hardened in no time. It was such a nice weekend that I spent most of the time on the motorcycle.
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3/23/09 | This past weekend was cabin weekend. I had Friday off. Cesar Chavez day. We don't get Presidents day off at the university that I work at, but we get Martin Luther King Day and Cesar Chavez Day. Go figure. Nothing against these two great Americans, but it doesn't set well with me when we forget our founding fathers. Anyway, Friday I did some work around the house and worked on getting Chris' Buell ready for our three day trip at the end of April. I took a break and met Chris at her work for lunch. Friday night we drove up to the cabin. Saturday morning we drove down the hill to run some errands, including having a new tire installed on her front wheel. Sunday we left the cabin earlier that we usually do, so that we could attend my grandmother's 101st birthday party at my brother's house.
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3/23/09 | Chris and I had a busy weekend. During the middle of last week, we decided that the time was right to install a couple of cabinets in the laundry room. Our house is small and you can never have too much storage. We put the upper cabinets in Thursday night. Saturday morning we scrubbed the floor and installed the lower cabinet. I cut a piece of plywood to put on top of the cabinet. We are trying to decide if we should attempt to used granite tiles for a countertop or order a formica coutertop to match what is in the kitchen. By the end of the weekend we were thinking the formica coutertop is probably the way to go..
With the cabinets in I turned my attention to my Kawasaki. It's been out of comission since about October of last year. I got the engine in last weekend. Saturday morning I pulled it out of the garage and topped off the fluids. After that I gave it a good wash. I took it for a short ride to make sure everything was ok. My bike seemed to be fine, so I turned my attention to Chris' Buell. We have been told that swapping out the handle bars wwould make a big difference. Last weekend I picked up a set of Bikemaster Superbike bars. This weekend I decided to install them. After quite a bit of adjustment I got them about where I thought they should be. Chris and I saddled up and took the bikes out for a ride. I'm not sure if it made that much of a difference. We'll try them out for a while and see how we like them. We rode our bikes over to the farmers market in town. We grabbed some Maui BBQ chicken and some ribs for lunch. After lunch we rode over to the Harley Davidson dealer in town, to buy some transmission oil for Chris' Buell. We went home and I took off on my Vulcan to find a tool that I needed to adjust the primary chain on her bike. I went to several places before I landed at Harbor Freight. When I went to adjust the change I discovered that a spacer that ships with the bike was still installed. The spacer is supposed to be removed at the first 1,000 mile service. I'm guessing that her bike has not been services by a dealer. After adjusting the chain I took the bike out for a little spin. It shifts a little easier now and makes less noise. I pulled the drain plug on the transmission and let it drain while it was warm.
Sunday we took it a little easier. We relaxed in the morning then went to Home Depot. We looked at countertop options and picked up some handles for the new cabinets. We also picked up some drywall mud, for a patch on the plaster in the hallway that I amw working on. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to sand down some Fix-It-All that I used to patch plaster. That stuff is tough to sand down. Note to self: Do not apply too much Fix-It-All, otherwise you will spend the rest of your life sanding it down. Fortunately next weekend is cabin weekend.
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| 3/13/09 | It's been a couple months since either Chris or I have updated our site. Last night, I migrated the site over to a newer machine. It was running on a very old desktop computer. It's now running on a three year old Dell server. Moving everything over took a couple hours, however it was not as bad as I thought it would be.
We have been keeping busy. We met Chris sister Shawn in San Diego. She was in town on a business trip. The three of us went to Sea World for a couple hours. After Sea World we went to the Old Town Mexican Cafe in the historic Old Town section of San Diego. The food was excellent.
Shortly after we returned from Oregon, Chris and I pulled the engine out ofmy motorcycle. It seemed to be making some noise in the back cylinder. For the most part everything looked fine. One of the hydraulic lifters was a little dirty. I'm hoping that was the problem. It's mostly back together now. I need to pick up some air filter oil and I am waiting for the speedometer to come back from the speedometer shop. I am really looking forward to getting back on the Vulcan. |
| 1/8/09 | Chris and I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. We packed the dogs into the car and drove up to Coos Bay / Northbend, Oregon to spend the holidays with Chris' family. We left at around 1 PM on Tuesday the 23rd, stopped about half way in Williams, CA, and arrived in Oregon around 5 PM on Christmas Eve. We had to drive through a mild snow storm arould Lake Shasta on Wednesday morning. There was plenty of rain, but the roads were clear. Christmas was postponed until Friday so Chris' sister Shawn, her "special friend" Dan and his daughter Kennedy could join us. Chris stepsister Raina and her family were there as also. We had a lot of fun.
We had a good time visitig in Oregon. It rained and hailed quite a bit at the beginning of our trip. Toward the end the rain stopped. Rain does not slow Chris or I down, but it did limit what we can do with the dogs. They can get pretty dirty when it rains.
Now we're home and back to work. We got home at 11 PM on Saturday the 3rd. Sunday we mostly relaxed and tried to recover from the 14 1/2 hour drive the day before. The weather was really nice, so we got the motorcycles out and went for a short ride. Now it's back to work for us. Hoping that 2009 will be a year of joy and plesant surprises. |
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