Last week at the store I saw a beer not only had I never had, but I had never heard of before. Of course this meant I must purchase one in order to sample it. I had placed it in the refrigerator to cool and promptly forgot about it. That is until today. I was supposed to have the power company come out so my electrician could do the last bit on the electrical. They where supposed to disconnect the power to the house so he could work on the external hook up before the city inspector comes. Originally ComEd was supposed to be here on Monday, they didn't show, so the electrician rescheduled for today, and again they didn't show. Sigh. I was rather frustrated and decided I needed something to drink, meaning water, not alcohol.

Once I opened the fridge I saw my bottle of Wychwood Hobgoblin Dark English Ale. I figured this would be as good of time as any to try it out.

According to the label it's a "Full bodied & well balanced with a chocolate toffee malt flavour, moderate bitterness & a distinctive fruity character with a ruby red glow" ~Jeremy Moss, Head Brewer.

It didn't take me long to realize this is a type of beer that I just don't like. It's not that it's bad; it's just got a bit of a flavor I don't care for. First off, it does have a slight fruity flavor that lingers on the tongue. Towards the end of the beer it does tend to be more malty, but not badly so. This is one of those beers that I think tastes better slightly warm as opposed to chilled. The aftertaste can be strong, but it doesn't last too long. If you don't like bitter beers stay away from this one, it's not overly bitter in my opinion, but it did have a bitter bite to it. Maybe it's because it's English, but I swear it really had a toffee flavor to it. I know the label says it does, but so do many others. This one however made me want to go get a Heath bar.

About now one of my few English readers that like this beer is about to blow a gasket and throw out the typical insult of, "Americans just don't have the sophisticated taste for European beer." Nah, that's not true. I like a lot of European beers. This, however, is not one of them. Again, it's not a horrible beer. It's just not the type of beer I like.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate this beer about a four.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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GAH! She left! She left me! She left me to go to Chicago for 3 whole days! She didnÂ’t learn from last time. IÂ’m not Single Dad again. Of course to make matters most difficult, my first day I have to work until 6:00 PM, which means I had to make arrangements for Clone. That made life a little bit more interesting.

By the time I got home tonight it was well after 6:30 PM. Dinner wasnÂ’t done until 7:00 PM. Yes, I admit I made a crappy cheap and easy meal. It took clone all of 15 minutes to decide he didnÂ’t want it and throw it onto the floor. He wanted his mama. GAH!!!! Finally I put him to bed; well I attempted to put him to bed. We could not find his favorite stuffed AnimalÂ… the poisonous tree frog. We also couldnÂ’t find a pacifier. After twenty minutes of searching we finally found one. It was hidden behind the couch.

I know at one time we had close to 10 of the damn things, but where they are at now, no one knows. Well no one in this house at least. I think Ktreva might now where they are at, but sheÂ’s not here.

Tomorrow I have to rush from work, get the boys, run home meet the electrician (Com Ed is cutting power to our house so he can finish up). That should be fun with Clone. HeÂ’ll be nice and happy to play with, especially with no power.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:27 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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The other day I was sitting on the computer playing Age of Empires III. ItÂ’s one of my favorite games. There is just something satisfying about building up an army and then decimating your opponent. Especially when I have a bunch of Indian allies that I can turn loose upon the unsuspecting settlers. When I hear their death screams itÂ’s soothing. Much like the relaxing sound of a soft rain on a warm summers evening.

Clone comes over and decides he wants to watch me play. ThatÂ’s not unusual, he also is fascinated by the settlers death cries. This time he decided that instead of getting his own chair, he wanted to sit on my lap. Sure, no problem. Maybe itÂ’s harder to play, but I was getting toward the end of the game and I pretty much had already won. All I had to do was send the amassed army of 50 natives, 30 cavalry, 80 infantry and 18 artillery against the unsuspecting French. All was going well.

Then Clone looks up onto the computer desk and sees my Silent Bob Action Figure. He points at it and says, “That’s you, dada!” Looking at where he’s pointing, I chuckle and try to explain that no, no that’s not me at all. Clone looks at me like I am on crack and with all the seriousness a 3 year old has states, “No, that’s you!” Trying to argue with a 3 year old is an exercise in futility. However, I’m a stubborn man, so I tried. For 20 minutes I argued with him that it was not me, it was in deed Silent Bob. Apparently Clone is also stubborn, he must get it from his mother. At the end of twenty minutes I gave up. Telling him, “You’re right. That’s me.” I was hoping that would shut him up.

Did that work?

Hell no! Looking me in the eye, in all seriousness he says, “Dada, you tell the truth! It’s naughty to lie. You can’t say it’s not you!” Then he kept going on about how I have a statue of myself. I was torn between laughing from the loss of sanity to duct taping him to the ceiling fan.

I can see where he might think it looks like me. We both have facial hair. WeÂ’re both bigger guys, I do wear a hat a lot (only not backwards) and I do have a black overcoat that I wear to work on colder days. At least my son thinks IÂ’m famous.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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IÂ’d say this was a waste of good beer, but itÂ’s only MilwaukeeÂ’s Best Light. Which on the beer scale it is only slightly better then Camo Silver High Gravity Lager.

Posted by: Contagion at 10:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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How pathetic does one person have to be to dedicate a web page to their girlfriend? When I hear that the first thing I think of is some High School kid who is in his first relationship with a girl. Then I think, hey we have a future stalker here. At first I thought this was just one person, then I did a Google Search for “This page is dedicated to my girlfriend”.

Holy farking nightmare boyfriends! Ladies, please fill me in, if your man did something like this for you, would you appreciate it? I mean, do you find this romantic or creepy?

However, if you think you might want to make one of these. At least do it properly. HereÂ’s a website on How to Dedicate a Webpage to Your Girlfriend. I think itÂ’s important to make note of the first guideline. Guideline # 1 ~ Make sure you actually have a girlfriend.

What is the world coming to? I wish we could go back to the good olÂ’ days of finding women. Offer her father two cows and a goat for the pretty daughter and tell him you know a guy that will give the same for the ugly one because heÂ’s desperate.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:22 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I donÂ’t know if this is good editing or if they added something to the water, but I want to know how this is done.

If anyone knows the answer, please share with me. Thanks!

Posted by: Contagion at 08:22 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Since the Fourth of July is rapidly approaching, I thought I would include this little cautionary tale. Originally I found this clip over at College Humor. (The site itself is NSFW, you never know what youÂ’re going to have displayed).

This is why States like Illinois have laws banning fireworks. Idiots like these help support the governments belief that people can’t think for themselves and need to be told what to do. I mean seriously people; in what world would anyone think this is a good idea? You know that if the kid getting shot got hurt, his parents would be petitioning the lawmakers to make a law banning fireworks or making it a felony to shoot them at someone. Then they would name the law after the boy, the “Farking idiot that doesn’t have the common sense to not let his friend shoot him with Roman candle” Law. Then all the responsible, firework-loving citizens of the state would suffer. As the fireworks would get banned or you need a special license to buy them, people would go out of state to procure their fiery fun. Then they would make another law, the “People are buying fireworks out of state, bringing them back and lighting them, so we need to ban the setting off of fireworks” law.

Then the cops will be able to confiscate all the ill-gotten fireworks. And issue tickets to help bolster the local economy. Trust me, I have experience with this.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:19 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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HereÂ’s another example of how life balances things out naturally.

Ktreva:
-Going out drinking with some friends, she can have a good time on $20.00
-Getting her hair done. $100.00.
-Total: $120.00.

Contagion:
-Going out drinking with some friends: Approximately $100.00
(Before you ask, no thatÂ’s not at a strip club!)
-Getting my hair cut. $15.00
-Total: $115.00

Close enough in my books. I say thatÂ’s pretty fair. Right guys?!?!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Blatently stolen from CalTechGirl. And slightly modified... but only slightly!

Posted by: Contagion at 01:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Last Saturday I was sitting on the couch in my living room watching TV. From the corner of my eye I catch movement through the window. I see two Hispanic males wearing basketball jerseys and bandanas walking down my driveway from my back yard. What the hell! I watch as they get to the sidewalk, turn and then come up the walk to my front door.

Oh hell no! You do not come out of my back yard, and then have the nerve to walk up to my front door. Quickly I grabbed the first thing in reach, my blunderbuss. Okay, itÂ’s a primitive firearm, but all they see is a giant barrel. Most of the time people canÂ’t tell that itÂ’s not loaded or that it even requires black powder in the pan, the hammer cocked, a flint and the frizzen to be closed in order for it to fire.

With the blunderbuss over my shoulder I answer the door, “Can I help you with something.” These two teens are eyeing the beast slung over my shoulder with a mixture of “Oh Crap” and “Dude, that’s cool!” looks on their faces. Kind of nervously, one of the teenagers says, “We are with the local church. We are having a picnic next Saturday for everyone in the neighborhood. We wanted to personally invite you and your family to come and join in the festivities. There will be food, drinks and games for everyone. Here’s a flyer. Do you think you’ll be able to come?”

I flip that blunderbuss off my shoulder and level at the kid’s head. “GET THE FARK OFF MY PROPERTY YOU BIBLE THUMPIN’ DOOR BELL PUSHER! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO SMEAR YOUR BRAIN ALL OVER YOUR BUDDY STANDING BEHIND YOU! YOU HAVE UNTIL THE COUNT OF THREE AND THEN I’LL FILL YOU SO FULL OF LEAD, YOU CAN USE YOUR DICK AS A PENCIL!*” These two kids jump off the porch and run like their arse is on fire and their hair was a catchin’. One of the boys was running so fast ran right out of his sneakers. The other tripped and fell since his droopy pants fell down around his ankles.

And then my brain kicked in and decided to not do any of the above thinking it would have ended up with me in jail. I politely explained that I was not going to be available to attend; I have a Raptors game that night! Give up football for ChurchÂ… What kind of sacrilege is that?

*I loved that line in the Three Amigos. I try to use it when ever it can be applied properly.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Dammit! I took the day off of work to have the Air Conditioner installed. I made sure the electrical was all up and working so there would be no problems. I even made sure that I cleaned out the area the unit was going to go and kept it clean. Since I was going to be home, I kept Clone for the day. No need taking him to the sitter if DaddyÂ’s going to be home.

All was going well, I woke up early to make sure I was ready for them. I made a special breakfast for Clone and I. Just as I was sitting down to type up a post, the phone rings. ItÂ’s from the contractor. They canÂ’t come today. Mother Farker! It pissed me off. I scheduled this day two weeks ago just to make sure there wouldnÂ’t be any problems. I took the time off of work to have this done. They call the farkinÂ’ day of the installation and want to reschedule.

Contractor: “Mr. Contagion. I’m sorry, but we are not going to be able to come out today to install the air conditioner. We’re going to need to reschedule.”

Me, “Wait… you’re calling me the day of the installation to tell me you can’t come? I took the day off of work to be here.”

Contractor: “I’m really sorry, when is the next available day we can come to install it?”

Me, “Tomorrow.”

Contractor: “… Tomorrow is Saturday.”

Me, “Yes it is, but I took today off of work to have this done. If you had told me yesterday I could have gone into work today and not lost the time. I won’t be able to take another day off in a while due to other peoples vacations. So it’s either tomorrow, or I cancel and go with another company.”

Contractor: “We’ll be out tomorrow. Is the same time okay?”

Me, “Yes, yes it is.”

Maybe I was being a bit of an asshole to the guy. I just don’t care. Too many people anymore don’t realize that other people work. If you want us to do something in the middle of the week, we can’t just leave work or tell them, “Hey, I’m not coming in.” Well I guess you could, but you’d be jobless pretty damn quick. I know I wouldn’t be this irritated if they had called me yesterday and said something, but they didn’t. They called me late this morning. I just find that highly unacceptable.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:16 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s Harvey of Bad ExampleÂ’s three year blogging anniversary. As he is part of the unholy trinity that begat my blogging career, I feel the need to share a story about Harvey. Of course itÂ’s not about how I was begat, the statute of limitations arenÂ’t up and I believe all three parties are still in relative good terms with their spouses.

Back in the dark ages, about 1 BC (Before Contagion) I used to roam the Internet, a lost soul leaving comments on various blogs, but never entertaining the thought of starting my own. Then one day I received an e-mail from someone I didnÂ’t recognize. I really wished I had saved the message at it touched me deeply, but I do remember what it said.

“Hey, if you’re going to soil my blog with your comments, why don’t you get off your whisky soaked butt and actually start your own. You can’t be much worse then half the crap that is out there on Myspace. Well, then again you might. Anyway, I’m off topic here. You should at least start something so that we can reciprocate your comments by ignoring you.” --Harvey

I paraphrased a little, but that pretty much was like that. So away I went and started Miasmatic Review. Being a novice at blogging and he would actually return my e-mails, unlike the other two parts of the unholy trinity that I think have pretty much disavowed any knowledge of their part in bringing me into the blogging world, IÂ’d ask him for advice on how to do various thingsÂ… like set up trackbacks. That and his wonderful blogging tips actually kept me from making a lot of unnecessary faux pas, as opposed to the necessary ones that I made on my own.

Move forward a couple of months and I was advised of a blogmeet and had heard that Mr. Bad Example himself was going to be there. Oh glory of day! How could I pass up a chance to meet the man that inspired, motivated, coerced and assisted me in starting to blog? I vowed by all that is good and right in the world that I would be at this blogmeet, no matter what!

Upon arrival I instantly knew who he was. Not because of how he looked, or his mannerisms. It was because I heard him ask a waitress, “So, if you where going to start a blog, what would you call it?” As I walked to the table, he stood up to great me. It was like he was psychic; I’d never met him before, yet he knew who I was. Was it that paternal bond? Could it be his ever presence in the blogosphere gave him the ability to look through monitors? Could it be that his stalker like tendencies caused him to look up pictures of me, the mass abundance of them, on the Internet. He walked up and said, “You must be Contagion. I would recognize that spiky hair anywhere.” Then he proceeded to shake my hand and show me to a chair at the table. He took the liberty of introducing me to all of the other bloggers at the table. With cigars and whisky, he made me feel comfortable and welcomed. It was like I was a long lost son coming home.

Things got a little weird when he started referring to me as his boy and tried to hug me a couple of times, but I explained how I don’t hug and he stopped. Then, when the others weren’t paying attention, he said to me, “I have problem and I’m going to need your assistance. I feel you are the perfect person to help me with this task.” I was awestruck. He actually wanted my assistance. Me, a blogging newbie that had yet to make his mark in the blogosphere. (and still hasn’t). I couldn’t wait to hear what he could possibly want. Eagerly I agreed to help.

I asked, “What is it you want me to do?”

He leans closer, lips inches from my ear and yells. “GET OFF MY LAP YOU DRUNK! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN DAMN CHAIR!”

Posted by: Contagion at 08:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Bahahahaha!!

Posted by: Richmond at June 22, 2006 03:34 PM (e8QFP)

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The facial hair is coming in nicely. My mustache now covers my bottom lip. It looks a little ragged, until I start eating. Then the food works as a styling agent to help hold it in place. Ktreva finds that rather disgusting, but hey it works. Plus I discovered last Saturday at the Raptors game that if I drink good beer before going to the game. The filtering process makes the cheep beer taste like the good beer. Bonus!

I finally had someone at work question the bushiness of my face, or in their words, “Why is there a dead squirrel on your face?” I explained that I’m a re-enactor and I’m trying to get period facial hair, that and the fact that Ktreva forbid me from growing it, so now I must in order to preserve my male dominance in the house… well at least on this topic.

IÂ’d post a picture, but many of you have politely requested I not do so anymore as it scared you. IÂ’m just trying to be politeÂ… this time.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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YAR!!!!!!!!! All the cement blocks are completely broken up now. My muscles are sore, my joints ache and my back is stiff. Ktreva is making fun of me because my right arm is looking all well defined and muscular, but my left looks the same as before. I told her IÂ’m going to have to do more bar curls (Aka go to the bar and repeatedly lift drink to lips until consumed, order another and start again) to even it out, anyone volunteering to be a spotting partner?

Our electrician arrived to work on the wiring in the house. He was supposed to have come last Saturday, but he couldnÂ’t make it. HeÂ’s doing this on the side and his employer had an emergency job to do. Tonight was the first night he was able to get over to start. HeÂ’s not finished, he has a lot of work to do, but he did get a good chunk out of the way. BTW, may the powers that be shine down on him. He started tearing into the electrical and noticed that the external wiring all the way through the meter was already gauged correctly. He checked with the city inspector, and now doesnÂ’t have to move the meter. Our meter is in the basement, not on the outside of the house like most new ones. That means he is saving me even more money, and cutting a good 5 hours of work out of the job.

He did take a break tonight to admire my truck, which Ktreva found amusing. He has an old 70’s Chevy and was digging on Janine. We talked specs and checked out the features. For the rest of the night he kept saying, “God, that’s a nice truck.” I do believe he has truck envy.

Friday the heating and cooling company is coming to install the air conditioner. That means no more hot sweaty nights and weekends in the house. Maybe people will actually come over during the summer now since they wonÂ’t have the meat baked off of their bones. In order for this to be installed, I have to take the whole day off. However, they tell me that if they get here at 8:00 AM and there are no problems they should be done by 10 at the latest. That means that if anyone wants to help spot me doing bar curls Friday afternoon, say at a local wing joint, let me know! (hint hint hint)

Posted by: Contagion at 06:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, he doesnÂ’t have a girlfriend. HeÂ’s playing NFL Flag Football. Last Saturday the coach had him playing linebacker and had him doing pass rushing. Since they donÂ’t have an offensive line, he has to stay at least 7 yards back from where the ball is being hiked, and then he can blitz the Quarterback. HeÂ’s quick and agile on his feet, and was doing a good job of hurrying the QB. The problem is that about 2 feet from the guy he would slow down and not go for the flag. There was at least 4 different occasions that if he committed to grabbing the flag, he would have gotten a sack.

When I asked him why, he told me that he was worried that heÂ’d make a mistake and the QB would make a big play. I tried explaining to him that by not going for the flag, he was allowing the Quarterback to still make a play. Those can easily turn into big plays too. Tonight, after breaking more concrete up, we ran some drills in the back yard. I had him work on grabbing the flag. Then we worked on short range sprinting, and finally we worked on pass blocking and catching. Hey if he can make the interception, thatÂ’s just as good!

I didnÂ’t work him too long. The point is for him to have fun. Not to hate the game, I donÂ’t want to be THAT dad. You know, the one that is at the games berating their kid because he didnÂ’t follow through. At home they work on drills and practice 4 hours a night, besides the team practice. IÂ’m sure weÂ’ve all seen a dad like that. In fact I knew a kid in High School whoÂ’s dad was so bad that he wouldnÂ’t let his son go out with his friends on the weekend. They had to practice. The guy was convinced his son was going to be the first kid from our High School to get recruited to Notre Dame. Unfortunately the kid ended up breaking his leg the second game of the season his senior year. The last I heard he never played football again, well at least not during college and definitely not in the pros.

ThatÂ’s not how I want to be. I want to help Boopie and encourage him. Work with him to improve his game. What I donÂ’t want to do is drive the fun or the love of playing out of him. When he gets older I donÂ’t want him to resent me for making him practice all the time. We wonÂ’t practice tomorrow night, unless he asks. Wednesday he has his normal team practice, and after that weÂ’ll crush more rock. Right now I just like watching him play. Seeing him have fun on the field is more important then him being the strongest player on the team. IÂ’d rather keep it that way.

Oh, and I did cheese one father off at the game on Saturday. I was talking to another dad and we didn’t understand some of the rules. (Like no rushing from with in 5 yards of the end zone, etc) He made the comment along the lines of, “It’s so the kids don’t get hurt.” I responded with, “Yea, I guess that makes sense. I mean, it is flag football; it’s not like real football. This is the football you put your kid into because they are too frail to play tackle.” (Boopie is a small guy and would get killed in tackle. In fact many of the kids would get crushed playing tackle) One of THOSE fathers overheard what I said and got a little agitated. Apparently he didn’t like the fact his son was not a starting safety for the Bears.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This appears to be rather old, so someone else may have posted this already. But since I havenÂ’t seen it, here it goes again. A guy that does video editing was doing it on a Power Mac G4, he discovers that in order to runt he new programs he wants that he needs a G5. Unfortunately he canÂ’t afford one. So he uses the internet to panhandle for $5,000.00. The catch is that if he gets the $5,000.00 heÂ’ll blow up the G4.

Well he reached his goal, bought the new computer and fulfilled his promise.

I think he should have used a pound of black powder, it would have looked much more impressive.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I remember being younger and watching movies. The lead characters always had these hot girlfriends or would win the heart of the beauty they desire after. As I got older I was never able to figure out why I couldnÂ’t do the sameÂ…(that is until I met my wife and then I was happy and never had any desires to even LOOK at another women because sheÂ’s perfect in every way.) In fact when I was younger I had a hard time keeping a relationship with a female over 3 months.

Now I know why. Here is a list of The 7 Best 80’s Movie Girlfriends. What’s great is if you read about each one, the break down why they had a crush on her, the character’s negatives and “How she was detrimental to our sexual development.

Personally, I always had a thing for Sloane (Mia Sara) from Ferris BuellerÂ’s Day off. She always made me happy in my special place.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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IÂ’m not a fan of rap. In fact there are only a handful of rap songs I enjoy. However, I do loves me some humor. I ran across this video. It appears to be made by Jamie Kennedy, IÂ’m not sure what for, but itÂ’s funny. I mean, cÂ’mon who thought Bob Sagat could be such a hard arse! BTW, before you click play, this is NSFW (Language) Let me introduce you to Rollin' w/ Sagat!

HeÂ’s got a c0ck like a donkey, hard as a rock!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Our house has an antique cast iron lion foot bathtub in the main bathroom. I say main because at sometime a previous owner built a makeshift bathroom in the basement, but really this house only has one bathroom. The basement is an unfurnished limestone basement. The “bathroom” down there has no walls; it’s just a toilet in a corner of the basement with a crude shower built next to it. There are no walls surrounding it. For years we never had a real shower to use.

That is until today. After years of putting it off, I finally installed a shower in the bathroom. Well actually I bought a conversion kit to turn the lion footed bathtub into a shower. We like the antique tub and didnÂ’t want to get rid of it. That and the fact it weighs a ton and is on the second floor also helped the decision. I really didnÂ’t want to have to move the beast if I didnÂ’t have to. Due to many other reasons I just never got around to converting the tub. Mainly it was because of laziness. Hey, IÂ’m not denying it.

A couple of weeks ago the faucet on the tub started leaking. It wouldnÂ’t turn off completely. The best we could do was slow it to a fast drip. Mainly it would just run as off the faucet was cracked open. All right, I needed to replace the faucet. If I was going to do that, I might as well install the shower. That was when I discovered that most of the local hardware stores do NOT stock the shower conversion kits anymore. I guess they figure that if a house had a lion footed tub, it would have been converted by now.

After searching for weeks I went to a locally owned hardware store, Nicholson Hardware. People, this is the best hardware store on the planet. It is stocked with just about everything you could look for in home improvement. Not only that but the staff is not only knowledgeable in all things hardware and home improvement, but also they are courteous, helpful and extremely eager to please. The only problem with this hardware store is its business hours. Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. ItÂ’s a contractorÂ’s hardware store, hence why they have everything under the sun.

When I entered I found the new faucet easily enough, but I couldnÂ’t find the rest of the stuff to make it into a shower. I asked the clerk and he told me that I could buy it piece by piece, or they had an all-inclusive kit that contained all of the parts. He then told me that the kit would be cheaper then buying all the part piecemeal. Sure enough he was right.

Ktreva was excited over the prospect of finally having a useable shower in the house. My father, the plumbing and electrical engineer, came over to give me a hand installing it. It only took about an hour and now all it needs is a couple of shower curtains and we are ready toÂ… well shower I guess.

Now I donÂ’t have to worry about falling asleep in the tub in the mornings.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:34 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Congrats on your leap forward in time!

Hey, you know you didn't need to get a new faucet... you could have gotten new seals and packing for the old. Gravy job.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at June 14, 2006 08:19 PM (gMMvi)

2 You are the bestest husband ever. I know Ktreva has got to be over the moon.

A shower.

In her own house.

You deserve...well, somethin' special! ;-)

Posted by: Tammi at June 14, 2006 09:38 PM (L7a63)

3 Ah - so you're saying the last two years of me asking "Why don't you add on a shower kit" and you saying "Because it's physically impossible, they don't make them to fit these pipes or a way to covert them" was really your way of saying "Eh, I don't feel like it" huh?

Posted by: Shadoglare at June 14, 2006 10:13 PM (4VtjK)

4 Yeah, I was going to call bullshit too, but Shadoglare beat me to it. I even found the kit in a catalog and you argued it wouldn't fit.

You're right about one thing though, Nicholson's rocks.

Posted by: Graumagus at June 15, 2006 02:21 AM (zEZuj)

5 Yay! Now she won't have to wait till you take her to a hotel to shower!

Posted by: oddybobo at June 15, 2006 08:11 AM (6Gm0j)

6 Those locally owned hardware stores are the greatest thing ever. We have one in my town, it been here, I think, since the dawn of time. If you are looking for the obscure, and someone who knows all about the obscure, the locals are the best. I have been looking for parts before, went to Farm King, Menards, Lowe's, putting almost 100 miles on the truck, should have started with the 1 mile each way to the local store.

Posted by: Petey at June 15, 2006 11:26 AM (mNqaI)

7 Shadoglare: If I remember correctly you where refering to the whole shower kit because we talked about replacing the tub. Those won't work in the house.

Grau: I don't recall talking with you about it. But we might have.

Posted by: Contagion at June 15, 2006 05:01 PM (aGJp4)

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When we moved into our house, there was an old swing set in the back yard. It had been horribly neglected and was pretty badly rusted through. After our first year of living here, I ended up having to remove it. Removing of the metal was easy; I cut it up into smaller parts and set it out for the trash. That was only the part above ground. I had to dig up the posts sticking out of the ground.

Figuring that whoever installed it probably did the typical cement in the coffee can anchor system; I didnÂ’t think it would be a problem. Quickly I discovered that the idiots had dug four huge holes, put the swing in place and then filled the holes with concrete. These concrete blobs (Blocks does not describe them) where huge, each one looks like they poured five gallons of concrete into the hole.

For the longest time they say in the back yard because the trash company wouldnÂ’t take them and I couldnÂ’t find of a way to dispose themÂ… other then rebury them in the back yard. Since they where safety hazards I moved them to the side of the house with the help of Graumagus where they sat for the last 4 years. Every so often I would see if I could find of a way to dispose of them and I never could. The only option I had was to break them up into smaller chunks. That just sounded way too much like work, and I just let them sit there.

Now we are having a central air unit installed in the house. Those blocks are sitting exactly where itÂ’s going to go. That means they must be disposed off. Earlier today I ran to Farm and Fleet to pick up the tools I was going to need to break these behemoth blobs of concrete up. I bought the biggest sledgehammer they had, 12 pounds, and a concrete chisel. I already own a good hand sledge, so I didnÂ’t need to get one of those.

After work, I came home moved the first blob into the back yard and started my daunting task of trying to break it up into smaller, more disposable chunks. Now I understand why they used to have prisoners break stone. Sure it will build upper body strength, but after an hour I had no desire to do anything but take a nap. Of course, that was only one of those blobs destroyed. I spent a total of 3 hours in the backyard breaking these chunks up. People walking by where staring in disbelief at what they saw.

Every hit small shards of concrete would go flying in every direction. I sent some flying a good 30 feet away into neighborÂ’s yards and into the alley. IÂ’m damn glad I had safety goggles on, or I probably would have lost an eye on at least three occasions. I had to alter between the big sledge and the hand sledge in chisel to give my arm a rest. The sledge used the muscle in the upper arm, while the hand sledge used more of the forearm. During one of my breaks Ktreva made the comment that it was a good work out, and that if I did it for 20 minutes a night my arms would be ripped. I had to correct her. My right arm would look like something off of a body builder, my left arm would look the same.

After getting the second one broken up into disposable chunks, I had enough for the night. There was no way I was going to tackle a third one. I just didnÂ’t have the strength and stamina to keep going. That was about an hour and a half ago. Now I sit here, covered in concrete dust, my right arm aching and hanging limply at my side. I barely had the strength to lift up my hand so I could type this post. My shoulder is sore and IÂ’m thinking of taping a bag of ice to it in the fashion of a baseball pitcher after a game.

Ten years ago this wouldnÂ’t have been an issue. I would have had all four of those blobs broken up and disposed off. Not now, now I feel like IÂ’m a feeble old man.

I hate getting older.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:00 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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