Back at work after 18 days off. I’m feeling almost European! Got lots done over the break, although not all of the projects I had planned were successfully completed. Things that were done:
- The 2 new horse stalls got roughed in. As mentioned in a previous post if you ever have the chance to use a cordless framing nailer, do it!
- The halogen light got mounted on the barn. This went better than expected as well. It even worked on the first flip of the switch and hasn’t burned down the barn (yet…).
- The new fence was installed along with the acommpanying gates. My back went out mid-way through dumping the sacks of concrete in the holes I had dug with my neighbors auger on the back of may tractor. It just so happened our farrier (horse shoe guy for those not in the know) was there so he helped me finish. Gotta love free help!
- My shop got cleaned up although I didn’t end up getting any peg boards to hang my hand tools. I think I’m going to get one of those rolling tool boxes to put things in. That should keep them accessible and look neater.
Things that didn’t:
- I couldn’t get past the initial install of Ubuntu Server on my old blog server box to get it set-up as a home torrent / file-server. So that one remains on the list. I may end up altering the instructions and just tacking on the capabilities to add torrents to download via the web to my existing MythTV box since that’s where I want most of the torrents anyway and it would save a transfer step later.
- I didn’t even try to get my XBOX 360 hooked up to my VPC Vista Image. I just decided it was too much work for something that was going to expire in a few days. Besides I know I need to upgrade my wireless network before I can do any serious video streaming.
Things that were unexpected:
- My grandmother (on my father’s side) passed away the day after Christmas. Although she had been sick for a while, it was a shock since she had been at our house on Christmas Eve and seemed fine…or at least as fine as she has been for the past few years. It’s always tough to have a funeral over the holidays. She was a great lady and I don’t think a curse word ever crossed her lips.
- Because of my grandmother’s funeral we missed the Music City Bowl. I ended up selling our tickets to someone on the CatsPause message boards for face value. The Cats did end up winning and looked great doing it for the most part.
- I got a few cool gifts for Christmas:
- Terminator Salvation movies
- Two XBOX 360 Games – Ultimate Alliance and Gears of War. Haven’t played Gears yet (waiting for the kids to start back to school so they go to bed early), but UA is really cool. I actuall get to be Spider Man or any other Marvel Hero and there’s a lot of the back story that gets used for both the heroes and the villains.
- A smaller wine fridge to keep whites in. I got a larger 30 bottle fridge a few years back that is always more than half full with reds, now with this one I can keep a smaller stock of whites at the right temp.
- A Mossberg 870 12 gauge shotgun. This was a big surprise from my father in law. I swear it is the same one he was cleaning when I went to pick-up my wife on one of our first dates. At least I have something to clean when someone comes to pick-up Kendall on her first date.
- A really nice bottle of Bourbon from my team at work. I hate to admit it, but it already is a quarter down. Must be a hole in the bottle.
Sorry for the long break from the blog, but now that I am getting back into the swing of things, you can expect a regular cadence here as well. I’ve got a lot of travel coming up, so there should be lots to talk about.
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