19 DAYS!!!

Can't wait to marry you babe!

Lucie Ellen Drury

My newest niece Lucie Ellen Drury was baptized last Sunday and Molly and I were very happy that we were able to make it down for the special event!

This is why...

I haven't blogged in a while because my camera took a crap on me so I have to send it in to have it fixed. For some reason I'm not real hip on blogging without pictures. So hopefully in a few weeks I'll get some pictures up along with what all has been going on around here!

Dry Run

Last Saturday Matt, (my friend from work) his brother Mark and I went on a short ride. It was only about 100-120 miles but it was still a lot of fun and they needed to get a dry run in before they head out on there big trip next week! They are leaving from Kannapolis, N.C. and meeting up with their dad and step dad (both leaving from Arizona) in North Dakota. From there they will all ride together through Canada into Alaska and all the way up to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska which is on the Arctic ocean. Round trip will be about 11,500 miles! Also they are planning to camp every night but one. So, needless to say a dry run, although short was a good idea. The bikes of course stopped a little slower and felt quite a bit heavier but all in all they said they didn't think it would take too long to get use to.

We stopped in Lancaster, N.C. for lunch and some of the towns world famous BBQ. I'm pretty sure there are more BBQ joints here than there are gas stations or churches. I got a chopped plate with potato salad, fries and hush puppies. I'm usually one to finish everything on my plate but this was just so much food that if I ate it all I was going to have to stay a long while longer before getting back on the bike.

I think the sign of a pig serving BBQ on roller skates is hilarious!



Everything seems to be ready for them to go on their trip; bikes are prepped, camping gear is packed and I know they are anxious to go.

June 6th-July 5th
North Carolina-Alaska-North Carolina
11,500 Miles
Have fun guys!!

Met in the Middle

Follow the LINK.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm......

I love my grocery store!! If you can find either of these and if you like high gravity, then you will like these.

They are the big bottles!

Upgrades Con't....

So I've been wanting to break up all that gray on my bike for a while now and I finally got around to it. I won some Honda decals on Ebay for $0.01! Granted in was $3.99 shipping but still a darn good price. I put them on one day while on my lunch break and was very very happy with the way they turned out.

Next project is to fix and update my gauge cluster. My roommate dropped it a couple of weeks ago while moving it to get his car out of the garage. Everything else was fine but it busted up my gauges. So hopefully I can post another update in about a week or so....

"One Piece at a Time"

I've been working on my bike little by little and slowly it's starting to look a bit more respectable, although I still have a long way to go. I found some turn marker on the ebay machine from an older GSXR for $1.80!

The mirrors that were on my bike were the wrong ones so as soon as I got these they went straight in the dumpster. The mirrors were one of those things, to my surprise, that changed the whole look of the bike.

I took the stock peg mounts off and milled "windows" in them to make them look a little more modern. I also got rid of the very large rubber foot pegs and replaced them with aluminum pegs from a late 90's Honda. I intend on making some new peg mounts from scratch but just haven't sat down and drawn it all out yet.

There are still several, several things I am either in the process of doing or is on the list...the long list of things I want to do.
I have painted the wheels finally, and painting the engine will be one of the next things. New wheels and tires are on the list as well as a little more paint on the fairings and tank. Hopefully I will be posting more pics of progress soon.

10 point bonus: Who sang the song named in the title?

WEEKEND FUN!!

So last weekend I made the short 4hr drive
down to Statesboro GA. (home town) My sister
and I have been planning on attending the
Chris Thile (Punch Brothers) Concert in Savannah during their
nearly three week music festival. The concert
was amazing as always!! The weather was pretty
amazing as well... it rain the whole way over...
and during... and back. The thunder did add an
unusual aspect to the music.
The next night my girlfriend Molly and I went to see the "Infamous Stringdusters". I saw them in Charlotte last year and loved them, Molly saw them a while ago in Macon as well. Before the concert we were able to catch a quick meal at "Moon River Brewing Company" . I had blackened scallops which had a little too much
blackened on them but the great beer made up
for it!! Molly had a hamberger and some of their womderful porter beer.
On monday we got up fairly early and made the short drive to George L. Smith State Park to go canoeing for a few hours. We couldn't have asked for better weather especially after all the rain earlier that week.

(watch the video I took of the Punch Brothers last week)

Badin Lake Kayaking

This past Saturday the weather here was beautiful! So I had the kayak loaded up the night before and all ready to go on Saturday. I ended up not leaving the house until almost 10:00 but it worked out well because it's still getting down in the 30's at night here. The closest place for me to put in is about 30-40min up Hwy 49 near the Uwharrie Nation Forest. The flat water that makes up Badin Lake is caused by several dams along the Yadkin River, which is just to the north east of Charlotte, N.C. I really enjoy going up here because it is real hilly, almost like small mountains, and there is not as much boat traffic as many of the other lakes around here. It was so peaceful and relaxing to get out and be on the water again. (I must say that I've been looking forward to warmer weather this year like a kid looks forward to getting out of school for the summer.) I paddled up stream for a few hours until it was about time to stop and eat some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I brought. So I wedged myself up against a tree limb so I wouldn't float away and propped my feet up on top of the boat. The whole time I was on the water I was constantly surrounded by Great Blue Herons, Osprey, and Anhingas. I don't think I could have had a much better day to go.


More Pics - http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn288/nathanhouse82/badin%20lake/

WHAT IS THIS?!!

Okay, I've been seeing this happen in our ice trays at work and could not figure out how this happens!!! It's been driving me nuts for weeks now! A few days ago I was here at the house and grabbed an ice tray and guess what... there this thing was on our ice at the house too. All it is is a spear of ice coming straight out of the cube. As you can tell it's not always straight up and down but often at an angle. At first I was sure there was water dripping from somewhere but the freezer at work doesn't even have water run to it. If anyone has a reason for this I would love to
hear it, because I have no idea...

weird!

Rainy Saturday Dinner

This past weekend was a rainy one but I did get out to go some friends of mine wedding Saturday afternoon. While I was on that side of town I figured I'd better stop by The Fresh Market, other wise I'd wish I had. I have been wanting to make tuna steaks for a while now but for whatever reason just haven't done it. So... that's what I did Saturday evening, dinner for one! I also picked up some snow peas (probably on my top 10 foods) and some couscous. I rubbed a little oil on the tuna then added salt, pepper and thyme. I seared the tuna and added fresh lemon juice. I've posted about snow peas in the past so this will be short. The snow peas were cooked the way I usually do, oil in a pan and salt. I must say that I did have a smile on my face as I looked at my empty plate and crashed on the couch for a while...beer in hand.

Rare is the way to go with this fish!!

International Motorcycle Show:

So here are a few bikes that I took pictures of over the weekend at the
International Motorcycle Show in Greenville, S.C. I went with my friend Matt, his wife and brother and their son Lachlan.

You may be able to tell that I absolutely LOVE Ducati!!
This is one of my favorites, the Ducati Monster...real nice.

This next picture is of a KTM big Duke, also one of favorites at the show.

I really liked the old look of the bike along with the new performance parts like good forks, big brakes and new wheels and tires. Kind of the rat rod of motorcycles in my opinion.

Lachlan got to ride a bike for a while and I think he would have stayed there the rest of the day if we didn't have to eat lunch.

Even though he was the only one that got to take a nap I think if the rest of us had strollers we would all have been out!

I have quite a bit more pictures so just follow this link if you want to take a look.

Everyone loves the CrockPot

I was on the way home from church Sunday afternoon and I had to stop by the grocery store and pick up a few things. Well as usual I ended up getting a few things that I didn't plan on getting. One of these things was a roast... in my defense it was on sale. As I was walking around with this thing in my hand I was trying to think of what else I needed to get so I could put all this goodness in the crock pot Monday morning. I ended up getting the basics... onions, potatoes and carrots.
I rubbed the roast with some olive oil and sprinkled some rosemary, a little bit of sea salt, and black pepper then seared it in the frying pan just enough to brown the outside. The whole time I'm doing this I'm still trying to decide on what else to put into this thing. I found some, I guess you would call it hot sauce, that I got in my stocking this year at Christmas. It was a Vidalia onion and orange hot sauce. It was really good, kinda sweet then the after taste was a bit spicy.

So I sliced up the onion, quartered the potatoes, sliced the carrots and added some green beans. I also added a little more rosemary salt and pepper then dumped the whole bottle of hot sauce on top. The potatoes and carrots seemed to soak up the sauce more than everything else and the whole thing, I thought, was really tasty. It ended up more like a stew than just a roast, but I'm easy to please when it comes to food and I was pleased with the way this turned out. Of course I guess it's hard to make something not taste good in the crock pot.


--I think next time I might substitute the red potatoes for sweet potatoes--












I'm not sure why this next picture is so blurry. I
took it about seven times and this was the best
one.