MrAndrewBradley

After my friends had talked about moving to the Austin, Texas area for a few years , talk became reality last week and I helped them with the drive. In four days we drove more than 1,795 miles (according to Google Maps, actually more when you count getting off the highway for hotels, rest stops, food, etc). Day one was Lincoln, CA to Palm Desert, CA . Day two took us to Las Cruces, NM. By day three we had made it to Fort Stockton, TX and we wrapped up the trip at their new house in Leander, TX , just outside of Austin, TX . I drove their pickup and the oldest four of the 10 kids (another family made the drive with us) who made the trip, plus the dog. Thanks to the invention of the iPod and iTouch the kids in my car happily made the drive (I helped by supplying additional battery life ), we also had plenty of food stops, where I tried to eat healthy, but I caved and had quite a few milkshakes along the way too. When we finally made it into Texas we stopped at Rudy's for ou...

After helping with the initial launch of Sacramento's new USL PRO Soccer team in December , the talk started to become reality yesterday as the team announced their new name and two soccer games were played in front of a sell-out crowd at Raley Field - more than 14,000 . I no longer work with the team (my former company continues to do a great job though), so it was great to sit back, relax and enjoy the games as a spectator, the Sacramento All Stars team even included a childhood/family friend of mine ... Elliot Chambers, #19. Between the All-Star game and the International game the team announced their name and showed off their crest for the first time, Sacramento Republic FC , very cool and looking forward to seeing it on jersey's, t-shirts , bumper stickers, scarves and everything else around town in the coming months and years. With some luck and with the support of the community the Republic FC team could move seamlessly from USL PRO to MLS in a few years too . M...

Today I had the opportunity to drive to Napa and The Meritage Resort and Spa . When I arrived I headed to Blend Cafe for lunch and to set up my mobile office for a few hours of work. After my work was done, it was time to see the reason for my visit ... the brand new Vineyard Deck! The deck can accommodate groups and weddings of about 200. It was gorgeous. My pictures don't really do it justice (I'm going to blame it on the sun being in the wrong spot). The actual event deck was set up beautifully with white chairs for a wedding and the pre-function space was set for a cocktail reception, complete with sparkling wine, passed appetizers and Trinitas Cellars wines. The first bride to get married on the deck was in attendance, her wedding is next weekend and I think she knows that she picked the right venue now.

Having my own business has its benefits and last week was a big one. I was able to spend an entire week at the Bradley Lodge with my mom, dad, grandma and brother's family. Last year I would have had to leave after the weekend, but this year I was able to work (via WiFi, Google+ Hangouts and my cell phone ) and play. My 4th of July week started out with a coupon trip to A&W/KFC where I had a hamburger, root beer float and polar swirl for about $2. Next up it was off to P.F. Chang's for lunch. Then on the 5th of July my trip to the Bradley Lodge began after a quick stop at Fresh & Easy for wine , meat to BBQ and a few other groceries. My mom and I stopped in Lodi to pick up carnitas (and lunch ) at our favorite Mexican market before picking up my grandma and making our way up the mountain. Once at the Lodge, I worked in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, but did find time to go to the pool everyday to watch my nephews with their swim lessons and t...

  Over the last month or so I have been working with my new friends at the Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center . They moved from a location in Loomis to a brand new, much larger facility in Penryn (still within the Loomis Basin), that will help them care for up to 40 horses in a state-of-the-art facility, including a giant x-ray machine, ultra-sound, new barn/stable area, lots of outdoor space for horses that need to exercise and even a few intensive care unit rooms. The facility is a true hospital for horses and the staff is all great as well. I got to meet the horses, see foals (baby horses) that were just a few days old, and bring out lots of media to share the news to the community and the many horse owners in the region. From the trade publications like Stable Management to The Sacramento Bee and Sacramento Business Journal to the Loomis News and Patch and every TV station ( KCRA , Good Day Sacramento , News10 ), the coverage was spectacular and went well beyond the clie...

A few food highlights from the week ... I started out the week with a Happy Hour meeting to discuss an upcoming social media project at Lucille's . BBQ'd Rib Tips and a beer are always a must, Fried Pickles are a great addition. I was also headed to Carl's Jr. to try their Orange Cream milkshake , it was the same location where I went right before I started signing paperwork to buy my house , this trip was a little less stressful to say the least and the milkshake was really good, tasted just like the creamsicle . I did eat healthy too ... picked tomatoes and basil from my garden to add into various items I cooked at my house. I also BBQ'd some more chicken, I'm pretty sure the BBQ may have been one of my better investments lately (new patio table will come in handy soon too). Finally, I went to meet a friend at Ten 22 in Old Sacramento for Happy Hour, well that was the plan at least. The food was really good, I had tried the Mission Street Tacos; Tomat...

This is blog post 430, eight of those have been about building fences , one for the fence at my grandma's house , the other seven were building four of the five fences that surround my parents house, aka Camp Bradley. The final section was one of the hardest and the longest at approximately 130 feet, with climbing roses on 1/3 of it. Luckily for us, we continued our tradition of buying pre-fabricated fence panels , meaning we just had to do the fun part (demo) and the hard part (dig three-foot deep holes, put a post in and add cement). After the post was in, we brought over a panel and simply screwed it into place. Had one hole not taken more than five hours to dig (tree roots aren't always in the best spots), we probably could have finished sooner, but a few challenges are to be expected. Now, after five years of building, it's done and we even had some amazing Chinese pastries brought over by the neighbor. There were also two garage sales while we built the most recent ...