Christmas Letter 2008

Well, it's been 12 months since the last post, wow the time really flies! Here’s a brief summary detailing my 2008.

I know you have all been on pins and needles to hear if I had passed my PE exam back in January. Unfortunately I passed all but the seismic portion, so I vengefully returned to Sacramento in April and am happy to report that I received my letter in July stating I had passed, and am now licensed in California. As an aside I will also always remember the day that I received my result letter as the day I spent drinking Miller Lite while floating down the Truckee River on an inner tube and getting completely sunburned head to toe...those of you who received a phone call from me once I received news will remember that day as the day "some drunk dude called me yelling about a test and inner tubing?"

While we’re on the subject of river rafting…my company sponsored a raft race down the Truckee River from Caughlin Park to West Street Plaza (See pictures to the right). We did very poorly (19 out of 24 I believe) but the proceeds went to the Truckee River Foundation http://www.truckeeriverfoundation.org/ and the Transplant Network. http://www.thetransplantnetwork.com/

I recently got another dog, his name is Kirby (Puckett), and he is a golden retriever. He is much lighter in color than Booker (See photos to the right). He keeps me on the edge of my seat whenever I'm at home, and to my surprise he and Booker get along very well, which is more than I can say for he and Nermal. He is about eight months old and is going to be neutered next month (ouch) as he is quite the little hump happy puppy and my couch is threatening a sexual harassment suit.

Rib cook off was excellent as always. The city has a lot of events throughout the year, the majority of them in the summer. They are all are pretty fun, but all take a back seat to the rib cook off. This year I tried to get a table on multiple nights although, with the increasing popularity of the event, the Nugget felt the fair thing to do was to hold a lottery for the tables. Thus I didn’t get one and will have to wait another year to hopefully get one on the weekend with friends. Those of you that don't have even the foggiest idea what I'm talking about...for shame. http://www.nuggetribcookoff.com/ check it out. You can return here after a you get a little education...it's okay I can wait.

What else is new, well I'm still single...wait that's not new. Oh, a couple of my friends got married...then a couple others got a divorce...circle of life I guess. Ryan finally proposed to Caitlin just shy of a decade of courting...yes people still use the term courting. If you have any interest in their wedding info you can check them out here http://www.ryanandcaitlin.weddingwindow.com/ but return quickly, you don't want this blog to get cold.

I’m 26 this year, so I’m officially closer to 30 than 20. As is the case every year my birthday fell near Halloween. This year I decided to celebrate by dressing up as the devil and heading down to the Peppermill with some buddies to ogle the scantily clad women standing in line to get into the new club (The Edge). I spent most of the night drinking beer and re-gluing the horns to my forehead. For those of you who are used to attaching porcelain to your face, you know how frustrating that process can be. For those of you who don’t, you have been wasting your life.

Downtown Reno has spent a lot of effort and money over the past few years in an attempt to boost tourism and image. The city has done really well with the locals in the creation of the Whitewater Park and by sponsoring “beer crawls” http://www.renobeercrawl.com/ and the “wine walk.” This year for the first time Reno put on a “Turkey Crawl” downtown the day before Thanksgiving. The buy in was canned food for the needy and the whole thing was sponsored by Miller Brewing Co. This is one of the only beer crawls I actually finished this year as they only had 10 bars on the list (shot and a beer at each bar) as opposed to the usual 18. Never the less a good time was had by all and the proceeds went to a good cause.

Turkey Bowl this year was one of our best yet. This year marked the 10th anniversary for our Turkey Bowl, an event which has had just about as many venues. This year we took it to Plumas Park, as Hidden Valley Park (the site for the previous three Turkey Bowls) has been turned into a dog park. Unfortunately we just aren’t in the kind of shape we used to be, but at least we all depreciated at the same rate. I’m sure passing teenagers would have wondered why we were playing football in slow motion…punks. Let’s see how well they play football after 10 years of beer drinking and ignoring fitness.

Reno got a new sports team this year, the Reno Bighorns, a development league basketball team that acts as a feeder for the Nicks and the Kings. The last week of November some of the guys and I decided to check out the inaugural game after being coerced with promises of free tickets and dollar beers courtesy of Scruples Bar and Grill. To my surprise we actually had a pretty fun time…the dollar beers did contribute somewhat to the enjoyment I’m sure. After two hours of screaming and enthusiastic jeering, I noticed that the mascot wasn’t holding up his end…ultimately leading to our defeat…I decided to tackle him. On the way out of the events center he was shaking hands and high fiving everyone, I lowered my shoulder and speared him, I was thankfully not arrested, and to my enjoyment, received many fist bumps and high fives on the sidewalk outside.

We just recently participated in this year’s downtown Santa Crawl (28 bars in this one, no chance in Hell), an event that I look forward to each and every year for the inexpensive drinks, large crowds, and yes…scantily clad women (I’m feeling a trend here). For anyone interested in the night of debauchery feel free to check out the website at http://www.renosantacrawl.com/ they should have pictures up soon.

Well, that’s about it…back to eating Christmas cookies and dreading all of my 2009 New Years Resolutions. Happy holidays everyone!