So I have my father’s house all wired up for Internet and satellite TV. Every room will have an Internet connection (except the kitchen area, still contemplating that one). There are provisions for wireless, DVRs, cable boxes in separate locations, and pull string… just in case. Anyway, you can check out some pictures on the gallery.

Well, I am currently in North Carolina. I arrived yesterday. I left Lakeland at 4:30am, and arrived here at 1:30. My parents think I sped like crazy to make it here in 9 hours. I was going 75 most of the way, and just happened to not run into traffic. Anyway, I arrive at the house. It’s quite beautiful. And of course, after about 10 minutes, my father is already wanting to put me to work. But I evaded his sly ways for a while. I did however, eventually help to get his new cupola put on the roof. I have pictures. I however, can not upload them where I am at right now… my mother’s cabin. Cell phone reception out here is… well, spotty is giving it too much credit. I am currently sitting in the kitchen hoping that my sprint card stays connected long enough to post this. However, I am looking out at a gorgeous mountain view, with the smoke in the… Smokey Mountains. Anyway, I shall go play with my family now. Trisha arrived at 2:00 in the morning. Oh yes, speaking of that… I awoke yesterday at 4:30am… I didn’t get to bed till 2:30am… that’s 22 hours man. I was tired to say the least.

So last night, I watched Across the Universe with Danielle. I enjoyed the movie. It was kind of corny at times. But… it had Beatles music. I really didn’t like how they slowed down some of them, and screwed up my signing along. And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was at the end. That one song reminds me of my childhood for some reason. I kept waiting and waiting for it and it finally appeared in the credits. All of this reminded me of my love of oldies. So, today I hooked up my record player. My mother was thinking of selling it at a yard sale at some point, so I swiped it, and rescued it from sitting in someones home (or garage) not getting used. I like my static-y music, with the pops and skips and non-digital goodness. Of course, the one song that is stuck in my mind from last night, Hey Jude, is not on any of the records that I have. Sigh. Yellow Submarine and Yesterday for me I guess. And one of my wireless customers at IMW is going to be selling records and new needles. So maybe I can get a good deal on some stuff.

So my sister is coming home from Iraq in a few weeks, and she is giving me the following:
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I’m excited, it looks really cool.

So I am going to North Carolina soon to visit my family. My sister Trisha will hopefully be there on leave from Iraq. I will be leaving the 17th of this month for the long 12 hour drive. I will be leaving North Carolina on the 22nd. This gives me four full days for fun and games! No… wait… wiring. Work. I will be working. Running wires. Some computer, some electrical. My father is not allowed to touch electrical wiring after hooking a 120V camper to a 220V feed and destroyed several appliances. So, if you want to see me before I leave… HA! Yeah, right.

So, as some of you know, I am redoing my master bathroom. It’s outdated. I want it anew. New paint. Newish walls. New mirror. Anyway, day one was me pretty much doing investigation into sizes, flooring, colors, and tearing up a few initial things. Upon my first initial tearing up though, I discovered that there was a soft spot in the wall. Day two was me tearing up that soft spot (there were several months in between these days… I got busy). You can see a picture here:

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While tearing up the wall, I discovered I had carpenter ants. I killed what I could, and tore out the insides of the wall. While doing this, I discovered several things. The first being that my house does not have plywood underneath the siding. Siding, then studding, then the inside of my house. A tornado would shred this place. Anyway, I also noticed that the wood had begun to rot. Either water was getting in, or the ants were bringing it in.

Day three, today, consists of me tearing up the tile floor underneath the linoleum. I know that my time is limited, and the project will go slow, but I figured if I did not tear up the floor and be forced to look at ugly greyish plywood, I’d never move on the project. So this is forcing me to get moving. I’ve also discovered that I will probably have to replace the floor under the toilet. I had planned on replacing the toilet anyway and to repair some of the piping for it. It’s been leaking, and apparently, made it under the tile, and the floor is a little soft. We’ll see. I don’t plan to use that toilet for a while, and will need to let it dry out before I venture further there.

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A few of the things I’d like to do:

• Wainscoating in the shower room
• Chair rail in the other half of the bathroom
• Over-the-toilet cabinetry
• Raise the shower head
• And much more…

You can see more pictures on the Photo Gallery.

So today, Danielle and I made an apple pie. I have not ravaged it yet however. I so want to bite into it, but I must wait and bring it to her place tonight, so we can ravage it together. We had a lot of fun cooking together, and I hope to do more of it in the future. Here is a picture:

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Also today, we went to Colt Creek off 471 in North Lakeland. We joined her aunt Carrie and fiancé, Edd. It’s a beautiful state park. I suggest you check it out. Parking is two dollars. Open all day. You can bike, ride horses, fish, or just have a cookout. You can see our pictures from the trip on the gallery here. I had commentary, but it didn’t come over when I typed it in, and I don’t feel like retyping it. So deal.

Well, I went to Walmart, and found these neat little tupperware-like packages for lunch. One will fit a sandwich, the other will fit round crackers (quite perfectly I might add for the kind I like). And last is a rectangle one for whatever. I also found some neat drink things that have a frozen center to keep it cool. And last but not least, a lunch bag that fit it all perfectly.

Ok. So I made a sandwich. Unfortunately, I discovered that I did not have any mustard, so I had to use barbecue sauce. I stuck it in the freezer Sunday night. I also got crackers, and some pineapple slices and a fork. It put all of that in the fridge inside the lunch bag.

In the morning, I pulled out the sandwich, and moved it to the bag, and took off. Two and a half hours later, I got to my office. Pulled out the sandwich and gave it a little bend. Crack. Yeah, it was still frozen in the center. Luckily, I have a microwave at the office, so I nuked it for a bit. Other than that, my lunch idea worked out great. I also found another compartment under the lunch bag, where I will be keeping cookies for a little extra. Mmm… cookies.

So my idea needs a little rethinking. Instead, I am going to do this. The night before, I will move the sandwich to the refrigerator. This will give it extra thawing time, but still in a cool environment. I am testing this theory tomorrow. But there will still be a microwave present, just in case. Oh, and I finally found some mustard in little jars. Thank you Trisha. Well, I don’t know about this last Christmas, but Christmas’ past.

So I was at the office till about 12:30 last night. Got in bed around 1:30. I had an appointment this morning at 8:30, so I wanted to get as much sleep as possible. I was going to wake up at 7:30. Around 6:30, it started pouring rain. Normally, no big deal. But I left the cover open on the back of my truck. With my tools in it. I ran out of my house in my underwear, grabbed the ladder (the reason I had it open in the first place) and yanked it out of the truck. Closed the top, and ran back in. I was soaked. Dried myself off, and tried to get more sleep. Didn’t get much.

So I had this thought today. I stopped at Burger King for lunch, and afterwords, my stomach wasn’t so happy. I’ve been eating way too much fast food lately. But the reason I keep eating there is because it’s fast, and cheap. So, I’ve concluded that I must find a way to make a “bagged” lunch fast and cheap. I can only make it cheap by buying in bulk. But when I buy in bulk, it goes bad because I can’t eat it fast enough. So here is my though. Frozen lunches. On Sunday night, I can premake my lunches for the week, and freeze them. This allows me to make it fast, by just grabbing a frozen lunch “package”. By the time I get around to eating it, it will have thawed enough for me to eat it, allowing me to leave it in my truck in a bag of some sort. So I will be making some practice lunches this weekend to see how it works out. Obviously, there will be a sandwich, either with meat or PB&J, and some sort of side item. I’d like “healthier” items that either last a while, or can be frozen. Any ideas? I also have the issue of a drink. I can either have bottled water, which could get expensive, or find some sort of sealable cup where I could have some pre-ready.

So I haven’t run the A/C in months. It’s kept my electric bill incredibly low. Well, last night was hot. So I put on the A/C. It didn’t blow. No air from the vents. I can hear noise. But no air. So I put it to fan only, and walk outside. I couldn’t hear the fan inside. Crap. I kick it a few times in case it was a loose connection, or a lizard on the connection frying away. They do keep getting chopped up in the the fan at the top. Makes a loud clunking noise as their body bounces around. Leaves them in pieces. So I go to bed but I amazing sleep extremely well. Anyway, I check it this morning by taking the cover off. Still doesn’t work. So I just leave the fan switch on. Maybe it will come on. A little while later, I walk by a vent, and I hear the air blowing! YES! So I think it is working again. I’ll have to check it out again when I get home tonight.