The dog

This is our dog Ginger. Just a FYI. You probably already know her. Here she had been shaved for the summer. Recently, she's been on antibiotics for an infection. She's been doing good though. She's stayed down to 18 pounds which is a good wieght for her. Every once in a while, she sits on her bed a certain way with her feet out in front of her that makes Naudia and I think she's the cutest. Maybe we'll get one of her 'poses' captured in a pic.

White boy! (bird)

Never thought this was possible. If you can see this picture, it's an albino finch. I thought it was pretty cool. I think it's new to our area (parking lot) this year. It's definitely the strangest bird I've seen.

Boat

This progress gets me the most excited about the boat. I really want to get it done. It's going to look sweet. As of right now, all the skin is on finally and thank goodness. If I ever do something like this again, I'm going to look into making a steam box or something.

mmm hmmm

Just a little to add to David's posts. First of all he mentions me being some sort of saint for putting up with his messes... which are a pain. What he doesn't mention is the way I store my current projects (including dirty dishes)... which happens to be in piles around the apartment. My piles may look a little more organized than his workspace (ground zero) but they're still everywhere in the apartment. Right now I'm trying to get out of the habit of cleaning everything up only when there is a visitor coming. I plead exhaustion from being pregnant for the moment, but the doctor tells me in a couple weeks (2nd trimester) I'll probably have more energy.... and there goes that excuse out the window.

Second I'm really proud of David building this boat. I learned early on in our relationship that he can pretty much make anything he wants to. ~~~Naudia

Boat

This is phases two and three respectively. Again, coming along nicely. But not without a fight. Getting the skin on has been a challenge. I've started with the back because it is flatter. And currently it is further along than what you see in phase three. Sometimes the balsa has failed in the skin and in the frame. I will be trying to apply skin.........crack! Just to let you know, every piece of wood on this boat is custom cut and shaped. (I think that's the funnest part). I just didn't estimate how much balsa needed to be in certain places. It's been okay: I just beef those failed parts up. Sometimes the glue is unmanageable. Many times I have had layers of glue and balsa on my fingertips and the skin still won't stay in place. Luckily sand paper does a fairly good job of getting it off without too much skin. The challenges now are going to be the very front, the top (which is shown half-way done), attachments for keeping the boat together, painting/waterproofing, and layout of the cool parts (aka motor, servos, rudder, gas tank, lights, and cooling setup). I am getting more excited towards getting this boat finished and useable. ------David

Boat

So this is the boat I am building. It is about 26" in length. This is phase one: getting to see both angles. The only plywood is the floor and the front deck. The frame has come out real nice. My biggest worry is the skin. It really is going to be hard to do the front. Now, I will have to say: this project happens on the weekends and at night when it's too late to work on homework and Naudia is asleep. I have woken Naudia up once at least (that's what she admits) sanding away. I really should try to keep it down. Now Naudia is a saint. She is really patient with me, lets me ride a motorcycle, and she lets me use the livingroom as a project shop. And when I am working on something, I usually have a spread (aka no one is allowed to walk in the realms between the hot chocolate table ('cause we don't drink coffee) and the entertainment center when I am too lazy to pick up my stuff after a night's work. I don't know how she puts up with it. But, I do know we are going to have fun with the boat together when it's finished. ------ David

Our Halloween

So I think our pumpkins turned out pretty good this year! David's was a headless horseman and mine was a Chinese inspired dragon. We had fun carving even though David had to finish his a couple days after he started.

They definitely look better in the dark. So at our ward Halloween party they had a pumpkin carving contest but we didn't take our pumpkins because after 4 days mine was starting to curl up and David's was already supporting a diverse colony of mold... yuck! The best part is, they're still sitting by our door because his pumpkin has gotten soft and I don't want to pick it up. I know it's just going to get worse... maybe today will be the day it will make it to the dumpster.

We ended up going with a Publishers Clearing House costume theme. David was, obviously the prize patrol delivering the check (you can't see the balloons... but he even had those!), and I was the lady who comes to the door in her bathrobe. That's a curling iron in my hair... I was so surprised I forgot to stop curling my hair!! What you don't see is that there is caramel all over my hands from making and eating a caramel apple.

So Halloween was actually pretty chill we didn't really do much, but the great thing was that David took the GRE and his score on the math portion was higher than what he has to have to make it into a M.E. masters program! YES!!!