A new dollhouse

I'm building a multi-story Barbie doll house for my daughter that she designed. I assembled the first 3 floors of the house and she is downstairs sanding the edges. This is the first time she;s done a woodworking project so this should be interesting.

86 bottles of wine on the rack

Yum! A good day's bottling. :)

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Teachers protest "horrid working conditions" by boycotting back to school night

Ok, I'm more than a little miffed at the teachers in a nearby school district. They have the nerve to protest "horrid working conditions" by punishing their students and not going to the back to school night. Let me put this into perspective:

average starting salary: 30k salaried

work week: 7:30-3:30 m-f

Days off: every weekend, most holidays and most of the summer, a week at Christmas and Easter Many teachers get summer jobs to supplement their school salary.

Retirement: district paid pension, maybe a 401k on top of this.

Medical, dental, and vision with little or no employee contribution

Many sick and personal days (5-10 a year at the beginning). They usually can roll over from year to year until retirement.

1 week paid vacation to start.

Maximum salary at retirement $125k

Paid lunch

Duties include standing in front of a class for about 1/2 hour at a stretch, with intermingled desk time to do paperwork.

Now to put these horrid conditions in perspective

Typical office worker:

starting salary: $10/hour or less, about 20k a year

work week: 9-5 m-f

Days off: weekends, some holidays. 1 week paid vacation after 1 year of service

Retirement: 401k or IRA. If the employee is lucky the employer matches a portion of their contribution. Many don't.

Medical. Employee pays about 1/2 of their portion and 100% of their spouse and kids. No dental or vision coverage.

2-3 sick/personal days a year. use it or lose it

Maximum salary at retirement: $45k

30-60 minute lunch, may or may not be paid.

Duties include sitting at a desk mostly

Typical retail worker:

starting salary: $7.25/hour (minimum wage)

work week: 4-5 days a week, 30-35 hours typical. Schedule varies from week to week and is usually posted a few days before the week starts so planning vacations, family events is hard to do. Usually has to work most weekends and some holidays such as Thanksiving day, Christmas day, 4th of july. Hours can be anywhere from 7am - 10pm or later.

Annual salary: about $12k

Retirement: maybe an IRA and possible employer match

No medical, dental, or vision plans for part time workers

No sick or vacation time off. You don't work, you don't get paid.

Maximum salary: $30k for a manager

Duties include standing on your feet for your entire shift, lifting heavy boxes, etc.

un-paid 30 minute lunch after 4 hours of work, if you are lucky enough to be scheduled for more than 4 hours that day.

Unemployment (the other 9-10% of the work force)

If you're lucky you qualify for unemployment benefits. If not, you rely on your spouse's pay to cover the bills. If you're really unlucky, you have moved your entire family in with your parents because both you and your spouse are out of work.

So, just how horrid are those union negotiated contracts that the teachers are forced to endure really? They should be thankful they aren't working retail or unemployed.

Wal-Mart Theme Song

The TRON Light Cycle - DudeIWantThat.com

All I can say is... Drool...

http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/autos/motorcycles/the-tron-light-cycle.asp#!prettyPhoto

Hard drive failure

Thank goodness for crash plan. My laptop hard drive just died. Now to wait for best buy to open.

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DIY Star Wars Bike Helmet is Pure Awesomeness! : Discovery Channel

Oh, I am so doing this! LOL

http://dsc.discovery.com/gear-gadgets/diy-star-wars-bike-helmet-is-pure-star-...

DIY Star Wars Bike Helmet is Pure Awesomeness! : Discovery Channel

Oh, I am so doing this! LOL

http://dsc.discovery.com/gear-gadgets/diy-star-wars-bike-helmet-is-pure-star-...

American Family Association Calls For Recriminalization Of Homosexuality

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-family-association-calls-for.html

American Family Association Calls For Recriminalization Of Homosexuality

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-family-association-calls-for.html

It's sunny out

The sun just came out here. It's a bit windy, but sunny, :)

We're still here

I just got up and it's calm outside. According to the radar, the eye
is just to our northeast and it has 75MPH winds, yet we have gusts of
maybe 40MPH here. I've seen stronger nor'easters. There are no trees
down within sight. Heck, I've seen more leaves blown off the trees in
a nor'easter. I was up around 4am when the storm was less than 50
miles from us and even then the winds were nowhere near hurricane
strength. The eye of this storm passed within about 20 miles of us.
Talk about anti-climactic. I'm sure there is flooding along the shore
areas, but otherwise Irene has not done much at all.

Still here

It's about 50 miles from us and still doing ok here. Wind not too bad. Going back to bed.

thank goodness for the weather alert app on the droid

We had about a 5 minute warning of a tornado headed right for our area
and took shelter in the basement. No sign of it but it was good to
have the warning.

Hurricane IRENE Forecast Discussion

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT4+shtml/272057.shtml?

Irene is slowing down a bit. It should be down to barely Hurricane
level if not below by the time it hits us.

Still hanging out

More rain, occasional wind. Nothing big yet, but then this thing is
still like 300 miles from us. Gonna go make some dinner I think.

And the rain starts

It started raining, no real wind yet.

We're prepped and ready

All Irene preparations are as done as they can be. Now we just wait
for the wind to start. We're far enough from the ocean that storm
surge is not a concern. Right now they are talking sustained winds
less than 70 mph.

holy crap

We just had an earthquake in southern NJ... I was sitting here and felt the whole building shake and watched the server tower moving back & forth.

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Almost ready

The tires are aired up, just need to fill the coolers and we should be
ready for Pennsic. :)

Pennsic body count

As of 12 pm on 8/2 there were 5263 gentles on site.

Go East, Emily!

I hope TS Emily tracks east and not where they predict it will. If it
does we're looking at a bit of rain Tuesday at war.

Pennsic news

As of noon today 4385 gentles are onsite at Pennsic.

Christian witch trials

OMG, do you think that now they will now what we feel like when they do this to us???

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=1398206

Trailer lights

Well, I have come to the conclusion that the person who rewired my
trailer last is either an idiot or did not care. The first thing I had
to repair (the day after I got it) was the ground wire. The moron cut
the ground lead and was relying on the ball for ground, which is
unreliable at best. Today I added lights tot he top of the ramp so I can
actually see the back of the trailer at night. Being all black, the
trailer disappears at night and makes for interesting lane changes.
While I was at it, I re-hooked up the front corner marker lights. When
the trailer was rewired, they didn't bother to hook them back up. Both
worked just fine. They just needed to be hooked up is all.

Pennsic preload has begun

Pennsic

This weekend will be the last weekend of Pennsic prep. Next weekend I
load it all up to get ready to go. Can't wait!

And this is why megan's law should be repealed

http://www.app.com/article/20110720/NJNEWS10/307200046/1007/rss03

This is just stupid, and why Megan's law should be repealed.

Google+

This is to all my friends. If you're on google+, let me know and i'll add you to my list. If not, I can send an invite if you want to get on. It;'s so much better than facebook and I'm definitely planning on using Google+ more than FB.

I is a welder?

This weekend I went to Torin's with the trailer to fix the welds that
were cracked. He set me up and I made all the repairs myself, so I have
nobody but myself to blame if something breaks again. After I fixed the
6 cracked welds, I took 2 pieces of angle iron and welded on a mount for
the strap box on the side of the trailer. I also added a pair of pins to
the ramp so I could add 2 metal bars to secure the ramp instead of the
loose fitting pins that it had on it. I am so glad I added the pins. By
the time I made it 20 miles to Fred's, one of the welds securing the
original ramp pins was all but ripped off, and before we made it home it
was completely free on the one side. I added the 2 metal bars today and
the ramp doesn't move more than a few thousandths of an inch now. I also
drilled & added 10 eye bolts to the sides of the trailer so I have
somewhere secure to hook straps to where they can't slide around.

Canvak

I'm using the air sprayer to apply canvak to the ger roofs.  Having to wait on the air compressor is a pain.

inkubus sukkubus

By accident I discovered this band yesterday and I'm loving their
music. :)

New toy.

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Roof ring repairs

1 lb of screws later and one roof ring is solid again. One more to go.

This Will Make You Fall In Love! - Funny Videos at Videobash

http://www.videobash.com/video_show/this-will-make-you-fall-in-love-16743

New camera lets you focus photos after you shoot - CNN.com

This is interesting...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/06/22/auto.focus.camera/index.htm...

I figured out why I woke up with a headache today...

I felt like crap and had a headache so I took some advil. I went back to
bed. After lunch I went back to bed. This afternoon I figured it out....
100.9 fever. :(

Memoirs of a Geisha

I just finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha. The movie has been one of my favorites for quite some time, and I have to say that the movie followed the book very closely. Now I need to watch the movie again. :)

The creole queen

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

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Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

The creole queen

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Untitled

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Cafe du monde

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Tomb for Nicholas cage

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Marie laveau's grave

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

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Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Movies

They're filming a Nicholas cage movie in front of our hotel.

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Untitled

Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Touchdown!

Off to the airport

We're off to the airport. :)

Want to know what makes a true hero? Read this...

Japanese seniors volunteer for Fukushima 'suicide corps' - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/31/japan.nuclear.suicide/index.html?...

New Orleans, here we come!

Tomorrow we're headed for New Orleans for some fun time. I can't wait! :)

Let's hear it for the bigots....

Tenn. Senate OKs ban on teaching of homosexuality

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_TENNESSEE_SCHOOLS_SEXUALITY?SITE=AZMES&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Ger shelves

Watch the following distance

If you're like most drivers, you are in the habit of following way too close to the car in front of you at highway speeds. Few of us leave the recommended minimum 130' distance at 65mph. Most of us are lucky to have 30' between us and the car in front of us. I regularly follow too close, even on the bike. This morning I got a good reminder of why this is a bad thing...

I was getting on the parkway and approaching highway speed (65mph). There was a large pickup tuck about 100' in front of me. With no warning I see a 4' piece of tail pipe fall out from under the truck. Since this was a big truck, it was a big pipe. It was easily 6" in diameter, complete with a few bends and an exhaust hanger sticking out.

Luckily for me, the road was recently repaved and still smooth. The pipe skidded down the highway relatively straight, tracking slightly to the left and since I had 100' warning was able to safely do a lane change to avoid it. The car that came on right behind me was not so lucky. I saw him swerve to the right and almost take out a few large road cones (they are doing road work) because he was maybe 30 feet behind me since the pipe was now sideways and taking up half the lane and doing maybe 40mph. He never saw the pipe till I changed lanes and by then he was maybe 50' from it. If the road was rough, the pipe could easily have caught on something and went tumbling wildly.

So, please back off at highway speeds. It could save you alot of pain.

Bras

Taking Katie bra shopping.  This should be interesting.

Why I think legalized "Gay Marriage" is a bad idea

Now, before anyone jumps on me about this, read this in its entirety.

The gay rights people are attacking the problem from the wrong angle. Instead of fighting for legalized marriage for gays, they should be fighting for legalized "Civil Unions" for everyone, religious or not. They should be fighting to get government to stop recognizing "Marriage" officially.

Marriage is inherently a religious practice. By recognizing "Marriage" legally, the government is effectively violating our first amendment rights. Since marriage is defined as "between one man and one woman" by some religions, but not by all, the government is essentially saying that those religions which say it is alright for gays to marry are invalid. This is a law "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and also "respecting an establishment of religion".

Now, if the government were to stop recognizing "Marriages" as being valid for legal purposes, and instead only recognized civil unions, then there would be no violation of our rights, and no religion would feel slighted either. In this scenario, you could choose to get married in the eyes of God within your church and following its own rules, but the paperwork that is legally filed with the state would be for that of a "Civil Union". If your religion doesn't recognize "Gay Marriage" then you couldn't get married within your religion. You could, however still have a "Civil Union". Marriage is in the eyes of God, and as such open to your particular interpretation of "God".

Making this one little change solves the whole "Gay Marriage" debate in such a way that neither side can argue it with any validity. Everyone who is "Married" would have a grandfathered in status of "CU" for "Civil Union" for all their tax documents. "M" could still be chosen if you like it, but it would be equivalent to "CU" in the eyes of the government with no distinction being made at all. Medical insurance, death benefits, Family Leave, Taxes, etc. could now be enjoyed by both partners since none of these "benefits" are of any religious significance whatsoever. A "Husband and Wife" (religious term) would be "Partners" (legal term) in the eyes of the government, the same as 2 men or 2 women.

This is what I am going to start pushing for, and if you agree, forward this idea to everyone you know and have them fight for it as well. Let's get the government out of religion once and for all, as it was supposed to have been all along.

The first amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Dracula

I just finished dracula. Good book. The end was a bit anti climactic, but I can see how this book inspired so many stories and movies. Excellent read.

Hop

I took the kids to see hop on Friday. It was kind of cute, but all hype. It was definitely over rated. I give it a 6.  It might be good on tv but I wouldn't spend money to see it.

It's Easter.

Well, the kids let us sleep in until 7:00 anyway.

The Scariest Gay Marriage Chart Ever

http://front.moveon.org/the-scariest-gay-marriage-chart-ever/?rc=fb.fan

I got a new phone

I just got an Android phone and am loving it! HTC inspire.

Kindergartner brings gun to Texas school, 3 hurt

My big question is how does a kindergartener get access to a loaded handgun in the first place? I have no issue with people owning guns, but if you have kids in your house, LOCK THEM UP!!!!!! (the guns, not the kids)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HOUSTON_SCHOOL_GUN?SITE=AZMES&SECTI...

The new ger door attachment method.

Can we say ouch?

Strange Truths For Mature Humans

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired. 

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day. 

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to. 

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well. 

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option. 

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever. 

22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time! 

24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Waiting for the cirque to start. :)

Commodore 64

If you ever owned one, you 'll want to check this out...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/the-new-commodore-64-updated-with-it...

next heavy launch vehicle?

http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php

busy weekend

This weekend was pretty busy. Saturday we built a play set for the kids and then on Sunday I got 2 cu. yd. of mulch to spread under it. I still need at least 2yd more mulch to get enough depth to cushion the ground, but that was enough for Sunday's work. I also bottled the sweet mead, red delicious apple wine and the peach wine. I racked all the rest of the wines while I was at it.

Mulch spread out

2yd of mulch

Today's project

Can you raed this? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

ice... what a wonderful thing

Wow, i forgot how nice it was to actually have ice in the house. Our ice trays were never used because we could never get to them in the old freezer. Now that we have ice on the door it's a wonderful thing indeed. :)

New frigidator

caller id with name on cell phones

The last few weeks or so i have been noticing that some numbers now come up with a name when calling my cell phone. This is for numbers that are not on my phone book. I'm on AT&T so I don't know if it's everyone or not, but it is looking quite promising and about time too.

The Longest Password!

We laugh -- but her I.D. is safe.  
During a recent password audit by Microsoft & Google, 
it was found that a blonde was using the following password: 

"MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento" 

When asked why she had such a long password, she said
she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters
long and include at least one capital.

Wizard of oz

We're watching wizard of oz to darkside of the moon. Way too cool!

YouTube - Marble adding machine

Happy Pi day

It's 3.14 so I wanted to wish everyone a happy Pi day... :)

khana shelves

I thought I'd share the shelves I just made for the ger. These hang off of the khana itself and can be placed anywhere in a ger. I've tested these with 40lb on them and they hold easily. The best part is they pack completely flat. For my test I used some press board shelves from an old desk I'm getting rid of. Any more I make once i run out of these shelves I'll use pine since it's lighter. I used 2 L shaped hooks to grab the khana, cut two slots to hold the rope (so they can be removed for storage) and that's it.

Khana shelves

I now have shelves that hang frm the khana. :)

I tried something new

Tonight we went out to dinner and they had alligator as an appetizer so we ordered it. All I have to say is yummm! :)

holy @(#*

fermenting fruit...

I so love the smell of fermenting fruit. I don't know why, but I just do. Every time I walk into the basement and get a whiff of the strawberries and bananas I love it.

Strawberries

Yesterday I decided I needed to start more wine so I headed to costco to see what looked good in fruit. I spotted a huge pallet of ripe strawberries so I knew what I had to do. I bought 40lb (10 4lb flats) of strawberries and 18lb of bananas. 32lb of the strawberries went into the 10 gallon bucket (should yield about 8 gallons) and 4lb went in with 15lb of the bananas in the 7 gallon bucket (should yield 4-5 gallons). The rest was for the family to consume. We had strawberries on pound cake with whipped cream for dessert last night. yum!

The definition of hero...

http://www.app.com/article/20110301/NJNEWS/110302001/1001/rss

Domino's driver saves life of customer who ordered daily pie

http://www.9news.com/rss/article/182909/337/Dominos-driver-saves-life-of-cust...

i can see this happening.

adam & eve

Do Speed Limits Matter?

I found this article rather interesting...

http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/a-slmatr.html

The actual apocalypse...

Ok, rain feels better now :)

"is he a rock star?"

I had a funny occurrence happen yesterday. I was gothed out in leather pants, my boots with the 5" heel, black eyeliner & lipstick, arm warmers, t-shirt, a black leather trench coat and my black wig. We went to visit a friend and as we were walking to his apartment, some kids were playing in the snow. One of them said to Rain "Is he a rock star?" LOL I love being me.

Shorai vs lead acid battery

How much viarga can one person possibly need????

With the sheer volume of viagra spam I get, it makes me wonder... How much viagra do they really think people are interested in?

dead battery

Monday I was all set to take the bike to work since I haven't had it out in well over a month. I anticipated the possibility of a low battery, but the battery tender should have kept it up. I went to start it and it was dead, as in 3 volts dead. It seems the extension cord got knocked out of the socket and it's been sitting for a long time with no maintenance. Without the maintenance, in the sub-freezing temps for weeks, it slowly froze and lost its charge. So I pulled the battery and brought it inside to thaw out and then tried to charge it. No luck. My battery is toast.

I am tired of having to keep it on a charger, so I did some looking around and found a Li-Ion battery for the motorcycle. It can hold a charge in the cold for up to a year, compared with weeks for a lead-acid battery. It costs twice as much as a standard lead-acid battery, but the manufacturer says ti should last 2-3x as long as the lead-acid battery does. On a motorcycle, that is 2-3 years on average so this one should last 5-6 or longer. On top of that, because of the type of battery I won't need to plug it in every night in the cold weather to keep the charge level up. They actually recommend not charging it unless it really needs to be charged. It should be here any day now. :)

Here's a link to the manufacturer: http://www.shoraipower.com/

Why nobody should vote for Pawlenty if they are nominated for president...

As president, Pawlenty would reinstate DADT

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1273036

When a goth gets bored

I like to play my favorite game when I get bored.. "Freaking the mundanes" hehe

jury duty...

Well, looks like tomorrow I get to report for jury duty unless the snow tonight shuts the courts down.

another tsa comic

New wine labels

I bottled some wines

I bottled some of my wines today. All told, I think I bottled like 25 gallons.

The banana is a little dry, but good.

The bananas with cocoa is a winner and like the first batch. I will be making this one again.

The dandelion mead is incredible. It is sweet and fruity and had a great flavor. I need to make this again.

The pear has a light flavor and needs a little more time to mature, but otherwise is very drinkable.

The watermelon needs more time, so I racked it and will let it sit a few months.

3-6

ugh... the last of the blizzard is still on the ground and it's snowing yet again. They are forecasting 3-6" today. I don't foresee taking the bike out any time soon.

Another good cominc

it's green...

I started a batch of kiwi wine tonight. It's definitely green. I'll find out in a few months how it turns out.

5 more days

Friday night I will know if I have to attend jury duty or not for Monday.