Bin Twins

Here's an amusing one. A year or so after I started at this job, they hired a stock keeper. One of the other stock keepers (I'll call him G) started telling people he was my older brother. Hooked several people with that tale. He's built similarly to me, but a bit taller. His nose isn't as lumpy as mine, but more rounded. Similar mannerisms. I made a point to point him out to my wife at the Christmas party that year. She said, "He doesn't look anything like you!!!"




Yesterday we got a new supervisor. I can't even tell you how many they've gone through since I've been there, but suffice it to say they don't seem to have a very long shelf life. One of the original supervisors was walking her around introducing her. At lunch yesterday, the new stock keeper (who in the last few months has been made a filler) tells me that the new supervisor came up to him and asked him how he got that nickname, calling him by my nickname!!! His response: "Have you been talking to stock keeper G???"

Random Tienanmen CupDate

First time in a while I've actually gotten to do any cup artwork!!! For most of the day, I had just the text at the top, which reads, "It was 20 years ago today". One girl asked me what that was for, and I told her it was, in addition to being a lyrical reference, the day of the Tienanmen Square incident. She was unfamiliar with the story!!! I told her she should answer, "It was before my time".



Later in the day, I added the lower text, "Is fashion the reason they were there". Another lyrical allusion. Most of the tank I added in on my afternoon break.

Last Friday I went by Frys because they had laptop cooling pads for only $10, and notebook locks for $12. The cool pads were sold out, though. I did, however, pick up a patch cord for headphone jack to headphone jack. Been wanting one of those for a while, now I can play my MP3 player through Janice's radio!!!

School is doing their Spirit week this week. The older boy used one of my shirts that I got from Shirt.Woot. It has a bird made of newspaper origami. It's pretty cool, looks like the heading says "Freedom", then in other areas it appears to say "Press" and "Religion", only all the places it seems to say these things are two different pages.



Four days this week I've worked middle shift. I've had enough.

I've been driving Janice this week. I'm trying to determine what kind of mileage she gets. Not too easy, because the odometer is broken!!! I've been taking my GPS along and using it to track the distance traveled.

I wore my Mario shirt today, and two different people picked up on exactly what it was of, without it needed to be pointed out. I think this was the first time that's happened!!!

One of my co workers was sitting on the couch next to the end a few months back. He was the only one there, and I sat down on the very end next to him. I said something to the effect of, "This doesn't seem too chummy, does it???" It was all in jest, but he hasn't let me live it down. Now whenever we see each other, we'll say things like "heya, chummy!!!"

The bird shirt (which I thought was appropriate, because it is, after all, black and white and read all over) was a mystery shirt that they had for the devilish price of $6.66. It had a picture of a shirt with a blurry question mark on the site. When I first got it, I thought that I would have preferred one with a blurry question mark, but it has since grown on me.

Did anyone see the beginning of Craig Ferguson's show last night??? He did a lip sync of They Might Be Giants' version of "Istanbul", it was pretty amusing.



I've been trying to come up with some sort of algorithm for what kind of mileage I'd have to get with Janice to be better financially. At a rate of 25 cents a gallon less for diesel fuel, I figure I'd have to get around 26.8 MPG or better. What I really need is a chart with varied mileage and varied price curves delineated so I could easily see.

That spiral galaxy image is from another shirt from Woot. They were doing a pointillism design contest, where all the images were of small dots of primary colors. I got this shirt, along with a maroon one for my wife that depicts Pandora and her friends. They both tied for winning, so they offered both for one $10 price. I couldn't pass it up!!!

I took the picture of my wife over the weekend. I thought her hair looked rather 80's.

My chum was telling the guy I was working with today to be careful, I might get chummy with him. I replied, "Hey, thats just with you!!! See how you make me sound like a chum slut!!!"

I'm realizing that by the time I post this, it'll be twenty years and a day!!!

Belizean Birthday

Over the weekend we observed my dad's birthday. We went to their house, where my sister's boyfriend made a nice dinner from his native Belize. Tasty chicken that falls off the bone, seasoned potatoes, interesting veggie stew and fresh fruit. The only thing we'd been asked to bring was for me to decorate up a cake. This was my mom's idea, and once again, I think the cake came out quite nicely!!!

Gettin' Lei'ed

I thought I'd clarify something I tweeted about earlier. Right as I started my shift today, one of the girls I work with greets me, and says, "We gotta put this on you!!!" I was thinking, "Huh???" when she produces a lei and places it around my neck. "It goes with your shirt!!!" she exclaimed. It rather does.



She had a half day today, and was going to be departing on her vacation at 5 this afternoon for ten days in Hawaii. She had been wearing the lei, but it was scratchy on her neck, so she took it off. I didn't get to see it, but she apparently had a cup with an umbrella in it, and a flower in her hair.

I wore it all day, and had to explain it several times. Of course, there was much innuendo about getting lei'ed. 25 days and my own Hawaiian adventure begins!!!

Salt Winder

Here's an interesting thing from a few weeks back. A guy my dad knows is building a land speed racer.



We went out to visit him with a few guys from my dad's car club.



To start with, he had to build a custom garage to accommodate it's length. Basically it's two car lengths long by two wide. Great garage, he's got pretty much a full machine shop set up around the perimeter!!!



The car is a classic streamliner, with two small block chevy engines. No transmissions, because they were the weak link in the system. Instead he's got a slipper clutch pack that grabs more as the RPM and speed increase.



The engines are World products with raised decks, and he's got them out to 427" producing around 700 horsepower each. He was spending so much money at the dyno shop that he ended up just buying the place. Cheaper and easier that way!!!



The engines are mounted crosswise to the body. A problem with mounting them conventionally is when you nail the throttle, the rotational torque has a tendency to flip the thing over on it's side, as well as when you let off the throttle.



I learned quite a bit on this jaunt. He'll be going out to the Bonneville salt flats this fall for it's next run.

T & A Energy

I enjoy having an occasional energy drink. Lost used to be my very favorite, but I happened on these 24-ounce cans, and I'd drink the whole one of those down (seemed like a waste to not finish it) and I'd be sick of it by the time I finished. Classic case of too much of a good thing!!!



Rock Star is one of my top favorites. They actually have it in one of the machines at work. One of my favorite things to do is go to Big Lots or or 99 Cents Only stores and see what kinds of strange things they have in that category. One flavor I originally found at 99 Cents Only was this Ace energy drink. They had only a lo-cal one when I first found it, but I later found the regular. I really like the art on the cans, the whole can is painted to look like a WWII bomber, complete with random bullet holes, and the nose art as the logo. It tastes pretty decent, too.



Last week I stopped into Big Lots on the way home (if they have it in stock, the usually have the original Ace for 60 cents a can, versus 99 cents at the 99 Cents Only, and I buy at least a dozen every time I go) and they had a new brand there. Hooters energy drink. I had to buy a few, just to try it out. I took one to work on Friday. The guys at work liked the artwork on the can. Unfortunately, the flavor wasn't near as good as the can art. Of the two, I think I'll stick with Ace.

I also found it interesting that my favorite flavor, the original, has the artwork with the redhead on it!!! You know, I really love the red haired girls!!!

New Toys

I should have made this post yesterday. Not only was that the day that I got this delivered in the mail. Additionally, yesterday was 5-12 and this is my 512th blog post!!! It's a pretty good one, I think.



My wife thought this was pretty cute, so she pulled out the camera and took this picture. The big boy laptop I bought at the very end of last year, just before the sales tax increased. It's a Toshiba with an AMD dual core processor, with 3 gig RAM and a 250 gig hard drive. It also has some advanced video hardware, not real common in laptops. It is running the Vista operating system. It is neither as bad as you may have heard, nor that much improved over XP that it seems to have been necessary. I got it for $499, I haven't seen too many priced and equipped as well since I bought it. I've been quite pleased with it, but it is a little bulky. My original thought, before buying a laptop, was get as much screen as you can, probably a 17". Ended up with a 15.6", and it seems larger than I really needed.



Prior to buying this, I'd been kind of looking at netbooks. They didn't seem to be quite enough, but the prices were better. Last week I got an E-mail for this little beauty. Less than half what I spent on my Toshiba for an Acer 8.9" netbook!!! Intel Atom processor, 1 gig RAM and 160 gig hard drive. It also has a few things I would like to have had on my laptop, a built in webcam and microphone, as well as a card reader that works with the media from my camera. The webcam does amazingly well in low light conditions, but the audio doesn't seem to sync quite properly with the video. I've only had it one day, but so far, I'm rather liking it better than my laptop!!!

Metaphor for Life

Here's a piece of cup artwork I did last week. I have enhanced it a bit in Paint Shop Pro, as the yellow highlighter I used on it didn't photograph very well.



For a bit of back story to it, I'll explain a bit about my work. Each of the printers has a green-yellow-red light mounted near it, visible to the others on the floor. It used to be more obvious, green if everything was going good, yellow if you get a cycle behind, and red if you fall two or more cycles behind. During some of the changes of the last year, the green and red lights meant different things, and no lights lit meant what green used to mean, all is well. Yellow is now the only light that gets used, and it just means you're behind.

I made this cup up, with the thought that the yellow light was quite a bit like life. You turn it on, and usually nothing happens. If you've fallen behind, it's usually because of a heavy work load, and that gets spread to all printers, so usually everyone else is struggling to keep up. You turn the yellow light on, and you're on your own. No one's coming to help, you better just hope for a few light batches. Of course, just like in life, there's a few people that, if you are fortunate enough to have them around you, will almost always be able to lend a hand, at least in some small way.

The interesting thing, though, is some of the responses I got from some of my co-workers. One guy noted that, no matter how bad things got, it always ends the same. Profound without even trying!!!

Another guy, when he saw it, said, "That's good, just slow it down!!!" I like that!!!

In My Rearview

I was driving into work one morning last week when this incident took place. It was pretty entertaining to me, and put me in a good mood.

I'll preface this tale a little by saying that I've been trying to keep my speed at 65 or less for the last couple of weeks. It's not always easy to do, but I stay to the right so as not to obstruct traffic. I'm endeavoring to bump up my mileage by doing this, coefficient of drag increasing inversely with increased speeds and all that. Of course, with the warmer weather these days, I've been driving with the sunroof and/or the windows open, likely giving Baby the aerodynamics of a whiffle ball.

This particular morning, I was coming up to the interchange to the last freeway I take. I usually keep a good eye on traffic around me, and am usually aware of who is where, and often know what other drivers are going to do before they do it. I had been driving along with no one behind me for quite a distance, but the next time I looked up, probably around 1/8 mile before the ramp, there's what is billed as a German luxury performance car right on my rear bumper!!! Literally, mere feet from me, a distance better situated to parallel parking than cruising at 65. I maintain my speed, up until the long road of the transition leading to the curve. This section curves ever so slightly to the right, then leads into a 270 degree right turning clover leaf ramp. I let her coast down to around just under 50 coming into that stretch coming into the corner, and my shadow sticks right on my tail.

This has gotten on my nerves a bit, so as I'm starting into the clover leaf, I say, "Follow this, killer", and ever so gently start easing on the throttle. A German luxury performance car should be able to do some cornering, right??? I keep easing on the juice all the way through the corner, never coming close to the limits of adhesion, or even eliciting a squeal from the tires. I come out onto the freeway already exceeding my self imposed limit by ten MPH, and my new found friend is nowhere to be seen!!! I lay off and get the speed back down, and it must have been a quarter mile later before I saw him coming out of the curve!!! Ha!!!

That alone would have been good enough for me, but in the remaining quarter mile before my exit, he gets right back on my ass!!! Dude, I'd be embarrassed. He exits behind me. The street I exit onto has three lanes each way, and I end up taking a left, so if it's clear, I will move over to the left lane. It was, so I did, after checking my area and signaling. This guy does the same, except he never signals. Guys like him almost never do. Half a block later, he cuts back into the middle lane. Come on, you sit higher up than I do, and I can see from down here you ain't getting anywhere any quicker over there!!! Sure enough, a block later he gets back behind me!!! After that, he gets in a left turn lane. It has a signal for the turn, and he starts laying on his horn the second the light changes. Whenever someone around me starts honking, I almost always do so myself. I did. I think he should have left fifteen minutes earlier!!!

By the way, the picture on this post is a modification from a much earlier post, "Headlights in the Mirror", in case you thought it looked familiar!!!

Lost Pictures

Okay, so maybe they wern't really ever lost... but here they are anyway!!!



Since I've gotten my laptop, I rarely get on my desktop unless I need to print a document or retrieve a file. Yesterday my mom had a page that wouldn't print on their computer for some reason, so I did it for her. While I had it on, I took the opportunity to scan some old school pictures I've accumulated!!!



They are in order from newest to oldest. My dad, inspired by my wild whisker growth, grew his out for a photo op in his old Navy dress blues. Looks like the old salt, no???

The next two are from Christmas events, when I'd shaved my chin and head, yet left my sideburns. Not for long, it was too strange, and I always felt like I missed a spot.



The final one is from one of the gatherings at Geezers, when one of my co-workers had been axed.



He's to my left, the only co-worker I knew from my previous life. Just past him is the girl who I traumatized with my piercing. She has transitioned into the office. The guy on my other side, he's still in the bins with me, an excellent filler and good guy. Good times!!!

Lucky 13

Today (well, technically yesterday) was the first born's 13th birthday observed. Came out good.



To start off, I've included a Halo 3 logo for reference. Since he's into this series of games, I thought an interpretation of this logo, slightly modified, would do as a cake design.



The weathermen had been predicting rain for today, but it had all blown through by this morning. One of the things he'd wanted to do is have a water fight, not quite as much fun if it's already raining!!! Nice weather today.



He had invited several friends, but only three made it. That was okay, they spent most of the day playing Xbox games in their room. The beginning part of the festivities took place in the living room, playing Halo 1 multi player on a few of the computers. Too noisy out here, much more pleasant when they were all in their room. Here he is, opening the Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution game from my parents. It elicited a "WHOO HOOO!!!" from him, that Halo Wars from me hadn't. I called him on that, and he ammended it for that, too.



All three of the younger cousins came, as well as my parents, middle sister and her boyfriend. More family than friends, but they still had a good time. In case you were wondering, the number 6 candle was the only candle we had. Always short on candles, it seems. Also, if you were wondering, the chip in his hand is what he extinguished said candle with, which was likely a good thing, being as he was chewing on the pizza slice in his hand at the time!!!



And here they are, playing Xbox in their room!!! As you can see, they spent all morning cleaning it up!!! I've not made mention, but note the television. In the basement, I have had since I moved in an old RCA console TV, from back in the day when TV's were actually stylish furniture. Of course, the electronics on it weren't working, but I was able to meld it with my old Toshiba Blackstripe and come up with old world styling with space age technology!!! It's not a real smooth transition around the bezel, but I may be able to do something about that, eventually.



Oh, and water fight??? Not as epic as last year's, but there weren't so many participants. My parents also got him a couple of packs of water balloons, which they used several of. In my opinion, some of the best parts were when I got a pot of water and dumped it unexpectedly from the head of the stairs to where they were filling the balloons!!!

Lego Somali Pirates

As tweeted about last night, here's the Lego Somali pirates!!! I literally laughed hard for about a minute at the end!!!

Barely Out of Tuesday

I woke up Tuesday morning
Staring at the ceiling
Hoping for deliverance
From the distances in you.


This room feels like an oven
Somewhere south of nowhere
And north of nothing



I'm barely out of Tuesday
Seen seven hours of Wednesday
I guess I've got regrets!
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.


Can you see her,
Waiting there down by the sea?
With a hat on,
Over her eyes and looking for me
If you see me coming home,
Turn me away.
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday.


She kept me at a distance.
And fifty-two weeks later,
Were still the same.
I'm standing in my basement,
Making my arrangements
And waiting for the telphone
To ring to ring to ring.


So I left from Minnesota
Where the weather's getting colder,
And people are changing.
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.
Oh can you see her waiting there down by the sea?
And have arrangements to meet there for awhile and baby
If you see me coming home,
Turn me away.
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday.

And if all this distance
Ain't gonna bring you to me
Then what's the point of all this patience?
It's not your nature
You just keep what you need.
And you got some pictures of me.


I woke up Wednesday morning,
Sometime Wednesday evening,
Hoping for a piece of something easy to believe.
When you live out on the border
Of everything and nothing
There's nothing but waking and dreaming.
I'm barely out of Tuesday.
There's no one to receive me,
And nothing is changing.
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.


Can you see her
Waiting there down by the sea?
There's a light on,
But there's nobody waiting for me.
If you see me coming home
Turn me away,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere...

The Deadly Dinosaur

I haven't been very good about blogging recently. Yesterday my parents came up for Easter festivities (normally they would have it at their house, but the rainy season revealed leaks in their roof. They're front room is going to be getting a new ceiling and paint, so all the front room was going to be in the garage... but turns out it isn't yet) and I've got a camera full of some pictures from that. I bought myself a laptop at the end of last year, I think I've made mention of it here, but it could do with an in-depth post. Janice, I finally got running last week, but now begs a question: is it better to have a car that won't start, or one that won't turn off??? Always something. For the first time I used some software to do my taxes online. For the first time, I had my taxes rejected.

THEN, last night I went to the Once Upon A Win website, and here THIS is!!! Another idea I'd had for a series of posts!!! All the cars I've owned....

While this wasn't the first car I ever owned (that honor goes to Mav I), but was the first car I ever purchased. Mine was nowhere near as cherry as this fine specimen, it was missing the grille, and one of the front fenders and the bumper were bent up some. It was a rusty copper color, sprayed over the original quirky AMC purple color. I would have rather had the purple. It had no radio, and the ignition was popped out of it when I bought it. The previous owner won it in a bet. He had bet the other owner that he could get it running cheaply and easily. He did this by putting a toggle switch and push button in place of the ignition switch. I paid $160 for it, if I remember correctly. The 258" six cylinder engine ran rough, having a dead cylinder due to a burnt valve, but other than that it was fine!!!

Shortly after purchasing it, I gutted most of the interior. Carpet, back seat, dash and instrument panel, heater and air conditioner (hell, neither of those worked anyway!!!) all got yanked out and tossed. The front seats stayed, they were out of some other AMC, probably a Hornet and were in great condition, even if they matched nothing else in the car. Also, they folded into what is likely the closest to a bed of just about any car ever!!! I had heard Ramblers and later AMC's were renowned for that feature. Probably around 300 pounds or more of not so pretty fat was quickly removed. Something car makers today could learn from, just losing considerable weight does wonders for performance, handling and mileage!!!

I put in a slick little instrument panel from a Toyota pickup, bought a straight front bumper and pair of front fenders (I don't remember what was wrong with the other side's fender, but I do remember buying two of them... wouldn't have done that for no reason... both replacements were the original purple that mine had started as!!!) and held the pertinent paperwork to the firewall with a magnet!!! On one of the back pillars, I hand painted "The Deadly Dinosaur". Rebuilding the carburetor was the only thing required to get it to pass smog, amazingly, what with the dead cylinder.

I bought this car before I was married. Not long after getting married, my wife's Mustang died from lack of oil. She drove this for a few months while we saved up for another car. While driving home, she got her first speeding ticket doing 80 MPH on the freeway. She also had her first accident, some fool running a red light that she had been in the middle of an intersection to finish her left turn. Put a flat spot on one of the new fender replacements, and completely caved in the side of the little Toyota she'd hit. Probably would have gotten their car fixed up by our insurance, but then they started lying about three extra passengers in the car needing medical assistance (there was just one person in the car, the owner's brother) and I think our insurance company told 'em to pound sand or they'd file insurance fraud against them!!! Good times!!! One night, someone hit and run clipped Dinosaur while she was parked by the corner near our apartment. Made a tiny little dent in the rear bumper and knocked the back end over about a foot, but tore off a big piece of side trim and all kinds of dirt from the underside of the other car. I would have liked to gotten a look at the other guy!!!

After we got another car, my sister wrecked hers, and we loaned this to her. Her dipshit boyfriend managed to destroy the lifetime starter I'd put in it and kill the battery, and I had no place to store it. Ended up junking her, for $100 if I remember correctly. Seems like everyone has some car from their past that they wish they still had, and this is one that's on my list. She was never pretty, but FUN!!! A curb-jumper built like a tank, amazingly good mileage, easy to work on (I think I was able to do an oil change from the top of the engine, without even having to jack her up to fit a drain pan under) and a theft deterrent in itself!!!

*Edited in February 2019, RIP Once Upon a Win, link removed, pictures updated. SOMEWHERE I've got actual photos, but the first image is close to how it could have looked at one point, the second is close to how it looked when I got it. Never had a grille. Also, the rear window when I got it had no latch and just kinda flopped back there. I ran a screw and big washer through it and semi-permanently closed it!!!

Quickly Random CupDate

Here's another, somewhat different thing I did on one of my cups. Once again, I was throwing totes, and there was a paint pen in the area, right color and everything. I was unsure how it would react with the foam of the cup, so I did it on the lid, instead. This was saved for a week to get a picture for the sharing!!!



No other great pictures on my cups recently, but I did one day write a snatch of lyrics from Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" on the side of one:

Well, I try my best To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you To be just like them...

My younger saw that on the side of my cup (he reads pretty well these days, for his age) and asked if that was true. I had to explain.

The other one I wrote was a quote from Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons:

A complete list of things I have seen or not seen is available on my blog. Your mother is on the not seen list.

Looked all over the interwebs for a sound or video clip of that part. Thus far, it is unfindable.

Speaking of things never found on the interwebs, Failblog has a video I searched for extensively a while back of an assault, I believe at a Carson city council meeting. Fail blog WIN!!!

There's a flier for a battle of the bands up at my work. One of my co-workers is in a band that will be featured. One of the other bands that will be there is called "Mean Mister Mustard". Several times now I'll get that song stuck in my head from seeing that!!!

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.