Hudy A blog about all things Hudy...

About 2 weeks ago or so, Angie said she didn't like how her closet was set up, I don't blame her, it wasn't all that exciting, you can see it here.

So I figured I could make it a bit better.  We looked up pictures of closet setups online and found one that we like and we figured we could copy pretty easy.

This was something that I have just put off for about a year since we moved into our house.  Our fridge has a front water faucet on it which is great and is getting me to drink more water but the problem was that is ever so slightly dripped.  Just enough to fill a coffee mug over the course of a long weekend.

So finally, with a little troubleshooting help from my Dad we were able to figure out that it was the water valve that was not sealing properly, and that is what was causing the leak.  So I got ordered a new faucet from ApplianceZone.com (which I would highly recommend) and got it installed, and what do you know - no more coffee mug to catch the drips!

So not too exciting of a goal but one that I wanted to try to do.
I wanted to have more time to pray before I got to work and some time to work on learning the 60 topical memory verses I am working on as well.  It was getting to the point that whatever was being talked about in to morning was just repeats of the content from the day before and it was all about the just passed election, so it seemed like a good time to have a change.  It was a bit difficult at first to not listen to the radio at all, but it actually got better each day and I ended up really enjoying the peace and quiet.

Well, so far the camping trips aren't really getting marked of the list too fast, but they are still alot of fun, as you can see by this excited expression on Eri'cs face. 

The Leinie Lodge

We went to Lake Wissota State Park, near Chippewa Falls.  We went with a few of our friends and some of their family.  It was the same weekend as Pure Water Days, which is a parade/festival that celebrates the "pure water" that the Leinenkugel Brewery gets from the Chippewa River.

This was Connor building some sort of rocket or plane shooting gun with tent poles.

An old fire truck in the Pure Water Days parade.

Andrew, Carrisa, and Olivia checking out the brewery.

Alena eating some lunch at the camp site.

Carson chillin with some pretzels.

Me and my wife.

Like father like son.

Apryl and Clara.

Angie, Cristina, and Clara hanging out at the parade.

Ruth and Carson having fun in the Falls.

Tha Boyz - Herm and Arch

Alena showing her Dad that she can grow a mustache too.

Not too much explanation needed here.  I thought this would be good training for my Race the Lake race that I did.  I have been wanting to ride to work for a while, I did it last year once when I got off work early to see how long it would take.  It is about 16 miles one way and I can take the New Berlin Trail for about 9 of that, so it is a pretty decent ride.
I am going to see if I can try and ride a few more times before it gets too cold in the morning and too dark for the ride home.

What I would not do next time is wear a back pack - need to get saddle bags!

This was a race that I wanted to do last year, but because of the lack of training I had, I figured I would just hold off until this year.  Well, the training didn't increase that much more this year, but I am in better shape this year from the marathons that I have done.
 
The race was a 88.5 mile race around Lake Winnebago, starting in Fond du lac and going northwest around the lake to High Cliff State Park, then riding south along the eastern side of the lake and back to the starting point.

I ended up riding with my cousins Tim and Sam and two of their friends, Wade and Phil, most of the way which was alot of fun.  Here they are:


The best part of the race was when me and about 12 or so others were coasting down a slight decline at about 30 mph and just laughing at how easy it was - its amazing what drafting can do.

I ended finishing in just under 5 hours - 4:59:15.  I think it would be fun to do the race again and try to beat that time, but I was really happy with how I did.

 (not the actual flooring, but pretty dang close!)

Forgot that this was one of my goals, but I guess I can mark it off now :-)
This Saturday, I went over to Paul's house and we tore up some the old linoleum in his office and the back stairwell because there was existing hard wood floors that had been covered up years ago.   That is the most I have sweat in a long time!  It was a fun thing to do and it is going to look awesome when they get it re-finished.

The hardest part was scraping off the old asbestos tile in the stairwell - we think it was put down with some sort of tar based adhesive!

Looking forward to the next home project, they are soo much fun!

I decided to do this goal more or less to save a bit of money, I thought that $18-$25 for a guy's haircut was just too much to fork out.  I used to buzz cut my hair and that was pretty easy, but I think I got pretty good at getting the whole "blend" style down too.

This one took a bit longer than I was hoping it would, but the end result looks pretty decent in my opinion.  I learned many things about deck staining/refinishing and I will share them for those wanting to take up the same task.
1.  It will take longer than you think
2.  Don't believe everything you read/hear about with deck stripper solutions, they DON"T work... Period.  In fact that is the only thing you should believe about them.  All they do is change the color of the paint/stain you are trying to remove.
3.  Use a sander instead - a big one from Home Depot and a hand one borrowed from a friend - Thanks Jon! 
4.  Rent the biggest one you can from Home Depot - use around a 60 grit or so to really give it a good sanding.
5.  Don't try to lift the sander yourself, it will be the worst back pain you will ever experience.
6.  Try to do as much work in the shade - the sun can cause the stain to dry too fast and leave streaks.
7.  Wear bug spray.
8.  Staining spindles is best left to your wife - Thanks Angie :-)

Happy Staining!!

Living in Milwaukee for a few years and within 15 miles from their the rest of my life you would think that I would have done this before, but it took 28 years for me to get out and get this one done.

My buddy Paul and I went to the Lakefront Brewery for the tour.  Paul had been there before so he knew it would be a good tour.  For $7 you get about a 45 minute tour, 4 beers and a Lakefront Brewery pint glass, pretty good deal if you ask me.

Our trip was on the Carnival Legend to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan and Belize!

I wasn't quite sure I was going to get this goal accomplished because there are only so many times that we could go, but it actually worked out great and we were able to go this past week.  For anyone contemplating going on a cruise, I would say, "Go for it!"  It was alot of fun and I would definitely go on another one.  One suggestion that I would say is to make sure you get to the city the day before.  We had some troubles trying to get there - our first flight was delayed 2 hours which then we would have missed our connection so we flew into another city and when we were leaving there a stewardess came on the loud speaker and said we didn't have a pilot, which they later found.

There were so many things to do while we were on the ship - Relax, sit at the pool, eat good food, explore the ship, sit in the sun, eat good food, go to the shows, eat good food, did I mention you can visit the buffet whenever you wanted?  They even has a midnight snack buffet for those needing it.

The advice I got from a veteran cruiser on the ship on the first day was, "Ease into the buffet, don't overdo it the first day."  Well, I didn't... I dove right in from the first day and didn't look back and it was well worth the calories :-)

We went on 3 different excursions - a Deluxe Beach Bash, Catamaran ride to a snorkeling location, and a Eco-Park Jungle Kayak trip.  Here are a few pictures from those days.