My Dad

So I haven't written a blog in quite a while and a large part of that reason is because I've been in Wisconsin spending time with my Dad. Last year my Dad was diagnosed with cancer and after a tough round of chemo we thought he had beat it. In February he returned to Wisconsin with some medical issues to leard that the cancer had returned. He went through another round of chemo but this time things weren't as promising. He did respond to chemo the second time around. My Dad passed away on July 8th.

I'll never forget all of the things my Dad did for me and taught me through the years. He was a great guy who was always willing to help someone out and had the ability to make anyone laugh. I'm glad I had the opportunity to spend as much time with him as I did. I will always remember the positive person he was and I wish I had more time with him.

My Dad and I at the race in Ruston, La on October 25th, 2009.

Halloween and things

So I forgot to mention that my Dad came up and met Lauren and I at the race in Ruston last weekend which was really great. I think he felt a little out of his element with a bunch of mountain bikers but it was great to see him and I think he got to relax a little. Here's a picture of my Dad and I:



I was clearly celebrating Halloween a little early, good times.

Lauren and I partook in the annual festivities that include knives and punkins, yes punkins. This year, actually, I think I carved a rather large, whitish gourd but I'm still not too sure about the species of my jack-o'-lantern.

While carving, the masterpiece of Stanley Kubrik played in the background featuring Jack Torrance, Wendy Torrance, and Danny Torrance.

This is Lauren's happy cyclops thing
This is my whitish gourd thing, turned out well I thought. The outer shell was ridiculously hard leading me to use a hammer in addition to my knife to carve it. I actually ended up breaking the knife, sorry Lauren.


For Halloween evening we did the traditional Trick-or-Treat handing out of candy to all the little monsters and Michael Jacksons running around. We almost ran out of candy before we had to go to Lauren's co-worker's house for a little get-together. We had some pretty sweet costumes, I'll put up some pics once they become available to me. Halloween was pretty fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the "extra" hour of sleep last night.


Today Lauren and I ventured out to IKEA to get a shelf, a table, and a couple of chairs. Pretty sweet, I'll get some pics soon.