Hello TechHead.

January 7th, 2009 at 9:43 pm by Vinny

I’ve decided to start a new section of our blog dedicated to anything technology related that I happen to come across along the way. My hopes are that maybe someone out there will benefit from the pain and agony that I spend in fixing some of the problems that I will be posting about.

That’s all for now.

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2009 Is a’Knockin – Vinny and Jess look back at 2008

December 31st, 2008 at 12:47 am by Jess

So here it is: the beginning of a new year. So many questions loom ahead. What did I learn from the previous year? Do I have any expectations for this new year? Who will I meet, who will I continue to know? Will I decide to paint the house this year? These stand to be answered, but for now I am pondering over memories of the past year.

It was a more quiet type of Mardi Gras that brought together a closer knit group. No Miami for us, but instead Vin and I chose to exchange vows to honor our lives together, and with it had one hell of an after party. This led to a great summer full of hard yard work and a lot of water fun style get together; thanks for the pool parties Heather! And the float trips with everyone, we will never forget! This summer also brought a lot of great nights dancing with friends at Moon, which was a balmy summer treat. Summer closed, but did give us two beautiful additions to our friendship circle in the form of Tej and Alexander. It will always be a blessing watching them grow. We even watched as great friends had the opportunity to grow wings and fly away to warmer waters as we freeze our tails off in the St. Louis-style winters.

Even though we all tend to stay close to home during the cold months, thank goodness for Myspace and Facebook to keep in touch with one another! I know that wherever we end up on a weekend, whether it is Dubliner, Dante’s or someone’s front room, it will be filled with faces that make me comfortable and make me smile. I have chosen to fill my life with people that laugh, can dance a step or two, and also do not mind me sleeping over when I can’t drive! I hold all of you dear to my heart and can’t wait to see what the future holds for all of us.

Thanks for reading our blog and continuing to give us support, it means a lot! We love to keep in touch with our friends and we love keeping our friends in touch with each other. One day, 20 years from now, these photos will matter! Just nobody try to run for a government office, hehe!

Cheers, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year from Vinny and Jess.

Salute!

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A Star is named in honor of Vinny and Jess

October 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm by Vinny

Maybe one day, someone will travel to the Eridanus star cluster. If they do, they will run into a bright little star named ‘VinnyAndJess.com’!

We can’t thank Bruce and Debi Bauer enough for this thoughtful and amazing wedding gift. Dedicated on April 05, 2008, the ‘VinnyAndJess.com’ star will always serve as a symbol of shining brightness in our marriage.

We’ve finally been able to extend our marketing campaign beyond the constraints of our tiny planet, and imprint our eternal brand on the milky way galaxy.

For those of you interested in pinpointing the ‘VinnyAndJess.com’ star, here are the coordinates:

Right Ascension: 65.27108349
Declination: -36.47226409

For more information, visit www.StarNamer.net

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A New Haiku for You

October 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm by Jess

So I am not a poet. But I love haikus. I do not love fall, but it is so beautiful outside that I feel like a traitor to Summer. I got a hunkering for caramel apples the minute I saw one. Popcorn balls? Not me, although I feel a twinge of country girl inside, begging to come out and pick a pumpkin. W-A-Y out here in good ol’ Ballwin, you can see the trees turning. Golds, bright yellows, oranges and pinks. It is a sherbet wonderland. The sad part comes soon.

Raking them.

It usually takes about 20 bags to get rid of the leaves that fall into our yard from our neighbors houses. I chalk it up to a good work out. But before that happens, you have days like this. Days when you can go out to your front porch and listen. Something is coming. You can smell it in the air, and it whispers through the leaves. Soon. Soon there will be no camouflage; you will be out in the open for all eyes to see. No more hiding on your back porch in the morning if you don’t feel like getting out of your pjs. No more stalking to your friends to surprise them for a visit. They know you are coming, they saw you down the road through the jail gate like sticks that seem to intertwine through the sky, where once was a full canopy of comfort and safety and shade from the sun.

Now we will shiver. Bring out those sweaters! For girls, I see excitement as they drag out their fall clothes. Yay! It’s boot season again! Dressing in layers can be fun, but I like sun on my skin and St. Louis is definitely an area that has mostly cloudy days from November through March.

I cannot fight it, so today I must enjoy it. I will grab my daughter and we will take pictures of those leaves turning brightly festive. Maybe I will print them and cover my wall for color when the dismal days of winter hit. I will cut my perennials low to the ground and anxiously await there tiny heads to peek through and yawn, waiting to smile towards the new spring sun and greet me with their long leave arms.

Until then, you won’t see me much. An old bear I will become, hiding, crouching, staying under the covers getting warm.

Fall is glistening

Leaves turning gold tell stories

Get your sweaters out!

Jess

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Alexander Michael Gow is born!

September 26th, 2008 at 12:34 pm by Vinny

Congratulations to Mike and Olga Gow!

On September 18, 2008 at 8:13am, they were blessed with a tiny 7lb 1ounce baby boy. Although it was a grueling sixteen hour labor, Olga had nothing but smiles on her face as her and Mike held Alexander for the first time.

We are all so happy to once again add another member to our growing “family” of friends. We wish them all the best.

To view pictures of Alexander, please click here to visit his gallery.

alexander michael gow Alexander Michael Gow is born!

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My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

August 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am by Vinny

It was my birthday on the 21st, and Jess had decided to take me on a camping and float trip on the Meremac River. We were invited to go with Heather as part of her annual float trip. I was very nervous going into this, as I am deeply terrified of the woods. I’m not sure why, but I feel that at any moment some giant southerner in blue jean overalls, no front teeth and a pitch fork will abduct me in the middle of the night and torture me like in ‘House of 1000 Corpses.’ I think Jess knew that I would be more comfortable on a camping trip if I was surrounded by a group of friends, and she was right. I’m happy to report that the trip went off without a hitch, and I even learned an important lesson in fear and kindness along the way.

Day 1: Camping

garrisons campground sign My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

We camped at Garrison’s, somewhere around Cuba, Missouri. When we arrived at the camp grounds, I was even more nervous than when we started, but I was determined to make this a fun trip. I knew that once I got into the swing of things, everything would be fine.

jess builds a tent My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

I never knew that Jess possessed such tent building mastery, but she was a pro. She somehow knew where everything went, and how to go about putting it all together. We all struggled to keep up. By the time we were done our clothes were all drenched in sweat so we decided to jump in the river and cool off.

redneck camp fight 1 My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

Once we got out of the water and sat down to eat, we heard a commotion. Several drunken men wearing camouflage swim wear and straw cowboy hats decided to get into a fight. This was extremely interesting to watch, but it raised my second major fear about this trip: Having a bunch of drunken rednecks come over and start a fight with us for no apparent reason. After a while of commotion, the fight was broken up and the people were transported away.

drunk girl falls My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

Shortly after, a few women appeared trying to carry a small girl in a red bathing suit that had apparently just purchased a new set of legs. She kept falling over herself before finally staying on the ground. The boys in the camouflage came back to look for them, and after a few more beers, they strapped the girl to a cooler and wheeled her away.

After that, the night went pretty smoothly. It was nice being out in the open air. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a full view of the stars. We made marshmallows by the fire and sat around and talked all night. There was something very warm and inviting about the entire experience, and by the end of the first day we were completely wiped and were in bed by 11.

Day 2: The Float Trip

Up bright and early at 8am. Rick cooked those great, low-fat sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches and we all took a minute to eat. Our breakfast was interrupted by a furry caterpillar who was moseying his way across our land.

Everyone stopped to reflect on the trials and tribulations of his journey while I took the opportunity to take pictures of everyone staring at it. The caterpillar managed to make it all the way across our breakfast site before his life was terminated by Chris, who by trying his hardest to avoid the caterpillar, managed to step directly on him.

It was now almost time for the bus to pick us up and take us to our floating destination, so we all scrambled to get everything packed. During our packing, there was a large group of men with southern accents who had appeared by camp site. They were waiting to take the same bus.

church group on bus My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

My fears shot up again. This time propelled by the fact that we had three men in our group who practice very alternative lifestyles. Don’t get me wrong, I could care less about a person’s sexual orientation. On the other hand, there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that a bunch of southern ‘good old boys’ might not take too kindly to that way of life in their neck of the woods. I knew for sure that this was it. We were going to die.

Heather makes friends with the men on the bus

Heather, in all of her infinite wisdom and courage, decided to just go up and talk to them. Honestly, that never occurred to me. It turns out that they were actually really nice people on a Church retreat. We rode the bus with them to our drop off point and they even let me take pictures of them for our website. I learned a valuable lesson in discrimination today. I think the phrase “Never judge a book by its cover” sums it up pretty well.

We arrived at our destination and my excitement was racing. We packed all of our items in our two rafts, waved goodbye to the nice lady fishing, and we were on our way down the Meramac!

Jeff the Fisherman with Nick and Heather

We met Jeff the fisherman at our first sandbar stop. Again, appearances can be deceiving and I learned another important lesson in life. My immediate thought was that he probably had a cabin nearby and if he is capable of skinning fish, then he should be equally capable of skinning our entire group. It’s funny that when we don’t immediately understand something, our immediate reaction is to fear it. I give Nick a lot of credit for going up and talking to him. It turned out that Jeff was actually a pretty nice guy. Nick went up to talk to him, and Jeff taught him how to fish. Shortly after, Heather joined in and was fishing with them. She even caught one!!

Jess looks through the rocks for arrow heads

The best part of this sandbar trip (and possibly even the entire trip), was watching my beloved wife look for arrow heads along the shore. To this day, I have never seen such a beautiful sight, and I will always look forward to the times when we are on a beach and can search for arrow heads. There was something so simple and innocent about it and it made me realize just how special she is to me. It felt like I was falling in love with her all over again.

After about 15 minutes of searching, we found an arrow head! It was only a piece of one, but still in pretty good condition. Shortly after, Jeff the fisherman decided to move to a new spot (I guess we were scaring away all the fish); so we decided to move on with him.

Nick and Paul jump off a tree into the river

On route to our next sandbar, Jess decided to break out her bubble machine and bless us all with colorful bubbles. Nick and Paul had us stop at a very large tree so they could jump off of it. We all thought that this was a bad idea but they went for it anyway. Evidently the water under the tree was very shallow because on impact, Nick though that he broke his legs. I guess no one thought to check the depth under the tree before jumping in.

What came next surprised even me: Jess decided to make an announcement. She wanted everyone to know that she had decided to go back to school. She has been very proud of this decision and wanted to share her accomplishment with her friends. It was well received with a big round of applause. At that moment, I thought that nothing could top the level of happiness and joy that I was feeling…. until I witnessed what happened next.

We came across a giant cross standing on a sand bar. Why was it there? Where did it come from? Was somebody buried there? Without concern for her own life, Jess immediately jumped off the boat and ran towards the cross. She started jumping up and down in front of the cross to pretend to look crucified, and in one awesome motion, knocked the cross down.

She hurried to pick the cross up and tried to re-position it, but it was just too heavy. After all attempts to straddle and replace the cross in its original position had failed, Jess did the only thing she could think of to try to take attention away from her accident: she ran. Jess made a mad dash back to the boat and we quickly paddled away.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. We came across another group of travelers who were jet skiing. They even gave Heather a beer because we had run out. On their way back, we repaid them with the best gift of all: The girls flashed them. The jet skiier, completely blindsided, almost crashed into our boat.

vinny and jess wrap up the day My First Camping and Floating Experience on the Meremac River

That sums up my first camping experience. I had one of the best times of my life, and I look forward to doing it again. Maybe next time I won’t be so afraid of people who are there just trying to have a good time. Maybe the only reason I was even afraid of them is because of the way they looked and they way they were dressed. I never thought that I would be in that kind of position, but I guess it happens to all of us. The best I can do now is to try to remember the positive parts of my experience and use them in a way that won’t make me as fearful or hesitant to be around another group of people in the future. Maybe that’s something everyone should have to learn.

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Professional Moving Services Now Available (Beware of Alan Bequette!)

August 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm by Vinny

I’m not exactly sure how, but we’ve now completed our third move this month. I’m happy to report that we successfully, and almost completely, moved our great friend Heather into her new apartment.

On a completely unrelated note, I would also like to add that if anyone out there knows Alan Bequette, an independent home repair contractor (who also used to be the door guy at Molly’s), I will pay a nice reward to anyone who can get me his current contact information. I try not to talk bad about people, but this guy is hands down, the worst and most unprofessional contractor that I have ever worked with.

About 6 months ago, I had a problem in my house where one of our upstairs bathrooms had a faulty pipe causing it to leak into my Kitchen ceiling. I hired Alan to fix the leak. Naturally, the question you are all probably asking yourselves is: Did he fix the leak? Well, if by fixed, you mean temporarily patched it long enough to collect payment and run, then yes, he “fixed” it three separate times.

My insurance company is trying to sue him to get my money back, but he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. If anyone knows him or can provide any lead that ultimately leads to my insurance company contacting him, then I would be happy to pay a nice percentage of the money that I will get back. Again, that’s Alan Bequette from St. Louis, Missouri. He is tall (about 6ft 3), white, and in his mid to late 40s.

But I digress…

Seinfeld said that moving is probably one of the most intimate things you can ask a person to help you with. It’s like asking someone for a ride to the airport.. Only in our case, it would have been during rush hour… in the heat… with no air conditioning… on a bicycle… going uphill.

I’m just kidding. It was actually a pretty fun and laid back move since it wasn’t anything that was planned. I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but Heather wasn’t scheduled to move until next week. Jess and I just showed up at her apartment with some empty boxes, and before we knew it we had helped her pack most of personal items and decided to help them to her new apartment. We even convinced Nick Burns to stay and help us instead of going to the gym to work on his biceps.

When the dust finally settled we were able to move just about everything, with the exception of some of the much larger items. I was especially impressed that Rick and I were able to connect her flat panel TV to the wall. It’s not something that I had ever done before, but it was surprisingly very easy to accomplish.

All and all, it was a good day. We had a great workout, lost another four pounds in water weight, spent some quality time with friends, and best of all, we can rest easier knowing that we’ve helped make someone’s life just a little bit easier.

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