Merry Christmas

Wow, it is hard to believe that 2008 is almost over already. It seems like it just started not that long ago when we were still in the final stages of our wedding planning. Now, its all over and we're already working toward 2009.

Its been a great year, but its been a year of learning for both of us. We've went through our ups and downs, but the best part is that we've went through them together and with the support of our family and our true friends right by our sides.

So we just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a Happy Holiday season (that's for you Doug and Wendy).

We've been very fortunate to have two great sets of parents there for us all year long. Zach, Kristin and Todd have all been awesome and always right there. Our friends back in Washington who came out here to North Carolina to help us celebrate our wedding, and even the ones who couldn't, and our true friends here in North Carolina that have stuck by us through a crazy year make us realize how fortunate that we really are.

Now, we are getting ready to head to Ohio for Christmas, even though we wish we could be in Washington all at the same time. Maybe one day, our true Christmas wish of having all of our family right here in North Carolina will make it very easy.

So we hope everyone that is important to us has a great holiday season and we want all those people to know how fortunate we are to have them in our lives!

Happy Holidays!!

Santa, I've Been Bad

I just don't get it. I really don't. I'm just a puppy. I'm cute. I'm cuddly. Yet, my parents seem to get mad at me a lot. And then, they only let me write here on their little blog thing when I've done something bad. I really don't get it.

So they built this nice, new, pretty fence. I watched the guys build it. I would watch them every day. In fact, they even left me some tasty chunks in the yard. But anyway, they built this nice new fence, and they kept telling me it was for me. They wanted me to be able to run around outside, so I would quite knocking stuff over in the house with my out of control tail. And they said I'm a dog so I should like it outside, but they are crazy. Its cold out here and its nice and toasty inside.

So, they've been putting me out here. And they just let me run free. I see them looking out the window every now and then, but they just let me go out here. And there is a lot of yard for me to explore.

And like they tell me, I'm a dog... so therefore, I like to dig.

And today, they put me outside after it had been raining for few days... and I dug. And I dug. And I dug some more.

Then they come running outside and yelling at me and saying bad dog. Dad was saying a lot of other stuff, but I can only understand so much. But I saw mom laughing. And dad even cracked a smile too.

So then, I got a bath. They didn't look to happy, but they started running the spicket outside and washing me and then drying me with a towel. They also took some pictures.

And now, I'm here writing this blog to tell of my adventures. They like to think it is like a punishment... but lets do the math:
- I got a fence
- I got to dig
- I got my picture taken
- I got a bath
- I got to share my adventures

So who's the winner here?

Brutus

Sorry!!!

Just wanted to say sorry to everyone that its been a while since we posted anything. Things have been REALLY REALLY busy around here. From doing stuff with the Tanning Salon, growing 2 Dudes Designs, going racing with the Stroupes, having Jennell get sick and finally starting to feel better and dealing with Christmas stuff , we haven't had a lot of time to post much.

So, sorry!!!!

For now, enjoy this great video. I found it and love it. 40 Inspirational Speeches from Movies... in 2 minutes.

Thanksgiving Memories

This post will be more of what people like... pictures. Jennell says I'm pretty long-winded at time (she just laughs because I write so much), so this time, it will be pretty short.

We wanted to share some pictures with everyone from Thanksgiving. Last year (2007) after we bought our house, we decided to invite all of our families to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. It served two purposes... so everyone could see our house and so everyone could meet each other, since the wedding was coming up.

Well, we've decided to make it a tradition, so the families can get together and take a trip to North Carolina in the process. So this year, we had everyone here again and had a blast. Once again, Zach did the turkeys (we did one oven and one deep fried), we had a TON of food, we drank plenty of beer and wine, invited some friends over and had three dogs roaming.

It was a blast and we already can't wait for next year. It's a great tradition that hopefully continues for years!

It was a BIG feast.

Mom Sandy was able to cut the onions... but she cried quit a bit.

Mom Cindy cooked the green beans... once she found the utensils.

Kristin was a big help to Zach... just ask him.

Randy had quite the spread on his plate.

My parents' dog, Ginger, was in this position most of the weekend.

There were three dogs at the house on Thanksgiving... it was like the Niessner household.

There is nothing to say about this picture... just look at Zach's face (click to enlarge)

We had a keg of Woodchuck Cider that lasted only 3 days.

Brutus got a new shirt thanks to Randy.

The Troianos were a week away from celebrating their anniversary.

Todd brought his kid... er... dog over for the day. He was tired of Brutus by the end of the day.

Troianos & Niessners = Guitar Gods!

Sandy - 1.5 of 5 stars - She did get farther than Cindy in one song.

Talk about a whirlwind last few weeks. It seems like EVERYTHING is going on at the same time! There is so much to write about, and so little time to do it (because we are doing stuff that we want to write about... and not writing about it. It's a vicious circle). We had everyone in town for Thanksgiving, then, the day after they left, we headed to Pensacola for the Snowball Derby where Zach raced. Onced we got back on Sunday, it was back to work on Monday for me, and Jennell was then feeling under the weather, which kept her pretty much bed and couch ridden for the last few days. So finally, we are getting back to normal and there is still a ton of stuff going on.

We've still got to do our Christmas decorations, outside lights, get a tree, go to the Winter Heat on Saturday, do some Christmas shopping and get out business stuff going. Business has been picking up for the 2 Dudes deal, and stuff is moving forward for the tanning salon. So we are plenty busy. That damn cold for Jennell came at the wrong time, that's for sure!

Anyway, Thanksgiving was great. We had a good day with the turkey (Zach cooked two really good ones), the other food and the beer and wine. Things went really well. Couldn't have asked for any better. Its a nice tradition we've started here.... Thanksgiving in North Carolina.

On Friday (Black Friday its called I think), we went out for some lunch (yes, still eating) and I decided that I wanted to get the new Guitar Hero game for our Xbox. I figured it might be good for some laughs and fun during Friday and Saturday. And then, we invited out friends Doug and Wendy over that night, along with their son Justin (and his Wii video game system) for some fun. Needless to say, it went over well.

Guitar Hero was a blast. It couldn't have been more worth the craziness of braving Toys-R-Us to get it half-off on Black Friday. Of course, I was the one dropped off and had to brave all the crazy parents in there. I actually got the last one in the store for the Xbox, so it was a good omen.

Anyway, we started sitting around, having a few drinks and playing. And EVERYONE got into it. That made it even more fun. The kids, the parents and everyone took their turns playing. If you don't know what Guitar Hero is... get out of the house more. If you still don't know, you play the Guitar along to famous songs. The controller is actually a guitar and you have to strum and hit the correct keys all at the same time to keep up with the beat of the song. Sounds complicated, and it can be on the harder levels, but on the easy levels, it wasn't too bad for everyone.

So we all had a good time, heard the song "Slow Ride" way way way too many times (its the easiest song on the game, so the parents all started on it to get used to the game) and watched everyone make a fool of themselves.

When you make it through a song in Guitar Hero, you get a score and a ranking between one and five stars, depending on how good or bad you were. So, we've included pictures below of everyone having their turn at Guitar Hero, and the star rankings we give them (not the game) based on how they were.

So enjoy.

Kristin - 5 of 5 stars - She is a Guitar Hero whiz. It actually makes you sick.

JT - 3 of 5 stars - He should get four just for braving Toys-R-Us to get the game.


Zach - 2 of 5 stars - He gets 4 when he dances (see well below)

Randy - 2 of 5 stars - He actually made it through a song... and it wasn't "Slow Ride."

Nellie - 2 of 5 stars - She needs to wear the outfit the girl in the game wears for 5 stars.


Cindy - 1 of 5 stars - Although with some wine, she gets 2 or more stars

John - 2 of 5 stars - For having a real guitar in his closet, he sort of disappointing (ha).

Justin Moore - 5 of 5 stars - He's a future rocker. But you better not boo him. He gets MAD!

And Finally... the YouTube video of Zach rocking out to Guitar Hero. He gets 5 of 5 stars for this performance.

Zach Pensacola Update - Saturday (And Nick Too)

Ups and downs. Craziness. Frustration. There were plenty of words to describe Zach's day today at Five Flags Speedway. But in the end, the word of the day was "satisfaction."

Today was race day at Pensacola. Well, it was practice, qualifying and race day. After a final practice on Friday that went well, the team returned to the track on Friday night and made wholesale changes to the car, not knowing what the hour and half practice on Saturday morning would hold. When it came down to it, the car was good. But the more improvements the team made to the car, the slower it went. When the team went out for their mock qualifying run, it was nothing special and put Zach 19th of the 65-plus cars.

A few more changes were in store before qualifying. That, along with some repair to the upper-A frame bracket that had broken loose, made for a tense qualifying session. It didn't disappoint though... in the not so good way. Zach qualified at a 17.59, which put him 40th of the 65 cars that took time. When Zach came back in, he said something was not right with the car and it was worse than it had been all weekend long.

Zach then started 5th in the second of two Last Chance races. The car was good after more wholesale changes, and he was able to grab the final transfer spot to get into the race with a 3rd place finish (ironically, last year, I worked with a driver named Zach who made the race by starting fifth and finishing third in the second last chance race). More changes to the car to make it looser came before it was feature time.

When the race started, Zach slowly started working his way up. He missed several big accidents and held his own, gaining spots and moving into the top-25. Then, when everyone else pitted, he found himself third.

He ran 3rd for quite some time. Finally though, around lap 70, his old tires fell off and he got freight-trained and fell a lap down in just about 8 laps. The team made the call for him to come in and get tires under green. He fell a couple of laps down in the pits, but was able to finish the race with the car in one piece, missing all of the wrecks.

He finished 14th. He also wrecked Johanna Long, who is the track champion and the most popular driver at the track. He got a few middle fingers because of that.

But 14th was a successful night, considering where the day started. So congrats Zach, on one hell of a run. You did AWESOME!

Gotta give our props to Nick Stroupe too. Today (Saturday) was the first day of the Winter Heat Series at Lowe's Motor Speedway. And Nick won his heat race and the feature in the Young Lions division (a new rule forced Nick to run Young Lions rather than his normal Semi-Pro). way to go Nick. You did AWESOME too.

Enjoy the pictures.

Zach gets introduced before the race. He started 36th and finished 14th, but this was the only checkered flag he'd see.

Deon looks at the car during tech. It actually went very smooth.

Zach qualified at a 17.59. That wasn't overly impressive.

The team sits in tech line. I know, the pictures are totally out of order today.

Zach raced really good during the Snowflake 100. He actually improved 22 positions. Way more than anyone else.

Zach and sis Jennell are very loving! Here, they share a close moment.

Zach got into a couple of cars during the night. And the side of the car showed it.

Zach Pensacola Update - Friday

Today was kinda a quick and slow day all in the same. Why you ask? (I know you asked, don't lie) Well, because the day was short, and with a lot of drivers who showed that they can't drive, it made it a shorter day than it was supposed to be.

Practice started again at 10am, but was only supposed to go until 2pm. But then, during the early Late Model practice, cars kept on wrecking, spinning and hitting the wall. So Late Model practice got lumped into a one hour session. But when you have 140 cars trying to practice, that doesn't give you much time to practice. But the good thing about the morning practice was a HUGE gain was made and Zach was getting quicker, even though the team had much older tires on the car.

After we thought practice for the rest of day was done, we found out there was another half-hour practice just for the Snowflake cars. So the team made more changes, strapped on new tires and Zach ran his fastest time of the weekend. It was good enough to put Zach 10th of the 70 cars that are trying to make the race (with more speed possible in the car). It left the team in pretty good spirits, with a few more changes still to be made.

The team then loaded up, got out of dodge and called it quits at 1pm. Some of the guys went back later in the day and worked on the car some more.

Saturday is the big day... practice, qualifying and the 100-lap race. We'll see how it goes. And we'll let you know.

The team unloaded the car this morning under cool skies... notice how much the guys are bundled up? Far different from the 60s we had yesterday. Damn!!!!

Jennell's parents got here today. She and her dad spent some time on top of the trailer directing the team... well, maybe just watching and seeing how its going.

Jennell's mom was just hanging out on the Gator. I think she was ready to take it for a ride.

Zach and Deon have always worked well together and it showed by the end of the day when they were 10th of the 70-plus cars here.


Zach got out there and was fast in the afternoon session. Tomorrow is the big day.

Zach Pensacola Update - Thursday

Well, today was actually the first day of the Snowball Derby... well, the Snowflake 100 for Zach here at Five Flags Speedway. Yesterday was just parking the trailers and tech, but today, the cars actually got out on the track.

After getting up and having a COMPLETE hot breakfast at our hotel, we were at the track at 8am, and quickly had the car unloaded and was getting it ready. They didn't have to take the car through tech again today, so it was just getting it ready for practice. The only problem was the weatherman... who told everyone rain would be coming.

Kenny and Jay (two of the crew guys) took over putting the decals we brought with us on the car. A nice big 2 Dudes Designs went on the hood, along with a cool STE logo. Then, two 2 Dudes Designs were put on the side of the car. It looks sweet!!! And boy I bet it drives some people in the pit area wild!

After meeting the rest of the crew, everyone got ready for practice. Zach squeezed (and we mean SQUEEZED) into his old Juice Batteries driving suit and got in the car.

The practices went well. They started out on old tires and was in the top-15 of the Snowflake cars that were running. Then, with a few changes to get some more forward bite and get the car turning through the corner, they put on some new tires and the car got quicker.

Then, the rain started... and didn't stop for quite some time. It went from a nice, sunny 65-degree day to a swampy mess in the pit area. When the rain finally cleared and the track was finally dried by the truck dragging big tractor tires, Zach was back out there. This time, he was able to run a 17.90-second lap, which put him 9th of the Snowflake cars. It was pretty impressive on a set of tires that had already went about 15 laps and through two heat cycles.

The rest of the day was spent just trying to improve the car. It got better, but more can be done. And by the end of the day, the tires were old and it was time to regroup and come up with some ideas for Friday.

Deon and all the guys did a great job today. With a couple more changes, Zach should be in the top-10 of the 70 Snowflake cars that are here.

Friday will be another full practice day. We'll put another update Friday night! Enjoy the pictures below (and you can click on them and see them bigger)

2 Dudes Designs and STE is on the hood of Zach's car. Notice how good the decals look. Thats because we didn't' have anything to do with putting them on!

Kenny and Jay put on the decals for us. We stood, watched and took pictures. Real helpful.

Late in the day, Zach became the mentor to a Snowflake rookie drive who is pitted just a couple of haulers down from us. He looks all of 10, doesn't he? The other kid, not Zach.

It was nice to see Zach race with Gary St. Amant, who is my favorite driver of all time. Sorry, I'd pull for Gary in this race! HA. Just kidding.

Jennell sported her new 5K Motorsports sweatshirt on Thursday, but didn't seem to enjoy standing on top of the hauler when the wind was whipping before the rains came.

Zach's car looked pretty cool with the 2 Dudes and STE logos on the hood! Too bad the sponorship dollars aren't flowing in from them.

Zach and a couple of the crew guys talk at the end of the day to come up with a plan for tomorrow. We think he was telling them "I want to go faster."