Whatever

Handle every stressful situation as a dog would… piss on it and walk away.

One of my favorite restaurants is going to have live music and a belly dancer…

The Gardens Restaurant

Presents

“Mediterranean Nights”

Starting July 25th

Live Greek - Mediterranean Music

Live Belly Dancing

Full Menu

Friday & Saturday Nights

8:00 PM to ??

5201 E. Busch Blvd., Tampa, FL

(813) 989-2069

Good food, good service, good prices…. and now live music and belly dancing. Can life get any better than this?

I usually don’t like it when people forward emails to me, but now and then I get one I actually like.

Ole was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens) called “pullets,” and 10 roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

Ole’s favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but one morning he noticed old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, could run for cover.

To Ole’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn’t ring. He’d sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Ole was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the San Diego County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the No-Bell Piece Prize, but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren’t paying attention.

Vote carefully this year… the bells are not always audible.

I used to have Brighthouse cable, including a high-definition dvr. Hi-def on my TV was incredible. I got to a point where it was unpleasant watching regular TV. Then I switched to Verizon FIOS. Unfortunately, they were back-ordering the HD-DVRs. Without hi-def I just have not been enjoying TV lately, watching only a few special programs that I just can’t miss.

Today my back-ordered HD-DVR finally arrived. I am in heaven again. I’ve got a bunch more HD channels than I had before. It’s like… WOW! Watching TV will now be a pleasant experience again.

Here’s a little illustration showing the difference between regular and hi-def TV. The content is the same, but notice how much clearer the hi-def picture is…

No change on the employment front. I guess I’m just too lazy to go get a job…

If I get a job I’ll really miss the unstructured life I’ve been living. I like being able to come and go as I please. My life is almost entirely on my schedule, not somebody else’s.

I think I’ve found a way to re-structure my retirement account that may produce a higher level of income. As long as the economy is in the shit-house my income won’t be as high as it was, but I think I can get it back up to about 2/3 of it was a few months back, then I might be able to make it by just working a couple days a week.

Life is good… but could be better.

I took out my earrings today. It’s the first time they’ve been out since I put them in fifteen months ago, right after my last day working at that certain theme park. I must admit it does feel a bit strange without them. They had almost become part of me.

The title of this post is Monthly Update because I just realized that it’s been a full month since I’ve posted anything.

Let’s see… What’s happened in the last month?

The renaissance festival drew to a close. It occupied seven weekends of my life. I had a lot of fun. Met some wonderful new people. Had some great weather and some horrible weather. A couple days it rained so hard that I actually left before the festival closed for the day. Being a loner, I’ve decided that I really prefer to experience the festival alone or with just a couple friends. Hanging out with a big group every weekend is anxiety inducing for me.

In the last month I’ve had to give up on an old friend. He’s one of those friends that everything is his way or the highway. I decided since he can’t respect my feelings I’d chose the highway. I’ve experienced a great sense of relief after making the difficult decision to give up on the friendship.

My finances took a turn for the worse. Due to the faltering economy my retirement income has dropped dramtically. My income no longer covers basic expenses so I guess I’ll be going back to work. Since I have rehire status at my last place of employment I’ll probably go back to work there since it’s the easiest job to get. I’ll definitely work in a different department, though.

I am still experiencing Second Life on a daily basis. I’ve acquired my own little piece of land and commenced building. I’ve put up a nice little semi-Japanese teahouse, some extensive landscaping, built some things from scratch, and scattered many pose balls around for meditating. My main goal is to create a relaxing atomoshpere and so far it seems to be working. It’s been a lot of fun building my little corner of Second Life. Maybe one of these days I’ll post some pictures of it.

Life is good.

We live in a climate of fear. The neo-conservatives funded by big business want us to believe that everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Perhaps the tide is starting to turn…

9:15

Sometimes I feel like I’m just going in circles…

I don’t like clowns. I’m not afraid of them like some people are. I… just… don’t… like… them…

One place you will often find clowns is in the children’s wards of hospitals. Oh, how nice! Some entertainment for the kids to enjoy while they are in the hospital. Recently there was a survey of 250 four to sixteen year hospital patients. Well, according to the results published in Nursing Standard magazine not one single kid in the survey likes clowns. That’s right… ALL 250 dislike clowns, with some finding them quite frightening. So let’s subject our kids to the discomfort of being in the hospital and then terrorize them with clowns!!!

It’s nice to know that I am not alone in my dislike of clowns. I don’t think clowns should be outlawed because I believe they are protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. I usually just do my best to avoid them. Unfortunately, the undercover clowns who blend into society in plain clothes are the hardest to spot coming and I often find myself face-to-face with some Bozo without any warning…

After countless theories the true identity of the person known as Mona Lisa may have been discovered…

“Deep in the archive of Heidelberg University, researcher Veit Probst says he has found a book that once belonged to Agostino Vespucci, a friend of da Vinci. In the margin of one page is a note from October 1503 which, the researcher claims, confirms the identity of the Mona Lisa as the Mona (for Madonna) Lisa del Giocondo, the third wife of a Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo.”
(from the Irish Times 1/15/08)

Well, I know that I’ll sleep better at night now that I don’t have to worry about her true identity anymore…

Last summer my dad’s cell phone broke. The display stopped working. It’s a flip-phone and it there is a tiny wire between the main body of the phone and the flip-up screen. The wire had broken. It cost quite a bit to fix.

A couple weeks after my dad’s phone broke, another friend’s phone broke. Same model phone, same wire broke.

Wednesday my phone broke. Same model phone, same wire broke, at least that’s what I’m assuming. I am able to receive calls, but can’t see the caller ID so I won’t answer. If whoever is calling leaves a message I can retrieve my voice mail using the voice-activated dialing feature.

So now the question is… should I get the phone fixed? The phone cost a lot because it has a lot of features so you might think it’s worth it to get it fixed. It costs almost a hundred bucks to get the phone fixed. However, the contract is up for renewal in a couple months so I can get new feature-packed phone with a new contract.

I’m thinking I’ll just get my old phone reactivated. It was a good phone, smaller and lighter. I charged the battery and it still seems to be in working condition. Then when the contract runs out I can renew the contract and get a new phone or just go with one of those cheap prepaid phones from a discount store.

In the mean time, don’t expect me to answer the phone even if you’re a friend. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you eventually. Who knows, maybe I can tear myself away from Second Life today long enough to go to the phone store.

Um…. Happy New Year

If you’ve been watching The Next Great American Band, then you’re probably aware that The Clark Brothers won the competition. I just want to say congratulations to three very deserving people–Adam, Ashley, and Austin Clark. One of the judges on the show said, “They’re the real deal…” Well, he’s right, they really are the real deal.

They were raised in a musical family doing ministerial work as Freddy Clark Ministries. They worked very hard in the family band and have obviously kept up the hard work. They didn’t just get lucky to win this competition, they earned it.

Congratulations, boys, for a job well done.

The last couple months have been rather hectic around here.

Several rounds of out of town guests have finally returned to the great white north.

My father has been in the process of getting his new condo ready to move in for the last couple months and that’s coming to a close. We’ve been moving a lot of small things over to his new place. The movers are coming tomorrow to move his big things over and then he’ll start living in the new place and settling in.

I’ve been able to get rid of a couple large pieces of excess furniture that have been taking up space at my place and I can once again walk through the upstairs bedroom to get to my desk.

Things are slowly returning to “normal,” whatever that is…

Life is good.

Top Gear, a car show in Great Britain, recently reviewed a 1964 Peel P50…

Here’s hoping you had an interesting Halloween…

A bald man with a wooden leg gets invited to a Halloween party. He doesn’t know what costume to wear to hide his head and his leg so he writes to a costume company to explain his problem. A few days later he received a parcel with the following note:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a pirate’s outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and, with your wooden leg, you will be just right as a pirate.
Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

The man thinks this is terrible because they have emphasized his wooden leg and so he writes a letter of complaint. A week goes by and he receives another parcel and a note, which says:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a monk’s habit. The long robe will cover your wooden leg and, with your bald head, you will really look the part.
Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

Now the man is really upset since they have gone from emphasizing his wooden leg to emphasizing his bald head so again he writes the company another nasty letter of complaint. The next day he gets a small parcel and a note, which reads:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a bottle of molasses and a bag of crushed nuts. Pour the molasses over your bald head, pat on crushed nuts, stick your wooden leg up your @ss and go as a caramel apple.
Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

I live alone, with a cat and bird for company. I rarely get company. In this situation it’s easy to fall into the “I’ll do it later” mode. So there’s a bit of mess piling up… I’ll get to it later… There’s no real motivation to keeps things tidy. I used to tell people my hobby was collecting dust and they should come over anytime and enjoy my collection.

Today I’ve got company coming so I got motivated to tidy up the place. It’s not that it takes all that long, it’s just that “I’ll do it later” thing that allows things to pile up. Maybe I need to invite people over more often. Then my place will be tidy all the time.

Yeah, right, sure…

Well, at least it’s tidy for today.

On Tuesday Apple finally announced the release date for their new operating system, Mac OS X 10.5. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the new OS, so on Wednesday I went across town to the Apple Store and got my new computer. It’s wonderful. It’s got the old OS on it but I will get a free upgrade as soon as it comes out on October 26.

Apple makes it pretty easy to upgrade from one computer to another. Just run a cable from one to the other and run the migration program. I’ve done this several times before through the years. I got the new computer out and turned it on. The computer setup program asks a few simple questions and then automatically goes into the migration program. Answer a few more simple questions and everything happens automatically… if you have the right cable.

In the past you used an ethernet crossover cable and I’ve got one of those. Well, since the last time I did a migration they have changed the procedure to use a firewire cable instead. No problem, run to the Walmart to get the new cable and guess what? They didn’t have one. No problem, there’s a Staple’s just down the street and, yes, they have the cable. But wait, it’s 32 friggin dollars. I’ll just run to Radio Shack. It’s not far away. They have everything. Except the double ended firewire cable I neeed. The guy offers to order one for me but since I needed two hours ago I declined and resumed my search. Circuit City? Nope. I finally head all the way back across town to ChumpUSA. They’ve got the cable I need for $24 so I buy it. I could have gotten one online for $9 but at this point I’m thoroughly disgusted so I buy it because I need it right now. I’ve now had my computer up and running for almost four hours and I’m still at step two.

I got home a bit before 5:00 and hooked up the cable. I started up the migration program and started the migration. Estimated time remaining about four hours… FOUR HOURS!!! Yikes! So I let it do it’s thing. Almost exactly four hours later it’s finally done. Takes a long time to transfer almost 50 gigs of data and preserve all my old user settings.

At this point I took a few minutes to run the software update program. It found a bunch of stuff to update so I ran the updates and rebooted.

Next up is starting up SL. No joy. It crashes on startup. After fiddling a bit and updating a few more things, voila! It’s up and running. And I mean running… The old computer ran SL as slow as molassess, but on this computer it flies! I was enjoying myself so much I stayed online until about 3:30 this morning.

Life is good.

Finally…

Apple announced this morning that Mac OS X 10.5 will be released October 26th, at 6:00 PM. That means I can get my new computer now.

YIPPEE!!!

I’m trying out some new gallery software. It’s called JAlbum. I may have to make some adjustments theme-wise have changed the theme to make it fit better. So far I’m kind of liking it. What do you think?

I’ve integrated it into a Wordpress “Page” and can be viewed here.

If it works out well It seems to be working quite well, so I’ll get busy and add the rest of my galleries to JAlbum. Then maybe I’ll start adding a bunch more of my photos.

Not mine… the one next door… the one where the yappy dog lives…

My neighbor has decided she wants to move. She’s found a single family house on the other side of town that she wants to buy. She hasn’t been a bad neighbor, other than having a yappy dog, but she hasn’t been a good one, either. She has never really fit into the communal aspects of a townhouse, preferring to do things her way instead of according to the community bylaws. She’ll probably be happier in a single family home. I wish her well and hope she can sell fast.

Anyone wanna buy a nice, two bedroom townhouse? WARNING: You’ll have ME for a neighbor…

The other day I was out and about with my dad. He needed to stop at Lowe’s to pick up a new toilet seat. We decided to look at ceiling fans since he needs a couple and I’ve been wanting to replace the one in my bedroom. I was leaning towards one at Home Depot that cost about $100. We found some on clearance with the features we wanted —light kit and remote control— and I liked the way they look. And these were only $45!

My dad quickly grabbed a couple of white ones. I wanted one of the dark ones. Well, you know what I’m going to say next… they were out of the dark ones…

We decided to head to the next nearest Lowe’s. YIPPEE!! They had the one I wanted. So I quickly grabbed one. This time we even remembered to get the toilet seat we started out to get.

So today I’m installing my new fan. I put up the bracket. Attached the down-rod. Set the remote codes. I’m up to the point in the instructions where it says, “Wiring your fan’s remote requires extreme patience. Take mandatory breaks while wiring to allow your arms to rest.”

Since I don’t want the ceiling fan police to come and get me I decided I’m now taking a mandatory break…

…what are you doing here? I told you there was nothing new to see…

I finally got around to upgrading my WordPress installation to the latest version. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off. I was still way back on version 2.0.3, but now I’m up-to-date with version 2.2.2.

I used the InstantUpgrade plugin from Zirona. It worked like a charm. The hardest part of the upgrade was doing the recommended backups, which I was long overdue for anyway. Then it was basically a one click process.

One of these days I’ll get around to upgrading the rest of barefootpete.com. I started to upgrade a while back, but quickly got sidetracked into other things. Amazing how easy it is to get sidetracked…

What did she just say?

You can get anything you want at Guthrie's Golden Fried Chicken Fingers, as long as golden fried chicken fingers is what you want…

The latest chicken chain in town is Guthrie's. Their specialty is "golden fried chicken fingers." Guthrie's started out in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1965. They slowly expanded and started franchising in 2005. There are now over 50 restaurants in operation.

My dad and I wanted to try something different for dinner tonight so we headed over to the Guthrie's down on 56th street. It's in a remodeled Captain D's. They've done a nice job with the decor. It's gone from dark and dreary to a nice, light color palette. They even have a couple high definition TVs so we were able to watch the end of the NASCAR race.

The menu is fairly limited… chicken fingers, chicken finger salads, and chicken finger sandwiches. The  chicken fingers are lightly battered, not heavy like most chicken fingers. They come with a special dipping sauce that is quite tasty. The french fries are rather ordinary (think Ore Ida crinkle cuts), but not bad at all. The cole slaw is also OK. But chicken fingers is what this place is about and they really know how to do great chicken fingers. We liked it enough that we'll keep it on our list of places to visit regularly. 

Ricky took a big step today. He had his first beer…

Age has it's privileges.

Last week our buildings were being pressure washed. I had to clear off my patio deck so all that stuff had to go in the garage. I put it all up front so I could still get my car in, but that meant that I couldn't get to my washer and dryer…

The buildings were supposed to be done three a day in building number sequence. That meant they were supposed to pressure wash my building Tuesday. Tuesday the pressure washers decided to change the order of the buildings on their own. They said mine would be done first thing Wednesday. They finally got around to doing it on Thursday.

I decided that since my deck was clear it would be a good time to paint it. I was busy Friday, but decided I could get it cleaned and fill the cracks that evening. Ooh, too many mosquitoes. I got about half of it done. I got up Saturday and finished cleaning it. Then started filling the cracks. The BOTTOMLESS cracks. The filler went in and sank out of sight. I put more filler in. And more filler in. I finally got the cracks filled late in the afternoon. By the time the crack fill dried it was too late to paint. The painting would have to wait until Sunday. What a shame, it was a beautiful day for painting.

I went out for dinner with my dad. We had a nice time. When I got home the painting project kept nagging me. Finally about 7:30 I couldn't stand it anymore so I went out and painted the deck.

Sunday morning I checked it out and it turned out pretty good. Now I could finally get all that stuff back out of my garage and onto the deck.

I was actually able to start a project and get it finished. Ok, so it took three days to do a one day job, but at least it's done…

Except for mulching the planting beds… Oh, wait, that's a different project…

And this morning I got caught up on the laundry. 

Today is Ricky's 21st birthday! Yippee! Happy birthday, Ricky! I hope you have a great time.
;)

Ooh, and it's happening on a full moon…

Tommy had a lengthy, intrusive procedure yesterday. That is, if you call the vet's finger up his butt pulling out parts of the obstruction one piece at a time intrusive. He came home looking like death warmed over. He was lethargic and obviously in pain. He just wanted to hide, probably from the humiliation of the intrusive procedure.

Today he's feeling much better. He's been eating a bit. He laid in my lap and purred for a while. He even jumped up on the sofa when I was out. He's walking around a bit and using the cat scratcher to sharpen his claws, probably to be better prepared if someone decides to do another intrusive procedure on him. Hopefully, he'll be back to his old self in a few days.

Now if I could just get him to take his medicine without a struggle… 

My cat, Tommy, is sick. His bowels are blocked and he can't have bowel movements. I had him at the emergency clinic for two days over the weekend. They x-rayed him and gave him some enemas. They gave him medication. They finally got him to go once on his own so they were comfortable sending him home with instructions to take him in if he didn't poop on his own for the next day or two. He keeps trying, but he hasn't gone since I brought him home so it's off to vet again today. 

I have anxiety disorders so this is pretty hard on me, also. I'm sick to my stomach and I've had several panic attacks. I have hot flashes alternating with chills. I'm miserable, but as miserable as I am I know Tommy is feeling worse.

Tommy has been my most faithful companion for 18 years. That's a long time for a cat. According to the vet, if we can get through this problem he still has a few good years left in him.

Wish me luck… 

I should get some armor for my cat. Then I could take him to a renaissance festival with me and he'd fit right in…

Jeff de Boer makes some very interesting things. Check out his galleries. 

It's so nice to be back online again.

I was checking out the Universal Studios site a while back and found out they have a special deal where you buy a one-year two-park pass and get a second year free. Can't beat that! The only catch is you need a special coupon available at the Coca Cola display at "participating" Walgreens.

Well, Walgreens on my side of town didn't have the coupons. I mentioned it to my friend, Jim, and he said he'd see if he could find them on his side of town. Luckily, he did. Unluckily, my internet connection went down before I could buy the ticket. Luckily, I'm back on line so this morning I went to the Universal site and purchased my ticket.

Looks like I'm Universal bound! (Thanks, Jim!)

Well, I'm back online. At least, for the time being. Who knows how long it will last this time. Hopefully, the fix was a permanent one.

The repairman got here about 12:30 PM. He quickly determined that the problem wasn't inside my house. He then determined that the problem was somewhere beyond the drop to my house. He said he'd call the office to get more people out here to fix the problem.

Soon there were three regular vans plus a lift truck in the parking lot. They worked on the problem for quite a while. They ended up digging a pretty big hole a couple buildings over. The online light on my modem came on about 9:00 PM.

I'm caught up on my email from the last five days, and I'm caught up on my daily online crossword puzzles. I've run several speed tests and they all show download speeds exceeding a T1 line so I'm a happy camper again.

Life is good. 

I got up this morning and started my usual morning routine. I was stopped dead in my tracks almost immediately. I had no internet connection.

A phone call to Brighthouse resulted in their computer telling me there were problems in my area. The computer said it would call me back when the problem was resolved.

About 6:30 this evening the computer called and said the problems in the area were fixed and I was online again.

Wrong.

Another call to Brighthouse… This time I talked to a real person. We went through the normal trouble shooting things. He ran some diagnostics on my area. There were two modems not responding. Mine was one of them.

The soonest they can get a tech out to diagnose my problem is Saturday. I'll be able to access my email and blog occasionally at my dad's house. Good thing he lives across the street. Still, it's a pain in the butt.

I'm on my third modem at this location. I've only been here a bit over two years. Last time they came out was about six weeks ago. They replaced the drop to my house and a couple of the splitters in my house. Who knows what they'll find to fix this time?

Verizon brought their fiber optic lines up to the edge of our area. Apparently Brighthouse has a monopoly over the service to our condos. I'd switch in a second. I'd have a faster connection for less money.

Oh, well… 

Being a chronic procrastinator, in part because of chronic fatigue, I really have to push myself most of the time. It's too tempting to just put things off. My floor has been one of those things that I've been putting off for too long.

I went on vacation and came back exhausted. It's easy to come up with a million excuses to avoid working on the floor, but the time had come. I worked a couple hours Monday evening. I worked a few hours yesterday. I got up with the intention of getting an early start on the floor and getting it done. Well, guess what? I managed to find a bunch other things that I "needed" to do. I finally couldn't come up with any more excuses so about 11:00 I finally got back to work.

I just finished laying the last piece of tile a few minutes ago. I've cleaned up most of the construction mess. Just a few more things to put away and a bit more sweeping.

Next up is the door trim, baseboards, and crown moldings. It should be interesting to see what things crop up that "need" doing when I start that phase.

Then there's always the kitchen project looming overhead…

Life is good. 

There's an old saying… measure twice, cut once.

It's hard to stretch a piece of tile 5 1/2 inches long to fill a spot 6 1/2 inches long.

'nuff said…

Ok, for those of you who don't believe that I've actually gotten some of my new flooring installed…

I'm about 1/3 done. I worked last night until my body insisted that it was time to quit. I argued with it for a while, but in the end it won.

I'll work on the floor for a while tonight, and tomorrow I'll finish installing the flooring that I've got on hand. I don't have enough to finish the entire living room so I'll have to go to the store and get more flooring when I've determined exactly how much more I need.

Since beginning the project I've decided I'll also be doing the floor in my master bedroom. Maybe someday I'll even scrape the popcorn off the ceiling in there, too. Yeah, right, sure…

You need to use sharp razor blades when you’re scraping carpet glue off the floor, but be careful when you reach into the box of razor blades to get a replacement… ‘nuf said…

While there is some disagreement on the idea of troop deadlines for US soldiers in Iraq, all sides seem to be on board with the amount included in the bill to fund the war.

Including the $124.2 billion bill, the total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending.

The amount got us wondering: What would $456 billion buy?

Watch this slide show to see…

Looks like the Manatee Renfest has been cancelled. Although there's no official word on their website, several of the performers have now listed their performances as cancelled. There are also several threads in the renaissance festival forums that more or less confirm the cancellation, some from vendors and some from cast members. That said, official confirmation on their website would be nice.

There was a group of us looking forward to going there. Looks like we may have to come up with something else to do.

And a sore butt, too.

I've been thinking I need to start riding my bike again. It's a nice, cool morning and I needed to go to the bank to get some cash. Sounds like the beginning of a brilliant idea.

I brought one of my bikes down from the storage room. I went out into the garage and cleaned it up. The tires needed air. The chain and gears needed a bit of lube. WARNING: A can of spray paint looks a lot like a can of spray lube. I mean A LOT like it. So when you set the spray lube down be very careful when you pick it back up. Oh, well.

Off to the bank. It's less than a mile away. I decided to take the more scenic route which made it a bit farther. There and back took a bit over twenty minutes.

Man, am I out of shape! My legs were sore almost immediately. A few minutes into the ride my butt started hurting. Next time I'll ride my recumbent instead. At least then my butt won't hurt. 

Life is good. 

If you need some dust, I've got plenty. Really…

When I sanded the ceiling I took everything out of the room that I could and covered everything that I couldn't remove. Still, dust got into everything. It got under the covers. It even got into rooms that were closed off.

I swept up as much as I could. I've vaccuumed the floor several times. I've wet mopped the floor several times. I've dry mopped the floor several times. There's still plenty of dust to go around.

I spent a lot of time yesterday cleaning all the nooks and crannies of my entertainment and computer systems. The living room is starting to look almost clean again. The kitchen and master bedroom are another story. There's an open doorway to the kitchen so I can understand a lot of dust getting in there, but the master bedroom is behind a closed door and there's tons of dust in there also. It's almost like I had left the door open.

I'm cleaning dust as a way of avoiding heavier work like finishing the ceiling, installing the new flooring, and doing the trim work. I guess there's no real reason to rush, but it would be nice to be done. 

As I was priming the ceiling I noticed several places that should be patched that I missed. I was getting all bent out of shape about it. I used to be a perfectionist and sometimes fall into old habits. I finally realized that there's not a square inch of drywall in this place that's perfect so why should I worry so much about the ceiling. It may not be perfect, but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did before I started this project. Still, there are one or two spots that I'll touch up…

Ah, nothing like the smell of fresh plaster dust in the morning.

Life is good. 

'nuff said…

I've been taking it easy the last couple days. All that scraping on the ceiling kind of got to me. You're up on a ladder, covered in plaster dust, doing things with your arms that they weren't meant to do. My hands hurt so much that regular pain-killers were of no use. I decided I needed a break from the drudgery. I got about two-thirds done, so I do feel like I've accomplshed a lot. And, besides, there's no real reason to rush.

I've spent the last couple days just kind of hanging around, not doing much of anything except reading and watching movies. And, umm, taking naps… zzzzz

I hate popcorn ceilings…

I now have approximately half of my ceiling in the dining room and living room popcorn free. Not bad for a days work. Maybe tomorrow I'l get the rest scraped off. Then again, maybe not. Maybe I'll take a day off. Oh, wait, I did that yesterday.

As part of my renovations, I'm removing the existing floor coverings in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. The living room was a snap. The carpeting came up easy. The only difficult part was the glue holding the padding down. It was still sticky and a pain to remove. That is I thought it was a pain until we tackled the vinyl in the dining room.

In most modern construction, it seems like if it's out of sight they will cut corners. Unfortunately for me, the builders seem to have done a most excellent job of installing the vinyl making it almost impossible to remove by normal means. My friend Deb has a lot of experience removing vinyl flooring and she says she's never seen anything glued down this well. What did I do to deserve this? I know it's some kind of floor karma…

We tried several methods to get this vinyl up but none seemed to work at all. We finally decided we might have to hire someone to do it for us. I did some research on the internet (Google is your friend) and came up with some hints. The most promising one involved a product called Krud Kutter available at building centers.

What finally worked best was this:

1. Slip the edge of a wallpaper scraper into the vinyl flooring. A wallpaper scraper looks like a wide putty knife, but it has a much sharper edge.

2. Work it around separating the top layer from the bottom layer.

3. Spray the remaining layer with diluted Krud Kutter.

4. Allow the spray mixture to soak in (patience grasshopper…)

5. Scrape the remaining layer off the floor with the wallpaper scraper.

6. Scrape any remaining glue off the concrete using a razor blade scraper. 

7. Sit back and marvel at how much easier this method is

You'll probably go through a lot of razor blades so get them in bulk from the building center. Change them often because they work soooo much better when they're still fairly sharp. 

I'm using Krud Kutter, but there are probably other equally effective products. Krud Kutter can also be used for many other cleanup chores. 

Disclaimer: your results may vary, but now I can measure my results in square feet per hour instead of square inches per hour.

My friend was supposed to come over today to help remove the carpeting and vinyl in my living room and dining room. Well, plans change, she can't come until tomorrow.

I decided to start working anyway. I've got about half the carpeting and padding torn up, rolled up, and out on the patio. Not bad for a couple hours work.

That first cut into the carpet was difficult since it commits me to the project… but I did it and felt a great sense of relief. I guess that means that this project was meant to be.

My dad has been sick the last couple days so I've been spending a lot of time checking in on him and making sure he's ok. He's doing a bit better today. His main concern is that his grandson is coming for a visit. He's arriving sometime today. Looks like I'm going to have to entertain him for at least a couple days until my dad gets back on his feet.

I finally finished reading The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks. It's part of a wonderful fantasy series. It's sort of like Lord of the Rings, but set in the distant future after a war that destroyed almost everything on earth. It took a long time to read (almost 1200 pages) but was well worth the effort. Now I've started reading The Heritage of Shannara series. There's over a dozen books in the entire Shannara series. Looks like I might be busy for a long time. Good thing I'm retired again…

My friend, Deb, has a day off work on Friday so she says she'll come over and we can start demolition. We'll rip up the vinyl flooring in the dining room. Hallelujah! That vinyl has been one of those things that make me cringe. It'll finally be gone. We'll also tear out the carpet in the living  room. Then we can prep the floor and I can put down the new tile. YIPPEE! I'm thinking we should just go ahead and rip out the carpet in the master bedroom while we're at it. I want to tile that room too and I might as well do it all at once.

I might not make it to Busch Gardens this week unless I take my dad's company over. 

I found these jellyfish aquariums online. Ok, so they're way small and the jellyfish are fake, but I'd like to have one. Too bad they're so expensive.

A friend of mine has this bumper sticker on her car. I liked it…

You can get one from Carry a Big Sticker.

I went out with a group of nine people from the renaissance festival to dinner Sunday night. We decided on Mexican food. We went to a restaurant we had never been to before. The food was good, the service was good. They even had a wandering mariachi band that was quite good.

On the menu it said that a 15% gratuity would be added to all checks for parties of more than six. That's OK with me since I usually tip at a higher rate anyway so I figure they're cutting off their nose to spite their face.

When the checks came the "15%" gratuity was added as promised. However, the amount seemed a bit strange. It was figured on the total of the check with taxes rather than the amount for food and drink only. Also, it seems like thier "15%" figure was actually 16.8%. False advertising? Modern math?

Their figure was still less than I would have tipped on my own, but it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth for them to say 15% and then charge 16.8%.

Will I return to that restaurant? Maybe, but probably not…

Got home late last night. It was a pleasant trip coming home. We took a bunch of back roads through the northern part of South Carolina. We went through a bunch small towns. We saw lot of old houses, including many old plantation houses. This is an area where cotton is king. Most of the towns seemed to be a bit depressed, but that's not unusual in small towns in rural areas.

We hit a few traffic backups, but nothing too serious. We stopped in Ocala to visit a friend and we all went out for dinner.

Now it's time to return to "normal" life. I'm heading over to Busch Gardens to see Gary Puckett perform. I'll probably come home early since I need to do laundry and tidy up the house. It's amazing how messy it got while I was gone. I'm going to have a serious talk with the cat and bird about cleaning up after themselves.

Somehow I managed to gain seven pounds on this trip. It couldn't have been from lack of exercise, or all those huge meals we ate, or those wonderful cookies and candies we got from The Fresh Market…

Life is good.

I'm on the road…

I'm in North Carolina for a few days. I'm having a nice time visiting with friends. We had to drive through some storms on the way up but we arrived safely.

I'm missing the ren fest this weekend, but I think I'll survive. I'll be back in town Wednesday so I'll be at the ren fest next weekend.

One of my favorite artists is M. C. Escher. Here's an interesting take on his piece called "Relativity"…

It’s once again time for the Bay Area Renaissance Festival.

The festival runs from February 17 through April 1 on weekends. It’s located on the MOSI grounds on Fowler and 46th street. Gates open at 10:00 and the festival closes at 6:00. Lots of good entertainment, food, and crafts.

Tampa is lucky to have a festival of this caliber. It keeps getting better each year. I’ll be there this weekend in costume. Come out and have some fun.

Here’s a short documentary on Being Clay In America…

Today was my last day at work. I'll miss working with some of the people there. I made some very good friends. One of the best is Robert. He got a cake to celebrate. Being a thrifty person, he made it a dual purpose cake. Since it was my first anniversary and I was quitting, this is what it said:

Robert always enjoys a bit of irony. I would have bet that it would have said "You can check out any time you'd like, but you can never leave."

I've seen too many people come and go over the last year. Some lasted as long as just a few days.

I've seen people change dramatically. I can't blame them, they're in a bind to do what the boss wants. People try to do the right thing, but the powers that be will overrule the right thing almost every time. It's hard to function in an atmosphere of fear.

Leaders should be in front leading the way, not using their power to push from the rear. It's every man for himself. Do what you have to do to cover your ass, even if it means letting good people hang. 

I've had to compromise my spirituality on many occasions. The night after I gave my resignation I had a vision. I was deep underwater. The water was almost black. There was a rope tied around my ankles holding me down. Suddenly the rope broke and I started shooting up to towards the light at the surface. I was breaking free from the darkness and returning to the light.

Sunday I'll be going to a worship service. It'll be the first time since I started my job. Now I can regain my spiritual balance. Giving it up was too big a price to pay. I won't be making that mistake again. 

Life is good. 

Now that I'm going to be retired again I'll probably be looking for a part-time job with benefits. The main reason I've been working is to get health insurance. My current employer requires me to average at least 32 hours a week to keep my insurance going, and it's been difficult getting that many hours scheduled lately. Also, it's so physically demanding that I'm exhausted most of the time.

I've been considering Starbucks, where you only need a 20 hour per week average to get FULL benefits including health insurance, sick time, paid vacation, and 401K among others. Another plus is there's a Starbucks only a mile from home.

A guy at work said Borders/Waldenbooks has a benifits package including health insurance for part-timers. They have a location at a mall just a couple miles away. Their website mentions a benefits package, but doesn't go into much detail so I'll be checking them out.

I think I'd probably prefer selling books instead of coffee. I don't know much about coffee, but then I didn't know much about beer when I started the current job. I like the idea of a smaller retail establishment rather than something large like a grocery store, but I wouldn't completely rule out someplace like Publix.

In the end my criteria for a new job will be simple — health insurance, not as physically demanding, and fairly close to home.

Any suggestions?

I gave my two weeks notice at work today. Guess I'm retired… again. At least until something promising comes along. It's been fun…

Henry Rollins is teed off about net neutrality and gives us his views.

Warning: NSFW or delicate ears.

Find this video and thousands of others at vSocial!

Kieth Olberman: The Beginning of the End of America

I was riding around town tonight with a friend. We wanted to find some place for dinner, but couldn't decide what or where to eat. We passed by Cappy's Pizza in Seminole Heights. A friend at work has told me several times that they have the best pizza around and that I should try it. We quickly decided to give it a try so I swung around the block and pulled in.

It's an old building with stained plywood floors. You couldn't mistake this for a fancy place. The tables are shadow boxes filled with memorabilia. It's quite interesting to just walk in and look around.

We approached the counter towards the back of the room. We were immediately greeted. I asked what the deal was and he gave me a menu and told me about the different styles of pizza. They have a Chicago deep dish style pizza or a New York style pizza with a medium thickness crust. He warned us the deep dish pizza takes about a half hour to cook so we opted for the New York style. We ordered a large with pepperoni.

About 15 minutes after ordering our pizza was ready. We had decided on carry out so we could come home and watch a movie. The box was heavy. The aroma was great. I couldn't wait…

We got home about 15 minutes later. Just enough time for the pizza to cool off to the perfect eating temperature. Hot enough for intense flavor, but not so hot that it would scorch our mouths.

I opened the box and saw the most beautiful pizza I've seen in years. The large pepperoni slices completely covered the pizza. After the first bite I was in heaven. Definitely the best pizza I've had in years. An ample supply of a wonderful sauce, a fair amount of cheese, and a good crust. I don't know where these people came from, but they really know how to make a pizza to my liking.

The menu is limited. Two kinds of pizza available with a variety of typical toppings. They also have calzones, salads, breadsticks, and cheese bread.

I'll definitely be returning on a regular basis, even though it's halfway across town from my place.

Cappy's Pizza
4910 N. Florida Ave.
Tampa, Fl
238-1516

Sunday - Thursday 5:00 - 9:00 PM
Friday - Saturday 5:00- 10:00 PM

Warning… they don't accept credit cards 

I had an extra day off this week. A friend asked me to go to Spring Hill to hear her play some old time music at a festival at her school on Thursday. I ended up playing guitar for the band. It's years since I've played guitar on stage. Ooh… tender fingers…

After the festival we had dinner and headed for her place near Crystal River. We got up early the next morning, fed the livestock, and headed into town for a good old-fashioned breakfast at a good old-fashioned restaurant. There's a small area of touristy shops nearby so we headed over there after breakfast. We discovered a delightful little tea bar. We sampled some Kir Mirage, a black currant tea. Heaven on earth. We made ourselves comfortable at the bar. She had a spiced chai tea and I had iced Kir Mirage.

We visited the antique store and spent a lot of time there exploring the nooks and crannies. The owner told us about The Highlander Cafe. So that was our next destination.

The Highlander Cafe features some really great sounding sandwiches. We opted for desserts. Everything in the cafe is made right there. We had a slice of lemon cheesecake and a slice of chocolate cake. This was quickly turning into an eating vacation.

We headed back to her place. She does great therapeutic massages. She worked on my feet, back, and neck. When she was done I was so relaxed that I could hardly move. When I finally did get up I was still so far out there that I was slightly disoriented.

Then it was time to eat again. We went to Rocco's Italian Restaurant. We started out with some wonderful spinach rolls. My main course was lasagna. Excellent.

We stopped over at the video store to pick up a movie. We finally settled on The Prairie Home Companion, a movie both of had wanted to see but missed in the theaters. A lot of the performers in the movie are actual performers from the radio program. It's a fictional story about the last show before the theater is to be torn down. I'll be adding this one to my collection. Towards the end of the movie we had some chocolate cake she had picked up for the occasion. More food…

I was only gone for a day and a half but it felt like a week. It wasn't really meant to be a vacation, but we did all those touristy things you do on vacation. I got a chance to unwind from the "joys" of the job.

One word: Yum. Ok, two words: Yum, yum.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is new in this area. They opened their first Tampa location about a year ago. Since then they've opened a couple more, for a total of six locations in the Tampa Bay area. A friend of mine kept insisting I should go and try it out. I did. I went back two more times within a week.

You get in line, tell the person behind the counter what you want. You work your way down the line adding fillings. When you get to the end of the line you pay. Then you sit down and enjoy.

Burritos, tacos, salads. Your choice. The burritos are HUGE! It's all I can do to finish one. I have fallen in love with the Barbacoa Burrito. Spiced beef that's shredded. Rice, beans, sour cream, and hot sauce. To die for…

The one I go to is in front of the University Square Mall on Fowler. The interior is a modern, industrial design. Patio seating is available. They're working on getting a license so they can offer domestic and specialty beers.

Visit their website for more information. 

Most of the regulars at Busch Gardens know that Sunday was the last day for Moroccan Roll. The show had a run of almost six years. In that time, many of the performers became almost like family to me. Some have left the park, some will remain to do other shows. The ones that are gone will be sorely missed.

On the brighter side, a new show is scheduled to open soon at the Marrekesh Theater, and we'll see some familiar faces returning. I've been a regular at the park for a long time and have seen shows come and go. I'm kind of used to it, so it's a bit easier on me than it is on some of the other regulars. I hope everyone will see the new show with an open mind, as something new to enjoy rather than as the show that replaced MR. There are some people who still don't like KaTonga just because it replaced the old ice show. Go figure…

Life is good. 

I first rode The Python at Busch Gardens almost 27 years ago. At the time, it was a state of the art roller coaster, well worth the almost two hour wait in the queue line. Alas, The Python is no more. Yesterday I had a farewell ride after about a two minute wait in the queue line. Today The Python is closed. It's to be torn down and replaced with a new attraction. I grabbed a quick pic on my phone camera as I exited the ride for my last time. Unfortunately, the late afternoon sun was just above and to the right of the top of the incline…

Well, I started stripping the old, painted-over wallpaper in my kitchen last night. The kitchen is small, but it's still going to take a long time. Why? Because it's not fun. Good thing nobody ever painted over the wallpaper behind the refrigerator, that part should be easier.

I'm off work today and I've found about a million excuses to stay out of the kitchen.

Ooh, I think I'll go to Busch Gardens…

I'm still getting occasional headaches, but most of the general body aches are gone. I felt well enough to spend most of my day off yesterday at Busch Gardens, then went to dinner with my dad, and then to a concert at Skipper's Smokehouse in the evening.

At Skipper's I saw The Bluegrass Parlor Band and The Duhks. The Bluegrass Parlor Band is a local band. I actually played with an earlier incarnation of this band for a while. The Duhks is a band from Canada. They played some Celtic and a bunch of other high energy music. I enjoyed myself enough to stay until the end of the concert at 11:30 PM. The original plan was to cut out early to get home and get some rest.

So today I've been doing housework. Now I'm ready to take a shower and go get a hair cut and do a bit of shopping. T