Speaking of Bats

This is actually pretty weird, all this talk about bats and bat men, but my cat, Papi, he whose killing exploits I chronicled for a year in my aptly named Bodycount posts, snagged a bat Saturday night. That's probably his most unusual kill.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Batman Begins
So, a new Batman movie came out a few weeks ago, perhaps you've heard of it, and everybody has been raving about it. Apparently, this is the second Batman movie starring Christian Bale. Who knew? Not I, friend, not I. Well, dangit, I can't watch the new one without seeing the last one...

How, you might ask, did Batman Begins escape my movie radar? No clue. Although I've tossed around a few theories*.

1. Generally speaking, I hate comic book movies, and with Netflix I have more flexibility with the movies I watch and don't get stuck renting something just because there's nothing else that I haven't seen. The problem with Netflix is that you can miss some movies that you might otherwise like since you don't have a giant wall of movies to stare at.
   
2. Batman & Robin sucked so bad that my brain went into survival mode and completely blocked out any memory of or desire to see anything Batman related ever again.
   
3. Katie Holmes. It was around this time that I made the life affirming decision to never ever watch another Tom Cruise movie for the rest of my life. Perhaps, at that time my zealotry extended to her as well. I can't remember, but it seems plausible.
   

Saturday night was designated Batman Begins night. I settled down with a bottle of Legend Pilsner and a big bowl of popcorn (popped on the stove, not in the microwave, and not Jiffy pop either, jackass). To say I was excited would be not far from the truth.

Ok, enough already. Here's what I thought (stolen from thesaurus.com):

Batman Begins is excellent, a-one, admirable, blue-chip, bravo, bully, capital, choice, classic, estimable, famous, fine, first rate, generous, good, great, magnificent, matchless, meritorious, nifty, outstanding, peerless, prime, select, spiffy, sterling, stupendous, super, superb, superior, superlative, terrific, top-notch, tops, transcendent, unparalleled, unrivaled, valuable, wonderful, worthy.

Gagknee's Grade: A

*It's #2, in case you wanted to know.

Has it really been almost 20 years since Michael Keaton first starred as Batman? Incredible.

Fiddler on the Shed

You know the best part about roofing? When its all done.

I don't mean that in a facetious way. Well, maybe a little bit, but mostly I mean that it's pretty simple, although a bit physically tough, and hard to screw up, and when you are done it looks really good.

I understand why traditionally roofers are the most intoxicated of our country's tradesman. It's pretty boring work, and the buzz helps kill the pain in your calves.

Front side in progress, but mostly done. Had a little help from a friend which was appreciated.



New tool for the job, roof jacks. These suckers were only 8 bucks each at Home Depot. Money well spent. The roof is an 8/12 pitch, which simply means it is hard not to slide off.



Done. Finished on Sunday in between and during torrential downpours. As long as there's no lightning nearby...



I'm not sure why that last picture looks like crap. Must be my neighbor's aura seeping onto my property. Or my son messed with the camera. You decide.

Shawshed Redemption

Not much done, I was outta town and low on money, so I installed something I already had. Windows!

Man. They look sooo small. Oh well. Perhaps they'll look better after the trim and paint is done. Besides, its just a SHED.

Back to the Pipeline

Decided to relive my drearm a couple of days ago and revisit the pipeline to see how the river has changed since March.

It's a lot different with foliage.




The water is a lot lower too.









Last time around I was stopped at this point by the water.





The pipeline takes a sharp left up ahead and goes out into the river a bit. If I wasn't wearing work clothes I could have waded out there. Instead I walked through the woods.

See how the water is calm in this picture? That's because the pipeline makes a little dam of sorts. There was a homeless guy swimming in the river just out of the picture. I was afraid I had spooked him because he started to come out of the river after I took the shot. I repeated a silent prayer over and over, "Please don't let him be naked. Please don't let him be naked."



There was actually a couple of homeless people encampments in those woods. I was a little spooked. Especially after a youngish looking dude with huge dark circles under his eyes popped out from behind a tree. My "how's it goin'" was met with a cold stare. Guess he don't speak Yankee.

Cool shot (to me) of the Manchester Bridge. The lighting is harsh. I'm no professional.



And last but not least, this bridge that was burned down after they fled the city during the Civil War.

The Chicken or the Egg

This little baby made my heart flutter when I spied it during my "internet perusing while waiting for some program to load" time this morning.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/mcy/767677333.html

If I hadn't sunk all of my money into the shed I could get it, but then if I hadn't built a shed, I wouldn't have anywhere to keep it and work on it. Ah, well. Others will come, they always do.

Here's a coupla pictures in case the craigslist ad goes away. Its a 1978 Honda XL175.

Neighbor's Lawnmower Fetish Exposed!

I didn't get them all. There's a riding mower under a tarp and at least one other junk push mower on her patio, but I caught an earful from her the other day about trespassing on her property, and I'm afraid that I would burst into an expletive-laden rant if I ever have to speak to her again.

This is what I see outside my kitchen window. Grow lilac bushes! Grow!



Lawnmowers in the pale moonlight. I like the purple one with the bicycle wheels.



In the pile of junk in the driveway.



Lawnmower hide-n-seek. Found you! Oh wait a minute...is that poison ivy? It would explain the rash I've had on my legs the past two weeks. The riding mower is under that blue tarp. She actually asked me to fix it, and I could use it, as long as I mowed her back yard too. I was considering it too, until she accused me of bringing a "whole bunch of people" onto her property. Bag.



I call this one "Emasculated Mower".



I'm not going to tell you why I call it that. Art is meant to be interpreted.

Fabulous Movie Reviews®

Cloverfield
Ew. The cinematography made me nauseous. Nah, I kid. Good movie, but not great. I like that it was filmed from the perspective of the characters, camcorder style. However, the cameraman was kind of a shipdit and I am glad he died. Too bad his death wasn't more dramatic like my cat tearing apart a mouse or a bird or a vole.

It was really short though (that could be good or bad based on your ideas of how long a movie should be). I wished it would have been longer, or at least that the first 30 minutes of getting-to-know-the-characters time had been used for more running-from-the-monster time.

Gagknee's Grade: B-

Semi-Pro
Jeez louise. If you know anybody who told you this movie was bad before you saw it, raise your hand.

Worse than Talladega Nights, Not even semi-funny, I laughed not once. NOT ONCE.

I'm so disappointed in you, Mr. Ferrell. It'll take more than Stranger than Fiction 2 or Elf's Revenge for me to every say you can carry a movie again.

Can't really blame the guy though. We all do this at work. Sometimes we take the easy way out. At the end of the week you're going to get paid, whether you convert some 25 year old COBOL banking software into a .NET web app or if you spent all your time downloading new extensions for FireFox. As long as your productive weeks outnumber your lazy weeks you're good, right?

This is your mulligan, Mr. Ferrell, your lazy week (er, movie). Now get back to work!

Gagknee's Grade: D

Boogie Sheds

Trim's all done around the roof. Not relishing the idea of banging in nails upside down on a ladder, I opted to wait on doing the soffits because I ran out of nails for the framing nailer.



I hated doing the siding on the gables. Theres some trick to it that I don't know. Anyway, I have some gaps where my angle was off. Ah, well. It will be covered by trim eventually.



The tar paper and drip edges went up to. Just in time for some big rain storms. I just hope the tar paper doesn't come off before I get a chance to shingle.



Drip edge is a pain too. Especially when its windy out.

Shingles, doors and windows...almost there.

Opening Day Starter - Red Sox 1997

Fabulous Movie Review®

Walk Hard
Any movie that has full frontal male nudity should have a disclaimer right on the DVD itself under the title.

If you insist on watching this movie anyway and choose to not see some dude's junk, the scene where this occurs is pretty easy to spot and you will have plenty of time to cover your eyes.

All that being said, this movie is pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised. It is not laugh out loud funny, but the type of movie that you think back on and chuckle at some of the lines and screwy plot situations.

Was it worth being permanently scarred with the image of some random johnson? No. But luckily for you, you have me to warn you.

Gagknee's grade: C

Holy Crap!

But before you get too excited like I did, she didn't get rid of the truck. It was towed to a mechanic to fix.

Shed Wish III

My white whale.

This is pretty much all I got done this weekend choosing instead to hang out with the old lady* and the chilluns.





The Satan is in the particulars they say, and they are right. I slapped up two walls in a day, but all this nitty bitty detail stuff is a pain and takes time.

I know nothing about putting a roof together. This has been made very clear to me. A lot of mistakes I have made. And that's just the mistakes I know about. Imagine an experienced roof guy coming along, "Yuh shoulda not done it thataway..."

I've learned some valuable lessons in this project. How I apply those lessons has not yet been determined.

*Although I shouldn't have to add a disclaimer to this post, you never know who is reading, and I want to say, I have never called my wife "my old lady." Not because I am all high and mighty, but because I think it sounds stupid. I worked summer jobs where these grizzly old "beer for breakfast" types (gene, you out there? shout out to you bud for coining that phrase!) would refer to their common law wives as their "old ladies".

I lost my train of thought.

Oh yeah, I was using "my old lady" for some sort of comedic effect (making fun of roofers). No offense toward females intended.

Cat on a Hot Shed Roof

I'm sorry. I haven't finished my photographic evidence of Neighbor's Lawnmower Fetish Exposed!

But I did manage to build this neat loft where I will store all of my hay.



Picked up a new tool from Home Demarijuana with some money I gots for my birthday. Hey, I know I'm too old to get money for my birthday, but what would you do if someone gave you some dough?

I had intentions of getting a new circular saw, but this baby was on clearance. I've never owned or used one before, and now that I have I am a card carrying member of the National Sawzall Association (NSA).



Me and the boy and my chlorophyll stained sneakers chillin' in the hayloft.



Have you ever been in a real hayloft? I did when I was in the 6th grade way up in Canada. What seemed like three stories of hay bails in a 3 dimensional maze. One incandescent bulb at the very peak of the barn. Even my frosty flake addled brain didn't think that was the safest thing to use. Better than candles I guess.

Ahh, the roof, in all its glory.



View from afar.



I remember once when I was 14 I helped someone reroof their 2 1/2 story New Englander. Thirty feet up in the air on that day, and I was just about as nervous on this project as I was on that one.

There's some words of wisdom about getting old here, but they escape me.

There's probably some words of wisdom about getting more forgetful, but they escape me.

Night of the Living Shed

It was pretty cool out last night, so I felt it would be a good time to bang out another part of the shed.

The eaves on the east gable end.



A view from afar.



The roof is all framed. What's next? I'm not really sure. The book I got from the library was overdue and had to go back.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Neighbor's Lawnmower Fetish Exposed!

Wow. I'm lame.

Goopy Eyes

Ever have a day when one of your eyes is producing mass quanitities of eye snot and you wear contacts and your glasses are broken and your life's work depends upon reading a computer screen and you have a release to do but there was a problem with a stored procedure that you wrote but it is almost impossible to think about a solution when you are constantly blinking and can only read out of one eye?

Faster, Shed! Kill! Kill!

Yeah, I haven't gotten much done lately.

Two weekends ago was wicked (why do people make fun of me down here for saying that?) hot, and all I could muster up after mowing the pasture was putting studs in the gables.





This past weekend I had relatives visiting, my great uncle francois and his fourth wife Lucille and her adopted children from Thailand. Needless to say, I didn't get much done. Mostly, just the eaves on one end. It was tedious work.



This coming weekend...I'll get a lot done.

Here's a view of the pasture, for those who care.

Wow

I don't watch much basketball, or maybe I should say I haven't watched any basketball since Reggie Lewis died until these NBA finals. Man. What a great series it was. I'm glad I was caught up in it. I think that I would have regretted it forever if I hadn't watched.

Oh sure, it wasn't like watching the '04 Sox, but I never jumped off that bandwagon. Ever. If you are a die hard Celtics fan, don't hate me for being fair weather, I never judged you for not knowing who the Red Sox opening day starter was in 1997.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Dan in Real Life
The family portrayed in this movie is quite possibly, no, is, the whitest family ever.

It's a nice movie, and a safe movie, and a happy movie, but it really didn't hit me.

The other day I was walking down the street, and this guy stopped me and said, "Hey, Gagknee, how come you aren't doing any Fabulous Movie Reviews?" (not sure of the proper punctuation here, and frankly, I don't care).

After recovering from the shock of someone recognizing me on the street I replied, "Because I'm thoroughly wrapped up in watching The Sopranos right now, and there hasn't been anything out that I've been dying to see."

"What about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford that you posted about on April 28, 2006 which sparked a New Hampshire-wide scandal about your sexual orientation?" he asked.

"Um, I had no idea it was on DVD yet," I sheepishly replied.

"Of course you didn't because you're an @%&^%!&. You $#%@$@% ?#$%."

Edit: I forgot to mention that this movie is mind numbingly boring.

Gagknee's Grade: C+

Central Air Would be Nice

Last summer our AC unit broke about 2 weeks after we bought the house. I had it fixed and then a week later it broke again. It would have cost a grand to fix, which would have been a stupid amount of money to sink into a 30 year old unit, so I bought this little 10,000 BTU baby right here to cool the upstairs of the house. At least we would be able to sleep well.

That didn't work out so well. The upstairs never got really cool and the living room, with the sun beating down on it all day, was like a brick oven. So when I saw this heat wave in the forecast. Actually, when the first day of this heat wave hit on Wednesday, I said screw it, and bought three small air conditioners for the upstairs. The big one is now in the kitchen. And it is cooling the downstairs of the house like a champ.

I should have had the central air replaced this year, but I had other goals, like some landscaping, ceiling fan, shed etc. that I wanted to accomplish, and the 6 grand price tag scared me off.

Last summer wasn't too bad and I figured we could make it again with the one window unit. Basically, I played chicken with Mother Nature and lost.