So beautiful today

Man it’s so nice out today.  I got a bunch of yard work done and mowed the lawn etc.  It was about 65 degrees today and sunny outside.  Yesterday it was kinda rainy until about 4pm and then it was nice the rest of the day.  It is just beautiful out today though.  It’s not humid and it’s just perfect weather for doing mowing and other yard work.  I love mowing the lawn  and being out in the sun and just feeling the outside air on me.  It’s so wonderful to be able to go outside.   I’m thankful for that.  I’m thankful for a lot of things.

I weed whacked around the fence and then blew the grass clippings off of the sidewalk and back into the yard.  I don’t like it when people just blow the clippings into the street.  It’s not good for the sanitary sewer system.  Plus it helps your yard if you just blow it back into the grass.  It’s definately spring time here.  Problem is since it’s Ohio, next week it’s going to be 40-50 and rainy out.  I hate that in a way, yet I kinda like it too.  I like it when it’s raining or storming.  It’s very cozy and romantic for some reason.

I hear a robin making it’s chirping noise in a tree about 75 feet from me.  She sounds beautiful.  She looks pregnant too.  I don’t know what time of year birds give birth but I’m sure it’s pretty close to now.

I need to power wash my fence soon and re-stain it when possible.  We’ll do that in a couple weeks I hope.

Enjoying the weather….

Went with the Honda Accord

Well last night I went and picked up a 2007 Honda Accord SE. It’s white and had 14,000 miles on it and I love it. An SE is just a loaded EX without a moon roof and power seats. It has tan interior and a 6 disc CD-changer. It’s a 245 horsepower V6 and it moves pretty damn good compared to my 2001 Taurus. I’ve driven really fast cars so this is by no means “really fast” but it’s damn fast for a family sedan. I just wanted to see what it would do on the way to work this morning and it got up to 135MPH very quickly. It was still pulling pretty hard but I let off as I was coming up on traffic fast. I would imagine that it could do 140 or 145 with no problem but I don’t know.

After comparing a brand new 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S with a loaded 2007 Accord SE, the Accord came out the winner for me. It has a better engine, better stereo, better seats, better wheels (17″ Alloys), and better gauges. I can deal with it already having 14,000 miles to get a better car. The Altima was nice but their options are weird and you can only get alloy wheels if you step up the package like an extra $4,000. No thanks.

So, now we own two Honda Accords and I don’t care if I ever own a Ford, GM, or Chrysler ever again. I gave them enough chances and they just failed and failed and failed. I traded in my Taurus and got only $1000 for it but the A/C didn’t work, the power mirrors didn’t work, the steering wheel would shake at highway speeds, etc. I mean come on. The car did just “ok” but I would never buy another one. It was lackluster at best.

So….damn I’m glad I got an Accord. It’s white, and I never thought I would like white but it has grown on me and it is very classy and elegant looking, especially with the 17″ alloy wheels.

New car…

Well it’s time to get that new car folks.  And as stated before this one is not going to be an “American” car.  My 2001 Ford Taurus has been enough of a heap of shit to make me never buy another Ford, GM, or Chrysler product ever again.  NEVER.

So, I’m going to either buy a Honda Accord or a Nissan Altima.  I like them both very much and I am not really sure which to get.  I want the V6 in each one but I know that may get my butt in trouble with the law.  If the horsepower is available I will use it.  I can hold back to an extent but for the most part if the car will do 140 I will do 140MPH way more times than I probably should.

Right now I’m leaning towards the Honda because people I know have had Honda’s and had very good luck with them.  I want the Nissan because I think it looks better but that’s about it.  I cannot stand the 2008 Honda Accord (how it looks) so if I get a new Accord it will be an 2007 and I know I can get a good deal on a 2007 so I will probably end up with an Accord.  Who knows.  We’ll see.

I will buy one in the next 10 days so we’ll find out soon.

I don’t know how much I should trust Consumer Reports but they say that the Accord and the Altima are the best of the bunch.  The Camry is OK but they say it lacks leg room and I need leg room.

Ferrari getting owned by Corvette

I just love this video.  It’s a nice vid of a slightly modified C5 Corvette totally owning a Ferrari.

I just love a good old American V8 muscle.

Ohio weather

Ohio weather is crazy.  Just last week it was 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit.  This weekend it’s rainy (which I like) but it’s now 37 degrees.  In the last few years alone it seems as if our weather has just gone nuts.  I don’t ever remember stuff being all out of whack like this when I was a kid.  For most of our winter this year it rained and then in February and the first week of March it snowed like 20 inches.  That’s NOT normal.

My wife and I are seriously considering moving to another state all together.  I’m just getting tired of this Ohio crap.  Plus I’ve been here my entire life and I’m getting bored with it.  In 1995 I went out to Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Wyoming.  They were all much nicer and had much better weather than Ohio.  I have bad allergies too and it was much easier to breath out there than here in Ohio.  I’ll have to give some serious thought to moving in the next couple years.

Just about “bit it” tonight

So I’m almost home tonight from work and traffic was bad so I moved into the far left lane to keep away from all the shits entering and exiting the highway. I was doing about 68 MPH. Out of my peripheral vision I see this dark grey Mazda 3 come into my lane from the far right lane. Just coming on over, no fuckin’ stopping. Didn’t seem to see me at all. SO I fucking slam on my breaks and steer to the left to keep from being hit by this person. Now I can feel my anti-lock breaks doing their job. Those fuckers were doing their job big time. I’m sliding around in the dirt, dust, and gravel that collects close to the concrete median. I figure I’m about to scrape the fucking wall. I mean I’m within about 7 or 8 inches of the concrete median. I swear this bitch had to have hit my car. I didn’t feel anything but she seemed so close that I was thinking “there’s just no way she is NOT hitting me”. Nobody stops, I regain control, and she moves on and starts weaving in and out of traffic like an idiot. What a fucking tard. I just cannot believe that people drive like this. Not only that but how can she not at least say she’s sorry or wave at me like “I’m sorry”. You know that kind of wave. We’ve all done it. I call it the “whoops, I’m sorry wave”.

I needed to come home and hit the heavy bag for a while after that one. Man was I pissed. I don’t do “road rage” though so I had to come home and smash the bag for a little while.

So I went back outside later and looked at my car just for kicks and I get down and look at my passenger side front bumper. Yeah, it’s got a scratch the same color as this Mazda 3 that “almost” hit me tonight. We must have just barely made contact. Unbelievable.

I’m just glad that I made it home safely and nobody got hurt.

Beautiful weekend

It’s been such a beautiful weekend.  It’s been 50 – 60 degrees all weekend.  Finally slept with my windows open last night, and it was great.  Got to go outside and play at the park.  Did some painting in the kitchen and it’s almost done.  Last night I relaxed on the couch with my wife and had a few Heinekens.  Wonderful outside weather brings your mood up and makes you feel good.  Sometimes I wish I could live somewhere that I would never have to deal with winter and snow.  We’ll see.  We love having our family close to use and as of right now everyone lives within 10 minutes of us.  Our parents, grandparents, sister, etc.  I do however have one sister in France but I’m not moving to France.  That’s just too far away and I don’t know the language.  I like living in the USA.

I’m so thankful for beautiful days like we’ve had the last two days.  They make your life better.

I’m actually excited to go to work tomorrow.  Hey, I love my job, what can I say.

Don’t put your butt on my desk!

Why do people come to your desk to talk to you and sit their butt on it? Plus, it’s never anyone that you would want to sit on your desk, it’s always some total jackass. I’m not even sure I would want anyone to sit on my desk ever. Well….hmm…maybe a few people. I guess it’s not a big deal when people are clean and well groomed, but when you stink like feet or have really bad coffee breath or smell like an ash tray…WHY? Sometimes I think it would be great to post a sign outside my cube that says “My desk is not a ass hammock”. It would be even better in yellow and black tape…kinda like caution tape or police line tape. It could instead be called “Not an ass hammock” tape.

I’ve had people come over to my desk and push stuff out of the way just to lean or plop their butt on my desk. I think to myself “what the heck?”. I don’t get why they just moved things on MY desk so they could fit THEIR rump on the desk. I’m going to have to start putting push pins or thumb tacks on my desk facing up just so they get the point.

Heck just yesterday I watched “this one person” do this to my cube mate next door and he had to sanitize his desk with some cleaner. This person has a habit of doing this and it’s quite annoying.

Lots-O-stuff flowin’ out the brain today…

Ahh, another day at work behind me and back to chilling out at home with the wife. Came home and got to play with my daughter and her doll house. She loves to play with her doll house so I play with it along with her. Hey, whatever she wants to play I play. It’s just funny, me playing with a doll house and little plastic people. I actually love playing with Tinker Toys with her and Lego’s and stuff. There are all kinds of cool kids toys out today that I still have fun playing with. I think we’re all still kids in big bodies.

Today was really busy but was a great day. I busted out some work that needed done before noon and finished it at 11:15am. I just put my headphones on and get in a zone listening to stuff on iTunes and time flies. As long as I don’t get bugged I can bang stuff out real quick.

Today being April fools day I grabbed a small Perl script off of the web that I found to change the “Ready” message on HP 4200 series printers and changed the message on our department printers. For the day they all said “Insert Coin”. It was freakin’ hilarious to see the look of the people as they went to grab their print jobs. It made me wonder if people would actually start looking for a coin slot soon.

I need to learn some Perl scripting as I know you can do a ton of stuff with it. I also need to get more into Linux shell scripting. Just something I want to do as a personal goal.

On a side note, I’m thinking of giving up soda again but doing it for good this time. In the last many months I’ve dropped about 35 pounds of weight and I plan on dropping another 50 in the next year. I drink diet soda but I know it’s just not good for my body and neither is the caffeine. I can do without the caffeine too and since I gave it up for over a year before I know I can do it again if I want. Just doing the treadmill and the stair stepper every other day for 30 minutes have been helping me get the pounds off. In addition to that I’ve been lifting weights for about 6 months now and I feel great. Just gotta keep at it and it’ll do me well. I’ve found that I have to work out even when I’m sick. I cannot miss a workout or weight session or I have a tendency to quit for a few days or a week. That will just lead to more quitting and eventually a stop again. Can’t do that shit again. Been there, done that.

More to come…