SNL - Dick in a Box

OK, since I'm embedding Hulu videos, I need to put this one on my blog. It's a clip from Saturday Night Live and IMHO it's the funniest thing they've had on that show in a LONG time. Just a word of caution, it may not be safe for work...

"Obama" selling Kias in the DFW area

A local DFW Kia dealership is running an ad for new Kias using an Obama look-a-like. Having lived in the DFW area long enough, I know this particular car dealership likes to run ads like these. I remember a campaign of ads on the radio they had featuring Bill Clinton some years back. Well, John Stewart and The Daily Show picked up on the ads and here's his take on them.

BTW, this is my first attempt to embed a Hulu video. Crossing my fingers...

Cleaning and adjusting the motorcycle chain

Yes, it's been awhile since my last posting. Things have been REALLY hectic with the purchase of the new house. So I thought I would post this picture that Cristina took of me Friday, May 23rd.

It was a hot and humid Texas night around 11:30pm and I was working in the garage. I put about 1,000 miles on the bike so far. The chain needed tightening a bit, cleaned, and lubed. The dealership Cristina bought it from lubed the chain with oil (or gear oil) which over those 1k miles attracted a world of dirt and grime. Oiling the chain with gear oil is the perfectly acceptable method and is outlined in the manual. But I read up on better ways to clean and lube modern chains and learned that wiping down the chain with WD-40 would removed the grime. Then coating the chain with Dupont's Teflon Chain Wax will lube the chain but not cause it to attract the dirt. I've gotta say it worked fine and the chain looks great now! Needless to say I won't be using gear oil on the chain ever.

Very Old Maryland Pics

Check out this set of old photographs from the byways of Maryland during the early 1900's I found on Flickr. Pretty interesting.

Here's a picture of Frederick...


Yo Matt, you might be interested in some of them on the 2nd and 3rd page since there's a few Allegany County pics in there. Some Sidling Hill pics too way before they cut thru the mountain.

Here we go...

First, let me say sorry to the friends I haven't gotten back to via email in at least a week or so. Prepping the house for sale has been ALOT of work. I type this not from home but the "other place" I hang out at for 40 hours per week. If I were home I would probably be working even harder.

Since last Thursday (which I took off from work), I've...
- replaced the rear storm door
- repaired 4 lose tiles, grouted, and cleaned the master shower
- re-caulked the master shower and the bathtubs in both bathrooms
- power washed the driveway, rear patio, and all the solar screens and windows
- cleaned the oven
- mowed the lawn
- washed all the clothes (didn't get time to hang them yet)
- removed rotten wood sections from around 3 rear windows and replaced it. Then caulked the new pieces.
- and last night I finished at Midnight painting the rear of the house and the back door.

I still have to paint the front door and trim. I also need to power wash the solar screens and the back windows again. I went too fast and they have streaks.

By the time most of you read this the house will be on the market. Starting now is the process of finding a new place. I have to call around tomorrow to begin the pre-approval steps of getting our next mortgage.

I rode the motorcycle to work today since the temps were up there. Tomorrow is suppose to be even hotter but I'm thinking today will be my last ride-to-work day for quite awhile. The reason being is that the motorcycle can sit in the garage while potential buyers view the house but we need to clear the driveway of cars. So Cristina can leave with Abby in the Pilot, I'll take the Prelude to work, and we'll park the Jeep on the street. It may kinda suck since DaLude doesn't have running A/C. The Jeep has its own problems with A/C for that matter in that water leaks into the passenger side floor when you run it.

Oh well, I'll stop wining now and just hope the house sells for something near asking price.

The First Thousand

I rode the motorcycle to work earlier today. Ran out of gas along the way and switched over to the "reserve tank". I stopped at a 7-11 along Highway 121 on the way home. It cost me approximately $13 to fill up. I reset the trip-odometer which was showing 170.7 miles and noticed the regular odometer was showing 2058 miles. Being that I was about 10 miles from home still and I got the bike with 1068 miles on the clock, that means I've rode a full 1,000 miles on it so far. Hard for me to believe that between when the bike was new in 2002 and when I got it in February 2008 it racked up almost the same amount of miles as what I've ridden in 3 months!

So far it's been great. In the past 3 months I've gotten back into the groove and riding has become more second nature. When I first got it riding wasn't a totally comfortable experience since I was spending alot of thought processes on things like...

"need to up shift... gotta work on matching those engine RPM's", "here comes a corner... watch your speed!", "gotta balance the front and rear braking... don't lock-up the rear wheel!", "turn signal on", "how do I turn this signal off again?", "what gear am I in again?".

Now that the technical part of riding has come back to me I can focus on the experience itself. But that'll have to wait for few days. Bad weather is returning to the DFW area and the bike will sit in the garage until better days. It's all for the best anyhow since I need to tighten, clean, and lube the chain. My first motorcycle maintenance session. Ah fun.

Cristina's skills

Beautiful day out today. While in the backyard Cristina took a few photos of me and used her Photoshop skills to piece them together. Pretty dang good job, IMHO...