Manassas National Battlefield

I spent half the day at Manassas National Battlefield park with my parents. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day for the end of December.

Rail fence in the park

The Henry House

Andrew Jackson

Me with the big gun

Mom from the Visitor Center over looking the Henry House

Dad in front of the visitor center

Smithsonian Amarican Art Museum

I spent half the day yesterday exploring "The National Portraite Gallery" in downtown Washingtond DC yesterday.  Here are a few things from the musuem though not the best.  It wasnt until close to the end of the day that I found out Photos could be taken.

Visiting Washington DC

When visiting Wasington DC stay someplace outside the city, and take the metro in.   The best way to do this is to plan on going into downtown DC on the weekend or a federal holiday when parking at the metro station is free and an all day metro pass is only $7.80.  

Otherwise, on work days, you must contened with the commuters going to work. It's almost impossable to find a parking place unless you get there really early.  It's also alot more expensive to ride the metro.

Christmas Eve Family Photo

Christmas Eve after the Candle Light Service at Church

Hair Cut

After going letting my hair grow long (for me) for the holiday photos that will be taken, I walked up to the Great Clips to get my hair cleaned up.   I walked into the shop stood at the desk for awhile(they were really busy), no one came to get my name, so I sat back down to wait.  Someone else came in and they took his name right away. Soo...

I started walking down Manchester to another salon type place in the Schnucks plaza. On the way I started to pass by the "Des Peres Barber Shop".  Ever since I moved to Des Peres I have been telling myself that I needed to try it out so in I went.  I'm glad I did.   First off I was greeted , then growled at by a small dog who I quickly won over by rubbing his butt.  Any place that has a dog on the premises immediately gets points in my book.  My hair was done my Mary, the dogs owner.

It has been years since I have been to a barber.  Since high school I have been going to places like Great Clips with a saloon type feel to them.  For the same price, $15 + tip, Mary washed the back of my neck(kind of a mini massage), trimed my hair lines with a razor rather than electric trimmers, worked on my eyebrows & ears without being asked, and cleaned off my hair with a warm towl.  I dont think I'll ever go back to one of those saloon places again!

They don't seem to have a website but here is the information from the business card I picked up.

Des Peres Barber Shop
Appointments Available
314-822-2636
12023 Manchester Road
Tuesday thru Friday - 8:30 am to 5:30 pm
Saturday 8:00 am to 3:00 pm

Iraqi lobs loafer at Bush

This Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at President Bush… what a joke, what is funnier is that the American press is reporting that the Iraqi people are revering him as a hero. I hope our journalists are reporting the Iraqi response inaccurately.

If they need a hero they should to look for someone like the Chinese student who stood in front of a Red Army's Tank at Tiananmen Square.

Bad West County Center

One of the many things I like about living in Des Peres, MO is that I have the ability to walk to just about anything I need.

• Schnucks Groceries store
  
• Ace Hardware
  
• Walgreens
• Off the top of my head 10 restaurants
  
• Des Peres Park, (fishing pond, paved walking/rollerblading trails, tennis courts, baseball fields, playground, picnic tables with grills.)
  

We also have a mall, West County Center that is within walking distance. The problem is they seem to have gone to a have gone out of their way to make it hard to access by someone walking to the mall. None of their driveways have a sidewalk so you have to walk down a curvy driveway hoping no one comes around the corner at a ridicules speed.

Really I wouldn't care, but I used to like being able to walk the Barns and Nobel bookstore which has now moved to the mall.

Superfeet

After a couple of years of my feet hurting I finally took the recommendation of a number of people and bought a pair of Superfeet  for $34 about a month ago from Angie at the Alpine Shop in Kirkwood.  I'm glad I did.

Angie explained that (this is the way I understood it)  in this day and age we walk on flat surfaces everywhere we go so the muscles in our feet don't develop like it would if we had to walk on unpaved surfaces.  Our arches need more support and that the inserts in most shoes are just cheep pieces of foam that break down quickly and don't provide the support needed. 

My feet  have felt ten times better ever since.  and I would highly recommend anyone who's feet are bothering then to give them a try.  Angie recommended the Blue ones be cause she described my feet as "meaty" as apposed to the Green ones that my friends recommended. 

I also understand they sometimes help people with back pain.

Downed Trees

Today I had four more small but problematic trees removed this week by Ottiger Tree Services for $800.  That compared to the $1000 that Ray's  and the $1200 that Hansen's quoted me.  All and all everything went well.  The owner, who seems to be a really good guy liked to talk and offered alot of suggestions on things I could do with my back yard and should do for the health of some of the other trees in my yard. None of which would require his service so he wasn't just trying to bump up the bill.

If you ever get the chance to watch some of these people take down tress that are located in a awkward position (ie. between my house and my neighbors power lines, hanging over my roof and right up against my fence)  do it.  its amazing how they use ropes and pulleys to control the tree and the branches as they are cut off.

My only complaint is that they only take checks and cash and expect payment immediately after the job.  For most people this will not be a problem , but for me, I used my last check over 5 years ago.  All my payments are made by online banking and credit card. 

All and all I would recommend and will call for my own tree removal Otteger Tree Services.

First Snow

Woke up this morning to a wet snow, it's pretty, but I wish it was a dry snow. There's nothing worse than muddy paws.

I Hate Trees

Worked on cleaning up the leaves from my pecan tree.  lots and lots of leaves (i hate trees).  I basically mulched them up with my mower.  I ran out of gas before I was finished so I went out and bought a quarter gallon.  I even mulched the leaves up on my Deck with the mower.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day I spent most of the morning lounging around watching the roommate run around trying to be at the parent’s house by 8:00. Did not even come close.

Next I balanced my checkbook with Quicken and for a brief moment I though I might have met my budget for the month till I remembered I started having an extra $25 per paycheck go to my savings account starting tomorrow.

Next was a walk to Creve Coeur Park with the pups.  It could have been a nice peaceful walk around the lake except that I kept getting phone calls from my dad needing tech support on ordering gifts for my brothers kids on Amazon. Its really hard to hold onto two dogs and talk with the brick that is my cell phone.

This guy was out fishing on Creve Coeur Lake for Thanksgiving

I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Feasting Fox with my parents, my aunt & uncle, and Steve. It’s a nice germen restaurant. Though for Thanksgiving they only serve one germen dish, the sauerbraten. In addition they had Turkey with the fixings, roasted pork loin dish, salmon, and a surf n turf dish. I had the turkey. The most interesting topic of conversation I thought was that my ten year old nephew was given $30 to rake the leaves around the house. He contracted out the work to a few of the neighbor kids for $1.50 a piece. I hope he’s willing to take care of my finances in my old age.

Steve found a date at the Feasting Fox!

That night Steve came over and we watched Chuck, Big Bang Theory, and Surviverman. Steve also helped me update flash my Linksys router with the newest version of dd-wrt.

One thought for the day. I noticed that Wal-Mart was open in addition to Walgreens. In addition the news said that Bass Pro stayed open. Though I like the convenience and it dose give people who need the money an opportunity to earn some, I still wish more stores would shut down for the holiday.

Hawthorn Trail

Today I took the dogs on a 1.25 mile hike in Babler State park on the Hawthorn Trail.  It was a little chilly but nice.  I let Corbie walk without a  leash for part of the time and I have never seen him so happy.  I wish I could trust Katy off leash.

Quantum of Solace

Saw the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace on the mega screen at the Wehrenberg Galaxy 14 theater at 1:00 on Saturday. 

1. The movie was hard to follow
2. I wish I had watched Casino Royal again before going to Quantum
3. Worst of all, they didn't show the Star Trek trailer, which was the reason I paid a $2 premium for the Maga screen!
   

Winter is here

Cold Cold Cold... and its only going to get colder.  I think my warm weather cloths are going to get stored away today.  I just wish that if it's going to be cold that we at least could get nice snow to cover everyting.

Spencer's Grill

Had breakfast today with Steve at Spencer's Grill in Kirkwood.  It's a small greasy spoon place that's been around forever and one that I've always intended to visit.  Its a nice little place, and I do mean little, 5 booths, about ten stools at the bar, and three, three chair tables in the back.  If you live in St. Louis county I would definitely recommend stopping by at least once.

When we got there all the booths were full so we sat at the bar right behind the cook at the grill.  I have to say it was fun to watch and it almost tempts me to replace my stove at home with a grill.  I had county fried steak, scrambled eggs, hash browns, OJ and a cup of coffee.  Steve had a pork chop, eggs over easy, hash browns, a side order of biscuits & gravy and a soda. Both meals together totaled $20.  I was really happy with everything I got though I prefer my hash browns more crispy on the outside than they serve them and Steve thought his chop was the saltiest piece of pork he'd eaten.

I will defiantly be back for breakfast.

Flu Shot

Got my flu shot today, Have you gotten yours?

A walk in the woods

Amy, the dogs and I hiked the two mile ‘Virginia Day Memorial Nature Trail’ in Babler state park Saturday afternoon. The weather was nice, just cool enough to keep me from sweating, the leaves have started changing colors and Amy slipped in the mud and fell on her butt (lol). All and all a fun day.

I was really surprised by the number of October campers in the park, though most of them were in campers rather than tents.

That Darn Foxconn Motherboard

Last night I finally flashed the bios with the instructions they sent me, that were outdated and had incorrect links, by booting to a dos CD. I really don't want to have to ever go through that again. Now I just have to reinstall all the drivers and software.

I’m not vary happy with my new Foxconn motherboard!

Im not vary happy with my new Foxconn 755A01-6EKRS motherboard. One week after getting it from Newegg the board only runs on 256mb of ram. After sending emails back and forth with Foxconn's tech support they came to the conclusion that I need to update the bio's. Keep in mind this is a model that was released sometime in 2004, I would think bios upgrades would not be an issue by 2008. None of the parts I'm installing fall outside the specks of what the board is advertised to handle, nor is there any thing odd or unusual about my build. And yes, there are a lot of posts from people using Sempron with this problem, but I'm using a Athlon 64.

1. Motherboard would not boot past the bios memory test. Disconnected everything but the power, cpu, and keyboard from the motherboard
   
2. Motherboard still will not boot past the bios memory test. Foxconn tech support had me reset the bios.
   
3. Still, nothing past the memory test. I was told to boot up with 256mb single sided ram…. Problem, I don't own any 256mb single sided ram. Fortunately I was able to borrow one from someone at work.
   
4. System now boots but I have 2gig of ram I want to use in this pc so the bios still needs to be flashed.
   
   1. I installed Windows XP and ran there bios flashing software. The software gave me a message that the bios file dose not exist on the server.
      
   2. I tried to find the bios file used when flashing from a command prompt, after booting from a dos disk. When I got to where the file should be on Foxconns web site I again got a message that the file did not exist.
      
5. Foxconn tech sent me a zip file with the updated flash file. When I ran their windows software to update the bios the message I got was that this was the wrong bios file. Foxconn tech has now suggested I confirm the bios version and try the boot from dos method.

Of course all the contacts with Foxconn are via email so basically every step take a day to accomplish.

As I said, Im not happy with my Foxconn motherboard.

Timing Belt

On October 17, 2008 I Finaly took the Car to Dave Mungenast-St. Louis Honda to replace the timing belt. Something they recomend be done every 100,000 miles. I waited alot longer.

They quoted me $679.92. I was lucky enough to find a 20% off coupon on their web site. In addition to the timing belt they recomended replaceing some leaking cam and crank shaft seals($93.89) and replacing the coolent ($15.50)

Service was great.

Free!

Link to Free Cappuccino until October 31, 2008

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?r=1&r=1&PID=24816

Goings On

I have to say, life is vary frustrating when your main PC is down.  Its been a week since I've balanced my check books and credit cards and worst of all I haven't been able to record my TV shows or watch them off the Internet (my PC is hooked up to my TV)   I ordered a replacement Foxconn 755A01-6EKRS motherboard from newegg Monday night and it came in on Friday.  Saturday I put it together.  The bios boot up stops right after the memory test.  I sent an email to Foxconns support but since it was over the weekend I'm having to wait.  As of this Monday morning I'm still waiting for a response.

Friday night I went over to Steve's and watched "Chuck"(Yvonne Strahovski is soo... hot!), "Big Bang Theory" and two episodes of "Stargate Atlantis".  Yeah, I know, I'm a real couch potato.

Saturday I was feeling a little sick,  Stayed home most of the day trying to get the computer working except for a trip to the grocery store and to Grants farm to see the civil war re-enactments.  

There wasnt much to see at the re-enactment for me.  Im sure it would be great for kids.  My big thrill was the two free bottles of Budwiser productes they give out.

Still was feeling kinda sickly on Sunday.  I did some cleaning around the house but that was mainly it.

Stupid Computer

My computer died on Friday.  I got the blue screen of death a few times so I though I would run spin-rite on it, I only ran it through 80% then canceled the scan. Now I don't even get a bios screen :-(

Backyard

I got the area behind the garage racked, roped off, seeded and fertilized.  Now I just hope that the dogs stay out of the area, leaves don't cover it up and I can keep it moist for the next 2 weeks. 

I also have Ray's tree service coming tomorrow to give me a bid on removing some  trees.

Backyard

Today I worked on clearing branches from the backyard with specaill attention to the area behind the garage wich had tons of small twigs colleted from branches falling on the roof and sliding down.

Monday I hope to break up the ground and plant grass. 

The Grants Farm

This morning Amy and I took a bike ride on Grants Trail to Grants Farm. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

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Amy was thrilled to death to feed the baby goats, she even wanted to take one home. Later for lunch I had the bratwurst meal with German potato salad, Amy had a hotdog with fries. The topic of conversation was the unappetizing goat poop Amy had on her shirt from the goats jumping up on her. As anyone who has been to Grants Farm knows they offer two free samples of their beer per person. Because the samples were pretty generous I opted to only try the American Ale. It's not a bad Ale, but I think I would opt for something else next time.

New Season

• Heroes - Thought it looked cheesy at first, then...   dog-gone-it!  They hooked me again!
  

• Chuck - Same-ole same-ole!  But its all the stuff I loved about the first season.
  

• Big Bang Theory - Laughed myself silly! Maybe it was the bottle of Budweiser I was emptying or maybe it was just that good, Only time will tell

Cause of my country’s financial crises

As best I can break it down...

1. A lot of people borrowed more loan than thy could afford.
2. A lot of companies lent money to their customers that their customers couldn’t afford.

The two questions I want an answered for is, who was making money on this arraignment and why are we as a country such idiots?

Bamboo Bistro

Had lunch Wednesday at the Bamboo Bistro.  A small chines restaurant with a lunchtime buffet.  $10.85 for the buffet, no drink.  Food was above what i would expect for a buffet, waiter kept my water glass full till i accidentally ate a hot pepper, then it seemed like it took forever for him to show up.

A nice thing about the place is that two walls are glass so I got a lot of sunlight, something important when your in a building all day.


214 N 4th Street
St. Louis, MO 63102

Kraft: Easy Italia, Roasted Garlic Parmesan

Eating above for lunch... Thank goodness I only bought one of these.

Quote for the day

"This world that we're a- livin' in / Is mighty hard to beat; / You git a thorn with every rose / 
But ain't the roses sweet!"

I have know Idea who wrote this but I pulled it out the this article

Hodaks

Fried chicken with BBQ sauce at Hodak's is a pleasure that shouldn't be missed. They have other things on the menu but I've never tried any of them.

2100 Gravois Ave
St. Louis, MO 63104
314-776-7292

Is NPR insain?

This morning as i was driving into work i was listing to NPR as they interviewed, the commander of the antiaircraft group that shot John McCain down, the person who claims to have pulled McCain out of the water after he was shot down, and one of the guards at the "Hanoi Hilton" the prison John McCain was held at during the Vietnam war (who by the way enlighten me to the fact that none of the prisoners were abused).

Hmmm.. maybe next week they can interview people from Kenya, home Obama's biological father. Or maybe, just mabe, NPR could stick to interviewing amaricans about our presedental election.

Quote for the day

"Sometimes it's better to just nod your head and agree than to actually listen and interpret"

Michael Westen from the Book "Burn Notice: The Fix"

Senator McCain's First Wife

Recently read an article about what happened between Senator McCain and his first wife Carol. I'm At this point i'm not sure what I think about the whole thing. Here's a Wikipedia article about her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_McCain

John McCain picks Sarah Palin

Bold move by Senator McCain. Im not sure it was the best selection for vp, but it might be the best selection for a running mate in this campain. It will be intresting to see if Senator Bidden attacks the Governer as aggresivly as he is capabel of. Technorati Tags: 08 Presidential Election

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I took in a viewing of The new Mummy movie last week at the Wehrenberg theater in Des Peres. The movie tries to be an all action flick without the story and charictor development the other mummy movies had. I have to say i was disapointed agin this summer.

Fence

worked on straitening out my leaning backyard fence, with help from friends, last weekend. It's still standing

Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot

Cool Beans... Hulu has 10 episodes of Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot!

Wildlife at play

Twin Baby Moose in Sprinkler win baby moose and mother playing in sprinkler in Anchorage, AK. Too cute.

Shaved Katie

She didn't want to cooperate for this photo, she almost seemed embarrassed. Poor girl.

Planet Sub

Two coworkers and I had lunch at Planet Sub on Monday, August 11 around 11:30. I had a six inch ”The Planet Sub” sandwich, sides of pasta salad and potato salad and water for ~$8.

The potato salad had a good flavor and was pretty good. The pasta salad had great dressing on it that I really liked.

The sandwich was great, especially the bread. It was a soft hoagie style that was toasted just to the point before it would start to burn.

This is definitely a place to return to.

**Update** Tried the Cheesy Crab sandwich on my second visit...   The bread was really good...  the Surimi Crab, Mozzarella, Swiss, Lettuce, Tomatoes, & Mayo, not so good.

211 N. 9th Street
St Louis, MO 63101
Phone: 314-588-7827

Parents's PC

Built Computer over the weekend for my parents. All the parts, except for the operating system, hard drive and the CD drive,

were purchased from TigerDirect.

• Windows XP Professional (Education version)
  
• Ultra Micro Fly MATX w/400w XV – Case & Power Supply
  
• XFX MG-610i-7059 GeForce 7050 Socket 775 - Motherboard
  
• Intel Celeron Dual Core E1200 1.6Ghz 512k 800Mhz – Processor
  
• Masscool 8W553 Intel Socket 775 CPU Fan
  
• CRUCIAL 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHZ -.RAM(Memory)
  
• Maxtor 40GB hard drive
  
• Hewlett Packard CD-RW Drive
  

Problems

I had problems finding the pst file for outlook 2003. I was getting worried that I had lost all their contact, calendar, and past email information. Fortunately I had backed up on a regular bases their complete set of "documents and settings" folder. I was able to restore the information by replacing the new "documents and settings" with their backup copy. To do that I had to log in in as administrator in safe mode otherwise some of the files couldn't be replaced.

The "Masscool 8W553 CPU fan" seems to make a lot of noise compaired to the past Masscool 8W553 fan I installed

Note:

Lawn Bugs, Ants & Mosquitoes

I used Ortho Bug-B-Gone Max about a month ago and again yesterday. The stuff really seems to do the trick. I hadn't be bitten by a Mosquitoes in till this past week, that's why I added another application.

When I went outside with the pups last night I didn't see a single flying bug and this morning I'm siting on my deck and theres not a bug is sight.

Bug-B-Gone seems to be good stuff. Just attach your garden hose and spray.

Fox News: John Edwards

I don't know about the other news stations because I mainly only watch Fox. I realize the John Edwards affair story is news, but I don't think it a story the deserves this much air time. I wish they would focus more on the Russian invasion of Georgia, the Olympics, and interview people in the know on why the price of oil/gas is going down and if it will continue to do so.

Olympics

Dose anyone care about the Olympics any more? I seem to care less and less each year. I think I lost interest when three things happened. We, the United States, started insisting that our professional athletics be allowed to compete (i.e.: Hockey, Basketball),when major commercialization was added, by the United States, back in the 1984, and I have a lot more events/activities that compete with the Olympics for my attention.

Puppy Pool Party

On Monday my roommate and I took Katie and Corbie to a puppy pool party at McNair Park in St, Charles. $10 per dog and one person, $3 for just one person. The party took place at a city park pool someplace in St Charles, MO. Katie swam and swam and swam. After an hour of constant swimming after her disk she was still going strong when we were ready to leave. Corbie on the other hand wined and whimpered a lot but also got in the water and swam a lot more on his own

Walking the Dogs

IMG_2585, originally uploaded by slugme2.

Photo of me taking by Steve on the Katy Trail in St Charles, Mo
this past spring. I think I could do a Gap add ;-)

Mr Thompson's PC

Built Computer over the weekend for my roommates parents. All the parts, except for the hard drive and the CD/DVD drive, were purchased from TigerDirect.

• Windows XP Media Center 2005 OEM
  
• Ultra Micro Fly SX6 Clear Side w/600w XV – Case & Power Supply
  
• XFX MG-610i-7059 GeForce 7050 Socket 775 - Motherboard
  
• Intel Celeron Dual Core E1200 1.6Ghz 512k 800Mhz – Processor
  
• Masscool 8W553 Intel Socket 775 CPU Fan
  
• CRUCIAL 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHZ -.RAM(Memory)
  
• Hiro Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Cars w/Port 5dBi – Wireless G Card
  
• Western Digital 80GB hard drive
  
• DVD/CD-RW Drive
  

Problems

The only problem I had was the install of Windows XP Media Center. The package came with 3 CD's:

• Install disk 1
  
• Install disk 2
  
• Windows XP media disk
  

During the install I was asked for Windows XP professional disks and one time I was asked for a Service Pack 2 disk. Switching between the 3 disks did the trick. Complete install without any other hitches.

Note:

• The Masscool 8W553 Fan fit like it was made for the Ultra Micro Fly SX6 case
  
• The Masscool 8W553 Fan has a bracket you put on the back side of the mother board and screw in the fan from the top. I really like this new design!
• Door hing that covers the frount of the DVD drives was broken on arrival. After talking with Mr. Thompson we both agreed that those front doors are really more of a pain than anything else so we just left it off rather than return it. I have to say, it seems to me the hinge is a vary week design
  
• Did not install any of the Hiro Wireless card software or driver. Wireless works great.
  
• Processor seems to be running at about 33 degrees according to the Ultra Micro Fly case thermometer.
  

Moved a Couch

Monday, I borrowed my dad's truck, picked up Steve, Drove out to Yvonne's house to pick up a couch Steve bought from Yvonne, dropped off Steve, drove back to my parents house to drop off the truck, and making it home around 9:00 and watched another Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode.

I also ordered parts computer parts from TigerDirect for a system im building for my roommates parents.

Past Week

Monday- I don't remember what I did monday... I must be getting old :-)

Tuesday- Wanted to get out and clean out up some of the branches from the downed tree, but my roommate wanted to go biking on Grants Farm trail. So I told her I would do that with her but she ended up organizing her files instead.

Wednesday- Cleaned up a bunch of Ivy and small tress in my backyard that needed to be clipped at the base. I ran out of time so I didn't get all the refuse taken care of. It needs to be done by Monday morning when the collectors come to take it away.

Thursday- Ate dinner with roommate at "Sweet Tomatoes". Stopped off at Petsmart and picked up dog & cat food. Went grocery shopping at Shop-n-Save. They have a deal where you buy $50 worth of groceries and they take $10 off. I was looking foreword shopping for groceries but it turned into kind of a stressful event.

Today(Friday) I'm off to see the Batman movie on the IMAX at Ronnies theator, and it's Sci-Fi Friday tonight. My roommate also wants me and my friend Steve to help move some furniture. I have some of those sliding disk things you put under the legs so it shouldn't be vary hard.

Obama; Comander-in-Cheif Watch

Up till July 21 Obama, if elected Commander-in-Chief, would pull out all US troops withing 16 months

July 22 Obama quote from Associated Press "my goal is to no longer have U.S. Troops engaged in combat operations in Iraq" -This seems to me a change. Ill try to make note here if I see another one.

Hwy 44

Rain, Hwy 44 lanes narrowed because of work on hwy 40, double trailer diesel trucks, my ability to think at 6:30am in the morning. Makes for a scary ride into work.

Car Fuel Expense Year-to-Date

UPDATE: It takes me about 1.21 gallons round trip to work

UPDATE: Between 6/29/08 & 7/18/08 the Civic got 33.03mpg

ORIGINAL POST 6/29/08 - This is my monthly totals on fuel expense so far year to date. I drive a 98 Honda Civic that I'm hoping gets around 34mpg. Im going to track it for the next few weeks to find out.

In the past years my fuel bill has never exceeded $100 in a month and avg. around $60-$80.

I feel sorry for those driving a large vehicle.

January $94.57
February $64.30
March $103.26
April $87.17
May $110.19
June $127.37
YTD TOTAL $586.86

• scary thing is, in June I took a week vacation where someone else drove so I didn't have any fuel expenses for that week.
• 2007 Jan - Jun was $518.78
• 2006 Jan - Jun was $509.25
  

Muny

Nancy had free tickets to the Muny Friday night…dagnabbit, I wish I could have gone…. Stupid trees!

Performance Review

I have to do my performance review for my job this week. I hate doing those things. I open the form look at it, think to my self I'll start in a few minuets after i get somthing else done and the next thing you know it's the end of the day. I guess i should try to make it a goal to have it completed by Tuesday... wish me luck.

Hulu

I missed Burn Notice on Thursday night and my recording didn't come out vary well. Thank you Hulu. Hulu seems to have the USA Network shows available for viewing the next day(I wish the Sci-Fi network would do this). I watched the episode with short commercials from some tea beverages.

Wall-E

No, I didn't see Batman this weekend. All the showings on the Mega Screens and IMAX were sold out. I was going to see Hell Boy 2 but my roommate wanted to get out so we went to see Wall-E instead. She didn't like it, so she got up and went to another movie in the theater and guess what she went to go see… Batman! The funny thing is she has been complaining loudly, for the last month about how stupid that supper hero and any super hero move is and then she comes out and says she liked it!

Wall-E is a good kids movie and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had gone with my nephews and niece. It was kind of dark and preachy. Its not one I would be interested in seeing again unless I was with kids.

I must note that the cartoon they played Wall-E started was hilarious

Bad Tree

What a long and stressful week. The tree, for the most part, has been removed. I still have some branches in the neighbors yard that need to be haled away, but every time I try to get out and deal with it something comes up.

The majority of the tree was taken care of on Sunday morning, Bright and early at around 9:00. I think my neighbor next door might be unhappy with my. My roommate dad came over with his chainsaw and started cutting right away. I kinda think my neighbor might have gone to a weading the day before and probably was sleeping off the reception, but I am just guessing.

Another problem is now my roommate doesn't have faith in the back fence so she doesn't want the dogs to go in the back unless they are on a leash. I feel sorry for the pups but at this point I don't have the money (or skill set) to fix it. The problem is; one – the fence is on a slop and it appears the earth below it is moving, Two – she thinks the one of the posts might be rotted out at the base, I haven't seen any rotting at the base and I don't believe there is. And 3 – There are a lot big trees around the fence with large root systems that are pushing the fence back, so digging around them would be really hard if not impossible.

My four biggest home projects are now:

• Tuck point the chimney
  
• Fix the fence
  
• Replace garage door and opener
  
• Have several problemed trees taken out
  

Quote for the day

"Life's tough. It's tougher if you're stupid." -- John Wayne

Lost another tree

A tree in the back corner of my yard collapsed taking out a section of fence Saturday morning. I went to Home Depot and bought a 16in electric chain saw for $70. I cut the base of the trunk off so i could clear the area for the fence and hopefully replace that section which is a priority because of the dogs. Unfortunately it started raining and i wasn't able to get the fence back up so the plane is to get it back up today.

Friday Afternoon

Well, I went biking this morning form 10:15 to 11:30 on the Katy Trail and yes, I'm still out of shape. It was a nice ride other than it was really warm. At the end is a steep hill that i got lazy on and walked my bike up.

I'm now off to pick up my room mates car from the service department.

Friday Morning

Thanks to my every other Friday off work schedule I slept late and am in shorts and a t-shirt laying on my couch looking out the window at the rain coming down enjoying. aah... Life is good.

I was suppse to get my butt out this morning for a bike ride on the Katie trail but that now seems to be out of the picture. Im not sure what i want to get done or do today.

• Clean and reorganize the junk room
• Troubleshoot to see if i can get my old printer working
• Watch the series 4 final of Doctor Who
• Watch the Batman, Gotham Nights DVD i rented last nigh
• Read and work on my excesses in my Visual Basic book
• Visit parents and install USB card in their PC
  
• Call Shelly and Renae to see how their doing
• Play "Star Wars Lego's"
• Bake Lasagna mmm....
• Do more work cleaning and organizing the garage, but I'd rather wait till I get another shelf
• Check about returning my dead Western Digital hard drive
• Pay the $5 and spend most of the day at the lodge
  
• Sit around an write silly dribble in my blog

Since its storming I gave Katie an Acepromazine pill to help calm her down because of the storm. She's been a nevers wreck since the 4th of July weekend.

Playing in the river

Today I took a drive down south to St Francois State Park to let the dogs go swimming in the river. I think they had a good time. Above is Katie retrieving a stick.

I also have a copy of the series 4 final of Doctor Who... I cant wait to see how it ends!

4th of July

Boring Independence day

• Cleaned out and organized the garage
• Amy wanted BBQ so Steve came over and we grilled some hamburgers and corn on the cob
  
• Watched Doctor Who episodes "Left Turn" & "The Stolen Earth"
  
• Tried to copy data from dying WesternDigital hard drive (with out much luck)
  

PC Problems

My TV Computer is sick. A couple of days ago I cam home and sat down to do move some files and it locked up. No problem, just reboot… "problem", my PC stopped on the bios splash screen.

I rebooted over and over hoping for a different outcome (one definition of insanity) to no avail.

I opened the case and reseated the hard drive plugs and switched the ram slots, No luck.

Unplugged everything from the back of the pc except for the power and video cable and low and behold my pc booted up. I narrowed the problem down to my main usb hub and from there have narrowed it down further to the external hard drive I use to record TV shows using Beyond TV.

I will update this post as I do more troubleshooting.

UPDATE 7-5-2008 : Problem is the Western Digital external hard drive. It's less than a year old. Now I wonder if WD will do right by me.

Iron Barley

On Monday, June 30th, 2008 Tad, Chuck and I had Lunch at a little place called Iron Barley in south St Louis. I had the Strip Steak Sandwich W/Chili Mayo, Water and the Original Blender Blaster pie; Tad had the Reuben, Soda and the Original Blender Blaster pie; and Chuck had the Peppered Pork and Coffee.

mmm... smelt like beacon when I walked in. The decor had a interesting cabin like look and feel to it.

The problem, my Steak Sandwich seemed to be half vary chewy fat and the Blender Blaster pie tasted like a cheep fudge Popsicle stick to me. The real steak bits i got from the sandwich was good but I wouldn't chance ordering it again.

One other complaint was the price of soda and coffee. The soda was $2.00 and the coffee $2.50

I have heard and read wonderful things about this place so I will go back and give them a second chance.

The Incredable Hulk

I'll make it short. I wanted to like it, I really did. The whole Banner story was just to long and uninteresting and when it came down to the Hulk running around and smashing things I thought Ang Lee's Hulk was better. I may never find a Hulk story I like. I was never a fan of the comic and i didn't like the TV show. A "Team Up" or 'Two in One" with the Hulk as the problem might work. Until then...

Vacation

The week of June 7th to June 15th I drove 1750 miles round trip with my parents to visit my brother and his family. On the way there we spent the night at the Quality Inn in Hunington WV. I stayed there about 6 months ago on a week long tour of West Virginia and i have the same complaint now that i did the first time(I did have a different room the other time). The shower had mold in it up around the shower head, the beds are the type that sit extra high off the floor and the area around the hotel seemed a little seedy. About 8 years ago that location was an Econo lodge. I drove by looking for a cheap place to stay but at that time the place looked unsafe. I do need to say this. The staff is vary nice and helpful and the rooms, except for the showers, were all vary nice. It appears someone is making a serious effort to make this place nice.

On the way back we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Morehead Ky. Its a vary nice, newly built hotel, So much so that I'm thinking of changing my standard place of staying from Winchecster Ky to this comfort inn. The only complaint I have is their isn't anything other than the hotel for miles around. If I'm planning on staying her in the future I'd better bring my own meals.

Met the new family dog. My brothers wife's parents dog had puppy's and her mother wanted to send them the best puppy form the litter which she did, all the way from Taiwan! This cute little puppy was shipped on an 18 hour plane ride to the states buts seems no worse for the ware. Im afraid to ask how much it costs. A little chocolate poodle mix she gets along vary well with the kids and seems to take all their abuse then comes back for more. I bought it some toys that Katie and Corbie back home have always liked, a Kong, a squeaky stuffed animal shaped like a giraffe and a ball that you put treats/food in that the dog then has to roll to get the treats out.

Got to see my Cousins new baby. Cute little thing though I wish I'd had more time to spend with him. We were at Olive Garden with the full clan, 12 of us in all.

I bought the boys some super soakers which they seemed to really enjoy. One of them immediately shot it in the kitchen so I had to threaten to take it away. (I wonder how his mom will react when she reads this :-) I do fear the puppy and my niece may become their favorite targets. I bought my niece a Ken doll dressed as a prince. She was really excited to receive it though i cant imagine why, girls in just dont have any options for fun toys. Now if it had been packaged as an action figure...

My niece is talking now and I'm able to teach her new phrases. I cant wait for her next lessen.

My Oldest nephews are taking Taekwondo and received green belts the week we were there. They spent allot of time having me hold boards while they broke them with their fists. The older one is starting to get dangerous with his kicks so i may have to take him down before the only option i have left is falling on him as my defense.

On one of the days i got out for lunch and ate at a place called "todai". Its a buffet that has mainly sushi. It costs me $18 including tip and though the sushi tasted less unappealing than some of the stuff Ive had, I still don't understand why people crave the stuff. I will admit their deserts were a cut above what most Asian restaurants serve. Their bite sized little deserts cakes were actually what thy were suppose to be, not the tasteless imitations you find at most Asian buffets.

My Thought

Quote by Senator Barack Obama-
"Imagine if your security now was tied up with the Dow Jones," Obama said Friday. "You wouldn't feel very confident about the security of your nest egg."

All of my retirement is invested in Index funds and I have more confident in those funds than I do in getting a good return on my Social Security contributions.

Im a Teacher

Look at what I've been teaching my niece!

(play the video)

Blues City Deli

On Monday, June 2, 2008 Tad, Jeff, and I had lunch at the Blues City Deli at 2438 McNair, St. Louis, Mo. 63104 . For $6.75 I had half of "The ‘Valenza Special’ Muffuletta" (Lots of Genoa Salami, Ham, Mortadella, Provolone and Mozzarella Cheese and Home Made Olive Salad on half an 8” Round Italian Bread) Plus a large bag of chips and a 32 ounce soda for an extra $2.09. If you like to eat you won’t be disappointed. They definitely don't skimp on the meat. We all agreed, we will be going back.

The place is small, has indoor and sidewalk outdoor seating, with one wall brick and all sorts of photos and graphics of blues paraphernalia with blues music playing through their sound system. The Deli also has live music in the afternoon on Saturdays and occasionally on Thursday nights.

All in all, good food, good atmosphere. I suggest you give it a try.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

I, unfortunately, was disappointed with Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I had high hopes for this film and have been looking forward to seeing it for the last five years, ever since hearing rumors that a news script was in the works. Unfortunately it has the feel of an old Bert Reynolds movie where a group of friends just wanted to get together, drink some beer, and make some money.

This older Indiana seemed to be pattered the Young Indiana Jones TV show, which I never liked. They just seemed to be two different characters.

Im not sure if it was because of the need for secrecy or budget issues but most of the scenes had the feel of being roped off from the real world or on a production stage. They didn't make me believe that they were someplace real, and they never made the danger seem real. This would have made a good "The Mummy Returns" type move staring Brendon Frazer.

If you are any kind of Indie fan at all I would recommend seeing it in the theater. I don't think I would bother renting or buying the DVD. I do hope they taka another shot at making a good Indie movie. Maybe they could bring in Sylvester Stallone as a a consultant

My current thought

Im sitting out on the deck, waiting to leave for my xml class, looking up at all the seeds in the tree hanging over me and the house that are eventually going to fall on my deck and in my gutters. This makes me think "I really hate trees"

100,000 Jackpot!

Girl at work hit the 100,000 jackpot while playing the slots at Lumiar casino in downtown St Louis. (it was the penny slots, but that still one-thousand dollars.) Get this, she was only there because she was giving two free nights at the hotel. Apparently she had gone once when the place opened, spent about ten dollars, and never gone back(she did fill out a form for their free membership). The hotel called out of the blue to offer her the free nights.

Life just isn't fair!

Public records

National
Find people with ZabaSearch. This service acts as a gateway to publicly available, public record information and User-created information.

Missouri
Look to Missouri CaseNet to find public Missouri court records about you, your friends, family, or enemies. This is a state of Missouri government website and the results are FREE!

Find people with professional licenses at the Missouri Division of Professional Registration

Are you living close to a sex offender? Look at the Highway Patrol's Sex Offender Information Page

Find who owns what in St. Louis County from their search-able personal property web site. (best viewed with IE. Firefox seems to have problems with this site)

Find Jefferson County Personal Property information (with name search)

Find Lincoln County Personal Property information (with name search)

Find ST. Francois County Personal Property information (with name search)

How rich will you be?

10,000,720
How much money will you be worth?

Day at the Botanical Gardens

Yesterday Yvonne, Steve and I went to Chinese Culture Days at The Missouri Botanical Gardens. What a nice day it was. PHOTOS!



These type of events arn't really the type of things I enjoy but the weather was perfect and the gardens really are pretty. I think I mainly enjoyed taking pictures with my new camera which seems to have more features than I know what to do with.



Besides the Chinese events the gardens were hosting sculptuers by Niki de Saint Phalle. Everything was big, bright and shinny.

finally we stopped a small antic store where Steve developed delusions of grandeur.

Chinese Culture at the Botanical Garden's

Nice Day

Friday I took the pups for two walks and went for a bike ride on Grants Trail. Hopefully today will be more of the same.

Link

How to be a Man

Is it me?

Anyone else think this is strange? I went down to our cafeteria today wanting to get some soup at our self service soup bar. There was someone that stood at the soup bare for about 3-5 minutes filtering out, ladle by ladle, what bits and pieces from the soup they wanted. Does this seem odd to anyone else?

Internet Down

At my favorite blogging spot, the St Louis Bread Co. in Des Peres, the internet connection went down. Their line is backing up now because they cant accept credit cards, and everyone with a laptop is getting up and leaving. I, though, happen to have a handy dandy AT&T 3G card!

Happy Mothers Day!

Speed Racer

Steve and saw I the10:30am showing of Speed Racer at the Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14 Cine this morning at on the Mega Screen for $6.00. I forgot how much more enjoyable watching movies on that screen is.

After having heard from three different people that the movie had gotten bad reviews i went in not expecting vary much. Wow, was I that wrong! Fun, fun, fun at the theater. I wouldn't say this was award winning material but they did an outstanding job of turning a Japaneses cartoon, convented to and English cartoon into real life movie.

The movie started off fast, then they seemed to think it was necessary to spend time setting up the rest of the move with a lot of dialog. After that, Just hold on for the ride!

By the way, I think Racer X is also Batman. He might even be a better batman than the current one Warner Brothers is trying to sell us.

Finally, I think i love Trixy

Simulus Rebate Payment

I checked my bank account this morning an my Stimulus Rebate Payment form the IRS had been deposited im my checking account on Wednesday (Yah!). So I guess my next action is to send in a $600 payment to Discover Card (Boo!).

Now, for a depressing exercise. What could I have done with this check if I would have gotten it without using it to pay off my credit card.

1. Bought a Boat: A small aluminum canoe or * that I could leave down at my parents pond in Steelville, MO would have been really nice.
2. It would have supplemented a nice vacation in Las Vegas. Someplace I still have not been.
3. A new garage door
   
4. Chairs for the TV area in my basement.
5. Steam cleaner & Second vacuum Cleaner
6. New BBQ grill, My old one is about shot.
7. A target rifle or pistil might be fun

After reading me list, I've concluded that i need a better imagination :-)

Thought for the Day

"It's only in the movies where the pretty girl ends up with the uggo"
-Bob Kelso

Cinco de Mayo

Saturday night Nancy and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with dinner and margaritas at the Casa Gallardo in Des Peres. Afterwards we watched the first episode of the HBO series John Adams and then four (yes thats right four) one hour episodes of Hotel Babylon! I'm not sure how I was able to drive her home and come back with out falling asleep at the wheel. I didn’t roll out of bed until ten the next morning.

Iron Man

Saturday morning Wendy, Steve and I went to see Iron Man at the Wehrenberg Chesterfield Galaxy 14 Cine in Chesterfield, Mo. We went to a 10:30 am show which pleasantly only cost $4 on weekends if pick a movie time before Noon and sat in auditorium 4. One other advantage besides the price was fewer people in the theater. One disadvantage, a lot of younger children come to these early shows.

Back to the movie. Though I have a history of collecting comics, mostly late seventies - early eighties, I never paid much attention to Iron Man and his universe, so I can’t tell you if the movie is true to the comic book character. I will say this, the movie was a lot of fun to watch, had incredible action scenes and is vary humorous. I would definitely recommend it to a comic book fan and I think others will enjoy it also. Fortunately Robert Downey Jr., who admittedly as an actor I’ve never been vary impressed with, not only did an outstanding job as Tony Stark, but has also indicated he would love to do more Iron Man movies.

I definitely look forward to seeing the sequel!

A new month!

I was able to beat my budget last month by $1.08. Wow, that was cutting it close. I'm not sure where all the money went. My biggest expenses were, in order: Mortgage, Utilities and Pet Supplies and maintenance. The coming months are going to be tighter in that I'm starting to put away $100 a month for an emergency cash fund which i sorely need.

I get an extra paycheck this month, because there are five Fridays this month and I get paid every other. I'm also getting the full $600 government stimulus check. Unfortunately they are both going towards paying off replacing my exhaust manifold and other maintenance work done on my car a couple of months ago.

I broke my camera last year on at trip to DC with my cousin when I got salt water on it while taking video of the ocean waves on a side trip to Fenwick Island in Maryland.

My parents are now getting me a new camera, the Canon PowerShot SD750 for my birthday (i think they like seeing my photos and know at family events ill just click away with a digital camera) so in the future there will be more color to this blog.

My foot seems to be getting better. one more week of not doing anything stupid on it should do the trick.

Pizza Hut - online deals

Have you ever ordered a pizza online from Pizza Hut? I do pretty consistently each week when I get together with a group of friends and watch Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantes and Doctor Who. Two things drive me nuts about their website.

First; is the user interface. I'm not going to spend time complaining about it but I think it could be a lot easer to use and navigate.

Second; and the one that I find really annoying is that if you order online using an online coupon, at the store they will ask that you print it out and bring it in with you. I don't understand the reasoning behind this. I'm ordering it through their web site, I must have clicked on their coupon. If they really want a copy cant they program there own printers to print the coupon on the printer that print out your receipt and tear it off? If anyone happens upon this posts that has any idea why Pizza Hut does this please leave a comment!

Thought for the day

If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.
~George Bernard Shaw

Lewis Cafe

Sunday, April 20, 2008 my parents and I stopped off at this little restaurant in St Clair, MO. for Lunch. Its some what off the highway but worth the drive. They raise there own cattle for all the beef on the menu. They also make their own poppy seed salad dressing. yum, yum.

Park across the street from the restaurant. Drivers actually stop their cars for you as you cross main street.

Lewis Cafe

145 S. Main - St. Clair, MO 63077

A day at Onondaga State Park

I went out to Onondaga state park with my parents on a beautiful day to be out and about. When we pulled into the area where you put your boat in the water (you do have a boat, don't you?) we found the local teenagers making use of the facilities.

I did get to make a few cast with my fishing rod. Didn't catch anything.

Weekend

No Fishing or Biking for me today. The weather is still somewhat cloud, rainy and kinda cold. Tomorrow is suppose to be nicer. Keep your fingers X

I'm going to try to start using Twitter. I don't think it will really last, but what the heck. I'm still using it there should be a set of posts in the left hand column of this page.