A big smile

Amy with a big smile while shopping in Columbia, SC on Christmas eve in balmy conditions. One could say that the weather was almost too nice, but complaining about 70 degree temperatures sounds silly.

Chuck's World

Chuck Herin is the inventor of pegheds and he bought a very cool school building he is currently restoring and making it into his home and peghed factory.

Chuck with the main school building closest to him and the auditorium to the left



The old blackboards work out great for Chuck to scribble down some thoughts



Some of Chuck's Pegheds



No doubt about what is being worked on here



The former gym houses some of the manufacturing plus some of his car projects



Inside the auditorium where we might see some concerts before too long

Fly with me

Maybe not.


wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

A Christmas party in Columbia, SC

We have been in Columbia, SC the last few days to visit family and attended a couple Christmas parties. The first one was hosted by Amy's dad Ron and his wife Amy and people travel far and wide for this party and the delicious pork tenderloin. Unfortunately I have no pictures of that event.
The day after Virginia hosted a party at her house and it appeared that Amy and I were the only non musical folks there. Everybody played an instrument and/or sang and the whole evening was quite a musical affair. Here are a few images.

This actually wasn't the only jam session that happened in Virginia's house



Grandmama Georgia is listening intently



Amy and her dad Ron surrounded by instruments



Ron's wife Amy did not play until later that night. Amy is actually a great violinist who played at our wedding with her brother Chuck and her friend Virginia



Amy's brother Chuck is a creative genius and he plays the Cello.

The 100 / 100 challenge

I recently signed up for the 100 runs in 100 days challenge on slowtwitch.com that started on December 15th and so far I have managed 6 runs in 4 days. That means I currently have 2 runs in the bank for possible sick days, travel days, holidays or plain old lazy days. We'll see how long the motivation lasts.

The pics below are taken on a loop that I run most often.

Ready for Christmas

Our condo in the Piedmont Leaf Lofts is decorated and we are ready for Christmas. It'll be our one and only Christmas in this place, and most likely the last time we can decorate our home like this. Unless we of course have exposed pipes in a future home that will allow us to hang ornaments. :-)

The new home?

Many folks have asked us about the new green home that we wanted to build here in downtown Winston-Salem as part of the SECCA on Second Street project. The longer we were waiting for things to move along and for good communication from the developer, the more we started to get a bad feeling about it. Along those lines, it is one thing to have a bad vibe about a pair of jeans you are buying, but that should not happen when buying a home no matter how expensive it is. So we decided to walk away from that project a few months ago and started to look at other options. We found a few cool older homes we liked, but Amy and I both were especially smitten by a home in the West End area.

So this might be our new home by mid January.

The front of the house



Cute little front porch area



The living room



Another view of the living room



The den is very cozy



The previous home owner put a lot of work into the kitchen



Did we already say that we love the kitchen?



One of the bath rooms



There is deck out of the back

A weekend in Chattanooga

Last weekend I traveled to Chattanooga to close on the house on Missionary Ridge, but the buyer was missing some paperwork and the whole thing got delayed. I still went anyway as Amy was getting ready for her boards in Nashville and I was going to be home alone in Winston Salem either way. I got there Thursday night and stayed with Anita and Paul and their 4 "kids" Belle, Brodie, little girl and Pete. On Friday I got some work done and the time originally scheduled for the closing was now open and I went to see Jill's "adventures on a pony." I had not seen Martin, Janelle and their kids since mid July and it was amazing to see how much the girls have grown. Friday night Anita, Paul and I met up with Rick and Mary Loggins, Pat and Kleehammer, Mike Madzin, Susan Mietling and a few other folks at Big River Grille downtown and it was nice seeing everybody. Saturday Morning Paul, Anita, Belle and I ran the Big Daddy trail on the side of Lookout Mountain and Rick Loggins joined us for a bit early on, and George Hovanec ran the last section with us. That night we went to the black tie event at the Hunter Museum and with several hundred people gathered there, we had plenty of people to make fun off. Sunday after a nice breakfast at the Blue Plate and a short visit to Martin and Janelle I headed back to Winston Salem and managed to make it in 5:05. :-)


Mmmm ice cream. Life is good for Bex.




Jill is growing like a weed.




A visit to Chattanooga without a trip to Big River is hard to imagine




Anita is ready to run the infamous Big daddy trail run in Chattanooga




Rick ran with Paul and I for a while, but he is still nursing a back injury and couldn't join us for "all the fun."

10/9 Central rant

This little thing shouldn't bug me that much, but I just don't get why a TV show start time has to be announced with two time zones. Example 10/9 Central.

Is the TV watching audience not smart enough to understand that 10 Eastern means 9 Central? Why not say 10/9/8 Mountain or 10/9/8/7 Pacific?

Give them what they want

If you give people what they want, they may give you what you really want. Just don't expect it, or be disappointed if nothing comes back. Are you listening Eric?