Go West Young Man

This is a photo Beth took of the moving truck at the end of a grueling day yesterday.  The fact that they drove the Toyota right onto the truck was a bit of a surprise but I guess it makes perfect sense.  All of Beth's hard work in packing up the house will soon be my problem out in Idaho. The truck is scheduled to arrive at the Boise house on Monday for the off-load.  Then I get the joy of unpacking all of those damn boxes ;-) 

This whole relocation adventure didn't really sink in until I saw this photo.  The reality of seeing all of your possessions on a truck definitely drives the point home!  However, before long, I'll be firing up tools in my new and very much improved shop.  These thoughts alone are enough to make me giggle with excitement like a little kid...I'll post photos of the house and shop when things begin to get settled.

Posted from a wireless device

In the home stretch

Headed back to NY for the weekend to help Beth finish packing up the house before the big move to Idaho.  Movers are scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday to load and drive all of our shit cross country.  Thank god for my new company's generosity in picking up our re-lo costs or Beth and I would be faced with some SERIOUS downsizing.  It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate over 15+ years.  It also doesn't hurt to have more square footage than 2 people really need...We both hope this is the last big move we do for the rest of our lives.  This whole packing, purging, and stressing thing is exhausting.  However, there is that big carrot hanging out there and it's a new & exciting lifestyle in Boise! 

Now...if anybody wants a great old house in the historic Hudson Valley in NY, please let me know!

My favorite beer bar in NYC.  Make sure to visit Patrick and the gang whenever you're town.  You won't be disappointed.

Why it's so much fun doing work at DOE sites

I took this photo last week at the Savannah River Site. It's not a joke. It's no wonder that places like this have a reputation for being "no work safety zones." ;-)

Jordan"s Jewelry Box

I started a family tradition a few years ago by making each niece a jewelry box for their 13th birthday. I made the first one for Megan a few years back, and had a few years off before the next niece (Jordan) turned 13. I started he latest one last year (Feb 08, I think), with the intent of delivering it by June. Jordan turned 13 in May 08. Unfortunately, all of this coincided with heavier travel for work and getting occupied with other interests. Before I knew it, I completely missed her birthday and was looking for other milestone dates I could shoot for delivery. Well, I finally finished and delivered it in June when the whole family was together for vacation in Georgia. And it was ONLY 13 months late! Yay me! All beating myself up aside, I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out. Here's a few photos I took of it at Miss Emily's house after I gave it to Jordan.
The box itself is made of a single board of quartersawn white oak with half-blind dovetail construction. The top panel and lift are mahogany and the inner divider is finger-jointed sections of maple, mahogany, and black walnut. The finish is a gloss varnish. I even had a plate engraved to put on the inside. It turned out really great.

The next delivery will be a double set since Jessica and Victoria both turn 13 the same year (about a month apart actually at the end of 2010). Based on this schedule fiasco, I should start on them now. I may need every bit of hat time to get them done. :)

Fly Fishing in Vermont

I spent the Memorial Day weekend at an Orvis fly fishing school in Manchester, Vermont. My buddy Regan from Atlanta invited me up to join him since he was up near Burlington on a business trip and couldn't resist the opportunity to get some lessons and advice from some of the best fly fishermen on the planet. You see, Regan is really good and has a ton of experience fishing. Me? I'm a hack and basically just enjoy being on a river and enjoying nature. I love catching fish, but the thing about trout fishing is that it's all about technique and skill. That's where the school comes in :-)

Orvis puts on fishing schools throughout the country, but what makes this one special is that 1) it's at their flagship store, and 2) the Battenkill river is nearby. Regan told me that the Battenkill is legendary since it's one of a few rivers in the country that are truly wild (no stocking of fish), which makes the trout even tougher to catch. This fact has some irony to it that I'll explain more later :)

The school is a 2-day fly fishing extravaganza, with classroom instruction and plenty of casting and fishing exercises. I finally learned how to cast, although I still need tons of practice. We learned about proper casting, fly selection and what the actual mayflies and caddis flies look like that we're trying to imitate. We were in class from roughly 9-4 each day with the rest of the time to ourselves. Luckily for us, the instructors are also local fishing guides, so we took the opportunity to hire a few of them (one for Saturday afternoon and another for Sunday).

Saturday afternoon we went out with Antoine Bissieux, a relative newcomer to the Orvis schools from France. He took us to 4 beautiful areas on the Battenkill and we fished until there was hardly enough light to see. I was the lucky one on this night, landing a gorgeous 17" wild brown trout from a hole near the Rec Area. Antoine happened to have an underwater digital camera that took video, so he was able to capture it in wonderful detail for me. I was tickled beyound belief with how it came out (This is where the irony comes in... I was so lucky in landing this fish since I basically did just about everything wrong that you can do. Luckily for me, our skillful guide talked me through it and I ended up with this amazing keepsake video!). I was the talk of the class on Sunday, which I must admit was pretty cool :-)



Day 2 of the course was cool since they gave us the opportunity to fish in their trout ponds for some MONSTER pet trout. They keep the ponds climate controlled and allow visitors to feed them, so the rainbows, browns, and brookies get HUGE! It was like fishing in a Koi pond, except you're allowed to cath them! I landed a 20" brown that took me about 10 minutes to land, and Regan landed a ginormous rainbow that was easily 30" long and weighed about 8 lbs. Granted, it's not exactly river fishing, but the thrill of the fight and bringing them to land was just as exciting .


On Sunday after class, we hired Peter Kutzer to take us up to the Mettawee River, another amazing wild river that runs along the eastern Vermont / New York border. This river is absolutely beautiful and we had a ball fishing it for a few hours. Regan and I both caught a few small rainbow trout (we're talking really small...~3-4"), but had a lot of fun fishing dry flies for the first time all weekend.

I highly recommend these classes and these guides for anyone who loves the outdoors, even if fly fishing isn't necessarily your thing. Just having the opportunity to wade in these beautiful rivers was worth the trip.

Goodbye, Las Vegas????

The end of my being nomad in the desert may finally be upon me. The project I've been chained to in Nevada for the last 9 months is finally coming to an end. FINALLY....Now those who know me are undoubtedly going to say, "yeah, I've heard that one before," but this time it may actually have some teeth.

Now for the record, let me say that despite all of it's downfalls, Las Vegas isn't as bad as I was expecting. Granted, that's not exactly a glowing endorsement of the place, but it does have its charms and attractions for me. Most notably:

1. Five brewpubs and quite possibly the best draft beer bar in the country. I didn't have to go far to have quality craft beers in this city. This cushioned the blow of having to spend a majority of my last year here.

2. Excellent barbeque. Who would have predicted this? Between Buzz BBQ, Shane's, Famous Dave's and several others I've heard about but haven't tried, this city will satisfy the BBQ lover.

3. Golf. More nice courses at reasonable prices than any place I've ever been. Even cheaper in the summer if you can stand to be out in close to 100-degree heat. Thanks to friends I made out here, I rekindled my love of golf over the last 9 months. Hope I can keep it up back in NY.

Now for the downsides:

1. This entire city seems like one continuous strip-mall, housing development, or office park. Every neighborhood looks the same, regardless of where you are. This is even more depressing considering how hard Vegas has been hit by the foreclosure mess. Seems like 1 out of 3 houses and storefronts are empty.

2. Everything is brown. The ground, the houses, the office buildings, the mountains. It's damned boring for an east-coast lad like myself who loves trees, grass, and seasons.

3. The wife never got a chance to come visit me out here. It would've been nice to take a weekend and party on the strip with Beth. Maybe one day we'll come back out. I definitely won't feel like a tourist since I know the place so well now.

Did you notice something missing between these two lists? I'm completely ambivalent about gambling and casinos. Didn't sit at a single table while I was here and played a grand total of $40 in video poker. I don't view this as a positive or negative. It just doesn't matter to me. Oh...there is one part of the gambling thing that pisses me off. It's truly difficult to find a bar that doesn't have video poker machines built into it! I hate having to put my beer (and/or dinner) on the side because of these awful wastes of space. But I digress...

Here's to more blogging and less traveling! Cheers.