Deck update

Wow, I cant believe summer is pretty much over and I'm still not done with my deck. Seems like I have been working on it for ever. Kinda have haven't I. Well I am pleased to report that I am staining now.

It was definitely a big project that I have done pretty much all by myself. I did have help on a few things from my dad and Jen's brother. Oops almost forgot her dad did help do some holes too. Yeah that is no excuse. Even I know it should have been done by now. Doing all the work or not. All the rain we had didn't help. Seemed that every time I had a chance to work on it, it was raining.

I do have a few little things to still do. Some trim pieces but they aren't getting stained so that will have to happen after I get the staining done. We picked a killer color for the deck. Its called baked brick which is a dark red/maroon color. I hate staining more that painting so this weekend should be lots of fun. I just started on Mon. night and its going OK so far. The upper part of the deck will be done hopefully Friday night. Stinks because its getting dark so early now by time I get home I have less than an hour to really work on it. Oh well all day Sat. should be able to get most of it finished up. One more big thing to still do is my post caps. I think I am going to make my own insted of buying the ones I found for $85 each. I need 5 of them. They are big, my posts are all 6"x6" and the tops are lite. See what happens.

I know I said this before and still haven't done it but I promise to get some pic's of it up shortly.
That's all for now.

Laptop Part 2

Still loving it. It seems as though every time I turn on my laptop I find something new to play with. Where to start. How about the cover. It starts there. It is a dark metallic blue. Pretty cool color. I do however wish they would have done something diff. with the key board though. Its just a plain silver. Not sure what all can be done with it. To dark you wouldn't be able to see it and to light it would be dirty all the time. So I guess I have to live with the silver.

Speaking of the keyboard......one of my favorite things happens to be there. The number pad! I am sure there are other laptops out with a full key board and number pad on the side but this is the first one I have seen. Now being a desk top replacement and the fact that this is a work computer it comes in extremely handy. Other cool things going on on the keyboard are the finger print reader. I still have some playing around with it to get it perfected but its a cool feature. Instead of typing in your passwords to get into the computer and other sites you just swipe your finger and it enters in the pass word for you.

Now there are a few things I do not like and this is one of them. The power connection is on the left side of the laptop. I know your thinking how big a deal can that be. Well its not the end of the world but you wouldn't believe how annoying it can be. I don't know how many times I have sat down on the couch and had to have the power cord draped across my lap to the other side of the laptop. Like i said not the end of the world but it would have been better in the back.

Sense we are talking about the left side lets stay there for a moment. I do have other huge issues with the left side. The left side does have 2 2.0 usb ports on it as well as the network plug. There is a new express card slot and what Toshiba calls an i-link port. One of the many things i have yet to explore so I'm not sure what an "i-port" is. I will do some research and explain in my next post. Looks like mini usb to me. There is a rgb port for an external monitor and some cooling vents. There is also a s-video port. Now for my biggest complaint of the whole computer. Actually came seriously close to sending it back over this. IT HAS AN S-VIDEO PORT!!!! If you remember my last post I talked about the very cool but very expensive upgrade I paid for the...... hd dvd player. So why on earth would you put an s-video port in this thing with a hd dvd player? I am getting mad just typing this. I can not believe it did not come with an hdmi input. So I am just left with hope that I can do something with the express card slot to get an hdmi input on my comp. Big reason I paid for the hd dvd player was so I could watch movies on my tv in hd.

Ok moving on before I call Toshiba. Lets jump to the right side. Nothing to exciting there like the hd dvd player that I can watch standard def movies with. Ok that's it when I'm done blogging I'm emailing Toshiba about the hdmi port. Not sure if it will do any good but I know it wont if I don't say anything. Oh yeah there are 4 more usb ports and the modem port on the right side as well.

Back to the top. I think I had already mentioned the 17" monitor. It also has a built in web cam and mic. Which are deff. cool. Great for playing on msn messenger live and putting up videos on the web. I might have to post a video blog just to play around with it.

Well that's about all for this one. Next time Ill talk a little about vista and some other programs on it. Stay tuned for part 3.

New LapTop Part 1

As bad as things are in the world right (whole other topic and many post's) I cant help but love the time we live in. The technology that is out right now is so much fun. Everyday something new comes out that is just a little better a little faster or does something just a little diff. I love it.

I recently posted about getting a new laptop. I am having so much fun with it I just had to blog about it. Maybe you are looking to get a new laptop yourself. If that's the case I hope this blog helps out in some way.

I guess Ill give a little back ground first. I bought my first laptop about a year ago. Before that I had never even really used one very much but had always been interested in them and the fact that you could take them anywhere. That in itself is just completely cool. Anyway my first laptop was an Acer with a 15" screen. Just a little budget laptop that for the price was completely awesome and still works great today. So then why did I need a new one you ask. Well technically I probably didn't. But that laptop seems to have found its home at my home. The whole family uses it now pretty much daily. With 5 of us in the house it does get a little crazy with just one computer. Jen and I probably use it the most because we can get on the Internet from anywhere in the house via the built in wifi. So much nicer than being tied down in the kitchen on the desk top. The other reason is I needed a new computer at my shop and the Acer isn't really a desk top replacement. As good as it works its not really big enough for that. So as most guys I took the few little excuses I had and ordered up a new one.

So lets get down to it. It is a Toshiba Satellite series notebook. I ordered it directly from Toshiba off there web site. They have quite a big selection to choose from. They do have some different categories to help get you started. You can pick what you want your laptop for and it will narrow down the selections from there. They have many computers to choose from that are pre-built or you can customize them to suite your needs. If you know me at all you already know which way I went. Customize.......One of the greatest words in the english language.

Ok so here are some specs for my fellow techies and those of you like myself who just like to know how much power something has no matter what it is.

It has an Intel core 2 duo t7300 2gig. processor.

It operates on Windows vista home premium (which I love) I am even considering upgrading to Vista ultimate. Just to see what else Vista has to offer.

It has 2gig of ram and is upgradable to 4 gig.

17" monitor w/1440x900 resolution. Yeah I wish I would have upgraded to the 1680x1050 but I had to stop somewhere.

It has an ATI Radeon HD2600 graphics card. OOOOHHH Yeah!!! you saw the HD in front it. Yes that means it supports HD video. It has 256mb of discrete memory and another 255 allocated.

I did only get a 120gig hard drive. But I think that is plenty. That and it has a bay for another 120gig. So if I did fill that one I can always add another. Its a 5400 rpm sata.

Now one of my absolute favorite things about it. I did upgrade to the the 12 format dvd player/burner. One of the formats being HD. Yes it will play HD dvd's. I am working on getting the adapters so that I can use it as a dvd player and play the HD dvd's on my tv. So that upgrade was not at all necessary but it was cheaper getting it in the laptop then buying a HD DVD player. Which the last time I checked were still up above $400.00.

It does have built in wifi. I just got plain old a/b/g just because there is still to many questions about the new n. By time they get that all figured out it will be time to get a new comp anyway. That and it doesn't sound like its all that much faster.

I also opted for the blue tooth even though I haven't had a chance to even see what that does at all. I am thinking about getting a blue tooth keyboard to use when its at the shop.

I also got the upgraded Harman Kardon speakers which I'm not sure if I am completely happy with. They are better than the speakers in my Acer by far but just not sure if it was worth the extra money.

6 cell battery seems to be ok. If I switch to power saver mode I think it will go 2 and a half hours before needing plugged in.

So there are specs. Wow this got longer than I had intended and I haven't really said anything about the laptop except the specs so I think I will make this Part 1 and part 2 will follow shortly where I will go more into some of the features it has that I like and a couple real bone-head things that I'm not happy about.

Til next time.......

Blogger Jail?

Is there such a place? I think if there was I would have a warrant out for my arrest. It has been forever sense my last blog. For those of you who were reading my blog I apologise. I hope that you will forgive me as I promise to try and keep up a little better.

So what have I been doing these past weeks sense I clearly wasn't blogging. Well quite a bit actually. The shop has been crazy busy. That is awesome thing. It seems to have slowed a bit this last week. This is normall with school starting and all. I know all to well how much it costs to get kids in school. That and my younger clientele has gone back to school. Now its just time to get ready for remote start season.

I have been trying to get the deck finished up as well. That hasn't been easy with all the rain we have had. Got delayed for over a week because of it. Seems every time I can work on it.....rain. This weekend I hope to get quite a bit done. Looks like great weather and its a long weekend.

What else.......Lets see I got a new lap top. Which I completely love. You know what I think I'm going to dedicate a post just to my new laptop. I have been having a blast with it and all its cool toys. Been doing a lot of work on it as well because it is a work computer too. Not easy getting all that swapped over.

The kids are back in school now so that always makes things a lot crazier. Now this week they all start dance as well. I'm sure that means girls scouts will be starting soon for my oldest. Another thing to cram into our week. I cant believe my oldest is in third grade already. Even worse my baby is starting pre-school.

Don't want to over do it so I guess that's all for now. Need to get to bed anyway.

Vacation Details

Ok, well its back to work. I guess I knew it had to happen but it sure was nice to have the week off. I don't get very many vacations in fact that was the first full week I have taken in 6 years. Could be longer but that is about right. Usually the family goes and I get a couple days here and there while still trying to work.

Anyway... our vacation was great. We went to Yogi Bear camp grounds in Amboy, IL. Pretty nice park with plenty of things to do. The kids absolutely love going. There are three swimming pools, a mini golf course, 2 water slides, a game room, craft room, paddle boats, snack shop, and small store. Probably missed a few things but you get the idea. There is tent camping areas, small cabins, that would be a dry tent with a/c and small mobile homes (i guess that's what you would call them). That's what we get. They have 3 bedrooms 2 small and 1 with a double bed and a closet. The most important thing is they have a shower and a/c. Also a kitchen a fridge.

We also rented a golf cart for the week which if you have kids I highly recommend. The park is pretty big and with our kids they want to do everything at least 3 times a day so it would be hard to walk to everything all day long.

We were all set to leave on Sun. right after church. We had my Durango and Jens car packed. 4 girls for a week yeah its a lot of stuff. Really just the Durango and the car's trunk was full of fire wood. Jen getts to church and tells me the Durango isn't shifting right and running real bad. Amboy is about an hour and a half a way so I didn't want all the girls driving that far and taking a chance on breaking down so we borrowed her dads truck. Unpack and re-pack. That was fun. Then they left and I had to get the Durango to the shop so it could be worked on while we were gone. I still had to go to wal-mart and jewel after that. I thought I would never get start my vacation. Finally get to Yogi about 3:30 4:00. First thing I find out is the Internet service is down. Cant believe it. Not the end of the world but I do enjoy surfing the net and had planned on blogging all week about things going on. But after that it was smooth sailing great weather all week.

Me and my daughter Alexis did get to go fishing as I said before her first time. Probably been more than 10 years for me. Sense I do have 3 daughters of course we don't have any fishing poles or any of the things you need to just get a hook in the water. (those of you who really know me know whats coming next) So of course I had to go buy fishing gear and sense she wanted to fish I mhad to fish too. I cant believe how much it cost just for a couple poles and some hooks well maybe I got a few more things than that. Like the cool spider man tackle box I got for Alexis. (she is a spidy fan) So off fishing we go it was great to see how excited my daughter was about it and we don't get much one on one so that was great. I just wasn't sure how this fishing thing was going to go. They are girly girls. Not tom boys at all.

We bait up our hooks I cast mine then help her.....yeah that about how long it stayed in the water. Not sure if the bobber even got wet before she had it reeled back in. So i explained to her that the fish wouldn't bite it if it was moving. So we cast again............. a little longer that time bobber just got wet and its in again. So I help her one more time and tell her she needs to leave it out there. By this time I had reeled mine as well and was going to walk over 20' or so on the other side of this tree and try there. Well I got over there and her curplunk. Wasn't sure what it was didn't pay to much attention to it. (as long as Alexis was still on the shore) Few seconds later I hear it again so I look over and Alexis was reeling in as fast as her little hand could go and then casting it back out just as fast. I was so shocked and impressed that I couldn't say anything to her. Could not believe that in just the few times I had helped her cast it out she picked it up and was doing a good job at to. Keep in mind that we were fishing on the side of a pond that just had a few little openings and the rest was trees and bushes. I just thought that was pretty cool. Even if she did only last about 20 min. and was ready to go. i guess I don't need to tell you that we didn't catch a thing.

I did get yelled at for going off roading in the golf cart. Me and the girls went for a ride in the woods and I guess just because the golf cart will fit down a path doesn't mean you can take it down all the paths something about the real paths are gravel .

Camp fires... Camp fires have to be the best part about camping. Nothing like sitting around a camp fire playing a good movie on a 20" flat screen and drinking coffee. Yeah we had movie night at the camp grounds and didn't want to sit inside the cabin so we brought it all out side. I love camping. I know there are some real campers out there who are probably disgusted with all this but I just cast see how sleeping on the ground and taking shower in a shower house with freezing cold water can be fun. Getting up in the middle of the night and having to walk around outside in the dark to look for a place to go to the bathroom, no thanks. Well its not quite how I wanted to blog about my vacation (still cant believe the internet service was down) but you guys get the idea. We had a great time to bad it will be a year before we get to do it again.

Wow that was long. Is there a rule on how long a post should be? I'm sure if there is I am going to hear about. (yeah I'm talking about you)

Rocky Start

I know I was planning on blogging everyday while I was on vacation. Trust me I am not happy about not being able to. Our vacation has started out a little rocky. First we had some car trouble the day we were leaving but that worked out. Then....(I know this is going to be hard to believe) we get to the cabin and no Internet service. Crazy I know. How do you camp without Internet service. I think we are going to survive the week but it hasn't been easy.

I ran into the shop today just return some calls, check e-mail, and post really fast just to let everyone know things are great. There will be some more detailed posts in the future to let everyone know how our vaca. went.

Few things off the top of my head. My middle daughter and I did get to go fishing, her first time. That was...... lets just say it was fun. (more to follow). The weather has been better than we could have asked for. Thank you God for that. They had 10" of rain over the week before we got there. Lots of swimming and hot dogs going on. Great camp fires and marshmallows too.

Well that's about all I have time for right now. Need to get back to my vacation.

Still Looking

With the car audio market changing everyday I have been thinking about and looking for something else to get into. I am really wanting to get into real estate investing. Started looking and wanting to find a house to rehab last year and didn't really have much luck finding a good deal so I kind of put it in the back of my mind and quit looking. Winters are kinda crazy at the shop with remote start season and can be a great time of year so I wanted to concentrate on that. Well its summer again and I have started looking again.

I thought I had found it. The start of my new adventure. An old 3 bd. 1.5 bath "diamond in the ruff" just waiting for me to turn her into a beautiful palace that anyone would love to call home. The price was right, decent neighborhood, big yard, and the deal was all mine. You know, a brand new investors dream come true.

I had already driven by the house just to check it out make sure it was'nt leaning to one side waiting to fall over the next big storm we had or that the house still had windows and the roof was still on. It didn't look to bad. Of course it needed some paint and the landscapeing was well.... it needed some curb appeal. Not a big deal though if it was already in great shape it probably wouldn't be in my price range or any kind of deal for me to make any money at. So I set up an appointment to look at the house. Now I'm not going to go into great detail about this house but as soon as I walked through the door I new if I took this deal I would have been in way over my head. Did you know that there were houses with the electric run on the outside of the walls? Maybe I'm showing my age or have just led a very sheltered life. Maybe I just never paid attention before and have been in houses like this but either way I was a little shocked.

I guess I am thankful for knowledge I have gained by owning my own business for the past 10 years and that my enthusiasm about starting this new venture didn't get the best of me and that I didn't just jump into something I am not prepared to handle yet. But at the same time I feel a little like I may have chickened out. I think that's just a guy thing though wanting to think I can do anything.

So I guess you can say I'm still looking. I know that great deal is out there just waiting for me to find it. If nothing else Ill just chalk this up as experience. After all I did learn a few new things in just trying to see if this was the deal for me.

Where Do They Get This Stuff

Yesterday the family and I were doing are normall Sunday after church lunch at Turtles. Nice place to eat the food is good and the best part on Sundays kids eat for a $1. So if you are ever in the big town of Morris and need a place to eat I would recommend it.

Anyway me and Jen had pretty much finished up and were waiting on the kids to finish talking about who knows what. We look over and our youngest was eating her spaghetti with both hands and just shoving it in her face like we hadn't fed her in days. As I type this out I can laugh about it. I can picture her face covered from ear to ear with sauce, cheeks bulging, and a couple noodles that didn't make it all the way in still dangling between her lips. Like I said funny now... not in a restaurant full of people.

So me and Jen proceed to ask her what she is thinking and remind her that she knows better. Wow I just made that sound like we are just the best parents in the world. If I remember right those words were used but not in such a nice way and a bit different tone. Of course she cant answer because she has a face full of food. So this goes on for a minute as we clean her up continue to ask "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" and say"I CANT BELIEVE YOU" "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT' "EATING LIKE AN ANIMAL" ETC... (no we weren't yelling just wanted to get the point across that we weren't being exactly nice either)

After all that my 3 year old daughter looks up at me smiles and says in her sweet little innocent voice "I was just getting attention". My wife and I looked at each other with our mouths on the floor and were like where does she get this stuff. The best part of it if you know (knew) my girls at all you know they are the farthest from needing attention. I live with three princess's just ask them they will tell you. Sorry for the long post just to tell a one liner from my 3 year old I guess its a parent thing but it was a good one so I had to share it.

Phase One Complete

Finally finished phase 1 of my deck. I must say it was a great feeling as I stood back and looked at what I had done. Sure I make things all the time and put things in cars that are definitely cooler than a deck but this is more (for a lack of better term) manly work. Not that what I do in cars is easy by any means. I guess its more that I am not a construction guy at all. For one I don't like to work that hard. I give huge props to construction workers after doing this section of my deck. All the digging, hanging boards, mixing concrete, and screwing boards down is definitely harder work than I am used to. Maybe that is the reason for the great sense of pride I felt when I looked at what I had created.

I do have to give out a few thank yous. First of all I am so proud of my (girly) wife Jen who stepped it up the last couple days I was working. And helped quite a bit with screwing the deck boards down. Did pretty well if I might say. My dad did an awesome job of cutting some angled boards for me. Then Jen's brother Randy he tried to help more but we got rained out last Sat. Still he busted his butt on Sun. and saved me a lot of time.

Ok so you are probably wondering what phase one means or how there are phases on a deck. So here is the low down on what I an trying to do. The overall deck is going to be 12'x22'. Its going in the back yard (you never know). We have an attached garage so in our back yard the house is like an L shape. The deck goes out 12' feet to the end of the house and then 22' wide along the garage. If you walk out the back garage door you walk right on the the deck. The first phase of the deck was a 12'x12' section that is about 8" off the ground pretty much even with the door. That is the part that I finished. "phase one" I will have to try to figure out to get some pic's on here but that will have to be another time. Phase 2 is going to be 12'x10' section that is going to be about 15" higher. It will meet right up with the lower section and have a step up to it. This section is going to have a lot more work to it though. It is going to have a privacy wall and some railing around it to make it a little private getaway. Phase 3 will be a peeked roof over the higher section. Hoping to have that complete this summer but not sure if the time will be there. I guess we will see what happens. Ok well this has been a long one so its time to go. Stay tuned for pic's of the deck and progress reports.

Lemonade

Well my last post I was pretty overwhelmed with my week. I would like to say that it got better before it got worse. Cant...That was just the beginning. As I look back now it truly was a great week. I had just an awesome week at the shop. Great jobs that I could actually make a little money at and they all went well. Couldn't ask for more. So contrary to my last post I truly feel blessed for all that I do have.

So as you can see my week did eventually turn around or did it. Maybe nothing really changed except the way I am looking at it. I mean hear it is 10:20 and I'm still up picking out songs for tomorrows service.I just finished making a treasure chest and clock for the kids service tomorrow and a few hours ago had to deliver a bunch of stuff to the school including a ticket booth that was just finished this afternoon. So what is it?

I think we are designed so perfectly that we are able to control how we feel. Its all a state of mind. If you want to feel old and broken then that's how your going to feel. If you want to be happy and young feeling then I think you will be. Look at me most days I still think I'm 22 and I feel like. My wife says I even act like it. (but I think she means that in a bad way) Anyway I think what I'm trying to say is you have the power to make life what you want it to be. Everyone know the saying "If life gives you lemons..." Well its pretty much a guarantee that life is going to give you lemons and probably a lot of them. So what are you going to make with them?

Which way is up?

What a week. I feel like I'm running in circles. I am so greatful to be busy at the shop I just cant believe it comes at a time when I have a million other things to do. Between my deck that is going together so slow the first time I get to use it I will have to shovel snow off it first to all the things I need to get built for church. Even as I am typing this my brain is spinning trying to figure out how I am going to get everything done tomorrow. I do have some cool stuff to build I just hate to have to rush and do it. Most on the time I would rather not build something than build it and it not be good or done right. I think that is what has my head such a mess because I am struggling to not have to compromise anything that I am doing but yet get it all done. I know I know everyone is busy. Good thing this is my blog and I can blog about whatever I want.

Sunshine+Good Friends+ Burritos=1 Great Day

What a great day! Today me and a couple close friends, Corbett and Pete (my room mate) headed out to Chicago to do a video shoot for this weekends service. It started out like what seemed to be an eminent disaster. Weather man calling for thunderstorms at 12:00 noon and of course we were leaving late 11:15. Traffic was bad and we weren't even sure where we were going. The closer we were getting to the city the farther away the sun seemed to get. Then (this is the cool part and I love it when he does this) God stepped in. We found the perfect, well maybe not perfect but it was a good spot to shoot and the clouds seemed to just disappear. Not a rain cloud in sight. I love outings like this.

Off to our second location and all is still good. One thing I did realize today is that I haven't a clue about video. Hey hey guess I have something new to learn. Oh yeah the burritos. We have Corbett and his bad city driving to thank for what I think could be the greatest burritos in the world. Oh did I mention they are as big around as my leg. So there ya have it. The recipe for a great day. A couple good friends, lots of sunshine, and 3 extremely large burritos.

Gentle Persuasion

Not sure how this is going to go but here is my first post. After much gentle persuasion by a great friend I have decided to give blogging a shot.
I must say I am a bit intimidated. I have recently visited a few blogs that were quite impressive. From pictures to links and things I don't even know the name of to just great things to say. I'm not sure who would want to read my plain old blog but I am going to give it a try anyway. Who knows maybe it will be a great learning experience for me and if I can find the time I might even give a few of those things I don't know the name of yet a shot. I think the thing that bothers me even more would be that people do actually read my blog. After all it is "My Scary Place".
Now if I can just remember to spell check every time I post.