Dog-sitting
No, I’m not that cruel and keeping two dogs in a tiny kennel. I’m watching Andrea’s sister’s dog while they all head up to Wisconsin for a family renunion. Their weiner dog is named “Snoopy” and man is this dog a spaz! I got the above picture after I was telling Daisy to go to bed, and Snoopy just followed her right in there! Ha ha.
He’s not a bad dog, just the two of them get up to no good. Not destructive mischeif by any means, but they like to wrestle, growl at each other, and if one barks, so does the other one. I’m definetly a one dog guy!
Still looks alright.
Well I got all the wheel covers shined up last week. But I’ve been playing “collect the parts” to get one of my rear brakes fixed. I tell ya it’s been a learning experience, but now I’m finally VERY familiar with how these rear disc brakes operate. I THINK I’m good to go now. ha ha
So since I finally got the covers back on the wheels, I figured I’d snap a few pictures while the car is all clean!
Purely for nostalgia.
Well I’ve been wanting to build a nostalgia machine for a while. I don’t really have all the pieces I need, so I created a virtual install of Windows 98. (I wanted to install Windows 95, but I couldn’t find an install disc anywhere!) It’s not QUITE the same. I mean with the LCD monitor and the laser mouse and all. Nothing really is ever going to bring back the experience of chatting in ICQ or the Excite chat rooms. Or seeing “This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 4. 600×800 resolution.” Those days are long lost, left only to my somewhat blurry memory.
The Wayback Machine has been helpful to some extent, but I wish there was a way to route all traffic through archived sites. That sounds like more work than I’m willing to put forth.
Sweet! I can get 40 free hours of AOL!
It has been fairly nostalgic though flipping through all the old built in wallpaper patterns. Enjoying the retro screen savers like 3-D maze, and 3-D pipes. If it was 3-D it was friggin’ awesome! I might have to install my copy of Unreal Tournament to really relive the experience. Software rendering FTW!
06.16.09Another night of shining up old stuff.
I have had the hubcaps off my car for a couple days, doing some work on the brakes and trouble shooting a squeak I had coming from one of my wheels. Turns out it was one of the hubcaps, so since I had them all off, I decided I might as well take ’em apart and clean ’em up. And (hopefully) when I put them back together, everything will be nice and tight, and the squeak will be gone!
They look kinda intimidating, but they aren’t too complicated.
There's five small screws on the backside that hold the center piece on.
Once the center piece is off, you can get to all the spokes. They simply pull out, although some are more stubborn than others!
Once the outer spokes are removed, you can remove the inner cover.
And now you can get to the bottom spokes. They also just pull straight out.
Now all the parts are ready to be polished!
You can either try to straighten any bent spokes, or in my case I had a spare wheel cover I used for parts.
When you've polished everything. (Brasso is fantastic!) Put it all back together. Might have to used an assembled one for reference. Can you tell which one has been shined up? Ha ha!
One year!
So we made it one year. Today’s been a great day. I told Andrea last night that if she made it to midnite, I’d let her have her present since it’s technically our anniversary then. Hehe. We are so terrible at delayed gratification. I got her a little 24k while gold necklace. It’s a cross pendant with a little dove engraved on it. I thought it was cute and she says she likes it. I know the girl needs some more diamonds, but I just couldn’t spring for that yet. So I made her the promise that every year, she’ll get something better than the year before. (This could be my undo-ing!)
I guess tradition states that you keep the top of your cake in the freezer and chow down on your first anniversary. Besides that sounding really gross… We figured since we got married at a vinyard we’d save a bottle of wine and open that instead. They say wine is supposed to get better with age… well I dunno about this one. I mean, it doesn’t taste awful, but I’d swear it tasted better a year ago. Kinda has a funny whang and a good bite to it now. Now in Windswept’s defense I’m certian we didn’t store our wine appropriately, you know cool and dark. Ours was just on a shelf in the kitchen for a year. But still it was nice to open the bottle just because of what it represents.
So here’s looking forward to the next year!
The Poker Den
Well another project tackled (for the most part). I’ve been wanting to turn our unfinished into a little hangout spot. I’m liking how it’s shaping up so far, but I need some more quirky junk to decorate with. I need to hit up some estate auctions or something for all sorts of weird stuff. We scored a brand new folding poker table off of amazon.com for a reasonable price. It’s more sturdy than your average folding table and I was pretty impressed with the quality for as little as it cost.
I didn’t want to just set a poker table in an empty unfinished basement though. I wanted it to look halfway lived in, so I’ve been trying to find some of the stuff that has been tucked away (or just never unpacked from move-in day). Found some of the old Deep 6 stuff from the band I was in during high school. And a few car parts I had laying around. I guess those are decorative… better than a concrete wall I guess. I want to get a bunch of the old tin signs and things like that. And old neon sign from a bar or something would be sweet, but those things are expensive!
Eventually I want to get a nicer stereo to put down there. I just have a little am/fm radio right now. It’d be cool to put a small couch or loveseat down there, but I don’t know if it would fit down the stairs. If you haven’t seen the entrance to my basement, it’s just like a trap door in the floor of my utility closet, and I really don’t think any real piece of furniture would fit through it! But it would be nice to have some kind of comfortable seating down there and I could move my old 25″ TV down there with a Nintendo and/or DVD player so that players that get knocked out of a game have something to do. Come to think of it… I bet a futon sofa would fit nicely!
So there’s the latest I’ve been up to. Still a work in progress, but at least I’m not ashamed to show it now. So come on over and help put it to good use!
06.5.09My desk
I haven’t really posted much about my new job on here yet. Just been so busy with the cars and traveling and all that I guess I just haven’t had much internet time period. Incase somebody is out of the loop, I’m the new Production Director/Quazi Traffic/Fill-in DJ/Webmaster/Other Stuff guy at Eagle Radio… err… Hull Broadcasting in Great Bend. I’m liking it so far. It’s quite a bit of work to keep up with, but once I get a routine I can start finding some efficiencies I think.
So there’s my desk. I scrounged up an old ratty mouse pad I found laying around the station. But I need to swing for a nice simple mousepad sometime. BUT I finaly have an LCD and optical mouse at work! I swear ol’ Rocking M Radio didn’t have an optical mouse in the whole building. Those antiquated pieces of technology should be outlawed and all those little rubber balls can be sent to the guys at Mythbusters. I’m sure they would come in handy for SOMETHING there. And all the time saved by
I do like a nice clean desk, but right now, I feel it’s lacking one key ingredient. A conversation piece. Something that captures someone’s attention, sparks curiosity, and most importantly isn’t SO people want to steal it. So I’m at a loss right now. I can’t think of anything I have laying around the house, and I don’t really want to spring for something just so it can sit on my desk at work. I’m sure something will pop up.
But that’s about it. Life keeps on, keeping on. I hope it’s doing the same for you.
The Finished Product…
Need I say more? Just check out the pictures!
*sexy meow*
The HOT new lights!
Rear View 😉
The sexy new fender Stangs
They're really shiny close up!
Yay, us!
Good Stuff from the garden!
All the hard work is going to pay off. The garden is starting to take shape. Our tomato plants are perking up (one even has blooms already), one jalapeno plant survived and the corn is up and doing well. I’m not too sure what I’m going to do with the turnips Duane planted, but they are thriving Seriously, what are turnips good for?
Gardening is good for the soul, also good for reminding me of muscles I haven’t used for a while!
Back home again.
Well we are back from Branson. It wasn’t exactly what we expected but we still had a really good time. There’s definitely not a lot to do at night there. The streets are bumper to bumper during the day, but at night you’ve got free run of the place! If we were to do it again, we’d definitely try to rent a cabin or something out by Table Rock lake, just to have some nice space to relax in during the downtime.
The big building is called the "Chateau on the Lake" or something like that.
Tons of places to fish and camp. And the water was crystal clear!
Cottages down by the marina.
It’s so beautiful out there. All sorts of trees, hills, and water. I’d love to rent a house boat or something sometime and just spend a week out there fishing and drinking beer, and taking in some of the sights. I’m a geeky boring person, so I really enjoyed all the museums. Some were better than others, but the Titanic museum is well worth the price of admission (and at $20 a person that’s saying something). Come to find out, that big ship outside? Yeah, only 1/2 scale. MAN was that a big boat. No pictures allowed inside, so soak it all up while you’re in there. We spent 3 hours there, and I’m sure we didn’t get a good look at everything.
There’s also Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum. Just a collection of weird cooky stuff. Kinda neat but thought it was a little pricey. The Hollywood Wax Museum was very cool. The Dinosaur Museum has life size replicas of Dinosaurs. Pretty cool, kids would LOVE it! I would have liked more scientific info, but it was still neat to get up close to T-rex and others.
Big ole Stegosaurus.
Say goodbye!
Everything in Branson seems to cost at least $10. So take your number of stops planned for the day. Multiply by $20 and add food and gas, and there’s your budget. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not to say it isn’t worth it, but a lot of times I found myself forking over $20 or $30 just because I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to do this stuff again for a long time. (Which I’m sure is their plan.) $10 a person to ride an elevator 16 stories seemed a little steep, but I’m still glad we went up Inspiration Tower, and got a good look at the Ozarks. $10 a person to ride one of the 50 different go-kart tracks… lame. Since when do gokarts AUTOMATICALLY hit the breaks going down hills. 20 m.p.h. speed limits FTL. $10 per person for a really retro indoor mini-golf was okay since we had the whole place to ourselves pretty much. But they could have been a little more creative with the course designs!
Inspiration Tower
Branson from the top.
Goofballs
Indoor mini-golf. Fun, but I recommend one of the 17 outdoor mini golf courses (unless it's snowing).
In Branson, you're never more than 100 ft. from a gift shop.
Part of what surprised me about Branson is just the atmosphere. I knew it was all about country music, and live shows, but the way the city is laid out creates a very confusing experience. With so many hills around, there’s not too much “off the beaten path”. There’s just not that many paths to choose from. So mixed in between really upscale theaters and condos, you’ll find old vacant buildings reminiscent of the 50’s and better days. Then you might run across large cleared and undeveloped areas. It’s almost like the town is caught between two eras. The old tie the suitcase to the top of the car, Griswold family vacation days, and the new multi-million luxury timeshare days. And without space to separate the two, it just seems odd. Not bad or scary, just not what I had expected.
I’m glad we went and I had a great time. But I probably won’t be back until we have some kids to take with us, or we get a group of people who want to split renting a cabin on the lake or something. There’s no shortage of things to do there. Which reminds me, we never did go see a show. Not really Andrea or I’s thing, which surely adds to why we might be Branson misfits. Haha. It’s not the cheapest vacation if you plan on running and doing stuff all day everyday. But like anywhere there’s always fun things to do that don’t cost a dime. Like taking in the lake or visiting the fish hatchery! (Seriously, it was actually fun.)
Trying to decide the best way to torture these fish.
Table Rock Dam and powerhouse.
Oh yeah. We rented a Mazda 6, and now Andrea wants a new car. Greaaat.
Don't get used to it.
She never even let me drive it on the road. I got to pull it around the hotel once.
Speaking of cars... just saw this driving around. All I can say is WTF?
A real "head turner".
Welp, I have a little over a week left at Dillon’s. Better get to work!