Mikey's World of Fun

Well, after many, many hours, weeks and months of camera research, this past weekend Lisa and I went out to get some hands on feel for the different models I had worked down to. When it was all said and done, I decided on the Canon G11. It is REALLY nice and has some many nice features. One of the deciding factors was the size. As much as I really thought I wanted a dSLR, after playing with them, I realized that I would hardly take it anywhere due to the size. Since a lot of my picture taking is out offroading, having a large camera to haul around was just not going to cut it. The G11 gives me most of the manual control of any dSLR but more sized like a compact point and shoot.

About my only concern was not having the zoom ability of a larger dSLR but I am going to try a teleconverter which should help in those cases. At this point I really need to take come classes/read about how different functions work in manual mode. Thinks like shutter speed, ISO settings, etc., etc., etc. I have a lot to learn but am looking forward to improving my photo skills. I have a fairly good ability to find great shooting locations and subject, I need to work more on getting the shots that really pop.

Well, I thought I would share my excitement. See ya...

Well, we are just about ready to head out for an overnight camping trip. Going to the Anza Borrego area. This will be our first overnight trip with Ellie. She has done day trips but never overnight. Heck, it was end of Aug. that she had ever stepped paw into the Kamparoo trailer. LOL

Should be a fun and interesting trip. All of this is prep for a trip we are looking to do over Thanksgiving weekend. Looking to go to Panamint/Death Valley area. Would like to take the pup but wanted to make sure this whole camping thing worked for her before doing a multiday trip.

Off we go... :-)

Well, this all started July 5th, 2009. Going to bed, we noticed the carpet wet in front of the closet. Figuring this was not good I tracked it down to a broken fitting on the pump for condensed water output. Luckily we caught it early and the water damage was limited to the master and 2nd bedroom closets. The A/C people came out the next morning and took care of things with a new pump. I tried setting up fans to dry things but by that evening it was apparent it would take more time and we did not want to risk mold issues.

That evening Quick Dry came out and pulled up the carpet and removed the pad from the affected areas. They setup all the drying equipment. We ended up having to sleep in the living room for two nights. Blah! I really love our bed!!! The insurance adjuster came out Tuesday afternoon and checked things out. They took care of things and wrote us a check, minus our deductible, to put things back they way they were. Very nice to have them take care of things so quickly.

With check in hand, we starting thinking, we had been wanting to replace the carpet in the master bedroom and hallway for a couple years. I figured we would only have to pay about half the cost out of pocket at this point. Okay let's do it. We check at Home Depot but was looking at a 2-3 week process and we didn't want things torn up that long. I booked an appointment with Empire Today, having seen their commercials for years. We set it up for Friday evening to look at samples.

Well, now that we are looking at having to tear the room apart for carpet, this would be a good time to repaint the room, something we have wanted to do as well. With samples in hand, we decided on two colors. Friday night came and we found a carpet style and color we liked. Both of the paint choices would work with it. Lisa finally said, lets go bold and do the darker of the two.

Okay, with list in hand, off to Home Depot I go Saturday morning. Lisa dropped Ellie off at doggie day care, so we would not be in the way. Supplies in hand, we start prepping the room, pulling wall plates off, taping up the window and removing the base boards. With everything ready to go, we start painting. Now Lisa has never painted before, so I walked her through the basics of using paint pads. I did the high stuff and she, the low stuff. The first coat was the hardest, since it was sucking up the paint. We used almost a full gallon on the first coat. We took a break and when ready, we started the second coat. It took half the time and 1/3rd the paint. We are happy with the results and glad we chose the darker of the two colors.

Sunday we go up to pick up new base boards and paint for them. Get home and fit all the boards. Being one of the hottest days of the year, Lisa had the idea of painting them inside with the A/C on, like we did for the wall paint. Hummm... good idea! I took care of painting them and that evening we installed them. Nice! We put new wall plates on the outlets and things are looking good. That's it for the day.

Monday Empire was going to install the carpet. They got there about noon and worked until 5pm. The carpet looks great and is really plush! Now the joys of putting all the furniture back in. At this point we get everything back but are sore and tired from 3 days of work. Are we happy, yep. Was it worth it, definitely.

Though hard to photograph, here are a few pics of things finished up.

http://gallery.lisaandmike.org/mas…

Rant On...

I am in disbelief yet again. What type of person is it that you see your sports team win the Championship, so lets go out and trash our town? WTF!!! Is everyone in LA just a fucking moron? Maybe all of those welfare sucking scum bags should go out and get a real job, actually pay for things and get a clue that someone has to pay for the damage and destruction they cause. How would you like it if you have a group of people over at YOUR home and after a big game, they trash the place, burn and loot YOUR home, damage YOUR cars and such? You would be in an outrage over this.

Why the fuck do you think it's okay to do this to other peoples property? Guess who pays for all of this, you dumb fuck? ME and every other tax payer in CA. My taxes go up, my insurance goes up, products I buy go up, so it can cover the costs of cleaning this crap up and making thing whole again.

Get a fucking clue!!! I can not stand LA and if someone is going to drop a bomb on the US, I hope that's the first place they hit. Anyone who took part in that crap last night, do us all a favor and go hang yourself. Save us tax payers and property owners a lot of hassle.

What losers!!!!

My rant is off...

Well, I am not sure how I manage not to setup the same security items in Lisa's profile, on our laptop, as I setup in my profile. Due to this oversight, the laptop manage to get some malware/virus type crap that I so far have spent 8 hours trying to remove all traces of. I am still not done and I have used 6 different virus/malware/spyware removers. Agggggggggg!!!!! I have f'n computers sometimes.

Because I did this right up until bedtime, my mind was going 100mph all night so I tossed and turned and did not get a relaxed night sleep. Somebody needs to go out and shoot Microsoft for making an OS so full of holes, it allows this crap to happen.

Wish me luck today as I continue to weed through this mess....

Well, 2008 is almost behind us. What a fast year it has been. It has been filled with many ups and downs but overall, it wasn't a bad year. Here's kind of a short recount of what I/we have done this year.

Jan - Ended 2007 in the hospital and the first part of Jan recovering from whatever it was I had. I would really like to avoid this, this year.

Mar - Celebrated my 40th birthday by traveling across the Mojave Road with some friends we met off of Expedition Portal. It was my/our first overland adventure and really set into my mind what I have been desiring to do for many years. Lots of great pics and memories.

Apr - Celebrated Lisa's 36th birthday. I believe this was the month the house Lisa and Donna were trying to sell finally closed its sale. Started our process of refinancing our house to get out from under the Pay Option ARM I had.

May - Celebrated our 1st anniversary and did so taking a trip to San Luis Obispo and Monterey with the San Diego Miata club. Had a great time and a wonderful trip. It was hard to think it had been a year since our wedding. Getting home from that I turned around and did a trip to Prescott, AZ for a trailer testing for Overland Journal magazine. It was a neat adventure and got our Kamparoo and Cherokee in a magazine. Too bad I had a cold during this time. We also closed the refi on the house so that was finally out of our hair.

June - Decided that the '64 Chevy truck I had was not what I wanted to build as a project so we bought a 1968 Chevy truck and sold the '64. '68 is my favorite truck year and it seemed to make sense putting time and money into what I really wanted. My wonderful wife gave me the okay to do so as well.

Sept - After many months of working with our artist, Lisa and I met Sarah and Dawn (who flew out from Chicago) in Las Vegas and the three of us had our tattoos done by Dawn. It was a very cool experience and we all get exactly what we wanted. Months later we all are very happy with them. Got involved in building an electric powered '27 Model T Roadster to race at the Nationals in Sept. The build crew (4 of us) built the car in 6 weeks and took 3rd place. We also set a world record (since broken) at this meet. Was a very cool project to work on.

Oct - When with the San Diego Miata club to Oktoberfest in Big Bear. It was a great long weekend away from everything and just hanging out. We did a Pinzgauar offroad tour which was a lot of fun. Looking forward to this trip next year.

Nov - Went to Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with Sarah and Paul. We had a great time seeing them and we did a little day trip offroading too. Never a bad thing in my book. Bad part was after that weekend, we all ended up getting sick due to a coworker at Lisa's work.

Dec - We attended the Christmas Cruise for Kids car show and helped raise toys and money for the cause. We lucked out and it did not rain the day of the show but it sure did the day before and after. We just returned from a three day trip across the El Camino Del Diablo trail in southern AZ. It was a great trip and our first by ourselves. All went well and it was kind of nice to not have to worry about anyone else's schedule. Right now we are getting ready for Christmas with family. Bad news of Dec. was that Lisa found out her company is closing her office in Feb. 2009 and we don't know if she will be placed elsewhere in the company or have to find something outside. Sucks for someone coming on 13 years with them. This has kind of put a negative undertone on things as we really can't plan anything for next year until we get her job situation figured out.

I guess that highlights the bigger things that we did in 2008. It sure was a busy one. Not sure what 2009 is going to hold in store for us but it is shaping up to be a stressful one. Job insecurity is something I have a hard time deal with. We'll get through it but it's going to hold its own challenges.

Something I notice as I get older is how quickly time passes. I mentioned this to someone at work and it was put into this perspective, life is like a pendulum in that each sweeping motion represents a year. In the beginning the years take longer to sweep back and forth. As time goes forward, the pendulum takes less time to sweep across its plane, hence the quicker year. It continues to do this until it no longer moves. In a way life mimics this as I remember as a child how a year took forever. Now it just seems like yesterday we celebrated the New Year and here we are again, just over a week away from doing it again. Maybe that's just my perspective on things.

Everyone have a happy holiday season. Enjoy whatever time you can with friends, family and loved ones. Live true to yourself and enjoy what life has to offer. Peace, love and happiness.

Okay, the time has come, Lisa and I found a Wii for sale locally at Toys-r-us of all places. We called and they had two and in the 40 minutes to get down there, we got the last one. $250 for the standard Wii, 1 controller, Wii Sports, etc. Based on what we found online and that Lisa looked at all the locations Nitendo said that had them, this was the only place locally to get one. Price seemed good so we said what the heck. Got home and spent the last 3 hours playing.

So far here are the stats between Lisa and I,

Bowling, Mikey kicking butt
Tennis, Mikey somewhat better
Golf, we're about even with the edge to Lisa
Baseball, about even
Boxing, Lisa is killing me, 2 KO's so far (I knew never to mess with her *grin*)

We have gotten in on our wireless network, checked the weather and news, did the latest update and such. It's getting time for us to wash the Miata for tonights Moons over Miatas run to the desert.

We look forward to playing against Sarah and Paul via the Internet, once we figure that part out. I also thought there was a way to surf the web from the Wii but haven't figured it out yet. Any help?

Future plans are to get a Wii Fit so we can do some exersise. At least the Wii makes you work somewhat by moving around, so it's a start.

Well, a lot of things have been going on since my last update so I figured I better do one. Let's see, in my last update Lisa and I were getting ready to take our first anniversary trip. It turned out to be a wonderful time. We enjoyed our time and it was wonderful driving down Hwy 1 in the Miata. The Madonna Inn was really cool and the rooms are just out of this world. It was a great way to spend our first anniversary. You can check out pictures from this trip at http://gallery.lisaandmike.org/slo…

I can finally talk about a trip I did just after we returned from our anniversary. I was invited to participate in a trailer test for the Overland Journal magazine. It was held in Prescott, AZ. I was taking our Kamparoo trailer over to Prescott because Kamparoo could not get a unit down from Canada in time. They paid my expense so outside of my time, it was a free trip. It was really cool to meet everyone involved and knowing I would see our trailer in the magazine later in the year. Well, to my surprise it was in the Summer issue I received yesterday. Yeah! I can finally break my silence as I was sworn to. Pictures are at http://gallery.lisaandmike.org/tra…

During our trip we finished up the refi on our house and adding Lisa to the title. Yea, it is now ours... okay the banks but our names are on the title.

Since all of this, I was finally going to start to work on the '64 Chevy pickup I have had on the side of the house for the last couple years. I went out and picked up some used parts that I was going to swap in. The day after I picked these parts up I ran across a deal on a '68 Chevy truck, which I could not pass up. 1968 is my favorite year truck and the one I found was basically a one owner vehicle. It runs and drives well for something 40 years old. Since it was going to cost some money and a whole lot of time to get the '64 on the road, it made more sense to buy the '68 and sell the '64. I have been posting the '64 on Craigslist and a number of car forums and after a few weeks, finally found a buyer. He left a deposit and it picking it up this coming weekend. Once gone, I can start the transformation of the '68. Pics of both trucks can be seen at http://gallery.lisaandmike.org/tru…

I guess that's it for now. Oh, on a side note, I have started carpooling with a lady from work. She moved in about 8 houses down and had similar hours. Made sense to try this out. So far it's working out. See ya all later.

Mahalo!

It is hard to believe that one year ago today Lisa and I were flying out to Maui, to have our wedding two days later. It is hard to believe that one year since our wedding is up and what an incredible and wonderful year it has been. I look back and can not believe the wonderful trips we have taken, the great times we have spent doing whatever and truly feeling loved and accepted for who we are. We share such a special love and relationship, one that we can only wish everyone can find in their lives. Any time we have negative things come into our lives, whether from outside things or within ourselves, dealing with our pasts, we have never let this negative energy take hold in us. Together we have dealt with this stuff with openness, honesty and trust. We focus on the positive aspects of what we can do and not what we can't. We work on these things together, no matter how hard it may be to get out and share with the other. We continue to come out the other side better people and with a stronger relation.

A year ago I wasn't sure what our first year would hold for us. I know in my past marriage, the first year was full of drama, hurt, sadness and feeling like I was struggling between being a single person and now a married one. It was not a good first year and for a good part of the 10 years that followed, it wasn't much better.

Without a doubt, this past year has been the BEST year of my life. I have truly never been happier and have never been happier to spend my life with someone. I am so amazed with the relation Lisa and I share together. We do it with so much love, respect, compassion and understanding. We both know that neither one of us is perfect nor do we try to push the other to be so. We accept each other for who we are, how we are and what we are. We know that we will change and grow and give the freedom to do so. We know that both of us are doing whatever it takes to put our relation first, to know together, we are the most important people in our lives and feel no need to answer to anyone else. The strength of our relation comes from the strength of ourselves, from within.

This last year has brought a lot of changes in our lives but these have been positive changes for us. I look back and have the most incredible memories and could not imagine life being any less. We have done things we never would have thought we would do in our lives. We have made it through things that could have very easily created major drama or torn us apart but we never let this happen. We always put our relation first and work together on anything we face. It has been an incredible journey and we are looking forward to so many more years together. Who knows what life has in store for us but we take each day as it comes.

As I write this I am looking forward to our anniversary trip to San Luis Obispo and Monterey. The first two days/nights in SLO we are joined by people in the San Diego Miata Club. They do a trip to the Madonna Inn every other year and it just happened this year fell on our anniversary. So far we have over 30 Miata's going so it should be a great time. We are doing a Hearst castle night tour plus a number of other events. The last two days we are on our own to explore Monterey. Lisa has dreamed of traveling on the California coast so this trip helps to fulfill a dream of hers. She helped fulfill a dream of mine back in March with our overland trip across the Mojave Road. I think this is one of the biggest things about our relation, we want to fulfill each other dreams. We do make our dreams come true.

I am looking forward to starting our next year together and for so many more to come. I love Lisa with all that I am and truly happy the Universe brought us together. It may have had an unusual start but I feel some of the best relationship do. Who would have ever thought...

To my wife Lisa, I am so incredibly happy to share our lives together, to have the twinkle in my eye anytime I have a thought of you and to know I am loved beyond any words and knowing I feel the same about you. Here is to a incredible and wonderful past year and looking forward with anticipation to so many more to come. I love you and you truly are my dream.

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