more rock wall pics

Here are a few more photos. Click here to see them all. We are not entirely done, nor will we be for a while. The long section still needs capstones, which will be set tonight. Then, we have some landscaping to do in the front of the wall, including plants and flagstones. Drive by...you'll be amazed that Steve and I did this with some consulting and finish work by Wetzel. And a shout out to Crap and Bird for helping us get started.

The new rock wall. Day 1.

Click on the photo to go to my Flickr account of the building of the rock of Tater.

Happy Thanksgiving all

A busy weekend in this house. We've taken the plunge and are building a rock wall. I have photos, but am currently too lazy to post them. Besides there is currently a break in the rain and as soon as we eat our cheddar hot dogs which are laced with mexi-velveeta and wrapped with pop-can croissants, we'll be back at lifting the 80+ lb rocks. They are heavy. What really sucks is that by the time people get back to town and are able to help, all the heaviest lifting will be done. Damn!

The bathroom project was finished last week. New toilet seat took about 5 minutes, and the new tub fixture took about 15 hours. I now am rather well-versed in the ways to plumb. Which is kinda too bad, because I would have liked to hire that hottie plumber I met at V's house. But finishing the project was a matter of pride to me, and when pride is an issue, I'm all about doing whatever I have to do to get the job done.

Turkey was last week, and we've purchased lots of snack food for this weekend, brie, bread, olives, prosuitto, and the above mentioned velveeta. A yummy food weekend. And the best part: no dinner stress.

Fan site for the world's largest cat

THE WWW FAN WEB PAGE FOR TUBCAT THE FATTEST KITTY EVA :D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you've ever been on a skateboard or

have ever played a Tony Hawk video game, watch this video of Rodney Mullen.

You think those moves are impossible in real life?

White Stripes video

Here's a video of White Stripes: The Denial Twist. They sure are clever.

hey hey, boo bops

I've found two gems today on the internet today:

1. Beck's video for "Hell, yes" has dancing robots. If you like robots too, look at robot zen.

2. www.phoneswarm.com, a website that posts the phone numbers of pay phones around the country. One calls and tries to get someone at the reststop to answer. Seems like a funny idea that might just take off. I enjoyed reading what they have so far.

So, life is simple in my household.

I'm looking for a real job, one in the field of law, or at least something to do with the millions of dollars that I've spent on higher, higher education. One with some security, some future and a decent salary. That's all. Oh, and I would like to work with intelligent, dedicated people that are fun and interesting.

I'm still debating taking the bar exam again. I would like to, but I'm not really sure if I can afford to. I have until Dec. 31 to get my application in, so I just need to determine what I really want to do. I guess it will depend on getting a job. Regardless, I'm going to seriously start studying for the bar on Dec. 1.

I just put a 22 lb. turkey into the oven. We'll be sick of turkey before Thanksgiving, but I'm not terribly sad about that. I love turkey and it's fixin's and can barely wait.

Here's something for my wishlist: Logitech® Wireless Headphones for iPod

I'm off for now, time to start making mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, etc. I think I'll never forget last year's Thanksgiving. It was the first time I hosted it, and all was from scratch. It was lovely, except I couldn't enjoy it properly because I was drunk on eggnog by the time we sat down. This year, I'll be drunk and have already enjoyed the bird with the proper relish.

I'm back

Today I woke up able to breathe. No fits of coughing or having a head so full of snot that I just wanted to go back to sleep. That cold was one of the worst.

And now back to the land of the living. I have to get Vanessa's house painted. I need to study for the bar exam. And I need to figure out a new hobby that gets me out of the house (other than drinking). It would also be nice to find a job (for now and for real). Back at it.

Not sure how much I'll be blogging in the days to come. I'm not into the computer so much, and I'm going to try and avoid it while studying for the bar. That way, perhaps I'll actually study for the bar this time. So, know that I'm likely well, stressed and wishing that I had just sucked it up the first time.

Ahrgh

I'm tired. I decided to try my hand in the land of the living today, and went to V's house to paint some trim. (doesn't that sound suggestive? Speaking of which, V had the hottest plumber that I have ever seen installing her waterheater today. Made me actually think of making one of those, "Oh hi, mr plumber, wanna check my pipes" pornos.).

Well, leaving the house wasn't such a good idea, because I'm now exhausted. I took daytime stuff that helped for the first hour, then I just got progressively worse. So, now I'm gonna take a bath and crawl back into bed, likely where I belong.

Here's what you should do:

Take a look at the Liger's photos.

Here's what not to do:

Sleep only 5 hours,
get up at 7:00 A.M.,
play two games of kickball (3 hours) in the rain,
and get completely soaked.

Then, do NOT proceed to:
eat only one meal of two pieces of pizza,
drink copious amounts of alcohol,
run around town in more rain,
scream your lungs out at the tournament finals,
drink more, but don't eat anything else
and dance and drink all night long.

If you do, you will first lose your voice, which is funny and seemingly a badge of spirit honor. But then, you will become ill, very, very ill. Your throat will hurt like it hasn't since you were 7 years old (which I remember oh, so clearly).

I've slept several times as many minutes as I've been awake in the past few days. This morning I've been up for 1.5 hours. I'm now going back to bed for the rest of the day. Hopefully, all will be better tomorrow. I just want to be able to swallow again.

Ahhh, sweet victory

Well, the kickball tournament on Saturday was a lot of fun. Here's a run-down.

Our first game was at 9:00 A.M. We all were excited and hopped up on krispy kremes and coffee. We played well, and with gusto. The score was tied and went into extra innings. We won by two runs in the ninth inning. Victory felt very good, especially considering the other team used a do-over at a moment that felt like we were really getting screwed. We were able to legitimately use our do-over later in the game to level the playing field and make everyone feel the game was a bit fair. The other team was a good match for us, only one rank behind us, and they were good sports and played with humor, which always makes the games more fun.

Then it started to rain. We switched fields and lost even our tree shelter. We also had to play the team that has stood undefeated the entire season. Needless to say, it sucked. They were all 20 year old frat boys that play professional soccer. Okay, they weren't quite that good but they were large, very athletic boys and we didn't stand a chance. We held them the best we could in the sopping wet rain (oh, and for anyone out of town, it has been raining for weeks, the fields were mud pits). Some of the best plays of the day occured during that game, my favorites being when Steve was trying to catch a pop-fly, the ball bobbled up and Aubrey was right there to catch it. The other was when Jason, who was on second base, slipped while he was running to third on Nicole's base hit. He lost his hat while falling, then managed to pick up the hat, make it to third base and because they overthrew the ball, he came home. It was lovely.

Then everyone went home to shower and dry off, and came over to our house to start celebrating. We all drank and then took the MAX down to the PGE park for the final game. I couldn't have been more happy when I found out that the testerone-team that beat us in the second round had been trounced by the Pour Sports. PS was last year's champions, and were the first team the Ligers ever played. They have acted as mentors to us this year and saved our honor yesterday by beating the Swashbucklers. They then went on to beat the SE team (we're in the NE division), who were a bunch of hippies. Our entire Liger team was in the stands, screaming and cheering and trying to be supportive. It was a great game.

Then we went on to the Eagles club, where the Ligers taught both divisions how to dance. We also received three awards: our pitcher won the MVP for the NE league; one of our captains won the NE league's queen award; and the Ligers won the Spirit award for the NE league, which we accepted with much spirit.

So, my first season of kickball was a very good one, with lots of learning and even more fun. Our team was a very good one and I hope that we can keep it together for another season. I liked our balance of good and not-so-good. Each of us made mistakes and each of us made some really good plays and I think that is more important than winning every game. Though I'm sure we could do just that after kickball camp next year. That's right, we'll be coming in very prepared next year.

And today, I watched the first and second special edition Lord of the Ring installments. We just could not find the third one anywhere in town. If we had, that would have been 12 hours of LOTR. As it was, we watched 8 hours. Worth while.

Football

So, I want to try out for a full contact women's professional football team. Wouldn't that be fun? And a great use of a law degree. So the tryouts are November 13th and December 10th.

Our uniforms are purple. Ouch, that white girl is BIG!

They will score one on the following skills:
vertical leap, 40-yard dash, 800-yard run, shuttle drill and the maximum of sit-ups and push-ups in one minute.

I know that my success in qualifying for a professional football team is unlikely, especially in 11 days. But it would be a good excuse for getting in shape. So, I want to do the above activities. Any hints on the training I should undergo to get those down? Here are my theories: situps, pushups, and running several miles a day, including some sprinting. What is a shuttle drill? And how do I increase my verticle leap? This should be fun.

Long lost

During the time that I was supposed to be studying for the bar, a few people from my long lost past decided to get in touch with me. Two were siblings that I haven't seen in 15 years and the others were either highschool or college friends. I like all of these people, but since my initial response (which was a very convenient distraction), I've fallen to not e-mailing anyone. For reasons too complicated to go into here.

Now, someone has contacted me through my undergraduate university's "in-circle" networking, friendster-type online community. Problem is, I have NO idea who this person is. There are no photos of her on the "In-Circle" profile, and I don't remember anyone that connects us. What to do.

I don't really have anything else to write about. Errands and repairs today. More sanding and hopefully priming tomorrow in V's hallway. Tonight will be a date night of sorts. Ideally sushi, but more likely the equally yummy pork chops or ribeye steak. YUM.

The Ligers won again!!!!!!!!

Our stats: 3 wins; 5 losses; 2 tied games. A -7 run differential and our current streak is 3 wins in a row. We are currently ranked 8th place, out of 16 teams in the NE league. Not so bad considering that none of us have ever played before.

But I have to now admit that our last win was a forfeit. The other team didn't show up. Not a single person. I guess they were just too scared of our prowess.

The Playoffs/Finals Tournament is this next Saturday. We play the 9th ranked team first and then more if we are lucky. I'd invite you all, but I'm sure no one will show up, considering the first game is likely to be at 8:00 (ouch).

Instead of playing them, our two captains picked teams (just like the humilation of grade school - though I have a patented system of looking unconcerned when not picked), and we played each other. I was on the Evil Ligers team, and we kicked butt. I had a LOT of fun playing first base and making some amazing catches (I'd been hiding my skills until the end of the season). Once, I almost took a digger in a large puddle of mud. And once I was running backwards, and I would have caught the ball had I not, at the last moment, tripped over something, and fallen backwards onto my back, the fall broken by the ball landing first and under my head. Ouch. But I have the most fun when I get to play "balls out." It engages the crowd.

Halloween party was fun. We didn't go as the planned duo of Sonny and Cher. It would have been wonderful, with a zombie Sonny and Cher doing a skit/song from their horrible comedy show. Audio was the concern, we just couldn't figure out how to spontaneously burst into our routine without it looking like a lot of effort. Oh well, perhaps next year. Instead I was a pirate, and a quite good one at that, having found a velvet jacket that make the outfit wonderful. Sadly, there were two other pirates there. My costume was the most elaborate however. HA. Because of a rush out of the house, there were no pictures taken until I was home and took them myself. Thus the drunken quality of the images. Steve was already in the shower, so I was only able to get a shot of his face and makeup. It wasn't a pretty costume, but scary and slightly demented, and definitely no one else had the same.

This morning was spent making adjustments to my chain downspouts. It has rained so hard here that the water was splashing all over the place and getting into the basement. I used a funnel made out of screen to direct the rain onto the chain (thanks Larry), and all seems to now be well. The ideal situation would be to have several chains out of the same hole, as one chain just can't handle that much rain.

Sadly that allowed me to discover a leak in the garage roof. I will be unable to repair that for a while though, as the 10 day forcast says more, much more rain.

A podcast you must have

Looking for Hi5 music, here's what Itunes came up with: A Klingon Word from the Word. Something about the Bible, but the words from the Bible are read in Klingon. A new form of ministry, for the Trekkies. I'm seriously amazed.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, I just found the fellow's blog.
"mu''a'vo' mu' - A Klingon Word from the Word
Thinking about the Scriptures, through the lens of the Klingon Language Version of the World English Bible. "

And here is the Klingon Language Version (KLV) of the Bible. Here's John 3:16: "vaD joH'a' vaj loved the qo', vetlh ghaH nobta' Daj wa' je neH puqloD, vetlh 'Iv believes Daq ghaH should ghobe' perish, 'ach ghaj eternal yIn."

Humanity amazes me.

And more, sorry, I can't stop. The Bible website allows one to read many versions of the Bible, the best part is that one can choose several and then compare them side by side. The Joseph Smith translation is in the Questionable section (and the Klingon isn't). Anyway, here's a comparison of Klingon, Esperanto, and Joseph Smith translation. That makes me giggle.

An observation

I cannot figure out what this group is doing with a fan base, but I guess that is the nature of pop music. Check out the Hi-5 Theme and tell me how many Hi!'s you see. Looks like six to me.

Anyway, for more fun, meet the members of Hi-5. My favorite is Kellie Lynn, here's her bio, there's so much to enjoy:


Star Sign: Taurus
Fave Food: Ice
Fave Film: Close Encounters
Fave Actor: Harrison Ford
Fave Animal: My poodle Cassy

Describe Yourself In 3 Words: (as described by Hi-5) Beautiful, understanding & sensitive
Best Feature: My new car!
Worst Feature: Lack of confidence in myself
Person You Would Most Like To Meet: Madonna
Hobbies/Interests: Extra Terrestrial life outside of this planet, horse riding, sports, four-wheel driving and writing music.

First Job: Acting in a commercial
A Talent You Wish You Had: To be more assertive
The Best Advice Given To You: To sit, listen and learn
What Can You Never Leave Home Without: My hat!
If you were a cartoon character, which one would you be? Scooby Doo
If you were told you had a minute to live, what would you do? Call my family and sit and meditate.

Make your own stamps

Flickr and Zazzlestamps have united to allow you to make stamps of the photos you have stored on Flickr. Only $16.99 for a sheet of 20 - 37cent stamps.

Even more Flickr loveliness

QOOP flickr Photo Printer. With this service, one can make coffee table books or presents for the grandparents.

Yum

After a hard day's work, there is not much better than eggs benedict (with turkey) on fresh baked bread. YMMMM. Here's the secret: take Saran wrap, line a small bowl or glass with it, crack the egg into it, and then tie the top. That way, no crazy messy eggs or need for vinegar. I tried it tonight and it worked wonderfully.

Still painting V's house.

Officially bored with my own company. Luckily, tomorrow night is book club for girls. Yeay! The book, Thanks for Smoking. I'll review it after book club. I'm currently reading Wicked. I know, it's old news by now, but I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon just because it's driving past my house. It started slow, but seems to be getting better (1/3 through).

And trying to find time to get my costume together. Otherwise, I haven't even had time to surf the net.