Week long crazyness...

It's been a bit of a crazy week. I had a hard time finding time for myself, much less time for this blog. Sometimes I can't believe that a single guy like me gets so caught up in stuff that all my time is taken. Since I don't have a family to worry about and take care of one would think that I would have all the time in the world. Not so.

I did have a little time yesterday to have Emily and Kristin over for swimming and some delicious brats and kraut while watching about 5 different college football games.

Plus I got this great picture of Kristin and Charlie. He loves her. I think to him she must smell just like MilkBones.

So goes my week...

I have something to say...

Hey it's me, Charlie. What's up.
You don't hear many dog rants but I have one.
Who is in charge of the lizards in my yard? There's about a Go-zillion of the damn things around here and frankly, they are annoying me. They run along the fence like they own the freakin' place then stop just out of reach. Pisses me off. It's just not playing fair. Someone needs to do something.
And don't get me started on the taste. Have you ever caught one of the little bastards and accidentally bit into it? Definitely tastes like ass.. not my ass, some other ass. They should taste good like wiener or something.
Whatever.
And WTF is the deal with the red bandanna? Are there no other colors?
It's apparent that someone has no taste...

If you're gonna live in Florida...

If you're gonna live in Florida ya gotta put up with the bugs.

I snapped this picture about 6:30 this evening. This bad boy is a very common spider here in north central Florida.
You can't really get a true picture of how big this sucker is but if you were to lay a ruler from the tip of the upper left leg to the tip of the lower right leg it would measure about 5 inches. And this one is only average. I've seen them half again as big. If you smack them hard enough with a board they fly a long way!!

If you wonder where I found it let me give you a hint. The horizontal boards in the background are the ceiling rafters of my back patio. Yep, this friendly feller was hanging outside my house. I guess he was trying to make a quick meal out of the flying bugs that buzz around in the evening. He looked a little extra hungry and I noticed him eyeing Charlie so I told him to stay clear.

Some people call them Banana Spiders, some call them Wood Spiders.

I call him dead...

Shrouded in black...

My beloved Huskers fell to #1 USC. I am truly shrouded in a black mood. You can see my wonderful barbecue grill, where I work flesh charring magic, displaying my true feelings.
I know, it isn't healthy to let a game get you down, but I was hoping for an upset. I wanted those Trojans from the Left Coast to go home in shame with their tails tucked between their legs. But it wasn't to be.
I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from all true Husker fans all over the country.
I guess someday I'll feel better. Like maybe next week if we can win against those punks from Ball State. Yeah, that's the ticket. A win!! It might soothe my burning soul and let me live another day.
Who would name their team after a condom anyway...

Shitty day...

Shitty, shitty, shitty...

The story is everywhere...

Today is the sixth anniversary of the day that terrorists came into my county and destroyed several buildings and thousands of lives. It's all over radio and TV. Flags are being flown half mast. People are remembering where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.
After six years I still can't figure out how one group of people can kill another group of people in the name of God. The God I know is a loving being who wouldn't condone those actions. I know because He told us all about it, and I quote: "Thou shalt not kill". It doesn't say "unless you do in in my name" at the end of the quote. It just says don't kill.
Don't kill.
Don't.
Kill.
I wonder how those people are going to spend eternity in the spiritual world that waits for us after our days on earth. Will they "burn in hell"? Or will they get all those virgins and live in paradise?
Whatever.
The human spirit in me has an awful hard time forgiving. That's the other thing my God tells me to do.
Forgive? Maybe.
Forget?
Never...

The Shipyards are open...

Progress on the kayak is coming along nicely. I wasn't expecting to get this far along this quickly but I have a tendency to get completely focused on a project at the cost of other chores. That's why my lawn sometimes looks a little ragged.

Anyway, I got the hull assembled today. Here's a couple of pictures.

Tomorrow I'll begin laying the epoxy fillets and fiberglass tape and coating all the wood with liquid epoxy. I think this is going to be messy!!

I will need to take a few hours off tomorrow since my beloved Huskers will be playing on TV at noon. GO BIG RED.

I guess I'll take the rest of the day off...

A day at the office for Charlie...

Thats a good boy, Sparky...

Back to the salt mines...

Tomorrow it's back to the office. I took Friday off so I had a nice 4 day weekend which was relaxing but short. I progressed nicely on the kayak, I got the hull planks mostly cut out and lots of the little parts done. There is one problem on the bilge plank where the plans have conflicting dimensions. It's only a quarter of an inch, but when the plans tolerances are 1/16", a quarter inch is too much to fudge. So tomorrow I'm going to call CLC and get an answer or some suggestion as to how to proceed. I'm getting excited to actually start putting it together but not looking forward to the fiberglassing part, but maybe it's because I've never done it before?? When I get some decent progress I'll post us some pictures.
Overall, it was a decent weekend spent mostly at home with Charlie.
Did I tell you I'm also taking this coming Friday off...

The Good, the Bad and the Charlie...

Good things that happened yesterday:
1. HUSKERS WIN!!!
2. We started putting the kayak together.
3. Runza's for dinner (only a tiny bite for Charlie).
4. Spending part of the day with Emily.
5. Finding out that Sam Adams Oktoberfest is good this year.
Bad thing that happened to me.
1. I got a huge blister on the heal of my left hand from cutting the scarf joints on the kayak.
Good thing that happened to Charlie
1. New bone from PetSmart.
Is it obvious that it didn't take much for us to have a good day???

Today is the day of days...

Nebraska football. I've had full body chill bumps about a hundred times already and it's still 4 hours until game time.
You've got to go over to Wallys' blog and check out the awesome video he posted today.
I'm too excited to post up much more so
GO BIG RED...