Wednesday

I got home a bit late today. I had some running around to do after work. It didn't help that we worked almost 10 hours today either lol. I got my Wordless Wednesday post up late, but better late than never right? I did stop and pick up a box of LP's so I can start getting them into MP3's.

I've gone and gotten myself a cold. It started a couple days ago and really hasn't gone away yet. Mostly just a stuffy nose and a few coughs, but enough to make me more tired than usual after work. Hopefully it will be gone soon.

Other than that, I'll think I'll just relax and watch some American Idol tonight and call it an early night. Rest is what I need at this time. Till next time BYE!!

Wordless Wednesday

USB Turntable

Wooooo Hoooooo. I got home today and I found a little note on the door. It was from the UPS people and they had tried to deliver a package but didn't get any answer when they knocked on the door. So, they left it at the office of the apartment where I live.

So, before I took Skittles to her doctors appointment I stopped at the office and picked up my package. It was a pretty good sized one too. It took a bit of will power not to open it in the car lol.

After we got home I opened the package and what did I find? A brand new USB Turntable that was my gift for Christmas. Apparently they had a big order for them and it was back ordered. But it's here and I got it all put together.

Now I have to stop off at the storage place and pick up a box of LP's so I can put them into MP3 format and make some CD's with that. There really wasn't much to put together really. Just the cartridge for the needle and the turntable itself had to be installed. I'll have to install the software tomorrow when I get home from work.

I'm very happy that I got my new toy today. I'll have to decide on what project to work on now. As I see it I have 3 projects going on at the moment.

First, I still have 5 train cars to put together and weather.

Second, I need to work on my graffiti skills with the airbrush so I can add some graffiti to my train cars.

Third, I want to get my vinyl LP's put into MP3 format so I can make some CD's and also put the music on my Ipod.

So much to do so little time to do it lol. Till next time BYE!!

Monday

I took today off as a vacation day. It's been a pretty slow day really. I did go see my neurosurgeon and he says that he doesn't need to see me anymore. Most of the pain and stiffness is due to getting back into the swing of things at work. If we go down to 8 hours I'll try to get some physical therapy in so that I can strengthen my left leg.

Other than that I just did a little shopping that needed to be done. I did find out that I overpaid for the new paint I bought at the craft store, so I stopped in there to get that straightened out. I also stopped at Lowe's to get a replacement filter for our room air cleaner. I'm glad they had one since it's a lot cheaper to get it from there than to have to order it. The funny part of it is is that on the box it says that there are at least 2 filters inside. I thought huh? But after getting home and looking inside the box, I found out that it's one big roll of this stuff. Oh, I guess I should mention that our air cleaner has 2 types of filters. The outer one is an activated carbon type filter and that's the one I needed. And what you do is measure the old filter against the big piece of new material and cut it to size. And yes, there is enough for 2 filters there lol. It's some kind of universal type deal and more than one model uses it. I had already picked up the other filter which is like a normal pleated paper one before. So, we're all set in getting nice clean air in our PC room.

Other than that, we had a nice dinner and watched Superman Returns. I liked it. The only actor that I really knew in it though was Kevin Spacey. The others are new to me. But as I said, it was good.

Now all I have left to do is get ready to go to work tomorrow. At least it will be a 4 day week for me. Wooo Hooo lol. If I get home at a decent hour I'll be practicing my airbrush skills on the comic book I bought. I'll see if I can do it without going outside of the lines. This ought to be interesting as I have never done any real fine line work with it before. It'll be good to learn though. I also found 50 pictures from the web of graffiti on trains so I can get a good idea of what to put on one. Till next time BYE!!

Sunday pt 2

Well, the grocery shopping is done and the taxes for this year are done too. What a relief it is to get taxes done. The good news is that we are getting a nice refund again. I like refunds lol. I also stopped at the craft store and picked up some neat colors to try doing the graffiti on my trains. I forgot to get a coloring book though. I think I might go out and get one seeing as I need a cartridge for my printer so I can print the returns for the taxes.

It's snowing a little outside too. If you ask Skittles, it really isn't snow lol. It's coming down but it's a very light snow. At least it's better than no snow at all in my mind. It makes things look nicer. Especially if you look out our patio door. The mounds of dirt at the construction site are now nice little snow hills.

That's about all for now. My "honey do" list is finished and now I get to play lol. I'll post the results as soon as I get it the graffiti done. Wish me luck. Till next time BYE!!

Sunday

Not much going on today. Yesterday was mostly a lounging around day for me. I have some shopping to do today though. Groceries are getting a bit low here lol. I'll probably stop at the local craft store too to pick up some acrylic paint so I can attempt to add some graffiti to one of my train cars. I have a few pictures of it on real train cars, but the thing is is that it is hard to make out exactly what it says. The letters are kind of jumbled together. It does look pretty neat though.

I talked to a friend at work who does airbrushing and is very good at it. He gave me a suggestion on what brand of paint to buy to use for this project. It's always nice to have someone like that to ask questions of. He also suggested that I practice my airbrushing skills using a coloring book and trying not to go outside of the lines. Reminds me of when I was young and I used crayons lol. I think it's a good idea though. So I might end up picking up a coloring book to practice on before I do the train car.

That's about all that's going on at the moment. We did get a little bit of snow yesterday, but not enough to make the roads bad. I'm wondering if we will get any good amount of snow this year. It's already the end of January and we haven't had any big snows here yet. Oh well. Till next time BYE!!

Train

Here's the latest train car I finished. It's a 2 bay covered hopper. I've put in before and after pics to show what the car looked like originally. I almost had to make it this dirty as some of the plastic castings were of slightly different shades of yellow and would have been pretty noticeable if I hadn't. Till next time BYE!!

I Graduated

I found this at Skittles' Place

The University of Blogging Presents to Mike An Honorary Bachelor of Non Sequiturs Majoring in Bad Poetry Signed Dr. GoQuiz.com �

Username:

Blogging Degree
From Go-Quiz.com

Saturday Photo Hunt

This is my entry into the Saturday Photo Hunt. This weeks theme is Silver. It is a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. I'm not sure of the year. I saw this beautiful auto at the Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum in Auburn Indiana a few years ago.

Blogging

If you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging as I did before I went back to work. This is primarily due to my being so tired after getting home from work. A big part of it is trying to get back to where I was physically before I had my surgery. It is taking longer than I ever thought it would. It's amazing what hurts after being off for 4 months. Then add twisting movements and bending that you haven't done in that period of time and it adds up. I just don't feel like doing much when I get home. I know it will get better.

I talked to a friend of mine at work just before going back and he said they were working a little over 8 hours at the time. When I did go back, we were working 10 hours pretty much all the time. The good news is that I have heard that we are going to be working only 8 hours due to smaller orders for cars. This should help me get back to where I was without getting too tired out. So, in short, with the shorter hours, I might be able to get back to blogging more and visiting more of the links I like to visit. I just wanted to let those who visit my blog know what has been going on. Till next time BYE!!

Train

Here's the latest train car I got done. It's the same type as the last one but a different road. I also went for a more rusty look on it. This weekend I might attempt to add some graffiti on one of the cars. Wish me luck lol. The top picture is a before and the bottom one is the after :)

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
If you could take lessons to learn any musical instrument, which would you want to learn? Piano

Soup
Have you ever mistaken a person for someone else? Yes, but it has been a long time since it happened. I was pretty embaressed by it though as I recall.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets? I'll say 8

Main Course
What's the closest you've ever been to a dangerous animal? My son and I had our picture taken while holding a lion cub. Does that count?

Dessert
When was the last time you lost your patience? Probably last week. I don't really remember though.

Thursday Thirteen

For this weeks Thursday Thirteen I am going to list 13 things in my camera bag

1 Canon Digital Rebel Camera body

2 spare battery for digital camera

3 Canon 35mm Rebel body

4 18-55 mm lens

5 38-80 mm lens

6 80-200mm lens

7 70-300mm lens

8 Bounce zoom flash

9 Cord for connecting digital camera to PC

10 Charger for digital battery

11 roll of 35mm film

12 Set of filters for flash

13 Cleaning kit for cameras

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Warning Labels

I read an article in the News of the Strange a bit ago that dealt with a group that gave out some kind of awards for the most ridiculous warning labels. One of the top vote getters was for a washing machine label that warned folks not to put their children in one. Now I have to ask you? Is there really anyone out there who does this? Are they that deprived financially that they think a whirl around in a washing machine is a good trade off for a visit to an amusement park?

It really boggles my mind with some of the warnings that are put on products these days. Like there are folks that really don't understand that you don't use a hairdryer while taking a shower? Or that you don't ingest a cleaning product? I mean c'mon, most of this stuff smells so bad I wouldn't want to even think about trying to drink it.

I know a lot of people keep things like this under their sink and have small kids around. But are these small kids going to be able to read these labels? I think that's where common sense should rule. Parents should know to keep things like this out of little hands.

There are other silly warning labels that I have seen. Like don't dispose of batteries in a fire. I've never tried this myself. Never even thought about it. But I guess someone has done it for there to be a warning label on batteries for it. I just don't get peoples lack of common sense I guess.

I'll probably get some pretty interesting comments on this. I don't mind. I'm just putting my two cents on this issue out there for others to see. I've just been thinking about this for the past couple of days and thought I'd post about it. Till next time BYE!!

What Kind Of Pizza Are You?

I got this from Skittles' Place

Pepperoni Pizza

Robust and dominant. When you go for something, you go full force. You tend to take control of situations easily. And in return, you get a ton of respect.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Wordless Wednesday

25 Question Meme

I got tagged by Skittles to do this 25 question meme. Here it is.

1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? A good question, I'll say somewhere on or at least near a mountain
2. What's your favorite article of clothing? My Jeans
3. Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex? lol Boobs :)
4. What's the last CD that you bought? I don't remember
5. Where's your favorite place to be? Home
6. Where is your least favorite place to be? Dentist Office
7. What's your favorite place to be massaged? Anywhere on my body
8. Strong in mind or strong in body? It used to be both, but now I think I have to say mind lol
9. What time do you wake up in the morning? About 4:30 am
10. What is your favorite kitchen appliance? The cheap quisinart thingie we have
11. What makes you really angry? People that don't believe me when I'm right
12. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? Piano, I already know Bass Guitar and some Guitar
13. Favorite colour? Purple
14. Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV? Pickup
15. Do you believe in an afterlife? Yep
16. Favorite children's book? I think it's called Treasure Island from Disney
17. What is your favorite season? I'll say Fall
18. Your least favorite household chore? Cleaning house lol
19. If you could have one super power, what would it be? The power to heal people. I think that would be the neatest one of all
20. If you have a tattoo, what is it? Don't have any, don't want any.(I guess I won't be welcome at the Harley fest in Sturgis lol)
21. Can you juggle? Nope
22. The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to? My Dad
23. What's your favorite day? Friday
24. What's in the trunk of your car? Jumper cables, flashlight, A can of inflate-a-flat, Quart of oil, quart of trans fluid, windshield wiper fluid, power steering fluid, Spare headlight bulbs, A gallon of antifreeze. I have lots more room in it though, I have a great big trunk.
25. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger? Hamburger, I'm somewhat of a southern guy, if meat ain't cooked, don't eat it.

I'll tag Asara, Rach, and Chelle & Chel for this.

Mr Fixit

I've prided myself for quite a while now in my ability to fix things. It started when I was young. I wanted to know how things worked and how to make them work if they didn't. At this point in my life I can fix just about anything. Cars. toasters, vcr's, and more. But there's one thing I can't fix that I would like to be able to fix more than anything else. That one thing would be Skittles. I just don't have the tools or knowledge to do this. I've tried. Sometimes, I just don't know what to do. I'm not perfect. No one is. I make mistakes too. So, I'll just keep trying and see what happens. Maybe someday it will come true. If not, I'll just keep on loving her for who she is. I know there's a beautiful woman underneath somewhere. Maybe like any job, I get lax at times. Let my guard down and don't do the right things. But she's worth it, I know she is. Till next time BYE!!

What Color Should Your Room Be

You Should Paint Your Room Purple

Sophisticated and exotic, purple can also be a deeply comforting color. Your purple room will inspire you to trust yourself more and go with your intuition. Purple has also been known to facilitate healing and a feeling of protection.

What Color Should You Paint Your Room?

I found this at Skittles' Place

Trains

I got done with one of my train cars today. This one went pretty smoothly. The next one is similar in color and the same type, but I'm going to try something a bit different with it. I'll post pics when I done with that one too. Till next time BYE!!

Saturday

Well, we got a little snow as of today. Just enough to cover the ground. Not really enough to brighten up things though. It's cold enough to where it will stay.

I did start working on my trains again. I started weathering a covered hopper. I'll post before and after pics to show what I've done with it. So far it looks pretty good to me.

Other than that, we've just been relaxing and had dinner out. No movie though. Just relaxing. I guess that's about it for now. Till next time BYE!!

Saturday Photo Hunt

This weeks theme for the Saturday Photo Hunt is Wild. With this in mind I decided to post this picture. It was taken at a Safari Place in Ohio where you can drive your car through and see the various animals they have. They even let you feed some of them. It was pretty cool. As you can see, some of the animals are as curious about humans as we are of them.

The Year I was Born

In 1957 (the year you were born)

Dwight Eisenhower is president of the US First civil rights bill since Reconstruction to protect blacks' voting rights is approved by Congress Hurricane "Audrey" destroys Cameron, Louisiana killing 390 people National Guardsmen bar nine black students from entering previously all white Central High School in Little Rock Russians launch Sputnik I, first earth orbiting satellite The FBI arrests Jimmy Hoffa and charges him with bribery Vanna White, Osama bin Laden, Sid Vicious, and Melanie Griffith are born Milwaukee Brewers win World Series Detroit Lions win NFL championship Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup On the Road by Jack Kerouac is published The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss is published

What Happened the Year You Were Born?

Friday

Another weekend is here. We've been working 10 hours at the plant all week. I started wearing a pedometer this past week also. The last I time I checked it had counted 3580 steps. That was on Wednesday. At the end of the day on Thursday I went to check it and somehow it had fallen off and I didn't get to look at how many steps I had taken that day. It also means that it is lost. I won't bother to look for it as it may have come off in any number of places.

I've been so tired this week that about the only thing I have done after getting home is to post the usual stuff like WW, TT, and FF. After I get done checking all the comments and visiting those that visited me, it's about time for bed. I'll get caught up this weekend.

We had a great dinner of chili tonight. We also watched a very good movie while partaking in our good meal. It was called Akeelah and the Bee. It was about a young girl from the inner city trying to work out the challenge of making it to the finals of the National Spelling Bee. It was a winner and very touching.

That's about all for now. I'll see if I have any energy or inclination to start working on some of the projects I have to get done. I do have a small "honey do" list for the weekend. It shouldn't take me long to knock those out though. Till next time BYE!!

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Which television shows do you just refuse to miss? About the only one I really don't want to miss is American Idol

Soup
Who did you last speak to on the telephone? My Mother

Salad
How many pillows do you keep on your bed? 6 altogether

Main Course
Name one addition to your computer (software, hardware, etc.) that you'd love to have. A new version of Itunes that doesn't take over everything on my computer.

Dessert
What is your favorite foreign food? Italian

Thursday Thirteen

For this weeks Thursday Thirteen I'm going to list 13 random thoughts


1 When is it going to snow here

2 Why can't the grocery store keep things I want in stock

3 If the auto industry is in a slump, why am I working so much overtime

4 Will the construction on the roads ever end

5 When will spring come

6 When will my USB turntable get here

7 How many of my train cars will I get finished this year

8 What will I have for dinner tomorrow

9 Where will we go for vacation this year

10 How many songs will I be able to get on my ipod

11 How much will I get back on my taxes this year

12 Why do so many bad singers try out for American Idol

13 How many jobs will I do tomorrow

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday

I had a pretty good day at work today. I wore my pedometer and had it set to count steps. I ended up with 4930 steps. Not bad. That equals out to a bit over 2 miles.

When I got home, I smelled a very good smell coming from my apartment. I soon found out it was a pork roast that was in the oven. It's always nice to come home to that smell. We had the pork roast, rice, broccoli, carrots, gravy and biscuits for dinner. What a feast. I guess you know what I'll be having for lunch tomorrow huh?

After working 10 hours and eating a very good dinner, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll just relax the rest of the evening. I did get to glimpse a pretty sunset when I let the dog out after I got home. It wasn't bright enough to photograph though. Till next time BYE!!

Bud Wagon

On a prior 6 Weird Things About Me meme, one of the things I listed was that it took me 20 years to put a model together. Well, here it is. It's a model of the Budweiser Clydesdale's pulling the famous Budweiser beer wagon. I've seen this wagon in person at a fair. It's pretty impressive to see the horses being hooked up. Such majestic animals. Anyway, I had bought this model when I was about 17 I think. I looked at and noticed it needed some acrylic type paint for the vinyl parts that were in it. I didn't have any, so I put it back in the box and kinda forgot about it. Until about 5 years ago when I was on medical for a back problem. I decided that since I couldn't do much else at the time that I would put the wagon together. I did get the gold acrylic paint at that time. It took me about a week to get it all done. It's about 3 ft in length and sits on a simulated cobblestone base. Once Skittles saw it, she wanted to keep it and display it. It now sits on a shelf above her desk in our PC room. And that's my story lol. Till next time BYE!!

6 Weird Things Meme

I got tagged by Rach from Rachels Random Writings to do a 6 Weird Things About Me meme. Sorry for taking so long to get it done Rach :)

1 I have never flown on an airplane

2 I can't swim

3 I'm afraid of heights, but love the view once I'm there lol

4 I didn't start smoking till I was 46

5 I've haven't shaven in 30 years

6 I'm a procrastinator ( it took me several weeks to do this meme lol)

How Addicted Are You?

I found this at Skittles' Place

You Are 38% Addicted to the Internet

Internet? Please. You're definitely not geeky enough to be that addicted. You have a full life off your computer - and the internet is just a small pastime.

Are You Addicted to the Internet?

Grandkids

Well, we went to see the kids and grandkids yesterday. It ended up being a sort of quickie lol. We got over there about 10PM and stayed till about 1AM. We got to see 3 out of 4 grandkids though. Not too bad huh? We stopped at Barbs son Billy's place first and was pleasantly surprised to see Barb's other son Bob's wife Sara there. I didn't even really get a chance to say Hi to anyone as my grandson Andy immediately grabbed my hand and said "c'mon, I want to show you something". I was taken to his room and shown his toys and the video he was watching. He then decided he needed to pick up some of his toys and asked me to help him with it. What could I do? lol.

Andy is pretty smart for only being 3 years old. He knows not only how to put VCR tapes in his TV/VCR, but he knows which one is which. We watched part of 3 different tapes and then I got to go say Hi to the others there.

The youngest one Emily was asleep when we got there, but Billy got her up so we could say HI to the Birthday Girl. She is 1 year old now. And such a little cutie.

We ended up in the living room and talked a bit. Emily hasn't really warmed up to me yet. I was sitting on the floor playing with Andy on and off and Barb put her on my knee so I could hold her a bit. I ended up putting her on the floor so she could just go where she wanted. But then I showed her my watch. This seems to be something little ones like. The dial lights up. I've found that the boys really like this feature and will play with it quite a while. Emily liked it too. What a way to get her to like me huh? So that's pretty much what went on at Billy's place.

We decided to go see Barb's daughter Beth at her new apartment that night too. It was about 11 or so. We headed over there and found out we didn't have her exact address so we had to call and find out.

We got there with a little help and Beth had to wake my other grandson Jakob up so we could see him too. Jakob showed me some of his cars and other things around the apartment. What's better than getting a tour of the place from my grandson? It was about 1 AM then. Barb and I decided that it was best to beat the freezing rain that was headed for us. So off we went. It rained and there was some sleet too. But we made it safely home about 3:30 AM.

Not exactly what we had planned. But then again, that's pretty much how we do things. We don't actually plan, we just play it be ear. Same way with our vacations lol.

But we did have a good time seeing the Birthday girl and the other grandkids. And that also explains why I am posting this at around 12:30 PM today lol. We had to get some sleep. Skittles will post pictures she took and give her side of our little trip on her blog. Skittles was the official photographer on this trip. Till next time BYE!!

Saturday

I haven't done much today. I usually take Saturday as my day to recover from work. As I posted before, this last week has been a bit of a chore for me at work. Lots of bending and twisting. I think I've found muscles that haven't been used in a while there lol.

I did go out and do some grocery shopping. I'm sure we'll need more as the week goes along, but I got the essentials.

It's still gray and cloudy out here. It did get colder, but still no snow. I'm hoping for snow if you haven't guessed. Snow almost always brightens my outlook on things during the winter time. Oh well. Till next time BYE!!

Saturday Photo Hunt

The theme for this weeks Saturday Photo Hunt is Technology. I picked a picture of my Ipod Nano for this. It's 3.5 inches tall, 1.5 inches wide and is only 1/4 of an inch thick. It fits pretty well for the theme. It's amazing how they can pack all the space for music in such a small thing. It holds 4 gigabytes of music and also has games and a place to put messages. Pretty cool huh?