Happy Friday Night!

BBQ fell through and I had to crisp up those tasty chicken and pigs myself.  Mesquite and flamage equal tasty dinners for the family!

Lots of cool stuff the last 2 weeks so I’ll just start with last weeks carwash that Alora and her classmates held to raise funds for a trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma.  I stopped by and paid $15 to get 3/5ths of my van washed (kind of) as well as joining in to wash cars for about an hour.  Oh yeah and get pictures, here are a few:

Alora earns a trip to the zoo

Along with her classmates!

Sorry I don’t have any pictures of ME washing cars because noone else had brought any cameras.  The pictures I use for this blog are taken with my cell camera but I think they work to get the moment across and I also don’t have to worry wrecking a more expensive digital camera.

Also Peggy M. has gotten me hooked on:

Is this the NEW X-Files? We'll see...

I’m still in season One but it gives me something to watch between episodes of LOST this season.  MunkyNutz keeps going on about Leverage so maybe afterward I’ll check it out.  Super Street Fighter 4 comes out Tuesday that’ll be fun!

Later Gator.

Going to the BBQ tomorrow!

The family and I are doing really well. We are invited to a BBQ at Peggy M’s (I think the M is for Mariner!) so I don’t have to cook and get to watch a pro! I’m taking a six’er of her favorite beverage and a few pounds of meat. I think the kids are gonna have fun.

Just a quick one tonight as I have lotsa news and pics to post before the end of the week. Thanks for stopping by!

Listening to my collection and ruminating.

Long live the old school!

Not a lot to post tonight.  Our new downstair neighbors suck hard!  Big surprise!  2 days and Lara’s already looking for new abodes!

Listening to music tonight and cocktailing!  Have some humorous pictures for a future post but not quite yet…  Kids went back to school today and they were happy and we were happy.  Lara and I went to lunch and ran errands and conversed.  Kinda like real Human Beans!

Rollins Band just came up on my JukeBoxeZ!  Nice.  Today was Friday for me and I couldn’t be happier!  My normal cook went to opening day at Safeco Field today.  She’s a huge Mariners Head.  I think we’re going to a game in August (as a fam) this year.  Last year we went to a ball game on the HOTTEST DAY EVER in Washington state.  It was Awesome!

Tomorrow equals LOST!  Whooo.

Later!

It’s Super Dynamic Cooking Time!

Did a bunch of household things today and got my moms airline tickets taken care of for June.

Also I did some of the ol’ cooking:

Yesterday it was ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ at Aloras insistence.  Trust me, they taste better than they sound…

A little food coloring and Viola!

Today I got to use some of my knives and made some good old homemade split pea soup:

This...

 

Plus This...

 

Equals one hearty soup!

Amazing how putting some ham, peas, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, butter and salt and pepper in hot water can create a soup that even my daughter loves!

For Easter I made a holiday dinner consisting of a Scored and Clove Studded Ham with a balsemic dijon glaze, herb roasted red potatoes and a suprisingly good ‘Chablis stuffing’ (hey I didn’t have and chicken stock handy!).  Everyone loved it (even my dad) but I forgot to picturize it before it got gone!

P.S. Only three more days until school resumes. Fortune doth smile upon me.

The kids are on break…

It’s been lotsa fun and my van is hella cool, but the kids are on the ol’ Spring Break!  They are not old enough for Cancun or Daytona ( being only 7ish ) but they are having fun and so am I !   Here is the PlayDoh creation that I pounded out on a work day with Alora:

It's a Bass Guitar! Rock!

She was happy.  Had plenty of good times with both kiddos ‘Reading, painting, sculpting and explaining’ all day.

Still raining, so no new pics of the transpo but soon I  promise.

Good Night and Good Luck!

N8

World Autism Awareness Day!

Today was World Autism Awareness Day.  If you didn’t know my 5 year old son, Viktor, is autistic.  He told me “I love you” for the first time today.  Most everyone has an autistic relative.  It is the most rapidly growing affliction in new humans that there is.  It’s prevailent and there is no ‘Patient Zero’.  It just is.

Haven’t gotten pics of my new Hooptie yet (raining and winding something fierce) but will soon.  Just thought you should see this… http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Contra_1017 !

Seriously, as good as I was at the Nintendo and JJ and JM and JY and LM were either this is an eye opener.  Yeah, it might be a tool assisted run and obviously uses Save States and Emulation but even though…  If someone you knew could run through this like this you’d be trippin’ hard!

Check it out and maybe some mores.  L8

Finally found a Van!

I have been spending a lot of time searching for used vehicles on Craigslist and doing the eyeballing of vehicles with signs in them.  With my mother coming out this summer for a week, I really wanted a vehicle big enough for 5.  Friday I saw a listing for a ’88 Voyager and jotted it down, then I proceeded to work all weekend as per the usual.  I honestly figured if the vehicle was any good it’d be gone by the time I got to look at/drive it.

I guess with everyones monthly bill obligations and the TOWERING DEMAND (that’s sarcasm) for minivans I lucked out.  So today I Officially retire ‘DeerKiller’ and start tooling around in ‘Brown Betty’.  The interior is primo and there’s a hole where my radio will go, it seems to have a wiring issue or two but I’ve already ordered the Haynes Repair Guide so that I can work those out at my leisure.  Tires have some meat on ’em but it goes straight, turns, stops and starts quick!  I’m super stoked and I got it for $150 less than it was advertised for last Friday!  A certain segment of my friends will know that that’s my favorite part!

No pics tonight…  Too Dark.  Will edit this with pics tomorrow.  Kids are doing well and are on Easter Break next week.  We looked at a house on Monday.  It was on an acre in a development with amenities but the freeway access was 10-12 minutes away.  The bus ride for the kids would be over an hour and if you count our commutes it would add a total of an hour a day.  Not to mention that many more miles on the vehicles.  Too bad it looked nice and I can’t really say I’m passionate about apartments but it just didn’t seem like a good fit.  Bummer.

Watched LOST last night and thought that it was a pretty good episode.  Can’t wait for next weeks!

I’ve been getting out and visiting friends and having company over as well so I’ve been busier than in a while.  So the blog’s still active but I think daily is a bit much ’cause, honestly, how much super cool stuff happens in a normal day for a normal person?  So when I have a collection of things to say, relay or rant about I’ll make sure and do one of these.  I’ll also post to FB and TWTR that there is a new entry.

Take ‘er easy and if she is take her again!

No pictures today.

Viktor stayed home and chilled with me today and Alora hid behind a tree when the kids were going in from recess causing her bottom to be immersed in the proverbial ‘Hot Water’.  She didn’t want to go back in.  She lost her other recess for the day.  Rainy and windy here today so no playing on the scooter or running around outside.  The kids were in good spirits though, so it was nice.

Ran down south to visit the John G. and played some games (DJ Hero and Rock Band) chatted and watched some tube.  I told him about this site http://arcade.hofle.com/ , it’s an arcade ambience piece for your ears.  Playing MAME and want to feel like there are dirty carpets and drug dealers in the corner?  Then put one of these on you music player while you play Donkey Kong or Asteroids and you’ll feel like you just stepped into the past!

Friday tomorrow so back to work with me.  I hope you all have a great weekend and are enjoying spring!

Another day, another pic…

Had a nice quiet morning after gettin the kids on the bus.  Watched a coupla movies, neither worth commenting on, and scrubbed some dishes and washed the whites.  Awesome weather we’ve been having here led to me taking Alora out to get more practice on her scooter.  Someone helped her up and she helped them up.  Good social interaction I think.  We had tacos for dinner since neither Lara or myself were in the mood for a long and involved dinner time strategy.  Kiddos loved it!  Alora played some Mini Golf on the Wii and Viktor jumped… and jumped.

This shelf is worth more than most of my paychecks

The reason why (in case you AREN’T a gamer) are the Sega Saturn games.  Honestly, this is just a cool shot of my bamboo plant and collectible games.  MunkyNutz and I agree, if you are a gamer you HAVE to play Fallout 3.  Actually I still haven’t finished all the additional content and am waiting for the right time to do so!

Tomorrow Vik and I get to hang out for most of the day.  It should be good times!  April 27th = Greedy and me getting it on with Super Street Fighter 4!  Can’t wait!

Good night and good health.

Tuesday Brewsday!

A picture sometimes says it all.

What a great day here in the GNW (Great NorthWest)!  Low seventies and sunshine all day picked up some New York strip steaks and baking potatoes.  Add a drink that is very similar to the one pictured above (I think they were brothers) and you have one of my favorite activities.  BBQ!  Something about meat and fire outside that just makes me smile.

Alora did indeed stay home on Monday AND today (one of the myriad reasons for skipping my post yesterday).  But Viktor’s hanging tough and making the bus to school in the morning.  I have got my editing skills up into a higher gear.  I took that picure above about 2 minutes ago and then ran it through my textifying programme and, voila, instant graphic!

When we moved to Olympia around 2 years ago we had to change phone numbers and when we did it we were not asked if we wanted to be unlisted.  Oh hell do I hate telemarketers, surveys (political and otherwise), fundraisers (how many pledges does rudeness get anyhow?) and scammers.  I frequently use www.whocalled.us to find out what these out of state numbers and 1 8xx numbers are and who they are originating from.  Right now I have one calling to verify some information on a check that I wrote.  Really strange considering all my checks for the last 4 years are accounted for and have all cleared for at least as long.  Somehow I smell a phishing scam.  I just recently had to change my credit card number and account because (either by skimmer or number generation) someone was charging SKYPE charges to the card.  That was a huge pain in the rear since I had to update a number of merchant accounts I have (Netflix etc.) on rotating monthly charges.  The card issuer was totally helpful and thank goodness I caught it before whoever came accross my number found out it was valid and went wild!

Well I think I’m gonna go play some Samurai Shodown and wait for the new episode of LOST tonight, I hope it’s as good as last weeks!