Happy Birthday, Jennifer!!

Oh to be 25 years old and living in Kuwait. Jen, you are living the dream. Of course, it is the dream of an Iraqi sand dweller, but it is the dream. If you haven't had a chance, check out the update to Jennifer's blog at the link below. She is back and hating the changes in Kuwait. Her unit has moved from Camp Doha, but the Army, in it's own unique brand of intelligence, has left her job back in Doha for now and she has to take a bus every day from her Camp to Camp Doha. Well, at least gas is cheap in the middle East. I hope your birthday was at least a celebration, although it appears you had to work. Sorry we missed you, but you have an amazing knack of calling us when we are at church on Sunday. It is one of the few times that I have my cell phone turned off.

David starts college this week and he is running about buying textbooks and trying to get the lay of the land at the campus in Rocklin. He will continue to work at the Engineering firm on Mondays,Wednesdays and Fridays during the school year. He was able to make some nice bank during the Summer and hopes to buy a car in the coming months. He has grown tired of the Mustang and wants an SUV so that he can take some friends in his car and it has something to do with being 6'3" tall. Daniel has been back to school for three weeks and is deep into football practice for the upcoming year. Dan will be on the starting special teams unit and play backup offensive line. I was surprised, but the OL is all Seniors except for the center who is a junior and 6'5" 250 pounds. The guy that Daniel backs up is 6'0" and 265 pounds. I told Daniel to be ready, because that boy is going to need some oxygen, especially early in the season.


The boys spent Saturday up at Earl's new home in Paradise, helping him set up his shop. He had a trailer with most of the shop equipment and material that is collected in close to forty years in the same house. They got the shop set up, but David had an injury when some sheets of tin siding slipped and peeled his shins like a potato. He is raw and red and will be in for a tetanus shot tomorrow. He had to go to his grandmothers on Saturday night and wore long pants to hide his injuries or she would have made him go to the emergency room.

We spent the day with Alicia and the boys at Folsom Lake yesterday. We brought the ski and set up on one of the inlets (same place we set up, Jen) on the back side of the lake. We used just the tank of gas in the ski and added an extra 5 gallons from the tank that is now in the ski. It was a relaxing day spent reading and floating on our air mattresses. Darla and Alicia took the ski out and Darla rode with David. David wanted to get me on the ski, but he blew it when he promised not to break my hip. Wise guy. I told him, I'd been on the ski with Jennifer and that fear was not an issue. Each of the kids drives the ski so differently. David likes to get air where he can and really runs tight circles. Jennifer likes to get wet and does 360s right into the wake and drenches the ski and the rider. Daniel is a speed freak and likes to turn on a dime with speed and usually ends up in the water more often than on the ski. We have yet to flip the ski over, but David and Daniel came close yesterday. We are still enjoying the toy and all were thinking about Jen yesterday as we spent her birthday at the lake.

I played golf on Saturday and had one of those rounds that begs for understanding. I shot 48+44=92 and we all pushed on the bet. The course was wet and the greens were in bad shape. We played at Cherry Island in Elverta, which is not my favorite course. It gets a lot of play and is not kept up as well as some other courses. I was invited by Mark Konrad for a 6:39 am tee time. I didn't lose any money as both Mel and Mark struggled as well.

I was not going to play golf on Saturday as Darla and I are still working on the tile work in our house and she wanted to go to the tile store Saturday morning. When I told her I was playing, her response was, "You couldn't give me a whole day could you?" I guess not. We got over to the tile store about noon and spent about ninety minutes picking out tile and deciding on samples to bring home. We have a granite tile for the kitchen counters with a marble backsplash and a porcelain tile for the floors. We should be getting a quote this week on installation from the tile man (a licensed contractor!!). It is likely that we will only do a portion of the job now, probably the kitchen and back hallway, bathroom and laundry room. We will do the front entry, hall, bathroom and master bath later. The master bathroom is the biggest job with a new shower pan and tile around the tub and shower, countertops and floor. Perhaps we will do everything except the master bath. It depends on the cost.

I did call Florian, the Romanian tile guy back and left a message for him about his contractor's license. I thought that I would never hear from him. I'd checked his license number and found that he was using a defunct number from a plumber who went out of business in 1979. Florian called back and asked why I was checking his number. I told him that I wanted a licensed contractor who was bonded and insured. He said, "Of course I'm licensed, I'll give you my specialty license number." He proceeded to give me a number that corresponds with a rollup door contractor in San Diego. The jig is up, Florian. You're a fraud and I'm keeping the 50 foot tape measure you left at my house. Why would a guy even call back? Perhaps his countrymen are morons and he can pull his scams with them. He's a hell of a nice guy, but... likely the cost of having a licensed contractor do the job will be 30-50% higher than what Florian would do the job for, but I'll have some recourse if we have a problem. Working with a non licensed individual is a crap shoot. Plus, my father-in-law would disown me and I need access to his boat so the kids can wake board. Just kidding, Earl.

Darla and I did have a company out on Friday that does a granite composite kitchen countetop. The composite fits right over the existing tile and is epoxied on. It's nice, but when compared to the granite tile or the slab granite, it just doesn't measure up. We had a 4:30 appointment with Granite transformations and I got there about 5:10 as I had the Flowmaster exhaust and the K&N cold air intake installed and they weren't done when I got there. I had arranged to have a single inlet/ dual outlet muffler installed and the Mustang's drive train wouldn't allow the duals to go in. They ended up putting in a single outlet and tying in the tailpipe to a dual exhaust. It took them longer than I had hoped, but Jennifer you nailed it. The car has more horsepower, has a nice deep resonance and I have no hesitation when I pass now. An added benefit is increased gas mileage due to the leaner mixture of air and fuel. The K&N cold air intake is chrome and looks really sharp and I had dual chrome tips installed at the rear of the car. Yep, I'm 18 again, but this time I have money.

Well, work awaits. We are having a great month and I will be taking the staff out to Benihanas next week. I'm happy to spend the money. Have a great week and work on your hunger for the Lord. Read the Psalms..Psalm 73 is really encouraging. Ciao.