Spidey Sense.

This morning when taking Tanner out for her morning business I ran into, almost literally, this itsy bitsy little spider.

She was hanging out in the early morning haze, waiting for a meal to fall into her web. Luckily I was not that meal.

Tanners Treasure...

Tanner may be getting old, but one thing that works better than ever is her nose.
The door of the truck shows the fruits of he labor as she can smell out a tennis ball from a mile away. This means the bushes around the local tennis courts are rife with little yellow treasure.
The good thing: we dont have to buy many dog toys.
The bad thing: This is what all four doors of the truck looks like. Plus an entire duffel at the house. Also a bushel basket, another bag and more.

Office Space....

Today, after working my own office space, I helped the girl move into
her fall apartment.
Tonight I am tired from schleping this stuff back and forth to campus.
This particular desk proved to be a thorn in our side as it proved to
be to large for her space and had to be moved not once but twice.
There and back into storage.
Anyone want to buy a desk?

*update* - desk sold - due to Chelsesy's ninja like craigslist skills.

Game Changer- Google Calls

So this week Google unleashed a very subtle but awesome little tweak to Gmail: calling.

Not only that, but they made all calls in the US (and Canada maybe?) free.

What does that mean. If you have microphone on your computer, and you can press buttons, you can make calls right from your desktop. So what you might ask? Soooo why pay for minutes if you can get it for free. Sooooo why pick up another device if you are already rocking the laptop? So why is calling plans and contracts still part of our lives when data is just starting to flow free? Sure is slightly like skype but here is the deal: We need more of this kind of thing. Things that blur the line between calling and internet bringing to light that it is all just data transfer, and paying for min's and calling plans are archaic and the old business model.

Now is an exciting time to be alive. We are on the precipice of a tech explosion, the likes of which we have never witnessed.

I expect our children's, children may not even own or know what a phone really was. Voice and video and data will be regarded as just info, and it will be moved effortlessly over networks with little thought to how they are different.

Once again, I am both excited and scared for the future.

Perspective....

Today, and the rest of this week, we are expecting San Diego style weather: Sunny and mild mid 70's.

No one will be enjoying the weather more then the two giant maple trees flanking the house. A quick shot looking up at the westernmost tree here shows that the seemingly symmetrical twin tree is really unique and scarred as branches and weather have left a pattern telling a tale of the years past over its surface.

As for the weather, the Maples will not be the only one's enjoying it. It has managed to put me in a good mood as well, undoing some of yesterdays stress as the day is just beginning.

Things that are annoying me today:

Things that are annoying me today:













Things that are not annoying me today:

I am currently addicted to ...

I am addicted to ...flipboard. and Flipboard photos.

From the: Why didn't I think of that file:

From the: Why didn't I think of that file:

When drilling in drywall, stick a post-it underneath the drill, folded to catch all the dust. Then just throw away.

Holy f'n shit... that is so stupid simple.

Thanks to lifehacker, for reminding me that the simple solution is sometimes the best.

Finally the parts I needed to fix the mower arrived...

Finally the parts I needed to fix the mower arrived...

Now maybe I can get the mower running so I can stop borrowing the neighbors. That little silver piece was the culprit. That "blade adapter" was cleaved in half and turns out it holds the blade to the shaft of the engine. I don't want to get to technical but without it there is no turney-turney of the chopy thingie.
You get my drift.
***update***

Belt, blade adapter, and chopie thingie intact and ready to go.

New lawn mower: 300.000
Fixing this one: 50.00

Savings to go toward paying off girls iPad:
$250.00

Satisfaction of being able to fix it myself...priceless.

Flipboard... fliptacular!

So I have been looking at the Girls iPad a little lately.... playing with the different apps and what not.

That is when I discovered Flipboard... this one app alone is worth buying the iPad.

I takes your facebook, twitter feed, and a bunch of other options and automagicly makes it into this cool ass magazine layout that is, how can I explain it, just entertaining as hell.

Its like having and ever changing, always updated periodical of your life and interests.

It.
Is.
Cool.

All I have to say, it is the shit. Best part its free.

Summers spectacular sizzling supper.

Maybe to celebrate, a little.
Maybe to get get our minds off going to work tomorrow.
Maybe just to remind ourselves its still summer...

We picked up some steaks to grill tonight, and had a great dinner just the two of us.
Summers spectacular sizzling supper.

Bittersweet..... condo offer.

It seems that we have an offer on the rental condo.

After a little back and forth, we have pretty much agreed on terms, they seem like qualified buyers and have nothing to sell so.... this might be the end of the Rental condo.

We will still be landlords, as we have the other house, and I have some other things going but it is kind of sad to see her go. She was the first property I ever bought. It does seem like we are giving her away, but we are realistic on what the market is right now, and in the end we are in an OK position, not upside down on it like so many others.

It is good to see that all our hard work seems to be paying off as it was not on the market long before we had an offer. In that respect I am proud of what we have done here.

It is always a little sad, to own a place for so long and in the end to let it go. Over time property becomes a part of you. I have sold places before but this one brings back a lot of memories.... and yet she has to go. I know others would kill to have a property move so fast. Sill...

I guess the deal is not complete yet, some details to followup on but the finality of it all becoming hard to ignore. She was a good home.

I hope the new owners find happiness living here.

Kitty checks back in....

Kitty checks back in... she just cant keep her paws off the Girls iPad.

Lately My dreams have been dark and disturbing

I have weird relationship with my dreams, more than once I feel like they were trying to tell me something.

These last couple days, My dreams have ranged form frustrating to disturbing.

I hope they are not a harbinger of bad tidings.

Today's headlines:

Today's headlines:

Man Fakes Death To Avoid Court Date

Police: Death Certificate Contained Misspellings

POSTED: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

UPDATED: 10:36 am EDT August 18, 2010

Really: can’t see how this one might backfire…. Seriously where do you go after faking your own death? Good Luck buddy. Best part they caught him because he misspelled things on the death certificate. I am not a great speller, but I am breaking out the spell checker on any official death certificate I am trying to fake. I mean, that’s just me.

American Airlines rolls out fee for coach seats

By Marnie Hunter, CNN

August 18, 2010 6:36 p.m. EDT

On Wednesday, American Airlines announced an add-on fee for the front rows in coach class.

nick·el-and-dime

adjective Definition:

1. impoverish somebody through small expenses: to get somebody or something into financial trouble by accumulating many small costs and expenses ( slang )

See also THE ARILINE INDUSTRY

7 die in tricycle bomb attack in China

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Police in western China detained a man suspected of driving an explosive-laden tricycle into a crowd on Thursday, killing seven people and injuring 13, a government official told CNN.

Bombs are never funny… bombs on tricycles? Still not funny. OK maybe a little. What did they use ? Play-Doh explosives? I am pretty sure they mean one of those large adult size bikes, but come on now, what comes to mind when you read that headline?

AND ON AN UNRELATED NOTE: to the ass hat who broke into the office complex here last night. You must have cased the place, but cutting wires to each of the individual parking lights is really not an act of a criminal mastermind… more like the act of a idiot with a pair of pliers. Going through all that, to smash a window and steel a display of sunglasses…well I don’t have enough time or energy to really explain how stupid that all is. Lets just say, I hope it was worth it.

Happy B Day Sweetie

Happy B day Sweetie.

(The Girl, the girl, and Tanner from Rt to Left)

Rainmeter...desktop zen

Since the new laptop is running
windows 7 I decided to take advantage of some of the more powerful customization tools and ran across Rainmeter.

Rainmeter allows a little more customization than the overage windows options allowing me to make my desktop a little more minimalist... just the way I like it.

Scary thing is I only have had a second to play with it.... it might just be the beginning of something crazy.

(Click on the above image to see a better view of my current desktop)

How I feel about summer.

Whats in the box? Whats in the box? Whats in the...

Whats in the box? Whats in the box? Whats in the box? Whats in the Box? Whats in the box?

Actual contents of box: Fishing pole.
Kitties dream contents of the box: Fish.
or empty box.
or birds or empty box. WHATS IN THE BOX????!!!!

Spooky movie night....

From the randomly spooky file....

Last night the girls and I watched Shutter Island.
On its own, its kind of a scary movie, but last night something weird happened.

During the scariest part while watching the movie, the volume just went up to max. That was odd, so I turned it down. Suddenly and unexpectedly, again, it went from 12 to MAX (over 30). So I turned it down again. Again it went up, right when the music was at his scariest, this time it was uncanny.

I tuned all the remotes away from the TV, just in case a button was stuck, removed batteries...and still it went up to max.

My suggestion that a ghost was in the room did not go over so well and was met with groans of protests from them both.

I am not sure if in the end my manipulations fixed it, or if the ghost grew bored and left but as suddenly as it started it stopped.

I guess we may never know.

Fixing things 101...

Fixing things 101... novice addition.

Lesson one:
Fix more things than you break.

So when the homelite trimmer for the country house went down... the tenants wanted me to get it fixed. Rather than pay someone... it seemed to me that it was just a rotted out fuel line... I can just fix it myself.

Of course tractor supply did not have the exact parts I needed but some generic fuel line and some re-purposing of some adapters later I had it running.

I was so proud of myself, that before I mowed the lawn I decided to sharpen the blade. Something I had planned anyway. Of course it should have just been an easy task. Of course that cant happen. All I wanted to do is to sharpen it quick then mow the lawn before dark.

That is when I noticed there was a crack in the "blade adapter" and once the blade was removed it was clear the part was cleaved in half and no longer safe to operate. Indeed it was broken clean in half once I got it off I noticed it was causing the blade to slip. It was only a matter of time before parts were flying off the thing.
So I did not get the lawn done, and I had to order this part for sure. So much for fixing things.

Before work, work.

You may find yourself, living in a shotgun shack....
Or you may find yourself hanging closet doors at the rental before office hours.

They did turn out rather nicely though.

It's a race weekend here at MIS

It's a race weekend here at MIS and all the fans are here too...

OMG- its Friday the 13th!

I dont really put that much stock into superstitions. Then again....



I love Savage Chickens

The Devil is in the details....

Here you see actual pencils, actually carved by hand into actual little tiny works of art.

Someone has way too much time on his hands. Honestly,though, I love it.

Thanks engadget.

I just might be getting a little cynical...

This might also be conclusive proof that I need a vacation.

Thanks T-Shirt hell for making me laugh just a little.

When product placment goes wrong...

(Seen at Petsmart in Ann Arbor )

Seriously? Is there anything this *woman* does not endorse? Who is so stupid they care if the pet stuff they by is "Martha Stewart" brand?
On a unrelated note, is that the dog from Men In Black?

It seemed like a good idea to go to work today...

It seemed like a good idea to go to work today...




Should have stuck with my gut feeling and stayed in bed.

Meanwhile, all the civilized people...

Meanwhile, all the civilized people... were at the airshow at Willow Run airport.

You would think with my tendency toward aviation I would have been in attendance but alas my obligations almost always win out and this weekend was not exception.

It does not stop me from checking out what others were able to see.

Not to brag, but the difference between me and most if not all of these people watching... I have actually flown one of these AT6's that are flying by.

Another weekend... more work to do than time.

This weekend was non stop work for both the Girl and I. Besides out regular jobs,and keeping up with the house, we have been working on the rental condo.

Here you see the basement of the condo, I spent a good amount of time over there cleaning and prepping and putting a garage floor coating on the partially finished side. All that work did seem to pay off as you can see the dramatic transition into the unfinished side.

Summers setting Sun

...and I feel a little bit like I have wasted something that I can not replace by working too hard. Maybe its not to late.

A perfect storm of slowness …. A tale of getting to the airport

Mix one part Summer festival, one 5k run blocking off streets to the neighborhood… a dash of car show … a nearby air show and road construction from hell and what do you get? You get a trek to the airport that makes a Tolken adventure seem like a walk in the park.

Seriously if I had tried to think up obstacles to place in the path of my successful attempt to get my family members to the airport, I could not have come close to the putting all this crap together on one Saturday morning.

After going around and fighting our way though the pylon swam, and past the dark guards to the neighborhood, past the orange barrel swamp… to the airport they arrived on time.

It was only getting back to the office that was going to be challenge, one that in the end proved to be too much. Not on time anyway.

I can not say that no one got hurt, I might have strained some vocal chords yelling on the final stretch into the land of the office condos…. the Chevy truck going 40 in a 50 mile no passing zone while talking on the cell phone for a 10 mile strained my patience to the breaking point.

In the end I guess it was an adventure and I should be happy that everything went off without much of a hitch. Besides what would I have to complain about if everything went as planned this morning, right?

Layers:

An intricate spiders web reveals layers of complications reminding me that a spiders life can be complicated too.

Really in this photo you can not tell that there are three layers here making a surprisingly intricate little world of web, if you will.

Look what Chelsey brought us back ....

Look what the Chelsey brought us back .... from the Sam Adams brewery.

By us I mean Me, of course.
I have a feeling this monster bottle wont last long.
It looks like its going to be a good night.

And now for some local publicity:

It is always good to get some positive local press. That is why I am super stoked to see the new book: The ruins of Detroit.

Apparently Detroit's sad state of disrepair is good for selling books if nothing else.

Thanks to Uncrate for helping to spread the word on this work of literary finger-pointing.

Speaking of driving like a douche ….

A special shout out to the ignoramus ass wipe in the green SUV that was driving in front of me in the loose gravel section of Maple rd tonight on the way home from work.

I am absolutely positive you have no idea what you were doing, Let me point out something:

If you a driving in the loose gravel, it is customary to pay attention to your f’n driving. I don’t know what you think was going on, but I am pretty sure it was not driving. I do not know if you were on you phone, or knitting a quilt… but you inability to stay on the road was CONSTANTLY SPRAYING LOOSE ROCKS ON EVERYONE. Not once or twice, but constant driving off the edge of the road was a brilliant show of inconsiderate driving. Your single dedication to being an idiot was legendary.

I had to stop my vehicle. Just so let you get far enough ahead to keep you out of spraying range. I hope you are proud of yourself.

I could see the dust cloud you were leaving in your wake as you drove off into the distance. You sir, put the ASS in Classic.

You are the same guy that leaves a car and a half length in front of you in the drive through window line so you can rely to your hello-kitty fan club leaving others unable to pull ahead. The same fellow who will languish in the lane that is ending until you are again running of the road, still unaware of exactly what you did wrong. You might even be seen backing up 5 car lengths against traffic because you were not paying attention and went in the wrong lane.

Calling you a douche is actually really insulting to douche’s everywhere. Taking away your license is actually not strict enough. If I could have it torn from you and chewed up by a camel and spit out on your face while competent drivers laugh at you… when then that might begin to approach what you deserve.

Speaking of space....

Like I don't have enough crap to worry about: now the Sun is freaking out.

Thanks to engadget for this one:


Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are no laughing matter, but for quite some time now we've been livin' easy as the sun kept it cool. That changes tomorrow, when a massive CME will hit our atmosphere, flung asunder by that great CFL in the sky, which apparently spent much of yesterday throwing a giant, solar tantrum. Scientists are saying that human life will probably not be exterminated thanks to our atmosphere, but GPS and cellular reception could be a little finicky tomorrow. We can't wait to see the anti-sun attack ads from Apple.

Spaced out

Lately I have felt a little spaced out - to much to do and not enough time. Not to mention that I have not quite had time to adjust/move everything to the new laptop.

Tonight the NASA app provided some more images that continued to entertain and make me remember there are bigger things out there then what it going on in out little world.

Check out this Image of Saturn's rings.

2010-07-12:Moons Beyond the Rings of Saturn
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100712.html
What's happened to that moon of Saturn? Nothing -- Saturn's moon Rhea is just partly hidden behind Saturn's rings. In April, the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn took this narrow-angle view looking across the Solar System's most famous rings. Rings visible in the foreground include the thin F ring on the outside and the much wider A and B rings just interior to it. Although it seems to be hovering over the rings, Saturn's moon Janus is actually far behind them. For credit and copyright guidance, please visit image webpage.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100712.html