I am using the new Twenty Ten theme but I added a custom header image. I cropped the header from a photo I took while flying out of Homer, Alaska in 2006.

I’ve also rewritten the tag line at the top. Enjoy.

I met Gorby in 2001 and we became fast friends. We enjoyed sharing cigars on the porch and cooking big chickens.

I am grateful for the 8 years we got to share. He will be sorely missed.

Always the trooper, Gorby managed to get in the holiday spirit…and in that basket which is only rated for 20 pounds of cat.

Of course it doesn’t end there…it never does.

You didn’t know he moonlights as the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Worse yet is this. “Does this hat box make me look fat?”

How you can think this is remotely appropriate for a male cat is beyond me. Yikes.

This one isn’t too terrible. He has that Hugh Hefner, lounging around the house in pajamas, look to him.

Thankfully Trixie was spared from this trauma.

Not quite as funny as the UVA plates.  But it’s for an important cause.

This could belong to an OB/GYN doctor who graduated from UVA’s School of Medicine. But I bet it was a crafty Va Tech alumus with a great sense of humor.

Ut Prosim!

You’ll notice that large businesses like Geico are exempt from the BPOL. Way to go Schwartz, Crisp, Brito and Woodson. You must really hate small businesses in Stafford.

I am ashamed that one of these idiots represents the district in which I live.

Oh well. We’ll vote their asses out in a few years.

The Luminaria was also held that evening making the setting even more memorable. The darkness however, made photography difficult but some photos turned out well. Below is a photo of Lt. Stuart’s grave.

The Rifle Squad from the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp 1722 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans provided the rifle volley and taps for the memorial.

While waiting for the sun to set I passed the time photographing some of the locals.

I’m not sure if he is a Union sympathizer or not…

She was born in 1987, in Toledo, Ohio. She then headed to Southside. My dad purchased her in June of `93 to replace the `83 Buick Electra I was driving at UNCW. The last three years of college we spent a fair amount of time fishing and digging up the beaches at Fort Fisher and Carolina Beach. How she made it through college is a testimony to Jeep engineering.

I was able to call her my own in 1998, having purchased her for the grand sum of $1. Below is a picture of Chris and me at my house in Spotsylvania. I imagine this photo is circa 1998, which would put Chris around 2 years old.

The last few weeks she developed a massive oil hemorrhage due to blow-by. We’ve been through a lot together, but it was time to let her go. She went to the Kidney Cars program, helping the National Kidney Foundation.

Lunch was from Baja Fresh. Mmm…tasty. The activities included:

• taco eating contest
• hot sauce eating contest
• chocolate dessert competition
• cupid’s archery competition

The taco eating contest was won by Nick. His brother Matt won the hot sauce eating contest. Matt was literally squeezing hot sauce packets into a cup and guzzling it. Way to commit!

Below is a picture of me in the Cupid Archery Competition. Check out that form! I made it to the finals even though I haven’t shot archery since middle school.

I finished 2nd in the finals behind Lyle. The target, shown below, is a blown up image of TJ dressed like Keith, our Chief Operations Officer.

Susan whipped up some of her magic brownies for the chocolate dessert competition. Sadly we didn’t even place. I think if I made the presentation a little nicer it would have fared better. Maybe next year.

I don’t like the Christmas holiday because we’ve ruined it with good old American capitalism. Forget about the birth of Jesus, we want gaudy lawn displays and big sales after Thanksgiving. At any rate I’m posting my Christmas list so the family knows what I want.

• Lodge Logic 5 Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven
• 1970 Chevy C/10 Steering Wheel [PN: 34-0399-BL]
• 1970 Chevy C/10 Horn Button Cap [PN: 34-0401-BL]
• iTunes gift card
• 6 Gun Handgun Rack

Don’t forget about my wishlist on Amazon.

[10 Dec 2007]

I found a few more things to add…

• Edelbrock Crankcase Ventilation Connector [PN: edl-1205]
• RAZR cell phone battery

Bah humbug.