New Years Eve snow

While I was busy playing iPhone games, it snowed just enough to shovel this morning.

Like this wall I felt, cold,stiff and inflexible this morning. Office hours on New Years Eve day does not help matters as I would rather be home playing in the wood shop.

Hero Of Sparta

Short weeks with all the work are hardly fun.
iPhone apps like Hero of Sparta are.
This is an oldie but a goodie as nothing makes you feel better than
pulverizing some monsters with a battle axe.

Its cold tonight

At the park it was cold and as a street light reflected off the river. The cold was strong and biting but Tanner had to be walked ( feels like 8 degrees- eek) and it was later than usual as we had friends in from out of town.

It was a day of celebration for good news our friends brought, and a little sadness for some not so good news on our side. Not to mention it was stressful work day, and other life challenges brought some unexpected post-Christmas expenses... Tuesday seems to be the new Mondays, at least around here.

Overheard Last Night on the Couch.....

The Girl: "Wow sweetie, its going to be 2010 soon"

Me: "I plan on living forever to time really has no meaning for me."

The Girl: "…OOOOKAAAAY????…"

Photo cred to : Ben Hein

Snow Falls

Snow Falls in a light patern making it feel like Christmas again. A
nice departure from yesterdays rain. Hopefully everyone had a merry
Christmas. For us it was great, and now today we are off to see a movie.

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

Best Christmas Eve Ever...

I woke to a Star Wars marathon. Mmmmm....Si-Fi goodness.

My Truck

My truck is so dirty...

Country roads cringe when I drive by.

Last min. NON gift ideas, Christmas Eve, Eve

So everyone is worried about what to get one another and here it is the last minute. Instead of that I thought I might give you some things TO NEVER GET ANYONE EVER.

Starting with this, Japanese Super Snuggie.

Thanks to Gizmodo for this one.

Best comment of the day:

Found *here* comment on this photo that was the best:

comment from annebreal:

Who's so cute and wants to rip my face off? You are, you are!

runner up:

Rookie Mistake: why you need to pretend not to know anything.

From the "why no one should know that you know anything about computers" file.

I find this extreemly funny and disturbing all at once.

Shop Update: crunch time 2.2

So it was a short weekend as I had office hours this Saturday and we had a lot going on but I managed to get most of the work done on one of the two projects that needed to be done by Christmas eve.

Here you can see the cherry trash bin almost buttoned up. I used a different type of danish oil finish and I was a little nervous but the results seem to be good.

Well the snow is sticking

At least for now, more is supposed to be on the way so maybe we have a good shot at a white Christmas after all.

Snow

Just in time for Christmas, snow showed up and blanketed everything this morning.

They said we were only to get about an inch, but it seems like we have that iand it still coming down.

People tend to look at your weird:

When you walk around in the middle of December with a 7 foot fishing rod holder (ice fishing polls are short dont-cha-know)

But I find it a most convenient way of transporting a couple of tubes of wrapping paper. Plus what could be more manly?... maybe if fire shot out of the top of it. Thats an upgrade for next season.

Shop Update: crunch time 2

Ummmm... is Christmas really a week or so away? I better finish these shop projects. I don't know if you remember that dimensional cherry that I obtained recently, well its now been transformed into this solid wood bin.

Sure making a trash bin from solid cherry might seem silly to some, and the bottom trim and the lid still has to be cut out... stain and finish applied but damn its starting to look good. This particular piece was built to exact specs to fit in the girls, mothers kitchen where she had one like it that is ailing. Now its just a race against time.

More theme cookies at The Drowsy:

More theme cookies at The Drowsy Parrot this morning... but with all the holiday treats rolling in this time I resisted the urge.

OH-NO-YOU-DID-UNT

I know it’s the season of forgiveness.

I know I should be nice to people but…

IF YOU ARE ONE OF OUR CLIENTS and you hit my truck IN THE FREEKING PARKING LOT, IN FRONT OF MY WINDOW… don’t think you are going to be slick and just drive away.

So you are an old lady… good for you.

I don’t care if you are 84 years old. I don’t care if you only hit my trailer hitch … YOU COULD NOT HAVE KNOWN THAT. YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY STUPID BLIND THAT IS WHY YOU HIT MY TRUCK IN THE FRIST FRICKEN PLACE.

For one thing… I COULD HEAR IT. That’s right you hit my truck hard enough I could HEAR IT. Ok so maybe your deaf too… but It was rocking back and forth, you moved it over. I am pretty sure you kinda noticed.

In the end, you did not damage anything on my truck (thank god for the bullet proof trailer hitch), and I am sure you were scared and that is why you took off… but damn it stop when you hit something.

Wood talk: Cheif Hiawatha:

I know a man named Lyle N. who is a woodworker who lives in the U.P. of Michigan. I was admiring his hand carved cane one day, and told him if he ever wanted to sell it to let me know. So he graciously carved me this one out of a solid branch that had fallen in the Hiawatha National Forest , near his "deer camp".

He sold it to me for a song, that is to say I think that he only charged me a token amount as one woodworker to another. We had spent some time talking wood projects and his 79 year old wisdom was as awe inspiring as his wit was sharp. While I do consider myself a fairly good woodworker Lyle is clearly an artist and I consider him to be in a league of his own. In addition to this cane, he gave me a blank slate, an un-carved and almost untouched branch that he had found that has the vague shape and size of a mans cane. He has set the bar pretty high, but it might be an interesting project to tackle sometime soon.

Time-

A local story about a time capsule from 1989 was in the news. Apparently it was opened in 2009 20 year later and the kids got to see things from 20 years ago. It was all pretty much lame, pizza hut coupon, and other BS. But the following was interesting:
The children's imaginations ran wild when they were asked what they thought the children of the 2029 class would put in.
"Speed shoes that has a keyboard built into it. You type in where you want to go, then you hit go and take one step and it transports you there," said one bright-eyed student.
Its touching really, I remember 1989 and while I had a cell phone, it was literally a brick in a bag. I was progressive, I had a laptop... it was a Packard Bell and it had a black and white screen.

So what do I get out of all of that:
I.
Want.
Those.
Shoes.

Photo cred to Philipp Klinger

Tonight at the park:

Tanner was happy to run through the woods jumping over some fallen logs. The wind had knocked over lots of trees in the bad weather we had earlier this week. So chasing the ball meant taking on a few new obstacles.

What I considered extra obstacles she seemed to, once again, take in stride.

VFR weather-Flight time

Although I had neither the time or quite frankly the gas money to spare, I decided that I would get the plane out and knock the dust off her, and at least stay current.There is something about getting to go flying changes, everything.

I had to adjust the pressure in the front strut, and pull the pane out into the cold sunshine. My nose stings in the cold wind as I check the tanks, oil, make sure the all the surfaces seem intact. The smell of AV fuel and old plane fill the cockpit. I turn the key and it springs to life, my heart races as I push in the throttle and wait for some oil temperature to register on the old gauges. She is purring like an 800 lb jungle cat while I taxi to the active runway. A quick chat with the tower and permission to take position on the active runway comes as natural as saying a passing "hello" to an old friend. Suddenly I am rolling and before I know it airborne and that comes with a thrill that is hard to describe. Its sort of like an adrenaline espresso mainlined into your blood stream. Weather-vaneing slightly into the breeze and running the pattern never gets old. Turing to the final approach and adjusting for being to high and to fast is tricky, the cold wants me to soar. Coaxing her down, to a smooth landing is a challenge and she seems to want to be in the air more than on the ground. In the end, its like the runner who gets addicted to the adrenaline its hard to put her away. The rest of the day always seems brighter, always smells sweeter and its hard to remember why it takes me so long to come back to her.
I don't think it will ever get old.

Santas workshop

I was doing some shopping on Amazon
earlier tonight. Later I ran into this photo of one off many of Amazon's distribution centers.

From what I understand this photo does not do the scale justice as some of these centers reach 1,ooo,ooo sq ft of shipping awesomeness.

Thanks to Giz for the reminder of what the shopping season has become.

Winters back

Its stupid cold ( Feels like -4)

After a quick shower this morning, that came out more like hail, I had a slice of milk ... warmed up by sitting in the fridge for a while before going out side where it was really cold.

Once again, the dog seemed unfazed as she seems to thrive when its cold.

Another suprise:

Among the Christmas presents that are starting to come in, finally, several hundred of these pedometers showed up today left over from the 50 million pound challenge. I guess we are still giving them away.

Anyone want to go for a walk?

How my day started

Today my day started really bad...

When I slipped in the snow this morning I did the splits and so did my pants. As you can see I had to change.

Corporate Innovation

Tanner may be a drooling...

Tanner may be a drooling... tail wagging ornament knocking ball of shedding mess, but she is just Damn insightful.
Take the other day, for example. While sitting at a giant intersection, she suddenly got up from her mid-ride nap and clearly took offense to the vehicle way across the way. I mean in-spite of other vehicles all over the place, she clearly started growling and barking at the car across the large intersection.
I was wondering why, as she was clearly not happy with this particular vehicle when the light turned green and I started to go. That is when Mr. "Tanner no likey" pulled right in front of me turning against my right of way. Of course he got the horn and a few choice words as he turned right in front of me and as soon as it started it was over. Tanner laid back down, to continue napping and I could not help but wonder....
What would it be like to have "Bad Guy" vision like that? Real life super hero. Thats what I 'm talking about.
Dogs are bad ass.

Somtimes People are funny:

Sometimes people are funny, and laugh things off.
I am just glad not all people are crazy.


First email of the day:


Hi XXX:

A deer tried to take me out today on my way to work, hit me in the
driver's door. Don't know why he was after me, I don't hunt. Now I
can't open the door. The deer ran away, so nothing to report to the
Sheriff, nobody stopped to see if I or the deer were OK.

It occurred today at 8:15 AM 12/7/09 on XXXXXXX rd.

Please call me to discuss how I can get my car fixed, it is the XXXXXX with XXXXXXX miles and still driving like new, except now for the
door issue :( .

XXXXXXXX

XXX XXX XXXX

**************************

My reply:

Dear XXXX,

He must have thought you were someone else.

I will call you shortly....

-XXXXX

Kung Fu Hustle

Sometimes you just need somthing stupid to make you laugh.

How can anyone not laugh at this movie.

Overheard at the office:

Woman: I am calling you back; I got a post card in the mail to call.

Me: Let me look… it was just a payment reminder… but don’t worry we received a payment it just crossed… you are all set you only owe $5 and that will be added to your next bill. So you’re good.

Woman: FIVE DOLLARS why did you raise my bill $5.

Me: (already regretting bringing up the $5. I could hear the chip on her shoulder) it just appears that you paid a couple dollars short.

Woman: I am tired of you guys always raising the fees.

Me: Actually, we have not raised our fees, it just appears you did not pay the right amount.

Woman: (crazy gloves are coming off) I am tired of you cheating me, now I am going to have to watch you all the time. I cant trust you any more. It was only supposed to be 2 or 3 dollars not 5.

Me: I am looking at your billing history and it appears you did not pay the set up fee of $2 and the regular 1.4ly billing fee of $3.00. Its just a flat fee that is it. So…. It is what we said it was.

Woman: I know I paid it the fee the first time and what was due the second time.

Me: What do you show you paid?

Woman: I don’t need to know what I paid, I know me and I always pay what I am supposed to pay. So I had to have paid the fee. I always pay online.

Me: It looks like you are putting the wrong account number on it, that I why it was delayed,… I show you paid the first bill short then…

Woman: (Interrupting) DON’T TALK DOWN TO ME.

Me: (Ahem) I am not talking down to you I am just trying to explain to you…

Woman: (Interrupting) I always pay online, like anyone who knows what they are doing,

with the right account number.

Me : Whey you pay on a payment plan there is an account number other then your policy number because you can have more than one policy on your…

Woman: (Interrupting) WHY WOULDN’T SOMEONE CALL ME IF THEY CHANGED MY ACCOUNT NUMBER?!

Me: We don’t really call you, but your account number is on you bill.

Woman: I DON’T LOOK AT MY BILL, I PAY ON LINE.

Me: *sigh* Let me just give you the account number so next time…

Woman: I am not happy with the customer service here, and you raised my fees.

Me: I am sorry you feel that way, but again the fees are just a flat amount, like we said…

Woman: I have had this problem before….I am going to shop around *click*

Me: *sigh*

Best quote I just ran into on the web: " I hate giving into stupid people, but lets face it, they rule the world."

Tree Time: The story continues

It was another short weekend, as I had some office hours on Saturday.
That did not stop us from getting a tree.
As you can see we got quite a nice one.

Frost

Frost adorns the truck this morning making an infinitely random yet
impossibly beautiful pattern over the entire surface.

Tree Time

Its that time of year... you know... when trees start popping up everywhere.
This weekend the Girl wants to get a tree, she has already told me, so we will go and get one/cut one down somewhere close to us.

I was reminded buy recent *blog of note*
*Blackberries to Apples* that some of us do not live close to nature and in the big city bringing home a tree has a whole different meaning.

I guess if you have to take a train, you have to take your tree with you and this guy is on his way home to his family with a Christmas tradition. Its just not a site I am used to seeing around here.

Snow

It was supposed to snow today, but now the weatherman is waffling...
I must admit I am a little disappointed.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Driections

1) print out this image 500 times
2) pass out as needed.

Thanks to *gizmodo* for this one

OMG: we are officially Screwed

Really Comcast? You were not happy with screwing up the delivery system, you have to step into the Kitchen where you can really be dangerous?

Read about it *here*
No good can come of this.

Excess

ex⋅cess

  /n. [n. ik-ses, ek-ses; adj., v. ek-ses, ik-ses]

1. an extreme or excessive amount or degree; superabundance: to have an excess of energy.

2. a going beyond what is regarded as customary or proper: to talk to excess.

3. immoderate indulgence; intemperance in eating, drinking, etc.

–adjective

4. more than or above what is necessary, usual, or specified; extra: a charge for excess baggage; excess profits.

Speaking Of Gifts:

Best
Video
Ever

click *here* or put this in your browser and smoke it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyduncFpzl4

PS- its a YouTube link