Math, Smath.

so i'm in ft.worth , tx this week taking a class to become a home energy rater and certified by resnet (residential energy services network). the city of austin has passed a new ordinance that requires certain homes when being sold, have an energy audit to make the potential buyer aware of the costs of operating, a most likely, inefficient home. the amount of information is over whelming and exciting. so much of what i am learning will help to make me a better home inspector, but its the math i could do without. i didn't like math when i passed it with a d+ in high school, and 20 years later its kicking my ass. the guys who are teaching this class are nice enough, but you can see the disgust in their eyes when you ask for the third time, "could you repeat/do that one more time". i know it can be as easy as looking at the formula, plugging in the numbers and then using the calculator. but its hard to wrap your head around that in the course of three days, after 20 years. i mean i could show these smarty engineer guys how to play stairway to heaven on the guitar, "heres the notes, heres the strings, read the music- now play it!" fat fucking chance they'd even get close...

Toys for the New Year

well this year is starting with a bang, to my wallet. a new bike from TSA (thanks annie) and yesterday a new/used truck. after making the worse car decision of my life back in denver and selling my perfectly good F-150 for a Saturn VUE, commonly know as "the shitbox". I have redeemed myself with a RAM 1500. Because gas is going to stay this low, right? Its a business expense and we've got a lot of landscaping and camping coming our way this spring. its real nice and all my tools are stored away nice and neat with the ladder in the back. No more constant rattling of the ladder as I go down the road. When gas goes back to $4 a gallon, make sure to look for blog posts "why did I buy this truck?" i plan to offset my more pronounced carbon footprint (although the saturn didn't get that much better gas milage actually) by riding my bike as much as possible. daily rides through the hood, trips to the hatch's for dinner and maybe to the tennis court to run mindy through some drills.

so much going on, so little time...

well i've been sucking it on the blogging lately. alot has happened and now that things are getting back to "normal" i should be in front of my computer on a regular basis. so since my last post about thanksgiving in seattle....

1. duck hunting trip to tyler: i spent two days in east texas with my frined alex and his brother rich, duck hunting on their land. it was awesome! i used my grandfathers duck gun (12ga. shotgun) and bascially camped out for two days. we got to tyler late in the night and got up early the next morning, like 5 am which i wouldn't normaly do unless snowboarding and now hunting. got out to the property, 230 acres with 2 large ponds- just awesome. got set up and as the sun was rising we got hunkered down in our blinds. we waited about an hour and then a flock of 5 or so came screeching in. and they make a real loud whirling sound as they pass over head. waited about 10 min. and then rich who was on the other side of the pond, shot at another group and our group took off. i got off two shots with the last a bullseye. i mean dropped this duck out of the sky like a hot rock. long story short- i didn't end up finding him, and got no other good shots the rest of the trip. it was a lot of fun and i wished that i had been doing this all my life. espically with my grandfather, but at least i have his gun so thats a good connection to him.

2. christmas: my folks, who live in kerrville, tx came over for a couple of days. good food and wine and a nice christmas. it was nice to relax and have nothing to do.

3. post christmas: i got really busy with work. which is great, however suprising. but i'll take it as it comes. work has been really good lately and i am excited about 2009. i was able to take off a couple of days when opel and christina came to town. always a good time when opel is around. we fixed curry beef at our house and played some scrabble. then the next morning we got up to go to the gun club for some shootin'. come on it's texas.

4. new years eve: annie came down from denver and at the last minute our new year's eve party plans got cancelled. a-okay by us. we went to dick and lorelei's for an early evening party. wonderful house and just as great hosts. we found out later that 17 bottles of champage were kicked. i think the count was up to around 11 when we left. yikes! we came home cooked some steaks and at 11:40am i was complaining about wanting to go to bed. i made it 'til 12:05am and announced i was going to bed. big time!

5. new bikes: we went to TSA with annie and loaded up on stuff. mindy and i got new bikes and have been on them everyday. its nice to spin around the hood. its quiet and low traffic around here. looking forward to biking the trails downtown at town lake and other areas.

6. coming up next: get the backyard project under control. need a couple more bids and then alot of sweat equity in my future to get the yard ready for spring. its a huge mud pit right now but i can see the future in it. adam and lynette are coming to town next week, so we are psyched for that. more shootin' to come. looks like i'll be taking a 5 day certification class for a new energy inspection designation in two weeks, should put me ahead of the crowd for work. so it doesn't sound like much fun, but i am excited about the opportunity it will bring. i'll be going to ft. worth with my friend and future co-worker justin. and then the week after that its off to amarillo for a visit with JB.

sooooooo, busy, busy, busy... i've got alot to do and work is busy. its hard to complain about being busy with work, but all this other stuff keeps getting pushed off. so time management and nightly wine/maker's mark will help keep the balance. happy new year to everyone and to everyone a good night!