The Ketchup Random Post

It's been a while, I have several things I've been wanting to post some about, so the time has come to catch up!!!

Speaking of ketchup, found this last time I was at the dollar store. Spicy, it's interesting but not great. Last time I found a ketchup there, it was a grilled onion flavored, and that was pretty great. Of course, none of that there anymore. But I digress.

Had a week off in July. Back when my work had the Spring ticket drawing, my name was pretty low on the list, so there weren't a lot of good ones left. Then I realized that I had that week off, and thus far nothing planned, so I took a Monday evening game, for a change an Angels game!!! They were playing the Houston Astros, so there was a Texas connection. It was pretty good, the area we were in had food service to your seat, so that was nice, and getting in and out is better. Had some pastrami fries!!! There's the moon rising over the lights.

It's a bit of a haul to the area, and rather than heading back and forth, I booked us a couple nights at an Orange County hotel. Had the thought that we could get in touch with my niece and drop into the Great Wolf Lodge again to get wet for an afternoon, but instead we dropped in to Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Turns out the Chick-Fil-A will set you up with a chicken sandwich if you had been to an Angels game the next day!!! Afterwards, we headed to a very picturesque beach in Crystal Cove State Park. The next day we stopped in at Boomers down there, and that was our little vacation.

The younger boy graduated from high school. He's planning on going to trade school for electrician training. He never expressed much interest in it before, but I'm sure he'll be able to pick it up pretty well, and it's a good paying profession.

He'd found an aloha shirt at the St. Vincent thrift store a while back. He wanted to get some louver glasses to go with it, and not long ago, on a 20% off day at Big Lots, we went to one that happened to be by a Party City. Went in to take a look, and they have 'em there, so we set him up with them.

Apparently, the impetus for both of those was another Homestuck adjacent troll, Murrit Turkin!!!

Finished off the week by sanding down and spray painting the rest of the right side of Scruffy. Got a couple of runs, sanded them out, sprayed it some more... Always looks far too shiny when it's fresh sprayed. I was getting antsy to get the other side done. All that remains is the rear hatch and bumper, but I've been working on the front bumper, too, eliminating the holes for the front plate mount. Not a great picture, but I did a bit of a long shot to get 2 of my 3 classics in the shot.

While I was doing so, I had the lower rocker off (it's a molded black plastic part, easier to remove than to mask) and it nicely revealed the upper part of my new exhaust tip!!! Also, the only way besides removing it that you'll see the 512 Labs inscription on the top side. I've only driven it a couple days in the last few weeks, as we've been having a heat wave, and I still haven't fixed the air conditioning on it. My birthday is coming up, maybe I'll buy the parts for myself.

I participated in The Oinkster's Burger Week again this year. The shirt is a take off on the Chili Peppers, and I don't think that anyone has picked up on that it isn't just that every time I've worn it. If anyone has, they haven't said anything.

Back before the end of the school year, they were taking the senior class to Speed Zone in City of Industry. I had been working in the area when they built the place, back in the late 90's, and have driven by it several times. It sounded like a good time, but I'd never made it over there!!! Anyway, it was on my day off, so I was able to get in on it.

There's a go-kart track, a slick track, and dragsters!!! There's an arcade and mini golf, too. The day pass was $56, but a season pass was $51!!! What would you do??? Yeah, that's what we did. We've been back twice.

They've been giving me the middle shift at work more these days. Don't know if I'd mentioned, but they eliminated the late late shift, and moved the late to 10:25 AM. Middle shift is two hours earlier. I like the way it works out, I never have to get up early on Mondays. Of course, the drive is worse. ANyway, that's the prelude to the next part of my updates!!!

I had been hearing for a while that Alt 98.7 and The Woody Show were doing a night at Medieval Times. Ravey and Menace were going to be there, and they had a promo code to get a good discount. It's been years since I've been there, but it starts 15 minutes before I get out of work. The day before, they ask if I can work middle shift the next day. Hey, I could make it!!! And, so I did!!! Made it there and visited the Alt 98.7 tent. They had one Woody Show pin left, which they gave me, so cool. They put us in Ravey's section, and our knight gave the first rose to her. We were able to meet up with them after the show. I've met Ravey before, but this is my first time meeting Menace. He's taller than I thought.

And I got one shot of Menace in his natural state, playing on his phone!!!

Momentus X3

I'm so very behind, so I'm going to roll three into one!!! I've got Ren Faire & vacation & pictures of the blood moon to do, but for now here's this:

It's been an eventful year for the oldest. He had his prom. Unfortunately, mom STILL hasn't got the flash on the camera down, so the only decent pictures we got were of them getting into the stretch limo...

Of course, he also graduated!!! 2nd highest marks in his class, I've been told.

It was all the way down in San Pedro, right in the middle of drive time traffic. I call bad idea. Supposedly they weren't going to call him up on account of his participation in the Senior Prank, but they ended up doing it anyway.

Finally, just a week back, him and his girlfriend became proud parents to their fur-baby!!! Ain't he cute???

Momentous Updates

Once again, it's been a while since I've updated. Must be something fairly momentous to do so, huh??? Well, here's a few!!!

It's now into the days before we leave on our epic summer vacation. Short enough time that I can look at the weather & hurricane watch & oil slick projections to see with fair certainty how it's gonna be. Right now, it's all looking REAL good!!! Related tech news, I bought myself a wireless interwebs dongle for the trip, so as not to have to rely on or pay for hotel or airport connections. I've more than paid for it if I'd have done either of those, I figure, so MAYBE there will be some updates from on the road. No promises. I have yet to settle on any new digital camera yet, though I've been looking more at point & shoot mega zoom cameras.



But the big news of the day??? We got ourselves a new pet kitty!!! At the local taco & burger joint today, there was a very vocal skinny little stray wandering around. It was kinda spooky, but the boys coaxed her out from under the car she had hid under. Actually fairly tame, but no indication that she belongs to anyone. We brought her home and fed her and gave her some water, which generally will seal the deal for a cat. She enjoys affection, and has no qualms about visiting the inside of our home. Our other cat doesn't seem especially put off by her, but I don't know how much she's got left in her. The new kitty (first name the very original name "Shadow", middle name the Runescape inspired "Shade", with our family surname comes out to S.S.S. for her initials. All our cats seem to get names that start with S) however, tends to growl low, flatten her ears and extend her claws when the two get close. Our good old cat has been looking skinnier that usual these days, and seems like she may have lost much of her sight and possibly hearing. We've enjoyed her company for probably 13 or 14 years, which seems an incredible amount of time for an outdoor cat to live.

The thing that shall remain to be seen, however, is how either of them do while we're out of town. Of course we'll be getting someone to feed them while we're out, but who knows???



While taking some pictures of the newest addition to our family, I came across the pictures from the older boys' 8th grade graduation. They had trophies for all kinds of things, from perfect attendance to a 10k run that his graduating class had done. SO, he got a TON of trophies!!! See 'em all??? Oh yea, he was honor roll, too. Straight A's for the win!!!



And this, I'd wanted to take a picture since she got it last week!!! My wife had her old supervisor at work cut her hair fairly short a couple months back (said supervisor has been a cosmetologist and a registered nurse before settling on her career in the culinary arts) and it was time for a trim up. Of course, being off for the summer, she actually had to go to a salon and get it done. She got the style where it's very short in the back and longer towards the front. Would have been even longer, but that is predicated on having the length to begin with. I told her when she first showed me that it looks "very butch". Of course, I jest, I actually find it quite cute, and she's pleased with it as well.

Open House & Graduation

An eventful weekend, and blogworthy. I got to take several pictures, too, for a change. It's been a while.



Saturday was the company picnic at my work. Plenty of food and drink, games and bouncers for the kids, and it was in the back docks, so they were giving tours of the place.



Is that a big ass fan or what???



Yep. That's a Big Ass Fan.



So, this is where I work. I hope this conveys some of the scope of the place. Over 700,000 square feet.



Around a mile of conveyors.



Later on that night, my sister was throwing a graduation party for my niece, who has gotten her degree from college.

Here is the proud graduate. When asked why she had taken her sweater off, she replied, "Because my shoe got wet." Ah, to have a college education like that!!!


I also got a short video of her dancing with my mom that I said I would be posting on YouTube. I should have asked what her degree was in.



My wife was admiring how the light was reflecting off my skull, so I had her take a picture. After that, I got my dad to come over to see if he had the same effect. We put our heads together and made an ass of ourselves!!!



I also got to see my nephew Eyeball for the first time in a long time. Didn't get any pictures of him or his new car, though.