Hello everyone, after checking my GoDaddy account I realized we have not done a posting in 265 days. That is a long time.  I blame Facebook.  It's very easy to update people you know there.  There, I have justified it.  Sorta.

In July, we went on a camping trip. It was originally going to be at a camping spot I had gone to several years ago. Through a series of mishaps, we ended up having to go to a KOA campground.  Not exactly roughing it, but we still had an awesome time.





Karrie and I actually got to get away for a day and went on a Poker Run.





In October, we went to our friend Ted's wedding.  It was a great time, and the kids had a blast.


















I know I put a lot of pics from the wedding on here, but c'mon, how often do you get to see me in a tux?  And Karrie and the kids looked awesome!

And then - the best time of the year arrived - HUNTING SEASON!  Once again, my Dad joined us for a few days.  We had a great time as usual.




I managed to get a 4 point buck on that trip, but a couple weeks later Alex and I went hunting again.  It was raining and I was getting ready to suggest we leave.  Then this deer happened by:



He was by far the biggest buck I ever took.  And it was made more special because Alex was with me.  This year, Alex also got his first deer!



We are really proud of him, and he is ready to go out and get another one.  (We would be out in the woods today, but it's 25 degrees with 30 mph winds - hence, I blog)

Then came the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  See my daughter off to the United States Air Force boot camp.  We are SO proud of her, but it was REALLY hard saying goodbye at the recruiters office.








We have gotten a couple phone calls and a letter from her so far.  After we hang up is the hard part.  She graduates at the end of January, and I can't wait to see her!  Her friend Cory graduated this weekend, and his dad was kind enough to send us a cell phone picture of her.  What a sight for sore eyes!!!! (even with the military issue glasses!!)



Christmas this year was nice, but it was tough without Ash being here.  We did, however, end the year with a fantastic New Years Eve party!  A great time was had by all, and our friends Curt and Karen came down all the way from New Jersey.



There was karaoke, billiards, and just a great time.....



There are a ton of pics on our Facebook page. So if you don't have your own Facebook account, now would be the time to make one.

And then, at midnight, we said goodbye to 2009.....



Hello 2010 !  A new year and a new decade.......let's rock!

In less than a month, I will take the trek to San Antonio, Texas to watch Ashley graduate from Air Force boot camp. I GUARANTEE a blog update then!

Until then, gentle reader, stay tuned...................

It has been quite a while since we updated Dave and Karrie.com

With Facebook  and Twitter and MySpace updates, the blog took a back seat for awhile. To be honest, Facebook is the main social networking account that I keep up with.  Twitter is neat, but if no one is following you it really seems to be a waste of time. All of that, coupled with Boy Scout meetings, Cub Scout meetings, football practices and work make for very little free time. But, I digress.

Since the last posting:

I had a birthday.  (gulp) 44 years old now.  But I scored a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, so that helped ease the pain.



Ashley turned (another gulp) 18 years old:





Lindsey turned (yet another gulp) 16 years old:



Emily had a very successful season in basketball.  Her highlight reel is here.

Trent looked sharp at the Cub Scout pack meeting, and you can see video of it here.

Last week Ashley went to Fort Meade, Maryland.  She was there for MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station).  Ashley is going in to the United States Air Force!  You can see the swearing in ceremony here.

She signed her delayed entry contract and will be going to BMT (basic military training - boot camp) sometime after August 1st.  We are very, very proud of her.





And, in just a couple days, it will be Karrie's and my 2 year anniversary.  Hard to believe it has been 2 years already. That means this blog is almost 2 years old, too.  Looking back at the first few posts, the kids have grown so much.  Fortunately, Karrie and I haven't aged a day.     

So there you have it ! Never a dull moment around this place.

Stay tuned.........

For those of you that have spent quality time here at Sticky O'Huggy's II Billiard Karaoke Pub, you know there was always something missing.  A bar.  We have remedied that situation.

Around mid-December, Karrie and I started planning on having a bar downstairs.  After a look at the bars that are for sale commercially (and being horrified by the prices), we thought it would be many years before we could have our own.

One night our friends Bobby and Mary were over watching a Skins game.  We were looking online and found a ton of web sites that sell plans for building bars.  The best one was "Speedy-Build Home Bar Plans on the Web". We were able to get a set of 10 plans relatively cheap.  I narrowed it down to 3 that I thought would be best, and Karrie picked her favorite out of the 3.

Day One:

The first morning we started this endeavor, Tom and I met up at Home Depot.  One of the cool things about the Speedy-Build plans is that it comes with a "cut list" so you know exactly how much you need of each piece of lumber.  And there ended up being very little waste left over.   It took about an hour to get it all together (including a propane heater for the garage - money well spent)

Then it was back to the house to get started.  Tom and I spent about 8 hours making all the cuts and numbering the pieces.

Alex jumped in an helped for a while, too.

As did Karrie.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed a beer on the new bar.

Ok, it wasn't like sitting in a pub, but we earned it.



Day Two:

Tom came over and we got an early start on the assembly.  It went pretty smooth.  The only change we made was to make the "L" portion of the bar on the left instead of the right.

At this point, you are probably thinking "wow guys, that is really starting to take shape!"  And you would be right.  The shape it was taking was BIG.  We didn't realize how big until we tried to carry it down into the basement to continue the build.  After taking the "L" section almost completely apart, we got it inside.  Putting it back together wasn't that hard, but we said several bad words about our lack of foresight on that one.

Tom did an awesome job cutting the joint for the bar top.

The handrail is actually 3 pieces of wood.  One big piece and a quarter-round on either side.  It matched up nicely and feels like one piece.

We got our second wind when it was all starting to come together.  When we finished building, we had been working for 16 hours straight. 

Sleep came quick and hard that night.

Day Three:

Day three was actually several nights after work.  It was a lot of sanding.

Then it was time to apply the stain.  We went with cherry wood.

The stain REALLY brought out the details in the wood nicely.

We did a couple coats of stain and then applied urethane.  This was over the course of several nights.
One mistake I made was getting "satin" urethane.  It would look shiny when applied, but when it dried it was relatively flat.  A quick trip to Home Depot fixed that.  I got a can of "gloss".  Now it looks very, very shiny.

Then I added accent lights and mounted them under the bar top.  Total cost for that: 50 cents.  It is a string of clear Christmas lights from Rite-Aid, marked down after the holidays.

Day Four:

We tricked Tom into coming over invited Tom over again.  We moved the bar to where it was going to remain.  Then we mounted the television, cable box and DVD player over the bar.  We cut BIG holes in the wall so that we could have the karaoke speakers flush against the wall.  It really opened up a lot more space.  We built the bar stools that Karrie found on Overstock.com. (awesome deal, too). And we built a platform for the slot machine to sit on.

And then, we broke the bar in!

It was a very fun project.  We could have bought a bar from a store, but not only would it have cost much, much more, we wouldn't have this great sense of self satisfaction that we have now.  A job well done!

We are having a "Fill The Bar" party in February. See you there!

Stay tuned............

Karrie's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  And this one was wonderful, not to mention it was our first Thanksgiving in the new house.

The idea that Karrie had for the pictures over the fireplace mantle came to fruition just in time, too.  It came out great!  Remember, she had the foresight to see what the house could look like with new paint and a good cleaning?  Well, her vision of how the pictures would look was right on, too.  Check this out:



Feel free to contact her for decorating ideas.  And cooking tips.  Check out this spread:



Unfortunately, my gang and Emily couldn't be with us this year.  Ashley made a really nice centerpiece for the table, and here it is:



My parents brought their friend Mary with them. She made the coolest treats for each table setting:



The chest of the turkey?  Oh yeah, that's a chocolate covered cherry.  In a word, YUM !

After we all gained about 5 pounds and enjoyed all the company, we had to take the traditional group photo.

Shortly thereafter, the triptophan from the turkey kicked in:

All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Stay tuned..................

There are some strange things on YouTube, and we just added 2 more.

The first is what happens when you mix a sumo wrestler costume with a Rip Stick style skateboard.  You can find that little gem right here.

The second is what happens when Alex and Trent find our friends game cam when we were scouting for our next hunting trip.  That little piece of history is here.

We also posted a bunch of new "as they happened" pics on the Sticky's II blog site.  Check it out here.

We also took some wonderful family pics this weekend so that we can create the idea that Karrie has for over our fireplace.

Here are a couple of them:













And then things got a little absurd............



And Diesel weighed in with his opinion of the whole thing:



So that is about it from the Dave and Karrie.com headquarters.

Talk to you soon, gentle reader................

We finally had our housewarming party !

It was a really good time, with plenty of friends showing up. Unfortunately, we broke out the camera after some of the guests have gone.  We still got some great pictures, though.















As the hour got later, someone (not me this time, honest) suggested karaoke.  So that is what we did. And it was a LOT of fun.













Bottom line is we had a great time with great friends.  You can see all of the housewarming pictures here.

I tried something new with these pictures.  I made a video and put it up on YouTube.  It is here. It's a little cheesy, but hey, it was my first ever attempt.  Enjoy, gentle reader.

Until next time !

We finished up a wonderful vacation today.  The last couple days we spent at the beach, taking advantage of the fantastic weather.











Karrie and I had promised ourselves we would go out on at least one date while we were on Ocracoke.  We ended up sitting on the porch of my in-laws house, listening to music and enjoying each others company.  We are each others biggest fans.  Something so simple as that will be remembered for a long time. ( we are still holding our "free date night out" card to be played at a later time, though    )

Last night, we packed up all the stuff, cleaned up the house and took our traditional "look at us - we are all tan" picture.



Then we got up early this morning and headed to the ferry.



I didn't notice till we got home that Karrie's head got chopped on the picture, but you get the point.

After a couple LONG traffic delays, we got home.  It was a wonderful vacation, albeit WAY too short.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see my in-laws, and we didn't get to go out on Captain John's boat for a fishing trip.  We also didn't take the picture of Ashley in front of Blackbeard the pirate at the kite shop in the village.  All these things give us something to look forward to next time.

I put a LOT more pictures of our trip up on the photos page, which is here .  There are also several fresh entries at the Life and Times at Sticky's II page. Check them out, you won't be disappointed.

Until next time, gentle reader.

Frequent visitors to Dave and Karrie.com will remember that last summer we went to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina for our vacation.

We have managed to work it out so that we could come here again this year!  We are staying at my in-laws house while they are away.



We got here on Sunday afternoon, in time for the 5:30 ferry.



It was a little windy, but a relaxing wind-down after the trip.  Trent is at his grandparents house in Florida this time, so he wasn't able to make the trip.  We miss the little fella.









I read over the 2007 Ocracoke Vacation blog, and realized that when we got here last time, it was too late to make dinner.  We ended up going to Howard's Pub .  We did  the same thing this time.  And it was delicious, as always.



We got up the next morning at the crack of dawn (10:30am) and had breakfast.  Packed up the Yukon, let the tires down to 12 pounds of air each, and hit the beach!













When we ran out of beer were done relaxing at the beach, we came home and had grilled quesadillas for dinner and watched a movie.

Tuesday morning, we got up and decided to hit the beach again.  It was a little overcast and cooler than Monday, so we figured it was a good day to introduce Diesel to the ocean.  He has never been outside of Virginia.  He LOVED the ocean.  Unfortunately, he decided to bite the salt water and ingest some of it, topped with sand. 







We got home and he slept like a rock.  Then he experienced, shall we say, some intestinal discomfort.

He will be sitting out our next trip to the beach.

It is now Wednesday morning as I type this.  I am sitting on the porch, having a cup of coffee.  We decided we are going to skip the beach today, since a couple of us (myself included) managed to get sunburned during the festivities of yesterday.



I posted a bunch of photos that we have taken since arriving.  You can see them here .

Also, on the Dave and Karrie.com subsidiary web site, Life and Times at Sticky's II , we are posting as-they-happen pictures from my BlackBerry.  You can check that out here .

Having an awesome time, stand by for more updates from Ocracoke !!!

Today....Diesel turned 1 year old. Go to http://stickys2.blogspot.com to see a cute picture of him wearing a birthday hat that Emily made.

1.....2.....3........Awwwwwww.....


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

The posting I sent to The Blog of Dave and Karrie worked.

However, the attachment did not come through.  So, we have formed a secondary blog.  This new blog is called:

 Life and Times at Sticky's II

The postings on the Life and Times blog will all be via BlackBerry and usually have a photo attached.

The URL for the new blog is http://stickys2.blogspot.com .

Don't be confused.  This blog is still active, the new one will be from the BlackBerry.

 Please subscribe to the new one, and comment as needed.

Carry on.