Garage removal

The pop-in-law finally decided is was time to put up a bigger garage, Michael had a hand in the decision making. They are putting in a 40x30 with 2 slabs in the back. So today we met up to knock down the old garage.

They removed the roof before I got there.

After the fun. The walls pushed right over. No one was harmed.

Found a newspaper Sears insert From Wednesday September 10, 1969

After most of the clean up

We filled the bin so we had to stop.

The perfect Phillies meal and game 2

Michael came over to watch game 2 of the series. We headed out to grab some beer and cheesesteaks. We went to Lenny's, I LOVE their cheesesteaks, after stopping by Kroger's for Americas best PA beer! Well if you know your sandwich shops you'll know that ain't a Lenny's sub nor a Lenny's wrapper. Well sometime since the wedding (we ate there the day of the rehersal, I didn't but I watched everyone else eat. I was still feeling the effects of the crazy night before) it closed it's doors for the finally time! I has as shocked as I was upset.

Next on the list (the list being sub shops in view) was Subway. Pass, good but not cheesesteak good. We decided Firehouse could probably take a good stab at a Philly cheese. Welp, we were right in our pick. They make a great one! Hit the spot!

The game started and it seemd both Pedro and Burnett were on their games. I mean it is the world series so why shouldn't they? Had it been a reg season game 11-10 easy! Pedro took a page out of CC's book from game one and gave up 2 homers. This was only after the Phils scored knocking them back a run. The Yanks squoze (I know, I just like the word) one more run out and beat us 3-1 and tied up the series 1-1. We are back at home to the next 3 should be interesting. Sure is fun watching the actually 2 best teams in baseball play!

Night out haha

Travis and I met up for a few drinks, caught a show and played some pinball.

Some how I woke up the next day with an awful headache and ended up missing work. Haven't had one of those in a long long time. I think it had something to do with a large amount of stress. Just hope it never returns!

Phillies iPhone backgrounds

Made a few backgrounds for the iPhone in support of the Phils going to the series again for the second year in a row! Series starts Wednesday against the Yanks in the Bronx. Best team money can by V. the best team! Should be exciting!

Race for cure in the old city.

Of course I left something in the office I needed. So I ran down nice
and early and there are thousands of people walking/running through
the old city. Had to hunt for a way around it all and parked way
behind the office and walked.

Houston pictures

Better late than never. Finally have the Houston gallery made and online. Check it out!

Phillies NLCS Champs, again!

Yup! That's right! Already order one for Mary and I. Should be here on Wed, the day of the first World Series game!

The game last night was great! I'm such a homer, I just love when WE (inside joke, that only I know) beat the crap out of team. Phils are showing they have one scary line up all the way down to the 8 slot. Looking like we'll meet up with Yanks in the series. Sure will be an interesting line up. Can't decide if I want the Angels to come back and beat on them a little or if I want the Yanks to win tonight. If the Angels extended the series would the AL team be "hot" going into the series? Or will that team be more beat up and tired. Or should the Yanks win and both teams basically have the same amount of rest.

Who knows but should be great to watch.

GO PHILS!!

Phillies in Oct.

Haven't spoken much about the Phillies on here but they have consumed
my nights all season. I have kept up with almost every game this
season since this crazy iPhone has now allowed me too. Pitch-by-pitch
with 15 second updates. Well they just closed out the top of the 6th
with a 3 run lead in game 5 of the NLCS. They are ahead in the series
3-1, meaning a win tonight puts them back into the World Series for
the second year in a row!!

Work Showcase

Logo Design

The first attempt.

Second attempt

I personally really like this one a lot. But it was ruled against. The logo that was chosen was a variation of my first design and very simple.

It was revisited by another designer in my absence.

RIOT INK: Printing our first big shirt job

Trav Alex and I ran our first big job today. Run of 50 for Andy Wood

and a run of 30 for Adoration

Andy Wood shirt, it's actually a chocolate shirt with light tan print. I printed most of these myself and now have the process down pat!

Our current work area.

Burning a screen.

We had trouble with this one screen for some reason. We think we had to much emulsion on the screen. We burned 5 or 6 screens before we got one we were happy with.

50 finished Adoration shirts

Almost 50 finished wings! Our award for working so hard :)

Beer and ball

Watchin the Phils in game 1 of the NLCS against the dodgers, again.
They are up 5-4 in the 7th. Hope they can hold!

Murph's Second Wreck

At Mary Washington Hospital in Virginia

Our buddy Murph was in a pretty bad car wreck on Sunday evening in Fredricksburg, VA which is just south of Washington DC.

He was traveling down a 2 lane road, in his vette, with his brother on a brand new CBR 1000RR behind him when a lady ran a stop sign right in front of him forcing him to t-bone her. He recalls doing maybe 5 mph over the speed limit and his brother confirms it. Well unfortunately the lady driving didn't survive the accident while her 2 children which were in the car were unharmed. Murph's brother help the kids from the car due to the dangerous spot the car was in. I'm not fully aware of the rest of what happened and I didn't want to pry. But they sighted Murph for wreakless, something about a is ticket always given in a accident. The cops kept him for a while before releasing him to get the hospital, and he couldn't even walk. We think they are trying to get a case for vehicular manslaughter, which is absolutely ridiculous. It was her fault! Murph and his brother both work at the Pentagon in pretty high up positions and they won't believe they story. Anyways I could go on and on, but just keep your fingers crossed the accident reconstruction team and the black box prove Murphs a victim of circumstance.

He is doing ok but his foot is pretty seriously injured and is due for surgery Tuesday afternoon.

We arrived last night around 9ish (just in time for the end of the Phillies game, a great come back victory!). We left Knoxville around 2- 2:30. It sure wasn't a fun drive that's for sure. I ran out and found some Wendy's for Murph since it was his last meal before the surgery. After dinner and hanging out with Murph and he's mom until about 12 we decided to hunt down a hotel. We were on a college campus (it was a teaching/learning hospital as well) and the trusty iPhone map shows 3 hotels close by. We were off. First hotel an Hampton Inn, didn't exist. The next 2 no where to be found. Baffling! The google map is usually right on! Well I did remember seeing a Best Western, I really wanted the Hampton Inn ghost hotel though... :(! Well on our way to the BW the map shows 2 other hotels at the up coming intersection, and guess what? uuhhmmm...not where! I was jokingly complaining about ghost hotels and I thought Mary's sides were going to split. I love making her laugh! Well guess what's next? There was a Hoilday Inn right across the street from the BW and I was sold. We checked in and hit the hay.

The next day I decided I wanted donuts and Mary wanted a bagel. I wanted a cappuccino and Mary wanted Starbucks. Well, I'm not a fan of "real" cap, it tastes like coffee and I'm not a fan. Murph also requested a chapstick. First gas station, a WaWa. Got my Cap, didn't have the good chapsticks. Second, Dunkin Dounts. Happens to be next to a gas station so Mary runs over there to get chapstick, coke and some energy drinks while I hit up DD. Third, Starbucks. In the drive through we asked Murph's mom if she wanted anything. Murph answered for her, she was out of the room, and said no. Fourth, Starbucks part 2. Murph gets back to us upon actually asking his mom and she was in. We were luckily at the light next to SB with no one around so I just backed up and headed back to the drive through. The window worker was surprised to see us again. I joked that we'd be back with our third order in a few. We arrived back at the hospital around 10.

I will say that hospital was very nice but the staff didn't back it up, it was like a cover. Great design out shining the subpar staff? Anyways we were told the surgery was going to maybe be around 4ish and pre op was not spoken of. Well, we were hanging out talking around 12 and in walks Jennifer (we decided was possibly the niciest bestest nurse there) and was like, "They'll be here in about 5 to take you down for surgery." uhhmmm..what? She continued, "Yeah the surgery ahead of you got cancelled." Well alrighty then. Murph's mom had stepped out was we called her and got her back in there. Also around this same time I had cracked open my rockstar and while sipping on it I could feel the acid reflux/heartburn creeping.

Jennifer and Phil(not sure if it was one L or two, so I'll go with one)ip, came in to roll Murph away. We followed and they pointed us to the waiting room. Heartburn's erupting. Murph's mom is allow to go back with him. Mary and I waited in for Murph's brother and his wife. For the first time in my energy drinking career I have to throw away my rockstar that's still half full. Sad. Murph's bro and wife with their little one in tow showed up. We discussed his job for a while. Freakin awesome job I must say! He is a "body guard" for the secretary of defense! He gets to wear a suit and carry a gun, how James Bond is that?! He usually is on site protection, shows up ahead of time to places the secretary is traveling to scope things out and get everything scheduled so things run nice and smooth. Heartburn is hurting so bad I need to go for a drink of water and a walk, but I want to keep talking about this job. Tomorrow he is on the "chase" team. Driving one of those blacked out SUVs driving 6 inches off the bumper of the one in front doing 70 in and out of traffic following the limo. Welp Murphs mom comes back and his brother goes back to see him. Time for that water and walk. It helped, but man, this is worse it has been in a long long time! Things settle and surgery begins and I need pill form help. There's a CVS down the street on the corner, heading there! With the exit to the hospital in sight I see/remember there is a small store right there. They have the meds I need, whoo hooo!

We get the ok the surgery went well and we can head back to the room. Heartburn dying, finally. Murph is awake and texting, imagine that. They say it went better than expected and everything's fine. They also failed to mention before the surgery that since he is so young that the screws they used to fix the breaks can come out, eliminating the chances of problems in the future. That requires a second surgery, come on folks get your ducks in a row.

We well hung out with him until 11pm that night and headed home since Mary had to work Wednesday afternoon. We started the trek home, stop a 5 hour energy drink cause I should wasn't going to drink a rockstar after the heartburn of death I experienced earlier. The crazy part of the drive was first at least, 2 lane roads, speed limit changes and semi trucks everywhere. At one point we hit a roundabout, yeah like the ones in Europe. 50mph into the roundabout and 25mph coming out of it, I was unaware of this but the cop that pulled me over made me more aware. Surprisingly he let me off, that's right a Virginia cop left me off with a warning. Aww the Gray's first time being pulled over together. :)

Well after a long long night we finally arrive home at 6am. We hit the bed instantly.

Mary is planning a trip back up to help Murph out on October 22nd - 25th.

Shootin.

This was actually the second outing for the AR. I was extremely happy with the results today. The first day was a little discouraging, seemed like I couldn't hit anything. Today I hit a 3 x 3 inch square twice at about 60 yards, hand holding. She now has 240 rounds through her and didn't jam once on 3 different types of ammo. I have 6 full clips of lake city ready and waiting now, can't wait!

Also the Spardlin's were in town, see Nette back there talking to Mary? Justin got a springfield XDm .40. That thing is nice! Might have to think about one of those in the future.

Cam, I love ya!

Cam's Halloween outfit, he's a creative little bugger.

Work Showcase

This was a multiple project job and I was brought in to design a user oriented site that ultimately drives users to the store page. Well, yeah, is sounds a little pointless and we decided it was but only after I designed a nice little page. It's dead now but lives here!

Click on that there image to see it full sized!

In search of a hat

Ordered this hat in the only size they had, which was a size bigger than I wear thinking I could pull it off. Welp it was a no go, way too big. So I snapped a picture in the studio and shipped her back. Now I'm on a mission to find it! Surprisingly the internet has been no help!

After patiently awaiting for my AR...

I'm officially an AR-15 owner! I had a slight problem during assembly but all is well now. I assembled the bolt catch using the wrong piece that I thought was the bolt catch detent. Removing the pin was a pain but I got it done, thankfully I ordered a vise block, without that I'd have quite the pile of unassembled gun parts. I also had to fashion a punch out of a drill bit, but it worked just fine. I also had a slight mix up with springs and used the "wrong" (at quick glance they look exactly the same, key word: quick. oops) spring in the grip for the safety. I had to clip a few coils to get it to work while unknowingly using the wrong spring. So now the with only spring left for the rear detent and take down pin, it didn't fit...oops. So I ordered 2 new springs ( one for backup ). Should be here soon but the gun is still able to hold together. See:

About to start assembly

Done, sorta!
Rail removed

Rail was made in Savannah, GA, how cool is that?

Notice the detachable carry handle,
preparing for that EOtech 512!

I took it to the studio on day 2 of the photo shoot previously mentioned and snapped some shots.

The grip is really nice, I really like it. I actaully didn't think I would but since it was a gift I added it. The DD rail is just awesome, really makes the gun. I really look forward to adding a grip. One thing that bugs me is its a "free floating" rail meaning it doesn't touch the barrel aiding the accuracy. But since its a chrome lined barrel ( special order! :) ) it slightly touches the barrel while holding it in firing position. I'm no pro but I have a feeling it won't effect the accuracy much, most of that will be on the operator :). As of now it goes on its maiden voyage on the 11th!

I also found a GREAT deal on a Condor bag! Check it!:



Have all 6 of my clips in there and it has room for the glock and more ammo too. Also the 3 compartments on the front, that the clips are in are removable.