May 25, 2009:  Hey everyone, hope you had a fun and safe holiday weekend.  We haven't stopped to catch our breath so this will be a quick update.  I got back from Texas on Monday and worked until Thursday then took Friday off.  We still have tons of work to accomplish before our due dates this Friday so it will be another long week, maybe we'll make it, frankly I don't really care and need to stop losing sleep over such things.  We went to a super fun BBQ in the Sweet Creek neighborhood to play with some puppies from Tye's litter, she was a puppy from their first litter that became a champion very quickly.  Most of them went to homes that the litters that didn't happen were destined for so it actually worked out well.  We had many beers and lots of good food.  After the puppy party we moved across the street and partied some more, Stella even got to join us for that.  They were watching their folk's 11 year old dog and they played awesome together, it seemed that Stella even knew that their dog was a little lame because she would do all the running in the game, it was pretty cool to watch.  She also got to investigate the rest of the farm, the barn and even the electric fence!  She just gave a good bark and a long stare at it after, the rest of the night she kept her distance from it.  Yesterday we ran a bunch of errands and pressure washed the deck, not really thinking that we would stain it today but that's how it ended up going down.  I tried something a little different this time and it seems to have come out a little better than the last couple of times.  Lisa has been riding her road bike almost every day and has put close to 200 miles on it in the last three weeks alone, I may need to get me one of those so we can hang out :)  Other than that we've just been enjoying the awesome weather and secretly crossing our fingers that it doesn't turn back into what Spring normally is in Seattle.  Gregg arrives this Friday and I guess we'll be starting on the fence project that evening by riding up the street to copy the design of the fence around the golf course.  I dug up two of the abandoned posts to see how bad it would be to remove the concrete and like many of the things that were done around here it was installed poorly.  It had was appeared to be a single bag of concrete around it and was somewhat easy to pull out.  I guess that's about it from here for now, Stella is passed out on the floor, I'm expecting Lisa to get back from her ride anytime and I hear a cold beer calling my name from the fridge, have a great week and maybe we'll have some fence pictures up next weekend. 

May 15, 2009:  Good afternoon everyone from sunny, humid Texas!  We've been working like dogs for the last couple of days so I figured I would take a quick break and say hello to everyone.  Last week was nice, weather was pretty good for this time of year and we were able to do some things around the house to start thinking about Summer.  I never got to put that fertilizer and weed killer on the lawns because we didn't have enough dry days but the lawn is plenty green so I'll be ok for a while.  I actually got to get up on the roof of the shed and do the ridge vent project I've been talking about since last year.  The shed gets way too hot and with the weed wacker, leaf blower, lawn mower, pressure washer, generator and 15 gallons of gas in there it's not really a place you want getting that hot.  When we built it we figured that vents in the soffets would be enough but as it turns out it isn't even close.  Last summer it easily got to 120 degress in there, probably warmer so I wanted to solve that problem before the heat set in for this summer.  I had to remove the ridge shingles, cut a long slot in the peak, nail this corrugated plastic vent over it and then put new ridge shingles on top.  It took about 2 hours and after the first day of full sun the shed was barely warmer than outside, perfect result.  I also replaced the piece of trim we had to remove from the house last year when we were building the shed, only a year late, not too bad!  Lisa has been riding her new road bike to get ready for the Tour de Cure this weekend.  Some friends of ours do the ride every year and she is really excited about joining them.  She is going to do the 45 mile ride with Theresa and some of the others, I think John is actually doing the 70 mile!  I'm anxious to see how she does and am a little bummed that I won't be around to meet her at the finsh line.  Sunday was the Northwest Ridgeback Club's Annual Ridgeback Fun Day at Fido's Farm in Olympia.  Stella said that anyone who's anyone was going to be there and considering she hasn't eaten her bed or anything all that important lately (crossing fingers) we thought she deserved to go.  Lisa was working but I caught up with the Sweet Creek crew, we were out in full force with Claire, Helix, Leroy, Jackson, Kanga and Stella.  Stella got to herd sheep and did pretty well, she officially earned her HIC, herding instinct certification, which really just says that she knows enough about herding without any training to be able to be formally trained to do it, kind of cool when you think about it.  She also got to try some lure coursing again and really proved that she knew what she was supposed to do.  That means that next time she can do a full course and not just a straight line.  They had a radar gun and clocked Helix at 33mph, Leroy at 31mph and Stella at 27mph, not bad for her second time ever!  While we were there I saw the ridgeback in the picture show up, yeah he's in a sidecar wearing his Doggles!  Good thing Stella didn't see it or every time I leave on the scooter I'd have to hear her crying that she wanted her own sidecar so she could go with me :) Other than all that and me being in Texas until sometime next week, not much else is new.  I ordered the post caps for the new fence, we got the stainless steel color so they match things like the lights, door handles and other details on the front of the house.  We may even be able to take part of the old fence down over the holiday weekend, weather permitting of course.  In the Northwest "weather permitting" for chores around the house/yard really means if it's raining, if the sun is out there are far better things to be doing!  I'm out for now, just so you know, everything is bigger in Texas, I mean EVERYTHING... 

May 5, 2009:  Back again and trying to show up more often, sorry as always for the wait.  Work is just as busy as it's been and maybe more.  My current huge project is falling apart by the day but I'm staying the course and hoping I can make the deadlines later this month.  The weather has been much nicer so we've been able to get out riding a few times, Stella seems to love it.  Over the weekend we did a bunch of work around the house to get ready for Summer.  We started to get the yard cleaned up and I've got a couple bags of fertilizer to put down this week when it stops raining for a couple hours.  I also spent some time in the garage getting it organized after the remainder of the Winter's projects were piled up on the shelves and work bench.  It seems like a big garage at first glance but with five bikes, two 17' kayaks, all my tools, all of our camping and outdoor gear, a utility trailer, my scooter, the furnace and hot water heater and a new vanity we bought a few months ago for the guest bathroom project we have yet to tackle the space gets used up quickly.  After using all of those storage bins in the shed last year it has become a breeze to find stuff out there so I figured we should apply the same method to the garage for things like screws, nails, paint brushes and all the other stuff that seems to keep piling up on the few shelves we have.  After running my Baja the first few times I can't bring it back in the house like I had been doing so I need a place to wrench on it, the work bench would be the perfect place if I could see it through all the stuff stacked on top of it.  I was also able to track down some decent kitchen cabinets from a scratch and dent kitchen and bath company near here so I got those mounted on the wall and filled up with bike parts, tools and whatever else seemed to fit.  I still have to find a few storage bins that use the space better than the ones I had but so far things are much more in order and easy to locate.  Hopefully by the time you read this there will be picture to the right showing what I'm talking about and an updated section in 'House Projects'Other than all that fun not much is new, we're starting to get a plan together for the front fence so when Gregg gets here at the end of the month we should be ready to start.  We're anxious to see what the house looks like with a proper fence facing the street, if it works out like we are planning it's going to really stand out on the street, in a good way of course.  As you can see from the picture the wind helped me remove the old fence last night, I have to patch it back together for a couple more weeks to keep Stella from roaming wild like the neighbor's dog does cause that aint how we roll.  Peace, we're out.