So what were your resolutions?

So we all make them and we all break them. That is the nature of New Years resolutions.

I decided that I really would only have three this year. One being of course the stand by "lose weight and eat better" montra.

My other was to make myself more available to others. I started thinking about that becuase I have a friend that is really in a bad way right now. He had a car accident that left his back really out of sorts. This means he hasn't been able to work his regular construction job. He's also working on an addition to his home and that work has ceased as well. He's close to losing his house. I've tried to get any kind of work steered his way to just so he has some kind of money coming in. I recently went and helped him install some insullation in his new garage. I do need to go back and help him finish it up so that we can move to the new upstair bedroom area and get the insullation installed there. Once the insullation is complete then he can get the next inspection done and sheetrock can go in and then he can get a line a credit that will help him and his family through this tight time.

My last one is pretty easy and pretty hard. It's to spend more time writing here. I've been writing here for about two years now. I have to admit there are days where the words just flow and I feel like I've really accomplished something and then there are the other days..................the ones where I sit here and want to write and nothing is happening. No writing. I started really feeling that way about somewhere around last summer.

I really had every intention of posting more musings from my head onto the web for all to see. Most nites after coming home I really don't want to hang out  on a computer after spending all day on one. The other issue is that I would come up with something to write about or read something that I want to comment on and I would not write it down thinking I could remember it and then of course I would.

So hopefully I will be posting on here a minimum of twice a week. It's a big world and there's a lot to share. I hear really funny shit at the office from agents and directs that call in and the *hen-house on the other side of my cubicle.

*note: the "hen-house" is the term that I have given to the row of cubibles on the other side of my department that is filled with mid twenty something single women that fawn over cutesy women things and man-bash.*

So there it is. My three resolutions. I know we're 3 weeks into the new year, but why rush the topic? After all folks need some time to put their resolutions into place and start doing them and get commited to them.

So, how are you doing on your resolutions?

2010: The year we hemmorage money

Wow!!! So far 2010 is just flying by!! I realise of course that time moves at the same time that it always, but in figurative manner this month is going by pretty quickly.

It's also been a bit expensive so far as well.

First there was recovering from the shock of having the new car in the shop. It's new to me, but lets face it, a 24 year old car is like an 83 year old human. Things start leaking. such was the case with Jake. For those new readers and the ones that didn't pay attention Jake is a 1986 Porsche 944. So far he has cost me $6000 in repairs and I technically haven't paid my father in law for it yet.

My father in law took it surprisingly well when  I suggested/asked that we negotiate the sale price. He actually felt bad since he didn't realise that poor little Jake needed so much work. Well mechanically that is. There is the body and paint. One fender does have a dimple and the paint is fading after 24 years. This was expense number one.

Now the second expense is our home PC. Seems my 14 year old son has discovered the world of internet pornography. As a man I understand that normal males will tend to wander to such sites at some point in their lives. Hey, I have. The problem lies in two things: he did it from our PC and he went to a site that couldn't be trusted. Yes there are trust worthy adult sites out there. The only way to equate it would be a street corner hooker or a high priced escort service.

So somewhere in his virtual womanising my son managed to pick up a trojan worm. Now I'm not so happy with him.I"m not an IT guy by anymeans, but I do know how to read my virus software (which yes was a bit out of date and the reason this happened) and can find the files and start picking the bits of the virus out of my pc. Of course that means there are now gaps in the information for the os and things are considerably slower and not working right. This has rendered my mozilla browser useless.

The upside is that we had budgeted for a new laptop at the end of the month. Our neighbour found a great deal on an HP. We got some free upgrades and reduced price on additional software and peripheral pieces. The first two items are expected to arrive by tomorrow or Saturday and the actual laptop should ship by next Monday or Tuesday.

As for the old desktop...........well it's going to be stripped and hardware replaced and then the os will be reinstalled and we'll give it to the kids to take to their mom's house. This way they will have something that was made in this century and it will now have safety's to keep the young man from surfing where he shouldnt.

2009 year end report

Wow! 2009 came and went so fast that my head is still shaking like a dashboard bobble doll.

The last couple of months I've not been very active with my blog. I've just had a lot on the proverbial plate and haven't really had an urge to write about things until they had gotten further along.

Where to start? My ex violated our parenting plan and moved them out of the school district. A big No No. Matter of fact she moved them so far out that it now is 40 miles one way to pick them up.

Moving is just one of the many violations. I won't go into them, but if you're divorced then I'm sure that you know all the ins and outs.

Skipping ahead. My kids are now sick of the mom and her BS. They tell me and her that they want to live with dad. Initially that goes interesting with their mom. She loses her temper with my son and proceeds to yell at him that "there are still plenty of moving boxes for you to start packing your shit into".

Real nice yeah?

So after much discussion with an attorney it's pretty much been placed on the back burner on a low simmer. The former Mrs. is now raising a stink about it and doing everything she can to continue to push the boundaries of the spirit of the parenting plan.

My attorney has a plan, and the more I think about it I wonder if its a good idea. He states that a court doesn't care what the kids want. They will side with mom for the reason that this is where they currently are and custody doesn't need to change just because mom is having a bit of bad luck.

Bad Luck my arse!! She is flat out making stupid mistakes and my kids are paying for it. I've gone to far with this one.

Back to the topic at hand. The end of the year review.

Well it's been a roller coaster year. Reconciling with the folks (mom is narcissist and we cut them off for a almost 2 years) refinanced our condo for a lower interest rate and got out from our PMI. Joined up with a great group of folks, the Seattle Steamrats, a local steampunk group. Sold my previous ride (see the Bronze Bitch files) and purchased a new one (see the end of the road).

The holidays almost went over without a hitch.

On Christmas morning the parents and grandparents came to our place for the morning. The festivities started on the front landing of our condo when my grandfather fell. So we finally got him off the ground and in the house and kept an eye on him for about 2 hours and finally had to call paramedics. He hasn't come home from the hospital and won't be. Grandma can't take care of him and the fall triggered some other things. He will be headed to a live in home once he's able to leave the hospital.

Lastly, there are the car repairs. Jake (the new to me Porsche 944) needed a few things when I bought him that I was aware of. A clutch and engine mounts. Well then 3 weeks later came the unexpected: Jake hemorrhaged fluids all over my parking space at the condo. Damn. So after 2 weeks in the shop it will be ready tonite. The first issue was the valve cover gasket and all the pulley and crank seals that were leaking. They found the waterpump leaking.

Once it was back together and the system was re-pressurized it burst a hose and the radiator. Fortunately the shop is only charging for the parts and not the labour since they had it way longer than they or I intended. So the Jake has now cost $6k in repairs alone. Last nite I asked my father in law if he would discuss the purchase price. I don't think he realised that it was going to take so much work. We'll see where that goes.

So now you're wondering, Jake? Where did that name come from? Well I'm glad you asked. Ever see the movie Sixteen Candles? A John Hughes film. One the secondary characters is named Jake Ryan. He drives a red Porsche 944. I name all my cars and this just seemed logical.

Let's see where was I? Been a few days since I could write on here. The pc has had some issues. My wife's work broke our internet connection on the pc. Her office is moving next week and there is no room for the Paisley at the new place so she has to work from home for two days next week. Well when she tried to login to the VPN is crashed our connection. Thankfully there is the restore option.

We have talked to so many peeps that work in tech support that are totally stumped that all their suggestions are not working. Well good on my lovely Paisley for suggesting that we just do the system restore. So finally tonite after going through many of the pc voodoo rituals and did the restore and BAM!! we have a connection again.

The weird twist is that this whole time according to a Communist-Cast our modem was working every time they pinged it, but every time we tried to get on we were getting an error message stating the server could not be found.

Well I'm rambling again. On to the new year. I have two resolutions. Make myself more available to help friends and family out and revamp my blog.

Page layout is the mission and more post's. There will be a Cruisin' With Jake segment to show off weekend outings and to report on how he's holding up now that we've sunk $6k into the lil bastard to get him healthy.

So Happy New Year and look for most postings and a spiffier looking page.

Good Karma October

So I was thinking the other day that October really has been a great month.

Sure the weather has turned and I'm getting ready to be fairly non-existant for the winter. I can't stand cold weather to be honest. Sure I can do something about it, but that is another post for another time.

Back to the topic at hand. The weather has turned and we've just rolled our good time pieces back an hour over the weekend, and of course trouble with the former Mrs. mother of my kids, but why let little things like that stop me from seeing the good side.

I finally sold my massage table. It was time to part ways. I haven't been doing much massage work in the last few years so I figure that it should finally go to someone that was going to put it to use. The good is that it's no longer taking up space in my place and I've gained a little extra money.

The big one: The Bronze Bitch went away. This was a hard decision as well, but when it came down to it I had no problem seeing it leave. It's in good hands. The buyer will get at least 50,000 miles out of it. Lets face it, most BMW engines are good for about 300k before they need to be replaced and this one is certainly no exception. The good side of this is that I got almost my asking price (short by $300 from what I asked) and now I have the cash for the Porsche that my father in law has offered to me (which has under 200k on it and is older than the BMW I just sold).

One of the last photos of the "Bronze Bitch" I'll ever take

Many little things have come about to make it an especially good month. First off my wonderful wife took me to see Kevin Smith speak at the Benaroya Hall. We got an extra helping of Lunchbox and gift of gab when he blew off his handler and went 45 minutes over his alloted time. He is amazing to listen to. I've read two of his books and watched the first two DVD's with his tour talks. I never get bored of him.

The "small" guy on stage is Kevin Smith......Lunchbox himself.

The nite of my actual birthday was great as well. Not expecting my children to be in attendance I had planned a dinner out to a family style Italian restaurant. Just happens that while I was out walking the dog their mom dropped them off at our home. A very nice surprise and they were able to enjoy Bucca di Beppo with us and our neighbour.

The following evening the Paisley came to pick me up at work (we're good carpoolers!) and one of her Facebook friends had a pair of all access club level tickets to the Seattle Sounders MLS playoff match!!! So after 40 minutes of working our way through 4 miles of downtown traffic and then 3 more miles back to the Paisley's office (where we parked for free) we were on our way to Seattle's first futbol playoff as an MLS club!!!

October was finished off with a Halloween party at our other neighbour's (in the house behind our condo) late nite party. There was a keg and beer-pong and loads of hours de vours. Great neighbours and this is the first we've been able to really socialise with them and get to know them since they moved in over the summer.

As I finish this up November is looking pretty promising. Unfortunately you wont find out about this month until December when I do a follow up.

Cheers all from the KTA.