I've been feeding this off road addiction for too long. It's time to put some of my family's interests first.

Cappa has a general rule that I've sort of adopted. If you've got to borrow a tool, trailer, or other item more than three times, then you need one of your own. My family and I have been mooching off our friends, taking vacations to the river and lakes in the Southwest on their boat with them for a while. Our kids are great friends and love to play together. And we enjoy each other's company, but that little rule has always been lurking in the back of my head. So I said screw it and bought my family a pretty damn sweet boat.

It's a '00 MasterCraft MariStar 230 VRS. To the non-boat folks, that's a 23-foot water-bound Mercedes with a 330-horse Corvette engine, a V-drive tranny, tons of storage, and it came with a ton of extras including a bimini top, several wake boards, water skiis, neoprene life vests, wet suits, and more.

I found it on line at a screamin' deal. Hell, the boat is practically brand new with only 130 hours on it. So what if I had to drive up to San Francisco to pick it up. Now I've just got to get far enough ahead at work to take some time off to enjoy it this summer.