Note to Self

Eating too many pumpkin seeds has serious repercussions.

Rain, Rain Go Away

I wanted to paint my house today.

It rained off and on all morning, so I started painting my shutters in the family room.

The afternoon came and the sun peaked out a few times and I thought that I was good to go, but as soon as I set up my ladder (the first picture) the skies opened up. Try again tomorrow.

Barron von Richthofen

Oh MAN. I'd love to buy this car, but unfortunately I've never replaced a barron before. Is there anybody out there who could help me replace the barrons in this car? I should called Advance Auto and see if they have a barron set in stock. Maybe they have barron set removal tools for rent.

Rare

You don't see International pickups for sale every day.

Cuckoo for Coconut

Lady and gentleman we have a winner. The Goya Coconut soda is 12 ounces of pure unadulterated carbonated goodness. Its very smooth and has a light, pleasant after taste. I didn't think anything would be able to wash away the stink of the Malta Goya, but the coconut soda did.

Sunday was dreary too

It's amazing the difference in weather between cold, wet, dreary Sunday and today, a warm, sunny Wednesday.

Anyway, even though Sunday was just like Saturday I did manage to get the 2nd coat on the front of the house and finished the first coat on the side.

One of the things I don't like about my house is the complete lack of anything resembling architectural detail. Specifically, eaves and trim around the windows. I'd love to do that some day, but its not in the budget now. Too many other projects. One thing I would like to do is add muntins to my windows to give it a more colonial look with fake divided lights. Not sure how I am going to accomplish this yet, but I'm thinkin'.

Oh, and my new shutters arrived today! If the weather is nice this weekend, I could have the trim painted and shutters up on these two sides of the house. That would be, as they say in Poland, sweet.

Malta Goyaaaaauck

Yesterday while buying the ginger beer I noticed several other flavors of soda from Goya and I was intrigued. Today I picked up a bottle of Malta Goya, a non-alcoholic malt beverage says the label.

My initial impression upon popping the top was one of disgust. A cloud of sweet molassesy air went straight up my nose. The first sip nearly made me lose my lunch, if I had eaten lunch yet that is. Its like watered down molasses. For my next magical trick I am going to drink high fructose corn syrup on the rocks.

I'm determined to drink the whole thing though (still working on it as I type). The taste lingers on the palate for a long time. Time for another sip.

*shudders* Blech. Hispanics can keep their Bud Clamato and their Malta Goya. I won't infringe on that part of their culture anymore.

A Sissy No Longer

The first time I ever tried ginger beer I hated it and was called a sissy. I took it like a man because, quite frankly, I was being a sissy.

A few years go by and one day while at my local Kroger (pronounced: kay - raw - jer) I bought a four pack of Stewart's ginger beer and willed myself to like it.

And now, like a hobo has his Wild Irish Rose, I have my ginger beer.

Restaurants to which I have been

We've been to two seafood restaurants recently. One blew, one was the complete opposite of blowing. Hmm. No. I guess that would be sucking, which isn't right either. It was fabulous.

Spinnaker's

Bland, plasticky food only a nursing home resident could love. Their claim to fame is bread cooked and served in a flower pot. Kinda cool, but what does a flower pot have to do with the sea? Absolutely nothing. If it had been cooked in a chum bucket, well, now, that would be something.


Shackleford's

I was leary of the newly opened Shackleford's because of my Spinnaker's experience, but I needn't have worried. The food was spectacular.

From the dinner rolls to the calamari appetizer (I shouldn't have told my daughter who liked it that she was eating squid) and finally to my scallops florentine entree, I was in heaven. I ate some from everybody's plate when they couldn't finish their meals. That doesn't happen very often.

Here's the description of my meal from the menu:

Pan seared jumbo scallops served over wilted spinach, apple wood smoked bacon and
sautéed fondant potatoes. Finished with hollandaise.

Me so hungry right now.

Sun baked

The price is too high and it looks like its been sitting out in the sun for a long, long time, but t-tops and a V8 are pretty cool, and rare.

It was a cold and dreary day

And I got a coat of paint on the front of my house while eyeing the threatening clouds all afternoon.

I borrowed a bigger ladder from my neighbor across the street because mine is a girly 16 footer. My neighbor and his dad are originally from Vermont. The first time I met his dad I discovered he has a really thick northern New England accent. I hugged him and weeped. I stammered ayuh ayuh ayuh ayuh in disbelief for minutes.

Anyway, about the ladder. The peak in the front of the house here wasn't too bad. I don't like being up on ladders too much. My property slopes down to a creek so the back gable, which is about 4 feet higher, is going to put me so far out of my comfort zone that I will have to go on Google maps to find my way back to it.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Oldboy
The premise is good. A man is imprisoned for 15 years and he doesn't know why and by whom. When he is released he discovers that he is still being manipulated by his imprisoner.

I have really liked the few Korean movies that I've seen, but this is, while it is good, is just a bit too over the top for me. It also loses points for being dubbed in English. Subtitles are much more preferred.

6 out of 10 (OK)

Evil Shed II

I had a hard time deciding what color to paint the house and since I had a shed to use as my guinea pig I experimented a little. Z wife put a coat of a yellowy beige on the shed whilst I was in West Virginia last spring. Then she started painting the trim a light brown and decided she didn't like it.

Mid summer I took a trip to Lowes and picked out light blue for the body, dark blue for the shutters, and white trim. The nice thing about white trim is that my white gutters and white vinyl windows won't stick out like a sore bum.

I really liked the light blue. Bright and different, as it seems everybody paints their house some shade of beige or white. Being bold with paint isn't really my thing, so I kind of agonized over the light blue for a while before finally pulling the trigger on it.

See, I'm of French-Canadian genetic stock. When I was a kid, and if you grew up in or near New Hampshire towns with a large population of French-Canadians like Nashua, Manchester, Somersworth or Rochester then you will know what I am talking about, it was the running family joke that whenever we would see a house painted purple or pink or bright blue, we would say, "oh they must be French". I don't like being the butt of a joke (even if I am the only living breathing French-Canadian-American some people down here have ever seen), and I most certainly don't like being the butt of my own jokes.

My dad painted the shutters on the house in Dover (not a town with many French-Canadians by the way) that we lived in when I was a kid pink and he never lived it down.

So anyway, enough about my history of paranoia. I didn't like the first shade of light blue, too light, so after putting 2 coats of that on the entire shed, I went and bought a darker shade of light blue. This is what is on it now and it is also what I've started painting the big house with. The front wall of the shed has 6 coats of paint on it including the primer. Crazy.

The doors I decided to paint the dark blue that the shutters will be. Alas, I didn't quite like that shade of blue either. Too bright. So after three coats of blue on the doors, I switched it up and got a darker shade. I like it better and will go with it.

This a picture of the doors with one half the darker blue and the other half the brighter blue. The darker side is still wet at this point soo...

Here it is after it dried. I am not totally down with the idea of having dark blue doors. I'll get used to it. Plus, I don't know what other color I would paint them besides white, maybe beige but that would be too many colors on the house I think.

Stalking

We had another interview today. I wanted to ask her if her neighbor's 1972 Camaro was for sale, but I didn't.

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Looking for a Few Good Developer

We're trying to hire a new .NET Developer. Most of the resumes we've received have been less than inspiring. The interviews, save one, have been, well, awful. I need one of you wicked awesome programmers that I've worked with in the past ten years to make a life changing decision and move down here, over here, up here, and take this job.

In the spirit of 1997 here's a short FAQ:

Why would I want to work with you, when all you do is complain about your various jobs and your coworkers?

First of all, if you are reading this, then you are not one of the people I have ever complained about. Second, this is a blog and I play it up a little for dramatic effect. Third, the number of actual individual people that I complain about I can count on one hand. Not bad for a professional career nearly spanning three decades (hehe, I love how that sounds).

Why would I want to move to Richmond? You always complain about your white trash neighbors. That doesn't seem too appealing.

Well, I'm sure you made better financial choices in your twenties than I did, enabling you to buy a house in a redneck free zone. Of which there are plenty.

I don't particularly like you. I mean we worked together well enough, but I don't know if I want you to be, you know, the only person in a strange city that I know.

Ouch. That hurts. I promise not to fraternize with you outside work after I give you an initial tour of the city. Ok?

Office Space

I've had some cool offices and some decidedly uncool cubicles, but my new space, a reclaimed dumping ground, is the best so far.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Watchmen
In one word, horrible. No, that doesn't quite do it. Atrocious. Easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. Its 3 hours of spinach* eating. Three hours of toilet cleaning. Three hours of sit ups while a fat sweaty man squats over you.

1 out of 10 (Suckiest movie that ever sucked)

*canned spinach with no added salt, pepper or butter.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Wanted
Despite having plot holes big enough to drive a CSX train, an 18 wheeler and a Greyhound bus through at the same time, I have a hard time saying that this was a bad movie because of the movie which I am reviewing next and watched the day after this one. Still though, Wanted is not particularly good. Jolie is skeletal. The beginning tried to be too much like Fight Club. The entire premise of the movie is its fatal flaw, and even though I love to suspend disbelief (or is it belief) and did, often, the plot has to make sense at least.


4.5 out of 10 (Pretty stupid)

Not My Forté

For a website I am building. I'm thinking about outsourcing the graphic design.

















For the record, I could do a slightly better job with it, but I really don't want to.