This past weekend I put in an invisble fence in our yard for copper. It was suprisingly really easy to install, took me a few hours, but easy to hook up. Basically you run the wire around the perimeter of your property (or where you want the dog confined to) and just make sure you make a loop and hook it up to the unit (ours is in the garage). With the sod still fresh it was easy to just pull it up and throw the wire under there.
Copper's generally got the hang of it. I mean I didn't watch the instructional DVD, I just sort of took him outside and tried to show him the border, though he really wasn't interested. He pretty much got shocked, freaked out and gave me that, "YOU EVIL MAN!" look, and then ran strait to the door and wouldn't budge away from the doorstep. The next day was better he'd go do his thing, then run strait back to the door.
Then yesterday it was even better he felt comfortable to play in the yard, still not sure of his boudaries yet though, just knows not to go too far from the house. But theres some kids that walk through our neigbhors yard and copper goes beserk when he sees them and he broke the barrier and got out yesterday. Its not terrible when he gets out, just a bit embarrasing. But he's usually gone for 30 minutes, then comes back after he's gotten it out of his system. When he was a younger pup he'd go till dark.
So as long as we sort of watch him to make sure he doesn't run after anything, the fence works. I'm afraid now he'll know what it takes to get out of the yard and feel a good shock is worth the freedom, hopefully he's not that dumb/smart.
As far as the punk kids not sure what to say to them. When I was a kid I used to cut through this old ladies yard all the time and she's always threaten to call the cops, which of course made me go through her yard more. I'd hate to be a square and have to ask them, "A gee fellas do ya think you could maybe not go through our yard that'd be super thanks guys...." And they don't even live in our neighborhood, they live 1 over, so its not like they're my neighbors. Short of putting land minds in my yard not sure what I can do. If only i could convince them to wear copper's collar. Though the problem is they're not going through our yard, they go through the house next to ours, which is vacant (still for sale). Maybe put some gargoyles around the yard, maybe that'd scare them away, specially the ones that come to life like in that cartoon... Gargoyles... good cartoon.
I consider myself an eater. One of the jokes I say when people asked why I left chattanooga was I'd eaten at all the restaurants. Though somewhat true, that wasn't the reason. But there is one famous and nationwide chain restaurant I'd never eaten at till last night. Red Lobster. Not sure why I'd never eaten there, my parents didn't think too highly of it as I recall growing up. But last night we wanted to take wifey's grandparents out for dinner as a thank you for housing me for three months in Atlanta. However, taking them out to dinner means choosing between 4 restaurants. Outback, Red Lobster, a local cafeteria, and Cracker Barrell are the only 4 establishments where they will eat. They like what they know and the know what they like. So we went to the RL.
I must say it was pretty good. I got 2 lobster tails, seafood pasta, and a salad. Not too shabby. Not the best lobster, but when you've been to Maine and had lobster strait from the docks everything else will be subpar. The pasta was alright, I had to douse it in pepper to give it some flavor. Salad was pretty good, garlic biscuits were good (wife's are better though). Wifey got the shrimp platter or something to that affect. I must say the shrimp are 10 times the size on the commercial. The shrimp they actually serve are pretty tiny. All in all it was a good time, but not the greatest meal. But I'm glad I went to say, "i have been to red lobster." Though i doubt I'd ever go back. Seafood to me is best had near the sea. There's something about atmosphere that is key to seafood. If I can look out a window and see the ocean, then it will be a good meal.
Normally I'd have about 5 brackets going at this time and not be working but following every game meticulously thinking me watching the game could make my pick play better. But I've been so busy at home and work I only had time to fill out one bracket, Scott's. His was one of the easiest to use. I tried Rob's but could never get it to work on my computer... and my work computer pretty much works with everything so I blame Rob. So Rob should just give me the prize already because I would have picked every team that wins every time.
Actually so far on my one brakcet I lost with Marquette Texas Tech... lously Knight. Marquette I had to pick b/c not a big Michigan St Fan and gotta stick with the Catholic roots. I generally pick the catholic teams, like Xavier, i think they're catholic... that or they're the head of the mutant Xmen team... either way you gotta pick them for that. I didn't choose gonazaga this year, the zags have gotten me into hot water every year, same with kansas, but Kansas looks to be a way better team than in years past... granted I've said that for the past 3 years now. Notre Dame I got going to the sweet 16 so lets pray that happens.
Overall I picked Florida, not because i think they're the best, but because I want a bit of a Florida domination in sports. Don't get me wrong I can't stand Florida, but I like dynasties and to have them be B-ball champs 2 years in a row and win football, that's crazy.
I can't stand Ohio St, though I think they're semi-1 demensional with Greg Oden, granted that's a good demension to be if you got that beast.
My final 4 is a bit of a joke... Florida, Indiana, UNC, and TN... I mean UNC make it to the final 4.... in my dreams. I figured if I picked FL and TN I needed to pick two other teams that were long shots to make it less lame of a bracket.
I try to make my bracket as cool and hip as possible.
Life is going pretty good right now. Work's got me pretty busy but I'm enjoying it. The house is coming together, tomorrow finally getting some blinds, which will put an end to the glass house feel. Our bathroom window is eye level with our backyard neighbors first floor. The blinds will be pricey though. We avoided it in the last house opting for curtains. This house though we'll go with wood blinds instead and to do every window will be pricey. We'll still have curtains in a few rooms, probably all after the wife is done.
We're also having to hire a painter. I'd normally do the painting, or the wife, but with a two story great room, 2 story foyer, and generally a difficult bathroom to paint, we figure best leave it to the professionals. The rest of the rooms I'll be able to tackle in due time.
We've had a ton of problems with the house too. The downstairs toilet clogged to no end and had to have the plumber come out twice to fix it. A heavy duty snake eventually took care of business but not after it overflowed. It was all covered under the home warranty which was nice. Then on top of that our dishwasher never really worked. It would run for 3 hours and never stop so wifey yelled and fought with sears till we got a new one. Took them a week and a half to deliver it though.
Its nice to have all our stuff in our house as well. With the lack of storage in Chatty we had to have stuff at wifey's parents house, her grand parents house and various other places. But here we not only can 'unpack' most of everything but we can also fit everything under one roof.
We think we've already decided on a church. We've been to three and think Christ Church in Midtown is the one for us. Its pretty similar to Northshore, Wade (NS's Music Guru) used to go there. That and they're apprently starting Smyrna branch in the fall, so we could maybe go with the planters. Smyrna is the town right next to Mableton, so our church would in essence be 15 mins from us. Right now Christ Church is about 30, but thats what NS was for us. A few Covenant Folks go there, Ruth and Jeremy Cox for one. The pastor talks and looks like Richard Attenborough, so I have expect him to preach about dinosaurs, escaping greatly, and performing a miracle on 34th street. That or direct me on how to plan to capture a bunch of bridges in German occupied Europe...(A Bridge too Far).
Anyway, his preaching is strong, though I need to focus because the british accent tends to throw me. The people too were super friendly.
YOu might notice some ads now on the old blog. I figured might as well sign up for it and see if i can't make a few bucks. THough no one reads this thing so i doubt i will and I don't know how to set it up right hence why its at the bottom of the blog instead of the side. So i'm a shell, or shill or whatever.
Crabb and I are hanging tonight, guys night out. We're going to set poop on fire and sets it on people's doors steps... or watch a movie and drink beer.
Copper officially arrived today via our friend Anne. He's a little weirded out. I was supposed to go get an invisible fence today but i'm presently running out of time to go get it since I'm watching the baby. I'm not too worried about it, I figure I'll walk him before I leave tonight and put him on the chain outside a few times. He's pretty weirded out by the house. He also seems to have trouble going up all the stairs, that or he's just gotten lazy. But he's got his bed set up and that gives him a sense of home and permanance.
Wife and I went to an office party at Fuego in Midtown last night. Good beer (complete open bar) and decent food. We won a few door prizes, a toiletry bag (which everyone got), an aquamassage which the wife will have (I don't like masages, i think you have to have muscles to massage, fat likes to be left alone), and we also won 8 or 10 dance lessons from these salsa dancers... which I was like, "Thats not a prize that's a punishment!" But whatever, I guess it might be good if I learned how to dance, my techno dance is a little rusty anyway.
The instructers were at the party last night teaching for free and the wife and I got out there and tried to dance but frankly I have no rythmn or coordination so I pretty much just did the running man. The instructers were pretty amazing, granted when they danced it was almost looked like they were having sex or something. Salsa/cha cha dancing is pretty scandolous. If I was the mayor of this town I'd ban it just like John Lithgow did in Footloose.
Speaking of footloose, imagine buying the footloose soundtrack and it not having the song footloose on it, wouldn't you be like, "Whats the point? Wheres My footloose? I wanna get loose, footloose!" Well I was cd shopping the cheapo cds on amazon the other day and came across Iron Eagle soundtrack, such a great movie. Well it doesn't have "We're not gonna take it" by twisted sister. That's like footloose sound track not having footloose on it.
Remind me to tell you about the time (yesterday) I put trashbags on my hands and pulled feeces out of my downstairs toilet, its a great story!
OK, rant time:
So I'm a fan of the dollar coin, always have been. i want it to become like the british pound, something cool about a dollar being a coin. Heck I think we should have 5 dollar coins too. That being said I'd still opt for the cash, fits better in the wallet.
My big problem with this new dollar coin... its got Washington on it... didn't the mint learn that they need to differentiate coins? The whole Susan B Anthony dollar stunk because it looked like a quarter, size wise. Now to put GW on the coin Dollar and quarter seems real stupid. And what about Sack-a-ja-wee-ya she had a run of like 2 years. And her dollar coin was pretty cool, gold, good size, some soda machines took her.
With the mint releasing the 50 states quarters, and now a GW dollar, if I didn't look carefully I wouldn't know what kind of change I had in my pocket. Plus there's like 3 different nickel's now each one having a different pose of Jefferson on there. Though I'm still waiting for the Jefferson nickel with his many illigitimate children on it. The Canadians are probably gearing for an invasion right now. They'll flood our country with their blasted change any second, and we'll have so many different nickels, quarters, and dollars on our hands we won't even know if some canadian quarters with hockey players and maple leaves are floating around out there.
Convienance Store Clerk: "Sir I'm afraid this is Canadian money...."
Average Joe: "No its not, its the state quarter for Minnesota..."
Store Clerk: "I don't think so, it has a hockey player on it..."
Average Joe: "Right, in honor of Minnesota University's hockey prowess... oh wait... maybe it is Canadian... it does have a Moose on the other side, but aren't Moose's in Minnesota?"
Store Clerk: "Yes Moose are, but they're in Canada too where they are worshiped for their wisdom and power..."
Today on 99x they were talking about the worst movies that you just have to watch, the ones that are just awful but you love watching them. Here's my top 5.
5. Any Star Trek. Next Gen or original I love the movies, especially the bad ones. Like Star Trek 4 the Voyage home. Best line in any star trek movie is in voyage home. They're approaching earth back in the 1900s (they have to go back in time to rescue a whale, dumb plot). So they're approaching San Francisco and Sulu longingly says, "San Francisco..... I was morn there (its supposed to be born but it sounds morn)... this is just funny... though you may have to be a Holton to think its funny. Also the irony is just classic with sulu's closet situation. Ditch....
4. Blankman. This is by far one of the dumbest movies ever but I find it hilarious, even though its really not.
"OK Karate man!"
"What?!?! What did you call me?"
"Karate man, its your crime fighter name..."
"No.... don't call me that."
3. Demolition Man. I mean whats up with the shells??
2. Planet of the Apes, the original ones these are possibly the best worst scifi movies. I love the underground people that worship the atomic bomb, that's genius... and such a culutral comentary.. I mean you have to read between the lines... wait no you don't, on second thought its pretty obvious. The new one with Marky the Mark was pretty bad from what I saw, lacked the cultural critique and Charleton Heston.
1. The best, which they mentioned this morning: CABIN BOY! This movie is so dumb its funny. Part moronic humor, part... well moronic humor. There's something very poignant about Chockey, a half man have shark creature. "Farewell Chockey, half man, half shark, equals one complete gentleman."
The saga of the garage door came to a close today. It was the biggest ordeal but finally both cars are resting peacefully in their respective spots in the garage. There was something very satisfying putting both cars in the garage. Now all we need are some pesky blinds. I got most of the garage cleaned out, a by-product of having to get both cars in.
Crabb will come over tonight and help me get the rest of the stuff out of there, mostly furniture thats too heavy to lift by myself. All in all the house is really loooking fantastic.
My office is still pretty barren. I stuck a chair in there today mainly b/c I didn't know where else to stick it. We'll look around at some desks for myself. WE saw some at the rooms to go outlet that looked decent, problem was they were kids desks and I'd like one a little bigger as it will be the main piece of furniture in that room. Plus with my job working from home is a very good possiblity. LIke today I had a voicemail from my boss and had to work a few hours at home before i got to the office. Generally the hours aren't too bad, every once and a while I have to pull a long day like today where I start at 7 and don't leave till 6:30 or so. Generally that makes the rest of the week pretty bareable though.
For those wondering how much room the fit actually would take up in the garage it surprisingly is about as long as the accord. Its a lot skinnier though, allowing for ease of parking in the garage.
Sorry for not updating, but life's been in hyper drive. Work's been busy, and home life's been busier. We're moved in and trying to get everything the way we like it.
Its baby steps though and in some ways we want it go faster. This weekend I wasted a good bit of time trying to install a garage door opener by myself. Let me tell you, do not try this at home kids. It was and still is a major pain and unless you do it for a living leave it to the professionals. Most of saturday took just getting the stupid thing up on the ceiling. I was impressed with myself for doing that much, hopefully it stays up there. But then the wiring part came due. I mean it plugs in so that part is easy, but the wiring from to the switch by the door to the house and the wiring for the kiddie sensor has been next to impossible. The kiddie sensor is where I've thrown in the towel, I've worked on it for most of the weekend and can't get the blasted things to work.
So after coming this far I've had to throw in the towell and pay someone to basically wire it for me, which pains me, but at this point I just want it done and don't care if i have to shell out 60 bucks or so. The problem is the garage is prewired so I'm trying to use the existing wires, which have 8 different wires to choose from... so after trying all the various options to no avail I ran the wire that came with the blasted thing... and then that didn't work! So I kicked a few boxes in the garage and mumbled a few things under my breath and called for backup. He's supposed to come at 4PM so hopefully tonight I can raise and lower my garage door with ease.
We also went to the rooms to go outlet over in Gwinett and picked up some nice red couches for our great room. They're in great shape and should be there by the time i get home. The RTG outlet is an interesting place, pretty much floor models of the RTGs around the southeast and stuff that has not with stood the abuse. Lots of scratched up furniture, for cheap but the problem with RTG furniture is if its scratched you can sand it and refinish b/c its either veneer or glass or something. But couches is one thing they do pretty well, and we got sofa + loveseat for 700 bucks and that's not too bad as far as that goes, at least for new furniture. WE may go back there someday for kids furniture too, they had some cool stuff for the kiddies that was a little banged up but nothing a kid would care too much about.
The next big thing we need to get is blinds... its very disconcerting to try and shower while your neighbors are watching. Not that they are but the window in the bathroom is big, and well if they were looking they'd see me in all my flabbiness. So for the sake of neighborhood we need to get that squared away.
I think once I can pull my car in the garage and sit down on my sofa in the living room and watch tv... then and then alone will I feel like my house is mine.
That, and when I can finally figure out where stuff is, keep losing stuff. I can never seem to figure out where stuff is, wife has a weird system called, "Organization..." and it baffles me.
We've met most of our neighbors already and they all seem really cool. Mostly young couples like ourselves, only one have kids. But there's a girls night thing where the women of the hood get together and play bunco and drink girly drinks which the wife is pumped about as well as a play group which she is equally as pumped about.
In the search for a good pizza to replace Lupis place we actually have found two different ones that are very viable. St. Angelos on Atlanta road is wife's favorite. Its pizza is intense and really flavorfull, the four cheese pizza with peperoni is really good, actually the only thing we've had there. But my favorite so far is Johnny's New York Pizza on East West Connector. Its pretty cool, and has a good beer selection and the pizza is simpler (like Lupis). Less flavor than St. Angelos but good on other levels. St. Angelos also doesn't have any good seating and Johnny's does. Johnny also has tvs and golden tee... which is key.
Anyway... that's about it... more to come.