Houston We Have A Plan

Friday night we ordered tickets to view the Space Shuttle launch. Tanis and I will head out Sunday before and be ready to see it. I haven't booked our hotel yet. We are excited about making the trip. You will be going with us, but I don't know if I will be able to take you inside, but I will have you in the car. I plan on turning a wheat penny into a squished penny souvenir. We will have one full day and two half days to find other things to do I hope to show him a tidal pool like you did for me. Love ya guy.

Your Dream My Possible Reality

Tanis and I are considering going to Florida to see a shuttle launch. There are only 2 more planned and this one is during his spring break. Everyday I get a little closer to saying okay. There is a lot of planning to it, but sometimes you have to say "screw it" and go after what you want. I have heard from several people that it is unforgettable. We will have to stay in Orlando, and I am trying to figure out tickets to the launch. I will take you if we go. Love ya guy.

It is not that....

I don't have anything to say. I just can't always find time and I don't like to do it during work hours, but I work a lot of hours. I will try to do better with posts. What hasn't happened since my last post? Well here in a nutshell is the order of events:

1. We had the summer party, it was a lot of fun as usual. Beautiful weather and great food.

2. Vacationed in Michigan. Stayed up at Aunt Janis's cabin. Took mom to Duck lake on her birthday, thought it was cool to see where you took the picture. Kellie and Tanis went on their first dune ride and had a lot of fun.

3. Spartan football started the season 8 and 0 and are tied for first place in the Big Ten.

4. Halloween came and went. We carved pumpkins.

5. Tanis Celebrated his 7th birthday at Kalahari. We had a lot of fun. Mom and Alex came down for it. My family all rode several water slides and had a lot of fun. Tanis had his first piano recital.

6. Your 3 year anniversary came and went and I feel some of the pain has lessened. I am ready to let some of the things I was holding on to go.

I want to talk more. I need guidance and a friendly ear. I will miss you next week every time I go out to the grill. Love ya guy.

Deck Update

I have been working on this thing for a month now. June 30th I rented the post hole digger. Friday I got the stairs attached. All that is left is to finish the railing and attach a railing to the stairs. Then for bonus points I am going to attach a door to the stairs to keep young ones safe. It has been a hard job and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but perseverance has seen me through (mostly). Love ya guy.

Happy Birthday

Kellie shared a post of her happiest birthdays, but I decided to share the history of game consoles I have gotten for my birthdays.

The First one I remember was back when I turned 14 (I believe). That was the year I wanted an Atari 2600 so bad. I unwrapped my resent to find a Commodore VIC 20. A bit of a let down, but it had cartridges and games and I learned how to program in basic. This was a gateway computer as I would own the Commodore 64 (hey in the 80's who didn't) and the Amiga 500. It was fun but not quite what It thought I was getting.

A couple years later I got a Vectrex for my birthday. This was an all in one console and I am sure most people have never heard of it. It was on clearance and I talked my mom into it and several games. Short lived fun.

The next one was in 1992, my first year at Cedar Point. I got a SUPER NINTENDO for my birthday. This is probably my favorite birthday console present and I still have it to this day. In fact just a couple of weeks ago I beat Yoshi's Island again. My son loves playing all of the games on it That first summer my roommates and I played the heck out of F-Zero shaving 10th of a second of each others time.

A couple of years ago Kellie and Tanis bought me a Nintendo DS. A year later Tanis would get his own for Christmas. As a family we have had a lot of fun playing games oddly enough Brain Age has been our favorite. The DS is a great system and I like the versatility. I love the old school games best though.

This year Kellie and Tanis bought me a PS3. I haven't hooked it up yet as I promised myself I wouldn't play it until the deck was done. Will this unseat the SNES? Only time will tell.

Now as a side note for those of you who know me...Yes I have owned other systems, but most of those have been Christmas presents or just because they were in stock (N64 and Wii are good examples of this). love ya guy.

I wish I could....

Blame the meeting this morning for why I didn't workout or work on the deck but the truth was it was nice and cool and the bed felt too comfortable. I did both yesterday and am on target to have the deck going on tomorrow. Today has been a bit weird, we had a short meeting and traffic has been a little slow at the store. Tonight I am going to catch up on the deck but also cook fish and chips for Kellie and Tanis. The deck is going to look a little funny in spots but will be strong.

The LeBron nonsense has come to an end mostly. He is leaving Cleveland and going to Miami. I know you would have ripped him for the way he did it, and he really did make an ass of himself. He also has tarnished his legacy or as I said he went from being king of Cleveland to queen of Miami. I guess Izzo made a great choice not going to Cleveland, although I believe that is why he chose the way he did. Love ya guy.

2 Days......In A Row?

I didn't have time to work out this morning, but I did have time to work on the deck. I started by sorting the wood and getting all the boards I needed which were near the bottom of the stack. I then framed the main part. I have to finish securing the rest of the frame and make some adjustments. I made the mistakes I knew I made but I think I can make most of those disappear with the actual decking. My next biggest concern is the stairs. I don't think I will be able to attach them where the plans say to, nor do I think I want to attach them there. But I don't really have to worry about the stairs until next week. I hope to have at least one of the planks attached by Sunday (hopefully all of them). Next week will be the rails and the stairs. After the stair are done I will have to come up with a gate but if I can build a deck I can build a gate. My family has enjoyed the pool regardless, the deck will just make it that much more. Tanis is getting very good at swimming and diving.

Ok, I need to vent. I do not care where LeBron James goes just as long as he decides and I don't have to listen to it anymore. It has been non-stop. I think you would have been annoyed by this but probably would have asked me about the local perspective which seems to be stay or go just decide.

Mom is holding it together but I know she is very concerned and I feel bad because there isn't really anything I can do. I hope something changes so she can retire at some point but the stress now has postponed that.

A customer of mine does art restoration and pointed me in a direction to get the Poe lithograph restored. She told me to look into it's value first as Poe stuff is highly sought after right now. I never even thought it could have some value but I do want to get it re-inked if I can. I wish I remembered more about what you said about the print. I also thought about the cigar box lids you used to have and wonder what ever happened to those, I always thought those were pretty cool. Love ya guy!