I can't believe I forgot...

Yesterday was talk like a pirate day, and I didn't once use the catch-all pirate phrase "AYE!!!"

I had a hard time getting out of work tonight, some asshole had parked in front of the driveway. Took three different numbers before I finally got in touch with parking enforcement. They said they were sending someone out, but 20 minutes later they hadn't gotten there. Shortly after that asshole took off, so all's well that ended well. I wouldn't have been so pissed if I'd still been on the clock :Þ Next time that shit happens I'm breaking out the forklift!!!

I tried to see Granny's page and see if she had any new stuff on her page or blog, but it said it was undergoing maintenance. WHAAAAAA!!!

Is there such a thing as blog addiction???

Avast, Me Mateys!!!

Yarrrrr!!! I heard on a couple of the radio stations today that today is 'talk like a pirate day'!!! I thought that was so appropriate on the day after I added the "what kind of pirate am I?" quiz on my MySpace site!!! Unfortunately, there are not enough responses to find out yet. Shiver me timbers!!!

It was a stupid day at work. I finished the tool I've been working on since two Fridays ago this morning, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I was even able to plot out the die line for Sammy to cut. OK, hold on, this is where things get stupid!!! We don't have the material in stock to run it!!! We'll have it towards the end of the day, OK, no biggie. The pressure box we have isn't the right length. More of a biggie. The trim station top is too wide to cut against.... not a huge problem, but one more thing that must be done. The bottom trim station doesn't have the proper size legs. Fairly major problem. This job has been in the works ten days that I know of, I'm positive at least one more than that, and it takes until NOW to take a look at these minor details???

When I got home from work tonight there was a Sunday New York Times in my driveway. I had to wonder why anyone would get the New York Times in L.A.??? Less yellow journalism and media bias??? Not likely.

I just went outside and turned the sprinklers off, and wouldn't you know it, its RAINING!!!

My oldest's comp has gremlins. On Thursday I found out he's got some kind of boot sector failure. I put in a different hard drive (couldn't find the one he used to have in there that may or may not have had a workable operating system on it) and ghosted a clean operating system onto it. I updated it on the microsoft site, and now the damned internet explorer doesn't work right. And it spontaneously reboots, although I've gotten that problem largely reduced. Major pain in the ass, now I know why people hate microsoft!!!

I'm glad to see Granny is figuring out how to do stuff on MySpace. I see she has a video and a kitty on there now. Way to go, girl!!!

New Theme Music For ÃÝË!!!

Well, if you read my last post here and were wondering, no, I did not end up going camping today. After therapy I had to go and get a wilderness pass (I paid $30.00 for the one year pass, I intend to camp at least one other time this year) and then to Fry's Electronics cuz they had McAffe virus scan plus firewall for free after rebates, and by the time I made it home it was 6:00 and starting to get dark. We'll go next weekend, right after school gets out instead. My virus scan has been reminding me for the last 6 months or so that it's expired. Don't know why I buy it, I use the free online scanners at Trend Micro and Panda, as well as using Ad Aware and they all seem to catch and clean stuff as well as or better than McAffe's does. Guess it's because it's been pretty much free to update it ever since I got my first comp in '99.

Hey, if you looked at my profile on MySpace, I figured out how to do cool stuff with it!!! If you noticed, its sinister now!!! (Sinister being from the Latin meaning "left handed", just something I learned from watching The Simpsons. Educational as well as entertaining!!!) I found this Site that easily generates the HTML to change your shit around. All I was really looking for was WHERE to insert the tag for the background color (you know, grey is my favorite color) and I found it. Apparently all you have to do is put your HTML tags in the "about me" place on your profile edit. But, that site you can change alot of stuff up, so I did!!! Another thing I found is a site that hosts a bunch of music videos to paste into your music area. If you noticed, I've got "Mr. Brightside" in there now. Love that tune!!! My new theme song, huh??? That one and "Sugar We're Going Down" by Fallout Boy, but they didn't have a video for that. Mmmmmm, going down..... "Wishing to be the friction in your jeans" YEAH!!! Rock on, Fallout Boy!!!

I finished up cutting the tool I was making at work. It came out great, but my machine is indeed fucked up, most likely from our power outage. The owner filed a claim with the LA DWP over it, but probably they won't do anything. I was able to manually edit my program and cut the time it took to cut in half!!! I'm really getting the hang of it now!!! Anyway, the fuckup of which I spoke is the inverter that I mentioned in my last post. I have to shut down the machine (manually with a big knife switch, seems so wrong to shut down a comp, albeit a rudimentary one, like that!!!) after every spindle shut down. $6000.00 for a replacement inverter. My poor baby needs some LOVIN'!!! We'll see if our guy can handle fixing it up first. MAINTENANCE!!!

Since we didn't get to camping tonight, I made up a little camp fire in my old barbecue and we all toasted marshmallows over it. It's a really good night out, not too cold, clear, and a full moon!!! It was my youngest's first time even seeing a camp fire, and having toasted marshmallows, and he really enjoyed it.

Blackout Revisited

I didn't make mention here of the famous L.A. blackout on Monday. It didn't affect me a whole lot, or so it seemed.... The power at work was only off for less than I minute I'd guess (as opposed to by my home, where it must have been out for 15 minutes or more. My youngest boy is potty training, and he enjoyed sitting in the bathroom with a candle going, I hear) I had my CNC on, but not running when the juice cut out, and just a bit after it came back on Tom (Sammy's dad) notices there's smoke coming out of the top of it!!! I bust ass over there and cut the power, and get a look at where its coming from. On the top of the back panel there's a punched metal enclosure, and it looks like a rod like a heating element in there. Its glowing red, and there's even a little fire burning on one end. After it burns itself out I look inside the panel, and there's only two wires going up there, and the closer I look the more it looks like a heating element!!! I was leery of turning it back on, so I called tech support and asked 'em what the heating element on the top of the thing is. Turns out its some kind of thing to dissipate the charge in the power inverter that does the speed control for the motor. They said to go ahead and turn it back on, and if it doesn't work I'm gonna need a new inverter. I turn it on, and everything seemed fine. I finished writing the proggie I was working on, and ended up running it yesterday (typical stupid shit at my work, this is a priority job, yet I didn't end up getting the metal to cut it into, ready since Monday morning, until after 4:00 yesterday!!! Don't come bitching to me....) Anyway, yesterday night I ended up cutting nearly half of the tool, the first actual milling that I've done on CNC, a big thrill for me!!! I was very pleased with the results. Got in today and finished the half I was working on today, moved my fixturing around and roughed the other half. I'd been thinking of a way to clean up the program and speed things up, so I stopped at this point and modified it. Afterwards I went to run it, but I ended up getting an error message:

INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR
INVERTER ERROR

Damit!!! Strange that would happen after working fine for more than a day...

I went over to my parent's house after work today to get sleeping bags. I'm planning on taking my firstborn camping this weekend. The street in front of their house has been tore up for a few weeks, because there was a low spot in front of their house that was always wet, and usually green and scummy. Perfect place for west nile mosquitos!!! Anyway, they're putting in all new curb and gutters. My dad had the driveway widened some time ago from 2 cars to 3 cars, but he didn't have the ramp widened, having to go through permits. Well, he kept asking them about it, and they ended up making it 3 feet wider each way!!! I tell you, that's a good looking driveway ramp!!!

Last of the Mohegans

Got into work today, and Sammy told me that they'd fired Gab's ass. He was the last of five other employees who came to work at this dump when our company was bought out by them in 2000. He was always saying to me "we're the last of the Mohegans!!!!" He came in later, and I heard a quite different story from him, but oh well. He had been getting quite lackadaisical with his work, think it was time. I'm surprised he stayed on that long, he lives way the hell out there, I think around 60 miles or so.

I did as I'd wanted and got those tickets that I desired over the weekend. I've just been feeling ecstatic pretty much ever since!!! I'm SO looking forward to this!!!

It's late. I must play runescape for a bit and go to sleep.

Hey, where's my day off???

I ended up going into work today again. I miss my 3-day weekends when I do that, but it seemed like a pretty good day today anyhow. I went in and wrote a program for this tray tooling that I'll probably be making next week. Only thing is, the coolant in my Fadal needed cleaned out. Its been in there for something like 3 years or more, and it was pretty rancid. That's how I spent the later part of my day. The stuff was pretty nasty, it had a layer of oil on the top, then under that it had what looked like the skin that grows on old pudding, only slightly less appetizing. Gotta do just a little more clean up on Monday morning, then fill it up and I should be good to go.

Picked teams for he regular football season pool the other day. I stayed with my pick from last year, the Steelers. Pennsylvania has been good to me. I don't follow it that close, but I have a general idea who's got a decent team. They already beat the Patriots in pre season play, and I like their schedule for regular season play. If Ben Roethlisberger has a year like last year, I should do well. I hope. Is 2 years in a row asking too much???

Went to school last night, and I'm learning well. Sammy and I didn't want to carpool this time, because he didn't want to end up waiting if he finished earlier. Oh well, it makes for a little quicker trip going home, not that I mind getting home a little later. He's wondering why he's going, I don't think he can picture himself programming or running the CNC. He's doing well in class so far, but I think he's wanting to punk out. I tell him its always good to have extra stuff like that in your resume, even if you don't use it.

They caught "little Reggie", the second gator of which I spoke in my last post. Didn't need the "gator rustlers" that have been trying and failing to capture the big one, just the animal control people put out a net, and then as he worked free from that the fire department snared him with a net off their big ladder. One down, one to go!!!

The Counting Crows are doing a concert with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall near the end of October. I'm considering checking out ticket prices, I'm sure it will be a great show. I can definitely picture a lot of their songs done to orchestral accompaniment!!! I made mention to my firstborn, and he expressed interest in going, too. Only thing, its on a Tuesday night, starting at 8:00. Why do they always do that??? I swear, every time I see them its on a week night!!!

There Goes The Neighborhood!!!

I heard news about the Harbor City gator today for the first time in a couple weeks. As I figured, the wiley gator is still at large (its a good sized lake) but the news is another one has been spotted in a river that feeds into the lake!!! It would appear that we have an infestation!!! Of course, it makes you wonder now, are they breeding in there or what??? As it's often said, must be something in the water!!!

I had not made mention here yet, but I made chili on Monday in my new birthday crock pot. First time I've used it. I opened up the box and checked it out when I first got it, because the box was pretty beat up, but I didn't take it out of the plastic wraps or styrofoam. I was just making sure the lid and pot weren't broken. Well, getting a better look at it, it's all dented up on the outside!!! One of the stamped feet is a little collapsed, pushing up the inside, and the sides are wrinkled on the back. But the stoneware still fits down inside fine, and it works fine. I tell ya, every time I make it it comes out better!!! This is the best chili I've ever made, and I said the same thing last time, too!!! This time was better!!! I think it has a lot to do with cooking it with Heineken Dark beer, it has a great flavor when you drink it, and I think that translates well into the cooking too. I think it's my new favorite beer, I just wish it didn't cost so much. Well, I guess you get what you pay for!!!

Holy Guacamole!!!

I discovered something very cool today. I was out doing some of the constantly required yardwork, and my youngest comes up to me with this dried up seed pod looking thing and asks me what it is. I tell him its a seed pod of some kind. Just a bit after that I found another one, only it was split open, and I could see the seed. Turns out to be an avocado!!! I've known that I had an avocado tree since I moved in, but I thought it needed a fertile branch grafted in so it would produce. This is the first time in the 10 years I've had this house that it's ever produced fruit!!! I picked 9 more. I'm going to have to top and shape it some now, I think. Well, maybe after this season is completely over. It had been cut down in the past, and it's grown a new tree out of the stump of the old one, so maybe it was just still getting over the trauma of having been cut down. My wife had just been saying how she wished we had an avocado tree that produced, and I was saying I think ours needs fertilized. Anyway, I see guacamole in my future!!!

Speaking of yardwork, I found the receipt for that piece of shit Toro weed eater last week. (if your not familiar, you can click here to read about it) I didn't think I had saved it. Just for kicks, I took it back to home depot to get my money back, already thinking I'd be wasting my time. After standing in line for too long I got my turn. I put it on the counter, and I swear, the bubblehead chick running the return desk looks at the 4 or 5 pieces and then at me, and asks me, "what's wrong with it???" I was nearly speechless!!! She had to call a rep from the garden area, who wouldn't OK the return, so I had to talk to a manager, who also wouldn't OK a return. It would have been OK with them if I'd exchanged it for the same one.... ummm, I don't think I'd take one of those pieces of shit if you gave it to me free!!! Of course, I might could get that and return it in a couple weeks.... I do have intentions of making a pain in the ass of myself over it, at my convince, of course. I knew I had to share all that with you when it happened!!!

Has Anyone Else Made This Connection???

All the talk and images about Hurricane Katrina keeps triggering one of those thought-association thingys with me. Does anyone else remember the one-hit wonder "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves???

The hurricane has spawned an amazing amount of people saying idiotic things along with all the misery and destruction. One of the most off the wall comments was one I heard from a pastor at one of the AME churches, where they were having a rally about the "police brutality" suffered by Tony Muhammad of the nation of islam. I wish I knew who said it so it could be properly credited here. The pastor was asking if anyone had made the connection that the hurricane had a sista's name, and it occurred 50 years after the lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi. He pretty much said that it was the spirits of all the mothers of slain black youth come to wreak vengeance. Yea, sure, that's it!!! That's why it only caused death and destruction of whitey and his property, huh???

Another prime example was by New Orleans Mayor Ray C Nagin, who, during an otherwise very lucid speech on CNN, was talking about the looting and lawlessness. He claimed that it was being committed by "a very small majority". Point taken, but hey, Mr. Mayor, contradiction in terms!!!

OK, now that I've shared some stupidity for your entertainment, CLICK HERE TO DONATE!!!

What Part of "Crush" Don't You Understand???

I was at work until 9:30 last night getting a job ready to go. Two of the items on the run were new ones, that have an opening cut into the tops of them, for a distributor who our salesman calls "the Mister Magoo of packaging" LOL!!! Anyway, I'd told 'em from the beginning that we don't do that type of thing on this type of run, and the response I kept getting was "just run it, we'll "crush cut" the opening into it. I (and Sammy and Rafael) both keep contending its going to look like shit if you try that.
Anyway, when I finally got in to work this morning (8:20 instead of six, anyway) the first thing I hear is the plant manager saying they couldn't run the job because its crushing the parts, and it looks like shit!!! ROLLEN' MY FUCKIN' EYES!!! Actually, when he started I was telling him "let me guess, its looks like shit?" Long story short, we end up blowing more than half the day messing around with it and getting the machine going. Glad I get paid by the hour!!! Oh yea, I talked to the salesman who was the one who said to crush cut it to begin with, and he acted like he'd never heard of the project!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Actually, unfortunately, all too believable.

I'd just typed a big old paragraph on how my sister (middle child, myself being youngest) is now officially homeless, and the damned spellcheck just kinda ate it!!! Damned thing. Anyway, here's the short version cuz I aint typing all that again. My parents bought her a mobile home and she got evicted from the place it was on for hanging around the wrong people or some damned thing. My mom gave her $2000 to find a new place and she and her boyfriend pissed it away. My mom has been trying to help her for about as long as I can remember, and I think she's about at the end. At what point does it stop being helping and become enabling??? Its got to be hard being a parent in a situation like that. My heart goes out to the both of them.

And Home Again!!!

Back from San Diego!!! Vacations are nice, but its also nice to be back home when they're over. It was a good little weekend. The drive down there was kinda rough, but we made it there OK. After getting our stuff moved in we went to Silver Strand State Beach. It was already pretty far on in the afternoon, but it was cool. Nice beach, very fine sand and no rocks, and very flat going out into the water. The surf was very light, but there were still guys out there with their surf and boogie boards!!! The older went out pretty far several times, while the younger played in the sand with me quite a bit.

The next day we went to Sea World after breakfast, and stayed there all day!!! Me and the older went on the Atlantis water coaster, a smallish coaster, but fairly innovative. It has an elevator that the boats go up in at one point, very unexpected. They have a great penguin exhibit. Got to see the dolphin show, and get right down in the front row for the Shamu show. Not the best for viewing, but we did manage to get soaked, which was the main purpose behind sitting there. That brings me to another point I wanted to make mention of, on both the Atlantis coaster and the Shamu show, there was a group of black people, and they put on ponchos before!!! I don't get it, why would you sit in the "splash zone" and do something like that??? To me, its like taking an umbrella into the shower!!! Anyway, we stayed until 10:00 when they did the firework show. The poor younger one was so tired he would hardly stop crying the whole time we were going out into the parking lot. He had such a fun time though!!! I'm glad we got to go.

The main reason I didn't go down there on Friday and come back Monday was I had a physical therapy session scheduled that afternoon, but then I went and completely forgot about it!!! I did the same thing last Friday too!!! Guess I can't have an appointment in the afternoon and expect to make it!!!

On Saturday morning before we left, I went ahead and shaved my head down to skin. I've been wanting to do that for a while. It doesn't feel exactly like I thought it was going to. I think I've gotten that out of my system now, it took a lot of work to do, and it'll be a lot to maintain. Just had to try it, though!!! I think it would look pretty good, if my scalp were to get tanned so it matched everything else up there!!!

Back to School

Today was my first day back at school, Fullerton College. There were hardly any people in the beginning class, and a good amount in the advanced class. I wasn't sure how it was going to go for me, because I haven't been able to log in online. Primarily because I forgot my password, and every time I attempted to do a recovery it was not sent, even though they said it was. I went to admissions, and they had a bank of computers there to register on. Amazement of amazements, I finally remembered my password!!! Got signed up and turned in my application. Back in the classroom, I checked my E-mail and had the confirmation there. OK, great, now to sign up for my class. Went to log on to do that, and it can use either your student ID number (from last year) or your SSN, and use your birthdate as the password. I tried both, and neither would work. Tried using my old password, and that didn't work either. After three tries, I wouldn't let me try again. Grrrrrr..... The instructor gave us our first project, and I got the main part drawn, but I wasn't able to save it because I wasn't logged on. Oh well.

Got home and played a little RuneScape, finished off the dragon slayer quest. I've been working on it for the last three nights. Now I've only got one free play quest left... with my primary character anyway. I'm getting a membership for my firstborn, and may end up getting one for myself, too.

Saturday we're leaving for a little road trip vacation down to San Diego. I put in a request for a vacation day Monday a couple weeks ago, and haven't heard a thing about it. I hope they haven't forgotten, but I have a feeling that they probably have. Typical of my work. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it!!!

The News at 10

Well, here it is Wednesday night and I haven't blogged since Sunday... Here's some of the high points of my last few days:

Monday I managed to get two jobs programmed and ran on my Fadal CNC machine. I feel confident enough to claim it as my own now!!!

Yesterday I had an appointment with my doctor after therapy on my finger. I waited three freakin' hours for the doctor to see me!!! I think that's the last straw, I'm firing her ass. I need to get a doctor who works Fridays so I don't have to be missing work to go there. I hadn't eaten all day, so when I got out of there I went straight home and had some lunch, and it was 2:45 by the time I was done. I shined on going into work, I aint going to be there until 2 A.M. and have to come in the next day at 6, no no!!! Because of that, I did have time to watch a video I'd rented over the weekend and hadn't watched yet. "How to Kill Your Neigbor's Dog" it's called, and it was in the comedy section. I didn't find it that funny. Not enough dog killing for my tastes I suppose.

My eldest son got the results from his standardized tests in the mail the other day. Either the test sets its sights really low, or he's quite sharp. Four 100%'s, and the lowest he had was 80% on statistics, data analysis and probability.

While I was at the doctors yesterday, a guy was next door cutting overgrowth back, and he asked my wife if she wanted him to cut back some of ours too. Of course she said yes, and he did quite a bit!!! I said, "he did all that and you didn't offer him a drink or some pussy or anything???" LOL!!!

Sounds bad, butt its true...

Something I failed to mention in my previous post, its going to sound bad after going out for a "boys night out", but MY ASS IS SORE!!! LMAO!!! Those go-carts have no padding on the seat areas. Talked to Sammy today, and he said he feels like he's got an indian burn on the top of his ass crack!!! And I'm bruised on the middle of my spine, both my shoulder blades, upper arm and the inside of my knee!!! But mostly my upper ass crack.

Went down to my parent's house today, they bought my whole family lunch at this burger joint, Paul's Place. It has a large covered patio with lots of plants for a dining area, and they serve very generous portions. I had a carne asada taco salad, and could only eat about half of it. Got back to their house and skinned my boys and my own head again, probably for the last time this summer. Then we went swimming. Oh yea, I also shaved off my mustache this morning. (how you like that, Lilly??? Look a bit less satanic??? LOL) Check my new look out here!!! Actually looks alot like my nephew did last time I saw him, I think. Wonder if he still looks the same, I haven't seen him in too long.

Speed, Heavy Balls and Live Music

As promised, my good friend Sammy took me out last night for a boys night out. We started out by going to a go-cart track in Carson near the Goodyear blimp airport that I've seen forever but had never been to. It was fairly awesome, we had a lot of fun. The carts could have been more powerful, and in better repair, but it was great. There's an oval slick track, a turbo track, bumper carts, and a big track (super track, I think they called it). We got 90 minute wristbands, but they let us go on one after they'd expired. We ended up going on 7 different races, and kept it pretty even. Going into the last one we were 3 and 3, and I won the last one, but it wasn't really a clean win so I didn't want to claim it. Kept us even too!!! After that we went back to his house, and I was hearing live music being played, and it sounded pretty good. We discussed going and finding where it was coming from, but we wanted to hit a bowling alley too, and it was getting late. (The go-carting was planned, but the bowling was spontaneous, even tho we'd discussed going bowling sometime) We went and bowled 2 games, which I took him both games, which kind of surprised me. Neither of the games was real high scoring for me, but he was showing me technique, so I wasn't playing my usual game. Of course, we'd both had some to drink. I don't even remember the scores, but I was at 99 going into the 10th frame where I spared, then got 6 or 7 more. What does that make, 115 or something??? They were closing soon, but we stopped in the bar and listened to part of one karoke song. Sammy had told me about how it was all black people in there when he'd gotten beers for us and was saying I should go in and sing something. I said, "yea, but what would I sing??? I know, I'll do Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side"!!! You know, I'd be singing, "and the colored girls go...." LMAO!!! Got back to his place again, around 1:30 or 2 maybe, and the live music is still going on, so we decided to go check it out. It was coming from the church across the street. I said, "its gotta be Methodists, because Baptists don't swing like that!!!" I figured it was going to be a youth dance or something. There were 4 guys at a table outside and we asked if we could go in. They said sure, and we went in. Turns out it was just the 5 guys in the band playing up on the stage in a little gymnasium. We listened for a while, then Sammy was saying that the electric guitarist wasn't that tight with the rest of them, I should go up and tell them I'm an agent from North Hollywood and I have a guy with a Les Paul who they should try out, etc. I could not do it with a straight face. We went up and talked to them some, and Sammy was critiquing them and giving 'em pointers and stuff. There was no one running their board, so I went up into the loft and was tweaking the settings, Sammy was directing me by waving his arms around and such. They improved significantly. Sammy has a much better ear for such things than me. He got up there and played on the drums a little, and the electric guitar some. It was pretty amusing, we did tell them we were with Star Enterprise records. Ended up not getting home until around 3:30, which threw off my day and explains why I'm blogging at 2 in the morning!!!

Happy Belated Birthday, Madonna!!!

I had forgotten that Madonna has her birthday on the same day as mine, although she's ten years older. I heard this morning about her horse accident yesterday. First thing I thought when I heard about it: I wonder if it was a "horse accident" of the sort that Catherine the Great supposedly died from??? Ah, why do I always go to the lowest common denominator???

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I had a pretty good birthday today... Considering I had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon this morning and ended up being at work until 8:45 to make up my hours. What made it good, really, was that all the people who are important in my life remembered and acknowleged it, for a change!!! Not that its a huge deal to me if its forgotten, but its always nice, ya know. The plus side to having to go to the doctor this morning, I was able to make it to Fry's Electronics before it, and pick up a 6-quart crock pot they had on sale for $15.99. My 4-quart one got broken a while ago, so now its replaced. Happy Birthday to me!!!

A few interesting things in the news I've noticed the last couple days. In the park I go by about a half mile from my work, there's what they thought was a cayman in the lake. Now they're saying its a gator. They're not usually indigenous to these parts. People had been feeding it tortillas and french bread. Another story on the front page yesterday was how the abortion pill has caused five deaths. My thought when I read it: Isn't that what its susposed to do??? Irony at its finest. The third thing I saw in the paper today, not a story but a print ad. The headline was something to the effect of "if you don't watch it, your T.V. will suck" referring to cable or whatever costing you money. My thought: If you do watch it, it will likely suck anyway!!!

Back on the right foot

I had a pretty bad day yesterday. Should have known not to go into work on Friday, one of my normal days off, it started my whole weekend off on the wrong foot!!! Tried to go to the bank, and they were just barely closed when I got there. Drove to the AAA to renew my tags (already late!!!) and they were closed. Took my wife to the beauty supply to get her some hair dye, and they didn't have her color. I'd parked in the lot across from the beauty supply store, and the rent-a-cop was on my case about not parking there (even though the lot was half empty at that end) and I'm going to have to move my car. I sent my wife across the street to the store and got in the car and began circling the aisle that I'd been parked on. I think that pissed the piece of shit guard off, he starting saying into his walkie talkie to call the police, loudly, every time I was circling by, and one of his asshole co-workers came over on the other end and was watching me going around and around. That part was actually pretty enjoyable, messing with the scary rent-a-cops!!! Anyway, after a pretty much bust of a trip out I came home and started cutting the lawn. Got about 3/4 of the way through, and the mower started bogging down, then quit altogether. I took it apart, and one of the brushes was out of place, and the magnet had a little piece broken off. I fixed it up, but one of the contacts to the windings was completely gone, and, while it worked, it was shooting off large sparks and no doubt knocking the remains of the brushes to pieces. Fortunately, I was able to finish off with my weed eater.

Today I found an ad in the paper for a camera phone at a decent price. Showed it to my wife, and she elected to get it for me for my birthday in two days!!! I'm looking forward to that, but I'm going to miss the flashlight that's built into my current phone. I used that a lot more than I would have thought. Took my firstborn to my parents house, they're taking him to family camp this week. Then we went over to my good friend Sammy's place. He'd bought a DVD burner, and it wasn't working exactly right (well, actually not at all). I checked it out, and apparently it was just a couple of the pins on the main plug got bent funny. Straightened them out and it worked fine. He grilled up some steaks (HUGE steaks) and green tomato salad and onions and mushrooms. Mmmmmmmmm!!! Then we played video games for a while. A much better day today!!! Hope this trend continues the rest of the week!!!

Not Another Blog!!!

I signed up last night for MySpace. I haven't done much to it yet, but saw it had a blog spot on it, too!!! Just what I needed, another page to update!!! I was thinking I could just put the same thing on both of 'em, cuz I have neither the time or inclination to maintain two separate blogs!!! If you're checking this on MySpace, you can check my other one here at Blogspot. OK, now I'm linked :Þ

Updated my Wallpaper page this morning.There's another for me to maintain!!!

I ended up going into work yesterday, unusual for me. Thursday evening I modified my first CNC program and started in on machining some castings, and finished 'em up yesterday morning. I tried to write a program do drill a bunch of holes, but something didn't work out the way I'd planned, so I had a day of frustration. Guess that's to be expected when you're trying to learn something new. Had therapy on my hand in the afternoon, or I probably would have been there all day trying to get it right.

Still Here

Its been a long time since I've posted (for me, anyway). I wrote my first CNC program on the machine last Tuesday!!! It came out good. I modified the program today, cleaned it up some.

Last weekend I went camping with my dad, firstborn, and my nephew (the ADHD poster chile, I swear!!!) at Lake O'Neill on the Camp Pendleton Marine base. It was pretty cool. Friday we went to the theatre on the base and saw Herbie Fully Loaded. It was predictable. Lindsay Lohan was about the best thing in there, although I don't think you ever saw her face and her skateboard moving in the same frame. Saturday we went to Legoland ALL DAY!!! I always enjoy that place. They have a new dinosaur coaster and a ride called the Knight's Tournament, that basically is a robotic arm like they make cars with with a seat on the end. Its cool, you can choose your intensity. Sunday we went out on the lake and went mini golfing.

So that's what's new with me!!!