Monday, March 22, 2010

April 10th (double feature 2009 in DC)

About two hours ago, while checking my email, I saw in a message from my mom that she was disappointed in me.  No one ever likes to hear that from their parents, but upon reading further, it turns out she was disappointed because I hadn't written a blog today!  Mom- Im sorry to have disappointed you but I was sick this weekend and slept pretty late, so Ill probably be up until about 3 working on my blog...(its 12:40am now and Im just getting started).   Well- at least I know for sure that I have one true "washington to washington" fan who not only follows the blog, but is actually disappointed when I am not punctual with my weekly posts!
This weeks blog is big, because I am announcing my departure date from Illinois, April 10th... I know, you are excited... I am too!  This news is almost bigger than the news that the health care bill was passed tonight!!  So soon enough, my posts will be filled with images and stories from the actual road.

My super basic outline on travel, so far anyway, is this: (further developments on this as we get closer to leaving)
  • April 10th, leave libertyville heading towards South Dakota...hopefully with beautiful images of a finished bathroom and joe as a wingman.
  • Spend a night or two in places like deadwood, possibly camping in the badlands for a night.
  • April 11-12 ish- arrive in Boulder, CO... a town that my brothers girlfriend is convinced I will wind up in... Who knows, I did love it the first time I went and I hope to spend a few more days there this time around.  So ill stay in Boulder for a few days and then head southwest- I think
  • April 16ish - I know I want to try and stop in San Diego before making my way to LA on the 23rd, but Im going to leave those plans open.  
  • April 24-25 After LA, I will meander my way up the coast, stopping in San Fran, Wine Country, Oregon, some National Parks, and then making my way up to Seattle for an early to mid May arrival.  Much later than originally anticipated, but what does it matter, I have nothing planned anymore and Im not worried about it in the least.
This past week we didnt do too much construction work... well I didnt anyway.  Joe is in Cabinet/ Furniture making mode.  This means that his "Rolls Royce" tools come out and he gets in the zone.  The result?  Amazing craftsmanship and design... but I helped where I could and spent some time sanding, cutting, holding, clamping..., learning.  Ill post some pictures of what he has done so far but I can say without exaggeration, I knew there was a reason I wanted this guy to be my business partner- his work is impeccable.  Tomorrow we get back on track- I have a big list of 'to-do's' made out already and the plumbers are due to get started on tuesday, allowing us to start finish work behind them.

some fun stuff to talk about.   I've been playing my guitar a lot and started messing around with garage band.  I decided I want to write a song- so I composed about a minute worth of what it will sound like by recording a rhythm guitar track, a lead guitar track, and adding a drum kit. Im still coming up with lyrics but Im hoping to do this like a postal service thing where I compose a song, write some lyrics, then get my friends to help me pull it all together (hrm hrm.. lee, dosberg, lindsay with some vocals...) Check it out, it is called "travelin" and if you are musically inclined and want to provide some feedback, I'm all ears!!  
Click Here (you have to download the file... sorry, i didn't know any other way to share it)

In other news:  JOE HAS DECIDED TO BUY A BIKE A RIDE 2045 MILES BACK FROM SEATTLE TO CHICAGO!!! who thinks he can do it???  I have made a bet with him.  If he makes it, without stopping in any one place for more than a week, we can go out and do any celebratory thing he wants with 500 dollars of my money- a dinner, a bottle of scotch, etc.

----Well, that's about it for news.  So now it's time for some pictures and then the big double feature.  Im thinking that my double feature for today will be random stuff from 2009 in DC----

So, here comes some images.  (this is the hardest part of posting my blog... Now i go through and look at all my recent pictures and sift through them, marking the ones I want to post, then putting them up ...one by one... this part takes forever, but i have a feeling most people skip the words and just look at these so i guess it is worth it...)
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Joe Milling lumber from raw blocks of wood
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Me helping, and sanding down an old door to re-use.
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Finished pieces
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Cut to size for building the vanity and two side tables
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Go Kart racing take 2... I WIN... (im getting joe back here for all the fingers he has up in other pics)
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A night in the city
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view from a roof top of a friends apartment building
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Starting to build the side tables (they will be on either side of the main vanity)
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shop drawings
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joes SUPER trendy safety glasses... I saw that he had done this so i had to take a shot.  what a dork.
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routing all the pieces to create a track for the plywood panels to sit in
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NEARLY finished product... we still have to build the drawers and finish them but they came out better than expected...
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2009 in DC...[double feature] some random moments captured on (digital) film... sorry if I missed anyone. it's getting late.

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does this picture offend you?  I dont even remember why we took it but it's one of my favorites.
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Charlie and I at a buffet concert
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JJ, Smallz and JB
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Inaugural... porta-potties... no joke, there had to be one porta pottie for every person at inauguration.
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... and there were A LOT of people at inauguration
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WHOA!  Who are these three?  Damn, that is a good lookin group of people...
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good times.
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Dosberg loves this pose... among others... I could do an entire double feature on funny pics I have of him...
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glistening.  I miss the summer.
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our graffiti bathroom... it started out as a nice idea- it turned super vulgar
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Out on the Anacostia with Felipe and Lee
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Apple picking... Charlie looks HUGE here, but it's just a mini apple. ha
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JJ and Little Lindsay
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Shaun likes his turkey legs.
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Churning our own ice cream after a lovely thanksgiving.
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Lindsay... and friend (i dont remember the girl in the black shirts name... sorry.)
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Carolinas Bday at ChiCha lounge.
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Gruuuuuund.  (if you know fitz, you'll get this one)
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Dus
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Dan and Carolina
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Dus and AK (recently engaged!  Congrats u two!)
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Lucky AK gets THIS GUY for the rest of her life! ha.
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Classic dan and carolina faces.
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My last company holiday party... from the left (Dus, Kim, AK, Jody, Me, JB)
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(Josh-(who is the guy I bought the GTI from) Me, Will, Kat, Wills girlfriend)
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Ah.  Roomates.  Felipe, Dave, and I sitting in front of the fire after being out in the snow.
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One of felipes big feasts + Dosberg (and probably a few BL's... bud lights)
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tubing on our hill during the huge blizzard we had.
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THE END...classic photo of felipe and dosberg.

i started posting pictures around 1am... it is 220.  im beat.

2 comments:

kim said...

let's not forget about us philadelphians...we deserve a little trip down memory lane too! i know you have loads of pics of us sleeping under desks and what not!

Dennis said...

Haha, you read my mind... Im taking it one step at a time. I was going to do philly friends recent pics in my next blog, but if you want me to jump back to college, i can do that too! Maybe ill just post one pic of us today, then try and keep the rest as old as possible!

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