Monday, November 30, 2009

Camping...































After Thanksgiving we headed out towards Julian to do a little camping…Cory and Andrea rented an A-frame trailer for our home base. Becki and Patrick bought a fancy new tent with a foyer and met us at the campground that evening. It was a solid evening of cocktails, campfire and weenie roasting…and a very unfortunate discovery of a fire pit hidden in darkness found with Becki’s shin.

It was chilly out…but it was nice to have a little change of scenery/weather going on. The winds started to pick up and the clouds were flying by. The ranger cruised by and had us put out our campfire due to the high winds…so we all piled in the trailer to continue the evening. I’d say it worked out real nice…until it started to rain and B&P had to return to their tent. I felt bad for them out in the tent.

I woke up around 4am cuddled up with Megan and Lulu with the heater on and having to pee like a racehorse. I got out of the trailer and found out it was hailing outside…and then I felt even worse for B&P in their tent. Crashed out for a little while longer and when we woke up it was raining and hailing…so we decided we should pull the ripcord on camping and head up to Julian for a warm breakfast and then head home early.

We saw all kinds of accidents…people traveling faster than they should and running off the road. Snow and Ice is slick people…slow down. We made it up to Julian safe…got some breakfast…checked out the shops and hightailed it out of there as the roads cleared up.

I would have loved another day of camping…but it was kinda nice to get home and get ready for the week…ahhh the week…bleh.

Thanksgiving...



















Turkey day was a success…good times…tons of food…tons of leftovers…I am still ready for more turkey! Thanks for having us guys!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Knee Injury Update…

For those of you keeping score:
Old Age – 5
Neil – 0

I got my MRI results today...and it’s not the best of news. I tore my Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL)...That guy is toast. They also saw two small tears...One on the back of the Medial Meniscus and one on the back of the Lateral Meniscus. And as a parting gift they threw in...Early Degenerative Joint Disease (Arthritis) which they made the comment of “It is REALLY unusual to see it THIS bad at the age of ONLY thirty”...Thanks guys!

I am going to do some physical therapy for a month and see how the Meniscus tears are doing...they are hoping those will heal up while I strengthen my leg. Then I’ll go back in a month and we can evaluate what I want to do at that point. Surgery vs. No Surgery, Bionic Leg vs. Peg Leg or Just sending me to the glue factory.

Kind of a bummer...but I guess that’s just how it goes. I am going to go investigate this thing called a Gym here at work and get going on that whole deal. Bums me out...I was having a really freaking good time playing soccer. Getting old is dumb.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Connecticut Trip...Part One...





















Meggy and I headed out for Connecticut to help celebrate her brother Dan and Kelly’s wedding. Our flights out were smooth sailing. Great trip…nice and chill. The weather was amazing…the fall colors were still hanging around…perfect fireplace weather. Cory and Robin carted us around all weekend and hooked us up with room and board. Thanks guys! Aaaand Maeve…Thanks for letting us take over your room. Aaaaand Enna thanks for letting Maeve stay in her room while we were there. We got to meet their pets Lani and Coconut…I regret to inform you that I have no photos of Coconut the hermit crab. We also got a chance to check out both Dan and Cory's shops...both great spots...next time we are in town we'll have to set aside a little chair time.

Connecticut Trip...Part Two...



















I also got to meet Dan, Kelly and Orrin…and Aunt Mary Lou further increasing the amount of Pierce family members I get to check off my list of Pierce family members I need to meet list. Super cool areas…Groton, New London, Montville, Oakdale…Totally dug it. The site for the wedding was amazing! It was a pretty close rival to Uncle Johnny’s place in Montana. Pretty close. The wedding was awesome…super chill…nice spread of food…the bride and groom looked stellar…bonfire…awesome backdrop…what more could you ask for?!

Connecticut Trip...Part Three...



















The longer we stayed the warmer the weather got…the last day we were there the weather was awesome! Unfortunately that is when my cold that I found was in full swing. I tried the make the best of it, but it pretty much kicked my butt. We packed up our bags and had breakfast with the Newlyweds…then we picked up Maeve from school and Cory shuttled us up to Rhode Island for our flights home.