Total rebuild.......

Doing one of my favorite things...........totally wiping a clients hard drive and rebuilding it from scratch. Kinda fun, I'm only installing what the client wants and skipping a lot of fluff.

It's amazing how fast an XP box with only 512 megs of RAM can be.

I'll be doing the same thing to our daughter's new laptop when she comes home for Christmas only she is gonna have 2 1/2 gigs of RAM to run XP on.

Busy weekend, till later.

Go ahead and laugh if ya wanna....

Done laughing yet?

I read a study a few weeks ago that said that wearing glasses that block blue light can help you fall asleep and also help prevent SAD which I am afflicted with every winter. Seems to be working so far, only our son is petrified that someone he knows is gonna see him when I drop him off to school in the morning.

Since I go to bed at 8 in the morning, I've been wearing them when I come home from work at 5AM......looks funny, but if it works-I'm going with it.

I'll probably be posting a little less for the next few days, super busy with donuts, computer and consulting work and raking a metric ass-load of dead leaves out to the curb.

I have a client with a fairly large budget that's looking for an uber stout gaming PC.....I an hardly wait to get that system and set it up. We just have to sit down and decide exactly how much money he wants to spend. It's not that difficult to spend 5 or 6 grand on a gaming system if you really want to.

I'm fairly happy with my computer business so far; just with word-of-mouth advertising-I've built up a nice clientèle base in the last year. If it grows at the nice slow pace it has been....who knows where it'll end up? Maybe our son can take it over and be his own boss after he graduates from college.

Do bears shit in the woods? Yes, here's proof.

till later.

No hot water...........

I'm sure glad our plumber doesn't hunt. Our water heater crapped out Sunday evening.....sure don't realize how much you take something for granted until you don't have it.

Anyways, one of the life lessons my pop taught me was to make sure you have a reliable mechanic to work on your cars and a good plumber.

It was amazing how much smarter my old man got the older I got. When I was 16.....I knew way more then he did.....now that I'm 48 and he's 70.....I think we are almost even. Sometimes I find myself thinking I still know more then he does, but he's still pretty darn smart.

Our daughter went back to school yesterday and already the house is too quiet. Yeah, I know once she gets her degree and starts her career, she'll probably chose to have her own place to live instead of living here, but we sure do enjoy having her around during school breaks.

I had a comment on a previous post concerning my politics .....which I promptly deleted. I know that blogging about politics will bring out the trolls and I'm perfectly okay if you wanna disagree with me-just be civil about it. Go ahead and post opposing views, I enjoy an intelligent debate- but lets not resort to name calling and mud slinging shall we?
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I have to disagree with No 2....that's my all time favorite movie....and I didn't even go to college.

Here's what's wrong with the media....all CBS gives a shit about is a tongue stud.....and they don't even discuss this.

lib•er•tar•ian........sums it up for me. Who am I voting for next election? Not sure yet, but I'd really like to see some radical changes.

The UN might have a valid point here. I've seen enough Youtube videos of police officers using Tasers to know when they are being used inappropriately. Like tasing an unarmed woman for refusing to get out of her vehicle. Sure she had an attitude but damn....... 2 big burly cops couldn't deal with her without resorting to a Taser gun?

I'm surprised George didn't have Dick shoot it.

till later.

Burl Ives can bite me.....

Seriously, if I never hear Burl Ives sing "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" ever again.........that would be A-OK with me. Unfortunately, where I work they play Muzuk 24/7 and they offer up about 6 or 7 Christmas songs interspersed with the occasional Celine Dion song.

One of these nights.....I'm gonna go off.

It's probably gonna be on the guy that comes in at 3AM every damn night and asks if the Boston custard donuts are done. I've patiently explained that it's one of the last variety of donuts I finish and that they aren't usually done until 4:30 in the morning.

Doesn't stop him from asking every night...........

Here's how you know you were too fat.

Our son was playing a game on Xbox 360 called Call of Duty 4.....wow. I can easily see how someone could get sucked into playing 360 non stop for days on end. Kinda like an old fashioned shoot'em up game only it's extremely life like and realistic. I was having fun just watching him.

For the most part, he's pretty good about not spending too much time playing stuff like that-he's limited during the week by his part time job and homework......

This is gonna hurt.

Till later.

An electronic free for all..........

Our daughter is one smart shopper.

She stood in line at 3 AM Friday for a killer deal on a Sony Viao laptop. Excellent specs for 400 dollars. All it needs is a bump up to 2 gigs of RAM and she'll be good to go for several years. Out of all of us in the family, she uses a laptop computer like they are supposed to be used, it gets carried around a lot so I wasn't totally surprised that her old one crapped out after 3 years.

My wife found a good deal on an Xbox 360 for our son, 350 bucks for the mid level unit and it includes 2 games and Guitar Hero.

Of course since I'm writing about it on this blog.....it's no secret that we gave it to him early.

Kinda hard not too since every one else in the family got their Christmas presents early.

Not much time for linkies today.........

Passiveaggressivenotes.com has some great notes.....you can just feel the love.

Till later.

Tryptophan induced coma........

I without a doubt, have the best wife in the world.

One of the many reasons?

She made a turkey the day before Thanksgiving so I could have turkey sandwiches for breakfast when I came home from work this (Thursday) morning.

Our daughter is home for the weekend and it's great having the whole family under one roof for a few days. I work the whole week and weekend, but it's still nice having her around.....

When this thing is less then 400 bucks.....I'm gonna buy one. To me, it's worth the 400 bucks but my wife would probably kill me if I bought another gadget....I can't help it, I love gadgets and I love books.

Thankful as always.....

till later.

Sometimes people are assholes.....

First thing I have to say is "guilty as charged".

Sure, I've said some things to people I probably shouldn't have and for that... I'm sorry.

No, seriously-I mean it.

Well actually........I mean it most of the time.

I guess what I'm trying to convey is that society is just flat out meaner then it was 10 or 15 years ago.

Let me provide an example.

Our store ran out of eggs two days before Thanksgiving. Yeah, somebody messed up and didn't order enough....it was a mistake and mistakes happen.

I had a very well dressed customer (mid 40's wearing a very nice business suit) walk up to me in the bakery and ask me what she was supposed to do because she needed eggs and we didn't have any. I apologized and told her that we would be getting more in Wednesday morning.

She said "unf**kingbelievable" under her breath and started to walk off.... but not before I managed to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving.

I do believe I trumped her "mean" card with my "nice" card....I'm sure she thought I was being an asshole by wishing her a pleasant holiday after her unpleasant exchange.

Me, be an asshole?

Nah. I love working retail during the holidays.

Happy turkey day.......

My friend hank sent me this........

The Parrot

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift.

The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot.

The parrot yelled back.

John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and ever ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.

Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said.....

"I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued,

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

...not sure how the holiday started nor do I really care. Nowadays it's just a reason for family and friends to get together. To be honest-that works for me.

If we didn't have Thanksgiving, all the stores would go directly into Christmas mode right after Labor Day....for that-I'm thankful.

till later.

Sty in my eye........

I'll save y'all the details but I feel like crap and it feels like I have a small log in my right eye.

I just love it when a plan comes together.

Anyone ever notice that when you aren't feeling well that time slows down? I wouldn't say I am out and out sick, I just feel like a bear with a sore ass.

Nothing that 10 or 14 hours of sleep won't fix.....

till later.

New cars........

Wow, there sure are lots of car dealerships were we live.

My lovely wife and I spent a few hours traipsing all over York County yesterday afternoon checking out new cars.....I took pictures of all the models my wife is interested in and since we have a subscription to the online version of Consumer Reports, she can look up all the facts and figures of all the models she likes.

It will be interesting to see what she comes up with. My wife isn't your normal car shopper, she isn't that interested in looks or colors- the only option she wants for sure is heated seats. Mileage numbers are going to be the major determining factor in what she buys.

My son and I decided to give my wife one of her Christmas presents early....we bought her a Slanket ,we couldn't stand to see her being all chilly....so it looks like we'll have to find something else to get her for Christmas.

We also went to Sam's Club yesterday where they had "Taste of Sam's".....don't wanna be too indelicate here, but it's basically White Trash Nation with free food....they all crowd around the poor sample ladies and hoover up all the samples as soon as they are put out. I like Sam's but I usually go there early in the morning when they only let business owners in. Yeah, I know that sounds snobby, but I hate big crowds of people.

Why you Should Start your Own Business Now..........part of the reason I started up my business fixing computers. I like the extra money and maybe some day our son could do this instead of working for someone else.

I might vote for Huckabee just because of this ad.

Religious intolerance is alive and well in Texas. Class move on the part of the synagogue.

Still smoking? This might help you change your mind. I am proud to be one of those "asshole former smokers". Don't even get close to me with a lit cigarette.

So.........how much is the TV?

Back up.

Common sense ? Nah, we don't need any of that.....

till later.

YouTube video.......

Who's on Force

Not sold in stores......

I got home from work this morning and our son was sleeping out in the living room with the TV on. By the time I get home at 4:30 AM, there are usually infomercials on.

Some of my favorites......

There's a whole ton on this site. My favorite? This one-the whole family will have the same haircut.

The Magic Bullet is another winner....

I wonder if this crap will fix all the dents on my minivan?

I can't find the link to another of my favs, it's a really skinny spooky looking guy that sells some sort of product that cleans your colon.

I guess folks buy all that worthless junk because they continue to advertise it......

My wife and I are doing one of our least favorite things this Sunday...shopping for a new car.

Looking for something cheap, AWD and fairly decent on gas. New cars are nice and all, but it's also nice having the cash to spend on other stuff. Our daughter is going to need a car at college in the near future, so we're out looking at 2007 leftovers.

I hate dealing with car salesmen, cars are one of the few products where the "price" isn't really the price. I don't care about monthly payments, leases, terms or anything else except how much the damn car costs. Why is getting that one single number so hard?

I'm sure we'll narrow it down to a couple different models and print out the wholesale pricing you can buy from Consumers Report and then go piss some salespeople off.

I hate wasting time sitting in some guys cubicle while he talks to his manager. I can imagine we'll probably end up walking out of a few places.......there's only something like 4 bazillion places that sell cars where we live-we'll find something.
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Barry is innocent. His head got as big as a watermelon all by itself.

These assholes are just as bad as Bush. 2 week break? I say get your swollen heads back in there and figure something out.

Here's some more mental masturbation. The thing that's scary? One of those rocket scientists are gonna be the next President. Hopefully this guy won't win....but at least this guy has pretty hair. Honestly, I have no idea where any of those bobbleheads stand on the issues because they change their opinions every week.

My favorite candidate is too popular.

Go ahead and light my ass up for this opinion.....but I think Al Sharpton is 10 pounds of manure packed into a five pound bag.

They have a 35 hour work week.....I'm having a hard time feeling any pity.

The Taser company covers their ass. The cops woulda been better off just macing the guy and then clubbing him in the knees once or twice. Sounds mean as hell, but he'd still be alive.

King Juan Carlos has a set of balls. Should he apologize? Not for me to say, I admire him for saying what needed said when he said it.

This isn't to hard to believe. It's pretty easy to compete with a company that sells a cup of coffee for 5 bucks. Why can't they just call their 3 sizes small, medium and large? I don't go there because I feel like an idiot asking for a Venti coffee. I'm going to stick to gas store coffee.

She really needs to move to Montana and hire a driver.

They're both as boring as watching paint dry.

I love this site and my wife will probably like this particular video.....I wish I looked like Bruce Willis.

till later...

Cat causes internet outage........

As I was typing this into my browser.....a little window came up that said I was disconnected from the internet. Comcast has a history of doing updates early in the AM and going offline for a few minutes at a time....so I didn't think much of it. Turns out the cat pulled the power cord out of the router......I figured that out when I went downstairs and everything on the table where the router is was knocked over.

This is cool. Now I can have my 2 favorite groups alternate songs in a playlist. I kinda doubt AC/DC and The Beach Boys are gonna be doing a live double bill any time soon.

Speaking about music......I ripped 10 CD's of an audiobook for my wife to listen to on her iPod. Last night Windows decided to update and restart all by itself and for some reason...all 10 Cd's are missing in action. Not that big a deal, but it still kinda pissed me off.

Not sure when winter is going to get here, today it's about 60 degrees and raining...there are still green leaves on some of our trees and I heard seagulls in our yard yesterday. It's probably gonna be one of those deals where it's 60 degrees one week and we'll have 3 feet of snow the next week.

Best blender ever.....you gotta check out the video.

Today's science break, courtesy of National Geographic.

Turkey is good, bacon wrapped turkey is better. About the only thing I could imagine beating that would be a turkey wrapped turducken. I wonder how many folks will burn their house down next Thursday.

Gotta admire those folks in Russia.......I woulda called out sick. Nobody needs donuts that damn bad.

till later.

Redneck wrench

Hey fellas, watch this.......

Man Hurt Using Shotgun to Loosen Lug Nut

Pictures...

Our son and I got up to Rocky Ridge yesterday afternoon for a little bit....

I took a whole bunch of pictures, here a few of them. I was basically playing around with all the settings to see what kind of pics I'd get. I took something like 150 of them....most of them were pretty boring.

All kinds of settings on my new camera....the best part is I'm not wasting film while I'm playing around with all the buttons and dials-just wasting time. Any time I get to spend outside with our son "wasting" time is time well spent in my book.

I bought one of those digital photo frames-kinda neat, you can put a couple hundred pics in it and share your pictures.
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Obviously, Toyota has never been to York Pa. I'm not saying my hometown is a craphole, but it used to be nicer......you know it's a nice place to live when they bill it as the "Factory Tour Capitol of the World".

This guy does have a point.....it's more like Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee then soup....still looks like something I'd eat.

I'd love to have this job. I had a lot of practice with my first car. It was a 68 VW and I beat that poor car senseless. I fixed it up and gave it to my parents and they drove it for a few years....I wish I still had it-it was a fun car except for when you had to scrape the inside of the windshield in the winter.

Sad thing is....this story is almost believable.

This is a way cool tool to find the nearest mailbox.....wait, do people still use mailboxes?

Good advice if you're starting a blog. Me? I break a few of those rules......I do it just because I like doing it. Not much of a reason, huh?

till later.....

The 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11 day of the 11th month

This guy pretty much says it all.............

Army of Dude: Savor This Day

Thanksgiving is when????

Just seems like summer was over only a few weeks ago. I'm hoping that all the leaves fall out of the trees before our township has its last leaf pick-up.

A few years ago I waited until the last pick-up of the season and it snowed about 6 inches on all the leaves I had piled out onto the street. Since we have so many trees, our street is reduced to one lane when I put all the leaves out. The snow plow driver really had no choice but to plow the snow and leaves back up onto my lawn.

It was quite a mess, they eventually had to get a front end loader out in the spring to pick up all the dead composted leave matter on our street.

I'm sure I piss my next door neighbor off, he's anal about his yard and blows his leaves out to the street about 3 or 4 times a week.

Me? ......I just let mine blow around until most of them end up over in his yard.....I kinda like the way they look when they cover the ground. It's fall after all.....
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Tell me this guy didn't use at least some crazy glue.....

Maybe I'm an old geezer ........but I really much prefer the gorilla.

First thing we do......let's kill all the lawyers. I can see suing for the cost of the flowers.......but 400,000 dollars is totally asinine. Something to think about when I'm out talking to new clients.

Stick what up my ass?

This is a good fake ad.

A firefighter was working on the engine outside the station when he noticed a little girl nearby in a little red wagon with little ladders hung off the sides & a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.

The girl was wearing a firefighter's helmet. The wagon was being pulled by her dog & her cat. The fire fighter walked over to take a closer look. "That sure is a nice fire truck," the firefighter said with admiration.

"Thanks," the girl replied.

The firefighter looked a little closer & noticed the girl had tied the wagon to her dog's collar & to the cat's testicles.

"Little partner," the firefighter said "I don't want to tell you how to run your rig, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar, I think you could go faster.

" The little girl replied thoughtfully, "You're probably right, but then I wouldn't have a siren."

This would be nice if it happened. Our Comcast bill has gone up by over 30% over the last two years and we haven't added anything.


You might be a redneck if.....you have a monster truck shopping cart

You're definitely a redneck if you do this.

Heck, you don't even have to live in America to be a redneck.

I sure am dating myself here, but .......does anyone remember this? I saw Gordon Lightfoot a couple years afterwards and it gave me goosebumps when he sang that song. Hard to believe that was 32 years ago.

I don't know for sure, but by this point........if it comes from China-it probably contains lead or some other nasty chemical........it's almost like they put poison on stuff automatically.

I graduated from school in 1977....the same year this catalog came out. Gotta thank my good friend Hank for the link......I can't believe people used to dress like that......

Britney just can't get a break.........red light? Hell, with all the flashbulbs going off, it's a wonder she could see at all. If I were here, I'd seriously consider getting a Secret Service style Suburban and letting someone else drive.

How to handle people that wear those dumbass Bluetooth earpieces.

How to not second guess your doctor.

till later.

I'd be a tad PO'ed..........

......if i got one of these for a Christmas present.

Porky pooper

Eyeball headache

Anyone ever get one of those kind of headaches where it feels like there is a fully pumped up balloon right behind your eye sockets? I had one yesterday and I pretty much wanted to gouge out an eyeball. They must be contagious, our son has one today.......

Who needs friends when you can have Elvis around. Click the "Watch the Animatronic Singing And Talking Elvis in Action" link on the page for extra weirdness....gotta thank Doug for that one.

More from 2007's Mom of the Year. It must be tough having kids and money.

till later

Front door pictures.....

Our daughters laptop seems like it kinda died yesterday. Kinda of a bummer, looks like we'll be shopping for a new one for her when she comes home on Thanksgiving break.

One project I wanted to do this week was to scan some pictures into my laptop and upload them to Picasa. Every year my mom and dad have taken a picture of our children on their birthday by their front door.

We call them "Front Door Pictures"........

Here's our daughter.

Here's our son.

Pretty neat, huh?

Honor roll

Our son has made the honor roll for this semester......I gotta say-WAY TO GO DAN!!!!

I think he has found a balance between work, school and everything else.

Good job sir.

Dan is better at math then these folks.

till later...

another vacation.....ho hum.

Kinda weird having another week of vacation so close to the last one. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It took me about a week to get back into the working 3rd shift..........I really need to win the lottery or something.

Donuts, fast food, processed food and just about anything that tastes good isn't good for you and will kill you early. Unless America radically changes it's eating habits.....I think my job is safe for awhile. If our store only sold things that were good for you...it wouldn't have 110,000 square feet of sales floor.

The announcer gets a tad excited while he calls the play. Whatever, I guess I ain't much of a football fan. I know where my daughter goes to college...their football team has been undefeated for years.

This is kinda illegal but it sure would be fun to have one sometimes.

Quandry? I still think it's hate speech. Replace the word "Fag" on their signs with the "N" word and see how they would be perceived.

This coffee tastes like crap.

till later.

One more week........

Yay, I have 1 more night of work then I'm on vacation again.

Gonna be takin' pictures and going for some nice easy bike rides. My knees haven't quite recovered yet from the hike my wife and I took a couple weeks ago.

I think I'll buy a couple rolls of sport tape and tape those suckers up before I do that again.

A joke......
A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor's office. After his checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office alone. He said, "Your husband is suffering from a very severe stress disorder. If you don't follow my instructions carefully, your husband will surely die. "Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant at all times. For lunch make him a nutritious meal. For dinner prepare an especially nice meal for him. "Don't burden him with chores. Don't discuss your problems with him; it will only make his stress worse. Do not nag him. Most importantly, make love to him regularly. "If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely." On the way home, the husband asked his wife, "What did the doctor say?" "He said you're going to die," she replied.

I'm addicted to JelloCar. Kinda funny how the simple games can be the most fun to play.

I hope this guy wins any challenges to his decision. I'm all for freedom of speech but I think the signs the church members display are hate speech, not freedom of speech.......big difference in my book, doesn't matter if they were 1000 feet away or 1000 miles away.

I've found a car that's smaller then the Smart Car.


Sure hope my neighbors have a sense of humor....

Till later.

LivingXL.com

6 times the normal size?

Super Sized Bicycle Seat

That's big.

Halloween aftermath........

The best part of working in a supermarket in the middle of the night is..........checking out some of our wackjob customers. Sure we get a few shift workers shopping for groceries at 1 in the morning but let's face it-most normal people are in bed sleeping at that hour.

My vote for best Halloween costume was for the very large man with a shaved head wearing a ballet outfit at 2 in the morning buying a gallon of milk. He was at least 6 ft 6 in, was built like a sumo wrestler and he was wearing pink tights.....that dude was scary.


Our cat goes wacko when I buy her catnip. This picture is of her at 4:30 in the morning. I bought a package of 3 catnip stuffed mice and they are already strewn all over the house. I'm not sure what's in catnip, but our cat is wired for sound right now....


I brake for cake. My wife makes the best cake on planet Earth....and no I'm not sharing.
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There is all kinds of bad news out there today......and I ain't linking to any of it. Except this.

Besides coffee and bottled water......what did we drink 10 years ago? Me? I used to drink a ton of diet soda, now I'm addicted to green tea.

I think I've linked to this before, don't waste your money.... just let a professional (me) make you as heavy as a freight train.

till later.