Meet Sydney

Well, we got us another cat.  Andrea had been hinting for quite some time that she wanted a kitten.  And I kept saying, “No”.  So she used my birthday as the perfect excuse to get me a kitten.  I have to admit she’s too darn cute (as most kittens are).  There was an e-mail at Andrea’s work for free farm kittens.  They had cats of all ages out running around.  It was hard to pick one, but this little gal was just so relaxed, I figured THAT’s the kind of cat I like.

The Nala and Daisy aren’t too sure what to do about her yet.  Nala is happy to pretend like she isn’t there.  But Daisy I think is afraid we’re going to forget about her forever.  I’m sure they’ll get along eventually though.  Sydney doesn’t seem too shy, but not quite ready to rub noses with anybody just yet.  Infact just about all she’s done all night is sleep!

Check out my Picasa Gallery for a couple more pics and full size versions of these.

Sydney

Chopped

Welp, I cut my hair off.  Err… Andrea did.  It was getting shaggy, and I was tired of messing with it all the time.  And not to mention it was friggin hot.  I dunno how you girls do it with all the hair all over the place come summer time.  Too hot, I’d be sweatin’ up a storm!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging in a while.  It seems like it’s been busy, but I really can’t think of what’s been going on.  I promise to do better in the days to come.

Recently we went out to the Barton County Fair since we had some free tickets to go see the Big Red One Rock Band from Ft. Riley.  They were a pretty good group.  They had a horns section and everything and sounded real good.  We took some time to walk around and check out the exhibits.  I couldn’t help but think how the fair probably hasn’t changed a whole lot in the last, what, 80 years?  All the kids were showing off their calves they’d been tending, and no shortage of rabbits, chickens, goats and the like.  It was just kinda nice to see that there’s still old standards around in a time where it seems like technology is invading everything.

Yesterday, Andrea, my friend Kenny, his girlfriend, and myself all went to a little restaurant just south of Timken, KS along the highway.  It wasn’t anything spectacular.  But the portions were HUGE!  Andrea ordered “Loaded French Fries” for an appitizer and they brough out a full size dinner plate HEAPING with home cut fries and covered in cheese, ranch and bacon.  I had the chicken fried steak, and that thing was almost an inch thick and buried in more fries!  They don’t screw around.  The food was good, everything was hot, but nothing was just packed with flavor.  Still worth the drive from Great Bend once in a while.  And it’s the only place on earth that I know of that you can get Keystone Light ON TAP!  Weird.

Dog-sitting

No, I’m not that cruel and keeping two dogs in a tiny kennel.  I’m watching Andrea’s sister’s dog while they all head up to Wisconsin for a family renunion.  Their weiner dog is named “Snoopy” and man is this dog a spaz!  I got the above picture after I was telling Daisy to go to bed, and Snoopy just followed her right in there!  Ha ha.

He’s not a bad dog, just the two of them get up to no good.  Not destructive mischeif by any means, but they like to wrestle, growl at each other, and if one barks, so does the other one.  I’m definetly a one dog guy!

Still looks alright.

Well I got all the wheel covers shined up last week.  But I’ve been playing “collect the parts” to get one of my rear brakes fixed.  I tell ya it’s been a learning experience, but now I’m finally VERY familiar with how these rear disc brakes operate.  I THINK I’m good to go now.   ha ha

So since I finally got the covers back on the wheels, I figured I’d snap a few pictures while the car is all clean!

Purely for nostalgia.

Well I’ve been wanting to build a nostalgia machine for a while. I don’t really have all the pieces I need, so I created a virtual install of Windows 98. (I wanted to install Windows 95, but I couldn’t find an install disc anywhere!) It’s not QUITE the same. I mean with the LCD monitor and the laser mouse and all. Nothing really is ever going to bring back the experience of chatting in ICQ or the Excite chat rooms. Or seeing “This site is best viewed in Internet Explorer 4.  600×800 resolution.” Those days are long lost, left only to my somewhat blurry memory.

The Wayback Machine has been helpful to some extent, but I wish there was a way to route all traffic through archived sites. That sounds like more work than I’m willing to put forth.

Sweet! I can get 40 free hours of AOL!

It has been fairly nostalgic though flipping through all the old built in wallpaper patterns.  Enjoying the retro screen savers like 3-D maze, and 3-D pipes.  If it was 3-D it was friggin’ awesome!  I might have to install my copy of Unreal Tournament to really relive the experience.  Software rendering FTW!

Another night of shining up old stuff.

I have had the hubcaps off my car for a couple days, doing some work on the brakes and trouble shooting a squeak I had coming from one of my wheels.  Turns out it was one of the hubcaps, so since I had them all off, I decided I might as well take ‘em apart and clean ‘em up.  And (hopefully) when I put them back together, everything will be nice and tight, and the squeak will be gone!

They look kinda intimidating, but they aren’t too complicated.

There's five small screws on the backside that hold the center piece on.

Once the center piece is off, you can get to all the spokes. They simply pull out, although some are more stubborn than others!

Once the outer spokes are removed, you can remove the inner cover.

And now you can get to the bottom spokes. They also just pull straight out.

Now all the parts are ready to be polished!

You can either try to straighten any bent spokes, or in my case I had a spare wheel cover I used for parts.

When you've polished everything. (Brasso is fantastic!) Put it all back together. Might have to used an assembled one for reference. Can you tell which one has been shined up? Ha ha!

One year!

So we made it one year.  Today’s been a great day.  I told Andrea last night that if she made it to midnite, I’d let her have her present since it’s technically our anniversary then.  Hehe.  We are so terrible at delayed gratification.  I got her a little 24k while gold necklace.  It’s a cross pendant with a little dove engraved on it.  I thought it was cute and she says she likes it.  I know the girl needs some more diamonds, but I just couldn’t spring for that yet.  So I made her the promise that every year, she’ll get something better than the year before.  (This could be my undo-ing!)

I guess tradition states that you keep the top of your cake in the freezer and chow down on your first anniversary.  Besides that sounding really gross… We figured since we got married at a vinyard we’d save a bottle of wine and open that instead.  They say wine is supposed to get better with age… well I dunno about this one.  I mean, it doesn’t taste awful, but I’d swear it tasted better a year ago.  Kinda has a funny whang and a good bite to it now.  Now in Windswept’s defense I’m certian we didn’t store our wine appropriately, you know cool and dark.  Ours was just on a shelf in the kitchen for a year.  But still it was nice to open the bottle just because of what it represents.

So here’s looking forward to the next year!

The Poker Den

Well another project tackled (for the most part).  I’ve been wanting to turn our unfinished into a little hangout spot.  I’m liking how it’s shaping up so far, but I need some more quirky junk to decorate with.  I need to hit up some estate auctions or something for all sorts of weird stuff.  We scored a brand new folding poker table off of amazon.com for a reasonable price.   It’s more sturdy than your average folding table and I was pretty impressed with the quality for as little as it cost.

I didn’t want to just set a poker table in an empty unfinished basement though.  I wanted it to look halfway lived in, so I’ve been trying to find some of the stuff that has been tucked away (or just never unpacked from move-in day).  Found some of the old Deep 6 stuff from the band I was in during high school.  And a few car parts I had laying around.  I guess those are decorative… better than a concrete wall I guess.  I want to get a bunch of the old tin signs and things like that.  And old neon sign from a bar or something would be sweet, but those things are expensive!

Eventually I want to get a nicer stereo to put down there.  I just have a little am/fm radio right now.  It’d be cool to put a small couch or loveseat down there, but I don’t know if it would fit down the stairs.  If you haven’t seen the entrance to my basement, it’s just like a trap door in the floor of my utility closet, and I really don’t think any real piece of furniture would fit through it!  But it would be nice to have some kind of comfortable seating down there and I could move my old 25″ TV down there with a Nintendo and/or DVD player so that players that get knocked out of a game have something to do.  Come to think of it… I bet a futon sofa would fit nicely!

So there’s the latest I’ve been up to.  Still a work in progress, but at least I’m not ashamed to show it now.  So come on over and help put it to good use!

My desk

I haven’t really posted much about my new job on here yet.  Just been so busy with the cars and traveling and all that I guess I just haven’t had much internet time period.  Incase somebody is out of the loop, I’m the new Production Director/Quazi Traffic/Fill-in DJ/Webmaster/Other Stuff guy at Eagle Radio… err… Hull Broadcasting in Great Bend.  I’m liking it so far.  It’s quite a bit of work to keep up with, but once I get a routine I can start finding some efficiencies I think.

So there’s my desk.  I scrounged up an old ratty mouse pad I found laying around the station.  But I need to swing for a nice simple mousepad sometime.  BUT I finaly have an LCD and optical mouse at work!  I swear ol’ Rocking M Radio didn’t have an optical mouse in the whole building.  Those antiquated pieces of technology should be outlawed and all those little rubber balls can be sent to the guys at Mythbusters.  I’m sure they would come in handy for SOMETHING there.  And all the time saved by

I do like a nice clean desk, but right now, I feel it’s lacking one key ingredient.  A conversation piece.  Something that captures someone’s attention, sparks curiosity, and most importantly isn’t SO people want to steal it.  So I’m at a loss right now.  I can’t think of anything I have laying around the house, and I don’t really want to spring for something just so it can sit on my desk at work.  I’m sure something will pop up.

But that’s about it.  Life keeps on, keeping on.  I hope it’s doing the same for you.

The Finished Product…

Need I say more? Just check out the pictures!

*sexy meow*

The HOT new lights!

Rear View

The sexy new fender Stangs

They're really shiny close up!