The Blog Returns . . .

Well, it never really left in the first place. I just haven't been updating it like I should. I have received many complaints on the lack of posting so I promise to deliver 2 posts a month in 2009.

Towards the end of summer we took on a couple house improvements. We (when I say we I mean us as a home not necessarily me) added a light to the dining room and cut down some trees. Tom, Debbie, Liz, and Ryan attacked the light in the house while Peter and myself chopped down some trees. The light people were very excited at the time to be put on the blog because I was active with it at that time. However, they didn't take very good pictures of themselves so we will honor them with a much sexier picture. Even though you can't see it here. They did an excellent job on the dining room and bath room lights.



2008 was the year to go HD. If you don't have an HD TV then you are really missing out on some great deals out there on TVs. We added our second HD TV as we couldn't pass up on the deals that we found on Black Friday. The 5 AM trip was an attempt to get a Kitchen Aid mixer that failed but we instead bought a TV which is and obvious big win. We have this same TV shown below except ours is located in our living room which is almost complete at this point. You'll have to come visit to see it.

Towards the end of the summer, we took a trip up to West Virginia to visit my family. It was a pretty long trip for a day. For some reason, I thought that I could get there in 3 hours but it definitely took a solid 4 and half. This trip coincided with the gas shortage in Charlotte which is still one of the dumbest things of all time. Gas was everywhere but Charlotte. It's the main reason that McCory lost my vote. Anyway, the trip was great visit. Elizabeth had the opportunity see many of places that I grew up. I have such great memories of West Virginia and it was nice to be able to share those experiences.

The below picture is of part of the Lake. The Lake is a place where we would all go over to feed the ducks, go fishing, or just to play. It's basically a little park within my grandparents community but it is a little more than that to me as it was always a fun time. A trip to visit West Virginia is not complete without a trip to the lake.

Who are those little people on the swings with Liz? Those are my cousins John and Will. There is a better picture of them below. We got to see them a good bit in 2008 as they came down for Thanksgiving and the Car Care Bowl. John like most teenagers loves video games but he is also loves karate and has an amazing hidden talent of playing the violin. Let's hope that he continues to find time for music. After all, Liz was a band geek too. Will is a ball of fun. However, be careful when playing games with him. He is a little sneaky and finds unfair ways to win. He met his match when he went up against Liz. She figured out his little tricks.

This is the bridge across the river to the high school. Yes, that sounds pretty strange but it's true. I imagine that it would be pretty cold in the winter. It's pretty old and little scary but I've also been across it many times. Across the bridge is a football field where Andrew, Dad, and I would always go to throw and kick the ball around. Andrew and I could kick 40 yard field goals on that field. We couldn't make any from longer than that. So, when a kicker misses anything shorter than 40 then they choked pretty bad.

West Virginia was a quick but fun trip. I was able to pick a nice supply of WVU gear as it is hard to come by down here. Liz also noticed that everyone up there loves WVU. It's hard to imagine if North Carolina had only one school. WVU is almost the only school in the state. Marshall is the only competition and it's not a fair one. There is no State, Duke, Wake, App, or ECU. It would be interesting if UNC was the only school in the state. We visited one store that had anything that you could imagine in WVU stuff. It was unlike anything that you can find in North Carolina for any of our teams.

One excuse for me not keeping up the blog is due to having UNC season tickets for the first time since I lived in Chapel Hill. There were 7 home games and we went to 5 of them. It kept us quite busy in the fall. We were either driving up to Chapel Hill on the weekend or doing something around the house because we would be gone the following weekend. We also added in trips to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday and a trip to Morgantown for the WVU/Cincinnati game.

Season tickets were pretty fun overall. We were 3-2 as fans. The first game was a wash because of the crazy Thunderstorm that came in. We ended up leaving after the second delay. We had fun pre-gaming at Ham's in the afternoon as we took in the first games of the year. The Virginia Tech game was pretty good and the team would have easily won had our QB not gone out with injury. The Notre Dame game was a blast as there were tons of Irish in the stadium. I don't understand why UNC will build temporary stands for visiting fans on the field but won't do that for their own fans. It does not make sense. We escaped with that win. We (UNC football team) didn't show up for the NC State game. It's like I said at Thanksgiving "Our team beat all of the good teams and choked against the bottom of the league." Overall the season was fun and we'll be there again in 2009.

The trip to the WVU game was a fun trip. Andrew, Lindsey, Liz, and I went up. I forgot to even mention that Andrew is now engaged. Congrats to him and Lindsey! She is very cool person and I don't think that Andrew could have done better. I will have a picture and more on her in my next entry.

Our trip to Vegas was with the Kipkes and Crafts. I love Vegas. I have to say that I was not very lucky this time. I lost all of the money that we took to gamble with. I did poorly at the tables but hit some football games. I should really stick to the football games but the tables are so much fun. I learned a lot from Kipnasty on the trip. He is a Vegas vet and I feel pretty comfortable playing all the games now. I especially enjoyed craps. I will be better prepared for my next visit out there.

In the next post I'll discuss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Meinke Car Care Bowl. I leave you with one last picture. There is something truly amazing in this picture. It may take a little work to figure out. If you can't see it then you'll have to ask Andrew because he knows.