Mon, 20 Mar 2006

We went back out to shoot more guns on Sunday.
Rob had gotten a set of Crimson Trace laser grips for his new Browning Hi-Power, and he really wanted to try them out. So we loaded up and headed for Wal-Mart. This time I just took the S&W Sigma 9mm and the Mossberg 12 ga pump, and Rob took the Browning. He wanted to focus. We got some 9mm ball at Wal-Mart, and I had brought along some of the steel 7 1/2 shot from the closet. I still have boxes of the stuff left over from when we did a lot of duck hunting. It was a long drive west, but it was worth the trip. When we got there we found that someone had left a washing machine as a target. Cool. The riding lawn mower that was also out there was getting pretty shot up. Although leaving the washer might just have been illegal dumping, too.

Like last time, we were using clay pigeons as targets. The washing machine was in almost pristine condition, with just a few holes punched in it. Even the dials were still on it. It did seem to have a few shotgun slug holes in it, though.

No, Rob hasn't changed over to the gangsta-style way of holding his pistol. He's adjusting the laser grips. They have both an up-down and a side-to-side adjustment, both of which require a tiny allen wrench. Fortunately the nice people at Crimson Trace ship two wrenchs with the grips, which makes it easy to adjust the grips. Rob's adjustment method was to put the laser dot on the washing machine and pull the trigger. Then he would ajust the sights based on the bullet strike. After a couple iterations of this he had the sights dead on.

Then I got to try the sights. They worked pretty well. You could see the laser dot out to about 20-30 feet in the bright sun. Once I got the hang of it I stopped using the iron sights, and just put the dot on the target and squeezed the trigger. Pretty effective, and I'm sure it's much more effective in low-light conditions. I'd like a set for my Sigma. The only problem is that the Sigma has a plastic frame like a Glock, and the grips are integral to it. So I would have to get one of the pointers that goes inside the recoil buffer spring. And because the Sigma is a relatively unpopular pistol, those sights go for around $450. So I'm not ready to take the plunge yet. There was more of the safety glass from last time lying around, and we found that it makes a dandy target, as it shatters nicely when hit.

We had clay pigeons everywhere, even an old work boot that made a nice holder. After I shot all the 9 mm I brought out the 12 gauge, which worked just like I remembered. The steel 7 1/2 shot was effective against the pigeons, but not much else. It just left pits on the safety glass. The washing machine took a beating. At one point the front panel just fell off. So we shot up the tub inside. Finally we were out of ammo, and it was time to go home. I think we'll be back out there. On the way back we were discussing how to weld up some steel swinging targets.

posted at: 07:18 | permalink | 100 comments

Sun, 19 Mar 2006

I am about done with St. Patrick's Day.
For this year, anyway. We did the hash and parade last weekend, we sold beer all night long on Thursday at Clematis, and then we went to downtown Lake Worth on Friday for the real St. Paddy's Day. Linda and I met Sheldon down at the Dwarf. For once it was packed early on a Friday night, which was good, but we couldn't get a beer, which was bad. So we gave up and went to Sushi Blue across the street. There were only a few people in there, like always, so we thought it was a good choice. But the waitstaff was unbelievable slow, like always, so it turned out to be a bad choice. After 20 minutes we left, to go to Saito's. Saito's is a sushi and Thai place, which used to have all-you-can-eat sushi, but they seemed to have ended that sometime in the two years since we'd been there. Anyway, the sushi and the Thai were good. Sheldon and I were ready to rage on into the night, but someone else wanted to go home, so I had to leave all the Sheldon on his own to face all the hot women. I bet he did okay. And I'm ready for next year's St. Paddy's Day already.

posted at: 09:03 | permalink | 100 comments

We got to serve beer at Clematis again last Thursday.
The neighborhood association was lucky enough to get the St. Patrick's Day date, so we figured we would have a good night. I mentioned it to the hash, and sure enough, a couple hashers showed up to help out. Linda got to wear her St. Paddy's Day hat again. If you look close in the third picture you can see that our neighbor has his hair cut in the shape of a shamrock. And there's Nicole in the fourth photo.

Here's some more shots of our neighbors. That guy standing way away from the camera in the third picture is Ed. And that's Debbie in the fourth one. You already know Nicole in the second photo.

Toward the end of the night Darren showed up. I asked him to wear my little plastic hat on his enormous head to I could get an amusing photo. I think it worked. We stayed busy all night long, but we never got swamped, and we made a decent amount of money for the neighborhood association. We're going to spend it on the application to close the Mercer cut-through street in the back of the neighborhood. That may cut down on all the through traffic we get.

posted at: 08:43 | permalink | 100 comments

Sat, 18 Mar 2006

That darn cat.
I was leaving for work on Friday morning, and I heard a loud "meow". It sounded like the orange cat that sometimes comes by for dinner, and it sounded a little distressed. So I looked around, but didn't see him. I kept hearing the "meow" as I walked out to my car, but I still didn't see where it was coming from. Finally, as I got the car, I spotted him up in a tree, harrassing the birds. I couldn't tell if he was in trouble, or just saying "hey look at me", so I called out, "Orange Cat! Get down from there!". And he did. He hopped right down and walked over to see if breakfast was in the offing. It wasn't. So I went on to work, and he no doubt entertained himself for the rest of the day bothering the birds, squirrels, and Martha.

posted at: 10:23 | permalink | 100 comments

I got my new ThinkPad Z60M last night.
I have been wanting a new notebook for a while. My Toshiba was adequate, but it was three years old this month, and there were some minor annoyances with it. For one, the USB ports are all 1.1. That sounds minor, but I use my external DVD burner and external USB hard drives a lot, and they are really slow with USB 1.1. Although now that I think of it, the DVD burner has a FireWire connector, and so does that ThinkPad, so I will have to try that also.

I found some great reviews of the ThinkPad Z60M online, and I started looking at specs. I went with the 1.73 GHz Pentium M, which was faster than the Celerons they have, but not as fast as the 2 GHz Pentium M they also offer. I passed on the titanium lid as well. And finally, I couldn't bring myself to pay the extra $150 for internal Bluetooth. The Bluetooth USB dongle I have been using with the Toshiba will work for now, but it is pretty fragile, so I will look for a Bluetooth PCMCIA card.

IBM sold their ThinkPad division to Lenovo, which is in China, so that's where my ThinkPad was made. It was made to order for me. I could follow the order process on Lenovo's website. I saw that it was build on a Wednesday, shipped on Thursday, and in my hands on Friday. The box was waiting for me when I got home on Friday night (thanks Linda!). Of course Martha thought the box was the best place in the house to sit.

I started opening up the box. This might be the best part of getting a new computer. Inside the box was some fresh Chinese air. I smelled the inside of the box, but couldn't really detect anything Chinese-y about it. I did have to keep shooing Martha off the box, though.

I got out out. Cool. And the accessories were all there. But there was one more thing I had to do before I powered it on. The configuration I had ordered came with 256 Mb of RAM, which we all know is inadequate. So I had bought two 1 Gb sticks off eBay for $70/each. Fortuitously, they had arrived that same day. So it was time to install them.

There were instructions in the box on how to install the memory, but I just couldn't get the palm rest off. So I turned to the PDF manual for the Z60M that I had previously downloaded. That was better, but I still couldn't figure out how to remove the palm rest. Finally I google'd for it, and found some really specific directions. With that knowledge the palm rest popped right off. Hooray. The new RAM went right in, the notebook went back together, and it booted for the first time (outside of China). The old RAM went right onto eBay, where I hope to get $10 for it. I have been using the Z60M for a couple days now, and I really like it.

posted at: 09:47 | permalink | 100 comments

Fri, 17 Mar 2006

It was Dr. Suess's birthday a couple weeks ago.
March 2, to be exact. I know this because we were down at Clematis By Night, and the public library had a booth set up to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday. Inside the library the kids were making Cat In The Hat hats, and outside they had a contest where you could name your favorite Dr. Suess book, and win a set of Dr. Suess books. But we didn't enter.

posted at: 07:23 | permalink | 100 comments

Wed, 15 Mar 2006

We saw the one-man Star Wars show last week.
I had heard about this guy Charles Ross (I think on NPR) and his show. Over the course of an hour he reenacts the first three Star Wars movies (episodes 4,5, 6). Apparently he's a Canadian guy who grew up far away from broadcast television, and had seen the first movie over 400 times by the time he was 10 years old.

Anyway, the show was really good. It was pretty physical, as he threw himself around the stage. We were all waiting to see what would happen as he did Han Sol encased in a block of carbonite, where the block rocks back and forth before crashing backwards. He rocked a few times, started to tip, and then bailed out.

His accents and gestures were really good. How can a guy in a black jumpsuit make you believe he's Jabba the Hut? I don't know, but he does. He did leave out the scene I was really waiting for, where Obi Wan says to the stormtrooper, "These aren't the droids you're looking for".

I didn't get any photos of him during the show, because I thought he might cut me up with a lightsaber. But here's a couple of me and Linda before the show in the Rinker Playhouse.

posted at: 07:19 | permalink | 100 comments

The St. Patricks's Day parade reached a new high this year.
We passed out nearly 1800 jello shots to the crowd (we had to save some for ourselves). I don't know the total hash attendance, but there were 50 people on the RSVP list. Plus OP came. The first I knew about OP was when he called me from the TriRail. He had met up with Mike and Mike's kid Andy, who were coming up to meet me and ride down to the parade together. OP wanted to know if he could come too? I said sure, and picked them all up. Andy got to sit up front, Mike and OP were in the back. We stopped by my house to regroup, and so OP could get a beer. Andy tried out the chopper project, and Mike wore his hat.

Soon enough it was time to go. Oddly, Circumspector opted to take her own car and not ride with us. Good thing, too, since GH called soon after we left, and asked for a ride. We picked him up and I made him sit in the back with OP and Mike. On our way out of Lake Worth I was checking out the hottie washing her car, when I realized it was the Head. I backed up, and she came over and talked to us for a minute. She didn't even throw the soapy water on us!

Only a few minutes further on we had to stop for gas and more beer. And OP had to use the bathroom. If you look right in the center of the first photo you can see him facing the camera and doing his dirty little business. The cops checked us out pretty carefully as we got onto I-95, but didn't detain us.

Things were hopping once we got to the start of the hash. HalfLife was showing off his new teeth, and GH was bending over in preparation for something. Bootlicker was hanging on the float to stay vertical. We had to use a field expedient to get the inital "ON" on the foot, after finding that one of the feet had blown off on the 70 mph drive down. But eventually we all assembled for the money group shot.

The hash itself was uneventful, marked only by the eight phone calls from Mike asking, "Where are you?". We were near the train tracks, he was on the train track, and all he had to do was go north. For some reason that was not possible. At least Circumspector got Plop's head painted.

After the hash we and the float made our way to the assembly point, where we stood around for 30 or 40 minutes waiting for some organization. We made good use of the time by passing out jello shots to everyone around us.


Pretty soon we were under way. We were behind a big ladder truck full of firemen, and in front of a police bagpipe band. What a perfect location for the hash! There were some exotic dancers in a car not too far behind. We saw DumpsterDiver in his Gumby costume along the parade route.

The circle went well. The center of attention was the office chair. It was very popular. Much beer was drunk.

We close with these shots of Princess trying to cool off. I think I like the first one best, but I just couldn't decide. So I present them all here for your perusal.

posted at: 06:54 | permalink | 100 comments

Tue, 14 Mar 2006

I found another batch of Bike Week photos from Daytona in my phone.
This happens sometimes when I take a camera along. I'll use the camera for most of the photos, but now and then I'll take a photo with the phone, and then forget about the phone photos until the next time I download from the phone.

Anyway, here they are.

The first few photos are from the Friday night pub crawl. A camera phone with no flash isn't the best tool for a dark bar, but you can make out the basics. The first photo is Itsy and this week's girlfriend, and the second is a closeup of AC. I really like the third photo here. It gets my award for "Unable to Understand the Lyrics". If you're going to write graffiti, at least get it right.

Here's a wider shot of the second bar, a picture of the boxing machine that thankfully went unused all night long, and a group shot that includes Kiddy from Tampa.

Here we see a random Harley parked in front of the hotel. I liked it because it was so different from the shiny chrome and paint on most of the bikes. It was *dirty*! Plus a couple shots of Main Street, including a cameo of my thumb.

As always, we stayed in the Mayan Inn. This year we had an oceanfront room Howard joined us on Saturday, and stood out on the balcony with me in the wind, looking at my car. It was cool and blustery, so the pool was unoccupied.

On Sunday we headed over to the Arlen Ness area on the mainland. AC and, um TR (not her real name) tried on these $60 handmade sunglasses. I got a shot of them in the glasses, and they put them back on the rack. Everyone was happy.

posted at: 21:32 | permalink | 100 comments

We set a new jello shot record last Friday: 1600 shots.
This was in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day parade the next afternoon. It took a lot of work, and that was on top of building the float for the parade. When I arrived the kitchen crew was hard at work, CA was loading the shots in the refrigerator, and P-rick was supervising.

There was a propane burner set up outside to boil water in a really big pot. Once the water was boiled Mama would mix in the jello and vodka, and then start filling the shot cups.

AI was anxiously observing as the refrigerator got fuller and fuller. We just kept packing them in. There were a lot of empty cheap vodka bottles on the counter. I don't know what the total vodka requirement was.

We finally finished about 11:00 pm. We had prepared 1600 shots for the next day's festivities. The fridge was packed about as full as it would go. And Plop was happy.

posted at: 07:08 | permalink | 101 comments

Mon, 13 Mar 2006

Me and Rob went out shooting on Sunday.
He has a new (to him) Browning Hi-Power pistol, and he wanted to shoot it some more. So we loaded up and headed to the western part of the county. On the way we stopped at the Wal-Mart superstore, where we were each able to get 100 rounds of Winchester hollowpoint 9 mm for about $10, and I got a box of 50 .44 mag for around $11. Rob had a box of clay pigeons, so we didn't have to buy targets. After driving for a while we got to the shooting spot. It's a secluded area in the cane fields, on a power line easement, which makes it public land. There was plenty of evidence of previous shooters, as the ground was carpeted with shotgun shells and brass. There was even what appeared to be a riding lawn mower, but as it was more holes than mower it was difficult to tell for sure. Rob set up the first round of clay pigeon targets while the power lines buzzed overhead. You can see the orange dots of the targets in the third photo.

Rob had the Browning, as well as a .357 revolver with a 2" barrel. I had brought a S&W Sigma 9mm, and the Ruger Blackhawk .44 magnum with the 7" barrel that Rob had foolishly sold to me years ago. It's a ludicrously impractical gun, but it's appealing just because of its freakishly large size. You can see the Sigma in its holster in the third picture, and the .44 lying in the grass in the fourth. Its size isn't really apparent in that shot.

Once the targets were set up and the magazines loaded we began blazing away (after donning eye and ear protection, of course). We were about 50-60 feet from the targets, and we were both satisfied with our marksmanship. Rob had placed some of the clay pigeons on the remains of the riding lawn mower, and some of them slipped down behind it as their brothers were shattered. No matter. With the .357 and .44 we simply shot right through the mower to hit the targets. Cool. As we were down to our final rounds I found what appeared to be a piece of bank glass. It was about 4"x6", and it was 1" thick. It shattered satisfactorily when hit by the .357. After that, we loaded up and headed for home, where I performed my sometime Sunday night ritual of cleaning guns and watching the Simpsons.

posted at: 07:14 | permalink | 400 comments

Sat, 11 Mar 2006

I saw what looks like a mid 90's Ford Bronco with the top cut off today.
If you look closely at the baby head stuck in the bumper you can see that it has two different colored eyes. I think that's a nice touch. The truck looked like it runs; it was parked out in front of an auto repair shop. I'm not ready to trade in my Cherokee for it, though.

posted at: 21:52 | permalink | 201 comments

Fri, 10 Mar 2006

AI did a comeback trail Wednesday night.
I don't think he's done one for a while. It was out at 10 Ave N and Jog, so we all had to assume that he would be running through the mountain bike trails at Pinehurst. Well, you know what happens when you ass-u-me. Instead the trail went in the opposite direction, on some golf courses and parks, and eventually to a nice halfway in a parking lot next to a Red Lobster. We socialized and blew our whistles, and eventually everyone came in. Then we had an uneventful second half back to the cars, and a slow, methodical circle. Lots of old and new faces there (I counted 23 people). Virgin Chris was there, announcing he would be doing his naming trail soon. And NJF/C&P got a new name, but I forgot what it is. You can compare the prediction and the actual trail below, and see just how far off I was this week.

posted at: 07:24 | permalink | 100 comments

Wed, 08 Mar 2006

I'm on the second page of a Google vanity search.
I saw this on Sheldon's blog and I had to try it myself. When you google for "Dave Wilson", this website shows up as the top link on the second page of results. I'm so close to page 1 that I can smell it. As Captain Kirk would say, "Must break ... through ... this barrier". Or maybe that's DuffMan.

posted at: 07:17 | permalink | 100 comments

Mon, 06 Mar 2006

I bandited the Bike Week hash this year.
Maybe "bandited" is the wrong word, as that sort of implies that I didn't pay. It might be better to say that I did it ala carte. I've been to a lot of Bike Week hashes, and while they're fun, they're always the same. So this time we decided to spend most of our time looking at motorcycles. We did do the pub crawl on Friday night, but we made sure to buy our own drinks, instead of drinking on the hash's dime.

After the evening's festivities had concluded, Oil's Well and Canal Entry (and friends) came up to our room for a nightcap. And they brought their little dog, too. In the first picture Canal models the latest in dog purses, and in the second we see the entire happy family. The dog weights less than three pounds.

I didn't see much of the hash until Sunday morning, when I ran into Itsy and his latest girlfriend sunning themselves by the pool. Oh, and AI was there in his finest pajamas.

After that I took my leave of the hash, and wandered down Main Street with Howard. I got a call from AC, saying that he would be riding down, and could I take a picture. I practiced my framing on these guys.

Finally we saw him approaching. In the first picture you can see him a long way off. His passenger has her head turned. The second picture is a little better, but still fuzzy. And his passenger is still looking the wrong way.

posted at: 11:04 | permalink | 100 comments

Sun, 05 Mar 2006

I was in Daytona for the first weekend of Bike Week.
I was staying in the Mayan again, with Howard and AC. There weren't too many Brokeback Mountain references.

On Saturday we headed over to the Speedway, where dozens of vendors and manufacturers had set up. The first things we saw were these cute little three-wheelers. There's a motorcycle under there somewhere. They didn't look quite as cute once we found out they sell for about $50K.

I had no idea there were that many trikes out there. Lots and lots of big-displacement bikes that have had the rear wheel replaced by an axle with two wheels. I could never see for sure if they had a differential or just a solid rear axle.

One thing I really wanted to see was some Ducatis. There were plenty of them in the parking areas, but only two at the Ducati tent. Maybe they are going to bring more in later in the week.

I was really taken with the air filter cover the first time I saw it. But it lost part of its appeal after I saw it on bikes all over the show. Here's a different take on the trike theme: chopper trikes.

Howard and AC continuously debated the merits of various bikes. They liked the chrome and the paint. I kind of like this one, that looks like it hasn't been cleaned since it rolled off the assembly line.

This thing was just freaky. It's powered by a small gas turbine engine. It's about 20 feet long. It's not the greatest construction, as it looks like it was put together out of angle iron with a mig welder. Along the same lines, I saw a supercharger on a bike for the first time.

For some reason the paint scheme on these intakes looks really good to me. The rest of the bike is painted the same way. It's patterned after a Rolling Stones album cover. On the way out we saw a bare-bones trike. It looks like it might have used a Servi-Car as a donor. There was some interesting engineering involved.

posted at: 22:37 | permalink | 100 comments

Thu, 02 Mar 2006

We had three (3) virgins at the Wednesday night hash.
I am really liking this infusion of new blood. Plus Itsy's slutty girlfriend came back out, plus NFHN Chris and several other unnamed people returned. There was a little confusion about the start location, since the street sign was down, and "turn left just before the RR tracks" was not clear enough for some people, but we still had 23 people show up. Including Kunta Kinte.

I had a good time laying the trail. The begining looped back around past the start. I always like doing that. And every check had at least one bad trail, and often had two. On the first half I got to the beer check with about ten minutes to spare. On the second half I didn't throw as many checks, and I could hear the pack behind me. I got in about two minutes before the FRBs.

The beer check was at the Clubhouse Pub (good guess, Yeast). They weren't expecting us, but they quickly rallied and provided us with pitchers and cups. The owner did emphasize that I should call first next time. I like the rules they have posted in the bathroom. Especially the last line.

The circle went pretty well. Things were moving right along, but we could see the concerned neighbors standing about a block away, talking on their cell phones. Eventually the two police cars showed up and made a pass by with their spotlights. Eatapus was elected to talk with them, and he must have done a good job, as he came back and reported that the cop had said, "I'm not going to tell you to leave, but could you keep it down?". Yay WPBPD! We did keep it down, a little, and pretty soon we wrapped it all up. But not before awarding a name to Itsy's slutty girlfriend. She had been referring to herself as Nurse Jellyfinger(?), but we annointed her [no, I'm not going to write that in a family-oriented blog]. Then the circle ended, the pack went off to Flannigans for some nourishing fried food, and I went home. The end.
posted at: 09:22 | permalink | 100 comments

Wed, 01 Mar 2006

I'm a little late posting this Valentine's Day update.
Linda got us these great cake hearts for Valentine's Day. Then she tore my heart in half and ate it. No, I'm kidding. But those hearts were pretty good.

posted at: 07:11 | permalink | 100 comments

Tue, 28 Feb 2006

I really like the new Lotus.
I think it's called the Elise, but there are lots of variations. The first one I saw was a track-only model, but I've seen a few on the street since, like this one. This one was parked at the Publix on Sunday morning. Mmmm.

posted at: 07:11 | permalink | 100 comments

Mon, 27 Feb 2006

Check out this cool wrench that Linda found.
And, by droit du seigneur, it is now mine. Mostly because she doesn't want it. She found it in the circle area of the bike hash last week, and stuck it in her Camelbak. As we were leaving, there were two people struggling to get a bike into their car. They couldn't get the front wheel off, because the quick-release skewer was too tight, and wouldn't come off by hand. So Linda says, "Maybe I can help", and reaches back into her Camelbak and pulls out a 14" Stillson. Cool.

posted at: 22:53 | permalink | 100 comments