i have a cold and a straw wrapper hit me in my forehead..

right in the middle of my forehead to be exact...you see i have a cold..and before that i was rebuilding my mother in law's computer (hence no posting update)...but now it is time..but i had to wait for something truly inspiring to convince me to write something... you see i am pathetic when it comes to colds...and typing exerts a certain amount of energy that causes my nose to run... yes i have heard that one before...i am running down the street to catch it right now... anyways... oh wait... straw wrapper...

we are at our favorite restaurant... i love to cook, but hate to do anything when i have a cold...so we have been there friday night, monday night, and tonight.... well beware of the ides of march...wait wrong season.. beware of your wife when you're not looking.... i must be sick... usually i am the one to blow the straw wrapper at my wife..with exceptionally bad aim, i might add.. but tonight...tonight i wasn't even thinking....i just unwrapped my straw and unwittingly bowed my head down to drink, whilest my dearest love, contriving supremacy, took the opportunity at my weakness, in my befuddled stupor of being sick and slow in thought... tonight ...YES tonight, the aim was true..with quickness of hand and slight of breath took aim... robin hood would be so proud.. my beloved.. my bethrothed succedded in hitting dead center on my forehead.. we wont mention that is an easier target now than in my younger days..

there was much celebration to be had apperently by this event that could only have occured when the celestial bodies were aligned just right... my wife had a good old fashioned giggle meltdown....

in reality, it's all worth it though...it is with great appreciation that i have such a wife to enjoy these moments with......if i dont post soon again, i must still have my cold and will be waiting further inspiration....

kitty's knee....

you see the kitty i use for the profile...not only does she chew electrical wires... (one of the main reasons we decided to ban the cats from the bedroom...) we also swear she has some manic bipolar codependent issues....our previous house the carpet got torn up at the door entry to my study...

but she redeems herself in her ability to cuddle and purr loudly and pretty much be a wonderful lap cat otherwise..

well i noticed she wasn't jumping like she used to (you know like being in the way)... kind of pathetic to look at... i tried the "squeeze-here" theory of trying to find out where it hurt.. i must have gotten close... cat teeth are kind of sharp and she gave me a very firm warning w/o breaking the skin... she always had a weak right knee and now it appears she did something to the left knee...oh bother... i just hope it is something nonsignificant she did on one of those crazed moments of the cat running around the townhouse... hopefully it will go away soon.. if not i might ship the cat to Bea; she seems pretty adapt at taking care of her cute dogs.. (just kidding...i couldn't do that to Bea or her dogs) ... i just hate spending money at the vet... i also hate spending money at the dentist, so it's nothing personal against cats or the vet....so here's to ignoring the problem for now in the hopes it walks away or jumps away in this case....

the family IT guy continued

you know it's embarrassing to have your wife watching you reattempt to the umpteenth time to enter in user name and password...yes ladies and well ladies..as far as i know no male reads this blog..but i digress again about my lack of fans..yes ladies...she had the solution...clear cache and restart..viola...yes it worked...a famous quote by Einstein came to mind "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is the definition of insanity" or in this case a slight case of stupidity....oh well wifes are wonderful...wouldn't live without'm...
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i am the family IT guy

well thursday morning i made sure my step dad's laptop was working with his printer (my mom can't see the need for an internet connection) ...tonight i am working on my mother in law's computer....so tonight i am sure i will have visions of computer parts intermingled with the taste of some lovely yams with brown sugar and marshmallows....yummy...the best of both worlds..

nerdy craftyness with a box and cables

okay...after blowing out the dust again from the inside of my computer (sorry forgot to take a picture..but it is really cool)... i got totally disgusted at the amount of dust on all the cables behind the desk and computer....so i decided to buy the necessary items to create a dust free cable environment...some sort of sturdy square container to hold the surge protector; power bricks; cable modem; wireless router; and all the unnecessary extra cable length; yielding the desired result of one easy clean box to dust and organized cables.....well as with all things; the trip to the local have-mart and worst-buy resulted in nothing purchased yet

things i have learned that just confuse the uninspired:

1. never ask in the craft area if there is a box strong enough to drill through...

2. never ask in the hardware area if the drill bit is the right kind to drill through a craft box...

hmmmm... i think i see a pattern here...

so far i am left with see through containers that are big enough, but totally defeat the purpose

dark colored containers too small..

short cables that are just too long, but insulated...

short cables that are not insulated..

and for the priceless punchline; around $60 just to hide some dust bunnies and ugly cables ...ugh...

back to the drawing board...which means pulling out all my cables and comparing their lengths to shielded/non-shielded etc. ...perhaps a trip to ikea ... and yes i know they make these boxes especially for this, but they just aren't right either or way over priced....but somehow that price seems more justifiable now.....

wife and chocolate

never remove chocolate from a women...especially when that women is your wife...even if she says "i just don't have any will power and i want to eat the whole thing"....it's amazing what a look can do....(please reference her site)

hmmm..hair legnth

you know...i used to be in the military...so my hair has to be short...i just realized i have been thinking about what to post and running my fingers through my hair....DEFINITELY time for a hair cut....especially because my follicles are decreasing in density and i do not want to be accused of attempting the comb over or under or across.....

soggy contacts

well it's time for bed...no time for too much writing....my contacts feel like soggy cornflakes, my bladder is full, my but is numb, and i have to wake up in five hours...oh well, atleast 3 of these things on this list i can do something about... i just wish i had a delorean with a flux capacitor for the last one....

my office window

okay....i have a cubicle, but i have an office window that is just spectacular...




i should bring a real camera....but trust me...the views are really good...

how may i help you

okay...this is kind of funny...currently my wife is working a lot of extra hours prior to getting laid off...don't worry, she already has another job lined up...so all is good..

but, the point is that i have been spending more time in the yarn store than my wife (or we go together)... my sole function is to feel the yarn & look at the colors...i cant knit, she does...i am the yarn pusher though...i ask her questions like: this is soft, can you make anything from it?

well, at the knitting guild meeting, someone referred to my wife as mr80grit's wife...funny ..it's probably because while i am there [at the shop], i usually end up balling some yarn on the hand crank thingy ( i get fed chocolate as a reward too!)

also today, at our favorite knitting store, i started helping out a customer (the owner & only employee was helping another patron with a knitting pattern) .. i got stuck on a question about the scarf example next to some baby alpaca (i think) yarn...you should have seen the look of amused shock from the store owner as she went to assist the 'first-time-ever-in-the-store' customer...

it's just neat to be able to integrate into a community such as knitters, they have the amazing ability to do knit and talk... and not surprising, that just doesn't translate into my hobby of computers...

night of confusion

okay..i'm brilliant at hardware...i can build and over clock a computer...but blogger somehow eludes me....

question to the 2 people that read my blog..okay i'm hoping there's more, but right now i only see evidence of 2..but i digress..here is the question...

i post a comment on someone else's blog, is there a default setting that will allow a way that they can email me back with a response without advertising my email address?...i hope the question makes sense..thanks in advance...

veteran's day...i honor those before me and after me

there are those who have volunteered to join the military such as myself for reasons that were secondary to the nation... me, i joined for the GI Bill, a way to pay for college...but during the coarse of boot camp...just 2 short months..i was broken down as an individual with solitary selfish concerns and emerged into a greater understanding...i was not the important one....a brotherly bond is built that is virtually impossible to duplicate in its intensity in civilian life, save the bond that i share for my wife...

the impact of my choices 19 years ago are only now beginning congeal into form as i cogitate on the actions of those who served a generation or two before me...

was i willing to die for my comrades, i hope so, i was lucky to have never had the chance to test my character to the fullest extent...i fortunately never had to see the loss of any of my friends either...

but the generation before me and the ones currently serving after me are...

it is to them we owe a great debt to...do yourself a favor..talk to a world war II veteran before they are all gone...

one just died last week.. Marty... he stormed the beaches on d-day and walked through blood red waters and unrecognizable human parts...his stories died with him...

Mack...still living...prayed on an the deck of an airplane to accept Christ into his life when his plane was being bombarded with so much shrapnel, they could have used the hull as a fishers net

Pappy... grandfather on my wife's side...he captured a German tank...no longer with us...

the ones currently serving have the most difficult duty to nation and county...fighting a battle where the enemy wears no uniform...doesn't value life...first respondent medical care has improved so much that now men survive when they have been seriously wounded, but they survive at the cost of missing body parts...others have their souls scarred by the intensity of fighting a faceless enemy....listen to these men...honor these men....support these men...let not the history of Vietnam repeat itself upon the veterans that have served...

yes i am unabashedly grateful for the greatest nation God has given men and i am extremely humbled i was able to serve it, if only for 6 years....

is it plagerism if you cut & paste your own comments?

okay...i thought i was pretty clever when i came up with this....much more deserving than hidden in the comments section...so here it is again...

oh darn, not enough yarn?
did you try in the barn?
of anyone we could ask, it would have to be a Narn.*
but i think we're out of luck to darn with yarn...oh darn...

*fictional race of characters from the TV series Babylon 5.

okay...i edited a little..here is the original

oh darn..not enough yarn...but did you try in the barn? if there was anyone around from TV series Babylon 5 we could ask a Na'arn...but i think we're out of luck to darn with yarn...oh darn...

let me know...which one works better? or is this one of this times like a joke where you had to be there, but I am the only one there?

how to really suprise your wife

we were laying in bed..winding down...exchanging conversation..no really just talking....when i answered a question...my wife just stared at me with shock, not mock shock, but total shock (okay and a little confusion)...you see the question i answered was asked of me about 27 hours prior..i just never answered then...i think i forgot to...so there it was....and they say men cant remember what our wife's say....hah...

steak and almost no veggie's for dinner

well...the workings of my brain are unique...I'm hoping that all men can join me in this instance of incredible daftness....(it is amazing that we are these same men that can achieve greatness in the workplace...well most of the time)....

my wife has been on a lifestyle changing diet that i assist in by cooking wonderful meals....well, for the past 5 months..if it is steak (at least once a week)...there are veggies....

except for today (almost)...i made sure i did not forget anything on my list..i stayed focused and got the ONLY item on my list ---> steak...yep...just steak...walked down the frozen isle (where we get our frozen veggies in the microwave steam fresh bag) ..picked up 2 rib eye's ..walked down an isle that sells socks and pantyhose????..weird in a grocery store....wait..stay focused ...purchased steaks and proudly arrived home knowing mission successful...

my wife knowing me quite well, phoned ahead...asked me if i bought anything to eat with the steaks..i replied no...(ah oh..husband self preservation instincts just kicked an alarm in my brain).. my wife responded obviously "how could you forget the veggie's" ....my response, given in haste defense..." i didn't forget the veggies, they were not on my list....hard to forget something you didn't remember in the first place".......................(brilliant i thought...REMEMBER in the first place?...repeating my wife's question to myself again)

ya....my wife loves me..there are countless things i could even say to myself about that defense...many of them brilliant sarcastic statements....but she lovingly and kindly suggested i just go pick up the veggies for our meal....my wife is wonderful.....

ps..the dinner was awesome.....

i was waiting for you to want to....

well, we have just experienced one of those marriage moments....during the nights of computer repair, i had not been much of a conversationalist, so my wife had become accustomed to listening to her mp3 player while knitting....

i finished the laptop about 3 nights ago...but have sat in the bedroom in the stillness of not doing anything that required a higher level of reasoning or thought...our conversations had still been minimal while all i could hear was the occasional tinny sound emanating from her headset.. i once asked if we could listen to the same songs on the computer but she politely declined...proffering that i shouldn't be bothered by such a hindrance in my computer adventures..

well tonight i posit that an increase in brain functioning or enlightenment yielded the results we both desired, individually desired, desired together but unknowingly to each other...

all that was required for this event to occur; simple direct communication...who'd a thunk it?

now we are blissfully listening to a book on tape...jointly together...

fun with vista or really not...

okay....i'm back..i'm done....no more vista computer repair...i've been spending almost every bit of spare time working on my step-dad's laptop....it's a nice computer....but ...ok BUT ..it was running windows vista without the new update to make it a lot more stable....but now i am done ... back to playing on my own beautifully built ...hand built...lovingly carressed into an electronic heartbeat built computer that absolutely stomps any other computer out there bought from any major vendor that puts lots of garbage on it that one spends 4 hours to delete just to get a clean install of windows vista....but i digress....i am back to actually being able to blog.....catchup on facebook... and break my self imposed curfew doing the fun things i want to do on my own computer....

yes...it is good to be back ........

mini-fridge squared

last night after two very wonderful but completely exhausting days...it was time to go to bed..i ate a bowl of cereal...refreshed it..forgot i had already eaten one bowl...got a fresh spoon and contemplated my aching feet and wondering why this supposedly 1st bowl was not as satisfying...

anyways..being the thoughtful husband i am i decided to treat my wife to a whole bunch of munchies to stock in our mini fridge in the master bedroom...after all our kitchen is on floor one and our master is on floor three....

so when i arrived all she did was laugh at me....i'm like what?...so she said..look in the fridge... apparently she had the same idea...told me her idea before she went upstairs and even walked in front of me with her own munchie supplies....needless to say...the fridge was pretty well packed at this point....

wonderings in our master bedroom

apparently a man cannot just randomly look in a snack drawer or the mini fridge in a master bedroom without being asked the question as to the nature of the search... i had to explain the "just because they were there" reason for any man to look in a fridge...

although my wife is beginning to wonder if a i am the subject of this post or if she is the subject of this post...

this is a wonderful video

i am not catholic but it has a wonderful point... i have been in the military and my wife was adopted herself....i also run the soundboard at our church..so it echoes my beliefs ....

feed the birds...get a rat....

well during the summer i had an idea that i might like a bird feeder...well apparently birds can be quite picky eaters and they go through gobs of food to find what they want...so along with strange new plants growing in my grass; i also had a new visitor that appreciated the dropped seeds..it had moved the gravel from under our wood patio (at ground level)...it is quite nice...24X24 squares of 2X4 set up in alternating directions....see my wife's blog at http://www.knittingonestitchatatime.blogspot.com/ for the picture...

anyways the gravel had been moved out from under in several locations..thank goodness our deck is still solid and i could see cleared out holes along our vinyl fence and cement wall... with the new construction recently done across the street; i had dreaded that a groundhog had appeared...but no....to my good luck it is just one rat....kind of looked like a squirrel without a big tail...it did not look like a rat initially until i Googled pictures of wild rats and sure enough..it is one of them......i guess i'll call the city and see if they can give me a live capture trap... i'd hate to kill the thing out right and especially hate to deal with any mess in the backyard from doing so....and their are too many neighbor pets to use poison....so i guess i'll try my luck with a live capture trap....and i have the perfect bait..birdseed...now i just hope i catch a rat and not a bird..

it's 23:22...do i know where my wife is?

i sure do....she's telling me it's time for bed...apparently funny is at 2300..not 2322...so she is signing cutely and obnoxiously to get me motivated to get off the computer...so one more last word....ack...i can't...time to get off......

my wife is more popular

well it is official...after noticing the comment count (including the recent spammer) my wife has more visits than my blog... of course i gave no pretense about being mentally stimulating either...just funny ..and probably just funny to me at times... but have no fear my fans of diminished quantity... i shall continue in my postings of randomness and hopefully funniness.... so until next time...rats i couldn't think of anything profound...superbly dumb; yes.. but profoundly funny; no... so oh well.... have a merry 1am in the morning to ya....

snickers and salads

well i had a craving ..totally healthy...so i enjoyed a salad...it was quite tasty...wonderful zesty type dressing... and then just to fall back into character..i ate 3 miniature snickers for a follow up treat... it's just great to be an adult and totally eat any abnormal way that tickles one's taste buds..

okay...an easy post

between facebook....blogs...and the final book of the p0tter series.. it will be amazing if i get to bed... so here is one post that is just hilarious from you tube ...i cant imagine we grew up in these clothes...
( and just to ensure no misunderstanding....it is the presentation that is so hilarious...okay and quirky wording in spots....)

chasing snow...what a wonderful sunday..

well its quite obvious and wonderful... God has an awesome color pallete...

here are the computer pictures

this is the screen shot of my screen....and yes my wife has confirmed i am dorky....



this is a picture of the blue light that emanates from my power supply....

which i believe gives me immunity against cold weather (taken from last winter)
either that or it's my super socks......which of coarse is knitted by my wife....

the last copy at the store

while relaying to my wife the conquests of my shopping adventure... i had mentioned picking up the last "copy" of gluten free beer at the store....i think i have been spending too much time on the computer.........

ps..there is supposed to be a picture here, but i think blogger is misbehaving currently ...but geeky enough, it was a picture of this exact (compose) screen...minus the ps of coarse..

when you know you have married to the same person

well i decided to go away from a black background...kind of hard to read text against it...anyways i spent an hour looking for the right template...asked my wife what she thought...her immediate response was that it looked amazingly familiar and suggested i take a look at her blog...amazing ...just amazing....exactly the same template...so i had to change at least a few colors..just to be different...kind of like having to order something different at restaurant...marriage..its just wonderful to think alike...

can you read this

okay i have started to play with the colors... i like the black background....but is it readable.. anyways..changed 4 tires today....too exhausted to think funny...

one should never make statements of simplicity

okay...my wife snagged me on this one....i go ahead and write an entry about how easy it is to write a blog with one liners...and then i do the unforgivable....i forget a day...it totally blew by me..apparently my interests in the developer forum for windows 7 took priority to my own interest in my life....once again...computer geekness to its max...i'm just glad i remember to bathe and shave (but of coarse once you're married, the task of remembering such minutia of detail is no longer required by the male partner..it is actually enforced on quite a regular basis)....

speaking of bathing and showering...i miss florida...apperently a dip in the ocean followed by a dip in the pool is enough to cleanse any military man for weeks at a time....it doesn't do the hair any good, but then again it is required to be kept short anyways...(obviously this is part of my single days)...

but i digress...we are talking about one liners in the now, the moment, we are talking what i have done to make someone elses day brighter or atleast my own day not as boring....it started out miserabley annoying with a flat tire...enough about that ...

continued to a trip to the dentist... but atleast i told my dentist he should thank my wife...you see i had this plan to save all my dental floss for an entire container and then mail it to him with the empty container..you know how they are always pestering you to floss...anyways about a month ago my wife made me throw it away...said it was disgusting..so what happened i threw it away and i quit flossing... i lost all motivation in the flossing dept and i blame my wife... apperently computer geeks have strange motivations....but atleast as of today my gums are still healthy...so the dentist told me that whatever works...preferably a non-see-through plastic bag and no he does not want to see the proof...

okay longer than a one liner....but hey...you just cant describe the above in one line....

keeping it current

well i have discovered it is actually real easy to maintain a blog...especially when the title is Life is a continuous string of ONE LINERS......

matching shirts

well my wife and i were wearing our red shirts today...both LL Bean...so i suggested we get our pictures taken so we could be Beaners...the answer was an immediate no, followed by the "your such a cute dork" expression....

hard chairs

i am pondering the inevitable result that will occur when i stand up..i am such a computer geek..i had not realized it ... and i am sure OSHA would definitely not approve....but you see, both of my legs have fallen asleep....

why 80grit

well it's easy...i dont shave for a couple of days and then attempt to kiss my wife....

80grit is the texture of coarse sandpaper...need i say more...

the cats practicing for halloween

although we don't particularly get into Halloween....we prefer Christmas hugely more...still our cats seem to have captured a particular flair for Halloween and seem to be practicing the look to give any dogs that might walk past our front window...

saturday morning band and humor

here i am at band practice getting ready for Sunday morning... running the soundboard....the band has reached the giddy giggle stage...we're practicing the reverent song...well it started with the drums...he added the chimes at a most inopportune moment...followed by piano playing a little high pitched trill at the end of the next verse...our poor worship leader couldn't keep his composure after the violin added a trombone sounding effect after the next verse....God is just awesome that he has given us the gift of humor....

to top it off...no joke...the person in the kitchen trying to clean up from our breakfast set off the fire alarm during the repeat of this same song.....

just starting.....

okay...the expert is asleep...she has a knitting blog...so please forgive me while i attempt this...

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To use a line from my facebook page:

80grit is coming to the realization that the electric shaver is not removing less hair; the hair being dumped into the sink more closely matches said WHITE sink....