Life Version 2.0

In Millet do we not only grow our own rhubarb to make wonderful food stuff with, but we also recycle the leaves into the hottest garden couture this side of Milan. Though they are not machine washable they are fully compostable, talk about green fashion.

So I once again got bored this weekend, and thought I would try something different, don't know if I like it or not. We will just have to see if it grows on me, or well if I let the full beard grow back in.

the computer lives, and its zippy again.... woohoo

so its time to try and bring my aging mac mini up to par again, after consulting the mac guru at work i have the install disk in hand and i have the data all backed up. lets hope i don't fuck anything up and he will once again be a reliable web browsing machine. as lately i get tired of waiting for my text to show up, and for my 1ghz tablet to out perform it. so here goes.

After a month of waking up at 4:30am to beat myself up, to sweat, to grunt, to groan, at the gym, I'm finally able to wear my size 36 505's. my nice ass pants. granted they are a bit tighter then i'd like, but i'm in them and I can still breath. Now I just need to get the rest of the body to fit into my old clothing and life will be good.

This is the machine I operate at work, putting together books and magazines. more pictures on flickr

letting my beard grow back after i butchered it. that's about it. ohh down 6 lbs since i started the gym three weeks back, lets hope i can keep it going

Its been one of those weeks, work has been dull and slow and for some reason I find myself very very very angry. It got so bad today that after I finished the production run, and had 4 hours to kill I went to the supervisor and asked if I could go home before I sodomize some one with a soldering iron, she looked at me over her glasses and smiled and then said I could leave. From the look she had when I entered her office I think she is having a similar week. I don't know what it is, but work has just been hostile all week, lets just hope I make it threw until Friday before I open up my leatherman and start throwing it around the room like a boomerang, targeting the jugular vein of my coworkers, as well the thought has crossed my mind a few times.

So I've been wasting time lately, lots of time, messing around with Google SketchUp. At first I was skeptical that it would replace my use of ProEngineer or AutoCAD, but I think for quick sketches/rough models it will be my go to platform. Its a bit different in the interface then a traditional CAD/Modller package, so the tutorials were a must, but once i got a hang of the simplified interface, its just very intuitive, and fast. You should see the giddy grin on my face as i was finally able to resolve the issues I've had with a new stair railing, in under 15 minutes, rather then having to keep going back and forth between my sketch pad and my schematic drawings. And the 3D renderings are more Tim friendly I really don't know why, but he responds to them better. So this morning I resolved a layout issue with the future ensuite, and an contemplating attacking the kitchen layout. But i guess thats the easy part, figuring out how to pay for all my plans well thats the hard part. Guess I will just have to stick to venting my creative frustrations with virtual mockups rather then making sawdust or welds.

So thats about it, I started the Gym last Tuesday, 5am comes way to early but alas is the only time i really can fit in my schedule. So I feel some what accomplished as i made it to the gym 2 mornings my first week, and I plan on going 3 times this coming week, and going to try and introduce some light weightlifting to my cardio routine, as it would really suck if I over did it and then had to suffer through my 10 hour work day with sore muscles, as well my work day already leaves me with sore muscles. Alas thats pretty much been my life in this new year, nothing really exciting, but well that is life.

So since 5:30am tomorrow is the start of my gym life, I figured I should jump on the bandwagon, of this picture thing, so its alittle late, but yeah, crazy, laughing psycho me.

I just butchered Tim's beard so he took it down to a mustache, he looks funny, guess i will have to get used to it, but then again he looks funny. so i guess its a word of warning when using electric clippers, but then again I've butchered my own facial hair enough times.

Well it appears I tend to post more when I have lovely phototonic images to help express and convey my opinions and shanagians of my life. So here's to more use of my handy dandy photon digitizer. So whats been going on this past month and a half or so.

I went on a tool buying binge, bought an air compressor, a handy dandy router, and a massive toy box, i mean tool chest. While it may seem that i will be churning out the sawdust, alas I'm missing a few key components, that won't be purchased until after the consumer binging season, mainly the hoses for the air compressor and bits for the router, kinda makes both pretty useless with out them. But hey Santa will be here soon, so lets see whats under the tree and hope I get a good stuffing, i mean my stocking gets stuffed.

I managed to survive to the 25th anniversary of when I was literally ripped from the womb, it appears aside from a few scars, some bruises from being beaten with the stick of knowledge, I'm no worse for wear. So after a few weeks of medical testing of all sorts, and well being completely scared to death by one doctor, I found a new Doctor that put things straight and has me on the proper track to good health. As first doctor though I may have diabetes, thyroid issues, heart defect, brain tumor... after all the tests Doc number 2 came to the conclusion that I have high blood pressure, and I work way too much. A much happier diagnosis that I can work with, now to just loose 30 more pounds to get back to my pre canada weight, and back into the gym and I may not even need the Blood Pressure Meds, and all there wonderful side effects.

I survived a Lay-off on my birthday, company wide 600 people were laid off, which meant 4 were let go from our location, 3 from my company and 1 from Tim's. Down side of this is that my supervisor now covers 3 departments, which leaves me a man down on my machine and more work for me, as duties from all three departments are divided up among the remaining people. So this won't lower the stress or blood pressure levels any time soon, the post Christmas slow down should help greatly with the restructuring as T my supervisor is tasking me to develop a new way to document the work flow of our plant and help distribute information more smoothly, basically bringing our inventory and communication systems to the digital age, should be lots of fun, in addition to bringing in another machine for me to run, which should mean a good income increase after the wage freeze is over.

Tim and I are finally starting to get moving forward on this whole Christmas season thing, I mean we had all our shopping done the first week of December with all the gifts wrapped, but well we really didn't put the tree up until today, and well are just starting to make our the menu for our Christmas feast, I don't know why we have been so "Grinchy" as we have plenty of snow and colder then normal winter temperatures, but it still doesn't really feel like Christmas.

And that's about it for now, life out on the Canadian prairies isn't as near as exciting or dramatic as life in Down town Denver, but well I think its starting to have a much deeper and meaningful rhythm, I guess more reflection is necessary and for once I actually am looking forward to what the new year will be bringing.

I don't know what I did, probably something involving the macro lens, but I sure did manage to piss of Radar. Or for you LoLCat people out there Tim says Radar is channeling Basement Cat, to do his evil deeds

Here lies Frisco, enjoying the new wool rug, on a cold winter day when he is feeling sorry for himself as he deems it too cold to go for a walk, as well the high was about -30C

It appears Tim caught me being naughty or so he thought, It wasn't bear porn, but rather Wood Workers porn, though i guess if you think about it, both types do appreciate a good Hard Wood.

Lets just hope that Santa appreciates a good hardwood as much as I do

As you can see, nobody messes with Tim as he has the previously unknown ability to control the Zombie horde that unbeknown to me lived in our household.

Fall is coming, and well i'm still here, work has been keeping me busy, we just switched to 4 ten hour days, but I still find myself in the shop, 5 days a week working for other departments. Fall luckily hasn't given way to winter, just yet up here, other then the occasional flurry. I saw my first moose a few weeks back, in the middle of town at 5am, was a bit surreal, as I've seen no wildlife on my 30 minute commute on rural highways, but I see a large mammal roving the streets in town, guess thats life in alberta.

other exciting news, we bought a Wii, damn costco impulse buys, so if anyone wants to share friend codes let me know. We some how ended up with about 50lbs of apples so we are attempting to make hard cider, two weeks in it seems promising, plenty of bubbles and general fermentation goodness, will have to see how it turns out around Christmas time. other then that, not much exciting going on, leading the simple country life, and well working too much, but well atleast i think i still have that one small bit of sanity, well maybe i do, maybe

The Clairtone G2 has finally arrived, now we have a "project" to work on this winter

So being in a Cat dominated household, I guess I should post more kitty pictures then I do. So here goes, and I apologize in advance for the overload of cuteness that could follow in later posts.

So winter is coming, first flurries arrived yesterday, and so did a very hard frost this morning. The critters are on the move, as I see deer almost every other day on my morning commute, and last Friday I saw my first Moose, crossing the street in town, was a bit surreal.

Other then that not much to report, work is keeping me busy, and winterizing the house and yard continues on the weekends, I thought work couldn't get any more inuendo filled, but lets just say there was a hose, it was stuck, she couldn't get it off, and it was covered with lube, and well I had to step in and demonstrate proper house handling technique.

Well thats life, take care

So after months of searching and well loosing out Tim and I have landed our new baby.
a Clairtone G2. We will be the second owner and well sadly the one pictured is not ours, as we have to restore ours. Now we just have to wait the few weeks for it to arrive from Tempe Arizona.


And also as promised if Tim got his Clairtone I could get my chair, now I just have to decide on either Eames or Van der Rohe (Barcelona Chair). For what I guess will be our Modern Mission Hipster Lounge