2 weeks before Christmas

This is a big piece of fine art we have hanging on the wall.....ok, thats a lie. This is a 1000 piece puzzle we put together and swore we'd never do that again. So to keep from having to assemble this again we got this puzzle glue goo stuff and glued it all together. Then we bought a huge frame and piece of mat board and I learned how to mat and frame for the first time. Thanks to Casey for the mat cutter. (So help me I won't frame anything this big again)

Clearly this is the 2nd annual Britton family Christmas tree. It's a good size, the picture doesn't do it justice, but it's covered with ornaments from 1977 until this year.














Since I had the camera out I took a picture of the nice down lit part of our entertainment center. That is our wine glasses from our engagement and wedding....and, how many people do you know that have a glass slipper with their name and date on it, not to mention with, "Happily ever after" on it. (I picked that out myself)

Part of our small collection of Disney stuff. OK, upper left is a piece of stock with Mandy's name on it. Pretty freakin' cool for a birthday present if you ask me. Now she can demand to get things since she does "own" the place. Below that is a giclee' print of DVC. Only available to members, or ebayers. Upper right is a print of the castle with trading pins set to look nice. Below that is an awesome picture we took in sept on the boardwalk around 12:30 am with a tripod and remote. Oh, and the bottom right is my Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Champs poster and game 5 ticket. I was there, they didn't win that game, but it was pretty cool. Thanks to a very cool co-worker he snuck me into the lower bowl area of the arena. So my $120 ticket got upgraded to a $300 just by hanging out at the lower level bar. Still need to hang the poster up.



This is our signed "moonshine" bottles. It's actually signed by Junior Johnson. I never in my life would dream I would have a bottle of moonshine signed by Junior Johnson. I only wish I would have had my camera when I got these signed. We still need to get a bottle to try. These won't get opened.

Disney in Sept (more to follow)

We went to Disney in Sept with 2 other couples from work. Then boB's brother and wife also met us there to hang out for all day Sunday.

Let's go Sorin'! Always a first when you enter the park.

Andy introducing us to Soarin'. We are cleared for take off. {he always looks like this :) }

Mandy is tall enough to ride. We just had to prove it.

2007 (Jan - June)

So, I finally got around to putting the engine back into the S-10. What a better time to do this than 1/17/07. Cold weather, dark, a perfect time. You can't see it but in the corner is a 80k BTU heater.
In March they brought the CAT Chopper by the plant before they gave it to "The Victory Junction Gang" the next day. Don't fret, CAT ordered 2 when this one was built.

The weekend of the Bristol race in March we caught up with our good friend's, the Farmers.

This is Earl's rail cars, he's since sold it, but I like this picture if I had only got the nose in the picture.

We quit working at Advance Auto Parts in May, to celebrate we went to Vegas and took Kenny and Farrah with us. We drove from Vegas to the Grand Canyon. Little heads up, it's a long freakin way to do in a day and back. Oh, and cold up there compared to Vegas. I was also able to get a bunch of nice T-Shirt on that trip. Well, I had to, I left Raleigh with no shirt except the one I was wearing. So I got some every where we went.

The video below is when I finally got around to actually getting the S-10 to start. This isn't the first fire, but this is about the 5th. Amazing what happens when you put good fuel in and clean the fuel injectors from sticking. So this was around June.

Last year in review (Dec 06)

First off, we went to Disney World in early December 06. Had a good time and made some really nice Christmas cards last year. Pretty good picture for a passing stranger (seriously).

I took a photography class and it was pretty fun. Here is a shot from a park in downtown Raleigh.

I'm rebuilding the engine in my S-10. Here's one possibly reason why it failed, or what would have failed. This is what a valve looks like when it's hammered. This happens when rocker arms are out of adjustment.

Random Stuff I've been meaning to share.

This is a crazy video from the Mini Truckin' Nationals in Pigeon Forge, TN from 2000. For those that haven't been to such an event around dark people line the streets to watch the cruise that's 4 lanes wide and just kinda hang out. We were doing the same on this very night. While taping a crowd of people from across the street (because it looked like something interesting was going to happen) out of no where comes this monstrous screeching sound. Hence the video below.

So, now that you've watched it, you have right. The story that we were told was there was a bet the guy in the fire bird couldn't do 3 donuts in the middle of those 3 or 4 lanes. Well, the organized a few dozen people to stop traffic and the fun began. Now the cops show up and he was held at gun point and everybody was run out of the parking building but him and the cop. The cop puts his gun away, shakes the guys hand, tells him it's the craziest thing he's ever seen, if the car so much as moves the rest of the weekend they'd put him under the jail, he drives off and tells him have a nice day. People started throwing money at the fire bird when he came back out. So he probably pocked several hundred dollars.