Stuff

"Grab your bowl of peanuts and follow me."

That was on the back of the t-shirts of a few of the wait staff at Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse in Federal Way. Sue and I decided to head up there on Friday at my suggestion. It seems that my neighbor, Gayle, had been there a few nights prior and it's one of her family's favorite hang-outs. What makes it good? Well, it's interesting to go to a place that has peanut shells littering the floor, that's one thing. We went there during happy hour, and for dinner treated ourselves to 3 different appetizers all at one time. Good stuff! Ditto for the Armadillo Ale (their own brand) that we both drank. It seemed like a great atmosphere too--Not too crowded and not too noisy, but definitely laid-back. Will we go back? Most definitely.

Okay, there's my shameless plug for this blog.

No wait--I should probably mention the place next door to them in the parking lot. The funny thing is that I had just read about this place in an online local newspaper that very morning, and without knowing their address (they only have one location) was very surprised to find them right there next to Jimmy Mac's. The place is called 99 Bottles, and it's a retail beer store. Seriously, this place has every beer/ale/etc under the sun--Truly a place for suds connoisseurs. If you're a beer drinker, you owe yourself a visit. You never know--You may find something there that you've been looking for.

There. No more plugs in this blog. Promise.

In other news, I got my Dell Axim PDA working again. I tore into it again with a little more determination, and tore it a little further apart than I did before. Apparently it had a loose connection inside, because upon reassembly it again works fine. The (insert correct word here) thing is that I have decided to sell it. It's now up for sale on Craigslist. I won't get my hopes up though because they're not a fast-moving item these days. I may have to use Ebay. I think I'm going to replace it with an Apple iTouch like I bought Sarah for Christmas. They are a very cool toy... I mean gadget... I mean tool. Yeah, let's go with tool.

I moved all the steel up to Sue's house this weekend, along with my welder and a few assorted clamps and assembly aids. I intend to get them all assembled this coming weekend. I have been looking on Craigslist for a few weeks for someone selling 3/4" plywood for cheap--Used or not--To use on the shelving. Imagine my surprise when it was right under our noses the whole time! It seems that her son Denny--A concrete man--had several sheets of concrete form-grade plywood standing alongside his garage and wanted it out of there. This is the stuff that has a layer of something on the outside that resembles Formica. It is the ultimate for shelving and it was free to boot. Nice! The good thing is that he has quite a bit more than we need for this project and he'll let us have as much as we want. He wants it all outta there.

Work = Busy. Things have slowed a little at work as far as the regular flow of orders and business, but have not slowed in other ways. We are right in the middle of phasing in our completely new computer system, and it seems that I am in the thick of it. That's good in these slow times. Lots of people can't even find work and I'm facing an increase in my workload. I have to say--The brothers LaCroix timed their implementation perfectly. I would hate for this to be taking place when business was moving along at a balls-out pace.

There is one thing that I can't believe I haven't mentioned yet. Sue presented me with a very cool gift last week: A blown-up artsy picture of Sarah! It's one of a series of pictures that we took of Sarah last October for a school project. Here's what the picture looked like in its original form:


I think that's the one she used but I'm not sure because I'm not looking at it right now. Anyway, she treated it with some computer tweaking that made it look like an oil painting and had it printed up at poster size. A very cool present. Thanks Suzie!

Okay, that's enough for now. Let's all go to work.

Sometimes Things "Click"

...And sometimes they don't.

This is the time of year that Sarah plays tennis after school. This is also the time of year that weather is at its most unpredictable. I got a text from her before I left work: NO TENNIS. That was no surprise--After all, it was pouring rain. Right afterward I called home to check my land-line phone messages. As I thought, there was a message from the local Red Wing shoe store I stopped a few days ago saying that my new boots were in. After work I stopped off and picked them up. I mentioned to the guy there that I needed to figure out where I could get my old ones fixed, and pointed to the area on one of them where the stitching was coming undone.
"Leave em here and we'll have them stitched up for you--No charge." he said.
Cool! To add to that, the gal that rang up my purchase took 15% off because they didn't have my size in stock when I stopped by there two days prior and placed the order. I left my old ones in their hands and wore my new shoes out. That part "clicked" pretty well I'd say.

After I got home I immediately started working in my garage. I had all those pieces of steel that I had cut up at Suzie's house last weekend and I needed to do some more work on them. Time ran away from me. Before long it was 6:30. I was finished and still no Suzie. "Hmm," I thought, "I wonder if I screwed up again." I was in the process of dialing her number when I got a text from her on my cell: "Are you alive?" she wondered. Well, it turns out that I did indeed screw up. I was supposed to tell her if there was tennis or not and neglected to do so. Bad Rick... Baaaddd... I called her and we talked a bit. She had already decided she wasn't coming down by that time. Obviously that part didn't "click." The part that did was that I got all the pieces all drilled up and ready for assembly (welding). Still, I would have rather have gotten to see her.

We were out at a local sports bar several weeks ago eating dinner and we were handed 5 tickets by the waitress. She said, "We're having a drawing on March 25th at 7:30, so hang on to these--They might be worth $1,000. You need to be present for the drawing." Well, tonight was that drawing and we were going to go down there and see if we won. You never know right? Well, that part didn't click. I decided I would go ahead and go down myself just to witness the drawing. By that time it was 7:20. I was just about to leave and I was getting my stuff together when the phone rang.

It was my brother, Don, calling from Georgia, congratulating me and Suz on our engagement. He and his wife totally loved Suzie's work on the invitation. All the time Don and I were talking I kept hearing her holler in the background, "I want to know about his girlfriend." I gave Don the link to my blog so he might have a chance at staying in touch with things around here. Neither of us are any good at calling each other. After all, I never even called him to tell him I was getting married... How's that for brotherly love? Oh well... At least I was home to take his call. That part definitely clicked.

As to the $1,000 drawing? Hell, I never would have won anyway...

It's Been a Long Time

Sometimes that's the case. For whatever reason, I don't feel like blogging anything. Some days I felt lethargic, some days I didn't have any time to sit down and write, and others I didn't feel I had anything to say. Some days I did have something to report, but it was insignificant enough that I didn't feel strongly about it I guess. I had some spare time last weekend but instead spent it trying out Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista on another drive in my computer--Kind of a test of sorts. I can recall at least once when I was going to blog and was just about to start when something came up and I had to switch gears.

Okay, enough with the excuses.

Suzie got wedding invitations sent out way back about the time of my last blog post. She spent a lot of time and effort working on them to make them appear like some sort of medieval parchment. Everybody loved them! She is having so much fun with this wedding. I probably should stop calling it a wedding--It's sometimes seems like it's more like a party--But no, it's first and foremost our wedding.

My granddaughter Emma had her 4th birthday this last week. I wish I could have been there, but alas, it's a bit far away to be popping in for birthdays. This coming Friday is her brother Ethan's first birthday! I'm sure that will be a special event--The first ones usually are pretty fun because the kids have no idea why there is so much sensory overload going on in the form of people, colors, sounds, and tastes. They just know it's fun and exciting, whatever it is!

Sarah started tennis again this last week. As usual, it's a crap shoot as to whether or no they will ever hold their match until the last minute because of our weather patterns. Out of 4 days they tried to play this last week, they succeeded in actually playing on one day. That was good actually, because I had a lot going on this last week.

One of the things I had going this week was buying some steel for shelving in Sue's (no wait--our) garage to replace her existing rickety wall shelving with solid, welded steel & plywood shelving. After getting quotes from a few of our suppliers at work, I commenced to fret and worry about how I was going to transport them. Although they would probably all cut steel to any length I wanted, I was pretty sure they would charge extra for it, and I was trying to keep the costs down in this project. The reason I was worrying about transporting was because steel is sold in 20-foot sections. To put it in perspective, my pickup truck is 17 feet long, bumper to bumper. So how was I going to pull that off? As usual, my mind went into overdrive and made a mountain out of a molehill. I spent a week searching for lumber racks, ladder racks, or anything else you call those big racks that bolt to the sides of your truck bed and extend over the cab. Having no luck, I then started investigating creative ways to mount a bundle of 1.5" steel angle (only 8 pieces, but they weighed 200 lbs.) along the side of my truck. I racked my brain. With input from several people, my own ideas, and tips from the web, I gave up. I decided I needed to stop farting around and just order the damn steel. I needed to get this thing going. I went ahead a placed the order on Wednesday, deciding that I would just arm myself with some new hacksaw blades and cut it myself on the spot. Friday I picked up the steel. It was a great deal at only $14 per 20-foot section of 1.5" x 1.5" angle! (Yeah, yeah--I love to tout my good deals...) Because the supplier was near my work, I took my truck to work, equipped with everything I would need. Sue met me nearby to help me with it. When I drove up to pick the stuff up, I asked the guy in the office if I could just drag it outside out of their way and cut it for transport. He says, "We can cut if for you, no problem." All that worrying for nothing! We drove the truck into the building and stopped. It's a huge, huge place. It has all kinds of overhead cranes to move everything around, and it's designed with drive-through loading big enough for side-by-side semi trucks, two deep if they wanted. That was a good thing too, because while we inside waiting for the guy to cut them, the rain and wind let loose once again. We would have been soaked to the skin I'm sure.

Yesterday was an interesting day. While Sue and I were still in our robes and drinking coffee here at my house, my mom stopped by and told us about a garage sale in town. Apparently, the woman holding the sale had a small production company that put on plays at our local acting theater here in town and she was selling all her costumes and outfits. My mom said my dad had even outfitted himself with some sort of costume that he is going to wear to our wedding, complete with hat! Sue and I were practically floored--My dad is taking part in the festivities and even looking forward to it! Like I told her, even adults like to play dress-up--We just need an excuse to do it, right?

Anyway, the lady at the sale had a ton of cool stuff, although not a lot of it was the right size or period. Sue bought a couple of small things that I don't remember, and I bought a really cool wooden instrument for $5. It's apparently a mandolin, based on what Suzie and I have seen on the web. It looks like a lute, but it doesn't have the "folded back" tuning board that they show in internet pictures. It's pretty beat and has no strings on it, but it's still a very cool prop or decoration. I could carry it at the Renaissance Faire this summer and be like a wandering minstrel or something. Here's a couple of pictures that Suzie took for me:



From there we went to Sue's house where I spent much of the afternoon cutting the steel with my metal chop saw and deburring it. I ended cutting the lengths into about 60 pieces, then cut the end of each one to 45° for safety reasons. (They would be the protruding edge of the shelf that you would have a tendency to boink into with head or hand.) That was tedious and noisy, but it went well. I had my hearing protection on and had a nice working platform set up so I didn't have to bend over. Beer too of course (duh). It was a pleasant day, weather-wise. I also got a bunch of light tubes changed in her ceiling fixtures so we could actually see in there. They have been out or flickering for as long as I've known her. I was actually getting used to not being able to see anything in there unless the door was open... We finished the day with a pleasant evening at Denny's house up the street, followed by a nice, relaxing soak in the hot tub staring at the stars.

It was a good day for sure.

Working Together

Sue made an interesting comment yesterday. It came during the process of the new stove installation.

See, Suzie is the kind of person that won't wait for her significant other to do something if she can do it herself. It's something she has learned over the years of her previous marriages. It became clear to her quite a while back that if she wanted something done she'd better do it herself, or be very patient. Through years of learning and doing all matter of things herself, she has become a very capable person--Able to do anything she sets her mind to.

So back to the stove installation.

Naturally, with the new stove (she keeps calling it my stove) sitting in her dining room staring at her and plenty of time on her hands she wasn't about to let that project go untried. We brainstormed a bit the day I helped her bring the stove home, tossing ideas about what would need to be done. The old stove had cabinetry that needed to be cut all the way down to meet the floor, and the opening on the counter top that the stove slides into also needed to be opened up bigger.

It didn't surprise me one bit on Monday when I got home from work and saw her email. She had already pulled the old one out, enlarged the counter top opening to fit it, and was sending me pictures of the electrical connectors that we needed to buy to complete the install. Nope, very thorough. I had no doubt as to what to get when I went over to Lowe's before heading up to her house. When I got there and found out how much she had done and how well she had done it, I was very impressed. I jumped in at that point, but the brainstorming between us didn't stop. We had to try a few ideas and methods before I was finally able to get the lower part trimmed down to the floor. After the electrical changover, we plugged the stove in and attempted to slide it in a couple times, but found that there was one board still interfering along the back. At that point, however, we were finished for the day. She opted instead to just leave it where it was until the following day when she would trim the offending board out of the way. We spent the rest of the time playing with the stove and marveling at how cool it was.

During the time I was there she showed me her bandaged finger, noting that she had cut herself during her work, and didn't notice it until she had blood spots all over her pants. It wasn't long after that I started seeing blood while I was working too, and like her didn't notice I had wounded myself. While I was working, we talked about the blood on the pants and how to get it out. Because I had hydrogen peroxide and she didn't, she sent me home with them when I left. As I was leaving she noted, "We worked pretty well together on that didn't we?" Because we are both very opinionated and have our own way of doing things, it's easy to be offended at suggestions from the other, and we are both trying to be aware of that fact.

She had Keith put a new radiator hose on her car yesterday as well. She could have done it of course, but she wanted him to have something to do. Because she had been using my car while hers was out of commission she had to come down here yesterday to take me to get it. After I fed her and we got all set to go, she picked up the newly blood-free pants and made the comment I mentioned.

Ah yes, the comment--You thought I forgot about that didn't you?

I don't remember it verbatim, but I'll pretend to quote it: "We're quite a capable pair aren't we? I can install stoves and you can get the blood out of my clothes." We both thought it was pretty good. She called us both "multi-capable" people.

We're also apparently both bleeders.

The Sunday Morning Report

I'm not sure if I love or hate daylight savings time. Actually, I don't think love falls into it anywhere at all. I know that I hate changing either to or from daylight savings time. I hate what it does to our circadian rhythm. It takes days if not weeks for us to get used to it. I do, however, like the fact that it stays light longer in the evening. We tend to get more done when it's not dark outside, whether we're actually doing outside activities or not.

I think I'm still going to vote against it. While I don't hate it, it's fair to say that I dislike it a lot.

There are a couple negatives to report today, both of which are in the vehicle department. Suzie had her car take a dump on her a few days ago. She was almost certain that the engine had breathed its last gasp. It has been a bit of an oil leaker, and while she was out and about one day it started squealing and getting hot. She thought for sure she had killed it by running it too low on oil. I was skeptical based on her description of the events, but didn't get to actually check into it until yesterday. Instead, I lent her my truck and let her drive that a few days. Yesterday we found (much to her delight) that it was just a blown upper radiator hose. What deceived her was the fact that it the escaping steam and noise was being directed down the backside of the engine instead of where you could see it. Now we just have to find a replacement hose, and as we've already found, that's not going to be as easy as it should be. We'll get it though.

The other victim? My truck. I don't know what it is--I'm sure it's minor--But it acted up all at once yesterday. It was acting like it had no fuel and was refusing to run unless you kept the gas pedal pushed a certain amount. That meant that when you came up to a stop you had to push on the brake and the gas to keep it from dying. I'm sure it's an easy fix. Probably some crap in the carburetor. The bummer is that it happened when we were actually needing it yesterday, which takes me to the next newsworthy event.

Suzie bought a new stove for her kitchen. Talk about a killer deal: A guy was emptying his condo to move to New Zealand (where he's from) and had to move things quickly. He first tickled her interest by putting it up for sale on Craigslist, which is where she first saw it. When she contacted him, he told her about it and mentioned that he had put it up for sale on Ebay as well. It suffices to say that not many people buy ranges on Ebay. Because of their size and weight, they have to be "local pickup only" or it would cost you a small fortune. To make a long story short, she was the sole bidder and "stole" it for $245! It's a 1 year-old Maytag drop-in with a smooth white glass cook top. It's very deluxe, and from what we've seen on the web, they're going for anywhere from $1200 to $1500. We had to drive to Issaquah to pick it up from his storage unit yesterday, which is exactly when my truck started acting up. Oh well... We got it home and all is well.

I sent Suzie home in my car last night with the hopes that I could get my truck squared away today and find her a replacement radiator hose. I dunno though--It snowed again last night. While it didn't snow that much, it's taking its sweet time melting, so it's obviously still pretty cold out there. Oh well... You gotta do what you gotta do...

In other news, I gave my laptop a new lease on life. It had something going very wrong with the palm rest. That's what they call the whole of top of it where you rest your hands while you're typing. It also contains the touchpad. Something on mine was going bad, and you had to be very cognizant of where your cursor was when you were typing because the slightest pressure in the wrong place would send the cursor somewhere else on screen while you were typing. You could (and would) screw up your document considerably. Because it's a Dell, parts are available all over Ebay, and I bought a brand new palm rest (the complete top with the touchpad in it) for $15. Killer! It took me less than a half hour to strip the whole laptop down to replace it. I was aided by the fact that Dell has manuals for disassembly you can download. I didn't have to wonder at all about the order of disassembly, how to get a certain piece of trim off, or anything else. It went very smoothly, and now the laptop behaves as it should.

Oh crap... I just looked outside and it's snowing again...

Stoners in the News

Have you noticed that every person they bust over anything drug related looks the part? They look like they're the one of the most brain-dead people on the face of the earth.

Do you think they're actually genetically engineered at birth to look stoned? It's possible that kindergarten teachers know before anyone else that they haven't got a chance in life. I can see them now, clicking their tongue and shaking their heads at the poor kids that have "loser" written all over them.

It's possible that only the finest stoned-looking people make the cut. Perhaps only the people that have genuine human loser interest in their mug shots are published. Maybe it's all up to the AP news or the papers to see which ones make the losers' greatest hits.

Maybe they all go to Stoner's Hair Salon?

Here's today's winner--Arrested for putting his girlfriends cat into a homemade box/bong contraption:

"I know for sure this isn't the first time someone has done this," he said. "I'm just the first one to get caught." He said he put the cat in the bong a total of three times and it seemed to calm the cat.

You think?

"Every time we took her out she would pretty much just lay down and proceed to clean herself and act like a stoned person," he said.

Well, thanks for being newsworthy dude... Someone had to do it...