Well it's been a long time since I have posted anything, a lot has been going on in my life.  It's hard to believe that at the end of the month it will be one year since I began my new life.  Last month I made a visit back to my old stomping grounds.  I would have thought I was going to feel something, but I did not. The sad fact of the matter is I felt like I had never been there, just dust in the wind.  15 years and nothing, now 1 year and everything. I feel very much at home where I am, I have made new friends, have started a whole new life.  BTW I did find a new church too!  But can you beleive it?  One year!

Time sure has flown by.

Speaking of flying, (how'z that for a segue?) shortly I will be boarding that big ol's jet liner and flying off to Kuwait!  Yep you heard right Kuwait! bad part... 24 hours of flying time.. ugh... I try and limit detailed personal/ business things that I post on the internet, but I will say that I will be doing some work with pilots from the Kuwait Air Force. One guess as to what they fly?!?

Anyway, I have 4 trips scheduled, if all goes well.  Of course I will have my camera with me.  The hope of course is I come back as well... as my camera.

Pray for safety, pray for success, and as always.. pray for our fighting men and women!

...It doesn't matter to me, hey!
I'm in the Caribbean
(I'm in no hurry, yeah)
Oh, in my Caribbean Dream

Picture me just lyin' in the sun
Withthe radio on
If nothin' has to get done
Yeah, this reggae music is fun
Rhythm of the island

Need I say more????

Well I am back.. What a great cruise!  11 Days and Nights aboard the Disney Wonder...  Great Fun, Great weather, great food.... and yes.. I think I gained a few lbs!

Did a bit of snorkeling, a lot of swimming and a REAL lot of sunning myself!  Nice tan!  Although I took only the little digi camera, I got some really great images that I am going to be painting from.  I want to create a small gallery of Caribbean paintings, I beleive I got a few winners for sure.. Will post when I paint them.

Meanwhile, here are a few images to whet your appetite.

Pink Houses

Joun Cougar Mellencamp

Well we finally closed on both houses Friday 8/25. 1 PM final closing on the Dundee house, 3 PM closed on our Endicott home.. since then I've been scrapping wallpaper, painting rooms and cleaning.

The house was a pig stye. Turns out even though it was supposed to be vacant the lady's teen kid was having parties every night! eeeewwwwwww!!!

Oh yeah we offically own the ugliest house on the street!

Saturday, I scrapped all the wallpaper off the living room walls, painted ceilings in the living and dining, and then painted the walls in the living room! I've posted some of  the results in the living and dining rooms...I was a hurting puppy for sure, I had actually started my day at 5:30 am with 45 minutes of treadmill, and 20 minutes of laps in the motel swimming pool!

I then worked on the house pretty much non stop from 7:15 am until about 7:30 PM. Today was painting the Dining room, getting wallpaper and border off 2 bedrooms.

Needless to say I actually had to paint the livingroom 2x.. really 3x. Started with a light green on 2 walls, and it did not cover well (should have primed). I did not like the way it looked... I then decided to just paint over the walls with the darker accent green. Because of that I ran out of paint and got more.. well guess what.. wrong color, off by a couple shades and you could not see it until it dried. So off to Lowes got the replacement paint and painted again.

Oh yeah dining room was painted 2x, plus 2x extra coats of paint.. The first can came back way to pink.. I thought it would darken.. but noooooooo... is too fem pink for my taste.. that's what I get for living with 3 women! So now it is a grey with plum undertones... a little better.. I can live with it... for now...

At least this house has 4 bathrooms! No worries about not finding one when in need!

After work on Monday, I finished some trim, painted the kitchen, and installed a bi-fold door. I am trying to get some big stuff done before the trucks arrive.

Furniture arrives Wednesday and THursday, so we will be out of this motel Friday. Been living in a motel for nearly 2 months now... granted having a swimming pool has been great as I am in it every morning doing laps after my cardio session, but it is wearing on the family living out of a suitcase.

But we only have 2 weeks to get settled as our 11 day cruise happens mid September.. nice timing huh? Pray that the hurricains stay away this time.

Work is going real well.. I've been handing a varied amount of projects. My standard duties are keeping track of the status' of all the projects we are doing, maintaining the overhead budget, workloads, asset inventories..  . My other projects are just as varied. I completed a brochure on a... let's just call it a Fuzz Buster on steroids for different types of military hardware. I am now shifting gears and working on a Users Guide for something that goes into the Apache Helicopter. I am now tasked to start working on a proposal for the Army.. thankfully my mentor will be guiding through that landmine filled path! ;)

Last Friday, Lockheed had it's annual Employee appreciation event.. about 12,000 people were there. From a mini circus, other stage entertainment, to bands, free food, icecream, cotten candy and softdrinks, games, inflatables and other stuff for the kids, tours of some of the newer helicopters (and hangers) including the presidental helicopter prototype. A final concert (too much disco!), then a major fireworks display.. It was quite an event and the weather was perfect!

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell.

Here's a couple more views.. Oh yeah, that's my ZEN fountain on the right.... trickle trickle...