Aloe is our friend.

This is just a reminder that if you happen to get a sunburn, use some aloe vera gel. And keep it in your refridgerator. Ahhhhhh nothing feels nicer. So, I spent yesterday afternoon doing yardwork. I thought to myself "Self, I don't need any sunscreen...it's not that hot or sunny and I've already spent some time in the sun this year." Wrong! Oops. As I'm nursing my skin back to health, I'll take the opportunity to stay in my dark, cool house and do some blogging. You know, it's been almost 16 months since I moved (and exactly 12 months for Erin) so things are starting to settle in for us. The ants seem to be under control again (for a short time, at least). Erin's been doing great on her vegan diet and awesome gym attendance. (My diet and gym attendance are satisfactory, but not exceptional.....B-Minus for me.) The job situation is still unchanged: we have about 3.5 months left working at the city and will now start to focus on the transition to the next team. I've been feeling exhausted and sortof misguided lately. Like, am I supposed to take this opportunity to find something I really enjoy doing? Has it been so long since I've worked at an enjoyable, low stress site that I am now turned off to IT support in general? I know I still really enjoy working with computers and technology, so I don't think that's it. Maybe I just need to continue doing some soul searching and the right opportunities will present themselves. In this job climate, I count my lucky stars that I am currently employed in a good job!

Our biggest hard drive failed this weekend and it took all of our personal music and documents with it. Luckily, I had a backup in the safe, but it wasn't as new as I would have liked. By a stroke of luck, I had copied almost everything important to the new laptop as a second backup and the data was only a week or two old. I'm going to start doing the backups differently and more often so when this happens again, it will be even easier to restore everything. So I cloned the 160GB hard drive from our Fake Tivo PC to a 500GB drive and now we will be able to record more tv and keep more media directly on the HTPC itself instead of sharing it over the network. In case any of you are interested in a program to synchronize folders and files between computers, I recommend a program called Syncback. It's a free version and it even does straight backups if you want. So far, it's been a great way to keep out important stuff with us, no matter which computer we're using. I also had a good excuse to buy a SATA hard drive dock, which allows me to plug in desktop and laptop SATA hard drives without an external enclosure. I'll start using this for quick and easy backups


I've been out on my motorcycle a lot; I take it out whenever I'm going to the gym or just for a nice weekend ride. I've put about 2500 miles on it in three months, so I'm definitely getting my money's worth :) I stopped on the side of the road to snap a quick picture on a recent ride out in the country.

I was working on a PC from a fire station the other day and just HAD to snap a picture of it's condition. It was disgusting, however it was not the worst I've seen. In situations like this, I skip right over the cans of compressed air and just start scooping the crap into the garbage can. *cough*

If you've seen pics of our house, you know we have a mini forest running along the edge of our yard. Pinecones are everywhere. When I mow, I toss the pinecones from the yard. I realized that after a year, they sure did pile up...and it looked kinda bad, so I raked up a majority of the pinecones and excess pine needles that came with them and set them out on the street. A few days later, someone in the neighborhood decided that they wanted the needles. That didn't bother me at all.

We went to Chin Chin for dinner recently. Notice anything funny about their sign in the window? Don't these sign companies proofread for these poor folks? I mean, it's not like English is their first language!

Dennis's birthday was last weekend, so Erin and I threw him a mini birthday party. We picked up some Moe's, watched some TV, and enjoyed some birthday cupcakes. Oh, and we got party hats, too.

We finally put up a new valance in the livingroom. Erin put the fabric together and I hung the curtain rods. Not shabby! It definitely boosts the sophistication of the room a notch.

We also got a lamp, so that we don't have to turn on the ceiling fan lights or dining room lights whenever we want some light. Should save us some money and also make the room feel more cozy.

Erin and I went to a Greenville Drive game this weekend. It was sponsored by ATS, so some people from the SE Regional office were there. The weather was great....our team won by 10 points...we sat right behind the dugout....but the best part? I had $30 in leftover concession money cards that I got to use. Usually, I don't spend a lot of money on snacks, but since it was free, I just went up and got whatever I wanted, when I wanted it. It was sweeeeet.

My chorus's annual show is coming up on June 27th in Spartanburg. If there is anyone reading this that's in the area, I encourage you to call and get a ticket or two. It should be a great show!

 Well, that's it for now! On Wednesday, the iPhone OS 3.0 is release and I am so excited! The most important thing that is included is the capability to use my wireless headphones again. I am so sick of headphone wires and will not miss them. I hope you have a great week!

The Emmer Effing Fire Ants 2009 Edition

Ant Watch 2009: I was naive to think that by proactively treating my lawn for fire ants, I would lessen or eliminate the number of fire ant colonies in my yard this year. Right now, I have about 20 ant mounds, or 16 more than last month. In layman's terms, the number has increased %400 since treating with the same product that wiped them all out last year. Four of the mounds are near pavement, which means walking near the driveway is now an itchy hazard. I am wasting no more time. I bought another well known chemical...Orthene. Besides having hilarious radio commercials it is supposed to be an effective solution to my ant problem. The only problem is that I can't put anything on right now, because it is raining and will be raining for the next week. If I didn't have to worry about this entire problem, I would be 32% happier. Someday, I am going to create a patented (and probably dangerous) method of eliminating entire ant mounds instantly. I have quite a few ideas but most will require a written hazard disclaimer and probably a release waiver for people really serious about this. I'll let you know how that turns out.

I found some funny pictures recently and wanted to share. The first one is an ad campaign miscalculation. Audi taunted "Your move, BMW..."

This had me cracking up the other day. I know you remember this song.

Here's a friendly jab at the Harley folks. Also from BMW:

If you've ever used Real Player (like back in the early days of the Internet.) you'll get this....

If you've been reading Erin's vegan blog, you know she's been eating strawberries at a high rate. She loves loves loves them. Last week, she bought a gallon of them at a roadside stand. I kid you not, they are nearly gone now, and this picture was taken after half of them had been eaten. I still do not like strawberries.

Here's a picture of our Chorus, the Palmetto Statesmen, taken last Christmas at The Cliffs Valley.

Speaking of Cliffs, last week we had a performance at The Cliffs at Glassy.

Here's a shot from the back patio of the clubhouse. Beautiful! Mind you, this is on top of a mountain.

Here's Dr. Campbell, our director, warmin' us up.

And the steep drive down. This would have been really fun on my motorcycle. Maybe next year.

Erin, Dennis, and I tried a new restaurant last week: Lieu's Chinese Bistro. It is another "fancy" Chinese restaurant, located near P.F. Chang's.

I forgot to get interior pictures... It was more like a normal restaurant, like Arizona Steakhouse. For an appetizer, I ordered Crab Rangoons. They were huge and wonferful.

For my main dish, I had a spicy chicken dish. It was more like sweet and sour chicken than what I normally get. It was also good.

For dessert, Dennis and I split a (small) piece of cake. It was fantastic.

Overall, the food was very good and the price somewhat lower. I actually had food leftover! The waitress was a little spacey...She brought us the wrong appetizer and was very awkward whenever we talked to her....must have been new.


Erin talked me into singing with her choir for a couple Sundays and also playing in the bell choir for Pentecost Sunday. Look at all of those notes!!!

Actually, I am only responsible for a couple of the notes: E and F. It's just right for a newbie such as myself.

Erin and I finally got a new laptop! It's a pretty, shiny HP with....Windows Vista 64. This is my first Vista machine, and so far, it works just fine. Erin uses our old laptop daily in her classroom, so it was time for an upgrade. I bought the old one over 8 years ago. Not bad. The new one cost 1/3 as much as my old Dell and is more powerful than our regular PC. We love it! 6 hours runtime, Core 2 Duo, 250GB, 4GB Memory, etc.

I was at the video store the other day and snapped this picture. See if you can get this joke by clicking on the picture to enlarge. (Hint: There are no copies available)

For the last three weeks, I have been working to complete 30 PC installs. From start to finish, I image the pcs, transfer data and settings, install them for the user and then cascade or dispose of the old equipment. There are only two left to do by next week. It's been a lot of hard work, but a much-needed break from the daily grind.

Well, it has been a very busy month. I've been riding the motorcycle alot, finding some new favorite roads and going to the gym. Speaking of, I have lost a little bit of weight, and am starting to fit back into my clothes, which is my first priority. I have really been enjoying my time there and always look forward to going back. We are enjoying a nice long weekend with Erin's sister and hopefully make it to Carowinds this week, weather permitting. Can't wait. The weather has been cool, but rainy. I figure it will be hot and muggy within a few weeks... We've been seeing a lot of movies lately: Star Trek: Loved it! Angels & Demons: Liked it! Terminator Salvation: Hated it! This summer is producing a lot of theater worthy movies, and I have a feeling it's going to cost me a lot of money. Have a wonderful, safe Memorial Day!

When life gives you lemons...get a Frozen Mocha!

You thought I was going to say "make lemonade?" No, that's too much work. Plus I don't really care for lemonade. I would much rather enjoy a cold, chocolately frozen drink from my favorite place: Liquid Highway. Why do I need such a drink and what lemons are we speaking of? Well, I haven't told all ya'll yet, but about a month ago my team at work was told we would no longer have jobs at the City of Greenville after October 5th. I'll spare you all of the dramatic details, but it basically sucks that I moved down here specifically for this job and the contract was ended about 3 years premature. Oh well, life goes on...I feel I was brought here for a purpose and it will all work out! Maybe I'll find something new and exciting to do... my company will try its best to find me a different Greenville area site to work at, so I will be patient and remain with my employer. I've never worked at a more challenging, but interesting job in my entire life. It came at a high price though, and it may actually be healthier for me to work a different job... I'll keep ya'll posted.

On the topic of new and exciting, my wife started a second blog, due to popular demand. This time, she's talking about her adventure in veganism.

Please visit it, it's awesome and pretty funny. We all know she got that from me. http://veganpancake.blogspot.com

My BFF and I went to see Star Trek last week. OMG it's so awesome. I knew I'd like it, but I was really impressed by the actors, the visual effects, the script, the whole thing. Definitely recommend it, even for the ridiculous $10 ticket price or whatever they're stealing from me these days. Let's see: fight the crowds, listen to people narrate the movie while chomping on popcorn and opening 1,000,000 candy wrappers, paying $4.50 for a bottle of water just so I can see a movie on a giant digital tv screen? Maybe just this once...or once more for Transformers.

Erin and I met for lunch Friday and she wanted to try a froo-froo little cafe downtown. I said, sure, what the heck. I'm made of money.

Here she is....isn't she cute?


My sandwich and chips were actually very good. Worth $10? Maybe not, but I would go back if she twisted my arm.


I saw a bumper sticker that made me think of my mom. There's an organization selling bumper stickers, shirts, etc to support the fight against breast cancer. The slogan? "Save the ta-tas". Classic. http://www.savethetatas.com/catalog_hers.htm


For an extra special dinner on Friday, Erin and I tried P.F. Chang's China Bistro. Once I saw the horse standing out front, I knew this would be quite blog-worthy. I took this picture during our 60 minute wait.

P.F. Chang's is kinda hoity-toity to me, but I have no culture whatsoever. I just heard it was good and I see the place all the time and have never tried it.

The interior was beautiful and packed, even at 9:00 PM. They had popular music playing in the background and the waitstaff were very friendly.

I ordered some fancy crab rangoons, they were good, but different. Not much cream cheese, but plenty of crab.

I ordered the spicy chicken, because I am boring and wanted something similar to General Tso's chicken. This cost me $13 and was probably half of what I would get from a typical Chinese restaurant. Don't get me wrong, it was very very good, but not nearly enough to take some home to enjoy.

I ordered the Great Wall of Chocolate to split between me and myself. Actually, I only planned to eat half and take the rest home. It was terrific. And it was huge.

This was the only leftover food I was able to take home. Yummy!! Chinese chocolate cake.

The verdict? Well, since you love reading about my food reviews and you respect my opinion, I'll give it to you straight. I will not be returning. The place was crowded. It was pretentious. It was expensive. After tip, the meal cost $57 (without drinks). Yeah, yeah, we had appetizers, and I had a piece of cake, but still. The food was good, the waitress was good (although very busy and not very attentive), but there was nothing there to bring me back, especially when we can walk out of Chin Chin, which is also a nice restaurant, for half of that price with plenty of food leftover. Next time, we'll try Lieu's Bistro, which is a nearby similar Chinese restaurant.

Please check out Erin's vegan blog and see what she's been up to. I'm going to be looking for friend candidates since my BSG buddy is moving to NYC (which should be blog worthy in its own right) so if you know of any guys (sorry ladies) that enjoy watching Battlestar Galactica and grabbing junk food on a Friday night, please let me know. I'm staying busy with the gym, the motorcycle, and yardwork. All of those fire ants that I wiped out last year? Well, they're back and so far, resistant to my eradication techniques. I think I will start trying some other methods involving boiling water and such....should be interesting. Have a great evening (Happy Mother's Day!) Talk to you soon. Go see Star Trek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise, Mom!

Last weekend, my friend Dennis and I drove back to Illinois to visit family and friends. It was a last minute decision on my part to bum a ride from him, since he was already going. Luckily, he agreed as long as I rode in the trunk. No, not really, but I did help with the driving and bought him some lunch. The drive was excellent, we had nice weather, low traffic, and we had a good time playing some Battlestar Galactica DVDs in his laptop. My intention was to surprise my Mom at her doorstep and it worked...kinda. She's just too smart and picked up on some subtle, suspicious behavior and had a small feeling that I would just randomly show up 750 miles away.

So we showed up on a Thursday evening and were leaving Monday morning. I had a lot of things to do and food to eat in a short time! One of the first things I did on Friday was to take my dad's motorcycle out for a ride. I rode about 30 miles or so, just enough to get a feel for the bike. It's a Honda Shadow, but looks and sounds deceive. It's a heavily modified bike, so it looks different and is louder than all-get-out. Friday was a beautiful day for a ride, and other motorcyclists agreed with me, but they were all Harleys. And they didn't wave back.
For lunch on Friday, Mom and I went to Culver's. I haven't had Culver's in a long time. Butterburger! For those that have never had Culver's, the chain is mostly in the Midwest and offer really good food (a big variety, too) and the best fast food service I've ever experienced. They also have frozen custard, which is much better than regular ice cream!


Mom had a salad. Ick, how boring and healthy!

For dinner, we went to Avanti's, our favorite restaurant. They are based in Central Illinois, and I had that food almost on a weekly basis since I was a wee lad. They offer Italian-ish food at really low price, so you can totally pig out and still spend half as much on dinner. Firstly, their bread is the best. And it's unlimited.


I'm not the most exciting guy in the world, so I always get the same thing: Tortellini and Half Gondola (sandwich).

Then, when I'm done with the tortellini, I utilize the leftover sauce to help more bread slide down my throat...

I also stopped by Gloria Jeans to try a new Mocha Chiller, since I have been having lots of Starbucks and Liquid Highway. Verdict: Not even close. It's okay, but resembles neither coffee nor mocha. It was just a big cup of sweet.

Dad and I took the opportunity to play some catch and some two-ball ping pong.

And just so Mom wouldn't feel left out, I made her take a picture with me, too.

OMG OMG OMG a new Jimmy Johns!!! This was in East Peoria. It would have been nice and close to PPG and our house in Marquette Heights. That makes, like 9 for the Peoria area. Greenville? Still just one.

I met my buddy Jon at Buffalo Wild Wings after looking at motorcycles for himself.

We happened to eat during the last few minutes of the Cubs-Cards game. I don't care about sports, but it was cool when the Cubs won in the 11th inning.

Here are my boneless wings covered in Wild sauce. Yum! I can't feel my lips!

On Sunday morning, we went to Northwest UMC. Still haven't found another band quite like SoulFix!

After church, I insisted we go to Godfather's for some pizza. For the first time in a long time, I really enjoyed the lunch buffet there. This restaurant was constantly bringing out fresh NORMAL pizzas. Yum!

I've been trying more iced coffees lately and figured I'd take the plunge and sample the McCafe iced mocha. The first sip was okay, but by the time I was halfway through, I realized it was disgusting. It tasted like burnt coffee....I won't make that mistake again. Sure, you can try and lure Starbuck's customer's away with a low price, but I'd gladly pay another $1 to have a Mocha Frap that tastes yummy.


On our drive home, we saw something interesting up the road....is it....YES it's the Weiner Mobile!!!

Let's catch up to it!! I think it was half Mini-Coooper S and Half Weiner.

Up farther ahead, we saw plenty of rainbows since we were driving in and out of rain.
Back home, I took the opportunity to wash and wax my 3G. You know, the car is 6 years old and I still just love looking at it. Sure, it has some scratches and dings and dents and lots of miles, but I sincerely love my car and will have a hard time finding something different when the time comes. For now, I'm happy to drive around in my little Eclipse.

On 30 rock the other night, did anyone else notice the Battlestar Galactica shirt that Salma Hayek was wearing? "What the frak?" is right! Any BSG fan curses with Frak instead of the other one. Why? Cause we can get away with it.

I have been going to the gym now for 5 days...and I love it! It's a nice, new sports center in Mauldin. They have 99% percent of what I want (no pool and no 1" barbells) and the place is really nice. Not crowded, either. And lots cheaper than the other clubs.

They have several different sections for weightlifting, such as freeweights and machines.

And all of the cardio machines have tv controls with headphones plugs..and some of them have their own tvs!!!

And a climbing wall. I don't think I'll ever use it, but I guess I could try it sometime...

On a different topic completely, have you seen the new taco plates?! I've been wanting one of these for years...someone just now made some. How many times has your taco fallen over on your plate and spilled all over?

Well, that's all I have for now. Erin and I are going to the gym a little later and I will probably grill some burgers for dinner (meat for Josh, veggie for Erin). The weather here has been wonderul for the last week or so....sunny and low 80's. This is what I remember Spring 2008 being like. Not rain and wind like it had been so far this year. The grass is starting to grow, but not fast enough for me to mow every week. I'm not even sure I technically have any grass...it's just vegetation of some kind. At least it's green. Ride safe everyone!