The Latest News

2-9-2006

I LOVE UTAH!!! This is a great state. Today we went to Zion National Park to do a little site seeing and some hiking. I have been to Zion before, But I don't remember it being this beautiful. Its kind of hard to describe, so you will have to wait till I get home to upload the pictures. We met up with my parents for lunch and did a great hike called River Walk... Just beautiful.

After wards we had to hurry back to get ready for my new sis's show. She was performing in the dinner show and the main production, there will be a movie of that later. Previously, I had mentioned how awesome the Peter Pan production was. Well, it has been beat, the South Pacific production blows it away!!!

For starters, the story was better and the acting wasn't so kid-ish, the music also seemed a little better. However, non of that compares to the spacial effects for this show. First, they had and actual WWII jeep actual drive up on to the stage. The jeep popped up more a couple of more times during the show. Next, they had a live horse ride on to the stage... my wife liked that. Then they had a military duce and a half drive on stage to! What could be better? How about a tsunami on stage?! Remember those lagoons and water falls I talked about? Well, the crew has the ability to put the pumps into over time and cause the water fall roar. As a direct effect, the pools and small stream begin to fill faster then they can handle. The last pool is actually pretty shallow and the surface of the water is just below stage height. So when the wave of water gets to the bottom, the water over flows on to the stage and creates a awesome wave effect. There must have been a good 4 inch thick sheet of water on the stage... fricken cool!!! In addition they had people diving into those same pools just before hand.

And to finish the show off, the had explosions simulating bombs being dropped. Oh, and a Polynesian dance crew. The older dancer were pretty good, but didn't compare to this 9-year old fire dancer kid. He was doing some pretty crazy stuff, and managed not to set him self on fire.

What a day, this Broadway in the Desert thing just keeps getting better. Oh, and my little sis did a wonderful job as well. I actually got a decent picture of the stage and background this time. I will post all of that stuff later.

CDS

1-9-2006

WOW, what a day. Today, my wife and I left to go visit my sister-in-law preform in a musical production of Peter Pan. The catch is, its in St. George Utah! So, we caught a flight to Las Vegas and from there we took a shuttle ride to St. George. The shuttle ride was okay, but if given the choice to do it again, I would rather rent a car.

Any ways, once we got to St. George, we met up with Michelle's parents and had dinner before the show. My new sister wasn't there because she had to get ready for the show. After dinner we headed over to the amphitheater. HOLY CRAP!!! this place was awesome.

First off, I am not a big fan of musicals. I only go because that is what I married into. Plus, I am supporting my new sister. But I was blown away when I saw this. While the acting and singing was good, it was the special effects and stage that put this show over the top. Being an amphitheater, it was outside, but normally there is a background to the stage. Most of the time it is painted, but not here. They used the jaw dropping Utah land scape! They set up tee-pees for the Indian village, lagoons for the mer-maids and even a nice looking stone building too, and all of it as life size. All of that fades into the canyon wall that shoots up for a couple of hundred feet! And they would shine lights on it to add even more detail. I wish I could have taken picture to show you. Perhaps tomorrow I can sneak a shot before it gets to dark. Oh and fireworks at the end.

It was just a wonderful show. Little sis did pretty good too, she got to shake her rump as one of the Indians. If you ever get a chance to see a musical at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre in St. George Utah, do it, it's worth it. Tomorrow we see my new sis perform in South Pacific where there is suppose to be diving into the lagoons. It should be sweet. Thats all for now.

CDS

22-8-2006

Well, it finally happened. After about seven years of putting it off, the K-10 has got some new seats in it! I got them back in April and was supper excited, so I began installing them. I got about half way through the install when I realized there was an important piece missing... the adapter brackets! This is the piece that connects the seat frame to the truck... yeah, its kind of important.

About a month ago, the back-ordered brackets came in. This past weekend was the first free weekend we have had, so I finished the install. As always, my trusty right hand girl, Turbo, was at my side keeping motivated, what a whip cracker! The pics below show the old and new seats.

 Good thing Turbo was there!

CDS

16-08-2006

Hello all. My wife and I are happy to report that something is finally being done about our apartment. Today, the maintence at the Waterford Place was suppose to begin the testing our apartment for toxic mold. They are suppose to open up the wall and remove mold. After that an air scrubber is suppose to be installed. For the next threee days we are not allowed to enter the apprtment. After three days, we are suppose to know if the mold is toxic, if so... well, lets hope that doesn't happen. So here are some pics of our temporary new home. Waterford put us up in hotel till Monday Morning. 

 Oh, if your a Myth Busters fan, we tried the soad and mentos experiment. Didn't go as well as we were hoping, but it does work. We had mentos delivery problems. Check out the video below.

Thought I would try it in my mouth as well.

CDS 

14-08-2006

Over the weekend, my wife and I went on a camping trip with her parents. Our destination was the Santa Cruz Mountains to simply enjoy some sights and relaxation. My in-laws left on Friday while my wife, her brother and I went up on Saturday morning. We would have liked to go up on Friday, but work kept us confined to our cubicles for all 5 work days.

We left about 7 and would have made great time if it had not been for the traffic jam on HWY 50. We came to a dead stop and putted along for about 40 minutes. There was no sign of an accident like the CAL-TRANS board suggested, so we pushed on trying to make up time.

Matt enjoying the back seat

We met my in-laws in Monterey. My new dad, brother and I rented some Sea Kayaks and toured the coast via the ocean, while my beautiful new mom and beautiful wife decided to tour the coast on bikes. The guys saw plenty of wild life… almost too much. We almost ran right over endangered seals and otters multiple times. They would just pop up out of the sea kelp right in front of us. It was neat at first, but got annoying after a while. Since they are endangered, all people need to maintain a radius of 50 feet around the wildlife. Kind of hard to do when they surprise you like that. I didn’t bring the camera, but my beautiful wife caught a snap shot of the sea lions.

Oh! My brother in-law and sister in-law got Michelle and I a new digital camera! If you don’t recall, ours was stolen on the last day of our honeymoon. I was kind of upset about it, and I think my new bro was getting tired of hearing my whine… so he put an end to it. Thanks Guys!!! It’s even better than the camera we had before.

After returning the bikes and kayaks, we headed to camp.  My new father in-law works for HP and wow, does working for HP have some benefits. I came to found out that HP owns some property up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they operate the campground we stayed at for HP employees and family. In addition, the Santa Cruz Camp is not the only HP camp. They have a couple spread through out the nation and a couple around the world. Pretty cool I thought.

After setting up the tents and some dinner, it was smores time!!! My new in-laws take smores very seriously. So in and effort to find the best chocolate for our smores, we a had a smores tasting session of sorts. We had the good old Heresy’s chocolate, some Toblerone and some Swiss chocolate. The verdict, Heresy’s was the best for smores. In my opinion, the Toblerone was the best tasting, but the shape of the chocolate, triangular, is what killed it. After some air hockey in the recreation center with my brother in-law, it was bed time.

My Michelle's step father making some awsome smore's sticks

After breakfast on Sunday, we took a little hike up to see the reservoir that the camp uses for water. Then it was off to Santa Cruz for the Patagonia Outlet! I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to drag the in-laws though the store, but they came along and where good sports about it. Thanks Guys.

My wife enjoying a good book and breakfast

Me getting attacked by a tent

My wife tries to smile while her mom takes some more pictures... this time with the film loaded properly

We then grabbed lunch at a deli across the street right before we jetted over to my other set of in-laws in Saratoga. It was Michelle’s half-brothers birthday so we thought we would drop off his present and visit for a while. My half-brother is in to remote controlled planes, so we got him on of those.

Before we left, we went to the nearby school to give the new plane a test drive. He also brought one of his old planes. We started with the old plane to get a feel for the winds, and I was expecting a very a controlled and methodical flight. I was dead wrong. The minute this thing left ground, chaos ensued. First the plane would fly straight up and stall, then it would come straight back down miss the ground by a couple of feet. This pattern would repeat it’s self over and over again. While its doing this, the plane is turning towards us and we get dive bombed!!! I don’t know how close the plane came, but close enough that diving for the dirt was a sane option at the time. After it went for us, the plane headed for Matt and he definitely had to hit the deck. I plane missed him by about three feet… while he was laying down! Eventually the plane crashed and the terror attack was over.

Matt wanted to give piloting a shot, so he took the controls. He started off just as good as my half-brother in law, but only managed to get a couple of climbs and dives in before he hit a tree branch. The force of the impact caused the wing to shift and hit the rear mounted propeller sending out a shower of Styrofoam. The missing surface area grounded that plane for the rest of the day, and sadly we couldn’t get the new plane to work. Oh, well.

We said our good byes and drove back to Sacramento that evening. It was along day, but a fun one, and I may have a picked up a new hobby… model airplanes! Sure I was almost killed, but it was fun!!! When we arrived home, we found out that I didn’t lock the front door to my in-laws house… Sorry guys, I wont do that again. I then proceeded to come down off my Red Bull high and crash into bed. Aaaahhhhhh!!!!

CDS

6/8/2006

MMMOOOLLLLDDDD!!!!!! Can't belive it. Found some in our apartment on Friday and we have had it. Regardless if it is toxic or not, we are moving out of our complex. We have a couple options we like so far, so we will see what happens and I will keep you updated.