08/23/2007
Weight Loss update
178lbs as of this morning. Down 58 pounds.

08/11/2007
Weight Loss update
182lbs as of this morning. Down 54 pounds, still have 7 or 8 to go!

06/04/2007
Weight Loss update
I've been on the Nutrisystem Nourish Diet now for 8 weeks now and have lost 30 pounds total as of this morning. I started out at 236, and am now down to 206. My target weight is 170. My pants are getting big in the waist, and I can wear large shirts now and they're even getting baggy. My XL shirts are way too large. My third shipment of food came in today, I customized the order again. I'm really looking forward to some of these meals, they look tasty! The quality of the meals is great BTW. I've really enjoyed the food. I know alot of people don't like the quality of the meals, but I think they're quite good.

As to cost, it's around $10.00 for a days meals for your first order, second order is around $9.00 a day, and the third is around $8.00 a day (the cost goes down with each additional shipment, pretty cool). I would spend $10.00 a day on eating out at lunch, most restaurants seem to run in that range... and plus I was a BIG eater. Factor in the yogurt and granola bar I always ate for breakfast with fruit (very similar to a Nutrisystem breakfast on weekdays), and a dinner salad, plus an entree in the evening and the cost is about the same as what normal groceries used to run me monthly for just myself.

Today's order had a surprise, there was a little red bear and a little purple bear in my box, congratulating me for losing 10 and 20 pounds (I just put into the system I lost 30 as of today, I guess I would have got a 30 pound bear too otherwise!). It brought tears to my eyes, they're like little trophies. :-)

Stebel Nautilus Horn
BTW! I got the horn installed on the Blast. I still had some wrapping up work, finishing work to do before it was ready for primetime, but it was LOUD. My friend's Phil, Larry, and Fred came over, and when I tried to demo it.. Well, it didn't work. One of the darned crimp connectors was loose, so I tore it down and redid it and it worked great after the finishing up work. I ran the wires through heat shrink tubing, and routed it with the main wiring harness so it looks nice. Used a ring connector for the battery connection of the ground wire, and another for the ground wire from the frame to the horn. It looks pretty good. Also, I put a fuel hose (black) with clamp onto the horn hose attachment and routed it down through the frame so no water will get sucked into the horn. WOLO has branded the Stebel Nautilus Horn with their name, and you can pick one up at Harbor Freight. I don't think it includes the whole wiring kit, and in-line fuse though. Just the horn and relay for about $45.00. I Paid $35.00 for mine, and it included the wiring kit, and free shipping (had a coupon code from Google) from Biker Hiway.

05/12/2007
Weight Loss thus far
I've been on the Nutrisystem Nourish Diet now for 4 weeks, and have lost 20! pounds. I started out at 236, and am now down to 216. My target weight is 170, we'll see how that goes. I am losing 0.71 pounds a day on average, so losing the rest of the weight if this rate were to continue would take 65 more days. I have my second month of food, and was able to customize my last order so I got more of the meals I wanted from Nutrisystem. They have a great website, and make it convenient.

The first shipment was a bunch of stuff, mixed types, so you could taste a whole range of things during your first 4 weeks on the diet. I think they throw in an extra free week so if you find something you don't like, you don't have to eat it. The next shipment may have contained 5 weeks as well, but I didn't bother to check. The box was significantly larger, and heavier than the original because I picked alot of the meals in tubs for lunch and better dinners than I originally got.

Dish Network Update
Our Dish system had been displaying a message stating our DishPlayer DVR needed to be connected to the phone line at all times for the last couple of days. This is with the new wireless phone jack they sent me to hook up. Well, I called them, and they sent me a new wireless phone jack. I got sick of seeing the message though, and called them, after tying one of their CSR's up for maybe 20 minutes (she kept wanting to forward me to tech support), she finally transferred me to a Senior Rep who actually seemed to have some power to help. He pushed a patch to our DVR which he said would prevent that message from coming back up, he was able to verify the DVR was connected to the phone line, and placed checks in our account so we wouldn't be charged $5.00 again. The new wireless phone jack arrived, and I hooked it up, and packaged up the old one to send back. It seems to be working fine, I forced it to dial in with it's status last night just to make sure. Hopefully this will be the last of our problems with our Dish. I love the service, it's so much better than Basic Cable, and the price is so much better as well.

05/03/2007
Fark.com Login, I'm an idiot!
Well, my Fark.com login works fine... if I use the right one. I used to have one named mrbun years ago. I can't remember the details, but either at one point I quit using it and forgot the password (and switched ISP's so I no longer have the e-mail account it was registered to) or I quit using it because my wife changed the password (hah). Either way I created another, and since the redesign wiped out the login cookie, and I didn't check to see what my password was since I remembered it I was trying to login with the WRONG account name. What a moron! Anyway, I had to send an apology e-mail to the admin's at Fark for bugging the crap out of them for the last week. It was entirely my fault. What a lamer. At least I can admin when I'm wrong.

Weight Loss thus far
I've been on the Nutrisystem Nourish Diet now for 3 weeks, and have lost 16 pounds. I started out at 236, and am now down to 220. My target weight is 170, we'll see how that goes.

04/30/2007
Customer Service
I've had some customer service issues in the last month... The first was with Dish Network. They billed us $5.00 for our DVR receiver which is hooked up to a phone line and said it had never phoned in. Sure enough, it hadn't. I spent 2+ hours on the phone with Dish Network fighting with them over the bill, basically trying to resolve the issue. I spoke with 10 people, six of which were in a call center in India and who kept reading me scripted answers, transferring me, and disconnecting my call. It got to the point where I knew their prompts by heart and could be through the menus in less than 30 seconds. I got the DVR to dial in, but it didn't like the jack on it's side of the room, so I had to run a cable across the room at wait height. Across the couch, kitchen counter, to the kitchen phone.

They told me I needed to leave it permanently connected like that and finally I got a rep who said he would fix the problem and send me a wireless phone jack. Well, I installed that, and still the DVR doesn't want to dial out even though the jack is working... So I'll wait until the next bill and see if they charge me again. They've got good customer service with the US call centers and the people I spoke to there, but the call centers in India just seemed clueless or didn't want to divert from the script. This is typical of every customer service call I or my wife has made in the past to our mortgage provider, computer support, etc... you name it, the minute we get connected to a call center outside the USA the service is lousy, you get transferred all over the place, and the reps read from a script and have no power to actually help you without transferring you a bunch of times.

I really don't get why they feel they have to charge you $5.00 if your receiver isn't calling them. I asked about customers who only have a wireless phone and they said they charge them $5.00 per receiver That's pretty lame if you ask me. I have friends with DirecTV who do not have to pay $5.00 each month, and they don't have a jack behind their entertainment system like I do but that the DVR doesn't like. I like Dish Network alot, but their advantage is price versus Cable. Once they start tacking on additional charges, it gets to be where they cost almost as much as cable would be. My wife was pretty ticked, and said after the contract is up, we may switch back to cable...

Fark.com redesign
Fark.com just went through a redesign, and it looks good, but ever since the redesign I can't login. I wanted to post a link to a story that was on our local news about the ex-governor's son being arrested for trying to carry a Glock in his cary-on bag through a security checkpoint at the airport. You can read the details yourself, here's a Google Search with tons of stories about it: GIS - Huckabee + GLOCK

Since the redesign though, my login no longer works. Fark doesn't have a password reset tool, and it keeps saying my password or login is wrong. I had a 4 digit account number on Fark.com, dating from 2001. I've not had a ton of links posted, but I enjoy the photoshop contests, and commenting once in a while.

Anyway, I have sent in 3 farkback forms, am not blocking fark from e-mailing me... and have to hear back. We'll see if they respond in the next three days, otherwise I guess I'll switch to reading DIGG and Boing Boing from Fark.

Kayaking/Warm Weather
The weather has been nice and warm, I got in some riding on the weekend... and we took our Kayaks out last week for a four hour run down the Little Maumelle River. Wow, our arms were really tired. We had a good time, but it wore us out. We took them out again on Friday last week, on the Arkansas River for 45 minutes, and it was alot of fun. I've got to renew my fishing license so I can take it fishing sometime by myself.

04/13/2007
Toolbox Photos
Here are the photos of the toolbox, Maru posed with it for scale. :-)

Looks huge eh? Try again. It's all how you pose with it.	The box by itself. Still needs two handles, and the locks replaced back into the locking panels.
	Better sense of scale for the size of the box. It's not huge, but a good size.

04/12/2007
Toolbox Completed
I completed the toolbox, almost. I still have two handles to put on (gotta find some first). My friend Fred suggested Northern Tool and Supply. It'll have to wait until next month though for that. I've lined the drawers with shelf liner (like tool mat, but off-white, and less expensive and easier to find small tools on than black). I also laid a sheet of it cut to size on the side cabinet. With the middle box, and top box in place the side cabinet doesn't cause the main cabinet to tip to the side as I thought.

Kayaking
We got a couple of inexpensive Kayaks on Clearance when we found they were 75% off their normal price because they were last years color. Mine had a missing rear handle, and a broken paddle retainer, the manufacturer (Pelican) sent me a pack of replacement parts and a kit to install a new paddle retainer, so that'll be a project for the future. We took them out on the river, they're sit-on-top recreational kayaks and were alot of fun. I used to own a Canoe, but sold it when we got married as out apartment didn't have a place for it (hah) and we needed the money. This isn't suitable for fishing from like the Canoe (I loved that Canoe) but is still alot of fun and it was cheaper than any Canoe or Kayak I've ever seen because it was a clearance item.

Mending Fences, House Work
I spent part of today digging out around the footer for one of my fence posts, the footer had cracked. I had previously poured concrete in a 3/4 circle around it (didn't want to dig up my neighbor's side of the fence as he was selling his house) but it turns out that side had a gap between the post and footer since it had cracked. I had to drive a piece of steel in between the post and the concrete to stop the fence from moving when the wind hit it the other night on his side of the fence, and then today I dug out the ground around the footer on both sides, and put a 50 pound bag of quick-set concrete into the hole and poured water in as per the directions. Once the concrete is set, probably on Sunday I'll put his dirt and sod back (stored it in a bucket and watered it) and then on my side I'll just put dirt back on top.

I have a growing clipboard of house tasks, touch up paint, little things to fix... just stuff that annoys me, but doesn't bother anyone but me (I'm too OCD about some things) but haven't done much to it. I mentioned it once before. I was talking with Larry at work today, and he has a similar list, guess it's a guy thing.

Oil/Horn/Sticker
Still need to get around to changing the oil in the Vulcan, with all the rain I haven't ridden it or the Buell much recently. The Buell got a new battery, very nice... but still needs it's new horn installed. The Vulcan I am slowly peeling the Kawasaki stickers off the sides of the engine and have polished one side up to this pretty mirror finish. Why Kawasaki decided to stick stickers on the engine which would eventually bubble up after 4000 to 5000 miles I don't know. According to the Vulcan 750 forum they have done this since they sold the first Vulcan... Nice. Oh well. It looks really good polished up.

Diet
I am starting the Nutri-System Diet (another diet, oh joy). I am at around 230 pounds now. I had gotten down to 210 at one point... but ballooned back up over the holidays. My goal would to get to 175 or so someday... Back to my High School weight... We'll see how long I can keep this diet up... I've done okay, 8 years ago I weighed 265 pounds... and I've never gotten back up to that since, and haven't let my waist get bigger than a 38" size pants... I still find it bizarre I used to wear size 44" pants. Hopefully I can work to getting down to 175... If I was between that and 195 and fluctuated in that range I think I'd be more than happy with that.

Pictures
Need to take some pictures of the completed toolbox and post them here, along with the Vulcan Sidecover. When we get a nice sunny day I'll take both the bike and Toolbox outside and photograph them.

Dead PC
Oh, my old PC died. I am now using a lovely refurbished eMachine (maybe I shouldn't ridicule it right?). The old box was an Athlon XP 3800 or something like that, with a gig of memory, and 80 gigs of storage. I built it for $400.00 or so two years ago, with it's 256 meg videocard. The new box which replaced it is a 2.93 ghz Pentium IV, not a core duo or anything... but for $300.00, who can argue with that from Tiger Direct. It's got a 200 gig SATA HD, and a DVD Burner (Dual Layer), along with 1.5 gig of memory. What gets me is the machine I have has so much on it, but all of that stuff is pretty pedestrian... Oh, and a 256 meg videocard. There was a time I had to have the biggest and baddest machine I could, now I just want something that works, is fast, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. When I started pricing new PC's the night the Athlon went up in smoke (Literally) I was sick, I didn't want to spend $600 on a new machine, and I was sick of building them myself. Anyway, Tiger Direct had a decent machine for not alot of money and hopefully it'll last me three years (knock on wood)... We'll see, I'm sure Microsoft will Obsolete Windows XP in a year or two and stop providing security updates, which means I'll be going back to Linux for good if that happens.

03/11/2007
Toolbox - Main Cabinet and Side Cabinet
Okay, I took some photos of the toolbox project.

The main cabinet is finished being painted, and so is the hanging side cabinet. I dropped the main cabinet into the frame with the casters (almost strained by back doing it).

I bolted the cabinet to the casters frame with three bolts, fender washers (you can see the fender washer in on one side in two of the pictures) and wingnuts. It's attached at three points.

The side cabinet turned out really nice, and so did the main cabinet so far (still have to paint the drawers and drop them in. I used plastic door edging on two corners on the bottom of the main cabinet, and six other points on the bottom edge so that it's not sitting metal to metal in the frame.

I took some photos of the other cabinets, the bottom cabinet and side cabinet were in similar condition as the middle cabinet and top cabinet.

The Hammerite paint actually turned out pretty nice considering it was rolled on with foam rollers and sprayed with cans in the corners and edges where the roller wouldn't go. It also seems to be VERY hard when it cures compared to normal paint and to the Rustoleum Hammered paint I originally intended to use.

I'll be painting the drawers and the front panel next, and dropping them in once they're finished and then I'm moving on to the middle box. This will likely take several months, but I'd rather take my time and do it the best I can.

I still need to find a handle for the side of the main cabinet that I can paint and bolt to it... and I need to get a couple of handles for the front panels that are missing. The main cabinet handle will likely be the most difficult part to find and I may have to call Mac tools.

Anyway, here are the photos so enjoy. :-)

Main cabinet with rolling frame. The rolling frame was built by my dad, and I bolted new casters to it after cutting the old ones off (he had welded them). It's painted with hammered black metallic finish.	Side cabinet beside the main cabinet, with the top box in front for a comparison of the condition of the boxes before and after.
Top and Middle box stacked.	Side cabinet after painting and the paint having cured. The hammered metal finish does a great job of hiding the surface defects from 35 years of daily hard use. My dad actually built this cabinet from scratch.

03/10/2007
Projects
We ordered plants from a nursery not too long ago, and I spent an entire day planting them. We'll see if they grow, it's really funny to me when you order shrubs through the mail and end up with essentially twigs to plant. I have set our rain barrels back up. The plastic taps I had originally held up well for two years, but last summer they started leaking. I had to put hoses on them, and point them up so they'd not drip as the hose level was taller than the top of the barrel the way I rigged it. I installed brass ones today, and used silicone sealant/caulk on the threads and then on the inside of the barrel and outside. I had to level the supports for one barrel, last year the ground settled where it was (55 gallons of water weighs alot) and I fixed that. The barrels got flipped back over and screen fixed to them again (no mosquito breeding ground, sorry) and I used a couple of garden stakes cut down to support the screen where the flex downspouts hit the screen so the screen doesn't get pushed below the level of the barrel and below the water line when they're full.

Motorcycle Stuff
I've still got to install the horn on the Blast. I'm figuring it'll be a weekend project next weekend as I have to drop in a new battery for the bike anyway... and I'll be changing the Vulcan's oil finally since I got two manuals for it (Clymers and a Kawasaki maintenance manual).

Motor Stuff
The lawnmower got a tune up. I changed the oil (I'm pretty mean to the mower, I can remember changing the oil twice prior to this in the 5 years we've had it), added Seafoam to the crankcase, changed the spark plug (I've done that once previously in it's 5 years of service), and added Seafoam to the gas. It got it's filter cleaned, and then soaked in clean oil and then wringed out and put back in. I tightened a bunch of bolts, cleaned up the automatic throttle. After priming the crankcase, it fired right up and ran like a champ. When I used it to scalp the yard last week it was acting weird so I knew it needed work... but I was skeptical of this working to fix it up.

Since we've had it, it has slowly shaken itself apart. I tossed the shroud on top as that just hid the fact that bolts were coming out of it. Four bolts hold the main parts together, and I've had to replace them all or put the originals back on. I've used Loctite when I have done it, I think the original manufacturer wants them to shake apart after a couple of years, I mean, it's a $120.00 mower at most. The oil filler spout is held on by two screws, I have had to replace those as well. It probably need the blade sharpened too, but that's gonna have to wait until I get some help to take it off so I can use a file to sharpen it.

I'd like to get as many years as I can out of the thing. When it's cleaned up it doesn't look too bad... but all my neighbors have Honda mowers which look really nice and they see me out there with the old black nodescript mower since I yanked the shroud and tossed it. The shround was the only thing which never shook off, held on with three screws. Only part of the mower installed properly it seems, and it was done to hide the shoddy work from the factory (it's a Murray mower BTW. Came from Home Depot 5+ years ago). I had a friend once who hated Briggs and Stratton for the quality (or lack thereof) their engines (especially lawn mower engines). My mower sucks in one way because the motor is designed to be drained of the oil by flipping the mower on it's side or upside down (no drain bolt). It's a pain, because the gas cap has holes in it (nice) to keep fumes from building up in the tank? So I have to tape over the gas cap to drain the oil.

One of the most striking things to me is the carb, it's plastic. The old tiller my dad had has a Briggs and Stratton engine. It's a rusty tiller, but it works good once you get it started (it'll scream at you once in a while and kick out the pull cord, but it works). It's carb is metal. They look the same, but I wish Briggs and Stratton still made engines like that... A rototiller that's 50+ years old, but still runs... and probably hasn't had the oil changed in 20.

Old Family Friend
I've been renovating my dad's toolbox, he used it for 35 years as a diesel mechanic. It's in rough shape. I'd say 50% of the paint is gone, so it's bare metal and light rust in places. He had it stored for 15 years after he retired and recently gave it to me. So far I've pressure washed and degreased it. The bottom cabinet I have already primed and painted with one coat of Hammerite Red Hammered finish. I got a gallon of it from Merit Distribution, and a six pack of spray cans from my local hardware store. I have to flip the cabinet and paint the bottom of the shelves next and put a second coat on it and the hanging side cabinet and then drop it into the rolling frame I already painted with Hammered Black and bolted new casters to.

The drawers will be next for the bottom cabinet, probably do that this week in the evening if I have time as they won't take up as much room... and then I can drop them into the cabinet and put drawer liners into them. Then the difficult work begins. The middle box isn't too bad, but I have figured out how to yank the drawers out yet. I need to do that, and pull off the handles so I can polish them, and paint the box and drawers... Then I have to work on the top box, and do the same.

It's missing a couple of handles, and the locks all are missing their keys. I have to either go to a locksmith and get new locks, or get keys made for them... and I've got to get one handle, and a side handle to pull it around the garage. The toolbox has dents, and dings... and the top box lid is dented where someone dropped a trailer door on it one day at my Dad's work (the door fell off the hinges). He tried finding another top box to replace the lid, but never could find one. I think the dings and dents add character and show the box as a family hierloom (in my opinion) of how his hard work provided for our family when I was a kid.

The hammered finish is really nice. I am spraying the nooks and crannies and corners... and using foam rollers for everything else. The finish is glossy, with some metallic.. it hides the smaller surface defects really nice.. and the dings and dents don't look out of place. He obviously cared for the toolbox, as it lasted him all that time. The guys he worked with used to buy new ones all the time, upgrade, etc.. Dad used the same ones, starting with the original cabinet and top box, and then adding the middle box later (handles are a different style) and then the side cabinet (which looks like he may have built himself.. the grade of steel is much thicker than any I've seen and the weld patterns on the underside of the shelves look like his work). I am gonna have to ask him if he made the side cabinet, if he did that makes it even more special to me.

Most of my friends see it as an old, beat up toolbox, but like I said to me it is something special. It helped my dad pay for the clothes we wore, our utility bills, the books I read, toys I had as a kid, and the food we ate. It's a symbol to me of his hard work. He used to come home everyday in a navy or black uniform, covered in grease... he worked the night shift for over 20 years before he got to be on days. He's my dad, and I love him and appreciate every sacrifice he made for us so we could have things. We didn't have everything, but we had what we needed and we never seemed to want for the things we didn't.

I could have bought a new toolbox, this one likely would have been junked for scrap metal I am afraid in the condition it's in... but the sentimental value of it to me means it's worth my time to clean it up and paint it and give it a second lease on life in my garage... A bit lighter duty than what it did professionally, but it's retired and deserves it. I'll post pictures of the toolbox when I'm finished... or whenever I feel I can take a picture without ruining the camera! :-)

To-Do List
I've got a to do list of items to work on around the house, caulking, paint touch-up, just normal small stuff to work on as time permits.

02/04/2007
Winter Riders
TPOL, my Vulcan 750 started up today without issues, and I let it warm up good. I had hoped to go to class today, and observe, but bending over was still painful with the back issues. Maru thought we could still go riding, and after a trip to the grocery store we got the bikes out. TPOL hadn't been started in about 2 weeks, but the battery was rock solid and the bike warmed up fine. We checked the tire pressure, bulbs, etc., and got Maru's bike ready. We rode out to my dad's house and said hello and then hit the pharmacy for some Aleve for my back, some chocolate bars, and Maru's prescription.

When we got back I took the Blast out, but the voltage was low, the battery had drained down enough in the cold that it wouldn't crank. I'll probably have to get a new battery this year sometime I am afraid. I stuck the charger on the battery, and about 3 hours later it had gone into float mode and was charged up so we took the bikes out to Walmart to look for some Seafoam engine and fuel additive. We didn't find any there, so we headed across town to Advance Auto Parts and picked it up there. The guy at the counter who helped us races at Memphis Motorsports and said he hit a patch of gravel recently and his bike is going to be in the shop for about 2 months before he can ride again. His uncle owns Kawasaki Sports Center on University, Ave. which is where I got TPOL two years ago. The owners name is Tom, really nice guy. He got me a great discount on Leatherlyke bags for my Vulcan (which they have discontinued this year for the VN750 I guess since the bike has been discontinued), and their mechanics are really swell fellows.

When we got home, we added Seafoam to each bike's tank, and then topped them off with gasoline. I rode the Blast around the neighborhood a bit, and it seemed to be running smoother but I don't think that is possible. Anyway, next time I need to add some oil to the Blast (oil change is coming up) and the Vulcan I'll add some Seafoam. Everyone on the VN750.com and Sporttwin.com forums seems to swear by the stuff. I've used Marvel Mystery oil with good success for a while, and the red bottle with old style label is kinda kitsch but I figured we should give Seafoam a try.

In addition to the two cans of Seafoam, I picked up a vacuum kit for changing my brake fluid. Still a bit nervous about this, but we'll see how it goes. The Blast really needs the fluid changed as I can tell a difference in the braking on the bike in the last couple of months. I just need to work up the courage to do the job.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now... Who reads this anyway? I know my friends do, and there are some nice people out there who have read this and sent me feedback about some of the things I've written about...

Later!

02/03/2007
Construction/Back Problems
Threw my lower back out today. I was building a shelf in the garage, and my saw died. It was a nice little Rockwell 7 1/4" saw my friend Fred gave me. Well, I plugged it in, and it just won't run. Checked the extension cord, no issues... The saw just doesn't work now for some reason. It really sucks, because it's an older saw, and Fred took great care of it and it looks like it's practically new. In order to finish the job my dad gave me a Skil saw, also 7 1/4". It's well used, but in good condition. So I was able to cut the wood for the shelf supports and drill the pilot holes, and countersink holes before my friend Henry called to ask me if I wanted to go for a ride.

Well, part of me really wanted to finish the shelf, and part of me wanted to take the bikes out since it was around 48 degrees and the sun was shining. He told me he'd be wearing his chaps today due to the cold, well, I've never seen him in chaps and the chance to rib him about it was something I didn't want to miss out on. I agreed, and attached my shelf supports and trim and then rounded up my gear. I was going to meet him and his friend Eric at a grocery store and we were gonna take the backroads to Conway, AR. I had some reservations about that ride, since Conway and north of it got more snow than here the last few days and might have ice on the road.

I rounded up my gear, and thought about getting my skibibs but didn't. That would have been a good idea, if I'd made it out of the garage. I twisted my waist funny while tossing my keys into the hardbags on the Vulcan and somehow threw my back out. It took a second, I bent down to pick something up right after I did it and was lucky enough to stop myself from pretty much going down on the floor in pain. As long as I kept my back straight I was fine. I called Henry back and told him I'd have to pass, I didn't want to risk riding with it tweaking like this. Despite all of this, I was able to cut my plywood, screw it down, and paint the shelf. I cleaned the garage up, organized my tools a bit, and then went and relaxed with some Tylenol.

Marie came home and we took the dogs for a walk, which helped my back a bit, but the sun was going down and I was glad to get home. I'm going to try to go to my martial arts class tomorrow, and observe... if I feel okay in the morning. I hate throwing my back out because it means about a week or two of propping myself up on my knees with my hands when having to bend over to pick something up.

I've got a list of projects to complete this winter still:

1. Install the Stebel Compact Nautilus on the Buell Blast.
2. Change the oil in the Vulcan.
3. Change the brake fluid in the Blast, and change it's oil.
4. Reorganize the garage and do some tool cleanup, sorting and restoration.
5. Paint part of the garage floor.

I also need to take some time off from work, things have been really busy recently to the point where I feel like I'm spinning. I love being busy, it keeps my happy, but I've worked alot of extra hours recently (that had to be worked) and while I didn't mind and enjoyed fixing the issues and learning alot in the process (as well as making some good friends) I would like to have some time to do some things at home as the weekends are just too short and I use my evenings pretty well when I have the time.

01/22/2007
Dish Network Installed
The Dish installer came today. He was from a contractor for Dish named Southern Star, and his name was Orlando. What a nice guy! :-) He installed the whole system in less than two hours. No additional wiring was required to install the Dual room recievers or anything. We've got a Dish DVR in the living room, which drives a TV in the office as well, and a regular Dish dual reciever driving two of the bedrooms. It's really cool. I can watch TV in all four rooms, and it's like I have four recievers. This is really excellent, and basically we sacrificed nothing for switching to cable, got a better deal pricewise than we had with cable, more features, etc... and it's all Digital! Orlando installed the dish, and the wiring on the house was buttoned up very neatly and it was a great installation. I've heard horror stories of weird installs, and had done an install myself and was very meticulous about how it was done... and Orlando was as meticulous as I would have been. Great service, and we're really happy with Dish versus Cable. Now I know why all my neighbors seem to have dishes on their house!