CupDate and a Bit-O-Random

Got the annual notice from the Fire Department. Brush clearance time. Actually, I never got one, but my parents, who are the owners of the adjacent lot, got theirs. Anyway, my parents came up today and my dad and myself and the oldest attempted to make the yard compliant. It certainly is more so than it was, but still a long way to go. We exceeded the yard waste allotment by quite a bit.



This picture was in my camera when I took the shot of toofy boy. I had no idea where it came from, but the oldest just told me that he'd taken it a few weeks back. It was in the yard, and he was impressed by the bug.

Speaking of bugs, tonight on Baby's rear trunk reflector, there was a little moth with a very wide wingspan. If I had my camera with me, I would have gotten a picture.



This cup was from a week ago on Friday. I had been throwing totes, and in that area they have the yellow circle stickers, and the numbered bar codes. I had downloaded Microsoft's Image composite editor to try and stitch the rotational view of the cup together. The documentation on it is very lacking, and it doesn't work, at least in this case. I'll try some other time.

I've never updated on Janices' starter. The day after the starter post, I exchanged it for another of their "lifetime" starters. Spent the afternoon installing it, and it didn't even make the little whirr noise, the only noise it made was the relay on the opposite side of the engine compartment!!! Actually, I think I did put that in comments to that post. Anyway, before I got going on the yard today, I disconnected the starter from everything but the battery and tried to jump it to test my wiring hypotheses. That was a fail. Jacked the car up again (naturally, she's parked on the street, which has about a 10% slope to it, makes for good times and a dicey proposition!!! Also, my sockets will roll away if I'm not careful) and pulled the starter out. I'm actually getting pretty good at that, didn't take me long at all. Doesn't work loose from the transmission, so I tried it first just on cables to the battery, then on Bessie's battery. Dead on arrival!!!


There was a meeting last week by the investment firm that handles our deferred profit sharing account. It was interesting for the first half. The second half, the other guy had a rather droning voice, and that combined with being in a darkened room for the presentation in the afternoon, had a narcoleptic effect on several of us!!!



While working in the yard today, I happened on one of the old brake drums from Bessie. The one that had one of the wheel studs cross threaded, and I had drilled out. There's a nasturtium growing up through the drilled out lug stud hole!!!

Ever hear of Stupid Fun Club??? I had heard of it, and just the name sounds like something where it could be the exception that proves the rule of the Groucho Marx adage "I would never join a club that would have me as a member!!!" Unfortunately, their web site doesn't seem as fun as the name implies. Guess I'll just have to make my own stupid fun!!!

Sammy contacted me a bit ago. Thursday before last I went to see him at his and his new wife's (new wife makes it sound like he had an old one... no, just newly married to her) new place. He'd gotten married, moved to this place, then those scumbags at my old job laid him off. I'm glad I got out of there at the time I did. He made some great chicken tacos and guacamole and salsa. The guacamole was a bit on the sweet side, I've never had guacamole like that before. I don't think it was intended that way, but it was pretty good. I'm actually craving some of that right now.



My wife took the oldest to the recycling center ($23.00, way to go!!!) this morning when I was starting in the yard, so I had her exchange Janices' starter. They tested it for her, and declared that it had a faulty solenoid. I asked her if she made them test the replacement. She hadn't. This evening, after cleaning up, I took the jumper cables out and tried it out. It doesn't seem to work at all, either!!! The solenoid kicks the gear into place, but it doesn't spin!!! It will be tested before I bring home another.

They called Sammy about coming back to work some. I have mixed feelings about that. Kind of how you feel when a lady friend tells you she's getting back together with an abusive, or even just scummy or loser ex boyfriend. I think those guys qualify as all of the above, but it ain't easy out there these days.

Apparently, according to the statement they mailed me, my deferred profit sharing account lost almost $4,000. Pretty impressive, actually!!! As I often say, if you don't sell when it's down, you don't lose a thing!!!

I Have Dreamed of a LOLcat

I don't usually remember my dreams, and it's usually something of a treat when I do. The other night I had one, and as usual had forgotten it upon waking. While I was showering, my wife got home from taking the kids to school and was getting some food for the cat. Our cat (who is awesome) is an outdoor creature, but she ventured all the way into the kitchen this morning. When my wife told me, it immediately brought my dream to remembrance.



Two components I'm fairly sure came from pictures on Failblog and Icanhascheezburger. Both are pictured here. The third component, I have NO idea where it came from!!!



The family and I were someplace, and near the door they had one of these fancy gum ball machines where the gum ball drops through a series of passages before coming out, think of it as a gum ball and a show. It was unlike the only picture I was able to find, in that it was more of a large glass cube, much like the claw machines. Prominently in the middle of the cube area was a platform with this white longhair cat sitting perfectly still on a platform. In front of it is a wire cage vortex that the gum ball spins down near the end of it's journey. I'm fairly sure that's what the Cat's Hit toy does, has something inside that the cat will bat at to make spin around the inside.



Of course, my boys want me to buy them gum, mostly for the spectacle of seeing it make it's way through. I'm fascinated to see what happens, so I oblige. The ball drops, and as it enters the vortex and begins spinning around the edge rapidly. At this point, the cat begins to move, watching the gum ball spin around. It moves tentatively, then decisively, and bats the gum ball out of it's orbit, at which point it drops to the bottom of the machine, and then out the spout.

To-Do List

You may have seen my weekend to-do list on my twitter feed over there <---- If not, it went something exactly like this: Weekend to-do list: buy tires, hang with super models and starlets, install starter, cut grass. Hopefully in that order!!!

For this post, I think I'll likely be focusing on the one part that didn't fully come through!!!



Getting the tires was pretty straightforward. A bit of back story, though, on that. On the junkyard post, I made mention that the tire on the Maverick AKA Ol' Bessie had gone flat. My wife managed to get her over to the tire place to see if they could fix it up. They made her wait an hour, then looked at it and told her they couldn't do it because it had belts poking out. Granted, I'd changed it in the dark, but I don't recall seeing any belts poking out. Anyway, I knew they were getting worn anyway, so I called 'em up and asked for a price for a pair, as well as a quote for a set for baby. I've used this place because they are close, have competitive pricing, and they offer a lifetime alignment. Last two times I'd needed to get the alignment done on the Maverick, first was after I'd swapped disc brakes onto the front end and replaced one worn ball joint (which they'd told me was worn) and a couple of days later when I'd hit a sand patch and slammed the front tire broadside into a curb. Upon seeing that it had new components, the guy starts saying that it's like a whole different car, the lifetime alignment deal doesn't apply, but he'll do it this one time anyway. Funny thing, not only did they tell me that the ball joint needed replaced, but the contract doesn't say a thing about that. Go ahead and don't do it, I'll take your asses to small claims for rescission, and claim for all the cars that I've gotten aligned there, and aim to get the cost for all the alignments I may future do on them!!! I doubt I'd prevail on the latter, but I don't think I'd have a problem on the former. Anyway, long story short, I get the feeling that they are trying to weasel on their deal. When I changed the tire for another I had around, I noticed that the hub cap was missing from the trunk. After I got prices for tires from them, I asked the guy if he'd seen it while he was getting the tire from the trunk. Of course he hadn't. No one else had been in the trunk. You want to lose my paying business over a chicken shit hub cap, not even in particularly good condition??? Go ahead. SO, when one of the back tires on Baby started getting some tread separation and the timeline for getting new tires moved from three to six more months to now, I took my business elsewhere. The fact that I got a price $30 less was a bonus.



The second item on the list: Supermodels and starlets!!! Ever since I bought some items online from Victoria's Secret for Christmas, I get a couple of E-mail messages from them a week. Usually it's for an offer or sale, but towards the end of last week, I got one that Marrisa Miller, one of their models, was going to be doing an in store appearance and autograph session at The Grove Farmer's Market not too far from here. Also in attendance were to be Shannon Doherty and another actress from the new 90210. Cool, sounds like an interesting, fun diversion for a Saturday afternoon. Also, my wife has always loved Shannen Doherty. We got there about 10 minutes before the announced time, and located the store. There's a line already a line, but not too bad. The attendant informs us that we have to buy some of their newest lotion, then we can get in to get autographed photos. Shocking that they are using this promotion to try and make money!!! We asked about Shannen, and were told that she had been there, but had already left. Oh well. We did end up buying a bra, so their fiendish ploy worked. Just doing my part for the economy!!!



It was the first time we'd ever been to this place. The older boy said it reminded him of a theme park, and it did rather have that feel. They have a cool dancing fountain, and a trolley from one end to the other. We didn't stay that long, managing to get out just before the free one hour parking was up.

The starter on the Falcon was pretty easy to install. I remember it being more difficult, but that was before dealing with the one on Janis. However, the lower mounting hole is almost completely stripped out. I'm thinking it should be fairly easy to get a repair insert in there from the back, but I was also thinking that I could easily just use a small C clamp instead!!! I could even likely put a nut on the back side, if I were to grind it around halfway around for clearance. In related news, the bolt was fairly loose on the old one, that may have been all it needed to work. I've probably got a perfectly viable starter in storage now!!!

Cut a few more branches from the pepper tree, then cut most of the grass. It was full dark by the time I was done.

Today I managed to get Baby washed, she was looking really bad. The previous rain hadn't done an effective job cleaning her off, and the wheels had some clean spots in the brake dust from the tire installation. It rained last night quite a bit, and it looked like it might some more even as I was washing her, but quite a breeze has picked up tonight, and the skies were very clear.

Momentous Occasion!!!

Here it is, the 500th blog post!!! It might have come sooner, but you know how I get distracted. I had been hoping to have something moderately cool for this post, and here it is!!! The younger boy lost his front tooth, and looks pretty adorable without it!!! Not his first lost tooth, but it does seem like it's been a while. He quite literally lost it, it fell out in his sleep and he couldn't find it. He was worried that he'd get no tooth fairy money because of that, but this morning he found a piece of paper with his name on it folded up around cash money. Inside was the message, "You owe me a tooth. Signed, the tooth fairy". He told me, "I know it was you!!!"

A Tale of Two Starters

Or "What's up with all the starter troubles???"

I had been getting estimates on the removal of the pepper tree near the edge of our property. It grows like a weed, and regularly encroaches on the neighbor's house. Incidentally, this is the same end of the property that has the driveway, and the tree is at the end of the driveway. And the driveway is full of cars. A few weeks back I was going to take the Falcon down to my parents house and do some work on it there, and possibly get it two-toned. However, the starter was acting up. Actually, the starter sounds like it has a handful of gravel thrown in.

This morning, after taking the oldest boy to a breakfast fundraiser, I exchanged an old Ford starter I had sitting in the basement (possibly from the original six cylinder that used to be in the Falcon, it looked slightly different) so I wouldn't have to do that while I'm greasy.



Last Wednesday, after my wife took the boys to school, Janice wouldn't start up again. Didn't even crank, just did a click, and nothing more. Hmmmm, I've had something like this happen before... and it ended up being the better part of a year before she was back on the road!!! Only thing was, this time she didn't crank right before she stopped. I would try the starter, and it would click but not turn, and make a rather faint high pitched squeak, perhaps like something was slipping. Anyway, I had the idea, as I'd had last time, that the engine got on a compression stroke and the starter didn't have quite enough to kick it past there. Instead of cranking it back as I'd done last time, I had the brilliant idea of pulling the glow plugs out to relieve the pressure. I'd remembered them as being much easier to remove last time I'd worked on her. Got them out, and it still did the same thing. The main reason I'd been avoiding just pulling out the starter is that it's a major pain to do so. It requires every one of my socket extensions to be used from the opposite end of the transmission. After putting the glow plugs back in (and breaking one terminal off and losing one of their little nuts) I finally relented and went ahead and pulled the starter out. Lo and behold, it does the same thing with no engine load on it!!!

Of course, I'd asked wifey which car I should work on first, and she'd opted for Janice. By the time I'd gotten everything back together and cleaned up, it was nearing full dark. And I'd been thinking I'd be able to get the grass mowed today, it's full of weeds and really has liked all the rain we've had in the last couple of months.

So that's what happened today, I got one new starter, which I didn't get put in, and I got one old starter that doesn't work pulled out.

Seems To Me...

Now, I'm no financial genius, but it seems to me...



The thing to do here, is to NOT do one of these, and the other is pretty much taken care of!!! Both of these headlines were on the front page of two different sections of the paper over the weekend. I wonder if it was a test to see if anyone was paying attention!!!

In somewhat related news, there was a California tax protest over the weekend. 15,000 citizens were in attendance. This same paper had no coverage of the event, and when questioned, responded that it wasn't a relevant story. Typing in "Fullerton tax revolt" on YouTube netted 44 results, as of yesterday. Can we officially say that this particular print media is, in fact, the one that is not relevant??? I'm thinking yes, as well as thinking of canceling my subscription.

Goin' Back To Cali

Yesterday we went to Disney's California Adventure. Good Times!!! I did several tweets while we were there, but none of them seemed to work. Disney phone filters???



The back story on how we came to be going to California Adventure: Disney has been doing commercials locally about Disney is giving free admission to both parks on your birthday. A brilliant ploy, it is my contention that Disney could let everyone in free and still make good money. This way, I would guess on average there are at least 2 paying guests for every birthday pass they give away. Of course, the youngest sees these commercials and says that's what he wants to do!!! I considered doing it, they are having the 2 parks deal for residents these days. I mentioned this to one of my co-workers, and she tells me that her nephew works there and can get us in gratis!!! Whoo hooo, I'm there!!!



Both the boys stated preference to go to California Adventure. I knew one of the main reasons the younger wanted to go there was to ride on the ferris wheel there, the Sun Wheel. It's pretty cool, 2 of every 3 cars are on elliptical tracks, and slide from the outside to the inside as the wheel rotates, causing it to swing wildly, and considerably increasing the excitement. Alas, it was under some sort of construction!!! All the cars are off, and it is sheathed in scaffolding. The conceptual pictures have Mickey's head in place of the sun in the center.



The lagoon has been drained, and there are a lot of barriers up, too. 512 corner was blocked off, but at least it's still there.



Took everybody to Soaring over California, a large hang glider simulator, for the first ride. The youngest had never been on this ride, and he now has a new favorite!!! From there we went to the river raft ride and got fairly soaked. We were aiming for the Sun Wheel, but stopped for the Golden Zephyr and Jumping Jellyfish rides along the way. Also, we realized that it wasn't working. The Jellyfish ride we'd never been on before.



Actually, there are several attractions there we've never been on or seen. We also rode Mulholland Madness for the first time, and saw the Aladdin stage show.



Another new addition is the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. You ride through, while wearing 3-D glasses, and shoot a ball launcher gun (simulated) at various targets. Here's a shot of the older boy's and my scores. I won the beaver!!! My wife would not allow me to have another beaver at our house. Both of our accuracy levels were fairly low, but our scores were higher. My wife and the younger both got much lower scores, but their accuracy was something like 72% and 68%!!!



We managed to ride the river raft ride again, and the big coaster (California Screaming, the second best Disney coaster in my opinion), as well as a couple spins on the Jumping Jellyfish, rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (didn't seem to have too many long drops on my ride) and got to see the parade. The weather was quite nice, but cooled off in the evening. Also, the park wasn't too crowded.



Our passes were good for both parks, and as California Adventure was closing, the older boy had the brilliant idea to go over to Disneyland for some bread bowl gumbo. We did just that, and then rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which is directly below that, and had almost no line. After that we proceeded to the newly refurbished Small World to check it out. They split us into two rows, and halfway through I looked around at the younger, and he had a look on his face like, "Enough with the song already!!!" I looked again a moment later, and he shrugged at me. It was pretty comical. It was near midnight when we finally left, and with the hour of lost sleep last night, we slept fairly late this morning!!!