Chris and Natalie Hammond's Homepage

4 Years Later

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:06:50 GMT

So I didn't get a chance to blog about this Thursday, but it was the anniversary of our first meeting. We went to dinner at the Applebees in Ballwin, the location of our first meeting and dinner!

Track our move to Colorado

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:39:48 GMT

If you haven't seen our website tracking our move to Colorado be sure to check it out at www.going2colorado.com

Home From Nationals

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:46:59 GMT

Natalie and I made it home from the 2008 TireRack Solo Nationals today. I'll post an update on www.corvettez06.org tomorrow with a recap of the week.

The season is in full swing

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:25:00 GMT

Both of our sports are in full swing by now. I've been out of town racing more than I have been in town racing, so far I've only been at 1 local event this year.

Natalie has been to a couple of out of town shows as well as the recent SLADS show here in town which she triumphed at! More on results later!

Three Years Later

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:09:11 GMT

This evening will be the anniversary of the first time I met Natalie, three years ago! It's hard to believe it has only been three years, and we've been married over a year now. I love you very much Natalie!

Fitness 2008

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:32:56 GMT

So Natalie and I are both off to a decent start with exercising in 2008. Stay tuned as I develop some cool DotNetNuke modules to help us track our fitness goals! I'm working on getting http://ChrisHammond.com converted to DotNetNuke and then will have some time to work on these...

One Year Later

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:16:02 GMT

Natalie and I had a GREAT first year! The second year looks to be even better! Stay tuned in 2008 as we hope to have more and more...

Labor Day Weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:12:14 GMT

We just returned from spending Labor Day weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks. Wow, amazing weekend, great weather. A lot of fun, a lot of sun! I'm off to DC tomorrow...

Carol Flynn's Ice Cream Party!

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:50:30 GMT

Yet again Auntie Carol had her famous Edy's Ice Cream Party, and yet again no one from her family was invited!...

Natalie does well

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:53:55 GMT

Natalie and students just returned from Columbia. I'm hoping to get more details when she wakes up tomorrow, but I know she did very well this...

Barry Bonds Breaks Hank Aaron's Record!

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:41:06 GMT

So the headline is a little early, but we all know the inevitable will happen. I've always been a Bonds hater, I don't like the guy, don't think he should get the opportunity to break the record. But I've also come to accept that it will happen, and I'm going to try to be there! I've got two Standing Room tickets to the game on Sunday. I don't plan on using them, there's a race on Sunday. But if by chance Barry Bonds hits 2-3 homers Friday and Saturday that will put him within reach of Hank Aaron's record on Sunday, and for that I'll miss, or leave early, the...

Fourth of July Fireworks and Baseball

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:45:53 GMT

Yesterday was a busy Fourth of July. Natalie and Fabien got up and rode in the morning, I slept in, though I had planned on getting work done on the 240z. Around noon we left the house and headed west. We looked at a few properties for sale, two in Wildwood and one down south of Pacific. The good one in Wildwood is amazing, and might just work out for us, so we're going to try to go get a tour of it very soon. It has almost 5 acres, a barn with two horse stalls, a hay shed and various other features. The property we looked at south of Pacific would be very cool, but at only 2.3 acres doesn't look to be a very good horse property. I loved it because it had a total of 7 garage spots! After that we picked up Lindsey and headed downtown to the VP Fair and then to the baseball game. The closer we got downtown the darker it got, and eventually started raining. We ended up camping out in the Tahoe for about 15 minutes while we waited for the rain to pass. From there we walked up to the stadium and then over to the Arch to see the fair. Honestly, the fair sucked. There wasn't hardly anyone there and the only activities we saw were food/beer booths and some band playing on stage. Nothing else going on to make it worth our trek over there. We headed back to Busch Stadium to hang out there until the game. The game was great, the first Cards game I've been to this year that they actually won! After the game we stayed up on the upper deck to watch the fireworks at the fair. I took quite a few photos with my phone, I'll post more later but here's one for...

Harley Weekend Review (Saturday)

Mon, 21 May 2007 12:56:00 GMT

A continuation of the weekend discussion. I didn't get home until 11:30pm Friday night, so our plans of meeting up at 7AM didn't quite happen. Kevin and I planned to meet at Fast Eddie's Bon Air in Alton Illinois at 9:15. Before leaving the house I took a few photos. I stopped to fill the bike up with gas on the way there, that put me at Fast Eddie's around 9:25, a few minutes late. Kevin on the otherhand, didn't show up till 9:55 or so. Apparently Illinois boy got lost over there on those complicated Illinois Roads. From there we headed north up the Great River Road. We had planned on getting some breakfast and stopped at the Loading Dock in Grafton IL. It was 10:30, and they didn't open until 11, so we kept riding. In Grafton they were setting up for floodfest. We ended up driving 40 miles north of Alton before deciding to turn around and make our way back to the loading dock. Here's a quick shot I took after we finished eating lunch, a photo from where the two rivers meet. From The Loading Dock we went a block north to the Grafton Ferry and caught a ride back to the Missouri side. We headed west towards Highway 94 and took 94 south through downtown St. Charles. After a slow ride through the cobblestone streets of St. Charles we headed down the river roads on the Missouri river past the Family Arena and down Greensbottom Road, near mom and dad's old house in Weldon Spring. We hopped back onto 94 and continued south/west towards Defiance and the Wineries. We were getting short on time, by now it was nearly 2:30pm and we had to return to the bikes to Doc's by 4pm on Saturday. We made a stop at Terry & Kathy's Inn there in Defiance, I'd been by there many times but never on a bike, and I'd never stopped, so we pulled over and had a drink. We snapped a few photos before heading back to Doc's. We filled the bikes up one last time at the Shell station on Lindberg and returned everything to Doc's. The weekend was great, I know I had a blast, and I think Kevin did as well. My body was extremely sore from the whole ordeal, but that's just a sign I need to get in shape. When I turned my bike in it had 424 miles more than when I picked it up. I put nearly 1/4 of the miles on the bike that was built back in February of 2007. We'll do this again later in the summer, perhaps for a full weekend this time instead of just 24 hours. Here are some other photos I took while out and...

Harley Weekend Review (Friday)

Mon, 21 May 2007 09:09:00 GMT

Friday afternoon Kevin and I picked up Harleys from Doc's Harley Davidson. We rented them for 24 hours. After we got all the paperwork squared away we suited up in our gear and hit the road. Since it had been a while since either of us had been on bikes we stayed on a few roads for a while. We headed south from Doc's with the intention of heading to Chester Illinois to try out a seafood buffet that Kevin had heard about. We took 270 to 255 across the river into Illinois and got off 255 at 3 South. Instead of taking 3 south though we got off on Bluff Road. We took Bluff Road down to Valmeyer and from Valmeyer took 156 over to Waterloo. From there I think Kevin took us over to Hecker and 159 south down to Red Bud. Kevin pretty much led the first few hours of the ride. We ended up in Chester and passed by The Pigasus and gave the Harley a few horn honks in case James was around working on the Pigasus. Instead of stopping for dinner we decided to ride for a bit longer, we went down to Kinkaid Lake and too our first rest stop there. I took a few photos on my cellphone in the parking lot We left Kinkaid Lake and headed back to Chester to find Reid's for dinner. We located Reid's, and shoulda known by the name what we were in for. Reid's Smorgasborg, what do you think it's like? The food was alright for a seafood buffet, though I think we had nicer dining room furniture at the fraternity house in college. While at Reid's I tried Frog's Legs for the first time, tasted like Chicken. From Reid's we decided it was time to head home, we decided we'd go up the Missouri side, taking Highway 55 North. On the way across the River we stopped at the Popeye statue just before the bridge. The trip North was not near as nice as the trip south was. By the time we finished dinner it was nearly 9pm, and it must of been 60 degrees or less. Lucky for me I had my fullface helmet and my bike jacket on, it kept me fairly warm, but Kevin had some issues. He had an open face helmet, fingerless gloves, and a sweatshirt on. At 70-80mph on a bike the wind can be a little rough, and darn cold! We had to stop a few times coming north on 55 to warm up at a gas station. We got to 55/255 and split up, Kevin headed east towards Belleville, and I headed west up towards Creve Couer. Saturday post coming...

Harley Weekend

Fri, 18 May 2007 04:45:00 GMT

I'm off on a Harley Weekend tomorrow, read more...

Datgum possum

Tue, 08 May 2007 11:52:00 GMT

I took the dogs out this evening after watching tonight's episode of Heroes, and they turned into Sylar! I guess there was a possum or something under the deck because they both went nuts. Rather than stay there with them barking I dragged them off to the front of the house to do their business. While on the way there though Oliver decided he was going to pick up the baby possum that I didn't see sitting there. He dropped it, and then immediately picked it back up. Luckily he listen when I told him no and he tossed it off to the side. Had to take the dogs to the front door and ring the bell so Natalie would let us in. Then I went back out with a flashlight and didn't find a thing, I guess the little one lucked out and didn't get his back broken, as he must of run off when I got the dogs...

We made it on TV

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:33:00 GMT

Well Natalie, Auntie Carol and I made it on TV tonight. We went down to Fenway to get a few Red Sox jackets today. We figured it would be easier to buy them today rather than fighting the opening day crowds tomorrow. After the jackets we went into the ticket office because Carol wanted to try to find some printed schedules. On our way out of the ticket office the guy from Channel 5 news was there, I made eye contact with him and could tell he was ready to ask a question. Natalie ran away but I grabbed Auntie Carol and we reeled Natalie back into the fold. He asked us a few questions about if we had just gotten tickets, if we were big fans, etc. We got home right at 5pm so we turned on the news. After the 5 o'clock news we figured perhaps we weren't going to make it on the air. Well about 25 minutes into the 6 o'clock news we ended up on TV! We did get it taped with the VCR, now the task is to get it digitized, though it'll probably take a few days as i'll have to make a dupe of the VCR tape and take it home to STL, then digitize it there. The clip was mostly me, but also cut to Auntie Carol when she said we went to Game 4 in St. Louis in 2004, then it cut back to me and the sportscaster cut over the audio and said "before you come to any conclusions this is his aunt, and this is his new wife" after going to a shot of Natalie. Natalie's goal for Opening Day is to make it on TV...

Off to Boston

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 12:35:00 GMT

Natalie and I are taking our first trip out of town together (after the honeymoon) as a married couple. We're headed to Boston tomorrow, until Wednesday. The main reason for the trip is Opening Day at Fenway, to watch the Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners! We'll also be doing some touristy things, things I haven't done in Boston in probably 20 years, and things Natalie has never seen. Photos coming next...

Thank you

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 01:30:00 GMT

Thank you cards will be going out shortly, but we wanted to publicly thank those who left us the flowers, and some of the cash in the card box. There was also a beautiful picture frame without a name/card on it. Thank you for those items. Chris &...

Thank you everyone!

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:01:00 GMT

Natalie and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who made it out to the party this evening. We had a great time, and hope that all of you did as well. Pics coming...

Cash Bar

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:13:00 GMT

The bar this weekend will be cash only, and they unfortunately don't have an ATM in the building...

Download our invitation

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:08:00 GMT

If you need a copy of the invitation for Saturday please download it here. Remember to bring it with you if you're going to race, in order to get your Buy One Get One Free deal (one race is...

More wedding photos!

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:04:00 GMT

I've finally got 1222 photos that the Photographer took at the wedding uploaded to my flickr account! Check them out http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157594524005915/ Here's a sample ...

Almost done moving

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:16:00 GMT

We thought we got everything out of the house tonight, but realized we left a BBQ Grill and large dog cage on the back porch of the old house. So, we'll head back there tomorrow and get those last few items. I'm really ready to be done moving, and I know my back is ready for that as well! The garage is now full, with the 78 280z, car parts, appliances, bookshelves, etc. I hope to get it all organized this coming weekend so I can start tearing into the 78 and get rid of that car as soon as I can so I can bring home the 73 240Z that's in storage right now. Check out www.project240z.com for information on my project...

RSVP for our St. Louis Reception Now!

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 01:44:00 GMT

You can now RSVP for our local wedding reception on 2/10/2007. Please be sure to RSVP by 2/1/2007 so we can get totals for who will be attending, and who will be racing as well. We ask everyone (young and old with a valid driver's license) to consider racing, it's a blast! If you have any questions please let us know! We hope to see everyone on February 10th! Please RSVP using the RSVP form, located...