Weekend at Lake Bruin (Continued)

Some more highlights from this weekends trip:

I had never seen a hunting place called Winter Quarters. Rusty thought that was just unacceptable. So we gather together a girls vehicle and a guys vehicle. The guys vehicle got Rusty's perspective of the hunting club and the girls vehicle got Kristen's take on the hunting club. That was a really neat place to see. It is about 8,000 acres. It was purchased by Rusty's dad about 40 years ago. This made me think that my generation has been cheated with land and play. I heard stories from Rusty about how much time he spent out there. I wish that I could have been out in the woods for every day of the week, killing deer, catching fish, how much better can things be? Not that I do not think that I had a pretty privileged childhood, its just the thought of being outdoors like that.

Our afternoon was filled with some tubing. Yeah that's right, we were the people making the wakeboarding guy mad! One of the good things about it was that Amanda got on the tube. She handled up on some tubing action like a pro. Unfortunately we always have to try and put as many people as we can on the tube. That always leads to a bad thing, a ripped tube. But, even a ripped tube is no match for Kristen and I. Those are her legs sticking out behind, just in case you were wondering.




That night we headed out for some more night skiing. It was cut a little short, but it was still fun. That night was also filled with a little taste of Ste Anne. Kristen and I had a couple of hours of speaking nothing but french. Well, every now and then we may have had a English word slip out. But we really tried to speak french the entire time. That was a lot of fun and it makes me want to go back to Nova Scotia.

Bright and early in the morning (6:00 a.m.) Kristen and I were the only people awake for the speed trails on combo skis and on the slalom ski. We headed out into the gorgeous waters of Lake Bruin. There weren't any boats on the water, so again, no boat wake, no wind. The water was as smooth as it could ever be. Kristen put the skies to the test at 43 mph. She made it look so easy out there. I do not think that she was even scared. I was up next. I slowly but surely made my way up to 50 mph. I could not believe that I did it. I wanted to quit at 40 mph. I had 50 in my head so I kept going. When I reached my goal I just concentrated on letting go of the rope and not falling too hard. I wasn't done there though. I wanted to put the slalom to the test. Amazingly I reached 50 mph with no problem. I kept waiting for the boat to increase in speed but it seemed to be maxed out at 50. The slalom was more comfortable at those high speeds. Kristen was ready to beat my petty 50 mph, but I wouldn't let her. There was lots of fog on the lake and I did not think that it was a good idea to go that fast again. For the record, she could have beat my speed. I think that since she is a good bit lighter than me that the boat would have pulled her faster.

That pretty much wraps up our exciting weekend on the lake. I hope that I did not bore you to death with so much reading. I found it all to be interesting to experience and thought it might be good to read about too!

Weekend at Lake Bruin

Somethings seem to not be going our way this weekend. First thing gone wrong was Mad Dog getting sick. Some other things that have gone wrong was with Kristen and Charles doing Harmonizer things (sorry cannot go into detail because of copyright reasons), but, I can tell you that they have not had the best luck with equipment. Kristen made sure to give me a list of things to bring for them to continue Harmonizer business. With this list given to me, I had one goal, MAKE SURE NOT TO FORGET ANYTHING ON KRISTEN'S LIST. Did I remember, YES. Well, my list (things that I need to bring for me) was short but important. I needed something to swim in and I needed Kristen, the wakeboard, not to be confused with Kristen the Harmonizer. I must have been out of my mind when I was getting ready because I forgot Kristen! Can anyone believe that? I still cannot believe it.

Last night's activities made up for a bad week. We decided that we were going to NIGHT SKIING! Which was most likely the best idea we had all summer long. The moon was out and the water was SOOOOO smooth. I had a blast.

So we might not have Mad Dog running, but we have a boat to go behind and we are going to make the best of it. I will try to update with pictures soon.

Poll #1

It looks like most of you knew me enough to know that cutting grass was indeed my FIRST love. Even though it is my first love, I no longer love it most. That spot is reserved for my dear Amanda.

What am I doing?

I am sure that there are some people out there who are wondering what I am doing these days. Lately I feel like I am working and going to sleep. I never thought that I was going to be working full time this summer, but I am. I am sure that everyone knows that I am working with Shaw full time. I am working as a Civil Engineer. Right now I am working on designing different things with the new parking garage for the Baton Rouge Airport. I am going to be able to see the results of my work since it will be built by August 2008. I have been working on the foundations (deep foundations - piles), a roof, and a walkway between the garage and the main building. All of this is a great learning experience for me. For some reason I never really thought that I would be doing as many hand calculations as I am doing now. We do not have any structural software, that means it is all by hand! It takes longer, but man am I am learning a lot. It feels good to know that I am putting all of my schooling to use. I do not think that I could be doing what I am doing right now without pursuing my masters. I have learned so much more in my masters program and I am putting it to use everyday. That is about all that I have been doing at work.

This week I started running with some of the guys from work. We just leave from work and go running at the river, next to LSU campus. I am still at slow "over weight" guy right now. I am hoping that within a month I can drop some pounds and run a little faster. I know that I am not fat, but I still want to lose a couple.

Pretty much every weekend I am going off doing something. I have not been home for an entire weekend in quite a while. I feel like there is always something to be done. Last weekend we went to Pensacola with the neighbors. That was fun. We stayed in a super nice hotel right on the beach (thanks to the Leep's). It was a nice 1 day beach trip. We went up there on Friday night and came back Sunday morning. You all know that I do not like the beach too much, so one day of it will last me two years. But like I said we had lots of fun.

This coming weekend it looks like I am going to be going fishing with a guy from work. He is trusting me to know where I am going in the marsh. We will have to see how that goes. This will be my first time actually going without Justin. As long as I do not get us lost I will be alright.

So when do I rest? I am wondering the same thing. I can still see many weekends ahead of me that I already have planned. I am ready to just stay at home and work in the yard. It has been a while since I was able to do that. I do miss it. I really do not think that I could get very much done out there right now. Everything that I do not cut with the mower (weed-eating, trees, brush) seems to grow right back as soon I clean it up.

I am very ready for school to start. I want to get it done. Now that I am working full time I feel like I have a lot on my plate and my life will be a little bit more sane once I am actually a graduate with a masters. I really cannot wait to know that feeling. I have graduated high school and college (undergraduate), and both times I knew that I was going right back to school. This time I will be DONE!

So that is about all that I am doing these days. I hope that you did not get too bored reading all of this mess. Its late at night so I know that I most likely rambled a lot.

Here is a picture to make things fun:

This was from when Amanda and I went to the Olive Garden just before I was leaving for Canada. That night, I asked her to be my official girlfriend. Of course she said "YES!".

Blonde Joke

Two sisters, aptly named Pam and Karen, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need topurchase a bull from the stockyard in a far town so that they can breedtheir own stock. They only have $600 left.
Upon leaving, the Karen tells her sister, "When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home."
Karen arrives at the stockyard, inspects the bull, and decidesshe wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599 -no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her blondsister a telegram to tell her the news.
She walks into the telegraph office, and says, "I want to send atelegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive it here sowe can haul it home."
The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, "It's just 99 cents a word."
Well, after paying for the bull, Karen only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.
After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, "I want you tosend her the word 'comfortable'."
The operator shakes his head. "How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable'?"
Karen explains, "My sister's a blonde. The word's big. She'll read it very slowly......... com-for-da-bull".

which watch?

Which watch would you pick?

The Radio! - 2

In a recent poll 55% of Americans believe we have too many of these.

The answer is.....POLLS! - which can be spelled polls/poles.

The Radio!

100.7 in Baton Rouge has an impossible question in the mornings. Today was the second day to have this question: 55% of Americans believe that we have too many of these.... They gave a hint this morning, since they have not gotten a correct answer yet. Hint: it's one word and it can be spelled two different ways and still sound the same. So I call in, like I would ever actually get through, but I really did get through! So my guess was "phat/fat". When I gave this answer I was thinking that the wording for the question was "...too much of this".
So I kept listening to the radio to see if they would play my call. Well after two songs I WAS ON THE RADIO! After they took my call I called Amanda to tell her to listen to the radio, so she was able to hear me on the radio.
I cannot imagine what it feels like to be on the radio and give a correct answer, I am so excited just giving a wrong answer. Today is going to be a great day.

The Harmonizers Save the Children

These are the two members of the brand new band "The Harmonizers Save the Children". Charles and Kristen began their singing careers on the way home from a SAINTS game in 2005. Since then, they have been working on perfecting their voices for the first album. Their main goals are to serve the Lord, inspire others, and to use their profits to help poor starving children around the world. Their first album was just recorded in an underground room. It was recorded underground because of the mass popularity of their music. Nothing was getting done in a traditional sound booth, so everything was moved underground.

We are all so proud of Charles and Kristen for their accomplishments. Please help their cause by going to www.myspace.com/theharmonizerssavethechildren, you can be their friend, you can purchase their CD, you can encourage them to continue their careers in the music business, you can even listen sample songs! If you ever forget the website there is a link on the right side of this blog with all of my other links.

ENJOY!

Happy 4th of July

Amanda and I were blessed with being able to spend time with Kristen and friends. We went wakeboarding in the morning and then we went to Rusty's house and we looked at the new born deer (one week to one month old fawns). One of them was missing so we went looking for it, I found it curled up in a ball in some clover! That was very cool to see how it was just tucked away and hiding. The smallest deer were about 5 pounds. Then we got to eat some really good dinner from Ms. Donna's house. They just treat us so well over there. Amanda was very nice to me by driving home from Pineville. I slept the entire time! That was nice! We then packed up and went watch the fireworks on the river with cousin Eric. It was a good day to be out and about.

I hope that everyone had a great day like mine.

That was very nice

I am so glad that I got to see some many friends this past Saturday. It was almost just like back when we were all still in school and we all stayed in town for the weekend. We joke about all living in the same city, same neighborhood, same house, or even the same room again. I really would not mind that at all. There are just so many things that would make it worth it. I miss having all of my friends so close. Sure it is easy to drive or fly somewhere, but now we all have jobs and we cannot just take off when we want to go places. I hate to say this but I guess that is a sign of responsibility. I am going to have to try and beat the system, figure out a way to make money and still be irresponsible. Those jobs usually end up being illegal though.

With the morning bike ride, the great food, the Frisbee throwing, the horrible all-time quarterback, the 1 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, the kangaroo legs, the monkey legs, the wonderful breakfast, and all of the other fun stuff that went on, I was very glad to have everyone over! Thanks for making my weekend a great one!