Late Night Cruise Through The Ghetto

Space Ghetto.  Here's an interesting tribute to one of the sites that I look at when I'm done doing anything meaningful or productive on the internet.  There is much good in the ghetto, even though this song refers more to the scroll-scroll-scroll stuff, if you know what I mean.  Needless to say, NSFW, and I still will not link to it, or it's lesser (divorcee) site.  Enjoy!

A Good Friday To Catch Up

It is a good Friday, today.  My wife and I are fortunate enough to have a half day off.  We started by going out to lunch and have since been discussing upcoming projects.  Mostly we have been walking the yard and weighing the recently cooler weather (frost warning last night) against when to plant all the plants that we have ready to go.  I think we decided that today is our 'take it easy' day, while tomorrow will be a 'work' day.  So since I have some time, and since I haven't posted in a week, let me tie up some loose ends and put other ones out there.

• First off, the live webcasts I talked about in the last post were fun to watch.  Kiss was a bit disturbing for me to view as Paul Stanley has clearly has lost most of his vocal range and power.  Gene Simmons is fatter, and the other two, while good, just ain't the originals.  TMOS's live theater show the next night was a lot of fun to watch.  Since I bought access to that one I still can watch it and plan to once more, maybe this weekend if I find the time.
• Last Saturday my friend Jerome came over and helped me put the TV stand together.  Everything went as it should and we got the 'parts' box all taped up and ready to ship out.  UPS picked it up on Monday, so that mess should be settled now.  The next step, and part of tomorrow's activities, will be to move it in to the living room and move the old one out to the porch for disassembly and disposal, probably a bit in the bin each week, which shouldn't be a problem since we usually put it out only every other week.
• On Tuesday morning an electrician stopped by before my wife left for work and did the quick job of putting in plugs under the sink so we didn't have to run the new dishwasher with an extension cord.  We are happy to finally have it done as it has been a longer process than it normally would be.  It seems their carpenter's wife is doing better, and this is a good, local, mom-and-pop plumbing place that has been real good to us in the past, so we dealt with the extra time.  Quality and customer service are important to us.
• Plants are getting bigger outside but there isn't anything more blooming yet to post any pics, and hostas sprouting up are pretty bland.  Over time I'm sure we'll have more early spring blooms, the creation of our flowerbeds is an ongoing, year to year process.  There was a frost scare last night.  I don't think we got any frost in our neighborhood, but I did see patches on lawns and cars on my way to work this morning.  Boy, March gave us a good glimpse of Summer, but recently it has been more seasonal.  Actually normal or even 5-10 degrees warmer for this time of year instead of the 30 plus degrees above normal last month.
• Speaking of the frost scare, you may notice a new look if you venture over to my garden blog, listed on the right. It's nothing special, but it is a wider format, maintains the green color scheme, and doesn't mess up the older posts too much. Further editing and template changes may occur when I have time to follow up and explore other options. Also, I added a link to a friend's new blog in the right column of my garden blog. He enjoys his garden and pond so much, I encouraged him to give it it's own website with Blogger and he has. It is early for this year, but he has many great pics of his gardenpond from last year up. Go to my garden blog and you'll see the link in the right column. I don't want to be too direct because he doesn't know I'm linking to it yet...(but if he knows how to use his stats he'll figure it out!) 
• Lastly, but not leastly, I want to wish a Happy 6th Blogday to fellow blogger, Delcatto!  I think I recently said he's like one of my best friends I've never met.  I mean it, but I was probably drinking when I said it.  ;-)   All my best, Del!  Here's to many more (*raises glass while drinking whiskey on Friday afternoon*)! 

That's about it.  Bullet points let me catch up on many topics all at once, thank you for listening.  I still have a post brewing about my new position and training at work.  While Delcatto's recent training seems much more intense, I'm still pinching myself gleefully.  Happy Easter, if that's your thing, we'll be meeting with the in-laws to celebrate father-in-law's birthday.  Whatever you're doing this weekend, I hope it is as fun and productive as I hope mine is!  Ta.
P.S.  A belated welcome to my newest follower and all around nice guy, MCW from Crazy Lazy, Silly and Strange!

Live Webcasts!

Coming in 2012

In less than an hour, Kiss will be shown live from their free concert tonight in New Orleans on AT&T's Uverseonline.   And tomorrow night TMOS is hosting a first-for-them live show in front of a packed theater, you can get your online ticket here.  Is there any question why the computer has taken over my television time?

Spring Changes, Inside And Out

Before I forget again, now is a good time to post the growth of the plants at the back of the house and compare to the photo I posted just 11 days ago.  Go here or scroll down a bit, and keep in mind we're still in March!  Peas are starting to sprout - the ones the squirrels missed, anyway - but more may be planted soon.  I'll wait a bit for an update there, but we do have more going on around here...

After almost two weeks, our dishwasher was installed this morning, yet it is still not completely finished.  It seems that plumbers aren't allowed anymore to hard wire a dishwasher or do any electrical work so we have to have an electrician in to put plugs in the electrical box under the sink.  Well, it works with an extension cord now, at least.

TV stand:  Unpacked pieces in front, packed version in background

And then there was the saga of the television stand.  It arrived originally in a pretty beat up box, but after unpacking the only problems were a chipped board and missing unique screw bolts.  The chipped board I was happy to overlook since I recovered 2 big pieces and it was in a hidden area anyway.  However, I could not completely build it without the special screw bolts.  Their packaging came open during shipment so I found several throughout the box as I was unpacking, obviously some were lost through the ends and/or the several gouges in the outer box.

After googling a phone number for Amazon.com, I called a very helpful agent, Angelo, I believe.  After exploring all avenues to get me the missing half dozen screw bolts, they had no option but to send me a whole other 114 lb. package.  I am to open it, take out what I need, tape it back up and ship it back before late April, all on their dime - about 70 bucks shipping one way.  In this pic you see the first one, unpacked, and leaning against some of the sliding glass door and the new one still in the box.  Getting that box back together again will be fun.  Remember, I all ready unpacked this once, I know the piece I need is toward one side and the hardware I need is in the exact middle of the box.  Anyway, it may not have been my ideal solution but Angelo worked hard to do anything else before resorting to this.  Great customer service, thank you Angelo at Amazon.com.

So the plan is to get into and out of that box tomorrow or Friday night, then Jerome and Lisa are coming over on Saturday afternoon for assembly and grilled dinner.  I picture Jerome being 'Al' to my 'Tim - the Tool Man - Taylor.'  It should be fun!

The Gentlemen's Rant

...for Valentine's Day.  This is another youtube channel I recently came across that amuses me and may end up on my list.  Kind of NSFW.



My wife is not getting a present today. I ordered it late so it will be here later this week, but it's a good enough present that I don't think she'll mind.

No SOPA No PIPA

If you don't know what it is you may want to look it up.

I'm home being ill today so I've had time to read some news.  I'm disturbed by what I hear.

Huffington Post is a good place to start, too.

FreakAngels Has Ended

It happened a little while ago, but I had not pointed it out here yet.  I will miss it.  It is a web comic that I have read every Friday for, well, several years now - ever since it started out.  And I'm not normally a comic reader at all.  It was Tom Reynolds (of Random Acts Of Reality then and BrianKellet.net now) who pointed it out right at the beginning, so that was good timing to get in right at the start and I was hooked from the first.  It was also kind of neat to be there at the beginning, especially since I never got bored and kept with it all this time.  If your into this sort of thing then I recommend taking a look while it is still there.  I will leave the link on the right for at least a few more weeks until I can find out if there is a similar project coming up that I may also want to follow.

Farewell, FreakAngels.  Start reading from the beginning here.