BUNNY!!!

The place where we stayed was teeming with jack rabbits at night!!!

They were not easy to photograph with my digital camera.

This is the best I could manage.

They were very cool to see, though!!!

65 on 66

For the long weekend we went to Barstow. The original plan was to take the Maverick, but it was having charging system problems, so we took the Falcon instead.


It was a great trip, and the Falcon ran flawlessly, with the exception of a little vapor lock when it was warm.



On the way back, we drove old Route 66 from Barstow to San Bernardino to avoid some of the traffic on the way back.


I've got at least two, maybe three more posts to come from the trip.


Stay tuned!!!

B.S. For Dinner

The other night I had a couple of turkey pot pies for dinner. It so happened that I had two different brands in the freezer, a Banquet and a Swanson. Since I've not posted in a while and it is Thanksgiving, I thought it was a pretty decent tie-in. Turkey is OK by itself or with some gravy, but given the choice I would usually go with the ham over turkey. Turkey pot pie, though... it doesn't get much better than that!!! I would mark one pie with a "B" and the other with an "S" and do a comparison. The instructions always say to cut a slit in the top, but with the frozen crust this usually doesn't work very well. I usually just poke holes with a fork, and this time I did so in these letter shapes.

My feeling going in was that the Banquet is the superior pie. I don't know why, perhaps it is because I'm more used to seeing that brand, since my youth. The color scheme of red seems more appealing to me than the blue of the Swanson. Saving my perceived best for last, I plopped out the Swanson pie first. I was ravenous, so it was really good to me. Next came the Banquet pie. It did not come out of the (paper) pie tin cleanly, leaving part of the crust stuck to it. Doesn't matter a whole lot, I cut the thing into bite size pieces first thing anyway, but I had to work at the crust to get the remains off the edge. Perhaps this was because it had a chance to cool off more, and adhered to the tin during the process. It tasted... well, about the same, maybe not quite as good. Maybe that was because I had some in my belly already and wasn't as famished, or perhaps because the crust had wronged me. Either way, I can declare neither one a decisive winner. My preference will continue to be whichever one has a better price!!!

After the Thanksgiving holiday, I'm thinking chili. Last weekend the wife and I went out to Claim Jumper for dinner, and we both had dishes featuring their chili, which is quite good. That got me to thinking that I've not made my chili in a while, I should try making some something like theirs, with big chunks of steak. Not gonna happen this weekend, it's Thanksgiving, and after that I'll we'll be out of town for a few days. Possibly the weekend after... and hey!!! I'll probably have some leftover turkey!!! Never tried turkey chili before, and everyone will probably like that better than turkey straight. Could be some ham left over, too, another thing I've never tried in chili. I've got two crock pots, one for the each of ya!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! Hope your leftovers have a happy ending, too!!!

What About Them???

More fun with refrigerator magnets!!! The set is not complete, so I end up putting together whatever I can come up with. That's what happened with the last one. I've decided that perhaps I'll make this a regular recurring feature, whatever funny thing I can come up with. The letters I have are D, E, H, I (X2, or could be used as a 1), K, L, M (or could be used as a W, upside down), N, O, Q, R, S (X2), T, U (X2), V, Y (X2), Z, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (or could be used as a 9) and 8. I encourage you to make suggestions of what I could post in the future!!!

South Park Girls

(Click on the pic for a better view)

Pank: Hey, do you see that???
Lilly: Yea, how did she get those???
Gonk: They can't be real.
Eyeball's Girl: Oh, they're real all right, they are what are going to get me the BIG ROCK!!!
Granny: but we've all got big boobs in real life!!! How come she's the only one who got boobs here???

Feel free to create your own dialogue!!!

What's Lilly Been Up To???

Fire off the Freeway

I shot this over the weekend. I'm fairly talented at driving and filming, huh??? I've seen this place catch on fire before!!!

A Sleazy Proposition

Tomorrow is voting day. Be sure to get out and vote!!! My main hard and fast rule for all the propositions is not to vote for any of the bond issues. Almost every one of these ends up costing in my property taxes. A lot of renters don't see it, but if you are one, know that any property tax increase will be passed along to you. So many of the ads about the propositions are SO transparent that it is amazing that anyone pays attention. The big one here is 87, an oil extraction tax to pay for alternative energy research, with provisions to keep the costs from being passed along to consumers at the pump. We'll just see if that actually pans out that way. The other top three oil producing states have an extraction tax. The ads against it, though... "it's a bad idea, it'll never work, it will end up costing you more at the pump!!!" And you'll never guess who's paying for it. Citizens against higher taxes, AKA big oil!!! Wow, didn't see that coming!!! They have spent over $100,000,000.00 on it. Unfortunately, Slick Willie has been stumping in favor of it, and I've heard several people who were also in favor who are re-thinking because of that.

Next up is proposition 86. A cigarette tax of $2.60 per pack. The proceeds will go to various health programs, and a hit like that alone, I would think, would be a big nudge in the right direction to people who are thinking about or trying to quit. Naturally, it's opposed by (you'll never guess) big tobacco!!!

Another one out there that hasn't gotten quite as much coverage is 85, requiring parental notification before performing abortions for minors and a 48 hour waiting period. Ready for the amazing, unpredictable opposition??? Planned parenthood!!!

I've already made my view on bond measures, but I feel this one deserves a special condemnation. Proposition 84 is a "clean water" bill with a 5.4 billion dollar price tag. I'm as for clean water as anyone, but the trouble with this bill... It's been done before!!! Five times already, if I'm not mistaken. Every time, the funds get treated as government's piggy bank.

The one that I do like is proposition 1A. This is the one we need more like it. Instead of raising taxes or issuing bonds, it keeps politicians and government from raiding taxes that we've already allocated and sees to it that they go where they're supposed to go.

Perhaps I'll do an update on what makes it!!!

Flaming Eyeball Productions Presents:

We'll just see if this works!!! First time I've tried this, but with a little help from You Tube...

Two of the three videos I recorded of the pumpkin destruction!!!

For some reason, the third one isn't showing up yet. I'm not that familiar with the workings of You Tube yet, but I think I have found an outlet for my video creativity!!!

A November Tradition

At the beginning of every November, we have a tradition at our house. We throw our old jack-O-lanterns to the street, usually from the front porch!!! Always there is some kind of recording of the event, whether it be video or still pictures. This year we did both, but I was doing most of the video so I was relying on others to take the stills.
As a result, most of the stills weren't that good, but these two came out good. Pumpkin in mid-flight, and the lid of a pumpkin on it's edge. The videos came out quite nice, hopefully I'll post some soon.

Happy Halloween

In response to Granny's...

The Pumpkin Gallery

FINALLY got out Jack-O-Lanterns carved. It was only yesterday that we bought the pumpkins. First up is the younger boy's submission. Of course, his brother and I did all the work, but under his direction. Triangle eyes and nose, and an ANGRY mouth with teeth. He didn't like the pupils I'd put in at first, but decided they were good after it was all done.
Next is obligatory 512 pumpkin, representing!!!
Here's mine, I did wild eyebrows and cat style eyes. Just eyes peering out. Simplicity.
The older boy's submission. He was going to do X's for the eyes, but as you can see, they went awry. I'm proud of him and his work, though, I think this is the first year he's pretty much done the whole job himself. Not to mention he did a lot of cleaning of his brother's.
And Naomi's. You can't really see in the picture, but it has a diagonal ridge over the eyes, so the eyes follow under it. Afterward, it was decided a unibrow over the eyes would add to it.

Like Rats From A Sinking Ship...

On Thursday Sammy called me up and told me that Freddy, another one of the long time guys from my former place of employment, was leaving and he wanted to get some of the guys together for some pool and just a little last time get together.

That was what else I did on Friday night. Rafa was there, but he left just minutes before I got there. That was kind of a bummer, but we had a good time the rest of the evening.

Never did play any pool, I think they did before I got there. A few games of Foosball, then we went to the bowling alley and played a couple of games. I got my best score in a long time, 107!!!

Good times, good times...
Freddy is moving to Arizona. He applied at a company there, and they made him an immediate offer. Sounds like he ended up with a deal a lot like mine, where he ended up making a good deal more money, better benefits, and a company with a future. Good luck, Freddy. I know you'll be much better off.

A Little Early???

Friday night I stayed at my parent's house so I could work on my retarded car first thing Saturday. That evening, a group of young teens came up in full costume. I thought it was a little early for trick or treating. Turns out they were on a scavenger hunt. They needed a green apple, a candy corn, and a hoop ear ring. I told them I wanted some candy corn if they found any.

500!!!

It finally happened!!! I got my 500th unique hit on Where's George. Click on the 500 to see the report. I was kind of hoping it would happen around the time of my 300th post on blogger, but oh well. Cool that it was at an In-N-Out Burger!!! I love this ad banner, too.

My retarded Car

Or "How I Spent My Weekend"

In response to my last post, Eyeball made the comment that my water pump was homosexual. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, if it was in reference to the line "It took almost all of it", or just the fact that it blew, or just derogatory in a general sense.

Anyway, I got the replacement part as well as coolant and cooling system flush, all on Friday night. First thing in the morning I headed down and got to working on it. Mostly it was pretty straightforward, but the water pump drives off the timing belt, rather than a drive belt. First time I've ever seen that, and of course the manual had no precautions about how to keep the valve train timing right. I scribed a mark all the way across and never moved the crankshaft to try and keep from having a problem.

The water pump has five bolts holding it on. After taking off all the covers and right side motor mount, I discovered that the bottom bolt is blocked from coming all the way out by a bracket that goes right in front of it!!! It unscrews all the way, but it's immovable from there. No problem, the whole pump comes out and it comes with it. Putting it back in, I did the same thing. BUT... The bolt would not start threading!!! I messed with it for hours. My dad tried to get it going. My mom tried to get it going. My first born tried to get it going (told him if he could get it I'd give him a buck). Eventually I gave up for the day, my oldest sister was having a surprise party thrown in honor of her birthday. That was fun, got to see a lot of people I'd not seen in a while, including Eyeball (didn't ask him about the homosexual thing, tho) and his girlfriend.

The next day I went down again, and ended up removing the power steering pump, air conditioning compressor, and the three brackets they all mounted on. Don't ask me why there are three for only two accessories, but the third one was the one that was in the way. The bolt went right in with it out of the way, and I spent the rest of the day putting it back together.

Well, once it was back together is started and ran just fine. No leaks, no overheating. Job well done. However, it seemed to not rev up very quickly. It would go, but it kind of hesitated. I figured I'd deal with that later, and packed up to head home. It was already well after dark. Put it in gear, but it didn't accelerate. Damn. I think I know what the problem is, the camshafts are behind where they should be. In technical terms, my car is RETARDED!!!

Night Shots

What a day yesterday!!! On my way into work, at the left turn before I'm there, I notice steam coming from under the side of the hood. Hmmm, that normally doesn't happen!!! At that point I looked at the temperature gauge. Yea, it was near to the top of the gauge. Who needs idiot lights when you've got an idiot behind the wheel??? When the light changed and I got moving, it came right down to mid-temperature. I popped the hood when I got there, and all it was doing was shooting a little steam out of the puke tank.
At second break, I took a 32-ounce cup of water out to top off the radiator, see if that did the trick. It took almost all of it, then at the very end it started pouring out of around the water pump. OK, that's probably the trouble spot.
I decided to go to my parent's house after work (if the car makes it that far with no ill effects) and swap the Geo for the Falcon, which is still down there for paint finishing. I made it without incident, and got to visit with my parents and have a little dinner.

It was nice to be driving the Falcon again. It's a nice ride, but it still needs a little this and that. The fuel gauge was a little on the low side, but I figured if it didn't make it home, I could just give AAA a call and have them bring me some gas. Made it most of the way, and about a mile away it started cutting out. I pulled over and called AAA. Fortunately, I had my camera with me to pass the time, experimenting with night photography. Interesting effect!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!!!

Hope you have a great one!!!

(Birthday, that is...)

Rained Out

The weather had been nice recently. The kind of weather that makes me want to take a weekend and go up in the mountains and camp. My dad had been thinking the same sort of thing, too. They haven't had a chance to take the two older grandkids on any camping trips this summer. We decided to meet up a Mallard Falls campground. I was going to head up Friday night when I got home from work. Friday morning the sky looked brooding, and it actually felt like it could rain. The weathermen were all hedging their bets, giving it a slight chance of rain. Mid day, it was clearing, but still with a lot of scattered clouds. Oh well, the boy was looking forward to going, we would head up and and see what happened. Worst comes to worst, we could sleep in the car. Wouldn't be the first time.

On the way to the short drive up the freeway, a few fat drops hit the windshield, but nothing that kept going or went for any length of time. On the freeway, it began coming down fairly constant. By the time we reached the end, it was coming down hard and constant. I turned to him and asked if we should scrub the mission. He concurred. We stopped at the video store and rented "Black Hawk Down" for something to do, I knew he would enjoy that movie, and picked up Chinese.

Last Thursday at work they told me right before the second break that they were taking me off training and putting me in number. That was the longest training period I've ever had!!! I hope I'm really up to the task. But, when I come back from my break, they have a long line order that they need. Typical is 5 to 8 lines. This one was 99 lines!!! I finished it off, one minute before quitting time. Monday I start going in on the third shift, at 9:45. I have a feeling that this shift will suit me well.

Compulsion

This was my first car. As you can see, I cut the roof over the driver and passenger seats. I made it so the cut section could be put back in place for foul weather. It was pretty fun to drive around with the top off. Not so good when it rained, but it only leaked a little, and it doesn't rain that much around here. I had hundreds of other little custom touches, but the roof was the main one, and probably my favorite. This car was a major influence on the purchase of one of my current cars, Mav 2 (scroll down, it's the one at the bottom that isn't completely trashed!!!). I ended up selling Mav 1 for $50 more than my asking price!!!

While I have no plans to cut the top open on this one, these days I'm feeling a compulsion to do this or a similar modification to another car. Must be the warm temperatures we've been having, or the fact that I'm driving around with my camera more these days. I saw a Pontiac 6000 convertible for sale for $950 OBO. That might be a better way to go.