Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Thanksgiving Day
Originally uploaded by scottie_ang

Don & Chip starting the XR500 on loan from a friend in Vegas... the beast lives!

Shooting skeet in the neighbor's backyard... The whole group is pretty much an even mix of neighbor Tom's extended family and of the guys in our bible study. Don & Chip got to try out the .20 & .12 gauge shotguns Don brought back from Turkey in '02. Thanks to neighbor Tom, we just showed up and bought ammo and clay pigeons by the boxful there. This was Tom's family's first Thanksgiving in their newly built house.


Don gave Gibson a half-hour fun ride on my Husky TE250. The ground
was damp, the air was cool--perfect conditions.

That evening we had our Thanksgiving feast. The Johnsons (Kim & Troy, and their kids, Ali, Stephanie, Katie, and Lil Troy) came over to join Don, Chip & our family at our house. This is the kids' table in the front room. The smoked turkey turned out AMAZING! We took 1 thawed 22 lb turkey, injected Lawry's Steak-n-Chip marinade into the meat, then cooked the turkey in the Orion smoker (link) for 2 hrs with the temperature probe attached. EASY and superdelicious.

Mike's new '95 CR-125

Here's Mike getting initiated into the world of 2-strokes!! This is Mike on his newly acquired Honda we picked up today. Of course his riding gear is still in transit so he's sporting the "community rentals."

Good on Mike, he never dropped the bike, broke a bone, T-boned a chain-link fence..... Great job on that wild horse!

. . .
Aaaand, my garage looks cooler now too! :) In fact, if our garage gets too full of bikes, I can always use my bedroom and sleep outside. :) :) :)

motoMONDAY

Laney rides the XR50! Today was her second day on the bike, but her first day unassisted, and first day on the dirt! And she did an outstanding job -- shifting out of neutral, working the throttle, getting her feet up on the pegs, and using that engine kill switch when she tipped over in the sand. She didn't mind the soft landings. Mya happily shouted reassuring wishes, "watch out for snakes!!" Laney was all tired & sweaty when she was done--telltale signs of a good ride.

More "Development" (now and recently)

As you can see, there's always something going on around here... from Gib getting a first hack at 2-wheeled training; Chip & Sadie's odd but very cute feeding lesson; Sadie learning to walk (or is it learning to push a shopping cart?); Gib doing tumbling (that ends with a spirited 'discussion' with sister Sadie); and Mike-On-Bike! Mark it down, Oct 7 '07 is the day Mike and Laney both first rode a Honda XR50!! We'll get you some Laney footage once she completes here initial ground-school training! :) Mike's probably going to get this model bike for his new commute. We may buy this XR50 we're borrowing...if only to further entice Vee to return to the west coast! :)

Chip's '96 DR200 Lives!!

They got the bike started!!!! - just have to tune it now (couple fuel line connectors, and then presto, hopefully)! I'm thinking tomorrow is a riding day!

You mean this trick, Chip?

Here's the winner of the X-games best FMX trick, Kyle Loza. Not only was this his first X-games ever, but he's doin' big airs for Christ.

"How cool is that?!"

Mya the Bee is 6 ! ! !

Mya just turned six! She had a two-party day, with friends Alison, Stephanie, Katie and Troy coming over for a swim party mid-day, and a family party after dinner when dad came home. Also pictured is her new yellow "moto-bike" which she likes since it is colored like a bee. And the sunset on her birthday was so beautiful we had to include that too!

'Scuse me, I ordered the LARGE pink shades

You decide - photoshopped, or are the tinted manhole covers really this huge?

(Good choice, Vee. Seriously. No, seriously.)

Hey Chip, I don't care how small the Ride is... you still need a "hemmit!"

Moto #2

If you have yet to visit Chip's Blog, you need to do so before viewing this video!





Now that you have done so, try not to enjoy this video too much!

Moto #1

Chip & Vanessa are here!

Here's our first day of riding in the backyard. We hadn't planned on photographing this event, but luckily, Vanessa is into photography and snapped all these great shots. Chip's previous riding experience came right back--as you can see he was ripping it up on the RM250!! (Sorry I don't have a pic of Vanessa today!)

(as always, click to enlarge)

Logan, party of 2, your bike is ready

As if you needed more enticing, you two... here's a loaner bike from my good friend at work, Bruce. It's ours for the summer! Chip, you can play too, since Bruce himself was riding it down his street and he's probably 4 inches taller than you.
Just everybody, bring some above-the-ankle boots for riding if you can. I think we're good on helmets here.
[it's a Yamaha TT-R 90 - four stroke]

Blood-red Fish Meat... and other Birthday Cake Themes

Yep. The Lane-ster is seven, which is pronounced see-Yet'-tay around these parts. So during the weeks leading up to her big day, Laney ensured by regular correspondence that we (her parents) would not forget, or worse, mismanage/mis-plan this momentous event. So, like a seasoned General Contractor for This Old House, she laid out schedules, flowsheets, diagrams, and sketches for the event and for the cake. The theme for the cake? A shark. A detailed blueprint was submitted to the Parental Board nearly a month in advance. So rising to the challenge and recognizing the size of this project, Ang focused on Shark Authenticity for the cake. So after some excellent baking work, some reclarification of mission objectives, and some skilled frosting application, Ang created the Shark De Authentique... complete with tannish skin, scary eyes and white shark teeth, and of course, a red-velvet "bloody meat" interior. It was breathtaking, on so many levels (in fact, I'm feeling another wave right now). As you can see here, the resemblance to a real dead shark on an aluminum slab is uncanny! All in all, it was a fun day, and each day since then, Laney has reminded me, "hey Dad, I'm still seven everyday!"

To fully honor Laney's special day, I thought it appropriate for us to get a new family bike to ride around. (And by us, I mean "me"... and by family, I mean "personal"... and by around, I mean "to work most of the time.")

So here it is, the '07 Husqvarna TE-250. So these days, I ride around for a living. Yes, riding is my career now. Besides that, it just so happens that my ride occasionally (and by that I mean daily) stops by this place I like to call "my place of employment" to which they pay me a paycheck for my professional riding career. Sometimes I stick around the "place of employment" for 10 hours, but it's just part of the rider thing... it has nothing to do with that "job" that people think I have. Yep. I swear.

Bananarama

Sadie just started eating baby food and really likes it. Note the bananas in her hair in the one photo -- a sure sign of enjoyment. The girls made a chart for her to track how much she eats. I didn't burst their bubble by telling them that Sadie doesn't really care how many stickers she gets on her chart, just how much food is going in her mouth. The kids also rode around the yard on a bubba that's in the garage of the house we're staying at. I'm sure Gib thinks it's ours now and possession is 9/10ths of the law, right? Sadie has started partying in the middle of the night so I am presently sleeping while typing in an effort to regain those lost hours. G'night!

I wanna go watt da bubbas

Yep, that's how Gib would say it if we dared step foot out of view of the main supercross arena last Sat. night, be it for a restroom break or food or even to go visit pro riders and their pits. Happy birthday to me and to Gib!... our combined birthday present was even better since we had a guest... Tim got to join us on our very first pro supercross race. We went to Anaheim (Angel's Stadium). Wow, it was so awesome. We had great seats and pit passes, so we got to go meet our favorite pro riders in person (cool!) and take lots of pictures, and watch hours and hours of supercross action as the afternoon practice sessions led to evening qualifying heats, followed finally by the main events! Oh, did I mention the laser show, the fire-belching pyrotechnics and the full-on fireworks show at the opening ceremonies? Yeah. It was well worth it for our first race! The guy in green next to Mr. Shy and me is Jeff Gibson, who we like to follow because of his name! He and his wife were super nice and genuine. We also got to meet Kevin Windham...KW (pronounced: Kay-Dub)...just in the knick of time before they closed the autograph line! This was especially cool for Tim, since KW has been Tim's fave for years and was super cool in person. We were honored to have him sign the bill of Gib's Cubs hat. We also saw all the other pros up close. Great stadium, there too--can't wait for the Angels to play the Cubs. Truly a memorable day!