Car Craft Summer Nationals

This past weekend we went to the Car Craft Summer Nationals here in MN. This show is for the ultimate car enthusiast. Which would be every member of my household. Our plan is to hopefully have my car entered next year.

Oh, yeah we decided on a color Fuchsia. The husband even agreed to this.

We had a wonderful day walking around looking at the cars and we even were able to watch the burnout competition. So cool. I videoed it so everyone could see how cool it was.

The paint jobs were amazing.

My little man had his picture taken with two celebrities. The first was Miss. Car Craft. "Missy"

And also with "Wally the beer Man". Wally is a local celebrity. He is seen at all the Twins games and even the Vikings games.

Brittany was at her fathers for the weekend so she was not with us. She was doing fun things of her own.

Saying Goodbye

Today I said goodbye to a fellow employee. Brian has always been around ever since I worked for my company. I am what one calls a repeat offender.LOL I just can not stay away from the place. When I first started Brian was my department manager. And over the years he has just continued to progress with the company. During this time he had never changed. He is still as easy going and all around nice person. Never let his position go to his head.
I feel that due to the fact that I spend so many waking hours with the people I work with they kind of become like family. So him leaving makes me a little sad.
During my years with the company I have always been able to talk to Brian about almost anything and he has been a strong supporter for me. When I decided to take the class on Lean Manufacturing he was all for it. Me deciding to take this class came up two days before he said he was moving on. So, I of course was joking with him that " I was after his job".
Now, even though he is moving on to new challenges he will still be a constant in my life. I know that if there are challenges at work I can not face or have questions about he will be right there to guide me through it.
Thank you Brian and Good Luck with your new venture.
S

Car Update, and Other Stuff

OK I have a 1985 Old's Cutlass Supreme and we have now taken the standard V6 motor out of it and KAPOW we dropped in a Chevy 350 motor. For you that are car illiterate that means very fast and lots and lots of POWER. Can't you hear Tim Allen now. LOL.

Still a lot of work to go on the car but the "heart" is in. this weekend is the Car Craft Nationals at the State Fair Grounds so be prepared for lots of photos of cars.

Now this week on Sandcastle Mammas Blog she had a link to a Realtor her husband Photographs for and I had brought up the question where was the "stuff". I thought it would be fitting to show pictures of some home we saw this weekend that look like they do not have "stuff".

And these were the small ones. LOL

A Very Long Day

Yesterday was a very very long day for us. We were up before 6am out the door by 7am and back home by 10:30pm.

Phase One of our day........ We headed to the cities in the morning to join my family at the Farmers Market. Two of my Aunts and two of my cousins came in to town for a visit. So, that made it even more fun. And of course we had to stop and get our hot dogs and brat's first thing.

yep had to take two one with out me and of course one with me.(in the white shirt with the dog in my face. LOL)

After the fun. We headed back to my dad's house to visit. Well, dad like to take the scenic route and I of course have my camera in hand ..

What movie put this place on the map?Grain Belt Premium Beer.....Phase Two of our day.........Later that afternoon we headed to Uptown walked around alittle. Went over by the lake and stopped at Ben and Jerry's for a treat.

Usually there are sail boats all over the lake

It was starting to get hot so a cool treat was in orderCan not leave the dog out that would be wrong...Phase Three of our day.......The reason we were in Uptown was to "watch" the Art Car Parade. At one point we thought it was going to be cancelled. It started to rain really hard and getting really windy. Then all of a sudden it cleared up at the sun came out and turned out to be beautiful.

We waited at the spot where the cars line up to begin the parade for Tom the gentleman who invited us to come and see this event. Once Tom and his wife arrived he had asked if Jim would drive one of his cars.He has 4 total. So, instead of watching we got to take part.

Here are some pictures of some of the Art Cars

Now this is only a small grouping of the cars that were there. What I have next is a short video. This was so cool that my little man willhave memories of this for a long time.....

So I hope you enjoyed our day as much as we did.

It's Derby Season

Well, it is that time of year again that all the guys are getting ready for the the Derbies. And No Jim is not driving this year. Not that I will not let him it is just it cost a lot and we can not afford to run a car this year.
We have been down at the yard this week helping the guys with the cars and the kids have been keeping themselves busy while the men work. Yesterday I saw the funniest sight. Now Britt is 13 and has been practicing driving at the yard. She was out in the yard driving around with Michael. The owner of the yard went out to bring them back in. About 10 minutes later I see Britt come flying around the gate with Greg chasing her. (both were in vehicles). The sight was just the funniest. I guess he decided to chase her around the yard a little. Them boys never seem to grow up. All in all they had fun. And that is what is important.

Educationing Myself

I have recently found a opportunity to educate myself. I am going to be taking a seminar that deals with Lean Manufacturing and 5-s. Most of you are probably like what the heck is this about. Well, you know the saying "a place for everything and everything in its place" that is kind of a 5-s rule.
Lean is a way of life for some manufacturing companies. I know we practice lean where I work and we also practice the 5-s way of life but I want to learn more. I want to become an asset to my company. So starting in September I will be taking this seminar one day a week for six weeks. Wish me luck.

The Weather

My goodness the weather has been crazy here lately. One day it is in the 70's and the next day it is 90+. Then to top it of the storms have been unbelievable also. They say if you hear a train sound comming from the clouds that it is a sign of a tornado. We heard that Friday. Wow, the winds really blowed hard but no touch down here. After it passed there were two rainbows.

This is not the best picture since I took it with my phone.

Check out my Slide Show!

Happy Fourth of July

TOday is July Fourth. It is also the end of the week from hell. Work was just awful. I could not wait for it to end. Enough said on that.
There are so many thing that we were invited to do today. And I have been up in the air on them all. Lately we have been on the go with so many schedules to keep and places we need to be that I wanted a day to do what ever I wanted and today is that day. I decided late last night that we were going Geocaching up in Duluth. For me it is about 1 1/2 hour drive depending on traffic. The kids have never been there. I was showing pictures to the kids on what it looks like there and they want to go also.
So, our plans on this day of remembrance it not to BBQ but to explore.
Have a wonderful Fourth and I will be back soon with photos.

Speed Racer

OK so it is not really speed racer but the name fits.

This weekend my little man joined his grandfather for a day at the races. To watch his Great Uncle race. I had made sure that my dad got him a camera to photograph the time they had together. He had a blast with them. He even got to help out with the car it sound like. So for your viewing pleasure here are his pictures.

Most pictures were taken by my Little man. And the rest were from my uncles girlfriend.(thank you Jean).

AS you can see from the pictures what is important for him to take photos of cars and car parts.