The reunion tour

Back on the weekend of the 14th of June, I got to spend some time with "the girls" during their reunion. Christina's two very good friends from Wheaton College days made the journey back to Chicagoland. Currently, Tara is in Phoenix area, while Dayspring is out in SeaTac area.

I hung out with Dayspring and Nate on Friday night at Ravinia. Afterward, we went to the Ravinia Bar for a night cap, and then back to Christina's place for another night cap. Yum.

Saturday morning, Tara and Adam drove up to meet us at Walker's pancake house for an early breakfast. I had to be out of town by 9am to get back up to Madison by 1pm for a wedding (more on that in the next post...)


The gang (left to right): baby Shea, Christina, Scott, Adam, Tara, Nate, Dayspring.


Is that mistletoe up there? (Like we need an excuse to kiss...) Oh yeah, watch out - I've got connections (see shirt). Can you tell I went to bed at 1:30am and got up at 6:45am?


Monday night, I got to spend some more time with Tara and Adam (and Shea). Christina made "the easy chicken" recipe. It was yummy. We all ate in great jubilee.

To the gang: thanks so much for making the trek out east again. It meant the world to Christina for the six of us to be together, and I can't wait until we see each other on that one day we're doing that thing in January. Peace.

Happy 6 month Anniversary

I know, I know... all you old, married people just want to gag when we youngin's get all googly ooogly moogly poochy wuchy over our 6 month anniversary. Well, here's the tongue depressor [hands you tongue depreesor].

The date was May 17th... I know, deal with it - I've been busy. Anyway, Christina set us up with reservations at Carlos' Restaurant. I don't often rave about restaurants - this, my friends, is one of the best I have EVER been to. "Horray!" for Christina's connections - she knows Carlos himself from her dealings with him at Ravinia. I think my favorite course (I think... I think we had 6 courses) was my appetizer plate of asparagus - 3 different preprations of it, and the favorite of the three was the asparagus soup. Ouy Vay! YUM. We had a bottle of Santa Margharita Pinot Grigio to entertain our taste buds, and finished off the evening with molten chocolate lava cake (and of course a glass of whole milk for me). I most HIGHLY recommend this restaurant if you're ever in the northern 'burbs of Chicago. FYI, prepare for singing if you mention a birthday or anniversary celebration (let's just call that experience talking).

Before we zipped out of the house after quick showers and spiffing up, I gave Christina her present, a matching pendant and earrings set. Just look at that smile! LOVE IT.


Anybody got a pair of sunglasses?


Crappy camera phone, later that night. This turned out pretty well to get a shot of the earrings.


This is a shot we took about 37 seconds after we walked in the door after dinner. We had to get a pic documenting that we spiff it up pretty darn well. I wasn't quite ready for the timer to go off, but our smiles say it all - we're in love.


I thank the Lord every day for making this person so precisely to complement my weaknesses, lift me up, and make me laugh. Thank you, Baby, for loving me! Happy 7 months, 1 week, and 5 days.

Noah's Ark Recreation

Check it out! Cool beans!

Noah's Ark

The Knack

Yes, ladies and germs - I do have... "The Knack."

My first Ravinia experience...

OK, so it's been a while since I posted last. Get over it. They're worth the wait, and you know it.

So, June 6th, was a big day. My first time at the park, being part of what Ravinia is all about. James Taylor was performing that night. Christina's parents treated me to a wonderful dinner in one of the restaurants at the park. I think we might have connections (cough, cough), cuz our table was right at the window, overlooking the entire park. It was beautiful, and the weather turned out to be fantastic after the sun set.

So, while Christina was working her magic, shaking hands and smiling with the donors, we gorged ourselves on some great food and fantastic wine (mmmmmmm.... that Pinot Grigio is really growing on me...).

Periodically Christina came to find a hug as she was finishing up for the evening. Her parents had pavilion seats for the concert, and her dad was quite excited to be there. I was quite satisfied, chilling on the lawn in my Coleman chair. This is me working hard at hardly working.


A couple other shots of the park... and the people...



"...chillin' max, relaxin' all cool..."


The luckiest guy on Earth... oh, yeah, and Christina too.


Saturday, I got to meet cousin Lani, currently living in Twin Cities, but happened to be down in Chicagoland for a friend's wedding. After lunch with the whole family, Christina headed off to work. I spent some more time with the fam at Andrea and Mike's, putting off the work I'm supposed to be doing on speakers for a customer. Oh well. Sunday, we came down to Wheaton again to spend time with the family. I'm not sure what I was trying to take a picture of here - all I know is that the intent of the main subject was Miles being adorable. Hm. Shocker. Check out Miles' vocal debut here.

I GOT HITCHED!!!!

Eheheheheheheehe - my car got a hitch. Tricked ya.

So, catching up on things - this is the story from back on May 4th. I realized my May blog posts are dwindling... so, time to play a little catch-up. Right, so, the Magnum got a car hitch installed... Before....


Before...



When I crawled under the car to start, first thing I noticed is that the pesky exhaust was in the way on both sides. So, time to pull those mufflers down. Grrrrrrrrr

Left rear muffler (looking aft)...


Right rear muffler (looking aft)...

So, get the exhaust pipes and rear resonators (kind of like muffler) moved out of the way on each side. Then comes the part where I get to hold a 50lb hitch above me while I try to screw in bolts on two sides of the car. That was interesting. "Thank you, thank you." (holds up arms, addressing and kisses big bicep muscles on each arm).

So, there's 6 bolts to mount the hitch receiver to the frame. 3 of the 6 had nuts that were pre-welded into the frame from the factory. The other three holes were just pass-through holes and you have to manually put a loose nut on from the inside of the car (bolt goes in through the bottom). Sounds easy enough. No big deal...

So, I pull out the rear removable floor to get at the spare tire storage area. Crap - not far enough to the sides - have to take off the side panels on each side of the car. Fast forward 43 scrapes to hands from sharp plastic edges, approximately 38 eruptions of aggravation due to previous owner mistreating the car (breaking plastic tabs, wrong screws used, rusted holes
that were put in for mounting ground cables for his stereo, etc, etc). So, an hour later, I'm finally inside the car, with the entire back end (behind the seats) exposed to bare metal/paint. No holes can be seen where they are supposed to be. [Look under car - holes are there. Look from inside cars where holes are supposed to be - holes not there] [repeat] [scratch head] [repeat] [look again] [look again]. Son of a Gunderson!! Another panel was welded over the top, closing off the cavity space I needed to get at.

Enter HUGE power drill + 3" hole saw [Tim Taylor man grunt] Uuuuhhh uuuuhhh uuuuhhh - more power!


Yup, I had to drill a hole in the frame on each side of the car. It was closed off to prevent water spray coming through the lower holes and getting into the interior of the car. Normally, when a towing package is ordered for a car, it's put on at the factory on the assembly line. These cover panels would have been added on the assembly line for a car with the towing package too, but the hitch would have been put on before the cover plate was welded on. Oh well.

And the results... See that little hole down inside the big hole? Yup, that's where the hitch bolts are supposed to go. This is looking down, slightly right, slightly forward on the floor behind the right rear wheel. Love those metal filings...


And the end result after messing with the wiring harness install for another 2 hours.



Isn't she peeeeerrrrrty?


Then it's time for a few beers with the neighbors and cousin Chad (+Alissa + Ky) and the neighbors fearsome dogs.



Time to break out the steaks, burgers, and hot dogs for the grill! It's a beautiful night!

Coworkers Bonding

So, last night, got a call from the customer just as I was about to leave... basically railroading me into getting some dwgs updated before I left. Yeah - another late night. It interrupted plans to chill out with some guys from work. But, when I left work, they were still going strong... so, I stopped by.

For some reason, Joe and Andy thought it was a good plan to ride small dirt bikes around the (wet) yard at 9:30pm. Hmmm

Joe takes off one way out of the garage, Andy takes off another. Dan pipes up, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I see a head on collision coming." [Dan temporarily departs around other side of garage to take a leak]. ...45 seconds pass by... [CRACK!] ...and Chris and I look out the back of the garage to see Joe's butt in mid air as he flies over the handlebars with Andy laying in the dirt.

Dan comes back... "What's going on?!?" as we're all laughing. "Dan, you called it - head on collision." Chris chimes in with his fatherly voice, "All right guys... time to put 'em away."

Andy's bike took the brunt of the damage... the handlebars took the impact from Joe's bike. A little twisting with a pipe wrench, and the 50cc Yamaha is back in business. Oh, wait. The rear brake handle is busted.

Here's Chris testing out the straightness of the re-bent bars [roll eyes]


And here's Andy tightening up the bolts that hold the bars on. "Where's my 5/8" wrench?!?!?"



The red Honda 70cc here is the culprit - or was it Joe?



The only damage sustained by the Honda was the "sod" that was dug up from the right foot peg - Chris displays it for us...



Uh oh - time to display our manly strength... the idea is to slowly let the sledge down to your lips to give it a kiss. But then, you have to bring it back up to the straight vertical position.



So, that looks easy eh? Go grab your 12 pound sledge in the garage and try it... that's a 36" moment arm for all you engineers out there...

Don't pick on Chris here for choking up the handle a few inches - this is the 4th or 5th time he did it already.



There it is.



And Joe's butt leaked (Pete's too). There's no word in the dictionary bad enough to describe the stench. Wow. Andy's face says it all... Chris pulls out the turpentine to sniff it and mask the smell.


Why is an axe a better idea than a sledge? Man card points here.


And Andy tries to give Joe a little punch for encouragement... (or is that more of a grab?)


Joe's retry attempt... this time he's prepared for surprise attacks. Oh boy.

And if that's not enough for man card points, time for pull-ups - a solid 3 pull-ups.


Andy's attempt... 10 strong.


Good times (thanks gents), good beer - "Horny Goat" wheat beer was my favorite of the evening... Mmmmmm