05/03/09
Last weekend, as our previous post reported, Michelle and I participated in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Baytown, Texas. Michelle and I raised $450 through online donations, and our team raised a total of $2983.63 online. We then raised some money at the event (despite the weather), to bring our team total to $3564.63. Thank you all so much for your support! The event itself was…exciting. It started off well, we were in costume by the start of event, the Survivor’s Lap, and were working the crowd and our booth like the seasoned pro’s we are. Then the weather came. It started with a light sprinkle, which I didn’t worry about because my head was covered by a waterproof helmet, and I was sweaty anyway (sorry, TMI?). Then the wind and rain started coming a little harder. We had to shut down our photo processing (we were taking pictures on our green screen and printing them out in return for donations), and the “arrests” came to a halt as people scrambled for cover. Then the weather unleashed its worst. It was raining really hard, the wind was whipping around pretty badly, and the parking lot that the event was held in turned into a small river. We finished enclosing our tent to provide more room for us to move around, and the tent held up. I was very impressed with this tent that Sam brought. Most of us stayed in our armor through the whole ordeal. I figured that I was already soaking wet, if I changed while it was still raining, I would just get my only set of dry clothes wet. Besides, it’s still fun just standing around in armor with comrades. At one point, Michelle started worrying about our car. You see, we brought her new Camry, instead of bringing the Suburban. Did I mention that we had parked in a field? Yeah… So she grabbed our umbrella and went to check on the car. Luckily it was fine, but the field we parked in was surrounded by a growing mote of water. Fearing that we wouldn’t be able to get out if she didn’t act soon, she cautiously moved the Camry through a shallow part in the mote to higher ground. I’m glad she did. It worked out well for us. The car is fine. At about 10:30 Michelle and I decided to pack up and leave. The rain had let up a bit, and our gadgets were telling us another band of storms was on its way. So we loaded up, and I, having shed my armor but left only wearing my under armor, drove us around the flooded streets while Michelle navigated. The feeder roads were flooded most of the way home, but the flooding wasn’t that bad near our neighborhood. We, the 501st, have decided to not do this same event next year, since the novelty has kind of worn off. We had a lot of fun the past 2 years at this event. We are looking at some more options for charity fundraising events in the future, maybe another location’s Relay for Life? Here are some of my favorite pictures from the event. We didn’t take any of them, so consider them “borrowed” from our friends in the 501st.      -Travis 04/23/09
Tomorrow night, Michelle and I will be participating in our second Relay for Life to support the American Cancer Society. We will be dressing up in Star Wars costumes and raising money for a worthy charity. Last year was a lot of fun, and we plan on having even more fun this year (now that we have an idea of what to expect). If you would like to help us out with a small donation, we would appreciate it! Go to this web site to donate. In any case, we will be posting pictures from the event sometime this weekend. Wish us luck! -Travis and Michelle 03/29/09
The faithful Suburban has finally returned from the body shop. The dents are gone, it is rust-free, and it’s sporting a new, shiny, finish. It looks good! However…you get what you pay for. This work was relatively cheap for such a large vehicle. Since I got it home, I have found several instances of sloppiness and poor work done by the body shop. The owner(s) are very nice, and have promised to fix anything we think is wrong with it, and I plan on taking them up on it. We’ll see what becomes of that. In the meantime, I need to get started on the interior. It needs a new dash (or major work to the old one), new upholstery on all of the seats, and a heavy scrubbing of the carpet throughout. The following pictures don’t really do it justice. If you want to see it in person, come on by!     03/22/09
Goodbye… This weekend, we said goodbye to my car. A good little 2000 silver Pontiac Sunfire GT, it served well from its 90th mile during the test drive to giving it up 77,700 some odd miles later.  When I first bought it, I drove it from East Lansing to Ann Arbor under the biggest, most distracting orange harvest moon you ever saw. It got a little beat up in the move down to Texas when the trunk opened on the car carrier and busted out the rear window. We vacuumed out more of that glass this weekend… But lately, it has started to deteriorate. Within a couple of months it had the fuel pump die (and we replaced the cracked windshield at the same time), the fuel pressure switch leaked and dumped all the oil out, and a fan blower conked out. Seemed like a clue-by-four that we’d better start looking for the next vehicle. …And hello!   We went hybrid, with all the gizmos and gadgets. (Toys? We has dem!!) Right now my favorites (aside from the hybrid drive itself) are the push button start and the hands-free telephone connection. It was a demo car so it’s not exactly new, but it only has ~4700 miles on it and seems well cared for. It’ll take some getting used to, especially since this is the first non-sport suspension car I’ve driven daily in a long time. But I’m willing to (re)learn! ~M PS Some of you may note the pictures of Roland leaving one car and finding a home in the new one. This makes it all official, of course. |
04:33:01 pm, by travis 
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