Archives April 2012

So after my crazy road trip to Plant City on Thursday I designated Friday as chore day.  I wanted to get everything around the house done so my weekend was void of must do’s.

It really is amazing how much different cleaning is with one less person and two less dogs in the house.  The amount of scuzz that I pull out of the carpet is dramatically less and I didn’t even need to run the Scooba, the tile areas were totally fine.

It was also the first time I used my new mini-Dyson to vacuum the entire house.  It did just fine although there were a couple draw backs.  The smaller vacuum head means a lot more passes to cover the rug.  Also it’s smaller size translates into a shorter power cord, meaning I have to do more unplugging and plugging than I used to.  Neither thing is a big deal, just different.

Since I mowed on Tuesday I was totally done with everything by early afternoon.  I sat down and decided to peruse my newly connected HBOGO service on my 360 (courtesy of my buddies’ Comcast credentials)  I saw “Game Change” pop up, the movie about the 2008 presidential campaign and specifically that idiot, Sarah Palin.

Julianne Moore did a FANTASTIC job of portraying Palin.  Not only did she look like her she sounded almost identical.  Woody Harrelson was great as McCain’s campaign manager and Ed Harris made a pretty believable John McCain as well.

The movie did a great job of just portraying how overmatched Palin was being thrust into the role of potential VP.  Her overall lack of knowledge was comical as was the campaign’s staff realization that they were dealing someone that had no business being there.

I knew very early on that Sarah was a joke so this film did nothing but to reaffirm that existing opinion.  However if you are one of those people that still think Palin is the political answer to ANYTHING besides cancelled reality tv shows, please take two hours out of your life and watch the movie to free yourself of that silly belief. It gets an A.

I was unsure if I wanted to drag myself out of bed to do the club run on Saturday morning.  I was still feeling sleep deprived from the way my week went, especially Thursday when my day started at 4am and didn’t end until after midnight.

Well I set the alarm anyway and drug myself out of bed, cursing myself all the while.  I arrived at the start point of the run with 15 minutes to spare.  When I saw Christy and Michelle show up I figured since I was feeling like my batteries were half full, I would just run with Ali and them.  There was one problem, Ali wasn’t there. Ali came speeding into the parking lot just as the group had started walking out on to the main road.

So we started running at the rear of the pack.  I ran with the girls for a little bit but their pace was just a little too slow for me so I slowly pulled ahead.  I forgot my GPS so I had no idea what sort of pace I was actually running.  At the halfway point I met back up with Matt and ran back with him so I am sure overall I had a negative split.

After I finished I hung out waiting for the girls to get back.  I had asked Ali the night before if she had any interest in going to a game for the arena football team.  After her run she said she would go.  At first she sounded like she wasn’t all that interested in going but when I asked again she said it was a better option than sitting home.  I told her how the tickets were only $7 and we could park for free at the outlet mall next door.  It would be cheap entertainment.

My main task of the day Saturday was to thoroughly clean the SSR.  The inside and outside of it was a mess from the drive to Plant City.

I spent a good two hours thoroughly cleaning the truck.  One of the areas that required extra elbow grease were right behind the passenger side wheel wells where there was rubber residue from the retread I inadvertently drove over. One spot I was able to get off with just soapy water, the other spot required follow up with Goo Gone.

After the clean up I laid down for a much needed 90 minute nap so I wouldn’t be completely dead for the football game.

I headed over to Ali’s early.  I told her I would spring for the pizza and we could catch up on the latest Biggest Loser.  While I was there we took the girls for a long walk around the lake in Ali’s community.  As we walked it started to rain progressively harder but neither of us really cared.

I also brought my clippers with so Ali could repair my self inflicted haircut.  I tried to give myself and straightline across the rear of my head while using a mirror.  Instead I succeeded in giving myself a ridiculous looking jagged edge.

We left probably earlier than we needed to.  By the time we parked at the outlets and walked across to the arena it was 6:30, a full hour before the game was scheduled to start.  We just bought two 7 dollar tickets at the box office, knowing the place would not be very full based on our past arena football experience.

You see Alison and I had season tickets for the first two seasons of the first arena football team in our area, the Florida Firecats, who folded a few years back.  After two seasons of indoor football we sort of knew what to expect.

The new team is called the Florida Tarpons.  They evidently are pretty damn good as so far they are undefeated.

The first thing we did was grab a beer.  I was surprised that Ali ordered a Bud Light as well, she has never been much of a beer drinker at all.  We then walked the around the concourse a bit just to see if there were any significant changes to Germain Arena since we were there last.

We then found our $7 seats which were at the very top row.  Even being up top, the place is small enough that it isn’t a big deal.  Plus I was positive we would be able to easily move down as the game progressed.

I did find myself annoyed that a bunch of people sat down right next to and in front of us.  It seemed ridiculous that they would need to seat people shoulder to shoulder when there were so many empty seats.

So we just hung out in the seats and watched the Tarpons warm up.   Later on the opposing team, the Mississippi Hounddogs came out.  My eyes were immediately drawn in like lasers to number 60. He was not just fat he was SUPER fat.

This dude was so fat that the biggest jersey they had did not fit him.  He had to wear a supersized shirt underneath his jersey to cover his humungous stomach.

Both Ali and I were amazed the guy was even on the field.  The impact on his joints if he tried to run had to be tremendous.  I also pitied any ball carrier that found himself underneath this guy.

It turned out number 60 only played sparingly during the game.  I think we may have seen him in 4 or 5 series tops.  He made zero tackles but he did sort of run around a bit. Ali felt bad when the PA system played the Fat Albert “Hey, hey, hey…” a few times when big boy was on the field.

Well the Tarpons didn’t waste much time showing why they were undefeated, jumping out to a quick lead.  I found it interesting that in arena football you score a point if your kicker can boot the ball through the narrow uprights on a kick off, something the Tarpon kicker did two or three times.  I don’t recall that rule in the other league.

As planned we steadily improved our seat position during the game.  After half time we tried to really get greedy, moving down into the padded seats that include cupholders.  Well unfortunately the old lady seat attendant walked over and asked we had tickets for that section.  I told her we did, just a few rows up.  She said we had to move.

It sort of pissed me off.  Yea I understand we paid for $7 seats and were probably sitting in seats that cost $20 or more but really, who cares?  If these seats are not sold, it isn’t like I am costing the team money by sitting in an unsold seat.

To me, with a new franchise that is trying to build a following, they should tell the seat nazi’s to chill out.  If I am sitting in somebody else’s seat, sure tell me to move.  But in my eyes, moving to an unsold seat is a no harm, no foul situation.  If anything it makes me more likely to attend another game if I know I can improve my seat position with out getting hassled.

The Tarpons set a new standard for ugly mascots. Timmy the Tarpon was just fugly, no two ways about it.

The cheerleaders for the team, “The Reel Girls” were surprisingly good.  They did a number of dance routines that seemed solid.

The Tarpons absolutely smashed the Hound Dogs, winning by a final score of 58-26.  Ali and I ducked out with a little less than 10 minutes to go in the game to beat the traffic.   Ali and I both had a good time overall, the game delivered pretty solid bang for the buck.  I would go again.

I told Ali I had ideas of doing a bike/swim combo Sunday morning however the rainy forecast put it in doubt.  I told her I would let her know in the morning if I was going to do it or not.

Well Sunday mornings weather radar looked bad, rain was definitely coming so we scrapped the plans.  Instead I asked Ali if she wanted me to grab the dogs on my coffee run to take them to the house.  Ali wanted to clean her place thoroughly and having the dogs out of the apartment would make it easier.  She took me up on my offer.

So after picking up the girls we headed back to the house.  I let them immediately out into the back yard.  I can tell they really appreciate being able to roam around leash free now although during our walk at Ali’s place they also seemed quite happy strolling around the lake too.

My main Sunday project was to finally install the new spark plugs and spark plug wires I have had sitting on my workbench for the Tacoma for over a month.  I was sort of putting it off since the truck had been running ok although I know at 138,000 miles and 13 years old, the plugs HAD to be changed.

So I decided Sunday was finally the day.  I moved the SSR over and pulled the front end of the Tacoma into the garage to work on it.  It had been raining off and on for most of the day.

Getting access to the plugs on the passenger side was not bad, I basically just had to remove the hose that runs from the air box to the throttle body.  I was glad I invested in a magnetic spark plug socket.  The plugs sit deep in tubes, the socket was able to grab hold of them easily once I loosened them up.  The tool was equally useful in putting the new plugs in to prevent them from dropping down the hole and damaging the electrodes.

Getting access to the plugs on the driver side was a bit more challenging. I had to remove a few brackets and move some wires.  I was also very fortunate to have bought a swivel extension bar set a couple months go.  If I didn’t have it I am not sure if I could have done the plug by the firewall.

The plug wires were a new experience for me.  The last time I did plugs and wires on a vehicle was probably my 69 Firebird back in the early 90’s.  Back then you had one wire per cylinder. Well with the Tacoma, despite there being 6 cylinders/spark plugs, you only have three wires.

There is no distributor, instead each wire connects to a coil on the other side of the engine.  That coil controls the spark for two plugs.  I almost miswired two of the plugs but luckily realized my error before firing it back up.  I was quite happy that when I turned the key the engine fired right up an ran normally.

When I pulled the old plugs it was confirmed the job was way overdue.  The center electrode on the plugs was worn away from millions of ignition cycles over the years.  I am doing a new mileage test to see if the new plugs and their better spark translates into better mpg.

Later, I hung outside with the dogs several times, walking around the yard and watching them play.

I also watched all Game of Thrones episodes, I am now current except for the latest episode.  I really like the show. Sadie and Nicki slept in the bedroom with me while I watched the shows.

I asked Ali if she wanted to come out to pick up the dogs instead of me dropping them off.  She hadn’t been back to the house since she moved out in early April.  I told her I had some pasta in the freezer I could make.  She accepted the offer.

So when Ali arrived I had already started working on making a salad for dinner, something that used to exclusively be Ali’s duty.  I actually did 100% of the meal prep, it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

Ali watched the latest Celeb Apprentice with me while sitting on my new, used, furniture for the first time.  She said the sofa’s were pretty nice and overall she said I did a nice job of arranging things in the house to make up for what was taken out.

When it came time for Ali to leave she was upset which upset me.  It’s hard for her to be leaving like another house guest.  It was hard for me too.

Over the course of the weekend we talked about if us seeing/interacting with each other as much as we have been since we separated is a good thing in the big picture.  If we continue to act like a married couple that simply has two different addresses it probably isn’t the best thing long term. However this is a hard time for both of us and I think we both find comfort in each other’s company.

It’s early yet, we still have a lot of sifting through the trees till clear daylight is ahead.

So I set my alarm for 4:15 am so I could be out the door by 5 for the drive up to Plant City in the SSR.  I had been both looking forward to and dreading the drive at the same time.  I was afraid whatever the source of horrible rattling noise under the truck was, it would cause the truck to die on me en route during the nearly 180 mile trip.

It was rather chilly out Thursday morning with temps right around 60 so I decided to leave the top up for the drive up.

The drive required two DD coffee stops, one at our local location and again up at Siesta Keys.  I also inadvertently ran over a retread that was on the highway after not seeing it soon enough in the pitch dark.  I later discovered the tire fragments left rubber marks along the bottom of my truck which I will have to get off later. Other than that the drive went fine, the truck, despite the rattle, drove like a champ, just as it has since the noise started.

I had a little issue locating Lonnie’s shop, Sinister Kustoms, even though I had the address punched into the GPS in my Pioneer 930BT.  Once I got into Plant City the GPS had a hard time tracking me and as a result I found myself being told to turn onto streets I already had passed.  Eventually I just pulled over and called Lonnie to get final directions to his place the old fashioned way.

I actually beat Lonnie to his place, arriving a few minutes before 8.  Once he and his wife Lauren arrived he opened up his 4 garage doors, revealing a vast collection of cars in various states of completion.  Lonnie does incredible work and routinely fabricates components from scratch.  It was really impressive seeing the various projects he had going on.

So after pulling a couple project cars out of the bay that has his lift he got to work along with his other mechanic, John.

Lonnie noticed I had stock running boards.  He told me how he sells modified brackets for the running boards which pulls them down so they are even with the bottom of the body line and tucks them in so they are less of an obstacle when stepping into and out of the vehicle.  He said they only cost $100 installed and he had a spare set on hand.  I told him to go ahead and do that as well.

Now in addition to the Corvette flywheel/clutch swap that was being done I had brought up a number of parts I have had for over a month to be installed as well.  They were all piled in the bed of the truck.  My plan was to work on them while Lonnie did the more complicated work.  Well it turned out the only job I truly did myself was installing the front air dam which is a no brainer.

As John worked on getting the transmission area pulled apart for the swap, Lonnie worked on some of the smaller jobs like installing the running board brackets and replacing my bent panhard bar. I was glad to see that Lonnie wasn’t at all bothered by my hanging around. I told him  I had no issue getting dirty if he needed help with something.

Relatively early in the process a straight body pulled up to Lonnie’s shop, it was his exhaust guy, Jim.  Jim basically has a rolling welding shop, complete with most anything he would need to do most exhaust work.  Jim was a nice guy as well and seemed to share Lonnie’s passion for custom vehicles, describing several projects of his own he is working on. Jim first installed the new muffler and then the monster sized exhaust tips.

So after most of the the auxiliary jobs were done the main focus became the clutch swap.  I pitied John as he struggled to get the old stuff out, it looked like a real pain in the ass.  Once the transmission was separated from the bell housing Lonnie was turning the shaft on the tranny and heard some gear noise that he wasn’t sure was normal or not.

He called up his transmission guy for some advice.  The advice was to pull off the front of tranny and take a look inside to see if anything looked abnormal.  Of course this had me a bit nervous.  I was already concerned because a visual inspection of the old flywheel/clutch did not reveal anything broken that would have been causing the rattle.

So I got my first opportunity to get some real grease under my fingernails when I helped Lonnie and John lower the tranny out from under the SSR and onto a table. Actually it wasn’t so much grease as it was transmission fluid spilling everywhere.  Lonnie, despite never having ripped into a SSR 6 speed transmission before had no qualms in doing so.  He removed the bolts holding the cover on and popped it off.

Both of us looked at the various gears, bearings and pinions over and did not see anything that looked damaged or scored in the least.  So Lonnie put the tranny back together.  Despite seeing nothing wrong in the tranny I still had a bad feeling in my gut that when everything was put back together the noise was going to remain.

During the day we took a lunch break, Lauren had ordered a couple pizzas that Lonnie said I was welcome to enjoy with them.  I thought that was really nice.  I could tell very early that both Lonnie and Lauren are just good people.

So during most of the afternoon the reassembly process took place.  By this time Lonnie knew I was fine with helping so he utilized me a few times as a third set of hands.  I also got to learn a whole bunch about the underside of the SSR and how stuff goes together and comes apart.

One of the things I learned was the truck obviously was hit in the rear at some point and time.  Lonnie first mentioned that the rear emblem’s “R” was not positioned the way it normally is.  When I was walking under the truck I saw the passenger side rear quarter obviously had been pounded out at some point and time.  Evidently whomever repainted that section of the truck didn’t take note of how the old emblem was attached.

So eventually after a lot of effort the new Corvette parts were installed and the transmission and drive train were put back in.  Lonnie started the truck up and the only noise I heard was what sounds to be idler pulley stuff that has been there since day one.  However I told him that I have noticed that the noise is not always heard when the truck is first started up however after only driving it a couple miles I can hear it.  So Lonnie took the truck for a quick spin around the block.

Well that was all it took, as he pulled back into the garage I could hear the death rattle had returned.  My heart sunk.

Lonnie heard the noise clearly and said we should put it back on the lift to listen to it better.  One thing I like about Lonnie, he never gives the impression that he is flustered or he can’t handle an issue.  You always get the feeling he is in control.  It is much the same attitude I take when it comes to my job, just a quiet confidence that despite obstacles, you will always find a solution.

So I get in the truck and ride in it upwards on the lift.  I start it up so Lonnie can listen closely.  He said the rattle sounds like it is definitely coming from the transmission.  Shit, that was EXACTLY what I didn’t want to hear.  My bill was already approaching stratospheric proportions, the prospect of a transmission repair on top of it was really, really depressing.

Lonnie called back over to his tranny guy and asked if we could bring the truck over for him to listen to.  His shop was maybe 15 minutes away so I rode shotgun while Lonnie drove.

This transmission place had car lifts, big ones, all over the place, most of them outside.  Evidently this place even does full size tractor trailer size truck transmissions.

The owner hopped in the SSR and rode it up in the lift with it running to hear the noise for himself.  After a few seconds he said, “it’s notthe tranny’, trusting his expert ear.  One of the other mechanics walked under the truck with a stethoscope and took the “pulse” of the SSR trying to verify where the noise was actually coming from.  He said the noise was coming from the exhaust pipe that runs right under the transmission.  He said something must have broken in one of the catalytic convertors and that was the rattle.  Lonnie listened with the scope himself and verified the same diagnosis.

Well this was some good news indeed, replacing the catalytic convertors although, not cheap is a less expensive and far less time consuming option to a tranny overhaul.

I had to laugh as when we pulled out onto the main road from the transmission shop Lonnie lit up the tires to put on a show for the guys who requested it.  The SSR sounded like a pure beast with the new exhaust components in place.

Ok, so by now it was getting late in the afternoon.  Lonnie called back Jim to see if there was any way he could come back to replace the cat’s.  At first the response wasn’t good.  Jim had a baseball game to attend at 7 and he wasn’t sure if he had cats that would fit on his truck.  He said something to Lonnie about not being able to do it until after 3 o’clock on Friday.

Now I actually had made provisions for staying a night up in Plant City, packing a small bag just in case things went long but I certainly wanted to avoid it if possible.  After verifying that Jim actually did have the cats he would need on his truck, he said he could come back and do it around 9 after the game.  Ok that was fine with me, I could hang out, eat dinner somewhere and get the work done.  A late night drive back to Naples wouldn’t kill me.

Then just as I was getting ready to head out Lonnie says Jim called back and said he thinks he can come over before the game and get it knocked out, perfect!

So as we were waiting for Jim to arrive Lonnie opened up another one of his storage bays to show me some more of his projects.  The most amazing of all was a totally custom vehicle that started off as a Honda S2000.  I told Lonnie it first looked like a Lotus to me from the rear.  He said he actually was going for the look of an old Lamborghini.  This thing was absolutely incredible.  I was awestruck as he described how he fabricated the body of this vehicle, making many parts and inserting parts from other vehicles to make it all work.  The truck latch was from an old Camaro, the tail lights were from some old Caddy I think.

I just can’t wrap my head around the skill, patience and talent that Lonnie possesses to make these sort of creations.  Lonnie and my uncle would get along great.

So as we were walking back to the main shop a kid pulls up in an old Camry with a dented in trunk.  He wanted to know how much it would cost to get it fixed.  This kid was pure central Florida.  Although he was very young, he had a very defined section of white/gray hair towards the front of his hairline.  Inside his Camry there were various items including a bowling ball, jumper cables and three angle grinders he just bought for $9 a piece.  Oh did I mention he was also wearing spurs? Yes, spurs.

So anyway the kid described how his trunk has never been able to open in the two months he has owned the vehicle because of the dent.  Lonnie told him that it would make more sense to replace the trunk lid instead of trying to fix because of labor costs.  The kid then asked if Lonnie might be able to get the trunk open.  Well Lonnie dove right in and in the span of a few minutes was on his back inside the trunk, working on the latch via the fold down rear seats.  He eventually was able to get the mechanism to release and showed the kid how to do so himself in the future.

The kid was very grateful and Lonnie didn’t charge him a dime.

So while Lonnie was finishing up on the kids car Jim had arrived and wasted no time getting to work.  He was able to replace the both cats in less then a half hour.  When he pulled off the driver side cat he shook it, it sounded like a baby’s rattle.  There was the noise culprit.

I thanked Jim several times for going out of his way to accommodate me by coming back.  After he left I said my goodbye’s to Lauren and Lonnie and again thanked them for everything.  What a great team.  I just wish they weren’t so far away since I have struggled so much finding quality mechanics.

Despite the clutch swap not being the actual fix for the problem and the additional costs I felt very good about the entire experience.  I wanted the day to be memorable and it was indeed.  I just will be extremely frugal during the month of May to try to lessen the impact of the big bill.

Just before I got on I-4 I spotted a Carrabas and decided to treat myself to a dinner for one at the bar.  I took the only seat available at the one corner, right next to a group of four women whom were obviously out for a girl’s night.  Three of the four were very attractive.

I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation since they were right next to me.  It seemed like at least two of them were recently separated/divorced and were complaining about various aspects of their relationships and men in general.  The group laughed when they saw my reflex facial reaction when one of them said her ex didn’t know how to “use his equipment” .  She blushed when she saw I heard it.    I interacted with them a little bit but I did not stay long since I had a long drive back to Naples to complete.

I had the top down for the entire drive home with my Linkin Park Pandora channel blaring on the radio.  The truck felt GREAT.  It wants to just get up and go.  The new exhaust provides a deeper, meaner, “you better get the fck out of my way” sound that I find very endearing.

The SSR is BACK.

If you want to see all of the pictures from the day, go here.

I got it in my head that I wanted to get the grass maintenance taken care of last night.  As soon as I got home I changed my clothes and backed the tractor out of the shed.

I was able to get both the mowing and the weed whacking done in record time, in total I think I spent 90 minutes.  I was able to chop a bunch off the time because I didn’t have to mow everything.  The area of the yard that are not getting hit by the sprinklers is pretty much in hibernation right now.

The weather the past couple days has been great, we are getting a VERY late in the season cold front.  I have had the AC off and the windows open, it’s great plus I’ll take the electricity savings as a bonus.

Tomorrow will be my road trip to Plant City.  I am very excited about the prospect of getting my SSR back on the road.  I’ll be pulling out 5am-ish.  DD coffee will be riding shotgun.

Yesterday Homey clued me in that Microsoft was dialing back the amount of space allocated to people for free on their Skydrive service from 25 gig to 7 gig. However if you go to the site and click a link, they would allow existing clients to retain the free 25 gig of web storage space. So that is what I did.

Going back to the site allowed me to see that they have polished Skydrive since it was first released.  It now has a built in desktop application and apps for i devices that give Skydrive a feature set very similar to Dropbox, which I love.  With Drop Box, I only have 3.5 gig of free space and I only managed that by referring a number of people to the service.  The 25 gig I get from Skydrive is a HUGE upgrade.  You might want to give Skydrive a look see.

So the other day I was at the gym on a cardio machine and was watching Sportscenter.  I saw the clip of Ron Artest delivering a hellacious elbow to an opposing player.  What I didn’t understand was why they were referring to Ron Artest was Metta World Peace.  WTF?

Well evidently Ron decided to steal a page out of Chad Johnson’s script and legally changed his name to something utterly ridiculous, Metta World Peace.  I really wish media could just use these idiots original real names. Or better yet just refer to anyone that changes their name to something idiotic, as “Dipshit” or “Asshat”, for the rest of time.  Morons.

My uncle just finished his latest clock.  His imagination and craftsmanship is just outstanding, approaching super hero level if you ask me.

So I left from work to head up to Fort Myers last night to pick up the used Dyson vacuum I spotted on Craigslist.  I had already performed the obligatory CL negotiation, offering $150 for the $175 listing which the seller accepted.

I was lucky that I had printed out back up directions from Google Maps.  The guys address evidently was so new that my 5 year old GPS had no idea where to go.

I arrived about 25 minutes earlier than I expected.  I called ahead and made sure he was home which he was.  As I pulled into his driveway he was just opening up the garage.

His garage was filled with a number of toys like a 270Z convertible, mountain bikes and a bad ass Suzuki fat tired motorcycle, that instantly made me feel like we had common ground.  However first and foremost he showed me the Dyson.

I was at first struck by the size of the DC24.  It was A LOT smaller than the Dyson Animal we have had for 5 or 6 years.  Hell I bet it is close to half the size.

The smaller brush bar meant more passes on the carpet but the smaller size also meant it was a lot lighter and easier to push around. This model also has the ball design which I really have come to like as it makes the vacuum super maneuverable.

The vacuum was in like new condition which didn’t surprise me as I looked around the garage.  All of his items looked to be very well maintained.  I told him I actually had a Dyson but gave it to my wife since we recently separated.  Well this opened up a long conversation where we found we connected in many ways.

Mike was 55 years old, single (divorced) and in addition to being into both 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles, he has competed in triathlons and distance running, including a half Iron Man and a full marathon.  In addition to the stuff in the garage he showed me his top of the line Trek tri bike.  The wheels alone cost a couple grand.  Yes obviously Mike has done quite well for himself.

He has turned his fitness focus to body building in recent years.  He looked great for his age, you would have never guessed he had over a decade on me.

Anyway we got involved in quite a lengthy conversation touching on all of our shared interests, something I certainly was not expecting.  Mike also talked about his relationship experience including what were some absolutely unbelievable successes despite his age. Let’s just say he keeps himself quite busy. He gave me various pointers that may come in handy down the line.

Anyway I bet we stood there and talked for more than a half hour.  We talked about perhaps getting together for a bike ride or a beer the next time he is down in the Naples area.  Well that certainly wasn’t how I expected that Craigslist transaction to go.

When I got home I put the Dyson to the test, making sure despite it’s smaller size it was still big on sucking power.  It worked quite well, pulling out the dog hair from the girls weekend visit with no problems at all.

So there were a couple Eagles news items that caught my eye, something that doesn’t happen much in April.  Brian Dawkins retired from the Broncos.  To be honest I thought he already had since I didn’t see him playing late last year when I watched a few Bronco games.  Evidently he had another serious neck injury last year that contributed to his decision.

Even though he finished out his career as a Bronco, he will always be the heart of the Eagles defense for most of the last decade.  I loved his aggressive style of play.  Even now when I think of Dawk laying it all out there to smash opposing ball carriers it makes the hair on my arms stand up a little bit.

Ironically the other piece of news is about a player who is as Anti-Dawkins as you can get, Asante “Shoulder Tackle” Samuels.  Evidently the Eagles have been actively trying to trade Asante but haven’t had much luck moving him and his fat contract.

Samuels came in here with much hype as a ballhawk and a guy that created turnovers.  To a degree, he has done that for the Eagles but not enough for me to declare him as being worth the money.  I really dislike his weak tackling.  I can’t tell you how many times in the past couple years I have screamed at the tv as Asante missed again and again at weak shoulder tackle attempts.  I will be totally fine if they dump him.  Get me a mean son of a bitch that hits like a truck over a ballerina with stick um on his hands any day.

So now, short of an unplanned demise, Mitt Romney is guaranteed to be THE republican nominee for president.  I am not quite sure how this came to be as Romney is the wrong guy in so many ways it just makes me scratch my head, a lot.

I mean in a time when there is such an uproar and spotlight about the 1 percenters courtesy of the Occupy folks, why would the elephants trot out a guy that is filthy, filthy rich?  On top of that, time and again during the campaign Mitt has stuck his foot in his mouth, obliviously blurting out one liners without realizing how condescending and out of touch they were to those less affluent than himself.

Not only is he richer than rich, if you dig into how he amassed much of his wealth, by devouring companies and spitting out their remains for profit without hesitation, it should give you some pause.

Oh did you hear, in one of Mitt’s homes, a 13 million dollar property, they just installed an elevator as part of an expansion project.  The elevator was for his CARS.  I shit you not.

Now of course you can’t entirely dismiss a guy just because a he made a few bucks.  I think Mitt has done a darn good job discrediting himself on policy decisions as well, backing away from his actual record to play the part of a fiscal conservative in the primary, morphing into the candidate he thinks others want him to be.

All of a sudden he has to make people believe he didn’t create the Massachusetts Health Care Law and that he didn’t have a moderate stance about abortion.

Then there is the Mormon thing.  I’m sorry, any religion that deals with magic underpants is just bizarre.  The hard core right wing Christian Fundamentalists that cast their vote primarily on how many time a candidate says the word “God” can not be pleased with the idea of a Mormon sitting in the White House either.

Hey I am not very happy with the way Obama has been passive on certain issues up until recently as the election season heats up, however if my only choice is Mitt or Obama, it is a no brainer.

Saturday morning I drug my sleepy ass out of bed at 4:30 am to do the club run.  The weather radar wasn’t all that favorable, it looked like if it wasn’t raining in Naples now, it would be later.  I didn’t really care, rain helps keep me cooled off. Ali and Christy were supposed to be there as well.  Neither of them showed.

I was a bit bummed because originally I had ideas of running with them at a slower pace, something more favorable with the sleep deprived state my body was in.  Well instead I wound up running again with Matt.  We did run a slower pace than last week, exactly one second per mile slower according to my GPS. 🙂  Oh well in the big picture going harder is always the preferred choice for me, even if I don’t realize it sometimes.  It did rain lightly for part of the run but it never let loose.

On the way back to the house I stopped at Ali’s and grabbed the dogs.  I figured they could hang out while I worked on stuff.  It also gave Ali a break as she had plans to dig into her remaining unboxing duties in earnest.  The dogs were quite surprised to see me and as excited as ever.

So the girls and I headed home to continue on my chores.  I got a head start on Friday night, cleaning Tuki’s cage and cleaning the bathrooms. During the bathroom cleaning process I almost got into a fight with the toilet paper holder.

I was down on my knees completing the glamorous job of cleaning the toilet.  I was reaching down along the right side of the bowl.  As I reached I also dropped my head down to get a better vantage point.  As I did I smashed my head into the corner of the toilet paper holder.  I instantly went into Hulk Smash mode.

I had my fist clenched and was mere moments away from uppercutting the holder off the wall.  Thankfully I took a couple breaths and unclenched my fist before any damage was done.  I was also quite lucky that the corner of the holder was rounded off and not sharp.  I would have been bleeding like a pig.

Well the rainy skies on Saturday took care of one potential chore item, mowing the grass.  I figure I will try to knock that out after work some night this week.

I tended the garden, weeded, put out some bird seed (a $3.50 bag) for the first time in weeks and repaired the section of pool cage screen that was ripping out.

I then turned my attention to the Tacoma, completing my zero dollar oil change.  I had $30 in Autozone gift cards that were a throw in when I bought the IAC valve online so that covered the oil change materials cost.

I had talked to Ali about coming over to her place later in the day on Saturday to help her with some more items, I got over there in the party van with the dogs sometime after 3.

When I came up the steps I immediately knew Ali had made some significant progress by the large collection of flattened boxes piled up.  The main living area looked to be almost empty of boxes at this point.  One of my first chores was to collect all of the cardboard and throw it in the back of the van to deposit in the recycling bins.  Ali helped me do it.

We had talked about running out to a few spots for stuff Ali needed.  I had brought part of my robotic cleaning crew along, the Scooba, to work on the large amounts of tile that covers Ali’s kitchen and main living space.    The floor felt very dirty from the moving process.

I set the Scooba up and let it run while we headed out to run errands.

The first stop was right up the street at Staples and then Target where Ali returned one item and picked up a couple more.  We then headed a few doors down to a place called World Market.  I have never been in the store before.  It is an odd combination of things that include furniture, accessories, food, beer, and clothing.

Well Ali saw some furniture there that was really nice but not horribly expensive. One was a stand that would be much better suited for her TV and A/V equipment than her hope chest.  She also liked a matching shelf that would be a good fit for the top of her steps.  We had the Camry so we decided if she still liked the stuff we could drive back in the van and get it.

We headed to Lowes where she grabbed a few other items and used a coupon that was sent to her as part of a move in pack.  She decided she definitely wanted to get the furniture so we dropped the Camry off at her place and headed back out in the van.

The two boxes fit in the folded down bed of the van but not completely, the back doors didn’t close.  Since we were only going about a half mile down the road we used Ali as a supplemental door restraint.  She laid on top of the boxes and held the doors in place.  It looked funny but worked well.

Now I have a lot of experience with put together furniture, it typically looks ok but obviously the quality is not up to par with conventional furniture.  Well this stuff from World Market was way different than something you would get in a Sauder box.

There are only a few parts to assemble, most of the furniture is already intact.  You are basically just attaching the legs with a number of allen bolts.  The new stuff looks GREAT.  I would challenge anyone to walk in Ali’s place and guess the stuff came in a box.  It looks that good.

The Scooba had done an amazing job of cleaning up Ali’s tile, the floor felt noticeably cleaner on our bare feet.  When I dumped the waste water out of the robot it was almost chocolate milk dark.  I have a feeling the Scooba will be making some regular road trips.

I also brought over the Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner.  Ali asked if she could borrow it.  The vacuum we bought her is good for step cleaning but it doesn’t have nearly the brute sucking power of the Dyson.   This was confirmed when Ali ran the Dyson in just her bedroom, closet and office and pulled up a ton of gunk.

I told Ali she could just keep the Dyson, saving her the expense of buying one herself.  I had located a used Dyson on Craigslist that I plan to pick up tonight.

We also made time to partake in a Tivo/Biggest Loser session, the first time we did such a thing out of the confines of the four walls of the house.  Doing it at Ali’s place felt a bit weird but it was enjoyable none the less.

During the time I spent at Ali’s place I discovered three ticks on the floor.  The tick problem has not subsided.  Ali took the dogs to the vet last week to get a thorough once over.  While she was there she got some good news and bad news.  The ticks are not deer ticks, the type that typically carry Lyme disease.  However the dogs had a total of 7 or 8 ticks on them, including two more on Nicki that were filled with blood.

The vet put flea collars on both dogs as a backup to the monthly Advantix that is already applied.  The collar and Advantix is supposed to repel/kill the tick if it actually chomps down on the dog however it does nothing to keep the ticks from getting on them in the first place.

Even with this double layer of protection, I pulled another full tick off Nicki later in the weekend.  Ali obviously is still freaked out about the ticks and again said something to the community staff about it.  They said they would talk to the grounds maintenance although they again claim they haven’t heard any serious complaints from other dog owners which seems unbelievable.   I have never heard of a tick that exclusively adheres to black female lab mixes.

So I left Ali’s place with plans to come back the next day to attend to a few items I didn’t get to handle yet.

Sunday morning I finally got to extend my sleep session, staying in bed till an unheard of 7:45 am.  It felt good to not be jarred out of sleep by the alarm for once.

I had a few items to attend to to finish up my duties around the house. My plan for the rest of the day was to head back to Ali’s to finish up and then drive up to Fort Myers to pick up my used Dyson, I originally made arrangements to meet the guy between 4 and 5PM.

I got over to Ali’s place later in the morning and got back to work.  I hung a 4 foot shelf in her small utility/laundry room, giving her a much needed storage option in the small area.

I was going to hang a few of her bigger items on the wall but Ali halted the process when she saw my anchor kit included silver screws.  Having silver screws against the black metal of the wall pieces would drive Ali crazy.  I told her we could pick up some black drywall screws to solve the problem.

So, we made plans to again head out on the road to score some additional items.  The first stop this time was Pier 1 where Ali was juts sort of cruising to see if anything caught her fancy, nothing really did.

We then headed across the street to the recently opened Trader Joe’s, a place I have heard a lot about but have not checked out as of yet due to the huge crowds.  Well evidently 1PM on a Sunday is not a good time to shop there either.  I hypothesized that it was the post church crowd, the place was just clogged with old farts.

I just wanted to take a quick look.  I heard from my mom and a couple other people that Trader Joe’s has a wide selection of healthy frozen meals for one that are not stuffed with chemicals and preservatives yet are reasonably priced.  I confirmed this was true although I didn’t pick any up.  I figure I will grab a handful some other time when it is less crowded and when I don’t have additional stops to make.

We then went back to Lowes, Ali had more coupons to use up.  We grabbed Ali a new detachable shower head, a small stand/table for her master bathroom, a towel bar for the guest bathroom and the black drywall screws.

Once we got back I dug into installing everything as well as using the drywall screws to hang items in a visually matching manner.

I had gotten a call back from the used-Dyson guy saying he was going to be stuck over in Miami later than he planned, we agreed for him to let me know when he was leaving so I could decide if I wanted to make the drive Sunday night or not.  I had asked Ali if she minded if I just hung at her place until I heard from him since it would give me a roughly 12 mile head start to Fort Myers.  She of course didn’t care.

Once all the work was done we actually had some free time.  We took the dogs for an extended walk which they seemed to really enjoy and later Ali and I went over to the main community pool to hang out.  It was the first time since moving in that Ali has gotten a chance to enjoy any of the amenities.

I hopped in the hot tub for a little bit and soaked my aching old bones.  Ali chose to just relax on the awesome padded chaise lounges and read a book.  The pool area at her place is simply awesome.

As we were out on our walk earlier Ali mentioned how it almost feels like we are still married, just a modified version of what we experienced for the last 14 years.  I agreed, the frequent visitation does make it seem at this point like this is simply Diet Marriage or Marriage Lite.

I think though the large amount of assistance that Ali needed in coordination with the moving project has had a large contribution to that.  I know that part of this process needs to eventually be less contact while maintaining the caring bonds where we have each other’s back when push comes to shove.  It’s necessary that we both continue growing outward/forward.

I have been watching Game of Thrones Season 1.  You ask how am I doing this since I do not have cable tv or a HBO subscription?  cokeandpopcorn.com  I am using the site to stream past episodes via a PC.  I extended the viewing to my bedroom last night by attaching a laptop to the tv.

I see why the show has gotten so much acclaim.

As I was paying the bills on Sunday I just happened to run a report showing my gas expense for the last month.  I almost fainted when I saw the number, $609.  Granted that period includes some of the tail end of Ali’s gas expense but still, that is an incredible amount of money to spend on gas in a month.  I will be doing whatever I can to minimize that expense going forward.  The roughly 50 mile round trip to work I put in everyday is a real killer.

So as I mentioned before, tonight after work I am heading directly to Fort Myers to score my used Dyson.  I am hoping the thing is in good working order, supposedly it is only two years old.  Our Animal is over 5 years old and still doing great.  I will put it through a suck test before handing over the cash.

I have a brief three day week, taking Thursday and Friday off for my SSR repair/upgrade adventure.  I am actually looking quite forward to it, as long as the truck makes it all the way to Plant City on it’s noisy flywheel.

So mid-morning yesterday my buddy Matt was chatting to me.  He asked what plans I had for last night.  Since I was already pooped from going to the bar Wednesday night I told him I was just going to be hanging at home, probably working on housework.

Matt told me he had a spare ticket for the Heat/Bulls game last night and asked if I was interested in going.  A bunch of his co-workers were doing a bachelor party thing and going to the game was part of it.  Evidently one of the guys had a personal issue come up last minute and wasn’t able to go.

Well there were a a couple reasons I would have normally said thanks but not thanks.  Like I said, my ass was dragging already.  The idea of spending 4 + hours behind the wheel last night to get to Miami and back seemed pretty silly.  Plus I am not a Heats fan in the least, hell I am not really an NBA fan anymore for that matter. The jaunt would also cost a few bucks between the ticket, parking, gas and food.

Despite those negatives I saw it s an opportunity to do something different, something out of the ordinary.  These days these type of things are very appealing to me.

I told Matt that if he had any other co-workers that would want to go he should offer it to them first however if there were no takers I would step in.  Matt said there weren’t any other candidates.  So shortly after our virtual conversation he swung by the office and dropped off the ticket.  I told him I would meet him at the venue.

Even with leaving the office a little early, by the time I got home, changed and back out the door it was maybe 5:45.  With a tip off of 8 PM I knew I would be hard pressed to get there before the game started.

I grabbed an extra large DD coffee on the way home and then supplemented it with rest stop coffee along the way.  It was absolutely necessary. Without coffee I would have been either in a ditch or sound asleep in a parking lot somewhere.

The drive over to Miami was fine until I hit the logjam of vehicles as I approached the stadium area.  I circled the arena bit looking for a reasonably priced place to park.  I saw some places charging as much as $25.

I found a place maybe 4 or 5 blocks away that was only $12 so that was my spot.  By the time I parked and actually got into the building it was probably 8:20 or so.  My lack of passion for NBA basketball meant missing the first few minutes of the game didn’t bother me in the least.

I had not eaten any dinner so the first thing I did before finding my seat was grab some stadium food.  My personal pizza and souvenir soda clocked in right under $20, sheesh.

My seat was in the 400 level which is the upper deck.  My seat was in row 17.  I found out that section 405 has exactly 17 rows.  Yep I was at the top of the arena.

Even being up that high I could see the court well enough, at least well enough for me.  Matt had actually bought two blocks of tickets, he was in a different block that was in the 2nd row of the adjacent section.  I figured he would come find me so I sat down and enjoyed my pizza.

Matt did eventually spot me and come up.  We watched the game from that high vantage point until halftime.  When the seats emptied out we moved his entire group to the better seats.  By that time enough people had started shifting around that there were open seats available.  Knocking 16 rows off definitely brought the game action significantly closer.

Speaking of the game, it was a good one.  The Heat and the Bulls are the top two teams in the Eastern Conference right now.  The game was a physical, low scoring variety with lots of pushing and shoving.  I think there were three or four technical fouls called during the game.  Lebron James and Dwayne Wade both made some unbelievable plays.

Well late into the fourth quarter the Heat had around a 10 point lead.  Matt, knowing I had to work today, said he asked their limo driver if there was a trick to beating the traffic after the game.  He said the only trick was to leave early. Well that  is exactly what I did, thanking Matt and sneaking out with about 4:30 left on the game clock.

The walk back to the parking lot was a bit scary.  There wasn’t the huge wave of humanity that I rode into the stadium with. Instead I was quick walking it back to the lot mostly solo.  Some of the walk included poorly lit sidewalks with plenty of dark corners.  I was quite aware of my surroundings, ready to react if need be.

It was about 10:45 so the people that live on the streets were already starting to lay down in “bed”.  I passed one inlet that had a few guys already in sleeping bags.  The smell of urine as I walked by was quite evident.

Luckily I made it to my truck without being assailed.  I fired it up and headed out pronto, I knew the tsunami of humanity was going to be spilling from the arena at any moment.  I JUST made it out onto the main road that lead to 95 before the crowds engulfed the streets, I felt quite fortunate.

The drive back across the state went well.  I didn’t feel as dangerously drowsy as I expected.  Maybe the coffee, two large diet sodas and the excitement of the game (the Heat won), helped me along.  I pulled into the driveway right around 1AM.

Again my lack of exhaustion surprised me.  I actually checked my email on my pc before heading back to take a shower and go to bed.  Waking up this morning was painful however on less than four hours sleep.

Despite all the driving, the costly gas, dealing with congestion in the city and the day after exhaustion, I chalked up my Thursday night excursion to the Heat game as worth it.

Has anyone else seen the latest version of Microsoft Messenger that is included in Windows Live?  Wow it pretty much does it all.  It ties into almost any popular site/social media you can imagine and aggregates it all into one UI.  I like it, a lot.

I have all my ducks lined up now for the SSR work, including confirming next Thursday as when Sinister Kustoms is going to do the clutch/flywheel work.  I just hope I am able to make the roughly 3 hour drive to his shop without whatever is making noise in the flywheel area blowing apart.

This will be a laborious weekend.  At the house I need to mow and whack the grass, do cleaning, replace the ripped screen and hopefully get the oil changed in the Tacoma.  It would be nice if I got the new plugs in the truck as well.

I also will be heading over to Ali’s place on Saturday to attend to a few more items and bring over some stuff she needs.  I’d like to help her get the majority of her boxes emptied since I know having them around is stressing her out.

I was planning on also doing the hella early GCR run Saturday morning. Busy, busy, busy.

I can’t believe I forgot to mention that good old Dick Clark passed away yesterday at the ripe age of 82.

It definitely was for the best.  Anyone that reads my blog knows how much I was bothered by Dick dragging himself in front of the camera year after year since his stroke on his New Year’s Rockin Eve show.

It was admirable that he did it the first year, after that it became nothing but an embarrassment.  Obviously Dick’s ego was unaffected by the stroke.

The physical transformation that took place after his stroke was one of the most shocking I can ever recall seeing.  It was literally like he aged 25 years overnight.

Well I no longer will have to complain about Dick slurring the countdown.  It would have been nice if he had the sense to gracefully take himself out of the picture instead of letting mother nature do the dirty work.

Rest well Dick, despite your sad last years you made a huge contribution to the entertainment industry during your half century+ time in the business.

I have been laying off pushing exercises at the gym this week, hoping that doing so will provide some relief for the chronic shoulder pain I have had for a long time.  So far it hasn’t made a difference, my shoulders, especially the right one still feels shitty.

Anyway, instead of doing my mini-push up, dip and pull up routine before my weight work I have just been doing pull up variations.  For whatever reason I have been feeling strong with my pull ups this week.

On Monday I equaled my all time best with a 22 rep set.  On Tuesday I did 15 slow and controlled reps non-stop in a knee raise position.  Yesterday I hit another milestone, completing a pull up while weighed down with half of my body weight. (85 pounds)

Doing heavy weighted work at Retro is sort of a pain in the ass since they don’t have a dip belt which is the normal way to add weight to your reps.  Instead I have to awkwardly and uncomfortably suspend a dumbbell between my legs.

My one rep max pull was done after I already had done some additional weighted pull up sets so I was somewhat fatigued so that made it even better.  I am not quite sure why I have had a sudden elevation in my pulling power/endurance but I hope it sticks around.  A 25 rep set would be the next big target.

Last night after the running club board meeting, which was one of the shortest I can ever recall attending, several of us headed to a nearby popular hangout for some beers and food.  It felt quite foreign sitting at a bar smack dab in the middle of the week but I had a real good time just hanging out and shooting the shit.

Surprisingly I was not the subject of some grand inquisition, I thought there would be attempts to extract additional details about Ali and my separation.  Instead it didn’t come up at all which was cool.  The group I was with are some of my favorites in the club, I expect I will be hanging out with them on a more regular basis.

I couldn’t believe the platter the one guy ordered, bacon macaroni and cheese.  It had to be a 3000 calorie dish although I heard repeatedly how incredible it is.

I was there pretty late, leaving shortly before 10.

This morning I got a text from Ali, saying that she found another tick on Nicki.  This one had actually latched on and was filled with blood.

It seems that the grounds at Ali’s new place are simply infested with ticks.  In the scant couple weeks she has been there she now has discovered almost double digit ticks, some on the dogs, some on the furniture  and some on Ali.

The tick latching onto Nicki of course is worrisome.  We applied Advantix to the dogs after they moved in but this tick apparently was not deterred.  I told Ali that she really needs to push the property managers to get pest control in there to spray the grounds for ticks.

I gave Ali some tips to get the tick off like covering it in Vaseline to suffocate the sucker.  Ali was hoping the tick would just fall off but it didn’t.  I knew she would be freaked out about pulling off the tick so I offered to stop by on my way to work to yank it. Ali took me up on my offer.

It took a few minutes for the dogs to calm down enough so I could take a look at the tick which was on Nicki’s chest.  I first tried to yank it with my fingers via a paper towel but was unsuccessful.  Ali had a tweezers as well.  I was able to easily get the tick off with the tool and it looked like the tick came off intact.

I’ll be heading over to Ali’s place this weekend to help her with some more stuff.

Last night after work I hoped to take an official crack at hard mode for this month’s challenge.  Hard mode is a bodyweight dip tree where you keep doing consecutive sets, increasing your reps by 1 each time.  At the gym at lunch I had done bicep and tricep work which potentially could have been a problem but I decided to try anyway.

I did a test run of this challenge at the gym and made it through 8 + sets.  Well I could tell early on that I was not going to do well.  I stopped abruptly in the middle of set number 7, hence my new title of Dip Quitter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3qOG6r0_xc

I wanted to at least do something positive out on the bars so I followed up with 5 muscle ups, the first two of which were very clean, at least for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VStB1-8sRZk

As I was coming inside I noticed yet another screen panel on the bottom of the pool cage was ripping along the spline.  I suspect my darling little Sadie may have head butted it at one point during their visit, probing for an exit.  I really don’t like doing the bottom panels, the low working conditions and surrounding thorny roses make it quite the unpleasant experience.

Since my CC period rolls over in a couple days I would like to get my SSR up to Plant City to get the clutch/flywheel swapped out late next week.  I am hoping that while that is being done the guy will let me put some other parts on the truck while it is up on the lift.  I have an upgraded engine fan and a front air dam, both of which are designed to bolster the stock underpowered cooling system in the truck.

I still have the new set of plugs and wires for the Tacoma sitting on my workbench. I haven’t gotten around to replacing them yet.  I find myself hesitant to do so since the truck is running ok.  But at 137,000 miles and counting it really should be done.  Heck it may even help me squeeze out another mile or two per gallon, something that is becoming increasingly more important with the price of gas.

Yesterday I equaled my all time best in pull up reps, scoring 22 at the gym over lunch.  If I chose to hang on the bar another 5 seconds or so I am pretty sure I could have set a new best.  I didn’t bother though because to be honest, setting a PR on an indoor bar where you can’t fully extend your legs isn’t quite legit.  (my other 22 rep performance was on my Iron Gym)

Having your legs tucked changes the movement around a bit.  I hope to chalk up and see if I can hit 23 reps at home on my outdoor bar.  The best I have ever managed outdoors is 20 reps.

I have found having your grip locked in tight is essential in a max pull up attempt.  As soon as the bar starts slipping down onto your fingers you are going to struggle.

I left work a little early yesterday to meet up at a near by bar with some other co-workers.  The former head of a department that had moved out of the area years ago was back visiting.  A few of us got together to catch up.  I only had a couple beers before I unfortunately had to head home to let the dogs out.

I was worried that I would come home to a smelly present since the dogs had been home alone for 11 hours by the time I got back.  I was quite pleased to see they both held it like troopers.

So Ali flew back last night from her work trip to Virginia.  Her plane didn’t get in until close to 10pm.

I piled the girls and their stuff in the party van to pick her up.  I saw Ali’s flight was a little ahead of schedule so I left a little early.  I wound up having maybe 15-20 minutes to kill in the cell phone parking lot.

I was sitting there with the van turned off and the windows down, checking email on my Iphone.  There was a BMW parked maybe 30-40 feet away with it’s windows down as well.  In the vehicle were two women, I think it was a mother and her daughter.

Anyway since it was quiet I could pretty much hear their entire conversation without even trying.  At one point the daughter got onto the subject of how she likes Katy Perry but is so tired of hearing her on the radio all the time.  She said it seems like every other song is Katy Perry.

Well I had to take a swing at that softball.  I instantly fire up Pandora on my Iphone, create a Katy Perry channel and turn the volume all the way up.  I saw the girl glance in my direction, although I don’t think she realized that I intentionally started playing her music.  I saw her bopping her head to the beat, probably after making a comment to her mom about how ironic it was that a Katy Perry song came on right after she talked about it.

I was smirking from my party van captain’s chair the entire time.

So Ali texted me she had her bag.  I fired up the van and picked her up.  As we pulled up to the curb both the dogs were up on the front seat with their heads out the window, excited to see their mommy.  I threw Ali’s bags in the back and off we went.

On the way home Ali told me about her trip although there weren’t that many details since she basically just worked and hung at the hotel when she wasn’t working.  I filled her in on what the dogs and I did while she was gone, including the various efforts at her new place.

As we were on I-75 Ali mentioned how it feels weird that I am picking her up at the airport but I am dropping her off at her own place.  I agreed it felt weird but just lumped it in with all of the other weird feelings we have already experienced and will surely experience more of going forward.

When we got back to her place I took her bags up for her and gave her a brief rundown again of what I did.  She liked the new tv and the shelf and laundry cart I put together for her.

When I it was time to go I got a bit choked up when I said goodbye to the dogs as I rubbed their heads.  They had a lot of fun with me and I am sure this geographic split of their “parents” makes no sense to them.  I could tell Ali was upset as well as I hugged her and told her I was glad she was home safe.

There is just no way to avoid those sad, painful moments in this process.  We can only both hope that as time passes they will decrease in frequency and intensity.

On a brighter note, I found a great replacement camera app for the Iphone, it’s called Camera+.  Spend 99 cents to see why  and thank me later.