Didn't really think that one through, did you?

I was picking up some stuff from Home Depot the other day and had the opportunity to witness this.


This guy bought 16 bushes and tried to fit them into a Camry. It was pretty funny to watch.


He couldn't fit any in the trunk so he ended up with them all in the car with him... including one on his lap. I decided to let him get pretty far down the road before I left.

We also let Seri and Hadyen play the piano. I don't think there's any hidden talent there, but Seri really likes cheering for herself!



Joy and I are going to try to go on a date today and see Wanted. That is if the MIL decides that she can watch the kids... so it's pretty much up in the air right now. I might just take Hayden to see Wallie... which I'm actually pretty excited to see. We'll see how it goes.

The garden if finally done!

YAY!

I finally finished the garden wall. I think it looks pretty good. Don't worry about that bush in the corner. I think I killed it when I used the truck to pull it out of the ground. Oh well, I want a lilac tree there anyway.


So there it is, all leveled out and full of flowers. It helps level out the yard pretty well. Now I just have to get the grass to grow.


The cool thing is that I got dirt under my fingernails. For a Network Admin... that's pretty epic. I was channeling my inner Andrew!



My next project is the area under the stairs. I'm really stoked about that. Oh, I forgot about my late Fathers day present to me... from me.


It's an Ibanez. I really like it and after a few guitar lessons I think it plays better than my old one. I got the action lowered so it's easier to hit chords. It even has a built in tuner... so rock on!

Other than that things have been pretty mellow. We've just been working and I've been going to college... which is pretty sucky, but at least I'm making good grades. Joy's relatives are coming over in a few weeks so we'll get some pictures of them.

I'll try and get some pics of the kids this weekend to post. Hayden just got a new haircut and Seri is getting big! Her latest thing is giving kisses... she presses her lips against you and goes 'mmmm... MA!" It's pretty darn cute. I'll try and get a video.

Booya

Firefox 3 is out. Go get some.

Crash

Yep, the computer bit the big one. I have to tell you what I went through with this thing. I had a CRC on the boot partition... so blue screen time. I got rolling blue screens on reboot. I back everything up so I decided to grab a new HDD and just reload. That's when the fun started. I had a burned copy of my XP CD and I lost the original. Apparently, the DVD burner I have has an issue with the default drivers that XP uses during install and will make the install crash with a blue screen randomly if using a burned CD-R. So I get a blue screen in the install. That was a first for me. No big, I have a old ATA CR-ROM so I slap it in and I'm good to go. In order to make the ATA drive work I had to reset my BIOS for ATA. When I did this it set the primary ATA bus off of my SATA bus. That meant that XP couldn't see any of my drives. Last time I had only SATA so it wasn't a problem. So, now I have to install a floppy, get a driver disk for the SATA I have and then do the install. Ok, that was done... and now I get to re-install everything. Yay fun!

Once I got it to a point that I knew was good I quit and we took the kids to the drive-through safari in Shertz, TX. It was really fun. We got some bags of feed at the gate... which Serenity decided to sample.


After cleaning out her mouth we were on our way! There was a 5mph speed limit so I had Seri on my lap. She wanted to hang out the window... and I though that was a good idea.


Well, maybe not the best idea.


Don't worry, she didn't fall. The kids even got to see a real buffalo. I told Hayden that I came from Buffalo... it really confused him.


Yep, it was a good time... until the ostriches attacked. If you didn't know, ostriches are big, stinky, mean birds. Now, when I say big... these things are HUGE!


Here's a fun little video of an ostrich trying to eat my fingers. Yes, I did get ticked and pelt it with a piece of food at the end. In my defense I must say that I don't care and I'd do it again.

Hayden got to meet a fireman who let him sit in the truck and press some buttons, which was really cool.

Hayden flipped out and now wants to be a fireman... or a Transformer. It's a toss up.

Well, I have a ton of homework to catch up on and I'm going to shampoo the rugs while the kids are sleeping. Apparently the MIL thinks that spill proof cups mean 1 yr old with chocolate milk in the living room is perfectly safe.

You be you

This was an actual question from my 'Technology in a Global Society' blow-off class last night.

4. List and briefly discuss one of the questions at the end of the chapter.

Question #1. If you were charged with creating a ‘new’ human society, what moral code would you design and why?

(here's my response)

When I was a SSgt in the Air Force I had 6 Airmen directly under me and I supervised a flight of 13 Airmen on the night shift. Since it was night time and rather boring the Airmen spent most of their time getting into arguments and generally being royal pains. My solution to this was my philosophy for life from that point on. I called it “you be you”.

In a nut shell this meant to worry and focus on your own tasks and adversities and let other deal with theirs. For example, some of my troops felt that others were gaining preferential treatment from one supervisor or the other. Under my philosophy, their complaining about it most likely wouldn’t accomplish much… or a negative effect was more common than any effect at all. So the answer was, you be you. Set your own goals and strive toward them. If someone else is getting a free ride or a better go at things… too bad. Life is un-fair. That doesn’t stop you or change your goals so… you be you.

It also covered social actions. Let’s use the current argument of gay marriage as an example, or better yet let’s say that I wanted to marry a horse. Now, if I’m going to get an extra tax break because my horse eats more food than my neighbors wife… or I am going to get free health care for all the times I get kicked by my new equestrian life-partner… then marring a horse is a bad thing. I am adversely affecting other people because I am a freak. The flip side of that is, if I am not adversely affecting anyone with my choice then no one has any right to tell me that I cannot do it. I can do whatever I want as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else.

You be you means that if you choose to be a lay about and end up working at McDonalds for the rest of your life (not that every employee at McDonalds is a lay about) then that is your lot in life and you should shut up and smile when your making my burger.

You be you doesn’t answer every question… but it sure did shut those Airmen up.

Hayden's fort

Time to clean up the couches... which means time to build a fort with Hayden.


Of course forts go better with flashlights!


After we were done, Hayden comes up and says "Daddy, having a fort is fun but having a best buddy is more fun!" and then he gave me a hug... man I was tearing up. Then he added "Ice cream in the fort would be fun too!"

That's my boy, butter them up and then go in for the kill.

Did that just work the way it said it would?

We bought some cauldrons for Halloween off the internet. Joy found them for 10 bucks a pop... which means that there was no way they would work. I unpacked them and was really not impressed.


You were suppose to pour water in there and it plug it in and it would just start billowing smoke. I figured that the only thing billowing smoke would be me after I was electrocuted. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And wouldn't you know it... the thing worked great! The second I plug the thing in, it starts smoking away!


So there ya go. It looks really good in the dark too.


It was another scorcher weekend. Hayden has this water volcano that he really likes. I got him to sit on it which was pretty funny to watch...


Then he leaned back and got me soaking wet... which was pretty funny for him to watch.



It was only my amazing photo reflexes that allowed me to take this picture moments before standing there like an idiot and getting a load of water in my face. I've got some skills.

I actually did some work on the great wall of Arnold... but my progress was pretty dismal so I'm not going to show it. Hopefully I can finish up this weekend.

Oh, I start guitar lessons this Thursday, I'm so stoked. I met my teacher this weekend. I had to answer all these weird questions like "Why do you want to take lessons?" Um... to learn guitar? Really, I thought that one was pretty easy, but it was a set up for the brain buster... "What level of guitar do you want to get to?" Um... better than I am now.

So all in all, it was a good meeting. I think we understand each other... I want to play guitar and this guy likes money, so we're good to go.

Boom De Yada...

How can you not like this commercial. I made it a video ringer for my phone too, so if you are on sprint and want it... just ask.

In fact... if you have a video phone and want any you tube video... it only takes a few minutes to do. The big problem is that I'm suppose to be learning about Java...

Actually, I did my Helloworld.java script already. I tweaked it so it was my 'these are not the driods you are looking for' GUI script. I was trying to do it so when you clicked ok it would say 'Reaganomics!' but I didn't think that anyone would get it. That's the best part of being a sociopath... you're the only one who has to get your jokes!

The Java class is pretty cool. I think that if I stay up with it I can breeze through and maybe even learn something. What I really can't wait for is my HTML class. It's funny how many times I actually use HTML at work. You would think that a System Admin wouldn't do the interweb... especially in a closed network, but man... I put a shiny XML front on something and these guys eat it up. Don't forget some photoshop graphics... gotta love the drop shadow!!

Ok, back to school.... well, maybe one more ring tone first.

How to cook a steak

Happy Saturday everybody!, I cooked myself some steaks this weekend. Now, this is the way I do my steaks. This might not work for you but it's the way I like them. First of all you got to get a pretty hot fire going and sear your steaks. Now, this isn't cooking them... it's a sear. It's about 2 minutes per side twice... so 8 minutes total on the grill. This will close up the meat and keep it juicy.



Then you use indirect heat on them. Move them to the side and put some wood in the charcoal. This will give the steaks a good smoky flavor and you can get them to medium well without drying them out or burning the meat.



You want a good amount of smoke coming from your grill. This is what's cooking your steaks. You can leave them in there for a good while... about two beers long. You really can't screw this up, if you go over you'll just have more done steaks... but they won't get too dry because they were seared shut. The big secret is to not look at them, every time you open the grill you let out all of the smoke... and screw the whole thing up. So just have a beer and a smile and so something else.



I spent the time with Serenity playing in the pool... and messing with the timer on the camera.



I also tired my best Indiana Jones shadow... pretty good huh?


Ok, when it's all said and done you'll have a pretty good steak on your hands. The only thing left to do is eat it!


Seri doesn't have the teeth for steak... so she got a cookie instead.


After that I got to use my laser level for the first time. I've had this thing for 2 years and I've never used the laser for anything more than bugging people. We had a guy at work who would give presentations with this laser pointer... and the rest of us would just use our fingers, So one day I gave a brief and pulled out the laser level. It was pretty funny. I told him that my pointer has a stud finder... so I win!


I hung up the vacuum stuff in the hall closet... now there's more room to lock the kids in! Just kidding... they go in the garage.



That's about it. I logged into my on-line college course to check everything out. I'm pretty nervous about algebra still. I'm going to finish off the day by cleaning the kitchen and organizing the pantry. Fun stuff!!