♣ King of Clubs ♣

Captain Coupon!!!

2012-02-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

That is what I am calling myself, at least after today!

The grocery store we regularly go to, CUB Foods, has a gas coupon deal in place with a local convenience store/gas station, Holiday. The deal is, for every $50 you spend at CUB, you get a $0.05 off a gallon of gas coupon (limit to the first 15 gallons of gas). Well, with a family of four, we have had some larger grocery store trips over the last few weeks. We had a pending $0.25 off a gallon coupon and a $0.15 off a gallon coupon.

Most of the gas stations around the Twin Cities have been regularly accepting competitors gas coupons, even expired ones, and they don’t enforce the gallon restrictions. On Tuesdays, the same stations that accept competitors gas coupons also double them! However, Holiday will not double their own coupons, this included the special CUB Foods ones. So what does this mean you ask? I can take my CUB Foods/Holiday gas coupons to SuperAmerica and they double them! That’s right, $0.50 off a gallon and $0.30 off a gallon!

Altima:

16.861 gallons @ $3.49 per gallon = $59.00 – $4.80 coupon = $54.20

Enovy:

20.292 gallons @ $3.49 per gallon = $71.00 – $6.08 coupon = $64.92

That is a total savings of $10.88 in gas just by having a coupon and being lucky enough that both our cars needed gas on a Tuesday!

I am CAPTAIN COUPON!!!

(Bonus Question: Leave a comment and tell me what CUB stands for in CUB Foods. My wife, parents, and sibling are not eligible to play!)

This Is Getting Old…

2012-02-06T15:14:00.000-06:00

Not that I am real surprised but the little bit of snow we got a couple weeks ago isn’t sticking around. I figured that couple inches would last until the end of the winter, but the 47 degree day we had today combined with the normal temperatures over the last couple of weeks in the 30’s, the snow didn’t stand a chance.

02/06/12

Since Dad and I didn’t go on the last snowmobile trip, we are hoping by the end of this month, when we have our next trip planned, we will have some decent snow finally! I am also hoping for a real snowy March! I seriously can not remember a winter like this in the past 15 years…

Kitty Cat Time!!!

2012-01-27T14:37:00.000-06:00

Despite the disappointing winter we have been having for snowmobiling, it has still been good for some snowmobiling. A week or so ago, we figured it would be a good time to see how our Arctic Cat Kitty Cat would do in the little snow we do have. I was curious to see how it performed in the snow with the lift kit I installed on it over the summer.

We did a couple rounds in the back yard and Maeve loved it. Will really didn’t want anything to do with it yet. The snowmobile performed really well and handled the snow great. However, Maeve is still a little small to perfect turning and stopping. This basically required me to run along side the Kitty Cat the entire time to make sure she didn’t run into anything. Dad came up with a good idea to go to a lake and just let her go. This way she could get used to turning and slowing down and we wouldn’t have to worry about her hitting anything.

So, we packed up Maeve and the Kitty Cat and headed down to O’Dowd Lake in Shakopee. After we got the Kitty Cat fired up, we set Maeve loose. I went to one end of a bay and Dad went to the other. Maeve had a blast riding between the two of us. She started to get real good at slowing down, turning, and stopping. She basically was giggling and screeching the entire time!

Maeve went back and forth for about 20 minutes and was having a great time. However, the wind was blowing very hard and her cheeks were getting cold. I realized she needed some kind of face mask for the next trip. She spent a few minutes running around and exploring the frozen lake after snowmobiling.

I figured since it was kind of chilly, we should stop and get something warm to drink. I always remember getting hot chocolate after snowmobiling when I was a kid, so I figured it would be a fun way to end the day. So, Maeve, Dad, and I stopped at West Side Perk and enjoyed a treat!

Hopefully we can get some more snow and we can go out again. I think until next year when Maeve gets a little bigger, going out to a wide open area is the best idea for her getting used to the Kitty Cat.

I also scored a bargin on Craigslist the other day to haul the Kitty Cat around.

This would allow me to keep the mess out of my car and not have to haul the big snowmobile trailer around. It fits perfect and I only paid $30 for it! Even better, I will be able to use it year round to haul things I don’t want in my truck (dirt, lawnmowers, firewood, ect.)!

It was really cool getting to see Maeve use the Kitty Cat. Considering it is 40 years old and been passed down had many riders over the year it still ran and performed great and is still able to bring a smile to a child’s face. I know my Grandfather would be proud!

Finally, Snow Cover!

2012-01-25T09:34:00.001-06:00

Since my last post, we have had two trace amount snowfalls, where basically we get less than an inch of snow and it all melts by noon. We then got one snowfall of about two inches and I actually had to shovel for the third time this season. Finally, this past Monday, we got what you can see below. I would say it ended up being another two to three inches, but with this snowfall, we had about an inch of slushy muck under the snow, so the roads were terrible. This snowfall marks the fourth time I shoveled this year and I still haven’t even started the snowblower!

01/25/12

Dad and I have a snowmobile trip planned for the upcoming weekend (this trip was originally schedule for the beginning of the month, but we had to cancel and reschedule because of the lack of snow), but we are still on the fence about if we will have enough snow yet! I have been doing a little checking online, but I haven’t been able to get any great information.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-04T13:30:00.001-06:00

Hours before the clock struck midnight, we started getting some heavy snow! We hadn’t seen any snow for many weeks, so it was nice to finally have some on the ground. It also allowed Shannon’s sister Ashley and her boyfriend Josh (who were spending time with us, from Texas, between Christmas and New Year’s) to “play” in the new snow! We ended up getting a VERY wet and heavy two inches here in Bloomington. Once the snow fell, the temperature dropped, so it all pretty much turned to a crusty ice.

01/04/12

They are predicting temperatures in the high 30’s and low 40’s for the rest of this week, so I don’t know how much of this new snow will be sticking around. At least if it gets warm, I will get a chance to get the driveway cleaned up. Our first snowmobile trip which was planned for this upcoming weekend got rescheduled for the last weekend in January. Lets hope we have some decent snow by then. I can’t even remember the last time we couldn’t go snowmobiling because of no snow!

BLOG UPDATE:

I don’t have much planned for the new year. I am going to try and post more regularly, and not dedicate the entire summer to taking the Trans Am apart! I am also trying a new format for the background effects on the pictures. This isn’t something I planned to switch, but the new program I am using to write these posts, defaults to the above look and it is too much work to switch the format back on every picture. So, since it is a new year, what better time to switch! Thanks for continuing to read!

Merry Christmas 2011!!!

2011-12-25T13:12:00.000-06:00

As you can see below, we kept the photo Christmas card going another year! The massive improvement of quality over LAST YEAR was pretty much because Shannon did the entire card from start to finish! She has WAY more artistic talent than me!

So from our family to yours…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Minne-“No Snow”-ta

2011-12-14T13:35:00.001-06:00

It seems we are having a little bit of difficulty kicking off the winter/snow season. We got out first measurable snowfall back on November 19th. Since then we have seen the following:

12/03/11

Melt down from the 11/19/11 snowfall…

12/04/11

A refreshing three inch snowfall…

12/14/11

Almost no snow left and rain showers!

I’m kind of bummed, because if it was only about seven degrees cooler, we would have some major snow right now! The only nice thing about these warm temperatures is that Dad and I got the snowmobiles up and going for the winter and didn’t have to freeze doing it. However, it might all be for nothing if we don’t get some major snow between now and our January 6th – 8th trip we have planned! I would also like for my sister-in-law Ashley and her boyfriend Josh, who will be spending Christmas with us from Texas, to have a white Christmas! I will keep you all posted! THINK SNOW!

First Snowfall of the 2011-2012 Winter Season!

2011-11-19T14:45:00.000-06:00

Midday today, we had our first snow event. It started out as a misty rain, then converted to ice pellets, and finally to snow. I would say we got about 3, maybe 4 inches in Bloomington. It was very nice to see everything in a nice blanket of snow, but as always, everyone forgot how to drive in it! Here are the first front and back yard shots for the year!

The snow probably wont be sticking around since we are supposed to have temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s later this week, but it was still nice to see and mark the start of the snow season!!

Will’s 2nd Birthday!!!

2011-11-12T14:30:00.000-06:00

For Will’s birthday this year, we planned a small get together with family and a few friends. We decided on making the party a duck hunting/camo themed party! Shannon had a special cake made (Queen of Cakes) to continue the theme. The one weird part of his party, is that we served a Mexican style taco bar. Shannon and I had both been craving a crock pot chicken taco recipe and we figured what better way to satisfy this craving!

Will had a great birthday! He really started to get into un-wrapping his presents and had fun with it. Maeve did a very good job “helping” un-wrap presents too! I’m pretty sure everyone left with a full stomach of tacos and cake! I would like to thank everyone for coming and helping us celebrate “Bubba’s” birthday and for the wonderful gifts!

Duck Hunting 2011

2011-11-11T13:46:00.000-06:00

Last year, I started doing a summary of all my duck hunting trips in one post. This format seemed to work pretty well and didn’t really drag on too much. I think I am going to stick with that format. This year, we totally hunted public land again and had decent success. Personally, duck hunting for me isn’t about the number of ducks harvested, but the experience, bonding, and enjoying the outdoors that I always look forward to the most!

10/01/11

This was the first trip Dad and I took for the year. We headed back down to the MM WMA. We got down there plenty early enough in the morning but were the second group out there. The weather was cooler, but not super cold. We wore our heavier hunting clothing. It ended up being a blue bird day, but we did rid the world of one goose. Dad and I are both claiming this harvest, since we both shot it and then it fell!

10/13/11

This trip, Dad and I heading back down the the MM WMA. The weather was much cooler and we were right at the leading edge of a front pushing through. We had a fair amount of wind but there was a lot flying! We had one other hunting party on the slough with us. We ended up bagging a Hen Gadwall, a Hen Scaup, a drake Woodduck, a drake Blue Wing Teal, and a Drake Green Wing Teal. It was a very fun day of duck hunting.

10/27/11

Dad I headed down to the MM WMA area again for our third trip of year. Since our last trip, Dad and my brother Michael had also hit the MM WMA and harvested two Widgeons. It was warmer than the previous trips this morning. The winds had also shifted, so we set up our decoy spread on the opposite area we normally do. We were the only ones on the slough today. We both missed a pretty easy shot on a landing drake Mallard, but it was still a nice morning, despite not having bagged any birds!

11/06/11

For our forth trip, we really switched it up. We did an afternoon hunt on some federal land along the Minnesota River. The nice thing about this area is it about 5 minutes from my house. We had the opportunity to scout this area early in the year and got a feel for the layout of the area. Trying to get a good spot to go hunting in the morning is almost impossible. The hunters start flooding the area around 0300 for a 0700 shoot time! We both like duck hunting, but we are not that dedicated. The actual lake we were on, isn’t directly connected to the Minnesota River, but has a large amount of river sediment in it from years of the river flooding. This made for a muddy experience. We were not able to pull the boat up onto any cattails or brush, we pretty much had to get as close as possible to the shore and use some camo netting for cover. We saw a few birds flying, but didn’t have any shots. It was a unique experience hunting and hearing cars passing on the highway, smelling diesel fuel, and being able to see multi-million dollar houses in the distance!

11/11/11

This will make my last trip duck hunting this season. A co-worker and I headed down to the MM WMA area to try our luck. We used his boat and decoys for this trip. It was the coldest day duck hunting yet. It was in the 20’s and we had to break through 1/4 inches thick layer of ice to get into the slough. It was nice having a little bigger boat, but it was a little harder to move around. We had a nice decoy spread set up and we were the only ones on the slough. We both missed another easy drake mallard and that ended up being the only shooting we had for the day.

Overall, it was another great season. We had a decent harvest, got to enjoy many nice sun rises, and even tried some new areas. Not bad for my 21st year duck hunting!!!

(You may have noticed, I intentionally left the names and locations of these WMA's off of this post. I have heard some horror stories from a couple other "blogging" friends who put this information into their blogs and were taken advantage of. I have no problem sharing these with other people, just leave me a comment with your contact information and if I feel you are well intentioned, I will send you the information. Thanks for reading!)

Sleepy Chicken…

2011-11-02T13:45:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,751

It is that time of year again. The Trans Am is going into winter storage. We haven’t really had any winter type weather yet, but it has been getting colder (in the 30’s) over the past week or so. I don’t have any problem driving the Trans Am when it is cold out, but if it isn’t in the garage and put away for the winter, it really gets in the way when I am trying to get other things done for the winter. So, the other day Will and I drove it up to the fire station and gave it a good cleaning. We filled up the gas tank, added some fuel stabilizer, and took it out for one more ride. When we got back, I got it parked tight against the front and side walls of the garage and put the cover on it. I plan on starting it a couple times over the winter to keep the juices flowing! This year I put 308 miles on the Trans Am. I’m thinking I would have had almost double that if I didn’t do all of the interior/heater core work.

Here are the mileage totals since I have owned the Trans Am:

2008 – 163 miles

2009 – 398 miles

2010 – 539 miles

2011 – 308 miles

Total: 1,408 miles

In the above photo, you might have also noticed the new shelf Dad and I built in the garage for the Kitty Cat. I really wanted to get the Kitty Cat off the ground so I could get the Trans Am as close to the front of the garage as I could. I also didn’t want it to get banged into with anything and broken. The shelf allows for the Kitty Cat to go on and off easily and still has room underneath for the nose of Trans Am.

NOTE: With this post, I am now 100% caught up with everything I have been meaning to post about! I do have the Duck Hunting 2011 recap pending, but the season isn’t over yet, so that will be up soon after! Thank you everyone for continuing to stop in and read despite the lack of regular updates!

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

This year, Maeve was super excited for Halloween. She could not wait to carve pumpkins, she wanted to “feel” the insides! Will is much more like me and could really do without the mess! At the end, the mess wasn’t that bad, the kids had fun, and the pumpkins turned out great!

This year Maeve went as a Princess and Will went as a Duck Hunter! We did Trick-or-Treating with our friends in their neighborhood, we had four kids in our group total and they did AWESOME! All of them had full candy baskets! Maeve and Will were super tired by the end of the night, but I know they had a great time!

Vegas Baby!

2011-10-16T12:51:00.000-05:00

10/16/11 – 10/18/11

This year for our anniversary, Shannon and I wanted to do something special. We knew we wanted to go somewhere for a couple days, but we really didn’t know where. Since neither one of us had ever been to Las Vegas, we figured now would be a great time to go! This would also be the first time both of us had been away from the kids for more than a day!

We stayed at the Venetian Hotel, which was VERY nice. Since this was our first time, so we wanted to make sure and “do it up” right! We had a few smaller activities planned: The Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace, a Gondola ride at the Venetian, The Fremont Street Experience, The Buffet at the Mirage, and The Bellagio Fountains. The major event we wanted to do was getting our vows renewed with Elvis at a Las Vegas Wedding Chapel!

I will let the pictures fill in the rest!

Our Hotel/Hotel Suite/Views

Gondola Ride

Fremont Street

Wedding Chapel

(We are still waiting on our “formal” pictures!)

Las Vegas Views

We had a blast when we were in Las Vegas. We would totally go back again! We think next time, we would want to see a couple shows and stay somewhere else to switch it up a bit. Shannon and I are not big gamblers, so I think Vegas is up about $6 on us! We would also like to thank my Mom, Grandma Dee, Abby, and Kyle for watching the kids while we were gone. This trip would have never happened without you help!

The Old Fishing Boat Motor…

2011-09-27T15:58:00.000-05:00

When we had our family lake cabin in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we had a Glastron speedboat and a small aluminum fishing boat powered by a Mercury outboard. When we sold the cabin, we kept the boats and the motor. The two boats moved on to new homes, but the old Mercury boat motor took up residence in the basement of my parents house. The motor is as follows:

Year: 1971

Make: Kiekhaefer Mercury

Model: MERC 75

HP: 7.5

Twin Cylinder

11 cubic inch displacement

Over the past year or so, Dad has been working on getting that motor running again. He had to replace almost all the electrical wiring, the fuel lines, the fuel pump, the water pump, and the gas tank lines. Once it was all back together, he was able to bench test it by filling up a garbage can with water and running the motor inside of it. It started great and ran even better. However, this was far from a real world test, so we hooked it onto the back of the S.S. Dinghy and set off!

The S.S. Dinghy is only rated for a 5 HP motor, and the lake we were testing it on has a 6 HP limit, but we figured it was just a small test ride, so we would take our chances! The motor started and ran great! It is amazing how much difference there is between a 3 HP motor and a 7.5 HP motor! That Mercury can really make that duck boat move! The added weight of the motor makes it a little harder to get on and off the trailer, but if we ever had some big water we needed to get across to duck hunt, this would be the motor I would want!

Since my old Johnson motor still needs some attention, Dad and I were thinking we would get mine running right over the winter and then maybe sell both the Johnson and the Mercury and put the proceeds toward the purchase of a new 4-stroke motor! The thought of having a reliable, fuel efficient, low maintenance boat motor is very appealing to both of us! That is the plan as of now, but who knows, anything can change!

Reviving an Old Kitty Cat…

2011-09-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

If you have been following my blog since I started it back in 2006, you might remember THIS POST. Since that post, not much has happened with the old Kitty Cat. I have been faithfully storing it in our garage waiting for my kids to get old enough so they can ride it and enjoy it as I did.

A couple years ago, I did some research on where to get parts and how to make a few improvements, but didn’t really do much else. Now that Maeve is getting old enough to ride it, I wanted to get it “snow-worthy” again. Dad and I spent a couple hours one afternoon and got it running. We figured if it didn’t run, it wasn’t going to be worth doing anything else to it! It had some issues, but fired up after a few pulls and ran good. Now onto the other things that needed attention!

One of the main design flaws with the Arctic Cat Kitty Cat is that it sits so low to the ground, so if you have more than about three inches of snow, it gets stuck. This is something that caused enough of a demand to change, a few guys started putting together “kits” to fix this problem. The kits are basically a two to three inch “lift kit” that drops the rear suspension down away from the frame and then raises the front skis up. I did a little research on the kits and found a guy who lives in Minnesota that produces one of the best ones. All the parts are professionally machined and laser cut. The kit cost $100 total and was competitively priced with the other kits available.

Along with installing the “lift kit” the follow is a list of the other improvements/repairs we had to make:

- Clean/Degrease entire sled

- Install new track

- Install new rear reflector

- Install new side hood reflectors

- Repair cracked hood fin

- Straighten front bumper

- Repair small tear in seat (Thanks Mom!)

- Bypass broken ignition switch

- Fabricate new chain case cover bracket (Thanks Dad!)

- Clean carburetor

- Restore fuel shut-off valve

- Install and reroute new fuel line

I don’t have ton of photos of each one of these procedures, but I do have a few of the track and lift kit installation. The before (left) and after (right) are shown below. You can see what a huge improvement in ground clearance the Kitty Cat has now!

The kit itself went together great and everything fit perfectly! Replacing the front ski spindles not only raised the front end, it also eliminated the slop in the steering system! After everything was together, I installed the grass wheels on the front skis!

Now that everything was together and working great, we had to do a test ride! The kids really didn’t know what to think of it at first, but after a little bit of coaxing, they couldn’t get enough of it! Maeve isn’t too sure of working the throttle yet, so Dad and I got some exercise running along side of it, but I’m guessing once she is in snow, it will be a different story!

The kids had a blast on the test ride. It made getting the 40 year old Kitty Cat going again totally worth it! I can’t wait for them to ride it this winter! It is a really neat feeling knowing that this has been in our family for so long and it is STILL going!

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

Maeve is in her second year of pre-school this year. This year, they have school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and are there from 0900 – 1130 (Last year they went Tuesday and Thursday from 0900 – 1050). As always, Maeve was super excited for school! She even brought her teacher a picture she made over the summer! Both Shannon and I are super proud parents and pleased she LOVES school so much! I can’t believe she will be in Kindergarten next year!

Onto the Doors…

2011-09-02T14:36:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,601

Now that the majority of the Trans Am interior was done, I wanted to move onto a couple functionality items. Both the driver and passenger doors, have random rattles inside and need a little attention. The drivers door needs new hinge pins and bushings, window felts, new door handle cups, and window crank hole covers. The passenger door needs window felts, a power lock actuator, new door handle cups, and window crank hole covers. It also need some adjustment because the window drops below the window felt and catches it when you role the window up. I decided to start with the passenger door first, since it would be easier.

The window felt was super easy to replace and looks so much better than the old cracked one. I figured out why the window was dropping down so low, the bump stop had fallen off the bracket and was laying in the bottom of the door. It appears a previous repair had also failed. I simply reinstalled it and the problem was solved!

I finished up with replacing the door handle cups, and window crank hole covers. There wasn’t anything wrong with them, but the paint was wearing off and they needed freshening up!

I put the door back together without replacing the door lock actuator or reinstalling the dust shield. I pretty much ran out of time and didn’t want to miss out on driving anymore this year! I will be sure to get the lock actuator purchased over the winter and get everything ready to go for next spring!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (D-O-N-E!)…

2011-08-02T10:58:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Well, in total, it took about two months to complete this project. The bummer is that I missed a bunch of nice days of driving the car, but if it is leaking coolant, then driving it really wouldn’t be much fun! I am really happy with how everything came together, and really we didn’t have many issues along the way. I think the final results are awesome! The before (left) and after (right) pictures really show all the improvements!

As with any older car, I still have a small laundry list of projects that I plan on doing in the future, but for now, I am going to be happy with my fresh, new, clean interior and drive it as much as I can until the end of summer! Speaking of that, check out the first place I took the Trans Am with it’s new interior….

If anyone has any questions, or would like more details on anything I did, feel free to contact me and I will be more than happy to get into all the boring details!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Final Reassembly!)…

2011-08-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

We are now on the home stretch! I started the final reassembly by addressing the T-Top Molding Trim. The originals were both cracked, so I installed the new and freshly dyed replacements! This really made a big difference!

Next, I installed the new sun visors. The material on the old ones (bottom) had began to sag and come detached from the frame. The new ones I bought from Classic Industries and they look great as well!

Finally, I moved onto the driver’s seat and seat belt. We followed the same procedure as the passenger side and everything went together great! I think the interior looks great!

To complete the entire project, we replaced the nose emblem! The old one was showing its age, and since I had already purchased the part I figured why not!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Console, Passenger Seat and Seat Belt)…

2011-08-01T10:19:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Since the back seating area was now done, it was time to move forward! The center console seemed like a good next step. Before I got it installed, I needed to brighten up the map pocket. Some of the silver trim around the edge had worn off over the years, so I got a Testors “Gloss Silver” colored paint pen and touched it up! I think it looks great!

I have been collecting a few parts over the past couple years for the console. I have a new bin, arm rest lid, and shifter bezel. The arm rest lid required the metal stop piece to be removed from the original lid and then mounted on the new one. We used small aluminum rivets to mount it on the new lid. Also, since it was out, I did a deep clean on the entire console, it was nice to get all the nooks and crannies cleaned!

After we got the console finished up, we moved onto the passenger seat. Really, the reason we started with the passenger seat was because the car was backed into the garage and the driver’s side was against the wall! Since I kept the old carpet, we used it as a template and cut the holes for the seat and seatbelt exactly as they did from the factory. The only change we made was on the outer lower seat belt mount, we made sure our cuts were very tight and could easily be tucked up into the trim pieces. The only advise I can give is to make sure to measure and lay out the cuts before you get the knife out! After we got the carpet cut, we bolted down both seat belts, the seat, and reinstalled the rock panel sill plates.

The one funny thing I noticed when I was installing the female latch part of the seat belts, is that the actual seatbelt webbing isn’t camel tan. The driver side was maroon and the passenger side was oyster! I guess it really didn’t matter when color they used at the factory, since the webbing is completely covered by the trim sleeve! I wonder what random combinations, other people have in their cars?!

We are almost done and I think it is looking great! I can’t wait to get the driver’s side done now so I can drive it again and show off all our hard work!

Annual Summer Cabin Trip!

2011-07-29T09:42:00.000-05:00

07/29/11 – 07/31/11

We were invited to my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nette’s cabin again this year. I think this is the third year we have been up there, and we always look forward to it! This year we again had an awesome time! The weather was perfect, the food was plentiful and very tasty, and the kids had a blast! We all enjoyed the pontoon rides which allowed us to chat, enjoy some snacks and cocktails, and go swimming! Will is old enough now that he can play in the water and enjoy himself. He loved splashing and throwing rocks! Typical boy! The Sea-Doo was again a big hit with Maeve, and this year we even got Shannon to drive it! I was very proud!

It was great spending the perfect weekend with family! I would like to again thank my Uncle Bruce, Aunt Lynette, and cousin Jordan for having us up again! We all had a blast and great memories were made!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Reassemble Back Seat Area)…

2011-07-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Finally. I am putting large pieces of this car back together! The reassembly is obviously in reverse order of disassembly, so the back seat area goes back in first. This consisted of both the Interior Lower Rear Quarter Trim, both Interior Sail Panel, both Coat Hooks, the Rear Headliner Trim Piece, and all three parts of the seat!

I neglected to take pictures of the seat installed, but I can assure you, they look awesome next to all of the freshly dyed interior pieces. Having all the hardware bagged and tagged from when I took the car apart, really helped the installation process come together.

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Vent Work)…

2011-07-27T23:46:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

It seems weird all the parts that had to come off this car just to replace the carpet. A perfect example is all the under dash heating and air conditioning duct work. I had to take all of the lower duct work out just to remove the driver’s side kick panel! There wasn’t enough room to get the parking brake assembly moved with them installed. The nice thing about removing all these vents, is that it gave me a change to clean them (they all had 30+ years of dust and dirt in them), it gave me a change to replace all the worn and deteriorated foam gasket strips, and it allowed me to install them properly (it appears the factory missed some of the intended mounting hole locations!).

I didn’t do a real good job of taking photograph of this process, but if you have any questions, contact me!

Maeve’s 4th Birthday!!!

2011-07-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

It is really hard to believe that Maeve is turning four already. I have no idea where the time has gone. For her birthday this year, we decided to do an outdoor/water fun type party. We basically got a bunch of sprinklers, kiddy pools, and water toys and invited some of her friends over to play. The party was a blast, the food was good (BBQ), and everyone had a great time. I don’t have many pictures of the actual party, but I have couple before party pictures and then some of Maeve opening her presents later in the day after the party was over! I will now let the pictures do the talking!

Overall, Maeve LOVED her party. She has been having a great time playing with all of her new “Tinker” toys and has got really good at riding her big girl bike already! Thank you very much to all of our friends and family that helped make this party possible!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Driver’s Side Kick Panel Install)…

2011-07-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Now that I had the correct carpet and it was installed, I could FINALLY start putting parts back on the car! The first part was the driver’s side kick panel. This part has a calk type material that seals the kick panel to the sheet metal behind it to prevent leaks from the vent opening hole (which was used in earlier model Firebird, but not mine, hence the kick panel). I first had to scrape and strip all this old calk material off, clean the surface with carb cleaner, and wipe it down with 409 (a great degreaser!).

The product I decided to use to replace the original calk material is call “Thumb Gum Putty.” It is a material used by HVAC technicians to seal the hole around the air conditioning lines run into your house. You can pretty much mold it to the shape you want it and it stays sticky. It is water proof and can deal with extreme temperatures very well. I tried to find a website or link to post about this product but couldn’t find one. I would imagine you would be able to get this product, or something like it, at any HVAC supply company. I have heard that “big box” home improvement stores do not carry it. I am lucky enough that my brother Michael works in the HVAC industry and supplied me with what I needed! I simply rolled the material out and lined the opening with it. Simple!

After I got the Thumb Gum installed, I carefully fitted the newly dyed kick panel into position and pressed it into the putty. After installed the kick panel screws, I reinstalled the parking brake assembly and nicely tucked the new carpet under the kick panel!

What a great feeling finally having some interior panels installed! I think it looks great!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (New Carpet Delivered & Freshly Dyed Parts)…

2011-07-18T14:24:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

The new, correct colored carpet arrived today. The Cognac #9205 is a perfect match and as always the quality and construction of the carpet by ACC is amazing! Since we were experiencing record heat in Minnesota, I put the new carpet in the driveway so it would “relax” from the form it took when it was shipped.

While the carpet was outside I took a couple minutes to install the custom carpet pad I made HERE. It looked great and only required minor trimming to fit! After the carpet “relaxed” in the sun for an hour or so, I placed it into the car so it would start to take the form of the car. You have no idea how good that carpet looked sitting in the car. It really made me happy that I didn’t have to look at the floor and the carpet pad any longer!

I didn’t have a lot of time to start with the reassembly, but I had a chance to get a couple pictures of all the parts that I had been dyeing and getting ready to be reinstalled.

I was super excited to have the new carpet and be so close to getting my car back together. I really miss driving it and can’t wait to see how everything looks when it finally comes together!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Reupholstering the Front Seats)…

2011-07-15T14:21:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

The front seats in the Trans Am were not in bad shape, they didn’t have any rips, tears, or stains, but they were worn out and looked like they had 31 years of use! Since I was going to the trouble of getting the interior freshened up, I didn’t want the worn seats to take away from it, so I opted to reupholster them while I had them removed from the car. In the below “before” pictures, the driver’s seat is on the top row, the passenger seat is on the bottom row.

In the three years I have been driving my car, I have noticed the driver’s seat bottom foam was sagging a little bit, so along with the seat covers, I got new seat foam for the driver’s seat. I purchased the front seat covers from Classic Industries for $305.14 and the driver’s side deluxe seat foam from Performance Years for $129.00. I also purchased a pair of hog ring pliers and hog rings to help with the installation. I had never done any kind of upholstery work before, but like always, I did some research and referred to 78ta.com. This video HERE and HERE also helped out! I made sure to take a bunch of pictures so I had reference material on how everything went back together.

I didn’t realize until I went to write this post, I didn’t do a very good job of photo documenting all the steps of reupholstering the seats. I will try and fill in some of the blanks and hit the highlights:

- The seat bushings mentioned HERE which cause the seats to “lean” were bad on my seats also. I used a nylon spacer that I found at Home Depot in the hardware section to replace it.

- Reupholstering both seats took two days. I did the passenger seat all by myself, the driver’s seat (cover and foam) my Dad helped with. Having two people make this process much easier!

- The original foam “flap” mentioned HERE was removed from the original foam and fitted to the new foam and seat frame.

- When I removed the driver’s seat, I noticed I got lucky enough to find ANOTHER build sheet for my car stuck between the lower seat frame and the foam. This build sheet was in poor condition, but still neat. I removed it from the seat frame and flattened it out. I will add it to the other three I have.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished passenger seat, but the last picture above is of the finished driver’s seat. The material looks great, the new foam feels awesome, and adding the freshly dyed seat back panels complete with the chrome piping I bought from 78ta.com for $16.99, really set off the seats!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Dyeing Plastic Interior Panels)…

2011-07-12T23:51:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

A good portion of the interior panels in my car needed to be replaced. Due to the age, sun, and wear the plastic started to get chalky, flaky, and crumbly. There is pretty much no fix once the plastic starts to deteriorate and you have to replace the panels. I have been accumulating the panels I have needed over the last couple of years, so the only thing I needed to do was dye them. In order to keep reproduction part costs low, most reproduction parts are only offered in one color. Black. So if you have any other interior color, you either need to find a good quality original panel or dye the reproduction ones. I did a TON of research on what materials and methods to use to properly dye plastic panels. The bulk of the information I got, once again, came from the Trans Am Forum I belong to, 78ta.com, and can be read HERE. The below list of parts is what I have to dye for the interior of my car. I also listed the price and supplier I got the part from in case anyone was interested.

LH Interior Sail Panel – $59.96 – Classic Industries

RH Interior Sail Panel – Original Part, dyeing for color match

LH Interior Lower Rear Quarter Trim – $135.19 – Classic Industries

RH Interior Lower Rear Quarter Trim – $114.39 – Classic Industries

LH Kick Panel – Original Part, dyeing because of faded color

T-Top Mounted Trim Panels (LH & RH) – $110.00 – F-Body Warehouse

Lower Front Seat Belt Bracket Covers – $42.00 – eBay, used part

Seat Belt Seat Retainers – Original Part, dyeing because of faded color

Coat Hooks – $16.45 – eBay, used part, dyeing for color match

LH T-Top Opening Molding – $39.00 – Ames Performance Engineering

RH T-Top Opening Molding – $39.00 – Ames Performance Engineering

Seat Back Panels – $65.00 – Private party sale, used part

All of the panels were thoroughly cleaned with a spray degreaser, wiped down with Acetone, and then wiped down with a clean cloth. I applied around five light, mist coats of the SEM brand Camel Tan dye (#15173) to everything. I went through about seven cans of color coat. I let all the items dry and them followed the color coat up with five light, mist coats of the SEM brand Low Luster Clear Coat (#13023). I went through about four cans of the clear coat. The SEM brand dye is AWESOME and super easy to use. You just have to take your time and try not to use it like a traditional spray paint. Many light coats is much better than a medium or thick one!

The only panels that I had trouble with were the LH and RH Interior Lower Rear Quarter Trim. It seemed no matter how I hung them or dyed them, I would always get overspray trapped into the area around the ashtray opening. The best technique I found to mostly eliminate this is by applying about 15 SUPER LIGHT coats of the dye to that area, so the overspray never got that bad and wouldn’t stick to the panel. Other than that one issue, I think my first experience with using dye on interior plastic panels went really well!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (A/C Duct Housing Repair)…

2011-07-08T22:47:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

The A/C Duct Housing is one of those parts that always gets broken in Firebirds. I don’t know if it has something to do with the location, the original construction, or just bad engineering by GM. It seems the front mounting holes break away from the rest of the case and crack the plastic around them. Mine was no exception to this defect. In fact, mine had been repaired previously by melting a star washer into the plastic were the original mounting tab would have been (see below picture). This part is reproduced and is about $100 from any of the major part suppliers. However, I had a couple ideas in my head that would allow me to repair my current piece and save about $95 doing so.

First, I got the entire unit cleaned both inside and out. Next, I took two paint sticks and two small C-clamps and sandwiched the hollow area of plastic where the mounting tabs are located. Then, from the inside of the unit, I sprayed a low expansion aerosol spray foam into the hollow area. When the foam did expand, it expanded out the cracks around the mounting tabs and into the actual box.

The spray foam didn’t expand far enough into the duct to even justify trying to trim it. After the spray foam dried, I took my rotary tool, and cut a small 1/8” slit into the plastic/spray foam around the original mounting hole. This 1/8” slit is just wide enough to slip a fender washer into. I then took hot melt glue and glued the fender washer to the case and filled in all the cracks. I finished it up by painted the fender washer and hot melt glue black. I also installed new foam insulation around the opening to the heater box. When everything was dry, it looked as good as new. I’m not sure how it will hold up, but it seems to be a huge improvement over what was there and it only cost me a $5 can of spray foam!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Coolant System Flush & Fill, Heater Hoses, Reservoir)…

2011-07-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Since the heater box and heater core were both installed back on the vehicle, I needed to get the other mechanical issues dealt with before I can continue with getting the car back together. The coolant flush and fill was the next step. Dad and I used a Prestone Flush & Fill kit that Dad has had for years. We installed the “T” for the garden hose attachment between the ends of the two non-attached heater hoses. We then followed the instruction provided by Prestone and used some of their Super Radiator Flush and let the water flow and flush until we had straight clean water coming out of the car.

After the flush and fill was done, we removed the original heater hoses and clamps. I evaluated the original clamps and they were in great shape, so I cleaned them up with some carb cleaner. We then got the new heater hoses installed, routed, and clamped back down using the original hose clamps. Now that the coolant system was totally sealed back up, we started to add coolant back in. We generated a few air pockets in the coolant system that took a while to come out, but the system was eventually totally full and brought up to operating temperature. The best part is no coolant leaking on the inside of the car and the heater was blowing hot air!

While doing the flush and fill, we noticed one issue with the coolant system. The coolant overflow tank or reservoir had a crack in it and looks as if it had been repaired once before. This is a typical part to go bad on these cars because of the way it is mounted to the car. When you go to push the cap back on, you put downward pressure onto the reservoir and it puts stress on the mounting bolts which are embedded into the plastic tank. After doing this a few hundred times, the plastic around the bolt cracks and now the reservoir is no good. I have never noticed this before mainly because the location of the cracks were so high on the reservoir, unless the coolant was overfilled or the vehicle was overheating, it would have never leaked out!

I figured I would be able to grab any of the major part suppliers catalogs and just order one up. Well, it turns out the coolant reservoir for the 1980 and 1981 4.9L V8 powered Firebird/Trans Am is unique. All the reservoir’s from the bigger 1976 - 1979 motors will work in my car, but are not correct. After doing some research and searching, one supplier still stocks the correct reservoir I need, Ames Performance Engineering. So, for $59.00 I was able to replace the cracked reservoir with a new, clean looking one!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Final Carpet Color & Custom Carpet Pad)…

2011-07-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

After a few days of waiting I finally got three carpet samples back from ACC that most closely matched my original carpet sample that I sent them.

The left side samples I already had and from top to bottom are: #7037 Camel Tan, #854 Carmel, #7087 Doeskin, #7295 Medium Doeskin. The new samples that I just received are on the right and from top to bottom are: #9205 Cognac, #830 Buckskin, #4640 Dark Saddle. I know it is hard to tell with the lighting and the flash on my camera, but the top one on the right (#9205 Cognac) is an exact match. I have no idea why or how this is possible, but on my 1980 Trans Am with a Camel Tan interior, the carpet color match isn’t Camel Tan, it’s Cognac! I was able to return my old carpet and order the correct color with out any troubles!

Since I removed the original carpet and discovered the coolant soaked carpet pad in the passenger side foot well, I have been air drying, blow drying, and letting the carpet pad bake in the sun. After all of this, I attempted to clean it up and reinforce it with Gorilla Tape, but it just wasn’t working. The material had set wet for too long and was just coming apart. One option was to replace all of the carpet pad in the entire car. The kit is right around $100. However, the rest of the carpet pad in my car was just fine and I didn’t want to wait for it to be delivered. Given these circumstances, I decided to make my own!

I went down to the Home Depot and purchased a small piece of plastic backed residential carpet pad and some roofing tar paper. I traced the outline of the old carpet pad onto the residential carpet pad and cut it out. The residential carpet pad I chose had the same thickness as the original carpet pad from the Trans Am. I then traced the same outline onto the roofing tar paper and cut that out. Finally, I used some 3M spray adhesive and glued the two pieces together. The result was great, it looked and felt just like the original and only cost me about $6!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Heater Box & Heater Core Assembly)…

2011-06-29T13:51:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

The heater box itself was a mess. It was covered in 31 years of dust and grime plus had residual coolant in it from when the heater core was leaking. After I spent a couple hours scrubbing and cleaning the heater box, it was time for reassembly!

I purchased the new heater core from O’Reilly Auto Parts for $25.99. It slipped right in without any problems. I used some high temperature, high density foam pipe insulation I got from Home Depot to duplicate the deteriorated foam on both the inlet and outlet tubes of the heater core seen HERE. As I continued with the reassembly, I replaced all the foam gaskets and seals with self adhesive foam insulation strips I also purchased from Home Depot. The last thing to get replaced was the brittle red vacuum line sticking out from the top of the heater box seen HERE. After about an hour of reassembly and refurbishing, I had the heater box back together and ready to be put back in the car!

Since I was very close to getting the heater box and heater core back in the car, I need to evaluate the heater hoses. They both had to be cut off the heater core since they were original and very brittle. After cutting the ends, there was not enough length to reconnect them. Since I had everything out and apart anyway, it made total sense to just replace the hoses too! I went with the regular standard black heater hose that I purchased from O’Reilly Auto Parts. To be totally factory correct, you would need to find heater hose that had three small grooves running the length of the hose. Not many vendors carry this hose (Ames Performance Engineering does!) and they usually charge about $5 a foot for it (you need two, four foot lengths to do both hoses!). My total cost for the heater hoses was a little over $10!

Since I still wanted/needed to flush and fill the coolant in the Trans Am, I decided to reinstall the heater box and new heater core and just not hook up the heater hoses. I didn’t want any of the crud that was possibly in the coolant system to get stuck in the new heater core and ruin it, so we would just bypass it when we do the flush and fill. The installation went about the same as the removal, a lot of rotating, pushing, and pulling and it slipped right in! I reinstalled all the bolts and nuts that hold the heater box to the firewall, hooked up the vacuum lines, and hooked up the temperature control linkage. It was nice being on the road to getting the car back together!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Heater Box Removal & Carpet Colors)…

2011-06-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Now that the inner fender well is out of the way, I can actually move onto the task of getting the heater core out. The heater core is held inside case called the heater box. The heater box is behind the dashboard and takes up about 40% of that area. It contains two vacuum actuators that control vent doors and a linkage that controls the temperature blend door. All of the duct work that directs the air in the car is attached to the heater box.

I have to admit, I didn’t do a very good job documenting the removal of the heater box with pictures, but I will do my best to go over each step. The first thing that needed to come out is all the vents. These ran under the entire dash board. They probably all didn’t need to come out, but since I was replacing the carpet, I figured it would be easier to have them out of the way. Next, you have to disconnect the three vacuum lines and the temperature control linkage. Next, disconnect the heater hoses running to the heater core from the engine. Finally, you need to remove about six or seven bolts and nuts actually holding the heater box to the firewall. Some of these you access from the inside of the car, the other you access from the engine side. After you get the heater box removed from the firewall, you need to rotate, push, and pull and the heater box can be removed from under the dashboard!

After the heater box was removed, four more screws held the heater core back plate on, and another three which held the blend door panel assembly in place and the heater core could be pulled right out. You can see by the pictures below, the heater core was in bad shape!

After I pulled the heater core out of the heater case, it marked a good point in this project; all the disassembly was complete! After the heater box was removed, I set up the box fan again inside the car to finish drying out the firewall pad. I used a couple scrap pieces of wood to hold the pad away from the firewall so the air would get behind it.

I also took this time to start checking out the carpet I purchased. Over a year ago, I bought the replacement carpet I needed from F-Body Warehouse in Dunlap, TN. I purchased the “Carmel” colored carpet because I knew I didn’t have the lighter “Camel Tan” colored carpet in my vehicle. When the “Carmel” carpet came, it was not a good match, so I returned it and got the “Camel Tan" color. This wasn’t a 100% match, but was closer than the “Carmel.” Well, after I got the original carpet out and hung it up, I started to look at the areas that were covered up by the console and trim pieces and have never seen sunlight or dirt. After a short evaluation, it was obvious the “Camel Tan” was not going to be the correct color either.

The above carpet samples were provided to me by Auto Custom Carpets, Inc., which is the company that manufactures the molded replacement carpet for the Trans Am and almost every other vehicle on the road today. The samples are (from left to right): #7037 Camel Tan, #854 Carmel, #7087 Doeskin, #7295 Medium Doeskin. Since none of these colors were close, I called ACC and they had me send them a piece of my carpet which they will compare against the colors they have to offer and send me back the samples that matched the best.

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Inner Fender Well)…

2011-06-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

With the interior totally removed, I shifted my focus to the heater core. The main instructions I was using were again from my Trans Am Forum, 78ta.com, and can be read HERE. After reviewing these steps many times, I determined the next step I needed to take was removing the right side inner fender well. This involved jacking up the car, removing the wheel, and removing about 12 bolts and nuts. I also loosened the bottom of the actual fender, which involved two more bolts. After the fender itself was loose, the inner fender well could be rotated out and removed from the car!

After the inner fender well was out of the way, you have total access to the blower motor, heater core hoses, and heater box bolts! I think it was a good call on removing the inner fender well!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Carpet History)…

2011-06-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

After finally getting the carpet out, I felt that simply throwing it away before I got the new carpet installed would not be a good idea, so I decided to hang it from the garage shelving to get it out of the way. When I did, the part of the carpet that is between the two rear seat buns flopped forward and I noticed a label on it.

The label was actually the manufacturers identification label from when the carpet was produced/installed originally back in 1979! I removed the label and saved it along with a piece of the original carpet.

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (No More Carpet)…

2011-06-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

Even though most of the interior was out, I still needed to get the carpet removed. Before getting the carpet out, I opted to remove the driver’s side kick panel. This doesn’t need to be done to get the carpet out because the old carpet will slide out from under it and the new carpet will slide right back in, but this panel was one of the panels that was faded and needed to be re-dyed.

Actually removing the panel was easy, but getting the emergency brake out of the way so the panel would come off was a real pain. It consisted of removing two bolts on the inside (one of which was hidden), one nut, two nuts from the engine side of the firewall, and the release cable. Even after all of that, it wasn’t totally able to be removed, it was just loose enough to swing out of the way and remove the kick panel. I also removed the transmission gear indicator light wiring harness and the vacuum actuator cover from the passenger side kick panel, but left the panel in place.

Now that the kick panel and wiring issues had been dealt with, before I remove the carpet, I wanted to make sure and take some good pictures of the way the original carpet was cut and installed.

The next step was an easy and rewarding one, pulling out the old carpet! You can see how faded it really was if you look at the areas around the edges and where the center console was! After I got it out of the way I did a quick evaluation of the carpet pad. As I assumed, the carpet pad directly under the heater core (passenger side foot well area) was soaked with coolant. The firewall pad was also damp. So, to get this area dry, I removed the carpet pad and cleaned up the area under it. I then set up a small box fan to get some air movement in the foot well area. The soaked carpet pad was allow to spend many days drying in the sun and with a box fan blowing on it.

I was really happy with how far I got with the disassembly just after two days working on it! I never would have guessed it would have gone so easy! Now that the interior is out, I can start on the heater core!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Tear Down)…

2011-06-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

I didn’t really have a set plan when I started this project. I knew I needed to disassemble the interior and replace the heater core. I figured the best plan was to get everything interior related removed and out of the way so I wouldn’t make a mess of anything when it came to removing the heater core. So, on a rainy Father’s Day weekend, I started to take apart the 31 year old interior of my dream car!

I had a system figured out how I would take my time with each part I removed, carefully photographing it, bagging and labeling the hardware, then storing it so it wouldn’t get damaged. This system worked great! The other advantage I had was that I had read so many posts on my favorite Trans Am Forum, 78ta.com, I was almost like an old pro and this was the first Trans Am I had taken apart!

The disassembly went in the following order: rocker panel sill plates, seat belt seat retainers, seat belts, front passenger seat, rear lower seat buns, center console, front driver’s seat, T-Top corner trim piece, rear seat back, rear headliner window trim, upper seat belt covers, coat hooks, interior sail panel, and the lower rear interior quarter panel.

Yep! That is one of the original build sheets for my car!

I was very pleased to find one of the original build sheets for my car, safely tucked into the rear seat back frame by some nice automotive assembly worker from Van Nuys, California! I am very fortunate that this is the third complete build sheet I have for my car. The other two came with all of the original paperwork when I purchased my car from the original owner. I carefully removed this copy and placed it with the others.

The entire disassembly of the interior (minus the carpet and front kick panels) only took about three hours. It went very smooth, everything was well documented, nothing broke, and there were no surprises!

Summer 2011 Trans Am Projects (Game Plan)…

2011-06-01T21:37:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,493

I know. It has been almost three months since I have posted. It’s not like I haven’t had stuff going on, because it has been a great summer, but I just haven’t had a ton of time time to update my blog. As I type this it is actually August 19th, 2011 but it shows that this post is in June. Why is that? Well, in order to best document my massive Trans Am project this summer, I need to do it in chronological order, and since this is the first post of the series, I need it to be first! Get it?!

As I have mentioned a few times before, the heater core on the Trans Am was leaking. This was causing coolant to leak on the inside and outside of the vehicle. After driving it a couple times this year, I came to the conclusion that as much as I didn’t want to, I needed to stop driving the Trans Am and fix the heater core. The main issue with this repair is you have to disassemble a good part of the interior to get to the heater core itself. This lead me to my next problem. The interior on the Trans Am is 95% original, (only the headliner had been replaced prior to me owning it) and in very good condition. However, after 31 years, it is beginning to show its age. A few of the plastic interior panels had begun to deteriorate and become “chalky,” some other panels were faded and needed to be re-dyed, the carpet was worn, and the seats could use new upholstery. So, since I was taking a good part of the interior apart anyway, I figured I might as well do the interior restoration I have been putting off for a couple years now! The nice part is that I have been obtaining all the parts that I would need to do this over the past couple years!

Here it begins!

Five Minute Envoy Project...

2011-05-28T01:49:00.003-05:00

This was the last thing that I knew the Enovy needed when I bought it. It wasn't a huge deal, but I wanted to get it fixed. It was missing the little plastic "button" that is on the seat belt that prevents the seat belt buckle from sliding all the way down to the floor when it isn't being used. I figured this would be a $5 - $10 part at the dealer. NOT EVEN CLOSE! The dealer wanted $25 and only sold them in pairs! I wasn't about to pay that, so I did some searching online and found that Dorman Products makes them and they are available at O'Reilly Auto Parts and are $5.69 for a pair!

The installation was super easy. I could still see the mark in the seat belt strap where the old "button" was located, so I snapped in the new one, snapped on the cap and that was it! The new seat belt stop "button" is the exact same color, pattern, and style as the original ones and looks great!

Springtime Snowmobiles!

2011-05-22T22:00:00.000-05:00

In keeping with normal fashion, Dad and I just got the snowmobiles "summerized." We always have good intentions of doing this in March, but it always gets put on the back burner. The one nice thing about waiting is that we can use the outside water to wash the sleds up good!

The "summerizing" went well, we got both sleds greased and washed up. I got mine fogged, but Dad's got some water in the electrical system and wasn't running right, so we will have to wait and get his fogged once it dries out!

My snowmobile cover started to self destruct this year. After a day of riding on one of the trips we took, we all put our covers over our sleds so we wouldn't have to brush off the predicted 6+ inches of snow in the morning. This worked out great, but the heat from the snowmobile engine actually melted the snow as it fell and created a layer of ice on my snowmobile cover. When I went to tighten the cover down for the trip home, the ice wouldn't allow the cover to tighten and ripped the material. Since I didn't want to leave the cover all ripped open for the summer, I started looking for a new one. I found one online from a local used snowmobile part supplier HERE for $70 shipped. The was an actual Ski-Doo cover for my style of snowmobile. After a couple days it arrived and it fits great! I am very happy with how it looks and the quality of the construction. If you look close you can see the stretchy material around where the handlebars go, this is the same area where my old cover tore at!

Wash Those Dishes!!!

2011-05-21T21:24:00.004-05:00

The other day Shannon mentioned that the dishwasher was acting funny. This wasn't a huge surprise because our dishwasher has always been a pile. It was installed in 1998 when the kitchen was remodeled by the previous owner and matches the other appliances in the kitchen. The soap door doesn't open during the wash cycles, it randomly has power faults and trips the circuit breaker, and it is VERY loud. However, despite these issues, it has always worked. This time, not so much. I don't know if the control panel broke or something else, but the display didn't work right and it wasn't powering up. Normally, when something like this breaks, I give fixing it a shot before replacing it, but with this dishwasher, I didn't really want it fixed!

We went dishwasher shopping at Home Depot and after a few minutes we decided on one. We got a great deal because it is an Energy Star rated unit and they were having a sale! You can see the one we purchased HERE. I was hoping to take it home with me that night, but Home Depot doesn't carry any appliances in stock. They do, however, have free delivery and old appliance haul away! So, I spent a few minutes gutting the wiring out of the old dishwasher before they took it away...appliance wiring is very high quality and great for automotive uses!

The installation was pretty straight forward, but we ran into a couple issues with the old water line. The fitting for the new dishwasher uses 3/8" line and the old line was 1/2". We tried using a couple adapters (and were sold an incorrect one by Home Depot staff!) to convert the line, but ended up just cutting the line back and installing a new 3/8" line from the shut off valve to the dishwasher. After we got the new line installed, the installation was a snap!

The new dishwasher is great! It looks awesome and is almost completely silent! You can watch television in the next room and you don't even have to turn up the volume! This is one of the times, when replacing an old appliance was better than repairing the old one!

Green Grass!

2011-05-18T04:52:00.000-05:00

We just started our third year with TruGreen and it is really starting to show. Not only was our lawn one of the first to get green this year, it is still greener than all of our neighbors! It is far from perfect, but the amount of crab grass, clover, and the number of dandelions is down and much less than the neighbors! For the first time, I am proud of our yard!

12th Annual Thomas Jefferson High School Car Show

2011-05-14T03:26:00.006-05:00

Mileage: 88,457

Once again, this was my first car show of the year. I always look forward to this car show because it kind of starts of the car show season and the summer driving season. Just like the last couple of years, I spent the day before the show getting the Trans Am washed.

Once again, the weather was an issue with this car show. It looked like it was going to be terrible this year: rain mixed with cool temperatures and wind. It actually wasn't raining when I woke up and left my house, but by the time Dad and I got to the parking lot, it was raining lightly. The rain was light, then would get heavy, but basically never stopped. I would say there were about 40 cars that attended, down from the normal 200 or so.

Despite the rain and cool temperatures, Shannon, Mom, Maeve, and Will all stopped out to see the cars and have some treats! They didn't stay for too long before the kids started getting cold, but it was really nice of them to come!

Overall the show was still fun, despite the rain. I didn't win anything, but Dad and I both got some nice door prizes! It sounds like they are going to schedule a rain/alternate day next year since they have had such horrible luck with the weather! Hopefully next year the weather will be nice and the show will be enjoyed by all!

Oil Evaluation...

2011-05-13T03:02:00.000-05:00

Mileage: 88,455

After I got the exhaust system replaced, I finally got a chance to do a little routine maintenance to the Trans Am. I performed an oil and filter change for only the second time! I am really going to make a point of doing this once a year, for some reason I spaced it last year. While doing the oil change I checked and topped off all the fluids. I noticed the coolant was low again, which means the looming heater core project might be coming sooner than later! After dealing with the fluids, I also applied silicone to the rear sway bar bushings (which were squeaking) and reconnected the fast idle wiring harness on the carburetor (which some how came unplugged).

While under the hood, I found a random bolt that wasn't attached to anything. It was a longer bolt, wasn't broken, and had a rubber bushing on it. It was just sitting in a hole on the radiator core support. It looked like it could have belonged there, but didn't really have anything to attach to.

After doing a little research, it turns out this is the radiator core support bolt and bushing. It actually holds the assembly the radiator is mounted to onto the front sub frame! It doesn't appear it was every attached from the factory! So, I need to find the other half through a parts supplier and get it bolted together! I'm glad I found it before it just fell off and I never knew it was missing!

Seating for Six!

2011-05-09T02:44:00.004-05:00

Our upstairs living room is a very weird shape. It is long and not very wide and has a brick fireplace in the middle. It is a cozy room, but it makes furniture placement very difficult. Shortly after we moved in, we bought a love seat (2 seating spots) and a leather recliner (1 seating spot). This gave us three places for people to sit. To accommodate more people we bought a leather bench/storage box. This gave us two more "modified" places to sit. It wasn't perfect, but we made it work.

This year, we wanted to put a end to the seating issues. We went to Becker Furniture World in Burnsville, MN and ordered a new couch! It is a sectional sofa with a hide-a-bed! We picked out the colors we wanted and submitted the order. That was in February. They FINALLY called to set up a delivery date for May 9th! I guess the fabric we wanted got back ordered because of the earthquake in Japan?!

Getting the room set up around the new couch took a little bit of time and the relocation of the cable outlet, but we eventually got it! We LOVE the new couch! It is so nice to be able to lay down and relax and not be sitting on top of each other. The kids really like it too! We ended up keeping the leather recliner upstairs for now, so in total, we have six dedicated seating surfaces, but in all reality, we could get a couple more than five on the new couch! I really can't wait for the first get together we have and everyone will have a place to sit!

Exhausted!

2011-05-04T02:01:00.009-05:00

Mileage: 88,450

Not long after I purchased the Trans Am, I noticed the original exhaust system had some leaks and was starting to rust. After a long time kicking around what I wanted to do with it, and letting the exhaust leak noises finally get to me, I figured out my plan! This started with the removal and disassembly.

The original rusty exhaust actually came off the car very easy. I even got the one original exhaust clamp (intermediate pipe to muffler) off without the nuts breaking. I love working on cars that have never seen salt!

After I got the exhaust off, I figured I needed to freshen up the exhaust hangers and brackets. So, after I removed them, I media blasted and painted them using a black and silver, high temperature, Rust-Oleum® BBQ & Stove spray paint.

Since I wanted the new exhaust to look as stock as possible, but have a deeper sound I went with Walker brand replacement intermediate ($40.89) and tail pipes (LH $70.79 & RH $77.89) and a Dynomax Ultra Flo™ SS Polished Muffler ($151.79). I got all the parts from RockAuto.com and am very impressed with the quality and originality of them all. I then had Dad weld on 2 1/4" to 2 1/2" adapters so the intermediate and tail pipes would fit the new muffler. After we got the adapters welded on and after much debate, I decided to paint the intermediate and tail pipes. I have seen this look a few times and really liked it, plus after welding on the adapters, I needed something to seal the welds and seal where the galvanization was burnt off. I used a silver, high temperature, Rust-Oleum® BBQ & Stove spray paint. This paint is awesome to use and looks even better!

The installation of the new exhaust, brackets, and hangers went really well. I used stainless steel exhaust clamps on the muffler to ensure it would last another 31 years! I think the entire system looks really good!

(Note the two-tone paint scheme on the hanger in the lower right picture so I wouldn't have a black band going around my freshly painted exhaust pipe!)

Overall, I am VERY happy with the way this exhaust project turned out. I love the look of the system and love the sound!

Compass, and Temperature, and Auto Dim! Oh, My!

2011-04-18T00:37:00.015-05:00

One of the features that the Envoy didn't have that the Suburban did is the interior rear view mirror with the compass, temperature, and auto dim features. I really got used to this feature on the Suburban and had no idea how much I would miss knowing what the temperature was until I didn't have it on the Envoy!

Since we bought the Envoy, I occasionally do some browsing on a Trailblazer/Enovy website and forum, http://www.trailvoy.com/. It seems that many other people miss the same features on their interior rear view mirror, and someone had done some research and written an article on how to add a mirror with these additional features. The article can be seen HERE.

The first step was finding a donor mirror. This was a little more difficult than I thought. Since our Envoy was originally a rental car, it was ordered without OnStar. The issue this was creating is that most cars come with OnStar and have it mounted on the rear view mirror. So, finding a mirror with the compass, temperature, auto dim features, and passenger air bag light WITHOUT OnStar was challenging. After a little searching on eBay, I found one out of a totalled out 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The company that sold it is LKQ Corporation and were very easy to work with. The mirror arrived in a few days and was in really good condition.

The next step was getting a few smaller parts. I needed the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor (GM Part #15047946), wiring harness with pigtail (GM Part #12101856), female terminals (Delphi Part #12191818), and cable seals (Delphi Part #15366021). I ordered the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor and wiring harness from Rock Auto and the Delphi parts from Mouser. I had a very good experience with both these companies.

Now, onto the installation. If you would like in depth details of the installation, refer back to the original article HERE. First, I removed the cable cover which was held in by a clip on one end and a grove on the other. Removal involved collapsing it into itself. Next, I unplugged the existing wiring harness. Then, using a Torx driver, I loosened and removed the mirror mounting screw. Now, slide the old mirror off, slide the new mirror on, then install and tighten the mounting screw, plug the wiring harness in, and reinstall the cable cover.

The next part is not very difficult, but can take a little while if you do it the way I did. I wanted to keep the look under the hood as factory as possible, so we (Dad and I) took the time to feed the wires needed to connect the Ambient Air Temperature Sensor to the factory harness plug, into the factory wiring loom. This involved taking the battery out and unclipping the loom from the engine compartment. When we were done, the installation was completely factory looking and no one will be able to tell this feature was added!

After we got the parts installed and the wires ran, we got the Envoy back together, turned the key on, and everything worked!! Once again, I have an interior rear view mirror with the compass, temperature, and auto dim features! Overall I was very happy with how easy this installation was and am very thankful for finding the instructions on TrailVoy!

Inventory/Cost:

Mirror Assembly - $ 36.71

Ambient Air Temperature Sensor - $15.06

Wiring Harness with Pigtail - $12.20

Female Terminals (2) - $0.26

Cable Seal (2) - $0.08

Total - $64.31

The Pheonix is Flying Again!

2011-04-10T13:02:00.011-05:00

Mileage: 88,443

Today I finally got the Trans Am out of storage and moving! The past few days have been nice, but we needed a good rainfall to wash some of the salt and dirt off the roads. Well, the other night we got a good thunderstorm, so Maeve and I headed out for a quick trip around the lake and down the highway!

I am hoping this year I will be able to get started on some of the Trans Am projects that I have been putting off and acquiring parts for over the last couple years! I know that the exhaust, heater core, and blower motor will be done for sure and I would love to get some of these interior pieces painted and installed so they aren't taking up so much room inside the house!

...gone!

2011-04-07T12:44:00.003-05:00

Well, it's official. As of today, April 7th, 2011 there is no more snow in our yard! What little bit was left, vanished quickly with the temperatures in the 50's! The kids have pretty much been living outside since we have had nicer weather. They both LOVE the swing set and we have even been to the park a couple times! So, I leave you with the last couple "snow related" front and back yard shots of the year. We might possibly still get a little snow, but whatever we get won't stick around for long!

Going, going...

2011-04-05T13:02:00.012-05:00

The below pictures were taken today. Pretty much all of the snow in the front yard is gone, and the only snow in the back yard is close to the house where the sun doesn't hit directly. As you can see it is leaving pretty fast! I'm guessing, since they are predicting temperatures in the 50's for the rest of the week, by this weekend, we might be 100% snow free!

Enovy Update:

So far, both Shannon and I love the Envoy. The first tank of gas that we put in it was all city driving and we got 15 mpg, which is considerably better than the 8 to 10 mpg we were used to with the Suburban! The Envoy didn't need much when we bought it, but a couple things did need some attention. It only came with one keyless entry remote, so I found another on eBay for $13! I also had to fix the center console armrest, which just needed to be reinforced. The last thing it needed was to have the rear license plate pocket to lift gate gasket replaced. This is a VERY common part to go bad on Envoy's and Trailblazer's so I wasn't too surprised mine needed it also. The part was $14, and took about an hour to fix! In the below picture, the gasket that I replaced is the small black strip surrounding the license plate pocket.

Just when I thought it was over...

2011-03-25T14:06:00.003-05:00

We have had a ton of snow this year. However, during the last week or so we have had temperatures in the 50's and most of the snow has melted. It was very nice to see the snow go and have that "spring" feeling in the air. Just like the nature of March, having the snow melt was not the end of winter. A couple days ago we got a wet four to five inches of muck, which started as rain, then the rain froze, then we got sleet, then snow. With this latest snow fall, we are now ranking the 5th snowiest winter on record with 84.7 inches! After having to shovel/snow blow this latest mess, I officially declared I am done with winter! Bring on spring! Here are a couple shots of the front and back yard to see the melting/accumulation progress:

03/17/11

03/24/11

Out to Pasture...

2011-03-17T09:53:00.005-05:00

Shannon and I had some decisions to make about what to do with the Suburban. As I mentioned in a previous post, it would cost about $1000 to fix the Suburban. This would have normally been the choice I would have taken, but the Suburban didn't really offer many other redeeming qualities. It had 200,000 miles on the original drive train, the body was getting destroyed by rust, the 10 mpg and 44 gallon gas tank isn't exactly economical, and, well, it is 11 years old! My big fear was that we would spend the $1000 and get the transfer case replaced and three months later the transmission, engine, or rear axle would go out and then what would we do?!

So, we made the decision to replace the Suburban. I figured we would just get another Suburban (or Yukon XL), just find something newer with much less miles. Well, even with gas prices at $3.50 a gallon, the Suburbans on the used car market were still demanding a premium. I wasn't about to pay $10 - $15k for a 10 year old Suburban with 100,000 miles on it! I also did some thinking and realized as nice as it is having a Suburban sized vehicle, I really only used all the "size" for about ten days out of the year and the other 355, I drove around a huge vehicle for no reason! With that realization, we started looking at Tahoes and Yukons. It didn't take long to eliminate these as options either for the same reasons as the Suburbans! They are just too popular right now and the prices are not dropping on the used car market! We looked at a 2007 Tahoe with 150,000 miles on it and they were asking $25k for it!!! No thanks!

So, we went down one more size and started looking at the Chevrolet Trailblazers and GMC Envoys. We both really liked this option. These offered a nice sized SUV that would fit our family perfectly, got decent gas mileage, was easy to drive, and had better value on the used car market. After looking at a few, we decided a 2006 or newer, GMC Envoy is what we wanted. I wanted it to have as low as mileage as possible and not be white in color, other than that, I didn't have many demands. I did a few hours of internet searching and ended up finding one at a Walser dealership in Roseville and one at another Walser dealership here in Bloomington. The one I found in Bloomington had just been taken in on a trade and was not ready, but they said they could get the one from Roseville brought down to Bloomington for us to look at! Sounded good to me, since I didn't really want to drive to Roseville! When it arrived Shannon, Maeve, and I took it for a drive and loved it. Walser gave us what I wanted for the 'burban on a trade and we had a deal!

So, we are now the proud owner's of a 2006 GMC Enovy SLE! It has a 4.2L Inline 6 cylinder motor (291 hp!), four speed automatic transmission, four wheel drive, air conditioning, power window, power locks, keyless entry, cruise control, tilt steering, rear window wiper/washer/defogger, AM/FM Stereo/Cassette/CD Player, automatic headlights, fog lights, full gauges, power sunroof, leather seats, dual power front seats, roof rack, alloy wheels, and a towing package!

It has just over 70,000 miles on it. It was originally a rental car in Hawaii then was shipped back over to the mainland and sold to a lady in Amery, WI. The vehicle is very clean and well taken care of! It handles like a dream and performs very well. It is quick! This is the newest and lowest mileage vehicle I have ever had! It is nice having a nicer car!

All of the staff at Walser commented on what good shape the Suburban was in. Which made me wonder if they were just trying to make me feel good, or they get some really crappy cars on trade! Either way, they said the 'burban would go right to auction and who knows where from there! It might even end up in Mexico like my old truck! I had the Suburban for almost exactly four years and put 32,200 miles on it, which ends up being a little over 8,000 miles a year! I hope it has a little life left in future!

SNOW!!!

2011-03-09T14:32:00.005-06:00

This post is actually current time now, so I am 100% caught up with my journal! I am REALLY going to try and stick with my "once a week" posting for the rest of the year! I'm not holding my breath however...

Anyway, I really picked a bad time to take a vacation from my blog. This winter we have had a TON of snow. I don't know where we are but we are within a few inches of being the snowiest winters on record. We have had three significant (over ten inch) snowfalls since November. I had to get the snowmobile out and run it in the backyard because Bear could not make it through the snow! We also had a week of temperatures in the 50's that actually exposed some grass! It would have been real cool to show weekly updates on how high the snow was, but maybe next time. I do have a couple front and back yard shots to share and hopefully more to come!

02/14/11

03/09/11

We were supposed to get about two to six inches of snow today, which ended up being about a wet inch or so and it has all since melted. I know they have another "event" forecasted for this weekend, but it sounds like it is going to be a wintry mix and mainly rain and sleet. I am happy with the snow fall this year, but I am about done dealing with it at work and not having four wheel drive in the Suburban makes it a little more of an annoyance than normal!

That Old 'burban...

2011-03-06T14:04:00.002-06:00

My Suburban has been getting close to this milestone for a while now, but since I only put about 6,000 miles on it a year it has taken a little longer than expected.

I was pretty proud of the ol' girl for making it this long. This is actually the second vehicle I have driven to the 200,000 mile mark. My old pickup was the first and I was actually only a couple thousand miles away from hitting 300,000 with that one!

However, turning 200,000 miles isn't all a celebration for the Suburban. The last year or so has been REALLY hard on the body. The right rear quarter panel and bottoms of both door have significant holes caused by rust damage. It needs new tires and front brakes. Also, during one of the major snowstorms we have had this year, the four wheel drive stopped working and I literally got stuck in the street in front of my house. Not having four wheel drive is a significant issue with this vehicle, so Dad and I did some testing and research. The four wheel drive would work just fine when it wasn't under a load (on jack stands), but when it was on the ground it wouldn't work. Long story short, sometime all of the fluid in the transfer case has leaked out and it was running dry. I am partially to blame for not checking it when I changed the oil. The reason I never checked it, because I could never find the fill plug (which looked different than every other I had seen and was wedged behind a transmission cross member). Anyway, the transfer case uses "wet" clutch disc which need fluid to work. The entire transfer case smelled like a burnt out clutch or transmission. I finally found the special GM transfer case fluid and topped off the two quart capacity transfer case with two quarts of transfer case fluid!

I was holding my breath that putting this fluid in, would magically make the four wheel drive work again, and that I didn't destroy the transfer case, but sure enough, no four wheel drive. After doing a little research, it turns out that this specific transfer case has a design flaw that causes it to loose it's fluid. I'm guessing mine fell victim to this design flaw also. I did a little checking and a used transfer case is about $750, a remanufactured one is about $950 and both of those prices are with me removing and installing the replacement unit.

I still don't know what we will end up doing, either fixing or replacing the Suburban, but either way, 200,000 miles is pretty impressive!

Finishing Up the Basement Bathroom...

2011-02-08T13:37:00.002-06:00

If you remember back to last November when I finished the majority of the downstairs bathroom remodel, I mentioned I still had a couple things to do to make it 100%. I had a couple days off after my last snowmobiling trip, so I took the opportunity to get them finished up.

First, I got the new closet door taken off and painted with two coats of white semi-gloss paint (they were only primed when I originally installed them). Then, I installed new drawer pulls on the cabinets and closet doors (when they were dry). Finally, (with Maeve's help) we fixed the sagging closet shelves, painted the closet, and installed a newly made furnace stack cover.

The entire "finishing up" took about two days, working off and on. I don't know if we will end up painting the cabinets white and replacing the counter or not, I'm kind of getting used to them the way they are!

Getting all these last details completed, really made this bathroom top notch! I'm glad I can finally check this bathroom off my "to-do" list!

February Snowmobile Trip 2011

2011-02-07T13:08:00.002-06:00

02/04/11 - 02/06/11

For this trip we headed back up to Larson's cabin in Barnes, WI, but we were going to put a little spin on things. Since we have been snowmobiling out of Larson's cabin for over ten years now, we have pretty much seen everything we can within riding distance. So the plan this weekend was to snowmobile from the cabin on Friday and then trailer the snowmobiles to Hayward, WI and ride from there.

The trip started off about the same, leaving home early on Friday morning and getting up to the cabin and hitting the trails. The group this time didn't change much, we just lost one: Brian Larson, Phil Larson, Brian Moline, Dad, and myself. The trails were in OK condition, some areas were kinda thin, a good ten miles were rutted pretty bad, but overall, I have rode on much worse! The temperatures were warm (as far as snowmobiling goes) in the high 20's. It was really nice riding from Hayward and allowing us to experience and see different things. We did a ton of lake riding, which we typically never have to do. I think we will keep doing one day of "trailered" riding in the future just to keep things fresh.

Again, we typically ate breakfast (which again consisted of a VERY tasty egg bake, Shannon sent up with us) at the cabin then lunch and dinner on the trail. The nights we all spent chatting around the fireplace at the cabin with some scotch and beer. I had the only mechanical issues again with my fouling spark plug. We got the sleds loaded up on Saturday night in Hayward and drove back to the cabin. We woke up the next day and hit the road for home around 0900 on Sunday morning!

We put on another 160 miles or so over the weekend and we all had a great time! I don't know if this will be the last trip for the year or not, but either way, it was a great snowmobiling season!

January Snowmobile Trip 2011

2011-01-17T11:52:00.003-06:00

01/14/11 - 01/16/11

Since I took last year off from snowmobiling, this trip was the first time I had been out for a close to two years! In tradition, we headed back up to my buddy's cabin in Barnes, WI. We decided to leave early on Friday morning, but the others had gone up on Thursday night. This trip the group consisted of: Brian Larson, Phil Larson, Brian Moline, Bob Claerhout, Dad, and myself.

Just so these snowmobiling posts don't get so repetitive year after year, I will skip all the hour by hour details and let a quick summary and pictures tell the story.

Overall, we put about 160 - 180 miles on for the weekend. The trail conditions were great and the weather was perfect. We got a nice six inch dusting of lake effect snow on Friday night into Saturday morning which was very pretty. We typically ate breakfast (which consisted of a VERY tasty egg bake, Shannon sent up with us) at the cabin then lunch and dinner on the trail. The nights we all spent chatting around the fireplace at the cabin with a couple cocktails. The only real mechanical issues we had was with my snowmobile which kept fouling the left spark plug every 50 miles or so. We got the sleds loaded up on Saturday and hit the road for home around 0900 on Sunday morning!

Overall, the trip was a blast! It was very nice riding again. It is amazing how much you miss it when you have been doing it for so long! It was also very nice being home early on Sunday! Next trip is coming on in a few weeks in February!

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-01T11:45:00.000-06:00

This year Shannon and I spent New Year's Eve at a friend's wedding in Breezy Point, MN. It was the first time we had rung in the new year by ourselves in a long time! The wedding was a ton of fun, the hotel and the cute resteraunt next door were both very nice! Outside of the snow storm we had to drive in the get up there, it was a great trip!

Christmas Vacation 2010!!!

2010-12-27T11:03:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a busy Christmas this year. Technically we had three Christmas' this year! We celebrated with Shannon's Dad and siblings before Christmas, then we traveled to Texas to celebrate Christmas day with Shannon's Mom, Step-Dad, and siblings, then returned home and celebrated with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law! So needless to say, when we were done, we were one big tired family!

We were all VERY lucky and received many nice gifts and had awesome meals! We all got updated wardrobes, the kids got very nice toys (including a play kitchen from Mom and Dad), and our family finally got caught up with technology with our first flat screen TV (Thanks again Dan and Irma), and a Wii from my brother and sister-in-law.

I'm not going to give day by day record of events, since that would be a little boring and honestly, I don't know if I could or not! I'm just going to let the pictures tell the story.

Oh, and one other thing, flight delays with two small children really suck. That is all.

Merry Christmas 2010!

2010-12-25T10:33:00.003-06:00

OK, I know. I took a little bit of a vacation from my journal. We have had a bunch of stuff going on the last couple of months with work, weather, and the holiday season and I just got behind! So, now I have to play catch up (again). I am going to try and post the correct date (for record keeping purposes) when these posts SHOULD have been made, but I assure you it is actually early March as I type them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We kept the photo card tradition going for another year! However, this year, since we were really busy in getting ready for Christmas and our trip (see the next post) I was 100% responsible for getting the photo taken, printed, and sent out. I have to say it wasn't bad, but it could have been better, the kids weren't in the best mood and I wasn't in the best mood to deal with them! In case you were keeping track, the past years can be seen here: 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006!

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Will's First Birthday...

2010-12-02T11:06:00.003-06:00

Will (aka: Bubba) turned one on November 11th, but since that was a Thursday, we decided to have his party on Saturday, November 13th. We planned on having a small get together for friends and family and have some lunch and cupcakes! I was kind of worried if people were going to make it or not because of the fluke snowstorm the Twin Cities got earlier that day, but almost everyone made it! Shannons's mom and step-dad also made it up from Texas without any problems!

The food was awesome, we had sloppy joes, pasta salad, Greek lettuce salad, chips, deviled eggs, and both chocolate and yellow cupcakes!

Bubba really didn't know what to do with his presents. He liked pulling the bows off and ripping some paper, but had more fun running around and giving the paper pieces to people. Maeve and I did most of the unwrapping, but toward the end, he would actually sit on my lap and get into the ripping! He got some very nice gifts! We are very fortunate to have such generous friends and family. He got a bunch of cute clothes, a couple tool/work bench learning tools, a little people fire station, an mini-ATV from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jess, a mini-fire truck from Grandma Irma and Pappy, and my Dad and Mom got Will some wood blocks and Dad hand built him a beautiful wood toy box/chest! I'm sure will have his toy box for a very long time, just like MINE!

After we got done opening gifts, it was time for cupcakes. We just gave Will a chocolate cupcake and let him figure it out on his own. It didn't take him long to get into it. He really seemed to enjoy it, but he was also VERY tired, so after he had about half the cupcake down, he went down for a little nap!

Overall, the party was a blast, despite the random snow storm and I am pretty sure Bubba, along with everyone else that attended had a great time!

First Snow of the 2010-2011 Winter Season!

2010-12-01T11:00:00.002-06:00

11/13/10

During the early morning hours of this November Saturday we got our first snowfall of the year. I think it caught many people (including myself) off guard. The weather people were predicting anywhere from a "trace" to ten inches! I spent the day before the snowfall raking up the last of the leaves, getting the hoses brought in, the water shut off, the lawnmowers put away, and getting the snow blower fired up. Then I had to get the snowmobiles out of the backyard and in the driveway so they wouldn't get buried! When we woke up on Saturday (the day of Will's birthday party) we had a solid wet six to eight inches of snow! It was beautiful!

Here are the first "front yard" and "back yard" pictures of the year:

Since this snowfall, Mother Nature has given us two more small (one to three inches) snowfalls and an ice storm. I am hoping the snow will keep up during the entire winter season!

Basement Bathroom Remodel...

2010-11-30T12:13:00.010-06:00

The basement bathroom in our house was in need of some freshening up when we bought the house almost five years ago. The bathroom had a new vanity, cabinet, and tile floor but the walls had ugly wallpaper that was in poor condition, the trim work was mismatched, and the window blinds were also ugly and broken.

We figured since we were having Shannon's mom and step-dad up from Texas for Will's birthday we would try to get it finished by then. The first step was taking down the old mirror. Next is was removing the wallpaper. I think it took me about six hours total over a couple days to get it all down and the walls wiped clean of the glue. Shannon (who is a master of design) picked the colors and plans for the bathroom and it involved painting the existing trim work semi-gloss bright white. This would consist of two coats of primer, then two coats of paint. However, when I went to remove the old baseboards I found a little problem. Mold. I knew when we bought the house, the upstairs bathroom faucet leaked and caused some water damage in the basement bathroom. I knew they did some drywall work, but it appears they didn't get all of the mold/water issues fixed. I ended up having to remove the bottom two feet of drywall from behind the toilet and under the window. I didn't notice anything still wet or damp, just mold that needed to be cleaned. Long story short, I replaced all the trim, drywall, and some of the studs. Everything else was washed/wiped down with a 10% bleach solution. When I was done, I felt better about the mold and the bathroom smelled great.

Once I got past the little issue with the mold, I was able to get going on the painting. Two coats of primer and paint on all the existing trim that was to be painted, and all the new trim (including the new wainscoting). Then two coats of semi-gloss bright white on the ceiling. Finished up with two coats of semi-gloss blue paint called "Mesmerize." After all the paint was up, we got the wainscoting installed, trimmed, baseboards on.

The next step came installing the new blinds, closet doors, mirror, shaving mirror, light fixture, paper holder, and sink faucet. Shannon finished the remodel by getting new bath mats, trash can, and drinking glasses. We used some of the existing white towels we had and the end result was awesome!

I have to say Shannon has awesome taste! I would have never envisioned anything close to this! It looks like a spa! We have a couple things we still need to do to call it 100%, we have to paint the closet doors and redo some of the shelving inside the closet. Originally we were going to paint the vanity semi-gloss bright white and get a new vanity top. At this point I just don't know. I don't think the wood color looks bad and the vanity top sort of matches, but looks a little dull next to the bright white paint. What do you think? Feel free to leave me a comment!

Putting Down a Screaming Chicken...

2010-11-23T13:54:00.002-06:00

10/21/10

Mileage: 88,443

This above date marked the last ride for the Trans Am for the 2010 driving season! I had driven it to work the last couple of times I drove it and actually needed to turn the heater on a little bit on the way home! For some reason, this October got pretty cold, pretty quick, with only an occasional warm day. I had a chance to get the Trans Am cleaned up real good both inside and out, got it parked close to the wall of the garage and got the car cover on with time to spare before the first snow fall!

This season, I logged 539 miles on it! I used it mainly to go to work but did go out for a few date nights with Shannon and attend couple car shows. I really want to try and get some of the parts that I have purchased for the car painted over the winter so they can be ready to install in the spring. I also need to do a mechanical repair in the spring before I drive it very far. The heater core is starting to leak, which is a common problem with GM F-Body cars, but the job takes about 10 hours to do (it can be read about HERE) and involves taking most of the dashboard apart!

So, there in the garage the Trans Am will sit in hibernation until next April! I am still planning on starting it once during the winter and letting it run for a half hour or so, then trickle charge the battery full again!

A New (Old) Motor!

2010-11-22T13:00:00.012-06:00

As you may have noticed in the duck hunting posts over the last couple years, HERE and HERE, we have not been using a motor on the duck boat. This was mainly because the old Johnson seen HERE, has not been running at 100%. We have done some work to it, but most likely need to crack the case open and install new rings and just haven't had the time.

A while back my Uncle Lee had mentioned that he had his Uncle Jerry's (my Great-Uncle?) old boat motor. We started asking questions about it and he mentioned he wasn't going to use it for anything. We made arraignments for him to bring it from Mandan, ND to the Twin Cities next time he came into town. He dropped it off on 10/14/10 and just gave it to me! I was very honored and thankful!

The motor is a 1951 Scott-Atwater 5 hp. The model is a 1-16, it has the gas tank located on the top of the motor, and even has reverse. A website Dad found (HERE) claims the 1-16 means this motor will propel a boat 16 mph in ideal conditions. I'm not sure on the logic of that claim!

The motor is in wonderful shape considering it is almost 60 years old! It hardly has a scratch or dent on it! We haven't had a chance to run it yet, but it sounds like it did run when it was put away. The tank is totally dry but clean. We did a quick spark test and one of the cylinders does not have a spark, but I'm not that worried about it, I'm guessing a loose wire is the cause, but I won't know for sure until we get it apart! The neat thing about this motor is that it even came with the original box and warranty card!

I am very honored to have this motor and keep it in the family. I can't wait until we get it going and for it's maiden voyage on the S. S. Dinghy! I think with this motor being a 5 hp and having reverse, it might move to the top of the list when we select a motor for duck hunting!

Five Amazing Years...

2010-11-19T20:11:00.006-06:00

10/15/10

This year Shannon and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary! Neither one of us can believe it has gone by so fast! We look back to where we were five years ago and so much has changed: we had sold our townhouse, bought a single family home, I changed careers, and we brought two awesome children into this world. It seems like just yesterday we were planning a wedding!

We went back and forth about what we wanted to do for our anniversary this year. Originally we were thinking about going up to the north shore and renting a cabin or rustic retreat for a weekend, but due our budget (and the hotels up north still in their "peak" rate season), child care, and work schedules, we changed our plans a little bit. We decided on a two event anniversary celebration:

First, on September 16th, we headed to downtown Minneapolis for a night on the town. We started with dinner at the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery. We both had a very good meal complete with appetizers! For dessert we wondered down the street and had some very elegant treats at Seven. I would highly recommend both! For the conclusion of the evening, we attended the Broadway Musical "Wicked" at the Orpheum Theatre. We had attempted to get tickets the last time this show was in town, but they were sold out in about 10 minutes and I didn't stand a chance! We were both very impressed with the show and with our seats! It was an awesome evening spent together!

The second half of our anniversary celebration was a little more low-key, but still very nice. We got a hotel room at the Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington for the night of our anniversary. We also made dinner reservations at the gourmet restaurant in the lobby, which we both enjoy, the Collete Bar & Bistro. We both had a very relaxing dinner and dessert and then slept like babies in the amazing hotel room. We woke up the next day and had breakfast at the Collete Bar & Bistro and headed home, totally recharged and relaxed!

We both had an amazing five year wedding anniversary with each other. Very relaxing and we were able to spend time alone together.

Shannon, I love you! You are the most amazing wife in the world and everyday I look forward to the rest of our lives together!

Duck Hunting 2010

2010-11-18T12:00:00.003-06:00

This is the fourth duck hunting season that I will have written about on my journal since I started keeping it back in 2006. To be completely honest, duck hunting is one of my favorite hobbies, but there is only so much you can do when writing about it to keep it exciting for someone reading it. So in an effort to keep my duck hunting posts less boring this year, I am going to combine all my duck hunting trips into one post and just hit the basic highlights of each trip. I'm not sure if I am going to stick with this format or not, so let me know what you think!

10/06/10

Since we were hunting public land, we decided we were going to try and do most of our hunting during the week to avoid over crowding. This worked out well since I work on a rotating schedule and often get days off during the week. This was out first trip out for the season and first trip to the MM WMA. We arrived and got set up on the west side of the slough close to the boat launch area. It was a warmer morning and we only needed light coats. We heard one other hunter on the east side who must have walked in. There was a moderate amount of activity and Dad bagged two drake Mallards. It was a beautiful morning and we really enjoyed this new area.

10/15/10

Another trip during the week for Dad and I to the MM WMA. The temperatures were much cooler and required us to actually wear our full hunting gear. We arrived and set up on the southwest corner of the slough. We saw one hunter who arrived later than us and set up on the east side of the slough. Moderate amount of birds early, but once the sun was up, the birds were no longer flying. We didn't bag any birds this morning but had a couple shots.

10/19/10

Dad and I again on our third trip to the MM WMA. The temperatures were still a little cooler, right around 30 degrees. We got set up and got our decoys out on the south side of the slough. We had no other hunters on the slough today. Beautiful morning, but no birds were flying. Most of the crops have been harvested and the local ducks are gone and very spooked. It hasn't got cold enough up north for the northern birds to come down yet. Neither of us got a shot of today.

10/29/10

I visited the MM WMA with a couple guys from work who are just getting into duck hunting. The temperatures were cold. It was about 20 degree when we arrived. We set up on the south end again. The slough had ice in the shallow areas and frost on everything. The birds were very active. We had one other person on the slough with us who was on the southeast corner. The birds loved our decoy spread and were very responsive to calling. However, the other hunter was using a motorized decoy (which are not allowed on WMA's) and he was getting all the bird to land by him. We didn't get any shots off, but it was impressive watching a flock of 40 birds land on the slough bases on our decoy spread and calling!

11/02/10

Dad and I again, back to the MM WMA. The temperatures were in the high 20's and we had a pretty strong wind from the northwest. We set up on the northwest corner of the slough. We saw a couple small flocks cruise over but nothing was interested. The wind made the morning very cold. We packed it up around 0900 and headed back. No shots, no birds. Still nice to be out though!

We still have over a half month to go before the end of the season and I think the northern birds are just starting to get here, so hopefully we will a chance to go out again, but if not, it was a great season trying new things and exploring new areas!

2010 Duck Hunting Prep...

2010-11-17T12:00:00.001-06:00

Now that we have an area picked out that we want to try this season, we had to get our gear ready. I knew we were going to be doing most of our hunting out of the boat so we needed to make sure it was ready to go. Since we only used it once last year, I didn't have many worries, but it is always better to be safe than sorry!

We got the boat and trailer out from the backyard and hooked up to the Suburban. The trailer lights were having a couple issues, and it turns out is was actually the socket on the Suburban that needed some cleaning and adjusting. After getting that fixed, the boat and trailer were ready! Since we would not be using any outboard motors this year, we saved a bunch of time not having to test those! The 3 hp Johnson is still not 100% I haven't had any time to work on it and Dad hasn't finished bringing his 7.5 hp Mercury back to life yet either! When we were done with the boat and the trailer, we had a little help from Maeve and Will getting our gear loaded up and decoys checked!

We got all of the gear down and accounted for. We ended up restringing a couple decoys, but had all the parts we needed to fix them. We loaded most of the gear up in the back of the Suburban (which will serve as "Home Base" this hunting season) and the bigger stuff we left in the boat. We put the boat and trailer away in the backyard and called it a day. Now all we had to do was pick a day and hit the road!

2010 Duck Hunting Scouting...

2010-11-16T13:19:00.009-06:00

Once again, I managed to get behind with my journal. In my own defense it has been a very busy last month or so between family activites, work, hunting, and stuff around the house! Including this post, I have about eight other posts that I will have coming soon and one more to follow after those (once I get the work done)!

This year, mainly due to time and schedule issues, we (Dad and I) decided we wanted to find some areas close to home to go hunting this year. We were looking for a place where we could get up early, drive to, get set up, hunt the morning, and come home all before lunch. We figured we would have more opportunities to hunt when it didn't involve planning a weekend get away. In order to accomplish this, we would be hunting on public land and needed to do some "scouting!" In the State of Minnesota we are fortunate enough to have many public hunting areas. Some are on Federal (U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service) land, but most are state owned WMA's (Wildlife Managment Areas) and WPA's (Waterfowl Production Areas). After talking with a few people and doing some research online that would allow us an hour drive one way or less, I narrowed down the possibilities to six areas.

Since I didn't want the first time we saw these areas to be in the dark when we wanted to hunt them, we (Dad, Maeve, Will, and I) loaded up the Suburban and set out on a "scouting" trip on the Thursday before duck opener. Of the six areas that I wanted to checked out, two were instantly eliminated because they involved the Minnesota River backwaters and all of these were all severly flooded. So, we set off to see ome WMA's in southern Scott County first. The first one we checked out was pretty dried up and we quickly moved onto the next. The second area had some potential, but invovled a very long portage with the duck boat in order to get to the water. We kept the second area on our list and moved onto the third. The third area was perfect! I will refer to it as "MM WMA." It was a faiely large body of water, with great cover along the shore, isolated between corn and soy bean fields, had some wooded areas around it, had easy boat access, and even had an off the road parking area also. The MM WMA quickly moved to the top of our list.

After we got done exploring the MM WMA, we still had one more area to check out. This one was in the southeastern part of Carver County. This area also had potential and placed second on the list. I will refer to it as AL WMA. This area was right outside a small town and was essinially a lake surrounded be farm feilds on three side and the road on the last. The AL WMA had a long driveway into it which was pretty much a boat launch. Dad, Maeve, and I got out and did some exploring while Will took a little nap in the Suburban.

When we were done checking out AL WMA, we started on the journey back home. I was glad we had the chance to do this scouting so we had a good idea on where we wanted to go and where to set up when we got there. After talking it over, Dad and I decided the MM WMA would be our first spot for the 2010 duck hunting season. Now we just needed to get our gear ready!

(You may have noticed, I intentionally left the names and locations of these WMA's off of this post. I have heard some horror stories from a couple other "blogging" friends who put this information into thier blogs and were taken advantage of. I have no problem sharing these with other people, just leave me a comment with your contact information and if I feel you are well intentioned, I will send you the information. Thanks for reading!)

Our Daughter is in School!

2010-10-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

This school season marks the first of many for Maeve! Now that she is three years old, she is old enough for preschool! Shannon and I did some searching for schools over the summer and we decided on Bloomington Lutheran School. We had it narrowed down to BLS and two others (the public school preschool program and a church preschool). We really liked how close BLS is to our house (walking distance) and the it has a Christian based learning curriculum.

Maeve has been overly excited to start school. She had a blast getting clothes, a backpack, new shoes, ect. When the orientation day came, we could hardly get her to leave when it was over! When the first day of school came, my Mom came down to join us for the walk to school!

Maeve turned the walk into a bit of a run, but we all made it there and it only took about ten minutes! Once we got in the school, Maeve knew exactly what to do. She found her name, hung up her backpack and went inside to play. I don't even think she looked back!

So far Maeve loves school! She looks forward to going everyday! Her favorite things are making new friends, playing in the gym, singing, and going to the library! Shannon and I can't believe how big she is getting so fast!

No More Crawling in This House!!

2010-10-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

I know, I was on such a roll with regular updates and then I take another two month vacation from my journal. I really don't like going this long without an update, but to be honest, I haven't had much to write about, but I have a few things that I have been banking up, so here goes!

As of about 2 months ago when Will was a little past nine months old, he took to the two foot method of transportation. Just like I did with Maeve, here is a short video:

To be honest, this video was from earlier today, but it didn't take him long to get good at walking! With walking, Will has a whole new world to explore and he has been keeping us busy chasing after him. So far, his favorite things to do while walking are running for the street and getting into the kitchen cabinet drawers!

He is growing up so fast!!!

The Box in the Corner of the Garage...

2010-08-18T01:00:00.002-05:00

...at my parents house is pretty much like a secret treasure chest to me. Up to about a month ago, I had only seen what was inside this box once. I don't remember a lot of the details of the contents, but I remember that I really enjoyed looking at everything inside.

It all started when we were up at my parent's house for dinner. Dad and I started talking about cars (as we often do) and about an ad for a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder convertible. This led to us talking about his old Corvair and all the things that he had done. This included rebuilding the engine, some body work, interior work, and gathering some trim parts at a junk yard. After all these years (43 years by my calculations!), Dad has kept the blown cylinder that he replaced on his Crovair shortly after he bought it. This Corvair cylinder was kept in the box in the corner of the garage and of course I asked to see it!

I have to admit I was very excited to see the Corvair cylinder, but I was also just as excited to see what else was in this box. After about five minutes of moving boxes and other things around, Dad brought down the box. It was vintage car part heaven! Not only did he have the blown Corvair cylinder, but the box also had old car lighters, gaskets, tail light lenses, distributor caps, interior knobs, horn parts, mirrors, and other little nuts and bolts. I was really a time warp for me looking at all these old car parts and listening to Dad tell stories about each part and where they might have came from or what they were for.

When we were done (and needed to get cleaned up for dinner) we slowly started packing everything back up into the box. I encouraged and assisted him in wrapping some of the plastic lenses and other more fragile parts in newspaper. Dad let me hang on to a couple parts that I took a random interest in.

The first part is an old horn. This is an aftermarket "Beep Beep" horn that was most likely produced to mimic the Plymouth Road Runner which had a horn installed from the factory that sounded exactly like the Road Runner cartoon. This horn is a "Jubilee No. 27 Beep-Beep Horn" and even had the original installation instructions with it! From talking with Dad he is pretty sure he got this horn as a gift from his younger sister (my Aunt Nette) and probably had it installed on his 1965 Ford Mustang (which he owned from August 1968 to May 1969). Best thing of all, we hooked it up to a 12 volt battery and it still works!

The second item doesn't quite have the same "coolness" as the horn, but is unique in the same. It is an old rear view mirror. My Dad wasn't quite sure why he has this mirror, or what the reason was in getting out of a junkyard in the first place. From what I can tell, it is a post mounted day/night rear view mirror. It is 2 1/2 inches tall by 7 inches wide. It has a chrome trim ring around it and the back is painted a light grey/brown color. On the back it says "MADE IN U.S.A." and on the day/night level it says "GLARE-PROOF GUIDE." The neatest part about this mirror is that I can not figure out what kind or kinds of car this came off of? If you have any ideas, leave me a comment!

Thanks Dad for sharing this neat box of car parts with me! I was a wonderful time full of memories for you and stories for me!

Hey Sparky!

2010-08-16T01:00:00.002-05:00

No, I am not going to be writing about Sparky the Fire Dog or my electrician friend Brian (first one on the left in the yellow shirt) who we like to call Sparky on occasion. This post actually has to do with the Suburban!

Almost two years ago I started noticing a little bit of a hesitation when driving the Suburban around. It was hardly noticeable at first and would come and go. Over the last year the hesitation has got worse and seems to be affected by humidity and moisture. Due to the many things I have had going on, I never really addressed the hesitation issue. In the last couple of months with us getting a ton of rain and the humidity being very high, the hesitation problem seemed to have been amplified. The Suburban would sometime barley be able to get up to highway speeds!

Finally, this past weekend, I set a day aside to work on the Suburban. Both Dad and I figured the problem was electrical since it was affected by moisture. Dad thought that it might be a crack in the distributor cap. The only problem with that theory, is the way the motor in the Suburban is put together, it takes about an hour of removing parts to get to the distributor cap! We figured we would start with some of the basic and check the spark plugs. This was a pretty simple task, but required some creative angles to get to each plug.

After we got all eight of the spark plugs out we noticed a couple issues. One of the plugs (#4 cylinder) was completely carboned over. A couple of the other plugs also had some carbon build up, but not as bad the #4 plug. This spark plug being carboned over would seriously impact the performance of the motor.

We went ahead and replaced all eight spark plugs and I was very happy with the test drive! The hesitation was gone! It was no longer a "task" to drive the Suburban! I wasn't going to be breaking any land-speed records having a 3/4 Ton Suburban with a 454 cubic inch motor and almost 200,000 miles, but I was still happy!

Summer Cabin Trip!

2010-08-14T01:00:00.003-05:00

07/30/10 - 08/01/10

This is the second year we were invited to spend a weekend at my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nette's cabin in Crosby, MN. Maeve was super excited to go back again and we were excited to see how Will liked the lake. The drive up was pretty quick and the kids did pretty good. Between napping and watching movies, they stayed occupied the entire time.

After we got up there and got the car unloaded, we went right to the lake. It was a little overcast, but still plenty warm and Maeve didn't waste any time getting wet! After playing in the lake for a little bit and taking a short pontoon ride, we had a great BBQ, then started a camp fire and made smores. Once the sun went down and it was dark, we had a couple drinks and hit the sack.

The next day, Saturday, we woke up and it was a bright sunny day. We spent most of the time either in or on the lake. Both Maeve and Will loved being in the water and playing on the beach. We took many paddle boat rides and could not keep Maeve off of the jet ski! I nicknamed her "full throttle" because once we cleared the dock she hammered on the throttle and would not let off! After playing in the lake and taking boat rides, we had another wonderful BBQ, dessert, and then it was off to bed.

The kids were pretty much exhausted the entire weekend. We had no problems getting them to take naps or go to be at night. On Sunday morning we woke up and got the cabin cleaned up and helped get things picked up around the beach and boats. We said our goodbyes and thank yous and were back on the road again. I think we got back a little after noon and didn't have any issues with the ride home.

I would like to thank by Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nette for their hospitality again this year. We absolutely love spending time with you at your cabin. The kids always have an amazing time and Maeve still can not stop talking about it! Thanks again!

Maeve's 3rd Birthday!

2010-08-12T11:07:00.001-05:00

07/24/10

This year marks Maeve turning three years old and we wanted to give her a birthday party that she could invite friends to. So since her birthday fell on a Saturday this year, we figured we would have the party on that day! We ordered a "bounce house," ordered a couple Subway party platters, and stocked up on juice boxes. I spent the day before getting the back yard mowed and picked up. The day of her party, we (Dad, Mom, Will, Maeve, and I) got the back yard set up with chairs and tables. Then the "bounce house" was delivered and needed to be tested!

The party was a huge hit! All the kids had fun, the adults had fun watching their kids get tired, and we had plenty of food for everyone! Maeve received nice gifts from everyone and was very appreciative. I can't wait to have another little kid party next year! (and yes, adult were allowed in the bounce house too!)

For Maeve's big gift this year we (Me, Shannon, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma Irma, Papi, Papa, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Jess) got Maeve a swing set. She absolutely loves the swing sets at the park and we figured it would be a great addition to the back yard. The swing set actually ended up coming a couple days after her birthday. Dad and I spent about 7 hours over two days getting the swing set assembled. Maeve helped with almost every step of assembly.

Maeve LOVES her swing set. She has been on it everyday that it has been up. We are very happy with the quality of the swing set too. The assembly went well and all the parts were all there and undamaged. The swing set is technically called the "Pathfinder," is made manufactured by Adventure Play Sets, and sold by Walmart. It can be seen HERE.

6th Annual Mt. Olivet Motorheads Car Show

2010-08-09T15:08:00.001-05:00

07/20/10
Mileage: 88,163

This was the second and probably last car show that I will be entering the Trans Am in this year. If you remember last year, we had quite a scare with the severe weather that came when all the cars were on display! This year the weather was totally the opposite, it was hot, sunny, and not a cloud in the sky! My bad luck with bad weather at car shows is finally over!

Michael and Jess would be joining me at this car show with their 1969 Pontiac GTO. Michael and Dad met at my house and headed to the church in Victoira, MN. Dad rode with me on the way out there and we were going to be met by Shannon, my Mom, Maeve, Will, and Jess later on. Since it was so nice out, I decided to ride out there with the T-Tops off. It was very nice having the extra wind and sun! Believe it or not, it was the first time Dad had ever rode in a car with the T-Tops off! It was quite an honor to provide him with this experience! When we got out there, we got the cars parked (next to each other of course!) and started to look around.

I had a really nice time watching people check over the Trans Am. I left the T-Tops off so people could look inside and I also posted the duplicate window sticker on the windshield, so people could see how much the car cost in 1980 and what options cost to have on it! I loved hearing other people talk about their Trans Am tales and about what a nice car I have! I was pretty proud considering it was parked next to a GTO and a Jaguar!

This year we noticed a few of the same cars from last year, but also some we have never seen before! I missed a couple pictures that I wanted to take but I snapped a few of my favorites! (BONUS: I have something "real nice" to the first person that can name the year, make, and model (12 points total) of all the below vehicles! )

One of the reason I like this car show so much is that it is set up as a family event. The had a huge BBQ, a bounce house, and door prizes! We all ate very well and attended a short church service, then checked our numbers for door prizes. Maeve ended up coming out on top with a big tin of popcorn (Thanks Grandpa)!

Overall, I had a really nice time at the show. It was great being able to share this experience with my entire family. I know the kids had a blast and I don't think it will take much convincing to get them to come back next year!

A Couple Quick Car Projects...

2010-07-24T14:00:00.002-05:00

The Altima has been a great car. We haven't had to do a thing to it except change the oil, since we bought it over a year ago. So, when the driver's door power window started activing funny, I figured it was about time for something to go wrong with this otherwise perfect car! The Altima has an one touch auto-up and one touch auto-down feature on the driver's door power window. Which mean you just hit the button in either direction once and it will either full open ot close without having to keep holding the button. Shannon and I both love this feature, however the auto-up feature stopped working the other day. It wasn't a huge deal, because the window still worked, but I didn't like having a broken part on the car. I did some research online and this is what I found:

Window Programming Instructions:

1. Push the ignition switch to the ON position.
2. Open the window more than halfway by operating the power window switch.
3. Pull the power window switch and hold it to close the window, and then hold the switch more than 3 seconds after the window is closed.
4. Release the power window switch. Operate the window by the automatic function to confirm the initialization is complete.
5. Perform steps 2 through 4 above for other windows.

It turns out that the window just got de-programmed! After following the above directions, it was back to normal!

I had one other part on the Altima I needed to install. Sometime during the winter, the engine splash shield had got cracked and broken and was hanging in pieces under the car. I called the dealer and they wanted $55 for the part. I didn't have any luck finding it used at a junk yard or on eBay, so I did a Google search which landed me at RockAuto Auto Parts. They had the part I needed and shipped to my door it was only $20! The part installed easily and fit great, I just needed a couple retaining clips from my local Nissan dealer, which they gave to me for free! You can see below that old splash shield has seen better days!

The Suburban wasn't exempt from any repairs this time around either. The retaining strap (or prop rod) for the right rear barn door, wasn't working any more. This would prevent the door from staying open and would just keep closing on you while you were loading it. It turns out the retaining strap had the "U" shaped end broken off of it. The dealer wanted $45 for it, but I found it at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $23. The installation took about 15 minutes and the door is back to normal!

The Big 3-0!

2010-07-23T13:00:00.001-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, this past July 2nd marked me turning 30 years old. Shannon and I had talked about maybe having party with friends and family to celebrate the event. She joked about having a surprise party for me, but I told her that my friends would never be able to keep a secret and that I would sense something was up and it would never work. However, due to the flooring project, work schedules, and that my birthday always falls on the 4th of July weekend, we decided that a large party at the house was not going to happen. We ended up having a BBQ at my parent's house on the day of my birthday and planned on going to Buffalo Wild Wings the next weekend when I wasn't working and having dinner with the family, to include my parents, brother, and sister-in-law.

We got to the restaurant, placed our orders, and were talking when in walks my father-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, and my ex-step-mother-in-law! I thought that was very nice of them to show up for dinner, but didn't know they were coming. I figured Shannon must have mentioned it to them and told them to swing by if they had a chance. That didn't make as much sense after about about a dozen more of my friends and family walked in! I just fell victim to a surprise party and didn't have a clue! It turns out that Shannon got phone numbers from my cell phone when I was in the shower a couple times and made plans for the little dinner get together to be a surprise party! I know my face was very red, my beautiful wife got me and I was happy as can be!

Everyone had a very good time. Maeve got to learn to play Big Buck Hunter and she enjoyed shooting the Buffalo the most! Will was a very good baby and almost made it the entire night before he crashed in my arms! I would like to thank my amazing wife for throwing me the impossible surprise party! I would also like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate this with me, it really meant a lot having you all there!