I normally don't do viral email but I thought this was clever. So, I have to share!

clicky clicky then press play

I think I've officially gone into Lurker mode.

oh wait, I'm posting... well that blows that theory out of the water.

Just like a few of you out there, I haven't had the urge or inclination to make any entries. Why? I think it's because I just feel like I don't have anything really poignant to say.

It's like I haven't had anything to post about... my life has been very busy and full lately. to Recap:

kybigstew and I went to Camp Buckwood over the 4th of July weekend and we had a blast, even with all the rain that poured on us. Met up with Carl & Jimmy and Shannon & Steve and just partied. The rain cleared eariler on Friday and it was perfect weather for the fireworks and Saturday afternoon was perfect weather for lounging at the pool.

OH, Stella Artois is tasty. I'm just sayin'.

I did have a geek out moment that weekend. Saturday night, while totally hammered, I saw shiny lights in the darkness. Upon closer inspection, it turns out it was a couple guys "fighting" with replica LightSabers.. red and blue blades. I, of course, became as giddy as a schoolgirl and went up to them to talk. they said if I like them then I would love this... one guy walks away and pulls out the Darth Maul dual saber. It was bliss just holding it. I wanted to see these guys go into the woods where it's really dark and then start dueling so the only thing you could see are the blades.

I know... nerd. get over it.

Anyway, aside from the geek-out moment, it was a terrific holiday weekend. Chris and I want to go back again this summer.

My car has been in the shop a few times. I took it in for a major tune up and to fix this wicked shimmy in the front end. I couldn't get above 55 without feeling like I was in an earthquake. So, after an oil change, new plugs, wires, rotors, brake pads, front end alignment, wheel balance, new bearings and two o2 sensors, it ran like a dream. It felt like my Mazda had it's Zoom- Zoom back.

Until it started stalling out at stop lights.

I took it back in and they said that there was a vaccum leak in the top of the engine. I asked why this wasn't caught when it was in the shop last week, and they couldn't give me an answer. anyway, they're taking off a bunch of labor charges for this and it went back in on Friday. I get a call on Saturday stating that they were finishing up my car and it's ready for pick up. Well, I was in the middle of a pool and they were closing in 15 minutes, so I couldn't pick it up until Monday.

Flash ahead to monday, i get there at 7:30 when they open and the car is still in the garage with the hood up. Turns out, after they took it out, it was still losing vaccum and they needed to replace the injector and O-Rings. they were waiting on the parts and it should be ready in a couple hours.

Oooo-kaaaay..... so I waited.

The mechanic that was working on my car came out with a pissed off look on his face. Yaaay, this is never good. He told me that the O-rings that are needed to seal up the leak were rings that were connecting the injector to the engine, not to the other end where they thought the problem was. Oh, and the rings are available only through the dealer and they needed to be dropped-shipped to them. So, I still didn't have a car and wasted three hours at the repair shop.

My car should be ready today. Hopefully.

Let's see what else they can find that's wrong with it.

Back in May when I went to my folk's place for my Niece's church confirmation, I noticed this box in the garage. Apparently, my Dad got this from his Aunt Jean's estate after she passed. It was a Coleman Camp Stove. I asked if they were ever going to use it,and they said probably not. So I asked for it and they said take it.

Yesterday, I broke it out to take a closer look at it. I compared it to the current model and there's surprisingly very little difference in it.

What really got me was the vintage instruction manual and how cartoony it was:



EDIT: Wow, I found a .pdf of the instructions on the Coleman Site...

And the registration card. it was on an IBM punch card.



I'm half tempted to send in the card to see if I could really register this. But then again, this is vintage documentation and I should just keep it.

Also, here's a few other pics from the past few weeks.... nothing too spectacular:

* Went to WestFest this year... man can these people drink! Also, I wasn't expecting it to be really packed as it was.



*Moist. That's how everyone in Chris's office described Chris' Streussel / Coffee cake.



* and i'm just playing around with lights at Ikea.

Coming home yesterday from Chris's Grandma's place, we spied this on I-75 north:



Knitting on the back of a motorcycle.

All I can say is dayam... she's got skills.

So in the package of flyers this week we got a special offer for a 12 month subscription of Playboy for $12.

....uumm....yeah..... because I'm all about reading the articles.

srsly.

*shred*

Apparently last month, there was a performance of Chess The Musical in Concert in London with Josh Groban as Anatoly, Idina Menzel as Florence and Adam Pascal as Freddie. From the youtube shots that I've seen of it, it was amazing. Also there's a DVD of the concert coming out later this year.

This is Idina Menzel and Kerry Ellis singing "I Know Him So Well".

So we went to see a hockey game tonight. Turns out, it was Game 6 of the ECHL Championship. Cincinnati won the Championship and The Kelly Cup (the ECHL equivalent to Lord Stanley's Cup in the NHL) in front of a sold out crowd at US Bank Arena. I think it was the most attended game they've had in years.

It was an awesome game. I should really go more next year.

Also I decided to take part in a photo project called Capture Cincinnati. I've put some of my photos on there already.... I'm wanting to upload a lot of my Fountain Square pics too. I think that would definitely get people's attention. Vote for me and maybe I'll get in that book they want to publish!!

Clinton To Concede Race



EDIT:

At the time I originally posted this both CNN and MSNBC were saying the same thing. Now, this was updated about 1215 ET:

Clinton Won't Concede

When we last left our intrepid home dwellers, the living room looked like this:






Sandy blah blah color on the wall and ceiling, dark navy blue on the woodwork and doors.


With a little bit of determination (and a whole lot of fuckin' primer and ultra white paint) we now have ( this: )

For jeremasaur....



Calves courtesy of kybigstew and kybearfuzz. and yes, that' from left to right.

We saw Iron Man tonight.

I've been telling people that Robert Downey JR was a perfect choice for Tony Stark, especially when they were all like "Oh, I don't know if he can pull it off" blah blah blah.

He did. And how.

Go see the movie. It's a terrific movie.

And that teaser at the end of the credits? OOOOOOOHH.... my fanboy got all nipply.

So, I bought Mario Kart for the Wii tonight.

Oh, it's so much fun. Even Chris is taking to the Wii like a fish to Water.



And this is coming from the guy "that's not coordinated for video games". Meh.

don't let Chris fool you.

So, it was a fairly good weekend.

Since my b-day was last week (thank you everybody for the well wishes) I continued the festivities through the weekend. fedex_cub came down from Columbus and we all had a terrific time.

Friday night was pizza at Dewey's pizza in Crestview Heights over in KY. Sure it took an hour to get in but the company was terrific (role call: myself, kybigstew, fedex_cub, howiemeister and Chris's friend Jeff from Houston (no LJ, he won't convert, dammit!) Well, the Dewey's was wonderful, and afterwards we went to Rosie's tavern in Covington. A nice, neighborhoody place that serves good beer, big shots and the only floorshow is from the jukebox.

Those bitches got me obliterated for my birthday. Ooohhh, Saturday was not pretty.

Saturday pretty much was lying around the house recovering from the night before. Chris BBQ'd and Chris and Jeff came over for dinner before we all headed to Adonis. fun and dancing was had but Chris and I left early and decided to crash.

Sunday.... I got up early and I was able to FINALLY get a Wii. WOOHOO!!! I got the Wii play also so that gives me the second controller. I was not happy when I found out the nunchuk didn't come with the wiiplay. Chris and I met Chris and Jeff over at Hofbrauhaus for a late lunch, then we came home for more painting.

Today, I think I"m fighting the flu. oh, I"m so not happy right now.

There are time when i really love my job.

This is not one of them.

Long story short, having to deal with two ATM lines that have only one ATM EACH on them is just a nuisance. Anyway, I'm oncall, and I don't wanna be.

Now, here's some really good news-

I'm going to Chicago for training! I'll be in Schaumburg May 11-16. mikiedoggie, this is a change in plans. From what the itinerary says, my classes are over at 5pm. So... what's going on in Chicago that week?? :-)

*happy dance for the trip!!*

Ok... So when we moved into the house back at Thanksgiving, we had some issues with the color choices of the previous owner. That much is a given fact.

This was the color of the dining room when we got the house.



do not mind the dirt or the dead plant. That was Roscoe's doing back in January. Anyway, the walls were a light sandy beige and all the wood work was hunter green.

yawn.

Well, we were busy little boys this weekend and we decided to give the dining room a ( makeover )

If a woman took a "morning after" pill the "night before", would that create a temporal paradox?

there are times I really like my job, especially when others have to call me to fix things.

Case in Point: I got called by the oncall engineer because she's fairly new to the company and needed help with an issue that has been going on. Apparently an ATM line has been down for the past 48 hours and our NOC ran out of options on what to do. They tested the line, checked CSU configurations, everything on troubleshooting an issue at the ATM level. So, she called me.

I start taking a look at it and I immediately notice a problem in the Data Center and I had to drive into work to fix it. Long story short, it was a cabling issue - a cable from a network controller to a patch panel was cocked out of it's slot. I pushed it back in and it's working like a champ.

*shakes head*... I think my NOC needs lessons in the basics of cabling and troubleshooting.

Again.

But at least I'm getting a Snickers from the oncall engineer. And she better King size it.

There are two Burger Kings near where I live. One is about 1 mile away and the other is about 2 miles in Delhi (that's pronounced DELL-high). I try not to go to the one closest to me because it's a ghetto mess with Charlequetta workin' the drive thru with her 4 " nails she just had did at Megan Nails. So, I went to the one in Delhi.

This is definitely a case of looks can be very deceiving. The woman who took my order just volunteered that she needs to get some Bacardi rum for her can of Coke Zero, " 'cause it tastes better". Another worker almost fell out of the booth she was in because she was sleeping, and two others were "gettin' all up in their grills 'cause one chick's babydaddy is startin' ta like the other chick".

It was like watching a trainwreck. it was awesome!

So I finished my tendergrill sandwich and went to the drive thru carry out and got some Lottery tickets.

time to go to bed so I can sing pretty tonight.

Here's a few random pics that I've taken over the past few weeks. No real stories about the pics, just me taking pics and sharing.

( completely work safe, but cut to save space )