...With A Sidecar

In case anyone was wondering....



this will be me someday.

Vic Visit

Woke up late yesterday to a text from Vic. He was driving down 80 and wondered if we were home. We were. He stopped in for some grilling and conversation.

2007 Recap

How to sum up a year? Not an easy thing, nor is it something you can do by writing or reading a silly post on an equally silly blog, but nonetheless, here it is, and there you are.

2007! Lot's happened. To start, I overcame my extreme hatred for water. For some reason I just didn't care for it, in any form. But now, I drink like 5 glasses a day. I actually went swimming (not in a public pool I ain't crazy). I went kayaking, I went on a boat, I went tubing and spent more than my fair share of afternoons strolling along a beach. And I'd like to announce that I now shower daily as opposed to bi-weekly. Look...






You want some figures? Ok how about the number 9. That's the number of ice cream cakes we ate. Next year we're going for double digits.


We visited 19 states. That's actually kinda low.

But Fran rode 2 motorcycles.



We watched all 53 episodes of Arrested Development, for the third and definitely not the last time.

We saw 21 bands.
We climbed 4 mountains, saw 3 plays, and moved twice (I can't put up photos for all this, we'll be here all day). We took 22,071 photos & uploaded 58,256 songs to iTunes.

We got married once.


Let's see what else. We toured an ice cram plant. Dream come true. We went house hunting, pumpkin picking, tree cutting, leaf peeping, wine tasting, road tripping, antiquing, flea marketing, whale watching, I finally got Fran into NYC during Christmastime, one of my alltime favorite things to do, ever anywhere. We also got (re-)acclimated with sports, mainly MLB & NFL. Look out for my fantasy leagues in the '08.

Not bad for a year. It's barely noon tho so we still got like 12 hours.

Weekend Wrap-up: Reunion/Wedding

The dust has settled. The smoke has cleared. The storm that is the family reunion has come and gone leaving very few casualties in it's path.

Let's start at the beginning. Get ready for lotsa photos.

Barb & Bill came down a whole week early. That was fantastic, especially since Fran & I had to cancel our last chance to hang out with them down in Georgia after I had a massive heart attack while eating a cashew covered tomato chased with a glass of chlorine. Ahem...so that was cool, yeah. Spent lots of time in the yard, trying to make all the flowers shine and sparkle.

We took a few America Gothic-style shots:




Dani & Vic showed up towards the end of the week, so we got to take a nice group shot one morning.


Barb decided she liked Vic's look.


As did Francis. She even went for a ride one day and lost her favorite glasses


Then Saturday was Ted & Carol's wedding. It was at the gorgeous Sayen Garden, quite emotional and terrific food. It didn't take long for Ted's side of the family (us) to get enough liquor in them to turn the place into Solid Gold dancers meets Gidget reunion.

(click the photos for the full album)

Fran on a bridge


Ted's side


the ceremony


Sayen House


Group Shot


the bride & groom






Sorry it's so dark. Ambience ya know. And yes that is Ted Eutermarks dancing, doing the bump I believe.

Sunday was the reunion. I haven't seen some of these people in over a decade. Family, family friends, family enemies, estranged family, new family; you name it, we had it.

(click the photos for the full album)

Eric, Travis & Fran pigging out


Danielle Oyler & Dani


the Berkeleys


Tyler, Dani, Fran, Travis, Dane & Jarod


Travis & Baby Dane (Kiana on the swing)


the Krupps up from Georgia


Oh and more dancing...






So like I said, dust settled, smoke cleared, and no major injuries reported, all in all it was a success. We should do it again...

...maybe in another 10 years.