Well hello there,

And here it is again. My annual “I’m going to get back to blogging post.” Hopefully this year I mean it.

Last night I made Moscow Mule’s for my wife and I. I was flipping though the recipe book that I have been trying to cook everything out of and it sounded perfect for the ridiculously hot weather Northern Cali is experiencing this week. Of course then I began to think about Adventure Wannabe and how neglected it has been. Sad really, because I really am excited and love this project. So here we go again…

To be honest it’s not like I don’t have my list in the back of my mind everyday. I have accomplished quite a few items on the list that hasn’t been updated. (I know I know, what is wrong with me?) I have decided I am a complete and total procrastinator. One of the worst ailments in life. Who wants to sit around talking about what they would like to do in life instead of actually getting off their ass and doing some of it??

Time is not on my side though. I am raising two incredible sons and need to pay more attention to the love of my life and best friend. Is there any way to negotiate for a 25 hour in the day? These really are just the excuses I use to rationalize my lack of accomplishment though. I am a master of killing time. I love movies, tv shows, sports and most forms of entertainment, that is just a fact. Each one of those can kill hours upon hours in a day though. Time that would be much better exploring, educating, building, producing or creating.

Not all of my days are wasted though. I have coached my kids in several sports for the last couple of years and it has been a blast (most of the time.) I have completed a couple of online courses that should help me conquer some of my items. I have written a bit, I do have a monthly assignment for a recipe article in a regional family magazine that I have been doing for just over a year now. I have attended multiple sporting events in a journalistic capacity, even making it to Vegas for a PPV show which I thought was a pretty big deal.

What I am getting to is that I am not feeling that I make the best use of my time. This endeavor illustrates just how much I would like to get done in this life and I feel I am unbelievably behind schedule. So in the annual tradition of this post I will once again commit to getting more done, learning more and most importantly exploring more. Hopefully that will all lead to documenting more.

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

-J

4 years old

I got a email from my blog yesterday. It was an alert to tell me that Adventure Wannabe was turning 4 years old. Of course it got me to reminiscing about all that has happened in that time. In addition to all of the noted excursions and experiences that I have had that were a direct result of my blog I have had so many countless others. 

I became a father again. 

I have been blessed to continue living a life with my best friend as my wife.

I have made numerous new friends that have made life so much more interesting. 

I have become a published magazine journalist. (Sonoma Family Life)

I have gone to events that I never would have before. (Ringside at UFC)

I walked up to one of my heroes. (Willie Mays at the final 49er game in the ‘Stick.)

In addition to all of the documented adventures that you have read about in my posts.

However I think that the most lasting impact that AW has had on my life is that I no longer have as much hesitation to attempt new things. Life is way more crazy than when I started this. I had no idea what raising two little boys was really going to entail. That is the best adventure that I have been on though. They have given Dani and I a life filled with something new each and every day. For that I am blessed. 

-J

Suffering through January

It’s official!! I hate January! Mostly due to my intense need for a Coca Cola. As bad as this experiment has been I think that I have thought of a new challenge that I MAY undertake next January. Might as well make January official “do without” month. Coffee, I could go a month without coffee. I don’t really think that I can go without coffee for a month, but it’s a good goal. This “no soda” isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, not nearly as impossible as last year’s (can you believe that I can say last year??) vegetarian fiasco. Coffee might be as horrible as vegetariaism. I drink coffee everyday, most days multiple times a day. I have been addicted to Starbuck’s at many points in my life. Pete’s coffee is one of life’s great pleasures. In addition I have found that people don’t really like me without coffee. In high school I was sent out of class in the mornings to go “fix the problem.” Co-workers will actually press as hard as they can up against the wall if I pass them on the way to my cup in the mornings. I don’t see what the deal is…I find myself perfectly pleasant in the AM.
Well I am counting the moments until I can pop the top on a frosty carbonated yum yum drink. Dani asked me the other day if I was going to stay up til midnight on the 1st to have a Coke. I said no, but since then it has crossed my mind A LOT. So if I find myself awake when the clock strikes Feburary…you never know what can happen.
For some reason that I can’t explain I have had a huge jump in hits on the blog since the New Year. I hit my all time high of 40 viewers yesterday. Maybe I will be getting to cross 100 viewers in a day off sooner than I ever thought. I mean that is almost half way there. I really was flabbergasted when I saw my stats. So thank everyone that has taken the time out of their life to read my random thoughts on this list.
Ed (you might remember him as the nemesis of the Coke/Soda Challenge, opening a delicious coke right under my nose…I could pretty much feel the bubbles popping on my face.) has recently expressed interest in helping me with a few items. I think that he feels badly for trying to sabotage my soda boycott and wants to make his karma right. If I didn’t have a Leadership Mendocino class on Friday he has offered to take me out to shoot a gun. He has also been investigating a possible Robin Williams meeting, but it doesn’t look like this year will be possible. You know that whole having a kid thing.
This literally just in… The Cartman was cleaning out his office and came across a binder of old baseball cards. He has offered to let me see if any of them will help with my dream team. Just another example of how much help I am getting with this from my friends. Another example of how he always finds a way to wiggle and get himself into another blog post. HA!

I have also been getting more and more interested in taking on a race, a marathon or something along those lines. If anyone has any ideas of fun races I would be interested to know what you think.

No Coke, Changes to the list and my Kindle

I’ve been threatening making changes, and now that the year has changed I guess it’s as good a time as any.

It's so good when it hits your lips

But first I need to tell you about a challenge that I’m deep into right now. Apparently January has become “do without something” month for and crew and I. Everyone should remember that last year I went without meat for 30 days. If not you might want to go back and review what was pretty much the worst month of my life. (Special credit for that goes out to Pat Garrett and the infamous bacon pot incident…I haven’t forgot about that.) 2011 has brought 30 days with out soda. To set the stage I drink A LOT of Coca Cola. Usually one or two at a minimum every day. On a good day I can probably put six away, it depends on what I’m eating. Needless to say I have a special place in my heart and on my tongue for that delicious concoction. Not to say that Coke is the only soda that I enjoy. I’ve been know to do the Dew, Crush a Sunkist, and put down a A&W (usually in a mug with vanilla ice cream.)  The people that know me the best know that this is going to be very difficult for me to complete. So far I have been able to restrain my cravings, but I’m only 8 days in. I am very proud to have made it a week. I wanted to do this for pretty much the same reason as the vegetarian challenge. I know that I have vices and I believe that it is good to check them at times and make sure that you are still making the choice to use them and your not completely addicted. Its a control challenge. I just want to make sure that I am still in control.

The Cartman was going to take this challenge with me also, but parently the only drink that goes with Al Pastor Tacos is a Mexican Orange soda. After only a couple of days…WEAK!So please wish me luck for the next three weeks as I try to avoid my nemesis. With a bit of luck #120 will be off the list on February 1st.

Now on to the changes that I’ve been considering for so long. I have spent a long time thinking about these changes and feel good with them. When I started out on this I always knew that I was going to get to a place that some of the items didn’t mean the same thing to me anymore, so this was an eventuallity. I’ll take each one and explain why I’m changing it and what the replacement is going to be.

#17. Do P90X…This was a big fad a year ago and it has been replaced by Insanity and some other fad workout programs. I realized that all of these are just ways for the creators to make $$$ off of hard working people. That being said I think that the Insanity and P90X are good workouts, but I didn’t want to look back in a few years and see that was on the list. I also don’t see this as a way to stay in shape for a lifetime. I think they are probably pretty effective at restoring people’s physical fitness, but I long ago came to terms with the fact that I am never going to have a six pack. It’s just not in my genes. That being said I do want to focus on long term fitness and use races as a marker and goal of my progress…So P90 had to go.

The new #17 is to own the perfect home. This is going to be a collaboration between my wife, my kids and myself. I like this as a life goal because it is something that is going to have a major effect on the rest of my life. Dani and I have often sat and dreamed about what we would want to include in a dream home. This is going to be a place that my kids can be comfortable and safe, and Dani and I can grow old in and host holidays when our children bring their children. This is also going to be a very difficult item to complete.

22. Lunch @ Salumi– This one is going to surprise some people given how much I love food and I fell in love with their salami last year when we ordered it to celebrate a month of vegetarianism. My thinking is that I have already tasted their salami and I have a lot of list items surrounding Seattle. If I happen to be in the neighborhood (aka Washington) I will be seeking it our, but I don’t feel that it is something that needs to be on my list anymore as I have already tasted some of their delicious products. I feel that the list should be things that I have yet to try or accomplish.

Salumi has now been replaced with The French Laundry. I feel that this is an acceptable upgrade on this item, and it will be a challenge for me. Financially this will be work as it is VERY EXPENSIVE, but even more of a mountain for me to climb is going to be not having any control over what it served and opening my mind, horizons and palate to the what I can only imagine is delectable dishes.

#37 Read a 100 books- This is just an alteration. I now feel that I need to up the ante and am going to ten fold. I want to document reading a thousand books with the same 25% or 250 books recommended to me by others. I also have been seeking out lists of people’s favorite reads. Stephen King always has a list coming out and a huge on in the back of his book, On Writing. Every celebrity is willing to put out a top ten list, not to mention the innumerable summer reading lists, so I don’t think that I will ever run out of ideas of what to start next.

#45 10 things out of the Change the World for $10- I was disappointed in this just because some of the items are so vague. I still plan on working on some of their suggestions, but it gets hard to measure success on most of the items. Like how am I supposed to be able to mark off that I smile more? So I promise to learn and attempt to keep up on the suggestions that I liked, but off the list it goes.

New #45 is Getting Interviewed on National Television. How cool would that be? I have no idea how or what I’m going to do to get on a national interview, but I felt I needed to aim higher. I’m hoping for like a Today-type show, or something very similar.  If you can help me out at all on this. PLEASE!

#97 Donating a day to helping a stranger- I just felt that this one was already on the list with helping ten others do something that they want to do before they die, so good-bye #97. Now to replace it I want to Learn to Handle a Firearm. Just because I don’t.

#116 Jump off a waterfall- This one I have done before. Up near Tahoe is a place off the Emmigrant Gap and a buddy of mine Brian Elzy took me up there and we leaped off next to a waterfall. It was amazing and I think that is why I put it on the list in the first place, to get that feeling back. Like I said earlier I feel that I need to have things that I haven’t done before on this list. 

So I’m replacing it with Writing a Play and having it performed. I think that it would be amazing to see something that you wrote brought to life on the stage. I have always enjoyed the playwriting portion of all the creative writing that I have taken. I think that I would be incredibly proud to attend a play that I had written and seeing my name on the program. Pretty narcissistic, but hey every one needs a little of it in their life right?

#117 Firefighter Combat Challenge– I think that this was just something that I put on the list for my buddy Wes. I don’t think that I ever really cared to do it. If the opportunity comes up I’ll take it, but it isn’t anything that means anything to me. I think that it would be fun, but not something that I feel I have to do, besides I’ve set up courses at work many times before. I know what it’s like to do it.

Now this replacement I don’t really have any control over, but I want to hit 100 visits on my blog in 1 Day. I will take this as a sign that I either my writing is improving or my life is getting more interesting. Which is the two main reasons that I started up this project and blog.

#170 Another clarification and this has to do with different interpretations of the Pacific Coast Highway. Some claim it runs from the top of Canada to South America. My route will be the California leg of PCH which I will define as a road trip that goes from Leggett to Dana Point. This is where Hwy 1 branches off from 101 in the north and terminates in Interstate 5 in the south. I also think that it will make a great trip.

#190 Celebrate National Months- There just too many of them. Each month has like a hundred causes to celebrate so until we all decide on 12 of them and stick to it. Adios.

Instead I am going to go Island Hopping in the Caribbean, which I define as a single trip that includes setting foot upon at least three different islands. I have always had a fascination with the Caribbean and the history, culture and people of the area. But I have never made it to the islands. Plus…That’s where all the Pirates hung out so it’s got to be awesome, right!!?? It will also be an amazing vacation for my family and I.

Well that wraps up the changes that I’m going to make…at least for now.

In some other news I got a Kindle from Santa.  I have to say that this is a great device if your into reading. If you are looking into one just know what you are going to use it for. It’s not an iPad, but it kicks the iBook apps ass. It sounds like all their ads, but the screen really is as close to paper as anything I’ve seen. If it has a draw back I would say that it is too thin and feels weird in your hand until you get a cover for it. A cover solved all my problems with the Kindle. Now the only problem that I have is trying to decide which book to read next. Another problem that I just thought of is can you call them books anymore? There are no pages, no paper, no bulkiness. What should the new name of “books” be? Bottom line the Kindle is a great product as long as you get it for reading, not for internet, or anything else. Just use it to read. I am really going to try and use it to cross the 1000 books off my list.

It’s been a year

One year ago I started this journey. I will say that it has made for a very interesting first year. I really can’t believe how much I got accomplished, or all the help I had along the way. I also can’t believe some of the things that happened to get some the items off the list. How did the Giants go to the World Series, never mind winning it? How is it possible that I flew an aircraft? Why did I buy an FJ40, and why did The Cartman  drink grape juice that I crushed with my very, very sweaty feet during a City Chase race in San Diego?

I also made some good progress on a couple of the longer term items. I am absolutely a better cook thanks to Tyler Florence. I am back to reading for fun on a everyday basis (Santa also brought a Kindle to me for Christmas…I am so blessed.) I have eaten some of the best meals in places that I NEVER would have stopped at before.

In addition I have grown as a man. I am a better father. I hope I’m becoming a better husband. I’m extremely excited to be welcoming another son to the family in March. I have been able to learn and appreciate what a great life that I have. I have amazing friends and an awesome family that I know I will never take for granted.

Alright, lets get to some business. I’ve done some stuff, just haven’t really made time to put a post together.

First off a while ago I started my collection of my baseball dream team rookie cards. I went to the local card shop for the first time in probably 15 years. I was able to pick up a Barry Bonds and Randy Johnson rookies and started a collection for my sons by getting a Buster Posey and Madison Bumgardner cards. I really hope that they get as much out of the game as I have, especially over the last season being a Giants fan.

Dani, Robby and I also “officially” made our Christmas Eve tradition a tradition by delivering food and gifts to needy families in our town. We weren’t able to do it as long as we thought, but that’s life with a 2 year old. He was a trooper for the couple of hours that we were driving around, but when you got to eat, you got to eat.

So here is a toast to 2010, and a big welcome to 2011. I can’t imagine what is going to happen in the next year. I definitely couldn’t have scripted this last one. Thanks for coming along on this journey by reading and leaving comments on this blog. I also need to thank all my fam and friends that have come along on these adventures this year. I can’t believe that I’ve kept up with this for a year and still am working towards my goals. Of that I am really proud. Happy Birthday Adventure Wannabe!

My favorite picture of 2010.

Oh yeah, my kid got to do something on my list that I didn’t. Can you believe that he met Willie Mays!!!!!???

Cheating my way through #21

So I found a loop-hole on #21 Seattle Seahawk game. The original meaning was to travel to Seattle and watch a Seahawk game, BUT

The Cartman, Kyle and I at the Niner game. Ed’s back there digging into some carnitas nachos.

The Cartman bought tickets to the 49er/Seahawk game this last Sunday. Technically I have fulfilled that item as it sits on the list. For some reason I didn’t put Qwest Field on the list, I put Seahawk game. I also lived up to the reason that I wanted to put it on the list. I wanted to go to a live game with The Cartman, his team against mine. To make the day even better…The Niners punished the Seahawks into submission. They limped out of Candlestick with broken wings and a bent beak.

Great Xmas Gift!! Can you tell who is having more fun at the game?

So here is my dilemma, do I cross it off, or do I leave it and go to Seattle for a football game? Let me know what you think.

Did I mention that this trip cost me an opportunity to cross another item off legitimately? While I was off cheering the Niners to victory my wife and son were meeting Willie Mays. As much fun as we had at the game a part of me regrets not taking the chance to meet one of my heroes. On top of that one the is a living legend and a man who you don’t get a chance to just walk up and shake his hand very often. My wife waited, pregnant and alone with my son, for hours to get an autograph and a picture of Willie and Robby. She should be given Mom of the Year for that alone. Robby will cherish that photo when he is old enough to understand who and what Willie Mays is.

I really can’t believe that I gave up a chance to meet Mr. Mays. I pray that I will be blessed with another opportunity to cross that off the list. It is one of the most important items on the list.

Willie Mays, The Life, The Legend

The Legend's Autograph

World Champs, almost showered, Ralston’s hand, and Tyler’s soup

So I need to catch up on some things…

First would be can I get some love for the World Champion San Francisco Giants!!!! The last six weeks have been the funnest, greatest, incredible ride with any sports team EVER. End of story. I did let it take over my life a little bit, but I can finally say my team is the World Series Champions! Besides, what use is living if you don’t let yourself get swept up by events. We had dinner parties for the games and spent more time with our friends than we have in a long, long time. Sitting there after Brian Wilson blew that last pitch by Nelson Cruz and Buster Posey started jumping around like a maniac, I really didn’t know what to do. I have never experienced my favorite baseball team winning it all. It took a minute to sink in and then I kissed my wife, hugged my kid and had a drink with my friends.

I almost was able to cross #128 off the list when NateVagt’s wife ran out to celebrate by spraying us with champagne, but like idiots most of us ran when we saw her running at us. I guess my “flight” of “fight or flight” jumped in. Damn! How many opportunities do you get to take a champagne shower??

The Giants did help me get one more item crossed off though. They held a victory parade in the city as part of the World Series celebration. Had to take a day off work, but I packed the family up and drove into San Fran. The original plan was to take the ferry over and spend most of the day there. When we saw the mile long line of cars just to get off the highway exit to the ferry we took my Bro-in-laws advice to just drive into the city. Once we got past the ferry it was smooth sailing over the Golden Gate and into SF. Seems like everyone was thinking public transit was the easiest way to get there, and bound the system up so much that no one was really getting anywhere.

It was so crazy once the parade started that this is the only pic we got of anything in the parade.

Some of the crowd while we wait for the parade to arrive.

Once in the city we found parking and walked down to the parade route. Our spot wasn’t that bad, until the parade arrived and everyone rushed to the street to catch a glance of the World Champs. It was hot, sweaty and my kid decided to take a nap once the parade got to us. Which made him weigh twice as much as normal I swear. All of that was okay though. The main problem that I had was the inconsiderate morons that felt they had to light up everything they were carrying. I never really thought about the idiocy of smokers until I had kids and a pregnant wife that were being unwillingly harassed by second hand smoke. I really can’t believe that people still smoke in this day and age. I guess I’ll be working on their disgusting lungs soon enough at work. Heads up smokers!!! Smoking kills you!!!

The parade was really cool though. I got to see some of my current heroes and a few of my childhood ones. Not to mention Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. I have to say that the most incredible part of the entire parade was seeing Bruce Bochy hoisting the World Champions Trophy high over his head. I have never felt so proud to be a Giants fan.

So when I got home and saw that about a half million people were at the parade I thought, #180 See a major city parade, off the list. I doubt it gets much bigger than that, and it was something that closed out an incredible journey for my family, friends and I.

Some other things have been happening that aren’t baseball related.

Not a fun read, but it is an interesting story.

I finally finished another book. This one was Between a Rock and a Hard Place, by Aron Ralston. This is the story of the kid that amputated his own arm in a Utah slot canyon after a boulder sat on it for six days. The first two-thirds of this story were boring, it wasn’t really about the incident, but all that he did to become an outdoorsman. I’m pretty sure that the last third would have been just as slow, but I really found it interesting how all the agencies and people came together for his rescue. It did have a few pictures and the money shot of the severed hand sticking out from the boulder. I wouldn’t recommend this read, unless you really know the area in Utah, have undying curiousity of how he did it, or just read all the outdoor survival stuff you can find. For everyone else I am going to recommend going to see the movie that they based off the story, 127 Hours. It looks a lot more fun than this book was for me.

Last night I made another of Tyler Florence’s recipes out of Dinner at my Place, Dr. Tyler’s Chicken Meatball and Tortellini Soup. This was another amazing dish. I took advantage of the first cold, rainy Sunday with my family to put a pot on the stove. I believe that there is nothing better on a cold, wet day than a nice warm bowl of soup. It really can heal the soul. The piece that puts this bowl above other soups is the chicken meatballs. It was a great twist on the traditional grandma standby. I also liked the cheese tortellini’s, but it really is the chicken meatballs that make this recipe worth repeating and putting into my personal cookbook. This one gets a big thumbs up.

Dr. Tyler's Chicken Meatballs and Tortellini

So there it is, I’m all caught up. So here is the other half of the story.

I gave up going on a trip to Green Bay, but I got to go to the World Series. I have had a standing invite to go horseback riding, but haven’t made the time. This is my own fault and I need to make sure that I grasp the next opportunity to go. Moral of this story…I’ve wasted a couple of my opportunities. I have to get better at not doing this if I am ever going to make it through this list.

So I took a hiatus, so what?

I know that I haven’t put anything up in a while. Had some family things to get done and just haven’t had the time or energy to sit and put it all down.

Started a major project with The Cartman at work. We have started a restoration on the department’s 1923 American La France fire engine.

Getting her backed into this spot was a lot of work.

We call her 1-R and she has been sitting around begging for attention for my entire career. No one at the department knows when the last time she was up and running or was given any attention. We are going to have to find an old timer and get some history. The Cartman and I are planning on starting yet another blog to document the journey of 1-R from a tired old heap to hopefully a gleaming fully functioning fire engine again. I’ll let you know when we get it up and started. And with that #85 Restore an old vehicle is underway.

I came really close to getting on a horse and putting that one to bed finally, but my brother-in-law moved and I ended up helping get them into their new house. I felt bad having to re-schedule on the nice lady that is going to teach me to ride a horse, but family comes first and you have to take care of them when they need it. That’s how I look at it, and I know that I have a family that I can depend on when I need them.

We spent a couple of days in our trailer at a campsite up in Willits finally. Didn’t know if we were going to get to use it this summer,  but now I want to get it back out and go somewhere else soon.

Ah yes, Disneyland. We spent most of last week in the happiest place on earth. It was awesome watching Robby get to see all his favorite toon friends and give them knucks (blowing it up of course), high fives and hugs. He also rocked all the rides that he could, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Small World, and of course Pirates of the Caribbean. I taught him to sing and rock his arm to the “Yo ho” song. It was great. The only thing that was sad was Dani couldn’t ride all of the roller coasters like usual because of our new little one that is growing inside her.

Speaking of, I got to see our new lil one today. It was the first time we got to see what was going on in there. She was jumping around and doing all sorts of flips and summer saults in there. It’s incredible that my love has another of my loves growing inside her. Anyway I’ll put more on that up on Learning Fatherhood.

I got more to say, but it’ll have to wait. I hear my son waking up.

Homegrown veggies and the Dragon Tattoo

I suppose that it’s been a while since I updated since The Cartman was reminding me that I had a blog the other day. I just haven’t had too much free time to focus on the list lately. The new baby has been making my wife really sick so I’ve been trying to keep the house up and our 19 month old out of her hair. I hope that she starts to feel a little better soon.

Some developments have been taking place though. If you’ll remember from a few months ago my wife and I put together a garden in our back yard.

This was a few months ago.

This project included making a couple of raised beds and purchasing a yard and a half of the “best” soil in the county. All of the “medicinal” marijuana agriculturalists use this soil so it has to be the best. After all Mary Jane is HUGE business in Mendocino County. Also a huge pain in the ass with all the crime, smells, and well lets just say the people working in the industry aren’t good for the county image.

Back to the garden…

Our garden today, completely growing out of control.

It has been really fun watching our little food patch grow, blossom, and fruit this summer. It  has been an awesome project that Dani and I look forward to seeing the new developments.

We have had a few setbacks. Our peas never really had a chance. They were one of the first things to pop up out of the ground, but got all burned up in the two weeks that we had some real heat. Some of the first tomatoes were ravaged with blossom end rot and unusable. The lettuce and cucumbers grew and looked great, but were so bitter you couldn’t eat them.

For every disappointment we have had a victory, our tomatoes recovered and are incredible. This even thought everyone that I’ve talked to has said it’s been a rough year for tomatoes. We have crookneck squash and zucchini coming out of our ears. Our herbs have been a great addition to our cooking, especially the basil. I think that we are going to have a lot of pesto this winter. We thought that our strawberries were just not going to work, but in the last two weeks we have been getting great little red berries off of them too.

One days harvest.

So I can happy that we can now cross “Grow a Successful Garden” off the list. We have had a lot of fun and got lots of good veggies and fruits, in addition to turning us into gardeners. We have a bunch to learn, but I’m pretty sure that we’ll have some form of garden every year now. I guess in that sense this item really did change our lives.

The beginning of the Millenium Trilogy

Another book to add to #37. This one was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson which has become a bit of a sensation lately. This book started out a bit slow and tedious. I was really wondering why it had become such a big deal. Then I read that the author had passed away before completing the series of novels that he had planned and figured that had a lot to do with it. As I slogged through I became hooked and soon wasn’t able to put it down. The mystery is first rate, but I will warn you that some of the subject matter is absolutely Adult Only! There are quite a few scenes that are very very graphic. After the foundation was poured the story was fantastic. It moved quickly and I became really concerned with the characters and how it was all going to come together.

Dani got me this one as a gift and said that she expected I would get hooked and want the other two books in the series. True enough. My bride knows me very well and I am looking forward to the further adventures of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Soon enough I’ll be adding The Girl that Played with Fire and The Girl that Kicked the Hornet’s Nest to this list.

See you guys later.

Busy Busy Busy

If you read the last post you already know that life has been turned upside down with the news of our impending arrival.

Revisted an old friend with some great advise

With all the craziness that has come along with this pregnancy, my wife has been sicker than I’ve ever seen her before, the list has been pushed to the side more than usual. My focus has just been on all the things that are going to need to change when we have a second creature to follow around all the time.

I have been able to do somethings though. I reread Stephen King’s On Writing which is one of my favorite books. I think I was looking for some motivation to start writing, aside from my blogs. His story and tips hit home and always seem to get me off my ass and in front of a piece of paper or computer screen.

Speaking of writing I have started another blog. Learning Fatherhood is going to be a documentation of my struggles to be the best dad that I can be and trust me there are plenty of spills in that journey.

A dish straight from our garden, except for the pasta.

In the kitchen I was able to make a dish using my garden vegetables. It was a crookneck squash pesto pasta that was maybe a little dry, but pretty good overall. I was able to use the squash and basil from the garden and was pretty proud that I had made a dish using my garden.  Actually I am really proud of our garden right now. We are starting to get veggies out and are even overcoming some problems. Our tomatoes are suffering from Blossom End Rot and we had to adjust our watering. Now we are starting to get our tomatoes to turn ripe without the leathery bottoms.

I've been cruising around in the TLC all summer

I have been using the summer weather to ride around in my TLC as much as possible. I need to make some time to start tweaking some things here and there on it. I have found some leak spots underneath it and need to tighten up where ever they are coming from. Really need to get a back seat made so that I can take the family our all at once, and get Dani driving it. I also want to move the spare tire to the rear and move the spare gas cans out of the passenger compartment as well.

Robby absolutely loves rolling through town in the TLC. Everytime he sees it he stops, points and dances until we put him in it.

One thing that I would like to make some more time for is to actually get the TLC out and onto a trail (or at least a dirt road.) My buddy Pat (Exploring NorCal) has been making me really jealous as I read about all his adventures. Soon enough though.

Well I’m off, hopefully to cross something off my list soon.