Can't anything go right the first time?

Well, we finally got our new Comcast phone service installed today. It has been exactly 1 month since they first called and offered the service to us. I usually don't jump at phone solicitor's offers, but this one saved us some money and we already had Comcast phone service, so I thought, what the heck.

After about 30 minutes of arguing the finer points of my bill with the saleswoman, she finally agreed that she couldn't save me $40 off my current bill. How could she when I pay almost $30 in taxes? That subject, I will leave for another time. Anyway, after deciding to take the new service, the lady setup a date for my install. It made me angry that I needed to take a day off work so they could give me a new phone modem and start charging me $3 per month for it. "I already have a Comcast modem and don't pay a $3 fee, so why should I have to start? Please explain the value added in this new modem that will justify the $3 per month charge?" Yeah, right, I won't bother repeating their answer to that question. Trust me, it was short and didn't actually answer my question.

Hold on, the Comcast guy is here again...

Back now. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so I set up the install date and then December 13 came and went with no installer. I called Comcast to ask why no one showed up and they told me that it was because they had no record that I even ordered the service. Ugh. Well, after some arguing, they finally set up an install date for December 23, today.

Now, the day started out well. The installer showed up early and got the phone going in about 15 minutes. They were really only swapping a modem, so it wasn't too bad. All was well until I tried to call Comcast to set up the online piece of everything. The phone just went dead. I called Comcast back on my cell and waited on hold for 35 minutes before talking to someone. The phone rep said he was going to send the technician back out.

About an hour later, the technician showed up and got the phone working again. It was a clerical error on their end. Oh well, everything was fine now, or so I thought. When I tried to setup the voicemail, the phone just rang busy. I had no caller ID either. Grrrr.....it still wasn't right.

Now, I have taken 2 breaks from writing this and I am back at home, on hold with Comcast tech support. Oh well, if you are looking for a funny story, check out this one on Letterman. Found it while on hold.

I just got off the phone with a nice Comcast woman and I am now all set. Or am I????

A few thoughts for a snowy day...

Okay, so I haven’t written in a while. I know, I know, you see a post here every couple of months that read exactly the same way. So sue me! No, really, don’t sue me. A couple of things on my mind and things I have come across below:

For the parents who have a ton of toys that go unused: www.toyswap.com. You can swap your unwanted toys for toys that your kids want. There is a $1 fee per swap, but that is a small price to pay for getting rid of unused toys and clearing up space.

It’s that time of year again as the first real Winter Death Storm of the year is almost upon us. Actually, we kind of had a Death Storm Jr. last week, but it was pretty tame compared to the 5-13 inches predicted today. Add to the snow, a good base of freezing rain and you just cranked up a real sweet storm! Stay tuned because Michigan weather, as everyone knows, could produce a little rain and then nothing. It is a surprise that rivals a kid opening a present on Christmas morning. I can’t wait!

I have been debating on how to drive traffic back to the MacLachlan Family forums . lately. From this, I have come up with a couple of ideas. First, I thought about a reminiscing forum. You know, a forum that you can tell stories and then discuss them. I know that when everyone gets together and tells stories, we all get a lot of laughs. I have been looking for laughs lately, so please, no holding back on the stories. The funnier, the better. Next, well there is no next. That is all I got. Any ideas are welcomed.

From time to time, I hear rumblings about when I am going to update the MacLachlan Family picture gallery. To those people I say, keep your pants on! I will update it soon. Seriously though, I have a vacation coming next week, so I will update everything then.

To Mandy & Chris – Hey, when is the new MacLachlan Family template going to be ready. I have been losing quite a bit of sleep wondering what you are all coming up with. The public is anxiously awaiting the bright new ideas that are to come from the creative department of the MacLachlan Family.

That’s all…out!

Since everyone has a memory post lately

It is funny how a certain time of year will bring out memories of days long ago. My sister just wrote about a few memories of high school and college. My friend Shane just blogged about being married for 5 years and mentioned that this is not where he thought he’d be 8 years ago. So, in honor of Shane and Mandy, I present to you the following list of my memories. It will be a work in progress, so I may add to it at anytime. Also, please do not hesitate to add your own memory to the comments section. I think it will follow in the format of the email forward that I seem to get twice a year, but I will call it, “You know that you grew up in the Clarkston area if:”

You know where Drayton Plains is.
You bought Coke in a glass bottle at Hallmans.
You refer to the golf course on Maybee road as Spring Lake.
You thought Dugan Fife would make it to the NBA.
You thought Dugan Fife would go to the NFL.
You thought any Fife would play professionally.
You knew who any or all of the following people were:
Brent Cooley
Kovo
Uncle Tom
Rumpy
D.R.P.
Darrin Sliwa
You ever visited the Scripps Rd. Monk House.
Ahhhhhhh.......sir.
You ever hung out a Quik Pik after school.
You remember that manager at Little Caesers. *He is actually still there.
DTE Theatre was Pine Knob and it was the place "Where the Stars Shine All Summer Long."
You ever bowled at Zims. (I actually asked to go there a year ago, forgetting Kohl's is there now.
The only mall around was Summit Place and it was the Pontiac Mall.
You ever saw a movie at Clarkston Cinema.
You ever saw a movie at the Pontiac Mall.
Waterford Cinema only cost $1 and there were only 2 screens.
Brandon and Holly were only good at Cross Country and Soccer....right, some things never change.
The coolest job in town was working for Parks and Rec.
Fun Daze
The Village Grill
LeMeads - Yeah, Stu washed the dishes there.
Red Knapps was Alexanders, yeah, before it was Duggans.
Mr. B's was actually some dive called Sam's Town.
There was no Kroger, no Farmer Jack and definately no Rite-Aid.

These are just a few of the memories I have. Feel free to add any you like.

But I can't write about stuff I didn't see.

OK, so Melinda and I were taking Emma for a Golf Cart ride last night when Melinda tells me that I should blog about the dog that got his head caught under our shed last week. I tell her that I can't do that because I did not even see it happen. She doesn't think that it matters, so I am now writing this entry.

Now, before I go on, you must know a little more about this dog. Last fall, Melinda listened to this dog cry all day. Then, when the kids got home from school, Mat thought that the crying was coming from our back yard. After a few minutes of searching, they found the dog crying in the brush behind our house. Now, this is where I can tell this part of the story first hand. So, I get home and see everyone in the backyard, so I walk out there and find this dog. It looked like he broke loose from wherever he was tied up and now his rope was tangled in the brush. Mat and I untangled the dog and gave him some food and water. I know that everyone reading this knows what is coming next. You guessed it, the kids wanted to keep the dog. Yeah, right, as if we don't have enough animals in our house. One dog and 5 kids was enough. Yeah, yeah, I know. We are definately stopping at 6 kids, a rat, rabbit and a dog. For the record, the rat and rabbit stay in the garage. Anyhoo, long story short, we let the dog go and Melinda followed it back to what we thought was his house and let the dog in because the door was open. Did we take a chance with letting a dog into a strange house? Yes, but the owner later called to confirm that our guess was correct.

Jump forward 1 year and Melinda hears a dog crying again. When the kids and her walk out into the yard, they find an old dog standing next to another dog that has his head stuck under our shed. The dog stuck under the shed is none other than the tangled up runaway from last year. After Melinda and Mat used a 4x4 to prop up the shed just enough to get the dog's head out, they took the dog back home.

When Melinda told me this story, I asked her if she took a picture. Her answer was no. At least if she took a picture, I would have the proof that this actually happened. I do not know if this actually ever happened since I didn't see it. I just need to believe that the hole in front of the shed was because the dog dug it and not Mitchell and Christian looking for gold.

Google Earth

If you haven't done so already, download Google Earth. It is by far the coolest way to look at the planet. You can type in your address and it will zoom right in. They have a nifty function that lets you zoom in and fly through a city. The only downfall is that the buildings are grey. I guess that they don't want terrorists looking at the buildings. Who knows. Anyway, download and install it, you won't be sorry.

Emma's favorite place

I'll give you three guesses and no, it is not the zoo. I'll give you a hint, she is my daughter. You guessed it, Best Buy! She could spend house in the place and never get bored. All you have to do is stop by the DVD section, let her pick out a movie and she is set. Well, she is set until she eyes something else that suits her fancy.

So, we stopped at Best Buy tonight after hitting the O.G. (Olive Garden) and I walked Emma through the DVD section. She chose Weekend at Bernies. Then we strolled over to the cordless phone section. Melinda and I were looking at phones since the kids lost one. We cannot find it anywhere. Anyway, while Melinda and I were selecting a phone. Emma selected a phone also. She tried it out and it seemed to fit well, so she called someone and carried on a conversation the whole rest of the way through the store. When it was time to pay, she hung up and tried to sign the credit card pad. We gave back the phone she was using and went our merry way. Actually, I took Emma on a walk while Melinda finished our transaction. When I loaded the phone bag in the car, I was very surprised to see that Melinda had actually bought Weekend at Bernies! The one thing I always do is give back anything Emma picks up. Melinda actually thought I had put it in the cart to buy it. Oh well, I haven't seen it in a long time.

Work, work and more work

Some say that Chrysler's PC Global project will be done in December. I am not one of those people. We are half way through August and we only have about 5000 out of 40000 PCs migrated and no infrastructure at most sites outside of the Tech Center. That being said, one would think that I would not have to work too long or hard, but one would be thinking wrong.

If anyone wonders why I haven't blogged lately, I would point to my work schedule. I have been working until 6 or 7pm every night. Even when I decide to work from home, I still end up putting in extra time. Please do not take this as complaining as I do like the overtime and I know others work longer and crazier hours, but this wasn't in the job description. What was in the job description was working hard, but no overtime. Oh well, things could be much worse.

Tonight we had another Boston Blvd. wing night. We had 3 flavors in attendance tonight: hot, teryaki, and BBQ. Boy of boy were they good. Not the best that Jayson and I have made, but good. The whole street was in the house, but the Knodels. Maybe they think they are too good for us and our wing nights. They always want to be invited, but maybe that is just so they can turn us down. Their loss I guess. More wings for me. After all was said and done, we had to run a covert operation on McKeachie to dispose of the oil. I won't go into much detail, but lets just say, it included 2 golf carts, 1 3millon lumen light, 1 regular flashlight and 4 brother in laws. Use your imagination and I am sure you won't be too far off.

So, it is 1:26am on Sunday morning and I cannot go to sleep, so that is why you get this entry. Anyway, I am getting tired now, so I will stop rambling on and end this post. Stay tuned as I will post again in another month and a half. Just kidding, we shall try to be more dedicated.

John goes to MIS

I got to drive a NASCAR!!!

Kids...Kids and more Kids!

Well, in case you haven't heard, and that would be a miracle since I think everyone has stopped by, Melinda had the baby on Tuesday and it was a boy! I didn't make that last miracle comment for anyone or everyone, it is just that it feels good to know that everyone is so interestd in my baby boy. It makes me happy to know that others are just as excited to see him as I am. Anyway, back to the boy. His name is John Robert MacLachlan IV, but you all can call him TJ. He was 10lbs. 3.4oz. and 21.5". He had a slight complication on the way out as his shoulders would not pass Melinda's pubic bone. When they finally did, he fratured his clavicle. How sad. I feel bad because I don't like to hold him yet because I feel like I am hurting him. I probably need to get over it because I do have the urge to hold him.

In other, less important news, we had lights installed on our golf cart. Now we can get down the road at night and be able to see. They aren't quite as bright as Billy's lights, but hey, you can't have it all. While the cart was in Midland having lights installed, the office lady took it upon herself to change the back seat from white, to buff (tan) and now, all the seats match. Horray for her, as now Jayson has the only cart on the block with a white seat. Maybe he needs to send it to Midland for lights. I am jealous of his hula girl though. Pictures are coming soon.

In case you doubted my 4-Wheeler's jumping ability

You can do a lot of things with a Bobcat and some dirt.

Check out those wheels

Got a sweet deal on wheels and tires from Motor City Golf Cart.

Golf carts, yeah we got 'em

Around these parts we cruise in style!

Whats been going on

It seems that it is getting harder and harder to post here. There are just so many things going on. It has to slow down sometime, right? Last night, Michellee Bachman came over so that I could help her create a video for the Church to use for Easter Sunday service. Anyone who attends our church this Sunday is in for a real treat. Michellee is a demanding director, but she has some awesome ideas and it looks like the video is going to be great. I really wish that we could have taken care of it sooner though, because every day that I am doing the video, that means that I am not working in the basement. Oh well, it will work out.
Speaking of the basement, it is going pretty well. Friday night, Brian and I finished framing the walls and then Saturday, I started the drywall. Saturday was a long day. I worked about 9 hours and got drywall up on 3 of the walls. Sunday, Billy, Jayson and I worked about 3 hours and we hung the rest of the drywall. We got done in just enough time to get the kids ready to go to Church. Yesterday I worked on the Easter video as I said earlier and then we went to dinner with some friends. When we got home, Melinda and I taped the drywall, just to say that we got something done yesterday. Hopefully, today I will get a chance to start mudding. That will all depend on how fast we finish the Easter video.
Melinda, Emma and I only have 3 more days until we get out of dodge! After another 2 hectic days of meetings at work, I am going to be able to rest my brain for 5 glorious days! I can’t wait. Hopefully the weather will be warm.

Free iPods Sucks...I mean stinks!!!

Ok, so it is my personal goal to drive the customer service people at Freeipods.com nuts! They have denied me my free iPod because I have multiple accounts in 1 household. How lame! I think they are just looking for a reason not to give me a free iPod! I have read many stories like mine, so beware! Do not sign up at Freeipods.com! After they gave away just enough iPods to feel legit, they are now finding any way they can not to give up the goods!

Lake Boston rises!

Check out the Baby Name Wizard

Did you ever wonder how popular your name was when you were born? Do you wonder now? Well, Baby Name Wizard will let you enter a name and it will tell you graphically how popular it was over the years.

Hasn't she heard???

If anyone hasn’t already heard, sorry, but I am starting a new job on Monday. Yup, my VW days are almost over. Thursday to be exact. So, I got a call from someone who takes care of our hours reporting system at VW (gedas) yesterday. We have to fill out an online timesheet in addition to the one that I have signed and send to the company I contract through. Anyway, she wants to know why I have been claiming 4 hours of administration time for the past month. I tell her it is because that is what my boss asked me to do. She tells me it is wrong and I should change it. After speaking to the team lead here, we figured out how to claim the 4 hours. Then, this lady, who hasn’t been the nicest, asked me if I understand why it was wrong to claim the hours like I did. Apparently she doesn’t know I am leaving in a couple of days. I told her that it really didn’t matter to me why it was wrong, I was just going to fix it. I am not sure how she took it, but she did say she would unlock my hours and I could re-enter them. After hanging up, I told the team lead that she is very lucky that I am even fixing them. As long as I get paid, I don’t care. We just laughed and carried on with our day. It is exciting to be leaving, but sad at the same time. I really like the people I have worked with and will miss seeing them everyday.

5 minutes always turns into hours with computers!

After church last night, Melinda and I visited the Bachman’s to install an appraisal program for Michellee, so she can type reports in her spare time for extra money. Well, we sat around for a little bit and just talked because the program was only supposed to take 30 minutes to install. We should have known that there is no such thing as an easy install on a PC. After about 30 minutes, Melinda called me in the room to see if I could help configuring the program to send email. When I took a look at the computer, Michellee’s logon was not going online and when I logged on under Pastor Randy’s, there was so much spyware, I really couldn’t do a thing. They had the spyware that doesn’t let you go to any spyware removal sites. Well, after spending some time fooling the spyware program into letting me download an anti-spyware program, it was time to remove all the junk. Well, 30 minutes and 115 spyware instances later, we were ready to go back to Michellee’s logon to try the install of the appraisal program (while scanning for spyware, I figured out what was wrong with Michellee’s internet). This time the install went smoothly, but wouldn’t accept the email address we were trying to use. By this time, it was 11:30pm and we were all getting tired. After creating Michellee an email address through Mel’s Appraisals, we finally got the email thing to work. It would have been nice to call it a night at that point, but there were still updates to load. This took a few more minutes and we finally went home at 12am. Then we had the ice storm to deal with. Argh! Needless to say, I am tired this morning. It was good to fellowship with the Bachman’s though.

NASCAR points, in a nutshell

Ever wonder how a NASCAR race is scored? I know that a lot of people could care less, but Melinda is always asking questions about the fine points of scoring. Well, I have the answers for you! Click HERE to read NASCAR.com’s article on scoring. They even explain the scoring system for the Chase for the Cup.

You gotta love good commercials!

In case you missed Superbowl XXXIX or just want to watch again, check out all the commercials HERE. They have all the commercials from the last 3 Superbowls in case you want to take a trip down memory lane. What was your favorite commercial and why? Discuss it in the FORUMs.

Mitchell's first flight

For those of you who haven’t read the MacLachlan Family forums, Mitchell and my dad got to take a flight with me yesterday. We flew to Detroit, over to Belle Isle and then up the coast for a little bit before heading back to Pontiac. My dad took a few pictures and Mitchell was glued to the window the whole time.
On another note, our house is harboring some sick people. Meagan is just getting over some kind of cold, Melinda has a cold and Emma has come down with her first cold. Now I am no expert on children’s health, but it seems amazing to me that she is almost 9 months old and has never been sick before now. Anyway, the streak is broken.

I'm speechless about this one.

They say it started because of decomposition deep inside the pile. I think that a couple of teenagers thought it would be cool to have the world's largest flaming pile. Check out the article.

www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/28/cow.fire.ap/index.html

For all your costume needs

I know that it is a little early for Halloween, but check out Buy Costumes.com for all your costume needs. Maybe you need an Easter Bunny costume. Guess what, they got it. Need a nice leprechaun costume for St. Patty’s Day? They have that too. Personally, I always wanted a good costume, but the Target, Kmart and Wal-Mart costumes rot. Next Halloween, maybe you will see me in a pirate costume. Maybe I’ll get the gorilla outfit. Who knows. What I do know, Buy Costumes.com rules and their prices aren’t that bad either.

Wow, I just wanted to share a site I thought was cool and after reading my post, I realized that I ended up peddling their product.

Disclaimer: This website referral by MacLachlan…Out! does not constitute an endorsement of the activities of leprechauns, Easter Bunnies and pirates. Actually, if the leprechaun wants to show me the way to the pot of gold, I’ll endorse him.

...And since I am on a roll...Do you need some new Bling Bling? A new hat? Feather boa? Cane? If you answered yes to any of those questions, surf over to Pimp Hats.com. Even if you don't buy anything, the site will give you a chuckle.

Enough silliness. MacLachlan…Out!

I have your real snow right here!

We have about 11 inches of snow right now and it is still coming down!

All this snow has to be plowed. Billy and I plowed his and my driveway, Gordys driveway, Jayson's driveway and Pastor Randy's driveway, not to mention our road, depicted here.

Preview new features before they go live.

Have you ever wanted a sneak peak of something before it was released? Did you miss out on the Gmail beta test? Do you even know what the Gmail beta test is? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then do I have something for you! Even if you answered no to the questions, I still have something for you. Later today or tomorrow, the MacLachlan Family website will be updated and you have a chance to preview a new feature before it is live!!! Check out our NEW and IMPROVED forums by clicking HERE. Just register and give your opinions on everything that is going on. If you have suggestions, post them in the suggestion forum.

I know, I know, it is unbelievable, MacLachlan Family.com is going to be updated. Sorry about the slowness of the updates, but I have lots of pictures to post. Check the site tonight or tomorrow for the new pictures!

P.S. If you would like a free Gmail account, let me know and I will send you an invite. Mandy probably has some invites also.

Ultimate Burger Update

I am feeling a little defeated this morning. My mom just called me to let me know that someone just finished the 6lb burger from Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub. She also told me that the girl, yes, girl is on GMA right now. A quick scan of Denny’s site and GMA’s site turned up nothing, but once I Googled 6lb burger, the evidence to support my mom’s claim quickly surfaced. Check out the following links:

http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=2819450
http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/images_of_the_c.html

Can you believe that the chick was only 100lbs?

The Leaders and Best?

This morning’s Detroit Free Press is reporting that The University of Michigan is planning renovations for Michigan Stadium. At first glance, I thought this was good, but upon closer examination, I became pretty cheesed. First off, I would not necessarily call myself a Michigan Traditionalist. I am ok with the athletic department adding luxury suites and I am all for adding more bathrooms. What I am not ok with is reducing the size of the stadium or staying at the current capacity. Take a look at the article and you will see that the writer sort of dances around the subject of capacity. They are going to widen seats and add suites and box seats, but there is no mention of adding much more capacity. I read the Detroit News article and the Ann Arbor News article and they dance around the subject also. Here is my advice to the athletic department, if you want the fans and alumni to accept your renovations with minimal backlash, INCREASE the size of the stadium. There is demand for the seats. The stadium capacity could be bumped to 114,000 and still sell out. The demand is there. You can talk all you want about luxury suites, no advertising in the stadium and bathrooms, but what matters to the fans and alumni is stadium capacity, specifically being the largest in America. Michigan’s athletic department took so much flak about The Halo, they took it down. Don’t make the same mistake with the renovation this time because it can’t be undone.

UPDATE: Check out the Ann Arbor News Q&A. They asked the tough question of seating capacity and it doesn't look good for the increase.

Raleigh’s version of the Winter Death Storm

Head on over to Mandy's Blog and read about Raleigh’s version of the winter Death Storm. If you want to see pictures and video, check out WRAL. This whole thing is truly amusing. Hey Michiganders, when you want to get frustrated at our stupid drivers, just be glad that you don’t have North Carolina’s. The biggest laugh I got was when I saw some of the pictures from the storm and some of the lawns weren’t even covered. That little snow and so many accidents was hilarious. I know that they don’t have a fleet of huge salt trucks like we do. Actually, from what I hear, they have from zero salt trucks to a small fleet of salt S-10s with mini plows on the front. Anyway, that is no excuse for stupid driving. For anyone who doesn’t know, the MacLachlan crib is located way out in the country on a dirt road and we are one of the last roads that get plowed. I make this point to say that we often get 5 or 6 inches of snow and we don’t have the accidents on our unplowed roads. Yes, we do get the occasional accident on White Lake Road or M-59, but nothing like the pictures on WRAL. We do get accidents on our plowed roads though. I’ll leave that for another entry. Note to all the people representing Raleigh, you folks got a dusting, that is all. When we get that much snow in Michigan, the counties don’t even bother firing up the salt trucks. We just use our potholes to get traction :). In the UP, they think that 6 inches is a dusting, so I guess that this whole thing is all about perspective.

Movies, movies and more movies!!!

If you stop by the MacLachlan household, you will now see that we have some furniture in our front room. The couch and chairs are compliments of Melinda’s grandparents and because her Dad didn’t have any more room at his house. The dining room table and hutch are compliments of my Dad. Now, where can I put the Bowflex? I guess it will have to go to the basement. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, a very special thanks goes to Billy and Brian for helping me to move the dining room furniture from Saline!

This weekend was a movie watching weekend at our house. We had a chance to check out four movies, Paparazzi, Mean Girls, The Village and iRobot. With the exception of The Village, I enjoyed all of the movies. I didn’t expect much from Paparazzi and Melinda and I both were pleasantly surprised. It had action, a couple of twists and two cameos. All in all, it was enjoyable.

Mean Girls was pretty funny. I didn’t really expect more than some juvenile laughs and this movie didn’t disappoint. It took me back to the day of the funny teen movie. For those of you who didn’t know, the brunette who played Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) was the same girl who played Claudia Salinger in Party of Five. After Brian made a comment about how hot she was, I told him that she was the little girl in Party of Five and he couldn’t believe it.

The Village held so much promise for me. Melinda wouldn’t even watch it because it looked too scary. Wow, her perception of this movie couldn’t have been more off. After watching this flaming pile of dog doo, I can’t believe that it came from the same guy who did Signs, Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Those movies were good, but this one was terrible. DO NOT see this movie. It was terrible. Not scary, the monster was stupid (If you watch the movie, you will see how stupid), and even a twist at the end couldn’t help.
The kids and I watched iRobot yesterday and even though I saw it this summer, it was still enjoyable the second time. Now, if you are a Will Smith fan, you need to see this movie. It really wasn’t as good as some of his other summer blockbusters, but he has his customary one-liners and action sequences. On the 55” beast, this movie was visually awesome!!!

The MacLachlan Family now has HD!!!

My laptop auction is now over and I am glad to say that it brought in $750 dollars to put toward my new 55” TV. Look for more auctions coming soon. Here is just a preview of what I am thinking about selling to finish paying form my new TV:

VW 6-CD Changer
Sony MiniDisc Player w/ blank Mini Discs
Dish Network Receiver
Minolta Maxxum 5 Camera

Speaking of my TV, it is now set up and producing wonderful HDTV pictures for our family to enjoy. I ended up going with this model: KDF55WF655 because it was still 55”, but it had the footprint of the 50” TV. There is a guy at work who is going to buy the same TV and he says that it was rated #1 by Consumer Reports. Just in case anyone is wondering, I was in rare dealing form the night that we bought it. You all know that Best Buy isn't like ABC Warehouse in the way that ABC will wheel and deal, but I am happy to say that the TV was on sale at Best Buy and I still got them to lower the price quite a bit from the sale price!!! Brian and I put an antenna on our roof this weekend to receive over-the-air HD signals and man is it impressive! The antenna is pulling in channels from as far south as Toledo and as far north as Saginaw! Now, all I have left is to add ESPN HD to my dish and I will be set.

Fog so thick, you can cut it with a knife!!!

For those of you who live outside of Michigan, we had some thick fog yesterday. We even had a 100-car pileup on I-96 just outside of Lansing. If you want to see an example of the fog, or just want to see video of the accident, click HERE. The fog was so thick in the White Lake area that we couldn’t even see our neighbor’s house. Heck, I couldn’t even see 50ft in front of me when I was driving home. It’s a good thing I didn’t have a flight lesson yesterday or I would have been cancelled for sure.

Auction Craziness!!!

Last night on the news, I saw another funny auction. This guy is auctioning off his forehead as advertising space on Ebay!!! Check it out HERE. Ok, my thoughts on this are, why didn’t I think of it first!!! The money he is getting, clearly would have helped me make a whole home theater room in my basement. So, why don’t I advertise? Well, if you check it out, none of the copycats are getting near the amount of cash as the original guy. He got all the media attention, so his dome is prime real estate. Following are a few of the copycats I picked out (Click on the names to view their auctions):

Poser Guy - This guy is the anti-original. He doesn’t drive a minivan. I have news for him, driving a minivan doesn’t make someone uncool. I would know. Coolness is something you are born with. Most Ebay users know this, thus there are no bids at this time. Or, it could be that he is asking too freaking much to rent his forehead!

Dog Guy – He is offering up his dog as well as his head for advertising space. If you think about it, this isn’t a great deal unless the dog takes walks with lots of different people. On the plus side, he is paying to have a doggie sweater made while all the other auctions seem to put the burden of creating and paying for the advertisement on the auction winner. He is giving half of his proceeds to the tsunami victims, so that is good. All I have to say about him is, he jumped on the forehead bandwagon and now he is jumping on the tsunami bandwagon. Hey, if the Detroit Lions are good next year, he will probably jump on that bandwagon.

Girl Power – Ok, you knew there had to be one of these. This man’s women has offered up her breast to the advertising world. She even offered up her construction working husband for a bonus advertising space. Unlike the last husband-wife team, this woman chose to concentrate on what she believes is deal maker part of her auction. By the way, this woman is from Macomb, Michigan. I am sorry to say she is representing our state in this latest craze.

Classic Advertising - Is there no limit to who will accept forehead advertising? Check her feedback, this granny is an Ebay juggernaut! You can trust her because she sells battery operated bug swatters when she is not auctioning her forehead. If you are a good negotiator, maybe you can get her to advertise on the forehead of her “huge pile of great-grandkids.”

Anything Goes – If you noticed, all the other auctions do not allow vulgar logos or language. With this guy, anything goes. He will put anything on his head.

UPDATES!!!

With all the hype that our latest Winter Death Storm(tm) had, it was sure weak. I know, I know, it isn’t over yet and we still could get a couple more inches, but geez, is that all we are going to get out of the monster storm? A measly 4 inches? Oooo, Death Storm(tm), I’m sooooo scared. Please don’t dump too much snow on me. Please spare me from the bad road conditions. Ok, I’ll stop. So, all the schools are closed today and I would have to say that travel may have been worse yesterday. Sure, it took me a little longer to get to work today, but that was because there was an accident on M-59 today and I stopped to get gas. It only took me about 15 more minutes to get to work. I could have easily spent 5 of the 15 minutes getting gas though. Maybe I am taunting the storm a little, but maybe I just wanted the weather monkeys to be right for once. I would have loved the day off and a chance to see how high I could get the snow piles at the end of my driveway.

THIS JUST IN: Utica schools are open. Congrats to Utica for not backing down to the winter bully storm.

So, my Ebay auction is going pretty well. As of this morning, the bidding is up to $595 and I have drawn the attention of one Nigerian guy who wants to buy my laptop for his daughter. He wants to pay me $1800 plus shipping for it. Yeah, right. A quick search of Google will tell you that this is a scam. Oh well, you know what they say about things too good to be true. Anyway, if you want to read a similar question to the one I got from my Nigerian scammer, here is the link for it:

NIGERIAN EBAY SCAM

Speaking of my new TV, I have spoken to a salesperson at ABC Warehouse and he seems to be giving me the best deal and I haven’t even set foot in the place yet. You know, they are the closest thing to wholesale! Coming in a close second is Hod’s Home Theater. Hods can deliver quicker and they even will set up your TV and make sure it works and you know how to use it before they leave. I don’t think that I would have any problem figuring out how to use it, but I do like the setting it up feature of their delivery. We shall see which way I decide. Does anyone out there have HDTV? How do you get it, cable company, dish, or over the air? Any good deals out there? Let me know what you think.

Storms, TVs and such.

So, the second Winter Death Storm (Thanks for the name Stu) is in full swing now. It made things a little tougher to get to work this morning as the roads were covered with snow, but all in all, only added about 5 minutes to my drive. It seems that the eye is passing over right now because it is strangely calm at the moment. I just checked out the weather map and it looks like the storm is going to crank up in a few hours. You know, it is like a water fight that you think is over, so you turn around and open your eyes, just to get a bigger splash in your face. Hmmm….a summer water fight sounds good right about now. Anyway, I am looking forward to firing up the 4-Wheeler when I get home to plow. As I said before in a previous post, I don’t think the plow thing will ever get old.

Hey, check out my Ebay auction. I am selling my laptop and some other things so I can purchase what I really crave, the Sony 55” Grand Wega HDTV. I had considered the 60”, but with our entertainment center situation, that may be a little large. Oh well, I guess I will have to settle for the 55. :). Now, all that is left is to go to ABC Warehouse and wheel and deal for a low low price. If I play my cards right, I may even be able to watch the Super Bowl on it.
With all the crappy weather lately, I haven’t been able to fly that much. I was able to fly on Monday though. My instructor told me that I should be doing my solo in my next one or two lessons. Pray for the weather to hold out so I can solo possibly next week. Also pray that I pass my flying physical.

Strange things happen in Canada

Ok, this is guy is stupid, but don’t call him lazy:

Christmas Tree Crime

So, if I was going to trespass and steal a Christmas tree, I would cut the tree down, load it into a pickup and then haul it away. That way, there would be no trail of pinecones and needles. This guy lived in Winnipeg, not the most populated place in the world. Why didn’t he just drive out to the forest to perpetrate his crime. He could have cut down the tree, loaded it, enjoyed Christmas and not been caught. Maybe he was lazy since he didn’t drive to the outskirts of town to cut down a tree. Anyway, his story is that he bought the tree from a door-to-door salesman. Nice! Now he is getting charged with receiving stolen property. All I can do is shake my head to this one.