FALL IS COMING!

Well, with a week of rain and less humidity, you can feel in the air and see in the trees that fall is almost here. Well, I guess on the calendar it is here, but hey, we live in the South so it's a little delayed here.

Here are some pictures from last Sunday - the 6th day of non-stop rain leading the the "500 year floods". You will notice that all but 1 of these pictures were taken indoors. We had several people from our office over Saturday night and had tons of leftovers. So, we invited 3 neighbors and their family's over on Sunday to "sit out" the rain and watch football while grazing on leftovers. It was a lazy but fun day. We did manage to get down to the lake for about 20 minutes of fishing during a break in the weather - just long enough for the kids to get filthy dirty.

Antonio Football Update 2

EAST WOLVERINES WIN AGAIN!
Another rain soaked Saturday morning could not deter the East Wolverines from beating the Bennett Park Broncos 18 - 0. We have a perfect record going - offense and defense played great. Antonio made a key block to allow the running back to score the first touchdown of the game - very proud of Antonio - he is a gamer for sure. I just wish he would leave it on the field - he "checked" his 10 year old brother this morning while getting ready for the game and made him cry...pretty funny...oh well.
Here is a video clip of coach Greg pumping up the offense last weekend during halftime.

Antonio - East Wolverines Football update

Antonio's team is now 2-1. However, their 1 loss was a pre-season game so that's no big deal! Last Saturday, they played last years league champions. This team has scrimmaged our team a few times in practice and they are very good. However, our boys showed up to play. Everyone mastered their positions! It was an awesome game. Antonio plays offensive tackle and he was matched up blocking a kid that was at least 6 inches taller than him. He didn't back down - I was really impressed with the way he handled this much bigger kid! He has really improved from the start of the season so much that the coaches are now playing him on both offense and defense. Very proud of Antonio!

This football program has really been impressive. The league is very organized, the coaches have lots of experience and a great attitude, and the facilities are first class. These kids are playing on artificial turf fields - fantastic! I don't mind paying high property taxes when I see the money getting spent on great facilities for the community to use.

This weekend we play the Bennett Park Broncos. Our scouting report indicates this is a tough team. I think our boys are up for the challenge.

Hot Air Balloon Visit

We had a hot air balloon fly over the house Sunday night and land in the yard of the house across the lake from ours. Kids went nuts! They were so excited.

First Repair to the KLR

I figured out a few weeks ago that the plastic engine skid plate on my KLR was inadequate when I bottomed out on some rocks. I put a pretty good gash in it. I figured it's only going to be a matter of time before I busted something more than the plastic. So, I replaced it with an Aluminum Engine Skid Plate from Happy Trails.com. They sell a total engine protection package that includes a front, bottom, and side fairing guards. PERFECT!

I worked on it Friday night after everyone was crashed out. The install was pretty straight forward and only took me about an hour. I took the bike for a test ride Saturday afternoon. Everything works well and I especially like the integrated highway pegs - great for stretching the legs on a long run!

Florida Visit - Retrieving the RV

Labor Day Weekend 2009. We used the 3 day weekend to head down to Orlando and retrieve our RV and visit some friends. The trip started Saturday morning. We jumped in the Flex and headed south. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We made the trip in 8 hours even with 3 stops.

Our first stop was at Rob and Holly Willet's house. They are friends of ours that we met at the church we attended while we lived in Florida. They are starting their own sauce company and were holding a kick off BBQ. This stuff is awesome. We have already been through at least 4 jars. The company is called "The Sweet Life" sauce company. They are about 2 weeks away from public launch - when they are up and running, I will blog about their project further.

Second stop was at Jayne and Andrew Steadman's - minus Andrew who was in Europe on business and visiting friends. Jayne let us bunk at her house. We had a great visit Saturday night and Sunday with our old neighbors. VERY FUN - TOO SHORT!

On Monday, we gathered up our RV. We have owned this motorhome for 7 years and the past 2.5 have had in in a lease back rental service. We thought it was a good idea at the time because we just were not using it. WRONG. I would never recommend this to anyone. In just over 2 years, "other people" put 30,000 miles on our RV, and because of repairs and routine maintenance, we didn't make very much money. Also, the last "jerks" that rented it smoked in it - which they were not supposed to. So, my next task is going to be to rip up the carpet, replace it, and shampoo the upholstery to try and get rid of the smoke smell. What a pain in the neck.

Love Florida - and our friends there - we will be back soon!