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.