Battle at Big Rock

This past week, me and Pops (my dad) were lucky enough to run down to the coast to do some early-Summer mahi-mahi fishing. For the last few weeks we have been hearing about how the fishing is heating up offshore but my work schedule has been extremely busy and Monday, June 1st was going to be our first crack (since April) at packing a cooler or two with good meat.

The last time Pops and me got down to the coast, April 25th, we were hit with some strong NW winds and the seas were white-capping once we left the dock. After trying to get out in 5+ ft. waves, we decided to stay inside the inlet and try our luck chumming for shark. While we did land a few sharks, we didn't have a chance to get out far enough to bring home some tuna or mahi.

However, after watching the fishing reports, we saw that Monday was going to be our best shot at getting a good ways offshore. So Sunday night, my dad and I headed down to Atlantic Beach to stay at a family friend's condo.

The morning of, what will now be known forever in Brown family storytelling as the Battle at Big Rock, we dropped the boat in Morehead City around 6:ooam and headed out to seas.

We traveled for about an hour in before we stopped to fish a seaweed line on a 70 degree temperature break about 20 miles offshore (known as "Buoy 14"). We found a whole herd of other boats trying their luck at landing mahi, but after trolling for a few miles between Buoy 14 and AR-302 ("Artificial Reef #302) we came to realize that we were in the right place at the wrong time.

So there we were, about 15-20 miles offshore, with no signs of any sort of keeper fish. We heard all over the radio that nobody in the area was doing much of anything.

After talking over a few options and looking at the charts, Pops and I decided to go big or go home. And going home with empty coolers wasn't an option today. We were half way to Big Rock (as in the "Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament - the biggest Blue Marlin tournament outside Australian waters) and we knew that if we could make it out that far, we might find warmer water and have a better shot at finding dolphin (aka- "mahi-mahi").

It took about another hour before we came up on Big Rock. We were around 45 miles offshore, the water jumped up to 72 degree and we were floating in about 400 ft. of the deepest blue water. Big Rock sits right at the edge of the continental shelf and the Gulf Stream, so we knew that there were some good fish in the area.

For the majority of the day, we fished a seaweed line that we found on the north side of Big Rock. We were somewhat pleased to hear on the radio, all throughout the day, that the majority of the stubborn boats trolling back at Buoy 14 & AR-302 weren't catching much of anything. I don't say that because I want to hog all the fish - Lord knows there is enough fish to go around; I just say that because it felt good to know that we made a good play heading out to deeper waters.

There has been days that I have caught more fish and there has been days where I have caught bigger fish. But I have never caught such beautiful fish in such a beautiful setting. 45 miles out and the deep blue was nearly flat. The sun was shining at a pleasant 80 degrees and the water was crystal clear blue.

a pretty, little Bluefin - big enough for a few fillets

We didn't have much downtime throughout the day. We must have had at least 20 big fish bites. I can't even count how many times one of us would be fighting one of the fish and the other was clearing lines and getting the gaff ready when we'd suddenly hear another line on the opposite side of the boat start stripping *zinnnnnnnggggg*. We easily could have tripled our fish count if we had another deck hand.

Rightfully so, Pops ended up catching the "catch of the day" with this big gaffer, pictured below:

At the end of the day, we made our way back to shore (after stopping just long enough for me to drop a line in a school of blue fin tuna and pull a small one to the boat) and we shared the highlights of our day with each other, just as if the other person wasn't there. To other cars on the highway, we must have looked like two men on the run that just pulled off a Fort Knox-size heist; smiling from ear-to-ear, reenacting our Battle at Big Rock.

It was the best father/son day I've ever had with Pops.

Week 2 - House Update

I just wanted to take a second to show everybody where we are in the building process.

The have finished up laying the foundation and they should start the frame work within the next few days. The frame work should be completed in about a week from now and then they will move on to plumbing, electical, drywall, esc. It's excited to know that in a week or so, we should really start seeing our first house come together.

We have a blog?!? Oh yeah.

It's been quite some time since our last post and I would normally apologize for our lack of blog-commitment and number all of our excuses for getting slack on the updates, but I have to be honest, the excuses that run through my head aren't that legitimate.

I could say "it hasn't really been that long - has it?" But it has. Winter and spring have passed and my mental calendar is often runnning a few minutes behind, but not 4 months behind. No excuse there.

I could say "nobody actually follows our little life together, so nobody will notice if we don't update our page for a while." But, while we don't have the religious (and creepy) following of Jon & Kate Gosselin, to say nobody cares about what is going on with us would be discounting the love and interest of many family members - especially ones far & rarely seen.

Perhaps I could say "...but nothing really major has happened. At least nothing blog-worthy." But that would be far-stretched as well.

So as you can imagine, I could go on & on about all of our excuses for not posting more often, but truth is, we just aren't good bloggers. With that said, here's a few updates...

Amanda officially graduated college!

Graduation ceremonies have never been my thing. When I finished up my college education, I didn't attend my ceremony, and truth be told, if my mother allowed me I would have probably missed my high school ceremony. It's not that I don't value an education, I sincerely do. I've just always been a "give me my degree & keep your hot, sweaty handshake, Mr./Mrs. Dean of the School"-type of guy.

But I can truly say that I have never enjoyed a ceremony so much and I have never been so proud of someone's accomplishments as much as my wife's. For those of you who don't know Amanda very well (which means you would probably be on my side of the family tree), rest assured that my children have hope. I haven't quite figured out how I will explain to our children one day why college took Mom half the time it took Dad to finish, but oh well. Amanda finished college as a 4.0 GPA scholar-athlete in 3.5 years AND she managed to squeeze in an intership and me. And while it was a joy to watch Amanda receive Peace College's highest academic award among graduates, the thing that made me most proud was never applauded and barely recognized by others. Amanda never made excuses or bragged about her heavy schedule. While she juggled many things at once, she never became a circus clown motivated by an applause. Amanda quietly & humbly closed the book on her college education and basketball career with a 4.0 GPA and as a captain of the team because it was the right way to do things. Her perspective throughout the last few years that we have been together has been nothing short of inspiring.

We became a new baby girl's Aunt & Uncle!

My brother and sister-in-law, Adam and Connie, gave birth to sweet Isabella Kate Brown in March! While we couldn't make it down the week of Sweet Baby Bella's arrival, we managed to visit Adam, Connie & new big brother Josiah the following week.

No offense mothers of the world, I love babies to death, but I'm not a good baby holder - so I was a little nervous about holding such a sweet, tiny baby girl. Baby boys, I'm fine with. As strange as it might seem in the Brown family, dropping baby boys happens all the time. We can shrug such an act off with a shoulder shrug and a "it'll make him tougher!" But that's not the case with baby girls. There is no rebounding back from dropping such a sweet little baby. So the whole time I held Bella, I was imagining to myself how much of a disgraceful uncle I would become if I dropped beautiful Bella (perhaps the photo captures some of my nervousness). Then I realized she was about the size of a football and I recalled all the times I had yelled at the TV in the past at a New Orleans Saints football player for not holding onto the football. So there I was, holding onto the most beautiful football I had ever seen, repeating in my head, "we have a 4th quarter lead, Andrew. Just don't fumble."

I will say though, Connie was a great sport and she assured me I'd be fine. And in all seriousness, I absolutely loved holding my newest niece.

When we weren't holding little Bella, we were most likely playing with Josiah. Every time we see him, Josiah amazes us by his personality and just plain coolness. There is no better synonym. He is a stud. The Robert Redford of the nursery, if you will.

Josiah, Amanda and I enjoyed jumping on beds, wrestling and pillow fighting. We enjoyed being a 3-man (and woman) wrecking crew and we have a few pictures of our demo-derby of a weekend.

We took our first vacation as a married couple!

Well, at least post-Honeymoon that is. In February, Amanda's company took a 4 day company retreat down to Orlando. The company had a little bit of business to take care of while we were down there, but for the most part, we just enjoyed Florida.

The resort that we stayed at was fabulous and it was a great time to escape North Carolina's version of Winter. Amanda and I shared a beautiful bedroom suite overlooking winding pools and a green golf course. Funny thing was, while Amanda was in one of her business meetings in the day time, I remember watching the news about all the AIG executives on their company retreat and thought to myself - "oh the audacity of those guys! While the rest of the country slaves away working just trying to make ends meat--" only to be interrupted by the realization that I was propped up in a hotel lounge chair, looking out of our suite balcony door at a God's great creation. My attitude of judgment quickly altered into a state of sympathy and understanding. I felt a bit foolish to be so eager to jump on the jury, but at the same time, it felt good being a fool. All I could do was laugh at myself and fix another frozen concoction.

Anyways, Orlando was great. We visited the parks, ate at some wonderful restaurants and I got to know some of Amanda's co-workers better. We really did have a blast!

On a side note, (Amanda will kill me for this) I also enjoyed spending the day in the parks counting misbehaved children on leashes. I'm not judging anyone's parenting methods, Lord knows that I deserved to be chained up a time or two when I was a child. I'm just sharing with you guys Amanda and my Disney experience. We are two people-watchers who got married, so you must expect us to play people watching games while in crowds. It was like playing "Punch Buggy" on a family road trip - except this "Punch Buggy" game was as action packed as a "Punch Buggy" game en route Woodstock circa 1969. Here are a few pictures of the wild rugrats. (My favorite ones are the innocent leashes that are disguised as monkey tail bookbags.)

Editor's Note: I understand that the only thing more sad than the faces of these leashed children was the fact that I was sneaking around, like a real creeper, taking pictures of them. But don't let Amanda tell you otherwise - she was cheering me on.

We bought a house!

Well, technically we made a down payment on the idea of a house. You see, the house is a new build and construction has just started.

Amanda and I have been living in an apartment since our wedding last July, and while we have enjoyed our little nest up on the 3rd floor of our apartment, we are ready to be homeowners. So after looking around for quite a while, we signed on the dotted (begin construction) line on Valentine's Day. Since then, we have been getting building permits and planning out the house at KB Homes' design studio.

The actual construction did not begin until about a week ago and we are expecting a late August closing date. But we will make sure to give updates and pictures of the process going forward.

Our first home will be a townhouse located on Affirmed Way. We looked all over the area and ended up on settling on a neighborhood in Cary, named Washington Square at Amberly. Our sub-neighborhood (Washington Square) is a small townhome community inside a larger neighborhood (Amberly). Hence, "Washington Square at Amberly". Amberly is made up of 4 or 5 neighborhoods - each varying in home sizes. (For more information and good pictures of the neighborhood, check out www.amberly.com) We absolutely loved the location and the neighborhood amenties and we look forward to sharing our home with many of you as soon as I unpack my new grill.

Week 1 - 5/30/09

Our First Snow Day!

...as you can see, Amanda and I enjoyed "Our First Snow Day" together today. From the time that we first got engaged, we both talked about how excited we were for all our "firsts" that lied ahead in the future. One of these "firsts" that we have been looking forward to was sharing our first snow day together.

If you know anything about North Carolina winters, you'd know that every winter the local weathermen jump the gun, sound the trumpets and every North Carolinian races out the door to their closest neighborhood grocery store to loot the bread aisle.

99.9% of the time, no precipitation.

Here is a picture of me standing up on the back of my truck to clean off the snow.

Yesterday Amanda was jumping around the house, nearly dying with excitement as the forecast ran across the bottom of the television. I told her that we would get a light dusting and we'd wake up to another brown winter morning.


I'm sure this won't be the last time that Amanda tells me "I told you so." And might I add, that when Amanda woke up this morning, she was very excited about saying "I told you so."


Although both of us had to work-from-home today, we were able to take a nice work break to watch the inauguration and watch a movie. If you know me, if I stay inside too long, I typically am prone to come down with severe cases of Cabin Fever. As you can see in the pictures, we ended up getting around 3"-4" inches - which equates to roads, schools and many businesses being closed for the day. Lucky for me, snow or sun, the U.S. Postal Service stays open and Amanda had to send off a couple packages - which meant one thing: I got to test out my truck for the first time.

Tonight, we are planning on going for a walk, starting a fire and perhaps watching another movie. All in all, I think we had an enjoyable first snow day together.

The Holidays

The first part of our holiday season was me finishing and graduating from Peace (Andrew took a picture of me as I left for my last day of school - which is above).  I bought this Peace Alumna sweatshirt with my friend Laura (who also graduated in December) in the summer when it was on sale.  We both saved them to wear to our last final exam, Personal Selling.  I am holding the prettiest bouquet of flowers that were sent to my work as a congrats and welcome to the real world from my parents.  It was a really nice surprise and made my day :)

Andrew took this picture of me putting together our tree for our first Christmas together at our apartment.  It was fun decorating and putting up stockings!

We have done a lot of traveling over this holiday season.  We have been to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, Winston Salem twice to visit my family, Wake Forest twice to visit Andrew's family, and spent Christmas up in Maryland with my family.  Lots of traveling!  We have really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with all of our family.  We are also very thankful that gas prices are so low so we are able to do more traveling and driving!

Below are some pictures from our Christmas spent in Maryland.  Funny hats, reindeer antlers, and elf hats are a part of my family's Christmas traditions to spread Christmas cheer :)  We also go to Christmas Mass together, get Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve night from Santa, and spend Christmas morning with everyone eating breakfast, opening gifts, watching Christmas Vacation, and enjoying the day.  The afternoon is filled with naps, watching new movies, and playing with Grace and her new toys.  

Our first Christmas...

I really love the picture of my grandpa and me below.  We are wearing matching penguin hats made by Amy - very cute!  I was so impressed with how well he is doing health-wise.  He is doing his physical therapy and eating a lot.  It was really great getting to spend time with him :)

Keri always figures out what her presents are!  I like this picture because Keri had no idea my mom had gotten her these cute pink shoes.  She was finally surprised!  

This Christmas trip we enjoyed bowling together!  All the girls were on one lane with gutters (except my mom who played in the boys' lane to even the numbers out though she claimed to still be on the girls team because she was bringing their score down).  It was a fun thing for the entire family to do.   

Yesterday we spent New Year's Day with Andrew's parents in Wake Forest.  No pictures from that but we enjoyed some delicious Maui Burgers on Bill's new grill and other yummy treats along with a relaxing afternoon of napping, watching The Nativity, watching football, and chatting.  One small (but important!) thing that I love about Bill is how we always share snacks together.  If you know me, you know I love snacks!  Bill does too and he made us some hot chocolate and put out bowls of cheddar Chex Mix while we watched football.  It was the perfect afternoon.

We hope all of you enjoyed the holiday season and are having a great 2009 year so far!

Saying Goodbye...

It's no secret that Amanda and I haven't been faithful at updating our blog on a weekly basis. I wish I could blame it solely on the fact that we have lost our camera chord, making it impossible to load our pictures onto our computer, but something else has been holding me back from posting on this website.

At the beginning of the month, on December 4th, I received a call from my mother. She informed me that my grandmother had passed away.

Since then, it's been hard to find anything else blog-worthy. I've thought about addressing her death on our blog, but throughout my life, I've always been a very private mourner. Not only that, but I also didn't know what to say.

Amanda, more than anybody, can testify to how hard it's been for me to talk in depth about my grandmother's death.

Simply announcing her death would be a huge injustice to how big of a role she played in my life and how wonderful of a lady she was to everyone who knew her. But at the same time, I naturally have wanted to keep her passing away a private matter.

The problem is, it's really hard to update all of you guys on all the great things that go along with our first year together as newlyweds, without sometimes talking about events that happen outside just Amanda and myself.

MY GRANDMOTHER...

The picture above was taken this past August at Grandma's 87th b-day dinner
that Mom, Pops, Amanda and myself shared with her. She was taking off her
glasses so "she would look younger." So funny.

Many grandchildren don't have the gift of spending nearly their entire childhood near their grandparents. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

When I was young, my Granddaddy Brown passed away from cancer. After that happened, Grandma moved literally across the street from my family. Throughout my childhood, Grandma was at nearly every one of my ball games. She was around the house after school, she went to church with us, she went fishing with us... everywhere we went, Grandma was with us.

When we moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina, Grandma followed. Once again, my Grandma moved into a place within a block of our home. Grandma was always there to the extent that after a while, she started to feel more like a mom than a grandmom.

I was a lucky grandson and I know both of my brothers feel the same way.

This month has been hard. I've wanted to write about so many things, but every time I am about to long onto our website and start typing, I just felt like something was missing. For the first time since I can remember, my Grandma isn't around.

Over the last couple years it has been very wearing to watch my grandmother grow more and more limited each passing day. It was easy to see Alzheimer's toll after every time I saw her.

The hardest things to hear from her was her pleading request to be taken "home." She couldn't always tell you where "home" was, but she knew she wasn't there. It was also hard to hear her express how much she missed my grandfather. She made it known that she was ready to go "home."

While it's good to know that her body and mind is no longer paralyzed by Alzheimer's, it's difficult to imagine life without her. The only relief that I can find in her passing away, is the joy that I get knowing that she is finally home.

Home to my grandmother was where her husband was and where she wasn't in pain. The selfish side of me is sad to know that I will never have that piece of "home" that I had growing up as a child without her being around, but in my heart, I find comfort in my assurance that she is in Heaven. What Jesus offered my grandmother was a "home" where she could be reunited with her husband, a painless life.

One thing that I've learned through all this is appreciate my time with Amanda. Time is the most priceless thing that we have and often we treat time as just a measurement. It's been hard to think about how one day, my marriage with Amanda will run out of time.

Which leads me to the other thing that I've learned through my grandmother's passing. I have become much more grateful for the opportunity that Amanda and I have, through our relationship with Jesus Christ, that our time together won't be limited to our time together on Earth. Instead of dying, one of us will have an "I'll see you later" and after that, the other one will have an "I'm coming home!"

In conclusion, anybody who knows my grandma knows that she was always positive and always loved to smile. So in her honor, I'm going to end this post on a positive note. Listed below are a few things I will and will not miss about my Grandma.

Things I will miss about G'ma B:
-Her sweet tea
-Seeing her in the audience at any family events
-Her amazing cakes
-Her sweet smiles
-Her soft laugh and/or snicker
-Her loud cackle when something was hilarious
-Her hugs
-Going fishing with her
-Her positive outlook

Things I will NOT miss about G'ma B:
-Her frozen cookies (she survived the Great Depression, so needless to say, she preferred "freezing" as opposed to throwing away)
-Her cheating and trickery while playing board games (the older she get, the more she "conveniently" she forgot the rules)

We love and miss you Grandma.

Tagged (Andrew's answers)

As most of you know, my family is scattered all over the U.S. So although we still love to chat over the phone, we tend to typically update our other family members afar through these blog sites. It's a great way to share pictures, videos, stories and store memories. Well, as you probably noticed (via-Amanda's last post), my family has been playing this "blog tag" game. Yes, I'll give it to you... at first glance, an online game of cyber tag is a little on the nerdy side. However, Amanda and I have enjoyed reading people's responses as the game as progressed. And now, I have been tagged. So here goes...

4 Random Things About Me:

1. My dream is to one day restore & sail a vintage sailboat
2. A lifelong goal of mine is to one day be a published author
3. I wrote out a checklist of 100 things that I wanted to do within my lifetime, well before the movie "Bucket List" ever came out.
4. I have a beta fish that sits on the corner of my office desk that is named Oscar de la Santos. He received this name after an extra slow work day when I decided to try to poke him with me finger. He moved like a Spanish Matador, hence the name Oscar de la Santos. It sounded fitting.

4 Occupations I'd love to do if talent/money were irrelevant:

1. A mayor in a small, Southern town somewhere on the coast.

(the type of mayor that you only see on the news whenever a huge hurricane is barreling down on the coast... I could be the face of reassurance. That's a scary thought, I know.)

(above: surely I could do better than this guy...)

2. A high school/college basketball, soccer or football coach.
3. A New York Times best-selling author
4. A kicker for the New Orleans Saints (very few hard hits, decent-to-high chances of survival)

4 Guilty Pleasures

1. thick, juicy burgers (the-messier, the better)
2. Sunday afternoon Football, wings & naps
3. Creating different marinates, sauces and rubs
4. Reese's blizzards from Dairy Queen

4 Things I'm Drawn to Buy Even When I Don't Need Them:

1. Movies (my dream is to eventually have my own "Man Cave" with a Blockbuster supply of DVDs)
2. Books
3. Fishing & nautical equipment/gear
4. Electronics & gadgits

3 Challenges I Face on a Daily/Weekly Basis:

1. finding good, quality time to spend with Amanda doing things that she likes
2. finding times for naps
3. not giving my time & energy to the negative people & attitudes that cross my paths on a daily basis

4 Books That Inspired Me or That I Have Simply Enjoyed This Year:

1. "On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story" by CDR. Richard Jadick
(This one is about a doctor who was on call in Fallujah during 2004 when the U.S. took over the terrorist stronghold city. I decided to read this book last week, because with our elections coming up, I figured that reminding myself of the sacrifices made by our men and women who have served, would strengthen my appreciation for my right to vote. This book was beyond powerful.)
2. "I Am America (and So Can You!)" by Stephen Colbert (I wouldn't label this one insightful, but it is hilarious)

(above is a picture of my favorite comedian, Stephen Colbert)

3. "Three Weeks with My Brother" by Nicholas Sparks (A memoir which focuses on the special bound that is found between brothers)
4. "The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats and the Recover of American Ideals" by Todd Gitlin (accurate, right-down-the-middle assessment of the history of recent politics in America)

Tag! :)

I was "tagged" by Kathy to answer these questions. After reading her and Sarah's blogs, I think I have a pretty good idea how the game works. If you get "tagged" you answer the questions and then pick three new people to tag and have them answer the questions. Here's what I came up with!

4 random things about me:
~ I eat a lot of carrots, like 5 lbs a week (I get the big bags at Food Lion!)
~ Clean sheets and vacuumed carpets make me very happy :)
~ I don't really like to cook but I love to bake
~ I love roller coasters and rides!

4 occupations I'd love to do if talent/money were not qualifications:
~ A tour guide at the Egyptian pyramids and an African safari leader
~ A successful writer who travels the country with her husband to meet people and sign my book for them
~ The first woman to head coach an NBA basketball team
~ One of the people that sell all the cool gadets on the QVC channel (confession: I used to practice with shampoo and toothpaste when I was a little kid getting ready for bed)

4 guilty pleasures
~ Mexican food - I could eat it every day!
~ Sweet tea
~ Going to the pool (and beach) - I could go pretty much all day every day in the summer
~ Baths (it might not seem that bad now, but it was hard to give up my relaxing baths during the drought!)

4 things I'm drawn to buy even when I don't need them:
~ Things in the dollar section at Target!
~ New make up (especially when I still need to organize and throw out old stuff)
~ Junk food at the grocery ...but let's be honest, I'm never giving that one up...and I truly believe my husband will thank me:)
~ Clothes on sale at Macy's (man you can get a deal there with coupons!)

4 challenges I face on a daily/weekly basis:
~ Managing my stress level
~ Finding time to work out or at least take walks with Andrew
~ Getting to the grocery store
~ Being on time when starting my day

4 books that have helped/inspired me this year
~ Rich Dad, Poor Dad
~ Spend Well, Live Rich (this one was from our priest that married us...it has great life lessons and financial lessons for beginners)
~ The Bible
~ My business books at school - though it's hard at times to read chapter after chapter, I have learned some great stuff to take with me into my career

3 people I'm tagging:
~ Charlotte Rose
~ Adam
~ Pops

Can't wait to read yall's answers!! :)

"Oh when the Saints, come marchin in..."

Everybody that knows me knows that I dearly love the New Orleans Saints. Always have, always will. Well, this last weekend, Amanda and I met her parents & Keri up for a little tailgatin' & football.

I'm not going to talk a lot about the actual game (because it still is a sensitive subject for me), but nevertheless, we had a great time and here are a few pictures from our day.

Amanda and my Saints Wagon


Keri one-upped Betty Crocker on these Panthers and Saints cupcakes for the game


...at this point of the game, it's safe to say that I was wearing a fake smile for this picture

The Cross ladies trying to stay away from the bonfire that I had going on the grill. When in doubt - more lighter fluid.

Bourbon Chicken Kabobs

Fashion over football.

Amanda seems to disagree, but I personally find this picture quite romantic.

Married Life

Every time we run into friends it seems as though they seem to ask the same question: "How's married life going for ya?"

The truth is, married life is amazing. We've both been very busy but now that the summer is over for me, my work load should be slowing down; which is great news for both Amanda and me.

An ongoing adventure in our lives right now is our ongoing lessons on cooking. Amanda is getting pretty good at making biscuits and I have been finding ways to ruin recipes with too much Tabasco sauce. I guess it's a good thing Amanda didn't marry me for my kitchen-abilities.

We also have recently experienced the joys of auto selling and purchasing. Some of you know about Ol' Landy (my 2000 Land Rover Discovery) that was down for the count over the last year (continuous transmission problems). Well, after saying our goodbye's, we finally sold Landy. I had my good times with Landy but at the end of the day, that Brit was one stubborn vehicle.

With that said, Amanda and I fell in love with a Toyota Tacoma truck. So far, so good... we're loving it. Here is a picture of the truck...

One last bit of blog-worthy news: Each year, my side of the family has a putt-putt tournament. I know the majority of you are thinking "Putt-Putt?" Yes, Putt-Putt. Think PGA Master's meets middle school nightlife at Frankie's fun park... put those two together and you have my family's annual Putt-Putt tournament.

In match play, I've always been able to hold my own. I consistantly will putt one of the lowest rounds, year after year. However, call me Phil Mickelson if you will - I've never been known to win the major.

Our family plays in teams of two. Brothers & their wives against each other and our parents. To the average Joe, this tournament wouldn't mean much. But to me, this determines my level of involvement with my family for the upcoming year. (I'm joking, Mom.)

But this year, things were different; I played with a much improved Amanda (known as "Lady Luck" on the links). I'm proud to announce that this year, Amanda and I won the 5th annual "Shallowbag Bay Bill's World Championship of Golf" title (Shallowbag Bay was the Putt-Putt geographic origin of this tournament - and my dad, Bill, is the host).