computer woes, but I'm rich

My computer is starting to really crap on me. Most of the part (CPU/CD/HDD) are circa 2005 and the video card 2006. Not that old but man, the disk errors and blue screens and other problems are just piling up. When in doubt fresh install of XP. That really did not help, it looks like hardware issues. This thing never get shut off and is used pretty hard. The family laptop is even worse. That is 2003 and won't run XP anymore so I have Ubuntu (as advertised on this blog). The battery is no good amd its a large bit of bulk, It's great for an email/web machine. It won't do iTunes and sad as that sounds, the girls use that.

Good news is I got my Federal Assistance er Stimulus check via Direct Deposit yesterday. Now I am rich. New computer? pay for the barn? decisions decisions.

:D

Two new beer reviews!

Yes! as requested a new feature! Beer reviews. Yep another hobby gone wrong. I will try to sample beer new and old and post my reviews, because the world needs to know what I think. Damnit!

Ok as previously mentioned, the two beers sampled here are Land Shark Lager and Point Pale ale.LandShark. Pure and simple, Corona rip-o, er clone. Jimmy B. and the marketing masterminds behind the Margaritaville brand strike again.

Listen, If I want Corona, I will buy a Corona. Because Jimmy Buffet makes it it has to be better right? Wrong. Pure and simple an mediocre island style (read American) lager at a champagne price. Good with pizza, but not for $7.50 a six-pack. Many more choices out there for this quality. Where is the High-Life Guy when you need him?


FWIW have not had Margarita brand Tequila, but I have had the mixes and they are also pretty bleh, too sweet. Come to think of it Cheeseburgers in Paradise are not that good either. Jimmy Buffet, stick to singing, although the checks that you get for endorsing this crap probably are not to bad. I just wonder if he ever drinks his own. Kinda like Sammy Hagar and his CaboWabo stuff, at least that is not too bad and I know he consumes it.

Enough about that. The next beer up is Point Cascade Pale Ale. Going out on a limb here to say that Cascade hops were used when making this ale. Just a hunch. Now lets set the table: I like pale ales but I am no hop head by any means. Big Sky I.P.A. (BigSky) or Bitter Woman (Tyranena). Anymore bitter than that than that and I no longer enjoy it. PCPA has a good darkish-amber (Crayola can have that one gratis). Decent hop nose, not huge, but there. Good carbonation. Not overly complex, and a pretty good flavor. I call it and adolescent IPA. (another marketing nugget!)

I would buy again and would introduce some people that I know don't like IPA's as a stepping stone. As I write this I realize I should probably have one so I can relate fresh tasting notes. Not that my notes taste fresh, but that I have more to wax on about as I experience the beverage. My memory is not aways the best after a few beers and few days have gone by. Call this a learning experience.

This is the downspount that finally came crashing down on Saturday. The abosolute tallest on on my house WTF. Woe is me. #@$#@ing house needs painting... Again.

:D

Catch all

Man this blogging is hard work. I know all you people really want to know what is going on in my life.

Friday was a lonng day at work and a lot of rain - some 5+ inches in 3 hours. Too many teens in the Man cave. Tracy monopolizing the other TV,watching all the crap, er, shows she DVRd the past week. A few beers and off to bed.

Saturday, got up way too early. Cleaned the office - you are riveted I can tell. went outside and realized the down spout got knocked off the house with all the wind and rain.

Oh and a birthday party Saturday night. You all know what a blast those are. Well they are not as bad as they used to be. People realize that 7 or 8 hrs is way too long fo these. The kids don't think so, well the younger ones. No poker anymore either. No Fritz no Rocky, no cards.

Softball

Sitting here watching Mackenzie's first softball practice. Too cold to
watch, not too cold to play. Man am I getting old.

A little sad that I am not coaching. But, eh I wasn't that good anyway. Kids can't do much worse than me.

Mackenzie will have a fun time. It's not too competitive yet. I do worry about Joel, lots of talent, not a lot of motivation. I also think he's got a case of the yips at the plate and it's carrying over to his fielding. I want to help him, he won't talk to me or tell me
anything. I try to tease him into it. That never works so I will stop. Can't help those who don't want help. I just felt so bad for him last year when he was batting.

Any sports psychologists out there?

-peace.

-Sent From My BlackBerry-

A blur...

Had shredded chicken nachos for dinner, easy slow cooker deal.

I did get my barn plans. Didn't you know I was building a barn? Ok a mini barn, more like a storage shed. Can't wait to start this project. Right after the bathroom projects.

Wednesday

Really nice day, work kinda sucked. But I did get some more yardwork done after supper.

Supper was a grill out. Time to update the counts!

Of Garlic and Baseball

The garlic I planted last fall is coming up. Kind of exciting. As I am out of all my good garlic. At dinner Sunday night my brother asked why he did not get any last year. I wanted to say, 'only the people who come out to my house gets some' . I bit my tongue, not the place for that.

Lots more gardening to do. Still have to pull the old dead crap out of a lot of beds, turn them over and get some plant stock.
On a kind of fun note, Joel started baseball practice. He went to the doctor on Friday with heel pain. He has Plantar fasciitis. So we had to get him some inserts and he has to do some stretching. Should be ok but we need to get more inserts for other shoes, too much to take em in and out of spikes, gym shoes and regular ones.

One last thing of note. Trying to do some geo-tagging of my pictures. I figured out how to get the GPS to track and then another free ware program that syncs the picture time to the gps location and time (in the EXIF data of the picture)which makes it able to show it on a map. Nerdy, sure. But It should be pretty cool on our vacations. Just think on a cruise, take a bunch of pictures off the side of the boat. Maybe a sunset. Wouldn't it be cool to actually pinpoint where that picture was taken? On an island. The rim on the grand canyon. My backyard garlic plot. :D

Catch up

Too busy to blahhhg this weekend.

Saturday I took the Civic in for an alignment. That was supposed to only be an hour. Its was closer to two and a half. Came home and had to go to Jayden's Birthday party. She is a nut!

Sunday was a beautiful day. I unpacked the storage locker, thatched the lawn, swept the lawn and then headed in to Milwaukee for my folks 40th Wedding anniversary dinner. Hard to believe 40 years. Maybe after pops sends us some pictures I will put them up here. Aren't they cute

I have a ton of things to do including clean my gear for a brewing session, clean the garage, clean the deck, car stuff prepare for the bathroom remodels and on and on.

Now if I could only focus on each task I could get them done. Instead I'm starting 32 different tasks and they will all be in some form of completion, but never fully complete. Story of my life.

Illegal Burrito

My nephew Matt is back with us this weekend. Like a stepson but stepson is not the right word for it, he's more like an adopted kid from the third world that we have on weekends. He still sleeps on the floor.

Anyway, making tacos for dinner. They have evolved into burritos, I add rice, black refried beans, meat, cheese, hot sauce and other items so large they don't fit on the taco sized shells. So good/big they are illegal.

My new Mexican restaurant will be call the Illegal Burrito. Pure genius.

Joel is at a school lock-in. But only until 11. I thought a lock in meant all night. Baahhhhhh!

Going to Kiki's first communion practice and family dinner. Yea!

Tax Day

Yep, Tax Day. Doesn't affect me too much. I filed in February.

Going to be busy day. Lots of work to get done. Work work and the stuff after work. 2 turkeys to cook, lasagnas to make, music lessons and Kiki's communion classes. Glens' coming by for the tile saw too.

I have to schedule some time to clean my brewing gear and get that Pale ale started. Speaking of pale ale. I bought 2 new six packs while at the store on Sunday. Point now makes a pale ale and the other was well, against my better judgment, Landshark Lager. Yes Jimmy Buffet has his own, er, Corona, clone. Reviews to follow. I think that may be a feature as the summer rolls around. Some kind of spirits review, be it beer, single malt or who knows what.

Maybe a podcast is next. Just Kidding.

Who needs a title

Today is a lazy day, if you're an animal in this house. Bailey did not give up the bed this time. He just shared a little of it.

Nothing too new here. We did get the replacement Tune Studio. Guess what? it works. I was able to record for 30+ minutes before I manually shut it off. That made me happy.

Pecan Waffles - Weekend in review

I finished the basement I was working on this weekend. Wrapped up around noon Sunday. That was nice. I brough my camera down on Saturday, thinking to snap some pics. I did not. Then today I forgot the camera. Doh!

Unpacked the trailer, took a shower, went grocery shopping and for dinner made pancakes. Something about breakfast for dinner. Sho is good. I threw some chopped pecans in mine. Yum.

Oh yea. Bought some STP tickets coming to SummerFest on July Fourth. SHould be good. I mean they're no RoadTrip... :D

Looking up

Cats rule the joint. Bailey gives up his bed in no time. Some good news. Belkin called me up and is overnighting a new tune studio to me on Monday!! They even apologized for the time it has taken to get this resolved. As well as a free return label.

Rainy Thursday

April showas bring mayflowas, what do mayflowas bring? Pilgrims, Ba dum bump.

Come on summa, I need to warm up!

Hump Day

What else is there to say. :D

No follow up call from Belkin.

Tech support rant

I was hoping to have a few more band clips to listen to. The device I bought for Joel to record with is not working too well. Belkin Tunestudio, great idea, so far bad execution. It will only record for 3-7 minutes at a time. 2 different ipods, 2 different mics or straight input. So I call tech support. Can't help- we will call you back. They call in the middle of the day. I miss the call. I call them back, Level 2 support needs to be involved. They will call you back. I call them back - someone should call you tomorrow. I did get a call from Level 3 support. Guess what? They can't help me either. It's got to go to Product Management. Send me a new one already. This this is so new they don't even know how to support it. 3 weeks and no new recording. Awesome.

Happy Monday

Yea - I know I missed my first ever blog posts for the weekend. Probably going to be like that as the weather gets nicer. And it did. Unfortunately, I was spending most of Saturday finishing a basement.

Had I actually cared enough to get on the computer Saturday I could have gave some details about that. Small basement, easy job. Jim gives me the dimensions for all the built ins, parts and pieces so I can pre-build and bring em down. As he has done perfectly the last 3 jobs. This one he was measuring in the bizzaro world. Yea, I have to rebuild a few things.

Sunday was not as warm, but I did grill some really nice ribeyes. I forgot to take a before/after picture so I could make your mouth water. I should keep a record of how much grilling I do this year. It's a lot.

Hppy Friday

Ok it's Friday, should be a good day based on the trend.

Brewers home opener.

I have to make some cabinets tonight and back the trailer. It's time to refinish a basement. Luckily this is a pretty small one.

not much to say

I am having the manic depressive week. Good day, bad day. Today fit that bill, bad day. Work sucked, weather sucked, no food in the house. Went grocery shopping, it was unfulfilling. Produce sucks this time of year.

10 year checkup

Wednesday was the annual trip to Madison for Tracy's annual post liver transplant check up. No problems, all smiles and a 10 year pin!

April Fools

That's me in a suit. Must be a job interview....Lol.
Had a lunch meeting and presentation today. I tried to take a picture of me in my suit, since most people think I wear sweats, shorts an flip flops all the time. Proof that is not the case. I do look unhappy though...Gotta work on that.