Mom, please take your seat...

Well, it finally happened... Mom now has a seat on the Turbo Rocket. Don't be fooled by that black tank that looks like a passenger seat, cuz it's not. It's the Boost Juice tank.

Before:



After:


A Triumph Gel Seat was added, along with a Triumph tall sissy bar and touring back pad, and a chrome luggage rack. Please note the passenger floorboards added for mom's touring comfort as well.

What you don't see in the pics is the fact that we relocated the Boost Juice pump and made room for a juice tank underneath the seat. It will make for a much cleaner look then where it was before.

Now, if we could just get rid of this snow, we'd be able to take this bad boy out for a little test spin.

10 Point Buck

Just got back from a great weekend of deer hunting in Southern Iowa. The first day out I managed to shoot 3 does. But the big salami came the following day, when I shot this beauty:


Not a bad deer for my first buck ever. It was shot with a .50 Caliber pistol from about 75 yards away. (Note the bandana around my neck) That's the team symbol of my sharp shooting pistol hunting crew. We call ourselves "The Pistoleros".

The DNR even payed us a visit and told us to shoot as many deer as we can this year, because Iowa is already severely overpopulated. He said everyone needs to fill out their tage 100%, or we are going to have a very very serious problem next year.

OK, fine. I'll hunt more.

Randomness

I got this link forwarded to me the other day from Tony Hakes, and I thought it was really funny. It's basically a website where you can upload pictures of people and turn them into dancing elves.

Here's one I threw together for fun:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1140074970

Let me know if you recognize anyone.
(FYI: Corky Thatcher is NOT one of them, although his twin brother is)

Catching Up...

I have a couple of things to blog about and not a lot of time, so I'm gonna kill a couple of birds with one stone.

First off... my trip to the smoky mountains with T Hakes. The trip was excellent. We had 2 600+ miles days, a couple of 400 miles days, managed to stay overnight in a dry county, ran into plenty of rain, and saw some amazing scenery. Here we are at 6:00 AM leaving Mount Carrol, IL:


Here's some of the awesome scenery in Maggie Valley North Carolina, about 1000 miles later:



Next topic is a recent purchase of ours. It's a nice little 34' machine that will add a little bit of entertainment value to our tailgating season, as well as enhance our vacationing possibilities. I call her "Cys Matters".

I have a TON of stuff coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm sure I'll have to give more updates. This coming weekend is Greg Jr's bachelor party that I will be hosting, weekend after that I'm going on a surprise birthday something, weekend after that Greg Jr gets married, weekend after that we break in the new CYs Matters on the ISU vs Oklahoma game, and somewhere in there I may start up a storage business with the purchase of some downtown property. I get tired just reading all of that.

I would also like to send out a Happy Birthday to Gramma C!

Smokin' (Not Ciggies)

A recent purchase of mine has been paying dividends for the past 3 weeks, and I wanted to share some of the meaty goodness with all of you. I'm not sure if there's a better way to spend $108 at Wal-Mart.

This is a picture of my propane powered. Great Outdoors Smokey Mountain Series Tower Smoker.


I joined a smoking meat forum online and have been getting some expert tips on how to properly smoke multiple kinds of meat, what kind of spices to use, what kind of wood chips produce the best flavor, and every other detail about meat that you can think of.

This past Friday I smoked a pork tenderloin for 14 of my closest poker playing friends, and judging by the amount that was leftover (0.0 pounds), I'd say it was a hit.

One thing that didn't make sense to me was that cooking a piece of meat for 6 hours makes it tender and juicy. I've been a die hard griller for many years, and I always thought that was the best way to cook meat. But, after a few runs with the smoker, I now know that "Low and Slow" creates the juiciest, most flavorful meat I've ever had in my life.

After spending about an hour on the smoking meats forum this morning, I wanted to try a popular new "snack item" in the smoking world called a "Fatty". What is a fatty you ask? I was wondering the same thing when I saw the topic online, and after a few explanations, it's very simple. A fatty is a 1 pound roll of your favorite sausage. Some smokers say they are a very addictive morsel of goodness, that gets put on the smoker for a snack, anytime they smoke a pork loin, or a brisket. They only take 2 hours, and they're great for breakfast.

Andrea and I decided to smoke a few fatties this afternoon. I wanted to smoke one naked (the sausage, not me... well.... OK, me too), so we could use it as the control group in our little experiment. It's important to know what the meat tastes like plain, or you'll never know if you're adding good flavor to the meat with all your rubs and various other flavoring methods.

For the other two, we rolled out the sausage to a size of a standard piece of paper (8 X 11) Then we put diced vegetables and cheese on the inside, and rolled them up, sprinkled them with a spice rub, and put em in the smoker.

The top tray is Andrea's fatty in the front, and mine in the back with a meat thermometer stuck in it. Fatty's must cook to an internal temp of 160 degrees. The naked fatty is on the 2nd shelf. Just below that is the water pan, with mesquite wood chips in it. For this smoking session, I used oak wood chips that are made from retired Jack Daniels barrels. They make dynamite smoke, and great flavor. You can't see it, but just below the water pan is the iron wood chips box, where all the thin blue smoke comes from.

MMMMM.... look at that smokey goodness:


Here's the finished product. Naked fatty on the left, Andrea's in the middle, and mine on the right. The difference between Andrea's and I, is that she added tomatoes to hers, and I stuck with green peppers, mushrooms, onions and shredded cheese.


I gotta tell ya. These fatty's were excellent, and now I know why people say they're so addictive.
Next on the smoking agenda is:

1) Whole chickens injected with cajun
2) BBQ beef ribs, that pull away from the bone
3) Beef Brisket
4) Lamb loin
5) Any other meat on the planet that comes within 5 feet of me.


...and FYI: I know how funny "Smokin a fatty" sounds. That's one of the main reasons I chose to blog about it. ;-)

March of Dimes Ride Iowa

I don't know if I can think of a better way of spending an 83 degree Saturday afternoon, then on a motorcycle. Which is exactly what I did, when I participated in the 1st Annual March of Dimes Ride Iowa this weekend. A $20 donation got you into the infield of the Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa where they had live bands, vendors, beer, food and about 1200 bikes (participants).

My friend Wendell and I spent about 3 hours there, and then got lined up for the ride to Prairie Meadows Casino. We rode through the town of Newton, where the cops had intersections blocked off, so we could ride through stop signs, and stop lights the entire way. The people of Newton lined the streets, and waved to us as we rode by. It was a very cool moment to see the people of Newton smile, after the hard times they've been enduring lately.

The ride to the Casino was amazing. We went through the rolling hills of Iowa farm country and through small towns where people stood on their front porches and waved to us. My favorite part of the ride was when I would come to the top of a hill and see bikes for miles ahead of me, and miles behind me in my mirrors.

We arrived at Prairie Meadows, and took some time to look at more vendor merchandise, took a stroll through the bike show, and talked to a lot of very nice people who participated in the ride as well. We drew for door prizes, and I'll be darned if I didn't win a $25 gas card to Kum-n-Go. My lucky streak continues on making Charity Motorcycle Rides profitable.

I didn't want my luck to end there, so I went upstairs to kick back a few brews at the Blackjack table. I was getting up to about $140 in profit, and wanted to make an exit, but I had a feeling the cards were going to get even better. 3 losses in a row proved me wrong, and I picked up $110 in profit, cashed out, and headed for home at 6:00.

It was a great afternoon, and my only regret is that I didn't have my digital camera with me to take pictures of all the cool bikes and people that I met.

CMN Poker Run

This past Thursday I was at Bike Night at Porky's and there was a guy handing out flyers for the 1st Annual Children's Miracle Network Poker Run. It was $20 per person, and you got free burgers / chips / pop all day, with the chance to win some prizes. I love poker runs because you usually get to meet a lot of nice people and the money goes to a great cause. Andrea and I geared up yesterday at 10:30 am, and headed for the Ankeny Wal Mart parking lot to get registered.

It was a beautiful day in the mid 80's, sunny, a small breeze, which is pretty much ideal for great riding. We took off with a group of 5 other bikes towards Saylorville Lake for our first stop of our 100 mile run. The object of this poker run was to make 5 stops, and at every stop you drew a chip out of a bucket, the chips were numbered 1 - 52 (cuz that's how many cards are in a deck), and the goal was to get the highest chipcount you could. What was my first draw? 1. As in One. The lowest chip in the bucket. I asked if there was a prize for lowest, and they said there was, but it was more of a booby prize. That became my mission for the day.

The next stop we were in for a nice little treat. That treat came in the form of a terential downpour. It came out of nowhere, and it felt like the drops were the size of golf balls. I had water overflowing out the top of my boots, and my freshly waxed bike was a complete disaster. But we pushed through it, and 5 excruciating minutes later then we were back on the sunny backroads rural Iowa, drying off as fast as we got wet.

We made all our stops, and were waiting for the rest of the bikes to get back so we could draw for prizes. In our first group of 5, the ladies counting the chips told us that as of right now, Andrea had the highest count, and I had the lowest, but there were still 7 - 8 bikes out that haven't had theirs counted.

Then it came time to announce the winners. The 3rd place winner for highest chip count was....... Andrea Kneifl. For that, she received a $25 gift card to Hy-Vee. Nice. The prize for lowest chip count goes to........ some guy named Doug. Dang! The guy beat me by 4 measly points for the booby prize.

After that, they drew for prizes with the tickets we purchased during registration. Andrea's name was drawn and she won this cool little motorycle clock. My name was drawn for sunglasses and a Sturgis Bandana. It was a great day, we met some very nice people, ate some good food, and actually took home some pretty sweet prizes. There's a pic of the prizes below.


Now, I don't like to think of a Charity Poker Run as profitable, but for $20 each, we made a pretty nice haul. Oh, and helped out a great charity. That too. ;-)

Relay for Life

I love to Blog about good news, good events, positively contributing to this planet, or stuff that's just plain fun to talk about. This post has it all, and I've been dying to write about it, ever since I got the pictures from Chad. So here we go....

Last Friday, there was a Relay For Life event in Waukee, Iowa to help raise money for cancer research. Chad and his family are big supporters of this cause because Chad's mom, and his brother are both survivors. The annual walk takes place for 12 hours. (6:00 pm to 6:00 am), and they have been participating for many years.

I have donated money to cancer charities ever since my sister Brigett, was diagnosed at age 29. I never have really felt the effects of cancer until it hit that close to home. I think it's a great cause, and I know my money is actually going to research, not just to pay a bunch of administrative costs, like some other charities. Sometimes it takes a wakeup call like that, to actually get people to start thinking seriously about a cure.

For the past couple of years I have purchased a luminary in honor of Brigett, for this event. The luminaries represent both people who have survived, and those who have had their lives taken. The luminaries run around the entire track. I believe they do that, because it adds a sense of purpose to the event. A visual representation of all the lives that the participants and donors are affecting. When people get tired, they can take a quick glance to their left and see why they're doing what they're doing. This is a picture of the luminary I bought for this year's event:


One other thing that was really cool about the event was the fact that Cory (Chad's Brother) was this year's Honorary Survivor. Here he is chatting with John McCain, who made a much-welcomed surprise appearance.


This is part of the team who put in 12 hours of overnight walking to make this event a HUGE success. The baton is Cory's because he was the Honorary Survivor.
Baton.... Relay.... Get it?

From left to right. Cory, Lindsay B, Lindsay W, Chad.
They do this event every year, and Chad made the ultimate sacrifice this time, by missing out on our monthly poker club. I don't care if you like poker or not, you gotta respect that. Excellent job guys, I feel honored just being a small contributor to this wonderful adventure.

By the way, is it just me, or does everyone in that picture look happy to be there, with the exception of Chad. Who appears to be suffering from a poorly timed bowel movement, or has taken a quick trip to Seering Gas Pain Land.

It's just an innocent observation, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who sees it.

New Seat

We have a motocycle trip coming up in May, and I felt it was time to upgrade my seat. If you know anything about motorcycles, then you know the best name in seats is Corbin. So, that's where I started. Scouring their website and ebay and all the authorized dealers I could find. I was fully prepared to spend the $1000 for a new one, then a gift was dropped in my lap.

I decided to post a message at my triumph message board to see if there were any new/slightly used ones lingering around that someone wanted to sell. There was, and it just happened to be red, and it came in the mail yesterday. It was a nice $600 savings, which the ol' bank account appreciates. What I didn't know was that the seat would be comfortable AND cool.

Here's my stock seat:


Here's my Corbin Rumble seat with color matched fiberglass:


Here's the flip up backrest in the "up" position:


Here's a view from the back:

I think it gives it a nice new look, with the stitching in the seat and the deepness of the seating position. Not to mention, it's one of the most comfortable seats on the market. My major complaint about putting a backrest on my bike was that it would ruin the look of the bike, and interupt the smooth lines from front to back. So, with this seat, you're just one wrist flick away from having a backrest to not having a backrest. Should make the trip that much more enjoyable.

Question: Does anyone know why they call it a Rumble Seat?

Answer: It's actually a Hot Rod term. Older cars used to have a Rumble Seat in them that would flip up around the trunk area. Corbin decided to steal that term when they made this seat.

California and Lyme

A few weeks back I took a trip with 6 friends to LA, 5 of whom I've known since 5th grade. It's our annual trip that we used to refer to as Spring Break, now we just call it SB. I think it's the over 30 version of Spring Break. My trip didn't start out too well. I flew into Dallas Fort/Worth at 11:45am and was supposed to leave at 12:45pm. Thunderstorms nearby decided to keep me there until 10:55pm. The one good thing that happened was getting my picture taken with Jose Canseco while we were waiting to board our plane. He was on the same flight as me to LAX, only he was sitting first class.

I hopped on a shuttle at LAX and met up with my friends on the Newport Beach Pier at 1:00 am. We had a blast until the bar closed thanks to numerous 1 oz drinks that come from Mexico.

One thing I observed is that the easiest job in the world, is probably being a weatherman in California. Every single day we were there it was exactly the same. Sunny, clear skies, 75 degrees, no wind. It was a motorcycle rider's dream come true.

The next day we were off to a hotel in Hollywood. We were 2 blocks off of Hollywood Blvd (the famous walk of fame with the stars on it). I feel lucky for all the people who have a star on there, because about once a day that star is covered on some type of bum excrement. Lucky.

The very first night, and probably within the first 2 hours of us being there, we were sitting on our patio, enjoying some fermented beverages, the 2 European senior citizins upstairs from us came down and said "Can you guys please be quite, we live upstairs and you're being awfully loud. This is our home." We're all thinking, great, this is going to be a long weekend, which will probably end in us getting kicked out. Then, an event, what I can only describe as an act of God, was dropped into our a lap. The old guy and his wife were walking through the courtyard and the lady fell off the steps backwards and cracked her head open. Not bad, but bad enough to cause a lot of blood to come pouring out.

One of my friend's, Tony Hakes, just happens to be an EMT, and when he saw the blood he offered up his services. The old man very graciously accepted his offer, just a couple hours after he had just gotten done yelling at us. Tony was upstairs for about 20 minutes, and upon his return he was carrying 3 bottles of wine. Cheap, $3 wine, but free wine, given to him by the old couple as a token of their gratitude. The very last thing the old guy said to Tony was "You are good guys, you can be as loud as you want as late at you want. Thank you." No, thank you old man, cuz you just made our weekend a hell of a lot better.

We got our picture taken next to our favorite actress. I just wish she had been there to give us an autograph.

(Just in case you can't read the name, it says Betty White)

On Saturday night we rented a Hummer limo and took it up the Pacific Coast highway, past Beverly Hills and up through Malibu and back. Now, I don't know if "Yelling at Trannys from a Hummer Limo" is considered a sport, but if it is, we could definitely achieve an Olympic Gold medal. That 3 hour trip was a blast.

Some other highlights include:
1) Seeing the Pooparazzi mob Ashley Simpson on her way into a club in Hollywood.
2) Surfing/boogie boarding at Manhatton Beach
3) Venice Beach (aka Muscle Beach) and all the wackos
4) Going to bar with a mechanical bull, and 3 of our guys riding it, and getting completely destroyed.
5) Late night talks with Bums


On a different note. We took our dogs into the Vet yesterday, and a blood test told us that Zella has Lyme Disease. There's 2 kinds, one that will make a dog feel sick groggy, and one that will kill them. Luckily Zella has the one that makes her groggy. She has 30 days of pills to take, and then she should be good as new. I guess it comes from ticks, so with all the construction / woods around our place, I'm sure there's insects galore.

I leave for Phoenix this Friday on a trip with my family to celebrate my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. We're going to attend our first NASCAR race. Looking forward to it.

Customer Pop

Just when you think you're done walking through snow, bang.... it snows on March 17th. Not cool. I'm sick of snow. I want to see my brown grass turn green. I want to pick up 1,200 dog turds in my back yard. I want to smell the exhaust of my lawn mower and weed eater. I want to grill and light up tiki torches. I want to get back to shorts and t-shirts. I want a clean truck.

I don't think that's asking too much.

In other news, the only TV that's operational in my house right now is a 19" SHARP that I bought when I was in 10th grade. Perfect for watching March Madness, the single greatest sports event in the world. Both of my big screen TV's decided to fry the lamps in the same week. I just got off the phone with Customer Support and they said there's a known problem with a faulty balast in both of my TV's (They're both exactly the same model, only difference is their screen size), and they'll replace the lamps/balasts for free. I'm supposed to be getting 8,000 - 10,000 hours off of one lamp, so watching TV for 6 months doesn't really add up to 10,000 hours. They're also extending the standard 1 year warranty to 2 years, just in case.

To my surprise, replacing the bulbs is a "do it yourself" job. I took the old lamps out in about 20 seconds each. It consists of taking one screw off of a little trap door on the left side of the TV, then removing the bulb contraption by it's easily accessible pull handle.

Something that I thought was a little odd, is when the customer service rep told me to email my receipts into customer support, and in the subject line I need to put "Customer Pop". I guess that's the sound the lamp makes when it blows up.

Work is going really good. Like, beyond good.... good. For those of you who know where I work, you know that we're a company who relies on loaning money to sub-prime customers as our main source of revenue, to the tune of about 100 billion in receivables, give or take a few million. My company is replacing it's origination and servicing system (which are the systems the loans are booked and serviced on) starting in a couple of months. My database team has been chosen to lead the reporting conversion, and it's causing quite the disruption throughout the Chain of Command.

Since we're not officially under "IT", the entire technology group is wondering why they didn't get to take on this high profile project. Well, I got news for you IT nerds.... you're too nerdy, and you take waayyy too long to get things done.

This is going to be a really good project to showcase the skills of my team, and show the company how talented we are. If this project goes well, or I should say, when this project goes well, it will open up a lot of doors for my team. We've already been gaining some fantastic recognition lately, and this is just icing on the cake.

I also have a new guy hired who will be starting on the 26th of this month. He's much needed and I can't wait for him to start. I have 1 more opening to fill, and then I'm done recruiting. For awhile hopefully.

Snow Day

Just like back in the days of going to school, we had a snow day at work on Friday and for some reason, I was more excited now then I was back then. Maybe it's because I actually get paid to stay home now. Either way....

I started off my day with a trip to the gym in the morning and I had to ram through about 4 feet of piled up snow at the end of my driveway to get out of it. I barely made it out, but with 4 wheel drive, you can pretty much do anything you want. Right? So I thought. On my way back home, getting in wasn't quite as easy.
That, my friends, is the picture of a 4 wheel drive vehicle, with 0 tires touching the pavement. I had to dig that thing out for about an hour. There was so much snow compacted beneath that vehicle, I had to basically chip it away with a spade little by little. What does that remind you of dad? If you replace the Explorer with a 1976 Trans Am and add about 6 feet of snow beneath the vehicle the memory might come back to you.

After I was dug out I went to the casino with a couple coworkers. We bet on some dog races and some horse races for a few hours and really didn't have much luck. I think I lost about $20. We went to the blackjack tables and in about 30 minutes I was up $125 and my boss was up $165 so we called it quits and had a few beers at the Casino bar while we waited for our other companions to finish up.

We scooped up Andrea on our way back home and went and played some darts, ate some pizza and drank some beers at a bar called Stix. Greg and Steph and Chad and Lindsay came a little later and we had a grand old time.

One thing that still blows my mind is how someone didn't lose an eye with Andrea throwing darts. I guess I'll just consider myself lucky and call it good.

Ice Storm Saturday

What do you get when you cross an ice storm outside, a garage with a propane heater and box full of trailer parts? You get 4 hours of fun. That's what.

I've done a lot of home improvement projects over the past 7 years, and in those 7 years, I've always driven a Ford Explorer. Great for bringing home things such as toilets and barstools. Bad for bringing home drywall, plywood, and 2X4's longer then 10 feet long.

It's also bad for my two trusty friends Kris and Chad(pickup owners). I've relied on them a LOT over the past few years to help me out with hauling things here and there, and I finally found a way to relieve them of their pickup related duties.

I bought a nifty little 4' X 8' trailer that's capable of hauling 1500 lbs. The great people of Harbor Freight provide a very good trailer at a very good price ($275 with shipping). Only problem is, it comes looking like this:



But, if you add in a new socket/wrench set that was purchased with gift cards that I received at Christmas time from my family:

4 hours, one smashed thumb, 2 cuts, and a goose egg on the forehead later, this will somehow appear out of that pile of parts:

I still have to get it licensed and put in some floor boards to give it a nice base, but other then that, it's officially ready for action. The really good thing about this trailer, is that it doesn't sit there like that and take up an entire stall in my garage by itself. Let's face it, nobody want to waste garage space on something that you use 10 - 20 times a year.

That's where this feature really comes in handy:

It takes up 19 inches X 4 ft of floor space when folded up and placed against the wall. Not even 8 square feet is being wasted. Garage Men of the world unite and high five while we drink beer and talk about guns and motorcycles.

I know what you're thinking. I won't be able to run boards the full 8' length of the trailer because it had to fold up. So, I'll have to cut the 8 foot boards in half where it needs to folds. Big deal. It's well worth it to have the folding feature.

Honestly, did any of you think about that?

That's what I thought.

Do you feel Manly?

My man's room is done. Finally.
I've had many requests to post this project, and I'm finally gonna follow through, just minutes after I finished getting it organized and cleaned up.

Here's the outside of the door. Notice the security punch code? That's the only way in. No way you're gonna get through that 2 inch steel door, or the plate steel that I'm gonna cover the outside walls in. But, if you wanna give it a try, I have a clip full of 14 hollow points waiting for you. ;-)





This is what it looks like when you step into the room. It's 6 feet wide and 22 feet long. Perfect size and space for a Gun Room. In my personal opinion. I textured the walls and put in knotty pine panelling on the ceiling and two end walls.






Here's a closeup of the texture. It's called slashcut, and the paint is no other then "Gun Metal Grey".



This is the first bench you come across when you enter the room. It's 6 feet wide and covered with a granite-look-alike laminate countertop. The bench is used for cleaning as well as displaying a few of my prized possessions.





The second bench is identical to the first, but this bench is used for reloading my shells. I inherited Dad's reloading equipment so I could keep ammo costs down for my Smith and Wesson Revolver. Each bullet costs $2.50 from the store, but when I reload, that costs goes down to $0.80 per shell. That also, automatically puts me at the mercy of dad anytime he wants some bullets made. I'm just a phone call away, and I'm sure he planned it that way.





This is the view from inside that I like. The door is perfectly trimmed in knotty pine and the color is a clost match to the walls. On the right hanging on the wall is my trusty Winchester semi-auto shotgun that I've had since I was 16. Hanging below that is Grandpa Eddie's double barrell shotgun that he gave to me Thanksgiving 2006. Notice there's one slot left on the rack? That will be filled this summer with my new goose gun. On the left wall there's a couple hunting pictures hanging up. A picture from the trip that I blogged about in my last posting, and another one when Dad, Tyler, Rambo, Zella and I had a good day of hunting.



"But, Rich... where's all the bullets you've been making in this shiney new room?"
Well, I've made 20 so far, and that's just because that's all the tips that Sportsman's Warehouse had in stock for my gun. No fear, there's more on the way via the internet. The bullet on the left is a factory 325 grain Hornady round, and the bullet on the right is one that I made. Mine is 275 grains and has a much deeper hollow point, which will do more damage on impact then the factory round.

Hunting 101

It's been awhile since I've updated my blog, but I've been pretty busy. Now that things have settled down a little bit, look for me to post a couple times a week.

The real reason for this post is to share an unbelievable hunting trip that I was lucky to experience with my dad and my nephew at Swanson Hunting Acres in Niobrara Nebraska.

We left Sioux City on Wednesday afternoon after an hour of clay pigeon shooting. We felt like we needed to warm up a little before we set out to kill the real thing. We made a pitstop at the Castle Bar in Newcastle, Nebraska. The town where I spent the first 10 years of my life. When we entered the bar, everyone in there knew dad, of course. I think they actually have his stool that he used to sit in, gold plated. After some refreshements, we were on our way to the lodge in Niobrara, about 65 miles west of Newcastle.

To our surprise, the lodge was unbelievable. Stuck out in the middle of nowhere at the end of a questionable dirt road. This place had 6 rooms upstairs, and 8 rooms downstairs, all with double beds, and their own bathroom. Tyler and I bunked up, and left dad to snore by himself across the hall. If I had to guess, I would say the lodge is probably about 6,000 square feet.

This is a picture of the main dining / TV area. From left to right it's Betty (the 75 year old spitfire that runs Swanson Acres), Craig "Rooster" Nelson (our guide and dog handler), the Cook, Dad and Tyler. This place was more unbelievable then I can explain. This picture does absolutely no justice to the cedar cupboards and the knotty pine ceiling. To our surprise, we ate prime rib for dinner... which nobody complained about.



This is Betty and JR(a Jack Russel Terrier) and Tyler looking at some squirrels out the window. Betty runs a tight ship there, and she is one of the nicest hosts I've ever met. You'd never know that she's 75 because of the amount of work that she does in a day. JR also earns his keep at the farm. It's his job to kill the rats in the pheasant barns, and the day that we were there, he killed 12.



This is the other wall of the lodge, with Jimmy's (a guy who works at Swanson Acres) trophies mounted. He went on an African Safari last year for 9 days and bagged 6 different animals. The Caribou in the middle was attained on a hunting trip he took to Alaska. It was a pretty neat spread. Neat enough to make dad, Tyler and myself want to take a similar trip, probably around my 35th birthday, because the trip, along with mounting the animals, runs along the lines of $10,000.



This was my absolute favorite trophy of Jimmy's. It's a Golden Pheasant that he bought from a pheasant farmer a couple years ago. It's Cyclone colors, and if I ever come across one, I'm definitley gonna have it mounted for my game room. Look at it, in all it's beauty. I love it.


Hunting was great. We had fantastic weather in the morning and afternoon, and Rooster's dogs performed flawlessly. Here's a shot of me in the field with a pointer and a 2 year old black lab named Gabby.


This is Gabby's dad, Shadow bringing a bird back to Rooster. Shadow is THE best hunting dog I have ever seen. He's a pointing lab with a nose like a canon. He was very well behaved, and retrieved all 18 birds that we shot while he was working the fields.



This is Tyler displaying the results of our morning hunt. You can tell it's the morning hunt because his Rambo like shell holster is only 1/2 empty.



This is all of us after our afternoon hunt. Notice Tyler's shell holster is completely empty at this point. A pretty remarkable stat is Tyler shooting 36 shells that day from a single shot .410. All at different birds. He's holding up the black pheasant that he shot all by himself. A pretty good shot from about 75 yards away. One thing the picture is missing is a good view of dad's swollen hand. This will probably be the last picture you'll ever see of dad holding this gun, because it did a number on his hand that earned itself a permanent place in the gun cabinet, never to be touched again. I see a new semi-auto in dad's future.


We left Swanson Acres around 3:30 with a cooler full of birds, a flock of stories, and a promise to Betty that we will be making a return trip next year. We decided that this could be the start of a new tradition for us. A fantastic time was had by all, and I couldn't think of a crew that I would rather be hunting with, then the 2 fellas wearing hunter orange in that picture above. I'm counting the days till our next trip out there.

You're 30? Seriously?

Yes, I am 30, and I gotta tell ya... not much different then being 16, mentally.

You feel me on that dad?

Dad actually had a pretty good quote he told me on my birthday that sums up my life about as good as you can in one sentence. "Aging is not an option, but maturing is".

It's been awhile since I've updated by blog, but it's been a whirlwind ever since we moved into the house. I've been working nonstop on pretty much everything you could imagine. Not to mention, I've got a brand new job that I'm still getting used to. But, as far as jobs go, this one is definitely one of the best. I love going to work. I love being at work. I like every single thing about my new job, even the stuff that I shouldn't like. It's the perfect fit for me, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I could stay at that company till retirement.

Onto the house. Since September 1st, my new full-time job title has been "Head Groundsman". My main purpose everyday was to keep the sod adequately watered. Not much fun. At all. But, here we are, 4 weeks later, and the sod is green, and only requires water once every other day. Mission accomplished.

I've also managed to paint and clear coat my garage floor, install wall organizers, install a slick new mailbox, paint my basement floor, drywall 1,000 sq ft in the basement, hang all the blinds, put together misc shelves and about a million other things that a new house requires.

Pictures to follow sometime when I'm not buried in a pile of drywall dust.

Which is about to happen in 5... 4... 3... 2...

The Iowa State Fair

Andrea and I spent the day at the Iowa State Fair with Chad and Lindsay, and it was definitely one of the best/most interesting times I've ever had at the fair.

One reason, came as we were leaving the fair and decided to walk through the petting zoo. We came upon the miniature donkey exhibit and there were two male donkeys, who appeared to be playing. Upon further inspection, it became obvious that we stumbled upon some sort of barely legal, somewhat homosexual, and incredibly interesting donkey incest game.

The older male donkey was biting the younger donkey on the back and legs, in an attempt to mount him. The younger donkey kept running around the ring playing the best defense he could, and after a few minutes of dodging big brother, he would stop and do a pretty nasty donkey kick in an effort to get the older one off his back. He kicked hard too. Like, hard enough to probably knock out a full grown man. Problem is, he kept missing his target. So, the biting kept going on and on, and the kicking would soon follow. Chad and I watched like 2 kids watching a cartoon. And to make the situation a little weirder, there was a pot bellied pig in the same kennel. He had to be pretty pi$$ed about having those two jackasses for roommates.

The other reason this fair rocked was for the simple fact that I came back with more money in my wallet then what I left with. Chad informed me of this booth that was sponsored by a Credit Union, and they did "Fear Factor" type stunts for cash. All you had to do was sign a waiver and be prepared to eat something or get something dumped on you....

We got there and got our waivers signed as a pretty big crowd was forming. They started out by just throwing out t-shirts and $1 bills and a couple other trinkets to the crowd. Then they paid some guy $5 to put lipstick on him, then gave him $10 if he ate the lipstick. He did... he even chewed it. Next up was paying someong $5 to drink glass of lemon juice. Then he asked the golden question "Who's hungry?" My arm shot up in the air like I was trying to dislocate my shoulder. The guy saw me... pointed at me... then continued to scan the crowd... then he came back to me and said "You... come up here?". Asked me my name and asked if I was allergic to shellfish or any other types of food.

He said he was going to pay me $20 / glass to drink stuff that may not taste that good. He said they would be about 2 oz each, the equivalent of 2 shot glasses. I agreed.

First off... liquid smoke. It went down pretty easy, but the aftertaste was horrible. $20 in my pocket nonetheless.

Next... raw oysters in some sort of thick oily liquid. Down the hatch they went, and they were actually pretty tasty. I didn't mind those at all. $20 in my pocket.

Next... habanero sauce. Thick and hot, but not too bad. $20 in my pocket.

Next... a double shot of lemon juice. FOr some reason, this one was terrible. I'm not really sure why, because when you think about it, it should be the easiest. $20 in my pocket.

When I thought I was done, he said that he'd give me another $20 to eat a spoonfull of Wasabe. I agreed. Licked it off the spoon, and when that stuff hit my throat, I thought I was gonna die. That stuff made my eyes water, and turned my stomach into a gurgling volcano.

Total of $100 in my pocket made it a little easier though.

Now, take all that stuff, and add it to 2 beers, a footlong corndog, chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of milk, and you got yourself a recipe for disaster. Which is brewing in my stomach right now as I type this.

I'm pretty sure around midnight tonight I'm gonna be feeling that habanero sauce again, only this time I'll be burning south of the border.

Other people got $100 to have catfish stinkbait rubbed in their hair, an iPod to a gril who let them paint her blue with housepaint, an X-box to a guy that dresssed up in pink clothes, and then let them cut his hair anyway they liked him, $100 to a girl who let the guys cover her in peanut butter and jelly. All of that was pretty funny because they rubbed so much of the stuff in their hair, which has got to be impossible to get out.

You can see pictures of the stuff here -> http://anythingformoneyiowa.com/highlights.htm
Someone was taking pictures of me as I was drinking those shots, so I might eventually be in one of the galleries.

A very memorable day at the fair with great company really completed this weekend for me.

Oh, and just in case you didn't notice... my use of the word jackasses above, in my opinion, was very well played.

Day 90

I haven't been able to give photo updates lately because the house has been locked up everytime I go over to check it out. I know they're doing stuff, because I see new boxes showing up in the dumpster outside the house.

We have the final walk through this Wednesday, which means everything should be done, with the exception of the sod. The builder told me the sod would go in the day before we close, or the day of closing, weather permitting.

I will be able to give you an update of the deck, when its done, but other then that. Probably nothing until Wednesday. One major thing they did last week was putting in the gutters and downspouts. I completely forgot about that needing to happen. But it did, and it wasn't very exciting.

Until Hump Day..... Adios.

Day 85

Our first kitchen appliance has been installed:


We have black Maytag appliances (stove, dishwasher and microwave), and a Stainless Steel refrigerator with black handles that should tie in nicely.

The carpet was put in today too:

The Great Room, 3 bedrooms, stairs, and landing area all got carpetted. The carpet we picked out is called frazee and it's the best carpet under the sun. It's very soft, and feels like you could lay down on it and go to sleep. We also got an upgraded pad underneath that makes walking/laying on this stuff as close to heaven as you can get without actually dying.

Deck, sod, garage door openers, floor vents, touch up paint, and a couple of outlets in the kitchen are the only things that are left to do, and we'll be able to party like I'm turning 30. Which I am, in a few short weeks.

I gotta tell ya, I'm really looking forward to turning 30, and I'm not really sure why. Maybe because I still feel like I'm 14. I'm not sure if I still act like it, but judging from what my wife tells me, I don't think I'm that far off from acne, mopeds and feathered hair.

Day 83

When the carpet shows up, you know you're getting close to the end.


They're also working on the last section of finish carpentry. They're running the quarter round trim, and it looks like they're about 60% done. They have all the main rooms done, with just the 3 bedrooms remaining.

It's funny that I'm getting requests to tell the story that I promised last week. Some through email, some by phone, and some through the comments section here. So, as promised, here's how I became hero, for a day.

Midnight on Wednesday, August 2nd.... both of us are sleeping soundly in our bed. Rambo runs downstairs and starts barking at something. It's nothing new, because if he hears a peep outside, he feels the need to bark at it. Lot's of times people will be walking by, or neighbors will be leaving late at night, and without hesitation, Rambo, and sometimes Zella will bark at them.

I actually like this little K9 built in feature that comes standard with all Labs because it turns away "would be" burglars pretty quickly.

After the 10 seconds of barking was over, I was drifting back into a gracefull slumber, when I heard Andrea say "Rich... I heard some voices downstairs". If I had the energy, I would have given a little giggle, but I was tired, so I chose to exercise my selective hearing, and attempt to drift away. Then, I get an arm shake... "Rich, there's someone downstairs... I'm not kidding".

Pulse increases.... adrenoline starts to flow... and things just went from funny to serious in about 0.000000006 seconds.... and I instantly go into protection mode.

I grab my little friend, who I like to call my "Magnum Research Polymer Baby Eagle 9mm semi-auto, cocked and locked with a clip full of Spear Gold Dot hollow points", and I head downstairs slowly.

I peaked around corners, I checked behind doors, I looked outside every window in the house to try and get a glimpse of the mysterious voices from below. I came up empty, and I was disappointed. I was disappointed in the fact that I wouldn't get to fight a burglar in my Hanes boxer briefs. Because I have a pretty good feeling that would be a great story to pass down to my kids someday.

"Daddy beat up a burglar in his underwear" just seems to roll off the tongue.

I'm pretty sure the noise the dogs hears heard was from a car parked in front of our house. The car's dome light was still on, which leads me to believe that someone had just recently gotten out of the car and gone into a neigbors house, and caused the dogs to bark.

So, there you have it. I succesfully chased away the boogie man, and was a hero for a day.

Albeit, a slightly sunburned, underwear only wearing hero with a loaded gun... but a hero nonetheless.