Planet Isuzoo

For those of you who might be interested in following my Rodeo project, I have a nice little write up about it going on a website called Planet Isuzoo. They have a message board where fellow Isuzu owners can go to ask for help, or just share their experiences. Here is a link to the page. I'll also add a link in the side bar (under our picture). Enjoy!

See you soon!

I finally got the whole passport fiasco sorted out, and was able to take my business trip down to Brazil. I only stayed a week, but overall it was a pretty good trip. I finally got to see one of the completed aircraft that I have been working on, which was VERY cool. The country was quite different than the US, but I look forward to heading back later this summer. Chance are I will be staying a bit longer next time, so hopefully I will be able to take a weekend or two and travel the countryside a bit. I've made a few good friends down there, which helped out a lot during my stay. They were able to show me around to some of the more interesting places in their city that I would have never found on my own. I tried all sorts of new things, from Brazilian chocolate, coffee, and barbque.....to their cachaca, which is the national spirits distilled from sugar cane. All of it was delicious! I did pass on the grilled chicken hearts, though. (ick!)

Project Rodeo is moving right along. I replaced the oil valve I needed to in the bottom of the motor, so now I just have a LOT of cleaning and assembling to do. We're going to get plates for it when we're in Ohio, so the plan is to have it running when we get back so we can start driving it.........finally!

I think that's all for now....see you soon!

Always an Adventure

So Jessie tells me that I am quite an 'exciting' person to sleep next to. Generally, I guess I do a lot of thrashing about, along with a good amount of blanket and pillow stealing. I sleep like a rock, so I'm totally oblivious to all of this. Apparently last night I startled Jessie quite a bit when I suddenly jumped up from a dead sleep, and then promptly hid my head under the covers. I then proceeded to tell her that I was being chased by "big scary bugs" and fell back asleep.

I sure am thankful my wife loves me............=)

Update

Things are going well in the Stuffel household. Jessie has been back from training for two weeks now, and has continued working her previous job in the squadron. And after not having a kitchen for six long weeks, she's been backing up a storm (which has made her husband quite happy)! We even harvested all of our garden carrots, and made some delicious from-scratch carrot cake cupcakes. =)

Fresh Carrots!

Work is going well for me. We are getting ready to transfer the program I have been working on to our Brazilian facility, so there has been a whole slew of different Brazilians coming and going over the past few weeks. I finally got my passport and visa back from the Brazilian Consulate, so it looks like I will be heading down there sometime in March. It will only be for a week, so I am looking forward to a experience since it won't be a overly-long journey.

The Rodeo project is coming along quite nicely too. I've been spending nearly all my free time in the garage lately, trying to get our new vehicle all back together. I'm nearly done with phase 1 of the project, which was repairing the top-end of the motor. Sometime this week, I should be able to start the second major phase, which will be replacing an oil pressure valve in the bottom of the motor, as well as pulling apart the front suspension and drive train. After that it should be as good as new (I hope)!

And the most exciting news as of late, if you haven't heard already, is that we will be coming home to visit soon! Jessie and I booked some tickets from April 8-16, so if you are free that week let us know. We'd love to visit with as many of you as we can while we're in town for the week. See you soon!

Finally!

Jessie finally comes home tomorrow! Looking forward to taking Monday off and enjoying a long-awaited weekend together. =)

All Wet

Well tonight was sort of exciting. Somehow I managed to simultaneously flood both the kitchen and the laundry room while I was in the middle of making dinner. I guess that's what happens when you are running the washer, dishwasher, and sink all at the same time and the main drain backs up. After a good bit of mopping, and helping the repair man climb up on the roof to snake the drain, everything is back to normal. =)

The weather has been great, and I've had the past two weekends off, so I finally have been getting some work done on the Rodeo. This will be our only vehicle once we turn in the Saturn, so I want to make sure that it'll be running like a top until we have to move again. I finally got down to the valve train today, and am going to start rebuilding the top end of the motor. Hopefully I can get it all back together over the next few weeks!

Body work out of the way

Lots of work to get to this point!

And the best news yet, is that Jessie will be home in less than a week! Needless to say, she is very ready to come home, and I have missed her dearly. It's been a long six weeks, but it's nearly over. =)

7 months later....

Man, it's hard to believe that we've been in California for nearly seven months now. How time files! Anyway, I guess that I don't really have any exciting news to report, just wanted to say hello. Jessie is still in Alabama, and I am still keeping myself busy with working and little projects around the house.

I got my passport stolen last week, which was pretty exciting. I was going through the process of obtaining a visa, because my employer wants to send me to Brazil for a while. Turns out my passport and other information was swiped right off the desk of the person who takes care of setting up all of the travel arrangements for C&D. So, I had to spend several hours on the phone filling out police reports, talking to various government agencies, and all of our financial institutions trying to safeguard against identity theft. Woohoo.

The weather has finally let up a bit here, which has been nice. The past three weeks of constant rain, flooding, and mudslides were starting to get a bit old. If you've been watching the news, you'll know that Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee were hit with some pretty nasty tornadoes. Well, Jessie is safe and sound, and luckily was much further south than all of the damage.

That's all for now....!