I haven't mentioned it on here yet, but Katrinda and I have a son on the way. Teran and Katrinda have already picked out a first name for him, but Turner still needs a middle name. He is due to arrive by c-section on November 16th. On Monday we had a 4-d ultrasound. Here are some pics:

Here are some pics of the Lateralus Fibonacci Trellis I built. I actually made two. This is the one that turned out the best.







For details on the Fibonacci sequence and geometry check out this wiki link.

Whoa! It's been a while hasn't it. Well we have moved and are now SC residents. Here are some pics of the new place:







You'll probably notice that this is just the garage. I posted some pics of the rest of the house already so I thought I would share my favorite part. Maybe one day there will be a lift in there. However, I think Teran needs a swingset first. Here are some pics of the room above the garage which is my office/guest room:




There have been several other big events in the past 10 months. My grandfather, who was suffering from severe Alzheimer's, passed away. My mom has had a tough time getting the estate settled and this weekend the farm was divided up into several tracts and auctioned off. So that struggle is about to be over for her.

Back in October we took a vacation to Orlando to take Teran to Disney World. As many times as I have been to Florida for Kung Fu, I had never made it ouver to Disney. We had a good time on all the rides and the shows, but I think Teran enjoyed meeting all the princesses even more.

The next week I was back down in Florinda at the Gainesville Raceway for the Grassroots Motorsports $2006 Challenge. We took the ThunderMidget back down there and ended up with a 4th place overall finish. Not too bad, considering there was nothing done to the car from the previous year. Next year there will be a new vehicle and maybe some secret sauce will be added to the ThunderMidget. I know this is the first time the ThunderMiget has been mentioned but here is a pic of the beautiful car:



I continued to autocross one we moved down here. The South Carolina Region is a great bunch of guys and I have really enjoed running with them this season. Since I started mid-season I did not even bother to buy new race tires. By the last few events the tires were really not sticking very well. I went to 5 events and had 3 1st place finishes and 2 2nd place finishes and was up pretty high in the overall raw and PAX time results. There are some great photographers in this reqion so here is a pic or two they shot of Rowdy in action:


Teran is really growing up fast. She is definitely a little bundle of energy. She is going to pre-school two days a week and is really enjoing her gymnastics class. Unfortunately I do not have any new pictures of her on this computer. Katrinda has a bunch on her computer and she does not share them with me.

Katrinda finally got her teaching license down here is SC. She is teaching a few homebound kids. She also gave me permission to start training again. I found a good Hung Gar Kung Fu school. It is a lot different than the Wah Lum Northern Praying Mantis I practiced for over 7 years, but I enjoy it and I am learning a lot.

I guess the other thing I am working on is the BABErally. It is a road rally that goes from New York City (Big Apple) to New Orleans (Big Easy) in a car that must cost less than $250. I found a car and my other team member picked up the car yesterday. To read about the progress on this click on the link over on the right. Should be some good reading over there.

Well I think this is a pretty good update. Hopefully it will not be too long before the next one.

Well we decided to bite the bullet and make the move to Columbia. We put a contract on a house in Lexington.


It is a nice house, 4BR, 2.5 bath, master on main, a nice kitchen, 2-car garage and an additional 2-car detatched garage with workshop and a 5th bedroom and full bath above. We close on May 15th and hope to be moved in that week.

Teran is definitely transforming from a baby to a little girl. When I got home Thursday night she had barrettes (sp?) in her hair and some sunglasses.

I completed building my 9mm AR-15 and it was an absolute blast! I bought an EOTech Holographic Weapon System this weekend at the gun show. I really look forward to shooting this thing and hopefully building another one in the future. Here is a picture of how it turned out (minus the EOTech).

Damn it has been a while! I have really honestly tried to keep this thing updated, but things have been crazy lately.

A few weeks ago we said goodbye to the Excursion. The vehicle drove like a dream when it wasn't in the damn shop. I think Katrinda was calling me every other week to tell me that the truck wouldn't start. Well we broke down and bought a Nissan Quest and joined the ranks of the mini van drivers. Before I even made my first payment on it a dump truck stopped in the middle of the road and backed into it causing almost $4000 in damage. Hopefully Katrinda will get it back from the body shop today.

Teran is still growing like a weed. She is talking a lot more, especially if she is wanting something. Here is one of her Christmas pictures:



Katrinda finished up her Playa hata Degree (PhD) and graduated in December.

Things have been about the same in the motorsports department. I have been kicking ass in the raw time department, but I am still having my ass handed to me in the pro class.

In the world of firearms I have added a few more to the collection. My father in law gave me a Berretta 1931 (chambered in .32). It had a lot of rust on it. The folks at Coal Creek Armory (CCA) were nice enough to dissassemble it for me. I cleaned it up real good and they reassembled it for me as well. It shoots pretty well if you use the "cheap" Winchester White Box. It does not like to feed any sort of good hollow points.

I also bought a MAK-90, Universal M-1 Carbine, and a Yugo SKS from the nice folks over at CCA. I ended up selling the M-1 for what I had in it. I replaced the furniture on the MAK-90 with some nice black plastic stuff from Tapco and added a new dust cover with an integrated rail and a red dot scope. This should keep the zombies at bay. I have not even had an oppurtunity to fire the SKS yet.

I had some Christmas/birthday money burning a whole in my pocket so this past weekend I bought a stripped Mega lower reciever, DPMS parts kit and stock and a Rock River Arms mag block. I also put a Rock River Arms 9mm upper on lay-away, which I'll probably pick up in a week or two. So last night I started construction of my 9mm AR-15 build. I ordered a few more tools to help with this. I am hoping by the 27th that I will have another fully functional exothermic hole puncher in the collection.

I am still travelling practically every weekend between Columbia, SC and Knoxville. However, it looks like there is about a 95% chance that we will be moving down there. I really look forward to being able to see my girls everyday, but I really will miss living in Knoxville.

8/15/05

Well the last two weeks have been kind of crazy with work and all, so I haven't had any interesting events. Teran learned how to jump/hop. It is pretty funny and definitely a sire to behold. I have been shooting twice at the indoor range down here in Columbia. I had an autocross yesterday and came in 5th overall and got my ass kicked in the pro class, as usual. Here is one pic of Rowdy. I don't think I will ever be able to put my magnets on straight.

8/3/05

Well it has been a few weeks since I last posted so I figured I would do a little catch up.

The weekend of 7/16 was fun. I ended up picking up another Springfield XD. I bought the XD-9 Subcompact. One of my buds from the The East Tennessee Riders gave me a deal on it that was way too good to pass up. Damn him!!! This will be my carry gun. I may still carry the .45 in the winter though since it will be easier to conceal with a jacket on.

The ammo for this gun cost about half of what the .45 G.A.P. costs. Unfortunately, it is more difficult to shoot as accurate since this gun is 2" shorter than the XD-45LE Tactical. I am starting to get a lot better with it since I am going to the range at least once a week.

On the 17th I had an autocross. The course was very tight and Rowdy had a hard time stretching his legs out there. I wasn't happy with the results at first, but I ended 5th overall and got my ass kicked in the pro class as usual. The pro class is a "normalized" class. All the times are multiplied by a factor which, in theory, takes the car out of the equation. I moved to this class this season so I could have some competition, and I am definitely getting it now. My friend Chris was at this event with his camera as well. He got this pic of Rowdy. If you look close you can see the Santa Cruz Screaming Hand. Now that's old school right thur.



On the weekend of the 23rd I took my handgun carry permit class. I did really well and had no misses on the test or on the target. I also ordered a custom Inside the Waistband holster from FIST and a couple of pairs of bigger britches to carry the gun comfortably.



After a rough week of a "team building" workshop I was ready for the weekend. The weekend of the 30th was a long one and Lil Rowdy got quite a work out. I drove Big Rowdy down this week to give the Miata a vacation. I drove home on Friday and stayed at the house alone since Teran and Katrinda were at the in-laws. I woke up early on Saturday to drive to Nashville and meet them to go to a wedding. Teran went with us to the wedding, which proved to be very interesting. Kind of tough to make an 18 month old sit still for several hours. I think she did real well and I am very proud of the little knuckle butt.

Sunday we drove home and went out for our 6th anniversary while a friend watched Teran for us. We went out for some sushi, or bait on rice, and went and saw War of the Worlds. It was a pretty entertaining movie and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Since we were out so late I decided to stay through Monday and get some stuff done. I went to the Driver's License Center in Strawberry Plains to apply for my handgun carry permit, then went to Maryville to get fingerprinted. They say the turnaround for the permit is around three weeks. I can't believe the State of Tennessee can infringe on my constitutional right to bear arms for a whole three weeks!

I also got to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I though it was good, but I like the original much better. Tonight I am going to go see The Wedding Crashers and I hope it will be as good as I have heard it is.

Another random point of interest is that I finally met my employer of the past 5+ months. He is a nice guy and has been a true pleasure to work for. It is nice to be back in a small company that actually treats its employees as a person rather than a cog in the machine.