Car care day.

Michael and I joined up early today to work on our cars. But first we had to head to Lowes for supplies. I needed to build a boost leak tester. It's that item I'm holding. After picking up those items, went to 3 different places to find the parts, we headed over to pick up Mike's door panels and head liner from the RX7. Man they where nice, going to get those guys to redo the S seats. After that we headed to the Henkel house to get the Evo on the lift.

Boost leak tested and all good. Next was to remedy me 2500 rpm rattle. After trial and error on fixing some things without any luck we did what we should of done first. I hopped in and we raised the lift, car on and me in it. Got the idle to 2500 and let Mike scope it out below. Success! O2 sensor in the exhaust wasn't tightened down properly. Next was to fix my oil leak (on my promised leak free build). We are pretty sure we got an idea of how to fix it but we are going to wait til my next oil change.

Next up was the 7. We just bled the clutch and replace a tie rod end, nothing to big. We also put in his new head liner. Looks hot.

Afterwards we decided to wash our cars. Mine needed it bad! Hadn't washed it since the first snow fall.

Football Sunday at Hooters

Arron and Misty were in town for the holidays so I hit them up to see if they'd to get together for the titans game. They agreed and we decided to meet up at Hooters on Merchants. We invited others also. Travis and Lauern joined us and after a while Dwight showed up. Right after half dad joined us and we ordered food.

The Titans were sucking pretty bad and we lost interest. About 3 pitchers in T and L decided to roll, they aren't huge football fans.

After the game dad left and Mary showed up after working that morning. Misty decided to leave and Clif showed up. After a few beers we went out to check out Mollys new ride the FX45. Pretty awesome! Sounds amazing. Going to have Mary look at one for her next. As we were looking Catie showed up.

It was a great football Sunday with great friends! I look forward to having another!

Xmas!!

Had a super great Christmas this year! Headed to the folks first thing in the morning.

Had a white Christmas! Mary's first

After all the gifts were opened

Carolyn sent us an awesome toaster!

After my folks we headed to the Henkel house. We did the gift giving thing and had a great time. We chilled there chatting for a while, while our ziti was cooking. After it was ready we headed over to Sarah and Bill's house for lunch. Italian style! It was awesome! Had a great visit, and some great food and now it was time to head home to unload the car, walk the dogs and then head back over to the Henkel's for dinner. Had a prime rib roast, biggest piece of meat I have ever seen! And it was delicious! The snow began falling again and it was sticking so we headed. We ended the night with some baileys and eggnog with a little How I Met Your Mother.

Xmas eve

As usually mom, dad and I headed out for dinner and a movie on christmas eve. We decided to see The Fighter but first we met at Downtown Grill for drinks.

We headed to the movie. We all really enjoyed the movie. Bale and Walburg did an awesome job. Amy Adams did a great job as well. It was a little slow in the beginning but panned out to be a great story! It will be interesting to see want awards come out of this one.

After the movie we were off to the usually spot, Calhouns on the river! There was an impressive wait. I can remember going there and it being empty. Well as I walked in with dad I held the door for a every familiar face. It took a second to register but finally it hit me. It was Dale Dickey. Don't be fooled by the name, it's a she and you would more than likely recognize her for her role in My Name Is Earl. She also does the theater thing, we saw her in A Streetcar Named Desire a while back. She is from Knoxville, but it was just interesting seeing her.

We enjoyed a great dinner and I headed home to wait from Mary to get off work so we could have our xmas together!

Xmas with Mary! Score!

We had a great little Christmas and the dogs did too. We got them stockings but they didn't really get it at first so we had to help them a tad.

Lamp burned out in the TV

8000 hours of use! Haha I think it died a little premature, but may not. New lamp is on the way. Of course it goes out before xmas so shipping takes twice as long.

***Update!***

New lamp showed up on Thursday! Got it installed and it's like we have a new TV!

Movie night

Travis and I headed downtown around 2:45 to catch Tron at 4:10. We tried to meet up with Ben and his folks to say hi but just missed them since they were on their way to catch True Grit at 2:55. We had a tad bit of shopping to do so as we sat at the bar we discussed the options. Well, Ben called and the movie was at 2:25 not 2:55 so they would stop by. They swung in and we had yet to be severed. They were on their way to the old city so we decided to walk down to Mast General.

We did our thing and then headed over to Bliss. After Bliss we were walking to the car and past Latitude 35 and remembered we had a gift card and 2 free beers there. What the heck, food, beers and shots at L35! Well after the fun we discovered the card didn't work. We when running out of time as it was 4:05 and we needed to drop off our things at the car and run by the bank. ROR paid for lunch and we headed. The card thing was fixed btw, so now we can try again. I took the things to the car and T went to the bank, it was closed.

We made our way to the theater and crossed paths with Brandon and Will. They were seeing True Grit at 5 and meeting Justin at DTG. We deciding to hang with them and just see True Grit instead. We went to DTG for a beer, met up with Justin then headed to the movie.

We sat on the front row so to have the metal bar foot rests. I receive a heyTell from Ben that I can't understand, strange. Then I get a text from him, "same aisle to your left!" I turn my head and there sits Ben and his folks! HA! I jump the rail and go have a chat, Allison was joining them too!

The previews start and in walks Allison, she has to walk right by us. Of course a yell, "Allison!" She jumps a tad and gives me a smile, "You scared the crap out of me, haha!"

The movie was just great! I really didn't know what to expect but I really enjoyed it. Bridges did and awesome job as well as Damon. Hailee Steinfeld was the show stealer. She did an amazing job! Won't be surprised to see her pick up some other big roles. Looking forward to see what awards this film wins!

The world is so blind to Fisher

Work showcase

Created some holiday greeting emails for the Knoxville Visitor Center and the Women's Basketball Hame of Fame. Had some fun with these over the last few weeks. Click on each to nice a simple little animation with an illustration of each building.

Little icy this morning.

Phillies get Cliff Lee back....

Nothing to explain except this smile on my face. Shocking! He took less money and 1 less year then his other 2 offers. One of those offers being from the Yankees! March can't get here fast enough!

First big snow of the year

Snowed good yesterday and last night. Enough to keep me home for the day. Mary and I tired to drive over to the Henkel house and got about half way and decided to turn around. We were sliding all over the place. Mary actually drove and did very good!

Xmas tree shopping

Jim, Michael, Mary and I went up to the tree farm to cut and carry our Xmas tree today. We went 2 years ago but this time we picked the place. We met at the Henkel House and headed there. It actually ended up being the same farm. We chatted with the owner for a while and found out it was his last year and that he had sold his land to the city. Guess we'll have to find a new place to carry on our Gray Henkel Xmas tree search.

Starting Travis 30th bday at The Public House!

It's actually after a nice long, 2 pitcher lunch at Hooters! After that we headed to Harbys for one of Knoxville's best pizzas for dinner (Travis and I argue as to where it ranks in the top 5, haha). Everyone else met up with us there. Next we headed to Urban beer to get our drink on. I surprisingly took it easy. :) Next we moved it to the studio where Lauren hooked it up! Had fondue, beer, lcd with xbox connect. It was awesome! Had a great time and ended the party around 2:30am! Travis's had a great bday and crossed into the 30s with ease.

Help T with his new living room

Travis got a new TV, finally! 50 inch Panasonic plasma. He is giving his mom his old tv and couch so we moved the office couch down to his living room. Also added Lauern's lazyboy in there too.

Evo in Dexter

I was just made aware of this! In Season 2 of Dexter an Evo VIII makes a cameo!

Crazy crazy weekend

Overview
Saturday I find out my debit card number has been jacked. BOA was on top of it so it looks like the thief tested out the card with 2 purchases totaling under 5 bucks.

Sunday, Mary's phone gets stolen. Had it turned off only to find out later is was some teenage girl that took it and her grandparents caught her with it and made her return it.

Also Jayson Werths big deal hit the news. Going to the Nationals with a 7 year 126 million pricetag.

More to come...

Awesome night out

No movie last night but still went out.

DMG had a little going away party for Matt. He got a new job out in West Knoxville. Later we headed up to DTG to meet Ben, Mariell joined us. We had some good chatting going when in walked Reed and Dean! 2 guys Ben and I played soccer with years ago! So strange to see them, 4 former Knoxville Stars standing in the same room years later. It was great catching up. They left to grab some food and again I run into another familiar face! Molly! I hadn't seen her since the wedding! We had an awesome little talk, great catching up. She went back to her friend then came back and talked some more with us due to her friend talking to some dude, haha.

Great night!

Marys new Tats!

Mary's appointment with Matt finally went down! I drew the hummingbirds for her feet and Matt did the cherry blossom. Unfortunately my phone's camera is still acting wacky so I couldn't get good shots.

Thanksgiving!

Had a great one! Met my folks and the Henkels at Crackel Barrel for breakfast. Went back to the Henkels to draw names and hang with James for a while. He wasn't able to make breakfast with his bum knee. He seemed to be in good spirits and I got him in the draw!

We headed home and hung out for a bit before Mary had to go to lame ol work. She left, I walked the dogs and headed over to my folks.

We had a very nice/awesome evening. Uncle Paul was there, so just the 4 of us enjoyed the football games and dinner. I was FINALLY able to get them to skip the same ole same ole. We had delicious steaks for dinner along with salads and baked potatoes. It was a great night and the only thing missing was my beautiful wife. It wasn't to awful because the Tgivings work day meant Xmas day she would be OOOFFFFFF! We are so so excited about that! Her and I are have only had one xmas when she was off. We were dating at the time so we spent separated time with our families. So this year we get a real xmas as a married couple.

Evo hits 1k miles, printing shirts and tattoo work

iPhone won't focus

Hit the 1000 miles mark in the Evo on the way to Travis's house to print some shirts. I have a video of the moment as well. Sorta sucks though cause OF COURSE I get to 999.9 miles and have to stop at a red light...haha. So up Bruhin over Dutch Valley and bam 1k miles!

Had a tattoo appointment that was pushed to 12 by Matt then I pushed it to 1. That gave me time to get to T's house to print shirts for my mom.

One of our first 3 color prints

We got everything setup and it was 12:45 and I still hadn't had lunch. Matt planned on working for about 5 hours so I had to eat first. I ran by Freezo for a burger and fries. I hustled over to Saint, ate and was in the chair by 1:15

Finished up the whole outside! Finally!

James also had his crazy knee surgery today. Replaced the top part of his lower outside bone in his right leg. Little under 30 staples. Everything went well and hoping he is back to normal asap!

Work showcase

Atlruda's website launched.

After our awesome dinner Friday there we launched their site Monday. It turned out really nice and I don't think they could be happier.

Check it out here: www.altrudas.com

Vince Young is done.

I still don't get it. Why in the world do fans boo their team and players? I have been to a lot of professional games in my life and have seen the home team fans boo their team and I just don't understand. VY was boo'd on Sunday after a failure on a 3rd down conversion. Are these fans booing the play call, the player, the coaches? Could they do better if put in that situation? It's just so idiotic and drives me crazy. Sure I get upset that the offense couldn't stay on the field but I have NEVER and will NEVER boo my team or players. It's a sport, a game of chance. A lot goes into a play, a lot has to happen for it to be successful. Do these "fans" not understand that? It's just so much more constructive to boo them then to clap for the try and move on to cheer for the defense. Come on fans knock it off.

Anyways... Vince hurt his thumb on his throwing hand after launching a great pass to Washington (Hey boo birds! Was that good enough for you?!). He comes off the field and goes into the locked room but is back on the field in no time, throwing the ball. With Collins hurt we have to go with our 3rd stringer in a tied game. Rusty Smith. He looked ok, threw one INT on a long ball and out come the negative nancys. This was after a great long pass as well. Well VY never came back in.

After the game Vince threw his passes and jersey into the crowd in frustration...I guess (cool souvenir for a fan). Next it was said that Vince was talking during Fisher's post game address to the team. Fisher told Vince to knock it off and Vince got up changed and started walking out. "You can't just walk out on your teammates, " Fisher said. "I'm not, I'm walking out on you," Young responded and he left. All kinds of rumors and talk has broken out since. Fire Fisher, Fire Young... blah blah.

As of now Young is done for the season with the thumb injury and Rusty will be starting until Collins is healthy. We start the make or break part of our season this weekend with 5 of the 6 games being divisional. I don't expect much after watching the team fall apart this season. I just hope we don't get embarrassed to bad.

GO TITANS!

Taco night!

Mom, dad, Ben and Allison join Mary and I at our place for a football taco night. Eagles were playing the Giants on Sunday night football. It was a great time, Ben and my folks got to catch up.

Awesome dinner at Altrudas

Lauren, Travis, Mary and I took a trip to Altruda's for dinner at 6:30. We wanted to snap a few pics for the site of it being busy. In a meeting the one before, Paul (the owner) said, "Just come in Friday and we'll take care of you guys. You just have to pay for alcohol." Take care of us they did! It was great. We got to check out the kitchen and see them in action. It's a great place to eat with some great people in charge.

Mary meets Smokey IX

Mary went to give blood for the Orange and Blue Blood Drive and Smokey just happen to be there. She got to hang out with him for a while. I'm half surprised she didn't bring him home!

Almost there!

Mary is officially enrolled!

Mary has booked her 2 classes at Pellissippi State for the winter semester. She is one strong lady. Working full time at Walgreens, part time with her dad and going to school. Going to be a crazy next few years but she'll be happy once it's all over which is all that matters.

Music addiction

I have been reintroduced to Girl Talk. It is one dude that makes "mashups." Uses samples of popular music, new and old to create these unique tracks. A must for those of us with short attention spans. I am addicted to this new album as well as he's older stuff. Rock on!

Download his lasted album All Day for free here: Girl Talk - All Day

Roy Halladay wins his second Cy Young!

After an awesome season and a disappointing post season (minus the no hitter) Halladay received 32 unanimous 1st place votes. Guess that makes him 2nd and 3rd too...haHA! I'm very excited to see what else he has in the tank and I really really hoping the Phils can keep up their high level of play the next few years and get Halladay that trophy!

Monday Night Football in DC

From their seats!

One of the Henkel sisters won Eagles Redskins Monday Night Football tickets in a raffle in Philly. She wasn't able to go so Jim and Michael were given the opportunity. They also managed pregame on field passes. Meaning they got to get on the field and watch the teams practice and hour before kickoff.

They saw a record setting night. Most points scored in the first half (28) by either team in the 1st quarter in any of their previous meeting. That's 150+ games. Most points ever in a MNF game. First QB (Vick) to have 300+ throwing, 80 rushing, 6 TDs, 4 air 2 on the ground in a single game. Eagles won 59-28.

It stated pouring rain before half. They ended up leaving in the 3rd.

Lucky SOBs! HA!

Relaxed weekend in pictures

Watch The Last AirBender
It was on the lower end of ok.

Watched the vols smack down Ole Miss
Dad, Jim and James were there

Played a lot of iPhone BlackJack

Cooked a nice steak dinner (Sat & Sun!).
Opened the Jaqk Cellars wine too. Delicious!

Watched the Titans and Moss's debut
Sucked!

Hung out with the pups.
Play with the new Hipstamtic lens too.

My EG!!

Left Travis's house after a Taco Bell visit, after a Saffire visit, after Due Date, after DTG and look what I pulled up behind at Central and Merchants!! My old eg6! Same exhaust (5 Zigen), carbon duck bill, same passenger side rear bumper dent and DOHC VTEC sticker on the side. I was just talking about how much I missed this car today!! And bam! Right there...

Her in the glory days!

Movie night

Movie night once again! Travis and I headed to DTBG for the usually dirty blonde and liquid cocaine. Had a nice talk with a lady that worked for Groupon, from Chicago and she gave us coupons! Tab out and headed to the theater.

We were seeing Due Date. Scored a free popcorn with regal rewards! The movie was pretty good, about what I thought it would be. I didn't think it was as funny as it could of been and not anywhere close to the laugh level of The Hangover. I did enjoy.

After we stopped in Sapphire to chill with Ms. Jackson. After a Car Bomb she introduced us to Kracken Rum. Taste like a better Sailor Jerry's which is Captain Morgan like. It was good, she left us the bottle, which she has done before. Easily the best/coolest bartender I've had. We also found out her last name really isn't Jackson. I was a tad shocked, we had been there several times before. I guess we finally climbed that trust hill, haha. She also made us REAL Fireballs. With all this craze about Fireball whiskey she was frustrated hers was falling off. It was really good and we will be getting them again!

We headed home and made a run by Taco Bell. Lauren was home sick and was hungry. We got to T's house and pounded my volcano tacos and headed home.

Finally able to ship wine to TN!

Got some awesome wine from Jaqk Cellars. Travis stumbled across it on one of the art image sites. Their design is just awesome and their logo just plain rocks! It shows on their site they will ship to Tennessee which we thought wasn't legal. So we went through the ordering process and says unable to ship. I emailed and was told by them it was possible, they said certain zip codes are dry so I sent her a few. The only one that didn't make the cut was ours, haha. So I had mine shipping to Travis's. It is the most expensive wine I have purchased so I might let it sit for a while before popping the top. Hope it tastes as good as it looks!

Check their stuff out here: jaqkcellars.com

Travis got some additions to his sleeve

Sunday football day out!

Ben and I made plans for an all-day-boys-day-sports-day-out (helps me pass the time on a Titans bye week). Started off at Soccer Taco at 11 for Chelsea v. Liverpool EPL game. Arron was in town and planned to meet up with him at Buffalo Wild Wings at 1 for NFL kickoff.

Brews @ Buffalo

Yes I have 2 beers in front of me! Blue Moon was handing out free samples of their new favor so we couldn't turn that down! Ben and Arron hit it off since they both love the same music. They are into the electronic scene. The games had started and we were enjoying our fluids. For some reason they didn't have the Texans game on and I wanted to know the score since them losing helps the Titans. I go for my phone, leaning back on a freaking stool thinking it had a back. The legs of the stool were in the prefect position... guess what happens? Yup, flat on my back, bam, right in the floor, legs flailing. Best thing about it, about 5 mins left in the 1 oclock games and we were about to relocate to Cool Beans. Man I felt like an idiot. Haha, what can you do other than laugh. Too bad this was fore site on things to come.

Cools Beans allows dogs! This cool dude was one of 2 there!

Little toasty, we switched hats.

Mary joined us and had a few drinks and her and Ben had a nice talk.

Sunday soccer night?

Well, after a day of drinking I decided to get some fresh air (I do this often, just my way of gathering myself, walking it off). Off I go walking around campus. I found a cool little place with mini soccer fields and folks were playing, on every field. I sat a watched a little, walked around the fields some. Well long story short. As I was leaving there are 2 big 3 walled areas and some kids were playing soccer in there as well. Around the wall of one of these areas is was I came in and there are some small bleachers there. Well, I was watching this kids not paying attention and walk around the corner and I didn't realize there was a step up. Down I go again... I reach out to stop the fall but I'm to close the wall and the outside of my hand runs down the brick wall. I ripped a good chunk of skin off my hand and scratched up pretty good. Below is a pic but it doesn't really show how bad it is.

I was taken pics of the Evo waiting for it to warm up.
So I snapped a pic of my beat up hand.

I went back to Cool Beans said my good byes, washed my hand off and headed to the car. My car was at market square and I was on campus. It was a nice little walk. I had a great day and can't wait to do it again.

Also the Colts and Texans lost! GO TITANS!!!!