On another note for anybody that doesn’t know yet, Cayse landed what is basically her dream job as Wellness Coordinator for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL). She’ll be developing and running a brand new, on-site wellness program (gym, consultation, nutrition, etc, etc) for them. She is very excited and I am very proud…and maybe just a “skosh”* jealous. Anyhow, here’s my open letter** to 2009.

Dear 2009,

I have so many mixed feelings about you, 2009. We have struggled through setbacks and uncertainties which later provided opportunities we would not have had otherwise. We saw people lose jobs and saw people, many of the same, get even better jobs. We saw some businesses close and others grow successful. We lost loved ones and welcomed new family.

If nothing else I can at least say I’ve learned a lot from you. About being a husband, friend, son, brother, uncle, homeowner. I learned a lot and certainly have a lot to be thankful for, but I hope you won’t blame me when I say:

I wish us all a better year in 2010.

-Andrew

Cayse and I made a trip to Kalispell, Montana a couple weeks ago. Cayse had a conference to go to so I took some time off and went with her. We explored Glacier National Park a little on the weekend (see album link). Then, while Cayse and Kim (her boss) were at the conference, Alex (Kim’s husband) and I went fishing… Well, we attempted to fish. We mostly scared fish, lost lures and fed a couple fish powerbait. Nothing was interested enough to strike hard at all. It was relaxing though which was really the point. We had a good time exploring as well since we didn’t really know where we should go fishing.

Had a good visit with Dad and Millie yesterday. It was fun to show them the house and car and what not. They seemed to approve of both which is nice. So far we’ve enjoyed the kudos we’ve gotten on our choices, particularly since they are the first big decisions we’ve made. I went a little horse talking about all our plans and what’s been going on with us. My posts might be long but at least you can read them at your own pace instead of me trying to jam all the info in over dinner at Tucci’s.

Well, it’s late so that’s all I’m going to post for now. I’ll have more soon hopefully, including pictures of the freshly painted house once the weather clears for me to finish it. Perhaps even some wedding pictures (from over a year ago). Again, keep an eye on the twitter feed even if you don’t see any changes in the main postings.

So, I know it’s a lot at once but we got another new hotness yesterday. I’d been looking for a new bike for years but couldn’t decide and it never has been a priority. Well, Cayse decided she’d rather me get a new bike than keep riding the old XJ that is too unreliable for how often I ride. We were able to get a good deal on a 2008 Yamaha FZ1 that the local Yamaha shop had left over from last year. So brand new bike, just sat around for about a year. It might not seem like it but this bike is actually MUCH safer than the old XJ. Yes it is faster, but it is still very controllable and we don’t have to worry about the bike falling apart underneath me/us. We both wear helmets and safety gear, have insurance, and I am VERY careful cause I’m well aware that drivers don’t pay attention to motorcycles. Remember, I’ve been riding for 5 years so no need to start freaking out now. Anyhow, the picture above links to a gallery album with some pictures of it in the driveway. Also, has a picture of the gauge cluster showing us rolling 100 miles after an early evening ride last night.

I’ll save you the story (in fact I just wrote it but I tell long stories…who knew?) but we “Cash for Clunker”-ed the Jeep in for $4500 towards an 2009 Honda Fit Sport. The Jeep needed the transfer case rebuilt plus is was basically driven like a car since anytime we needed something truck/brute like we took the Bronco. The fit was a little more expensive than Toyota’s we looked at and a lot more than a Chevy Aveo we drove (it would’ve been $6k for a brand new car, it’s hard to argue against that), but it was also head and shoulders above both in terms of quality and features. We figured out how to make the payments work and picked it up this last Wednesday. It has a whopping 130 or so miles on it now and so far has gotten about 33-35 mpg with mostly town driving.

It makes the Bronco, Motorcycle and House look kind of sad but hopefully that will help encourage us to get everything else all shined up. Oh, last thing before I get back to the neverending job of making the fence Jo-proof, Cayse has named it “Pounce” because it looks like a cat in the dark in a picture we saw with it in a dark garage with the lights on.

First, pictures of our pond. The pond looks slightly different than the large picture now since I put in a pump and filter so now there is a fountain and the waterfall works. I also got rid of the nasty clear hose running up to the waterfall.

We have a friggin pool! It remains to be seen whether it’ll be worth the trouble but we are already enjoying it even though it is about as cold as the river still. These are pictures of the pool filling, Cayse enjoying it, and Andy trying to hold onto his warmth as long as possible.

And finally a picture of Jo all shaved to help keep her cool. It was the best way we could find to get her undercoat out. As soon as we cut down her guard hairs her undercoat came out in handfuls.

We are looking forward to Kim’s wedding and our Anniversary this weekend, the Dan’s and Ian visiting next weekend, and Julie and her munchkins the week after that. So yeah, we’ll definitely busy but will have lots of pictures probably so I’ll try to at least get some of them posted.

Well I think that’ll be all for now. Hope everybody is doing well and having a good summer.

We are one or two loads with the Bronco away from being out of Darrell’s. The house is moved but there is a still a little bit of stuff left in the garage.

We got our first home improvements done. We painted our fireplace insert black and painted the nasty burnt red motor between the stones on the fireplace wall. Paint isn’t ideal but it looks way better than it did before. Andrew also replaced the washing machine valves since they were leaking. We also have the pool scheduled to be fixed in a couple weeks and discovered that the pump is in working order.

So that’s the update for now. We’re definitely keeping busy.

Here are the fun things we’ve found about the house so far:

A bunch of cool stuff came with the house (nice microwave, extra fridge, lawn mower, lots of garden tools, 2 patio sets, insulated blackout curtains, etc).

There is a 5-6 inch goldfish living in the pond. Cayse has named it Goliath and we got some more from the store to try to help keep mosquitoes down. There are live lily pads and a flower as well.

There is a neighborhood cat that came in our front yard and played with Cayse.

The house has a doorbell and the noise is nice (neither of us has had a working doorbell since leaving home).

The smoke/carbon monoxide tester not only talks but is bilingual (English and Spanish). However it started saying “Low battery, replace immediately” every 15 minutes so it is done until I get fresh batteries tonight.

The garage is insulated and has a long baseboard heater along the back wall. This will hopefully help keep Andrew from freezing to death during those Winter vehicle maintenance jobs.

Our next door neighbors have two HUGE dogs (Black Russian Terriers) who love to “play” by chasing Spot up and down the fence. Jo still isn’t sure about this and just hides in the bushes til they stop, at which point she sneaks out, barks at them, and the cycle repeats itself.

Our neighbors behind us are gone but their daughter and her children are house-sitting. They are very nice and Spot made fast friends with her little girl. They also kindly gave us a cucumber and some butternut squash plants from their greenhouse.

Raspberries are growing along the hill fence and some species of mint is growing in a planter box.

This is one of the first videos shot in slow-motion high-definition. To see it in (^) HD you have to have to click the HD button after you click play.

The house is still coming along. The tenants won’t be out early though so it’ll be the beginning/middle of June before we get to move in. The only thing getting me through packing for the second time in a year is the idea that we hopefully will not be moving for again for a long time… On the bright side, the house is looking a lot better now in the spring than it did a few months ago in the snow. There’s even some tulips growing around the edge of the yard.

Andrew is also doing well. He has started trying to go to the gym so people aren’t so confused why Cayse is with him, which is causing him much soreness. He’s been learning to work with the mainframe systems at WSU which is teaching him to appreciate modern programming languages and methods.

Spot managed to lose his electric fence collar and is now staying out late chasing wild animals and retrieving nasty things that Andrew regularly has to take away and throw in the trash. He is becoming a little too much of a farm dog.

Jorgia has grown up to be a beautiful girl and follows Spot around watching him do stupid things, occasionally joining in. She recently came home with porcupine quills all over her body (her thick fur protected her and we were able to remove them without any trouble). She is a spaz in the snow and enjoys rolling around in it while spot is standing nearby shivering.

The house is coming around nicely. The seller’s agreed to our repair/modification requests and have hired contractors to do the work. We are confident that once the minor issues are fixed we shouldn’t have any trouble getting financing. In case anybody is interested here is a link to the floor plan we drew up for it. It’s probably not exact on sizing but it isn’t too far off and the layout is correct.