In early 2023, Dr. Ross Brown and I started talking about a “Grand Whisky Tour of Scotland”.  Though it started as a “we ought to…” and quickly progressed to a “we need to” discussion.  We both love Scotch Whisky, Ross had never been to Europe and Scotland is a gentler introduction to the other side of the Atlantic than France or Germany, and as I am of Scottish descent (~55% according to family lore and 23&Me: Duncan, MacHam, and Baird) I will take any opportunity to roam the hills, glens, shore, and consume Aqua Vitae at the source.

It took us a year and a half to align schedules, buy airline tickets, research distilleries and Scotch, obsess over logistics, and pour over maps.  Multiple guide books were bought and devoured for general itineraries, historic sites, and “cant miss” spots on the map. 

Both of our work schedules were nuts and the days and nights leading up to the trip were crazy busy dealing with the daily details that would allow us to check out of everyday life for a short stint.  On September 11, 2024 we left the US for a 10 day tour of Caledonia!  

The itinerary was shuffled on day two and we were met with blue skies and perfect weather every day that were tour Scotland, with the exception of one drizzly morning and afternoon.  We drove our huge RV on tiny roads through Edinburgh, Sterling, Speyside, the north coast, Inverness, Loch Ness, the Highlands, the Isle of Skye, and Glencoe – sampling Uisge-beatha na h-Alba the entire way.  

I can be the quintessential tourist, with multiple cameras slung about my neck and in my pockets, whipping out a light meter, or setting up the “perfect” shot. I am aware of how annoying this can be for the people with me, so I limited myself to one 35mm camera, one lens, my iPhone, and a GoPro.  I brought rolls of slide file and 400-3200 ISO/ASA B&W film to document our travels.  Ross, to his credit, was so patient and didn’t complain even once when the camera came out or when I had to swap film constantly.  

We have been adventuring and traveling together for over 20 years and get each others strengths, challenges, and quirks.  We had a blast taking turns driving and navigation and, our RV laughing for 850 miles of some of the best Scotland had to offer.

A fine trip, fine company. stunning scenery. great whisky, and memories that will last a life time.  We also brought back more than a few bottles of scotch – all stuff that you can only get at the distilleries.  Five bottles came home with me, all carefully packed and padded.  I picked up one bottle of Glenturret especially for my son, who is coming to appreciate Scotch.  I try to help foster an appreciation of the good stuff.    

To say ‘thank you’ for letting me be a camera nut, I made a 50 page photo book from the shared album of both of our pictures after we got home.  Thick paper, matte finish, and hardcover.  Not cheap, but worth it as a memory of the trip and experience. I made it online with Mixbook after doing a couple evening of research.  I don’t have a discount code or get anything from sharing who I used.  I think that I am going to start doing a yearly “best iPhone photo dump as well. So that I have a physical copy of the 1TB of photos that live rent free on my phone.

Laurel, Logan, and I went to the Orange County Zoo and the Irvine Regional Park Pumpkin Patch this past Sunday. It was nice to be home after so much travel and the weather was perfect! Logan had a big time! Laurel got soft serve ice cream, and I played cameraman.

Mornings in Fullerton involve coffee, nest making, Blippie on the TV, and a pile of the three ladies that are my life: Laurel, Logan, and Truffle.  This is the routine.  

I was having a little bit of a hard day yesterday (Sunday).  I miss my son.  I want to hang out with him and just do dad stuff, but he is grown and lives 3000 miles away.  I sent him a note and tried to call, but he was tied up. 

To take my mind off it, I did some work in the yard, swapped a battery in the van, and went for a long walk with Logan.  We then played and read books until nap time.  We napped and I shot a picture of her snuggling that made me tear up.  I love her!

Carlton texted me back that afternoon and we talked on the phone.  Hearing his voice, laughing together, and spending time with Logan made my heart a little less heavy.  I am looking forward to Christmas when I will have them both under my roof – at least for a little while.

2024 was my second year at Makercamp and again, it did not disappoint.  It was a great time, I got to see blacksmiths, carpenters, printers, fabricators, photographers, YouTubers, and makers that I know as well as meet a bunch of new folks.  I bought a few things, made a coffee scoop, riveted together a fish spatula, fixed an electrical issue on a resort-owned golf cart, snagged a few freebies, had my picture taken by the amazing Mark Adams, checked out some tooling that I would like to buy from Coal Iron Works, snagged some letterpress prints for my shop wall.  Drank a little too much one night, roasted marshmallows, danced a little, did not do any Karaoke, ate fantastic food, and drove around the Catskills on my final day there before flying to a series of off-site meetings for my day J-O-B.  

I want to do it next year with my wife and daughter (We will be Karaokeing!).  The rooms at the Blackthorn are rustic and that is being generous, so, I would love to rent an RV for the weekend and make a long trip of it!  My two ladies will be more comfortable that way.

I sold Grünhilda, my 1990 Diesel VW Syncro Doka pickup.  She was my unicorn.  It hurt a little, but she went to a good home – literally placing 3rd in a VW show a week after she was delivered.  

Why did I sell the Doka?  Because I have too many vehicles and too much shit.  The stuff I own has started to own me.  The Doka was my biggest ticket item and the ting that had the quickest sell potential so the for sale sign went up, I made a sell/tour video for YouTube, and I listed her on a couple of VW sites.  She sold sight unseen to a retiree and VW collector in Mobile, AL for full asking price in three days.  Four days after the deposit hit my account, a transport company was at my door and the balance was in my hand.  

Before shipping, I have her a bath, cleaned her bed and interior, applied a little wax, and made a video for the new owner to document the starting process, keys, optimum running condition (exhaust temp, boost, etc.) and put that up on YouTube as well to limit the amount of after-sale calls that would come my way.

I still have the 1987 VW Syncro van, Schnitzel, and the 1986 CJ-7 Jeep, Pepper.  I need to put a new fuel pump on Pepper and new tires and will use some of the Doka sale cash for that.  The rest will pay some bills, a bit to Logan’s college fund, a spa day for my wife, and the rest into savings.

After my father’s funeral, we spent the weekend in Austin.  Carlton and his wife, Belle, were there with us (Me, Laurel, Logan, and the best auntie in the world, Emilie).  We threw down on some BBQ and TexMex.  Strolled the streets and shops downtown and found our way to the party on 6th street.

It was a good time, regardless of the occasion that brought us together.  I loved having Carlton and Logan close enough to snuggle both at the same time! 

We held the final graveside dedication for my father, Robert A. Burns, on September 20, 2024.  It was my birthday and was 2 years and 5 days since Bob’s passing.  I have had time to mourn, grieve, laugh, get angry, research, 2nd guess, plan, analyze, cry, and love Bob during that stretch.  I am in many ways grateful for it, the time, though I don’t know if I would have planned to draw the process out for so long if given the option up front.  

The Memorial Flier:

Bob is buried in the Texas State Cemetery, which is akin being interred in the Arlington National Cemetery for a Texan.  He rests diagonally from Jerry Jeff Walker and about sixty feet to the left of Chris Kyle.  The process to get him interned there was neither fast nor easy!  There was some bureaucracy to hurdle (Bob would have hit at least one feller in the mouth if he would have been present) and then there was an issue with his headstone: any and every monument in the cemetery is considered a State Historic Monument and has to go through a design approval process before work can even.  It is not a fast process… Also, when the final design was approved, the man carving Bob’s head stone was an artist and “would not be hurried!”  

Then there was arranging schedules for all the folks that wanted to be there.  The Newberry’s had two son’s graduation college, one going to Marine OCS, The Talley’s moved to California, The Bryant’s had a trips already scheduled here and there, my job was laced with travel, assorted cousins had summer vacations and illnesses, friends were scattered on various trips from Portugal to Maine.  In the end, we settled on a date that mostly worked for everyone.  A day that was 1 day after I flew in from Scotland and the 51st anniversary of my birth.  I made it work.

The cemetery staff was amazing!  They closed the cemetery for us from 9AM-2PM and gave us run of the reception hall and ornately furnished receiving room (leather chairs, bronze statues, and oil paintings on the wall).  The weather was hot, but the skies were blue.  Over 40 folks made the trek into Austin to honor Bob.  There was a duet performance of Sweet Beulah Land by his former wife, Katie, and his best friend, Joseph. A piper played Danny Boy as the service started, amazing Grace during the service, and then a Taps/Scotland the Brave after the Marine Corps Honor Guard fired a 3-rifle, multi-volley, salute and the flag was presented.  Some of us spoke and there was more laughter than tears.  Fajitas were served afterward because Bob was partial to them.  He would have loved the whole affair.  

As I said in my eulogy of him that day, I miss Bob. I miss his pipe, his drawl, the boyish twinkle in his eyes when he was being naughty, his cigars, his stories, that index finger stabbing into the table in time to emphasize a point he was making and I mourn the missed opportunities, the memories never made, and despise the thief of time that came with his sudden and untimely passing.

Laurel and I took Logan to the Sherman Library and Garden in Laguna Beach a couple weeks ago.  I think that the garden gets prettier and prettier each year.  The flora changes with the seasons (if you can call them that in SoCal, and it is a new garden 2-3 times a year.  We love it, first going there in 2004 and Logan loved it too.  She ooh’ed and awe’d over the flowers and butterflies and rocks and leaves.  I took my 35mm and my Rollei TLR and snapped a few pictures of both Laurel and Logan.  My two favorite female subjects to photograph.  

My wife had two friends come in for a long weekend and a trip to Harry Potter World at university City Studios was THE plan. I went along and had a great time. I was not drug there of made to go. It was fun. It was also fun being an adult at a theme park – you get to day drink in public! I MAY have walked around drinking Guinness for most of the day.

Hogsmeade!!

My wife went wand shopping

Hogwarts School

After a couple days a trade-show in Washington, DC this summer and took the opportunity to see the local sites, cameras in hand, and make the most of my time.

The day before I flew home, I went to Mount Vernon, and then made the drive south to Monticello, which is always always been on my list of things that I have to see before I fade to black.  The structure of Monticello, the house itself, was super impressive.  The grounds and farm were nice but paled in comparison to Mount Vernon.  Mount Vernon Fields do not live out and it looks like they’re ready to plow tomorrow. Washington’s house was not the grand artifact that Monticello is, but it is a house that seems to have been built to live in, to entertain friends, and a home that a prospers farm was run from.

I am a little bit of a camera-happy tourist and I took both my Pen FT half frame and my Rollieflex medium format cameras. I shot on both color slide film and black-and-white in each. 

Monticello

Mount Vernon

The dining room at Mount Vernon

The gardens at Monticello

Mount Vernon’s flower and vegetable garden

Washington’s study/office

Jefferson’s Study

The Mount Vernon Distillery.

Assorted shots from Mount Vernon

Assorted Monticello shots and Jefferson’s wine cellar

As stated many times, my wife is a petter person than I am – on so many levels! She also has a fantastic sense of humor. It is dry and witty and she comes up with fantastic one-liners!  She is HILARIOUS without forcing it. Her humor is natural, unpracticed, and off the cuff. What comes up, comes out.  Having a baby later in life has given her humor a whole new facet.

This is the seventh writing, and an ongoing installment of Things My Wife Has Said: 

• My wife is a very smart woman. She takes care of our finances and is a spreadsheet Demi-Goddess at work. However, we all have one or two gaps in our ‘book learnin’. She was today years old (2024 at the age of 41) when she found out that narwhals are not mythical creatures and that they actually are marine mammals that swim in the ocean.  She thought that they were just like unicorns or fairies or leprechauns. She did NOT find the Wikipedia article I opened, videos, or my crying laughter at all amusing. 
• We had a babysitter and were headed out on a date. My bride gave me head to toe once-over, looked down at my Birkenstock clogs and said “Those are not ‘Date Shoes’ and you will be changing them unless you would prefer this date to be a platonic one.” I changed my shoes.

• So, I walked in the bathroom and my wife and the baby are in the bathtub but 5 feet from the tub there was a suspicious puddle with a suspicious tint and I asked my wife “did the baby pee on the floor?” Our French bulldog, Truffle, entered the room and seemed scandalized that someone peed in the house, Truffle looked at me like ‘I didn’t do it!’ and Laurel glanced down at the puddle in mild unconcerned surprise, then at me, and back at the puddle and said, “Yep”, completely non-pulsed like it was a new normal. Random baby pee puddles in the house and a scandelized puppy is a new normal.
• When talking about the military phonetic alphabet and its etymology after my wife heard me spell something out over the phone during a work call, she said that it she always used UNICORN for the U and thought everyone else did. I said no, it is UNIFORM, to which she replied, “I’m sure the unicorn thing is better. People should use UNICORN.” and then when back to reading a book on her phone like the matter was closed forever.  I am going to need to call the Pentagon and let them know about the change.
• My wife and I can’t wrestle. We are no longer allowed to. It is a mutual agreement. She’s not a good wrestler and she gets frustrated when I pin her or I laugh or something happens that she doesn’t want to, like an arm bar or getting flipped around. In her frustration, she lashes out and tries to bite me like one of the undead in Dawn of the Dead, or like a walker in The Walking Dead. Savage. I tell the story sometimes when we are among friends or out in a group and the other day my wife said “I really wish you wouldn’t tell that story in public.” I gave her a quizzical cool look and she said “that should be private.” apparently her being an unstoppable, biting machine and not a good wrestler is “private.” It is not private and if someone were to tangle with Mrs. Talley, know that she will 100% bite you in a very tender spot and hang on like a pitbull. There will be repeated bites.
• I walked into the baby’s room early one morning and there was a pile of dirty clothes that wasn’t there the night before. Apparently there were a number of diaper related incidences in the middle of the night. I sarcastically said that “looked like it was a good time”. With eyes narrowed, my wife said, “It was absolutely not a good time while you laid there snoring and Truffle (our Frenchie) was just farting away, both of you oblivious.” There was an undercurrent of malice in her voice. I made a hasty retreat without additional sarcasm.
• Laurel walked into the living room carrying a box of Girl Scout cookies (Samoas) and I said, “You’re going to ruin your supper”. – half jokingly. She looked dead at me and said : “This is my supper.” and opened the box while still staring at me, eyes locked, not blinking. 
• On the subject of rubbing her feet, she recently said that “I should remember and acknowledge that her tootsies are like thirsty little plants in the desert that need lotion to survive.”
• While planning, organizing, and shopping for the baby’s nursery she referred to the process as “Gettin’ Nesty Wid It”
• Our wood stove fireplace insert has a catalytic converter to assist in it burning more efficiently. Laurel doesn’t always remember what it is that makes burn cleaner. She called it a “Flux Capacitor” and admitted that any complicated electro mechanical item that she is unsure of the provenance or use becomes a Flux Capacitor to her.  Just like any place that she forgets the name of automatically becomes “Hogsmeade.”

I spent a couple of days in , DC before a trade-show this summer and took the opportunity to see the sites, cameras in hand, and make the most of my time there being the quintessential tourist and our nations capital. 

I took both my Pen FT half frame and my Rollieflex TLR medium format cameras. I shot both color slide film and black-and-white in each.  Was really impressed with how the half-frame did and was really pleased with some of the images that came out of it.  

View from the Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall

“Three Servicemen” at the Vietnam Memorial

A view of the Wall

Lincoln Memorial with the Rollei

The Korean War Memorial

Jefferson Monument

The inside of the dome and Jefferson Statue at the Jefferson Memorial

Washington Memorial and the Whitehouse

a quick view from the outside of the Whitehouse.

I spent a long weekend in Texas visiting and getting to know a long lost cousin and his wife. My trip coincided with Hurricane Beryl, which came in high over there beach house in Galveston and home in Houston. The eye of the storm went right over both houses, but other than a few tree limbs, there was no damage. They didn’t have power for 5 days, but everyone and everything was fine.

The last time I rode out a hurricane like that was when Hurricane Alicia came roaring over our house in Houston as well. The beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston was GONE, but our house was fine. we were out of power for like 6 days and it was in August. Man, it was HOT!

As I have mentioned previously, I really like shooting film. 35mm and 120 medium format. Mostly Black and white. My wife and daughter are easy on the eyes and they have become my muses. A couple of months worth images that turned out.

My son has been involved in Jiu-jitsu for about a year now. It has not come to define him, as new combat sports sometimes do to a person, but is something he really enjoys and is good at.

He entered his first tournament last weekend and placed second in one of the divisions that he was in. So Proud! Not just that he placed, but that he is out there doing it. Striving to be better. Testing what he has learned.

He is the big blond feller on top, trying to pass guard and finish his opponent 🙂

I have a couple of Canon AE-1 cameras – ok, I have 4. That I have acquired over the years. They just seem to show up. I will be taking pictures with another film camera and a friend or acquaintance will have an AE-1 and ask if I want it. The answer is “yes” as I am always looking for a camera battery door or new lens or attachment.

I recently had another drop in my lap and as I was putting it away with it brothers, I found that one of the others had a roll of film in it… I opened it up (after making sure it was rewound!) and the was some Fujichrome Velvia 50 ASA/ISO slide film in it! I haven’t shot slide film in an AE-1 in YEARS!

It was a mystery, so I dropped it by my local camera shop in Eugene, OR (Dot Dotson’s) and was blown away by what came back! There was a whole roll of film that I took of my wife in 2007 or 2008 in Hamburg, Germany and the Planten am Blomen park, near the Damtor train station.

She was and is my muse, but I had forgotten about this sort of impromptu phot session right up until the very instant that I saw the contact sheet. She looked stunning, and it got my level just right to capture her inn the falling light. The film aged beautifully and love the effect it gave the negatives and prints! I am really happy to have found this roll of film!

It was such a gift to “find” these and for them to still be viable after 16+ years. This was early in out marriage and life was a huge adventure filled with food and travel and possibilities.

I have a couple of 8×12 prints up at the house and these are going in my portfolio!

We have Purple Flowering Jacarandas trees all up and down our street. they are very pretty, but they throw leaves, twigs, flowers and sticky sap all over the place. my Jeep was parked in the same spot for a couple of weeks and it was starting to look like a glue trap. I decided it was time for a real deep-clean wash.

a soapy soak, then hand wash using the three bucket method and Chemical Bros soap, a pressure washer rinse, I dried it off with a chamois, cleaned the windows in and out, and finally applied a light coat of Blazen’ Banana Spray wax, wiped off with a micro fiber towel. Before parking it again, I dressed the tires and winch cover as well to make the black pop out.

The jeep, a 1986 CJ-7, cleaned up really nicely!

Saturday:
 Up early moved some patio furniture into place
 Hung 6 shelves above doors in bathroom and laundry rooms
 Coffee
 Unpacked 14+ boxes - 19,483 left to go…
 Broke down and loaded 20+ boxes for recycling
 Installed two metal shelves in master bath to help de-clutter the vanity
 Took a nap
 More coffee
 Took Logan and Truffle for a walk
 Hung two pictures in hall
 Snuggled
 Even more coffee
 Moved Logan’s new covered sandbox into place 
 Struck out at the recycler - don’t accept cardboard - GRRR!
 Made trip to Lowes and got some needed supplies
 Hung a couple of pictures
 Installed 2 more security cameras 
 Had a yummy take out BBQ dinner with wife and baby
 Wine was consumed
 Watched an episode of Shogun on iPad
 Fell asleep in 3.256 seconds after head hit pillow

 Sunday:
 Up with Logan at 6:30, let Laurel sleep in
 Played and sand and read and sang
 Went to French bakery with baby
 Came home and made coffee and breakfast
 Ate and sang and watched Bluey 
 Laurel up and we all played with stuffed animals
 Updated personal and business websites
 Sent 6 overdue e-mails
 Spend a little time screwing off on Instagram
 Took Logan for walk in the backpack
 More Coffee
 Lunch
 Unpacked 4 more boxes
 Completed small organization project for new shop
 Installed pipe and tube organizers in shop
 Hung a picture of Daddy and one of Bob and award certificates in the shop
 Unpacked in shop some. 
 Listened to hours of podcasts
 Found spilled gallon of oil
 Said Dirty words!
 Spread cat litter on it
 Smacked head on pipe
 Said some more dirty words while bleeding a little
 Published an Instagram post and stories about project and stuff in the shop
 Came in and played with baby
 Had yummy Italian dinner
 French wine was on offer and consumed
 Took recycling and trash out
 Read 4 books to Logan
 Set up and installed 4 Apple Airtags - tired of losing my keys!
 Took Truffle for a little walk before bed.  
 Asleep by 10:30
 

Somehow my wife and I find ourselves off on another adventure: Life in sun-filled Orange County, California! 

In the span of about a month, I quit my job (soul sucking), did a bunch of work on the house, made some long needed updates to my VW van, was presented with a job offer that I couldn’t refuse, packed our house, and moved South – like 902 miles south – to our new home in Orange County.

The move was a little nuts with a bunch people showing up to pack and load our house into a 40’ trailer.  It was a Bedlam!  A single day pack and load became a LONG 2-day affair with up to 10 packers in our house the final day.  Laurel was a trooper during it all. 

My shop was on me to move and my dear friend Mark flew in from Colorado, we rented a forklift and had everything packed up in a 26’ Penske truck like a Jenga set.  The truck was rated at 26,000lbs GVW for the type of license I have (class C) and we weighed in at 34,450lbs, less than the vehicle’s true capacity, but still REAL HEAVY! That was before I hooked up the 2-axle trailer with the jeep on it as well! Driving the mountain passes from Eugene to SoCal was not fun in any single sort of a way!  I could not have done it without Mark.  He followed behind in the FULLY loaded Subaru with a heavy trailer for the whole drive south and was amazing in general!  He out worked the team of movers I hired to help load and the team on the other end I hired to help unload.  A BEAST!  

My new Company paid to have the VWs shipped and the transport company showed up the same day as the house movers. It was a little nerve racking seeing them both go up on the trailer and then drive away, but they arrived safely and the only damage was to an interior door pocket that the shipper used as a handle getting up into the Doka.

We really are looking forward to this adventure.  It is not our first go-round in SoCal: We actually met here and fell in love, so it is a home coming of sorts and this time we are looking at it with older, wiser eyes and those of new parents.  Logan is going to love it here!

This was not in our plans, but “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans…”  

In the never ending (really, really) work on updating and personalizing our van, I installed a new retro looking floor, including 3/8″ marine grade plywood underlayment. I added aircraft-grade t-track to make sure that anything I wanted to hold down – like the fridge – is super secure.

I also installed a gas fueled heater to keep the inside of the van TOASTY when camping in cold places or in crap weather. It was a requirement from my wife and a Valentine’s Day present for her. It was VERY well received and insures year round van camping with my little family.

I have wanted to customize the plan upped cabinet door panel since the first day that I stepped into the van. This is what I can up with and laser etched into the wood. The phrase and image speaks to my should and the coordinates are from the spot that Laurel and I found our tribe. VW folks are the best folks in the world!

Twenty years ago this evening, I went to a St. Patricks party ant my Friend Mathew’s house in Tustin, California. I met this cute girl, played a little pool, and gave her my number. We have been together since.

She make my life, adventures, heartache, joy all better. I am blessed and lucky. I am grateful for her and our relationship.

It took WAY too long, but the mantle project is done. I really like how it turned out.  Steel and oak (from when we lived in France) with custom support/stocking hanging brackets, epoxied to the wall with all thread and the internal filled with koawool to keep the mantel surface cool so not photos are damaged or candles melted when the fire is going.

I found this note from my mother in my work notebook.  I don’t know when it is from, it has to have been in the last 2 years before her passing. She slipped in onto a random page in the back of the notebook for me to find.  It is tiny and simple, and I got emotional when I found it.  I love and miss my mother very much and this note felt like a sweet little time-traveling arrow straight to the heart.

Today would have been her 82nd Birthday. Happy birthday Mother.

Oh the kitchen island…  “The cobblers children have no shoes and the thatcher’s house has no roof.” This thing has been on my list to complete for 18 months.  I had plans for the cabinets that I sort of obsessed over. I planned for a cookbook cabinet, plugs for the undercounter microwave, and a wine fridge.  I was going to do drawers and slides and a set of 4 swivel bench seats.  I had three iterations of design – from a notebook sketch to 3D model.  All for naught.

In the end, with a move looming, I ended up with big-box store ready-made cabinets, juiced up with trim and wired for just the wine fridge.  I put on a remnant granite top – that matched the current kitchen granite perfectly!  It looks great.  Works beautifully in the house.  My wife loves the island as well, BUT we had some words on why it took me so long and why she had to live without a “sweet chef’s island and out new renter’s get to have one…”  There is a lesson there that I need to take more to heart: sometimes good enough and complete is better than AMAZING and not started.

Our deck is done.  It cost more than I wanted to spend, but I didn’t have to touch it.  Instead of my normal route of obsessing over the design, spending 6 weekends of my time over building the structure and finish, and buying >$1000 in new tools, we outsourced the whole thing.  My lovely wife had 5-6 bids done, found a contractor, organized the schedule and it just got done.  I did not pick up a single square, hammer, or screw-gun.  

We went with Trex decking and treated structure.  All the joists tops are taped and stainless fasteners were used everywhere as Oregon winters are hard on decks and exposed wood.  We did not install any handrails as it is not more than 30” above the yard.  Am happy with build and finish quality.  The new deck makes the flow from the master bedroom to outside and onto the grass effortless and it truly adds to the aesthetic and functionality of the back yard.

My youngest is a year old and it has gone by in a FLASH.

Today would have been my dad’s 90th birthday. He is missed every single day.