The past week

This past week we went out to the great Midwest. I say great without any hint of sarcasm this time because the weather was perfect and it was very relaxing. We flew to Omaha on Thursday and drove to Sioux Falls and staying with Ben and Laura (who share a backyard with Paul and Kevin). Ben and Laura just had twins not too long ago and it was great to see them. Those kids almost never cried and were cute so the stay was way more relaxing then I thought it would be.

Brenda and her old roomies with their children. Brenda is only holding one for the picture and has no intention of getting one of her own.

Besides seeing family the other reason we went out there is to see the second of my six college roommates get married. Eric and Rebecca’s wedding was great. As the pictures below show we had a great time.

Greg and his family...It did not take him long after the wedding day to get a kid (very adorable family).

Big pimping in a caddy after the ceremony. His brother forgot to unlock the doors ahead of time...dumb Brian.

Here is the happy couple...and Eric and Rebecca as well.

Hooker has a new girl now and here they are together...Eric, where is your other hand and why are you smiling???

Brenda loves to "bust moves" on the dance floor. We owned that place and most of the time there was only about 7 people on the floor and every time in included Brenda. By 930 the dance looked like it was going to die, but we kept it going for the next 2 hours (until we were kicked out).

The very rare Paul Lemahieu dancing picture...with moves like this you gotta love the guy.

Dorhout and his new girl. She is way to good for him and he needs to know that.

Another dancing shot. Huisken loves to dance and Brenda commented that she was very impressed.

The after party went till about 2am and then Brenda and I drove back to Sioux Falls.

The next day I drove back to meet up for a lunch BBQ with a few of the guys...You have got to love Brats.

Laura and Ben with Ashton(right) and Addison(left). We made these onsies for the kids one saying Little Mantis and Granger WA, and the other saying Smashing Jalapenos and Crewport WA (the name of Lauras fictional band in high school of which she was a member playing the...you will have to ask her..too riskay for this blog).

We also had a chance to go to the pool with my niece and nephew. They had a great time in the water, and although I got yelled at by a 16yr old my first time down the slide for not following the rules, I also had a great time. The rules state that “children must slide feet first”, and I figured that since all of the rules said children that they did not apply to adults…I was wrong.

Landon with Brenda at the pool. Lots of fun and I loved taking the 3month olds out on the lazy river and soaking them. Laura was very understanding and not hyper protective like a lot of first time parents.

Lyndsay and us in the backyard.

The Carolinas

So last week we were out to see my family and visit the smokies in North and South Carolina. Immediately when we landed we had to stop for some BBQ and Hushpuppies. The food down there is so good and I wanted to eat it all (I also love sweet tea).

Here is Brenda enjoying the last hushpuppy

A view from on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the first two days in NC visiting the smokies and Brenda's Aunt and Uncle.

Here are our hosts. Their house had the greatest view of the Mountains.

One of the small cabins in national park

When we went to visit my family we had a great time and had a chance to mess around with the kids. We went to the Biltmore Mansion and had a great time there. The weather everyone was telling us was hot, but we thought it was perfect.
Here is the Mansion.

My Brother and his family. His kids are perfectly behaved and never had any attitude problems. I hope to be as lucky some day.

The downtown in Greenville is so nice and clean. We had a great time.


Here is a water fountain in the waterfront. We were there and then four girls showed up and they were...bit bigger. They had pretty small bikinis and shorts which they preceded to unbutton and leave half open to try to appear hot. This did not work. It was so weird having all of these kids there and then these girls show up and are taking pictures of themselves in front of the waterfall and in the waterfall...they were ridiculous. I, of course, told Brenda to pose like they were and she did (this was much hotter and she didn't need a bikini...although that would have been nice).

Here are 3 of the four girls. The fouth is taking pictures for the.....the......girls.

Here are the Greenville falls.

Brenda loves to eat...as if you didn't know that already. I love my dads face in this picture. He has no idea what is wrong with Brenda.

Yesterday we went to a wedding in the hills above Santa Cruz. It was perfect weather and the view over the ocean was cool. Free drinks during the appetizers helped us all enjoy ourselves.

Here we are...looking quite nice I must say.

The venue.


We did end up cutting a rug...we were the last to leave. This is not the first wedding dance that we have closed down. I am good at the air guitar.

Brenda is better at the air guitar.

Something I am sick of:

Why is it that if you are against gay marriage you are automatically homophobic. Just because you are against something does not mean that you are afraid of it. Gays seem to think that if you are against gay marriage then you are afraid of their lifestyle. This is not the case. I fear no Gay lifestyle, but am simply against gay marriage. By the way I also am against raising the income tax in California to cover the budget gap that our idiotic moron representatives cannot figure out, but as in the case above, I am not afraid of it. I am against Nancy Pelosi (as a person and in general), but in this case I am afraid of her and her shenanigans.

Tuna Tang anyone

Tuna Tang was a surprise that was unexpectedly good. Spikey fruit was also good.

So we were out of town for the last week or so in Tijuana doing a service project with some other people form our church. We had a great time and got to do a lot of stuff. Drywalling a halfway house, pouring a footing for a wall, and putting on kids VBS type thing was a great time. We also worked with a drug and alcohol rehab center. This was a real rehab center..not one of those pansy CA rehab centers. In this one the guys were locked in a room with other guys for the first 15days to detox. No medications to help get them off it or make the symptoms less painful...just cold turkey.

Here is Jason working with Adrian(a rehab guy).

We had to figure out my height in Meters to answer the many questions.

We also went to a jail where the offenders were kept for the first 36hrs after their arrest. No cameras allowed inside, but this is the guy who has the connection on the inside. This ministry was very fun and cool, but the smell inside of the jail was not pleasant (as one might expect from a Mexican jail).

Here is the boarder between Mexico and the U.S. I told Brenda to make a run for it, but she decided to just stick her foot through.

Here is Brenda, Kelly(on the left), and our missionary Barbarita at the orphanage.

We served dinner at the rehab center when the guys graduated from thee program. Here is Brenda serving Kelly beans with the biggest spoon I have ever seen.

Kids at the Dios altisimo church.

The group at the halfway house.

All in all it was a great time and for other details you could look at our other blog at

sjcrc.blogspot.com

A few other things

So, the other weekend we stopped by the Greek Festival in San Jose. Apparently San Jose has a big Greek population and it is thriving. The food at the festival was good, but it made me kind of want to go to a dutch festival like the old days back in Fulton.Here is the view from mt. Hamilton.

Saturday Brenda and I rode to Mount Hamilton and the Lick Observatory. It is a cool road that is a great motorcycle ride as well as a good time. The curves and the smooth road are always a good time and we got to see a part of the bay area that we had not been before.

Today after church I went on a ride by myself and had a great time going down the backroads to Watsonville and over to Gilroy and then home again. This was such a good time and it is amazing what a couple of rides can do to relax your body.

I have been working out in the CV(central valley) for the past week and will be out there most of the next week as well. It is installing a air sparge system and is a good time, but a lot of hard work. Hard manual labor is always good for the body as well as the mind (but not for the back).

The bike is doing great and I have a hard time keeping on the straight and narrow...it loves the curves.

Fruit and produce is grown all over California and is always fresh and always good.

Oh ya "it" finally came in. Brenda and I made a deal that if her A1C was below 6.5 she would get a diamond necklace and ...well it was and ...so here it is. It took a long time to get the necklace because we had to order it to get the exact thing that she wanted. She has it now and is sporting it everywhere.

An up close of the diamonds.

Have you noticed what passes for news nowadays...I can hardly watch TV without shaking my head and thinking why do I care and why are they spending time on this crap. For the past 3-4 years they have been reporting on the 49ers moving to the south bay and every time it does not happen and then three months later they recycle the same old story to fluff out the broadcast. I hate that crap and the next time I hear about them moving they had better be here, or the TV is getting shot.

Introducing...The new Bike

Yes here it is...The new to me 2000 BMW R1150GS. I got this bike on Wednesday and with all of the fluid changes and going over the bike it was a very busy week. The bike is awesome and I thought what better way to break it in than a trip to the Sierras. Due to Brenda having a sports banquet on Friday night (which was actually pretty cool) we decided not to leave until Sat. morning.


Here is the beast loaded down for Camping near Yosemite.


Here is a different view that gives you a good idea on why I like the bike. I got a few pictures of the first day but we pretty much took a dirt road to our favorite camp site and ended up finding an even better one. Then we went on a hike and chilled out by the river. The next day was Sunday and we thought we would go to the valley and see if we could catch a church service. During the night someone set up camp on our little side road that we used to access our site. they were only about 20yds from us and I cannot imagine how they did not see us, but with a brown tent and only a motorcycle they must have missed us. Well we needed to leave and they had set one of the tents in thee road with about two feet where I thought would fit the new bike. I started it up and began riding towards the tent and just as I was about 10ft away the tent started violently moving and out popped a guy with fear in his eyes. He rolled out, saw us, and in the next instant, pulled his tent to the side to let us through while he was still in the tent. I must have scarred him pretty bad, but it make Brenda laugh for the next 10min. straight.
We arrived at the Church just in time for the Sunday service. The view from the front door is Yosemite falls...very nice. The service was nice but a little longer than we thought it would be because we had a lot of stuff to see.

Here is a pic riding through the valley.Nice view of Yosemite falls...and us...and the bike.

Here is a pic from an overlook

Here we are at the overlook.

Nice view from the Glacier point overlook. The falls this time of year and so full and about the highest flow we have ever seen. Vernal and Nevada Falls are in the foreground.
We arrived back at the campsite just in time to relax and rest our sore butts.

The next day we were going to leave, but I thought we should check out some dirt roads and see if we could find the fire lookout I had seen on a map. Well, we found it, but the road was pretty crazy. It was locked, but nothing a little climbing of the fence can't fix. Here is the view from the top. About 10min after I got down the actual guy who man's this post showed up.

Here is the inside of the lookout. Very simple and small, but a good way to spend 6 Months

Brenda checking for fires.

On the way back to the main road we went this other way(which technically was closed, but the forest service guy thought we could make it). We did , but I did get it high centered once on this tree.

The first video is going through the valley and seeing Yosemite falls and the other one is the road on the way there.