Backyard Stuff
Charlie caught a mouse and tried to bring it in the house... it was still sort of alive. 
Eating potatoes and sweet corn from the garden.
Eating potatoes and sweet corn from the garden.
8/31/2010
8/19/2010
Work Trip to Denver, Reno and LA
This was as good as a work trip can get, 4 days 7 flights in 3 cities, Denver, Reno and Rancho Cucamonga California (yes i know it's a funny name). Denver was 95 degrees but the mountains and downtown were fun to see. Here's a walkway crossing over to downtown Denver.
In Reno i stayed downtown so at night i walked around the streets and the casino's.
In the morning after work i took the rental car up the mountains a few thousand feet and had a great view of the city below.
Reno can best be summed up as a Mini Las Vegas. Instead of lots of people there's only a few hundred, instead of lots of casino's there's only about 3, instead of a main street that takes forever to walk down, the street's only a couple of blocks. But there was the same number of old fat people riding around on those motorized scooters.
The only betting i did was put $10 on MSU and the Lions to win their first games. MSU ended up winning by 24 points. We'll see how the lions first game goes.
Next i flew over part of the Grand Canyon to Phoenix Arizona. It was a really clear day and i could see for at least a hundred miles.
Downtown Phoenix
That flight was great until we hit some turbulence before landing and the lady behind me "filled up" at least 2 barf bags. Once again my lack of a sense of smell payed off.
I had a 2 hour lay-over then flew to California. The next day they said the high temp was 107 although the whole day my car said it was 120 outside.
After working i had a few hours to kill until my 11pm flight home. I tried to go for a hike in the mountains. After about a quarter mile i realized that walking up hills when it's 110 degrees and sunny isn't a good idea, so i went back. It felt like i was breathing into a hair dryer on high. So i drove around some more, saw all the smog people talk about in California and realized how much i hate doing their mandatory U-turns at lights. I prefer "Michigan Left's."
But then i sat in the airport for a few hours, flew to Atlanta, had a 2 hour lay-over, then flew home and arrived at 9:30am the next morning. Except for the sitting around at airport terminals it was kind of fun.
In Reno i stayed downtown so at night i walked around the streets and the casino's.
In the morning after work i took the rental car up the mountains a few thousand feet and had a great view of the city below.
Reno can best be summed up as a Mini Las Vegas. Instead of lots of people there's only a few hundred, instead of lots of casino's there's only about 3, instead of a main street that takes forever to walk down, the street's only a couple of blocks. But there was the same number of old fat people riding around on those motorized scooters.
The only betting i did was put $10 on MSU and the Lions to win their first games. MSU ended up winning by 24 points. We'll see how the lions first game goes.
Next i flew over part of the Grand Canyon to Phoenix Arizona. It was a really clear day and i could see for at least a hundred miles.
Downtown Phoenix
That flight was great until we hit some turbulence before landing and the lady behind me "filled up" at least 2 barf bags. Once again my lack of a sense of smell payed off.
I had a 2 hour lay-over then flew to California. The next day they said the high temp was 107 although the whole day my car said it was 120 outside.
After working i had a few hours to kill until my 11pm flight home. I tried to go for a hike in the mountains. After about a quarter mile i realized that walking up hills when it's 110 degrees and sunny isn't a good idea, so i went back. It felt like i was breathing into a hair dryer on high. So i drove around some more, saw all the smog people talk about in California and realized how much i hate doing their mandatory U-turns at lights. I prefer "Michigan Left's."
But then i sat in the airport for a few hours, flew to Atlanta, had a 2 hour lay-over, then flew home and arrived at 9:30am the next morning. Except for the sitting around at airport terminals it was kind of fun.
8/12/2010
Random Pictures from 2010
I didn't feel like creating separate post for all of these so i just put them all together. They are some of the random things i've done in the past few months.
This was a smoke stack at one of the GM plants i visited last month. It was either in Dallas or Kansas City, i can't remember.
Waiting to fly home in the rain.
Truck frames at one of the GM assembly plants.
Good luck guessing what book this is. Although if you know me you probably have a good chance at guessing it. Katie will probably know since it's her book that i borrowed.
Unfortunately some animal has been eating the tops of almost all my sunflowers. I started with 20 and i'm down to 4. It is not going to end happily for one of us.
Tigers game
Fireworks afterwords
Washing the cars and watering the driveway
Somebody's cookin' chicken
Grandma and Jack
Some pictures from the Toledo Zoo.
No those weren't my footprints, honest.
This lady didn't see that part of the road was missing. She was too focused on that Big Mac.
Just trying to fit in at the LA Dodgers game.
Before going on the Price is Right they take your picture in front of this green screen where you can select different backgrounds. They give you a card then try to get you to buy the picture afterwords. I just saved the proof from the site. Now John and I didn't see a lot of other dudes going up there and i didn't really want to go. It was weird. But whatever, glad i did.
This was a smoke stack at one of the GM plants i visited last month. It was either in Dallas or Kansas City, i can't remember.
Waiting to fly home in the rain.
Truck frames at one of the GM assembly plants.
Good luck guessing what book this is. Although if you know me you probably have a good chance at guessing it. Katie will probably know since it's her book that i borrowed.
Unfortunately some animal has been eating the tops of almost all my sunflowers. I started with 20 and i'm down to 4. It is not going to end happily for one of us.
Tigers game
Fireworks afterwords
Washing the cars and watering the driveway
Somebody's cookin' chicken
Grandma and Jack
Some pictures from the Toledo Zoo.
No those weren't my footprints, honest.
This lady didn't see that part of the road was missing. She was too focused on that Big Mac.
Just trying to fit in at the LA Dodgers game.
Before going on the Price is Right they take your picture in front of this green screen where you can select different backgrounds. They give you a card then try to get you to buy the picture afterwords. I just saved the proof from the site. Now John and I didn't see a lot of other dudes going up there and i didn't really want to go. It was weird. But whatever, glad i did.
Bored at Home
A while ago i made a stand to hang bananas. As usual i looked at a whole bunch of different versions and didn't like them. So i made this. The base tube is PVC and the arm and hook is aluminum.
I also bought a crock pot a while back and i've used it a few times. This was corned beef brisket with 2 soups and lots of vegetables, oh and as much garlic as Emeril would use.
So far i've done beef, chicken and pork. The beef brisket was the best. Next i'm going to try just adding ribs and barbecue sauce. I've heard it's great.
I also bought a crock pot a while back and i've used it a few times. This was corned beef brisket with 2 soups and lots of vegetables, oh and as much garlic as Emeril would use.
So far i've done beef, chicken and pork. The beef brisket was the best. Next i'm going to try just adding ribs and barbecue sauce. I've heard it's great.Kitchen Counter
I was thinking about building a counter between my kitchen and living room. To see how it would look and if i would like it i tried it out an old counter on some milk crates.
Then before i went camping i went with my sister to the Haworth outlet/reject store and got a counter top for $9. The store is really cool, the kind of place where you never know what you'll find. And everything's super cheap.
I traced the wall shape onto a piece of cardboard, copied it onto the counter and then cut it out.
I mounted the counter, which is really heavy, to the wall using some metal brackets. Then made the leg and foot rest from PVC pipe. I'm still debating whether i'll keep it. If i do i'll paint the PVC some kind of brown color.
Then before i went camping i went with my sister to the Haworth outlet/reject store and got a counter top for $9. The store is really cool, the kind of place where you never know what you'll find. And everything's super cheap.
I traced the wall shape onto a piece of cardboard, copied it onto the counter and then cut it out.
I mounted the counter, which is really heavy, to the wall using some metal brackets. Then made the leg and foot rest from PVC pipe. I'm still debating whether i'll keep it. If i do i'll paint the PVC some kind of brown color.
Movie Review - 3.5
I've been slacking with the reviews but now there's 2 that i think are really good and worth writing about. Earlier i wrote about Inception which is still by far the best movie i've seen this year.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
First off, it's not what you think. From the title i thought it was going to be some teen girl movie starring Hanna Montanan or something. Ooooohhh but it wasn't. It was based on a best selling book by Stieg Larssons. Who i'm guessing is from Sweeden because that's what language the movie was in. You have to watch it with subtitles. It's more then two and a half hours long and the first half of the movie made me feel very uncomfortable. It was weird. They showed stuff you don't normally see in movies from the USA. It's about a 40 year old movie that the two main characters are trying to solve. It's really well thought out and easy to get drawing in to the very in-depth story and characters.
Great movie, but still creepy and uncomfortably weird, 8 out of 10.
The Book of Eli
Simply put, it's Mad Max, except replace gasoline with a "special book." And replace Mel Gibson with Denzel Washington. And there's this annoying girl that follows him around. But other than that it's basically the same. Even though the entire movie was this sort of grayish color, visually it was awesome. The story was cool too, except for the annoying girl. And, at least for me, there was a huge twist at the end that i didn't see coming.
Looked cool, the action was good, the story was ok, i'd watch it again, 7 out of 10.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
First off, it's not what you think. From the title i thought it was going to be some teen girl movie starring Hanna Montanan or something. Ooooohhh but it wasn't. It was based on a best selling book by Stieg Larssons. Who i'm guessing is from Sweeden because that's what language the movie was in. You have to watch it with subtitles. It's more then two and a half hours long and the first half of the movie made me feel very uncomfortable. It was weird. They showed stuff you don't normally see in movies from the USA. It's about a 40 year old movie that the two main characters are trying to solve. It's really well thought out and easy to get drawing in to the very in-depth story and characters.
Great movie, but still creepy and uncomfortably weird, 8 out of 10.
The Book of Eli
Simply put, it's Mad Max, except replace gasoline with a "special book." And replace Mel Gibson with Denzel Washington. And there's this annoying girl that follows him around. But other than that it's basically the same. Even though the entire movie was this sort of grayish color, visually it was awesome. The story was cool too, except for the annoying girl. And, at least for me, there was a huge twist at the end that i didn't see coming.
Looked cool, the action was good, the story was ok, i'd watch it again, 7 out of 10.
Halfway Garden
The backyard garden halfway through the season.
Here's what it looked like just after planting. I put the grass clippings down so no seeds would wash away. I also used Preen to help control the weeds. That and grass mulch worked pretty well.
View from the roof while i was up cleaning the gutters and trimming the tree branches.
The beans, cucumber and potatoes grew the fastest.
Again this year, the only thing i really care whether or not it grows, is corn. I planted three rows and it's doing ok. The shade from the tree isn't helping. Then i also found out afterwords that i should have soaked the seeds for 24 hours the day before to help it start germinating.
I also planted some corn along the side of the garage. A couple of them are doing great.
String for the 4 different types of tomato plants
The bamboo shoots came up earlier in the year. Now all of the their energy is going into their roots, which are really starting to spread.
Here's what it looked like just after planting. I put the grass clippings down so no seeds would wash away. I also used Preen to help control the weeds. That and grass mulch worked pretty well.
View from the roof while i was up cleaning the gutters and trimming the tree branches.
The beans, cucumber and potatoes grew the fastest.
Again this year, the only thing i really care whether or not it grows, is corn. I planted three rows and it's doing ok. The shade from the tree isn't helping. Then i also found out afterwords that i should have soaked the seeds for 24 hours the day before to help it start germinating.
I also planted some corn along the side of the garage. A couple of them are doing great.
String for the 4 different types of tomato plants
The bamboo shoots came up earlier in the year. Now all of the their energy is going into their roots, which are really starting to spread.
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