For this weeks Heads or Tails meme the theme is either heads. something in the air or in space or tails, something in or under the water.

For this week I think I'll be different and do something for both memes.

First thing I thought of for the meme was the something in space thing. That thing happens to be the orbiting international space lab. Part of the reason that came to mind was that there was supposed to be a launch sunday of the space shuttle that was canceled due to a malfunctioning fuel gauge. The shuttle will eventually take the rest of the space stations parts up in space so astronauts can assemble them. Although the shuttles are due to retire within the next 5 or so years, I hope they get the job done.

The second part of this came to mind when Skittles said something to me about trains not being under water when she explained what this weeks meme was. I got to thinking and came up with something to put in the meme. So here it goes. There is a train that goes under water so to speak. It's the train that runs under the English channel in the "Chunnel". This train carries passengers and autos between England and France. Before the Chunnel, folks there had to rely on ferries to cross the English Channel. Now they can ride in comfort in a speedy train and arrive safe and sound.

So, that does it for me on this weeks Heads or Tails meme. Till next time BYE!!

Heads or Tails

This weeks theme for the Heads or Tails meme is "Mark".

For this my mind immediately went to Micro Mark. What is Micro Mark you might ask? Well if you have read any of my previous posts you would know that I love working on model trains and models in general. Micro Mark is a company that specializes in tools and such for building models. I get their catalog regularly and love looking through them to see what new gadgets they carry for building models. They also have a website that I have "marked" as a favorite on my computer. They also send me e-mails with specials that they have "marked" down in price. So, there you have my meme for this week. Till next time BYE!!

This weeks theme for the Heads or Tails meme is "Road".

For this I'll tell about a few of the "roads" we've been down on our vacations. Anyone who had kept up with Skittles blog knows that we take some pretty neat vacations and all of them were in a car. We've been down some pretty interesting "roads" during our travels. I remember the first time we went to Florida, there was a road we traveled at night on our way from Ocala over to Daytona Beach that had wild pig crossing signs all over the place. Being from Michigan, I was used to seeing "deer crossing" signs on the road but this was the first I had ever seen about pigs crossing the road lol. Another interesting road we went down while we were in North Carolina was when at night again, we saw "wolf" and "bear" crossing signs. I'll tell you, it didn't make me want to get out of the car for anything. If we had gotten a flat tire, I'd just drive till I got to a gas station or something. We've been down some of the most beautiful roads you can imagine also. Through the Great Smoky mountains, Yellowstone and Vermont. So, that does it for my "Heads or Tails" meme this week. Till next time BYE!!

My Pornstar Name

I saw this over at Skittles' Place this morning and gave it a try lol.

Your Adult Film Star Name Is...

Sergeant Stiffy

What's Your Adult Film Star Name?

Heads or Tails

The theme for this weeks "Heads or Tails" meme is "Train". I'll post about what I have been doing at work for the past couple months. I have been "training" other people on how to build new cars models that my plant is going to get to manufacture. I've been made the major model person and am responsible for teaching others how to do there respective jobs. The new model we are going to be making has quite a few changes in how things are done and it is part of my job to "Train" others in how these processes will be done. I'll bet most who read my blog thought I'd be posting on real trains or model trains lol. Just a different take on it this time. Till next time BYE!!

Heads or Tails

This weeks "Heads or Tails" meme is to list 10 things in the category of my choosing. For this week I have chosen to list 10 hobby type things I enjoy. They are in no particular order.

Ten hobbies I enjoy partaking in.

1 watching real trains

2 model trains (ho scale)

3 gas powered r/c cars

4 building model cars

5 watching dvd movies

6 working on computers

7 working on cars

8 woodworking

9 photography

10 recording my old vinyl records into mp3 format

So there you have it. You get to know a little more about me with this meme.

Till next time BYE!!

Happy Birthday Skittles!!

Today is Skittles' birthday. We don't have a big party planned, just more like a nice quiet time here at home. I'll be baking a birthday cake for her later today. We will have some of her kids visit us on Saturday though. This is the 7th birthday I have spent with her, the 2nd since we have been married. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for being who she is, a wonderful woman who I enjoy spending my life with. We travel and enjoy doing things together. She's the one who makes our home a place that I enjoy coming home to each day. In short, I love her very much.

So, Happy Birthday Skittles :)

If you've read this you might go over to Skittles' Place and wish her a happy birthday too, I know she'll appreciate it.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
When was the last time you were surprised? About 2 months ago when Skittles came home and showed me the new GPS she bought for me :)

Soup
Fill in the blanks: My eyes are Green, but I wish they were Green. I'll stick with what I got lol.

Salad
If you were a Beanie Baby, what would you look like and what would your name be? Plump with a beard and glasses and be called Grandpa Beany.

Main Course
Name two things you consistently do that you consider to be healthy habits. Go to work and pay bills lol.

Dessert
What brand of toothpaste are you using these days? Do you like it? Why or why not? Pepsident, because that's what Skittles likes. I like it too because to me touthpaste is toothpaste!

Heads or Tails

This weeks Heads or Tails meme theme is "explore".

I came up with what I wanted to post on this meme pretty quickly. What came to my mind first was the trips that Barb(Skittles) and I have taken over the years. Usually during our trips we go on little side trips to see things that we either have heard about or seen on the map. Our trips also aren't usually planned to be just a get there and back thing. In other words, our trips are open to "exploring". This leaves us open to seeing and doing almost anything we want. I was going to post some pictures for the meme, but I have already done that in previous posts and it was difficult to just pick a few to put here.

I'll list a few of my favorite places that we have explored instead.

1 Yellowstone National Park
2 Mount Rushmore National Park
3 The Badlands both in N. Dak and S.Dak
4 The New England area. Too many neat places to name just a few.

So, that about does it for this meme. Seeing as Skittles and I have visited 38 states together and seen quite a lot together, I'd say we have "explored" quite a bit. Till next time BYE!!

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you look forward to your birthday? Seeing as this year I turn 50, not that much anymore. It just isn't like it used to be when I was younger lol.

Soup
What is one word you don’t like the sound, spelling, or meaning of? The "N" word. I'm don't like it and don't like the double standards of it's use.

Salad
Do you wear sunglasses when you’re outside? If so, what does your current pair look like? No, but there are times I need too. As I wear glasses to see I need a pair of those flip type ones.

Main Course
If you were to write a book, to whom would you dedicate it? Probably to my wife Barb. We've done so much together and gone so many new places.

Dessert
Name a beverage that you enjoy. Pepsi :)

Desktop

I saw this over at Skittles' Place and thought it was kinda cool. It was a meme that you were supposed to tag someone else to do after you did it, but I won't tag anyone, I'll just put it up for you to see. Basically, you make a picture of your desktop and explain what it is and why you chose it. For my desktop I use a picture that I took while on vacation in upper New Hampshire while we were looking for moose. I don't remember the exact name of the park or area, but this is a stream that leads to a natural feature in this area called the "basin". The "basin" was formed by the fast rushing water that has eroded the surrounding stone to look like a wash basin. A very neat area that we happened upon while cruising for moose lol.

Halloween Costume

I saw this over at Skittles' Place and gave it a try. The questions are pretty wild lol.

Your Halloween Costume Should Be

A Bumble Bee

What Should You Be For Halloween?

Heads Or Tails

For this weeks "Heads or Tails" meme the theme is "Stack" or "Stacks". ''

The first thing that came to mind as I had just written another post about where I work, is the "stacks" that protrude from the paint shop at my plant. They aren't smoke stacks that you normally see in a factory, rather they are designed to clear our paint shop of unused byproducts. while it may be true that some of the byproducts are incinerated before being sent out the stacks, you never see smoke coming from them.

I couldn't find a good picture of the ones like the ones that are on my plant. I have taught my wife Barb how to tell where the paint shop is on almost any auto factory. It's pretty easy once you know what to look for. Mostly it's the number and size of the stacks. Usually there are many small ones and a few bigger ones to look for. They are usually clustered in a small area on one building.

There are many stacks coming out of our paint shop. Plus we have several very large ones at the end of our building that are used to clean up any solids or harmful vapors that may escape the usual treatment process.

So that's what I thought of when I did this meme. Till next time BYE!!

What We Wanted To Be And What We Became

This post actually came to me last week but I have just gotten around to posting it.

Much of it came about as a result of a conversation with one of the unit leaders that I have been working with in the paint shop where I work. It seems that one of the higher ups is taking a position in a different part of the plant and the unit leader that I was talking to had applied for the position. This position normally requires that one have some type of educational degree. But seeing as there was another person within the paint shop that didn't have said degree and had done this job, filling in for the person it belonged to had also applied for it, that part of the requirement was dropped.

The position in question really isn't that difficult to perform. It requires mainly a mind for numbers. Specifically, how many cars that are built in each bank of the paint shop. Each unit kind of performs independently of each other and has a bank of cars that the next unit can feed on in case of downtime in the previous unit.

All this to explain what was going through my mind. You see, I turned out to be pretty much a normal type guy after high school. I chose not to pursue college and have been making a living with my hands since then and not to shabbily, I might add.

But this conversation did get me to thinking about what might have happened to me had I chosen to go to college. Part of the reason for not going to college was that fact that I never considered myself the sort to sit behind a desk and shuffle papers. This isn't to make light of folks who do, it's just the way I then thought of jobs that college grads got.

If I had gone to college, doors that have been and are closed to me would have been opened up. I'm not stupid or slow, it's just that I wanted to work with my hands at the time.

I also thought about when I was much younger and had thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up. At one point, it was either a football player or an automotive engineer. I thought I'd leave it open so I had some options lol. I never became either of those things. I found out when I was in high school that I didn't like football as much as I thought and the thought of more years of desk learning didn't appeal to me either.

I did however, a bit later in life, become a certified mechanic in the state that I live. I guess that's about as close to an engineer as I ever got.

Am I unhappy about the decision that I made so many years ago not to go to college. The answer to that is "NO". I have gotten to do many things and a few different jobs in that time and have gotten by fairly well. As for today and the job that I do, I am making a very good living with it. Could I be making more money if I had gone to college, "Yes" , but I am doing things I like to do and am happy with who I am at this point.

At some point I may post about what I am doing where I work now. As you know, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know I work in an auto assembly plant. But I don't have a regular assembly line job anymore. I (through seniority) got a much better job, and it's off line.

I bet that more than a few other people have these same thoughts from time to time as they go through life. What could I have been?

For now I'll just leave it. Just a few thoughts that I had during the last week. But as I said, someday I may post more detail about what I do at the plant. Till next time BYE!!

Heads or Tails

Our pet cockatiel Charlie

Heads or Tails

This weeks Heads or Tails meme theme is Keys. For this I guess I'll just tell you a bit about me in as far as "keys" go. I always carry 2 sets of keys with me. One set is for the cars that Barb and I have and the other is for our apartment and such.

The first set (the car set) has keys for the 2 cars we own plus one of those automatic door and trunk opener for Barbs car, plus a few of those little cards that attach to your keyring so we get discounts at a few of the stores we go to. This set hangs on a big clip that attaches to one of my belt loops so I can get to them easily, plus they are probably the most used.

The second set has our apartment key plus keys for our storage unit, my work laundry locker and our mail box. It has another key on it but I don't really remember what it's for lol. This set is on a keyring that I carry in my right front pants pocket.

I have duplicate sets of keys made just in case I loose a set(which has happened before).

I know many people put all their keys on one keyring, but I like keeping these separate so it's easy to get at either set as I need.

There you have it lol, now through this meme you know a bit more about me and my habits.

Fish Water

We (Barb and I) bought a fish aquarium and a bunch of fish(12 to be exact) a few months ago. I have to admit I knew very little about taking care of fish. The only other fish I ever had was a small goldfish when I was a youngster.

So we had our fish a few days and one of them died. There happened to be a guarantee that came with the fish that said the store would replace them if one of them died within I think 7 days after purchase. So I took the little fellow back to the store with a sample of the water it was in(part of the requirement for warranty). The nice fellow at the store tested the water and told me it had way too much ammonia in it. I asked what I could do to get rid of it and he suggested that it was either overstocking or not enough filtration. Well, we had looked online about how many fish we could put in our 20 gallon aquarium and it said that a general guideline was 1" of fish for each gallon of water in the aquarium. As most of the fish we bought were small we figured it was good.

Well, I waited a few more days and took another sample back and what do you know, it was too high in ammonia also. We tried a partial water change and a few other things, but a couple more fish ended up not making it. We even tried a chemical that was supposed to help get rid of ammonia and that didn't seem to do the trick either.

We bought a monitor thing that was supposed to tell us instantly if there was ammonia in the water and sure enough it registered high for it again.

So, we are down to 7 fish now. Just the other day, we did another partial water change(we had been doing that on a regular basis anyway) and bought a real test kit to check the ammonia level. Lo and behold, the ammonia problem seems to have vanished. The water is where it should be now. So, hopefully our fish can live in peace without having to suffer any ill consequences. This made us very happy indeed.

Just thought I'd blog about it lol. TIll next time BYE!!

I'm Not a Stellar Dad, But I Tried

I thought I'd write here about some of my past. Particularly about my relationship with my children and how it has gotten to where it is today.

My children , a son and a daughter were born in 1986 and in 1990 respectively. Things were pretty normal during their early years as things go. They were happy normal kids and really never had to worry about things. They had more toys that you can imagine or maybe you can lol. The basement was full of their old toys as I was a packrat then as I am now. I helped them with their homework and science projects and whatever else I could.

Then came my divorce. Things are never easy in these situations. My kids were 14 and 10 at this time.

I came to find out that I was being blamed for the whole thing. As you can imagine, my kids who spent more time with there mother took the same view. Things were strained to say the least between my ex-wife and I.

After I moved out of the house there was still, in the best way I know how to say it, a hostility between my ex and I. I did however start seeing my kids once a week. My ex and I worked it out that I would e-mail her and make sure it was ok with her for me to pick them up on a certain day. So, every week I'd pick them up and we would sometimes go see a movie and do other things.

At some point in this time, I had been notified by the FOC (friend of the court) that they had made a mistake and I now was going to have what amounted to half my paycheck taken out in child support payments. This made doing things with them like going to the movies and eating out a bit much as far as available money went. I still had all the normal monthly payments to make such as insurance and phone and such.

At first my solution was to pick them up and go rent a movie and have dinner at my house. We did have the occasional fast food meal that they liked, but it just wasn't in the budget for me to do this all the time. One thing I would add here is that I tend to take budgets seriously and if I don't have the money for something, I don't buy it. This is one of the things that my ex and I had arguments over.

This seemed to work out fine with the kids for awhile. Then one week, I e-mailed my ex with the usual request to pick up the kids and the reply I got back wasn't pretty. There was a whole list of things that apparently was wrong with the way things were being done while the kids were in my charge. Just to list a few things about what the e-mail said was that the kids didn't like my falling asleep during the time the movie was playing. If any of you get up as early as I do(4:30 am) you'd understand that it's easy to take a snooze at 8 or 9 in the evening while watching movies. Heck, I do it quite often, you can ask Barb about that one lol. One of the other things that my kids complained about to my ex about was the food they were eating. My daughter was mainly the one complaining about this but my son wasn't happy about it either. One side note here is that my daughter is lactose intolerant. I tried not to fix things that had a lot of milk products in them. The gist I got out of this part of the e-mail was that they wanted fast food instead of home cooked meals. The way I saw it was that home cooked meals were much better for them than fast food. The last thing I'll touch on in the e-mail is about money. My ex said that the kids complained that I wasn't spending money on them. Well, if you have half your pay being taken before you ever see it, that might be expected.

When the divorce was being processed I had to go to a meeting that explained an ideal way things should be done when dealing with kids that have divorced parents. It specifically dealt with in one section that parents shouldn't try to buy kids love with expensive gifts. So what happens the first Christmas that I am away from my kids? My ex buys them each a DVD player and their own TV then tells me what she bought them so we wouldn't "duplicate" the things we got for them. I had no intentions of buying those kind of gifts for them. Heck, they were still kids so I bought them fun things to have.

I responded to the e-mail that I got from my ex explaining my point about all the things that were complained about. I got a reply that basically told me my reasons weren't good enough. My ex also told me that the kids didn't want to see me that week and that they would be doing other things in the next few weeks. I e-mailed her back telling her that was ok and that they could e-mail me when they wanted to see me again. Her response to that was "don't hold your breath". My kids never said any of this to me, they (so I assume) told my ex about it who wrote it in the e-mail.

So, I haven't seen my kids since then. It has been about 3 years since I saw them last. As I see it, I'm not going to force them to see me if they don't want to. I also won't play any "games" to get them to see me again. My son is now 21 and my daughter is 17.

It may not be a pretty picture, but that's the way it is. There are things that happen during and after a divorce that just aren't good. This is one of them.

About the Rant

I had posted a rant the other day about things going on and have deleted it. The reason I have done this is because a family member wrote me a very nice letter explaining some things to me. Also, it was never my intent to cause any family members any problems. I understand some of their points and feel some are very valid. So in short, if anyone wishes to express any more opinions about this topic( and feel free to do so), please use my e-mail link on the side of my blog.

Heads or Tails Meme

This weeks Heads or Tails Meme is September 11th remembrances or how you found out about it.

Well, I found out about what was going on while I was at work. A friend was listening to a radio with earphones and he told some of us that was working near him that at first a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. He said at first that it wasn't known whether it was a big of small plane as the station he was listening to didn't have too many details as yet. As time for our break came, we got to see what was happening on our TV's that were located in our break room. The pictures on the television didn't seem real. We found out that it had been 2 large airliners that had crashed into the towers. If I remember right, management called us back into the break room shortly after to let us watch more of the coverage and that's when we saw the collapse of the first tower. I think most of us sat there in shock as we watched. Soon after that, we were told we could go home as I don't think management figured many people were in the mood to get much done after seeing what had happened.

After I got home I called Barb (Skittles) to let her know I was ok. I also remember it being eerily quiet as there wasn't any airplanes in the sky. I also got in my car and headed over to Barbs as I thought it was a good idea to be with each other in a time like this.

Well, that's what I remember from that fateful day. I hope I never have to see anything like this again.

My Band Name

I saw this over at Skittles' Place and had to try it.

Your Band Name is:

The Bad Mutha Geishas

Band Name Generator

Heads or Tails

This weeks "Heads or Tails" meme theme is "school'.

So I'll tell you about a class I took a few years ago that was paid for by my company. We have a program that allows us to educate ourselves in a variety of things. This class I took was called "Racing Engine School". It was 2, 8 hour days long on a weekend and was very insightful. Of course, you won't learn everything there is to know about racing engines in 2 days, but it was still fun. I have a (background of auto mechanics anyway( I was licensed for a few years).

Quite a lot of things taught in this class was already known to me but I did learn some more technical aspects about building racing engines. All in all, with the books and knowledge I gained in this class, if I decide to build another race car like I had when I was younger, I will be better prepared to do it right.

Goings On

I haven't been posting on a regular basis for the last couple of months. I just got out of blogging and have been doing other things. Seeing as no one really reads my blog on a regular basis anymore I just post when I feel like it. I guess that's what happens when you don't visit other blogs lol.

I'll start with my getting a new video game last week called Guitar Hero 2 and it's a lot of fun to play. I'm still playing on easy so far so I'm not making any money in the game but have been able to travel to 6 cities in it. I think I'll start playing in a harder level now that I have some practice with it.

Another new toy I got this past week was a GPS thingie made by Magellan. Although we haven't taken any long trips as of yet, I think it will come in very handy. For instance you can program it to show gas stations and such. This would have come in very handy when we took our trip to N. Dakota in May and almost ran out of gas getting to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It just happened to be about 70 miles off the freeway and there wasn't many towns in that area and we weren't familiar with the area either. But, I think this little toy will be fun to use as we do take some neat trips on our vacations.

That's about all that's new with the exception of getting some new sets of dishes, but that's not all that exciting for me(I'm a guy remember lol). Till next time BYE!!

Fortune Cookie

I saw this over at Skittles' Place and gave it a try lol.

My Fortune Cookie told me: You are dreaming. It is time to wake up now. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

I Got An Award

I woke up this morning and found this on Skittles' Place blog. Ok, she told me it was there lol. Nepotism really works lol. I guess I am supposed to pass this on to someone, but as I haven't been blogging much I'll just let anyone who reads this have it. Will anyone read my blog? lol.

Heads or Tails Meme

This week for Skittles' Place Heads or Tails Meme the theme is Hobby or something that rhymes with Hobby. I think I'll do the easier one and tell about my hobbies. I seem to have many hobbies, just ask Skittles lol, but I'll just go into a few.

1 Model Trains- I got into this many years ago actually, when I was in my teens. I got a train set for Christmas and added some cars to it and put it on a 4x8 sheet of plywood. I kinda grew out of it when I got a bit older and didn't get back into it until I was about 35 or so. Since then my collection has grown quite a bit. I still don't have a layout to run them on but hopefully someday I will. Oh, I now have about 150 engines and cars. They are in HO scale.

2 R/C cars. I bought an electric one about 25 years ago and ran it around for awhile. It got put away also as new hobbies and such got into. I still have this one and have added a gas powered one. I found the gas powered one more fun and didn't have to change batteries on it, just add fuel when it runs out. Both are 1/10 scale so they are decent sized.


These are my trains layed out on our old dining room table. This isn't even all of them really, some I had new in the box that I didn't put on the table and have since added to them also.



These are pics of my gas powered R/C car.

What Carnival Ride Are You?

I saw this over at Skittles' Place and gave it a try lol. I'm not so sure it's all that accurate, but it was fun!

You Are a Carousel

You are young at heart and a truly playful person. No one would ever accuse you of taking life too seriously. You are definitely in things for the fun. You find joy easily, and you are often building up anticipation for your next adventure. In relationships, you tend to want to be babied and taken care of. And while you may be a bit high maintenance, you are incredibly loyal. Your life is simple and satisfying. Each day you treat yourself to something you enjoy. You have a lot of emotional attachments, and experiences are extra vivid to you. You tend to be nostalgic and sentimental. The past is important to you. Comfortable around all living things, you have a special connection to animals and children. At your best, you are whimsical, free spirited, and creative. Even if your schemes seem a bit strange, they usually work out wonderfully. At your worst, you are spoiled, demanding, and impossible to satisfy. You've been known to act like a brat if you aren't getting your way!

What Carnival Ride Are You?

7 P's Meme

I was tagged by bundle-o-contradictions for the 7P's meme. I have to admit that I forgot about it and thought it was time to get it done. So here go's it.


Passion An interesting one. I have passions for different things. The one thing I will write about here is my passion for model railroading. I don't yet have a place to run my trains, but I would love to in the future.


Purpose I feel my purpose in this life is to provide and protect my wife Barb. It may be a silly thing to some, but I do take it seriously. After all, I made the choice to marry her :)


Pursuit Another interesting one. I think in life we all pursue things and I am still pursuing myself. At the present, I would say that I am pursuing an actual home for Barb and I to have. One that we can call our own and do as we please in it. As for living in an apartment, it's all nice until you want to do things like leave your dog outside for more than a few minutes and there isn't much you can do such as growing a garden or things like that.


Position A few things come to mind when I think of this one. As far as work goes, I am in a good position. I currently have been chosen for being the one who helps with the new line balancing task and teaching and helping others do the new tasks that are associated with this. Also, in life, I think I'm in a good position as far as things go. I hope to be( as in the last "P" paragraph) position to buy our first house together in the near future.


Pummeling About the only thing that really comes to mind is the pummeling, financially and emotionally, that came with a divorce in 2001. Not as much emotionally as the marriage was over, but financially speaking, from having to pay some pretty high child support payments from a mistake that the Friend of the Court had made. It made living somewhat difficult at times.


Progress The thing I think about for this is the progress I have made in as far as travelling has gone. Before I met Skittles, I had been to 8 states. Since then I progressed to having been to 37 of them. Wooo Hooo! And it has been in these travels that I have had some of the best times in my life and seen some of the most wonderful things I have ever seen.


Personality I think I have a pretty good personality. I have a decent sense of humor and think I'm kind to others. I guess the most telling thing about my personality is that my grandchildren love me. I've always thought that little ones know who loves them without anyone having to tell them that.

Well, I hope I did a good job on this meme. It's just my thoughts on these words and what they mean to me.