For some reason...

and I'll probably end up spending the afternoon figuring out why, I can't post from home. That's why the car repair post has nothing in it. The car runs great and Klaus is shipping on Monday dad.

car repair...etc....

blonde jokes...

Today was kind of different, mainly being that it was a complete day off...not a chance of anything happening. I ended up using a different part of the grater this morning during breakfast and had potato chips with my eggs and chorizo instead of hash browns. I spent part of the afternoon talking with Victoria after asking her opinion on what I should plant in the areas I just cleaned. She gave me a climbing rose and suggested, or agreed with me on more of the same. She also nearly went hysterical when I asked her why the blonde was staring at the can of orange juice. I mean hysterical, and she's not really that type of person. I did have to explain to her what orange concentrate was and that took a bit of time, but once she got it, she "really" got it. I thought it was a silly joke, but she loved it and is hoping she can remember the English of it to try on a blonde male friend. I think I'm going to hire her to paint a portrait of me so don't be surprised if you get something in the mail dad.

Thanks Grandma

I had a nice long post written yesterday when blogger died. So, the car's fixed, the walk along the beach is nice and kind of pretty, it was clear yesterday morning and I did some gardening. I think it looks better. I used a lot more words yesterday.

And thanks Grandma, for teaching me to use butter to wash pitch off my hands. It worked perfectly.

Cooking sausage...

No, this has nothing to do with my kielbasa, which was delicious and surprisingly not a magnet for cats. Shortly after I finished eating Victoria came home. She's an artist, Russian, very sweet, attractive but not a stunner and a good neighbor so far. She also likes rock and roll so we should get along fine.

She asked me, since it was her first time using a gas grill that the previous tenant gave her when he left, how to cook a sausage. Being the dirty old man I'm slowly becoming, my first thoughts were less than pure, but I quickly over came those to tell her to use her nose. Mine are done when the smell won't let me sit and wait anymore. She brought up a point that she applied to Japanese chefs that also applies though...use your ears, when the sizzle is right the sausage is cooked. I showed her how to clean the grill and start it and told her to start at a low heat until impatience and the smell took over.

She also mentioned a Bavarian deli that I used to drive by when I lived in the middle of town and bragged about its sausages. I always thought it was a restaurant, but it's really a deli so I'll have to check it out. The Cypriot sausage, or maybe it's Greek, is Sheftalia and it's pretty good as well. I'm not sure what it's made of , but it resembles hard hamburger in its texture and is pretty tasty. It goes well with a village salad, minus the damn tomatoes.

Other news...Alienware's customer support was pretty darn good when I finally got around to calling them. Being somewhat stubborn, I fought the new computer myself for a few days, not doing anything to void the warranty, but fighting it nonetheless. It turned out that I had done everything right and the only thing left to do was flash the motherboard BIOS with a new version. It's worked for over 24 hrs. so far.

This should be fun...

I'm initiating my new grill this afternoon with a nice fat kielbasa. They're not as good as the one's grandma and grandpa used to make, but neither is most bacon either. What should be fun is chasing off the neighborhood cats. I have a hose at the ready. Most are strays, but Victoria, my artist neighbor, has given me free rein to train her pets. They're already learning what cayenne pepper is, at least they haven't slept where I don't want them to in quite awhile.

Nasty...

No, I didn't do anything of that nature after waking up at 0100 and drinking through the game, just the weather. It's been raining pretty hard and late this morning got pretty windy too. I love it and hope to go up to the new place and get some photos of the surf later this afternoon. It looked pretty cool this morning when I was up there.

I finally called cytanet and got them to commit to a date(tomorrow) to hook up the web. They complained that I hadn't closed my old account but finally relented when I explained to them that the internet was critical to my work and based on past experience, I couldn't afford to rely on things being cut off at my old place and smoothly transferred to the new one. I needed the new one up and working before I paid off the old account. I also discovered just how poor the mobile phone connection is when talking downstairs at the new place. The battery lasted about 3 minutes and I thought it was fully charged. I'll probably have to get a regular phone too. It's been awhile.

I also broke the damn stylus on my turntable again. I move it in 3 pieces and mistakenly thought I could avoid removing and transporting the cartridge properly. It survived being taken upstairs and placed in the car. It survived being removed from the car and carried up while I pushed the door open. I had already unlocked it anticipating a problem here, but as I bent to push the door open, the zipper on my jacket made contact with something and a heard a soft metallic ting. Sure enough, no more stylus.

Oh well, even though I'll be moving, I've got three days off.

Good news and bad news

Good news is Jeff Goldstein is back blogging regularly at proteinwisdom.com. The bad news is he thinks his wife gave him the stomach flu. He wanted an ipod. He recently bought a house and has been concentrating on that, and likely, a lawsuit against a moonbat professor. It's in his archives somewhere. His humor take a bit of getting used to and his politics are his to choose, but it's both an entertaining and serious place. If you stick around long enough, he'll probably post another pic of his incredibly cute kid.

Moving and baseball...

Spoke with the landlord(future) today and thing are coming together.

Also, here's some commentary on a book by one of the authors at USS Mariner, one of my featured websites. I've already pre-ordered a copy of "The Cheaters Guide to Baseball" and if it sounds like something you might like, recommend that you do as well.

Moving soon

I went up and talked to Scott today about moving in when he leaves and am meeting his landlord tomorrow. It's fifty pounds less and a little bigger and at least I can get rid of some of the furniture that's there to make more room. One problem may be finding a spot for my satellite dishes, especially the 2m one, but I'll figure something out. Now the fun part...actually moving...ugh.

Some of my favorites...

are now listed to the right. Some are frivolous, others fairly thoughtful and you probably won't like everything you'll read on them, i.e., parental guidance, but they're all pretty good at their intended purposes and will provide food for thought. As a special example, click on Wretchard at the bottom and read E Pluribus Unum from his site and tell me that doesn't change a perspective or two at least a little bit.