Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Dont worry, he is not a commie.

James has been up to alot lately and has kind of been moving all over the place.  The other day I timed him standing all by himself for 18 seconds before sitting down.  He is crawling all over now and I think that so he will be running once he get the hang of it
Note the mark on the forehead.  No we are not raising a Soviet leader, but just a kid who bang his head sometimes. The same may have been said of Gorbachev though.   I think this damage could be attributed to us though.  It ends up that highchairs are aptly named and if you fall from them it can leave a mark.  He has learned he cannot trust us (better to find that out now and save yourself some disappointment).

I had a chance to go skiing the other day and it was epic conditions.  Brenda and James opted to follow along and take the longest gondola in the US to the lodge and hang out for the day.  We had a great time.

The next day I mustered the energy to go snowshoeing.  We borrowed a friends gear and headed for the hills.  The snow on 4th of July Pass was deep and we had a great time.  The weather was warmer than anticipated, which made it wet, but fun all the same.

James was loving the backpack a co-worker gave me and I liked it way better than the front pack.  Who am I kidding....that kid was way to big for that thing.

The happy family in the woods where we belong. 
Various low laying logs along the path we had to duck under and that can be a task with a backpack and kid, but we made it through without incident.

The friends who lent us the snowshoes also have a sled that they had outgrown and let us borrow so Brenda could pull James around the yard.

I decided I would build a seat for the bike instead of buying one, since they do not make the seat I had envisioned.  I created the mold and the covered with the foil ready for the fiberglass.

This is how it may look on the frame.

Then...after the fiberglass....it is awesome, but will need a lot of sanding and bodywork.

James, it's whats for dinner.  New way to show he is so cute I could eat him up.

He fell asleep for the night using his foot as a pillow....man does that look uncomfortable.  I straightened him out fearing his foot would fall asleep and the pain would eventually wake him up, although it never seemed to do so before.

James also stay with the normal routine which would include the following about mid dinner meal.
I don't care who you are....that is cute.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Motorcycle work cotinues

The saga of the bike continues.  Got to polishing some of the parts and getting prepped for paint on the engine.

Here is the engine as it sat over the week between Christmas and New Years

Just a little polish and this turns

Into this.  I love the polished look and much of the engine is going to be that way.

James is loving eating some more foods and hates peas while loving mom's applesauce.

Ben and Laura and the kids cam over for New Years  We had a great time and had a lot of time to just sit back and not do whole bunch of stuff.  You really get to enjoy your time off when you spend it with friends.
Ashton loves trucks but was a little bummed that the road construction was done around our house.  He loved to see the graders

My mom was out of town so my Dad also made the effort to come all of the way over here.  He had a good time and made us some awesome food

Addison and Ashton were a blast and we had a great time.  We also have learned that our island counter tops are going to have to be rounded out a bit.  All of the kids that come over eventually hit their heads on them and it never ends well.

Here is the cioppino my dad made.  It makes my mouth water just thinking about it again.

The main body of the engine is going to be gloss black and the top along with the sides will be polished aluminium.

This week James went to the Children's Discovery Center with Ella.  She made him a hat that she misspelled James by reversing the J.....which leads to Lames 
For some reason James loves to bite and chew on beer bottles or any other bottle for that matter.  Don't worry, I wash them out beforehand.

This kid loves food and when he wants it you know.  I guess he gets it...

...from his mother.  Wow, the resemblance is striking.

I borrowed a welder from my neighbor and went to town removing and adding things to the frame.  You may be asking "John, I didn't know you knew how to weld" to what I say....I don't, or a least didn't before I tried.  I figured how hard could it be and it turns out that it is not that hard.

I found a scrap piece of bed frame and built a battery box for the rear section.  I also cut a bit of the frame off to make room.

Those welds may not look that great, but I hit them with a hammer and they are strong enough.

This weekend we went for a short walk before the snow hits. Today, it has started to snow and I think it may be pretty bad tomorrow which means....more time to work on the bike. 

On a side note I am getting all mad about people on food stamps.  I guess this is coming to light because of the stuff Gingrich has said, but then the facts come out and they actually interviewed a woman who has been on them for 5 years trying to make the case for food stamps.  If anything this makes me want to cut her off more.  If she did not get the food stamps she said she would not be able to make it because of her part time job at the local diner.  WTH... part time job.  Man that would be nice.  Maybe if she was cut off from the food stamps she would be forced to get a full time job or maybe even a second or third one and get her ass in gear and earn her own money instead of asking for handouts.  I know the times are hard, but not for that long.  If they keep using these pathetic people wanting us to feel sorry for their lazy butts, I am going to puke.  On the other hand, I know some people cannot live without the short term assistance and have no problem with that. 

So of you are keeping blog score that is 1year lifetime maximum on unemployment and 2 year maximum for food stamps.  All other social programs are also on the chopping block.