AGASSIZ IMAGING - My New Web Site

I am excited to announce that I have a new web site dedicated to the best of the best of my photos. I have put them in a smug mug gallery linked to my dedicated website. For only $60 for two years I can have a web address, free hosting and a gallery. I decided to ramp up my photography and see if I can make my hobby pay for itself. So far, so good. I chose the name Agassiz Imaging for my 'company' name, as well as the domain name. The name comes from Louis Agassiz who was a French naturalist, that came to the US to teach. He then became renowned for his work on fossilized fishes. The Agassiz name has been given to many landmarks around here such as one of the local peaks of the San Francisco Peaks, and a street that's a block away from my house. It seemed a fitting name, better than Wade photo, or Thorson imaging. With out any further ado... check out the link over there to the right ---------------->
or copy and paste this link:
http://www.agassizimaging.com/

Construction Update

Well, its back to work on the house. I hate having unfinished projects looming over my head ( literally ). Its been two years since I built the new roof and "attic" space and I am determined to finish it. This project seems like it's taking forever. The rental house was done in 8 months, but I figure it went so fast because I'm not living there, plus I had a bunch of help from my Dad. My dad still helps, but there are so many steps to finishing. I needed the extra time to think, though. I wasn't sure where to put the stairs, and what layout I wanted. At first I thought I could make two bedrooms and a bathroom up there. It turned out that the stairs would have taken up too much room, and left two small and disjointed bedrooms, and a really small bathroom. I thought about having a spiral staircase, but realized there would be the same issues, plus you can't get furniture up one of those. Too bad. I really liked spiral staircases. After some more thinking I finally decided to make the whole bedroom a giant master suite. Our trip to Cancun piqued our interest to the possibility of having a totally open feel to the whole space. On one of our 4 hour tours ( the time share sales pitch) we visited a highrise resort with marble everything, and a view of the ocean from every corner of every room. You could see from the shower past the vanity and over the living room to the bright white beach, and light blue sea. Although we wouldn't be using marble, I designed the stair case behind the shower, and made it that we could see through the bedroom to the outside balcony. I also put a window in the back of the shower to let more light through. I put the vanity in one dormer, the toilet room in the opposite dormer, and some dressers in the other two. The design left a large space in front of the bed perfect for a small entertainment center and small recliner. It really maintains the large bright and airy feel to the master bedroom. I spent a lot of time looking around town for all the flooring. I chose some dark bamboo for the main room, and some travertine porcelin tile for the bathroom and shower. I pretty much had to special order everything. I also decided to finish off the stairs in bamboo, oak and wrought iron. We made the old spare bedroom an office-stairway-kitchen extension. The old master bedroom is now the guest bedroom-office. We moved the bedroom upstairs in October, and soon realized once it started to get cold that the furncace cold air return was way too loud, and had to re-route it downstairs. It made more sence there anyway, since it was down lower to the cold air. In late November after Thanksgiving we came back to a water leak. I shut the upstairs water off, and waited until the next weekend to find and fix the leak. I cut holes in dry wall, pulled up flooring and turned on the water. No leak. I waited 24 hours. No leak. I still don't know where the leak was. I guess the house missed having so many water leaks it sprung one for a short time, then fixed itself. Hmm. Hopefully the next house update you see will be with the finished shower. Then there are the plans for the kitchen/breakfast bar rennovation......

2001 Escape

Back before the end of last year I had a chance to buy a wreck and fix it up. A guy came in from Texas, on his way to Sedona. He hit two elk at the top of the switch backs of Oak Creek Canyon. He didn't have any collision insurance, just liability. He asked me what to do. I told him he either had to pay over $4000 to fix it or sell it for salvage. He asked me to get him a bid from the local wrecking yard. Their bid came in at $350. I offered him $450 and told him that I would be fixing it up for Kristi to replace our old 93 Escort. He felt comfortable with me, and really liked that it would be given to her. I spent $1600 on parts, negotiated a free windshield and did all the radiator, body and paint work myself (while Kristi was rehearsing for the Nutcracker ballet). On Christmas day of last year I parked it in the garage with a big bow on it. After our family exchanged presents, I announced one last gift for Kristi. We took her out to the garage and presented it. "You got me a new car?" she stated with excitement. Yeah, it has power everything, all wheel drive, 6 disc CD changer,iPod hook up and new tires. Merry Christmas Kristi. She loves it.

West Fork

I was just getting ready to ramp up construction, when my best friend from college called. Rich was going to be in the area and wanted to hike the West Fork of Oak Creek canyon. West Fork is one of my favorite places to hike. I took the dogs and hiked and camped on the banks of this riperian habitat for a few days.

Squirrel Bridge

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Spring in Tucson

Kristi and I were getting spring fever. We had huge snows over the winter and were looking for some warm sunlight. Fortunately her brother Kevin and his wife Chrissy were flying in to Tucson to visit. We scheduled in a little trip to get some hiking and phographing in.
BEAR CREEK WATERFALL



CORAL SNAKE AT BEAR CREEK



TUCSON STARTRAILS



TUCSON SUNSET

A Flea in Her Ear

It wasn't long after the back house was done that I had another project on my plate. Theatrikos was auditioning for A Flea in Her Ear. I was in this play back in college at NAU, and really enjoyed it. This was common knowledge around the playhouse, as it was directed by the late Clifford E White, of NAU's Clifford E White theater fame. I really was on the fence for auditioning, but Jason the SM begged me. I sat down with director Scott Tignor, and read a few lines from Carlos Hominedes de Histangua...BAM! I was cast. So for the next couple of months we rehearsed and performed. It was a really great cast, full of friends from the last 10 years. It was more than just a play, it was a reunion of sorts. Not only did I get to play the same character as last time, I got to work, hang out, party and fraternize with old friends like Vicki Thompson, Brian Turco, and Brian Wood. I played a crazy jealous Spainiard with an affinity with fire arms. I yelled, chased and fired pistols, all over a fake love letter. The play was reset from the 1900s to the risque and flamboyant 1960s. The play got rave reviews, and numerous write-ups in the paper, as well as multiple plugs on the radio station. I, of course, was mentioned as one of the highlights of the performances.

Tulum and Chichen Itza

We did have to sit through 4 hours of a hard sell of a time share....but we got free tours. I couldn't visit Mexico with out seeing the ancient ruins of the Mayas. I studied these sites in school, and dreamed of visiting before I died. On the bucket list you might say.

The first site we visited was the ancient town of Tulum. It was a picturesque seaside fishing village with it's own beautiful beach.

The most epic ruin, was of course was Chichen Itza. We had a special tour that took us to the beautiful resort there and a special entrance.

We had a specialized tour, an all you can eat buffet, and some free time to explore and photo.

CANCUN FOR SPRING BREAK!

We did other things besides all you can eat and drink. The resort offered bikes, kayaks, mini motor boats, party barges, snorkeling, and shuttle services to sister resorts. We did it all.Isla Mujeres

CANCUN! Arriba!

We were so burnt out from all the work we have done we needed a vacation. Although there was an enormous amount of work to do on the main house, it was time for a break. As luck would have it, my parents gave me a weeks worth of their time-share for Christmas. We were at
Richard (Dick) Long's place in Tucson for the holiday, with the time share book in hand and I saw Cancun. I had always wanted to visit the ancient pyramids of the Yuccatan peninsula, and made the call. Who knows, the bad economy, and problems along the border might work in our favor. Bam! We had reservations at an all inclusive resort right on the water for Spring Break!. I bought tickets on-line with my frequent flier miles racked up from all the house purchases. A luxury vacation on a budget dime. Woo hoo!

We flew in to Cancun at night. They arranged a van to pick us up at the air port, and we checked in to our huge suite.
Oceanside pool.
Yahat docks
Palms and beaches.