Not very active here

I've not been very active here... Mostly because the wife has been rather sick for a while and at work I've been working in the test department so have been away from my desk.

Tomorrow is Katie's birthday. She'll be 9... Holy Shit, where did the last 9 years go?

The weight issue:

I've decided to not even worry about my gained weight until after the holidays. I figure it this way... I just quit smoking like 80 days ago and am still not out of the woods with that. I figure in January I will address the extra weight I've gained. Besides, what's worse, Smoking a pack a day, or an extra 15 or 20 pounds.

Stuff.

Not too much going on really. Work got really busy for me. This will last until the end of the Month/Year. Then in the new Year I will probably get slow. Usually happens like that around here.

Saturday we brought the kids to see Dark Star Orchestra or DSO for short. If you like the Grateful Dead you should see this band. They will play a set that The Grateful Dead played. And when I say play a set, I mean they will pick a date that the dead played, and replay the set. Not really note for note but they will play the same songs in the same order too. And they sound spot on! They have a following too, its pretty weird. but they are really good. Anyway, Katie had a really good time. See:






And of Course Mat played Legend of Zelda on his DS through the whole concert. See:

It was good, he actually got into it for a while. He really liked the Drum Solo.

Me, Murray & Brian @ Reunion

Me, Murray & Brian @ Reunion, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Here's a picture of Me, Murray and Brian that I snagged off of Facebook. The first thing Murray said to me when He showed up was "Oh, cool, you showed up in a Purple Velvet jacket, I was worried that I was underdressed with the Corduroy jacket" It was good hanging out with Murray!

I told him I would make it out to L.A. someday soon and chill out with him. I hope I can actually do it. He's good people!

Back to work after a week off... :-(

Today is my first day back to work after having the week off. I had a tough time getting up after sleeping late the whole week, but I did make it to work. Of course I am swamped! Sometimes I feel like it's not even worth it to take time off because nobody will do my work while I'm gone and it just piles up.

Anyway, the week was good. Relaxing if nothing else. Me and wife re-arranged some furniture and my Ham Radio/Computer/Guitar/Music room is awesome now. I'm diggin it because there is som much more room in there! I need to get some pics of it now. It's almost pointless becasue I don't think that I have any before pics. If I do I will put some up here and over at Flickr.com.

I went to my 20 year high school reunion on friday night. Wife had hers too, so we went solo to our own reunions. I had a great time. I'm so glad that I went. I spent a long time talking to Murray who moved to L.A. around '92. I talked to a lot of people there and was surprised at how many people haven't really changed, except for the age. And mostly everyone looked really good. There were only a couple people that I thought " Boy, you didn't age well!" But of course I didn't sya it, only thought it. and I couldn't believe how OLD some of them looked. We're not even 40 yet and some of them looked all of 50. But mostly everyone looked really good. I just hope nobody is saying the same stuff about me! Becasue I dont' think I look that old.

I gotta say that I had great conversations with Murray V, Elaine R, Nicole S, Jenn H, Cordell J, Chris D, Andy T, Wendy H, Colleen P, Carmen B, Mike S, Traci A, Rich D and a bunch of others! I was a little disappointed that Bob wasn't there. He is way cool. I'll try to mak it to one of his shows i guess. I am really hoping they decide to do a 25 year! I'd be there!

20 Year Class Reunion

Tonight is my 20 year class reunion. After 20 years you would think that I would be excited to see everyone, but the truth is I'm not. There are a few people that I really want to see though. Like Murray. Me and Murray had Bio and gym class together. We didn't really hang out out of school, but we did while in school. He ended up going to Los Angles right after graduation and has been there since. He does stand up comedy out there and writes for the blue collar guys. I only know this because we've been emailing that past couple weeks.

then there is Bob Bundy. I went to school with Bob from Kindergarten straight through to the end. Look here:


















He's in the top right. His father was a photographer and took all the pictures for the schools. When we got to high school, I started playing guitar and he played bass. He was into Doo Wop and Rock-A-Billy. He ended up in the band The Razorbacks playing the stand up bass. You should go check them out. Anyway, the last time I saw him was at the 10 year class reunion. Everyone that was there were pretty much assholes and I don't really know why. I think they all were in a point in their lives that they felt like they had to show off how well they are doing and that got in the way of being nice. Anyway Bob was one of the only ones there that was awesome.

I am going tonight with an open mind. I will greet everyone with the same respect I would expect the receive. We'll see how it goes.

W00t! A follower

I forgot to mention! Yee haw! my first follower.. I got introduced to This Dude on Flickr.com. Here is his Flickr photostream Seems we both like taking pictures of the same kinda stuff. Anyway... I started following his blog and looks like he's doing the same! Thanks phil. Go check his shit out... He's a cool dude!

Vacation

So I'm on vacation this week. Not really doing much but I'm finding that I'm not really having lots of time to come here. What I've done so far is re-arrange my guitar/Ham Radio/Computer room. I'll post pictures when its all done. I have so much more room now that the second sofa a gone!

Camera

I stopped in at the camera shop the other day looking at cameras. I got the woman to let me hold the Canon and a couple Nikons. I've read all the reviews about the Canon EOS Rebel XSi and had made up my my mind that was the Camera for me. But after holding the Nikons, I'm not so sure. I really like the feel of the Nikons. So I think I may be changing my mind on which camera to get. I had the D60 an the D 80 in my hand. They both felt equally awesome in my hand. I can't really afford the D80 so that kind of limits me to a D60 or D40. I'm thinking D60. But then there are all the reviews about the Canon. Thats cool and all, but it just didn't feel great in my hand. and the D60 is actually like $150 cheaper. So the Nikin is 2 megpixels less, will I even notice? I doubt it.

Ugh, Feeling Fat.

As you recall I quit smoking about 6 weeks ago, actually 50 days ago which is more like 7 weeks but who's counting? The point is that I quit, Yay! But I gained a bunch of weight on top of being overweight to begin with. And to top it off, I don't really get any exercise. So i'm feeling extra fat! As I was reading Phil's blog about riding his bike with a smoker friend, I felt a little better about myself. Not saying that I would do better than him, but I at least know that i don't have to say "Maybe it's time to quit" because I already did. so next on my agenda of improving my life is to lose weight and exercise more. I haven't mentioned it to anyone though for fear of them holding me to it. That's what I did with the smoking, I didn't tell anyone I was quitting, I pretty much just did it on my own. So anyway, I made a commitment to myself, and to Mom as she was dying, to take better care of myself. phase one was to quit smoking, next will be lose weight and exercise more. I think losing weight will come with exercising more right?

So I am publicly announcing that I will start taking better care of myself.

How will I get this done? I think i will do this in steps.
Step 1 - quit smoking- done
Step 2 - cut all soda out of my diet - done
Step 3 - eat less at every meal - working on this now
Step 4 - begin an exercise regimine - I will start exercising with my BowFlex in the next coming weeks - this will prove to be harder to do than all the others, except for the smoking. I just feel like that is a major routine change that will disrupt other things that I do. I don't want to quit playing my guitar to exercise or something like that... I'll just have to work that one out. making a new schedule for my life is going to be the hard one...

Asperger's Kids?

Asperger's Kids?, originally uploaded by chrismek.

My son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. For those that don't know what it is, It's a condition that lands him on the Autism spectrum. We just met with the school and they want our daughter to now go to get Neuro test done. Finally, we've only been telling them for 2 years to do it. Well our appointment isn't for a few months from now but we're thinking she will turn out to also have Asperger's. My kids seem super smart to me and when I hear Autistic, I'm afraid that other kids will treat them differently. How will we handle it? with a level head i hope.

Cheap Gas

Cheap Gas, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Been a LONG time since I've seen gas for under 2 dollars! So obviously, when I pulled into the station and saw $1.97, I had to grab a picture of it! This particular station is the cheapest one within a 5 mile radius, but 2 days ago, the price was $2.11. That's a big drop.

In New Jersey, you aren't allowed to pump my own gas and I always test the waters to see what happens. this particular station the guy gets pissed if ou reach for the pump. At the station close to home, I always get out and pump my own gas becasue they take so long. I won't do it if its nasty weather out though! I'm spoiled like that!

Bear Proof Garbage Cans

Bear Proof Garbage Cans, originally uploaded by chrismek.

This morning, the town I live in was giving away free "Bear-Proof" garbage cans. In my town, you can put a "Free" sign on a huge pile of snow after a blizzard and people would be lining up to get some! I waited like 2 hours to get my one free bear proof garbage can.

Almond Butter

Almond Butter, originally uploaded by chrismek.

So after staying home from work today, I am feeling much better. I even went to the food store to pick up a few thing. While I was there, I came across this jar of Almond Butter. Look at the price! $10.59 for a standard size jar! I can get the size jar of peanut butter for like $3.29. I feel bad for the people that are allergic to peanuts and have no choice but to buy this stuff!

Which brings me to another thing. We recently found out that my wife is allergic to Wheat. I never realized how popular wheat is as an ingredient. And the alternative is rice flour, corn flour and all sorts of other kinds of flour. and they are all like double the price of regular wheat flour! Highway robbery. I have no choice but to buy this stufff at 2 and 3 times the price of the regular stuff.

Anything for my honey though!

Yuck!

So over the weekend, my sinuses started to get a little congested. No big deal usually. I thought, OK I have a cold coming on. Then my chest started to feel congested. Again, no big deal, I'll cough for a while. Then yesterday i started to lose my voice. I woke up this morning, felt like crap and barely had any voice. I went to work anyway. now my throat is Killing me, voice almost gone altogether and I have a wicked headache to boot! I'm leaving and going home. This sucks... gonna get under the blanket and watch TV until I fall asleep, which probably won't be that long! then get the kids off the bus and go back to sleep!

Grades K through 5.

So I ended up scanning all my class pictures for grades Kindergarten through Grade five. I got a kick out of doing it and trying to remember all the names of the kids in my classes! go here and take a look and if you know any of the names I couldn't get, let me know. Also let me know if I got a name wrong! Thanks!

Class-1976

Class-1976, originally uploaded by chrismek.

On Facebook, I saw that a friend of a friend uploaded their Kindergarten Class picture. I thought, "Hey, I'm in the process of scanning all my photos, let me do that one now!" I will send it to facebook at a later date. I think I can name all but 2 people in the picture! I'm the little blonde kid in the Purple shit in the middle. My 20 year class reunion is this month... I should send it to the few people that I have email addresses for!

40 Days!!!!

I needed to log in my MySpace page to send a message to a friend. On my page there is a counter that counts up. It counts how many days since my last cigarette. I happened notice what the count is at. I didn't realize that I made it to 40 days!!! Its probably not that big of a deal to most people but it is for me... This is me, patting myself on the back!

Fuck Yea!!! I'm a Non-Smoker now!!!!

Scan Progress / Weekend

So I am just going forward with the scanning using Brian's scanner. So far I'm about 100 pictures into it and about a gazillion to go. Each scan takes a long time, but the quality is pretty good. The first bunch had some small white spots but after cleaning the scanner with a little Windex they went away... It's really quick to unload and reload the pictures and start the scan so it's not really a pain in the ass like I thought it would be.

I also installed a 20 Gig hard drive that I had laying around just for the scans. I know 20 Gig is not that much these days, but its been sitting in my desk for a long time so I thought I would. It was brand new.

After I get a bunch more scanned in, I'll probably send them to my Flickr Photostream. I think I will go Pro there before I do that. With a free account, they only let you upload like 100MB a month, or something like that. I will be upload AL LOT more than that. It's not a big deal because I was planning on going Pro there anyway.

My weekend was pretty lame. I did Laundry all day Saturday and Sunday went to a family party. There were a couple Photo Opps there but I didn't have a camera and the ones I took with the Cell phone didn't come out that good. There was one chick there that made me think I was in L.A. Probably her mid to late 30's. She was SO SO skinny with big boobs. Was so skinny I commented to my wife about it. Her face wasn't all drawn in but her arms were skin and bone, No ass to speak of and little tiny stick legs! Seemed pretty obvious she had implants. A woman THAT skinny should be flat chested. I wish I could have gotten a picture to post. In hindsight, its probably better I didn't because it was a family party.

Deer Tick / Lyme Disease

If you look over on my Flickr Photostream, you see that I got bit by a deer tick and when I pulled it off me, the head broke off and I had to go to the doctor to get the rest taken out. See the tick here and see the bite here. So anyway, when the doctor picked the head out, he sent the tick to a lab to have it tested for Lyme disease. Well I just got a call from the doctor saying that the lab screwed up the test aor lost my tick or something. so ow I have to go through a Lyme Disease screening. This sucks because I thought I was in the clear. When I don't hear from the doctor after a blood test is usually a good thing, and this all happened on Oct 13, thats 3 weeks! Oh well.... Lets just hope for the best.

Different Scanner

Different Scanner, originally uploaded by chrismek.

OK.. so I got the scanner from Brian going and started scanning... before I get too far along, i need to make sure I like the quality of the scan. This picture was scanned with the scanner from brian, entry i did the other day with the same picture was scanned with the scanner from Jim.... Which one is better?

Scanner!

This is more of an update than anything.

So the scanner I got for nothing the other day from my father in law works. Not high resolution or anything like that. And after looking at the pics that I scanned, I decided that the quality of the scan was not good enough. so I was talking to Brian at work and he said that he had a scanner that I could use for an extended amount of time. So, he brought it to work today and gave it to me.

Its a canon and its powered off the USB cable, which I think is really cool. Anyway, this one scans a much better quality and can do a complete scan and save with a single click. That's what I need! works great! Only problem is it is quite a bit slower than the other one.

Well in between all this, I talked to my father in law about the quality and he suggests I just buy a new scanner. They are cheap, I could get one for under $100 but I don't really want to spend the money on a scanner when I could put that money toward a new camera! Anyway he is often in Wal-Marts because he fixes their Cash registers and asked at a couple different wal-marts how much it would cost to have them scan pictures and put them on a CD. They will do it for cheap, like $10 for 200 pictures.

That sounds cool and all, but I don't think i want to do that only because I had this idea to do it myself. If it turns out that it sucks really bad to do it, then maybe i'll bring them to wal mart...

I will start the scanning probably this weekend!

Mom Making Pierogies

Mom Making Pierogies, originally uploaded by chrismek.

In my quest to scan all my photos, I came across this one of Mom Making Pierogies for Christmas Dinner. It is a tradition in my family to make LOTS of home-made pierogies for our Christmas Eve dinner.

God I miss her!

Photo Mojo

Baby Mat, originally uploaded by chrismek.

I've been getting frustrated with my digital camera. It's a pretty old point and shoot Olympus. When I bought it, it cost like $400 and it's only a 2 MegaPixel Camera. That should tell you how old it is. I hate using it and I can't do the things that I want with it. It's OK for a point & shoot, but I have been using my Minolta X-700 since like 1986 and I can do so many things with it. Problem is, you have to get the film developed. I'm not very good at that! I have a lot of undeveloped film and I've started getting them all processed. this is some thing that will take forever.

I've made a decision that I need to get a digital SLR. I've looked at a lot of cameras and decided that I don't need a REALLY expensive one. I am pretty set on a Canon EOS Rebel XSi. I can get lenses for it and the add-ons that I have for my Minolta. And then I get Instant Gratification!!!

But since I don't have the extra money at the moment, I don't know what to do, except maybe wait a few months and set cash aside a little at a time and hopefully save up enough to get it around New Year or so.

In the Meantime, I've made a decision to Scan all my old Photos (and news ones that I get developed) and archive them. So last night, I picked up an HP scanner for nothing and set it up and did a couple test scans. This picture was one of them. Problem with this is that I can't get the software to work exactly like I want it to. I would like to put the pic on the scanner bed and hit one button and have it all done without any other intervention. Saved as a .JPG file and cycle through them all until ALL my pictures are scanned. I'll have to work on this and see if I can get that to happen otherwise it will take me years to get it done! Each picture takes too long to do.

So Synopsis:

A - Get a Canon EOS Rebel XSi

B - Get all my film developed

C - Scan all prints

D - Be satisfied with my Photo Mojo!

145,000 miles

145,000 miles, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Election day today... I went and voted.

I turned over 145,000 miles on my car...

What WILL the next 4 years be like?

Only time will tell...

Hockey Game

Hockey Game, originally uploaded by chrismek.

So I got a free ticket to go to the NJ Devils Hockey game on Saturday. I'm not a hockey fan at all. I would much rather sit at a Baseball game, but the ticket was free and I had a good time anyway. I guess if I knew what was going on it would have made it that much better. I am pretty mellow and laid back and I felt very tense during the whole game. At a baseball game, I don't feel so tense the whole time.

The Devils won the Game 6 to 1 so there was a lot of action anyway.

Not bad for my first NHL outing.

About the snow...

After work yesterday I stopped by a guy's house to help him look for a sump-pump in his basement. He is being charged 50 bucks a year for sump pump insurance on his home-owner's policy. He doesn't even know what a sump pump is let alone what one looks like so I stopped by to see if he has one. He didn't have one. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to get home from his house yesterday. It should have only been an hour but with the weather we had yesterday, it took an extra hour. I don't know why either. It's not like the roads were snow covered or anything. By the time I left work at 4:00 pm, it was just raining.

So I get home at about 6:40pm and the power in the whole neighborhood shuts off at 6:50 and was out until about 9:00. Cooking and hanging out in the dark was pretty cool. I liked it. And the kids got a free ride on the homework too! so we heated up some Chili ate it and then had some Lemon Pie! Yum!

October Snow

October Snow, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Well, It's confirmed! I just got this picture from my wife. This is what it looks like at my house right now!

October Snow

October Snow, originally uploaded by chrismek.

Taken with my Cell Phone. Can't see it too well but it's snowing like a Son-Of-A-Bitch! It's only October! This Sucks!

Snow?!?

What the Hell is this crap? Snow, In October? This Sucks!

New Well Pump! Yay!

So Friday I took off of work to replace my well pump and everything that goes with. That includes a 20 gallon tank, check valves, 100 feet of one inch ABS pipe and all sorts fittings and stuff like that. The Job should have taken about 4-5 hours but it took about 3 and 1/2 hours to get the old stuff out. the real problem was the well cap. The bolts on the old well cap were in such bad shape that I couldn't get a wrench on them. I ended up having to drill the tops off the bolts. If I wasn't such a cheap bastard I would have had an angle grinder and I would have just ground them off to begin with. Once I got the Well Cap off the rest was easy because everything was new and easy to work with it was just time consuming.

After it was all done, I went around to each faucet to make sure the pressure was acceptable. It wasn't. I went and jacked up the PSI a little but it didn't make a difference. I struggled all day Saturday trying to figure out why. Then it dawned on me, fucking around with the well stirs up all the crap at the bottom and pumped a bunch sediment into all the pipes. All that sediment got stuck in the faucets screens. So I cleared them all out and now I'm good!

WTF!

WTF!, originally uploaded by chrismek.

I stop at Shoprite the other day and this is what I saw! Don't people look in the mirror before leaving the house?!?!?