January 2009

We’re always glad to have family visit, and Joy’s sister and her daughters are in town to take in a soccer match tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. Because they had never seen Tom and AJ’s place, we had lunch together at the Good Earth restaurant in Westwood (one of Joy’s favorites) then took the grand tour of their apartment.

It is special for plenty of reasons, most especially because it is their first place together. Beyond that, it has a real charm that only comes with wood floors and ocean breezes. For those who haven’t had the privilege of a tour, here it is.

In a posting in the late summer, I was wringing my hands over the decision to build the 601XL I started or to make the switch to the Zenith Zodiac CH 650. Well, shortly thereafter I decided in favor of the new style, paid for the upgrade…and waited. After nearly 3 months of waiting, the plans arrived just in time for me to fire up my tools a bit between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that the holidays are over, I’m in full swing and making great progress. Here is a video of the make and model of plane I’m building, with a paint job that is remarkably similar to the look I’ll have (only with polished aluminum and accent stripes).

Enjoy!

Just a few days before Christmas, we loaded up the kids and drove from Prescott to the Grand Canyon. Because one of our group had never seen the canyon, and the other three young adults only had it as a distant memory, we thought the nearly 3 hour drive would be worth it. As you can see from the video, the most scenic part of our trip was the vending machine! Better luck next time.