MATTHEW, STEPHANIE, EDEN & NOAH

No, literally, we have floors!  Noah's room (or "No No room" as Eden refers to it) can now be walked into safely.  The picture shows the current view from the living room.  It's a little odd seeing a floor above us, but it looks as though they've done a really good job and everything feels sturdy from above.  It was also weird looking out of the windows that are now part of Noah's room as there was no way to reach them before (and boy were they dirty!).  I believe we're getting some electrical and HVAC work done tomorrow and then they're going to try and get it all inspected.  Things are looking good and Stephanie and I can breathe a little sigh of relief!

August has started off with quite a bang this year.  Stephanie and Eden spent a week in Cocoa Beach, FL with her family while I started my new job with Surgical Review Corporation.  I've now been there two weeks and I'm really enjoying it.  I like the people I work with and I'm back to working on projects that are more like what I'm used to.  I have to dress up a little more than I'm used to, but if that's the worst that I have to endure I think I'm doing well.  Also, work finally started on the new addition to the house.  We have a two story living room that we're going to split in two so that we can give Noah (and the grandmas when they come to visit and help) a place to sleep.  As you can see in the picture, the studs are in for the walls.  The floor system is supposed to start on Monday and the electical and everything else to follow.  We're pretty excited about the new space, especially since the old space seemed to be so wasted.

After seeing the new Dodge Challenger the other week, cars have been on the brain. In an attempt to purge it, I decided I'd come up with a top 10 list of vehicles in music/movies/television that are memorable to me.  Have fun going down memory lane...

10. KITT - 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - Knight Rider: OK, so the car itself isn't that cool but, as they say, it's inside what counts. I like my car as it is, but imagine if I had a red light that moved back and forth in the grill... "Super Pursuit Mode!"

9. Garth Algar's Mirth Mobile - 1976 AMC Pacer - Wayne's World: After seeing this in the movie, I wanted a Pacer badly. My friend and I found one and offered the guy $100 for it. He turned me down, guess he lost out on that deal. Anyway, Garth's ride featured a custom flame paint job and a licorice dispenser! I wonder if I can get one of those installed in my car?

8. The Bandit - 1977 Pontiac Trans Am - Smokey & The Bandit: Made CB radios cool in my mind. So cool that I put one in a Volkswagon Jetta. In hindsight, it probably wasn't so cool in a Jetta, but I lived in Harnett County and CB antennas were cool on anything. Even Jettas...

7. The General Lee - 1968/1969 Dodge Charger - The Dukes of Hazzard: Doors welded shut? No problem, hop in through the always open windows. Good thing it never seemed to rain in Hazzard County. Who DIDN'T want one of these growing up? This thing could take a jump and keep going, and the air horns!!! OK, so maybe all that wouldn't go over so well today (as they did a pretty good job of showing in the movie version) but...

6. Christine - 1958 Plymouth Fury - Christine: Put new meaning to the words "Touch my car and you'll die." It's probably good that I don't have Christine, my neighbor wouldn't have fared too well when she backed into my car last fall.

5. Bullitt - 1968 Mustang GT 390 Fastback - Bullitt: Steve McQueen's version of a Mustang = subtle and cool. Makes for great car chase scenes as well as adding to Ford's coffers by reissuing a version of the newer Mustangs in a "Bullitt Edition"

4. The Mystery Machine - 1968 Chevrolet Sportvan 108 - Scooby Doo: Along with The A-Team, they made vans cool. Then came minivans and ruined it all. Now if Stephanie will go for one of those originals, I'll highly consider getting a van to tote the munchkins around in!

3. Ecto-1 - 1959 Cadillac Miller Meteor Limo/Ambulance Conversion - Ghostbusters: It's hard to make an ambulance cool but Ghostbusters (with the help of some classic styling and big fins) did just that. If I owned a company today, I'd make the company car just like The Ecto-1. Except for the Ghostbusters logo on the side...unless I was a Ghostbuster...which I wouldn't be...unless there was such a thing because The Ghostbusters rocked (well, they got a little dorky in Ghostbusters 2, but how often do sequels ever live up to the first?)

2. The Eliminator - 1933 Ford Coupe - ZZ Top: One my favorite bands of all time and they know how to get around in style. The Eliminator STILL makes me want a hot rod. As a kid, I attempted to put together a model of this car. I think I got the body color right, but I'm pretty sure the real Eliminator didn't have gobs of glue around the windshield.

1. The Time Machine - 1981 De Lorean DMC-12 - Back to the Future: Who knew that all you needed to travel through time was some plutonium, a flux capacitor and 88 miles per hour? I've got the 88 miles per hour part down pat, anyone have some plutonium or a flux capacitor to spare? Forget the plutonium, I'll go with Mr. Fusion instead!

So there's my top 10 list. Looking back on it, it took me way too long to put all that together.  Hmmm...