New toy…

9:54 pm on Saturday, May 29, 2004

T-Maxx

My son and I got a new toy today. Something we’ve been wanting for a really long time. It’s a Traxxas T-Maxx 1/10th scale nitro 4×4 truck. When I was a teenager I used to race RC-10s competitively. Back then the RC-10 was the car to have and I knew how to drive the hell out of that thing. It was an electric 1/10th scale buggy. Nitro cars were very expensive then. I still own that same car and we had gotten it running again last year and took it to a couple races. Competing with a 20 year old car was kind of fun. My car was older than most of the racers were. I had a few ask me what the heck I was racing. Watching the nitro trucks in action got us wanting an upgrade. I picked the T-Maxx because of all the available upgrades out there. It is the most popular RC truck around. Nitro engines are a whole different world compared to the electrics I’m used to. Luckily I was able to save a bit on the truck by using parts from the RC-10.

We brought it home and assembled the last bits that needed doing and took it outside to break in the engine. After that 2 hour process we were ready to put it through its paces. We took it to the park across the street and had a blast jumping it down stairs and chasing squirrels and grackles. It still needs a bit of tuning to run its best and we’ll do that over the next couple of days. It’s supposed to have a top speed around 40MPH. We’ll see how close we can get to the manufacturers claim. Once we’re comfortable running it we’ll take it out to the races some Friday night.

Now to find a Land Rover Defender body for it so we can paint it up to look like Shurfoot.

My iPod is Playing: Father of Mine from the album “So Much for the Afterglow” by Everclear

Feeling poorer…

2:57 pm on Friday, May 28, 2004

Got the news from my contract company today. My rate has been cut so I’m now making less for the same job I was doing a year ago. Take inflation into account and I’m making like 8-10% less than I was a year ago and more than %15 less than 3 years ago. Woohoo! I won’t name the company I work for other than they are very Big. Blue is how this news made me feel.

I guess I should be glad they didn’t just ship the job to India or China.

My iPod is Playing: Video Killed the Radio Star by The Presidents Of The United States Of America

Almost done…

12:19 pm on Thursday, May 27, 2004

I ordered a few more parts for the Defender yesterday. I ordered an ARB Brush Bar like this one. I also ordered a beefy Warn XD9000i winch for it. This should be useful if I should ever get myself stuck out at the ranch as I’m usually alone and way the hell out of cell phone range. I’ll also be ordering some of these mounting brackets and clevis’ to aid in recovery. After that a new console and radio and I think I’ll be in some serious business.

This weekend I’ll be removing the damaged bodywork and putting the new parts on. Once done I’ll be delivering it to the paint shop for new duds. I wanted to change the color but I’ve spent so much on upgrades I can no longer afford it. I’d rather it be more offroad capable than an onroad beauty queen. I’m still waiting on the body armor that’s on a slow boat from the UK. I may yet make the National Land Rover Rally in Moab in September.

shurfootI’ve decided to name the truck Shurfoot in honor of my uncle that died last year. It was his nickname and we always talked about building a serious 4×4. The pic to the right is his rendition of Shurfoot. I had a tattoo done of it last year. I’ve already ordered custom license plates for it.

My iPod is Playing: I’m A Man from the album “The Sopranos – HBO Orig.Series.” by Bo Diddley

More schoolroom work…

11:48 am on Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Last night around 8pm we decided to lay new carpet in the schoolroom. What the hell was I thinking when I volunteered for that job at that hour? We ripped out the old carpet and padding. This was rather disgusting as it was the original 20 year old carpet for the house. The carpet’s backing was a nice patchwork of stains. After pulling up the padding we were amazed at the amount of dirt that made it through the carpet and padding. IT was a sandbox in there. Next I went to Home Depot and picked up some new padding and rented a knee kicker. We had been given carpet from my aunt’s house they had built a couple years ago. The carpet was pulled out 2 weeks after the house was completed because the color didn’t match the rest of the carpet in her house. The largest piece was about a foot short of being long enough to do the whole room’s 11’x15′ dimensions. Damnit. Now I had to lay a patch near the door. It doesn’t look too bad, it almost looks like I knew what I was doing. Laying the carpet wasn’t a big deal, just tiring. My ol’ knees didn’t like all that crawling. I can’t complain though because this time last year, before my surgery, I couldn’t crawl at all. We finally finished around 1am this morning.

We were able to redo the whole room for under $100. Shannon found the paint at Lowe’s, 2 gallons for $6. Always check that seconds rack. Padding, tape, and kicker rental was $70. Now that’s remodeling on a budget.

The room looks pretty nice now. Now Shannon will attack it with her paintbrushes to spice it up. It’s going to have a ‘movie’ theme. She’ll be doing a mural of a scene from her favorite movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and hanging all of her movie posters. I’ll post pics when that room is done.

My iPod is Playing: 8 Mile from the album “8 Mile” by Eminem

New computer and schoolroom…

12:49 pm on Tuesday, May 25, 2004

This past weekend I got a really good deal on an Apple eMac for my wife and son. It’s not the latest greatest but it’ll serve their needs quite well. It’s a bit older 700Mhz G4 with 384MB RAM and a 40GB HDD. Nothing special but hard to pass up at $350. I added an Airport card so I wouldn’t have to run a network line through the attic. A nightmare in itself, especially in summer. This makes our second Mac after my iBook. I was looking for another iBook for them but when this came along I had to grab it.

They needed a computer for the school room that Shannon is working on right now. She’s in the process of painting it. She’s got the basecoat down, the most bright yellow I’ve ever seen, and hasn’t decided on the theme but I’m sure it’ll be something like she did in Dakota’s room. On that front it looks like she may have another contract in the works to paint two more kids’ rooms. So right now she has a ‘space’ room, another ‘jungle’ room, and an ‘ocean’ room in the works. It may turn into a nice side business.

The other nice thing about the new school room is I get my office back. We had just finished decorating it when my sis moved in and we had to combine the schoolroom and office. I quickly got crowded out under the stacks and stacks of schoolbooks. I’ve got the decor ready to go once they move out again and it’ll be all mine. I may even let Shannon experiment with some sort of city theme in there. She needs the examples for her portfolio.

My iPod is Playing: Fannin Street from the album “Easy Rider” by Leadbelly

Fun at the ranch…

10:53 pm on Sunday, May 23, 2004

FlexingHad to work out at the ranch this weekend. My wife also had to work so I took Dakota, my son, with me. We went out to test the new tires and suspension on the Defender. I found a couple of places to flex it a little. I wasn’t totally happy with the amount of articulation I was getting on Saturday so Sunday morning before we headed out I disconnected the sway bars. Things loosened up a bit after that. The handling didn’t seem to be that affected. I chalk that up to the stiffer springs I installed. The pic shows off the new steering stabilzer and coils/shocks. The tires also show off their agressive tread with the white limestone dust on them. Dakota didn’t like riding with me when things got ’tilty’ so he hopped out to take photos. I never took it over 20 degrees on the various obstacles though the Defender is capable of about a 40 degree cross slope angle.

After we finished playing we headed back to the trailer to hang out. While I read a book Dakota decided he wanted to go fishing in the creek. That we had no tackle with us was not a hinderance in his eyes. He dug around and found a box of paper clips. He linked about a dozen together and formed the last into a hook. I just watched in amusement. He took a bit of bread from the hot dogs we were eating and baited it. I decided to follow him to the creek to watch. I wish I’d brought the camera. He found a big ol’ slab of limestone leaning on the creek bank and insisted that a big ol’ Largie was hanging out under it. He dropped his ‘fishing pole’ over the side and waited. I laid back and enjoyed the warm Central Texas sun. Not much beats lying next to a cool clear creek on a warm summer day. I was watching the clouds pass overhead when I heard a splash and then Dakota yell. I looked to the left and Dakota started bitching at the water ‘the fish stole my fishing rod!’ Sure enough, a large mouth had come out from under that rock and stole his bread and his chain of paper clips and took them under the rock. I couldn’t help but laugh which only made my son more angry. He’s now bound and determined to come back with real fishing gear and catch and eat that fish. He swears the fish had a mouth as big as his fist. I’ve seen the fish he’s talking about, it’s a Largemouth that might weigh in at about 1lb. A big fish for that little creek.

My iPod is Playing: A Little Bit Lonesome from the album “Barricades & Brickwalls” by Kasey Chambers

It’s finished…

10:15 am on Friday, May 21, 2004

My wife has finished her painting of our son’s bedroom. Check it out. My favorite is the cameleon over the door. She’s already got a contract to do someone else’s kids’ room. She is thinking of doing it as a part-time job. Finally going to start using her artsitic talent.

Are German men this whipped?

4:58 pm on Thursday, May 20, 2004

A german inventor has come up with a device that yells at men who lift the lid to piss. It tells them they are definitely not going to pee standing up. Um, can’t German men figure out how to disable this? Apparently 1.6 million German women are stupid enough to think men are going to go to the trouble to sit to pee like little girls. They are just going to leave the seat down and piss standing up like real men which will make the women even more mad when they get a nice wet spot to sit in.

I personally have no problem hitting a toilet as my wife will attest. If she did try to install such a stupid thing I’d piss on it with my perfect aim.

Update: Ok, so German toilets are different than ours so this almost makes sense. I talked to someone who has spent time in Germany and he said their toilets are disgusting because of the smell.

My iPod is Playing: Ride from the album “Whitechocolatespaceegg” by Liz Phair

Warm summer night fun…

9:08 am on Wednesday, May 19, 2004

How many things in life are more fun than running around your backyard with your 7 year old son chasing fireflies? Last night was a banner night for the little guys at our place. A nice warm, humid, and still nite. Our backyard was covered in little blinking lights. You could catch them easily with your bare hands. Over the course of 1/2 hour I think my son grabbed about 50 using his bug net. He is very careful not to hurt them and he immediately releases them as we’ve taught him. We love them and don’t want to do anything to hurt their numbers. Our yard seems to have more fireflies than most of our neighbors. I chalk this up to the fact that we use very little pesticides in our yard. We only spot treat fireants. We also have lots of low tree branches for them to rest in during the day.

These are the kinds of memories he’ll have for years.

Drink Mountain Dew?

1:41 pm on Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Do you use those little codes under the lid? If not, I could really use them. Even a hard core Dew drinker like myself will never save up enough to get anything decent. What I’m after is the Mountain Dew Wall Light. It’ll look good in my office at home. I’m only about 1/4 of the way there and at my current pace I’m not gonna get enough points to redeem it by the end of the promo. So, if you’re not using those codes, please email them to me.

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