Archives 2013

This past weekend was supposed to be a Randall visit which typically is filled with all sorts of sillyness.  Randall rescheduled for a few weeks in the future, leaving me with a more or less wide open weekend.

Saturday was a stark contrast to the weekend before that was filled with tons and tons of ass busting labor.  This Saturday may have been the most laid back weekend day I have had in a year.  Other than doing the normal weed pulling/garden tending, the day was almost totally void of chores thanks to Cindy knocking out most of it during her day off Friday. It felt weird not buzzing around like normal but the overcast and rainy skies made it feel almost appropriate to just hang out.

One of the things I did was start watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series of movies. (not the American Daniel Craig version)  Cindy had recommended this awhile back but I sort of disregarded it when she told me it was actually a foreign film with subtitles.  Reading a movie just was not something that interested me.  Well for whatever reason on Saturday I was more willing to give it a try.

As I expected, watching a film where everyone was speaking Swedish was pretty annoying at first.  Scanning between the subtitle and the movie seemed unnatural.  However Cindy had told me that after awhile it becomes less obtrusive. ( I didn’t believe her) It turns out she was right.  Eventually my brain adjusted to the format and I was able to take in what was going on without much difficulty.

The films are very dark but compelling.  The version on Netflix are the extended cuts, each movie is broken into two 90 minute sections which means in total I spent about 6 hours watching the first two movies.  I never thought I would give a subtitled film an A- rating but here it is.

On Sunday morning Cindy and I did the 30+ mile Ave Maria ride we had planned to do with Randall.  The weather was not as dreary as Saturday and the temps in the high 60’s when we started felt refreshing.  The ride went pretty well.  When we do it we switch off the lead every 5 miles or so to allow the other to benefit from a wind breaker.

Cindy actually struggled during part of the ride, her legs were tired from running 8 miles on the treadmill (while I played Haerthstone) the day before.  Several times when I was ahead I looked back and had lost her which is very rare since she is normally a stronger cyclist than I am.  However she had the last 5 mile lead segment, during which, she was averaging 21+ mph for the majority of it so maybe she was just playing possum to make me feel better.

I had ideas of knocking out half of the pressure washing jobs that are looming over me, the pool area and sheds.  I thought possibly after biking I would have time to do this before the Eagles game.  However after grabbing gas for the cans and running errands I didn’t get back home until after 11:30, too late to get it done. Plus it was abnormally warm yesterday which helped melt away any motivation to do the work. Instead I quickly planted the additional crops we bought for the garden, a tray of kale plants and some stevia.

Wow that Eagles game was truly a tale of two cities.  For basically three quarters the Eagles confirmed that they are truly a much improved team, pushing the Redskins around to build a dominating 24-0 lead.  Then, in the span of 15 minutes they erased that perception.

The Eagles completely imploded, allowing the Redskins to score two touchdowns AND convert two 2 point conversions while doing absolutely nothing on offense themselves.  I guess last weeks 9 minute plus drive to close out the Packer game was just a fluke.

When the defense allowed the Redskins to convert a 3rd and 25 during the final drive I felt sure that they were going to find a way to somehow lose the game which would have been one of the biggest collapses in recent NFL history.  I could feel the anger and rage boiling up inside me as the Skins drove down the field, only 20 yards from scoring a ridiculous third touchdown in the quarter.  Thank goodness RG III made a boneheaded throw which Boykin picked off in the end zone to save the game.  Not only did he save the game, he saved me from looking like a raving lunatic in front of Cindy.

It’s hard to feel great about a game such as this.  Despite the great start, the horrible finish was a sobering pull back into reality.  I will do my best to look at the bright spots like the Eagles being in first place  despite a thoroughly mediocre 6-5 record.  Or perhaps we can all celebrate the Eagles winning their first game at the Linc in over 400 days.  Yes a win is a win is a win.  I can only hope they learn from the black hole they stepped into in the 4th quarter and do a much better job of closing out teams consistently.

Sunday night we watched Bullet to the Head, my latest Netflix rental.  Cindy never heard of the movie and was skeptical that Stallone could pull off a solo action movie himself nowadays.  Her questions were answered, he still can.  Despite being in his mid-60’s I found the movie a quite satisfying rental.  It had everything a brainless action movie should have, good fight scenes, strong one liners, hot chicks and a revenge plot. It get’s a B+ all day long.

There were several high quality Vines produced this weekend.  I will leave it up to you to find them.  However ironically, the funniest one of all may have been produced by Jeremy.

So when I was doing my bills yesterday I noticed my Comcast bill was magically $20 higher than the month before.  I fired up Comcast chat and started ranting.  Evidently the promo I did in April where they gave me basic cable tv service, that I don’t use, and internet for 49.99 had expired.  I was on a new “step” promo where they ONLY raise the price 40% until April of next year and then I get smacked with another 5 bucks which is the full rate.

Argh I am so sick of doing this song and dance with Comcast.  I fired off my normal “I’d like to cancel my service” deal starter but was told only their phone reps in the “Customer Loyalty Department” could offer me any new deals.    In the past I have been able to secure better deals via Comcast online reps.  I angrily clicked the CLOSE CHAT button.

Obviously I need high speed internet service since a large portion of my tv entertainment is delivered down Comcast pipes however paying $70 for that service and throw away, crappy tv service (not even HD) annoys the hell out of me.  I may need to look closer at what high speed DSL can do for me nowadays.

The other day I took a picture of the SSR odometer, it had just hit 39,000 miles. That’s a very low number considering the truck is now 8 years old. (really almost 9 since it was built  January 25th of 2005) When I bought the truck around two years ago it had somewhere just under 29,000 miles on the odometer.

When I bought the truck I obviously was not going to make it my daily driver.  I implemented a plan where I would take it to work on Fridays.  It’s the best day of the work week typically so why not amplify that with a weekly SSR commute?

I kept up this routine for awhile, maybe the first 9-10 months of ownership.  It was fun in some ways although it seemed like the SSR was a bad weather magnet. It felt like it rained more days than not when I brought it. Also when I brought it to work the only place I felt safe parking it was in the garage which is a considerable walk from the office, making things like my lunch time gym trips tougher to swallow.

Slowly the Fridays I would commute in the truck became fewer and farther between. Present day I never take the truck to work unless a social event or other need dictates it.  Instead I will take it out on the weekend if Cindy and I go somewhere but there are times where the silver beast can sit dormant in the garage for two weeks or more.

A part of me actually likes this, I want to preserve the truck, keep the mileage low so it remains pristine and valuable.  Part of me is in conflict with this strategy, as I paid a lot of money for the SSR and it doesn’t repay much in fun dollars if the ignition is turned off.  When I am on the road with the truck I try to make sure I do indeed make up for lost time.  6000 rpm shifts with the Corvette motor sound and feel amazing as does the back pressure gurgle as I downshift the 4800 pound beast.

There are even fleeting moments when I wonder if I should even own a vehicle like this. Fiscally it makes no sense, I could save a ton of money from the net proceeds of selling the truck compounded by the subtraction of a car payment, insurance and registration costs.   Fortunately I don’t make all my decisions in life purely in terms of dollars and sense.

Did you know that I am officially an Apple and Android developer?  There is no programming experience needed to gain this title, only money.  If you send Apple 100 bucks or Google $25 you can become an official “developer” and are allowed to post apps to either Apple’s app store or the Google Play system. I am working with a 3rd party tool to create an app, hence my need to become a “developer”, at least in title.  Hopefully within a week or two my app will be downloadable for all iOs and Android devices.

Last night Cindy and I went to dinner with mom for an early birthday dinner.  Mom’s birthday is actually on Saturday.  We scheduled Thursday night because Randall was supposed to be come hang out this weekend. Unfortunately Randall now is not coming but I left the Thursday dinner date intact, figuring Mom would prefer a weeknight because of crowds and her weekend work schedule.

We went to Bonefish Grille, a place I never frequented before, even though Mom was sure I ate there before. (I didn’t)  I picked up mom in the SSR.  We got to Bonefish a little before Cindy and grabbed a drink at the bar.  I was a bit annoyed that the reservation I called in the day before was nowhere to be found.  Luckily it wasn’t all that crowded so we didn’t wait all that long once Cindy got there.

The three of us enjoyed a nice dinner although the background noise made it tough for mom to hear things as clearly as she would have liked.  I had some tilipia dish that was very good.  Mom had good reviews for her sea bass and Cindy loved her orange roughy as well.

By the time dinner was over, roughly 8:30, mom was chewing at the bit to get going since her normal bedtime nowadays hits around 9ish.  I dropped the top on the SSR but left the side windows up to make the drive back to her place fun but not too cold.

On the way home I tried talking to mom about some topics that deal with her general approach to life nowadays and as usual she immediately wanted to avoid discussing anything substantial. If mom spent a fraction of the energy that she uses creating excuses why she can’t do various things and put it into positive action instead, she would astound herself with what she could still actually accomplish. Unfortunately I can’t provide this motivation for her, and her unwillingness to simply talk about this behavior roadblocks any effort to remedy the problem. The water is right there, you just have to drink.

This weekend, which was going to be filled with Randall-antics is now going to be pretty low key.  My chore list looks to be reasonably small.  Cindy and I might do the long Ave Maria ride on Sunday and depending how my lower body feels, we might try to get a run in tomorrow.

Despite Randall not showing up I am still sporting my obnoxious. fu-man-chu style mustache.  Cindy thinks it looks awesome.  We don’t share that opinion.  I’m not sure how long I can take looking like a Village People member.

So yesterday was my last evening with the girls.  Ali flew home after almost a week up in PA.  I was happy to see that Nicki once again resumed conventional eating, cleaning her supper plate and even finishing up one of the new joint health chewable treats for desert. Since I was bringing the dogs back in the van anyway, I offered to pick Ali up at the airport.  The dogs get very excited to see her when she gets back and I had nothing pressing on my schedule.

So anyway it’s just back to me and Tuki once again. It was fun having the girls around to add excitement for close to a week.  Now I need to run the Neato for a few days straight to digest all of the dog hair.

Tonight I am taking mom out for an early birthday dinner.  We are going to Bonefish Grill, a place I have wanted to check out but never got around to.  Tonight it gets crossed off the list.

I don’t really have much to blabber about today.

After work last night I stopped at the vet to pick up some stuff for Nicki’s severe back leg pain.  One thing was a dog safe Advil type pill and the other was chewable “treats” that have glucosamine type supplements to hopefully help Nicki out over the longer term.  When I got home I was glad to see that Nicki had returned to her more or less normal level of gimpiness compared to the near  disabled state she was in after the walk on Monday.

When I prepared the dogs supper Nicki came over and sniffed it briefly and then walked away, disinterested.  This is a game I have played with her before.  When she stays out at the house her eating habits can be very hit or miss.  Yesterday morning she was also acting disinterested in eating.  Cindy got her to eat by bringing the bowl over to her, sitting next to Nicki and hand feeding her a few pieces of chicken to get her going.  After that Nicki ate the rest of the chicken herself while laying on the floor.

When Nicki doesn’t eat right away it is a problem because if I leave her food dish unguarded, big pig Sadie will slide in there and devour the food in short order. So last night when Nicki again acted disinterested I took her food bowl over to her, she was laying on the dog bed by the slider.

I wanted to make sure she got her half a pain pill which I had hidden inside of a bigger piece of chicken.  I held it up to Nicki and she turned her head, like a child that doesn’t want to eat their green beans.  I had a one way conversation with Nicki, asking her why we have to play these games?

I then came up with a devious plot.  I called Sadie over, and gave her a small piece of chicken out of Nicki’s dish. Well a little sibling food jealousy was all it took.  Nicki gobbled down every piece of food I handed her from that point on.  Obviously she was hungry but for whatever reason did not want to be bothered with eating conventionally.

Once again this morning I had to repeat the same song and dance.  As I was handing Nicki chunks of chicken I told her she shouldn’t get too used to “room service”.  If past history plays out again, once Ali comes home(tonight), Nicki will return to eating normally.  For whatever reason she gets more neurotic when she is out at the house.

Both of the dogs have taken part in a number of Vines while they have been with me.  As expected, Sadie has had more camera time due to her in your face tendencies.

Can you believe the stories and images from the Phillipines? 147 mph winds and a 20 foot storm surge?  That makes Katrina look like a walk in the park.  Even with everyone knowing it was coming they still had an incredible amount of people die.   Mother nature can be a wicked mean bitch.

Over the weekend my grandmother, whom for the last decade has lived a miserable existence suffering from diabetes and Alzheimer’s, passed away, thankfully.  Although I never had a close relationship with my grandma, she was still my grandmother.  Regular blog readers may recall the last time I saw my grandmother and the emotional torture I felt seeing her in that state, having no idea who I was and reacting angrily to any attempts to communicate with her. It was horrible.

The news of her passing brought on feelings of sadness and remorse but they were quickly replaced with relief that her days of suffering have finally come to an end.  Wherever grandma is, hopefully she has a cat on her lap.

It’s stories like grandma’s and my grandfather before her that make me so unwilling to go down the same road myself, where the only reason you are kept alive is as a profit center for a nursing home.

I set up my three day Veterans Day weekend to be very labor intensive.  It was enough to do’s that I created one of my infamous to do lists to keep me on point.  I wasted no time getting started on the list, hanging a towel bar in the master bathroom somewhere around 8 o’clock Friday night.  On Saturday I was up early and again resumed labor almost immediately after eating breakfast, weeding and weed whacking the property, finishing up by 8:30 am.

I had hopes of getting half of the tree trimming project done on Saturday afternoon, taking advantage of overcast skies and mild temperatures.  Unfortunately those same clouds started dumping rain mid-afternoon.  I only got the front trees trimmed before I had to retreat inside due to wetness.

The rain stopped my tree trimming but not my conquest to defeat the list.  I immediately turned my attention to hanging the tv and sound bar on the wall in the master bedroom.  I had bought a cheap (less than $30) mount kit from Costco, two outlet boxes to route the cables into/out of the wall, and a drywall saw to help me cut out the wall.

As in most projects I tackle, I had loose outline in my head of how things will go but I a lot of it was just going with the flow.  Getting the TV on the wall wasn’t all that hard since I have basic math and measuring skills.  I used both of these to determine center point on the wall and then a level for the template and the brackets used to suspend the TV.

The bracket install hit a small snag when one of the mounting halls fell on top of a metal stud.  The instructions directed me to drill a 3/8″ inch hole into the metal stud and then use a self tapping PLASTIC mount into the stud.  Well the self tapping mount disintegrated when it hit the metal.  Instead I went and grabbed one of my drywall mounts/screws and managed to get a secure connection to the wall.

The toggle bolt things they include for plain drywall mount were surprisingly strong and secure.  When I saw on the box the kit supported a TV up to 80″ and/or 121 pounds on any wall surface I was skeptical.  After attaching the brackets I was a believer.  They felt well up to the task of holding my 47 inch LED on the wall. Unfortunately getting the TV on the wall was only the first part of this project.  I had my LG sound bar to get up there as well as cutting out and installing the two outlet boxes to hide the cables.

Mounting the sound bar was the simpler of the two remaining items, once again only requiring a measuring tape and a level after I marked where the bottom of the tv was on the wall.  The outlet boxes were more of a challenge.  The top box needed to be behind the tv, hidden from view.  Luckily, the outlet boxes I bought can literally be put anywhere on a wall, no stud required.  They use a cool setup to extend arms behind the drywall that locks the box in place when tightened.

I put the top box centered and above the bottom of the tv frame.  The second box was located about 6 inches below the top of the dresser.  Once the boxes were in place there was a tedious cable routing task that took awhile.  At first I thought I would need a longer HDMI cable for the Blu-ray player but I found a 6 footer that was just long enough.

So after about 3 hours of work I had everything in place and cleaned up.  I am very pleased with the outcome.  The TV and sound bar look awesome on the wall and the top of my dresser is no longer a cluttered mess.  It makes the room look significantly different for some reason.

You can see all of my pictures from the project here.  Yes, I made a video about the project as well, check it out here if you have a spare 10 minutes.

Saturday night we watched my latest Netflex rental, Pain Gain.  It was a disappointing way to test out my slick new TV install.  The movie was terrible.  It’s hard to believe it was based on a true story.  Michael Bay is quickly becoming another M. Night Shamaylan.  What is the last movie he did that people actually liked?  I’d give the movie a C-, clearly the worst film I have ever seen The Rock or Marky Mark ever take part of.

Sunday morning started off with a 20 mile DD ride.  The ride there was a wonderfully wind assisted stroll in the park. Of course that meant the ride back was the opposite, a full time, full wind that made maintaining 15 mph miserable.  Cindy insisted on being in the lead the entire way back saying it was good training for her half Ironman in January.

After getting back from the tiring ride we “rested” by resuming the tree trimming project.  Cindy was the limb removal crew, picking up and dumping the hundreds of palm fronds in the back fill pit while I worked high up in the tree tops.  Every year this job gets more and more dangerous due to a trees tendency to grow.  There are two trees in particular that are very high, so high that even with my 20 foot extension ladder and long arms I am hard pressed to reach everything.

This year I utilized the electric chainsaw/pole trimmer that Todd bought me for Xmas 2012 to get some of the tippy top branches.  The problem is trying to operate the pole saw while precariously balanced on a wobbly extension ladder is very difficult.  There were more than a few times that my balance point was dangerously close to the tipping point.  In total we spent 3 hours finishing up the project.  Having Cindy take branches back was a huge time saver. I told her when I did this job solo I could easily consume a solid 8 hours of grueling labor.

My reward for the tree trimming work was an Eagles win, and a convincing one at that against the Green Bay Packers, in Green Bay no less.  Granted, the Packers were sort of playing with one arm tied behind their back since Aaron Rodgers was out with an injury and their back up got hurt in the first series, leaving their 3rd stringer to guide the team.  Still, the Eagles offense played well, and the defense made big plays and stops when they needed to to keep the game from getting close.

However the most impressive thing I saw all game was at the very end when the Eagles ran the ball down the throat of the Packers to run out the clock.  I can’t recall the last time the Birds actually closed out a game convincingly in that manner.  It was a great win.

So the Eagles are now tied with the Cowboys in the lackluster NFC East with a 5-5 record.  Amazingly the Eagles are 5-0 on the road and 0-5 at home, a very baffling and aggravating trend.  Why the Eagles have never been a strong team at the Linc remains a mystery but I can only hope that trend starts reversing this week against the Redskins.

Sunday night Cindy and went to see the new Thor movie in 3D.  I liked the movie, probably as much as I liked the first version.  It gets a solid Marvel super hero flick A rating from me.  However almost every Marvel superhero movie gets an A from me.  They just know how to do it right.

After an ass busting first two days to the weekend I vowed to make Veterans Day much less laborious.  I sort of did.  The day started with a trip to Lowes to grab garden soil and some plants to get the Florida winter garden season kicked off.  On the way back we took the dogs to the swamp for a walk, a place I hadn’t been to in a long time.  Cindy had never been there.

Cindy immediately appreciated why I enjoyed my walks with the dogs there, it’s so remote, so peaceful, so quiet. The last time I went to the swamp with the dogs Nicki was EXTREMELY sore and stiff afterwards so I was very mindful of how far we went.  We turned back around a half mile from the boardwalk area not wanting to push Nicki too hard.  Her pace was slow and steady for the walk and despite her mobility issues she seemed to still enjoy sniffing the endless unique things the swamp offers. We had a couple wildlife encounters, seeing a small 3 foot gator on the way out and a larger, 6 foot gator that was half across the path on the way back.  The high water levels made Cindy a bit nervous since there was very little distance between the water and path you walk along.

Well despite the reduced distance and slow pace, Nicki again really struggled after the walk.  She seemed to be in a lot of pain.  The idea that that might have been her last walk in the swamp made me very sad.

Cindy once again helped in the garden prep.  I turned over, amended and tilled the soil.  Cindy was the raker/tamper.  After the beds were prepped, lettuce, cauliflower, tomato and pepper plants were put in the ground.  I actually have another two or three empty beds that I can put stuff in.  I’d like to fill them with perhaps some broccoli and kale plants.

The list, which I seriously doubted would be totally completed turned out to be a crossed out, a thing of a beauty, before Monday was done.

During the afternoon I took my two quad copters outside to fly, despite some serious wind.  I had not flown the Blade MQX since I bent and replaced one of the rotors.  Well my initial flight attempts with the copter clearly indicated I did something wrong.  As soon as I would try to launch the Blade it would immediately corkscrew into the ground.  After repeated attempts I figured I did something wrong when I replaced the prop, I did.

The Blade came with two additional black props (rear) and white props (front)  I figured both of the black props were the same, they aren’t.  I had stupidly put the wrong prop on, causing the crash and burn behavior.  After I swapped it out the Blade once again flew correctly.  I had a couple bad crashes that bent the pliable props in the same manner that caused me to replace the black one.  However instead of replacing these I simply bent the prop back in place so it was more or less straight.  Surprisingly the quadcopter seemed to fly just fine with the low tech repair, cool.

If you didn’t know, November is known in some circles as Movember, a play on words that is tied in with a testicular cancer awareness thing.  Basically men are encouraged to sport a mustache during the month to raise awareness.  Randall has participated in this movement for several years.  Since he is visiting this upcoming weekend I thought I should hop on board, despite not really being a fan of the look.

Yes, I made more Vines this weekend, most of them with a dog theme.

Most people have various job aspirations as they grow up and I was no different.  I have had a number of different jobs throughout my lifetime and aspired to be many more.  I recall at various times in my childhood thinking I would have liked to be an astronomer, a meteorologist, video game tester/designer, a teacher, a professional baseball player, and many more vocations.

My actual list of jobs since I entered the workforce has been equally diverse although significantly more mundane.  In order they go like this, K-mart stockman, firewood cutter/splitter/stacker, meat cutter at Weis Markets, Hyundai car salesman, directory advertising inside sales for Donnelly Directory, truck driver/loader for Goodwill, pc tech/network engineer for Entre-Ameridata-GE Capital (multiple buyouts), and finally the last dozen years down here as the network admin for a local county government office.  There are also a few brief stints in there where my dad was my pseudo-employer as I did odd jobs for him to make money until I figured out what the F I was going to do next.

For the most part, my job history has been a steady upward curve where one job was better than the previous.  The only exception was when I left the sales field for a brief dip back in the hard labor pool while I went to tech school at night.

I have held my current job for over a dozen years, the longest tenure I have had with any employer in my lifetime.  The job is secure, has good insurance, lots of holidays, stable hours and low stress levels.  Despite these qualities in my employment that many would find quite desirable, that doesn’t mean I still don’t have other vocational aspirations.

Even as I approach 46 years old, I still think about other possible avenues I could take in the future which would amplify my happiness inventory while allowing me to earn a living that still enables me to live comfortably.

How cool would it be to a full time YouTube content producer?  There’s a few lucky individuals that live entirely (some quite handsomely) doing nothing but throwing themselves out there via various social media outlets.   Doing something that allowed me to put my health and fitness interest to work would be another cool path to travel.  How about moving out west and being a full time race timer, a job that would blend my sports/IT background.  Utilizing my unpolished, but decent writing skills to make a buck would be interesting as well.

If I did something like win lotto, where money is no longer a main concern, I would still want to work to remain productive.  Working with animals in some capacity would be awesome or anything where I get to enjoy the great outdoors on a regular basis without breaking my back in the process.

The point is, no matter how old you are I think it is always important to have aspirations, to not shut your eyes to other opportunities.  Everyone’s life typically has many forks in the road.  It certainly is less complicated to just keep the wheel pointed straight ahead.  The problem is the view never changes.

Last night Cindy and I met our friend Alfred for dinner at an Italian restaurant I never frequented before.  I figured since I was going to be not eating again until 10am or later the next day I might as well load up.  I did exactly that, downing a plate of spaghetti with shrimp along with two rolls and splitting some chocolate cake for desert. I went full pig mode.

Getting up today and not eating breakfast was odd but not overly difficult.  My 9:15 blood draw went as well as such a thing can go for me.  Having my blood forceably removed from my body has never been something I react well to.  Despite my best intentions I always break out in a cold sweat and feel light headed during the process.

I had the longest weighing session of my entire life.  The woman had an incredibly difficult time getting the old slide style scale to balance out correctly.  I literally was on the scale 5 minutes until she clicked me in at 182 pounds.  My blood pressure came in at 126/74 which is normal by most markers nowadays although I have heard 120/80 is sometimes considered the top end of “normal”.

Nicki has developed another one of her numerous quirks.  You may recall awhile back I described how I started giving Nicki “elevator rides” at Ali’s place, scooping her up and carrying her up/down the steps.  My intention was to save Nicki from working her aching back legs more than necessary.

Well a few weeks ago Nicki started acting like picking her up was a punishment and if I tried to pick her up or even if she thought I might, she would pee.  It’s crazy.  I have had to clean up pee at the bottom of Ali’s stairs multiple times and had my foot peed on a couple times when I was lifting her into the van.

Last night when I got home the dogs followed me into the bedroom.  I was thinking about picking Nicki up and putting her on the bed.  Before her legs got bad she always loved hopping on the bed after work where I would give both her and Sadie rubdowns.  All I had to do was say, “Nicki do you want me to lift you on the bed??!!”.  She peed, fearful of me grabbing her.  Nicki has so many weird hangups.  Not only are they numerous, they shift around on a regular basis.

Earlier this week I talked about how I got my beloved Casio G-Shock to once again synch the atomic time, after failing to do so for around 10 months.  Well a weird thing has happened.  Since doing that manual synch with the watch by the window it has now picked up doing nightly time synchs on its own, even with it laying haphazardly in the junk basket on my dresser.  I guess it just needed a kick in the ass.

Last night I made several more Vines.  For whatever reason when Cindy is around my weirdness level clicks up a couple notches.  If you need proof just look at my twitter feed.

Ok the good news is I have a three day weekend coming up thanks to the wonders of being a local government employee that gets Veterans Day off.  The bad news is I have plans to fill a lot of that time with a SHITLOAD of work.

I am targeting this weekend for the dreaded annual tree trimming event where I trim 25+ trees on the property.  It is ass busting work in every way imaginable.  The plan is for me to do all of the lopping and cutting at one time and then have Cindy assist me with picking all the shit up, throwing it in the Tacoma, and dumping it in the fill pit.

My to do list has many other items on it as well, highlighted by amending/tilling the garden, hanging the bedroom tv/sound bar on the wall, and four or five other chores.  Thankfully Cindy got a good chunk of the mowing done before I got home from work which I finished up via tractor headlights before we went out to eat.

Despite the task heavy 3 day weekend I also am planning to mix in fun things like going to see Thor, a DD bike ride and maybe taking the girls for a walk at the swamp.

Jeremy is considering a new cell phone.  One of the models he is considering is the Motorola Moto-X.  You probably have seen the commercials for the Moto-X. They focus on the customizations you can do with the phone, changing the color combinations of various parts of the device many ways. However this is not a large selling point for Jeremy, nor would it be to me.

What I found interesting is the Moto-X supposedly is assembled in the USA, the only cell phone that can make this claim that I am aware of.  Of course almost all of the components come from other places but still, having it made in the US carries some weight with me as I assume it would for others.

Well here is the weird thing.  The TV commercials for the Moto-X don’t mention the “made here” message at all, you can only find this on their website.  I scratch my head as to why this would be?  It seems like someone in the Motorola advertising office is missing out pushing a big selling point to the masses.

So you may or may not have heard about the chaos going on at Walmart.com yesterday.  Their website all of sudden was filled with ridiculous prices for many, many items.  Deal sites like Slickdeals.net immediately pounced, spreading news of the crazy prices like wildfire through the internet.  Thousands of people swarmed on the site, “buying” items at prices 90% or more less than their normal price.

Now of course, this was a mistake and of course, Wal-mart is cancelling all of these orders.  Today they sent out a WOOPS email to the people hoping to get something for next to nothing.  It basically said “Our bad, here is a $10 gift card for our screw up”

So I officially reserved an Elio.  I did so yesterday via their website.  I don’t recall if I have talked about the Elio in the blog but I know have on Facebook.  The Elio is a 3 wheeled vehicle that is hoping to come into production in mid-late 2014.

The car has proposed MPG numbers of 49 in the city and a whopping 84 mpg in highway driving thanks to it’s light weight and aerodynamic bullet shape.  It has a unique 1+1 seating arrangement where the passenger seat is positioned behind the driver seat instead of next to it.

Despite it’s size, the they are predicting it will also boast a 5 star crash safety rating. It will also include a 3 year / 36000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. Nice.

The Elio will be American made and built in Shreveport Louisiana at an abandoned GM plant, providing thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly.

Oh did I forget to mention that the price of the Elio is projected to be $6800??? Yes, that is correct.

I currently average around $450 a month on gas expenditures.  I would be able to pay for an Elio and still save a nice chunk each month on gas savings alone.  It would be a PERFECT commuter vehicle for my 46+ mile daily round trip commute.

So anyway I plunked down a $100 reservation on an Elio.  For that $100 you are put on the list to be one of the first people to get one once production begins.  They also give you back 150% of your reservation price via a discount off the vehicle.  Oh, and you also get a t-shirt. 🙂

Now of course, many things could happen between now and late 2014.  Getting a car line off the ground is an incredibly difficult and expensive process. There is a chance Elio dies on the vine although they seem to be doing a great job of building buzz and interest.  Regardless, I am willing to roll the dice on it.  I like everything the car represents and am ok with putting my money where my mouth is to prove it.

I picked up the girls on the way home last night.  They will be hanging with me till Tuesday morning.  Night one went ok although I need to make sure to pull myself out of bed on time so I have time to do the dog breakfast prep which takes longer than my own.

I will be quite hungry tomorrow at this time.  I am having blood work done for my insurance plan.  It is a fasted test meaning nothing but water from 9PM on tonight, yay.

Last night we had a meeting at South Street to discuss the logistics of the big upcoming Thanksgiving race.  There were more people there than I expected, probably a few too many.  There is a tipping point where having extra opinions gets to be more of a deterrent than helpful.  We hashed through various details with various levels of efficiency.  I think we accomplished most of the agenda.  My attention was a bit fuzzy as we went on thanks to three Shocktop pumpkin beers.

Tonight after work I am picking up the dogs for an extended stay as Ali is heading up to PA for a few days. Tasking care of them is going to be a team effort.  Cindy will be taking care of them tomorrow on her day off and my neighbor is going to be letting them out during the day on Friday.  I am pretty sure I will be making my first dog themed Vines. 🙂

Speaking of Vines, I released my highly anticipated second Vines compilation video, be sure to check it out.  I now I have over 50 of them.

Last night and today I seem to be having some sort of delayed Tough Mudder issue, my lower back is killing me.  It’s odd because I don’t recall anything specifically that would have caused this sort of tightness.  I am sure it has nothing to do with running 12 miles on uneven terrain. 🙂

I have really been depressed lately since nothing has been posted on spreadtoothin for several days.