It's that wonderful time of the year...

Then why do I feel so blue?

My sphere of family and friends have had a rough go this year. Certainly there have been some wonderful events.... three of us got married! and some of us got new jobs..... but some of us have seen the inside of the hospital too many times, some of us have had our jobs taken out from under or feet and some of us well.... we just have had a rough go.

That being said it is Christmas (well just about) and it is that time of year that bring out the best and worst in people. Shopping this year has been fairly easy.... it's tough finding that perfect gift for your new wife.... when she is a practical type and would be just as happy with a new toaster as she would be with a diamond trinket... ok not really but that is what she says....=) it's tough when your daughter is a thousand miles away and you cannot tell her in person just how special she is to you. It's great that your son is living with you and you can tell him how much he means to you and how proud you are of him for making some of the tough decisions that he has made recently...... it's great that your parents are close by and out of the hospital and will spend Christmas eve with you......

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

Best wishes,

Scott

Three days in a row....

I have been out to walk for 30 minutes plus for the past three days... My legs are sore but I feel good knowing that am at least starting to get some exercise..... Additionally I am now drinking a glass of water for every cup of coffee I have. Too early to tell if this is reducing the amount of coffee I drink (if so sell your SBUX stock now!) =) or if it just means I am putting more fluids in my body that I was previously.

As always more details to follow....

All the best this holiday season.

Scott

It's one of those things you know you should be....

Doing......

Well here I am 44 years old married with kids and not in shape. Many of my friends meet the same basic parameters as I do. Some of them are actually doing something positive about it too. I know I should be but find that the desk chair or couch is so much more persuasive than getting out and doing something healthy for me.

I've had many conversations with friends and family about the dangers of being overweight and not getting enough exercise. I've watched my father have a Quad Bi-Pass and still I have done nothing to take care of myself. I've watched parts of "The Biggest Loser" and said "wow, I'm glad that's not me there" but really it is....I'm 6'4 and I weigh 265lbs. I lose my breath when I climb more than three flights of stairs and I still love and eat the same foods I did as a teenager. This is a recipe for disaster. I don't want to have a major medical crisis to make me have to change my ways. I want to modify my lifestyle now! and create one that is enjoyable for me but is healthier than the one that I currently have.

So, drum roll please......today I got out and walked at a very brisk pace for 30+ minutes. The hill near the end about put me under but I did it. There is a bit of satisfaction after completing this as I had almost talked myself out of it and to keep watching Sunday morning TV.... now we all know that there is NOTHING worth watching ever on TV but certainly Sunday Morning is about the absolute bottom...... I got out I walked I am writing..... progress has been made.....

More of the details to follow.....

Updated photo

Well,

I have updated the photo of me here on the blog. Problem is that it looks funny... before you make a comment like "duh, it's you of course it looks funny" I mean the formatting is off. I am going to tinker with it but at the moment I want to take care of some other pressing chores.

More to come....

Scott

The power of free publishing

OK,

Blogging is great but it is a tough taskmaster. If you don't post daily your blog will never be read......Well it's been almost 2 months! and I have not posted... what does that say about me?

Well I have been busy very busy but that is no excuse. I now have put a task on my calendar to remind me to post every other day. I hope that this will lead to more eyeballs reading and better writing by me.

Stay tuned....more to come (yeah right they say)

Best,

Scott

Getting and staying in touch

It has been really interesting the past few weeks as I have started to modify the way that I keep in touch with my friends and family. I am not sure that everyone understands what the motivation is as I have had some comments made along the lines of "What the #*!@ are you doing!" I have had some comments along the lines of "Wow, that was really great to hear from you" and most common is the complete lack of a response. Getting in touch with people that I had lost contact with has been the most interesting though. I spoke with a person that I was great friends with many years ago. We had not talked to each other in over 7 years. I emailed and got a reply and a phone call. It was really great to catch up and hear that everyone in his life is doing well. That conversation has motivated me to continue reaching out to my friends, family, and lost friends and family. I am not sure how this will all work out but the fun is in the journey not the destination.

Until next time.

All the best,

Scott

Catching up with friends

Wow!

What a great day Tuesday was!

I had lunch with an college buddy who I have not seen in five years and only for the 2nd time in the past 15 years! Richard looked great and seems to really enjoy his life with his wife and two kids. I am looking forward to spending more time with Richard and his family. Too bad we live so far apart. It's not that we live far apart it's that there are so many cars between our houses! Traffic between Tacoma and Seattle was simply awful.....

I had a 2nd lunch (well sort of) with Todd. I had not seen Todd in months. We chat on the phone on a fairly regular basis so it seems like we stay in pretty good contact. It was great catching up and talking about life at the mothership etc.... Todd is a really good photographer and you should take a moment and visit his site here.

After 2nd lunch (sound like a hobbit don't I?) I made my way south to Renton.... this is easy to say and much harder to actually do. Finally got to Erston and Blues house.... had a great dinner and enjoyed catching up with Erston and Blue and hearing about their honeymoon etc.....

A great day to catch up and reconnect!. If you're wondering what one of your friends is doing then I suggest you reach out and say hello.

All the best,

Scott

Another friend gets married

Well 2006 is the year of marriage if you're one of my friends....

Ken and Anita were married on September 23rd. in Gardnerville Nevada. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the event with Feleica. A wonderful wedding and a great time was had by one and all. If you're interested I am sure Ken has pictures at www.kencamozzi.com If not yet then he will have when they return from the honeymoon.

Felecia and I had a great time together and it simply makes more and more happy to share lifes events with her. She is an amazing woman and I am truly a lucky and happy man.

As fall approaches the weather here in Tacoma becomes crisp and a bit on the cold side. In otherwords it's Football season..... being the only member of my family that likes this great sport it allows me time to spend by myself cheering my favorite team on to victory.... GO SEAHAWKS!!!!! it allows everyone else a chance to poke fun at me.....=)

More later.....

All the best,

Scott

Life update for September 18th.

Well it is the middle of September already. The year has flown by. As I am getting older it seems like the years just speed up.... As a kid we all know the agony of Christmas and "It's never going to get here!" well as an adult I don't want it to get here. Not that Christmas is bad...it's just the end of another year.

This year has been fantastic! Getting married to Felecia has been a landmark event in my life. Having MacKenzie and Nick continue to grow into fine young adults has been rewarding. Moving into a home in North Tacoma has been truly wonderful. This has been a fantastic year! I have no regrets for this year. I am very excited about the upcoming months.

Many of you have emailed me and asked questions about what is going on in certain areas of my life. I thought I would take the time this week to answer some of the questions here for everyone to read when they have the opportunity. So later this week I will post some of the questions and publish my answers. Right now I need to get back to my studies as I have some clock hour classes I need to prepare for.

Until later, all the best.

Scott

I passed the test!

I passed the Washington State Real Estate Salesperson exam this morning. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I really put in a lot of time the past three weeks preparing for the exam. I was scheduled to take the test at 8:00 am in Lacey which is about 30 miles from my house. Of course I could not sleep last night. I woke up at 1am thinking something was strange. I went out to the living room to find the front door wide open! I looked around the house but could see nothing was missing so I was able to breathe a sigh of relief! I closed (and locked) the door went back to bed only to fall asleep and then hear Sophie running around growling and making weird animal noises (after all she is a dog which I believe are considered....) I think that perhaps while the door was open an animal took a tour of the house. Sophie of course did not find this to her liking one bit. Back to bed try to sleep our bedroom door flings open. The windows in the house were open and our door blew open (front door might of been the same thing) Ok, back to sleep.....6am whooo hooo time to get up. Shower, run out the door and drive to Lacey. Onramp I need to get on freeway is closed for construction..... finally get to Lacey take wrong exit... find testing center and go in early. I was able to start the test a bit before 8:00am. I finished and was out of there by 8:30. Before they said "congratulations you passed" I thought for sure I had bombed the test. It was like I had prepared for a test on Hemingway and they tested me on Faulkner......Well, the important thing is that I have passed the test and can now start my new career.

Anyone want to buy or sell a home? or do you know anyone who has a home to sell or buy? Please pass my name along to them. I would love to help them!

Take care everyone!

All the best,

Scott

Labor Day weekend

For me Labor Day weekend is the end of summer. Sure the weather will be nice here in Tacoma for a few more weeks. We will still grill outdoors, enjoy sunsets at the ballpark but summer is over. This is always a transitional time for me. Summers get too hot and I often shut down from being productive. Fall however, fall rocks... I love fall crisp mornings, warm days and cool nights. Football both pro and college.... Football is great, baseball is my passion but football is my mistress....for a couple of guilty hours on the weekend I can indulge myself with football. Nobody in my family enjoys football but me. This is great! I can spend the time by myself with the remote in hand and power surf all of the games. Do I care who wins? Not really.... oh sure the Seahawks must win, the Huskies ok.... sure... I don't really care... the Cougars.... oh why not.... I even enjoy High School football. Nick plays in the pep band for Stadium High.... talk about being a dedicated football fan. Stadium SUCKS! the school is great and the team tries oh they try hard... but they are almost always overmatched each Friday night. Still Nick goes to play with the pep band and I go using giving him a ride as my excuse......Ah Fall ah Football......

Nick was selected for the Tacoma Youth Symphony Young Artists Orchestra this year. We are all very proud of him. He worked really diligently this summer to improve his playing and it showed during his audition. We will be happy that he has to be at practice at 10:00 instead of 8:00 am or 4:00 pm. like past seasons..... He also will be taking the music theory class this fall. Nice to see that he is taking a more involved stance in his musical talents.

Kenzie is getting settled in Las Vegas. I will have more to report once I chat with her again on the phone. I know school started last week and that she seems to like the teachers and the school.....I know moving in with her mom has been keeping her busy. =)

I will be starting selling real estate later this month. I have passed the 60 hour class and I am now waiting until Tuesday to schedule the state exam. Once I pass that I will be able to work as a real estate salesperson. I am excited and looking forward to the change of career.

Listening to Spyro Gyra Catching the Sun while posting this... Many thanks to Mike for turning me on to such a great band. Many, many years ago.....

Just a photo of a good friend

Just a quick note today to post a photo of a good friend of mine. Mike all the best to you!

Sometimes you have to realize your kids are growing up

Nick left for Cincinnati yesterday. This was the first time he has flown by himself with a layover. I found myself nagging him about making sure of this and that.... He looked at me and told me to relax he would be fine....Yep, he's 15 not 5..... need to remember that he is a bright intellegent person no matter just how much I think he is tuning me out he actually does listen and it does stick...even if he says it doesn't =)

Will be posting later some photos etc.

All the best,

Scott

Nicks hard work is paying off

Nick has been having three bassoon lessons a week for the past three weeks. Tonight was his audition for the Tacoma Youth Symphony. We won't know the results until the first of September however, he was optimistic that he did alright. The main conductor of the symphonies commented that Nick had improved since last season and that he should keep up the work with his private instructor. I think that might have really struck a cord with Nick. I have been trying to help him realize that sticking with something will lead to the results you are looking for. This was positive reinforcement.

Today was orientation for Nick at his high school. Since the school has been closed for two years it was exciting to see the changes that occurred during the remodel. I think this coming year will be a good one for the kids. Nick seemed excited about school starting. I think he is a bit bored.....

All the best,

Scott

Dog days of summer? I think not!

Well here it is August 14th. and it was 85 degrees today in Tacoma. What a beautiful day it was! Sunny, clear, with just a hint of a breeze. One of those wonderful days that you tend to forget about when you live in the Pacific Northwest.

I was able to accomplish many tasks today that have been neglected for so long. Not sure where the time had been going but today was one of those gettin' things done type of days. I have been reading some excellent books recently on management and business building. I am so excited about starting my own company that I am having troubles sleeping at night. Sleeping during the day no problem =) I have put together a great team and when the site goes live I am very excited that it will be a hit from the first day.

Nick has his bassoon audition for the Tacoma Youth Symphony tomorrow. He has been having three lessons a week for the past few weeks getting ready for tomorrow. He admits to being nervous but I can tell he is getting excited about the audition. I know that no matter what he will do his best and I will be proud of him. This season will be his third with TYSA and while he grumbles about his Saturdays being taken I know that he is proud to be a member. He does have talent and that is starting to show with his attention to practice and his ability to listen to himself play and make adjustments on the fly. I am really happy that his playing and his attitude has improved so much!

Kenzie is moving into her apartment with her mom. I have not heard from her yet and I don't have phone number to call her but I am sure she is having a good time. I have some photos to publish of her when I get a bit of free time to use the photo editor. I need to crop them a bit for the blog.

Felecia is working late tonight. I am waiting for her to come home and hope to spend a few minutes just being together before she has to turn in for the night.

Be well,

Scott

Congrats to Erston and Blue

I was honored to be the best man for Erston Reisch III and his bride Blue on Saturday August 12th. The wedding was held at their home in Renton. There was approximately 35 people in attendance. We all had a good time once we decided the yellow jackets nest we disturbed was larger than we could handle and simply moved to the other side of the yard. The bride and groom will be honeymooning along the Washington and Oregon Coast for the next two weeks.

We took a few photographs that I will publish later if I can get them off my wifes camera without her permission. =)

All the best,

Scott

It's Friday!

Wow,

This was one of those weeks that simply cannot be described they have to be experienced. Remember not all experiences are pleasant ones.... My week was that way. Glad that it is Friday and that this weekend my dear friend Erston is getting married. I am the best man in his wedding on Saturday and I am really excited for Erston and his bride to be Blue.

I have decided to keep my personal life blogging on this site and keep Scott Cowan Dot Com as my quasi professional site. Please feel free to continue reading both sites as I hope the upcoming weeks and months will be interesting to share with you.

Remember that life does not always go in a straight line. Sometimes there are turns in the road that at the time seem wrong. In the end things always work out. Sometimes much differently than we expected when we started down that journey. Every closed door means another door has opened someplace else.

All the best,

Scott

Please visit

Hello everyone,

The blog is now going at my personal domain www.scottcowan.com/blog is the url that will take you there.

Pictures etc. will be moved over later this weekend.

I hope all is well

Kenzie, I love you! I hope you're having fun in Vegas! email me!

Scott Cowan Dot Com is live

I have moved the blog to scott cowan . com You can go to the site by clicking here

I will update this for a few more days then pull the plug. Blogger is great but I really want to have my own domain.

Actually I will keep this blog going as my personal blog page.....

Best,

scott

The excitement is building

Scottcowan.com has been moved to the new hosting company. Now it is time for me to get to work and put together the home page and the blog. Hopefully I will be able to make the time this weekend to accomplish a basic home page and get the blogging software installed and tweaked to a usable level. I am really excited to see how blogging goes and how much effort it takes for me to use the tool as a vehicle to help me keep motivated and to help share information with people that I think will find it useful.

As most of you know baseball cards are sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. While I don't really collect anymore. I do belong to a great group of baseball card traders and I am working on completing the set of my youth the 1971 Topps set. This monster of a set with black borders is so tough to complete in mint condition. I am not trying to complete it in mint condition by any means and I am really having a great time working on it. I am about 85% complete and starting today I will be beginning to scan the cards to use on Vintage Cardboard for the baseball card project. The real reason that I am posting about baseball cards is this great article on espn.com that I found today. Click this to read the article about the authors memories of baseball card collecting. Now if that does not bring back memories of your youth then I am not sure what will! I thought the article was a blast to read and it really reminded me of the summer of 1971 when I would walk up to the grocery store by my grandparents house and buy as many packs of Topps cards as I could. They were a dime a pack and I always forgot about sales tax... It was a great summer and I still have the cards today! Espn today has a few articles on Baseball cards and on Topps the granddaddy of all card makers today. Take a few minutes read the articles and let me know what you think... After all it's summer and memories are free...

Best,

Scott

Project update

Just a quick post to update people on Vintage Cardboard
I am in the process of changing hosting companies over the weekend and the DNS change might cause some issues with being able to reach the site or for me to send and receive emails. Due to my previous hosting company really starting to not be as reliable as possible and with the new database project for the site I felt it was time to find a new hosting solution. I will be using a very small company located in S. California for hosting Vintage. I will post my thoughts on the performance and service as I have more time using the new company. Very early response has been amazing and I am really excited that I have found a great hosting company. Vintage will be getting a new look and feel over the next few weeks. My graphic designer friend Ken Camozzi
has been nice enough to help with a new design and feel for Vintage. We will be using a CMS this time which will allow me to post articles much easier than the current version. Vintage will become a content rich site for minor league baseball history. Additionally the baseball card project will have a home there and will continue to grow with the support of many card collectors.

ScottCowan.com is being activated and this blog will be moving there. ScottCowan.com will be my dedicated blogging site for all projects both personal and professional. I have decided to commit myself to the blogging process and having a dedicated domain of my own will offer some advantages to having the blog located here. This change will happen in August and I will be cross posting on both sites and letting people know via email. I will stop blogging here in September.

I am still doing antique appraisals on WIW2u.com I am currently doing approximately 6 appraisals weekly for them. I will be offering appraisals directly on Vintage during the 2nd phase of the site development.

That is about it for project development information. If you have any questions or comments please drop me a line.

Until next time be well,

Scottt

Back to work and regular life.....

Well it's back to work and back to the regular routine of things now that married life and work life have gotten back to normal. It has been too hot here for the past week and many of us have become short tempered, grouchy, and just plain tired.... nothing new for me =)


The groundwork for the new Vintage Cardboard is starting to take shape. Ryan and Ken have been helping out so much that I must tip my cap to them publicly.... not sure if this is considered public though =) Just how many of you are reading this? If you are I would appreciate it if you would put a comment in this posting just so I can have some idea if my blog is getting any traffic at this time or not. I am moving the blog in August to www.scottcowan.com notice there is not a link yet. That is because the hosting company I am using cannot get the blog software working so I am moving to a new hosting company. I cannot recommend hostinu.com! If you are looking for cheap hosting they will most certainly be on your radar but this is one of those times when you get just what you pay for. I waited 2 weeks for a reply to a tech question! that is after I called the sales department to get help.... moral of the story ....don't use hostingu for your web hosting needs.


I am going to try to post once or twice a day about the various projects going on in my life both professionally and personally. My hope is that this will serve as sort of a motivational tool to help keep me on track on my projects.


At work I am working towards having the space be as clean and organized as possible for a couple of upcoming visits this week. This will allow me to wear jeans and t-shirts to work as I will undoubtably be getting dusty and dirty.


At home I am trying to get the family room configured to allow us to use the room as a fully functional home office for Felecia and myself.

That's it for now...until later all the best,

Scott

Seems like my life just keeps getting more and more busy. I spent four days in Indianapolis for a conference related to work. I come home to a family crisis, I have our housewarming party this weekend and I have to go to work too. My thought was that I would have a stable, quiet lifestyle in my forties but it has been anything but. I am not complaining but I am concerned that I do not have enough of a focus on the truly important things to me in my life. I am going to start working on removing the less important distractions from my life to allow me to concentrate more on the things that are important to me. I found a couple of months ago a web site that I have found to be very informative and very helpful to my efforts. Steve Pavlina is the blogger who produces great content that many of us can benefit from reading and following. I highly recommend taking some time and reading some of the posts Steve has on his site.

I have read many of the posts and while I understand them, when I am in "life mode" I drop back into behaviors that are comfortable but not necessarily what I want or what is best for me at that time. This is at the core of my challenges right now. I feel like I have increased my conscious thinking and my have modified my behaviors to be more in line with my thinking. However, when I am stressed I go right back to my old habits and thoughts. This is what I am currently working on. Breaking old habits and replacing them with new thoughts and actions. This has been very challenging for me as this is a process that one goes through on their own and really you cannot say "Hold on I need to think about this before I react." I simply need to get better at this. I need to continue to practice and I know in time I will get better. My hope is that my putting this out in the open for anyone and everyone to read that I will follow up with a more disciplined effort and speed up my rate of success.

If anyone has any questions or comments I welcome them.

Until next time,

Scott

July 20th......

Nick is 15 today. It seems like just yesterday that I was scared that I had no clue what I was doing being a dad. Oh wait that was yesterday! 15 years old on the cusp of being able to drive and take the first big steps towards independence. I remember being 15 and how much I did not like it.... My friends could drive but me noooooooo my friends got to do all the cool things but me... I am pretty sure that my teenage years were just like the vast majority of teenage years during the 1970's...... Nick's seem to be so much different from mine. He has his own computer, MP3 player etc and is so self contained. Teenagers get to do so much more than I did as a teen. It is good to look back and remember the past and look forward to the potential.

Happy Birthday Nick! I hope that all of your hopes and dreams come true!

This is getting out of hand.....

Here is a photo of Nick and I that makes me wonder just what was he thinking? The look on his face while subtle is very, very interesting to me.

News Flash Update with Details....

Felecia and I were married on Sunday July 9th at approximately 11:30am in our back yard. This was a very small and wonderful ceremony that was attended by our four children, our parents, Felecia's sister, and my Grandmother. Along with a few of the kids friends who were so helpful in getting things set up etc......
We told our three youngest children on Friday in the evening. My daughter MacKenzie was flown up a few days earlier than planned for her summer visit. We did not want to tell any of the kids before the others in effort to be fair and not keep someone in the dark. We also did not want the news to get out and have many people offering to help, contribute, etc...... this day was for us and we wanted it to be small and wonderful which it was! April the oldest child needed to know as she had to schedule time off from the Coffee Cartel where she is doing time....
Felecia was beautiful and I was completely overcome with joy as I saw her come out of the house and walk towards me. Never in my life have I been as completely overwhelmed and just about on the verge of a breakdown as I was then. I managed to get through the ceremony without completely embarrassing everyone... I did cry a bit (but so did others!!!!) and I did mess up a couple of my lines. (I won't say that Felecia did too as that might get me in trouble). Sophie our dog was great just chewing on her toy during the entire ceremony. She was not sure what all the people were doing in her backyard but she did share nicely. We had a nice humorous ceremony that was beautiful and special to both of us. It was a day I will never forget.
The kids were fantastic. All of them were so happy and positive about the day and the event. I can only imagine that it must be tough to have some new person come into their lives. All of them have had great conversations with me about the marriage and the good and not so good things that they think about it. I think that if we can keep the lines of communication open we will all do great. I know that there will be challenges as teenagers well they are teenagers and I am stubborn middle aged guy in Tacoma.....but at least for the weekend they were all wonderful and I love them all......
Our families were supportive and happy for us. Felecia's parents came up from California and made a detour before their summer vacation. Felecia's sister came up for California too. I think it was mostly an excuse to rent a fast car though... she kept muttering about the car all weekend..... My parents live in the area as does my grandmother. They were all great to be around during the weekend......
We will be having a housewarming/and meet the couple party on July 22nd. Details to follow about times etc....
The happy couple live in Tacoma Washington. They are registered at Metropolitan Market. =) We are going to Italy for a couple of weeks for our honeymoon in early 07.

News Flash.....

For those of you who were referred here by my email you by now know what you were referred for.....

More details to come.

Monday June 12th.

Today is Felecia's birthday. She has taken a day off of work to go and visit a few friends that she is not able to see on a regular basis anymore. I think this is a wonderful way to spend the one day of each year that is truly your own. Nothing is more precious and more stressful than a birthday. I know that my birthday is often spent thinking about the things I have not accomplished yet and then beating myself up for not accomplishing them.... This year was different. I am on track for the goals in my life and actually feel really positive about the general direction my life is going at this time. I have the following projects going right now and as you can see I have been pretty busy keeping them going.

• Online Sales Manager Tacoma Goodwill
• SABR National Convention in Seattle
• Studying for my real estate license
• Appraisals for What’s it Worth to You
• Working on my website Vintage Cardboard
• Working on my book project

As you can see those projects are keeping me busy and out of trouble along with the daily day to day life of being a dad. The house also has been receiving a lot of my attention. This is a good thing as I am really enjoying the therapeutic benefits of working on the yard and around the house. Here is a photo of my desk and work space that I use to work on my various projects.

Until next time be well,

Scott

It's been too long....

Since I thought I would be posting more often here I am really feeling like I am not keeping up my end of the deal. You've agreed to read these posts and I agreed to be posting.... well lets get to it.

Nick had his end of the year band concert Wed. Here he is in his Tuxedo prior to the concert. With hands like that he should play the piano.....
All of the bands sounded good this concert. Nick's band which is the Stadium Cadet band really sounded excellent. They played music composed by one of the members of the band that was really quite enjoyable. The concert was almost 2.5 hours which really is too long to be sitting in a seat listening to high school students play music.

We are just about completely unpacked now. I would say about 90% of course the last 10% seems to take forever. I am really enjoying living here. The house is really comfortable and I am enjoying having a yard to work in. I know full well though that I will get tired of yard work which is why I am glad Felecia enjoys it too.

Work is going along. We are continuing our sales rank at the top of all sellers on Shopgoodwill.com I am really looking forward to the fall sales as they really pick up before the holidays. I think we will set many sales records on the site this holiday season. We are constantly suprised by the items that are donated by people. Many really interesting items make it to our department each day. One thing I can say is that I rarely if ever have a dull day at the office.

Best,

Scott

A fantastic dinner.......

Last night Felecia and I experienced a wonderful little place in Gig Harbor called Brix 25°
A simply amazing dining experience. If you are looking for a nice little romantic get away for a special meal I would be remiss if I did not recommend Brix to you. Here is the link
Take a look and you can see for yourself. The food was fantastic! We had a fruit and cheese plate to start that featured northwest craft cheeses. mmmmmm, then we had halibut and Copper River Salmon for dinner. My salmon was flakey and moist with such great flavor! Felecia had the halibut and it was a delight for the eyes and from what little bit I was able to steal very good as well. For desert Felecia stayed with her favorite Crème Brule and I had a lemon soufflé that was simply out of this world. We had a bottle of Foris Pinot Noir that was a excellent compliment to the meal. I am not a wine expert by any means of the imagination. I know that grapes are used and that's about it. This was a very drinkable wine that I enjoyed fully.

We are both looking forward to another special occasion to go back for. My suggestion of Sunday dinner was overturned but who knows when we will get back there. I know that I cannot wait!

Getting settled in.....

Nothing like catching "the crud" during a move. Lucky me, I picked up something that was kicking my butt for the past few days. I could of not picked a worse time to get sick.

The house is slowly taking shape. Between working and commuting there is not alot of time left in the day to put much work into the house. Since we are planning on being here for many years I guess it is all relative though.

Home Sweet Home......

Moving in and getting setup but still it is home already. This has been one of the most challenging moves I have ever been involved with. If it can be made difficult we have done it. Really looking forward to getting unpacked and getting life back to "normal"

Moving day.....

Actually moving day has come and gone but the pain still lingers. If anything can go wrong with a move it went wrong with this move. The moving company did not show up when scheduled. They called over 2.5 hours late stating they were running a bit behind. Umm, nevermind... we have a schedule to keep. Hired another moving company and I have nothing but praise for People Movers from Federal Way. If you need to move I would recommend this company! Well the new movers arrived at 1:30pm and we finished unloading the 24ft. truck at 10:30pm Long day! Still have things to move and the new tennants are moving in the house today so it's been a bit stressful! More after my feet stop hurting.....

Testing.....testing....is this thing on?

Well here goes nothing, dipping my big toe into the murky waters of blogging. Seems that everyone these days has a blog with nothing to say. I thought to myself that I need to be doing that too!

The basic goal of this blog is to keep friends and family updated to the happenings of my life. Hopefully this will be both entertaining and informative for those of you still awake who are reading this.

All the best,

Scott