Rachel

Falling Brook – Moving In

~ randyaa ~ 20 Comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailWow! Last weekend was an insanely hectic few days.� Not only was our daughter Delilah born but we also moved into a new house.� We’re finally settling back into normalcy, well… as normal as it can be with a 1week old baby and a new house.

Even though we had to move the closing date due to little miss Lilah’s early arrival we were fortunate enough to get the sellers to agree to an early possession.� 7am last Saturday I left Rachel and her mother at the hospital so I could get the move underway and so we could be all set by discharge time (which I convinced the nurses to do LATE in the day).

I did the final walk-through at 8am, picked up the 26′ U-Haul truck at 9 (no I’ve never driven something that big before) and we had the move under way by 10am.� At the new house a little after noon with the truck and my father’s snowmobile trailer fully loaded.� Completely unloaded by 1:30pm.� Not too shabby.

Couldn’t have possibly done it without all the help.� Thanks George, Dale, Brian, Ryan, Mike,Cory, Bill, Chris, Eric.

During the whole process I made the following time-lapse.� There are big gaps because well… I was busy.

Delilah Grace

~ randyaa ~ 18 Comments

We had this short & sweet ‘Pushing’ post all ready, but the little lady had other plans so we had to wait until now to let the world know.  Not the first plans she’s disrupted and certainly won’t be the last.  That’s ok though, it all comes with the territory.

It’s been a long few days but she’s here!  Couldn’t be more excited (and scared… but that will pass).

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Delilah Grace was born at 8:26pm May 19th weighing in at a healthy 9lbs 12.5oz & measuring 21.25″.  Because of all the meds Rachel was on she needs to stay in the special care room for at least the night which is a little hard for us but it’s for the best, we can actually get some sleep tonight!  Her name does have some meaning to us but that’s for another time.

We knew everyone would want pictures so we wanted to get these up right away.

Mom & Baby are both healthy & sleeping soundly. Dad is about to head off in that direction as well. Heh, Dad… that’ll take some getting used to.

Love you all!

~The Aldrich Family (all 3 of us)

A Perfectly Normal Sunday

~ randyaa ~ 5 Comments

On a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago it was gorgeous outside so Rachel and I spent the afternoon with the little one.  So what she’s not born yet?  We’re anxious parents so we couldn’t wait.

Rachel’s brother George & his wife Stacie gave us Oregon shirts for Christmas last year & we just got a package from them for the baby with a Oregon onesie in it.  It was too cute to wait a few months before using so we had a perfectly normal fun Sunday afternoon at the park.  Leave us alone.

Space Monkey News

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Ricky Gervais was on The Daily Show Monday night and they showed a short clip from the new HBO show ‘The Ricky Gervais Show.’  It looked hilarious so I took a look around the net and was able to find some of the videos.  The Space Monkey Monkey News video was particularly hilarious.

Rachel and I haven’t laughed this hard in years.  Seriously, there were tears… Watch it!

It may be a little hard to follow unless you’re already familiar with Karl Pilkington or at least know he’s really this dumb.  Then again we didn’t know anything about him until we saw some of the Ricky Gervais videos so you’ll probably do just fine too.

A Saturday full of Hockey

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The Labatt Blue Rochester Pond Hockey Regional was this Friday through Sunday. Saturday morning I took it in for an hour or so & It was sweet!  It was great for the town as well.  Lots of people heading in to restaurants, lots of added business for the shops and vendors on an otherwise freezing cold non-inviting snowy February day.

After picking Rachel up at work we headed out to Henrietta and managed to catch about 20 minutes of Liams Hockey game at the ESL complex.  That kid is gonna be a hockey star some day.  He’s been skating since 18 months old and he’s crazy competitive.  I see scholarships & drafts in his future.

Our First Climb – Crane Mountain

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In 2005 we climbed our first mountain (Crane Mountain) together. I had climbed a few in the past but this was our first together.  We were spending a week in the Lake George area and what better way to explore the region than from above?

ladderWhile not the tallest mountain we’ve climbed, it was pretty intense with several incredibly steep rocky sections.  One of the steepest sections even had a ladder, which was good because being our first mountain together… we didn’t exactly have scaling equipment.

As is always the truth in the Adirondacks, the views from the top were simply amazing.  It was on this climb that we really learned how rewarding such a strenuous hike can be.  On our way back down we passed by a little pond and it was so hot  we were going to take a dip.  However; when we took a closer look we realized it was infested with leaches.  Nice!

It was really a good choice for our first Mountain Climb.  The trail wasn’t that long, but intense, and the views were stunning.

We might go back some day, maybe with the little one.

Crane Mountain will always hold a special place in our memory.

We Came We Saw We Crawled (In Rome)

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Pub CrawlWhen Charles, Rachel and I visited Rome in 2005 the last thing I expected to do was drink until the sun came up.

That’s exactly what happened.

We stayed in the Yellow Hostel in the middle of Rome and, although we didn’t know it until the second night, we were bunking(in the same room not the same bed) with two Australian girls in town for the weekend from their Nanny jobs in Milan. Rachel quickly made friends and what do you know but they both had a thing for partying.  They told us about this pub crawl starting at the Spanish Steps they had heard of:  $25 for a t-shirt, a drink and deals at every bar/club and a night of spending time with people from all over the world drinking till we forget it happened!? Sweet, where do we sign?

We literally drank until the sun came up and we had to catch the bus to the airport to fly back to London. One of the girls didn’t come back with us. No news on how her night went, but since she went home with one of the guys on the crawl with us, you can draw your own conclusions…  Our reward for the night was a shirt that said ‘We came we saw we crawled’ that lasted about 5 washes and a hangover (on the Ryan Air plane) that you wouldn’t believe.

Seriously though, we had an awesome time and have some great stories to share. Getting kicked off city buses in the middle of nowhere, BJ contests  in the bar, drinking beer at the top of the Spanish steps, drunken German speak, drunken French speak. Good times.

That said, if you get a chance to pub crawl in Rome, Do it!

A Vehicular Crossroad

~ randyaa ~ 5 Comments

Rachel’s car has finally hit that point.

The point at which we need to choose to keep it till it falls apart or get rid of it now.  For the second time in the roughly 60,000 miles that we’ve owned it, it needs a head gasket.  The car is a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu with a 3.1L v6.  From what I’ve heard this is an extremely common problem with this engine.  Awesome.

So, our dilemma…

The car is paid off.  Irregular maintenance has not yet turned into regular maintenance, so monthly costs have been negligible for the better part of a year.  It’s in good mechanical condition (besides the recent development), although it’s in extremely poor cosmetic condition.

The cost of repair is approximately $1200.  We can safely assume if we were to buy a new (to us) car to replace the Malibu we’d be looking at payments somewhere between $200 and $400 a month and a minute trade in value.

At those costs it would only need to last us another 3-6 months before the benefit of repairing it outweighs the cost of a new car payment.  Of course, this assumes that we don’t have any other major issues with the car in that 3-6 month time period which is big possibility.  On the other hand, we haven’t had to do anything to the car (and it’s been paid off) for almost a year, so really it’s already earned the new head gasket.

It’s a gamble, we either bet on our car to last another 6 months or we bet against it, and move on with our lives without the complication, but with a little added cost.

One last thing to consider: We only drive 1 car on a regular basis as I ride the bus to and from work.  Therefor; having one unreliable car has been something we’ve been prepared to live with for a while.

What would you do?

We haven’t decided but if someone decides they want to give us an offer… let us know in the comments.

Pittsburgh is an Awesome City

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Drinking and Star Wars all with a DD? or my wife rules part deux? Awesome.

IMG_1414Rachel and I went to Pittsburgh for Star Wars in Concert a few weeks ago.  Before we went I learned a little about the city because, honestly, I knew nothing.  Pittsburgh is in the middle of the mountains? Why did I not know this?  It’s only 4.5hrs away.  Really? Why have I not been there before? It takes longer to get to Camp sometimes (driving up route 81 across the Tug Hill Plateau in the middle of the winter is no fun), and we go there almost every weekend.  It’s easy to get to also, just take Interstate 90 to Interstate 79 south right into the city.

We stayed at the Wyndham Pittsburgh University Place which we highly recommend, partly because of the quality of the accommodations at their price, but mostly because they include a DD.  They have a shuttle which takes you anywhere within a 5 mile radius every hour on the hour.  Our car didn’t move once we got there until we were headed home which was nice.

IMG_1397First thing we did when we got there?  We headed to the only place (I know of) where you can get your drink on inside a Church, the Church Brew Works.  A little silly for Rachel, but they served an excellent dinner too!  Surprisingly enough, on top of the great atmosphere, their beer and their food were amazing!

A few suggestions from our list of favorite spots for when you go to Pittsburgh.  Be sure not to miss the Monongahela Incline, it provides simply stunning views of the city and it’s cheap.  Or you can just drive to the top of Mount Washington, but what fun is that?

pittsburgh-pano

IMG_1534Pittsburgh might be the only place in the world where you can see a real live Transformer, or at least a sculpture of a fake transformer named Arch.  Don’t miss that while it’s there.

IMG_1553The ice rink at PPG Place looks like another Rockefeller Center amidst a beautiful crystal (glass) Palace (office complex).  You can rent skates and skate amongst the palace towers around a ginormous Christmas Tree.  Unfortunately we didn’t discover it until a few minutes before the concert or else we would have partaken.

Our favorite part of the trip was (obviously) the reason we were there. Star Wars in Concert was amazing! What an interesting new way to experience the Star Wars story.  Narrated by none other than C-3PO himself (Anthony Daniels) and performed by a live orchestra.  Hearing the Imperial march live along giant HD images of Vader raised the hair on the back of my neck.  Yes, before anyone asks, there were lots of people in costumes around (I sat next to Obi-Wan) but no, we were not among them.  Overall we’d highly recommend the whole Star Wars in Concert experience.

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An incredibly enjoyable weekend.  Pittsburgh is an awesome city and we WILL be back.

Wdljyndham Pittsburgh University Place

Back to Portland

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The DesertOur trek from Glacier National Park back to Portland was rather uneventful, and yet satisfying.  We drove all the way through, only stopping in Coeur D’Alene for lunch (which was a completely unexpected yet beautiful city in Idaho).  Again, somewhere in Montana we hit a giant hailstorm of bugs.  We seemed to literally drive through a wall of them with some as big as your fist.

As we drove through the dry areas, we watched the outside temperature gauge in the car reach as high as 106ºF.  Rachel wanted to know what that feels like, so at 70Mph we opened the windows and stuck our arms out.  It felt just like a blow dryer, and closed went the windows.

Dust DevilAlong the way we saw a ton of dust devils, which is kind of neat as I don’t remember ever seeing them this large before.  They look like mini tornadoes, and they seemed to tear across the skyline with a fury.

After crossing into Oregon we followed the Columbia River along I84, a large section of which we had taken before.  As the sun set, we were provided beautiful views of Mt Hood clear as day right over the river.  The most beautiful sight however was as we were passing Multnomah Falls and the sunlight was peaking through some clouds so only the falls were lit up.  It almost made us turn around, but we pushed on.

Mt Hood over the Columbia River

We arrived at George and Stacie’s with just enough time to show them some pictures and then head to bed.

Even just driving through, the scenery out here is beautiful and fulfilling.