Rapid Random

Just a few random things I wanted to post on!!!

My wife got lucky and got Jury Duty. Had her calling in since last Monday, but Friday was the first day they actually had her come in. So far, she's on a jury. I notice that when I was on Jury Duty, there were wild fires going on then, too. I saw the smoke rising from the hills yesterday when I was taking the boys to the railroad open house.

I know I've been hiking up there, but I remember the name of the place more than the place itself.

Incredibly hot this weekend. I kind of wanted to take the boys or the whole family to Universal Studios to partake in some of the moist activities that occur there, as well as getting some use out of the year passes. Of course, I don't think I'd drive, but take the rail line.




All images swiped from the 'Net.

The system went down several times on Friday. I wrote about it on my cup. "For a buggy system, it is remarkably stable" and "Do not attempt to adjust your computer. We are controlling the transmission." I wonder how many people actually made the Outer Limits connection.

Wifey's going to take the rail line to court tomorrow instead of driving. If she'd had the presence of mind, she could have gotten a Metro pass at the court and gone without having to pay. Hopefully (and if commuting that way suits her tomorrow) she'll pick one up when she's there tomorrow.

Instead of going to Universal, I did yard work yesterday. That, and the railroad open house. The lawn actually came out looking fairly decent just running the mower over it and weed eating around the edges. Had to cut back a lot of other greenery, too, it's that time of year when the Fire Department does inspections.

Writing about the yardwork reminded me that I should water the grass a little.

My mom called today and talked a bit to my wife. Catching half of the conversation I got that she'd bought something for my oldest boys' birthday present. As she was getting ready to hand the phone to me, wife tells mom that she'll have to tell me so I know what she got him. As soon as I'm talking to my mom, she starts telling me about a Stanley Kubrick video collection she bought. I thought that was quite cool, but a rather odd thing to have gotten for the boy. Apparently, it was not for my son but just something she'd picked up.

Earlier in the week I'd needed something for my cup, so I wrote part of an Emily Dickinson poem:
HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all!!!

If she'd had the Metro pass, could have used that to ride free to Universal. I don't suppose that she could grab a handful of them???

They had a note on the board at work to let them know if anyone is interested in a permanent Saturday shift. Oh yea, I am interested!!! Saturday shift means you get Fridays off, and the shift is from 6:30 to 3:15, so you've still got some Saturday left. If you don't fall asleep after work. It also means a little more gravy in your paycheck. Now, there's something to hope for!!!

I know there is more random, because I had a thing or two that got left off the last random!!! The hour grows late...

ÃÝË's Been Working on the Railroad

Now, this was cool!!!

There was a blurb in the paper about an open house going on at a model railroad club.





I've always loved trains, and, even without my input my youngest has pretty much loved trains from infancy.



They have their own building with a layout over 5,000 square feet, and a great amount of detail. If you look closely, in the first picture you can see there's a guy bungee jumping from the bridge span. I didn't even see that until I looked at the picture tonight!!!





It also happened to be pretty close to my home, so that was a plus, too!!!

Mask Unmasked

As mentioned in the previous post, here's my take on the musical play "Mask", which I got to see on Saturday.

I'll start out with the restaurant that we went to first. A real class place, although it seemed a little bit small. We shall call it intimate. It is called Maison Akira, and they bill themselves as French dining with a Japanese flair. When I arrived, there was a wine bar set up, and I had a few while sitting with several of my co workers. Appetizers, then onto the food. Really, really good food.

After that, on to the theatre for the play. I had never seen the movie and didn't know the story, which I felt was a better way to go into it. I kind of knew that it was based on a true story, but I didn't know that it happened just up the road (and quite near my old-old place of employment) in Azusa. Turns out one of my fellow fillers grew up there, and had seen Rocky a few times at the store. A show featuring a biker gang, a deformed kid with a great attitude, and his addict mother seems like a strange choice to be made into a musical. Now, what can I say about this??? The actors all sang quite well, as well as acted well. There was a good balance of comedy and tragedy. The story didn't seem to completely blow. I can't put my finger on what the downfall was, but somehow the whole thing did not work. About halfway through the first act, when I found myself more fascinated with the rotating stage than the action, was when I think I realized it wasn't working for me. Funny, my wife wasn't familiar with the movie either. The movie she thought of when I told her was the Jim Carey comedy. Now, that might just make a better musical!!!

When I talked to some of the others who were there today at work, the consensus was pretty much the same among everyone. Interesting, last year's outing the food was perceived as "just OK" and the play as sensational, and this year the roles are reversed.

Work Perks Revisited

Just a little update on some of the cool goings-on at work. I had my annual review this week. It has several categories that are ranked 1 to 5, with 1 being the best and 3 being meets their already high expectations. I scored two 1's and a 2, with the rest being threes. I asked about a few of the other categories, how I could possibly do better, and was given the answer that several of them were either go or no go type categories. Either you get it, or you don't. Not so easy to score better in those categories. Anyhow, this should translate into an even better raise than last time... in six months!!!

Something I didn't have in the last perks post was the annual outings. They may not have been posted at that point, but this year they have the choice of the golf outing, a gambling cruise (not real gambling, but for prizes), or lunch and showing of the play "Mask". I don't golf, so that was out. One of the guys said the restaurant for the play outing is excellent, and he usually ends up spending more than $100 when he visits. Also, it is local to me. However, unlike last year's outing to "Wicked", I hadn't heard rave reviews about the play, and didn't have a whole lot of interest. Of the three, the cruise sounded the best to me, so that is what I signed up for.

Earlier this week, there was a notice posted: We still have extra play tickets, drop your name in the bowl and we'll draw names to see who gets to go to this in addition to their selected event. I put my name in and was selected. Apparently, there were so many extra tickets that if you put your name in, you won. I think they were recalling the response that they received to the "Wicked" outing last year and ended up over buying. That happens this afternoon, perhaps there will be a review on it later.

The ticket drawing that was mentioned on the last perks post, I scored!!! I'm going to the NASCAR race!!! Whoo hoo!!!

The picture on this post is my cup from Friday. It's about as busy as I've ever done. I rolled it across my scanner as it scanned, and it came out pretty decent. The part about the sexually transmitted diseases was per Pank's suggestion. I used to always bring my own cup to my previous job, but they don't have good lids, a must. Good times, good times.

The Black Friday Random

Welcome to the Black Friday random post!!! Although, it will likely be Saturday before it is posted. I have much randomness in me, but I'm sure some will not make it into this post.

A little background as to why this is titled the Black Friday Random Post. Last week they fired one of us fillers, a longtime worker who was well liked. No love. In a show of mourning for this loss, almost all of us fillers agreed to wear black today.

Gene Simmons was on the Mark & Brian show the other morning. Interestingly, what he mostly talked about was the economy. He basically echoed what I've been saying, the economy isn't really that bad, and it's a GREAT time to buy up stuff!!! Thank you, Gene!!!

I wonder how Jerry Lee Lewis feels about the group The Killers.

A few weeks ago, a couple of times my water cup at work got tossed out. I hadn't been writing my name on it, I'm one of the very few who use the biggest cups. I discovered soon after that that it doesn't matter what you write on your cup, just so long as you write something, it doesn't get tossed out.

I bought a few Asian pears last weekend. They were on sale for a pretty decent price. I pulled one out of my lunchbox at work on Monday, and most everyone was impressed with them. Asian pears rock.


Did you know that Gene Simmons copywrited the image of a bag of money with a dollar sign on the side??? Clever, who would have thought to do that???

There was yet another lunch and learn the other day. It was about the plants and garden areas around the building. It was actually one of the most interesting ones I've been to.

A couple of the girls forgot to wear black today. One went home on her lunch break and changed. The other went to a store and bought a black shirt.



A while ago, my oldest made up a little sign out of notebook paper. It said, "HILLARY EATS PUPPYS". I thought that was great, and asked him if I could have it. I taped it to my tray at work. Not a lot of people noticed it, but those who do are always greatly amused.

While looking for an image to use on that topic, I found an image of a bumper sticker that goes with it nicely.

The first thing that I wrote on one of my cups was, "Touch my cup, and I'll break your arm!!!" I considered adding and expletive or two, but decided against it. Needless to say, EVERYONE wanted to touch it. The next day I wrote, "Go ahead... touch my cup... you know you want to!!!"

They should make Gene Simmons the Federal Reserve Chief.

They made quite a bit of progress on the bin structure addition at first. Doesn't seem like much has been done recently, though.

One of the orders I got the other day was for something called a "ball vibrator". Naturally, they ordered two of them.

Ever notice that every election year they tear up the roads most everywhere??? That'll get votes, block up traffic for months.

I find that putting a 512 on my cup is usually most effective. I've had to explain the mystery of 512 to several people because of this. I explained it to the new girl, and she didn't believe me!!!

I think part of the reason those Asian pears are so expensive is the packaging they use on them. Have you seen these??? They look like a Styrofoam fish net stocking!!!


Gene Simmons wouldn't be the Federal Reserve Chief. There's not enough money in it for him.

One time, a customer ordered an eye bolt. Just one eye bolt, nothing else. As I was packing it, I asked myself, "Who orders just one eye bolt???" A few minutes, the answer came to me: The Cyclops!!!

The back of my son's Hillary sign said, "Pick up after your dog". No one will see that now, because it's taped with that side down.

Today I drew a picture of an anchor on my cup, and put the lines, "You're an anchor on the line, of a clock that tells the time, That is running out on you" for Counting Crows' "Richard Manuel is Dead" (a deceptively upbeat tune, considering the title). I would have used a lyric from "When I Dream of Michelangelo", but I was unsure of how to spell Michelangelo.

One guy at work always dresses all in black. One of the girls, when we were planning Black Friday, said, "Be sure to let him know!!!"

When we were discussing Asian pears, one guy missed the beginning of the exchange. He asked what we were talking about, and I replied, "Asian pears." He had a blank look for a few moments, and I had to explain to him that I wasn't talking about two Asian dudes.

We drove the Falcon for the first time in a while a couple weekends ago. My younger boy noticed my 512 dome light, and asked if that was where I got the idea for 512. Chicken or the egg, boy.


When we were at the store last weekend (buying Asian pears, among other things) Counting Crows' "Daylight Fading" came on the sound system. I thought that was great, that they were playing a song with the lyric, "Well, I heard you let somebody get their fingers into you".

The Fall of Fort 7

It was a peaceful morning, a little foggy, but no figures broke the fog. All of a sudden, a big shadow came through the fog carrying the monthly rations and 20 troops. Fort 7's security gate opened, when all of a sudden, a mortar round broke the scilence and collapsed the trenches! A nearby Sargent yelled out, "Mortars!" as 5 more rounds hit the fort. Two tanks broke the fog and opened fired with the 50-mm machine guns mounted to kill oncoming troops. Fifty battle-ready troops advanced on the tanks while others mounted the fort's defence cannons and machine guns. Troops came from the fog carrying rocket launchers and C-4. Then, just as the first tank exploded, he fort's automatic sentry turrets activated and cut down the the fog-trooper's front lines and the fort brought out the 2 antitank vehicles they had stored in the gradges. All of a sudden, the fog cleared and 3 Osprey helocopters came through the air, heading for the fort. the anti-air guns opened fire just as the troop carrying a HAVOC nuke came into the fort, planted the nuke, and ran for the motorcycle stashed by the shed. The enemy troops retreated and the fort roared in victory. Little did they know that a HAVOC nuke was planted in the barracks.

The preceding short story was written by the oldest for a quick short story assignment at school. The instructor said it was even better than their own. I thought it was pretty good, too. I left the misspellings in, to present it in "as written" form. He's been asking me to post a link to his site on here for a while to get traffic going that way. Please click over. I think he has delusions about the popularity of my blog :Þ

Piercings

A few weeks ago at lunch, the new girl noticed that one of the other guys with us has a tongue piercing. I don't remember what conversation ensued, but ensue it did. I said something to the effect of "Don't make me show you mine!!!" Now, I really don't have much cause to show it off at work (or very many other places, for that matter), so not many people there know I have it. I was sitting across from another of my favorite lesbians, and she was on about it. "Come on, lets see!!!" Duh, OK boss... I pulled my shirt open between a couple of the buttons and proudly displayed my nipple ring. She was a bit surprised, she thought I was putting them on. I asked her why she thought that another of our workmates often calls me "Wild Thang"??? He started calling me that after he found out about it.

The one who it seems to really have made an impression on, though, was the new girl. She's brought it up several times since then. She plays like it traumatized her.



Today this was in the paper, and with a couple of little modifications, it fits pretty nicely. I'll give it to her tomorrow, I think she'll be amused.

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

This was a strange thing. At work, they are doing additions to the bin structure where I work. They already lengthened them on the first level, and now are lengthening the remaining levels, as well as adding a third level to the red bins. Previously, working on the second level red bins was a bit like driving a convertible, having nothing immediately over your head. Yesterday I was in the second level red bins for a bit, and they had put in the bracing for the third level. that alone was a strange feeling, having something up there. Today, I was there again, and they'd added a floor for the third level, or a roof for the second level depending on how you look at it.



They had strung incandescent lights along the length of it. Very strange, as everywhere else has florescent lighting. There was something somewhat familiar about the look, and what came to mind was how the lighting in a mine or a submarine would be. Someone came over, and thought it reminded them of a garden party. All that was missing was their lawn chair. One of the other guys said it was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. That seemed like the closest match, after I heard that.

GET LOST!!!

This was quite cool. When I got home last night, my younger boy was quite emphatic that he wanted to go to the 99 Cent store. He wanted to get some candy from there, and after a little bit I agreed to go. I usually enjoy going there, and find a few things I can't pass up. This time was no exception, and I was very glad that I'd gone. My favorite energy drink is Lost, but it seems very hard to find anymore. They used to sell it at the new (not really so new anymore) grocery store, but not anymore. I used to get it from the liquor store by my old work, but that's not exactly convenient anymore. About the only place I can find it is at this one gas station near my parents' house. There it was, at the 99 cent store!!! Not only is the price much better than the $2.50 that it usually costs, but these were BIG GUN cans (which I'd never seen before, 24 ounces versus the usual 16)!!! Nice!!! I bought nine of them, nearly all of their stock.

In the front of the picture, you may notice a little bowling ball. The inspiration for the photo. He also got a cheap little bowling game, which ties in with bowling night with my work. Not as many people showed up this time, but it was still a lot of fun. I did pretty well on the first game, bowled 103. My game went downhill from there, but it was fun. The fear factor contest, all they had was people facing off against each other and competing to see who could eat things faster. Four of the five were baby food, and the fifth was bread, which was the hardest for anyone to get down, and the most fun to watch.

Perks Month

"A real job is about the fringe benefits. That's where the power is."
~Mr. Sharpton, from Stephen King's "Everything's Eventual"

This seems to be the month for it, by some coincidence. Many, many of the goodies about my work are happening this month. To start the month off, my first check had the overtime bonus for the past year on it. I had all but forgotten that happens, but there it was, a little more gravy for your enjoyment.

Another grouping of pluses that is happening is lunch and learns. Every once in a while they have them for something or another. A few months back they had one on biofuels, where I learned almost nothing new about biodiesel brewing, and considerably more about ethanol production. I wondered why anyone would bother making ethanol afterwards, it seems quite energy intensive to make. Last month they had one about the artwork at our branch, which was really quite good (hosted by a delightful lady by the name of Xillary Twill... I have a suspicion that wasn't her birth name, but who knows). I didn't know that some of the Warholian prints that we've got are, in actuality, Warhols.

Anyway, last Thursday our department hosted a lunch and learn about what was learned by some of our crew's visit to the Chicago branch (which was a paid "working" trip for three fillers and two supervisors. I had put my name in running for the trip, but wasn't selected). Most of these I've attended have seemed to be not long enough, and this was no exception. On the 21st, there is another one about our job benefits, and then at the end of the month there's one about our company's connections with many movie productions.

Next week, for the second time since I've been there, we're having a bowling night. Cool, I'm there. They've got notices posted for sign ups for "Fear Factor" on that night. I glanced at the sign up sheet the other day, and only a couple of the slots were filled, probably because it's so unknown what they've got in mind. I might just throw my name on the list...

Sometime next week I've got to turn in my picks for the Spring ticket giveaway. My first choice is always for the NASCAR at California Speedway, but those are hard to come by. Many Dodger games available, even a few against the Cubs this time (last time there were no Cubs games listed). Angels tickets in there, too, but I'd far rather go a couple miles to Dodger Stadium versus to another county to Angel Stadium. There are tickets to concerts and shows at the Greek Theatre and Hollywood Bowl, but they are mostly to be announced or of little interest to me. Oh yea, there's a few tickets for LA Galaxy soccer games, X games, Xtreme sports. Something new is membership certificates for a year at Children's Museum of La Habra. Once again, La Habra isn't too close, and I can't imagine going to one museum more than a couple of times in a year. One I'll probably put in my choices is the Circus tickets, a plus to those being that it's for four instead of two.



Last night I enjoyed the tickets I'd won in the Fall ticket giveaway, Lakers versus Clippers. It was the first live pro basketball game I've ever been to. Pretty decent seats, too bad the game wasn't very evenly matched. The Clippers kept it within 10 points for most of the first half, but lost it completely in the second half, culminating in a 119-82 slaughter. One of the things I found interesting was, at the end, they brought in the other Coby, Coby Karl. He sunk a couple of three pointers, which the crowd responded to with more enthusiasm than almost any other part of the game.

Life is good.

Universal Appeal

Over the weekend, in observance of the younger boy's birthday, we went to Universal Studios. It was the first time for both of the boys, and probably the first time I've been there in about 15 years.

As theme parks go, its interesting and fun, but not so many rides. More about the shows and attractions. My original thoughts had been to take to Gold Line out to Universal again, but the price for a day pass has gone from $3 to $5, and, of course, it ends up taking more than an hour to make the trip. At $12 for the family, it would be almost cheaper than the parking, but at $20 it was hardly worth it. Of course, this was before we got out of there and the 101 freeway was completely stopped.

There's the 74 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers.

One of the cool things that was new to me was the Terminator show. A cool mix of live action and 3-D film. Also new is a Shrek 4-D film with articulating seats and moisture effects.

Jaws. I had my little video camera with me, and the older boy and I attempted to do the lines from Jaws (Monkey cage? Shark cage), but I blew my lines.

They took out the Back to the Future ride that they used to have, but I'd never seen this "Doc Brown's Chicken" before. Didn't have any, but good theming. Also, when we went on the back lot tram tour, they do have the entry statues for Lyon Estates from that series of movies.

Ah yes, the back lot tram tour. One of the better things this park has going for it. Many street facades, many sound stages (which look like nothing but warehouses from the outside) and some interesting movie memorabilia and sets. New to me on the tram ride is video screens on the tram. Strange thing, several of the trees were wrapped up in white paper. The tour guide said they had been filming a car commercial there the other day, and that's why that was. As if that explained anything.

I didn't know it was filmed there, but Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives is at Universal. They said that they were filming while we were there, and asked us all to be silent while we rolled by. I didn't see anything other than the security guard. Lets see, what else happens on the tram??? Well, you go through one sound stage where King Kong attacks the tram, another one where you are involved in a Frisco earthquake. Nice for people visiting California. There is also the parting of the lake, which now has a little model of the ship approaching Skull Island from King Kong, and the Jaws Attack, and a flash flood.

Here's something surreal: The houses from the Grinch who Stole Christmas movie are located right behind the Bates Motel and the Psycho house.

Last picture is from the Water World stunt show. I'm not sure, but I think the show might actually be better than the movie was. Did I mention that the weather was somewhat inclement??? Not real bad, but it was overcast and cool all day, whereas every day leading up to this day and every day since has been beautiful, clear and warm. I only make mention because most every seat for this show is in a splash zone, and several are in soak zones. Worked out nicely, though, because there weren't too many people there, short lines.

Another ride we went on was the Jurassic Park ride. The younger boy had no interest in riding it, but each of us parents went with the older boy once each. Pretty good ride, with the potential to get wet.

The best ride there, in my opinion, was the Mummy coaster. Not a great coaster, but it has great themeing, as well as an awesome power launch. It goes through the whole track (mostly in the dark), then reverses and does the whole thing backwards!!! Rather unique!!! I rode it twice and the boy rode it three times.

Oh, and the deal that sealed it for me: The park lets you come back for the rest of 2008 (black out dates excluded), so there will be more of this!!! In Spring they are opening a Simpsons ride. More to follow...

Feed My Frankenstein

Subtitle: The Great Linux Experiment




As you may recall, my oldest boy got many computer upgrades for Christmas. This resulted in a rather large pile of old parts. A couple of weekends ago,I decided to apply some trickle down (or, if you prefer, trickle up) technology upgrades. The younger's comp is rather sluggish, so I decided to upgrade it's hardware. One of the old memory modules bumped it up to the coveted 512 range. The old video card also gave way to better things. I did both of these at the same time, and was rewarded with no video signal. After much trial and error, things worked right, with one exception: Windows decided that the changes were significant enough that it could be a whole new system, and demanded re-activation. OH yea, as an added bonus, in the course of these changes, it lost the network card and sound card drivers. Long story short, (or short upgrade long) it took several hours to do a relatively simple upgrade.

After all that, you'd think I'd have had enough. Not so, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided that there was more fun to be had with leftovers. I think it may have been the fact that it was a rainy afternoon. Still having a perfectly viable motherboard and processor as well as extra video cards and smallish hard drives without number, I ventured into the basement storage area. From the dank depths, I retrieved a computer I had trash picked a few years back. Primarily I had got it for the case itself, as well as the A drive, which I never seem to have enough of, even though they are almost never used. Having acquired it from out of the rain and never done a thing with it, I first connected it and fired it up. Worked just fine, although it was an interesting history lesson. It was running Windows 95, which I have no experience with, and featured ISA type cards, as well as a passive heat sink on the processor. After a bit of snooping to see what was contained therein, I unceremoniously yanked out its innards, and was shocked at how well the motherboard fit in its place.

For an operating system, I selected a free downloaded Linux version called Ubuntu. You download it and burn it to a CD, insert it into a CD drive before the operating system has started on any computer, and it runs "live" without being fully installed on the hard drive from the CD. I've been wanting to try this for a while, and here was the perfect opportunity. It takes some time to start up, but it was an impressive and quite different experience from Windows. Upon starting, it immediately recognized the video and network cards. The sound card, I know worked at least once, but not having any media on this computer didn't have much chance to explore. Many idiosyncrasies that I have yet to completely work out, such as not seeming to be able to access the A drive to save or retrieve pictures (Or any other) files from, and the pop-up blocker that came on when I attempted to add a picture to this post. Also, Java and Flash would need to be installed. Since I'm running it from a CD, there is no point in attempting this right now. A lot of the things that it comes with work remarkably well, such as the spell checker, which tells me every time I misspell a word.



Running from a CD causes some delay in running. I have attempted several times to install it on the hard drive. It acts as though it installs fine, but every time afterward, it gives a message of boot drive failure. Don't know why. I'll try the users forum and see if anyone has an answer. After I see if this will post from Linux.

Who You Callin' Chicken, Boy???

While I was out yesterday with my camera to survey the damage that had woken me up, I saw a glorious thing. Chicken Boy!!! I've heard tales of him for years, but I had no idea that he had returned, and so close to my home!!! Good to see you, Chicken boy!!!

Rude Awakening

What a way to wake up!!! Choppity choppity.... I thought I was back in old Saigon!!!


Such things as this should not happen on a weekend morning. Shocking that the rest of the family was sleeping through it. Oh well, since I wasn't getting any more rest, figured I'd step outside and see if I could see what all was up there. Only one chopper, and instead of the regular circling, it was hovering, being blown up a ways, and returning to where it started. Strange. I could hear emergency vehicles' sirens approaching. Two thoughts of what could have happened, one being that the constant drizzle had destabilized the hillside and a house or two had slid down. The other thought was that someone had attempted to race a Gold Line train at one of the crossings. Since I was up (and none of the local news broadcasts were showing a thing about it) I decided I'd throw on some clothes, grab my camera and see if I could find the source and get some shots in.

By the time I did this, though, Tooth boy woke up. I told him what I was thinking of doing, and before I took off I flipped through the broadcast news again, and there it was.

The third option turned out to be what had happened, though. One of the world famous 110 Freeway exit had claimed another victim. (Image of the car being lifted out courtesy of Fox 11's website)

I stopped by later in the day to survey the damage. Hard to tell exactly what happened, but I think that someone tried to exit without heeding the 5 MPH sign, overshot the exit and fell the thirty or so feet into the Arroyo Seco.

Every so often that happens.

While I was there taking pictures, I heard the brakes of another car locking up, and I was able to get a couple of shots, Ala Mad Max.

He was able to keep from going all the way over, but he was very lucky that there was no one heading onto the freeway!!!

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Friday was a momentous day. They youngest lost his first tooth!!! He was wiggling it and it came right out!!! It hadn't been loose for that long, either.

Snow Day!!!

I'm still not over this!!! We are in the midst of a storm system here in the southland, unusual that we've actually got weather happening. Funny thing, the talking heads have been saying that it was going to start on Monday, then Tuesday, but it was actually Wednesday before it actually got here. Cut off low, weatherman's woe, I think it was the immortal Dr. George Fischbeck used to say that.



Anyway, I got up a little early this morning on account of all the people who can't drive with a little wetness. It wasn't even raining when I exited the house, the sun was even out. On the way out of the house, I saw this white on the front grass. My first thought, dang, there's a busted drain pipe somewhere and now there's some detergent suds in my yard!!! I took a closer look, and my second thought it was frost. I've seen frost before, I can wrap my mind around frost, and certainly it's cold enough for frost. Still, it didn't look right for that. A closer look, its actually SNOW!!! In L.A.!!! Ha!!! Not a lot of it, but still, the real deal!!! Good thing I was a little ahead of schedule, I ran back in the house, grabbed my camera and told the youngest to get his shoes on, he's gotta see this!!! He scooped some up, and declared, "It's freezing cold!!!" The second picture is after I hit him with a snowball, as you can see it stuck on his shoulder.



Even the car still had some remaining on it, along the wipers and cowl area, and on the back wing.

An interesting footnote: My home is my grandfathers' former home, we bought it from his estate when he passed. My mother grew up here, and back in the 50's it had also snowed here, and she has some old 8mm home movies of them playing in the snow from back then.

The Junkyard Gang

Went to the junkyard's half price day over the weekend. I didn't find anything to make the Benz shift right, in fact didn't see but one car that was even similar to mine there. The one that was there was a 240D, and about the most stripped Mercedes I've ever seen. It was manual transmission, no air conditioning, cruise control or power windows. I did, however, find a console with all the window switches in good condition in another (gas powered) Benz. I had not only given up on ever finding one of those, but had even purchased a GM switch panel to put in place of the factory piece.

In the non-automotive category, I found these guys!!! Most of the cast of The Cat in the Hat, minus Thing 1 and Sally. Interesting, the boy from the story is never named, only spoken in the first person. I've always liked those Things. Funny that SpongeBob was in with these guys. For the wife, I found a really cute denim halter top with a zipper up the front. Once again, everything I brought home got a thorough de-lousing.