Random Rants

Well, Hanna has come and gone, and Ike looks to be heading into the Gulf and Josephine was so weak she was downgraded again. The extent of Hanna’s damage is 2 pieces of siding being knocked off the side of the house. One of them is back up already (I got up early and went to Lowes to get the siding/roofing nails). The other one I’ll have to cut around the crack but I should have that one up later. I’m in cooling off since the sun is beating down on that side of the house. I got some neat pics of the wind blowing yesterday (for example, the bug light up on its side).

And then there was our trip to the bowling alley. We drove all the way up to Newport News to get my new bowling balls drilled. Had to go see old Ray since I won’t let the goofs down here touch my gear. Ray was great. Since he knew I came all the way from EC, he drilled my gear then and there. So now I’ll have new gear to try out this week at bowling.

And in Dune Buggy news, there’s been no work the past couple of days due to schedules, work, and of course, Hanna. But, I did get the pans ordered to replace the floor and I picked up the fiberglass gear so I can begin the work on repairing the tiny holes and I’ve decided to fix the holes where the back speakers had been. This will allow me to shift the new speakers back a bit, won’t restrict me to 9×6 speakers, and will just be better all around. Additionally I plan on filling in the original guage panel so I can reposition the guages and switches.

Well that’s the past few days for me. How about you?

Dan Bowling Rants, Dune buggy, General Rants

So I sit here dreading school work. I ahve two “major” papers due at the beginning of next month. Add on top of that the weekly homework and other work I’ve been doing and that’s a lot of writing. I think my education paper will be on Technology in Math Education, and I’m still working on a topic and topic approval for my cryptography paper.

And then there’s the fact that Nikki and I are free. Kid-free that is. We got rid of the rugrats on Saturday, after driving through … get this … a blizzard. No snow all winter long, and the one time we don’t want snow, it snows. Normally, we’d traverse the Capital Beltway to get to Baltimore, but we decided to take Route 13 “up the coast” to avoid the traffic. Well, needless to say, it snowed like mad on 13, but not on the beltway. The Rover handled the weather beautifully and we made it without issue. But even still .. SNOW??? Drove back down the capital beltway and made it back in time for bowling. Not a superb performance by any means, but I still had an above-average performance.

So anyways, the kids are gone. We decided to spend Sunday finishing the painting in the house (or a good chunk thereof). We painted the bedroom, which took most of the day, while Junior came over and redid our flower beds. All of this is in preparation for an Open house while we’re gone retrieving the kiddos next Saturday. Spent a big chunk of the night playing Guitar Hero, for the first time not dealing with the kids showing us up (well, Kyle anyways)

And then there was yesterday. Hit the stores and picked up some new clothes (old ones are looking ratty and don’t hang as well with the weight I’ve lost). Spent some time “shopping” for a couch for the Pool room upstairs (the sectional just isn’t what we want), and then hit The Melting Pot last night. The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant (I know you were wondering when Fondue would come into things). Had a great feast, and I gained weight as a result. Oh well, more time on the treadmill tomorrow . Going to start on Free Weights on Thursday, hopefully.

Well, back to the game. Time to watch some baseball. We return you to your regularly scheduled internet surfing.

Dan Bowling Rants, General Rants, School Rants

Well, a lot has happened in the past few days.

Let’s begin with last Friday. Evanescence with Finger Eleven and Chevelle at the Ted Constant center. What a show. Finger Eleven opened the night. The whole house sang along to “One Thing”, and the rest of their show was very upbeat and kept the crowd lively. Chevelle came on to follow them. I’ve never been a big Chevelle fan, but I’ve got to say I was pleasantly pleased. I only knew one of their songs, “Send the Pain Below”, but the rest of their show, like Finger Eleven before them, was upbeat and rocking. Then the main act. Amy Lee and Evanescence. I’ve heard that their live show is not that good, but I think they disproved that. They rocked (and Amy Lee looked hot on stage). Not much else to say, other than I enjoyed it.

Saturday brought the hunt for the working Gamecube. Yes, you read right, a working Gamecube. Kyle bought a used Gamecube from GameStop on Friday, and it didn’t work. Thinking it was the used game he bought, I went to trade it in or get another one. Since there were no other copies of Super Smash Brothers, I wound up buying another game. In the end it wound up being the Gamecube that was broken. So, before bowling, Nikki and I swapped it out.

But, before picking up the new Gamecube and bowling, Nikki and I went down to the new house. Checked out the wiring. All looks good, so we did a count of the wall plates we’ll need to buy. That’ll be a pretty penny.

At bowling, I was just on. Not a better way to say it. Seemed like most of the stuff I threw just worked. And the surprising fact was, I think I threw out my back during the first game. I was just on a natural endorphin rush. I actually shot my second 600 of the week. Not too shabby. Off to the bar.

Got totally blitzed at the bar, singing up a storm, including an Evanescence song and a Shania Twain song. OK, I was drunk. What can I say. Had some fun, and next morning I’d pay the price. I was out of contention for most of Sunday. Not really a hangover, but my back combined with the sleep I was missing, just didn’t lead to a day of work. We watched “The Benchwarmers”, which is a funny movie, but then again, most Rob Schneider movies are. Then we watched “Beerfest”, from the guys that brought you “Super Troopers”. Then it was off to bed for a “good” night’s sleep.

Thankfully, my workout this morning seems to have stretched my back enough to work the kinks out of my back. Swapped lower body and upper body, which I may do every day this week to mix things up. Speaking of working out, I’m still down below 225 (yes, below), which makes me happy. Red Sox play tonight

Dan Bowling Rants, General Rants, Music, Working Out

Well, I said I’d post the other day, and it’s a few days later and I still haven’t typed up a post. But, I’m doing better and actually posting in LESS than a week’s time. So anyways, this morning, I’m driving to work and see a license plate that says 2GLSNME. Being who I am, my first thought isn’t the general observation of “2 Girls and Me”, my first thought is actually “To Grand Lake Stream and Maine”.

Now that the partial morning post is out of the way, let’s start a “real” post. I wound up subbing for someone at bowling last night, in a league that started at 9PM. I must have been insane. Let’s just say the beer helped. I wound up bowling a pretty decent set of 637, with a 182, a 213, and a 242. Not too shabby. Unfortunately it didn’t make me feel very good come this morning, as I didn’t get much sleep. So as a result, I skipped my workout, slept in, and got to work a little late.

But here’s what I’d say, based on bowling last night. Working out is definitely improving my bowling, as I’m finding my arm strength is holding up much better to 3 games of bowling. Bring on the 15 game marathon again!! Yes, I feel insane, I know.

As for working out, I’ve stalled on weight loss, but I’ve had no weight gain, which is good. When I get a workout, I have more energy during the day. That wasn’t more evident than this morning, when all I wanted to do (at work) was sleep. Luckily there’s a wonderful thing called caffeine .

Well, only thing left is the Sox. I’ve been keeping up, we’ve got our team, and things look good. Season starts soon. Wahoo. That is all.

Dan Bowling Rants, Red Sox Rants, School Rants, Working Out

Well anyways, I keep starting blog entries in my head, but they never seem to make it to the computer or onto the website. I need to get a voice recorder in the car or something, for those wacky morning commutes where I basically write a whole blog entry in my head. For example, this past weekend (St. Patty’s Day to be exact), I bowled a 267, a 237, and screwed up a 700 by ending with a 183. By and of itself, this is not exciting news, but add in that I then proceeded to not care and go get sh*tfaced on green beer and bad karaoke, and now we’re going somewhere. Add in the fact that I picked up my really decent new prescription sunglasses that morning, and you might be getting to a full post.

Or how about another example from the week before. Went down to look at the new house and found while I was down there that the electrician had done a very poor job of low voltage wiring. Why, you ask? Well, let’s just say that it’s very bad practice to put network wiring right next to a 220 line. Can you say EMF with me? E – M – F … Goood! Called him and got it addressed, but had to deal with the builder’s BS not wanting to credit us for the items we DIDN’T use, because the electrician had to go back. Well, my comment back would be along the lines of “Well, if he had done it right the first time, we wouldn’t be in this mess, now would we.” Made some good constructive comments to the builder for his future contracts to avoid the electrical messes. So good that the realtor representing them is requesting that they change them for everyone’s sanity. (On an update for this, everything is now fixed, and I went down Tuesday to approve everything). Now that we’re past the electrical nightmares, my trips down will be less frequent, and the pictures will be less frequent.

Or how about all the CD’s and movies I’ve wanted to review after watching them the night previous? Or how about the recent American Idol episodes (Stephanie didn’t deserve to go home last night, and Sanjaya is Omar from American Dreamz). Lots of good posts, gone to waste because I happened to think of them on the drive into the gym in the morning

Speaking of the gym, for just a status update, I hurt my elbow wrestling with Kyle and Kasey almost two weeks ago and it’s still killing me. I move it just right and pain shoots up my arm. It’s made working on my upper body difficult, but I’m still making progress. My weight loss has stagnated, but I’ve maintained my weight in the 223-225 range for about 3 weeks now. Definitely nothing to shake a stick at.

In Red Sox news, I’m still waiting and hoping that MLB and inDemand can come to an agreement on the Extra Innings package. I really don’t want to have to set up a satellite dish, but I will if that’s what it takes to watch my Sox. Matsuzaka is shaping up to be a very effective pitcher who may not only change the Sox but may change the face of pitching in the US as it stands. Paps is looking strong (recovering from the injury last year), Lester is recovering nicely. Wake, Schill and Beckett look great. If our teams offense is up to average for the past few years, we should be looking good.

Well, back to the grind of work and homework. Just need to remember to post first thing in the morning

Dan Bowling Rants, General Rants, Red Sox Rants, Working Out