Lucky me got to work Saturday but after that nonsense was over, Jodi and I went to dinner and then we went to hang with our Jeeple at a friends house.  We spent the evening on their deck overlooking a small lake and conversing around the firepit, listening to music and partaking in some adult beverages.  Next thing we knew, it was midnight.  It was a fun night.

We spent the better part of Sunday working around the house and taking care of business related matters.  It wasn't very exciting but we accomplished some things and that is progress.

This week I have two photo shoots scheduled with some of our models and that is about it. I'll probably use the free time to work on our website more. 

Yesterday was a very tough day at our house as Jodi and I had to say goodbye to one of our beloved bulldogs, Gia.  We knew this day was coming but it is always one day too soon.  I took the day off from work and after we said goodbye at the animal hospital, Jodi and I took some time in the Jeep for a long drive and some wind therapy.  We drove through a State park along the lake and did some exploring on roads we had never been on.  It helped some but we miss her greatly. 

That makes two dogs we have lost in the last year or so and Angus is our sole remaining pet.  He will be 10 in a couple months and that is up in years for a bulldog.  He is healthy though and for that we are thankful. 

I went out scouting some locations yesterday for a photo shoot with a couple of my models who would be at our studio later in the evening.  After the shoot, Jodi and I went for a ride to dinner.  With temps in the upper 60's, it was a fun ride.  We will hit the upper 70's today.

We have sales sessions the next two nights to keep us busy and then model shoots Thursday and Friday.  I have to work Saturday so it will be a short weekend.   

We spent 70% of our weekend working on business related stuff.  We made great progress on some projects we really need to finish up.  Both evenings we took some time for ourselves.  Saturday night we went and had Imo's Pizza over on the Kansas side and did a little late evening shopping.  Yesterday evening, I stripped my Jeep down, put the trail doors on and we went for a ride in the mid-60's temps, which was actually pretty comfortable.  We wound up having a late dinner and then meeting our friend and his Jeep at Dairy Queen for dessert. 

This week I am shooting my models three times and we have two sales sessions to complete.  Things will be slow for the next 5 weeks as graduation is near and most who wanted senior pics have got them already.  It will give us a break to do some things we want/need to do.

The weekend is almost here and I have much I need to accomplish.  So much that I won;t be going wheeling this weekend to try to get it done.  The club is going to Kansas Rocks but I'm going to be a responsible adult and work versus go have fun.  I may get up and meet them for coffee and donuts before they roll out from 4 Wheel Parts.  It depends on what time my eyes open in the morning.

I really need to get my interior cleaned up in my Jeep too.  It has dirt and mud from our last adventure still and could use another wash.  I really want to get the top off and trail doors on but rain is in the forecast and the temps still aren't at or above normal yet.  Almost May and we are still in the 40's and 50's.  I did get the CB tuned earlier this week and need to test it for range.

I've been seeing a Jeep Scrambler running around our house the last 6 months or so.  I told Jodi if it ever goes up for sale that I would be interested in buying it.  Well, it's up for sale and I have seen the details on it as it is on our Craigslist.  Fully restored, every nut and bolt.  One of 2000 made that year and 60% were shipped out of the country.  It is sweet and has a price to match at $26K.  Going to watch it and see if the price drops on it.

We spent our evening with our Jeeple at a local bar and grill.  It will be the last time our group meets there.  The service was horrendous, even though they knew we were coming with a large group.  It seemed this was their first night in business and they were absolutely clueless.  Luckily we were with good company and had great conversation while we waited for the buffoons to get food prepared and delivered to our tables.  Afterward, we went and had apple pie and ice cream at a real restaurant.

We have lots to do around the studio in the next week or so and then we will see a break until June 1st when things start all over again.  I have some projects I need to get done and somehow I have to figure out how to store all my gear in a more orderly fashion.  With the limited storage space we have remaining in our lower level, it is a mess currently. 

Here are some of our new models for the coming year that we have done a shoot with.

Jodi and I spent the weekend prepping for our Model Team party that went off without a hitch yesterday.  We prepared lots of food, assembled their gift bags, cleaned up the studio and house and finished up their images and slideshow.  Our 12 new models arrived and we spent the next two and a half hours laughing, telling stories, talking a bit about the year ahead, eating some great food, watching their reactions to their gift bags and enjoying each others company.  We have a great year ahead with them.

I have a photo shoot today.  It will not be ideal weather either as we have clouds a breeze and upper 40's for temps.  Ridiculous for the 3rd week of April but we go forward.  Tomorrow I have a shoot on a private golf course scheduled.  It's suppose to be about 70 so things are looking up.  I will have to miss our Jeep group meetup but Jodi can go and enjoy the social activities.  

We had a client/model team member in for an ordering appointment Saturday morning.  She was a fun girl to photograph.

We had 98 club members attend out meeting last night.  You can imagine what the parking lot looked like.  Our club is now up to 186 members so pretty much half of the club was there which is pretty incredible.  We had good conversation, food and I had a chance to talk to my shop guy about what to do next to my Jeep.  What I like about him is that he will take your money but he will also tell you where your money is better spent.  We had a lengthy discussion about where my best bang for the buck would be and I've started generating a parts list.  Then, I will have to decided if the upgrades make sense or if it's better just to go full tilt.  During our talk, Jodi walked up and asked us "So, how much is this conversation costing me?"  It was quite funny.

I have a photo shoot today with a boy whose mom is a member of our off road club.  We didn't know of each other prior so that was kind of cool to figure out we were both in the club.  She has a white JKU with pink accents and her son has a 2008 JK Rubicon that we will be photographing him with today.  He is also a golfer.

Warm weather arrives (for a few days) today.  Most of us are ready to take the doors and tops off our Jeeps but with cold weather in the forecast for the upcoming weekend, we are a bit hesitant.  I really need to get a hoist put up so I can store my hard top in the air and not take up floor space. 

JD got his promotion which means he now has to start wearing a suit to work.  Jodi spent a few hours with him yesterday helping him find some he liked.  His new job starts tomorrow.

We still haven't seen a good stretch of Spring weather yet but that doesn't stop us from having some fun out on the trails.  We hit Kansas Rocks Sunday with our club and it was an overcast day with snow in the forecast and temps around 35 degrees.  Our convoy of 22 Jeeps arrived at the park around 9:30am and we aired down and disconnected our sway bars to head out on the trail for a lesson in recovery techniques.  We spent about an hour learning proper winch use, using a tree saver, a snatch block and we talked about other winching techniques including using a ground point and even a Hi Lift jack to get out of trouble.

After the class, we went back to the staging area and had a great lunch.  We followed that with a few hours of wheeling.  We went with the hard core group and did some pretty cool climbs and downhill drops.  I wound up in the lead on the trail and decided I was going to take the group up a steep climb that had an easier side and a touch side.  Naturally, I chose the hard side and I got us into a bit of a jam.  I didn't engage my lockers (dumb move) and when we hit the layers of shelf rock about 2/3 of the way up, we bounced sideways.  Not where you want to be on the side of a steep hill.  We were pretty far off camber and Jodi was freaking out just a bit.  I gradually allowed us to roll back a bit, at first getting a bit more off camber but then you could feel us start to go back the other way and I was able to get us straightened out.  I tried again (again not engaging the lockers) and again we bounce a bit sideways.  One of the lead trail guys came to assist and to ease Jodi's tensions I told him we needed to go up the easier side.  I did engage my lockers this time and we went right up, even from a precarious position.  In hindsight, I should quit trying to prove what my Jeep can do without lockers.  They are there for a reason.  I probably took a bit of a bad line too because I made the decision to cut across the hill side to the hard side from the easy side.  Lesson learned.

Some pics from the day which aren't spectacular by any means but I didn't have Jodi get out in the cold much to do pics and video.

We may tune CB's at our house with other Jeepers today and then we have our club meeting on Wednesday.

My new tire carrier has arrived and of course, I didn;t even think about how I was going to mount my Hi Lift jack and the CB antennae until a few days ago.  So I wound up ordering the Teraflex accessory mount kit.  It should be here today but I'm not sure when I will have the time to get everything done.  While I'm at it, I may change the 3rd brake light to the lighted ring that goes behind the tire.  I saw one o n the way to work this morning and I liked how it lit up the holes in the wheel on the spare. 

I got a photo shoot in with my Model Team last night and Jodi filled in for me for a consultation with another client.  We've been booking a lot of new sessions for summer so far so things are trending pretty good right now.

We got our taxes done yesterday too and we only owe about half of what we did last year due to some moving deductions around, etc...  We didn't get to claim JD this year so we could have come out even better had we been able to do so.  Our accountant went over the new tax laws that are now in effect and it looks like we might come out a little better next year too.

 

The four day break is over and it's back to work for 5 days since it is my Saturday to work.  Only 5 months away from having my 30 years in.  What a relief that will be to reach. 

Jodi and I made pretty good progress on pressing business needs while I was off.  We are putting the final touches on a 92 page magazine for our studio that details what we do.  It has required a lot of trial and error as neither of us are graphic designers.  Needless to say, we've had a few moments working together on it but it sure looks pretty good at this stage.  Next up is getting our tax return done on Thursday and finding out how much of our money gets stolen by the government.

My new tore carrier will be arriving this week so I will need to schedule some time to get that installed.  After that, I probably will do the driveshafts and then focus on some interior mods ahead of our Colorado trip.  I need to get my GoPro app working on my head unit too.  Not sure why I can't get it to load all of the way.

JD had his interview for pit boss at the casino the other day and is hopeful he will get the opportunity.  He and Megan are wanting to buy a house next Spring when their lease is up.  Hopefully interest rates will still be low for them.     

I'm enjoying my 4 days off work for the Easter holiday, getting a lot done.  I got a couple more short videos from Tuttle uploaded to my Youtube channel.

We are going wheeling at Kansas Rocks next Sunday.  Weather won't be great but I came up with the idea of doing a recovery class and we have about 25 Jeepers attending right now.  Hopefully the place is dry when we get there.