1988 Chevy Blazer 4" lift

This is what I'm driving now, its a 1988 Chevy Blazer with a 4" lift. Definitely more fun than anything I've ever driven. It came with 35 X 12.5 BF Goodrich mud terrain tires, loads of fun.

Tarzans fracture

On Monday the 15th 6pm me Phillip and William went down to Lynden city park to test out Phil's grappling hook on some tree's. We threw the hook up to the nearest branch, about 20 ft up and climbed it. I decided that was pretty tame, so I threw the hook into a neighboring tree about 10 feet away an 8 feet higher. I swung over to that tree and it worked out beautifully. It was the return trip that spelled disaster for me, I followed the same procedure on the way back to the tree I started from, but while in mid-swing the rope above me caught a branch and swung me off onto the frozen ground 20 ft below. I was dazed for about 10 seconds, but was quickly startled back to conciseness when Phillip (above in the tree) threatened to give me the kiss of life!

I ended up dislocating 2 of my carpal bones in the left wrist and fracturing 1 of them in 4 places. I had a surgery done on it, which was performed by Dr. Whitney in St. Josephs Hospital. Thanks Doc! And now I'm recovering.

Also thanks to Dr. Neff & Wellingdon for the council and X-Ray pictures.

More Deception Pass Pictures

William the Conqueror

Me posing with the bridge in the background

Cousin Jimo and Dad goofing around.

Progressive pictures of me "sliding down a cliff" as willerd calls it.

Victory.

The rock I'm going to climb

Me climbing the rock.

A little inlet on an Island

Cool Trees

Not the end of the world

Today mom and sis on their way to a ladies meeting had a small accident. What happened was, in the car they heard something sliding around in the back of the van, so they stopped the van to see what it was, they got out and opened the slider door, and out fell the ladies dessert. Well they were already late for their meeting, so what did they do? they left it on the side of the road, broken glass dish and all!!! Then they dialed me and William in to go and clean it up. So we hopped in my Rover and headed to the scene of the crime with a shovel and bucket, cracking jokes about how they would be standing there lamenting their dessert while we cleaned it up. We drove to the spot where they said they were but did not see them, so willerd put in a call to mom, she said, "oh well, can't you see the mess?" she ended up dumping her dessert then left us to clean it up! I tell you it sure smelled good shoveling it up, it was some kind of chocolate casserole.

Deception pass

My cousins came from Chicago Illinois for a visit to us in Washington, Jimo and Christina, with their adopted baby Malachi. Jimo was really excited about touring Washington. I've never seen anyone so excited to see an Harbor Seal or a Raccoon! We took them down to Deception Pass. Every time I've been there I have a blast! We took Chuckanut Dr, down to Deception Pass, that has to be one of the most beautiful drives in Washington.

Jimo on the far right, and Christina by the baby carrage.

View of Mt Baker on the way up. (driving 55 mph)

Views from the Bridge

Views of the Bridge

Beautiful Mountains

Took this picture while at Shawn Langleys Fresh Breeze organic dairy plant, I was just told today by my cousins from Chicago, never to take for granted the beauty of of Washington State, and I confess that all to often I do take it for granted. Guess I need to go out and hike more, I love seeing raw country.

Old photos

I've been having some fun scanning some old pictures of me an my family. This is a picture of me when I was about 8 years old, my dad brought that Japanese getup back from his trip to Okinawa, he was born there and he's half Okinawan. I wore that old blue hat prolly 4 years straight. All of us kids got something good out of that trip, but the best thing was the tapes he brought back for us to watch. You would not believe how beautiful that Island is, in their climate they can grow anything from cactus to hibiscus & orchids! I want to go there someday.

My Childhood Dog

His name was Dallas, he was a pure bred Brittany Spaniel and started life as a farm dog. His first owner gave him away to us because when he was a puppy he chewed through the wires that controlled his electric gate! Technically he was my big brother Roy's dog, Roy trained Dallas the basic commands like sit, lie down, heel, and no one needed to teach him how to hunt, he was a natural at that! Of all us kids though me and Craig spent the most time with Dallas and we had some great fun with him. We used to go rollerblading with Dallas pulling us with a harness, that's what we did for his and our exercise, we think that's why he got so big, and that's definitely why he got those powerful chest muscles, he pretty much dwarfed my best friends Brittany, and he was a pure bred too! We had a neighbor kid clock us in his car at 21 MPH pulling me on my skates! One time we were blazing through the golf course cement paths on skates, and he saw a duck on the edge of a pond and took out after it (this was not the norm) like a bolt of lightning! And I went flying into the pond! Good times... Anyway this post is a tribute to Dallas.

Me and Dallas


I got those two black eyes in a scooter accident

Benchpress up to 240!!!

I'm officially lifting 105 lbs over my own body weight now! This is 5 lbs over my ultimate goal, which was to reach 100 lbs over my body weight. I guess now the sky is the limit.

Gym Rings

I bought a set of Gym Rings off eBay about a week ago, and it was a great investment of 25 bucks! All I used to do is weight lift and run, I thought I was in pretty darn good shape. If I was sticking to a good schedule, I could work out long and hard and not get sore. My first day on the rings and I got ripped... Literally, I was really sore the next day in all my deltoids and even my abs were sore (and I can crunch 300 on the bowflex). I mainly bought the rings for doing Dips, but now I'm doing several different exercises with them. I highly recommend them for supplementing your work out.

New Bench Record!

I have been weight lifting now for somewhere around a year, when I started I was a little over 19. When I started I weighed about 112 lbs. That's like paperweight... And man could I eat, I just couldn't gain weight. I remember when I was 18 me and my friend Jon went to Little Caesars Pizza and we each ordered a large hot and ready pizza and we both ate a large in 1 sitting, and probably drank 2 liters of pop too.

I was always skinny, but not wimpy, my 4 older brothers made sure of that for me... Anyway I bought a bench press about a year ago and started working out with my 2 friends Jon and Phil Criss. My first bench press max was 155 lbs I forget what Phil's was (if you read this Phil add your weight in the comment box) and Jon's was 230, he had already been lifting 1 year. Now 1 year later I've just pushed up 230 lbs, and I weigh 135! Our weight lifting consists of more than just bench pressing, but bench is the only thing we try to push up as much as we can. Phils max is 275 now and Jon's was 295 before his car accident.

Woods Coffee

The Woods Coffee in Lynden Fairway shopping center is my favorite coffee shop to play chess in, not because they have good coffee but I really like the environment. And another great thing about Woods Coffee is that they have free wireless internet, I would venture to say that that is the main reason to be a Woods Coffee fan. Just got back from woods about 5 minutes ago, I played about 3 games of chess with my best friend Jon Criss. Lately I've been helping him improve on his chess gameplay, and hes getting really good. I'm afraid hes gonna beat me soon! Anyway that's just what I have been up to.

Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy

I work for Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy in Lynden WA. My job is in the milk processing plant, I work on the milk bottling side, or pasteurized side, either way. I also do shipping and I'm the certified forklift driver. The best part of my job is that I can bring a gun to work with me whenever I want and shoot on my breaks! My boss Shawn Langley(of Langley Farms) like all farms wants all feed eating birds dead, so my fun is his gain! Although most of the time I'm shooting my Colt Python or my HK USP Tactical.

Chess

If I like chess, a half redneck nowboy, then anyone can enjoy playing the game of kings. And what I really want to do with this blog is help others discover this great waste of time! Really what chess is for me, is winding down time after all my days work is over, and I just want to relax. Most of the time when I play with friends to talk over the events of the week, and have something to do in the meantime. But sometimes against a few guys I go all out, and I'm in it for the blood and gore! That may sound a little bit extreme, but that's me. when I play like that It's silent concentration all the way.

So join me in my chess blogging adventures, I hope to post often, and get with "the in group" online where it concerns chess so if you are a chess blogger, or a wannabe chess blogger link up with me huh? And if I like you and your blog/site I'll link up to you too. Oh and I like comments too, keeps me writing, makes me feel like someone is reading all the junk I'm writing.

My personal chess set

My chess set is pretty darn cool, I picked all the wood pieces myself. What I have is a mix of chess pieces from random wood 3.75" chess sets. I took the best characteristics out of certain chess chess sets, many of the pieces I have are no longer even in production any longer. All of them are hand carved!
I like to bring my chess set into coffee shops to play chess, sometimes even into restaurants that take a long time to deliver the food like Pizza Hut, so I prefer a chess board that is easily rolled up. At the same time I really dislike the Vinyl Chess Boards, so what I use is a Brown Leather chess board. That's actually my chess set in the picture in the blog header, but since its in B&W you cant tell exactly what it looks like. Those are my guns too, the revolver is a .357 magnum Colt Python, and the pistol is a .45 ACP Colt 1911 model 1991A1. Both great shooters.