Fun with Maps

Like I've said, I usually don't like posting political things on my blog, unless they really affect my life, but I kind of liked this one.



Seems the majority of people are finally realizing that Bush is actually a terrible leader. He doesn't know what the fuck to do with his mess in Iraq, gas prices are soaring through the roof, all we ever hear is that he's "on vacation". Must be nice, while the rest of us are busting ass trying to make money so we can just get to our shitty job, he's off chopping wood and riding his bike with Lance "Why did you hold on to my old urine and test it" Armstrong.

That's right kids, GW's presidency has jumped the shark. It's all downhill from here for him. Excuse me while I go shed a tear.

I'm seriously about to lose it...

Really I am. I'm fastly losing my mind as I type this... I feel like crying, yelling, curling up in a ball, fighting, running, colapsing, puking, I'm fucking jittery and shaky. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me. I just can't even think straight...

Doctor Jekyll

I’m kind of torn as to whether or not this weekend was good or not. I wanted to get a bunch of shit done but I didn’t for a few reasons.

My wife wanted to get a new dog because our 13-year-old dog was “lonely”. So we went shopping for dogs on Saturday at a few different shelters. They were spread all over central Illinois so we had to drive for like 2 hours to get to them. We ended up finding a 4 year old Beagle named Hyde who was really nice and well tempered so we adopted him. He’s been pretty good so far. He had one accident where he peed on our downstairs couch, but I guess that’s to be expected. He gets along well with our other dog and our two cats. I told my wife that one of the other animals has to die before we get another.

The other shitty, literally, thing that happened was that our sewer backed up again. Two months ago we had roto-rooter clean out the line, and they were unable to get the large cutter in to clear out the tree roots in the line. They thought that it was a slipped joint right outside the house. This time, the guys thought that it was just a matter of the angle at which they were trying to get the cutter in. It’s an old house, and there’s only one entry point into the sewer line. I initially thought the main sewer line was in the front of our house, but I think that it’s in back. This makes sense. Not being able to get the big cutter and clear out the roots, the things backing up. I put some root killer down the drain, and I’m going to investigate how much it will cost to get a cleanout put in my basement. I’d bust up the concrete and just have the plumber put in the cleanout ($300-$500). Hopefully that’s the case, and it’s not actually a slipped joint, which would require major excavation ($3000-$5000).

I had to change the oil in my car on Sunday, and then play hockey. We only had five skaters for the final game of the season so I had to play for 60 minutes. It was pretty brutal, but we ended up winning. I scored a goal, had a few assists, and finally got quick enough hands to win face offs straight back. I also fucked up Roast-Beef’s shit all night. He’s the fat kid who I can’t stand, he should be in B league and thinks he’s hot shit. He skates amazing fast for his weight. He’s a cocky sonofabitch. I slashed him, elbowed him and tripped him. (I only got caught once). I know that sounds bad, but he did all of those things and more to various players on our team. You need to stand up to bastards like that otherwise they just keep on doing what they do.

After hockey I was blasted, so I just sat and watched the Video Music Awards until it was time to sleep. I didn’t get the painting done I wanted to.

London in Two weeks, I think I know what tattoo I’m going to get in Manchester. The old school drawing of the tattoo machine in black lines. I think it’s the appropriate thing to get in the birthplace of the industrial revolution. I’m thinking on the left ribcage (ouch!). If it didn’t hurt though, it wouldn’t be cool.

Here's a new addition to my blog. It's called: Where does Safety Man want you to be safe. The answer for today is: When boarding the "A Train" be sure to wear your personal protective equipment.

Gonzo Engineers

We had a house warming party this weekend. My Mother-in-law and Grandmother-in-law both came down as well to see the house and join in the festivities.

In preparation I had to mow the lawn and clean up the outsides areas of the house. I went up on the roof and picked up some sticks and I noticed the gutters needed to be cleaned so I cleaned them even though it’s a pretty shitty job. It made it so I didn’t have to do any inside cleaning though so I didn’t mind.

Right before the party started, I was walking around the house, and I noticed a brownish lump perched on the side of the concrete slab in front of the house near the gutter. It looked like a lump of wet leaves. I looked a bit closer, and I was surprised to find that it was a medium sized bat. I don’t really have anything against bats, they eat bugs and all, and I don’t like bugs. I figure that it must have been hiding in my gutters and when I ran a bunch of water down it flushed it out. It was kind of covered in bits of leaves and was all wet. I proceeded to poke it with a broom to see if it would just fly away. That agitated it, but when it flexed its wings, the right one wouldn’t open all the way.

At this point I felt a bit guilty because I was the one who blasted the water down on it, and potentially fucked up its wing. So I went inside and grabbed a Tupperware container and tried to scoop it up to move it someplace safe. I really didn’t like that at all. It made a bunch of high pitched screeching noises, but I was able to get it in the container and moved it over to the tree in our front yard. From their it was able to climb on it’s own up to the crotch of a limb and hang upside-down. It continued to try and flex its wings and the right one still didn’t open up all the way. I left it for a while and then came back and it was asleep. When I checked it after the party was over, well after dark, it was gone. Hopefully its wing was just too wet to open up and it finally dried out.

Anyway, the party went well. I grilled up some brats and burgers and we drank beer and sat around talking about people we didn’t like at work, and this and that. It was mostly people I knew from work who came, the cool people I know at work I should say.

This morning we found out the sex of the baby. I’m not telling anyone until the baby shower though, so don’t even ask. I’m pleased with what we found out, but like I said in previous posts, I didn’t have a preference one way or the other. I was happier to find out that it was healthy and had all it’s limbs and vital organs.

I am an idiot

Before I went on vacation last week I made a stupid statement that has come back to bite me in the ass. I was talking with the systems engineer and I made the offhand comment that it would make sense for me to design this “other stuff” because it interacts so heavily with what I have design control over. As soon as it left my mouth I knew I shouldn’t have said it.

The guy who designs the other stuff is at his time limit and wants to get the hell out of our section and go to some other business unit. When I was gone, it was discussed higher up that it would be a good idea for me to design the other stuff, and the stuff I already am designing.

Shit… now I’m going to have a bunch more work. I’m still not putting over 40 hours in, nobody gets my free time.

Well, I say let Harvard have its football and academics. Yale will always be first in gentlemanly club life.

Ah what a vacation. It was one of the all time best vacations I’ve been on. It was relaxing, but we still did lots of things. We flew to Hartford from Chicago last Tuesday where we were met by my sister and brother-in-law picked us up and drove us to their home in New London. For the next two days we just relaxed, went to some parks, ate some good seafood, and played with my new nephew. After that we went to New Haven to my wife’s friends apartment. It brought back bad flashbacks of cramped college apartments with no central air conditioning.

On Friday we toured around Yale. It was really cool. The architecture is amazing. We went to the Yale art museum. It is the first and largest college art museum in the country. It had Picassos and Van Gogh’s and ancient roman sculptures. It also had a collection of John Trumbull paintings. You know the picture in your high school textbook of the signing of the declaration of independence? He painted that, along with several other American Revolution paintings like the one of George Washington standing for a portrait. Then we sat in the park in old campus and had several freshmen tours pass by us. Ivy league freshmen definitely look like you’d think they would. One kid was wearing a white polo shirt, seersucker shorts, and deck shoes. What a douche!

On Saturday we went to the beach and spent the day taking in the sun and swimming in the cool refreshing ocean (sound). On Sunday we went and had a really good brunch and then while my wife and her friend went shopping, her husband and I played 8-bit Nintendo for several hours, nothing like a bit of nostalgia.

Then on Monday we went to New York City. We took the commuter train from New Haven. It took about two hours. We sat near this college age girl who was talking non stop about art and photography and blah, blah, blah. She just wouldn’t shut up. The guy who was listening to her never said a word. I think he was just zoning out and staring at her chest. The train passes through Harlem and then underground to Grand Central Station. From Grand Central, we took the subway over and down to Battery Park.

Luckily we had reserved tickets for the Statue of Liberty otherwise we would have had to wait in line to get tickets. So we went through security to get onto the ferry to take us to Liberty Island. It was very much like airport security, metal detectors and X-rays for any bags you had. Luckily it was a nice day 80’s and cloudy with a light breeze so we went to the upper deck and got a nice view of Manhattan and the statue as we approached it.

When we got of the ferry we figured we had plenty of time before our tour at 12:45 of the inside of the statue so we got lunch and then meandered to the entrance of the statue where we were disappointed to find that we had to got through a second security checkpoint. This one moved slower than the first because they had these machines that puffed air all over you to smell if you had bomb residues on you. By the time we got into the statue we were so tired of standing in line and all the bullshit that we went straight up to the lookout in the upper base. It was worth it though to be able to see the insides of the statue and then the view from the upper base.

We decided to skip Ellis Island because we were both tired and were in no mood to view museum type things. It was 3:00 by the time we got back to Battery Park.

Then we took the subway up a couple stops and walked up to where the World Trade Center used to be. We saw the large hole, and the girder cross. It’s pretty amazing that there used to be two giant buildings there and now there’s just a hole. Crazy shit. I can’t image how it was when they collapsed. It must have been chaos.

We got back on the subway and headed up to Times Square. It was really busy, and it was only 4:30 on a Monday afternoon. It was cool to see though. We went into the Huge Toy’s R’us and used their bathroom and then moved on. We went up to Rockefeller Center and sat for a while because we were both tired of walking. After about a half hour we went up Fifth Avenue and went in Sachs. We looked around at all the overpriced clothes and ended up buying a baby music thingy to hand in the crib. It was cool because it didn’t just play twinkle-twinkle little star. I can’t remember now what song it plays, but it’s nice.

We continued up Fifth Avenue and went in to Tiffany’s and looked at all the expensive and amazing diamonds. I had never seen a “Good” diamond until I set foot in that store. The crap they have on display at your local jewelry store is garbage compared to the fire and clarity of the diamonds Tiffany’s has. It was incredible.

Then we went up to Central Park and walked lazily around and people watched until we got to Tavern on the Green. We had reservations at 7:45 and had a nice dinner. My steak was overcooked, but overall it was a good meal. The interior was really nice.

After dinner we took a cab back to Grand Central and caught the 9:07 back to New Haven. The next day we flew back to Chicago and then drove back to Hell. It’s too bad I’m not rich. I’d live in Manhattan if I was, and do much more vacationing than I get to now. Ah well.

In the end we're all dead men.

Damn, Peter Jennings is dead. He was by far my favorite news personality. He’s one of the few I actually trusted to be honest and accurate in his delivery and analysis. Not like those crazy assholes at Foxnews. He didn’t have an agenda, and he was super cool. Fuck… it’s depressing he’s gone.

Good news is that it’s Friday for me. Tomorrow I’m on vacation for a week. I’m heading out to CT to see my sister and her husband and new child. My wife’s friend and husband also live in CT. We also plan to go to NYC and see the sights. I’ve never been there; my wife has though. Should be fun.

Close up shot of the new doorway to upstairs 

The opened up doorway. Mudded and smoothed by my dad. You could fit a piano up there now! Remember what it used to look like. 

New Molding and the transition from fake parquet to real wood floors 

New Molding (Needs Paint) 

It's the first of the month

I’ve got to come to work to rest again. My dad and I did some repair work this weekend on the doorway I had to chop up to get my queen size box spring upstairs. Basically we cut out the door casing, and then took out the 2x4 headers and vertical supports. Then we cut the plaster all the way up to the 2x4 that was at the top of the opening. It was a messy affair. Plaster just falls apart and is dusty. You get to smell all of those old smells that are just sitting in the old construction.

After we had the opening all cleaned up, we put up some drywall and corner bead. Then we slathered on the drywall mud. We managed to get two coats on this weekend, and he’s going to put a third on today while I’m at work. It looks nice. Now there’s about a 8.5 foot opening leading up the stairs. I’ll post some pics later. My digi camera’s rechargeable batteries died last night and I was tired and didn’t want to wait for the recharge.

While we waited for the mud to dry, we put up all the trim in the dining room that I had been putting off. My dad brought his brad nailer and compressor so it went fast. Now all I need to do is paint the trim, and it’ll be done.

Played some hockey last night… We won 8-7 against the best team in the league. I got a tripping penalty in the first 5 seconds of the game. I didn’t mean to do it, but it happened. I ended up scoring a goal, and having a couple assists. We played really well. I was blasted by the end. I don’t know why. We had gone out to eat right before the game though. I must have had too much blood going to my digestive system to tackle the big steak I ate and not enough going to my extremities.

And finally, my email account was bombarded by porn emails this weekend. I was seriously getting like 50 a day. Luckily the uwalumni account has some filter options. So in future correspondents, make sure you don’t include any of the following in your subject lines or I won’t get it: cock, pussy, fucking, cum, sexually-explicit, tranny, gangbang, asshole, blowjob, horny, etc. Fucking spam.