Too much fun.........

I enjoy fixing computers, so I started up a home based business fixing them that's turned out to be fairly successful and I get to buy all kinds of tech toys with the proceeds and write them off as business related expenses.

Is this country great or what?


Our new laptop is sooo cute.

My plan is to lend it out to clients when I am fixing their computers, not too many techs offer something like that around here, hopefully it will pay for itself. It runs a version of Linux and does most everything a Windows computer does but it's quite a bit simpler to run.

I''m also having fun sticking TV shows into my iPod Touch....it's kinda of a pain to encode them properly (hint-use handbrake) but it could be worse. There's also tons of cool video podcasts I'll be able to watch on the go as well. I have about 2500 songs , it all fits with room to spare and it's neat to be able to check e-mail and surf websites on it.

I thought it would be kinda hard to read the text of web sites, but it's actually not too bad, you can magnify sites by "pinching" and "spreading" them with your fingers. hard to explain-easy to do. I wouldn't want to surf on it for a couple hours but for a few minutes at a time-it's just fine. The Google maps and weather are pretty neat as well.

A couple of folks have emailed me about how I like the iTouch so far- overall I really like it with one exception-the keyboard is just a tiny bit to small for my fat fingers. It's usable but I have to type slowly. Other than that-it's pretty much the ultimate iPod.

I finally got around to listening to the Presidents State of the Union address......wow, all I can say is he's an incredibly bad public speaker. I honestly wanted to hear what he said but it was painful to listen to. How the hell did he get elected in the first place?

Like Barack or not....he's one helluva public speaker. Will he win the Democratic nomination? Don't know, but I sure hope she doesn't win.

These two guys? You have got to be kidding me. Mitt just oozes slime and McCain is so damn honest about what he wants to do he's scary. I appreciate his honesty about what he wants to do and where he stands on the issues but he's a touch too conservative for me....being the Libertarian nutjob that I am:-)

Enough about politics.......

Two rednecks are out hunting, and as they’re walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it.

The first hunter says ” Wow, that’s some hole, I can’t even see the bottom, I wonder how deep it is?” The second hunter says” I don’t know, let’s throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom.”

The first hunter says ” There’s this old transmission here, give me a hand and we’ll throw it in and see”. So they pick it up and carry it over, and count one, and two and three, and throw it in the hole.

They are standing there listening and looking over the edge and they hear a rustling in the brush behind em. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole with no hesitation, and jump in headfirst.

While they are standing there looking at each other, looking in the hole, and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old farmer walks up. “Say there”, says the farmer, “you fellers didn’t happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?”

The first hunter says ” Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin’ about a hunert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this hole here!”

And the old farmer said ” Why that’s impossible, I had him chained to a transmission! ”

People are getting tired of paying 5 bucks for a cup of coffee. I like the occasional cup of joe, but I can't tell the difference between convenience store coffee and Starbucks.

If she's lucky......she'll be out of the spotlight for a few weeks-the woman needs help and I hope she gets it.

Drunk drivers ain't the smartest.....thing is, if she gets a decent attorney, she'll be able to get out of the charges easily.....if she's that smart and judging by the video-I don't think she is.

Your shipment of "fail" has arrived.

Think your life sucks? It doesn't. Like my good friend who's an E.R. nurse said....all he has to do is go to work to realize how lucky he is. I totally agree- for the most part, even the poor folks here in America don't have to eat mudpies to fill their bellies.

Whenever I hear people bitch about how bad they have it-I just wanna slap them up side the head.....there's always someone else who has it worse.

Count your blessings folks.

till later.

Being a good little consumer.........

I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. After looking at the Eee PC laptop from Asus for the last couple months....I bought one.

Not a whole lot of money and I plan to loan it out to my clients (for an additional fee) so they don't have to go without a computer if they really need one while I'm fixing theirs.

I also bought an iPod touch.....just because I think they are way cool. Now that I've bought one-they'll probably come out with a new and improved model in a month. I hate it when Apple does that.

I was off this past weekend, other than re-cabling my son and I's workstation (formerly the dining room table) I totally goofed off. Yeah, I know the words "bike riding" is in the title of the blog, but my damn knees hurt to much to do any riding. I'm not complaining-there are tons of folks out there with way worse problems than sore knees.

Since I have 4 weeks of vacation now, my lovely wife and I are going to take a winter vacation this year. We don't get to spend much quality time together due to our opposing work schedules, so I am totally ready to hang out with my sweetie for a week. Good times for sure.
_____________________________________

Yada, yada, yada......best news as far as I'm concerned? Less then a year to go before he goes, I just hope he doesn't do anything any dumber then he has already.

The Super Bowl is on this weekend.....I had to ask someone who's playing against New England. My wife and I love watching the game for the commercials....the game is okay but not nearly as fun to watch. I guess I'm not much of a stick and ball sports fan.

Fema trailers.........damn, that's some scary stuff because lots of folks live in mobile homes. Maybe that's one of the problems of our government-they seem to be more concerned about who's at fault for screw ups than fixing the screw ups.

22 years ago, I was off sick that day and watched it happen live. Kinda something you never forget.

I had to clean this one up a little bit.....I used the word "weenie"-I hope it's not too offensive....

A five-year-old boy and his grandfather are sitting on the front porch together, when grandpa pulled a beer out of the cooler.

The little boy asked, “Grandpa, can I have a beer?

Grandpa replied “Can your weenie touch your ass?

The little boy answered, “No Grandpa, It’s just a little wiener!”

Grandpa said, Then you’re not man enough to have a beer.

A little later Grandpa lit up a cigar. The little boy asked, “Grandpa, can I have a cigar?”

Once again, Grandpa asked, “Can your weenie touch your ass?” The little boy answered “no,”again.

Grandpa said, “Then your not man enough to have a cigar.” A little later, the boy came out of the house with some cookies and milk. Grandpa asked, “Can I have a cookie?”

The boy asked, “Can your weenie touch your ass?” Grandpa replied, Hell yeah, my weenie can touch my ass!”

The boy replied, Then go **** yourself! Grandma made these for me.”

Snopes.com is pushing adware. I never see it because I use a modified host file...so should you.

Have a flashlight in your kitchen drawer? It's not really a flashlight....THIS is a flashlight.

I like bicycles and all.....but I'm also a pistonhead. Anybody that calls themselves the Nitro Circus Thrillbillies is A-OK with me. I bet those guys have a hard time getting life insurance.

Now I'm no expert, but this guy seems to have some good ideas and lots of folks like him. Whether or not he can get elected and have a chance to implement any of them remains to be seen.

Very cool Pepsi commercial.

till later.

Thanks for the update CNN

Sometimes you have to wonder about the average IQ of a network news exec.

Click here for the stupidity

One Way to Say It

9 out of 10 doctors agree...............

One Way to Say It

This is a must read......

Pedal Pushers Online | Tara Llanes: Determined to Recover, Wheelchair ridden after an event day crash, Downhill Racer Tara Llanes vows to defy her doctors and ride again

The old neighborhood........

My friend Bob stopped by work the other night to give me some bad news....one of our other friends mom passed away. Kind of a bummer although from the way it sounded, it wasn't entirely unexpected.

Bob was my best man at our wedding and we got to talking about all the good times and all the hell we used to raise when we were younger versions of ourselves. I grew up in a working class neighborhood where not too many of us went of to college....we all got jobs after high school.....that's the way it was back then.

After we talked for awhile we wished we could of did a do-over on the education part, between us, we have 3 kids attending college right now...........I guess the moral of the story is-you can never have too many smarts.

I think I might get a hard time for this one, but I've been listening to country music and liking it! I've been listening to a little bit of Trace Adkins....kinda like redneck country music if that's a category. I actually like all kinds of music, the only stuff I don't really enjoy is urban rap and hip-hop.

Lets face it, I'm a 48 year old white guy.....that kind of music isn't not really targeted at my demographic.

Guys my age are supposed to be into yard care and getting that mid-life crisis convertible. I don't really care that much about how green the grass is, as long as it doesn't die-I'm happy. As for the convertible......unless the money fairy comes by and shits out 40 grand-I don't see any fancy cars in my immediate future.

I did find one thing I want to buy, our store has an entire display of these. I think it's a hoot to walk by them and push the buttons on all of them the hear the Fox NFL theme. What can I say, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Been thinking about getting one of those iPod Touches......still not sure yet, I'll probably go to the store and play around with one to see how easy it is to enter contact info and such. The only thing that I don't like about Apple is that they make too much cool stuff I can't afford.

10 dicks. I had a teacher named Dick Bender in high school. His mom and dad musta had a sick sense of humor.

How to be a good parent......or not.

till later

I was right.........

I'm watching "The Moment of Truth" as I am writing this.....it's like an hour long train wreck. The first guy on the show.....he's gonna be sleeping on the couch for a few nights.

I'd go on the show, but I lead a fairly boring life so it wouldn't very entertaining.

till later.

Pat Paulson for President....

I know I'm gonna date myself here, but does anyone remember Laugh-In and the Smothers Brothers? About the times those shows were on, a guy named Pat Paulson ran for President.

Too bad somebody like that isn't around now to give it a shot. I'd vote for Ron Paul, but I kinda doubt he's gonna get the nomination on the Republican side and on the Democratic side.....it's a regular smack-down. I know it doesn't matter what I think very much, but Clinton and Edwards just seem so slimey....almost as slimey as this guy.

With a few exceptions...this years run at the primaries is like the Brazil Nut Effect....all the big nuts rise to the top.

We got our first taste of really cold weather the past few days. While I don't mind it that much...my knees are pretty much useless when it's below 20 degrees. A big "thank you" to whoever invented Celebrex or I probably wouldn't be able to walk.

I was coming home from dropping our son off the school and I saw the smoke plume from this fire....kinda freaked me out, from the road I was on- it looked a lot closer to our house than it actually was.

How to be popular. Jeez, all that's standing between me and a comfortable living blogging is a few hundred thousand readers........no sweat.

I'd really like a pair of these glasses to wear as a gag, but I don't think I'll be going into the store that has them.

I bet this TV show is like driving by a car accident...morbid curiosity makes you look. I'm not saying I wouldn't watch it, but I have about 20 hours of Discovery and TLC taped I haven't watched yet.

A picture is worth a thousand words...this one might be worth more.

Words escape me.......but it's not words that are escaping.

Will it Blend? is for nancy-boys........Watch it Shred is the real deal.

till later.

Less than pleasant news......

Our son has a girlfriend and on Sunday her father passed away.

He had been ill for quite some time so they had some time to prepare for his passing, but still.

I can't even imagine what the family is going through.....

Almost ate the windshield...........

I drop our son off at school every morning and as it happens, we cross one of the most dangerous intersections in our county. I've seen countless accidents there, the intersection is poorly designed for the amount of traffic it handles.

On Wednesday, I very nearly became another statistic. A tractor trailer driver pulled across 3 lanes of traffic and blocked all 3 lanes. I just about hit the side of the trailer ...which woulda peeled off the roof of my van and I assume my head as well, the nose of my van was actually under the side of the trailer with the windshield probably a foot away from the side.

It took a couple hours before all the adrenaline wore off and I could go to sleep........

Anyone following the primaries? It's kinda funny when you listen to all the wild-assed stuff the politicians come up with to con you into voting for them. They all do it, say whatever it takes to get elected.

I'd almost vote for this guy if he wasn't so gung ho about keeping troops in Iraq....I think that of all the electable candidates, he pulls the least amount of punches.

It's a free country with freedom of religion and all...........but this dude skeeves me out..

....so does this guy...and this guy. Truth be told, most of the news out there concerning Presidential politics makes me feel like hiding in a corner.

On a much happier note....

My wife finished the puzzle I bought her for Christmas. It was a toughie, some of the pieces would actually fit into incorrect places......if it woulda been me-I would of given up-I hate doing puzzles.

If you're not reading Dusty.......you're missing out.

Three Philosophies.

When I'm 88 years old.....ballet? Why not? The guy is probably in better shape than I am.

Till later.

Been a busy few days...

I realized my wife and I reached a milestone.....this weekend we watched our daughter drive off in her own car back to college....all by herself. Maybe it doesn't seem that big a deal, but still......

..our little girl is all grown up.

Been busy this past weekend with computer stuff, set up a new computer that someone bought new off of eBay.....the computer came from a seller in Texas but all the region codes for the DVD software were set to Region 2 instead of Region 1 and when I went to Google it loaded the UK version. Whatever, probably a grey market computer but for the price the guy paid-it was a good deal.

Something about this picture is so wrong....

Idiocracy is gonna be here before you know it. TV's in shopping carts? What's next? Farting squirrels?

Very good special effects........I have this show on my hard drive, I am looking forward to watching it.

Cool school bus.

till later.

This kid is my hero.....

Boy Glues Hand to Bed to Avoid School

Cats and dogs.....

Our cat is crazy..............

In the above pic, she crawled underneath the throw rug in front of our kitchen sink. We love her to pieces but she does some weird stuff.

I was at a client's house the other evening and they had the nicest pair of Labradors. One was an older dog...about 10 or 11 years old and the other was about 3. The older one was definitely the elder statesman...he would calmly walk up to me and waited for me to pet him. The younger one was quite a bit more rambunctious.

With cats, you never know what's going through their minds....dogs on the other hand-they let you know right up front if they like you or not.

Here's a good list of 50 things.....make sure you read the comments as well.

A Canadians point of view concerning America.....he does have a point.

Gas station milkshakes.....when I was a kid, we had a greasy spoon near my house that made the best chocolate milkshakes and had pinball machines.

This has to be the dumbest idea for a mountain bike. One ride through a slightly muddy trail and it's gonna pick up 10 pounds of mud and it's gonna be hard to clean out if the mud dries up in the frame.

Hey coin collecters........don't miss the new Bush coinset.

and on a totally unrelated note.......it's my mom and dad's 49th wedding aniversary......woo hoo, next year I get to be best man at their vow renewal ceremony.

till later

8 years baby...........

Quit smoking 8 years ago today. Chucked a half pack into the trash and quit cold turkey. One of the toughest things I've ever down.

Nowadays I positively hate the smell of cigarette smoke...it makes me sick to my stomach to even smell a whiff of second-hand smoke. I'm one of those asshole former smokers so don't even think about lighting a smoke when you're in my personal space, because I will tell you how I feel about second hand smoke.

Not sure what's going on with the weather, but damn.....it was 70 degrees the past couple of days. Kinda hard to believe it's the middle of January. It's also sorta depressing to think that it will get cold again. I don't mind 30's and 40's....but I get grumpy when it's colder than that.

The diet is going well, I've become accustomed to eating oatmeal for dinner/breakfast .....eliminating the snacks has been the real killer. I still eat ice cream, etc....I just don't eat it in the morning before I go to sleep.

Our daughter made a killer apple pie yesterday......

It was real hard not to eat any this morning....

I read the news this morning, looks like Mrs. Clinton isn't done yet. Honestly, out of all the candidates that have a reasonable chance to win.....she is one of the ones I wouldn't vote for. I don't really have a concrete reason why, she just seems too much like a politician.

That was close one.

Dude tries a Famous Bowl.....with predictable results. I've never had one....the idea of piling all that stuff together really doesn't appeal to me.

I agree...they need to get second jobs if they can't afford the payments.

till later

The cold............

I have the cold that won't die. It's not that big of a cold and it isn't making me feel that bad-it's just annoying......and it won't go away. I had off this weekend and besides setting up a VPN for a client, I just lazed around.

My old cell phone was working intermittently....ever since I dropped it off the back of my bike last summer, it would turn off by itself randomly. We finally got out to the store and got a new one. Since I'm an old guy and was around before there were cellphones.....it never ceases to amaze me that they can pack so much technology into such a small device.

I listen to tons of podcasts when I'm at work, here's a great site to browse through a few.

I'm not dyslexic....just absent minded-you have to admit...it's a clever shirt.

Somebody's probably gonna comment on this...but the way I see it-religion and government don't mix....besides, Huckabee ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

More guys in the "not the brightest bulb in the package" club.....

This is kinda weird....no, it's very weird.

till later

I'm so good...........

........they named an office paper after me.

Most folks I ride with call me "Geo"....short for George.

My friend Doug sent me the pic. You should check out his blog (he posts as "bikebreath") I think he does his blog like I do mine....kinda casual and because he like to write and put down some words.

Anyways....check it out and check out his photography, I'm not sayin' this just to blow sunshine up his ass, but he is one helluva of a picture taker.

The primaries have finally started......all I can say is there is no way I'm voting for someone with the last name of "Huckabee" ......President Huckabee? You gotta be kidding me. We need another badass like this guy.

Lots of news articles about the Spears sisters and their adventures......none worth linking to. Instead of wasting your time reading about the latest famous pregnant unmarried 16 year slut....read about a hero. Not sure what makes firefighters run into burning buildings....but thank God they do.

Oh.....my.....god. I am so glad that none of these are my kids.

Speaking of kids, I was at the bank Friday morning.....while I was in line, the mom behind me had her 3 little devil children running all over the bank willy nilly. Mom gets a call on her cell, loudly discusses what she's gonna make for dinner that night, etc.....after a minute or two, one of Satan's children pull a candy dish off the counter and it hits them smack on the forehead. The kid is crying, and I'm laughing.......I am so going to hell in a thermal snowsuit.

till later.

Oatmeal........

I'm sure glad I like oatmeal, because it's gonna be my breakfast/dinner before I hit the sack every morning for the foreseeable future.

It part of my DELAIRBYGTS© diet.

Actually, it ain't much of a diet.....but it's hard to lose weight when you go to sleep on a full stomach......and it's very easy to gain it when you have a bowl of Dorito's and some cookies as a snack right before you turn in. I figure 500 calories of oatmeal is better than 1000 calories of junk.

Last night it was 17 degrees.....I really like the butt warmers in my wife's new car-they are way toasty. My van.....not so much.

Here's a tit....... captured on a webcam. Get your mind out of the gutter.....my 14 year old son reads this blog.

I knew there was a reason I don't ride the rides at the carnival.

Here's some smart marketing. Sure, it'd be easier for the food bank to just accept a shrink wrapped pallet from Campbells....but then I wouldn't be linking to it, would I?

I call bullshit.

How do you get a $40 voucher for a digital-to-analog converter box for your old analog TV? Click here. We have a 25 year old JCPenney TV that still works like a charm.

Hollywood has officially run out of ideas....maybe that's just me, since I've never watched the show. I have a feeling I ain't missing much.

Men with plungers......Yeah, I know-you're thinking....where the hell does he find this stuff?

Here's a holiday I support. While I enjoy hanging out with friends and meeting new clients.....I'm also happy sitting at home with a stack of computer magazines.

Sear openly admits that it installs spyware on your computer.....of course you agree to it in the 54 page license agreement. Moral of the story? Don't trust anyone online with your info.

Slow news day.......that's one nasty set of underwear.

till later

Drunk Drivers....

I really hate drunk drivers......these were my aunt's grandkids.

I hope the guy gets life in prison with no parole and then spends some quality time in hell after he dies of old age.

Anybody want the payment book?

We just bought one of these....it sure is pretty, huh?

We got a pretty good deal on it, it cost about the same as the one we bought back in 2001. Car dealers are desperate to move metal...especially when you walk in 2 days before the end of the year.

It's my wife's 3rd Subaru, the second one is going back to college with our daughter next week. I was probably the one that pushed my lovely wife into buying a new car, I really didn't like having our daughter at school without transportation.

Been to busy to blog much, today is the first day of the "Don't Eat Like An Idiot Before You Go To Bed In The Morning" diet............I had a bowl of my pop's homemade soup for breakfast...yum.

My dad makes the best homemade soup in the solar system.

I think if he wanted to, he could set up a stand at the local farmer's market and make a killing selling his soup.

Yeah, his soup is that good.

His chicken corn soup pretty much has everything but the kitchen sink thrown in the pot but he somehow ties all the flavors in together and it totally kicks ass.

I'd have a soup IV if it was possible.......

I got the pleasure of working on my 3rd grade teachers computer this week. Mrs Hake was my favorite teacher when I was in elementary school and she hasn't changed a bit....I just love her to bits.

She had a couple of security programs installed that were fighting each other for control of a few settings.....I rejiggered (that's technical computerese) some settings around and removed a few minor malware programs and things seem much better.

As for the new year? Let's hope it's an improvement over 2007.

till later.