Starting On The Yard...

Spent most of Sunday working on the back yard with my new Roto Tiller.

A Rick Pic

Sunday Morning...

Here I sit waiting for my turn in the shower. I see it has been a week since I posted anything regarding the last week of adventures. There have been many, but not much time to post. The sunny weather has prompted a garage cleaning frenzy that is close to freeing up an entire bay suitable for one, (count them) one vehicle. Deb strongly felt her Jeep would be the recipient of this fine slot. She was informed yesterday that the coveted spot was reserved for the Jeep Wrangler, since it is most definitely time for the top to come off and me to look cool driving it around on the weekends! Deb agreed and we are working to make it so.

A story about a girl, a friend and a mouse should be ready to post tomorrow.

405 The Movie

Check This Out...

What Every "Real" Man Needs!

3 1/2 Ton Service Jack!

This jack could, if it was called upon to do so, lift over 14,000 Play Station Portables off of the ground at once! Think about it!

Got Insurance?

Got Milk?

Time Magazine's Top 100 Movies Of All Time...

I've only seen 11 of them! Let me know if you 'older people' have seen more.

Close Call...

Sunday Deb and I were heading to Red Lobster for a Birthday lunch on a rain slick Highway 503. I was slowing down for a stop light and noticed a looming shape in the rearview mirror! An older black car was coming up on us way too fast as I tensed up for impact! At the last moment the car swerved over into the other lane, zoomed by and barely stopped in time with the extra 100 feet that lane offered. Deb had not even noticed and I informed her of the close call and pointed out the front end damage on the car from some previous miscalculation. The close call car began to weave in and out of traffic as soon as the light turned green. "They've obviously done this before!" I said and quickly the conversation moved on.

Three minutes later at the most, I begin yet another slow down for a light, and notice something familiar about the car in front of me. Just as my mind realizes that it is the same car that just missed me before... BAM!!! From my vantage point all I see is the rear wheels lift off of the ground as I can see the gas tank and drive train UNDER this car as the butt end goes way up in the air! "It's Them!" we both scream as I look back to make sure no one does the same to us. Set the hazards, get out and walk up to the mess, everyone seems okay and the rear endee is out and waiting for the rear ender to exit her vehicle. I look at the guy and let him know that this shocked 19 year old woman had just missed doing the same thing to me, not 4 blocks back. The ramming vehicle contains 3 teenage kids who seems surprised, but not too shocked at what they had just done. The girl partially opens her door and asks if she has done any damage! The front of her car is gone... Turned into a giant accordion with the fluids already beginning to drain out. I head back to the car to get a card for my phone number and all three of us get off of the road. Someone else in the ramming car must be driving, as the girl is left out on the road to pick up the pieces of her car. The driver girl immediately lights up a cigarette (probably what she was trying to do when she should have been applying the brakes) and power smokes while I hand him my card. No one seemed hurt, but as we pulled back onto the road an ambulance pulled into the vacated spot.

So my advice to all during these rain showers we have been having is... Watch your spacing and pretend that no one knows how to drive! It's closer to the truth than you might imagine.

Ummmmmm....

I never did trust the Backstreet Boys! This is made even better by the hideous lyrics translations to text in the flash front end. An example would be souffle = suit play.

Grocery Store Wars!

Sony PSP (Play Station Portable)

Amazing New Toy!

Games, Movies, Music, Photos, Wireless Web Access...

A 41 Year Old Goes To Work...

I woke up this morning one year older than the day before. I am now over half way to 80. I think 80 is a nice round number and easy to remember... So was 40 for that matter. Do I feel older? Yea, a little, but not in a bad way. I just feel that life is stiffening up somewhat and it requires more of me to break out of the rut and enjoy myself. I can do it without any problem, but the two types of me seem further apart than they used to. By this stage in your life it seems that you can put up a wall against the responsibilities and stresses of life, but if you stand on your tippy toes you can still just see over it. Deb and I were discussing going back in time and being certain ages gone by. We finally decided that now was as good as any, and that each point in your life has it's merits. It has been a busy but good year of my life and I am sure that the next year will be full of more of the same. Hmmm, one other point. As I was proof reading this entry I thought that at no other time had I every actually thought about how I felt on my Birthday. Sure, I felt hungry, sleepy, cranky, but never this whole deep thought, what have I done with my life, what does the future hold, bit. Is this mid life crises?
Will I need Viagra soon? How long until I meet my friends every morning to read the paper, and drink a cup of coffee at McDonald's? Whooa! I just got dizzy there for a sec! Well I am now done thinking about the 41 thing and I am now heading off into my day with the goal of making it to 42! I still wonder to myself though as the years add up... How much better can one man look!

50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod

50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod (kottke.org): "In the four years since its introduction, the iPod has proven to be a versatile little device. Despite a relatively closed architecture, hackers have found their way in. Content creators and software makers put information at your fingertips when you're on the go. Would-be designers have added to the fashionable stylings of the now-ubiquitous white ear buds. Hardware makers and enthusiasts have augmented the iPod with new add-on gadgets. Here are a few dozen things you can do with your iPod besides listen to music."

North Dakota Tetris!

Tired of sucking at Tetris?

Get Your Scrubs On

The Best Comedy On TV Right Now!

First Season is now available on DVD. 24 episodes of very funny stuff.

The Difference Between HDTV, EDTV, and SDTV

HDTV in Plain English: "The consumer electronics industry has done a remarkable job spreading confusion about video in general, and HDTV in particular. Time was when you could go to the store and just buy a TV with confidence. You could choose a big one or a little one depending on your room size and budget. But those days are gone. Now we've got DTV, SDTV, EDTV, HDTV, RPTV, DVI, DLP, LCD, LCOS, plasma, progressive scan, component video, S-video, composite video, etc. With all the alphabet soup, it seems only video engineers can buy a projector or TV and know what they are doing. "

Interesting!

What your computer does while you sleep.

Grave Yard Shifts Again.

Here I sit in front of my computer while I should be sleeping. The last time I slept was over 27 hours ago when I woke up yesterday. I tried to take a nap yesterday, I might have gotten an hour out of that one, but it does not seem to be helping now. Here is my problem. I have been dealing with the final three things that are needed to finish the 'pick up list' on the new house.

1) The molding around the kitchen where the wood floor meets the cabinets was not wide enough and you could see where the wood floor ended, a gap down to the subfloor, and then the beginning of the molding attached to the base of the cabinets. My requirement to remove this issue from the list necessitated the replacement of ALL of the molding in the kitchen.

2) Laminate flooring in the master bath does not evenly meet the cabinets and again the subfloor is visible. A piece of molding needs to be install there also to remove this item from the list.

3) Sliding closet door guide in both downstairs bedrooms is not attached to the floor. Carpet was laid without an attachment point for this hardware glued to the concrete floor. Removal from my list requires the carpet be pulled up in both closets, the wood pieces glued down, carpet re-laid and then the door guides securely installed.

What does this have to do with you not sleeping you ask? Well I have been working on getting this stuff done for over 2 months now, and after numerous false starts it turns out that today is my lucky day!

"That's ridiculous Rick, you tell them to come back another day when you are rested and it is convenient for you!"

HA! It has taken at least 8 hours of phone calls, emails, and other crap to get this to happen at all, and I am checking this Be-hauch off of my list! So far the man has removed all of the 'too small' molding and is now installing the larger molding. He has used large words like "Expansion Joint" to empress upon me that the problem has to do with expansion and contraction of the wood flooring. I swear I will kill him with his own nail gun if he says it again! The truth is the installer saw the gaps the second he nailed the molding down but continued anyway, cuz he's as dumb as a bag of hammers. Sleep deprivation makes me mean!

Ummmmmm....

You've got to clean them sometime people!

The Chairs Have Been Ordered

We ordered ours with a padded seat so you all don't have to worry about your butt falling asleep when you come over to play Monopoly.

A Rick Pic

The Table Is Here...

Deb with her new Dining Room table. This is made by a company named Dinec. The chairs have been ordered, we must wait 8 weeks for them to arrive. The two chairs you see are our old ones.

A Rick Pic

Added A Page Hit Counter...

Now showing at the bottom of the Blog is a new page hit counter. I have set it up to not count my visits (checking on my updates and formatting) so it should give an accurate count on how many hits the Blog is getting. The count is already suprising me!

Time To Switch...

Firefox In, Internet Explorer Out!

Current Read...

Eragon is well done, and in the same vein as the "Lord of the Ring" trilogy.

Current Rick Rating... A!

Don't Forget Your Free Frosty!

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Man Lost Finger 'Found' in Chili on Job: "The finger that a woman claimed she found in a bowl of Wendy's chili was severed in the tailgate of a truck during a work accident, an employee of an asphalt company said. "

A Guest Stays The Night...

Friday night we had my sister over to stay the night. Due to some bond she thinks we share, she actually had the gall to ask me go get up at 4:30am on Saturday and haul her to the airport so she could start her vacation! So Friday night we drove out to her house, picked her up, and actually brought her over! We felt this would be a good test of the guest bedroom, to see if it could actually handle a difficult guest. So this is what I was subjected to, the next morning, on the way to the airport (at the butt crack of dawn I might add)!

1) There is no tissue in the room, "What if someone wanted to blow their nose? "

2) I had to move the (ticking) antique clock into the bathroom, as I could not fall asleep.

3) "The pillow was too fat! So I slept without a pillow."

4) Found a millipede in the bathroom!

Since her departure we took the time during the thorough room disinfecting and deodorizing process to rectify the 'tissue issue'. The clock thing we get, but after a great amount of discussion we decided that it just looked too good on the night stand for us worry about how it might effect our guests. Our answer to the pillow thing is this: If the 'Elephant Woman' wants to make it her last night in our house, so be it! In regards to the Millipede 'issue' we have examined the remains and found, using the latest forensic techniques, that the multi-legged creature is not found naturally in the Battle Ground area. At first this was quite a mystery, but after further research we did discover that 'lorinEEveticus wineAlotUs' (Latin name) could be found in abundance in some of the farm homes just north of us in the Fargher Lake area. Conclusion: She brought it with her in her luggage!

So, by now it should be obvious that we care about any and all guests who come for a 'sleep over.'

You go, Gary! 'Numa' takes Web by storm

You go, Gary! 'Numa' takes Web by storm - MORE NEWS AND FEATURES - MSNBC.com: "A bespectacled, lip-synching young man from the Jersey suburbs has become the hottest thing to hit the Internet since the Spiridellis brothers started making JibJab cartoons."

Smoking Kills!

Jurrasic Fart...

Current Read...

Freakonimics. I'm about half way through this one and I give it an A+ so far! Hard to put down, with compelling views on topics you normally would not care about. Once the layers are peeled back however, you suddenly look at them in a totally different way.

Wendy's Plans Frosty Giveaway Following 'chili finger' Event

Wendy's plans Frosty giveaway following 'chili finger' event - May. 10, 2005: "Wendy's restaurants are giving away free Frostys frozen desserts this weekend as a thank you to customers who supported the burger chain following an embarrassing incident in California where a women allegedly planted a severed finger in a bowl of chili."

Saturday Project...

Added knobs to the master bathroom. This was a little hard on me as I realized a mistake would be impossible to cover up! We mis-counted the number of knobs we needed as you will note the blank spot in the distance. I have drilled the hole, and tomorrow we will pick up the final knob and be done with this project.

A Rick Pic

Living Room Is Done!

Time to relax!

A Rick Pic

The Couch

Last piece! Note: The good looking plant on the coffee table is fake! If we were to put a real plant on that table... It would be gone before morning and we'd have cat barf from one end of the house to the other.

A Rick Pic

The PC Is Good!

Big Brother!

Very Funny (But Wrong) "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"

This is a video file. Select open to view it.

WARNING!!! The name Squizzle.com will show in the right hand corner of this movie.

DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE!!!

It is riddled with spyware and malware! The movie is fine to watch and is hosted on a totally safe site, but again DON'T GO TO Squizzle.com!

You have been warned...

Abandoned Missile Base VR Tour

Visit the skeletal remains of a cold war weapon
This presentation will take you on a full tour of a decommissioned, abandoned underground missile complex.

read more | digg story

The world's funniest joke?

Scotsman.com News - Funniest jokes - The world's funniest joke?: "The world's funniest joke?"

The Couch Has Arrived!

It is finally over. The trips to the furniture warehouse downtown, the unwrapping, the dragging, and finally the "Try it over there", or "How about against the wall." The living room is officially done. We are quite happy with how it all looks and look forward to just being big lumps on the stuff during the weekends.

As a sidebar I would like to mention that the loveseat has a piece of wood inside that is flopping around. We only discovered this after getting it home, unwrapping it and getting it into the house. Since this errant wood obviously is not supporting what ever it is supposed to, we called expecting a reload and long trip back to the warehouse. To then be followed by another 3 week wait ending in another drive out for pick up. Surprise! Saturday a man will arrive at the house and fix the loveseat. Wow! You mean it doesn't have to move? Someone else will spend their time fixing a problem? This makes me happy! Just thought you should know.

Roomba Rocks!

Well I can officially call the Roomba a hit. Every one I have talked to about this little monster either wants one, or has to come over and see it do the vacuum dance. Every morning now when I leave for work, I pick up the remote and press clean. We are only at 50% success when it comes to the Roomba making it back to the charging station on its own. The problem lies in the fact that the upstairs is so large and I am letting the robot go too far from it's base station to find it's way back. There is no harm done as the roomba just shuts off and waits for a free ride back to the charger. I have dumped the bin of floor goodies everyday and I marvel at the amount of cat hair and litter it is picking up. No harm has come to any of the furniture but I must warn you that the roomba is quite strong! We have a small light wooden bench and while I was watching it clean it went under this bench. When it got to the legs on one side the bench it just starting moving it down the wall. Since the bench was not heavy enough to slow the roomba, it just thought the resistance was thick carpet. 15 feet later the vacuum decided to head in another direction and dropped the bench off in the middle of the room. The bench has subsequently been relocated to a new home in a roomba free zone.

The Link will take you to a shootout of the latest robotic vacuums on the market today.

Holy Cow!

My Way News: "The burger war is growing. Literally. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, which lost its crown as the home of the world's biggest burger earlier this year, is now offering a new burger that weighs a whopping 15 pounds.

Dubbed the Beer Barrel Belly Buster, the burger comes with 10.5 pounds of ground beef, 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, a cup-and-a-half each of mayonnaise, relish, ketchup, mustard and banana peppers - and a bun."

My Evening Ramble...

How Long Will You Live?

Where Does The Time Go?

I had these monster plans of all the work I would get done this weekend! Very few of my projects got finished, unless you count sitting on the sofa reading the paper as a job.

Tomorrow is my first day of Jury Duty! I called tonight but my number has not come up yet. I am one of those strange people who actually look forward to serving on a Jury. I was the Jury foreman the last time I was summoned and it was very interesting and sobering. (Mount Soap Box) If smart people always have an excuse to get out of Jury Duty then that just leaves the stupid ones to let the crooks get away with it. (Step Off Of Soap Box)

I am ready for summer to arrive for more than one or two days! Just as the ground dries up, and you can get out in the yard, the rain comes back. I really need to get some grass seed down as the weeds are starting to make their move.

Spring Is Here!

The leaves are filling out the trees quite nicely. This is the current view off of the back deck. Just past the distant trees starts an old orchard (apples and pears as best I can tell), past that is more tress and finally the creek. Our property includes land on the other side of the creek. We have stood on the creek bank and looked at it, but we have no way to get there!

A Rick Pic

Rick's New Toy!

Introducing the latest member of the family... Roomba! This is a robotic vacuum cleaner that runs around the upstairs all on it's own. It is a blast to watch (just ask the cats) and does a remarkable job! After leaving the charging station and cleaning up, it will make it's way back to the docking station, roll up, and recharge itself. It will not shoot itself down the stairs, if it gets stuck it just backs out, if it senses an extra dirty area (bare floor or carpet) it will spend extra time there until the dirt is picked up.

A Rick Pic

Go Ahead, Try The Water!

The blue tank came with the house to provide water pressure from the well. The white unit to the left is the new water softening unit. Made by Ecowater, this device removes the minerals and iron from the well water. It made a HUGE difference in the water quality! No funky smell, no funky taste, and no staining all of the toilets orange anymore.

A Rick Pic

Just Ask Mishra...

Hey Mishra? Do you like the new love seat? Lazy Cat!

A Rick Pic

Candle Stands...

After putting up the screen, the wall just looked like it still needed something.

A Rick Pic

More Furniture Has Arrived...

Chair & Bamboo (Imitation)

A Rick Pic

More Furniture Has Arrived... Part Two

Wall Screen & Sofa Table

A Rick Pic