The Year In Review

This'll probably be my last post of the year - I have next week off, and I don't really plan on going outside of my house (or at least further than the grocery store a block away) for the whole week. I just got an X-Box and about two dozen games (thanks, James) so I'll probably sit on the couch and play video football and one of the StarWars games until my eyes bleed. So here's a list of some of the things that happened to me over the last year.

• I'm thankful that my quick-thinking friend Keith had a bezoar on hand when I drank that poisoned Mountain Dew during our stop in E-burg. I still don't know if the Thai bastard that served it to me had it in for me, or just wanted to poison a random customer. But thanks, Keith, you're knowledge of medieval poison treatments really helped me out of a tight spot.
• I had a little accident at work, but Peter was on hand to give me a good kick in the chest to get my heart going again. I thought you were an immunologist, Pete. I never knew you were such an accomplished cardiologist. Your well placed boot saved my life.
• I couldn't remember where my house was, until Cindy shot me in the ass repeatedly with a BB gun. If it weren't for my lovely wife's well developed marksmanship skills, I'd still be lost in the parking lot at the IGA. Thanks for leading me home, babe! I like to think that those pellets were fired out of the gun by compressed love.
  
• I spent so much time on the internets during a slow day at work that I honest to God forgot how to breathe. It sure was a good thing that I was having a trans-polar e-mail conversation with my buddy Will at the time, and he reminded me how that works.
• I lost all of my money racking up massive gambling debts and couldn't afford food for the kids, but my mom helped me out by sending us some beans and lentils to get us through until spring. I'll never play the horses again, honest, ma.
• The car broke down, but a quick phone call to my dad had that all sorted out. He just reminded me that I needed to take the keys out of my pocket and put them into the ignition to get the engine to turn over. He didn't have to tell me to pull my head out of my ass, either, but he did, and it was pretty good advice.
• I had several great days, and if it weren't for the sudden shots to the pills that the boys are so swift at administering, I would have stayed perfectly content. Thanks for reminding me about what pain is, kids! The constant dull ache in my testes reminds me of my loving family!
  

Yup. And what a year it was. To state the painfully obvious, that was all in jest, I love you all (sorry to be all John Lennon-y).

Anybody up to anything excitin' for Christmas? I'll be playing the aforementioned X-Box, and I think my hunting buddy Jim is going to come by and help Cindy and I eat a huge lamb roast that we've got - if anyone else is in the area on Sunday, stop by, but bring a pie. You ain't got nuthin' on this mutton.

Happy Christmas, everybody.

Ya Know What A Man Is?

Cuz I'll tell ya...

That's a man.

There's only my Dad, my great uncle Vernon, and my Grandpa Lowell that I can really credit with teaching me what it takes to be a man. Sadly, Grandpa left us on Friday, ~9 of the clock, Sy-addle time. Here's some reflection:

• Know what it means to be a reasonable person, but not take any shit, without looking like a prat yourself? Yup: I had two generations of Sells power to help teach me about that.
• Know what it takes to live off the land? Syke - you probably don't - at least not in any useful way - unless you took woodsman courses from Lowell. He's the only guy that I know who shot more 3 points (before it was damn near manditory in WA - and I'm speakin' Western count when I say 3 point). The guys I hunt with that are older than me used to fear my Grandpa's legs in the woods - ever covered 10 miles in day? Uphill? Wiener... Mountain Goat slash human is a fair assesment, I would say. Hippy dippys - cattail roots and acorn mast won't cut it. A man needs meat to survive.
• Know how to build a camper/cargo trailer/who the hell cares from the ground up, with only the power of your mind to guide you? No? Lowell hacked that. Rumor had it, he used to put the challenge out, wallet on the table, to fellow Boeing engineers who had "great ideas" that weren't gonna work - because he could see it in his head. You got that sack? I didn't think so...
• Ever eat a raw potatoe sandwich? Try it...Lowell did...The Great Depression is something many of us learned about in school...but real men lived through.

Okay. May God's love smile on you Grandpa. I'll miss you. Living 3,000 miles away, I never got a real good chance to say goodbye. But I learned a lot from you. The other men I learned a lot from is my dad, who was pretty much Lowell's 1st Lieutenant of Manhood; and my Uncle Vern, who would be Colonel of tough - I won't explain.

Colonel of Tough. Period.

James says: You forgot to mention that time he shot that deer and had to slit it's throat with his buck-knife because he was out of bullets.
But most of all, he was proud of the men that we've become. We'll see you in the clearing at the end of the path Grampa...

Couldn't Resist

Anyone who has or spends much time around kids (and is male) probably has some idea of this pain...

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Yup. Things've been slow in my world, hence no posts.

Why dont'cha relax and grab some coffee or some Sanka.

That's nice.

There's cookies too, for those of you that want one.

Good, good. Just sit back and enjoy yourself.

We've recently been slammed with snow - the ride in this morning was slow and slippy. It's too cold outside to want to be outside much, so the snow sits and looks pretty, mostly. I need to get some snow-time outdoor equipment so I can get outside and enjoy it all once in a while. Maybe break ice in a kayak. The snow's too dry to have a snowball fight or build a sweet fort with the kids.

I came across this during my daily internets wanderings/watching cells fall into tubes the other day. Whenever I see things like this, I understand why the drawings I used to make in grade school looked the way they do. Generic muscle guys in camo pants with sunglasses on? Awesome. My kids are missing out on the videogame and comic book packaging of yesteryear. Too bad I don't get the joy out of art that I used too - I could still draw pictures of generic commandos, but I'd just disappoint myself with lack of anatomical accuracy. I'm a science type person, dammit! Which means I'm borderline OCD enough that I get little satisfaction out of creating even though I'm still driven to do it - I only see the flaws. Ramble, ramble.

Chrazy Christmas Achoutrement

I admit that, if it weren't for the kids, I'd probably give a big "Bah Humbug" to Christmas and just have a nice ham or turkey dinner on or around December 25th and call it a day. But since we do have kids, and having kids does make the holidays exciting even for grumpy adults like myself, the wife and I (mostly the wife - I just help with the tall guy things) have been a-decorating.

The "new" thing that we've picked up this year is LED Christmas lights. They're nice and bright and supposedly drain less power. But I wouldn't recommend hanging them outside if you live in a windy area. They do a weird flickering/pulsating/I don't know thing when they swing that's enough to make me nauseous. They do it if you move your head back and forth really quick, too. I figured that one out myself.


That's right. We don't have a fireplace, we a have a TV. And we don't have anything to set the TV on because we've moved around so much in the last 3 years. Now that we've been at one address for almost a year, it might be time to try and remedy that.

And of course our moderately sized fake tree.

Next year, if Connor's a bit more "hands off," I might be talked in to getting a larger, real tree.

In other holiday news, here's some links for my family members that want to know what to get the:
Both Boys.
Ethan.
Cindy. (And me?)
Crass commercialism...say "Yeah!"

And I think this would look great in our living room.

Remember this? Well, Cindy, who's braver than I, fixed it. Turned out that the circuit board that had been sent to us, in error, to fix a circuit board that wasn't broke but was believed to be faulty, was faulty. She plugged in the old board, we covered our eyes, and...It worked! Didn't even have to fiddle around re-calibrating the speed much, because I'd put motor and belts in like a champ. Yay Sells family!

My Neck Of The Woods

So, I got up nice and early this morning and went out in pursuit of the extraordinarily elusive ungulate. While I was sitting there, freezing in the snow, at about 10:30 or so, a shot rings out right up above me. It sounded like a .22 or some other small caliber. Nothing unusual. Except that, after he shoots, the guy proceeds to travel around hooting and hollering for the next 2+ hours! I can't figure out what he was doing, he just walked around shouting "Hup-Hup-Ho-Hooey-Ho-Hup" and occasionally howling. He covered some ground two. He started out heading north from where I was (I never did see him, although I'd guess he was no more than about 100 feet from me when he shot), it sounded like he got quite a ways away...But then later, after I had headed south a ways down into a creek bed, I could still hear him carrying on, but now he was quite a ways south of where I was. I'd guess he walked at least two miles hollering like that. The only thing that I could think of is that he had winged a coyote. I had seen a whole bunch of tracks in the vicinity of his shot earlier.

Speaking of my neck of the woods, here's an oddity from my town:

That's right. In TL, you can pull a bottle of Coke out of a dead NASCAR driver's groin.

T.G. Aught-Five. Jagga

Thanksgiving was good as always. I think that the thing I like best about massive turkey dinners is that between the preparation and stuff-yourself-to-the-gills feasting, one can really feel like they've accomplished something. Here's some pictures, but check out Cindy's blog for more.


There is a subtle difference between these two pictures. Can you spot it?

Picture A: Cindy pretends to carve, Ethan looks on...Think "Better Homes and Gardens" cover or something. Picture B: Scruffy Brandon does some actual carving.

I usually don't get to eat in peace. Of course, Cindy never does, and at least cute pictures get taken when I'm being disturbed.

Picture A: Ethan's school "I'm a pilgrim" thing. Picture B: Want a treat?

Love Those 80's

There should have been a movie made in the 80's about a kid who got picked on a lot. But he still kicked a lot of ass, did it with the prom queen, and just wanted to rock out.

And this could have played during the credits.

And he could have worn a decepticon t-shirt throughout most of the film.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm A Lumberjack, And I'm Not Okay.

Because I'll be here at work until freakin' ten. With a headache. And I'll miss "Prison Break" (I'm pretty pathetic...). But I did coin a new word today...

"Suckulation."

As in: The water in the special FACS chiller is no longer moving. The pump must have lost all suckulation.

Simon and I tend to make up new words and phrases with some regularity. Unfortunately, it's usually when someone with a less than perfect grasp of the English language is in the lab asking us questions. So we have little doubt that some poor, foreign post doc or visiting scientist has used "binning issues," or "digital signal differential biasing (my favorite - think about it - those combined words = nothing)" in a talk, or suggested that a FACS operator somewhere else try "tweaking a pot." For other imaginary words, e-mail the hell out of Keith. (Okay, probably, don't, but I don't want to sound like too much of a self inflating genius). Keith taught me such useful terms as "torquetion," "grabbity," and "gription."

Woad to your mother.

(Blogger just tried to replace "freakin'" with "foreskin.")

What Does It All Mean, Basil?

As I was puttering around in the yard a week or so ago, something unusual caught my eye. Laying underneath what used to be the day lilies was a pink plastic bubble, of the variety that falls out of the vending machines one finds at supermarkets. Inside of said bubble was the most wondrous piece of plastic I have ever layed eyes on.


Santos...It rolls off the tongue.

Who could this penitent man be? After exhaustive research, I discovered that his name is Santos. Repenting after a life of crime because he is the last of four brothers left alive in the hood.

What does this mean? Why did this small harbinger of greater things appear in my yard? Is it from an errant child, tossing his toys out of the car window in a petulant act whilst traveling past my house? Are the neighbor's trying to tell me something about what they think of my way of life by bombarding my house with cheap trinkets? Am I supposed to get down on my knees and pray, because the shit's about to hit the proverbial fan? I guess it will all be one of life's great mysteries, that will no doubt haunt me until the end of my days.

Sign me,
Fascinated in the ADK's

What In The Samhain?!

Halloween was fun this year. The boy wore the same costume as last - going to a new school has some perks. The little one was a kitty. Much candy was gathered (go to Cindy's blog for a picture of that), very little candy was given out (see Cindy's blog to hear how we got rid of the stuff we'd bought). (Just go to Cindy's blog. You'll only get pictures and crappy humor here). Woad.

Oh, and yes, I'm still alive, employed, not currently on vacation, and handsome (kinda).

The pictoriographical representations of our Halloween celebrations:

I have no freakin' idea where that last picture came from. I don't even remember Flickring it...

Maybe we had so few Trick-Or-Treaters because our front porch was so spooky, in a very Martha Stewartish way.

Cindy got many Halloween related objects that were methodically destroyed by the toddler:

I've got some silent film of this episode if anyone's interested.


We like video games in this house...


He was three things: A kitten, a devil, and an angel.

Connor's interest in candy goes only as far as being fascinated by the garish wrappers.

Not much else new in my world, but boy it sure seems like I've been busy - work's been hectic, I've been going at the attempted deer slaying every morning I have off, and there's always something involving kids, pets, or the house to do.

Tune in next time, same bat-place, same bat-channel.
(By the way, if you're a geek like me, check out Batman Begins. Probably the best bat-movie made yet. If you're a geek like me, you've probably already seen it.)

Snow Country, Part Two

Since I worked late yesterday, I came in late today. And since it had stopped snowing and rain is on the forecast, I took that opportunity to go hunting. A beautiful day in the woods, I even saw some deer, lots of deer tracks, and some odd tracks from some small mammal that I couldn't ID. Made it in to work by 11:00. But at work, the power was out, so everyone had gone home, and thus I could have stayed out longer. Of course the power came back on shortly after I got back, and I guilted myself into staying since the books for the benchtop instruments are pretty full and Simon's already left. Random acts of responsibility suck. I probably won't do any actual work today, I'll just be on hand in case someone breaks one of the machines.

For my fellow music nerds: I was pleased to see that geek rock king Rivers Cuomo of Weezer is going back to school. Pleased because the two best Weezer albums (The Blue Album and Pinkerton, duh) were made after Rivers subjected himself to the punishments of stints of higher education.

B out...

Snow Country

Here's pictures of the dog on Saturday night:


That snow disappeared, but it got replaced today:



And here's a delicious meat pie I made for dinner a while back. The "B" is for "Beef," mmmmmm. Meat pie.

The stove was cleaned shortly after this picture was taken...

Monday Madness, Tuesday Torpor

If anyone checks out the links I have off to the side (over there ⇒) Peter shared with us the changing weather we've had of late. Snow last Saturday. Up to a foot by tomorrow (I doubt it - it hasn't even started falling yet - no, wait, yes it has). I'll post a picture I took when I get around to flickring.

Speaking of pictures - if there's any anonymous rich people that happen across this blog entry and want to donate to me my own camera, I'll send you my mailing address. I'd like to take some pictures when I'm out and about, but Cindy barely lets me out in the yard with her camera (for good reasons! I do try to take care of it though!). Like the weird balloon shooting range I found whilst stalking game last Saturday. Or the myriad natural wonders I see when walking through the woods. Or the crazy redneck trailers that are parked all up and down Route 30 right now.

Does anyone know how to do screen grabs so that a picture/webpage can be saved and posted? It would have helped with my links that didn't work as planned on the last post. I remember learning how at some point in a college course, but damned if I can remember it now.

Okay. Here's a question for the ages. I'm working late again today. Right. So I brought in extra food for lunch, figured I'd have a snack with the leftovers before I start my infected sort at 5:00. Simon and I debated whether it would be better to eat a snack later, or gorge myself at lunch time. Without bringing any personal issues involving gluttony into the discussion, which would be a better way to operate? Answer in 3000 words or more, submitted on $20's.

Fun With Magellan

In anticipation of hunting I've been playing with my GPS unit - in many ways I've been learning how to use it in place of blindly stumbling around with it in order not to get lost - ie using all of those bells and whistles that it's got. Here's some digging I did with coordinates I had saved on it:

This is where all of the other men in my family are right now - hunting camp in Twisp, WA. Kinda wish I was there right now. The white line that runs N-S on the map is the logging road we ride up in the morning. It's 4 miles if we go all the way to the top. To the east you can see Loup Loup(sp) ski area - the littlest ski hill on earth (probably not really, but it's small). Our camp lies just south (I think) of Highway 20 on the map:

So the stars in slightly the wrong spot...

Anywho, we usually come from the west when driving in to camp. But the last year I lived in Washington - not the last year I went to camp, mind you - Cindy and I came in from the east via the North Cascades Highway. I don't think there's a more beautiful drive in the country. You pass scenic alpine lakes, craggy mountains, rocky gorges. Mostly pristine. Sometimes looking down hundreds or more feet at rivers and lakes. I recommend it to anyone. Coordinates to camp - 48 22.375 -119 56.938.

And for my friends in the Ellensburg area - the last time I was through Ellensburg to bird hunt (unsuccessfully) I found a skull from a young big horn ram. It's probably nice and clean by now (or dust). The coordinates are 47 08.152 -120 22.063 if anyone's interesting (its up Cook Canyon, I think. Or maybe Coleman Canyon - go get it, Pittses). An aerial is here, it should be just east of the road, if I remember correctly. A GPS unit of decent quality should get you within a couple of feet. And here's a map:

This time, the star appears to be in roughly the right spot.

Enough tech nerding - I need to get to bed so I can go do some Elmer Fudding tomorrow...

I've Been...Busy?

Or something. Since last I've posted, I've done a few things. But nothing picture worthy, and thus, nothing post worthy.

I fought and won a war with fleas - The dog has flea medication but the buggers still lived in the shop. So I brushed bug repellent into his coat and out him out on his run, then bombed the shop. No more fleas. Haven't seen Cooper scratch once since last Saturday. The dog also barks in the middle of the night now to let me know he has to pooh. Which is good, I'd prefer getting up to cleaning up. But last night it was cold (supposed to be colder tonight), and after he crapped, he ran off into the trees. There I stood in my PJ's on the porch, watching his curly tail bob off into the darkness. He came back eventually.

I took yesterday off to stay home with Connor while Cindy took Ethan to Burlington to have a weird inverted hair follicle thingy on his arm checked out. A poly-something-noma to those in the know. I ate much bad food, played much guitar, played much with baby, felt like a lump about the time Cindy got home. Today I have grumpy tummy from my sedentary and dietary day.

Today I got to come in late! So I could work late! And then the internets were out all day, so I had multiple hours of nothing to do! Joy!

Woad. B, out...

Incense And Peppermints, The Color Of Thyme

Nothing new to report - the weather's been too bad here in the ADK's to get up to anything at all. No jogs with the dog, no kids playing out in the yard. Just wetness. I'll probably be cooped up all weekend too.

But I think I'll make tortilla soup one night, and that always makes me happy...

Woad

Tuesday Is Monday

And the sample I'm running right now is l-u-m-p-y. Constant tweaks of the differential knob needed to keep things running at all.

One thing that happened to us this weekend that I failed to mention yesterday is that Cindy and I undertook amateur treadmill repair to absolutely NO success. The treadmill's been on the fritz for six weeks or so - it started making a small grinding or whisking noise, then seized up and wouldn't go. At all. So Cindy makes a call to the home office of whoever, and some lady that's hundreds or maybe thousands of miles away insists that it's got to be the circuit board that controls the speed of the thing, and don't worry, we're at the tail end of the warranty she'll send one on out. We get the thing, Cindy connects it, we turn the treadmill on, and...Nothing. I crank on the motor and - surprise - it's seized. Just like Cindy had trie to tell the lady. At first we thought maybe one of the kids had managed to drop something in under the shroud that covers all the moving parts, but no, it's just a piece of $#!%. But it has a longer warranty. Cindy makes another phone call. End result: motor received last week. So Saturday - or maybe Sunday, I set about replacing the old with the new. I follow the included directions to the T. All wires are connected properly. All belts are now in place. Next step - plug in, turn on, adjust speed.

Plug in. Check

Turn on....Oh Shit! Fire! One of the transistors on the newly replaced speed control board sparks, pops, flames, smokes. We unplug and try to determine if I hooked it up wrong (no).

But now what? Time to play phone tag again, I guess. I'm mostly frustrated because the weather's starting to get cold enough that I know I won't want to run outside much after this month, but I'm finally feeling like I'm getting into shape...And now my yuppie health luxury is broken. Not to mention I was looking forward to giving my joints a chance to heal on it's shock absorbing belt over the next few months.

We also took the pets to the vet Saturday. The cat was amazingly clean and healthy, according to the vet. Amazing, seeing as how we rescued him from trailer trash that left him locked up on their porch after they moved out. Sadly, for him, he'll be minus two bodily protrusions sometime before the end of the month. But he'll be allowed inside after that. The dog, however, had fleas and tapeworms, both of which have been treated successfully, but sick me out nonetheless.

Sunday I also went out looking for places to chase whitetails in two weeks time. Man, I live in a cool spot. If one can find their way away from people with long established hunting camps, there's some cool countryside to explore. I even managed to see some deer - noisy dog in tow and all.
How was your weekend?

Anybody know what it would mean if one "talks in maths?"

Bloggin's Back To Normal

I get the day off today - Yay! I don't recall celebrating Columbus Day back in Sea-Town, so a mid October day off is something special. I guess. I'll blog normal today, a respite from my recent rambling ways.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my own - here's a few:

Here's the fam with the three pumpkins that survived Deer, dogs, kids, etc.

Kinda looks like I shot them within the span of about 1.5 seconds, eh? Truth is, we just couldn't get Connor to stop throwing his pumpkin!

Here's E-Nut with the custom pumpkin I "made" for him:

They will still orange up indoors, right?


The big pumpkin is flattened more than it's big. Are they supposed to be rotated during growth? I was worried that I would break the stems.


Disregard the chubby, greasy man in the background. Both kids have problems eating or drinking without making a mess!


I'm still taking my guitar lessons, although about all the instructor is trying to teach my right now is techniques in tossing the pick into the soundhole. I's really hard to do rockstar poses with little hands feeding a steady stream of picks into the nearest guitar. They (the picks) even disappear sometimes, only to be found in one of the guitars that I haven't played in a while.


I'll probably get into trouble since Cindy took these pictures. She took the kids to the park while I was yogging with the dog, and in between bouts of misbehavior, the boy managed to sit still long enough to have a Monarch land on him.

B, Out...

Arthursday3 - A Day Late And More Than A Dollar Short

I recently saw some pictures on Fark of this years DragonCon. From what I understand, DragonCon is a yearly meeting of Übernerds that gather mostly to compare Star Wars costumes and quote obscure Sci Fi to each other. But...


These two images pretty much sum up my entire childhood in a nutshell. Minus Jar Jar.

I don't know whether I should be proud or ashamed.

Okay. Here's a new artists website that I've been looking through. The person(guy?)'s name is Jinyoung Shin. The art is bizarre - cool/weird symmetry to most of it; "anime outlandish" style (you'll see); figures that are often androgynous; and many rock and roll poses. Here's examples, tell me how much you hate them...


Wham, Bam, Thank You Glam

His site's as odd as his style - wierd, rambling commentary/stories, I don't know. But peruse the galleries - he's got some cool stuff. I especially like that many of the people's limbs are see-through or something. I don't know. I look forward to hearing how much some of you despise my taste in art...

B...Out!