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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
putzicus' LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 | | 5:21 pm |
I heard back from the nice folks at Springfield today. Apparently my XD tested out just fine for the techs. They tested out 5 different types of ammo and 3 different techs and it fed fine for all of them. Not one failure to extract.
Their conclusion: They don't shoot Sallier and Belloit and it's either a problem with the ammo or shooting technique (which is a nice way of saying that I might be limp wristing). So they're sending it back to me and I should have it on Friday. I guess this is my excuse, strictly in the name of science, to take it to the range and feed it multiple types of different ammo (including S&B) te see if I can replicate the failures I was having. Otherwise, I guess married life has got me to the point where I need to start doing wrist exercises again. | | Saturday, May 10th, 2008 | | 4:59 pm |
I'm pretty sure we just acquired a new puppy today. He's a HART rescue dog from a pound in West Virginia, he's about 6 months old and still has his puppy teeth. We were going to go and look at a couple puppies and maybe consider a few for adoption. The Wife sat down to see if he was friendly, the dog licked her on the chin, crawled into her lap and plunked down so that my wife could properly pet him. After that, the rest was pretty much a formality. Even Chance approves of the new guy. So now that we've made it through our two interviews, background checks and genetic sequencing they've got to come out and inspect our house. Holy crap, getting a security clearance is less rigorous. Anyway, it'll likely be a couple of weeks before he comes home. They're still cleaning up a few things he picked up from his stint in the pen and of course he needs to get fixed. But once he's over his respiratory infection he'll be all set. The name he has right now is Hamish but we might change that to something else. Nothing is coming to mind yet. Any ideas?  | | Friday, May 9th, 2008 | | 5:50 pm |
Fixed the cracked shotgun stock Beginning  Used the spreader (heh) injected the glue, then clamped it until dry.   Drilled a hole through the center of the cracking as best I could without blocking the hole to screw the stock back on. Then cut off the screw ends.  End Result  I've still got some polishing to do to get the brass nubs down to the level of the wood, but it is perfectly functional at this point. | | 1:39 pm |
I had an interesting night last night.
At 0330 in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm two guys speaking Spanish decided to start messing with the flag by my front door. I heard voices by our door and started to wake up when the dog started barking like a maniac and oushing on the door to get at the guys. I opened the window and informed the gentlemen that the flag was just fine where it was, that they should put it back where they found it and leave. They didn't. I informed them again, told them that they were making me nervous and got my pistol out. They lingered a while longer and then left. Hopefully it was just a couple of drunks and not anyone casing our house to see how responsive we might be, I'm a little worried that I heard what sounded like them trying the door. Needless to say I'm going to be a little extra careful for the next couple weeks and retrain the wife on how to use the pistol. I wish th XD was not at Springfield getting repaired as I think that might be easier for her than a 1911. Thanks to the folks who convinced me to go to the Pat Goodale course, the training was very much on my mind at the time. Also thanks to the nice folks who repaid my loan of some practice ammo at that course with two boxes of Gold Dots. They were very reassuring. | | Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 | | 10:25 am |
Absofrigginglutely-HILARIOUS!! Why, when I watch this, is the name ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) visgoth floating over the narrator? | | Sunday, May 4th, 2008 | | 6:14 pm |
Writer's Block: My First Car
My first car was a 79 Mustang Capri in orange with tastefully placed rust accents along the slightly crumpled (and bumped back out) front left fender. It had a bypass switch to start and a gear shift knob that was pokey plastic after Sam (the family dog) chewed on it in prostest for being left in the car. It had a four cylinder with an "oh so cool" turbo (which even worked sometimes) and it only moderately burned oil. It was a hand me down car from my parents and had once hauled our entire family of five plus ski gear to Colorado for a week of skiing on one of our classic shoe string vacations. Mom would cook meals out of the back of the car on a coleman stove. My brother had gotten a "Head to Head" football game for christmas and spent most of the trip under a towel so that he could see the lights and so missed most of the scenery, including the white out that caught us in some pass, though not the herd of deer that suprised Dad at about 3 am somewhere in Nebraska on the way back home. I spent most of the trip with the luggage in the back of the car in an impromptu tail gunner seat because I got sick of riding the hump between my brother and sister. It was a fun little car and it carried me through my first couple years of college until I sold it to a house mate in 1997 when I upgraded to a Mercury Tracer. | | 5:51 pm |
Today has been an awesome day.
Yesterday my wife and I went and got a couple's massage at JusMassage in Fair Lakes. Nice place reasonable prices and they did a great job. Aside from feeling a little worked over this morning, my back felt WAY better today. So much so that I got my bike down, spent a little effort tuning it up and then went for a 2 hour ride through cub run. I did a lot of exploring and I think I've found a path that should take me to Bull Run and/or the Izaak Walton League. I also found a route that might take me to work in the morning. However it means fording a couple of streams which may not be a great idea in business attire. I think I also may have annoyed some golfers as the trail I was following suddenly turned into a cart path that ran around the local country club. I tried to be courteous and stay out of their way and for the most part I think I was succesful but I did get one dirty look. After I got through the golf course, I found my buddies house and the bastard wasn't home, so no halfway beer for me. Forlorn and saddened that my plan to scam free beer hadn't worked, I then peddled back home.
I think I may try and do this more often for exercise. My back seems to be good enough now that I even tucked down and peddled for a little bit and nothing hurts yet. | | Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 | | 1:08 pm |
Gift idea for men: Dremel chainsaw sharpener
I LOVE this thing. Having sharpened chainsaw blades by hand for my entire life I usually have a dull chainsaw blade. About the only time I eve sharpened them was with a rat tail file and just putting a rough edge on the teeth if I noticed it was cutting slowly. I usually never even bothered to make sure it was the file of the proper size. Then you're supposed to get them sharpened professionally ocassionally. What this meant in my world was that it was time to buy a new chainsaw blade. Since I was brought up in a strong tradition of repairing and maintaining the things you have this always struck me as wrong.
So after much pestering I finally convinced my wife that a chainsaw sharpener would be an ideal present, especially if she likes having fires on the firepit. I think a lot of the hesitance on her part came from a conversation we had about the politics of gift giving. IE why was it perfectly acceptible to get men power tools as presents, while getting women power tools as presents makes them get snippy about "oh, you got this for me just so I can do chores for you, thanks ever so much!". So unfortunately my bafflement at the difference between my receiving a cordless drill as a present being good and her receiving a food processor as a gift as being bad somehow translated into a total embargo on tool related gifting.
In any case, I think we've finally worked our way around that now and I shall continue to receive tools as presents while she will not. So now I'm about to go out and cut up some wood for the firepit with my newly (and easily) sharpened chain saw. That way we have an excuse to harvest the mint I planted two weeks ago, make mojitos and sit on the back deck with a fire this evening. All this for want of a chainsaw sharpener! | | Friday, May 2nd, 2008 | | 11:41 am |
Still Grouchy, but smiling I suddenly decided that a chew would be just the crutch I needed to power through back pain today (and a Mountain Dew). On the walk down to 7-11 I went past a small playground that was filled with kids playing. I noticed that one of the little girls was wearing pink Pixie wings and it made me smile. I picked up a tin, some Mountain Dew, and some Cheetoes (that's allllll IIII need) and walked back. By the time I'd gotten to the playground again some of the kids there had apparently decided to close the pixie wing gap and had manufactured their own wings out of paper, with varying degrees of success. So now the playground was filled with a gaggle of brightly colored kids hopping about the playground (apparently the wings obligate you to hop). So now, while I'm greateful for the smile, I'm jealous of a bunch of 5 year olds. | | 10:46 am |
Grumble grumble
My back is really sore today. I'm loaded up on the meds to try and stay productive but that in turn is making my stomache really upset.
I guess on the good side of things this does remind me that it's been quite a while since my last flare up. During which time I've even indulged in some activities that I was sure were going to cripple me for a couple of days that resulted in no serious impact. On the bad side of things, I really haven't done anything to make it this cranky.
Current Mood: grouchy | | Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 | | 1:16 pm |
Guy Humor Regarding wifely consent for Nerd Night. Nerds only need read further.
Putzicus:
Right. I officially have wifely sanction for tonight. Note: wifely sanction is subject to the instantaneous whims of Double X chromosome LTD. All sanctions of Double X LTD are subject to random, deniable hormone checks rolled on a d20 (behind the screen). Sanction also does not imply a lack of interruptions or requests for sudden popup projects or taskings that have to be done right, oh my god, now.
Brother of Putzicus:
Double Double-X damage on a 20? Critical hit I think. 1-2 = random effect ie...hysterical hormonal weeping OR drinks delivered to the computer in French maid outfit. You just don't know. | | Monday, April 21st, 2008 | | 7:31 pm |
Note to self (and other transitioning military personnelle)
Use of phrases such as, "Thank you so much for wiping your ass with my lungs", will, at a minimum, not be accepted as within the bounds of normal responses to flatulence in the civilian world. | | 3:10 pm |
| | Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 | | 7:51 pm |
| | Thursday, April 10th, 2008 | | 6:35 pm |
I was going to post about the Gatlinburg trip and talk about how putting in a KNN air filter increased my gas mileage and performance by about 15% but now I seem to be losing my transmission and have to jump through that hoop.
I'm pretty sure it's the valve body. Anybody know of a good transmission repair place or depending on how expensive this is looking, have a garage they wouldn't mind letting me use to try and fix it? | | Sunday, April 6th, 2008 | | 10:33 am |
random
I think my cold or whatever it was broke last night. I feel much better today.
Also the swelling in my foot from where I think IKEA broke some bones has gone down and while it's still quite tender at least all the interesting color is gone and I can move all my toes again.
Today the wife and I are taking an impromptu vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. I'm tired of sitting at work with nothing to do and waiting for my transfer paperwork to finish processing so we're off to the gateway to the smokeys. Gonna see the aquarium, possibly Dolly world and whatever the hell one does in Gatlinburg. My wife used to live there when she worked for the aquarium.
Otherwise, yesterday I got the Plumerias into the ground. I'm doing an experiment this year where I plunge one of the plants pot and all into the ground and plant the larger one normally. Pray for no more cold snaps. | | Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 | | 1:38 pm |
Colds suck
Not thinking clearly today, sniffling/sneezing like a fiend and just achey. | | Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | | 12:18 pm |
For a brief moment of insanity I considered buying ammo from WalMart. Then when I ask the nice, yet barely comprehensible lady at the sporting goods desk what kind of ammo they had in 45 ACP, she told me "we only have that in the automatic". I said that was fine and she told me that they have "the white box" for $29...
I'm sure that I'm being judgemental and that WalMart ammunition works just fine but I didn't even bother to listen to the rest of the things she told me and there is no way in hell I'm buying ammo there. | | 9:48 am |
My wife's debut back into the workforce turned out to be a great success. As promised I spent my time in the kitchen preparing food and wearing an apron that said "Will cook for beer". The crowd was pretty much handpicked for her dress rehearsal but she was still very nervous. Her presentation was a bit rough at times but I think that's going to smooth out when she builds more confidence. And the confidence boost has been tremendous! She's got her first orders in and is in the process of planning further "parties" hopefully she'll do a good job at these and get some follow on events and this won't just stall out after her friends host a party.
And party it was, I think the attendees went through a case of wine that night and still felt froggy enough to hit the shots when that ran out. Our last guest went home at 2 am if you don't count the ones that ended up sleeping over at our house. The next day they got together and decided that I was a bad influence and "an enabler" and the reason why they all got drunk. I'm not sure how that happened as I was in the kitchen working while they were all out drinking sangria and wine while eating all the food. (though I did save a substantial portion of the beer bread and cheezy soup for dunking for myself).
In any case the next day I went out to West Virginia as part of the continuing effort to revive some old water conservation structures. we finally have the stock pond filling up and are now debating stocking it with some Koi, crayfish, snails and clams to act as nature's little vacuum cleaners and tidy up some of the crap in the pond. The eventual goal being to stock it with bluegill. Anyway, we got a lot of hard work done and had a fine time building a huge bonfire, cooking steak on sticks and drinking Slivovice. For which I was blamed the next day when the property owner's brother had a horrible hangover. WTF it's not like I'm peer pressuring folks to drink, why do I always get blamed as the instigator?
Anyway, it's been good times in the Big Blue Doghouse (the name of our house) lately and things are continuing to look up. | | Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 | | 9:50 am |
Book Review
For those who like historical fiction I highly recommend Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follet if you need a fix of midieval back plaguey goodness. I just finished the 2nd book this morning at about 130 am. If you're not into brutal realism or you get attached to characters and want to see all the goodguys prevail every time then admittedly this book is a bit more than you might like. Still I thought it was an excellent book though admittedly I have absolutely no idea how historically accurate it was. Sometimes I thought some of the characters were perhaps a bit too smart with the way they just kept coming up with major innovations but I was willing to suspend disbelief a bit for that. Otherwise it was a really smooth read and I loved it! |
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