Long time no blog!

I haven't sat down and done a blog entry since I started back to work at 911, and everyone else in the house is asleep...I should be too, but I tried one of those new Pepsi Maxx drinks today...you know, the "invigorating" soda. It's a "diet" soda, cause it has no sugar in it, but it does have a good amount of caffeine and some other stimulant, but the name escapes me right now. It escapes me, or my head is spinning so fast I just can slow it down long enough to read it off the old hard drive.

Anyway. Today I had a repair job down in Bend, Oregon
View Larger Map. I've never been there (that I could remember) and Crystal had never been there, so, last night we went out to Crystals Mom and Dad's and asked if they would mind keeping Elliot over night so we could get up at 5 am and drive down to Bend. Being the awesome people that they are, they agreed. After getting an "ok" nights sleep (I woke up at 1:30 am with my left arm pinned under my body and alseep...not just numb, but totally dead, after 30 minutes of the "needles" poking me while my arm came alive again, I was back to sleep) we got up at 5 am, showered, feed Clella, got her loaded in the truck and were on the road. 4 hours later, we arrived in Bend. What a long drive. We went down thru the Santiam pass on the way down, and came back up and over Mt. Hood after seeing how clear the roads were. I got my repairs done and was out of the shippers house by 1. While I was working, Crystal and Clella went off and checked out a local quilt shop in town and looked around. After they came back to pick me up, Crystal said "go this way, we are going to lunch". Being the best wife ever, she managed to find a restaurant that has long ago gone out of business here in the Portland area that we both loved....Skippers! We sat down with childhood giddiness on our faces and hunger in our bellies, and were not disappointed. DELICIOUS!!!! They have the best clam chowder ever! We talked to the manager while we were there and got the low down on why they all closed up here. Turns out Greed made its way into one of the corporate leaders of the company and they embezled millions of dollars from the company, then left the country. Good times. The company has now been purchased by a man who used to work for the company many years ago and is slowly making a comeback. 29 stores are due to re-open this year alone, please let one of them be opened with in an hour of our house!!!! PLEASE!

So, after we ate, Clella ate one more time, got a dry diaper and we were off for home. 4 hours later, we pulled into the driveway, ran in the house, used the bathroom, switched Clella's car seat back into the mommy missle and were off to Crystals folks house to pick up Elliot.

It was a really great day, the weather was awesome, and I had the best time hanging out w/ Crystal and just talking. We both did alot of laughing, some of which we owe to the great Adam Carolla, his morning show is the best! "I once had some yeasty on the peckaroo" was used over and over thru the day, and applied to all situations. We had a great time. Clella was an absolute storm trooper in her chair, only fussed a few times and that was mostly cause she was hungry. We made 2 stops on the way home to feed and change her and otherwise she slept the whole time.

I can't thank Judy and Ernie enough, well, Judy anyway, Ernie got Elliot out of bed at 0545 then left for work. The time "alone" we had today was something we both needed to re-charge our batteries and have some us time. I miss that...sometimes I wish I'd had kept my "peckaroo" in my pants...but then I wouldnt have 2 of the best looking, acting and fun to be with kids. I gotta go try and sleep, I have the next 2 days off and plan on spending every second with the family!

Here is a couple pics snapped from the passenger side window thanks to Crystal and her speedy fingers. Taken at 60+ mph, so sorry if they are a bit blurry, but I think they turned out pretty good. As you might notice, none of the tree's have any tops to them. There was a good sized forest fire down there last year (we think it was last year anyway, not sure) that destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees and forest floor vegetation. Having the snow on the ground helped make what I'm sure is a bleak landscape look rather peaceful and pretty.