Saturday Night under the lights

Last night, we went out to I-77 Speedway in Fairplain WV. It was a pretty good night of racing. There were 5 classes of racing: Dwarfs (Dwarves?), Mini Stocks, Street Stocks, AMRA Modifieds and Late Models.

The racing had a slow start. We we got there, they were in the middle of hotlaps and it was very dusty. They decided to wet down the track again. This was probably a good decision, but it took a while to get the track worked in. They finally got going with qualifying for the late models. They did 2 laps per car. Dale Brown in the 33b took the pole with a 14.30 or so. I'm going from memory. Maybe next time I'll take a notepad. After that was 1 lap a piece for the AMRA modifieds. I don't recall the pole winner. Then all 5 divisions had heat races. Then there was a short pause before the mains. We left before the ministock main, but saw the rest. Yeah, I know, I should have posted this last night when the results were fresher. Of course the website for the speedway (>I-77 Speedway is out of date. It seems almost all small time tracks have trouble keeping their website up to date.


In other Nuggie News, the my furnace is on the blink. Of course, it is 25 or so years old. I don't know whether it will be a simple fix or a replacement. Fortunately, it lasted the winter and it's springtime now. It's still a bit chilly in the mornings though.

Nothing exciting for today, either

Picked up some recessed lights trim, but Juanita didn't like how they looks, so we'll try again. More string trimming.

Watched House of Wax. Since I didn't rent it, I didn't have to like it. It was not my cup of tea.

The boss is off tomorrow, so I'll probably be busy, taking up the slack.

To post a boring post, or to leave a day unposted, what to do what to do?

Alas, poor Yurick, you get a boring post!

Almost done

Are they recessed lights or recessed lights? I put recess lights in my last post but this morning as I was getting in the shower I thought that it should be recessed. Oh well, the wiring is done and they all come on when the switch is thrown. I want to make sure all my connections are secure before I put them back into the ceiling.

Is it still weed eating if you use a McColluch? I put a new head on mine and tested it out this evening after I installed it. It looks like fun for me this weekend.

After that I hit the recumbent bike to read the comics (it being Wednesday, you know) Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight just started a new arc so I picked up issue 204. It was good. I also picked up Blue Beetle #2, Checkmate #1 and Ion #1. Blue Beetle was good, Checkmate was really good, Ion was pretty good. Yes, I use the Duke Phillips system of rating. Seriously, though I enjoyed them all.

Exciting, ain't it?

I thought Recess meant to take a break

And hopefully Randall Weems won't tell on me.

My current project for home improvement is to put recess lights in the kitchen. It's been much easier since we went to Lowes instead of the local place. Lowes had the recess lights specifically for remodelling (They slide through the hole and catch on the cieling, instead making me try to figure out how to attach to the joist or something) A handyman, I am not, but I do my best. I replaced three old fixtures Saturday, and Juanita decided to add a fourth tonight. I got about half way through, but the ladder and wire and tools were in the garage and it was raining. I did get the hole cut in the ceiling, though, so it won't take long when I get back to it. She hasn't decided on a trim yet, but when she does, I'll post a picture.

Speaking of Saved By the Bell

This has to be a joke, but we'll see

More Saved by the Bell

Cha-cha-changes

My template is sorely in need of an update. Until I sit down and figure out what I want this bad boy to look, you can settle for a set of links to some folks I like to vitually hangout with. I called it Buddy Blogs, like Buddy Bands, for all you Saved by the Bell fans.

One more time.

Like most of the people I know, I'm overweight. I used to to be a lot worse, but I also used to be better. A few years ago, I was really bad. We had been doing a Walk at Work program. A couple of girls at work invited me to go to Weight Watchers with them. I went and the program worked really well for me. My first weigh in was 308 (remember that I had been walking, so I started somewhere above that) After about 10 months, I got a 75 pound magnet. That was kinda flukey, I think, but I was doing well at about 240. Then I got to doing other things and skipping the old WW meetings. You still have to pay for missed meetings, so it was getting expensive. My weight slowly started creeping back up into the 260's. That's still about 40 pounds from where I started, so I'm not a total failure. I'm having a hard time staying motivated. It's odd, because whether I eat light or eat a lot, my weight still hangs around the same numbers. What I have to do is make time for exercise. When I was on Weight Watchers I had a Gazelle, and that worked really good. As I said in my last post, I've been reading while using a recumbent bike, and for the last week I've lost a couple of pounds.

We are doing a Biggest Loser type deal here at work, so hopefully that can help motivated me, too. We'll see if I cna mae it through the weekend without gaining anymore than where I started for Biggest Loser, then I'll know if my weight is headed in the right direction.

The weird thing about my weight is that it's all in my belly. My legs are pretty normal, my arms are fine, my face is fine. Of course, they say belly fat is the last to go, so we'll see if I can get back on track.

Busy, as usual

Been busy at work and at home, so no time to blog. I ended up with a small John Deere (model 102) with a free dump trailer. It's good that it was free, because putting it together has been a bear.

Yesterday was comic book day. All Star Batman (et al.) has been delayed a couple of weeks. I picked up Wolverine Origins #1, Man-Bat #1, Justice #5 and Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #4. Read them all last night, mostly while on the recumbent bike. All were good reads.

More later, oh citizens of Nuggie Land!

She thinks my tractor's sexy!

Last August, I moved into a new house. I was used to a small yard, so puch mowing was not a problem. I now have a couple of acres, so a riding lawn mower is in order. I think I've settled on getting a John Deere, because Nothing runs like a Deere, and I believe it's better to spend money for quality than to buy crap every few years. That's not set in stone yet, but it's most likely. I'm going this evening to pick it out. The grass is getting high.

The Best Thing that ever happened to me.

In some of my previous posts, you might have noticed reference to my girlfriend. Her name is Juanita, and she is the best thing to ever happen to me. I could quote several songs and several movie lines and still not come up with the words to describe how wonderful it is that we got together. We recently got engaged, and someday soon we'll slip off to the Justice of the Peace or to the Elvis all night wedding chapel and make it official.

I love her and wanted to blog about that today.

Explain to me

Why do Lean Cuisines with a tiny amount of food cost more than a Hungry Man dinner with like 14 pounds of food in them? No wonder me and thousands of americans are fat. Luckily I can afford to get Lean Cuisines (or Healthy Choice or Smart Ones or whatever) but if you go price looking, you are not going to be happy.

It's Wednesday (aka comicbook day)

The new comic book releases arrive today. I recently revived my love of comics.

When I was young, I lived in a rural area, so I didn't have access to a comic shop. I didn't have any money, but that's beside the point. I would pick up a few hear and there at flea markets and yard sales. My favorites then was Sgt. Rock and Spiderman, I suppose. I ended up with a lot of Superman, too, but he is, well, not nice.

Fast forward to my college years. This was right after Superman died. The big think then was alternate covers and new comics companies. A friend was collecting a lot of Batman stuff. At this point, I started picking up a series called FireArm. It was an excellent book from a company called Malibu. The comic shop where I was buying FireArm closed up, and I had every comic up to that point. A short time after that, Malibu was purchased by Marvel, and short while after that, they ended the FireArm title. I only need a handful of comics to finish the complete series, but I never could find them.

Fast forward once again to a few months back. I had in hand a bit of extra money. I was reading GPF and one of the ads on that site was for Mile High Comics. So I went there and they had the rest of the comics in the FireArm series. I ordered them, read through them, and now I had read the complete published story of Alec Swan, so far. But I was just getting started. Around the same time, I had picked up a few graphic novels at WaldenBooks. "The Dark Knight Returns", "Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place", and "Crisis on Infinite Earths" were the titles. Later I added "Watchmen" to my library. These only served to whet my appetite.

I was looking for a comic shop. My girlfriend actually found the one where I go now. She picked me up the first 3 issues of "Justice" and a regular novellization of the "Crisis" novel. I didn't much care for "Crisis," so I went back to return it and pick up something else. I had been to the comic shop years ago, but wasn't ready to start collecting yet. Now, I had found a dealer and was ready to go back for more. I'm slowly easing back into collecting.

There's nothing in particular that I'm interested in coming out today (There's a whole bunch next week, though). I'll use some later blogs to do some reviews and previews of what I'm interested in.

What entertains me, webcomics edition

This is the second in a series (The Netflix queue being first, I suppose) of posts on how I entertain myself. I have these loaded into a FireFox submenu, so each morning I open my bookmark and click Open in Tabs and here they all come.

Bruno the Bandit

The author started this as "What if Conan the Barbarbian owned Garfield?" but change it around to avoid getting sued. It's developed into much more. It has good social/polictical/religious commentary mixed with general Medieval humor. New comics are published Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

General Protection Fault

I first started reading GPF becuase the author is married to a college friend of mine. At first it was just a funny comic with a geek motif, but it took a serious turn a few years back with a serious sci-fi edge to it. It now mixes both pretty well. It has a new comic every day.

User Friendly

Another geek comic. It has a pretty good cast of characters. It usually cracks wise at the expense of Gates, the RIAA, Sun and normal folks geeks like to see made fun of. New comics every day.

Help Desk

One more geek comic. It's the exploits of the team at Ubersoft. I believe I first started reading as part of a crossover with GPF. Published whenever the auther gets around to it, but daily when he's on a roll.

Dilbert

The grandaddy of the geek cartoon. Like most people who work in an office setting, I think Scott Adams has a spy where I work. Published Daily.

Big Nate

Big Nate follows the life of a young man trying to make his way through adolescence. I find this very amusing, for some reason. Published daily.

Brevity

I found Brevity at Fark.com when it was called Cow Tools. It's a strange one liner Far Side type. Published daily.

Off the Mark

Off the Mark is also a Far Side type of cartoon, with something different each day. The comics.com page is up to date. The regular site at Off the Mark is a week behind, but has full archives. Cat lovers (you know who you are) need to check Off the Mark Cat Page Published Daily

Dork Tower

Dork Tower is more for dorks than geeks. It's based mostly on comic strip and gamer humor. Publish sporadically, though usually at least twice a week.

Absurd Notions

Absurd Notions consists of 2 comic strips. Absurd Notions is a comic about a group of friends who share an apartment. It includes geek humor and gaming humor. I first discovered it through a crossover with GPF (again). Why the Long Face is more of the author's personal diary comic, but the characters are dragons. Seriously. Publishes sporadically. Has been on a long hiatus, but has started publishing again.

Weekend Update

So we went to the Power game. The saying goes "Baseball is 10 minutes of action crammed into 3 hours." This is accurate but only tells a little bit of the story. A baseball game is a social event. Folks were hanging out and having a beer with each other. I don't drink but you could tell folks were having a good time. The folks at the stadium do a good job with the in between inning entertainment. Trivia games, Kiss Cam, that sort of thing. One nice promotion was the Quaker Steak and Lube Wing Man. If the selected play (in this case the 29) strikes out, then everyone gets 6 free wings. The first time, the 29 made contact, but the second time he whiffed. Free wings! It was a slow drizzle when the game started, but by the 7th inning, it was coming down pretty good, so they delayed it. We left, but they called it shortly afterwards.

Friday night, we headed out after work to get our free wings. I had been to Quaker Steak before, but my girlfriend hadn't. We ended up getting Louisana Lickers wings. My sweetie isn't a fan of chicken on the bone, so it was actually the first time she'd ever tried wings. She liked these, though. Tuesday is all you can eat wing night, so we'll have to go back so she can try some of the other sauces. Each of us chose a Carolina BBQ Burger for the main course. It was good.

We had driven separately to work that morning. On the way home, her car got a vibration. I told her it needed a round of wedge, but she didn't care for my explanation. She thought it was in the suspension. I didnt' think it was to bad, because I used to drive clunkers that vibrated much worse. Anywho, Sunday afternoon we were going to move the front tires to the back. The right front was worn badly on the inside. Simply rotating would have probably been ok, but the cords were trhough, so she's off to get 4 new ones and an alignment. Since it's a 4WD, we figure it's best to get all 4. No word on the round of wedge.

It's Opening Night

It's the first game of the season for the West Virginia Power! I'm starting to get excited! I've managed to mooch my way in for the second year in a row. Last year, which was the opening of the brand new ball park, my girlfriend's friend won tickets from the radio station. This year, I scored tickets through work.

Let's go power! Delmarva, you are TOAST!*

*Link is PDF

Coming up on netflix

My friend Dan posted his blockbuster queue in his blog, so I thought I would do the the same, except mine is a NetFlix queue

1. Madagascar
   
2. The Professional
   
3. Out of Time
   
4. Star Trek: TNG: Season 3: Disc 3
   
5. Playing God
   
6. Matchstick Men
   
7. Star Trek: TNG: Season 3: Disc 4
   
8. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
   
9. Blade 2
   
10. The Thirteenth Floor