Random Recap & The Christmas that Everything Broke

Happy new year to all!!! It's been a while, huh??? Soooo much has happened, who knows if I'll cover it all???



Christmas was good, but a lot of things broke (as you may have surmised from the title) right around then. The week before we were having our famous rain storms, and the top of the pepper tree by the property line and driveway blew off. This was actually something of a win, as we've been gradually working on cutting this tree down for a while, and the top portion is the hardest to get to, and when it fell it was away from the cars & the neighbors' house!!!



There's a shot of my younger boy in one of his Christmas presents, a shirt from Woot! It's got to be one of his favorites, he's worn it almost every day since!!! The colors have grown on me. Boss shirt, boss!!! (He says, "I know.")



We had goody day a few weeks back at work. As usual, it was good, and there were plenty of leftovers. I ended up taking home two 12-packs of soda and the remains of a cheese ball, among other things. I've been nomming on that cheese ball ever since!!!

The work Christmas party could have been amazing. Instead it was pretty decent. A lot of things could have been a lot better, though. I'm interested to see if they keep the same venue next year.



The sink in the kitchen had been draining slow. I took it apart to clean out the trap & use the hydraulic drain cleaner on the pipe. Turned out the galvanized pipe was all corroded out on the bottom threads. Only about 12 years or so that lasted, I remember replacing it before. Replaced it with some incredibly beefy schedule 80 stainless steel pipe, think it'll outlast the rest of the house!!! Of course, I had to put it back together in the meantime. The garbage disposal stopped working in the interim, sounded like something was jammed in it. This breakdown magically fixed itself, but on the night of the 23rd, while the older was doing dishes, it all came apart, flooding the kitchen with 2 sinks worth or dirty dish water. Before this project was done, I had to replace the P trap, too. Once I got it back together, it had a line of pin holes down one side.



There's a shot of my nephew with a blade from my younger's Lego set. Ever see the Veggie Tales' "The Toy that Saved Christmas"??? My nephew goes by the nickname Louie, so here's your Buzz Saw Louie!!! The only toy featuring an actual working buzz saw built into his right arm!!!

Had a power surge on Christmas morning that took out the stereo amplifier that we run the sound on the T.V. through. I was resigned to buying a new LCD T.V. the next morning. We went out and saw Tron, then I messed with it and another like it I had in the basement when we got home. Couldn't find anything wrong, but when I put it back together, it worked!!! Another problem that magically fixed itself!!!



A couple of shots of pumpkins here... One is my youngests' of Sonic. Of course, I did all the carving and a lot of the gutting. First time I've ever followed a design, and first one I've ever done with the shaving off of the top layer. My pumpkin, I was inspired the day we carved 'em. I was going to the boys' room to get them, and I saw the shells the older had brought back from Florida, along with a couple of blue marbles from inside spray paint cans. I like the way the flash made them glow!!! Somewhere in my video camera are some clips of the annual pumpkin smashing...



Speaking of video, see the shot of me with my new camera??? A real nice Pentax I bought for myself. It'll shoot a video HD enough to choke your laptops' meager video capabilities!!! It also features in body image stabilization to help keep the price of lenses down. I'm quite pleased with it... except... after about half a dozen shots, the built in flash stopped working!!! At least it's still under warranty...

One of these pictures is of my dad with our Christmas present to him, a gas tank that I'd had in my panel truck. Hope it works better for him than it did for me!!!



There's a shot of the cake I did for my nephew's birthday. If you don't know, that's Wubbsy. My sis started with him, then changed to Sponge Bob. I've done too many Sponge Bobs, so I stayed with Wubbsy, only with Bob's pants on him. Why??? That's why his tail is in the form of a question mark!!!

I know another thing or two broke around then, but I can't remember what....

New year's resolution: I resolve to blog more!!!

Freeloadin'

What a day it has been!!! Prepare for the run on sentence of the description of my day. Last week the kitchen sink developed a bad leak to where it was running all the time, so when I got up this morning I shut the water off & pulled the stem inserts out of it (might as well replace the whole thing it's been years & they could use it) so I went to the hardware store & got one for each side as well as new seats & I saw on the opposite wall they had a valve replacement for the toilet so I picked that up too since ours sometimes doesn't seal & runs just a little & while we were out dropped off 3 bags of outgrown clothes & shoes at Goodwill & bought some milk & then got home & Janice was losing coolant so I was going to look at that too since I couldn't very well add water until I put the sink back together so I did that first it works better than it has in years & the older boy was going to take the trash & recycling down while I was working on that because the ants are after it (the heat drives 'em indoors & it's been really hot the last week or so) & the security screen wasn't opening & he was blaming his brother for locking the door but I knew that didn't happen like that & I eventually stopped working on the sink & went around & pulled off the strike part of the frame & the catch isn't working at all so I yanked that & looked for the other one that came with the two pack of doorknobs that I bought and had to dig through a bunch of boxes and I found half a dozen hard drives & was thinking about hooking them up just to see what's on 'em & it turns out the door has just a bit of friction with the frame so it works pretty good without the catch but anyway then I looked at Janis' heater control valve where it's leaking & it has a pretty good sized crack which probably has something to do with it so it's loose right now I put some gorilla glue on it and a big C clamp around it for the night and while I had the glue out I put the side rubber trim that was coming loose back on & the around the window weatherstrip on Baby that came loose last night with the same glue I had been kinda planning on going to the junkyard's half price sale today but there isn't one up in Sun Valley like I was thinking there was but the one up there is having their half price day next weekend so now I'm thinking that & then I watered the plants while I was out there too & then finally I replaced the toilet valve so I've been a regular ol' handyman today even though I was in bed pretty much all morning!!!


BUT!!! What I was going to blog about was last night!!! I had something so good... (veiled Counting Crows reference) I had heard a couple weeks back about a movie screening with Counting Crows performing afterwards!!! The movie is called "Freeloaders", and while Adam Duritz isn't in the movie a whole lot (beginning and end, with a phone call in the middle) he is a rather pivotal role in it. He plays himself, and the MacGuffin of the movie is six people living in his house while he's out on tour. He's selling his place, and they've got 30 days to find new places. It's by Broken Lizard, the guys responsible for "Super Troopers" (one of the guys told a very funny story) and "Beerfest". A very funny movie, I wouldn't give it 4 of 4 stars, but probably at least a solid two and a half, if not three. Nigerians & Pirate porn, need I say more??? Made me LOL a lot, I give it a glowing recommendation!!!



It was at the John Ansen Ford Theater, across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl. I'd never been there before, & I was impressed, it's quite nice, and not real huge. For October 1st, the weather was still great for an evening in an open air theater, even in shorts!!! The time listed for it to start was 7, and what with getting out of work at 5:15 (middle shift) and Friday traffic, I didn't think we'd catch the beginning. Nothing happened until 8, though, so we had time to get snacks & leisurely find our seats. Before anything actually started Adam himself came out and was wandering the audience. I spotted him right off, and was considering going up and saying hi, but it got pretty crowded, and besides I hadn't brought my camera and if anything that is what I would have really liked, to have gotten my picture taken with him.

Broken Lizard came out and did a couple of funny episodes, and then the projector wasn't ready (who would have thought that would be necessary at a movie screening) so the Broken Lizard guys came and told a couple of stories (see above comment about Super Troopers, and one about Willie Nelson, which prompted Adam to tell his Willie Nelson story), then on with the show!!!



The pictures here are ones I found that others there had tweeted, and show it pretty good. Checked the YouTube, and there's a couple videos from the show up, but none of them seem to have caught any of the songs complete!!!

Here's the set list:

1. Catapult
2. Mrs. Potter's Lullaby
3. Mr. Jones (started off singing "So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star" over the intro riff, pretty good, you can catch the tail end of that part on this video)
4. Good Night Elizabeth (middle interlude some song about seeing the lights on Broadway, watch here)
5. Friend of the Devil
6. Angels of the Silences
7. Hard Candy
8. Recovering the Satellites
9. Miami
10. A Long December (with a bit of A Murder of One mixed in)

Not a hugely long show, but no disapointment either!!! One of the two best sounding Counting Crows shows I've ever heard, the other being the Disney Concert Hall show. The energy was up, and Adam was upbeat.

Oh yea, "Freeloaders" ends up with Adam singing Hanginaround, and at the hardware store it was playing over the speakers, pretty cool. Reminded us that last night I had something so good!!!

To top it all off, the cost for the whole evening was less than for a single ticket at all but possibly one of their shows that I've ever been to!!! Live comedy, a movie screening, and a concert all at a bargain price!!! A great evening!!!

Pictures Taken by Pros

At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.



Here's what we got (even though, with the exception of the water parks, I had my own camera with me) submitted for your approval!!!











One of the better days we had was the day we went to the Disney Studios Park. If memory serves correctly, it was the 4th Disney park we visited. By that time, my wife & the younger boy were pretty worn out, so they stayed at the resort while the older boy & I went. This was coupled with the fact that the remnant of a tropical depression were blowing through that day. The day was mostly overcast & occasionally drizzly.



That made for many of the lines being pretty short. We pretty much walked onto the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, and at the end of the evening we rode the Aerosmith coaster twice. Also, my older boy has patience for and even an interest in some things that my wife and younger boy would quickly find boring, and he's like me in that he'll stay as long as possible to get the most out of a park. We got to go through the museum-like area and the film of the Walt Disney story. The only ride I would have liked to visit that we didn't get on (due to the over an hour wait time) was the Toy Story shooting gallery ride, doubtless a clone of the one at California Adventure, one of my new favorites.







As opposed to last time, we actually made it on a few of the rides we missed out on last time. At Magic Kingdom, we made it onto Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (both much better than West Coasts'), although we didn't have time to visit the Heritage Square or whatever it's called area we missed last time, too.



At the Animal Kingdom park, they'd shut down the Expedition Everest coaster due to lightening last time, so that was our first stop this time. Made it on after a considerable wait, but also got fast passes to return later that night. Last time we'd gone, we'd seen a show on the in room programming that had that coaster as the best Disney coaster. It's pretty good, but I still like the Aerosmith one better. Got to ride the Dinosaur! ride, too, similar to the Indiana Jones ride out here, but differently themed. Got to take a good look at (and about a zillion pictures of) the Tree of Life. Oh, and the river raft ride that we waited for probably an hour or more last time was pretty much a walk-on. Rode it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.



At Epcot, they had Spaceship Earth open this time, so I got to ride it again, for the first time since 1983. They've added video screens to the cars, and at the end they use a photo of you taken at the beginning of the ride on a an interactive cartoon. Pretty hilarious. Rode it again later to take a video of that. Got to ride the Soaring, another California Adventure clone, and Maelstrom, which were both closed by the time we made it to them last time. Mission: Space we got to ride again, and the boy found someone's dropped fast pass for the GM Test Track ride.







The last few shots here are taken at Typhoon Lagoon, which is where we got the famous free shirts.

Other People's Pics

I had hoped to find more for this post, but here's what I was able to get.



At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.



However, many people don't really want to bother with all that and end up discarding their codes. I figured I'd pick up all I could & see if there was anything good!!!



On two of the occasions, the photog had us holding our hands out for an effect that would be added in later. One of these pictures never appeared on our code (someone must have blinked) and the other they hadn't added anything in. So, one of the codes I found did have this added in, so I got to see what they've done.



At the Blizzard Beach water park, there was a huge quantity of the cards dropped on the mountainside under the chair lift. I would have loved to have gotten all those!!!

There you go!!! Pictures of random other park guests!!!

Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight

A little something I found on the desktop of my desktop from a while back... Hardly ever use the desktop now that I've got the laptop!!! Isn't the test title enough to make you want to try it out???

Your result for The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test...

a Pirate

You scored 6 Honor, 4 Justice, 6 Adventure, and 8 Individuality!

Arr matey. You may belive in honor, and justice, and you certainly have a sense of adventure. But mostly, you play by your own rules. Your code is your own and you are flexible in most situations.

Dress flamboyant and look into a parrot. I think you'll do fine.

Take The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test at HelloQuizzy

Lilly's Layin' Eggs

Welcome to the second installment of Pictures & Stuff from our vacation to Florida!!! In today's installment, I'm sharing some pictures of one of the things that I think was the best part of our trip, our visit to Gator Park!!!








When I was 14 years old, my family had visited Florida for a cruise, as well as visits to Disney World & the newly opened Epcot Center. We drove from Florida to Orlando that time (which I'm sure affected my decision to fly instead, but given the expense and time wasted in the airport, not sure I'd do it again that way), and on the way stopped at an airboat ride place. It was fun enough, but I don't recall having seen that much wildlife.



I wanted to bring the family to the Everglades for an airboat ride, and this looked like a pretty decent place. Ended up getting WAY more than I'd bargained for this time!!!



To start with, they had an animal show with birds, skunks, alligators, and even a lemur (not native to the Everglades, in case you didn't know). I've got some video that I may edit & post of that, the guy has a most unique voice. Afterwards, they had a real live alligator you could hold, which all but the youngest did for the photo op.



On to the airboat ride!!! This was the epic part of this event!!! Our boat captain would hold out bits of bread for specific birds at different points of the ride, and they would either land on him, hover by his hand or pick it out of the air as he would toss it to them.



Got out a good distance, and he cranked up the speed and hot dogged about the swamp, over razor grass and shallow waters.



Happened upon a great egret, which I'd spotted on our first pass around a little island, and he came back & tried to get close. He didn't get that close. I managed a decent picture anyway.



My oldest ran the video camera the whole time. We've got around 45 minutes of that.



Oh, and did we see any gators??? Oh yea!!! Like the birds, there were specific areas that the guide knew that certain ones would be at, and he'd call 'em out by name!!! The trick to calling alligators, he says, is to sound like a sick pirate (I'll likely edit some of that portion of video down to share how that would sound) and the gator would swim right out. I think around half a dozen we saw. There are three whose names I remember. Tripod (lost one of his arms in a territory dispute with a bigger gator) and Smiley (who'll swim right up to the boat with his jaws open) and Lilly.



Never did see Lilly, however. Lilly's layin' eggs.

How to get a Free Meal out of a Mouse

So much happened on our vacation to Florida, and I have yet to blog much of it at all!!! I'd say all in all a great vacation, but of course there were a few hitches. Thus, I will get all that out of the way before getting on to all the good stuff!!!

Getting there went smoothly until we'd landed in Miami. At that point, they changed the baggage claim and didn't tell us, so that took a bit. From there to the rental car... well, the rental car places are off site, and there's a shuttle over there. The best priced rental was with Advantage, and their place isn't with all the other rental places, but off from there, so you have to take a shuttle to their shuttle!!! Further complicating things is that it turns out they're only open until midnight, and with the baggage claim and two shuttles, it was VERY close. We got it OK though, and were off to our hotel. Turned out to be a very opulent place (of course, being right on the beach I figured it would be) with the only option being valet parking, and marble stairs leading to a huge crystal chandeliered lobby. Naturally, we were hungry by the time we landed, so we'd stopped by Burger King and showed up looking like a bunch of hillbillies with our take out bags!!! Good times!!! We got checked into our room, and headed up to discover there was only one bed!!! Fortunately the bellman got our problem solved fairly quickly.

Our second flight from Miami to Orlando didn't go quite as smooth, being delayed a couple hours (with the getting to the airport early, delays and finding the Disney express at the airport, it would have been near the same amount of time to drive there!!!) and the gate getting changed a couple of times before being changed back to the original. Not a single complaint about our lodgings at Disney, making it the only one of the three with that distinguishment.

Our third hotel was the Nickelodeon Suites for the last two nights. The room they gave us was great, away from the noisy pool and slides play area, on the ground floor with a view of the lagoon. Unfortunately, the air conditioning has some kind of issue, and the floor all around it (central to the lodgings) was completely soaked!!! Once again, it was very late when we checked in, and we were all ready to sleep. A call to the front desk and they assure me they're sending someone over to take care of us. 45 minutes later, and no one has showed. I walk through the labyrinthine complex to the front desk, and they tell me there's no vacancies to move us into, and someone is already at our room dealing with the problem. I get back, and they've sent housekeeping over with half a dozen towels, which are already soaked through. Sigh. The next morning the oldest & I get up to go to Universal (mom & the younger have had enough theme parking and elect to stay there today. Could have saved some $$$ had I known. I tell her to get on the line with the front desk & get us a different room when she gets up). The hotel shuttle never shows up, so we drive over (another $14 for parking). Later that day she calls me up and tells me they've used a wet vac on the swampy area. I tell her I'm not impressed with their half assed attempts and I want a new room. When we get back, the older remembers something he left in the old room and goes over to get it. It's still about the same as far as moisture, and they've set up a couple of fans. Glad we got a new room, and they did give us $20 credit. Still not worth it, if it wasn't for the epic water play area I would discourage anyone from staying there.

One night we went to Sonic. They completely screwed up our order. Did manage to get a huge thing of cheesy tater tots, and an extra slushy. If Sonic didn't have awesome food, I wouldn't ever recommend them, either!!!

My GPS is easily confused by turnpikes. She was constantly recalculating. Last time we were there I had a much better feel for the geography, as I was using actual paper maps.

I think that mostly covers the fails of the trip (with the exception of the day I thought we were checking out and was a day early to the Nickelodeon) with the exception of the final one that this post was to be primarily about, which actually turned into a win for us. See the first picture of Mickey giving himself a facepalm???




The second full day we were in Orlando the oldest & I got up early to go to the extra hour they open the Typhoon Lagoon water park for hotel guests. We got up, put on our trunks & flip flops and caught the shuttle bus over. Good time at that park, short lines for all the cool slides and stuff. After a few hours we go to head back to our room.



The bus pulls up, and as we go to get on, the driver tells us we have to put our shirts back on. Ummm, we've got no shirts with us, what you see is what you get. "Federal law", he tells us, "you have to have a shirt to ride the bus". We turn around and head back to the park entrance and locate guest services. We tell the lady our tale of woe, and she heads off to the back to see what will be done. As we wait, we both notice a lost article form next to the register, lost swim trunks. We both have a laugh, and I purport that the guy who lost those probably wasn't denied entrance to the bus!!! I say if we get shirts and the same bus driver we need to shuck off our trunks and see if he lets us on like that!!!



I'd figured that they would probably find us a pair of Hanna Montana or High School Musical shirts in the lost & found, but instead they made us up a voucher for the park's store for two shirts!!! We head back and find a couple of nice shirts. The one the boy has was my first choice, but the smallest they had was large and I was looking for a medium. Nice fit on him, huh???

And that, my friends, is how to get a free meal (or at least a free couple of shirts) out of a Mouse!!!

Tropical Threat

The dangers that lurk when you vacation in the tropics...

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.

Random Pics Post

Here's a set of seven pics from here & there. Some comments shall describe, other comments will just share bits of randomness.

The first picture is of my niece & nephew playing catch on the front steps of my house on the older's birthday. A random and rather cool thing... in the top left side you can see one of the window screen frames is tweaked outwards. A couple of birds, sparrows or finches, have constructed a nest on the sill behind the screen, and it's got 5 eggs in it now!!! They don't seem to sit on 'em much. Bet it's gonna be noisy when they hatch!!!



In my last post I commented on Janice's battery having died. I charged it up, and it occurred to me that another problem she'd developed recently was the power antenna wasn't extending & retracting properly. I'd thought nothing of it at the time, but upon recharging the battery, it occurred to me that could be an issue. Before I fully installed the battery, I tried a test light, and sure enough it glowed a dull orange. Yanked the fuse for the antenna (and a half dozen other circuits) and out it went!!! I diagnosed the problem under the fuse box cover, and fixed it under the trunk lid!!!



Next picture is when we went for a hike on Memorial day. Fairly straight up the side of the hill. I was a bit achey the next day. Thought I was in better shape than that!!!


Have you seen the show "Miami Medical"??? One of the characters is named "Dr. Proctor". Every time I hear it, I think he should be a butt doctor.



I've noticed that my work has left off the tradition of the Thursday before payday as being axing day.


Picture #3 is also on the birthday, my sister & mother in our front room. Yes, I do have a giant slide rule in my front room. Try & contain your jealousy.



The stack of pennies was on the younger boy's birthday pictures. I know it wasn't on the same day. I estimate about fifty cents there.


I was battling bronze dragons in Runescape the other night, and after a dozen or so, one of 'em finally killed me. I want my money back for that crappy Ring of Life I was wearing!!!



Next shot is of several of the boys' cars and various other toys. I picked 'em up when I was sweeping the steps & arranged them so. Yes, that is a brachiosaurus in the back right, holding a dismembered arm. Ironically, brachiosaurus literally means "arm lizard", and I didn't even know that until just now when I wiki'ed to find out how to spell brachiosaurus!!!



Next shot is of the younger boy, on the older's birthday, showing off where he got tagged with a loquat during the loquat war. It'll leave a mark!!! If you look close (or click on it to see it enlarged) it looks like he's got a loose string pointing it out!!!

In addition to the giant slide rule, my older boy dragged home an overhead projector. It can double as a search light.



Last shot is of a hawk on the Memorial day hike. 'Ol Olympus still gots it!!!