I have been so busy that I can’t see straight.  Work of course has been a major factor in being busy.  Work is going well.  Very well in fact.  But like everything in life, it needs constant management to say a well oiled and fine tuned machine.  That and the fact that there are evil do’ers everywhere.  I love the security business.

So lets see, what to update everyone one.  How about the Jeep?  Well, it has a name.  Not sure if I told everyone.  For this point forward it should be called The Burro.  Ever see a burro NOT make it up a hill?  Me neither.  :)  I have changed so much on it.  I need to take a new picture of it.  The biggest thing I have done is change out the suspension.  I know next to nothing about auto mechanics.  Basically I know where to put the gas and how to make the darn contraptions go.   That said The Burro was purchased in part to learn.  So I decided to do the suspension myself.  Of course, I had a very good friend at work that very much knew what he was doing.  So the situation was more like he was changing the suspension and I was his assistant.  I purchased an Old Man Emu suspension from Australia since everyone told me they were the best hands down.  took a while to get here.  I suppose customs was rather busy.  It took 9 hours pretty much working 100% of the time but we got it done.  Just need to replace a couple bolts that we had to coerce a little too much.  I have now learned the difference from regular bolts vs #5 grade bolts and #8 grade bolts.  Being completely honest, I had no idea.  As long as I can afford it, I will be using grade 8 bolts on everything for The Burro.  Anyway, with the new leaf springs and the new shocks I ended up with about 4 inches of lift.  1.5 to 2 inches of that was just getting it back to stock.  The leaf springs and shocks that were on the Jeep were stock and completely worn out.  I can’t wait to get it out on the trails.  I am expecting to have a significant amount of fun.

Also on the vehicle front, Vanessa (my trusty BMW) finally has a new windshield.  Extremely long story fraught with suspense and intrigue.  Three different windshields to finally get the job done right.  The lessons learned? Only use BMW windshields in BMWs.  If someone tells you it is an aftermarket but will work, they are fibbing. They won’t work.  Needless to say it took two weeks to get everything done right along with a significant amount of frustration on my part.  But in the end everything is as it should be. 

L is doing quite nicely.  We just received her first High School report card.  She got straight As.  This was with Honors Algebra II and Honors Freshman Seminar (aka English).  So she is starting High School with a 4.5 GPA.  As you can imagine, to say we are proud is a big understatement.  I have very high expectations of her.  At this point in time she is meeting and exceeding those.  Maybe I should raise my expectations even higher?

Z is doing well.  She is gearing up for Christmas which is driving L and I nuts.  The current argument is the location to place the tree.    Clearly I am out of my mind for thinking we should just place it in the corner.  I have officially now been label Scrooge.

Charlotte is OK.  She is still slowing down.  Frequently preferring to sleep the day away.  Every now and then she gets an energetic spurt and runs all over the house but then 15 minutes later is completely exhausted.  She just recently develop an allergy to her flea and tick medicine.  Bad deal that was.  Watch your pets if you use the drops for flea and tick control.  She also has a bad tooth.  we are not looking forward to having it removed but we must do what we must.  I am sure the missing tooth will easily be handled with enough dog biscuits.

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As for me, I am good.  Still running when I can.  Schedule has been crazy along with rain.  But when I do get out on the trails I enjoy it.  Run at he Rock is coming up at he start of December.  I am looking forward to it although I still have to get my hotel room and make travel arrangements. I have not really traveled much except to Florida and back.  Coming up this week I will be in Seattle.  I am looking forward to going out there to take some pictures.  I did get a new flash for the camera so I am all set.  Oh, something I am doing I have not done in a while is building me a new computer.  For the last 10 years or so I have just been buying Dells.  They are good systems.  The one I have now has been working fine for 5 years.  Right up to last when when I started getting controller errors.  So in my research I found that I could save about $1000 by building my own system.  So after hours and hours of research I have purchased all the components.  They should be here waiting for me when I get back from Seattle.  I am cautious but excited.  When it is done it should be screamin’ fast.

That's about it for now.  I will leave you with this, a picture of a soda can.  Why?  Because it was there and I wanted to take a close up shot of something and use the new camera flash.

(Click to see larger res version)