Highlights - Winter 2012-13

In an effort to capture the months past on this blog, I will be sharing the highlights of each season starting with the winter months of 2012-13 after our fun trip to SEMA in Vegas.

Days after returning home from Vegas, I was driving to Pullman for an on-site interview at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories.  Backing up a little - The Friday before we left for SEMA, an architectural drafting position opened at SEL and my resume was submitted.  Tuesday, while in Vegas, I received a call asking for an interview.  When I was out of town and couldn't make it, they arranged a phone interview the next day instead.  That went surprisingly well, trying to conduct it in a noisy hallway of "the world's premier automotive aftermarket specialty products trade-only event."  Trouble was, the call came in an hour earlier than expected because we thought we were in Mountain Time since we were so far south of home.  Nope!  Vegas is in Pacific Time.  Now we know...

Anyhow, I started a new job at SEL the Monday after Thanksgiving!  I spent 2 months in Pullman, finishing a drawing set for an addition to the manufacturing facility in Lewiston.  Then in February, they needed to fill a position for a project manager on the construction site and decided to train me into it.  It's been a great adventure and an unbeatable learning experience.  There is absolutely nothing like watching your drawings turn into a building - all the while you are working under a skilled construction manager to coordinate the schedule, learn how to wade through the bidding process, document the progress, and field questions from the contractors.  Days fly by, and I get to wear my hard hat and get up close and personal with 'my' building every single day.  *Writing this in September, and I'm still giddy :)*

In the midst of all that excitement, we celebrated Christmas and then Andy moved down to Lewiston for a week to learn body work from master Luke, and turn his vision for the Dodge hot rod into reality.  There were many, many long days and nights of welding and grinding...

...followed by hours and hours and hours of filling, sanding, filling, sanding, priming, sanding, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding...

...masking, painting and more painting.  Picking out the paint colors was an adventure too!  The concept had always been flat, dark green and shiny copper.  When it came time to paint, there was no flattener in town.  Soooo, we went with sparkly green AND copper.  Talk about nervous Andyman!  But, look!  Isn't it beautiful sitting there ready to be final assembled?  Luke did the spraying and Andy came up with and taped off all the scallop/panel designs just as he'd imagined years ago when this truck was still a handful of parts in the weeds.

We also got to go on a tour of the Freund's home and business shops this past winter.  Russ, the fellow talking in the photo, is an incredible builder and one of the most genuine people you'll meet.  What a guy, and what a collection of cars and stories to soak up in one afternoon!

6(A+T) =

 Really feeling that deep-down, encompassing contentment/love/happiness, and wanted to wrap some wonderful memories up with fun tunes and spread some of this euphoria.  :-)

Seriously...how could I not love life with this Andyman of mine?  He adds so much to every day...  I could try to list it all, but just watch and you'll see what I'm saying.

And...We're Back!

How's 2013 treating everyone?  We just about let it get by without a single blog update, and with an old header design.  Shame, shame.

I've been going through every photo on my computer over the last few days - It started out as a little project idea and exploded into a spectacular journey down memory lane.  I've always said my reason for taking photos is to capture the moments so they can be enjoyed and remembered long after they happen.  Well, let's just say it works!  There are countless happy memories, and I'm reliving them all.  It's also super motivating to savor the present moments too.

Thank you all for being part of this life of ours.  We'll be back to telling stories soon!

Halloween in Vegas - Back on the Strip

We topped off our full Halloween day with a night on The Strip.  We had some pretty high expectations for the crowds, picturing throngs of people in costume and figuring we'd be the minority walking around "dressed as ourselves."  Sadly, there were more lame-o's like us than we'd hoped for!

We did, however, glimpse a few great costumes worth sharing:

Dumb and Dumber

Jamaican Bobsled Team and a whole slew of Milkmaids

Ted, with a head so big it took 3 assistants to put it on!

A Transformer and Waldo (the perfect "that guy")

Joey, Andy, and I were people-watching the night away when we realize there are a lot of helicopters in the air and a whole pile of cop cars and bikes on the sidewalks.  We didn't have to wait too long to see what was up.  

Suddenly, the cops fanned out and closed down a whole intersection - 6 lanes by 4 lanes.  Then we saw something fall out of one of the helicopters!  Everyone's shouting and holding up their phones to try to record whatever the event might turn out to be.  We could make out a parachute and watched with wild curiosity as the daredevil drifted right over Cesar's Palace and landed in the middle of the street!  He was gone in the blink of an eye, cops moved back to their spots and the crowd moved on.

I wanted to see why they cops had only moved by the sidewalks...there must be more to the show!  Sure enough, the helicopters returned, the cops blocked the streets, and this time TWO people jumped out of the helicopters and weaved their way around the buildings and to the street.  It was crazy how they seemed to be falling so slowly...but they were seriously cruising when they hit the ground!

As far as we could tell, from street conversations and internet searching, all this effort was for shooting scenes for the Hangover 3 movie.  We'll have to see!

All-in-all, this Vegas trip was memorable and successful!  

Nothing like a little culture shock for these country folk, mixed with all levels of entertainment, and the largest car show/swap meet environment we've ever experienced.

Halloween in Vegas - Grand Canyon

Some travel to Vegas for Halloween on purpose.  We happened to be there, and made the most of a holiday while on vacation!  Our cousin lives there and flies helicopter tours of the Grand Canyon.  We'd met with him for dinner earlier in the week, and arranged to take a flight when there was room.  This landed us on a sunset flight on Halloween!

This wasn't just any ol' fly-over-the-canyon tour.  On the way to the canyon, we got to fly over and learn more about Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

Our trusty pilot/tour guide pointed out other interesting features in the desert, like an inactive volcano and a plateau that fighter pilots used to practice carrier take-offs and landings.  Then, he announced we were nearing the Grand Canyon!

Not only did we get to see the canyon from the air, we got to fly through it!

...with Danger Zone playing in our headsets ;)

Oh, and...we got to land right down in the bottom!

Yes, and we had a lovely picnic by the river and explored the desert life.

This perfectly-shaped stone was just lying there amongst thousands of others.  I couldn't help but wonder how many other tourists see it...

The sun sets much sooner in the depths of the canyon and it was soon time to...

...fly off into the sunset.

This was a perma-grin kind of adventure.  Traveling by helicopter is so fun, and what a way to experience the Grand Canyon!  I highly recommend the trip and the pilot if you're lucky enough to get him. :)

A fun side observation I've realized while writing this post...5 years prior we saw the Grand Canyon for the first time while honeymooning in Sedona.  We also went for our first helicopter ride that week - that one to see the canyons around Sedona.  I just went digging through the archives and...well, just look at these!

A Week in Vegas - The SEMA Show

The event that lured us to Vegas was the SEMA Show, which is the world's premier automotive aftermarket specialty products trade-only event.  This means huge buildings full of vendors and buyers from all over the world.  And, the bigtime vendors spare no expense in their displays which are often custom-built and beautifully-painted cars showcasing their products.

Some displays just used car parts, but had other purposes:

And, others were intricate art pieces

The airbrush company's booth was very hands-on.  They walked you through the features of the gun and let you scribble on the art pad to practice your technique or test the gun's abilities.

This fellow doesn't need any more practice!  It is so incredible what you can do with pressurized paint when you've got the skills and patience of an artist.

The SEMA show was a 4-day event.  We walked miles and miles through the booths, met potential customers and potential suppliers, took advantage of some deals, and started planning how we would set up our own booth at the 2013 show.  It worked really well to experience it all from the spectator side before jumping into this as vendors.  With all the exposure there, we've got to have our A game ready!

A Week in Vegas - Fun on the Strip

We spent the last week of October in Las Vegas!  The first couple of days were spent just being on vacation.  The first night, we got in around 8pm and grabbed dinner between the airport and our hotel.  Once we checked in, I was ready to settle in and recover from traveling.  Not Andy!  He said that we were in Vegas, 2 blocks from the Strip and we were not going to spend our first night in!  So, off we went to explore.  There were people everywhere!  Many in costume - early Halloween celebrators and street performers alike.  It didn't take long for the bright lights and people-watching to snap me out of travel sluggishness.  You have to have your wits about you to push through all the street soliciters too!  Vegas Lesson #1: Ignore People Who Ask Questions.

At one point, we heard some Elvis music and it seemed to be coming from a statue with speakers.  There was a large crowd gathered around it.  We slowed to see what was up.  Someone walked right by the statue, and it reached out and touched him!  This man was painted gold from hair to toe and his lips didn't move while he sang!  I was a safe distance away and it startled me!  Vegas Lesson #2: Never Trust a Statue.

We walked the Strip nearly every evening after dinner.  There is so much to see , the crowd and performers are ever-changing, and the constant activity on the street keeps crime down even in the middle of the night.  This week, there were superheroes on the street all day and night - How could you not feel safe? ;)

Vegas Lesson #3: You Don't Have to Look Far for Quality Entertainment

We went to one Cirque du Soleil show - Beatles LOVE.  That was absolutely incredible!  They do the show in a custom-designed circular theater with a hydraulic floor system in the middle and countless cables and tracks in the ceiling.  They told the story of the Beatles with chronological songs from their albums, extra studio recordings of them playing around coming up with songs, and historical radio and TV clips about them.  All the while, the actors/artists/acrobats are coming from all directions, defying gravity and bringing the story to life.  Wow. 

 The free entertainment on the Strip was memorable as well.  We watched a couple of spray painting artists work their magic with the simplest of tools.  There were magic shows, break dancers and poppers, and a wide variety of musicians.  One of my favorite street performers was this guitar-plucking fellow stationed across from the Bellagio:

His music was really catchy, his tip jar was called the Karma jar, and his backdrop was the dynamic Strip traffic of limos, cops, and traveling billboards and the incredible Bellagio fountains exploding into the sky.  It was the quintessential Vegas moment, taking all of that in at once.

Vegas Lesson #4: ANYTHING can be stretched into a Limo.

We didn't "feel lucky" on this trip, but we did walk through casinos, stopping sometimes to watch table games play out.  We spent enough time in them to learn Vegas Lesson #5: If the "Casino" fragrance was ever bottled, you could use it to repel just about anything!  Blech.

We pretty much walked the Strip from end to end - the furthest adventure being a long afternoon walk to Mandalay to see the Shark Reef Aquarium.  They had a wide variety of creatures and had it set up in a corridor of learning.  It was cool to see these lizards interact with the snake through the glass.

We got to touch stingrays!

The jellyfish put on a show:

And there were sharks of all sizes gliding along with their teeth-showing frowns...

...which we tried our best to imitate: