Diary of a madman

Well Christmas has come and gone and it's back to work for me. It's the first time ever that I've worked between Xmas and New Year. Everyone had a great time over the Festive period and think everyone got the presents they wanted from Santa. Mind you he needs to have a word with the Elves in the packing dept and tell them to stop using so many wire ties to hold them in the box.

I got a satnav system for the car which I've yet to install as the Beast is still grounded. I did get the new part from the stealership last friday but when I got home and opened the package up the new fan shroud was completely shattered. A new one is on order with an unknown delivery date.

Mrs P and I are now only 6 short weeks away from the newest member of the family joining us. We've still not discussed names very much although if it's a boy I want to call it Luke. This is purely for selfish reasons as I want to say "Luke, I am your father"

No smoke without fire

The Beast is temporarily 'dead' as I wait for a new part. Wednesday night on the way home from work it nearly caught fire when the electric cooling fan seized. Luckily I noticed smoke coming from the radiator and a strong burning smell just as I pulled into the driveway at home. I opened the hood and smoke poured out along with the horrid acrid smell of burning plastic. I dumped a watering can over it to cool it down before any flames started. The new part is dealer only as it's unique to this model car (and beacuse they didn't make many of this model there are no aftermarket parts) and costs a lovely $700 for a new one. They are on back order but they expect to be able to get me one within a week. Til then the Beast will remain sat in the front yard. I took the old one out this morning and I could hardly turn it by hand.

We almost bought a new house this week when we put in an offer on a 4 bedroom house that was foreclosed on. Mrs P scrambled round to get us a mortgage offer and we submitted this to the seller but they chose another buyer who had a cash offer. Mrs P is distraught but there will be others.

Back to school

Last week I went back to school to study the Fundamentals of Real Property Appraising. It was a week long course in Orlando and boy did they work us hard. There were about 50 people in the class from all over Florida from a variety of backgrounds and it didn't half show. Who wears shorts and flip flops on a training course??? IQ reducers (AKA baseball caps) were in attendance too, even while in the class room and hit a maximum on Tuesday and Wednesday when 6 people wore them! One bloke went for then ultimate in "fashion" by wearing his backwards...

The course culminated in an exam on Friday and I'm pretty confident that I've done ok. The pass mark is 70% and with 50 multiple choice questions that allows for 15 wrong answers!

Let's off road....

I need a bigger car, even with the cargo hitch we only just about had enough room for the trip. But it does make the car look even more "macho"....grrrr you can almost see the testosterone! Also I think I've found the solution to the engine pinking when under load and at full throttle. I now run it on premium gas (as recommended in the manual) and it appears to have gone away. Being a tight wad I was trying to get away with 89 octane gas as it's cheaper but it really does need the full fat stuff.

We arrived at the campsite after the last ferry (we were told the day before that they ran til 6:30pm but got a call from our friends saying that the guy was finishing at 6!) Luckily these friends had their boat so we managed to get across to the island campsite without any problems. Putting a tent up in the dark is not easy especially trying to see what you're doing with a Walmart cheapy torch/lantern combo. Still I got it up and it was still standing at 7:30 the next morning. Boy was it a cold night, a duvet and 2 blankets wasn't enough and I had to sleep with a hat and 2 t-shirts

Thursday was a fantastic day as you can see the from the view across the river. It warmed up too during the day but it was SO buggy at the campsite that I had to cover up from head to toe. The whole island had recently been underwater 2 feet of water and they had to shut the campsite for 10 weeks. You could see the water lines on the trees even though the campsite was a 10 minute walk from the dock.


Here are the happy campers ready for a spot of fishing, we didn't land anything but you should have seen the ones that got away...

Thanksgiving dinner was prepared over the camp fire and the menu was turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce. This was followed by pumpkin pie and washed down with red wine. How very civilised

The Beast gets a makeover

It's Thanksgiving this week so that means only a 3 day working week and to celebrate we're off camping with some friends. Hontoon Island is the destination and you have to take a ferry across to the campsite....last one departs at 6:30pm and I don't get home from work til 5 so it's going to be touch and go whether we make it. If not our friends who are going down earlier in the day are taking their boat so we may have to recreate the Dunkirk evacuation! Another cold front is due to arrive tomorrow with lows of mid 40s expected. That should be refreshing under canvas

Seeing as the Beast isn't quite big enough I've treated myself to a cargo hauler that I've been promising myself since May. It fitted together pretty easily and now give plenty of room for the all important cooler. Anyway here are some before and after pics of the new headlamps...all I need do now is get them adjusted properly.

Before

After


Oh and here's the chest that I made, this is it in all it's former glory before I cut just under 7 inches off the width.

One question....WHY?

Not sure how I stumbled across this site but there are some people in the world with just too much time on their hands! It's an incredible write up but hidden amongst the waffle is gem of a link to Forbidden Lego which is mandatory reading. Obviously from here you then go to YouTube to watch it in action and before long you're watching some one dressed as Master Chief (from Halo) with a costume made from Lego....as I said too much time on their hands.

Anyway this morning I replaced the headlamps on my car, what a b**ch of a job. The old ones were hard as hell to get out and a couple of retaining clips broke on each one. No going back on this project. I got the new ones from online tat-bazaar, ebay for $56 a pair and they came with new bulbs too. Getting the new ones to fit was equally tough and several whacks later with the palm of my hand and they are in. Now I need to wait til it gets dark to try and adjust them.

Never Say Never Again

Went to see the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace on Friday and was HUGELY disappointed. As an action film it's ok but as a Bond film it's very poor (think Never Say Never Again poor). Now I like Daniel Craig as 007 and really enjoyed Casino Royale, but in this film it was just guns and fist fights. JB is much cleverer than that and gets the better of the bad guys by outsmarting them, not so in this film. I totally blame the director for mucking this film up, I mean who puts the classic Bond intro where he's walking against the white backgrand before turning and shooting at the very end of the fim, just before credits??? Oh and NOT once does he say " The name's Bond, James Bond". Avoid at all costs.

Spent most of the weekend building a blanket chest to store my Rockband peripherals in. Trouble is I made it a bit big (although Mrs P said it was fine) and it takes up too much room. So tonight I cut just under 7 inches off it. I'll finish it tomorrow as the kids are in bed and don't think they'd appreciate me using my circular saw.

Big Slick

Well the reversing lights have been fixed on my car, it wasn't that difficult but it was fiddly and very messy. You can see from the pics below just how little access there is to the Neutral Safety Switch (NSS). In fact once you've managed to pry off the connector you can even see the nut part of the switch.

Anyway here's a tip for nothing. If the oil level on the transmission dipstick is above the max indicator watch out when you remove the existing NSS. I was lucky to escape with a relatively small coating on my arm but the driveway didn't do so well. Of course this is now the area that I need to lie in to put the new part back.

So it's job done and it starts and I have working reversing lights. Cost me $20 for the part and another $10 for a 1" deep socket and 3/8" to 1/2" drive converter, Took me about an hour of which most of it was mopping up the oil spill.

No going back

With the clocks changing the last weekend I've noticed that the reversing lights on the Beast aren't working. As it's got heavily tinted windows in the rear it's vary hard to see where I'm going. This morning I checked the bulbs and they are fine a quick google and my attention turned to the Neutral Safety Switch. This is mounted on the gearbox and tells the car to start only when it's in Park or Neutral. It also houses the reversing lights switch. It's a b****r to get to as the drive shaft to the front axle is right in the way. I eventually managed to get the connector off and hot wired it to check that both the rear lights did work. The part I need is only $20 but I suspect I'm going to need another $50 worth of tools (deep socket and UJ adaptor) to get the thing out. We'll find out either Tuesday or at the weekend. Tuesday is Veterans' Day so we all get the day off. It seems strange having a public holiday midweek but I'm not going to turn it down.

I'm also thinking of putting a lift kit on the Beast too. I've not discussed it with Mrs P yet tho'. I'm thinking a mild 2" lift using the budget boosters method. If I go any bigger then it starts getting messing with long arm kits and other tricks to keep the steering geometry somewhere in line.

Last week I came off probation at work so I'm a fully fledged County employee now and at the beginning of December I'm off to school for a week to learn how they do property appraisals.

A New Hope....

Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness.

Anyway enough of the Star Wars quotes, the election is finally over and it was very exciting to watch. Obviously I can't vote but Mrs P did and she picked the winner! Anyway we stayed up way too late on a school night waiting for the results to come in and because of this I was very nearly late for work this morning. I didn't wake up til 7:15 and have to be a work at 8.

The AC/DC Rock Band track pack is TOTALLY AWESOME! Even Raina likes it too as we played it the moment I got it and listening to a 7 year old sing Highway to Hell is one of the funniest things you'll ever hear

Oh here's more ammunition (pun intended) for gun control......Retard of the biggest order

We watched a couple of superhero films last week, Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. Iron Man is cool and we both really enjoyed it. Incredible Hulk is as bad as the first move...pretty dire and we both struggled to maintain any interest in it. The best bit being right at the end when Robert Downey Jr turms up. My advice is to stick to the TV series, its infinitely better.

Back to school

Is it wrong to let kids have candy for breakfast???? Does that make Mrs P and I bad parents?? Last night was Halloween and the family dressed up and went trick or treating in a friend's neighborhood. It's actually a place Mrs P and I would like to live and the perfect house for us is on the market, shame it's $200,000 dollars overpriced.

Anyway here are a couple of photos from last night.



This morning I've been working on attaching my new vise to my workbench so that I can really get to grips with some stuff. Particularly getting my bike finished as progress has been slow the past couple of weeks.

Yesterday I turned down the biggest ticket of the year, a chance to go and watch the Gators v the Bulldogs. College football is MASSIVE here and a Florida v Georgia match is big news. Anyway the kids are having a sleep over tonight at a friends and I'm going to take Mrs P out instead. Should earn me a few brownie points. I'll need those as tomorrow Rockband: AC/DC live is released tomorrow and I intend to be strutting my stuff through 18 of the band's live tracks. School boy costumes to the ready...

Guns, Coke and South East Asia

Here's an argument for the 2nd Amendment... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7694560.stm. I mean why not? Shouldn't an 8 year old have the right to shoot an Uzi? And if you've not heard Sarah Palin is a fully paid up member of the NRA, figures I guess.

Good news gas prices are down to acceptable levels with regular under $2.50 a gallon and premium at $2.70. That means I can treat the Beast to the full strength juice it so richly deserves, think of it as the difference between Diet and normal Coke.

Mrs P's brother got married today in a quiet family ceremony, they plan to have a larger celebration next year. To celebrate we went to vietnamese restaurant called P.K. Noodles The P.K. stands for Pho King, which made me chuckle in a naughty schoolboy fashion.

In other news it has been damn cold today with temperatures last night dipping to 47F (that's about 7C in old money). My new fangled indoor/outdoor weather station keeps me in constant update with the goings on. Still its supposed to warm up again by the weekend and back into the mid 70s

The American Dream???

Time for some a simple equation....

Ride this

Plus workout with these
And get your mitts on this
That's the American Dream that Biketoberfest sells you. The reality though, is completely different and I've never seen so much leather, that many tattoos nor that much facial hair in one place. If you've not guessed this past weekend was indeed Biketoberfest08 and Kate and I headed down to Daytona last Friday night. It was a great evening with plenty of fantastic bikes on show, unfortunately the battery on camera died so I didn't get many photos. Here a a few of the ones I did get....

I'll take her word for it

Beer was $4 a can but a cheery disposition from the serving wench takes the pain away.

If I can get any more pics off my camera I'll post them later.

In other news I've had my hair cut short again as I couldn't get the mop top to work properly. Here's the last picture of me with the curly locks. It took me about a year to get it to that length and it was totally unmanageable.

It's my birthday this Friday and I get the day off work. Not sure what I'm going to do to amuse myself but I hope to get some much needed work done on my bike.

Hissing sid

It's been a busy weekend trying to get stuff sorted around the house and garden. Everything grows so quickly here and I had to get out the weed whacker and but the grass. While I was out there I came across a jet black snake with a white chin/neck that slithered off into the bushes. Came back a few minutes later and there it was again basking in the sun. Must admit it gave me a bit of a shock. Anyway later on the girls came running in the house screaming "there's a snake, there's a snake" so this time I went armed with my camera. This little beauty was enjoying the sunshine in a bush right beside Mrs P's car. We left it well alone but a quick google turned up this information http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/fl-guide/Colubercpriapus.htm

haemorrhaging green

Well I've "dropped" over $2000 today, the Beast is in the garage having the intake gasket replaced, along with a new water pump, thermostat and associated pipework. They called this morning and said that the high and low pressure pipes on the power steering were leaking too and needed replacing. Total bill so far is just under $1700 and 3 days without a car. They also said the rear axle is noisy (which I knew) and that the diff needs rebuilding.....I thought (or should that be hoped) that it was just the wheel bearings as that's a job I can do. Diffs are another matter altogether but if it fails then its a new back end and that's $1800 just for the parts! I'll have to wait a month or two until I get some more cash saved up to get this job done.

Went to Jacksonville after work today to get a new pair of specs as my current frames are broken. I've got vision insurance through work which pays for 80% up to $250. Seeing as my eye exam cost me about $100 I had $150 to put towards them. Trouble is once I found a pair and had them priced up with decent lenses they came to $600. Bizarrely enough it was cheaper for me not to claim on the insurance but take up the instore offer of 50% off lenses. I escaped from there having spent just over $400. So there you have it in a few short hours I'd spent over $2000 getting stuff repaired or replacing broken things....thank God it's payday tomorrow!

In other news we turned the AC off at the weekend and now have all the windows open day and night. It still gets a bit sweaty in the evenings and at night tho' so the fans are on.

My life in one update

Apologies for not writing sooner but it's been a busy time recently. A couple of weekends ago was a bit of a washout for me. After the 'closed' period at work was over, an invitation went round for Friday evening drinks at Panama Hatties. It's just round the corner from here so I thought why not pop along. I thought I'd have a couple of beers with my colleagues and be home by 7....silly me, I ended up rolling home about 10pm having not eaten any dinner. Woke up the next morning at 5am and felt DREADFUL all day. Somehow, I even managed to drag my hungover butt to a friend's daughter's 7th birthday party.

I've been working hard on my bike doing the mundane job of sanding and prepping the frame and forks. They were much worse than I initially thought with many, many pin holes in the paint that had rusted underneath. Finally, after much sandpaper I've got it sorted and have given it a couple of coats of primer. I've managed to find a website that sells the bearings and Walmart sells a universal brake and gear cable kit which means that I should be able to put on a set of cruiser style handle bars.

Tuesday was our first wedding anniversary, yes it's come round very quickly. The kids went to Grammy's house while Mrs P and I went out to dinner. She really want rack of lamb so we headed off to 95 Cordova, a very good but expensive restaurant. I had "surf and turf", actually it was fillet mignon with crab and shrimp in a lobster sauce. Bizarrely enough Mrs P and I bought each other the same present!

Yesterday we had an appointment for the 20 ultrasound scan at the hospital and it was the first one I'd been too. Anyway baby is doing fine and doctor says that it's perfect. Pics below

Mrs P is once again away for a couple of days this weeks so its just me and the cat at home. Tonight we have the excitement of the Vice-presidential debate to look forward to.

I've booked the Beast into the garage next week to get the intake gasket sorted. When I first got the car the engine purred when you started it, now it sounds like a bag of spanners! They're also going to fit a new water pump while they're at it and replace a load of the pipework. Hopefully it'll be like a new car when I get it back and I'll be able to put my foot down 'good and proper' as I've been nursing it for a couple of weeks now.

Wheelie good time

We've been sweltering here under a mini heatwave with temperatures well up into the 90s (and a heat index over 100F). Yesterday we went to a friend's community pool and I'm not kidding the water was like getting into a bath.

I've got a new project as I was given an old mountain bike. It has seen better days but it's all there and it mostly works. Below is a picture of the bike as I received it and then there's a picture of an hour later...

The thing to remember with bikes is that 'left loosey, righty tighty' doesn't always hold true. Pedels and cranks have a left handed thread on them which means that they undo in the opposite direction. The "fun" begins as I prep the frame and forks for a paint job. Not sure where I'm going with the design yet, I want to put different handle bars on it, but that will necessitate longer brake and gear cables. I may cannibalise one of the other bikes we've got here and use the wheels off that as it has coaster brakes and do away with the gears altogether. Time will tell....

I downloaded a couple of demo PS3 games over the weekend; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, PixelJunk Eden and LEGO: Indiana Jones. Guitar Hero wouldn't work with my RockBand guitar so unless I want to shell out another $100 I guess my days of joining the Toxic Twins on stage are numbered. PixelJunk Eden is just that JUNK, it gets good reviews but DON'T waste the 15 minutes it takes to download it. You'll never get that time back....ever. Now Indiana Jones is a completely different kettle of fish, this game is fun, fun and more fun and plays out the first three films pretty much in their entirety. I only played the first level in the demo but I WANT this game.

Starship Troopers...citizens v bugs

Scared the life out of me this weekend. Mrs P and I spent a couple of hours clearing the vegetable patch from the overgrown (and undersupported) tomato plants. While out there I noticed a black spider with a large abdomen with a red marking underneath hanging around in the rosemary. It was just like the one pictured below.

Red normally signals "danger" so I googled it and nearly messed myself when I found out it was a Southern Black Widow spider....and yes they are venomous! It was soon despatched 'Johnny Rico' style....

It's a 4 day week this week as yesterday was Labor Day and the US equivalent of a Bank Holiday. We went over to Grammy's house and celebrated with a cook out dining on fantastic homemade ground sirloin burgers. We also had hotdogs too, but not your average frankfurters...these had cheese built into them....my god they are good and definitely on my food "fit for a king list". If you wind up on Death Row and have one last request for a meal, I suggest BallPark cheese franks

I'll huff and I'll puff...

Well Tropical Storm Fay hung around far too long for my liking and delivered its promised wind and rain on Thursday and Friday last week. In some places they measured as much as 24 inches in a 24 hour period. They shut the office so I did at least manage to get a 4 day weekend, not that we could do much til the weather improved on Saturday. Apparently 9 people died as a result of the winds and rain but to be honest at least one of those was caused by stupidity. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning from running a generator inside the house...they must be a candidate for the Darwin Awards.



Saturday was Sofie's 4th birthday but with the bad weather still lingering we postponed her party til Sunday. The weather was perfect, being sunny and hot with just a slight breeeze. Everyone had great time and dined on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, fruit kebabs and cake! She got so many presents I've no idea where we're going to put them all now....I think some of the less played with ones will have to go. Not sure how I'm going to sneak them out yet though.....

If a butterfly flaps its wings....

...then no-one has the faintes idea what will happen. See today's update in Tropical Storm Fay which according to some predictions will head out to sea, gather strength and become a category 1 hurricane before returning to land in North Eastern Florida.

Forecast is wet and windy

Well Tropical Storm Fay is rapidly approaching and we're expecting some wet and windy weather. As you can see by the picture, X is a rough estimation of our location and so I've been outside this evening tidying up the garden and putting as much away as I can.

As for work we're getting down to the crunch time at the moment with an immoveable deadline on Friday when the notices have to go out the county residents. Then next week the fun begins as the queries come flooding in.

Weekend was too busy and we were rushing around all over the place. Tons got started but not a lot was finished although Mrs P made a fantastic lasagne. I ate so much that I thought I was going to burst open.

We watched some of the Olympics last night (cr@p night on tv) and we astounded by the final of the women's vault competition. I'm very much anti "sports" where judges decide the who's the best as its purely a subjective decision. They really have no place in the Olympics. Last night the Chinese girl landed on her knees after her second vault yet some how this was good enough to beat the American girl who landed on her feet both times. The eventual winner even landed outside of the landing lines and was deducted points yet was still somehow "good" enough to win. It was a total farce and FULLY justifies my stance on ALL sports where judging is involved.

Redneck Racing

All consoles need a good racing game and so being in the South, NASCAR is king around here. I downloaded a demo version of NASCAR 09 and let me tell you there is nothing fun about this game. There are no instructions but then none are needed, you just press the Accelerator button, hold it down while nudging the joystick slightly to the left to drive round an oval circuit. That's it, I started my one and only race on the front row, and led from start to finish. Graphics are ok, nothing special though and it just doesn't seem like you're actually in the car. Dull, dull, dull so I won't be buying that! Let's hope that Gran Turismo 5 is better as this sucked big time.

There was a new addition to the family on Friday when Mrs P's brother and his girlfriend delivered baby David into this world. He weighted in at 7lb 3oz and was born about 10:30pm on 08/08/08.

Take them back!

Just turned on the TV tonight and there's nothing much on so I'm flicking through the channels when I stumble across a program called Wanna Bet? This travesty of light entertainment is presented by the two geordie a*holes Ant and Dec, doing exactly the same kind of rubbish that they do on a primetime Saturday evening in the UK ! Just seen a kid trying to balance 10 spoons on his face and failing so miserably it was funny. Please take them back....

Anyway the "out-laws" have been in town for the past week and we've been hanging out with them a fair bit. They live in Texas and it's the first time I've met them and they are a good bunch. Hopefully we'll get out to see them next year and stay on their ranch!!! Yesterday we had a lowcountry boil where everything is cooked in the same pot and then poured out on to the table for everyone to help themselves.

Drama occurred late Saturday afternoon, when Mrs P had a double puncture with both tyres on the driver's side flat as a pancake. Managed to put the spare on for her and then use some Fix-a-flat to get the car moveable again but all the tyre places were shut by the time this was done. Had to spend all of Sunday morning running to and fro to the tyre centre getting all 4 replaced.

Weekend Away!

Mrs P and I went up to Amelia Island for the weekend and had a great time. Fernandina Beach is a really nice looking town with tons of victorian brick buildings, something of a rarity round here. As despite the hot humid weather, bugs and termites and annual hurricanes they insist on building houses out of wood here....mind you they made a pretty good job of the one below.

We ate in a couple of really good restaurants enjoying French cuisine on the Friday and then to a Spanish restaurant on Saturday. But it's back to normality now, the kids have returned from their vacation to Buffalo, Grammy is back from her amazing trip across the southern states and the last 3 weeks of the summer vacation are upon us.

The rise in oil prices is due to the Beast

The Beast went in to the garage today to find out where the oil is disappearing too and the results are back. Apparently it's a common fault with these engines and it's a leaking intake manifold gasket. Here's what needs to be done in all it's blogged glory.... it's either that or it's a $1300 repair bill.

Mrs P thinks I should get a new car....

Men in tights

Went to see Dark Knight on Saturday and it's a really good film. I didn't want to believe the hype surrounding The Joker as that's usually a recipe for disaster. However I have to say that the critics were right and Heath Ledger's portrayal is superb. Not convinced by Gary Oldman's portrayal of Commissioner Gordon but can't have it all I guess.

Other things happening this week are that the Beast is booked into the garage for some diagnostic work. It's getting through a load of oil and its not leaking out, nor is it smoking so I'm at a loss. Hopefully the compression check will give me some more details.

Chris Evan's isn't the only one who can do this as in other news I'm going to be a dad come next February. Picture below of the first scan! Happy? Me? Can't believe I'm managed to keep it to myself for so long with the grin I've had.

I've only been here a few days over a year and still can't believe how much my life has changed! Gone from a confirmed batchelor (eating beans on toast for a main meal) to a husband and dad of 2 with another one on the way. Very happy days

Seen it all now!

Last night it threw it down with rain and amazingly there was one of our neighbors out there washing his car! Couldn't make it up.

Spent a lot of this weekend looking for some new shirts for works. I know exactly what I want; spread collar and french cuffs and in colours other than blue or white (and especially not the blue ones with the white collars!). You'd think I was asking for the moon on a stick as my search became increasingly frustrating. ALL the shirts here are pinpoint collars (to make you look like a school boy) or button down (to make you look like an 80's throwback). In the end I had to get a couple from Banana Republic, but they were both in blue.

It's a hog alright

Here's the pic of the hog awaiting it's fate. There are some rashers and bangers in this lady!!

Down, down, deeper and down.....

Sunday I went diving with Kate and Ernie at Blue Grotto. We met Frank, Steve and a couple of others (can't remember their names now) and had a great time. It was my first dive since '04 I think and what better way to start than a 80+ ft dive into a cave system???? I can only thank the lord that Kate had an underwater flashlight otherwise it would have been even scarier!

Frank didn't hang around much at the end as he was in a hurry to check his trap as he was 'on the trail' of a wild boar. On the drive home Ernie received a picture message of the captured pig and Frank was considering it's fate, but having listened to the discussion earlier in the day I think it's days were numbered.

We watched The Mist last night and must say that I really enjoyed it and thought the ending was great, gruesome but great.

On the way to work this morning someone ran into the back of The Beast at a junction. Thankfully it was a low speed impact and there wasn't a scratch on the bumper (or should that be fender) to be seen. The man was greatful that there was no damage and that we didn't need to even exchange insurance details. He must have been worried though in case the old whiplash injury suddenly appeared!!!!

4th July celebrations

Last night we went downtown to see the firework celebrations for the 4th of July. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:30pm but it get busy so we headed out at 6:30 to beat the traffic. That was the plan however we queued for about 30 minutes to get into the car park and they shut traffic getting into the place several times before we managed to get in.

Shot across the Intracostal waterway, this has to be the best place to see the fireworks from...next year, next year.

Waiting in anticipation

Ooooh

Fascinated

Aaahh

Anyway the fireworks were great and we headed back to the carpark and that's where the trouble began....It was TOTAL gridlock and we moved exactly 3 car widths (this was accurately measured by the parking spaces we passed) in 45 minutes! The police were supposed to be organising/directing the traffic having "refined their traffic management policy over several years". Trust me a blind man would have done a better job. Add on to this the Beast is a little thirsty and being stuck in traffic does nothing for improving the fuel economy. Eventually we got out onto the main road and limped into a gas station with the onboard computer saying that I had enough gas for 3 more miles. Not sure how accurate this is especially as it said this when we weren't even moving.

Not sure what the plan is for today but I should be off diving tomorrow

Lightsaver

Just repaired the headlight switch on the Beast and saved myself about $70 in the process. The entire dashboard lights weren't working unless you pushed in slide dimmer switch and held it there. This makes it hard to drive so I took it apart and found the 10 soldered connections had all cracked and only made intermittent connections. So a quick touch with the soldering iron and we're now fully functional. Should mean that the headlights won't flash as I drive along now

Competitive dad....

Raina had her second meet for swim team on Saturday and she won her heat of the 25 yard freestyle. I must admit that it get's a bit Competitive Dad with all the parents a whoopin' and a hollerin' but its fun to watch. You should see the under 6's doing the butterfly....it's a complete thrashfest and very, very funny. But hey at least they try and I'm sure they can do it better than me.

I'm supposed to have a 4 day week this week as we've got friday off for Independence Day, however an email went round at work inviting us all to lunch on Thursday to celebrate the bosses re-election to office and so we'll get an extra 1/2 day off too.

Storm clouds brewing

OMG PS3 in HD is AWESOME. I bought a copy of Assassin's Creed 2nd hand off Amazon and it turned up the same day that we bought the new TV. In the end we went for the 37" one and I have to say I'm glad we did. Trouble is it makes the standard crappy NTSC picture look even more 3rd world, so I'm now investigating digital cable as an option.

Other local news, some Redneck has been taking potshots at petrol tankers as they drive along the Interstate! They hit one the other day and the driver had to get out and apparently put his finger in the hole until the police arrived. Not quite sure what the sniper is hoping to achieve but tankers don't explode when shot with a bullet like they do in the movies!

Work is going well, I've been writing some super funky SQL code and I'm currently refactoring one that our software supplier has written. Their process takes about an hour to run, mine currently takes 30 seconds. I'll admit I'm only 80% done but I still reckon I can whip their time.

Weather here is hot and stormy, with temps up in the 90s everyday but also massive thunderstorms.

HiDef here we come

We're off to the store this afternoon to buy a new HDTV so that we can experience the PS3 in all it's HiDef glory. Obviously I've spent hours on the internet researching the best TV and recommended size four our viewing distance should be around 62". Trouble is they hit the wallet hard, very hard and I'm not sure I want a TV with a 5 foot screen (that's nearly the size of a door!!!) so we'll opt for a more sensible budget and either get a 32" or 37".

Other plans for the weekend is that Mrs P is competing in another triathlon tomorrow so we'll go along and watch her.

We finally had to breakdown this week and put the AC on in the house. Mrs P and I could cope but with the kids now being out of school they started to get very cranky in the heat. I mean the other night Mrs P and I went to bed at midnight and the temp inside the house was a mere 86F (that's 30C for those who prefer the metric system).

Wow oh wow

Had my very first Father's day yesterday and I was spoiled rotten. I am now the proud (should that be grinning) owner of a Playstation 3! Yes that's right, my present from the girls was a PS3. It was totally unexpected and way over the top but I'm pleased as punch. We went and bought Rockband and spent the rest of the afternoon perfecting Bon Jovi's Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Angus....Angus....Angus

Eddie van Halen??
The next Keith Moon?

This sucks...literally

Just been to look at a house that's up for sale, Kate did the honours and showed us around. It's a great house at a bargain price as it's being 'short sold'. It's 4 bed, 3.5 bath with a double garage and the best feature is central vacuuming. I'd never heard of it before but in each room there is a socket that you just plug a vacuum hose into and it all get's sucked down into a bin in the garage! How cool (and very American) is that, no more lugging the hoover around the place. It's also got surround sound in all the rooms and even out on the back deck!


Mrs P has her second triathlon tomorrow up in Ponte Vedra, while Raina has her first swim meet for swim team there too. Mrs P is leaving at stupid o'clock as her race starts super early but I'll be going up to watch Raina later.


Not sure what I'll be up to the rest of the weekend, think my next project will be a reworking of the walk-in closet in the bedroom. I've got a sort of plan in my head, just not sure how I'm going to execute it. I'll take a trip to the Home Depot and see what jumps out at me.

Couldn't resist this adding this Dilbert!

...a nugget of purest Green

I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of purest Green! Finally my Legal Permanent Resident card aka Green Card has arrived.

The weekend was once again very busy. Friday evening we went to see the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats put on an amazing show. The balanced, juggled, climbed, jumped, threw and lifted just about everything and hardly made any mistakes. It was a lot of fun and the kids sat there in complete awe as they performed.

Mrs P had another 5km race on Saturday morning and she finished second in her age group and was the 8th woman to finish too. She also knocked a couple of minutes off her previous time and completed it in 22m 08s. Afterwards there was a 1km fun run and the kids wanted to do it so I was "volunteered" to take part to look after Sofie, while Mrs P did her best to keep up with Raina. Sofie was amazing and ran about 80-90% of the 1km, the rest she walked, never stopping once. Never saw Raina for dust as she was off from the gun, but Mrs P said she was very fast and finished in the first 10.

Saturday Evening we went to a "send off" party for Grammy and one of her friends. They left today on a 6 week road trip across the southern half of the USA, taking in the Grand Canyon, Texas and a whole host of other places.

Sunday we went to graduation party for a friend of the family. He's off to University of Pennsylvania, the fifth ranked University in the US, only behind behind Princeton, Harvard, and Yale! That's some feat and I'm sure he'll do very well there.

Cool as a cucumber

Well the internet has done me proud and I've fixed the AC without resorting to taking the whole car apart. A 1/4" drill bit, a coat hanger and a small rubber grommet and the Beast is back in business. When started poking around with the coat hanger I got over a cup of water drained on the inside and at least that through the overflow proper. It certainly was blocked up and in need of a good rodding. I'll keep an eye on the rubber stopper I've put in place and it was tough to get it in. If it leaks I'll break out some bath sealant for the complete bodge job look.

Had to be at work early this morning to move some databases around. Unbelievably I get time and half off in lieu for this....I can't remember the last time I got something for next to nothing. I'm used to the company taking what it can for nothing. Happy days.

Storms and floods predicted....

I couldn't believe my ears tonight when I heard this on a radio ad today "Apart from Marvin Gaye, Father's day is great time to spend together with guns..." couldn't make it up!


The Beast has a problem and once again its the A/C. This time the overflow drain is clogged, causing the water collected during the cooling to now empty in to the car rather than underneath it. The rear passenger footwell is more like a foot spa at the moment. The official fix involves removing the entire dashboard in order to get to the part and clean it out. The Internet has another solution that involves drilling direclty behind the overflow and then using a coat hanger to unblock it. I'll be trying this on Weds as I can't wait til the weekend as I can't use the A/C at the moment without fear of drowning. That reminds me that Hurricane season officially started on June 1 and lasts from now until November 30.


Good job I managed to pick up a wetsuit yesterday for the princely sum of $31. It's a little on the snug side and leaves little to the imagination so I'll have to keep off the pies.

What weekends are for

Gorgeous day today, so we went surfing this morning before the beach got too busy. It was pretty calm with the occasional good wave as long as you were patient. I caught my first real one and actually managed to get to my feet. Normally I'm not quick enough and I don't get past kneeling before falling off. Mrs P's brother was down from Jacksonville too and he was out on the ocean in his kayak. Grammy and Walter came down too so it was a big family beach morning. It was a lot of fun for sure.

This afternoon I had to replace the rear brake pads on the Beast as I could seem some uneven wear on the rotors. Easy enough job and took less than an hour. I've also replaced the bug screen on one of the house windows as it was torn by an opossum while we were away camping.

Mrs P has gone out with her girl friends to the cinema this evening to watch Sex and the City. Guess that's a couple of hours of her life that she'll never get back.

Tomorrow I'm off to Gander Mountain, the hunting, fishing, camping, shooting and scuba store. This place is redneck heaven with more Mossy Oak that you can shake the proverbial stick at, assuming that is, you could find it. Anyway they have a sale on scuba gear at the moment with 30% off their already low prices. I'm also hoping that I can pick up a cargo hauler that fits on the tow hitch just like the one in the pic below. Sometimes the Beast just isn't big enough!!!
Anyway came across this amazing thing while looking for the cargo hauler online. At $300 its not cheap but its one of the coolest gadgets I think I've ever seen.

Nice rack

The surfboard rack has been finished and duly installed in the danger room. It somewhat restricts the amount of space I've got over my workbench but its the only location in the house that we could put it. Unless of course we wanted above the couch in the living room. Probably cost me less than $15 all told, perhaps there's a part time job in it for me....

Overcooked....

Well another busy weekend. Mrs P and I went on a date on Friday as the kids had sleepovers. We dined on rack of lamb, fillet mignon, seared tuna, duck and grouper at a Tapas style restaurant.

On Saturday morning I finished repairing the surfboard while Mrs P went shopping with one of her friends. The repair won't win any beauty contests but it's worked. Went to the beach on Sunday to test out the board but it was very windy and the surf was very choppy and not suited to beginners. Last time we tried surf in these conditions I got whacked on the head and badly bruised my ribs.

Spent an hour or so Monday morning at the Home Depot getting some materials to build a surfboard rack. Now that we've got a couple of them we need somewhere to store them properly rather than leaving them on the back deck. The rest of Sunday was spent at the beach and I fried. I hastily sprayed on some lotion before I left but missed loads as the can ran out. My face, back, shoulders and legs are all crispy and lobster pink! That'll teach me.

How To...part II

..fix a surfboard. Here is the board in all its $75 glory. It was a bargain as one we bought last summer was nearly 4 times that price and that was the cheapest 2nd hand one they had! The soft bit is right in the center of the board about 12 inches in diameter.

I've drilled holes in an evenly spaced pattern across the entire patch to be fixed using a 1/8" bit. I know need to leave it a couple of days to dry out in case there is any moisture inside.

How To...

...install a garbage disposal.

This was easier than I thought, luckily someone had already installed the power on a separate fused circuit and the switch was wired in too. All I had to do was change the face plate for a socket and mount it properly to the wall.

Existing pipework removed and new socket installed and tested.

The mounting bracket installed underneath sink.

New garbage disposal installed in position

Luckily I had enough pieces left over from the original pipework to finish off the drainage and connect the dishwasher

Job done and Mrs P over the moon, and I quote this is what "sorts the middle class from the lower class".