Eating leftovers. So much easier with a microwave

I'm the first person to go "Really? $70 to install that for me? I bet we could probably do it..."

Long ago, my father tried ever so hard to teach me that your time is worth something.  So while you might be *able* to do something (like changing the oil in your car). You should assume that your time is worth at least $30/hr and if it takes you any longer than that (plus parts) then it's actually totally worth the $40 - $50 they charge at the drive through oil change places which only take ~15 mins ...also sometimes there are some really cute guys working there ;)

So while my brother and I are both extremely cheap in this regard (we must be related) and will err on the side of "doing it ourselves" I think it's good to have that sober second look.

Someone who points out that the new microwave weighs in at 69lbs, and that the old one is probably heavier.

Someone who says with a dubious look on their face... "Yeah we probably *could* do it... but we would have to move the stove"

And as I sit here watching two big strong men manhandle the old microwave almost literally out of the wall, I'm satisfied that it probably would have taken us much longer, and there would have been a whole lot more heartache involved.

Soooo hot-pockets for dinner?

ADDDDDDDD

You might have ADD if in the amount of time it takes between one turn and the next... you forget that you've already got *two* hits, but haven't actually sunk the battleship... and then start looking for the next one :p

*self safisfied grin*

Countless attempts and an unknown number of years since I got this for Christmas, and I finally *got* it!

I can't seem to put the damn thing back together, but then that isn't the point now is it?

Burlap Sack

I recently purchased an Explorer SportRack Car Topper on kijiji that no longer fit the needs of the nice family in my neighbourhood who had a new camper.

I was pretty stoked because it's regularly $219 at Canadian Tire, and I picked it up for $100... it was also wicked because I probably only need it for this roadtrip, and all the other car top carriers are in the neighbourhood of $500, which I would rather put towards a plane ticket... or a new guitar... or maybe a couch that doesn't suck and remind me of first year University after sitting on it for an hour.

The mounting kit which consisted of 4 smooshed U bolts, 4 backing plates, and 8 screw-on nuts with pretty twisty bits... as if I didn't have my own wrench set. And they wanted $54 dollars for putting it all together in a package!!

So, being the frugal cheap bordering on repressed starving University student tendencies... I trucked 'er over to the nuts and bolts and mounting section of the store, and found this:

Which was approx $1.60, and will fit my round roofracks much more nicely. I'm sure I can find something equally cheap, or creative to cover those sticky-uppy ends with too.

Going on a roadtrip!!

If I haven't mentioned it before now, I am about to embark on a roadtrip of epic proportions... Vernon BC to St. Louis MO.  I've got three weeks booked off and approved for the middle of July. It promises to be one for the books, another chapter in the adventure of my life *grins*


View Larger Map

I was having some trouble planning, there are so many things I want to find and in this age of the internet soooo many resources... but there isn't really a good way to pull them all together. I basically had things spread haphazardly all over my living room.

It was complete and utter chaos and it was getting worse at an alarming rate.

Now the trouble with the coffee table was that my laptop was at an awkward height, I'm either hunched over from the couch (which I considered pulling forward) or I'm sitting on the floor until my butt goes numb, followed shortly by my legs...

Then it hit me! I am the only one who lives here!! I can do whatever I want *wherever* I want to do it. If I want to take over the entire kitchen for road-trip planning, and not clean it off for dinner, I can! So there Dad *sticks out tongue*.

And thus, the road-trip planning command center was born. Isn't it beautiful? *smiles* My laptop is hooked up to an extra monitor for Google mapping locations. I've got my rechargeable cordless mouse, and speakers for inspirational motivating tunage!

Now I can use Google maps to quickly find map locations from the BCAA Travel Guides and sticky note them on my map... and look up images and additional information, and cross reference *everything*.

It. is. AWESOME!

Genius... or what?

Mothers Day, that time of the year when it can take some fairly creative family conspiracy to pull it all together. Subtle and not so subtle hints dropped and eventually received, sometimes approaching Roman court intrigue and manipulation in their delicacy and intricacy... I would love to tell you the intimate details, but my family reads this blog from time to time and I don't want to give away ALL my secrets...

...but at least our family has never done this. "This" I overheard in the change room at the pool this morning and it made me giggle in that "I can't help but overhear your conversation and laugh with you at your expense" kind of way.

Apparently it was this woman's birthday, and her son was born on the same day, who of course naturally thinks that day is all about him now. In any case she'd gone on to the Lululemon website and ordered herself a bunch of new clothes a couple days ago using the business/"aka secret emergency retail therapy" credit card...

Then while opening her presents stopped. *realized* and went waitaminute... This is all the stuff I just ordered!?!?!?! You guys just wrapped everything I just bought myself?!?

Like are you kidding me?!?

So while we may conspire to remind each other to phone and wish you a happy mothers day, and coordinate flowers and dinner cooperatively in the background... we haven't done "this"... although I must say it *is* fairly ingenious, and you would get exactly what you wanted ;)

Happy Mother's Day Mom, I appreciate you :)

The basics of Ultimate... when you get right down to it

I kid you not, this is a conversation we had this morning on the way to work talking about endurance vs. sprint muscle types...

m&m: "That's why in Ultimate I was a handler..."

me: "What does the handler do?"

m&m: "Throws the Frisbee."

me: "So what does everyone else do?"

m&m: "Catch."

If you can't be good, be great!

It's always awesome when I learn that something I've done my entire life... often times things that made me that weird outlier dot on some graph, are scientifically 'discovered' to be a great thing to do!

Everything he mentioned is why I don't like watching the news, I never have... I'd much rather hear about all the things that make us, as a community of human beings incredible.  There are so many inspiring people around us every day, and by surrounding yourself with those people you can create your own average to raise yourself up to.

 "When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." -William Arthur Ward

I, am an anomaly unlike anyone you've ever met before... that's just part of what makes me amazing ;)

Words of wisdom

The airline stewardess told me I didn't have to sit this far back... I distracted her by asking if I had the whole row to myself.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that my Grandpa flew a spitfire in the war, and walked away from 7 plane crashes. 8 if you include the plane just back from repairs he refused to fly. He had a dream it was going to crash at the end of the runway. It did, and his friend that was flying it was killed.

I was probably 7 years old when he told me to always sit as far back as you can... even if it's noisy sitting with the engines.  Airplanes, he said usually crash nose first.

Besides, I have checked luggage. No matter how fast we deplane I'll probably have to wait. I'm not in that big of a hurry.

What is it with 4am?!?!

Apparently I think better when I'm unconscious.

I'm a pretty deep sleeper, so I was already staggering into the living room as I re-gained consciousness... I was vaguely aware of standing there scratching my head trying to figure out what all the racket was, and why it was coming from the corner of the room... my hot water heater was sounding like an idling diesel truck with a bent muffler.

*blinks*

I pulled the cover off... tried to look at it with my eyes closed, then stumbled over to the wall and turned the thermostat all the way down. Silence, even relative silence is golden. I stumbled back to bed, and upon checking how much longer I had to sleep found it was 4am... you have got to be kidding me *sigh* it's gonna be a no-shower double coffee kind of day, I can tell already.

The funny part though was talking to my roommate as he was thinking he should have hauled himself out of bed, because it had occurred to him that I might have just killed all the breakers in the apartment.

I had to admit that it hadn't even occurred to me... although I'm not exactly sure how I thought of the thermostat either.

This is not a test... this is a test

I'm sure this wasn't sent to test my intelligence, but here is an excerpt from an email I received this afternoon...

Now I ask you, how would I know to respond that I didn't receive this email... if I hadn't received this email?!?! Of course I replied to that effect, violating the 'Please do not reply...' *shrugs*

Lol I've recently been informed that the smiley face at the end is acknowledgement of the ridiculousness of the preceding statement. Teach me to make fun of things ;)

Actually it reminds me of highschool, they were having trouble with the PA system and made a similar announcement... "If you can't hear the announcement over the PA system, please send a runner down to the office". *shakes head* Yes, these are the people teaching your children... sometimes I wonder if the kids are alright ;)

+10 pts Me!

I picked out the red AND the green buoy from the myriad of background city lights, that marked the entrance to Marina Del Rey. Ooohhh yeah!

Avoidance Reasoning

"There's no point in my getting my rain gear wet since yours is already wet... Sooo why don't you go tie down the sail cover? Oh, and while you're out there check that the anchor line isn't chaffing".

*Mmmmhhmmmmm* I damn near blew away! My hood blew off on my way to check the anchor line... and this is about 30 seconds of wet. It was so crazy, like standing at the front of the ferry in a storm crazy!

White and Nerdy

09.27.2010

Trying to get the GPS info tied into our radio modem email awesomeness, and I've been having a heck of time not getting it working. The Captain just double checked and somewhere in the 12 foot run of cable he swapped the red wire, for the black wire... *smiles* you're shocked I know, but now we've got it up and running we should start to show up on the Winlink site under Dad's call-sign VA7 DGV ... AND the lat and long should show up each time I post to my blog via email *happy dance*

B to the fricken 'er

The temperature of my trailer is registering at fricken freezing! I'm so programming in my foul weather gear right now ;o)

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" ~Norse Proverb

Muahahaha

Me: 1

wiki: 0

My ingrained tag/bracket matching skills totally just kicked ass.

I fixed a problem in 2min that the previous fixer attempter spent 2 hours on... w00t!

That's right bitches I went to school for 5 years for this, and although it may not always show through, 2 min vs 2 hours is pretty damn good.

So how do you like them apples?!?

*touchdown dance*

"That's what makes you that guy"

So last night I'm driving home, thinking how nice it will be to crawl into bed and crash... when I come around the corner, and realize that there is a small brush fire on the side of the road!

I stop. Flick my hazards on jump out and decide that it is larger than my trusty flip flops can stomp out safely. Now at this point in time something in my brain kicks into overdrive. There is a bit of a strong wind, and the fire is growing, and blowing towards a large field... I don't have my cell phone (the one time in 200,000) and I definitely don't have time to drive to the nearest phone and report it and that's when I remember that I carry a fire extinguisher in the trunk.


(That's my flip flop at a whopping size 10 for comparison)

Bless the man who gave me a fire extinguisher with my first car, affectionately known as Bessie (the Multi) and now referred to as "The Multi didn't make it". The idea was that if my '87 Multi caught on fire I would have it. Yes Dad, that's you I'm talking about. I don't know how many times that thing got tossed from one side of the trunk to the other, and then made the transfer into the new Fit. But I've been lugging that thing around for darn near 6 years now... and I have to say, I'm recommending that everyone I know carry one, they're relatively small, light... and can be a lifesaver cause when those things come in handy they are TOTALLY worth their weight in gold!

Needless to say it was more than a little scary thinking about what *could* have happened if I hadn't driven by when I did. With the massive evacuations due to the fires in Kelowna it was a sharp reminder of how quickly something like that can get out of control.

From the lips of the four year old...

After repeatedly being told to use "Nona" eyes instead of "boy" eyes, the following conversation occured one day out at the cabin.

4 year old: "Nona, can I borrow your Nona eyes?"

Nona: "Of course, what are looking for?"

4 year old: "Well if I was looking for my bike... Where would I start?"