This weekend

Hey All,

Emily is moving more and more every day and getting better all the time. We were up for a night out with some friends this weekend. Friday night we watched the Presidential debate. I don't really believe any thing they say at these things but it is important to me how they carry them self in public and under pressure. You get to see a lot of that at the debates, especially with the format they used. Some friends met us over at the house and we went out to the Exchange Tavern. Had a pretty good time. Fairly low key. We didn't want Emily out rubbing shoulders, so to speak, with a packed house at a busy bar. The Exchange worked out great.

Saturday I took a class from Kurt and Trisha of KT's BBQ (wonder where the name came from?) on how to make BBQ. It was great. They tailor the class for stuff you can do in your own back yard. The nice thing about BBQ is it's pretty low tech. I read an article by a guy who built a smoker out of a couple of cardboard boxes. I'm getting excited about making some BBQ. Dad gave me is recipe for Ribs and they came out great so I'm gonna try a brisket of some kind next. Gotta practice so Dad and I can smoke a Turkey for Turkey Day.

That night Emily and I took the Wii over to her co-workers place to have some cocktails and play some Mario Kart. We played a little 4 player tennis as well. We had a pretty good time. I forget how novel and entertaining the Wii can be. It's pretty fun to teach it to some one else. A good time was had by all.

Sunday Emily and I grabbed some breakfast burritos ad Jus' Burritos and headed over to the Dog Park. There were only 2 other dogs at the park so it was a bit of a bust but Brewski was pretty tired anyway. I dropped off Emily to catch up with the family, Jen's new baby is doing well and happy. I headed down to my co-workers house to help him out with the Soap Box Derby Car. It's almost got a rolling chassis. Should have brakes and steering on it by this weekend. Then it's all cosmetic stuff. Gotta make the frame look like a rubber ducky made out of duct tape. The car's name is Tape Duck, if you would like you can become friends with him on Facebook.

Then the sound of cracking whips brought me back to the house. Emily really enjoys tulips so we needed to get some more in the ground. I planted a few for her, since she's only got one good arm. We bought a bulb planter device. It took a bit of force to get the thing into the ground but once you did it was great. Trying to plant those bulbs with out it would not have been fun. Not the most exciting of weekends but a pretty good one. Oh, also I stirred up and added water to the Compost Bin. The stuff in the middle was hot so that's a good sign, means it's working! Ok, thanks for reading enjoy your week!

News From the Home Front

Hey All, welcome back. I have to say it again, we really aren't so good at the blog thing. How long has it been? Like a long time for sure. So, not really a whole lot has happened. The big thing is that Emily had her shoulder surgery. Everything went well for her. The Doc said everything was good. I got to see the pictures of the inside of her shoulder. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until...actually it's pretty gross. Looks like they tied up a couple of fillets with some nylon cord. But, what they did do was tie up her labrum and re-create the bump that keeps your shoulder from coming out of socket. All good things for sure. The first week was pretty rough for her it seemed like. Not a whole lot of sleeping and not a lot of comfort for her. She was on some drugs but not a whole lot. She had this crazy game ready thing that was pretty cool. It flowed cold water around her shoulder to reduce swelling. It seemed to help her more than the Hydrocodone. Emily has gone back to work and is improving quickly. She has started her physical therapy and the Doc there said she is healing well. Overall we are pretty good.

Anything else new....let me think. Emily's sister had her baby, welcome Samantha Anne Nevitt to the world. She came to us via C-section at 9lbs 1oz. and 21.5 inches long. She is pretty cute. Not sure if her Dad, Kent, has a tendency toward pictures where her middle finger is sticking up or if she has some motor control issues. There are a lot of pictures where Samantha is flipping the camera the bird! She is a cutie though! Emily is heading down to meet her in October.

I have a sweet BBQ class coming up. It's just 4 hours but they are hosting it at fire Station 1. It'll be all FF's and should be a good time. Coming up is the Weezer Concert! I'm getting pretty stoked about that!

Just as an FYI. A very close friend of mines Father had a stroke recently. He is doing well and will have some PT but should be OK. I ask that you all keep their family in your thoughts. Also that you all take an extra walk and keep your selves in the best shape you can.

OK. Soap box is in the closet and it's time I make like tree and get out of here!

baby time!

it's baby time for my sister! she is being induced as i type. yes, the typing will be bad since i'm doing it with one hand! hopefully i haven't taken too much vicodin and this all makes sense!! the shoulder is doing ok!

Time for fall projects

We have lots planned for this fall! Hopefully we can get it all done. Especially since I will not be my normal helpful charming self after surgery.
First, the stump. The stump in the backyard is pretty annoying, grass wont grow over there, and its really not attractive. So on Monday we're having someone come grind out the stump. Hopefully that will go well and the stump will be gone!
Second, Trees. Obviously we are down a tree since we have a stump. We've noticed the grass doesn't enjoy the full sun, so we'd like to replace the tree that was taken down. I'm leaning towards an Autumn Blaze Maple. It has some great fall color (which we desperately miss out here!). It's also come recommend from the tree guy. Also on the tree front, it's time to get our trees cleaned up, so a firefighter who works for a tree trimming company will be coming over to help us out with this.
Third, Grass. We had a pretty hot, and very dry summer. We did readjust the sprinkler system and it seems to be helping. Unfortunately, there are still parts of the yard that are not going to make it. So once the stump is out, the trees are trimmed and the new tree planted.... we'll hopefully get some grass seed down before it snows 6 inches!
It's a lot to do, and not a lot of time, hopefully we can get it done! We also have 40 tulip bulbs to plant. Come on over and help whenever you're ready! :)

...like riding a bike.

I love riding my bike.

This was re-affirmed last night. Some friends were meeting, old co-workers of mine at Nautilus, just down the path from my house in Louisville. In an effort to not be dead, save money and save the world (totally not concerned about the cheerleader) I rode my bike down there. It was a beautiful night, cool and clear and hardly any clouds in the sky. I always forget how great that first push from a stand still really feels. The bike takes off and starts rolling down the drive way and I'm off. I love that part! So off I went down the street and out onto the path. Down the path and back into traffic in Louisville. I met up with some good friends and had a beer and some great conversations. Did you know that Crocs paid 22 million dollars to a family in Boulder for Jibitz and they also have over 2 million Butter colored crocs warehoused around the country? Did you know that Roddick broke 2 Babolat Racquet's in the Us Open so far? After some good conversation we all went our separate ways. It was getting dark and I had a bike ride ahead of me. The area we live in has an interesting mix of Ag, open space, industry and residential. All of which I see on the 3 mile ride back to my house. As the sun was setting over the Rockies and I was cruising along a newly paved road I had this on my left:

And this on my right:

This is the kind of thing that would have been missed with a quick car trip. There wouldn't have been any motivation to stop and enjoy. I certainly wouldn't have been motivated to leave before dark. This is why I love to ride my bike. Everyone should own a bike and ride it whenever you can. And certainly don't race it every time, if at all, just go for a ride!

Quick Update

OK All,

So not sure how much you all keep up on Ink! Coffee or Louisville news but we had a bit of a fire. Here is a 9 News article. There is a slide show link near the top. I usually am on crew at the station over night on Monday nights, but I took this Monday off. So while I was at home, unable to sleep, my buddies were out having a grand ole time. No one was hurt and the fire is out. 5 Agencies, 2 alarms and 35 FF's involved.

On other news. In the ongoing internet browser wars Google has thrown their hat into the ring. Enter Google Chrome. I'm gonna set it up at the house, along with Internet explorer, Fire Fox (current personal favorite) and Safari (not great on the Windows platform) to see what I think of it. The link above will take you to the download site. Check it out for yourselves.

Another thing worth looking into, as it could be as big of a change as the invention of the Mountain Bike for cycling. New Shimano Di2. It's fully electronic shifting for bikes. Pretty Whiz-Bang(read expensive)! As we begin to put batteries in our toothbrushes and more and more things become electro-mechanical this is probably the direction cycling is headed. You heard it here first folks!