Merry Xmas

Honey Crisp - What a freakin' awesome Apple!

Honey Crisp Apples - Best freakin' apples in the whole world! Buy one today.
Maybe they'll use my new slogan.

Bombs Away!

A friend of mine from school (Conrad Pope) is an aerial and astrophotographer. He went up Oct. 19 and took this shot of my house. Cool huh? (Click on the image to see much bigger image)

Almost 50 miles.

Today, I felt like I was gonna bust if I didn't get on my bike. It's been raining for 4-5 days and I haven't been able to do much good riding. So I set out for Southport to have lunch with Ms. Ito. After lunch, I headed on over to Oak Island - just intending to cross the bridge again. But I felt fine and rode to Wes and Melissa's house way down the island. Approx. 23 miles from my house. It was not a big deal. There was no wind, it wasn't really hot and I had plenty of energy from eating more food lately. (trying to add 10 lbs. by the end of December). They were home and after about a 15 minute visit, I headed back home. No problems heading back. Smooth as silk. I stopped at the store at the bridge and got a yummy Powerbar - Protein Plus bar. Good Lord it was tasty. Cookies and Cream flavor and covered in a little chocolate. But it was a "health" bar so I don't feel all that bad about eating it. When I got home, I felt like I could have rode 25 more miles. Maybe. I ate a big dinner and will sleep good tonight. There, There... That's a good taint.

With a Rebel Yell!

Cole Hardison - a rebel in training.

The Tour de Ft. Fisher

Mrs. Ito caught me on my bike on the return trip from Southport.

I'm lookin' good ... rrawr!

Deep Thoughts

You know... If you get "colored" underwear, you can get by with walking around outside with just your underwear on and nothing else. Tighty-whities don't have quite the same versatility.

Evil Hana

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Originally uploaded by Daniel Ray Norris.

Hana is so evil. I'm afraid if I pass out and fall on the ground - she'd eat me.

Before & After

I found this great picture of me looking mighty fat. I went from a 205 lb flabby fat-ass to a skinny 147 lbs (in 1 year - no picture) then up to a lean and firm 168 lbs. (1 more year). The diet was hell at first. But I got used to it. Now I don't even think about it. I eat nothing bad. No sugar, cookies, cake, ice cream etc. Nothing fried. No beef or pork fat. I eat lots of fish, fruit and of course - the protein drinks. A big help at first was running EVERYDAY (until I had to substitute cycling this summer). Now I cycle and lift weights 4 days a week. Nothing heavy. I just do it consistently. Now I eat right, sleep plenty and cycle to keep the metabolism up. My goal is to hit a stable 175 lbs. and be very lean. (Maybe 180 lbs. - it depends on my legs)

Slip Slidin' Away.

Remember the old yellow waterslide at the boardwalk?

Hurricane Ophelia & new G5

Well. The storm came and went. It was a small storm but lingered FOREVER. I had little damage - mostly to my pier. The bad power on Sunday killed my computer. I had it for 6 years. A PowerMac G4. She was a trusty old work-horse. I hated to see her go. I had just bragged to myself how reliable that machine had been for so long. So. I jumped in the truck and headed up to the Apple Store in Durham. They talked me into a brand spanking new G5 2.7. It is sweet! Had it up and running that very night. All my stuff transferred over in a few minutes and I couldn't be happier. 4 GB RAM and twin 250 GB drives. Runs a 22" original Cinema Display and a 19" LG display in portrait mode no less. One wide - one tall!

First Dove Hunt of 2005

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Originally uploaded by Daniel Ray Norris.

Daddy and I went dove hunting this past weekend. It was fun to get out in a field and shoot some. We hunted in a sunflower field between Wallace, Harrells and Rose Hill. I killed 1 dove and got to shoot at 10 or more. Sounds like about my usual ratio.