Saturday, November 28, 2009

What Are You Thankful For?

My nephew, Ethan, had a homework assignment over Thanksgiving Break. He had to read a paper he wrote about what he was thankful for to everyone before the Thanksgiving meal. Here it is.
Ethan also had the assignment of writing down everyone's reaction to his paper. My reaction was tackling him the ground because I wasn't in the paper.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Are They Related?

I was again watching AMC in the shower the other day, and they were showing Mad Max. And that is when it occured to me. Are Lord Humungus from Mad Maxand Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th the same person? I will let you decide.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Toilet Trophy

I am well aware of the fact that most people, even those that play, could really give a flying flip about fantasy football. Rumor has it that that is what brought The General's blog to a crashing halt. One day he posted the results of his fantasy football draft, and that ended up being the last posting he would do. If you don't believe me, here check it out. I am not going to go into any detail about my team, even though I am currently sitting in 3rd place and I am poised to make a run at 1st place. I am here to talk about the end of season hardware. I have had my league for 8 years. I waited a couple years until I finally finished in 1st place before I decided to purchase traveling trophies for the Regular Season and Playoff Champions. In fact, I am currently holding on to the regular season trophy, displayed here.For a while now I have been meaning to make a last place toilet trophy. Just this past fall I found a toy toilet and I thought that would be just great to put on top of the trophy. But as is often the case, I took things a little too far. (See my garage, shower) My mind started coming up with a couple different ideas. And here is what I came up with. Note the plungers. Yes, it is a little too much, especially since now the last place trophy is well over twice the size of the first place trophy. I am currently in search of a new toilet which is a bit more proportional to the rest of the trophy to put on top. Currently, my uncle, Dav,e and my brother-in-law, Tim, are battling for the right to bring this bad boy home for a year.
There is just one thing that is too bad about me making this last place trophy, because I know what I am doing when it comes to fantasy football, this will most likely be the last time I see it.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Head Boner

As promised, here are deer cutting pictures. I have been helping my parents since I was in the 3rd grade. I only remember that because I cut my finger so bad that year, and I still have the scare. As shocking as this may sound, I have 27 years of experience. Back in high school I proclaimed myself the "head boner", and no one has challenged me to take that title away. I was kind of hoping to get some pictures of the deer before they were skinned, but my brother had them all done by the time I got there last night. So here is where they hang after they are skinned.Here is the cutting table. That is Chucker and my nephew, Pickle. Normally you would see my brother, Jon, on the left side of the table, but he knew I was taking a picture and walked away. Not quite the same as a picture of him annoyed but close. Tensions between the Davies boys at times can run fairly hot during deer season, and I didn't see the point in pushing any buttons. Maybe today. And at this near end of the table, that is the domain of the "Head Boner".Here is the man who is responsible for the whole thing. I have heard my mom tell the story hundreds of times, but I still probably don't have it right. Next time you see her ask her about her version of the story. So we are going back 40 some odd years ago when my parents first got married. (I know, what a great son, I have no idea how long my parents have been married. But I know it is at least 40 years because I was at the 40th anniversary party) My dad would go hunting with my uncles and some buddies, and then because my dad was a butcher he would end up cutting all of the deer. They used to do it on a card table, I would say I can't imagine that, but I did help Jota at his parents house and I know how much it sucks trying to cut a deer without the proper equipment or surroundings. The thing that triggered this whole thing in to a full deer processing operation, was that each guy in the hunting party chipped in $50, which at that time was quite a bit of money, for a saw and a grinder. But then my dad had to do their deer for free. Then my dad saw that with a little advertising, he could make some pretty good cash. We used to have a sign in the front yard, I can only imagine how many would stack up if we put that sign back up. And in the early years, my dad would even go to the local bars and put up flyers. Of course, he would also put down quite a few beers as well. So after an 8 hour day cutting deer at the super market my dad would come home to a house full of kids yelling and screaming, then walk out to the garage and start cutting deer. He would cut 10 deer and then skin 10 more deer to have ready to cut for the next day. I am sure he wasn't as efficient as we are now, so I am guessing that would take him at least 5 or 6 hours at the minimum. There is no way I could do what he used to do. 14 hours of cutting meat a day for 2 weeks straight. However, if you ask him about it he would just say, "I had to provide for my family, so I had no choice. I had to." Over the last couple of years we have scaled back the operation quite a bit. Instead of cutting 250 deer over the gun season we are back to just around 50. Last night my mom said that the record of deer that she checked in for a day was 126. 126!!! Let's do a little math. 126 deer came in on that day, I will make some assumptions and say that we worked 12 hours that day. So that is 10 deer an hour, or every 6 minutes someone was dragging a deer across the driveway to drop off. I believe that that is also the day we set the record for most deer processed in a day, 50. I think it was me, my dad, Jon and my cousin, Justin, cutting that day. At the time my dad was in his late 60's, and he cut 50 deer. When I am in my late 60's, if I make that long (I am taking the under), you won't get me anywhere near a deer cutting table. Let alone, at one to cut 50 deer.
And of course a trip to the Davies house during deer season isn't complete without a trip to the dumpster. A couple of years ago, I was there when they came to pick up the dumpster, and it was a warm day, sunny and around 50 degrees. I will be honest, it was a little ripe. This was before we put a liner in the dumpster. As they raise the dumpster onto to the truck, all the juices came running out the back and it drained all the way down the drive way and out on to the road. How would you like to drive behind a truck with dead deer carcass juices running out of it.

Kakeface

I don't think that Kaker is a reader of the blog. At least he has never mentioned it or left a comment. But I do know that many of my loyal blog readers know Matt Kaker, and if they didn't hear the news, here it is. Kaker is once again a father, for the third time. Three kids, that seems like a lot. And to think that my parents raised five of us. This conversation just came up the other day. My mom is one of 10 kids. So my grandmother was pregnant for pretty much for 7.5 years straight. That is mind blowing. Think about that hell ladies. Anyhow, I am off the topic. Here is the email that got sent to me:

"Quincy Thomas Martin Kaker arrived November 16th, 2009 at 10:35pm. He weighed 8pounds, 14ozs and is 21 inches long."

Wait a second...you are telling me that he has two middle names. Is that possible? I want to add a couple middle names. How about Richard Evan Logan Stone Davies Jr.?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Weezer

I have been getting the beat down on concerts lately. Last week I tried scalping for Bruce Springsteen and I couldn't find any tickets other than upper deck tickets. So I didn't go to the show. Then this past week I contemplated going to see Wide Spread Panic, but I was too comfortable to get off the couch. But I have found the cure for my concert blues and that is a strong dose of Weezer. They are playing at the Rave Thursday, December 3rd. I have already purchased a ticket, and if you are interested here is the link to the box office. It is a General Admission show. I will be taking a cab from my house to the show and back. Let me know if you are interested.

Goodfellas

Saturday morning I was taking a shower and watching TV. I was flipping through the channels and on AMC "Goodfellas" was on. Easily in my top 5 movies of all time. "Pulp Fiction" is also right up there at the top of the list. Anyhow, my hot water heater isn't big enough for me to watch the whole movie, but the portion that I did see was when Tommy and Jimmy jump Billy Batts in Henry's bar. Arguably the best scene in the movie, where you have a close up of Jimmy (Robert DeNiro) as he is kicking Billy Batts, and his arm is swinging in front of him. I will have to see if I can find that scene on Youtube. Here is a picture for that seen. Look at that face. So great. As they are wrapping Billy Batts in table clothes, Jimmy says to Tommy and Henry, "Look what that mutt did to my shoes." He is mad because the guy that he just killed, or shortly would kill, scuffed his shoes. Like it was Billy Batts' fault.
Here is the scene on Youtube. Note, this is the uneditted version so there are at least 15 F bombs. "Drinks are on the house." watch him deliever that line.

Last night I was at my parent's house helping them butcher some deer. The "Head Boner" , that is me, is back in peak form. I was stripped down to a T-shirt and I was breaking a sweat trying to keep up with everyone. Anyhow, my father who is now a blog reader, asked if the deer cutting would be on the blog. I do requests here on the blog from time to time. So look for those pictures tomorrow. I am predicting that my mom and my brother, Jon, will be less than receptive to having their pictures taken or posted on the blog. So their pictures will show their ture irritation with me. Mark my words and wait for the pictures.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Laser Spectacular

The Michael Jackson Laser Spectacular. I just got this in an email the other day, and I am intending upon attending. Say that five times fast.
Intending upon attending.
Intending upon attending.
Intending upon attending.
Intending upon attending.
Intending upon attending.

This is the same company that put on the Pink Floyd Laser Spectular last year. It is all general admission seating. And I still have my glasses from last year. Friday Feb, 19th. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Gyro Tally

I have had a number of gyro contests. Up until press time, only one person has cashed in on their gyro.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the following is the list of people I owe a gyro to:
Sherman,
Annie,
Sarah,
Borky,
Tony.

Let me know when you want to collect.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

My Project

My road project is pretty much completed. There a couple of small issues to deal with, but I will consider it done. This is project was funded by stimulous package money. It is a 15.44 mile stretch on USH 45 between Kewaskum and Eden. I am sure most of you could give a flying rip about the roads. But some of you probably still wonder what I do while at work. For the most part, people only really notice the roads when they are in poor condition and don't ride very well. Anyhow, here are some pictures of the final product.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Halloween Costume

I am going to go ahead and crown Borky the winner of the Halloween costume. It pains me to do so. What was so great about that costume? He dyed his hair and bought a bowling shirt. But that is what people voted for. It was a bit disappointing to see that I only got one vote. But thank you to the one person who did vote for me. And no I didn't vote for myself. I didn't vote at all.
Here are the results,

Borky - 10 votes
M.K.A. - 7 votes
Tom Brady - 2 votes
Doug - 1 vote
Me - 1 vote

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Saturday Activities

I thought I would try an experiment this weekend and you can be the judge if it worked or not. I took a picture of what I was doing, or what I was looking at, every hour on the hour. But unfortunately for you, I didn't do much of anything.
10:00 a.m. I paid some bills.11:00 a.m. I cleaned everything out of my office so I could begin on ripping out all of the trim base boards. I am getting new windows. So this seemed like the right time to paint and replace the trim throughout the house. I hate painted trim, to that is why I am replacing all of it. 12:00 p.m. I was back at my computer. I used to have a spreadsheet for all of my house bills. This really helped out when I had roommates to figure out who owed what since we split all of the bills. But I actually took this spreadsheet a bit further. I have all of the sheets tied together and each sheet has it's own line graph to show how the house budget changes over the course of the year and then will compare the changes year to year. I know, it is like a lot of things I do, way over the top and uncalled for.1:00 p.m. I DVRed the Badger Game. So here I am watching the game.2:00 p.m. Still watching football. 3:00 p.m. A lot of movement going on. Note the beautiful curtains I know have up to cut down the glare on the TV. It will probably take me a while to get new curtains up even after I get my windows in. I have been told it is 6 weeks for delivery of the windows. So this set up is going to stay for a while.4:00 p.m. I finally got motivated and started on the baseboard trim in the closet.5:00 p.m. I didn't get much further. The problem is that the previous owners put wood tiled flooring over the existing wood floor. I know that doesn't make any sense, but they did. The baseboards when down to the existing wood floor and there wasn't a lot of room to get the crowbar under the baseboard.6:00 p.m. I am nearly done with the baseboards.7:00 p.m. I am finally finished.8:00 p.m. Dinner, or breakfast. Apple juice and waffles.9:00 p.m. I fell asleep on the couch and missed 9:00, and I was in bed by 9:30 on a Saturday night.

I know that isn't too exciting. I may try it again this weekend. Although Sunday I am planning to be at my parent's helping cut deer. So you will get about 10 pictures of dead deer. Maybe that is a step up.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Remodeling

Despite some bumps in the road, I am well on my way to some more remodeling at my house. More specifically, I will be doing work to the Lincoln Bedroom, the office and the living room. I believe the window situation is resolved. But to be prepared for the windows, I need to get some things done. I have ripped all of the trim off of the windows. The next steps are removing all of the base molding, painting the ceilings, installing ceiling fans, painting the walls. While removing the trim around one of the upstairs windows, I found that the actual window frame was behind the door frame to the closet. Yes the closet that I locked myself out of. As you can see from the picture, I ripped the entire door frame out. And apparently the old window frames were green.
As I was taking care of things in the living room, I finally got rid of the curtains. They were absolutely hideous. They are the original curtains that came with the house when I bought it. And they have never been washed. I don't know, are you suppose to wash the curtains every once in a while? I don't recall who it was, but shortly after moving into my house way back in 1997, someone told me that I had to get rid of those curtains. And I told them, don't worry I am on it. 12 years later I finally threw them out.I have decided to try something a little different this weekend. I am going to try and get more pictures this weekend. The plan is to set the alarm on my watch to go off every hour on the hour and take a picture of what I am doing or what I am looking at. This could be interesting.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Veterans Day

I was looking around on the web for pictures for Veterans Day. As I did so, I stumbled upon photos of the National D-Day Memorial. To be honest I didn't even know we had a D-Day Memorial. I am a little embarrassed that I didn't know that. It is located in Bedford, Virginia. A while back I was in Washington D.C. and I checked out a lot of the memorials there, and I thought the best memorial was the one for the Korean War. I was also amazed at how big the Marine Corps War Memorial / Iwo Jima Memorial was. But in looking at the photos of the D-Day Memorial, this is one that I would really like to check out.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Closing a Chapter

This past weekend I did some cleaning around the house. I threw a bunch of stuff out and it was very liberating. It felt good to get rid of stuff that I don't use or don't need. In my cleaning I came across a framed poster of Brett Favre. Going back at least 10 years when Nate and Andy lived with me, when Andy moved in, he grabbed a hammer, pounded a nail into the wall and put Brett up on the wall in the kitchen. I brought Brett along with me with every move I made to Minnesota and to Appleton. He used to have a proud spot at my home in the kitchen right next to the stove. Now that spot is occupied by pictures of my nieces and nephews. But this weekend I gave him a new spot of honor. Borky if you hurry you might be able to pick Brett out of the garbage before the pick up day.
And the count up until I get my windows is at 116 days.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

What Would You Do?

I realize that this post is going to be like playing with fire, but at this point I really don't care any more. Plus I have been burned in the past, it only hurts for a while.

One of the best things about my blog is that if it is a hot topic, word spreads fast. I honestly have no idea how many readers I have. I get about 30 visits a day. I know people don't check in everyday, but I will go out on a limb and say that I have around 75 loyal readers who check in at least once a week. It is astounding to me how fast I get paid up by people when I call them "deadbeats". This posting isn't about a deadbeat, it is about me getting what I want. I know for a fact that the mother of the person that this posting is about reads my blog nearly everyday, meaning the message will get across to this person. Actually the person who this posting is about, also reads my blog at least 3 or 4 times a week.

Allow me to give you some background. My house is pretty old. Built in 1954, if you do the math that is 55 years. I have been in the house for 12 years now. That fact is shocking to me as well. If you have been to my house, or just seen my garage, you know that I take pretty good care of my house. I have remodeled the basement, the kitchen, the bathroom. The next step is to take care of the living room and the bedrooms. But before I get to those, I need to replace the windows. This past winter I actually had frost on the inside of my windows. I doubt they are the original windows, but I also know that they aren't brand new. This summer I refinanced my house so that I could pay off my truck. I increased the amount of my mortgage by $5,000 to take into account the cost of new windows. I figured the large picture window in my living room will be close to $2,000.

Now where could I get the windows from? Back when I remodeled the kitchen, I got the windows through my sister in law, Julie, who works for Weather-Tek Windows. I was very happy with them. So this time around I thought I would use Julie again.

She sent me a email on July 16th, and the date on the quote is June 24th, 2009. And I still do not have the windows. It has been 114 days, nearly 4 months. Is she making these windows herself? She told me I needed a contractor to put them in. I got my brother's old boss, Wayne. He owes me a favor. The last time this topic came up she said I had to pick out a stain. I said "I don't care, just get me the windows."

I was over at their house two weeks ago. As many in our area are aware, the cable company switched up the channels. For some reason, their cable isn't coming in like it should. While I was over there, Julie called the cable company. She gave them a pretty good ear full. She even mentioned something about her working in sales, and I nearly burst out laughing.

So what do I do? I have been rather patient with Julie. At first whenever I saw her, the first words out of my mouth were "Where are my windows?" But she has been busy. However, now we are bordering on ridiculous. No?

I have been to her office and above her desk are three framed letters from customers that she has worked with that gave her outstanding letters of recommendation. I was actually going to do the same thing to see if I would make the wall. If I do, I won't write the letter for 114 days.

Do I look for another supplier? Do I call her everyday and hound her to get me my windows? I am not even looking for a deal. I just want the stupid things installed before winter hits, which as any Wisconsinite knows could be tomorrow. How about I go over her head to her boss? Do you think I would get my windows any faster then? I could stop in the office and speak directly to her boss. Maybe picket outside her office. Let the air out of her tires. Toilet paper the house. Move all of the furniture in their house outside. You have seen my garage, I have the spare time and energy. Annie, I know you are reading this, can you ground her for me?

Let's see how powerful my blog really is. Instead of a countdown, I think I am going to put a count up on my blog. I might even make it a Gyro contest, the person who guesses the correct number of days from the time I got my quote, July 16th, until the day the windows are delivered to my house.

Cell Phones

I think everyone likes it when I do something stupid. It makes people feel better about themselves. Last night, I didn't do much of anything. I watched some college football and played some "Grand Theft Auto", I know, real mature. Anyhow, in my 6 hours of being on the couch, I made the move on my couch from position "A" to position "B". I had just made some popcorn and grabbed a glass of apple juice. Nothing but the hard stuff. I don't have a coffee table, because I don't drink coffee, so I had the glass of apple juice on the floor. As I was sliding three of my remotes, my GTA strategy guide and my cell phone (in the event that anyone would call me with an emergency), my cell phone slid off the couch and fell right into a 32 ounce glass of apple juice. That is right 32 ounces of apple juice, "Big Gulps". Currently the phone is out of commission. I will give it another day to dry out and then tomorrow I will have to get a new phone if it doesn't come back to life.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Too Much Time On My Hands

This is the very definition of having too much time on my hands. But as the saying goes, "idle hands are the devils workshop". It is a bit long, but hopefully if give you the idea of the garage.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

This Bothers Me

It wasn't much of an exciting Wednesday. Here are a couple things that crossed my mind.

I stopped at the grocery store to grab something to eat. Maybe is it time to take another depressing picture of my fridge. It was a little after 5:00 p.m. when I got to the store, so the check out lines were 3 to 4 people deep. I like the self checkout lanes, especially when I do "big" grocery shopping so I can have my MP3 player on while I shop and I don't have to talk to anyone. The only bad thing about the self checkout lane is I always have a problem with produce, I always get illegal item in the bagging area error. But back to last night, I am standing in line and behind a woman who is only using one hand to scan everything. She finishes scanning everything and her total was $12.35. She then proceeded to insert 13 singles. Are you kidding me? Just put a $20 in, what is the big deal about having to get rid of all your small bills. I don't know why, but I get very frustrated standing in line at the check out lane at the grocery store. Here is another scene that maybe you have experienced. I have been in line at the real checkout line with the cashier, and something rings up wrong. They are just about to start scanning my food, when the person who was in line before me is reviewing her receipt and noticed that they didn't take off $0.10 for the pizza rolls they just purchased. Then it is a 2 minute ordeal to get that $0.10 to the customer. Most times I feel like throwing $1 at the person and saying "It is $0.10!!! My time is worth more than that. There are you happy, now get out of the way." Anyone else ever experience this?

I watched some of the World Series. Here is something that has been bothering me for a while with baseball. Do teams actually have lip readers on their payroll? Is it really necessary to cover your mouth when a manager or catcher goes out to the mound? Is there anything that they are talking about, that even if the hitter knew what they were talking about, that it would be beneficial to the hitter? I don't think so. I watch baseball, many times when the catch goes out to the mound it is to talk about changing the signal. The only person who could even benefit knowing that would be if, "IF", someone is on second. And what is the manager going to say when he is out there. "How are you feeling? Can you get this guy out? I will let you get this guy and then I am going to pull you for the next batter." Aren't most manager's conversations with the pitcher about how they are feeling? How is that a matter of interest to the hitter? I guess I could see if the pitcher say "I don't know skip, my curve ball just isn't breaking like it should." But still is the hitter going to able to read that off of the pitchers lips from 60'-6" away? I highly doubt it. Stop covering your mouths!!

I think that is all that bothered me yesterday. I am hoping to get up my "garage video" up tomorrow.