New Toy Hauler

Well it came to pass. The Ford F150 finally got to the point of where it was nickel and diming me. I didn't want to put any more money into it. He needed: Tires $800, brakes: $400, fix a couple of transmission and coolant leaks (spots on the driveway) probably another $500, corroded battery cable, $350 and the list goes on. All the repairs would have cost more than $2000 (more than what the truck's worth) and I'd still have an old 10 year old truck with parts waiting to fail. The very very sad part about it was that I only got $500 on trade-in, while I was expecting at least $1500. I really didn't want to hassle selling it private party, so I really should have donated it and got more benefit from a tax write-off. Anyways, I have a new 06' Tundra sitting in the driveway and couldn't be happier. Tundra's aren't cheap, but I got it for about 700 above invoice along with a 3000 cash back incentive. I think I did well, but could have done better with those slimebag dealer sales people. They should have paid me to take their 06' stock of the lot! Anyways, the only thing I dislike about this truck are the monthly payments all over again...

2nd tooth OUT!

I thought it would be a while for another one to fall out, but 1.5 weeks later a tough apple and he's lost another one. We couldn't find it either. Strong possibility that he swallowed it while eating an apple. Good news is the adult tooth for the one he lost a couple weeks ago is starting to show.

first tooth - out - lost!

This thing has been wiggling in his mouth for about 2 months. Every day we would watch it shift, shift and shift hoping that it would fall out while we were watching. Well it finally happened, but somewhere between Disneyland, Denny's and home, it fell out. We could not find it :-( When he told us about it, we were on the way home and immediately pulled over, but it was probably lost somewhere else and wasn't noticed until we were driving.

Tonight, a Polaroid picture of the gap in his mouth goes under his pillow. Tomorrow, a $5 bill and a lollipop will appear. It's still okay for 5 y.o.s to believe in the tooth fairy.

Second of Two posts

Crap, I had written up my boat restoration, but lost it. I'm too tired right now to re-type what I did to the boat but here are the pictures anyways. In summary early 90's Seda Glider - Fiberglass:

New Seamline (black strip) that helps hold the boat together. 4 weeks of work.

New Deck Rigging (bungees used to hold gear on to the deck). 2 nights of work.

New Rudder System, hoses, cables, foot controls done twice because the cable was too short the first time. 2 weeks of work.

New hatch cover

New seat back

Polishing and 303 protectant applied.

I bought the boat on the cheap, but I put a lot of time and money into it. I don't think I would find a newer used boat cheaper unless I was really lucky. I guess it was more for the learning experience as I now know how my boat is built and runs should something go wrong.

First of Two posts tonight.

It was a really December since Thanksgiving. I did a training race On Dec 2, where we finished right in the middle of the pack, about where we expected. I have a new teamate who's pretty enthusiastic but even keeled - more importantly, he's about my speed. I have half a dozen races planned out for 07' and it should be good.

Since that race, it was time to focus back on family and it's been all holiday, non-stop, up until this week. As planned, my wife had finished all of her shopping in Hawaii where we spent Thanksgiving at my parents place. Somehow we got hit with a lot of bills in December (as to be expected in any household around Christmas), so I tried to keep my personal spending in check. Its now January and I still don't quite feel caught up. With the extra days off for Christmas and New Year's, I've taken to cleaning up the garage, arranging tools, building shelves, organizing, hanging light fixtures, putting things in boxes so that when the Christmas lights and ornaments get put away, they'll have a place to go. So far, job well done, the garage is about 75% of how I would ideally like it to look. I just have to keep plugging away at it even though I have a lot of projects piled up. I hate buying tools and parts for projects only to have it sit there. Idle money sitting in a bag or box only to get utilized when I get around to it

Work has been extremely busy and stressful and I need to handle it a bit better, but I'm starting to ride and train again. This helps my blood pressure and stress levels.

Anyways, Kaleo had a really good Christmas with lots of presents. I've had to do some early spring cleaning and have several bags of toys for donation. The rule of the house at this stage is: "No new toys in until some old toys go out". There just isn't much room for a lot of clutter in this house! I'm just as guilty though, I have a lot of my own "toys" crammed the garage.

Taking pictures.

I'm really horrible at taking good pictures... but every once in a while I get lucky and the results are magic. California Adventure in front of Soarin'.