Date: September 26, 2006

Well, been a while since I updated the journal and I apologize for that. My lofty goal of once a week now seems more like once a month. I will try to be more diligent in the future. A lot has happened since I last wrote. Here it is in a nutshell.

Garage progress: Still in process. I think sometimes I could have built an entire house in the time it is taking to complete this garage addition. Not many photos of progress because a lot happened while I was in Yellowstone. Just a few more items and I can get everything where I want it. I am really looking forward to some organization of tools. Seems I can never find what I am looking for because tools are always scattered about. I will post some pictures next time of the finished project.

Trip to Yellowstone: A few weeks back, my father came for a visit with my youngest brother Andy. You see my father does not fly and he convinced Andy to drive him out. It must be noted, even though I told them I would not mention it, that they took the long way here from Minnesota. They missed a turn in Des Moines Iowa and ended up coming through Kansas. They arrived about midnight on Friday when they should have arrived around 6pm. On Saturday we took it easy and just hung out. On Sunday we took a trip to see the Royal Gorge Bridge (pic1, pic2) but not before we stopped to get a picture of the worlds largest rocking chair. We then stopped in Salida for some food and then continued on to St Elmo (pic1, pic2, pic3). We got back to the house around six or seven and wrapped the day with some competitive ping pong games. On Monday we went for breakfast and then went to see the Garden of the Gods Park (pic1, pic2). It was a beautiful day for seeing the park. On Tuesday, Dad, Andy and I took off for Jackson, WY. We drove two cars to Cheyenne and left one there and proceeded in my truck to Jackson and then eventually to Yellowstone. The next three days were full of site seeing. Here are multiple pictures I took with the 35mm SLR. Notice the haze in the air as there were three fires to the west that were filling the air with smoke. (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4, pic5, pic6). I must say that that part of the country is gorgeous. In fact when I got back to house I booked a hotel room next to Old Faithful for approximately the same time next year. Linda, Zach and I plan to spend a few days there.

When I returned from Yellowstone, Rick and I decided to take the dirt bikes to the track. Well, after getting all my gear on, I could not get my bike started. After checking the oil, there was gas in the oil – which cannot be good. We stopped at the dealer on the way home and they said it was most likely a dirty carburetor. I semi-cleaned the carb, changed the oil and spark plug but to no avail. It is now at the dealer to get repaired. I hope to have it back this week as Andy comes back to Colorado in a couple of weeks and we plan to go riding. Another product issue I am fighting is a new Canon HV10 camcorder I bought. It is very small and perfect for carrying in a backpack. Last night I decided to see if I could download the high definition video to my PC. Long story short is that my movie editing software does not recognize the device when set to HDV. I changed to DV and all worked fine for capture. I did some research and Adobe Premier Elements comes out on the 29th with their 3.0 upgrade which supports capture of HDV. I will upgrade and see what happens. Other than that slight struggle (which I am not completely through yet) it has been working great. I guess thinking about it, since no I send DVDs to will have HD, it really doesn’t matter except for the principle of the thing.

Zach is still making leaps and bounds. Here is the extent of his vocabulary right now – tiger, doggy, mommy, daddy, cookie, hi, raf (for giraffe), this (for what’s this), and about five others I cannot think of off the top of my head. I need to be much more careful now in my actions and what I say as I have noticed he is starting to mimic me. He is much more comfortable walking and spends much more time helping me in the garage. Soon he will be talking and running. Linda and I have talked about getting a big wheel for him soon. Every kid needs a big wheel! Linda and I also found time to take Zach to the Colorado Springs Zoo. Let me tell you Zach had a blast! He really enjoyed seeing the giraffes and tigers. Still a little afraid of feeding the giraffes but he did great. Here are some pictures of Zach enjoying himself at the zoo. (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4)

Linda and I are getting ready for our trip to Las Vegas in a few weeks. I am flying my mom out to watch Zach. There is a pretty large group of us going including my two brothers and my sister and her husband, Linda’s sister and her husband as well as Linda’s friend. Plans include celebrating Linda’s birthday along with Spa and shopping for the girls as well golf and motocross for the boys.

That’s it for this one.

Until next time….Mike