Big Week

We've been planning to go to Penn State this year since about January, and since January I knew I was going to have a suprise for Erin when we went there. Last weekend our immediate families went with us to State College, Pa to watch PSU whoop Iowa as well as watch me propose to Erin. If you know anything about us, you know that Erin was waiting for this for quite sometime. Actually, she's been waiting ever since her twin sister Heather got engageed last year, so thank you Heather.

Coincidently, my final flight controller evaluation was pushed right up until we left for PSU last weekend and I passed! Passing my final just made the engagement weekend so much more enjoyable and carefree. Here are a couple of pictures of my great weekend.

Wakeboard Video

As promised here is a wakeboard video from my first weekend on vacation. It is my first introduction to uploading onto Youtube as well as using Windows Movie Maker so I still need to put sound to it but until I figure that out, here is the silent version.

First Weekend on Vacation

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend to come home. The temperature dropped since last week down to a cozy 75 degrees. It's been breezy and sunny and just downright gorgeous.

I got a lot of wakeboarding in the first few days of being home and I have plenty of it on digital video that I am editing right now and will blog it soon. Other than wakeboarding I haven't done much of anything but relax and enjoy the B-E-A-utiful surroundings with a beer in hand. It's nice to be home and see everyone again as well as re-familiarize myself with some of the delights of Pennsylvania such as Yeungling, Tastekakes, sweet corn, and summer weather that actually allows you to go outside.

For a quick glimpse into my weekend here is a slide show of pictures I put together.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cory1114/Vacation02

Shopping Spree

Next Thursday night I leave to go home for a week of non-stop wakeboarding. One of the hardest things for me to leave behind when moving here was my wakeboarding boat, I miss going out whenever I want. But someday soon I will either inherit my boat from my dad or I'll buy my own, until that day I'll just have to settle for waiting for that one week out of the year when I can go home and wakeboard everyday.

So in preparation for my big weak of skiing I needed some new equipment. Namely a new lifevest and some new boardshorts. Today Erin and I went to the mall and I bought a new pair of Jordan's, boardshorts, and new lifevest. So I felt like spending a little bit, it happens from time to time. Everyone deserves a treat every now and again. Here's the new vest and shorts along with my board, helmet, and rope.

I found the vest at "Sun and Ski Sports", and it's a really cool new type of vest. Usually life vests zip up the front and then have an overlapping set of buckles and is very bulky and cumbersome. This new vest is like and elastic t-shirt than you slip on but sewn into the elastic are a bunch of blocks of neoprene that will keep you afloat. It almost looks like some sort of body armor and it is quite comfortable and free-moving. I'm even more excited to go home now and use my new crap. Stay tuned for photos and/or videos from my trip home.

The Collection Grows

I think most of my friends already know about my weird fetish with shoes, but if you are one of those lucky people who didn't know about it here's a quick glimpse into my Jordan collection. I got my first pair of Jordan's when I was in 8th grade and to this day they were my favorite pair of sneakers ever, unfortunately the air pocket in them popped and I had to take them back but when I took them back there were no more to be found and I had to settle for some other pair of Nikes. I have since found the same pair except they are in all black and I never wear them because I'm afraid if anything happens to them that I will never find them again.

Here is said pair of Jordan's:

Since the 8th grade I have proceded to spend stupid amounts of money on select Jordan's that catch my eye. Sometimes it takes painful amounts of resolve not to spend my money on shoes but sometimes I just can't help it. Today was one of those "I can't help it" days. Here's the newest addition to my collection:

Here's the rest of the collection, I have a handful more of Jordan's back in Pennsylvania but they are really old and worn down, the collection that I have here are the pairs that mean the most to me.

Unfortunately I don't stop at just buying Jordan's, many other sneakers fall into my sneaker fetish so closet space is a struggle between me and Erin's shoes.

The Wall

I made some good progress today on the patio. The ever so tedious building of the retaining wall is practically complete. It doesn't look like it would have taken a long time but to get everything level and straight takes a lot of patience. The ridiculous heat doesn't help the process at all, I think I lost 10 lbs of water weight today in the 4 hours that I could stand to be outside.

Here are a few pictures of the wall:

All we have to do now is fill that large hole between the house and the block wall with 5 tons of sand and level it out. Finally, we'll have to lay down the blocks for the surface and that will be it!! I wouldn't quite call this the home stretch but it's coming along.

The Hill and the Hole

After our fifth day of working on our patio project, we've made some real progress. Thank god the biblical flooding stopped long enough to let us shovel. Now our back yard has a hill and a hole.

I present to you the hill...

....and the hole:

I was so happy when I finished sledging up the concrete, now we just need to fill the hole with 6 tons or so of sand then we'll lay the patio block. In addition to gaining more recreational area in the backyard I am also losing plenty of grass that I hate mowing, it's a win win.

The Patio Project

Just because I haven't posted anything in awhile doesn't mean that we don't have anything going on in our lives. Let's just call it extreme blogging laziness.

Well, this past weekend we decided to take the leap into a new home project. We've been wishing for a big patio in the back of our house pretty much since we moved in. So, on Saturday we bought all of the essentials required to dig ourselves a giant hole in the backyard. Here are a few photos of our progress so far.

I would have to say that the worst part of this whole process is breaking up the concrete slab that was built with the house. I'll just say that sledge hammers are blistering back breaking machines that should only be used in moderation. So, the hammering is my job and Erin's job is to dig out the dirt around the concrete which she is great at.

Does anyone know who I can call to come take away 6 ton of dirt and broken up concrete slab? Anyway, I'll post more progress in the next few days.

Annual Metro Co-ed Charity Pool Tournament CHAMPIONS!

Yeah, that's right. This year was sweet redemption. My only regret is that we weren't the team that knocked Kevin and Bridget out of the tournament, as a matter of fact, we didn't play them. Like last year, they went to the losers bracket and then the newcomers, Jeff and Lauri tainted the new Metrodome by puttin a whoopin on them. After that, we eventually played Jeff and Lauri and won a hard fought battle to redeem last year's disappointment.

There are some really great photos of the tournament on Josh and Lisa's blog so go take a look!

Look What I Can Do!

So, we went out to eat at P.F. Chang's for Lauri's birthday last weekend and we took a few nice pictures outside afterwards. This just happened to be one of them. I had asked Josh if he could snap a shot while I did this cheesy jump as if I was doing the Jig. Turned out to be a pretty funny shot. I'll be looking forward to your comments.

We all kind of seemed to think it looked like I was suspended in mid air or floating like a genie. Incidently, this is Cory after two beers, and I can handle way more. You know you want me at your parties.

HawKI Certification!!

I just found out today that I officially passed my final back room simulation and will be certified to support Internation Space Station operations as soon as some paperwork gets signed. I've been working towards this for the past two years and now will start another series of training.

For the most part I did an effective job in my final simulation, it wasn't my best and everyone knows it but on this day I did enough to pass the evaluation. It is a big relief. Now I am really looking forward to the first time that I get to send a command to the largest and most expensive space vehicle known to mankind!!! It should be soon. I will also be working the next Shuttle mission to the International Space Station that launches on March 15th.

Home Improvements

We really love our house, but there are some things about it that we are looking to change in the very near future. For Christmas we asked our families to give us some gift cards to Home Depot and we have already used almost all of it.

The biggest change we've made so far is painting our kitchen. A few months ago we took down the detestable wall paper border that the previous owners were compelled to hang in the kitchen, and with our new found Home Depot money we picked out a nice color and repainted the kitchen last weekend. Just a couple days after repainting, we made another trip to Home Depot just to spend some more of our gift cards, not really knowing what we wanted to buy. It turns out that we really like the idea of getting a new light fixture for above our kitchen table. So, here's our new kitchen.

Erin's parents got us this awesome picture of the Ohio State vs. PSU game that we went to in 2005. It was the best sporting event I've ever seen and the atmosphere was incredible. We have a dedicated Penn State room in our house and we hung all of our Penn State pictures in it along with the new one from Erin's parents. If you look closely, there is a blue "S" in the student section that is unmistakably all white, we were part of the "S" zone that day.

I am currently trying to run some speaker wire in the living room of our house that is driving me nuts. The wires are just not cooperating when I try to fish them into the walls. Our next big project will be to paint the exterior of our house, the original paint is still out there and it's looking a little rough.

Catch Up Blog II

Ok, so I've been a bit of a SLACKER. In my defense, we've been doing a lot of work around the house, so I've only been a slacker in blogging.

I would like to first wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our holiday break was very busy back in Pennsylvania, it's nice to see family but there's a lof of family to see in a week.

Speaking of family, check us out with my nephews and our new Penn State fuzzy hats. How awesome are they!?

My dad, finally loosened up enough to buy something fun for himself. If you knew my dad you would understand. It turns out that he went and bought himself a CORVETTE. It's not a new one, but it's pretty friggin sweet. Man did I have fun driving it over the break, it really goes.

In work related news, my back room certification final simulation is next Wednesday! I can't wait to pass and start working real mission shifts and sending real commands to the Space Station. I'm a little nervous, but I think I'm ready.