Month: July 2006

  • It’s Tai Shans birthday! The little stick of butter is the big fat ONE today.  He actually is pretty cute as with most pandas.  Chewy and I had the opportunity to see him and his mother (Mei Xiang) play around for a few hours yesterday.  At one moment a zookeeper took out two frozen fruit snacks (from what I overheard it contained apple juice, apples and pears) one for Tai Shan and the other for his mom.  I guess Tai Shan hasn’t learned how to eat it that fast yet as his mom finished hers in about 15 minutes. Then she proceeded to snatch Tai Shans snack out from underneath him.  She kept him at bay with her legs and free arm as he tried in vein to get it back.  No luck for him.  He was left scrounging for the scraps after his mom had finished it.

    Hopefully, Mei Xiang lets Tai Shan finish his birthday fruitsicle today.



    Tai Shan wandering around
    Tai Shan trying to get his snack back


    Tai Shan being denied by his mom
    Not that I’m a Xanga expert but I do know how to code html and Xanga definately does not handle certain tags (like tables) well.  Then again it is free.

  • In two days I replaced one bathroom door.  Just one bathroom door.  Breaking down the time spent:

    Old door removal: 30 minutes
    Chiseling out two hinge slots on the new door: 1 hour
    Two coats of paint on the new door: 2 hours (does not
    include drying time)
    Realizing grooves for hinges aren’t deep enough and making
    them the right depth: 1 hour 30 minutes
    Hanging new door: 1 hour BUT
    Realizing the door is 1-2mm too wide to properly shut: 1
    minute
    Sanding the door down 1-2 mm so door will proper shut: 3
    hours
    Repainting the door where it was just sanded: 1 hour (not
    including drying time)
    Attaching doorknob: 5 minutes BUT
    Because of sanding latch groove is too shallow – need to
    chisel it out more: 1 hour
    Attaching doorknob again: 5 minutes

    Door is now attached and closes … without the framing strike
    (the metal plate on the door jab).  The
    previous owner had moved the strike a few times and stripped the screw.  I have to go get a screw removal kit to try
    and get it out so I can reposition the strike. 
    The other thing I can try to do is to remove that piece of the jab and
    replace it.  Which sounds easy but
    probably would take me longer than expected.

    Only 6 more doors to replace!!!  (No comments about the crooked picture either )

  • Mesa luvs PureDJ.comWebradio – Tuned for Life.  It’s about the only type of music that keeps the body going when its exhausted.  That and lots of caffeinated drinks.

    Update: Besides PureDJ.com a few other Internet Radio sites that are pretty good:
    Puls’ Radio: Non-Stop Dance Music – which usually plays extremely good stuff and not pure trance music as PureDJ
    Music One – Decent stuff; usually dance versions of normal radio songs
    Positive & Encouraging K-LOVE – Christian Music

  • See?  Pepsi is good for something (other than their Mountain Dew products)

  • Post-July 4th Humor

    Hope everyone had a great 4th!

  • Today is Independence Day! 
    The day we celebrate our freedoms in the United States of America.  Freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
    freedom of having choices we desire to make. 
    Though what are those freedoms? 
    Are they really just the chains of this world that bring us further away
    from God?  Or do we celebrate the
    freedom of being released from this world by being in Gods presence. 

    You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use
    your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in
    love.  (Galatians 5:13)

    This was part of the message we heard from Pastor
    Michaels of Church In The City in Denver. 
    This was Chewy’s old church while she lived in Colorado.  Though I’ve only visited the church a
    handful of times I found that this was a really great church.  The church is truly a great representative
    of Gods kingdom on earth.  The congregation
    is made up of all walks of life, young and old, upper class and those who are
    not, people from all over the world were there just to hear Gods word and
    worship Him.  The pastor is a reformed
    drug addict who is a converted Jew.  And
    yes, though I’ve been to the church a handful of times I have heard the same
    sermon before so he reuses sermons.  But
    he does speak the truth of God and doesn’t skirt the controversial topics like
    most churches do.      If you’re
    ever in Denver check this church out.

    Whether you like Bush or not he was dead on when he said this in a speech in 2004:

    Freedom is God’s gift to everyone in this world

    Have you ever thought of what you do with God’s gift of freedom?

  • It’s good to be home. 
    We’re back from a short trip to Denver for one of Chewy’s co-workers
    wedding.  The wedding was outdoors and
    officiated by one of the brides’ old college roommates who happen to be a
    judge.  Different.  When we got to Denver we had dinner with an
    old friend of Chewy’s and ate at this French place in the city.  Unfortunately, I think I got food poisoning
    from them which was sorta ironic since I made fun of the French words for fish
    and poison and then ordered a seafood dish. 
    Thankfully, I got over it pretty fast and had a really good meal at the
    Texas Roadhouse.  Probably the best ribs
    I have ever had.  The steak I ordered
    was pretty good as well but definitely the pork ribs were excellent.  I did check and they have restaurants in
    Maryland and Virginia but mostly in places not near where we live.