book review...

Lately I've been fiddling around trying to read different genres of book and it hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped. In an effort to read something intelligent, I picked up a copy of The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio. It is about the number phi, 1.6180339887...; which is expressed more precisely as the ratio of the diagonal of a pentagram to its side. This number is often referred to as the golden ratio, or the golden number because it often appears in plants, artwork, poetry, architecture and music (and in geometry it's called the golden angle). It has been studied by many and has some very interesting properties.

What I thought was interesting about the book was the author discusses how we as people understood the concept of counting higher than the number of fingers we have. Have you ever though about how cavemen went about bartering antelope meat for lima beans? One antelope carcass has got to be worth a whole horde of lima beans, but how does Iggy (the hunter) tell Narg (the gardener) that he owes him 20 meals of beans for his one killed antelope. Well, it seems that there were some archeologists that found a baboon thigh bone from 10,000+ years ago that had notches on it. So I would guess that Iggy just notched his bone for every meal of beans he recieved from Narg.

Something else that I found interesting is how we ended up with 60 seconds as our time base when we have a base 10 numbering system. The author explained that way back when, different cultures had different numbering systems. And as one culture was overrun by another the numbering systems were adopted, meshed or thrown out.

One other common theme of this book is the Fibonacci sequence and how the sequence approaches the golden ratio as the sequence approaches infinity. The Fionacci sequence is this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 39, ... and is achieved by taking the previous two numbers in the sequence and adding them (1+1=2, 2+3=5, and so on). What is neat about this sequence is how it appears in nature as well. It is called phyllotaxis and it is when plant leaves or flower petals arrange themselves in this manner. This appears in the pineapples, sunflowers and roses. In some plants it also describes the arrangement of branches on a tree in relation to the trunk. Very neat.

There are also some very cool mathmatical examples which were shown in the book, like how Fibonacci numbers are related to Pythagorean triples. For example, if you take any four consecutive Fibonacci numbers, such as 1, 2, 3 and 5;
The product of the outer numbers 1x5=5,
twice the product of the inner terms 2x2x3=12, and
the sum of the squares of the inner terms 2^2+3^2=13...
gives the 3 legs to a Pythangorean triple. Also, note that the third number, 13 is a Fibonacci number. Pretty sweet, huh!

So I was able to find some gems in the dry roughage of this book. I really found it boring how he presented arguements concerning plagerism of certain mathematicians of the 1600's. And the chapters on poetry and music I skimmed them (that's being generous). But will admit that I would pick up another book by this author if I had the chance.

all finished except for the....

I'm all finished with the bathroom except for the....baseboard. Daaaaah! Bloody baseboard. It wouldn't be a problem except I broke some on the removal. I bought replacement baseboard and tried to color match it to the trim on and around the door and it's not working well. Luckily I've got another project lined up for the baseboard so I don't feel too much guilt in going back to HD and searching for pre-stained baseboard.

Oh, and I'm waiting on the sewing department to sew me up a new curtain. Waiting....waiting...waiting. Once those two hanging chad tasks are done, then the bathroom will really, really be complete.

And by the way, it looks awesome! The tile turned out great, the soft pink walls are soothing, the drawer pulls and towel rods all match and a fresh batch of caulk has been caulked into place.

So stop by and see it!

TSA and weightlifting

Did you hear that the TSA has a new method of screening for terrorists and other lawbreakers?
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20081118/1a_offlede18_dom.art.htm

I had read about this last week, but the article that I read didn't go into detail about what the new screening methods consist of. This morning while returning home from a work trip to Boston I think I may have experienced those new methods....

After receiving my ticket and proceeding to the line for the X-ray machines into the terminal at Boston Logan I got into line and waited to be screened. Up ahead next to the TSA agent who looks at your ticket and ID was another TSA agent that was chatting with nearly everyone in line. I make my way through the line and I try and avoid talking to the woman (I hate talking to strangers at airports) but she asks me in a friendly-getting-to-know-you way where I'm headed, how often I travel, if I'm from the area, if I'm looking forward to the holiday...blah blah.

I joked with my coworker that this was there new terrorist screening method. Which seemed funny at the time because she looked like she should be taking her grandkids to the zoo instead of screening for terrorists. Maybe this is their new method...deploy extra agents to chit chat with those in line and see who acts out of character. Or, was she just a bored TSA emploee. I wonder.....

I finally joined the 1000 pound club this afternoon. It's no official club, but it is when the sum of your squat, bench press and deadlift are equal to or greater than 1000 pounds. I had a squat of 385, bench press of 290 and a deadlift of 365 --totaling 1040 pounds.

The squat and deadlift are new personal bests for me. Just 5 more pounds on squats and that's all the weight I have to use! 390 is all I have!

Happy Thanksgiving!

bathroom update

My helper and I spent this past saturday working on installing a toilet, new towel rings, a toilet paper holder and new blinds. It took all day to do them as well...unfortunately my helper wanted to be in the thick of the action. Too bad for him he isn't allowed to touch the hammer, screwdriver, the spot light, the caulk gun, the wax ring for the toilet, the new blinds, etc.



Bathroom projects proceed most efficiently with a lightsaber at the ready.

Master bathroom update

I grouted for the first time last night. I think the floor looks pretty darn good. It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.


On to painting this weekend!

tiling is...

...really darn hard. I'm not going to sugar coat it for you, this is a tedious, knee-hamstring-lower back killing, difficult project. Although Amanda's impressed reaction of delight was worth it.

It took me a little over 5 hours to get all the tiles laid out just the way I wanted, cut and dry fit. The hard part of it was the bathroom is upstairs and the wet saw is in the garage. One of my mistakes was just leaving the saw on the floor. So I'm up in the bathroom hunkered down on my knees making measurements, then into the garage on my knees cutting tile. Not good.

First piece of advice, mount the wet saw on a table top to save your knees.

Second piece of advice, buy the expensive knee pads. I went through saturday without any. This morning after church I went to Home Depot and bought a (relatively expensive) 15 dollar pair. They were worth every freaking penny. Every single one. Each one.

So here are all of the tiles laid out and dry fit.


Not much of a difference here in this next picture, but this after putting down the mortar and laying the tiles. What really boggles my mind is that I bought a gallon of pre-mixed mortar which says will cover 50-60 sq ft. Our bathroom is just a smidge over 30 sq ft. Somehow, I ran out of mortar. I don't really know how thick to put it on, but I thought it was going on rather thinly. I don't know, it must be because it's pre-mixed.

So this is now my biggest worry. I didn't get the gushy mortar effect that I was expecting to have, based on what I learned from my co-workers who have tiled. I'm just hoping it's this pre-mixed stuff that is causing this.

Anyway, I'll buy more tomorrow and see what happens.

Master Bathroom Project Phase 2 part 1

My helper and I started on the tiling project for the master bathroom. Here is a before picture:


I first convinced my helper that he should sit in the pack and play for a little bit while I was moving all of our stuff to the other bathroom. He was content with that for a while, but wasn't having it when the fun started happening. The fun was the removal of the light fixture, toilet paper holder, towel racks, door, shower doors, wood trim and the toilet. I've never taken a toilet all of the way off. Tank yes, tank and bowl, no. Today's experience taught me that used wax rings are gross. Now our gross wax ring is in a plastic zip lock bag waiting to be taken to Home Depot to match up with a new one to replace it.

Now that my helper was free to roam around our bedroom, he decided now as a good time to try and fit between the headboard of our bed and the wall. Nope, he still doesn't fit. But it was a good photo opportunity. I took the picture too late, he squeezed out already.


I then managed to install the wonderboard while my helper played peek a boo with my tarp. It was a good use of his time. Wonderboard is concrete that is sandwiched between to two pieces of meshed screen like material. It is supposed to go down on top of the subfloor before you install tile to keep the floor from flexing over time and preventing the grout, mortar or tiles from cracking.


Ta da! Wonderboard installed. My helper can take as much credit as he would like. To be honest, Xander was pretty darn good all day long and let me get quite a bit of work done. I can't complain that he made me take too many breaks because I would have been breaking to eat any way, he just made it convenient for us both.


I just laid out the tile tonight before stopping and it looks pretty good. It is an almond color and should look good.

on a recent flight

I spent this past week in California for work. On my flight back I had the window seat and a woman and her significant other had the middle and aisle seats, respectively. I boarded the plane, entertained myself by proceeding to tear into my greasy steak, egg and cheese sandwich. By the time we had achieved our cruising altitude the woman and man were asleep. I think the term, passed out, might have been more appropriate but I'm not certain.

Over 2 hours pass by and I have to pee. They are asleep and I don't want to bother them, but there is no way that I can get by them without waking them. I tap the woman on her wrist. No response. I feel anxiety over having to work harder to get her to wakeup, it's just not something I want to do. Both her and her man are completely zonked out. I tap her harder on her shoulder. She then wakes up then wakes up her man and I get out and go to the bathroom.

I come back from the bathroom and as I'm sitting down the guy says something which I think was directed at me, but at the time I though he was talking to her --something like thanks for waking me up. I didn't think anything of it, because I make an effort to ignore everyone else when I travel.

So we land and I make a phone call while we are taxing and beginning to de-plane. Right before the woman and her man get up, he says to me (clearly directed to me this time) "Thanks for not waking us up during that long flight. That was clutch." Then he hops up and leaves the plane and she follows.

I was so shocked that he said that to me I sat there grinning in shock and the people behind me started exiting. I couldn't believe it. What a joker! Any sort of level headed person should realize that you can't be upset with someone for needing to take a leak during a 3 hour and 20 minute flight. Sitting in the aisle seat on a plane ride you should never expect to not be bothered.

Master Bathroom Upgrade 08

Phase I - Replace the exhaust fan for an exhaust fan and light combo.

I spent the afternoon replacing the exhaust fan in our master bathroom. It is a relatively simple project....take out the old fan, hop up into the attic and tack the new fan in, wire it up, bam! You've got lights and fan.

Yup, that easy....as that blue cloud of profanity remains floating over our neighborhood. Aside from one tough little part it went well and would do it again.

Easy part: Wiring it up. 8 years of studying electrical engineering gives me an edge there. Black is hot, white is neutral, bare is ground. Piece of cake, baby.

Hard part: Dealing with the insulation in the attic and the location of the fan. It's blown insulation so it's a bit more hard to deal with and put back when you are finished. I borrowed a mask from my neighbor to keep from inhaling all of the fiberglass and that was a good idea. Long sleeves would have been a good idea as well, but the weather wasn't cooperating. Additionally, the location of the fan made it more difficult because it was within three feet of where the roof comes down and meets the ceiling. I felt like Rand in WoT when he was kidnapped and in that trunk for about 2 weeks traveling to Tar Valon. Hot, cramped and uncomfortable is not the ideal condition to nail in a fan box one handed.

Lessons learned: Figure out at what height the fan box needs to be hung vertically by assembling it all before you tack it to the rafters. That blue cloud of profanity could have been avoided by a little bit of thinking ahead.

Oh, and if you do try this at home, remember to take everything apart nicely. I had to reuse my vent adapter from my old fan because the new one was too big for the vent pipe.

Next up, Phase 2 - adding knobs to the drawers and painting the ceiling.

being on site

So like I mentioned in the last post, I've been at a customer site the past couple of weeks. At this site the security is high, so that means I have to be escorted at all times. At all times means even to the bathroom. This was difficult for me to adjust to since I exercise quite a bit and tend to drink lots of water. Well, what goes in must come out.

Now they don't follow me into the restroom, but they do have to stand out in the hallway while I take care of business. How awkward is that? Real awkward. But you get used to it.

Have you ever seen that episode of Seinfeld where in the standup bit in the beginning of the show Jerry is talking about how he used to work in an office and he would pass the same people in the hall multiple times a day and each time he felt compelled to say something different to them. Saying 'hi' to Jim in the early morning turned into 'hey Jimmy' around lunch and 'yo Jimbo' in the afternoon. Just saying 'hi' over and over again feels weird. I know exactly what Jerry is talking about!

I ran into this same issue asking my escorts to escort me to the bathroom.
'Hey Brian, how about a bathroom break?'
'Hey Brian, let's hit the head, huh?'
'Hey Brian, it's 10am, guess what I want to do?'

Then at some point (over the course of nearly 3 weeks) it stops being a question and becomes a statement.
'Hey Brian, potty break.'
'Alright, gotta take leak.'
'Hey Brian, guess what I need to do.'

However another issue that comes up is getting "synched up" with your coworkers who also on site with you and also have to be escorted. That meant if my coworker had to go and I didn't, I went anyway; and vice versa. You learn things like not to have that 2nd glass of OJ at breakfast and to sip your drink at lunch.

What ended up happening was a very dehydrated me returning home earlier this week. And now that I'm back at the office I enjoy my unescorted liberties!

Boston

I've had to travel to Boston quite a bit recently for work. On my last flight there last week I have the window seat, a Bostonian woman has the middle seat and a Texas gentleman has the aisle. During the decent into Logan (Boston's Airport) the Bostonian and the Texan start chatting. Their topics were the usual boring where are you headed, what do you do, where will you be staying chit chat that strangers have on an airplane.

At some point during my eavesdropping, she tells the fella (I'm trying to type accents here, so use your imagination) "You gotta go to Haavaaahd squwair. There is this greaat place called Fiya an Yce (Fire and Ice). They have gweat dwink specials an' the menu is auwsome."

The Texan says "Whuut's the naame agaain?"

She replies "Fiya an Yce."

Then he says "Culd you repeat that again?"

Again she says "Fiya an Yce."

Then it clicks for the Texan..."Oh, Fiyer and Iyce."

South meets northeast and the communication barrier is bridged.

the great wind storm of aught eight

We had a wee bit of wind damage from the great wind storm of '08. It was very minor compared to others in our neighborhood who lost entire sections of shingles or others in town who had trees falling on rooftops, garages and cars.

I had to fly out of town for work on monday so our neighbor was nice enough to tack up my fascia/flashing (whatever it's called -- see photo). But I still had to snap back in a piece of siding above the garage door and shimmey up onto our roof and flip a shingle back over. That, let me tell you, is not something I want to do again soon. I was scared out of my mind climbing up there....but all is back together again.

5k

Xander and I ran our first official 5k together today and it was awesome! We've been running together since it's been nice this spring and we have a good time on saturday mornings when we go out.

I ran a pretty good race and finished with 26:10. I ran the first mile in 7 minutes, but then completely fell off the pace when they introduced the hills. My 5k route that I take through our neighborhood twice a week has no hill action what-so-ever. Nothing. So when I get these itty bitty hills, my legs cried revolt!

It was pretty awesome though because the race takes place 15 minutes before our local parade starts and the streets are lined with onlookers. Xander and I were the first parent-kid combo to run along the route and I ran in a wake of "oh, look at the baby", "ohh, how cute", "now that's how I like to run"; as Xander relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. There was even a female onlooker who crooned "whooo-hooo 121!". It's tough to laugh when you are wheezing and gasping for air.

did you hear that?

That was the sound of me falling off of the blogging bandwagon. KerthUMP.

I'll put something up here interesting once I'm not working a crapload of hours.

The cool things to talk about like our front yard that we are trying to landscape or the garden have fallen by the wayside because my weekends have been occupied with work. Thank goodness I haven't had to cut the grass.

I'm timid to admit this but I'm reading one of the wife's chick novels starring Stephanie Plum; it's pretty funny. One for the Money is the title. It's a nice easy mindless read that takes place in New Jersey. Lately I've read books that are based in NJ...each one of them talks about how gross and disgusting it is...and for some reason I still would like to visit. Or at least go to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Redbank, NJ.

weekend wrapup

So did you see in the news that Mr. Sunshine John Edwards had an affair? Dude, I tell you what, I've lost all hope in politicians. They are all buggery turds. Give me another 10 to 15 years and I'm going to figure out what I have to do to run for office. Hopefully once I figure it out I'll follow through and run for office.

We found this ice cream shop down the road that serves Tofts ice cream. Tofts is the best ice cream in the whole world, in case you didn't know it already. It's made in good old Sandusky, Ohio and is another fine Ohio product just like myself. So on weekends we walk a mile down to the ice cream shop and back and it is awesome. The two mile round trip melts the guilt away.

We went over to Ukie's apartment this weekend and saw Cloverfield. Sweet flick! I highly recommend it. I thought it was written very well.

brain fart

So yesterday I'm in my garage talking with neighbor #1, the cop. We are chatting away and neighbor #2, the lawn expert stops by to drop off some books on perennials and landscaping. Neighbor #2 and I are yacking a bit and I feel I should introduce Neighbors #1 and #2.

"Hey, Neighbor #2, do you know.... (insert long awkward pause here were I look Neighbor #1 directly in the eye, stand there with my mouth open waiting for my tongue to kick into action) ...umm. Thank God they finished up the introduction for me because my brain just...stopped...

Now that's an embarrassing brain fart.

It's better than..."this is my wife, umm....what's your name again?" --that's never happened!!

Anne Geddes drugs her models

More flower boxes. One more for the wife, two were supposed to go to the wife's brother and fiancee as a wedding gift, but then I thought about it and thought I should give one to my mother in law since she gave the plans for the boxes to Amanda and I wondered if that had some subtle undertones......so one for the wife, one for the mother in law and one for the brother in law (and I don't think any of them read this so the surprise will be at the delivery).

Anyway, here they are with my underpaid model.



He is underpaid because he can't stay focused on the objects that the photographer wants to take pictures of and instead tries to eat sawdust and paint chips off of the driveway. Tangent: let me tell you what I'd like to do to the previous owner of this house for painting the garage floor....I want to THROTTLE her for it! Ever since the first time we parked in the garage paint chips have been coming up and it really grates on my girdle that I'm constantly sweeping them up.

This pose worked until he realized his rear end was wedged into the flower planter box, which means he can't move and resulted in the last photo down below.




So I'm convinced Anne Geddes drugs her models, because mine is hardly ever cooperative.

Ha, here's the really funny part....to do the legs I took a 1x6 piece of cedar decking (expensive, not something you want to make mistakes with) and ripped it lengthwise (the rip was off center so I could make L shaped legs). I had to do the ripping with a circular saw, which is tough because there is no guide to make sure your cuts are straight. Whereas with a table saw it is a piece of cake.

So I get finished and I'm cleaning up the garage and there is some leftover pegboard that I found in the shed from the previous owner that I used for my man area. I didn't need the rest of it and was giving it to my neighbor and while we chatted I told him how tough it was to rip the legs with a circular saw. He pointed out to me that he has the same saw that comes with an attachment and I should check the box that it came with....."wait, you mean this?"

Neighbor: "Yea, see it slides right in the front there."

Blood and bloody ashes Moraine. All those headaches and I had the tools right there in front of me. Bollocks.

workbench

I built myself a little workbench in the garage. My man area is now growing from the basement to this nook I've made for myself out here. I'm pretty pleased with it because it only cost 3 dollars to build (the wood I scavenged from various places) and that was for the screws to put everything together. Well, the cabinet was 30, but still, I think that's a pretty cheap work area. I just added some pegboard to the wall under and to the right of the cabinet. Now I just need pegs to hang my stuff up and I'll be all finished.

It got its first use this weekend because I supervised Sergey building a coffee table. It was much easier working waist high instead of squatting and working on the floor.



X supervised as well, he's good at that!

true story

So we went to a soccer game last week and had a great time. Here's a funny story I forgot to tell about what happened afterwards....

Leaving the stadium we are driving through neighborhood streets that aren't so nice. Traffic is pretty heavy but we are moving. Amanda, Sergey and I are having a good time chatting when we happen upon a little boy (10-12 maybe) dancing on the sidewalk shouting at the cars. I shout out the car window at him:

"IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!"

I was laughing. Amanda rolled her eyes and I think Sergey chuckled.

But that's not the funny part! Still stuck in traffic, we come up to an intersection where we don't have to stop but the cross traffic has a stop sign does. We go through the intersection bumper to bumper as a local motors her way up towards us. I hear the (I'm guessing here) Mom say to the son "No, we can't do that, tomorr' you have to go to Church." She then passes us and someone in the intersection pulls out and startles her and I hear her say "You M*TH*RF*CK*R!!".

Whenever I hear her words run through my head it doesn't stop being funny...

"No, we can't do that, tomorr' you have to go to Church............You M*TH*RF*CK*R!!"

what color is your thumb?

You aren't going to believe this crap. So we keep having visitors over to our house and we are overjoyed at the gobs of green goodness growing in our garden, however, there has been a slight hiccup. I've realized that my green and banana peppers have been looking a little funny. By 'funny', I mean, the seeds that I planted weren't growing up to look like the starter pepper we put in next to our tomatos.

I keep holding my breath thinking that one day they'll match up or suddenly they'll sprout a little pepper and everything will be fine and I can rest assured that I am indeed growing peppers. So we have a heavy rain and now the peppers have fallen over and are now growing along the ground. What the deuce?!

So the in-laws visit over the weekend and my MIL mentions that those peppers look like pumpkins. Dude, no, I distinctly remember picking up bell and banana pepper seeds from Ace. Then we have some friends over for s'mores saturday night and I mock my MIL's comment about them being pumpkin vines. Dude, no. I can see the package of seeds in my head. Not pumpkin!

So this morning over breakfast it dawns on Amanda that last year when we carved pumpkins we threw the insides into the compost pile. Months go by and I use my compost pile to fertilize my new garden. Aaaaaah ha!

Anybody know a pumpkin salsa recipe?

So now I have 9 tomato plants, 1 pepper, and 10 pumpkin vines.

Angels and Demons

I just finished Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. All I can say is, wow, I didn't see that one coming! I thought it was a pretty good book, but it seemed quite predictable through the middle of the book.

Here are some of my thoughts floating around in my head after reading it:
1. I wish I knew more about art. I sure would like to make time to read more about Michelangelo and DaVinci and Bernoulli. Eventually I'll pick up something on art and read it...maybe.

2. I don't understand the hub-bub surrounding Dan Brown's books. Specifically, why there was such bad press about this book and the DaVinci Code. I'm Catholic and these books don't offend me. If anything, they've increased my faith and make me want to learn more about Catholicism.
Did I tell you, that when we lived in The 'Nati (when The DaVinci Code came out) we went to Mass one weekend and the priest had a visit priest give a homily touting his book "100 and 1 things wrong with The DaVinci Code"? I don't know if that was the specific title, but it was the biggest waste of a homily. I was so angry and irritated that they would waste time over a work of FICTION! What's next? JK Rowling the Atheist?! Good grief. Is their faith so weak that they can't handle a work of fiction? Or is my faith so weak that I fail to understand how and when I should defend my faith? No clue what the right answer there is.

3. Better than Angels and Demons, better than The DaVinci Code, is another book by Dan Brown called Digital Fortress. I liked the characters better and I liked the adventure better. The author spent more time writing from the bad guys perspective which I find much more entertaining. Lately I've been entertained more by cunning deceitfulness than charming heroics.

woot!

I bought my very own mp3 player off of woot.com. They were having a woot off last week and I picked up a 2 GB SanDisk player for 35 buck including shipping. Online the cheapest I've seen have been 60 bucks, so I think it's quite a deal. So now the next time I fly for work I don't have to suffer through the music that they play.

One downside of it was that it was a refurbished model (hence the cheapness), so it came with no manuals or software, so I had to spend about an hour and a half how to make it work. A quick firmware update and some additional finagling and I'm in business!

And it's the weekend and I don't have to work!

And we are going to our first MLS game tomorrow!

Honey did list

I built a flower box for the wife. X helped me a little.

It is a plywood box with cedar legs and cedar siding. It was supposed to be cedar shingles on the sides, but the lumberyard I went to didn't have the shingles. This is before I put the top on.



And this is the completed box.



The hardest part was cutting the trim pieces for the top. I was supposed to put a beveled edge on it, but I wasn't going to try that with a circular saw. If I only had a table saw.... And I nearly went bonkers trying to get the 45 degree angles cut right. I knew that was going to be a pain so I skipped the beveling. Maybe I should get a miter box. I was supposed to join the top trim pieces together by routering out a hole and using glue and biscuits, but I don't have a router so it was good old hammer, nails and glue. I put a coat of stain on it and I'll put another on there tomorrow and call it done.

This cost probably 70 dollars in material (cedar is expensive!) and 7 hours of labor. I think it turned out pretty good for my first try and the wife looooves it, so it did turn out very well.

garden

The first 'maters of the season.

riddle me this, Batman

It feels nice that we are finally getting this house broken in. I think I'm getting used to living here and it feels like everything fits. Little by little we add in our own touches and make it better than we found it.

So one of the new touches that is on my honey-do list is to install ceiling fans in Xander's room and the spare room. In town there is a used household goods store where anybody can donate their surplus home renovation supplies. It is also full of home goods that are from persons renovating their homes and putting to good use gently used items. Cabinets, paint, doors, windows, mirrors and craploads of chandeliers. Well I went there this past saturday looking for ceiling fans. I pick out a couple and head up to the register. The guy at the register finally is able to ring up my two fans. He looks at the first one and somehow comes up with the price of 10 dollars. He looks at the second fan and says 'wow, that's a really nice fan. How much do you want to pay for it?'

'10 dollars,' I reply.

He gives me a 'you cheap ass' look, but I keep my mouth shut. First, there is a huge sign that says "ALL SALES FINAL"; all this crap here is used, how do I know it works? I don't. Second, don't ask me how much I want to pay for something and then act surprised when I'm cheap on what I want to pay. Mark the price next time. I'm shopping here because I'm cheap and want to capitalize on rich folks supersizing perfectly good household goodies.

Anyway, I got out of there, with what I hope are two just like new ceiling fans for 20 bucks.

Oh, and we are never again going to our local Dairy Queen. I can't emphasize the seething irritation that I have for unsupervised teenagers. Lazy, snotty, snooty and obnoxious. Although it was comical the sound that a large vanilla cone makes when it falls from a height of 4 feet. bllluurchhh.

Not all of them now, there were 2 of the 8 that were carrying the load.

to and fro across the pond again.

I made another trip to and fro across the pond for work again. That gave me time to read some. Here are the minutes from my book review club meeting...

The Sphere - Michael Crichton
I didn't think too much of it and was rather disappointed. I enjoyed the story, but I thought it was more of a psychological thriller and was expecting some sort adventure of jurassic-like proportions. The whole ending just didn't sit with me well. Oh, let's just pretend it never happened. I was hoping they would take the spaceship for a spin, but that never happened.

Hold Tight - Harlan Coben
I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up at Heathrow (and got ripped by the exchange rate, but I knew that was going to happen) and read it for the entire flight to Philly. Being a bit hungover and short on sleep for the week (bad hotel room, lousy traffic next to the hotel) I was anticipating sleeping a bit on the plane, not with this book. It didn't grab me from the get-go, but it slowly built up and then brought back characters from The Innocent that I really enjoyed (Inspector Loren Muse - love that character!) and I just couldn't stop. I like the how Coben writes his characters thoughts and actions. To me, his characters get stuck in bad situations but follow their own intuition and gut instinct and get out. I don't know how to say it really, but I like the way he makes his characters think, how their thoughts evolve.

Book review club

I started a book review club. So far I'm the only member. Here is a summary of the group's recent adventures in page turning...

Harlan Coben, The Innocent

I read this on my trip across the pond. I really don't know who a master of suspense is, but the author did a great job of keeping me interested in the plot with all of the twists and turns. I liked the characters that he created in the story and I thought I really got to know them in on a close personal level. I really felt for the main character, the twist that his life takes is something that could have happened to me. Or still could.

Great book! I'll read Harlan Coben again.

Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

I picked this book up for a dollar at a rummage sale last fall. I thought I would really like it since way back in 2002 I desperately picked up Rainbow Six on a whim at LAX and really loved it. I started it back in November, but fell off the wagon and just now got around to finishing it. I really didn't find it that interesting. It's about a Russian submarine. There's a movie about it. It was like reading the play by play of a chess match. Well, it wasn't that boring, but it took my stubborn streak for force myself to pick it back up and finish it.

I won't give up on old Tom just yet.

David Baldacci, Simple Genius

I found this book last summer during a layover on a trash can at LAX. This was another one of those that I started, but loaned to a coworker, then I read some other books and then came back to this and finally finished it. The story was pretty good, but in the middle it became a bit drawn out.

"Oh, we're two private detectives and we ran out of clues. Oh, but wait, we can investigate this! Oh, we are out of clues again. But wait, we can investigate this! Out of clues again...la la la, what to do, oh wait, we can investigate this!"

All in all it was a pretty good book. I didn't have any expectations from Baldacci, so I wasn't too let down. Let's just say I wasn't as let down as when I read The Hunt for Red October.

Now I'm onto reading The Sphere by Micheal Crichton. I've never read anything by him before. I have high expectations from him.

Caution!!! Wild Animal Violence!

Caution, below are images of a killer cat poaching on her realm, proceed with care.

Over the weekend I was puttering around the yard. I got rid of our old firewood storage system behind our shed a few months ago. It was two pieces of u-channel (the same green metal that street signs are mounted on) welded to two pieces of angle iron for the ends, with metal poles keeping the logs from rolling off. Well, this was no good in keeping the wood off of the ground and caused most of our firewood to rot. So I threw it out and built a new one from some treated 2 x 4's and used treated 2 x 6's as the ends.

Anyway, for the month or so from when I had thrown the old one out and built the new one last weekend I stored the remaining firewood in our firepit just off of our patio in our backyard. Well low and behold, some happy little family of mice built themselves a comfortable home there. Upon restacking the firewood one of them scampered out of there and I thought that there would be more in there.

So I asked myself, what would be better than seeing if Ainsley would chase a rabbit? I know! Ainsley chasing a mouse! So I grab Ainsley and move a couple of more logs around and scare the next mouse out. Shazaaam! The Orange Lightening Bolt returns!

I moved the picture far down there to give you a chance to not look.

Happy birthday to me!

29 and feelin' fine!

I feel like there is something that I need to do to fully appreciate being 29, so when I'm 39 I can look back and reminisce with fond memories. Oh, I'm sure I'll have fond memories of being 29, but there are all those folks out there who say...'ah, to be 29 again'.

Well, dear readers, I am now 29, now what? What should I do so that in another decade instead of saying 'ah, to be 29 again' I say something like 'Hell yes! 29! I kicked the crap out of it!'

That's it. I've made up my mind. I'm going to have a theme for this year, and it is to kick the crap out of 29. I've never had themes before, let alone a theme for a year of my life. Look out 29, there is a size 12 headed for your hindquarters!

So what should my focus be? I don't know. Don't lose focus!

Weezer and bleach

So Friday night we were in Best Buy to buy Amanda her mother's day gift, 27 Dresses. We were in the checkout line and she says "Do you still want that Weezer cd?".

"Heck yea!" I say.

So for the entire weekend I've been jamming to Weezer's first cd, the one with the Sweater Song. You know you like that song! It's going to be stuck in your head all day now.

I spent saturday afternoon playing in the yard and now I have poison ivy on my left forearm. It's kiling me! My in-laws told me to put bleach on it. Yea, while I'm at it I'll shove bamboo shoots up my fingernails and rig up a contraption to conduct self-water-board torture.

As it turns out, today at work I was mocking their home remedies to my coworkers and they back up that logic. So right now, as I resist the urge to rake a jagged piece of broken glass across my forearm, I am wondering where we keep our bleach.

rising gas prices

You know, with rising gas prices fast food chains ought to do all they can to speed up drive though lines and decrease the time customers spend waiting in line with their engines idling. Why just yesterday after a hearty 2 hours volunteer gardening at our church we decided to treat ourselves to some DQ goodness. Would you believe it took 3 minutes and 45 seconds (Do the Evolution played while waiting) to get our tasty goodness? That is entirely too long to wait for ice cream.

The problem was all of the doodoo-heads in front of us ordering sandwiches. Sandwiches from Dairy Queen? You don't go to DQ and get sandwiches! Where's your brain people?

And do you know 2 small twist cones cost 2.98? 2.98!! Fricking outrageous! Oh and small means small, it wasn't opposite day.

In other events, with my child's supervision, I planted bell and sweet bananna peppers in the remaining garden area. I planted seeds so hopefully that turns out okay. Never tried that before. I gave them some 'roids too, so I hope to have some super peppers.

Before I got started gardening I wanted to clear it with the wife so I said to her "Is it okay if I plant my seeds?" Thinking it's best to see if she needs a break from the kid. "IN THE GARDEN!!" I add in a shout.

Garden

The garden has been started! First we had to get rid of a few bushes that seemed to me to be a various random assortment of miscellaneous plants hodge podged together in the flower bed. Amazingly we convinced the in-laws that the various random assortment of miscellanea would go perfectly at their new house. They were convinced and came over last weekend and picked them up.

Prior to that, we were on vacation in Williamsburg and I got some new ideas for the garden. The first was to take two rows of treated 1x8's and use that as border to keep the rabbits out. The second was to use soft pine needles as border instead of buying mulch; or just leaving the dirt exposed. I just don't see the sense in buying mulch year after year. I just don't see the benefit. Lucky for us the previous homeowner put down expensive mulch so we don't have to. That leaves time for the ground cover we planted to take over so we don't have to buy mulch in the future! But anyway, the soft pine needles look really good around the veggie patch.



Ta da! In-laws also purchased some tomato plants for me for my upcoming birthday, so I planted those and an onion that was sprouting in our kitchen cabinet. The red tarp stuff came with the tomato plants and is some form of mulch. I was just going to chuck it, thinking that the 'roids that I planted the tomatos with was enough, but I got one of those "it's free why not use it (you big dummy!)??" looks from the wife, so I put it down.

I think this weekend we'll put in some sweet corn and zucchini.

1 project complete

Thanks to a helping hand from Sergey, I now have a nice shelf under our basement steps and rolling carts for storage. The reason behind it is we hope to create a little play area for X in the basement so that Amanda can play in her sewing area or workout and X can play and be semi-attended. In order to do that we had to make room for X's play area by getting rid of what we had stored there. So now our camping gear is stored under the stairs.

Here are 2 before pictures:

Here are the after pictures:

My next work in progress is our garden. I made a wall to go around the garden (16X5) to keep the rabbits out. I'm told that I have tomato plants arriving for my birthday....and I think we'll put in some sweet corn, zucchinni, onion and peppers. I brought some used coffee grounds home from work and put them in there today. I heard that coffee grounds are good nitrogen boost so I spread them over entire bed.

dr visit and other news

I'm starting to grow up. There have been 2 new developments around here that tell me that. The first is there is a new radio station in town that plays 90's music (93 up to some new stuff...skipping some garbage from 00-04) that is fricking awesome. That's got to be a sign that I'm ...oooh, ...I hate to say it, aging. However the radio station is awesome! It takes me way, way back to 95 and 96.

Second is the fact that we have a family doctor and I went on a visit voluntarily (with minor *harrrumph* motivation from Hugs). He told me to get some blood work done, all routine, so I did that this morning.

Have you ever had blood drawn from you and had it make a noise as if it was coming out of a high pressure hose? You know the sound when you take your garden hose and go to fill up a bucket when you wash the car and the sound it makes when the water squirts into the bucket? Well, my blood did that into the test tube this morning. Of course you couldn't hear it in the next room, but I didn't imagine it.

There was something else I was going to yap about but I can't remember....must be aging to fast to remember.

redneck weekend

I spent my first weekend home from 2 weeks out of the country outside in the beautiful Ohio weather. We replanted some daffodils and some other plants to make room for our garden. Hopefully next weekend I can put that in. Oh, but I need to remember to put up a fence to keep the rabbits out. And I sharpened my reel lawnmower so he should be ready to roll very soon.

And now that I've given myself the inaugural farmers tan for the season I'm ready for summer. My neck and forearms are killing me!

It was great leaving work today and 1) not being the last one out and 2) it still was daylight.

Here's a picture of Amanda in her "Football kit" (soccer jersey) and X in his new coat. When we first put the jacket on him and pulled the hood up we though he looked and sounded like Kenny from South Park.

Day Seven through Twelve

On Sunday we were invited to a guys house to have a traditional English breakfast. It was great! Carrot and curryander (sp?) soup, roast, veggies, worchester pudding (not really pudding) and for dessert spotted dick. I'll just come right out and say it...

I ate the spotted dick. The spotted dick was good. I had seconds on the spotted dick.

Spotted dick is a sweet bread with custard and currants.

The rest of the days are a bit of a blur. We worked late every night and seeking a new pub to eat at wasn't as high of a priority as getting back to the hotel to go to bed was.

Driving back to Heathrow at 4am the GPS was a godsend again because I had to take a detour and when I went off course the GPS automatically recalculated the roads to take.

Overall it was a great time.

Some other thoughts I had while I was there...
The forearm tattoo is big over in England.

So is smoking! Thank heavens that the smoking bans in the UK are strict like they are over here in the US.

Alright, the jet lag is starting to catch up to me a little bit...need to get to bed.

Day Six

I think the jet lag is catching up to me. I feel like crap. I’m very tired and have zero motivation.

For lunch I had a bacon and brie baguette with some onion soup. The baguette was awesome. I ignored my chips. I’m sick of their chips. Everywhere they are the same. There must be only one chip vendor for this town.

I’m getting used to round-a-bouts. However, I’ve been driving on streets that aren’t too busy, so there isn’t too much traffic to content with as I count the exits on my way around-the-bout.

We had some fancy Indian food for diner. The Brits here tell me that curry has replaced fish and chips as the national meal. The dinner was okay, not as good as the Indian restaurants in Cincinnati.

Day Five

We finally left work at a decent hour and went to a pub. It was a nice place, but the employee that brought out our food gave me the creeps because I couldn’t figure out if it was a man or a woman. I had the lamb (fatty) with a potato in a jacket served with a side of, wait for it, wait for it…peas!

Back at the hotel I had a great hot chocolate and fell asleep watching the original Transformers cartoon. That was awesome!

Day Four

Busy day at work. Ended up trying to eat at a carvery, but it was after 9pm and the dinner choices were very very slim. That's one weird thing about England, all the kitchens close at 8:30 or 9pm and stop serving food. Of course they keep serving beer. I ended up back at the hotel restaurant eating a sausage and onion sandwich and some nachos. The sausages were puny, but the bread was very good. Over here, when you order a sandwich they ask you if you want white or brown bread. I’ve only had the brown and it is good.

Day Three

Another busy day. I was supposed to go out with a few of my new ‘mates’ and watch the England vs France Football match, but I wanted to get back to the hotel at a decent hour. Kickoff wasn't until 7:30pm and I had to send some emails. I ended up at a nice, clean little pub. I had the largest hamburger I’ve ever eaten, with chips of course and a Strongbow. The Strongbow tasted like apple cider. It was so sweet and didn’t taste like beer at all. I bet I could get Amanda to drink it.

The bartender was Scottish and actually chatted with em for a minute. Everyone else so far just seems to tolerate me.

Day Two

I had a busy day at work so I just had time for dinner and no sightseeing. I ended up at a dive because all pubs look like dives from the outside. When I went in and ordered the locals at the bar stopped all conversation and looked at one another with expressions that said “WTF?” and “a damn bloody Yankee is in here!” Those wankers were smirking to themselves and it was quite funny.

I ordered bangers and mash and a Carling. The Carling was a good tasting beer. And of course the bangers and mash came with peas. Everything here comes with peas or chips (fries).

Day One

Day 1…
the flight over was good. Not much to talk about if you’ve flown on a plane before. Although it was my first time on a 777. I had a night flight so I landed at Heathrow at 11am and caught about 3 – 4 hours of sleep on the plane, after a full day of Easter Sunday activities. Surprisingly, I wasn't too tired. My mind must be running off of excitement of being overseas for the first time and reading the Harlan Coben book, “The Innocent” (very good book, almost done!).

I get my passport stamped and grab my bag off of the carousel. Which, by incredible luck, was there on the carousel after waiting there for 10 seconds; that’s never happened before.

I ended up getting a new wallet for this trip, one that is slimmer, holds less and goes in my front pocket (to avoid being pick-pocketed). The width of the billfold works just barely for dollars, but of course, was not designed for the pound which is a full half inch taller than a dollar. The lady at the exchange counter suggested I get a new wallet, thanks but…

Aaaah, now onto the rental car. I get on the shuttle bus to go to the rental agency and try to enter the bus on the wrong side. See, if you didn’t realize, in England everybody drives on the other side of the road, so that means everything is on the other side.

I finish up at the rental agency and get situated in my Vauxhall Vectra with a 6 speed manual transmission and GPS. I take extra care in ensuring that the mirrors are adjusted correctly, I know where the turn signals are located, the wipers, my maps; all this extra effort to ensure that my brain is able to focus more attention on driving on the left hand side of the road.

I pull out with the rental car and end up stalling it three times before realizing that I’m trying to take off in 3^rd gear. Blast! The gear shift locations are in the same locations on vehicles on either side of the pond; my only problem was my left hand's inability to know how to put it into 1^st gear. I was afraid I would end up putting it into reverse, but finding reverse will be another adventure to tell you about later.

The GPS was a godsend. I would have gone crazy trying to get out of Heathrow with out it.

So once I was trundling merrily along headed to my hotel, this is what my vantage point was driving:
The devil is in the details when it comes to driving on the left. This means that nearly everything is opposite, stuff you wouldn’t even think about (at least I didn’t):

1. The exits are primarily on the left
2. Faster traffic travels on the right
3. Your blindspot is now on the right
4. Looking in your rearview mirror requires you to look to the left (that’s a tricky one!)
5. The wipers go from left to right, not right to left
6. When I drive, I have a tendency to slouch to the right…I can’t do that now. Well, I have to slouch to the left instead.
7. The guy inside the round-a-bout has the right of way
8. Parking the car is difficult
9. The seatbelt is on the left

Once I was settled in my room I took a walk and here are some pictures.

Danger! Speed cameras!

This is a 50 mph speed limit sign. I’m surprised everything isn’t in km’s, but maybe I’m missing something here.

A road like this, is called a dual carriageway. Look out for buggys!

There were a couple of other buggary things that happened…when I arrived to check in my reservation wasn’t reserved and the clerk said “blimey”. I could not stifle my laughter.

This whole left hand side driving hoses me up in another category: crossing the road. I don’t know if you are like me, but when I’m in America and I cross the street I have a tendency to first look left as I proceed across the road, then when I reach the median I look to the right to ensure I’m not going to be Froggered. This is a problem in the UK. I crossed half of a road while I was on my walk, made it to the median and looked to the right, saw no one coming and proceeded to cross. Then there was that unmistakably new sound approach me, the whir of a 4 cylinder diesel bearing down on me traveling at 40+ mph. Zoinks! Time to run you stupid tourist! Of course if I looked both left and right before I crossed I wouldn't have that problem.

Once I got across it took a few minutes before I stopped laughing at myself.

For dinner I walked to a restaurant across from the hotel. When I ordered the 7oz fillet, the waitress confirmed my order by saying ‘the phil-ett’? Yes, the phil-ett, with a Stella Artois to wash it down.

Baked potatoes are referred to as jacket potatoes.

There and back again

I had a little work trip to England. It went okay. Fortunately we finished most of what we were to do there, but unfortunately I'll have to go back over there in a month or so to wrap up the program.

There are so many things to tell you about this trip. I knew I'd have so much to blog about when I returned that I'd have trouble remembering so I kept a little journal to update this blog when I returned. But in the meantime, here are some highlights in no specific order....

Driving on the other side of the road is something else. I am sooo happy that I ordered the GPS with the car, otherwise I don't think I would've been able to leave Heathrow without going insane. Needless to say I was only honked at once as I was leaving Heathrow.

They don't have light beer over there. Here, if you sit down in any bar there are so many light beers to choose from. Over there, just real beer. It's good beer too. I had ale for the first time as well. I'm not a big ale fan. It tastes like stale flat beer. It must be an acquired taste. And everywhere I went it was ordered by the pint (or half pint). There was none of the 12, 16 or 20 ounce choice. Here's 2 pence, gimme a pint. It's straightforward. That's how ordering and drinking beer should be.

I tried to survey the people of England and see if they were fat like Americans. You know what? They are fat like us. I didn't see anyone that needed to use a wheelchair to get around, but there were obese folks there. The locals that I was working with said that England is more like the US when it comes to obesity, but the rest of Europe is not. So, we are infecting Europe 1 country at a time.

In the city I was in, I liked the fact that I didn't see restaurant chains. Oh, I saw the McDonald's, and Domino's and Burger King's, but for local food, everything was different. Every pub was different. They all had Fosters and Carling on tap and either a football (soccer) game was on or BBC was broadcasting. I liked the uniqueness of the pubs.

So I'll post on here the events of the days that I recorded.

Cheers mate!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our Family to yours!

blasted pcv valve

I was so excited this morning when I woke up. An entire 2 days off of work! I had my nice jog, changed the oil in Amanda's car, mixed coffee grounds in my compost pile to make better compost and then proceeded to break my truck.

I thought it would be a good idea to check under the hood and check fluid levels, belts and hoses. In doing so, I wiggled my breather hose going to the pcv valve on my right valve cover and it snapped right off. Blood and bloody ashes Moraine. First I had to figure out what I broke. I look in my little Haynes manual and figure out it's the pcv valve. At first it looks like I have to take the entire valve cover off, but a quick call to the father-in-law and some more looking in my Haynes manual tells me that it should pull right out. Ummm, no. Not happening. I ended up destroying it taking it out. The pcv sits so tightly inside this rubber grommet on the valve cover that it was a curse fest getting it out. I actually said the Queen Mother of all swear words trying to get it out...usually I'm a bit more patient.

Now onto getting a suitable replacement. I call Autozone and they have one in stock and I run down there and buy it. I try to install it and ....what the dilly o, it's too small?!? It doesn't fit in the grommet. Alright, so I call the dealership and see if they have one because I've ran into problems before with fuel filters that Autozone just doesn't carry the right one even though they think it's right.

So I run over to the dealership and pick that up. I get out to the car and realize the dealership gave me the same part as Autozone. Blast! So Autozone is right and I have 2 of the same part and neither one fits in the grommet in the valve cover. So now what? Great. Am I telling them the right part that I need replaced? Am I telling them the right vehicle information...year, make, engine size and so on?

I stop back home and look at my Haynes manual again hoping that I missed some brilliant line of wisdom or that by some chance I'm wrong and that the pcv valve from the dealership fits into the grommet. Nope. No dice.

Now at this point I'm getting desperate. I've destroyed my original piece and the two replacements I've found don't work. And it's a saturday so the dealership closed at 1pm so now I'm stuck until monday. I decided to try a third parts store in town and they guy ended up telling me that the pcv valve from both Autozone and the dealership was correct. Dang! However, he did have grommets! He ended up selling me a grommet, to go in my grommet to hold my new pcv valve.

Now onto the installation, which is not the reverse of removal in my case. I spent quite a while trying to figure out do I put the pcv in grommet 1 and grommet 2 and then jam the whole assembly in there. Or do I put grommet 1 in the valve cover, put the pcv in grommet 2 and then stuff those two into grommet 1? The problem was that the grommet grommet fitting was so tight, and the new pcv was an L shape, so I couldn't make it happen. I ended up turning the L into an I and jamming it all in there.

The right thing to do was to get the correct grommet, but according to the guy at store #3, he only had it in stock in a store 2 hours away. I could have probably waited until monday to go to the dealership and get the right grommet, but, eh, I needed to get it working and didn't feel like waiting.

So hopefully my jimmy rigged pcv valve will hold up.

catching up

What's new? I've been working a crapload. The current project I'm on ships next thursday to England. We had the customer over for a week and I entertained them part of the time by running tests for them on the system they are buying. The one guy said "bugger" once when we where having trouble getting two traces to display on the spectrum analyzer. It was tough not to laugh out loud. He also said funny things like "spot on" when a measurement was good. Typically I'll say "dead nuts", or "that's tight" or "good". He didn't say "God say the Queen!" (although I almost did once) or "cheerio" though. I was just a bit let down.

Watched a couple of movies lately...last night we watched "Wayne's World". I saw it in high school, but that was years after the original came out and everyone was quoting it. I was behind the cool curve on that one. It had it's moments, it was funny. Seeing the flames on the Gremlin make me wish I still had my Festiva. I shoulda put flames on it when I had it. I wish I never sold it. I'd put flames on it if I still had it. Yes I would.

It took me three sittings to watch "The Chronicles of Narnia". I fell asleep 30 minutes into it (at 9 pm last saturday night) the first time, then the next sitting I had to go to bed....then I finally finished it wednesday night. It was pretty good. When I was watching it I wondered why do all the evil characters have to be ugly? There were one eyed things and trolloc look-a-likes and wart covered things...and they were all evil. The good side had the lion, the unicorn, the phoenix, the jaguars, the beavers...all these pretty animals. I did like how the wolves had American accents and the good guys had British accents.

We had a blizzard today. I don't know what exactly constitutes a blizzard, but it happened. I shoveled a boatload of snow. Although we have nice neighbors with snow blowers who do the sidewalks sometimes.

week update

I had monday off as a holiday, but I made up that time at work tuesday through saturday. I'm feeling the deadline pressure looming. My boss asks me "Are you feeling the pressure?" I replied "Yeah" --in a 'you ain't fricking kidding, dude' tone. He responded "Good." It's hard to explain, but it was a healthy work conversation. My workload, like everything else in life, is like a sinusoidal wave and right now I'm headed to the maximum amplitude point of the curve. So I'm tired, but hopeful and not worrying.

Although it really sucks only seeing my kid for 30 minutes in the morning and maybe 30 more at night. That's the hardest part of being a parent so far.

The best part about today was after I left work I picked up X from Amanda at her sewing class and went over to Barnes and Nobles and bought a magazine and a Tazo green tea from Starbucks (gross drink --do not get this!) and sat a read and X slept. When Amanda came by after her class and picked us up I felt so refreshed. It was like I took a nap.

cake

I smashed a piece of cake in my wife's face tonight while she proofread our city taxes. It was really, really funny.

What do you know, our camera worked perfectly!

catching up

Hey, I'm still here. I've been working a crapload of hours lately (including saturdays) and haven't had much time for fun things like blogging. However, thanks to the holiday weekend, I have some extra time.

I just finished our taxes. Boy, when you have a kid and a house you get a crapload of money back. I was skeptical about that, so that was a pleasant surprise. When are you going to be able to file city taxes online?

I'm a single parent today. Momma's off at a sewing class so I'm in charge. Xander was being crabby so I put him down for his evening nap. The screaming stopped so I think he's asleep. It was only 5-10 minutes of yelling. It's good that it only lasts that long. Maybe we'll go for a drive later and go to the carwash.

So for Lent I decided to give up sweets. At first I decided to just limit myself to only one per meal, but then Amanda and I were talking and I felt guilty and inspired at the same time so I chose to give up sweets altogether. It hasn't been to bad, except last night when we sat down to watch 'Live Free or Die Hard' and Amanda sat down next to me chomping on a candy bar. I did take advantage of the 'you can have what you give up for Lent on sundays' idea this morning after mass. They had free coffee and doughnuts after mass...and let me tell you, that was one of the BEST doughnuts I've had in a long, long time.

Live Free or Die Hard was a good movie. I didn't realize the Mac guy from the Mac vs PC commercials was in it. He was pretty good. I kept waiting for him to say something Mac-oriented, but he didn't. It was a good action flick. I think I'd most likely put Bruce Willis on my tough-guy list. The semi-truck vs fighter jet was a silly scene, so was the bit in the elevator shaft. It was all realistic up until then :)

addendum

I would like to add to my rant from yesterday that I think Wes Welker of the Patriots would have deserved MVP honors if the Pats would have won. His performance was phenomenal. That little squirt is unstoppable.

We had another fun Home Depot trip this weekend. Bought a hot water heater blanket, an AC cover, a peephole and some wood to build some rolling storage bins under the basement stairs. We also picked up some paint for the master bathroom. We are going to paint it Lauren's Lullaby, which is light pink.

The only problem is I'm not finding too much time to work on my favorite project which is building my little storage area with drawers on wheels in the basement.

Funny thing: while at Home Depot searching for casters for my rolling bins, I asked a HD employee where the casters were and he replied "What's a caster?". I was really surprised, 99% of the time they know exactly what I ask.

Still no hot dog vendor at HD.

Proof!

There is a God and he is just and true! Do you know what is almost as good as your team winning the Superbowl? Watching the Patriots lose the Superbowl!!

"Oooh, look at us Patriots with our perfect season. Oooh, our coach Bill Belichick is a coaching genius. Ooooh, look at Tom Brady he's so awesome. Ooooh, look at his little girlfriend Giselle (oh, but that's not his baby momma!! --classless!)"

Okay, okay, I'll stop with my childish and immature rant. Let's be honest though, how big of a rock do you have to live under if you haven't heard anybody with a soapbox rant and rave at the quest for the perfect season, how good Tom Brady is and what a coaching genius Belichick is? The rock has to be the size of Iowa if you haven't.

I guess my problem is a combination of a few things:
1. Jealousy - because Belichick used to coach the Browns and now everyone strokes his ego about what a genius he is
2. .....

Yeaaa. I guess my problem is just jealousy. But listen, that's enough of the negative comments. I want everyone with a soapbox to jump back on it and cheer for those underdog Giants! Were they 10 or 17 point underdogs? I can't remember the last time I really enjoyed the Superbowl. I really enjoyed it because it was such a close game. I certainly haven't enjoyed that much because my team hasn't been there.

Next year is our year! Remember, starting tomorrow, everyone is undefeated!

vacation?

Where should we go on vacation? We are taking suggestions. Our requirements are:

1. no giant city, -- no NYC or Chicago
2. must be within < 11 hours drive. I think that's all our little X can handle, no flying for him yet
3. it can't be north of us

I think that's it as far as restrictions go.

Last year we picked Charleston, SC on a whim and it turned out to be a great time. Good food, nice city, had some nature stuff in there, American history stuff and cheap hotels. It really was a great time.

So now what? Will the 'just pick something' strategy work for us again? I'm not so certain. I keep getting teased at work with our seemingly random vacation selection. Maybe it's the peer pressure from my peers that makes me doubt my vacation hot spot selection skills.

I'm only 28 and plan on taking many more vacations so the 'just pick something' and go with it strategy seems to be flaw free to me. And as long as we stop at an IHOP or a Waffle House on this vacation Amanda will be satisfied.

So far we've been thinking of Ocean City, MD, Virginia Beach, VA, the Outer Banks,
Chincoteague Island.

Suggestions?

Spartacus -- a real tough guy

We watched Spartacus this past weekend. It almost took all weekend too because the movie is 3 hours long. Watching this movie got me to thinking that these days there are no longer any tough guys in the movies. Sure, we have these big muscle bound guys like Arnold and The Rock. But they aren't tough guys. Sure they might have cooler fight scenes because Jet Li's cousin is the fight sequence choreographer, but they aren't tough. They aren't bad. They don't have grit. They don't make me want to try and walk with a swagger.

Here's my tough guy actor list in the order they float to the top of my head.
1. Kirk Douglas
2. Paul Newman
3. Jack Palance
4. John Wayne
5. Steve McQueen
6. Clint Eastwood

Honorable mention.
1. Harrison Ford
2. Sly Stallone (excluding everything but Rocky 1)
3. Al Pacino
4. Bruce Willis (pre-head shaving days --the cue ball look detracts from toughness)

I will never buy a belkin

So at work I've been experiencing hardware troubles with a Belkin USB KVM. KVM stands for keyboard, video, mouse. A properly working KVM allows you to use one keyboard, one monitor and one mouse to control multiple computers. And in this case, the USB indicates that they keyboard and mouse have USB connectors.

Well, this fine Belkin product (PN: F1DS104U) is a piece of crap and I want to run it over with my truck.


The problem with this KVM is that the hotkeys don't work. Hotkeys allow you to switch between one computer and the next with certain keystrokes. In my case, it is imperative that they hotkeys work because the KVM is inside a temperature controlled enclosure. Opening the doors to switch computers defeats the purpose of having the KVM.

Oh, but wait...there are firmware updates! Just plug a cat-5 cable into your PC and plug the other end of it into the RJ45 jack on the back.... Wait a tic! There's no RJ45 jack on the back! Then how do I get firmware updates?

Yea, that's a problem.

Other than that....I think we are going to watch "A Roman Holiday" tonight.