Fixing a leaky roof

Well, for anyone who has ever had to repair a leaking roof, you know that it can be tricky and a nuisance. We had some pretty nasty rain here for the past couple of weeks and our leaky roof went from a few drips to a few being very bad. I cut holes in the ceiling to relieve the pressure and pooling. My parents came down this weekend to help us out with this debacle. My father and I removed and installed the flashing under a large dormer on the east side of our house. The way it was done previously was a disaster. It was the flashing that we think was causing the leaking and not the actual roof (the roof is pretty new). So once we got the flashing installed we sealed it up and moved inside. We tore out two parts to the ceiling that had been damaged. We trashed the old insulation. We headed out to Lowes and bought new insulation and drywall. The new insulation and drywall is up, and soon I will be mudding up the ceiling and applying some paint. All this in just two days time. Unfortunately it has been at the expense of my school work, but some times you just have to cut your losses, perform better in the coming weeks, and make up for it that way.

Here's a picture from the 2008 Corning Circuit Race. My friend Brian and myself organized the race. It was a USA Cycling sanctioned race and attracted over 140 participants. For our first year, we were quite pleased with the turnout and have begun planning for 2009. We gave out close to $2000 in cash and prizes and raised $2600 for our local Meals on Wheels organizations.

My first post

Well this is my very first blog post. I'll be honest with you, I've never been into the whole Myspace and Facebook thing, but it seems that blogging could be pretty fun (if I can get people to read it.) I'll start off by telling you a little about myself and my family. I'm 27 years old and live in Elmira, NY with my wife of two years. She's in school full-time and will graduate in May with a Master's in Social Work. We have no kids but a dog named Cooper. You can see his picture on the left. I work for a company named Schweizer Aircraft, a company of 1000 workers owned by Sikorsky Aircraft. We design and manufacture light helicopters and fixed-wing recon aircraft. I am an aerospace engineer and work on powerplant installations (engine integration). I have been working at Schweizer for 3.5 years and it was my first job out of college. The first project I ever worked on was the X2 Technology Demonstrator, which, if successful, will be the fastest helicopter in the world. It hovered for the first time this summer. Google it...it's pretty cool.