Swinging Bridge is now complete!

The Swinging Bridge is now complete and Joanie wanted me to pose on it. I have the west end of the yard to finish landscaping and the yard is done.

Backyard Progress update

OK, so I thought I would share my progress on the backyard even though I am not quite finished.

I have a little path to make at the  other end of the bridge and then add bark and plant to the rest. Some strategic placement of the lava rock, that has been sitting patiently for over a year, and I will be done. Then on to the Antenna, garage cleaning ....
So this is the Play toy that I made for the boys about 17 years ago.

Then Joanie had an idea ....
Let's tear the toy down and make a firepit!
She's so cute isn't she?

So I kept digging, and digging, through one 4th of July …

 

and here we are now just passing a second 4th and I am still not done but I am close enough to get excited about it. Swinging Bridge has been brutally tested and has passed with flying colors – 3/16” Stainless Steel cable with 1/4” turnbuckles at each corner and double redundancy on the cable clamps. Yes, I don’t expect this to go anywhere soon. 
B-} (evil engineer smile)

Firepit has become a wonderful gathering for friends and family and I am so glad Joanie got talked into using the 5/*- rock instead of pavers. Was not looking forward to that. She has added some great plants and the yard looks beautiful. Now, all I need to do is build those benches around the deck and she will be happy. Did I tell you how much I love my wife. :-p

Valleyfair, Minnesota

After the 4th, I went out to see Josh and Justin’s families and of course we went to Valleyfair!

The Wave is my favorite ride and the Steel Venom is one to stay away from for me since it goes backwards. It was in the high 80’s, maybe 90’s so the Wave is a must.

First you go on the ride and get crazy soaked and then you get off ASAP and run to the bridge before the next boat comes down. The wave will know you on your a—if you are not holding the bars up there.

They also had a new wooden roller coaster that is just sick, just wrong, just ….. the turns are radically banked so you can go really fast around them and then as soon as you pull out of it, you get thrown into the next one all the way until the ride ends.

I’m not even going to talk about Steel Venom but it was fun to watch the other people.  :-)

Josh and family took me to see ‘Potholes’ in Taylor Falls. I know really exciting huh? But they are holes in the glacier made from swirling water during formation. OK, maybe that didn’t sound anymore exciting but it was cool and it was a beautiful day. I was fortunate to get there right after the 100+ degree weather and have same or cooler weather than was in Seattle but it was during the heat in Seattle.

Swinging in the 4th of July!

Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July!
I finally structurally finish the swinging bridge and we got to use it yesterday. A few more details to finish out the 'Looks' and I'm done. Yippeeeeeee!
Had a slow night last night and was starting to worry about the fireworks show because Nick and his friends were the only ones in the field but then the people started coming in (with wheelbarrows!) and the show was incredible. Not real mishaps - a couple of aerials that didn't go aerial but it turn out we were out of the BLAST range.
I wasn't allowed to have any fireworks this year so there were no Oh Sh-ts.
Plenty of food and a great firepit. Lined the deck with torches again this year so it was a great entertainment center.

Bowling for Breast Cancer

OK, the bowling fundraiser is over and it was a huge success. Raffle baskets were beautiful even though I didn't win any ( they said I actually had to buy a ticket to win a basket! What's up with that?)
:-)
I had a blast bowling with my friends (co-workers). There were 18 lanes filled - that's 72 people that supported this cause!!!! Holy S--t!!!
Look at the picture on the left and tell me how you cannot support these guys!
Joanie still has a little way to go so if you want to help her and make a donation - go to http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2010/SeattleEvent2010?px=4953005&pg=personal&fr_id=1471

Birthday celebration

Happy Birthday to me :-)
I celebrated my 56th birthday on Monday and as usual, Joanie again outdid herself - cooking up a wonderful brunch while I played the best game of golf ever with Danny, Brian and Kevin. I am so lucky to have her.
Then we went to see the Mariners game and they lost but it was still an exciting game. She had my name put on the reader board.
We went with Kevin and Brian family as well as Emily's Mom and Dad and Sister's family so it was quite a crew. $2 hot dog but I was OK once I bought my Tums the next morning.










Just wanted to share - I got a whole s--tload of Facebook Birthday wishes - thank you all. After 56 birthdays, you would think they would get boring. Naaaaaaa!

Joanie and I went to Newport this weekend and took our time getting down there. I got this awesome shot of Haystack Rock and little rocks.




I also got some cool critter shots.









Nice to just relax for a few days but I really need to find someone to drive us down. :-)

Sunset in Newport - I think GOD was visiting us that night.