wow, it's fucking August an I haven't posted jack shit. Much has gone on, but alas it has fallen into the world of chat and Facebook.

It's now 8pm on a Friday night, I'm a bit pissed, I'm home alone, listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

Can I have one 12 hour stretch without being a responsible parent? Can I just get ripped and not worry about getting barked at, worry about my kid waking up in the middle of the night wanting more chai latte (yes, this really happens, and it's totally my fault).

I still don't have a fucking job, I hate HR more every day.

I've dipped back into the realm of wanting to go fishing again. Figure nobody dies, except the bait (if it's live) and the fish.

see, there, I posted something.

If you miss me, call me 503-913-3693

Yes, I'm still alive, now that the dust has settled from work and now that I've got a laptop that I can actually USE remotely, I will probably start blogging again.

Long and short of it, I'm depressed, but very busy. MK's business is getting poised to really take off, so I have to help project manage and coordinate all that.

Kids are doing great, having fun, being obnoxious at times. Otto is getting older, and I think either his eyes and ears are not as acute as they used to be, or he just flat out doesn't give a shit most of the time.

OK, gotta go toss some food to the koi and then cut Cheryl (babysitter) loose for the weekend.

So, tell your friends, wake the neighbors, I'm going to start blogging again.

Yea, it's been a long time since I've posted, but that's life.

Quick update, holidays happened, work sucked, work sucked more, bunch of crap happened, and now I'm looking for a new job.

So, it's spring and my latest fad has taken hold. Fishing. Nick likes the idea of going fishing and now I'm trying to learn how to fish. I've gone fishing in the past, but I've never really been taught HOW to fish. The basics are universal, have a pole, line, weight and hook and you stick something on the hook that fish want to eat.

Other than going to the fishing pond where you pay and you pretty much are assured that you'll catch a few fish, I've never really been fishing. OK, I went to Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia, but that was 20 years ago, and I got really sea sick. Normally my fishing takes place in Aisle 3, or at the market trading 3 flats of berries for a 20lb salmon.

I am trying to learn how to go fishing and not look like a total retard. So far, the 2 fishing books I've gotten are OK, but not great. They make a lot of assumptions. So, I think I'm going to start a project, maybe even get a book out of it, 'How to go fishing with your kids, and not look like a doofus.'

I went down to the Clackamas today and I managed to burn through about 2.5 hours, a few hooks and weights, lots of salmon eggs, plus a spoon that I've had in my tackle box for 30 years. So, I'm trying to see what I need to learn, what the books don't teach me and what I really need.

I've watched some of the people that go down fishing, and I figure if THEY can do it, with a BAC of .14, I'm sure I can do it sober and with no loss of limb.

Well, Abby wants to go into the hot tub, so I'm wrapping it up here. I'm going to try and start blogging more.

On the job front, I've got a meeting with Robert Half tomorrow, but I'm not holding out a lot of hopes, the 'recruiter' that I talked to day was a total noob and I could hear him being coached on the phone. I'm so far, not impressed. Their web site took a dump on me today while I was manually retyping my resume into the fucking form.

PK out.

My life has changed, I'm now looking for a new career. Not sure exactly what direction I'll go, but the times they are a changing. Generally, I'm OK with this change, I just worry about the others I have left behind. I'm sure there is wild speculation and rumors going on, we're all human. I will neither confirm nor deny anything, at least not here, and not in writing.

I wonder if I need to change my blog to somewhere else... I'm just not sure, I'll have to ponder this one.

I really wish people would just be open and honest with me. Some people that I'm dealing with won't play squarely with me. I hate having to get information from 3 and 4th hand sources.

If shit is bad, say 'this shit is bad' but don't keep your poker face on and say nothing. It's frustrating and just fuels speculation and panic. However, this is no different than the M.O. that they have always operated under.

In other news...

This weekend I had the '86 Ford truck (brown, extended cab that I HAD been driving) hauled out to the farm. The motor on it is toast. I had my father in law listen to it and he agreed that it was bad. We had to pull it out of the driveway because I flooded the motor and couldn't get it to restart. Now I have the '78 Ford truck (blue, 'The Eyesore') that has nonfunctional rear brakes. Hopefully I can fix those brakes without shoving a screwdriver through my wrist again.

Rod also brought the VW back ('94 Jetta) so I have to see if I can get it functional enough to drive to work when I'm not on the motorcycle. The BMW is filthy and i want to clean it up and keep it under a cover till the spring / summer.

Someday I'll have a vehicle that is 'mine' that isn't a total piece of shit or highly unreliable. The motorcycles are reliable, but they just aren't really practical when it's 33deg outside and they aren't an option for hauling kids.

Honestly, I didn't mind the '86 truck, yea it was a bit of a slug with the 6cyl motor, but it wasn't that bad once I got it all tuned up and running. Maybe it will be something easy to fix in the motor (I doubt it based on how it sounded). If somebody would help me, I'd even rebuild the motor, in all my spare time :(

OK, I have a meeting in 15min and I need to get ready.

It's midnight, I've had a few drinks, and I really need to go to bed. Currently I'm listening to / watching Pink Floyd at Pompeii, I love this DVD.

Other news, work has announced we need to make some changes, and that is all I can say about that.

I'm trying to get my broken truck out of the driveway, and do the dysfunctional vehicle shuffle tomorrow. I'm getting the VW back, sending the '86 Ford to the farm to find out what is wrong with the motor and moving the '78 Ford outta the way to fix it's brakes. I need to see if I can make the '94 VW work for a winter / commuter car. I also need to start all 3 of the motorcycle thingies and see if they still run.

OH, I also think I need to go in for a colonoscopy, sorry, that's TMI, but something is amiss.

Kids are good, wife is good. I helped MK finish her first book, and yes, we're already talking about Farm stuff.

FWIW, both kids are mostly potty trained and so am I, so I guess that means we will all smell better.

OK, I'm about to crash.

See, I do update this blog some, but no, I've really slacked off, I'm really sorry.

I'm alive, I've just been busy. The holidays are upon us and work has been very busy this quarter. In other 'wonderful' news, the truck has gone 'tits up'. Something has gone snap in the motor and now it sounds like a diesel... so stick a fork in it... I even pulled out my MP3 player stereo. It pisses me off because I had just got it running pretty well.

As fate would have it, they are threatening snow this weekend, so who knows if I can find something as a replacement. I might just say 'fuckit' and go buy a used jeep and use that for the winter. If I could get the VW back here from the farm I MIGHT be able to patch it back together and limp that through another winter, who knows because IT has been running like a piece of shit too.

Other wonderful news, MK broke her nose on Sunday. She fell off a stool while decorating the Christmas tree. She broke it really good. She's got an appointment with the Ear Nose Throat specialist next week or so.

I've been scanning old photos of my life and posting them on Facebook, so if you've got a FB account you can log in and check them out.

So, there is more to talk about but it's late, and I'm totally unmotivated and tired. I'm going to go do some virtual bowling on FB and call it a night.

PK out.

So, tonight I was able to finish stripping, degreasing and priming the valve cover and air cleaner for the truck. Tomorrow I should be able to get at least 3 coats of paint on the valve cover and then hopefully clear coat it tomorrow night. THEN... Thursday night I should be able to get the valve cover back on. I then need to look at the carb and see if anything is obviously amiss. My brother in law Jeff said that the repair shop down in Boring rebuilt the carb because that the truck didn't run very well at all. I'm hoping that maybe it's a simple mis-adjustment or something minor. Again, I'm not hoping to set any sort of speed record with this truck, I just really hope to make it not a hazard on the roads, and winter friendly.

I am hoping that we'll be able to go snowshoeing and skiing this winter. Nick has said that he'd like to try both. Maybe we'll be able to use this truck, although the Toyota is really probably the better choice, but still, I'd like to dream about being able to use the truck.

I even had a really whacky idea about hauling the tent trailer up to Cloud Cap on Mt. Hood and camping overnight up there, probably a really dumb and bad idea, but who knows... maybe.

Oh, my brother in law also said that he wants to sell my '78 and '79 Ford trucks. :( sigh... I really like those trucks but I have zero logical reason to keep them.

OK it's late and I still have a bunch of laundry to fold.

So, last night, at 10:30pm I got a wild hair up my ass to go work on my truck. Why so late? Because everybody else was asleep and I knew it needed to be done.

So.. for those that aren't familiar with recent truck acquisition and 'issues' here's the quick summary. I had been driving MK's 1994 VW Jetta for many years, the car has become unreliable and fraught with problems, so I stopped driving it with any regularity because it frustrated me to no end. This was fine because it was spring and summer and I could ride the motorcycles / scooter. This summer progressed along and we decided we were going to be doing our house remodel, so I decided I needed a truck to haul stuff. The trucks that I currently own are a 1979 Ford and a 1978 Ford which love dearly. Only problem with these trucks is they are your standard 2-3 person, bench seat trucks, fine for me and one kid, but not so good with two kids with booster seats. As fate would work, I was presented with the option of taking over a 1986 Ford F150 with a king cab. I have since acquired this truck from the farm. It's a straight 6cyl, manual tranny, has a canopy that's dry and 4x4. Downside is that the truck is a gutless wonder and runs like it's got a tiny little motor in it. While I am not expecting great things from the straight 6, I would like to be able to go up hills faster than 25mph. So, I have been setting to righting things with the truck.

I have replaced a leaky radiator hose, new cap and rotor, and as of last night, new spark plugs, air filter and I'm replacing the valve cover gasket which was falling apart and leaking oil all over the place.

Last night I decided to run a compression test on the motor to see if it's in good shape or if it I should just return the truck to the farm and not spend any effort on it. Based on my testing the motor seems to be in reasonably good shape. I have compression numbers of:

Cyl 1: 130psi, Cyl 2: 120, Cyl 3: 130, Cyl 4: 128, Cyl 5: 125, Cyl 6: 120. So, that's fairly even across all 6 cylinders. I replaced the spark plugs with new, correctly gapped plugs. The old plugs I took out last night were black and did not seem to be gapped correctly. I think I need to pick up some spark plug wires, as well as I need a new temp sender (which broke off in my hand).

Too bad I worked so late, because I get tired and do stupid things, like backing the truck out of the garage with the fuel line disconnected (OOPS!) and having it spray gas all under the hood, and on the top of the block with the valve cover taken off.

I took the really crusty gross valve cover off, along with the air cleaner and coated them with a good coat of Jasco stripper. I stripped off the old paint and the grease and grime. I need to do another coating of Foamy Engine Brite, then I'll give them a light sanding and repaint them. I'm going to paint the valve cover traditional Ford Blue (rather than the black that it came in) and I think I'll do the air cleaner the same color.

In my dinking around on the engine last night, I felt the carb wiggle around on the manifold. It SHOULD be on good and firm so it shoudln't wiggle at all, so I guess I 'll have to pull the carb and give that a check over. Supposedly the carb was rebuilt, but now I'm wondering. Only time will tell. I won't attack the carb till I put the valve cover back on and change the plug wires.

OK, I must get back to work. But, in summary, at least it seems that I don't have a lemon of a truck on my hands, so now I just need to sort out the little bits and get it running the right way for the winter.

After I get the carb and motor stuff finished, I'm going to fix / upgrade the radio and get it all winter ready.

Not that everything has been piss and vinegar... I did a little woodworking recently and I really really enjoy it. I had to cut some boards for our reroofing project and after I did my work work part of cutting, I used some of the scraps to make some sculptures. I had a blast. I'm going to try and sneak out into the garage tonight and do more, but we'll see what the schedule holds.

On Saturday we went fishing. MK, myself, Nick, Abby and cousin Zoey all went fishing at Indian Springs trout farm. We wound up catching $31.50 worth of fish (9 trout). It was a lot of fun. Zoey actually did a really good job. Nick was more interested in casting his plastic fish into pond and reeling that in. (I got Nick a kids fishing pole and it has a little plastic fish tied onto the end of the line) He had a lot of fun doing that, and that worked out well because that keeps him from getting stuck on the hook and he doesn't harm any living creatures.

Zoey actually hooked and reeled in about 3 fish. She even helped me net a few of the other ones. Abby had more fun playing with the worms in the foam dish. I had some fun, but sometime I want to try fly fishing to see if I can actually do it. The guy at the farm said the trout will respond to flies, so we'll have to see, maybe I'll see if I can borrow a fly fishing setup. Generally I tend to be a bait or lure fishing person. My past experience with fly fishing (12 years ago) was all about me snapping the fly off the end of the line. Maybe with a bit of practice I can learn how to do it, I'm sure it's not rocket science.

Let me see if I can get some Flickr photos posted and link to them. It's been way too long since I've done that.

OK, bitching mode on, sorry...

I hate the fact that I feel that nobody appreciates me or anything I do. I feel that most things that I am the producer of I just get a 'passing grade' and nothing I do is good.

It has been pointed out to me that my attitude has been really shitty the past 2 months. So, yet one more case of PK failing to make the mark.

So, we've had a new product launch this week, so I'm busy trying to get information posted up to the web, make sure we have all the info we need for the teams, plus I need to keep all the rest of my shit in progress. OH, also last week my laptop decided to take a major dump so I had to reformat and then try and get everything restored and working... all the meanwhile attending the Tech Summit and get information out to my support teams as well as to the sales engineers.

OK, I have a list of 45 'open items' that I need to research and pass on to my team to create Knowledgebase articles for. I need a drink I think... maybe that will ease the pain.

So... in typical PK form, I have a crap load of things to do today but zero motivation to do anything. I didn't sleep worth a damn last night so my brain is nothing but fluff today. I don't know if I need to get food, go for a walk, take the motorcycle for a spin or just do a few lines of blow... it's so hard to decide.

I just saw my boss head out for lunch, so that tells me that ideally I should have something waiting in his inbox when he gets back.

In other news, things have been going fairly well for me lately. Work isn't too bad, I and my boss are getting along reasonably well and having good communication. The kids are good, the house remodel has been going well (minus a little drama), and I've been riding the Honda a lot lately. Oh, and as if by magic, my truck decided it wanted to start working again, all on it's own. At home (MK, PK, and AK) have sinus infections to one degree or another, but Nick somehow managed to dodge the bullet. I'm hoping after tonight's dose of antibiotics my throat will stop hurting.

Rachel took the kids to the Children's Museum today to the Bob the Builder exhibit. In looking at the photos, it looks like they had a lot of fun.



OK, now that I've had a few saltine crackers, I think I have enough of a buffer to protect me from my FRS Energy drink that I'm going to try. Maybe I'll get my update crapped out then go grab some lunch, somewhere.

I've come to the conclusion that the only people that read my blog are: me, Mike, and Jen Kay from time to time... but nobody else. So, prove me wrong... tell me you read this, and I'll send you a dollar up the first 40 people are eligible (with a cap of $40 total that I will spend, so if it gets posted on the interweb and suddenly I'm assailed by people wanting money.. NO DICE).

Some days I feel that my blog is like Carlos' blog that I found that people started monitoring trying to see what his tea leaves said. I'm not talking about work.. so forget it. I work at a job that I tolerate. I work with people I tolerate and if I ever win Powerball, I'll send you a postcard from where ever I wind up on my motorcycle. NO MIKE, THIS DOES NOT MEAN I HATE YOU AND NO I'M NOT LAYING YOU OFF!!!

So.. now, a few months on, I'm starting to like the Honda. Not because it's a great bike, but because it moves, it's been pretty problem free, and it now sounds pretty cool. I put new mufflers on it and I really like the sound. Yes, it's louder, but it's a nicer sound, and with ear plugs, it's hardly an issue. MK rode it on Saturday and she said she thought it was kinda loud and warm, but it was fine.

I really want her and I to go riding together, but it's a matter of watching the kids. Maybe we can get some babysitting coverage on a weekend... a weekend when she's not doing farm shit, and I'm not exhausted, depressed and sleeping.

OH, along those notes... I called my acupuncturist today.. Maybe she can fit me in soon, I'm really sick of hurting and being a mess.

OK... that's really all I have. I want money to pay my house off, get my truck fixed, get my kids squared away for college and then enough to just say 'fuck it' and hit the road.

Maybe in a few years, provided this country doesn't go Republican and we go to war with China.

I made dinner tonight for myself. I made a pita with taziki (sp?), kalamata olives, feta, gyro meat. It was nothing fancy, but tasted good. I then had another piece of flat bread and hummus with roasted paprika. Something in THAT has poisoned my tongue. I had some rye whiskey on ice and it tasted like total crap. Not sure why because the other day the rye tasted just fine. I'm trying to clean my tongue with a can of PBR. Hopefully I can regain my sense of taste.

In other fun news, I worked till 6:30pm'ish, nothing I love more on a Friday night than working on corporate escalations.

yea.

OK, I'm going to go back to watching season 1 of Saturday Night Live on DVD.

OK, so I did the trip with my coworkers Jim and Michael to Silver Falls State Park and the Ural / Royal Enfield dealer in Salem today. It was pretty fun. I wound up leading a big part of the trip, maybe because they know I'm older and a local, so I know my way around, or they wanted to make me feel 'special' because I was on the oldest, smallest motorcycle... what ever the reason, I was in front a big part.

It was a fun trip. I really don't care for my Honda. It ran great and all that, but it certainly shows that it's a 26 year old design... which suddenly strikes me as being very funny, because the whole point of this trip (other than just riding) is to go look at Ural motorcycles, which are based on WW2 German BMW motorcycles, and are made in Russia... and the Royal Enfields which are based on late 40's early 50's British motorcycles and are made in India...

Oh well, the Honda ran great, had plenty of power, got it's typical 45mpg or so, and was able to keep up with the newer, larger and faster motorcycles. Granted, nobody intentionally tried to leave me in the dust, but they weren't sitting waiting for me.

I kept thinking the whole time, could I have been doing this trip on my scooter? Well.. sure, most of it, the few legs on the freeway would haven't been fun, but the rest of it we were right about 50mph, which the scooter will do. I also debated if I could have done it on the Yamaha, and while I probably could have, I would have had to fill up for gas probably 3 or 4 times.

I'll map out my trip and post picture later tonight, but I just wanted to dump some quick thoughts up now.

All in all, I don't like the windshield on the Honda, except it does a good job keeping the wind from pounding on my chest, but it makes the motorcycle much louder, and it can lead to some strange buffeting around at about 60mph or so. I will probably take it off tomorrow. I really don't need it for riding to work. I also don't like how the Honda acts like it's missing or running out of gas when you're at 4000rpm - 5000rpm, but of course, not all the time and not with any level of predictability. It will just randomly hiccup, much like the VW (GRRRRRR)... We'll see how it does with the new mufflers that will be here hopefully Tuesday.

I don't know how doing this trip on the Ural would have been, but I suspect it wouldn't have been too bad.

OK, more later.

yea, that's about how it feels right now. I'm bleah... feels like nobody likes me, feels likes nothing is working, booger.

FWIW, I did get a windshield for the Honda, while it DOES stop me from getting pounded by the wind, it DOES make a lot more noise, makes the motorcycle feel warmer, and now causes the wind to pound on my forehead.

I'm going to leave it on the bike for this weekend's trip down to Salem, but generally, no, I don't really like it.

Just finally did my trip to the DMV to get the Honda registered to my name. Yea, it took me a while to do it, but today was a perfect example WHY I've avoided doing it.

DMV Express opened at 9am. I got there at 8:15am, and I was already second in line. After 20 minutes the first person left, so I became first in line. Fortunately I had almost all my paperwork finished and ready to roll. Only one thing I didn't have done was the renewal form (I hadn't planned on renewing the tags, but since I could do it all in one stop I did it).

Fortunately the person I got at the desk to help me was in good spirits and efficient. We whipped out the forms and signatures and whatever else I needed in 8 minutes, and I was out the door, with a new sticker as well.

HOWEVER... I turned around and the line was already out the door of people waiting to do stuff at the DMV. Good thing it was the DMV "Express". The DMV has to be about one of the least efficient places to do business. I wonder what it would take to redo the DMV into something that people didn't dread going to.

On my way home I decided to take the Honda on I-205, just a little hop between Sunnyside Road and Johnson Creek Blvd. I got it up to 70mph. WOW, that motorcycle really buffets you around. I really need to get some sort of fairing for it if I ever hope to do any sort of freeway trip on it. I've done that little section of the freeway on the scooter. While the scooter tops out at about 62mph, it was nowhere as punishing or noisy. I'm now wondering if I'm going to be able to do the ride all the way to Salem next weekend to look at the Ural motorcycles.

I think today I will order up some mufflers for the Honda as well as a little fairing for it. I might just go down to Road Hawk and see if he has any used fairings that I could buy and install today, I don't need anything fancy, but I would like to get it sooner rather than later.

I don't know what MK has in store for today, but I'm sure to find out shortly... things I know have to happen today: dog poop pickup, curtain rod hanging, happy hour with Mika to talk about business.

Not much to say, its 10:30pm, everybody here is sound asleep. I'm listening to James Brown, sippin' on some vodka and Diet Coke. Kids were tired tonight, Nick had a melt down about getting out of the hot tub. Sadly he got a little whack on the hiney because he was heading out the gate into the front yard (and traffic, kinda) butt-ass naked. I chased after him in my towel, fearing that it would fall and I'd put a neighbor into mental trauma. Not 15 minutes later he went into total spaz out mode and got another little tap on the rump. He finally stopped freaking out, said 'I'm tired' (No shit, Sherlock) and laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.

The kids were tired but refused to pull the plug and go to sleep till MK got home at 8:45p. They then ate their second dinner and dinked around till 9:30pm'ish. Nick was still flipping around in our bed at 10pm. I'm hiding out down here in the basement.

I have to get up at 6am'ish tomorrow and head to Home Depot and pick up 10 bags of concrete. I can't do all in one shot in the Toyota so I'll have to do 2 trips. Man I wish the truck wasn't tits up. I'm sure it's something minor, but man it pisses me off that I have to deal with flaky vehicles.

I have to get the concreted because we're having a concrete pillar poured for our big remodel of the front of our house. We're trying to make our house look like it has an actual entry rather than some stairs that lead up to a hole in the front. After we get the front entry redone, we'll have repitched the front of one section of the roof, fixed the leaks in the roof (thanks previous owner that went cheap on the roofing job) and the plan is to replace all the vintage 1978 vertical cedar siding with 2008 horizontal Hardi-Plank siding that will try and harken to a look of the 30's 40's craftsman house. I'm just afraid that it will wind up looking like all the rest of the turn of the 21st century houses here on Mt. Scott (not a bad thing) but it won't truly be 'craftsman'. I am not really deluding myself thinking that I, a common schlub here in 2008 can capture what the masters did back in the 1920's - 40's. But at least I can put lipstick on the pig, and after a few shots of vodka, that pig just might be ok looking.

If I can get my shit squared away, I'll still be able to make it to 7am Brekkie, but honestly, I probably will stay up way to late, sleep in till 6:45am and be fucked. And yet once again, I will prove to Sean that I really only show up a few times a year... :(

Hmmmmmmmmmmm... what else... Work is busy, I have a number of big customers (one that is a major broadcaster that has a news only channel that has 3 letters for a name, and isn't FOX) that are pissy, I also have team members that are grumpy and a manager that decides he wishes to insert himself into my daily tasks. Gee, I love being 'inserted' into... all without the aide of KY and a few drinks...

In other thoughts... last night I had a really vivid and really disturbing dream about being attacked by a 300lb dog, that was basically a Rottweiler that looked like a bear. It was trying to devour me and in order to thwart it, I shoved my left hand full force into its mouth and gripped its jaw as hard as I could, I did everything I could to keep it from clamping down and biting my arm off. In my dream I wound up getting pinned under the 'dog' as it laid down on top of me, while I had my left hand jammed into its mouth, and my right hand flailing around trying to find my Leatherman and flip out the blade and stab the fuck out of it... I just got slammed to the ground while this huge black beast lay on top of me, gnawing on my arm that was shoved into its mouth. It was really disturbing and very vivid.

Let's see... I'm helping MK work on a big business deal, I don't know how well its working, but she MAY be heading to LA on Friday morning, but here it is, Wednesday night and I don't know if she's going or not... so, Friday I don't know if I'm juggling kids solo or not. Oh well, fuckit, it'll be just like most other week nights.

Who knows what'll happen with this weekend. If I could have my dream... I'd be able to sleep in on Saturday, we'd load the canoe on the Toyota and go dick around on Saturday morning, and then go home, take naps in the afternoon, watch 'Norm the Builder' on OPB and then maybe go play in the park. Then maybe grill some dinner, hit the hot tub and crash at 9pm.

Ok. I'm feeling rather bleah right now.. way to go.. I just depressed myself.

Yesterday I decided to poison my stomach. I went for lunch with Mike Schultz at Baan Thai, my favorite little Thai restaurant, right up by Portland State Univ. I ordered the Massaman Curry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massaman_curry) and ordered it 'Medium Spice' which at Baan Thai is equivalent to standing next to somebody who has been pepper sprayed. 'Hot' is like being pepper sprayed yourself, and Extra Hot is like having somebody spray your nose with Bear Repellent strength pepper spray. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tasty, I enjoyed it even though I was hiccuping and my eyes were watering. About 8pm last night my stomach started to feel like I'd been punched in the gut. It felt like somebody had given me a big dose of castor oil and Liquid Draino.

Without getting you TMI, I was miserable, and even right now, my gut hurts. But DAYMN!! that was good curry.

So, in other news, I decided to ride the enviro-boob motorcycle today ('75 Yamaha 2 stroke). WOW, what a difference over the Honda. The Yamaha feels SO small, and so underpowered. OK, not totally underpowered, I did have it up to 60mph on the way in, but it doesn't have the kick in the pants power that the Honda has. However, as a fringe benefit I do get to smell like exhaust for the first part of the morning. I had forgotten about how it feels compared to the Honda and the scooter. It really is just a primitive, street legal dirt bike, and a very narrow one at that.

For some silly reason, I kind of thought it would feel similar to my coworkers Suzuki V-Strom 650... Not even close. I can stand flat footed on the Yamaha, plus it's a lot lighter, and much narrower. Maybe I'll take Michael up for his offer to let me ride the Suzuki. I wimped out last week and just let him take the Honda for a spin and didn't take his Suzuki.

OK, I need to finish up my corporate escalation reports.

PK out

Right now my wonderful '86 Ford F150 truck won't start, won't even click like it wants to start, so at least I have a hope in hell on how to fix it, but again, I'm fiddlefucking with an old vehicle.

I also got a wild hair up my ass tonight that I was going to put the fairing on my motorcycle... WRONG... bad idea... the first indication that I shouldn't have even bothered was when I saw that that fairing that came with my motorcycle was not mounted, had broken plastic mounts and was being held together by zip ties. I polished up the plexi just to see how it would look and if it would work. It polished up ok, not GREAT, but not too bad, but I can tell that it seem like it was a used fairing that had come from a motorcycle that had been in an accident. When I was trying to adjust one of the mounts, it snapped off in my hand. This was a plastic ball joint and the way it broke, there is basically no way to fix it correctly. I pondered it for a minute then said fuckit and tossed it in the back of the truck (see above).

Now I am going to order a fairing that is NEW that should fit and look not too bad and not be held together by zip ties.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older / old / lazy? I'm not willing to try and fix parts that are essentially broken but 'might' still have some workable life.

Now the geek / nerd / packrat part of me wants to pull out that fairing and see if I can use it to turn it into something cool for Nick... but screw it, he's not riding a real bike yet, and if wants a go-kart or something, then I can worry about it later, I'm not going to warehouse something for 5 years waiting.

So, today is Abby's 2nd birthday. She amazes me how much she can do and how much she has to say. She's been singing 'Happy Birthday' lately, it comes out as 'Happy ... Day... You... Happy Day... You' but she's got the right idea and mostly the right notes. She is always running after her brother and has even been caught 'crying' and saying 'owie' while she has Nick pinned down and pounding on him.

Nick starts back to preschool this week, he'll have his cousin Berlyn with him this year, so that should be really great. I'm thinking I need to take off some time on Thursday and go to 'orientation' day and make sure he gets his class schedule and locker combo all figured out.

Well, tomorrow starts a new work week. I need to see if I can keep my attitude chipper and positive and make things happen and not get bogged down in despair.

OK, off to look at motorcycles and porn.