BAM!

Carnage in our driveway! I bet this was really something to see when it happened. All I got to see was the impression in the snow when I got home. The wingspan was a good three feet across.

Man from UNCLE

That's right friends, I'm officially an uncle! As of 9:00 pm last night, I now have a precious little nephew named Jacob Andrew White. He's a peanut! He was 8 lbs, 1 oz. I had the pleasure of introducing myself in person while he was a mere 2 hours old!

Rollin' in 08

So it turns out that I'm not very good at this whole "blogging" thing, unless you really don't want to read more than one post every couple of months. Which, now that I think about it, is probably more than most of you care to read about me anyway, but since I'm married to such a charming and engaging woman, I thought I would give you an "Emma Update."

Yes indeed, Emma is working for Senator John McCain for President. So no, I don't see her very much lately. :) Especially since she left to work in Michigan right after the Iowa Caucus. Of course, she came back on January 16th after their primary, and just in time to see our new table that was delivered that day.

Unfortunately for me, the excitement wasn't over after Michigan. Emma has been in Florida since Monday of this week and will be there until after their primary on January 29th. The upside is that when it was -10 actual temperature here in Des Moines today, it was 80 in Palm Beach. That's right folks, a 90 degree temperature difference in the Rittgers household.

So for those keeping score, I will have seen my beautiful wife exactly 8 days so far this month. And yes, it is currently the 24th. So for those of you feeling sorry for me, give me a call to cheer me up or send me some cookies or something. :)

Welcome home... for the holidays

Guess what… Emma and I finally live in a place with more than one room!!! We are buying a townhome in Des Moines and moved the first weekend in December! It will be nice to finally have a place with a garage, especially with the snow and ice that has already made this December crazy!

The Internet does not exist in the Western US

OK, so I've decided that there is no Internet access west of our great state of Iowa. Here's a teaser sample of the 2000 or so pictures we took on the trip. Thanks for you patience!

We drove about 5500 miles over two and a half weeks. For those keeping score, that is the petroleum industry 250 (gallons of gas), and Tim 0. We drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, and Kansas. We visited six national parks: Redwood National Park in California, Great Basin National Park in Nevada, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park in Utah, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. We endured a rain storm, a wind storm, a snow storm, and a sand storm. We had a great time, and even listened to two complete audio books on the drive.

For anyone interested in a more complete account of the voyage, we'll have to get together and chat sometime. We are going to attempt to pare down the photos to an endurable slide show of something less than 1000 pictures! :)

Well, now we are back and have Internet access. That is nice. But boy, we certainly did have a good time out there in the middle of nowhere... We drove through a lot of really uninhabited space out there and saw many freaks of nature that prove the creativity of God. You never know what you will run into next: salt flats as far as the eye can see; enormous redwood trees thousands of years old; ghost towns that tell the story of the gold and silver rushes of the late 1800s and early 1900s; delicately decorated cave walls; red sandstone arch formations hundreds of feet tall; expansive canyons stretching the imagination in both width and depth; gigantic 700 foot sand dunes. Amazing!

Tomorrow's the day!

We will be heading out to California for our vacation this year, leaving tomorrow. Keep an eye here for any updates we are able to post along the way. Not sure how much Internet we'll find out there, but hopefully we will be able to put up a few pictures along the way so you know we're still kickin'! See ya later!

A blog is born

Today's the day... a blog is born. Yipee!