Garden Project Done!

So the weather didn't really cooperate this weekend, but we got the new gardens built anyway. 50 landscape timbers and 5 pallets of dirt later we have effectively quadrupled the amount of garden space we have. This year should be a real boon to our food pocketbook.

I figure I had close to 300 bags of dirt at 40 pounds each. Plus I lifted each bag 2 times, once from the pallet to the cart and then again from the cart to the garden. Add that up, and yep I lifted around 24,000 pounds by myself all in one day. Needless to say I was a little beat yesterday. Luckily I had thought forward enough to have requested to be off work Monday.

Anyway, Audra and I sat down yesterday and mapped out the garden spaces and what we will be growing where. Even if we only have a decent growth year, we will have lots and lots to put away for the future. I am really excited, as you all know, we both really love to tend to the garden and this year it will be a real job.

Don't do it Mike!!!

Last year Mike Atwood had surgery on one of his knees, after which he was as spry as a spring chicken. This surgery enabled him to improve his quality life and to yet again partake in some of life's rewarding adventures. This continued pursuit of his passions, namely bike riding, went on for a great many months, until, recently, it was discovered that his other knee had possibly the same flaw, and may also require this life altering surgery.

Now, it is perfectly normal for our bodies to start to fall apart as we grow into our advanced years. However, for someone to be falling apart so quickly is a downright mystery. Could it be all of those years of abusing his body by filling it with sugary caffeinated beverages?

Coke addiction is by far one of the worst travesties a person can wreak upon his/her own body. In Mike's case this craving has always been an unquenchable thirst. His body yearning for the instant gratification, the rush, the ecstacy of sugar and caffeine shooting through his veins.

Apparently all of this has taken it's toll on Mike. I have recently been made aware that Mike is now on a mission to drown himself from the inside out by self-administering a daily dose of water so large as to be nearly incomprehensible to the Human mind. It is my understanding that Mike has committed to not only giving up the Coke, but to replacing it with approximately 64 ounces of water every day. As we all know this is insane, and utterly impossible. This feat would be equal to drinking 8 full glasses of water, and Mike proposes to do this to himself every single day.

I know, I am not alone in my concern for Mike regarding this. I have tried in earnest and with all of my "friend powers" to dissuade him from this course of action. However, it seems that no amount of expressed concern, no amount of warning about hyponatremia will deter him.

If you are a friend of Mike, or even if you just care about all living things (including hippopotami and sea urchins), please join me in helping Mike feel like life is still worth living, and that water poisoning is not an option. Show him that you care and want him to go on living by visiting his blog at http://www.ridehorsey.blogspot.com/
and leaving a comment for him.

Thanks you everyone, we may have just saved his life.

290,000 miles and counting

The Tempo turned 290,000 miles old on Tuesday. It's hard to believe that I've had her for 14 years. She still runs fantastic and gets me 28+ MPG's. I just keep taking care of her and she keeps taking care of me.

On another note, we are 12 days, 2 hours, and 40 minutes from Opening day. Go Cardinals.

I miss my girls, and so does Sawyer. Whenever Jillian isn't here he just kinda mopes around the house. This morning he came up and wanted me to pet him, that's how desperate he was. He never wants love from me. Oh well, they'll be back soon and I have lots to keep myself busy with.

This weekend I am building 2 more above ground gardens. I ordered up 50 landscape timbers and 4 pallets of top soil from the depot. It's all being delivered tomorrow and I suppose I'l be awful damn sore next week. But it's gotta be done, and I have a feeling we'll really enjoy having all the extra crops. The garden we have used for the last 2 years will be strictly green beans this year. I'll have 8 tomato plants all hanging from the top of the deck. I'm going to put corn in at the edge of the property, so it won't take up any garden space. Lettuce is going in the tub at the end of the "bean" garden.

That leaves the other two gardens for squash, potatoes, onions, turnips, beets, cabbage, peppers etc.

It's raining here today, and is predicted to rain all weekend. Hopefully we get a break so I can build this stuff.

I almost forgot to mention that the strawberries are coming back to life and starting to spread into the new area we gave them last fall. Hopefully that will almost double the crop we get from them this year.

Between canning, freezing, and dehydrating, we should be in good shape this year.

Spring Break

This week is spring break for the kids, so they will be gone to Illinois all week. Whatever shall Audra and I do without them .............................???

So Jillian's camping trip got cancelled and she was pretty upset about it. That meant that we got to have Saturday night and most of Sunday together. I had a really good time with her. We didn't really do anything that special, just kinda hung out and did some errands. We did watch The Princess Bride Saturday night and went to Home Depot on Sunday. She is a cool kid...and I do Love her a lot. I hope she knows that.

Help PLEASE!!!!!

So this is apparently camping weekend for the Girl Scouts. Jillian is leaving tonight and Audra is going tomorrow with Miri. They won't be back until Sunday night. So I have the house to myself Saturday night. What's really funny is that I will probably be in bed by like 10pm. I know, I'm getting old. Plus I need my beauty sleep.

On another note, report cards came out yesterday. Miri is very close to straight A's. She has 2 classes that are just a hair under A's. I am very proud of her.

As you recall, Jillian has been struggling with school this year and so far we have been unable to figure it out. After here last report card we were told that if things don't improve she will be repeating the 6th grade. Well yesterdays report card was accompanied by a letter from the school. Yeah, not good. Not only did she NOT improve her grades, but several of them actually went down. I cannot tell you how this makes me feel. She expected us to be angry with her, but I only feel severe disappointment.

Apparently if she only actually fails one class then she would be eligible to attend summer school. If she passed summer school then she would be able to stay with the rest of her current class.

If she fails more than one class however, she would be automatically held back with no option for summer school.

Guys, I really have no idea what else we can do for her at this point. She scores very high on all her tests, and it seems like she understands her schoolwork. As I understand it the issue is completing and handing in homework. Some of it she completes and just "forgets" to hand in, and some of it she just doesn't do.

Could it be that she is just bored with the level of education she is getting? Is it too easy and so she is just disinterested? I don't know. Of course I would choose to believe that's the case, but it could just be a maturity issue.

How do you convey to a nearly 12 year old the importance of at least PASSING in school. She is in serious trouble here and not just by Audra and I, and yet she doesn't seem to understand.

Spring is sooooo close

18 days 2 hours and 34 minutes until Opening Day for Mr. Pujols and his band of crotch scratching manly men in tights. I cannot wait. I got to watch a spring training game last Sunday and have been checking the website everyday. Got the fever...

I had to cut the lawn last night when I got home from work. I am so glad I bought the Husqvarna reel mower last year. It is such a joy to use and gives a fantastic cut. Plus because it's so light, Audra can get a head start on the lawn while I'm still at work. She had all of the front done by the time I got home.

Today I called the Verona Caney Nursery and inquired about topsoil. I will probably build the other two gardens this weekend and have the dirt delivered the next. By then we'll be ready to put out onion sets and lettuce seeds. YEAH!!!

I changed the Subsonic website address

I was able to make it easier to access the Zurliene4 Music Service. So for anyone with an account, now you only have to type:

zurliene4.gotdns.com

into your browser and viola! You no longer need to remember that it's port 8080. If your account no longer works (I had to re-enter them and might have forgotten one or two) or if you need to setup an account just let me know and I'll hook you up.

Admin out...

Started to fill the attic

We started putting things in the attic this weekend. So far we have put all the camping equipment, Christmas and holiday decorations, and lot's of other things up there. I am amazed at how much space is left. It barely looks like we have put anything up there, and yet we have cleaned out most of our walk-in closet already.

On another note, the 1TB SATA drive I ordered on Thursday is being delivered today. I got it at Newegg for $89. I will put it in the HTPC tonight and start dumping all my media to it. I have boxed and stored our CD collection since we don't ever use CD's anymore. And I think I am going to work on doing the same thing with our DVD collection. I'll rip all of them to ISO images and store them on the 1TB drive. The XMBC software reads ISO's just like an actual DVD so no problem there.

I know I'm a geek. I get excited about this stuff...XBMC really is incredible.

Cold and Rainy here this weekend

I was really hoping to get to work in the yard this weekend. I have lots of projects lined up to get ready for the growing season. I am building two more garden areas which will more than triple the amount of garden space we have. I will be utilizing currently unused spaces near the deck, so I won't be intruding into the yard at all. Both spots get full sun, so we're good there. I am building hooks off of one side of the deck where we will be hanging 5-gallon buckets to grow our tomatoes upside down. That way they will not take up any garden space at all.

Audra has all kinds of good ideas about how to lay out the gardens for maximum production, and I guess we will be starting some seeds this weekend.

I can't wait...

Click images for eye pain...really!!!

XBMC, Hulu, and MLB.tv

About 2 weeks ago I purchased the RAM and whatnot that I needed to max out all our machines. So here is where we are now. My main machine - P4 2.8, 2Gb PC3200, 120Gb HDD - Audra's main machine - P4 3.0, 3Gb PC3200, 250Gb SATA HDD - and the HTPC (Home Theater PC) - AMD 3200 64 bit 2.0, 3Gb PC3200, 250Gb SATA, and an ATI Sapphire HD3850. The girls also have a machine, it is a P3 Coppermine 733, 256Mb PC133, 80Gb HDD.

Anyway, We have all been running Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) with absolutely no issues at all. Linux really is great.

Last week, however, I decided to rebuild the HTPC from scratch because I didn't like the way the Linux drivers were controlling the ATI card. So I did a fresh install of XP Pro SP3. The Catalyst drivers are working excellent and the 480P and 1080i feeds are great. So the next step was to install some Media Center software to make the experience that much easier. There is just something that's no fun about using a regular old desktop on a TV. Anyway, after much research I have ended up with XMBC. Let me tell you, it is sweet.

So now not only do I have very user friendly access to all of my media, but, I can also use IE or FF to browse to Hulu and MLB.tv premium. So this year it may be totally possible to kiss goodbye to traditional television. I may be able to get rid of Dish and thus save over $50 per month.

Both Hulu and MLB.tv premium stream in HD, so the quality is great. With Hulu I just have to wait until the next day to watch shows, which I already do anyway. MLB.tv not only streams in HD, but also offers DVR functionality and Archived games as well. I am diggin' it. So this year we'll get to watch all the Cardinal games and more in HD. Go PUJOLS!!!

The Attic Project

Cary and Tonya came down this weekend to visit. Cary is always more than happy to help with projects around the house, so we decided to go ahead with building the attic above the Rec Room. We started by cutting a hole in the ceiling to find out what we were up against. There were several surprises. First was the fact that the space was already insulated. That saved me several hundred dollars I had been fully expecting to spend. Second was that the 2x10 (nice) ceiling joist were spaced a sturdy 16 inches on center. That was a nice surprise and means that we don't have to worry about weight up there. Third, the space was dry and clean, which meant it was ready to be converted to an attic without haveing to clean out critters or debris.

So we went down to the Depot and purchased some pull down aluminum attic stairs and everything we would need to wire up a light and lay a 5/8" OSB floor.

We started the project at around noon and with only one stop for supper, we had it all done and cleaned up by about 9:30pm. We trimmed out the stairs the next morning and it is sweet. Audra is ecstatic to have the storage space.

I figure I added about 350-400 square feet of storage to the house, which means we can now keep the closets and shed much more organized.

I will say that spending all day in a cramped space makes for a sore next couple of days though. I also have to give credit to Cary. At 59 he still stays neck and neck with me on projects, which absolutely amazes me. I tend to get really focused and work myself and him like a dog until the whole thing is done. We probably should have split it up into a 2 day project, but what the hell. I do suspect he'll be sore a couple of days longer that I will though.

5 month beard

As you can see, I have updated my profile picture. That was about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I have to say that the longer it gets the more I like it. In the past I have worn a beard many times, but I would always keep it trimmed short. This is by far the longest I have ever let it get. I am not sure how to explain to someone why I like it so much, it just feels more natural. 5 months is a real accomplishment and I hope to hit what's called the "Year Beard". That is one full year without trimming. I figure at the current rate of growth that by one year it should be about 7-8 inches.

You'll be so proud of me, I just know it. It may be the greatest accomplishment of my life...

Chicks dig it too!!!

Dinovo Mini is a DREAM!!!

I ordered this for my Home Theater PC. I was tired of having a keyboard and mouse always plugged up to it. This thing is fantastic. First of all, it is tiny. Secondly, it's beautiful. And thirdly, it works. A 4 hour charge gives you at least a month of use. Sweet Sweet Sweet. I'm in love.

Snow...and lots of it too.

So we got like 8-9 inches of snow on Saturday night, and by Friday it will be back up to 70 here. Anyway, the kids had a great time playing in it and it's mostly gone by now. The weather has been real up and down this year.