Car Update and Camping this Weekend

This is the site where we will build the hotel. Once our construction starts it will be tight quarters as far as laydown room goes. The fence on the far side is the eastern edge of the property. Where that light pole is in the middle of the lot is about the middle of the building. Where the light pole and those trailers are will be a 22-foot deep hole stretching across the lot by next weekend.

I got the Honda back last night. They were able to fix it for a reasonable price. They had to reset the SRS system and they replaced the wiring harness that feeds into the washer pump. I don't know if there was more I could have done, but I am just glad to get that over with. I enjoy working on cars when it is not stressful; I hate working on them when I cannot find the problem. My old Dodge Van is ready to be put to rest. The brakes are starting to go. They cannot stop on a dime like our other cars. It slows to a stop. It is our mobile storage unit more or less.

Van has started to smile and giggle a lot. He watches Stone and Rusty and tracks them around the room as they walk. He will giggle and make big, bright-eyed smiles when he gets excited. I took some great pictures with my phone but haven't had a chance to upload them to the computer yet.

This is a shot of the 2 conventional cranes they are using on the other project.

Last night we got out the tent and set it up on the grass to make sure it is dry and ready. The boys helped me put the poles together and clip on the hooks to the poles. I made a couple phone calls to friends last night about Devil's Head, the area we are planning on going. Everyone I talked to said it is a great area and not a long drive from town. There is a 1.25 mile hike up to the lookout tower that takes you up just under 10,000 ft in elevation. Maybe Tim will be up for it bright and early Saturday morning before all of the kids wake up. We both need the workout as our fall flag football season is quickly approaching.

They are so tall we can see them from our place in Littleton about 11-12 miles away. On our job next door we will have a large tower crane and a smaller crane to pump concrete through.

Speaking of football, we had a scrimmage last Saturday against a fellow team in our league. They have an excellent quarterback who doesn't make a lot of mistakes. I was really happy with our defense though. While we never intercepted him, we did a good job defending them. We ended up winning by 2 TD's despite about 5 turnovers on our part. I did have an interception though it wasn't thrown by their QB. In the league we play in, they allow the receiving team on a punt to throw a forward pass if the guy catching it has not taken more than 2 steps. I punted the ball and then intercepted the pass.

This is a picture inside the lobby of the Palazzo Verdi job adjacent to the hotel we will be starting next week. It currently is at the 11th story of the first half of the building. They are building it in 2 phases. In this picture they are working on utilities and putting down void form. The stack on the right is void form. They pour the concrete on it when it is laid out and the ground is able to expand under the concrete without causing the concrete to lift and crack.

Janna and the kids came and watched and the boys did a good job of finding every possible ball that had ever been left around the field ( 2 tennis, 1 lacrosse, and 1baseball core with the yarn now off). Janna said Rusty found a plastic tampon applicator (? is that what they're called?) and he put it on the end of a stick. He was so proud.

Today my cousin Cassie and her boys are coming to see us on their way to St. Louis. We are excited to see them.

Kiewit Building Group

I am a field engineer for a new project KBG is starting just up the street from the office. We are waiting for the signed contract so we can break ground on a new "Renaissance" Marriott Hotel. It will have 181 rooms, 20 story tall tower, with a 2 level underground parking garage and conference center area. We have a 2 year schedule to substantial completion. It will be a fun project for me as I will be there from the start. They told me my timing was perfect with this project getting ready to start. It is located just north of the Arapahoe Exit on I-25 in the South Denver Metro area. There are already 2 conventional cranes there working on another building we are constructing. You can see those cranes from everywhere so look for them when you are driving by and you will know where you can find me.

The construction will be what is called "cast-in-place" concrete. That means it is formed up and reinforced (with tons of rebar) and the concrete is poured into the forms and cured (hardened) in it's final restingplace. The building adjacent to it we (KBG) are also building, and it is a pre-cast concrete building. This means the concrete is predesigned, cast, and cured and trucked in. They use cranes to lift it into place and welders weld it into place using the metal pieces that were in it when cast. Pre-cast buildings are faster to construct but not necessarily cheaper. It just depends on the owner's schedule.

If none of that made sense that is okay. I will start putting pictures up when I have some to put up. One thing that is good about this 2 year schedule is that it will coincide with my cousin Spike Gatten's mission. The closer we are to finishing the longer out he will have been. We are excited to see my cousin Cassie and her 2 boys Cooper and Gunner this week. They are driving through in their new minivan on their way to their new home in St. Louis, MO. We also get to see her mom, Aunt Jean on Thursday when she flies in to drive the rest of the way with them.

We are also going camping next weekend. We bought some new camping equipment last weekend in preparation for it and are excited to get to use it. After doing some research online today I think we are going to go check out Devil's Head in between here and Colorado Springs. I am looking forward to getting out of town for a couple of days and enjoying the mountains.

Car Troubles

I started the at the new office on Monday. I had to go drop off the truck at my old office and say goodbye to everyone before reporting at the Building Group. Janna and the boys followed me over and brought me back home. I spent last weekend getting the Honda Accord ready to go.

Unfortunately the electrical problems it was having before have gotten worse. I didn't have to worry about the problems when I had the truck, but now that the Honda is my primary form of transportation, it is a glaring mess. I replaced everything that I knew was part of the problem, but now other problems have surfaced. My battery is being drained by a grounded wire somewhere, so when I wake up it is dead and when I need to drive it during the day it isn't strong enough to start or even turn over the engine.

Thanks to Walmart's great warranty I replaced the 3 month old battery to eliminate the mechanic blaming the battery. I took it in to Ralph Schomp Honda yesterday and they are supposed to do a diagnostic on it and hopefully find the problem fast. All of the other shops I called wanted to start at square 1 and charge $90/hour til they find the problem. This place said they would do an electrical diagnostic for about $50, so I went with them. I felt better too, knowing they are a Honda-specific shop. I advised them to disconnect the battery until they could work on it since it was a brand new battery, but they didn't listen. I am hoping it is a quick fix-simple solution and not drain the bank account. I requested that they call me before charging me a small fortune.

As a result, I had to get the old '78 Dodge Van up to speed. I warrantied its battery also at Walmart and put air in the tire with the slow leak. It started up like the Ferrari that it is and is ready to drive. On a side note, when warrantying a battery at Walmart go to a one without an Auto Department desk. That way they cannot test your battery to see if it still has a charge. They just warranty it and send you on your way. This saved me a lot of hassle and discussion.

I believe nothing gets me more stressed than car problems.

Cherry Creek Reservior

Since we weren't able to go to the Newport Beach this year, we spent a day at the beach at Cherry Creek Reservior. The boys love to play in the sand and swim in the water. It would have been nice to be able to get a cheese dog from Jane's, but we had a lot of fun anyway.



















































Stone and Rusty love to "camp" on the lawn in front of our apartment. They bring out tons of blankets, pillows, toys and marshmallows.

HELP US CLEAN UP BLOGGER

I have an important piece of information to my readers and to those who have a blog on blogspot. I AM NOT YOUR MOM, JUST A FELLOW BLOGGER WHO WANTS TO HELP KEEP OUR MINDS AND COMPUTERS FREE OF PORNOGRAPHY AND OTHER DISTASTEFUL THINGS. I love blogger and love that I can keep up with all of my friends and their families through it. I want to make sure it continues to be a positive thing for us.

At the top of YOUR BLOG, (not mine, I removed it) you will notice a navigation bar with the link "NEXT." If you click on that you will be routed to any random blog. This is NOT a good thing. I accidentally hit it once and had a pornographic blog come up to my shock and horror. I have done some research along with my friend and former mission companion Ben B., and we (Ben) have a solution. We ALL NEED TO

1. email WWW.BLOGGER.COM and ask them to give us the option to remove it from our Navigation Bar and 2. until they give us this option, eliminate the Navigation bar from our blogs.

To do this you have to log in, then click on "Customize" in the upper right corner. Then click on the option "Edit html." Don't be intimidated when you see the code below. Scroll down the code and find where it says:

body {

Above that enter (just copy and paste it from here):

#navbar-iframe
{
height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
display: none;}

Leave a blank line above and below it. If you are feeling lost, refer to this link by Ben: http://bennyz.com/navbar.html

Scroll down to where it shows: body {
and just above it you will see the text you are to enter that I showed you up above. After you have entered it click on the "Preview" button and see if it worked.

If it did, save your changes and good job, you did it. If you still see the navigation bar try it again and check your work against the link to Ben's page. It took me some intense coaching from the guru Ben to get it to work. If you still can't get it, call or email me and I will do my best to help you.

Because removing your Navigation bar also eliminates the New Post, Customize, and Log In Features, you will have to use http://www.blogger.com/ to log in and after you log in you will see these links to be able to Create a New Post, Customize, View Blog, and other helpful links to blog with. This is a MINOR inconvenience and worth every extra second it takes to use this route.

If we all do this we won't have to worry about garbage getting into our minds and onto our screens. I know I have nieces and nephews that are old enough to read our blog and I would hate to have something bad on their screen because of my blog. I will now step off of my Soapbox. Thanks for your time and for reading this entire post. Happy blogging.