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!