Where is Dave?

I have been running around getting parts and fluid for the brake
job, but the mechanic is nowhere to be found.

I hope we can get this resolved before thursday.

Toying with the idea of getting Pesto a playmate, the only thing
that is holding me back is the extra cleaning and the extra food.
Immediately doubling my food purchases and kitty litter
purchases does not sound good.

The problem is, i think Pesto is depressed, she sleeps in the
same spot most of the day, only gets up to go to the bathroom
and eat.  I had a laser pointer which i used to get her to chase
around.  I actually got her to play 'Fetch' on a few occasions.
'Fetch' was cool, i would throw a wadded up paper bag and she
would chase it and bring it back and drop it in my shoe,  I
would pick it up and repeat the exercise.  It was hillarious.

So, everybody think good thoughts!  Let's get this Brake work
done.  I am dreaming of a firm brake pedal.  Thanks Dave!

Thanksgiving bonanza

Ah, yes, the post turkey glow is upon me.  Had dark meat turkey with
cornbread stuffing, and cranberry sauce that's it, except for desert.
For desert 2 brownies and a slice of apple pie.

There was an excellent prayer, prayed by the leader of the church I
think.

The quantity of food was outrageous.  There may have been over
100 people present.  The cook insisted that we take 2 boxes of food
each when we left. I got a wing and a bunch of dark meat, didn't get
any stuffing or any mashed potatoes to take home.  That's right all
i ate was turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce, and of course the desert.
For some reason my gut told me to stay away from the gravy.  I don't
know it was probably fine, but the cornbread stuffing was delightful
all by its self.  I think i ate pretty rationally today.

Getting along twards Winter

Ah, hey,

Cam is going to work surveying in west australia.  Scott is busy with his
telecommunications in Texas.  Jocelyn is getting ready to move to
Oklahoma.  Gloria is having a Thanksgiving Dinner at her place.  I don't
know what my Dad is doing for thanksgiving.

Vicki and i will probably eat early on Thursday, i just hope that the
turkey has been cooked all the way through.  I'll try for my favorite a
wing and a few slices of dark meat.  I usually give everything a pretty
good dousing with gravy.  I have a lot of canned peas, was thinking i
could make green peas with pearl onions, and maybe bacon.

Wasn't able to get the car worked on this month, have to shoot for
next month.

Pesto still has a tumor on her right arm/paw/hand, it looks like an extra
toe, but it's not.  I hope it is really benign cuz having it excised would
prove costly.

anyway there's a quick November post.

Farm Town on Facebook

I'm getting a little bored with Farm Town on Facebook.  It seems all
one does there is make money and buy stuff.  I guess i should be
working on making it all look attractive and symetrical, but that just
doesn't tickle my fancy.

Now that i have several million in Farm Cash, I can buy just about
anything i want.  The only exception being the green money stuff.
I don't know how one aquires green money, it just magically
appears and there's never enough of it.  Green money is mostly
derived of people actually paying real cash into the game.

That seems just a little silly, so without putting your own money
into the game you can get about 1/2 of everything, everything you
can buy with your farm cash, has an equal that you can buy with
green cash.

I have planted tea, coffee, cocoa, pineapple, rice, rosemary,
oranges, cows, chickens, olives, lemons, and it's the same old
ordeal you plant, harvest, store, plow, go fishing.  Build new
shops, cut down trees, and the only reward is buying stuff.
Yes, you can compare with other people, but they all invest more
time and have more elaborate farm setups than you do.

I think i get more out of RSS than playing Farm Town on
Facebook, at least i learn something when i RSS. /rant

The Avenue

Today, Vicki and I went out to do some errands. First stop Carl's Jr.
so i could get some lunch. Then Micheals (art supply megastore),
Friedmans another megastore, hardware this time and Trader Joes.
Finally we ended up at Safeway north of town on Mendocino.
Traffic was kinda heavy we fell into a groove, hit a few yellow lights,
stopped for a few, blew thru a few more.

Vicki got a clear 18" ruler to help her with perspective in her art.
I had the Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Then at Safeway,
I picked up 2 loafs of wheat bread, some mayo, some virginia baked
ham, some milk and a few other things.

The Buick is still doing okay.  I think it's looking forward to a tuneup.
Any tampering with the timing might affect the smog inspection.  So,
if Dave brings out the timing light i'll discuss it with him and let him
know of my concerns.  I'll be flexible.

The tuneup kit consists of wires, plugs, fuel filter, rotor, cap, and pcv
valve and i think that's it.  I think it'll set me back $ 70.00 for the
parts. I might be able to get a discount from Dave's friend at the
parts house.  So, i'll check into that definitely.

Oh, I missed NBLUG this month, it was good too!  Kyle was giving
a talk on Ethernet Bonding.  This is good failover/redundancy in case
you have a net failure and it's physical, and it's local.  Basically from
my understanding it's 2 NICs per client.  There may be a lot more
to it than that.  I really shouldn't have missed it.

As far as the blog it's coming along, who wants to read all this
personal stuff?  It's a relaxing thing for me to do, to sit down and
jot a few lines about the last week, or the last day, or in this case
the last month :/


-marcus

Time for a tuneup

Dave my buddy came thru big time today.  He replaced about 6 cracked
and leaky vacuum hoses.  Vicki and i went over there this afternoon.  I
keep on getting lost when i go there.  It's on a long road with relatively few
landmarks.  Lucky for me there's a business next door that has a side of
the road display.  I noted a couple of landmarks this time to make it easier
to spot the place next time.

Dave suggested a full tuneup.  That sounds like a good plan to me.  It has
been running a little rough.  Vicki priced that on the phone this evening, it'll
total out at $ 70.00 for all the parts, then add about $ 40 in labor and it should
be done.

I also have a desire to get the side windows tinted with a reflective film.
It makes the car less hot on the hotter days.

Finally, Charles (WD6DTK) suggested i sneak in a tank full of medium grade
gas. I've been giving it exclusively premium grade, because of a knock that
was occuring when i used a lower grade.

g'night

The difference between chopped ham and smoked ham.

At the store, in an economical mood, i went to the deli case.  I bought some ham for sandwiches.  Chopped ham is $ 3.99 a pound, that's a pretty good price.  Smoked ham is
$ 6.99 a pound, which is also a good price.  You see, chopped ham is kind of like ham
hamburger, and smoked ham is kinda like ham steak.

So, i enjoyed my sandwiches anyway, why let a little thing like the difference between ham steak and ham hamburger affect the joy i feel when i'm devouring bread, meat and cheese.

On another note, Pesto seems to have developed a tumor.  I blame the anti worm medicine i gave her, it's poison, it would just make sense that it caused a tumor. It's on her right wrist and it's currently about the size of a dime only it's a sphere.  oh no, i'm missing the net.

ttyl.

-marcus

Well, i have a lot of ramen in the house

That's right, i've stocked up on ramen and stir fry veggies and beef.  Ramen is kinda salty and it is kinda filling.

Pesto has taken to hiding under the bed these days, i don't know what's wrong with her. She comes out when i call her, so maybe she just likes the solitude.  I feel rather guilty that i never picked up a second cat to keep her company.  I don't know how she would react to a new friend at this point.  She's getting older and more stubborn

Talked to a mechanic about the vacuum lines on the Buick, he said he was pretty sure he could get it done in under an hour.  He gets $ 90.00 an hour

I missed out on skiing this year.  Nothing like shusshing down the slopes on a pair of skiis.  That's real fun.  I could sign up at the ski store for a skiing expedition,  take a bus with a bunch of other people and stay in a hotel.

Oh, Mark P. was out at Goat Rock on Thursday of this week, he said the water was like glass and there was no wind at all.  On another note he tuned up my old Tempo 20/20 and worked Chile at 50 watts, so it's good to know that that old radio still has some umph to it.

ok, g'night folks

Rice a Roni the San Francisco treat

I Stocked up on rice a roni.  I've been eating it pretty regularly.
I'm using 1/2 the spice packet and a couple of Tablespoons of
Soy Sauce.  It's less salty that way.

Took the Buick through the car wash, the automatic kind.
It missed a few spots, so i know what to do next time.  They
provide a brush on a long handle and a bucket of soapy
water.  The guy before in line did that.

I made a note on the calendar to give Pesto wormer in
two weeks.  That date is coming up soon.

Tomorrow I'll see the Nurse for blood pressure measuring
pulse rate and weighing on a scale.  Prior to that I'll stop at
Sutter for a CBC

Vicki and i walked a bit today.  She's still having problems
with her foot. I wish it would just heal :-(

Bye for now

Don't you hate when that happens?

I had a nice post all typed up and i hit the wrong button and bam!
It was all gone.

Today we went to the Wellness and Advocacy Center and picked
Swiss Chard.  Faced with a choice of either boil the chard or fry
it.  I chose to fry it.  I fried it in peanut oil and added a tablespoon
of Apple Cider Vinegar and some hand cracked pepper for flavor.

I took Vicki out to Rite Aid and she bought me an ice cream cone.
They even had my favorite flavor.  Mocha Almond Fudge.  We
also stopped at Safeway.

I found Silver Swan Soy Sauce at Lucky's Market.  Silver Swan was
recommended by a Filipino friend.  It comes in a larger container and
it is cheaper than a smaller bottle of Kikkoman Brand.

Later, on the way to Food Group, we stopped at Carl's Jr.  I bought
a Western Bacon Cheeseburger.  That is 1/4 LB of USDA beef
flame broiled with 2 strips of bacon, a slice of american cheese,
BBQ Sauce and 2 crunchy onion rings.  It's my favorite burger of
all time and it's been around more than 25 years.

A day with an ice cream cone and a western bacon cheeseburger
is quite a day indeed.

G'night diary

 

Lackadaisical about Ham Radio and other stuff too.

Got back on Ham Radio yesterday (Sunday) after not being on for 5 days.
Talked to Alan and the bunch on 145.190 and the Sunday night net.
Everybody was doing okay.

Been kinda lackadaisical about reading my RSS also.  Make Magazine and
Hack a Day, both seemed really boring.  Now i'm on Slashdot Hardware.
It looks boring too.

Oh, applied for a job today and i may get hired.  Met the owner of the shop,
and he said he might take me on for some part time work.   So, that kinda
made my day.

Been walking with Vicki the last few days.  We're working up to 3 miles
again.  Need to start out kinda slow, but we'll be back on the beat in no
time.

That's all for Monday night.  Cheers.

Adding motor oil to my buick

I bought motor oil at Kragen on Tuesday.  I added it to the vehicle on Thursday.  

That was yesterday.  It is now 12:52 pm, i guess i could say that that was 
yesterday.  I opened the first quart and bumped it over and spilled nearly 1/2
of it on the radiator fan.  This turned out okay cause two quarts was a little much 
anyway.  

Vicki received Microsoft Word 2007 in the mail today.  So, after food group I 
installed it for her.  I swear that package was the most difficult to open package i 
have ever encountered.  .I actually Googled "Opening Microsoft Word Packaging", 

but didn't find anything.  Finally Vicki just used brute force to get it open.  This is 
something i was afraid to do, but we did get  it open.  Then we had a little trouble 
getting Open Office files to open with MS Word.  She has had some training on 
MS Word and  that is what she likes and that is what she wants to use.  Open 
Office was just a kludge to work until she got MS Word.

I took a picture of Vicki with her cell phone today.  Tomorrow i'll email it to myself.

Then I'll edit it and email it to her.  Kinda neat that the phone has a camera 

built in, but i guess they all do now.  It has an fm radio built in too.  I need 

to get some cheap ear buds so she can listen to the radio when we walk. 


Oh, oh oh oh...  The good news.  Vicki's Doctor says she can walk again.  I 
mean fitness walking a couple of miles at a go.  Ever since she got that infection 
on her toe the  Dr.  has limited her recreational walking.  So that is very good 
news.

Anyway, that's it for today.  Tomorrow is commodities.  That is a food program 

for the people here in the building.  I have to be up early to get in line. 

goodnight

Marine Biologists using Linux

Tonight was the NBLUG meeting for August.  Featured was a Sys Admin
from the Marine Biology Lab in Santa Cruz.  I liked the talk, it worked it's
way around to programming languages, and all I can say is everybody has
good things to say about Python.  They went into some stuff i don't really
understand concerning  integers and various other programming lingo.

On the way to O'Reilly I stopped at Kragen Auto and picked up a few quarts
of Motor Oil, I'll probably add that tomorrow morning.  Thinking about
grabbing Vicki and heading out to Corrine Camp Wellness and Advocacy
center for some more computer training.

Oh, and i did go to Pet Co and pick up some wormer for Pesto.  I have a
can of squishy food for her that i can mix the worm poison into.  I should
do that tomorrow at breakfast, that's 4:30 AM.

Getting in touch with Dave.

I've been trying to get in touch with Dave for weeks.  I've left many messages,
with my home phone number.  Now i'm thinking that the distributor should be
looked at, along with the automatic transmission fluid.

I'll have to check the oil and water here pretty soon.  The Buick has been reliable,
and i just noticed that I've had it for 6 years, that's a long time even for good friends
like us.  We stopped for gas Friday night and Vicki washed the windows with
the squeegee.  I swear I  think it was the first time she had ever done that.

Wellness and Advocacy Center

I went through a quick tutorial on excel on the centers network.  The guy there
seems real nice.  I learned how to enter data into cells and to adjust the size of
the cells.  Then I sat out in the sun for a bit, ate some fresh raspberries, and
listened to some good music.  Wednesday is music day there.

So, tomorrow Mark and I are going to go on an expedition.  I don't know where
yet, but i'll definitely need to get some sleep tonight.  We might go to Bullfrog
Pond or we may go to Goat Rock Beach.  It's probably pretty foggy out at the
coast.

I'll let you know tomorrow.

Footnote:  Mark was busy on Thursday, but he did buy a Deep Cycle battery
on Saturday.  That's a big step in the right direction.

Oh and P.S.  NBLUG is on Tuesday this coming week so i'll be there.

Automobile Registration

On Friday I put the registration sticker on the license plate, i cross hatched it with a
sheetrock knife.  Last time before, last they just stole the whole license plate and it
cost me money at the DMV to replace the license plate, those dastardly rascals.

I'm thinking about having the car washed, it's all dirty and such.  Maybe i'll go to a
gas station that has a car wash built in and run it through that.  Still need some
vacuuming on the interior as well.

Good day on Farm Town, i harvested coffee and strawberries, strawberries for
yogurt and coffee for the grinder.  It all works out to the good when you sell stuff.
I guess if i had to recommend a game, i would recommend 'Farm Town' on Facebook
simply because i play it and i like it.

Monday early in the morning

Trying to listen to Coast to Coast AM tonight, and the station just looped commercials, they do this a couple of times a year.  I tried to call the station but there are no real flesh and blood people working in the station at this time of night.

It's 4:00 AM I'll feed the cat in 1/2 hour, and give Dave a call at 7:00, maybe in the mean time i'll catch some winks in the chair.

Tina and Gloria are probably in Maui by now.  Hope they are enjoying the weather and the tropics.  So for now i'll wrap it up here on the Blog.  Maybe let you know what's happening tomorrow.

Pesto's Picassa

Vicki's home made cookies

I got two bags of cookie powder at commodities, and took one over to Vicki's place, she baked them up and boy were they good.  Basically a butter cookie with M and Ms for chocolate chips.  I had 2 bags so I gave her one to keep for herself.

 I am pretty tired after not sleeping all night, i think i'll take a nap soon.  I didn't even finish listening to Coast to Coast AM last night my ADD was acting up big time.  That's one of the reasons why I started this Blog, for some creative output.

Well, about food and my weight, i'm still hovering around 215 maybe a little less, eating a lot less compulsively these days.  Been thinking about what i'm going to eat and so on.

The Drowned Rat

A couple of weeks ago i put Pesto (my cat) in the bathtub, after some fussing she settled down and let me scrub her.  I got one good scratch but all in all it went well and i would repeat the process again.  I think the funniest thing was, i was able to towel most of her off, with the exception of her tail, hence the nickname the drowned rat.

got up at 4:00 AM today, August 1 or 2, not sure, but it's definitely sunday...

I know i'm going to wish i had slept later, but for now, i'm just working on the blog.

Return of the dog groomer

Hi All, here we are at Blog 101, I read about Kathleen giving her dog a haircut today.
She said it didn't go too well, i wish i still had a number for Tim the Dog Groomer.
I would have referred her to him.  Maybe i'll look him up in the Yellow Pages