Head'em Out...Rawhide!

The way Belinda's work is progressing we should know by the end of next month were we are going to be relocated. Right now there is a 50/50 chance between Houston, TX or Port Redding, NJ.

Staind

No not the band, the floors. Its a little dirty because of remodeling in the rest of the house. Next step is to seal the floor which is going to SUCK. Normally it is a 2-3 day process with multiple applications of the sealant with time constraints.

YUM!

And its been a while.

Man things have been hectic the past few weeks. The home improvement projects, traveling, and the holidays have been leaving me with little time.

Currently I am looking at graduate classes I can take a Texas Tech. Why Texas Tech, in state tuition and its the closest University to Seminole. I am looking for courses in engineering and computer science. I am not looking to start a masters degree, just classes with emphasis in engineering and technology. Down time does not look good on a resume.

Lemark does not equal Linux

So apparently since I have switched my OS back to Linux, Lexmark does not support the drivers needed to print. It turns out that Lexmark assumes that if you run a Linux OS you are able to program 'your own' driver for the printer. So it seems that I might put together an old machine that I have and install Windows on it and print over a network. So for now I am without a printer.

Whirlpool Duet

Belinda and I had a set of Kenmore Elite washer and dryer combo. The washing machine sounded like the neighbor was pounding on the walls with a sledgehammer when it the spin cycle. So instead of getting it fixed at a cost at $40 an hour (probably a total of $75 with parts), we did the next best thing...Upgrayedd! Two d's for a double dose of pimpin'

Brilliant!

Deep Thought.

The neighbor's little girl was watching television with Belinda in our living room the other day. Averie has a confection of names for Belinda including but not limited to: Bebinda, Mebinda, Melinda and so forth.

The Next Day

Wow, we got precipitation for two days in a row now!

Frozen Water!

Seminole finally got some winter precipitation. Problem is that the snow/ice will be gone by Monday.

Cable

I finally had cable television installed at the house. I wanted to watch the football games during the upcoming holiday and Belinda was tired of watching Family Guy. I had the TV on for 10 minutes and realized why we hadn't turned on the cable since we moved in. Re-runs of Full House, Fresh Prince, lame trick my truck or flip my house shows (CMT, Spike, TLC, etc.), Roseanne, Steven Seagal movies, E! True Hollywood Stories (they have to be true, its in the name!), Oprah, and my least favorite: reality.

My attempts to find local channels with 'rabbit ears' was unsuccessful. I was going to have to spend $100+ just get Fox, CBS, or NBC which comes out of Odessa, Hobbs, Roswell, or even Lubbock. I could not pick up any of those stations and the furthest station away was roughly 75 miles away.

I get 3 months of cable for the same price as the initial investment on UHF and VHF hardware.

Ninjew Nate Strikes Again.

This was the last time I hung out with Ken and Nate while I was in college. The evening progressed into a slapping contest and Ken was the first victim.

Got Midgets?

Unfortunately, this one is also for Justin. I was going through some photos and organizing my files. Considering an OS change back to Linux and found this gem.

Commence operation Vacuu...suck.

It looks like a Winnebago with wings!

So thats why the vent doesn't work, ironically the light still works.

Delta T

I was curious (Dan, Raven, Justin) are experiencing the heat wave like out here in Texas.
Bellevue, WA has roughly a 10 degree temperature change, Indiana 13 degrees, and Detroit 10-15 degrees with most of these temperatures range from mid 30's to low 60's. However here in Texas, high of 83 today and for this week is having temperatures in the low 40's and high 70's with Wednesday having a temperature change close to 40 degrees.

Guess thats what I get for living in the desert.

Luckily the house has been staying pretty warm and I have been leaving the HVAC off. Open the windows in the mornings and evenings and it stays pretty pleasant. If you are outside, that is a different story.

On the next Judge Judy

I am starting to run into problems here in town exercising the dogs. I would venture to suggest living in a rural area in West Texas that the local towns folk would be tolerant of dogs. Turns out that is the contrary. On multiple occasions I have deterred other people with dogs of the same size and stature from walking even in the same vicinity. The first came when I was riding my bike with Guinness and she was on hot pursuit of myself and I saw someone walking a lab literally turn and run in the opposing direction multiple blocks away, somewhat expected but seemed a little excessive. Recently even when walking the dogs on a leash fellow Seminolians walking their pets will pull a 180 and progress from a slow walk in my direction to a slight jog in the other. Which is strange to me because dogs 'smell' fear. If you don't give the dog something to get them excited, most of the time they don't care, though its not 100%.

Perhaps its a combination of the liberal manner in which I let my dogs conduct themselves and the conservative manner in which the locals dress their dog up in a Santa's outfit with dog booties for the family photo. I obtained a dog as an animal to play and interact with, not because I thought it would make a good extended member of the family.

What really sent this blog into motion is my neighbor has a 3 lb Chihuahua that he keeps in a makeshift pen and was getting complaints because when he is home he lets the dog run out in his yard. So...the dog catcher came by and told my neighbor that he needed to put the dog up. He complied, put the dog in the pen and received another warning that his 'pen' was not up to city code because the city requires a 10 foot high fence for any pet left outside. Furthermore its a $250 fine if your pet gets picked by the city dog catcher.

Which brings me to another dilemma with letting the dogs 'run free.' For those of you from New Mexico most of the land is State or BLM land that is open for public use. In Texas most of the land is privately owned and leased out for use. Guess I am just stuck with hyper dogs and short walks until I can find a solution.

Bathroom Tile

Finally got the tile laid and the grout floated. Now all we have to do wait for it to dry.

Lexmark X5470

When we bought our house we had our choice of a gift from Home Depot from Wells Fargo. The 'choices' given I probably would have rather had the cash. We either had the products already listed or didn't want. By default I chose the Lexmark X5470 printer, fax, scanner/copier, all-in-one combo. Belinda and I still had our HP Deskjets from over 7 years ago. The only complaint that I have seen in reviews are paper jams when printing large documents.

My Baby!

This ones for you Justin.

I should have outsourced to India

Progress on our new home is not necessarily slow, but steady. I have been doing most of the work myself with Belinda working on the weekends or hear and there after work if she isn't too tired. I spent all day in the bathroom and NO my colon is just fine.

I spent the better part of 10 hours laying tile. Unfortunately half of that time was walking from the wet tile saw, then back to the bathroom floor, then finding the tape measure, measuring, cutting the tile, walking back to the bathroom, fitting the tile, spreading thin-set mortar, laying the tile on the mortar, putting in the spacers......rinse and repeat.

It really isn't hard work, but extremely time consuming if you want it to look worth a damn. If all goes well it will be finished by tomorrow evening. I have about 9 pieces/spaces to go totally bout 4 square feet.

P.S. I am glad we opted for the 16x16 tiles and not the 12x12. The cuts are longer, but fewer.
P.S.S? WET DIAMOND TILE SAWS FTW!!!!

Get'em Good GIRLS!

I kept getting woke up last night. There was a wind storm that came through, so at first I thought it WAS the wind. Apparently it was some stray/alley/local cats knocking things over outside (craps everywhere because of remodeling), and then 'cat' fighting ensued. I wasn't sure if our cat was involved but I broke up the dispute real damn quick. Cats don't have much to fight about when roughly 140 lbs of 2 dogs jump in the middle.


WOOF!


..but they are so passive.

Holy Crap! Fog!

I was wondering the a few days ago why Belinda and I slept in so early, fog! Most of the time the sun shines in through the east windows so bright it will burn a hole in the back of your retinas.

Intelligent falling

Hahahahahahha: Intelligent Falling

This isn't a discussion on the existence of religion, just the factual evidence provided by science. Most of the time I am apathetic towards most people's beliefs, but this one was laughable.

The Onion has an article about intelligent falling with a man at the forefront named, Rev. Gabriel Burdett. If there is an all-mighty and powerful force holding us down it gives an easy explanation on why Jesus was able to walk on water (because the all powerful force let him) AND discounts a physical law of nature. Does that mean every time I am drunk it was God that pushed me off of my barstool and not my gravitational attraction to the floor? I digress. Just appears that the ends justify the means.

Bombardment!

I turned on the living room light the other night and got a nice little surprise. The bulb exploded and separated like something out of Apollo 13.

Bad Kitty

I'll refrain from posting a picture, but the cat actually brought in a dead rabbit last night. That's a new one.

I couldn't resist

Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring

BANANA PHONE!

Sports Talk

I really enjoy baseball, just not how the league manages.

In the news right now, Yankee's 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez is opting out the last 3 years of his 10 year $252 million dollar contract. Yankee management gave the following response to A-Rods choice to become a free agent, "If you don’t want to be a Yankee and paid what you’re being paid, we don’t want you, that’s the bottom line. You’d be hard-pressed to argue that point. If you don’t understand the magnitude of being a Yankee and understand what that means, and being the highest-paid player in baseball, I think it’s pretty obvious.” The article continues on, '“If we’re going to make you rich and we’re going to give you the privilege of being a Yankee,” Steinbrenner, “you’ve got to show us you want to be here.”

Perhaps capitalism at its finest? Something that I don't agree with is the MASSIVE difference in the MLB in salaries for teams. The NHL, NFL, and the NBA all use salary cap as a means of regulating the league. The MLB uses a luxury tax, when a team exceeds a predetermined payroll the team is taxed (fined) for the excess amount. This money in turn goes to a "industry growth fund."

At the top you have the Yankees for 2006 dishing out $200,000,000 for players on the roster and at the bottom is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with $25,000,000. What is even more annoying is that the Yankees are at the top of the list for their average fan cost per game and Tampa Bay being one of the cheapest on the list. Expect to pay $200 a game to see the Yankees and $120 for Tampa Bay. This assumption is based on purchasing: two adult average price tickets; two child average price tickets; four small soft drinks; two small beers; four hot dogs; two programs; parking; and two adult-size caps. Ticket prices for NBA, NFL, and the NHL are loosely based on a teams performance WITH a salary cap allowing for greater even flow within the league.

Which gets back to why I severely dislike the Yankees and Yankee fans, they are supposed to win. Their championships are bought. Thats is like going to the casino and cheering for the dealer, the casino is supposed to win! AHHH YEEAA! That blackjack dealer busted your ass! If you are going to cheer for someone, cheer for an underdog.

Halloween 2007! Round Two

Just a few more pics.

Halloween 2007!

I am still trying to get the black make-up from around my eyes. NOBODY! knew who I was trying to be, the closest anyone got was that I was a member of Insane Clown Posse. That it is a definite no. The host of the party that I went to dressed as the caveman from the Geico commercials and he looked f-ing hilarious and had an entourage, he is the one on the far left.

SUSHI

As you can tell we are NOT in Seminole. We found a Sushi bar near our hotel while we were in Houston. The meal that you see was a chef's seasonal special and it was DAMN good.

Jungle Kitty

Belinda's Aunt came over a while back and helped us trim our shrubs and bushes. Later that night when we were out in the back drinking with some friends, someone was spying on us.

Houston!

YES YES YES.

Finally Belinda and I have fine dining, real food with real service. Italian, Japanese, etc.

Seminole has Dairy Queen, Sonic, MCDonalds, Pizza Hut (doesn't deliver), and a slew of mom and pop diners. Not too mention 3 stoplights, more on that when I get back home.

In Seminole if Belinda and I want good food we have to cook it ourselves. She gets roughly $70 a day from Hess on business trips for food. We have the breakfast bar at the hotel, get a cheap lunch, then unload for dinner.

Our flight leaves thursday night and we don't plan on being in Seminole until roughly 11-12 p.m.

More rants and raves to come on friday, mostly because I forgot the connection to link the camera to the computer.

Insert explicative bleep

I have had great joy in the home improvement projects until yesterday. The entire house has beautiful hardwood floors. The previous owner had the hot water heater burst and destroyed the flooring in the bathroom. I was led to believe that the old lady that used to live in the house installed carpet and linoleum over the wood floors because of maintenance issues and the bursting of hot water heater. However the rest of the wood flooring is in great shape, then I tore the linoleum out of the kitchen...f$%#! This is S.O.P. for laying linoleum on top of wood floors. First thing to go down is tar paper as a moisture blocker, then another plywood backing, and then finally the ghastly linoleum. This shit does NOT want to come off of the hard wood floor.

Any suggestions other than recovering the floor or tearing out the original flooring is a last resort, is this what Papa Roach meant by Last Resort and Broken Home? Posers.

And speaking of pictures of the cat

I snapped the picture just as he looked up from sleeping in this position. If he isn't sleeping in funny positions/places he is like 'flies on shit' with our clean clothes.

Stealth Wall Heater

I have been taking pictures of the house as it gets remodeled. I was going to make a joke about having a 'stealth wall heater,' but the picture of the cat was WAY funnier.

West Texas Sky

These are some pictures of a cold front that came through a little over a week ago. The front moved through in about 30-45 minutes and then the sky was crystal clear later that day. Belinda called me from the gas plant 4 miles North, I would have missed it because I was gutting the bathroom.The clouds left just as fast as they came.

Just a list of crap that I have been working on.

For starters, there was a failure of disclosure on the house. The washing machine CAN NOT! be removed from the bathroom. The washing machine was installed during the bathroom being remodeled; door width 24 inches, washing machine width 27 inches. Other than the previous owners wanting $500 for their 'vintage' stove (I told them were to take the stove), the free washing machine has been the only problem I have had with the home thus far. The Dryer and Stove are gas, so there are no 240 Volt receptacles in entire home.

So far:
Replace bathroom door and move stud back 4 inches to accommodate washer and dryer
Replace door locks and add dead bolt
Policies change for mail, so new mail box and post
Install reverse osmosis unit
Add waterproof drywall and remove hideous plastic paneling in bathroom
Removed carpet and found water damaged in baseboards (decided to gut bathroom)
Removed cabinetry in bathroom to make room for dryer
Fixed water damaged by laying cement backerboard for future tile installation
Wired 240 Receptacle for electric dryer (hats off to electricians, attics are HOT HOT!)
Removed carpet in hallway and cleaned the wood flooring underneath (no damage)
Cut dryer vent because old dryer was in the garage

Don't get me wrong, I am REALLY enjoying the house. The house IS dated, however the plumbing is brand new (hence the water damage), along with the air conditioner and hot water heater. The yard has concrete flower beds and plenty of foliage including rose bushes, pecan trees, irises, and large shrubs, but that is a Spring time project.

So for now, its back to carpentry.

The Day Before the Move

The day before I was supposed to move I noticed that the rear axle (GM 10 Bolt) was leaking gear oil. Turns out that the wheel seal went bad some time after I had driven the truck back to Hobbs from Weatherford. The picture of the wheel seal was taken before I tore anything else up. I didn't have a slide hammer so I tore the seal out with a GIANT pair of pliers. Time was a factor, so this winter I will take my time and repair the seal and probably some bad bearings in my new kickass two car (truck) garage.

The Internet is back and he lost his keys.

The internet was finally turned back on today. The best part was the technician lost his keys to his van shortly after he arrived. Coming shortly will be ghastly photos of remodeling, weather, and my reserve application for DRAGON SLAYER'S CONQUEST, Torrent of FIRE!.

Move, Moving, Moved

Belinda and I have moved into our new house and we will not have internet for at least a week.

See ya'll then.

FINAL WARRANTY NOTICE!

I got this in the mail the other day. Act now and get an additional 20% off this already great offer! The usual, send us ALL your information including your VIN# and mileage. What was really weird was the name was scribbled out with a ball point pen.

Tony Robbins HUNGRY!

So I was lazy and decided to get one of those Stoufer's Skillets dinner in a bag. What I didn't realize is that the serving size was for two. Two what? For two of the fattest American's? I followed the directions, Belinda and I ate, and this is what was left over.

Shotgun Photography at 75 mph

Belinda and I were traveling to Ft. Worth to get my truck and we were passed by a toaster on I-20. It says it right there on the back window. But I managed to stay in front of the high performance machine with the purple paint and flames.

Looking for Parts for the Jetta

I was curious about purchasing a new intake/air filter assembly for the Jetta and I came across an interesting article regarding how the on board computer works in my car. Here is what I found.

The vehicle's engine management system takes two readings regarding airflow. The first is mass air flow which the EMS uses to calculate how much fuel it can give to the motor and not smoke (because I have a TDi). The second reading is boost pressure, the EMS uses this reading to regulate boost pressure for maintaining a specific mass air flow.

When one claims that a filter or intake helps to develop more power it can only mean one thing, some property of the filter or intake must have caused more airflow and thus, more fuel is being injected. Cramming more air into the intake must mean that you are creating more boost, however the EMS has a pre-programmed control system that regulates the engine between specified parameters. If the EMS can to maintain the specified level of mass air flow it doesn't matter how much or how little restriction there is before the turbo. The EMS will see that and use the variable nozzle (the gas throat section at the inlet) on the turbo to reduce the boost and put the airflow right back to where you were with the paper filter.

Unless you are unable to maintain the desired boost level with your current intake system a higher flow airfilter WILL NOT HELP YOU. Less restriction is less fuel, no more power at wheel but less fuel for same power.

When Drug Deals Go Bad......

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was taking them from behind my screen door. Those are ALL undercover police vehicles.
A little back story, directly across the street there is a 18 year old kid (Cory) that just graduated from High School and has been having problems with myself and my neighbor to the left, typical punk. He was jailed back in May for negligent use of a firearm for two months, he has been out of jail for only a month. The Mexicans that live directly across the street from him, the younger brother just got out of serving 2 years for a drive-by shooting in Lovington, I think that you see where this is going.
Friday night there was at least 5 police cruisers at the house, where the Key Energy truck is because Cory stole some beer from an Allsups is his mom's (he doesn't own his on car) 1980-something blue and gold suburban. This little shit was actually is his front yard yelling at the Police about his innocence and that the cops are just harassing him. The police didn't take him that night because they couldn't find any of the stolen property from the convenience store and because the surveillance tape had not yet been reviewed, however they were at his house for a good 3 hours.
Apparently later that night a drug deal went bad over in Lovington (2o Miles away) and my neighbors youngest son almost got beaten to death with pipes and a crowbar. So... his older brother and Cory across the street went back to Lovington and stabbed one of the guys that beat on the brother. What you see in the photo is both houses being raided Monday afternoon. So far there are two people in the critical condition in Lubbock from this incident, one for the beating and the other for the stab wounds, both have a 20% chance of living. The house were the semi truck is parked (the white house), the police took 2 pistols and a bunch of drugs. They didn't find anything in the mexicans house (which is two doors down from me on the right). I was told they trashed both houses looking for evidence, drugs, tossing over furniture, beds, emptying the cabinets and drawers, the works.
I am ready for my house to close, the neighbors told me that they are receiving death threats over the phone about the incident. Thats all I need is to catch a stray bullet from fucking drug dealers. I'll be out of here by the end of Sept.

Pictures of the House

Here are a few more pictures of the house that Belinda and I are trying to buy. We had the home inspection on Thursday and the only major problems with the house is evidence of termite damage in the garage, not the house. Other than that their were a few 'nit-pic' issues, which made us very confident in our offer and hopefully soon purchase of the home.
The white lamp in the picture of the backyard is actually burns natural gas, don't see too many of those anymore.

YUM!

Belinda and I went to Albertson's yesterday and picked up 90lbs of Hatch Green Chile. They had 30 lb bags for $15. Perhaps the only saving grace of New Mexico.

The Money Tree

I am not much of a gamblin' man. My older sister 'drove' down from Rock Springs Wyoming this past weekend and I got to spend some time with her. There is a Casino here in Hobbs that she drug me too, hey, she paid for my drinks. I think in the 4 years the Casino/Race Track has been open I have been a whopping 4 times and 3 of those times was to watch the horses. I have been to Vegas so some little Indian Casino doesn't really do it for me, but this time it did. I walked in with $20 and left with $600 playing the $2 slots.

Finally

I finally received my all-in-one Brinkman griller smoker. Some assembly was required but it wasn't that bad. I also received my cigar from Justin as well, Danke schön!

House

Belinda and I made a bid on a house. We have gotten to that point were we are tired of paying rent and dealing with slumlords. The housing market has progressed into everyone believing that their property is worth more because Hobbs has a Casino and Horse Race Track and the oil business is booming. Our rent has increased by 60 percent in the last year. Its impossible to find a rent house for less than $600 and less than $1000 for something decent. I know that it doesn't 'seem' expensive, its just that this area is trying to male a quick buck. So as is, our new house will close by September 14.

Fun with the Kittie

He knows there is a mouse in there.

Happy Birthday Belinda

Diet to the Coke.

They still sell these things?

I was driving home from Albertson's yesterday and saw this gem parked in someone's driveway. Seeing this car made me refresh my memory of the vehicle, thank you wiki. I found some interesting facts about the car aside from the obvious ones about fumes entering the car; all the bad ones. A few things that I found is that the car had no 'Park' for the two-speed Powerglide that Chevrolet employed. The gear selector went as follows: R-N-D-L. Also the air cooled flat six that was mounted in the rear was a common upgrade in Volkswagen Dune Buggies. The six cylinder was also offered with a factory turbo producing about 180 hp seen here. It says TURBOCHARGED and has checkered flags and everything.
Reminds me of Civics that have the POWEREDD BY HONDA! stickers across the hood. Or maybe I totally missed the concept and the Honda's are really powered by this.

Yea, it tasted Bad.

I have this really bad habit of buying bottles of wine (turns out this was the malt liquor of wine) because the label looked cool. Albertson's gives you a 10% discount if you buy 6 bottles at once.
The only time buying wine based on a cool label that ever worked was a brand called Cheap Red Wine, I still have the bottle. One a side note I wasn't buying the wine to impress a date or some company.

As for this mistake, apparently Sideshow No. 4 Puppetmaster or whatever the hell it is consists of a mixture of two other awful tasting wines, syrah and malbec. Apparently I did read the label after all because I wanted to know what the hell was is this concoction. I have come to the conclusion that really good wine comes with generic labeling AND CORKS (and dust on them). Really bad wine comes with a twist top and story on the side of the bottle to make you go, huh I wonder what this tastes like. However from my experiences from drinking beer the cooler the bottle looked the better the beer taste.

Brinkman All In One Griller and Smoker

The All-In-One is the most versatile cooking system ever offered. It’s modular design enables the All-In-One to be used as an LP gas water smoker, gas grill, charcoal water smoker, charcoal grill or 160,000 BTU gas cooker/fryer. The smoker body features double grills that can handle up to 50 lbs. Of food. Heat indicator in dome lid eliminates guesswork and wooden handles stay cool. Drip pan/ash guard , porcelain enamel water pan, lava rocks, high pressure gas hose and regulator are included.

Propane tank not included.

Now where the hell is that UPS guy. I ordered this over a week ago.

I fought the fourwheeler and the fourwheeler won.

This is what happens when a 600 lb Kodiak Fourwheeler decides it doesn't want to stop. The Kodiak barely fits in the bed of the Nissan. I need to go and get my GMC in Weatherford to resolve the issue. The really strange thing is the sliding window in the middle got nary a scratch on it. However there isn't a scratch on the fourwheeler either.

The pay sucks and the hours are terrible

The pay sucks, the hours are terrible, but the people are great. My buddy Jay suckered me into helping him build a deck for his backyard, this is as far as we got.

Doo Doo Doooo, Lookin out my back door

This is a picture looking out my back door, and yes, that truck gets driven on a daily basis. His 'girlfriend' that was living with him left him and took the surburban that they had. They had like 6 kids between the two of them and only 1 kid together. At least he has his corn in check. I need to get the hell out of this town.

My Neighbors

For those of you that never saw the post that Justin put up about my neighbors, here's a little background:
http://justinwshort.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html.
Any-hoo, check out this 'custom' Chevy Cavalier; Custom Paint, Custom Exhaust, Custom Springs. They bought it from the Mexicans for $800 that live to the left in the photo.

I'm blogging

Coming Attractions, well, maybe