my buddy came to town

My friend and old roommate Andrew came into town this past weekend. He's currently working as a computer programmer back near his home near Ohio. He came in Friday, and we cooked some lasagna and had some other friends bring some salad and dessert (brownies). The meal was delcious and we spent the evening playing Settlers of Catan. I'd be surprised if anyone knew about this game. Let's just say it's a strategy game that lasts longer than Risk. hahaha.


Saturday was pretty awesome because we went north to Tellico Plains (about 1.5 hrs away). We enjoyed some cliff jumping and waterfalls.

This is the spot we went cliff jumping. The waterfall is on the right side, and you could actually sit down in the river and slide down the waterfall into the pool below. This spot is called Baby Falls.

We got there in the morning so after some sliding and cliff jumping, we grabbed the lunches we had and headed down the road to the 4th biggest waterfall in TN: Bald River Falls. (see below)

As you can see the weather was gorgeous. After lunch we ended up climbing up and standing underneath the gushing water. It was pretty incredible. We found a cove where we could stand behind some of the falls. It was loud

Toilets

Ordinarily I would not be blogging about toilets, but we had some requests for photos of the completed bathroom project at the lake. Our friend Larry Glasser gave us a remnant of vinyl flooring, Mom had a flooring guy tear out the old carpet and install the vinyl on Thursday, and this weekend Tom and Austin put it the new low-flush, "comfort height" toilets. New rugs on sale at Kohl's complete the upgrade. It looks very nice, should be easier to clean, and will make time spent in there so much more enjoyable!

On a related note, Tom also installed the new toilet in Mom's lower level bathroom in town last night. This gives him a PR of three toilets in one weekend. Not a record he's planning to break any time soon!

Birthday 14er

OK, here's some more pics from our epic climb with Amy. Note, another shot of my "clam diggers" Wildflowers were incredible.

Keegan and Finley

Keegan loves his uncle Michael. "where's Michael, Michael coming too?'

#2

Just got back from Denver, and I now have two 14ers under my belt. Dave now has 40 total. Hats off to you sir. That was the highlight, but overall it was a super swell time with Dave and Julie. Here are some pictures from the hike (notice Dave's nice pants). Dave has some nice pictures as well, so expect those soon.

Logic Pro Studio...It has come.

After starting out with "garageband," then switching to a incomplete pirated version of Logic, it just didn't make the cut. So me and my audio production buddy, Blake, decided it was time to get the real deal... "Logic Pro Studio 8" containing 40GB of content including 18,000 royalty-free sound loops, 2400 effects, 1300 sampled instruments, 40 virtual instruments (synthesizers-drum kits). The 5 user manuals required a whole tree to provide enough paper, and 17 octopi for ink. I will tell you all about it when it finishes installing by next year. But for now, here are some photos from our "install party" we had.

We really worked the system by getting 2 for the price of one. Instead of buying 2 for $500 dollars each, we bought the "express version" for really cheap, which contains 2 serial codes. We upgraded to "pro" and got 2 upgrades. And all topped off with an educational discount! So it only ended up being $225 each. My shoulders still hurt from carrying it home from the store.

18 months pregnant

Maggie is hoping for a weekend delivery...you can see why!

EAGLE LEAVES NEST

It was a fun weekend with Mom, Carol and Joel joining us for Jeff's graduation open house on Friday night, June 5th. A busy weekend included church service honoring grads a bridal shower for Laura on Sunday afternoon and then graduation itself on Monday night.

getchyerself gradeated

a few pictures from graduation and me and all of my silly roommates.

A small highlight from the tour

I threw this mini clip together using crappy PC freeware. The slideshow is way too fast, but I thought you would all enjoy it anyway. The audio is from our performance in Bismarck

Kill Till, Vol. 1

Mom and Dad put the garden in this weekend, but not before some serious tilling. I thought you would all enjoy the photos.

My all time best garage sale purchase

Hello everyone,

I'm finally making my maiden voyage on the blogosphere. I'm so excited about next weekend. I get to go to the lake. There was a garage sale down the hill from us. Carol saw a kayak for sale. I always thought that would be something fun at the lake. When I got there the kayak was sold but they had this sailboard for $40. I asked if there was anything wrong with it. They said no and it included 2 sails so I bought it (after a quick consultation with Brian) but I would have to wait until her husband got home to get the rest because he knew where the keys were. I took the board(a Mistral SST 86 or 87 vintage) home along with the teardrop handles(Don't know the official name). Today I went back and got the sails. He came out with 2 masts and a big pvc tube that he used to store the sails. When we got home we opened it up. There were 4 sails of different sizes. They are in great shape. I'm excited to try it out.

handyman in training

Keegan loves the tools... gettin 'er done with his own phillips. He's already looking like a strong lefty. He warms my heart with his love of boy stuff.