Cat video

I feel *good*.......

It's been a couple of weeks since I've decided to eat more intelligently and although I haven't stepped on the scale....I no longer have to breath in to button my trousers.

I haven't spent nearly enough time out on the bike, life seems to get in the way more than I would like. I've learned that I can't burn the candle at both ends very many times before I get run down so the first thing I do is make sure I get plenty of sleep.

After that, work at the donut ranch and my computer consulting seem to fill up most of my waking hours. I'm pretty lucky to have an extremely understanding wife because lots of my free time is spent staring at computer monitors.

I ran into a high school friend I haven't seen for a number of years, we picked up right where we left off, I almost had a heart attack when he told me he was gonna get married. If one person defined the words "confirmed bachelor" .....he was the guy.

Should be one helluva wedding.

I was perusing the news today....pretty much bad news all the way around-kinda depressing if you let it get to you. All I know is that if McCain manages to win next Tuesday, I'm not looking forward to the next 4 years.

I honestly don't know if Obama can do any better, but I think it's time to change horses. I'm sure we said the same thing right before Jimmy Carter was elected so you never know.....

Brrr.

Those Australians sure have a sense of humor..........gotta thank my son for that one. He has the same sense of humor as I do. Small wonder, huh?

My wife and I are having a contest....we are seeing how long we can go without turning the heat on.

As I write this at 5AM-it's a balmy 58 degrees inside and I am wearing short sleeves. I'm sure glad I like cool weather.

till later.

Still alive.........

Wow, absolutely no time to post in the last couple of days.....even with having back-ups of all my stuff-it's still a huge pain in the hiney setting up a new computer. I bought a new accounting program it refuses to print invoices the way I want them....it's starting to piss me off a tad.

I had the old laptop exactly how I wanted it. Even though this one is much faster-I liked my old one. I haven't given up on it yet, as soon as I get a stretch of a few slow days- I'm gonna attempt to install a new motherboard myself.

That oughta be interesting.

Either I'll fix it or I'll end up with a box of pieces that used to be a laptop.

Over the past few days I've fixed some computer stuff, made some donuts, had a great ride with my friend Mike but the best thing?

My son and I had breakfast with my dad at 5AM this past Saturday. 3 generations of McNallys sitting at the counter of the local greasy spoon shooting the shit.

Good times for sure.

I've decided to change my vote.

I was planning on voting for my party's candidate Bob Barr......my brother-in-law came over a few days ago and made so many obnoxious remarks about Obama, I gotta vote for Barack to cancel out his McCain vote.



Honestly, I can't understand why the hell anyone would vote for a 72 year old version of George Bush with the added bonus of a VP that seems to be as up on the issues as a 5th grader. Seriously, she comes across as dumber than fungus.

Whatever.

As far as I'm concerned...they all have conflicts of interests- it's just the degree of slimeyness you're willing to put up with.

till later.

Slightly un PC...........

Pretty amazing video editing......

Losing weight..............

The second toughest part of losing weight?

Learning how to eat correctly.

It's weird for me to try and eat a full meal right before I go to work....but so far it's seems to be working pretty good as I am not wanting to eat the tread off of a snow tire when I come home in the morning.

The first hardest part? Not eating junk food right before I go to bed. I love me some junk food and so far I've been substituting hard pretzels and it seems to work.

Not getting enough exercise is also a concern but I can only fit so much stuff in a 24 hour day.

...........right about this point as I wrote this on Wednesday morning (it's now Thursday mornning) my laptop crapped the bed.

Not sure quite yet what happened to it but the laptop I just bought to use as a loaner PC for my consulting business is now my work laptop.....such is life, it's just a pain in the butt to restore my backups and get everything the way I want it.

People have worse problems....heck, I had a brand new laptop sitting right next to the old one when it crapped out so things could be worse.

till later.

Busy weekend......

From Friday afternoon to Sunday evening.....I got about 9 hours of sleep.

I guess having a full time 6 nights a week job and running my own company is keeping me kinda busy. No worries though as I am loving every minute of working for myself.

Will I ever quit my regular job?

Highly unlikely.

It's a great company to work for and they have killer benefits, so I ain't going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

Some random thoughts....

-I am totally digging this cooler weather-I was out for a ride Monday morning and as far as I'm concerned...mornings that start out in the 40's and end up in the 60's are perfect riding weather. The fall colors are an added bonus.

-64 bit Windows Vista is finally mature. I set up a mid range (750 bucks) HP laptop for a client and is runs smooth. This laptop came with 4 gigs of RAM so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Heck, I liked it so much I went back to Sam's and bought one for our company. I figure it will be pretty cool to be able to loan out a laptop to some of my "A" list clients if I am working on some of their equipment. Also, hats off to our son, we set up a new system in record time this weekend....couldn't have done it without him.

-My wife makes the best potato soup in the known universe. It's the only soup I have without adding crackers because I don't want to change the flavor.

-I cut the grass for the last time this year. Some of my neighbors are really into lawn care, nothing wrong with that, it's probably great exercise but it ain't my bag.

-Watching what you eat isn't that hard if you put a little thought into it. I passed up a milkshake and greasy hamburgers last night to have some of my wife's soup for dinner. I haven't weighed myself but I know I've lost a couple pounds because my pants are quite as snug. I haven't changed how much I eat very much, just trying to put some thought into it before I stick food in my piehole.

-Arthritis sucks. Between cutting the grass and doing some light riding...my knees are a little sore. I'm not complaining because there are folks out there that have it way worse than me.

-If you are a child of the 80's...this site will be a time suck. I guarantee you'll be checking out videos and a couple of hours will go by.

I get an incredible amount of tech related e mail, spam and regular mail. I wonder if that has something to do with the amount of computers and computer related stuff I buy?

I ain't the smartest guy in the world, but where the hell is all this money coming from? If the answer is my kids and my grandkids....I say let the economy tank now and get it over with. I have a feeling those guys in D.C. are just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

This is one smart dude. I wish he woulda ran for president.

till later.

Not what you're expecting.....

YouTube - Terry Tate: Reading Is Fundamental

Bar Stool Economics........

My friend Doug sent me this........


Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.!

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. ‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’ ‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’ ‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.

They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.

Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

Sure makes sense to me.

If you're a Facebook user...........

Don't fall for this scam. (The link goes to a site that describes the exploit)

till later.

Smoooth.......

I took my first ride on my new neighborhood bike.....I likey. (edit- actually by the time this post got up on my blog-I've done 3 rides....)

It has a fairly low end suspension fork....the travel is something like 60mm-just enough to take the edge off of potholes and such.

I'll be putting in some stunning mph averages on the bike, my first ride I averaged 9 mph. What can I say, I like to look around at stuff when I ride. Life's too short to keep your head down all the time.

I know I post way too much political bullsh*t on this blog.....but this is funny. John McCain kinda looks like someone stole his favorite toy. Yeah, I know I spend lots of time bashing McCain...but he's such an easy target.

till later.

Another weekend...another bike.

I don't buy as much bike stuff as I used to, but while I was having my wife's kayak rack installed last Saturday, I test rode a couple of rail trail bikes.

I really liked this one in particular...so I thought about it for the weekend and ended up buying it yesterday.

It's not fast bike, I sit practically bolt upright and it's geared low enough so I can ride up really steep hills without ripping out my knees. They say the best bike is the bike you ride, so hopefully I'll get some decent miles in this winter.

I have plenty of fat to start out with for insulation....

Instead of going to the Ren Faire on Sunday...it woulda cost close to 250 bucks to get in and eat, we went here. It's a pretty nice set up they have, unfortunately it was over 80 degrees this past Sunday and it was just to damn hot to be standing out in the middle of a cornfield. They did have a bamboo forest which was extremely cool (literally and figuratively) that had a maze cut through it.

My wife wants to take her dad back some weekend, he loves that kind of stuff. I wouldn't mind going back either, as long as it's cooler outside.

My father-in-law sent me this........

DID YOU KNOW?

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy
things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. Take your bananas apart
when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem,
they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much
longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the
grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of
sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in
double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty
frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and
at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply
chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place
them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza.......Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top
of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust
crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it
really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs....Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash
till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep
mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze
mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting....When you buy a container of cake frosting from the
store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less
sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread....To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that
were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The
increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away....Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in
your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you
go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some
gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass....Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards
of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes....Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the
mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!....To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle
your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant
and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum....To get something out of a heat register or under the
fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum.
It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling....Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and

you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that
cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da!
... static is gone.

Measuring Cups....Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring
cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next,
add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes
right out.

Foggy Windshield?....Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and
keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the
eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope....If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot
to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer
for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner....Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper
than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way

to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in
your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies....To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass,
fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid;
mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants....Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They
eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week
or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry
about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS....The heating unit went out on my dryer! The
gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted
to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint
filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the fil-ter after every
load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the
filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made
of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter
looks like.
Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through
it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh
that's what burns out the heating unit.You can't SEE the film, but it's
there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and
static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel
waxy when you take them out of the box .. well this stuff builds up on
your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer
units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way
to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your
electric bill lower) is to take that filter out = and wash it with hot
soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six
months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as
long! How about that!?!
Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do
that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The
water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the
mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had
it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it ... the water ran right thru
the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he
was talking about!

If I haven't chased him away from this blog with my nutjob liberal politics....thanks dad.

This blog is totally badass.....Advanced Style. Wear what you want to....I know I do. I think both our kids do their own thing as far as clothes, lifestyle and the friends they hang with. I'm pretty proud of both of them for making good life decisions so far...

...our daughter is considering missionary work in Africa after she gets her degree and our son is thinking about a degree in child psychology ...how damn cool is that?

I always wanted kids that would get out in the world and make a difference....it sure will be fun watching them both spread their wings.

I dunno, but McCain is looking more and more like what he actually is-a rich old white guy with a bad combover and a lying VP candidate.

Today's science break.....I love this kind of stuff.

This might be fixed my the time you read this....if so-it's ain't gonna be funny.

Sure seems like the news is full of Wall St. stuff and election articles......did somebody forget our service men and women are still over in Iraq and Afghanistan getting shot at and killed on a daily basis?

I sure hope all those folks didn't die just so we could pump the country dry...

.....just sayin'.

till later

Most Disturbing Commercial Ever

Most Disturbing Commercial Ever

Totally safe for work....just turn the sound down some.

Birthday weekend.......

This is the last year I'll be spending in my 40's........I thought I'd take the weekend off to celebrate.

Our son and I went to a friends house Friday night to play in a poker tournament.

How'd we do?

Me, of course went out almost immediately as I have no poker smarts whatsoever- I went to network and make some new friends.

My son however did quite a bit better-he came in 4th place out of 16 people and I gave him 10 bucks to play with in the cash game preceding the tournament which he turned into 35 bucks. My semi-professional poker playing friend said he's pretty good for a 15 year old.

I finally got around to having my LBS install the kayak rack on my wife's car. It's pretty slick, you just have to get the nose of the kayak into the rack and the wheels on the rack guide it the rest of the way in. By the way if you live in York PA-go to Gung Ho Outfitters for your bike stuff-great guys with no "bike" attitude.

I did see a really nice basic commuter/hybrid while I was waiting...my lovely wife gave me to okay to buy it-I'm thinking about it over the weekend. As much as I love my Surly Cross-Check...I want something for quick rides that doesn't have me bent over quite as much. I was thinking about throwing some slicks on my mountain bike, but that has a fairly stretched out position as well.

One of the advantages of living in Pennsylvania Dutch country is we have some really amazing farmers markets....my wife bought some cheese bread Saturday morning that is to die for.

I also worked on a local businesses computer.....I tend to stray away from business clients because of my limited daytime availability...but these folks were desperate. The computer they stored ALL their business info wouldn't boot up and they need it working by Monday 9AM.

No backups.....so they were kinda screwed. I managed to pull all their data off the hard drive and after a bit playing around with boot settings and a couple other things....I got it to boot up. Hopefully, the first thing they are gonna buy is a portable hard drive or two to save stuff from now on.

Later today-the whole family is headed to the local Ren Faire-oughta be a blast. We've never been to anything like it before, so it should be fun.
____________________________________

Not to put to fine a point on it-but damn...the world economy sure seems like it is circling the drain. Sounds kinda passe to say it, but I'm just damn glad my wife and I both have steady jobs. Their are lots of folks out there like me without jobs wondering where they are gonna come up with next months mortgage payment.

I'm one lucky 49 year old....

till later.

Ed is gonna be pissed.....

Nah, not really....at least I hope not.

I uploaded the video he sent me to YouTube.

He recently made the news in his hometown.



Ed...you rock dude.

Muslims are people too...........

This kind of crap really pisses me off.

I have Muslim co-workers and a couple of Muslim friends and it pisses them off even more.

Suppose Obama was a Muslim.....who gives a shit? That doesn't automatically make him a bad person or a terrorist.

Evidently, everyone with an IQ below 100 that can't separate politics, religious beliefs and the color of someones skin is having a problem with the dude.

Decent human beings come in all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds.

till later.

Happy Halloween......

Courtesy of my friend Hank.....he shares my off-beat sense of humor.

I'm taking the last of my vacation later this week, my son and I are going to play in a poker tournament this Friday night. I'm prepared to lose my 30 dollar entry fee, my son seems to think he has a chance.

He very well might, he is really hard to read when we play at home. Whatevs, it's a great time to do some networking and pass out a few business cards.

Wow.......the economy sure is going to hell in a handbasket. Seriously, I'm just glad my wife and I both have steady jobs-not everyone is so fortunate.

Wow, this guy gets the asshole of the month award. If the reservist was my neighbor...I'd landscape it myself.

till later.

I'm no expert..........

But it looks like the shit is really hitting the fan........at least I had a nice ride this morning.

The things you see.........

I was out for a bike ride Sunday afternoon (sorry, no pictures).....it was a picture perfect afternoon.

I'm not sure why more folks weren't outside, but I put in about 15 miles of nice easy pedaling. I slightly overdid it the week before and I sure wasn't gonna repeat my mistake-this is the best time of the year to be out on a bike.

Some of the stuff I saw I saw...

-People that live in really run down houses drive really nice cars.....folks that live in average looking houses drive average looking cars and upper class folks have lots of cars.

-Nothing on this Earth smells better than fresh cut grass.....with the possible exception of hamburgers cooked on a grill. I rode down that street twice.

-Most folks driving cars (at least on the side streets I was on) were actually very courteous. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

-Most (if not all) the people I encountered out walking took the time to say hi or at least waved.

-People spend serious amounts of money on lawn ornaments.

-There are lots of houses for sale. We don't live in an economically hard-hit area but lots of houses are being sold by owner....I guess the 7 or 8% realtors take adds up.

All in all...a nice day to be out on a bike.

till later.

My mom was right.........

My mom is one smart cookie. She was the vice-president of a local credit union for 20 years before retiring earlier this year....She's pretty damn smart.

Her take on D.C. politics......they're all crooks.

After this past week and watching Congresses behavior on the bailout bill-I totally agree with her.

You wanna get a bill passed in Congress? Add 150 billion (that's "B" Billion) dollars of pork to it and it will pass no problem.

Was the bill necessary? Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it...but damn, those congress critters sure are slimeballs.


After last week...there should be no excuse for anyone that lives in America to go to bed hungry, go without basic medical care or without some sort of roof over their head.

If we can spend a trillion dollars on a war that should have never been started and a trillion bucks to bail out Wall St............lets write a ten figure check to fix some of the problems of common Americans.

It's only money, right?

Proud to be a Murican.

Wow.....these drunk hillbillies might be registered to vote. (NSFW)

Let's hope not.

Happy?

Why is Nancy so damn happy?

She just wrote a check for 700 billion dollars that don't exist.

Ponzi scheme anyone?

Saw this on a message board.........

I recently interviewed Sarah Palin.

Here’s how it went.

Me: What day is it today?

Sarah Palin: There are 7 days in a week. There are many days. We could choose from many different days.

Me: Yes, but what day is today?

Sarah Palin: Today could be one of 7 days. And I have a great appreciation for how beautifully the week is set up. I mean, our question might even be rephrased to ask if we haven’t lost sight of the bigger picture, where the day is just a small part of what constitutes a week, which would be yet another part of what is known as the month.

Me: I just want to know what day it is, specifically.

Sarah Palin: Any and all of them that have come and gone. I have always been comfortable with any and all of them. My point, however, is that it all comes back to the year. I am someone who believes that the voiceless can count on me to represent the calendar in an unbiased way, from within one of the highest offices of government. After all, I have always made myself clear, and I am not apologetic about who I am. There are 30 days in a month and 52 weeks in a year. I was born in the 20th century, and this might already be the 21st , who knows? Here, our sense of the space-time continuum has come to be challenged by those who insist they must know what day of the week we are presently at. And I think it needs to be addressed in concrete terms for the good of the American people.

Thank you.