Wow, its been that long?

Wow, so its almost been officially a year - I just checked my blog and saw the date on the last post!... and its not that I haven't had anything to blog about, its just that life has kinda been going full steam ahead since Katrina. However, now I'm actually taking a much longer break from the normal pace of life - I'm actually in London right now on a 3 week tour of Europe with Mel and Chad (who's keeping a much better blog of what we're doing anyway)... But I'll get to that later: a semi year in review is in order. Lets see how much I can remember...with the help of my imagestation account! (For those who forgot - http://www.imagestation.com/members/centanni)

I'll get the sad stuff out of the way first:
Katrina happened, my parents lost their house and lived with me for 3 months.
My grandmother (Dad's mom) was living in Austin in a nursing home after Katrina, which meant I got to see her more often... though not often enough - sadly, she passed away the week before mother's day.

Now on to the happier things:
My parents did eventually go back to New Orleans and bought a new house in Metairie, which with they seem to be very happy, and it didn't flood, so that's even better.

I went to Ruidoso (an hour north of El Paso) for my buddy Victor Rubio's wedding right after Thanksgiving, then went back to El Paso for my buddy Aaron's wedding. Oh, and there was the Vegas trip for Aaron's bachelor party - can't forget that! Then I went to my buddy Luai's wedding in Tallahassee, got to visit with Jenn, and experience my first VERY different culture wedding (Luai is Muslim) - a good time was had by all.

This past Labor Day weekend I went to Chicago for a short vacation with Taylor & Carrie, Richard & Mary, Erin, and Melissa. It was great to get to spend some time with friends who I haven't seen in a while, and I even got to see my cousin Katie, who I haven't seen in almost 4 years!

Now on to the vehicle update.
Back in December, I bought a '90 miata with the intention to Autocross it. Well, I had a hell of a time getting it to pass emissions, and then after driving it for about 2 months, I realized it had a major problem with the crankshaft - suck. It took me about 4 months to get up the guts to fix it, which basically meant glueing things back together! (Its a strong epoxy, but still, its basically glue!) Anyway, its running again and last month I finally autocrossed it for the first time. I came in 5th place out of 14 people in the novice group - not too bad for a 16 year old car with 143k miles, street tires, and an engine that's held together with glue and making about 70% of the horsepower its supposed to have!

Three months ago I finally got the Chrome Bumper Vette that I've been wanting. I'm not a fan of the color, but its growing on me. I bought it from a guy who's an aircraft mechanic and had restored the car with his son while his son was in highschool. The kid graduated, so it was time to get rid of the car - so I bought it for a steal! The car has basically been completely restored, frame off. Check out his website, the pictures speak for themselves!

I saved the bad news for last - I haven't ridden my harley in about 5 months now because I'm missing a footpeg. Last time I took it out, we were on our way back from the San Antonio bike fest, on I-35, and when I pushed myself back in my seat, my left footpeg sheered off. I pulled my foot up in time to only have it skim the pavement, but that completely threw off my balance, and I almost lost control of the bike - kinda scary! We pulled off and let me gather my wits, and then I ended up riding the rest of the way back in the crotch rocket position on my Harley, using the rear passenger pegs - I looked rather funny, but I just wanted to get home at that point! Anyway, I haven't been able to find a replacement footpeg yet, but I will soon, and I'll give this riding thing one more shot.

Anyway, that's it for now - I'll post some pictures of the miata and vette later, and write a post about London later...