family day out!

even Isobel had fun!
Originally uploaded by KDCNMorales.

so far, in the few months that we have been living here in Green Bay, we have done more and gone to more places than in the three years that we lived in Kansas. still love Kansas though! amazing... so even though i didn't take all of the pictures that i wanted to due to kim and i separating, check them out for a small pictorial story of our day today. Mei Mei and Dallas (and even the Chihuahua) had tons of fun today! we walked and walked and then we walked some more! i don't think that we saw everything that there was to see though. Dallas and i shot expensive high tech modern Bowtech parallel limb bows! Dallas shot a dreaded 'black rifle', an assault rifle! an awesome DPMS carbine w/a collapsible stock chambered in .223 Remington! best 5 bucks we spent all day! happy kid! he could not drive any of the ATVs or vehicles but we participated in those events too! you shoulda seen all of the boats, trailers, atv's and whatnot that there was displayed! i know, that's the purpose of the festival! so cool. tomorrow we would like to go to the downtown Green Bay 'Art Street' art extravaganza in the streets of historic downtown Green Bay! (did ya like that sentence?) that should be interesting! i hope that the weather holds, or improves! it was overcast and muggy today. we are all tired and happy. plenty of exercise was had by all. i am not on call. that is all. g'nite ya'll!

cheesy, i know but i am tired! canoe dreams await...

Kim and I celebrated 6 years!

walking through a trail in Penninsula State Park in Door Cty
Originally uploaded by KDCNMorales.

Life is grand.... and then you go to work to be told that you need to be spoken to for 'performance issues'. nice.

NOT THE TOPIC TODAY!!! quit it already! no negatives! good.

We all had a grand time yesterday! oh yes. ALL of us! we left the dishes and laundry to go hiking! oh yes. a lifelong dream realized for me and an eye opener for my family! yes, the weather was about perfect (70's) and we were all pumped to go exploring some woods! too bad that it was a bit overcast! check out my pictures! just a few because we were so tired walking up and down these trails! we need to do this more often! there are some trails that we can take the ATV and others for the horses so we will explore those in good time too. so nice. so relaxing. love it.
Dallas is starting FOOTBALL practice this Wednesday! yikes! i wish that i could be there! i'll be there for weekend pratice though! wow. kid's growing up fast! he's very handsome too. you should see.
i'm going to bed now. tired. need to be in to work by 0600 tomorrow. gotta wake The Cakes up earlier than normal. this'll be fun! c ya!

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it's tough to post on a regular basis when, well, we are all so happy and everything is going well! not much going on either! Dallas will be starting FOOTBALL this monday though! ouch. stay tuned. school starts soon after... Mei Mei is still the most adorable/beautiful/cuddly baby in the whole wide world! what a precious child she is! Dallas too is incredibly tall and handsome! good grief! Kim and I celebrate a six year wedding anniversary thing tomorrow! yippee! three days later we'll celebrate her birthday! what fun! the weather out here is still in the 70's. are you jealous or what? well, just come on out here then! there's plenty for everyone! plenty of room! plenty of homes and jobs! you won't regret it! life is good

Green Bay Tall Ships Festival!!!

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Originally uploaded by KDCNMorales.

your probably wondering where the 'Tall Ships' are! you'll just have to click on my pictures link to find out! there's one problem though... i only took a few pictures before the battery died! it was overcast too! bummer! not even an hour after the battery decided to leave me 'high and dry', the sun came out and the ships just looked resplendant! so cool! what fun! Dallas had been rather cranky up until this point! he was in awe at the ships! we learned that some of them give tours and others give summer 'camps'!!!! yippeee! we're sending the kids off for the summer! just kidding. wouldn't that be fun though? we'll look into that for Dallas next year! speaking of sending Dallas off, one of the local racetracks around here has a drag racing program for teenagers! oh yeah baby! i may not be able to afford karting lessons for Dallas but we can certainly go drag racing! he'll have to learn on my truck first though! not much fun but safer! THEN we can cajol mom into lending us her HHR!!! THEN maybe he can learn on my MUSTANG!!! yeah. right. not the Stang! too much power. what am i thinking? my kids are wonderful, that's what!
we've all been extremely busy the last few weeks! i took call for two weeks straight and that nearly killed me! rough! jeez. kim is working a different shift for the moment and that has us all askew. akimbo. whacked out. tired. Dallas is looking forward to going to 8th grade! Mei Mei will be moving to another room in day care too! moving up! our Chihuahua made friends w/a coworkers Chihuahua this past weekend too! grrrr! ours is female and unfixed, theirs is male and fixed. what fun! we'll go there again. Dallas has one of his friends over for the night and they'll be up playing xbox all night but in the meantime, i need to prepare the house for my brothers arrival tomorrow! him and his girlfriend will arrive sometime in the afternoon. just in time to beat the heat! this weather has been worse than that of central florida! even my cohorts in Hays don't have it this bad! that's right. Kansas has nothing on this heat right now! we have had 100 degree days W/NEARLY 100 PERCENT HUMIDITY!!! take THAT! ouch. by wednesday though, the forcast calls for a high of 71. go figure. that's July upnort fer ya!
well, gotta keep cleaning, folding, vacuuming, wiping, eating, drinking, washing... i've got a long night ahead of me still.

K&N install on my 2006 HHR!

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Originally uploaded by KDCNMorales.

holy smokes people! i should have taken pictures from beginning to end but i really didn't think that a 'simple' filter replacement would take me several hours! granted, i've never done it on an HHR but, really! what a pain! what i thought was a simple engine cover, wasn't. this IS the air housing! the screws that hold this contraption together are behind and underneath the apparatus! no, that's not all! there are two other nuts that need to be removed down by the engine block! realistically, i should have removed the two nuts FIRST! then disconnect the various air hoses and electrical bits that are attatched to the box. there is one screw that i thought should have been removed (i nearly stripped it) but didn't need to be. what a pain! it just goes on and on... oh yes, i used a 1/8 inch hex key, which i lost in the back of the engine somewhere. the screws ARE NOT hex heads! they are those funky star shaped thingies! folks, please use the proper tools! next up will be a cat-back exhaust from Magnaflow! good stuff. i love it!