Another long weekend

Long weekend = long entry. I am using up left over vaca time before my year rolls over in mid-august. On Saturday it was a workfest, we cleaned up the house because Alison’s friend was coming down for the weekend. After the indoor work concluded we moved to the outside. Alison took to the tractor while I tackled weeding, pruning, pool maintenace and various other tasks.

On Friday the pool looked like hell, it was all cloudy from algea that I had been battling for awhile. Since company was coming down I was desperate to clear it up. So I dumped a shitload of shock into it, brushed the sides down and left the pool cleaner running in it all night to keep the algea from settling on the bottom. To my surprise, when I woke up Saturday morning it looked tons better, very cool.

Alison admitted that mowing the grass isn’t as much “fun” on the new tractor since she has to change gears now. I offered the “fun” of operating the weed whacker instead, I think she will stay on the tractor. I tackled a few jobs that have been on my mind forever but for whatever reason I had been putting off. I had the pressure washer out and finally blasted the stone and sand out of the bed of my truck that had been sitting there for months. Then I went crazy and got up on the one side of the shed roof and blasted away the mildew that was on the non-sunny side. The interesting/stupid part of it was I was too lazy to put on appropriate footwear to do this so I was up on the wet vinyl siding roof with flip flops. I was constantly aware that I was one slip away from surely breaking something. I was even thinking about how I would explain why I would be dumb enough to tackle this job in flip flops. Luckily my balance remained steady and I finished the job without a 12 foot fall. So much for not worrying about things that noone else will notice but me, huh? Roof looks better though.

Saturday evening we watched a funny movie, think it was called About Polly or something like that. It had Ben Stiller, the chick from Will & Grace and Jennifer Aniston in it. Lots of laugh out loud moments in it. I got my high capacity cell phone battery(s) from a seller on ebay from Hong Kong. It took about a week to get it. As a bonus, the seller accidentally sent me 2 batteries even though I only paid for one. It was funny seeing something from Hong Kong show up in the mail. I kept the envelope to show Ali. If the guy wants his 2nd battery pack he can fly over from HK to get it. 🙂

On Sunday, the girls were going shopping so it was my day to do whatever. First I went out early to Wal-mart and Sam’s club with the intention of picking up the supplies needed to perform the maintenance that was suggested by Nissan as well as some tools and supplies for the other vehicles as well. I also intended to pick up a DVD/VCR combo player at Sam’s since our VCR died. When I hit Sam’s club I got a bit side tracked and also purchased a “SkeeterVac” to replace our broken “MOsquito Magnet” The SkeeterVac is different as it uses more lures and is cordless. It uses the propane to do more than generate heat, it also operates the fan unit.

So I took all my toys home, set up the SkeeterVac and then got ready for part two of Shawn’s day of fun, a trip to the dog track! Well it turned out to be anything but fun. On Sundays, there is no live racing, only simulcasting. The clubhouse level where I always go is closed and instead you have to go to the grandstand area. The grandstand level isn’t nearly as nice. I waited to eat until I got there, a big mistake. Unlike upstairs where they serve good food, downstairs my only option was food from a one person food stand run by an old lady that didn’t care much about sanitary food practices. She would work the register, handle money, prepare the food and take smoke breaks without ever washing her hands in between. I got a shitty burger, shitty fries and bad tasting diet coke from her and tried to balance everything with my simulcast book as I looked for an open place to sit. It was extrememly annoying as I looked for a spot and realized that many people where spreading their books over 2 desks to artificially create the illusion that someone was sitting there. After seeing no open spaces and getting increasingly annoyed, I finally asked one of the guys with such a setup if there was anyone actually sitting there and he reluctantly admitted that noone was. Yay, I sat down and piled my food and betting info into my small workspace.

I decided to keep it simple and just bet the dog races at one remote track to keep my betting regulated and to avoid having to scramble and make picks without thinking. As I started eating my bad food, I also realized that it was hot in there and where I was sitting there was no hint of any moving air, making me feel cramped and uncomfortable. The guy on my right was maybe 50, with his young kid on his right. This guy was one of those guys that said everything he was thinking. At first I thought he was actually speaking to me, I soon realized that he was just talking out loud. He was very verbal as his races were running. He would snap his fingers, encouraging his horses to move up, he would curse the horses that he didn’t have money on that were ahead and generally was just annoying. I didn’t think it was very cool for him to be dropping the f bomb regularly with his 10 or 11 year old son sitting there. To my left was an inidian man that said nothing and simply stared at the betting books and his tv, I could never tell if he was winning or losing his bets. Behind me where some funny sounding koreans. It was amusing hearing them cheer their horses on with their accent.

So as I was trying to throw down my crappy lunch I looked over the lineup at the track I was betting at. I did my normal analysis and placed my bets. Loser! In total I bet 9 races and lost everyone but 1. It was a bad day. By the end I was in a pissy mood. Pissy enough that I didn’t even bother cashing the $1.40 credit slip I had left, I just threw it out and walked out. In total I lost about 45 bucks, a mild hit but losing so consistently really sucked the fun out of it. I doubt I will ever do the simulcast only days again, it was miserable.

Sunday evening I felt like crap from eating that junk at the track, so much so that I begged out of going to dinner with Ali and her friend, so they went by themselves. I used the time to play a new game I got for the XBOX, Top Spin Tennis. The game is awesome. The graphics are so realistic it is scary. Plus you can create a player from scratch, having total control of their appearance. My first character I made insanely ugly as well as huge. He was 6’9″ and 288 pounds. An impressive physical specimen, but I soon learned that his body type didn’t work too well on a tennis court. So I recreated my character this time making him much smaller but just as ugly. The game even allows you to taunt, encourage and even throw temper tantrums as you see fit. I usually only used the temper tantrum option, I enjoyed watching my guy slam his racket on the court in disgust and then kick it. I went online a little bit and played a handful matches and got destroyed in every match except one. Evidently before you go on XBOX Live you need to train your player so he has the maximum skill possible in the game, otherwise you have no shot of being remotely competitive online. I’m working on it.

Monday I played auto mechanic in the morning. I did all the maintenance that the Nissan dealer recommended for the Sentra. What probably would have cost me well over 100 bucks at the dealer was accomplished for 10 bucks in parts and about 45 minutes of my time. Then I tackled replacing the passenger side door lock motor on the Vette. It was a bit of a challenge but I got it in and working. As a bonus, when I put it back together, I took some time and actually got the door panel installed correctly so it doesn’t sound like your are rattling a tin can full of screws when you close the door anymore. So far I have fixed at least a dozen little things on the Vette and it feels like I have only put a small dent in what needs to be done. The rest of Monday I spent a lot of tennis time, and cursing my UPS’s that have bad batteries that kept clicking off during play, causing me to lose my progress. That is on the short list to get fixed.

We had a lot of rain this weekend, we have standing water all over the property again. I took some pictures of recent projects/purchases that I will be adding soon. I didn’t shave all weekend so I had some considerable facial hair action. I decided to go with a modified goatee/ beard thing for this week for fun. Alison said I look like Abe Lincoln, haha.