Regular updates...

I have been regularly adding pictures to the Photo Blog so be sure to check it out frequently. I will probably post to that more that here since I can do it from my cell phone. What a neat little gadget!

I came up to Gardnerville on Friday to spend some time with my parents. I met mom, Dan and Rene and Makaela and Logan for lunch at Mimi's Cafe in Reno. From there, mom and I and the girls headed home. Friday afternoon/evening I went on a long ATV ride with my Dad and seven others. It was a blast. We rode at night with the headlights on and that added a little more excitement to the whole thing. Sal, one of the guys we were with, rolled his ATV and had to be driven out... he was in too much pain to drive himself. We got back to our starting point and one of the guys took Sal to the emergency room. About an hour later Sal got a helicopter ride to Washoe Medical Center -- he punctured a lung and fractured four ribs. Ouch! It sounds bad, but he is actually doing quite well. He's definitley in pain though. Things could have turned out much worse, and we are thankful it didn't. What a night!

The next morning Dad and I went back out on the ATVs to pick up the one we left the night before. Since Sal had to be driven out, we had to leave one of the ATVs behind. Dad and I joined two others and headed back out into the Pine Nuts to get it. It snowed heavily on us for about an hour, and although it made me wet, I enjoyed the added adventure of riding in the snow. Those damn things are addictive, and it's no wonder my dad and his friends go out every weekend and ride the damn things. Dad got a new one last week so now mom has one, too. Who would've thought my parents, at 50, would be flying around the back fourty on ATVs? I love it!

Saturday afternoon I hung out with mom. We did a little shopping and came home to take a nap. Later, mom, dad and I met up with Cathy and Jim, Dan and Rene and my uncle Dan for dinner at the JT. Yummy food! Rene said the atmosphere reminded him of the family dining-style places out in the country in France. Rene's mom will be visiting from Paris next month and Rene plans on taking her to the JT. I am sure she will enjoy it. After dinner we went to the Carson Valley Pops Orchestra Spring Concert. It was a nice evening. It certainly wasn't the Boston Philharmonic, but it was wonderful to see the community rally behind the local group -- there was standing room only. You could tell the musicians worked hard and were enjoying themselves on stage. That was nice.

Yesterday we drove to Reno to see Sal at the hospital, and also met up with Brian and Rene. From the hospital, the whole family went to PJs for lunch, then Costco to browse. Brian and Rene headed home from there, and mom, dad and I drove back to G-ville. We had a nice, leisure afternoon and later had dinner at Hunan Chinese Buffet. It's rather new in town, although I went there at Christmas when I was here. It's the first Chinese buffet I can remember in Gardnerville, and the good thing is, it's really good and inexpensive.

Today I head back to the real world. My flight leaves at 1:30 or so. I have some homework and laundry to do as I head back to work on Wednesday. My vacation is coming to a fast end... and as usual, I'm not ready. ;-(

Regular updates...

I have been regularly adding pictures to the Photo Blog so be sure to check it out frequently. I will probably post to that more that here since I can do it from my cell phone. What a neat little gadget!

I came up to Gardnerville on Friday to spend some time with my parents. I met mom, Dan and Rene and Makaela and Logan for lunch at Mimi's Cafe in Reno. From there, mom and I and the girls headed home. Friday afternoon/evening I went on a long ATV ride with my Dad and seven others. It was a blast. We rode at night with the headlights on and that added a little more excitement to the whole thing. Sal, one of the guys we were with, rolled his ATV and had to be driven out... he was in too much pain to drive himself. We got back to our starting point and one of the guys took Sal to the emergency room. About an hour later Sal got a helicopter ride to Washoe Medical Center -- he punctured a lung and fractured four ribs. Ouch! It sounds bad, but he is actually doing quite well. He's definitley in pain though. Things could have turned out much worse, and we are thankful it didn't. What a night!

The next morning Dad and I went back out on the ATVs to pick up the one we left the night before. Since Sal had to be driven out, we had to leave one of the ATVs behind. Dad and I joined two others and headed back out into the Pine Nuts to get it. It snowed heavily on us for about an hour, and although it made me wet, I enjoyed the added adventure of riding in the snow. Those damn things are addictive, and it's no wonder my dad and his friends go out every weekend and ride the damn things. Dad got a new one last week so now mom has one, too. Who would've thought my parents, at 50, would be flying around the back fourty on ATVs? I love it!

Saturday afternoon I hung out with mom. We did a little shopping and came home to take a nap. Later, mom, dad and I met up with Cathy and Jim, Dan and Rene and my uncle Dan for dinner at the JT. Yummy food! Rene said the atmosphere reminded him of the family dining-style places out in the country in France. Rene's mom will be visiting from Paris next month and Rene plans on taking her to the JT. I am sure she will enjoy it. After dinner we went to the Carson Valley Pops Orchestra Spring Concert. It was a nice evening. It certainly wasn't the Boston Philharmonic, but it was wonderful to see the community rally behind the local group -- there was standing room only. You could tell the musicians worked hard and were enjoying themselves on stage. That was nice.

Yesterday we drove to Reno to see Sal at the hospital, and also met up with Brian and Rene. From the hospital, the whole family went to PJs for lunch, then Costco to browse. Brian and Rene headed home from there, and mom, dad and I drove back to G-ville. We had a nice, leisure afternoon and later had dinner at Hunan Chinese Buffet. It's rather new in town, although I went there at Christmas when I was here. It's the first Chinese buffet I can remember in Gardnerville, and the good thing is, it's really good and inexpensive.

Today I head back to the real world. My flight leaves at 1:30 or so. I have some homework and laundry to do as I head back to work on Wednesday. My vacation is coming to a fast end... and as usual, I'm not ready.

Finally...

I am happy to announce my photo blog, Contrails, now has images for all to view! I had been waiting to get the necessary cable to download images from my phone so I could e-mail them using my PC rather than the phone. I antied up and decided $2.99 a month for 20 picture messages wasn't too bad a price to pay to do it directly from my phone. And it'll be a lot easier, too.

I haven't gotten much done in the backyard the last couple of days. Beth and I were just flat out burned out from going full bore all of last week. We've got a great start, though, and I hope to have the main patio finished by week's end. I am also working on some end of the semester school stuff which needs to take priority as the end of the semester is fast approaching. I also hope to go to G-ville later this week and spend some time with my parents and my dad's new ATV. I return to the real world next week and head for St. Louis on Wednesday.

Beth and I had a nice leisure weekend, hanging out at her parent's house Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Saturday night was an Easter get together. We enjoyed BBQed turkey and ham, along with my Cheesy Potato Casserole recipe located in the archives. Vivan provided some delicious, home-made chocolate dipped strawberries. Delicious! We all stayed up late into the night playing Scrabble, Cranium and Taboo. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday morning we met up with Amber at Mandalay Bay to take our weekly walk on The Strip. It's an idea Beth and Amber came up with to be more active. Walking on The Strip on Sunday mornings provides little traffic and great sight-seeing to keep your mind off of what you're doing: exercising. Amber was off yesterday since it was Easter, so we decided to walk down to Bellagio for some Eggs Benedict. When we arrived, we were very surprised to see the entire inside, slots and all, dark. No lights. The power went out early yesterday morning, it's still out, and they don't know why. Could be tomorrow before it's back up. Needless to say, we couldn't eat there without any power. It was eerie to walk through the casino and see all the slots dark and silenced. Scary, really. We ended up eating at Paris, and had to ditch the idea of Eggs Benedict since their chef thought adding Dijon mustard to the very mayonaise-like Hollandaise would taste good. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't Eggs Benedict, either. I ended up with an open-faced omelet with sausage and sauteed mushrooms.

Last night, gotta love her, Beth tackled our ever mounting laundry mountain. We suppose by the time it's said and done, we'll have probably done 15 or so loads. It's embarrassing to admit. But oh well. That's why you buy a home, isn't it?

Backyard update...

Although I am not yet sitting pond-side sipping margarittas, despite the rain we were able to make considerable headway this weekend. The hardest, and most time consuming part is preparing the yard for the things that are to come. For example, before the patio can be installed, the ground beneath it needs to be prepped. This is a multi-stage process that is back-breaking and time consuming. Once that's done, you get to lay the brick for the patio. We were able to install the pipes for the sprinkler system and now minor work needs to be done on that to make it functional. Although we've accomplished a lot, it may not look like it to the outsider. This prepping dirt for more dirt thing is crazy.

It probably won't be until Wednesday that the patio starts to take shape, but once it does, it'll look darn pretty. I keep thinking about the end result and that's what's getting me through the grueling, hard labor I told myself I'd never do. And then I became a homeowner. Sheesh!

I had a wonderful time with my parents, although most of it was spent slaving in the backyard. I cooked what seemed like a massive dinner for 8 (I was planning on 10) Saturday night. The menu included butternut squash and goat cheese spread and artichoke dip for appetizers. That was followed with a salad made of baby greens mixed with gorgonzola, walnuts and croutons topped with raspberry vinaigrette. The main course was as American as it gets: prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes and corn. Dessert was planned to be strawberry shortcake, but Amber showed up with ice cream and the fixin's for her Grandma's infamous home-made chocolate sauce. The sauce was made and many opted for ice cream with the sauce AND strawberries. You couldn't go wrong. Some opted for the strawberry shortcake. In all it was a nice time, but it wore me out. I love cooking but man, can it make you tired!

I spent five hours or so with my dad and Beth at the Summit.com NHRA Dragster races being held at "The Strip" at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. I've never been to a drag race before, and the experience was well worth sitting in the heat. Here are some statistics that blew me away, literally: the Top Fuel dragsters have nearly seven-thousand horsepower yet their engine can be carried by two adults. Those engines propel the cars from zero to 330 MPH in under five seconds. When the dragster races by you, it would measure 5.6 on the Richter Scale. The feeling and sensation is simply indescribable. We spent some time down in the pits watching as each crew literally tears down and rebuilds their car's engine after each run, and they're given 90-minutes to complete the re-build.

Dragster junkies like to hang out near the cars for when the crews fire them up after rebuilding the engine. The nitrogen used to power the cars is very strong and can burn your eyes, nose and throat. These junkies thrive on that blast of nitro when the car is started, Beth and I nearly died. Dad said we had to experience it, and we did. Once was definitely enough. We finally hooked up with mom again, who stayed home to rest while still recovering from walking pneumonia, and went to Taqueria Canonita inside the Venetian for dinner. The food is great and the sangria margarittas are to die for. From there we walked to Treasure Island to watch the new pirate show. We were all disappointed. I have heard that is the general reaction from those who've seen it. It makes me wonder if they'll change it again soon to counter that negative press. I liked the old one much better.

The rain rain went away, but there maybe more coming today...

It cleared up early last night after 17 hours of straight rain. That's extremely rare for Las Vegas. My parents arrived on-time, a miracle, since their pilot told them this was their first on-time departure that day. Apparently the weather in Vegas earlier yesterday slowed things down quite a bit since there were some pretty low ceilings (at one point, you couldn't even see the top of the Stratosphere). My brother's wife was flying in to Vegas from Sacramento last night for a birthday bash and she arrived nearly three hours late. Eek!

Despite the mud pit that is now my backyard, we are going to utilize the dry time anyway and get some work done. Carter and Pat are on their way over and I'm finishing my first cup of coffee. Soon, I'll be throwing on the ol' muddies and heading off to Home Depot for some sprinkler supplies and to also pick up the sand and cement to make the base for the patio. We'll also be picking up a rototiller. Should be fun.

Rain, rain, go away, I have to dig a hole today...

It has been raining since last night, alternating between heavy down pours and light showers. I usually LOVE it when it rains here, because it happens so rarely. However, my backyard project is about to go into full swing and with the help of people who aren't usually here to help. The forecast calls for rain all of today, most of tomorrow and a little on Sunday. Hello! Why now? Don't give me the Apil showers bit, this is the desert. That doesn't apply here. We've already been in full bloom for a month.

On top of that, today is Field Day at Beth's school where the kids compete in all kinds of outdoor activities. It is surely going to be canceled, and it won't be rescheduled. Also keep in mind Spring Break begins today at 3:05pm. These kids are going to be stir crazy wild if they can't have Field Day. Poor Bethany. I went in on Tuesday to help the kids tie-dye t-shirts for a sort of class uniform. They look great! At least the kids can still where those.

It's early and I've already done a load of laundry and cleaned my parent's bathroom and the laundry room. Next I need to make their bed, dust their room and give it a general straightening up. The sheets are about to finish in the dryer. There is a lot more housework to be done today, not to mention I have several prepatory projects I wanted to complete in the backyard, on top of going grocery shopping and to Home Depot to buy the brick for the patio. Fortunately, my parent's plane doesn't land until 9:30 tonight so I'll have all today to get my shit together, and I'll need it.