Category: Uncategorized

I cannot believe my vacation is over already. Seven days in the “Great Smoky Mountains”. It was stunning and very cool. We spent part of every day in the park, which i might add – is FREE. The first night after we got t here about 9pm, we ordered veggie pizza from a place called “Geppetto’s” and had it delivered. It was really good pizza. They added banana pepper slices and slices of artichoke – yummy. I highly recommend it. The next day, We did the “Old Mill Park” walk, along the river at Patriot Park. It was supposed to link to a longer trail. I don’t know what crack someone was smoking but it didn’t link to anything. It was something to do, i guess – 0.5mni on flat ground. Then we went for ice cream at a place on the “Strip” called the “Big Top Arcade” in Pigeon Forge – the ice cream was lame. The ice cream tasted weird. On the plus side they had a human sling-shot there and one of those large single carriage Farris Wheels. You couldn’t pay me enough to go on either. We then went to the “Sugarlands” visitor center and then drove through the park along the “Newfound Gap” road (441). We ended up turning around since we were hungry and stopped at a Mexican restaurant called “Cielito Lindo Mexican Grill”. Very good, and we got an order of Guacamole. The chips were fresh, the guac was decent, although i would have preferred to add some extra cilantro and some jalapenos. As an entree, i ordered the shrimp and scallop fajitas. My wife ordered the chicken fajitas. Both of our dishes were cooked to perfection. The final check was about 35 bucks for lunch. The next morning we went to Tuchaleechee Caverns in Townsend Tn. Our guide – a little, high-energy, blonde college girl was fun and knowledgeable. The cave is a “live” cave which means that it’s still being formed and is located in a dry canyon. This means that there is no visible water – the water runs underground. The caves major features are a river, waterfall, a large room, a sounding chamber, stalactites, and stalagmites. Their large room is the second largest room, east of the Mississippi river – almost 300ft. I took a bunch of pictures. I’ll finish this later…

-Rat

Un-flipping-believable. Where the hell did the first half of the year go? I fully recovered from the “Bike The Drive”. I finally got my service manual and schematics for my Carver 4000t. I cannot believe i’m trying out all these 80s components :P. I love this shit. I have the Ohm2s in Walnut. I still have to hook them up. I have a Carver 360W per channel hi current amp for them. Maybe I’ll have some time in a couple of weeks – enjoy some classical music while painting. I really love music.

-Rat

So, We did “Bike The Drive” this last weekend. They close down LSD beginning at 5am to traffic from 57th Street South to Hollywood North. We began at 5:30am on Jackson between Columbus Drive and LSD. We took the North route first, and the wind was in our face. It made riding on a mountain bike tough, especially with all the overpasses. The rest stop was a welcome pause at Bryn Mawr with the volunteers handing out apples, bananas Clif Bars, and donut holes, as well as water. The logistics were well planned out and the volunteers were well managed. I was good except for the last mile, my ass was killing me. I had even bought a new seat for the event. I guess i need to re-vamp/evaluate my ride geometry. I did get a medal after I showed my ride mileage (30mi) via “Ride w/GPS” app. Thanks Fifth-Third Bank! Now, I need to get out and ride more. I just wish the weather would cooperate.

-Rat

So my partner in work crimes got his Executive MBA program approved by our company. That’ll mean a couple of things… first, my autumn just got very busy. Second, I get more hands on experience with JDE, which I am excited about. Third, We will be transitioning more JDE CNC stuff to the help desk which should in theory, make them more well rounded and make me a bit less busy. The upshot of this is, he is taking me out to lunch tomorrow – sweet. There is a place in Oak Lawn and Elmhurst called “Fry the Coop” where they deep fry’s chicken breast sandwiches with Carolina Reaper peppers. Which if you haven’t experienced it, is the hottest pepper going. This place serves up the sandwiches with coleslaw on them. Yum! They have 6 spice levels – country, mild, medium, hot, call 911, insanity. I do medium or hot depending on my mood.

On Tuesday, I spoke with my art teacher from McCord (Beth Leahy) and she said the Chicago art school “Pallet and Chisel” holds Life Drawing marathons twice a year – Memorial day, Labor day. I guess you pay a upfront fee and can choose 3 levels of models for the weekend. Sounds like great fun. Maybe some day I’ll get to go.

-Rat

That could be an issue. It’s one thing that I love. However, I can be kept busy by other stuff. Like my “Master The Method” class last night… It was about Ted Harrison, a pseudo-psychedelic, Canadian, modern artist who was born in the late 20s, 1926 to be exact. However, he didn’t really have his first art show until 1969. He painted very flat with singular colors. Last night I did a similar painting in his style. Very cool. Ill post it Frday. You can google him. Some day ill figure out how to link a page, that’s a promise.

-Rat

I have been taking an art class at a local art school and it’s focus has been a weekly study of techniques of a famous artist. This weeks was Helen Frankenthaler who did abstract expressionism art between the early 50’s and when she died in 2011. She was influenced by Jackson Pollock and Hans Hofmann. I really enjoyed this type of “modern art”. It was very satisfying and created some beautiful pictures in spite of my lack of “modern art” skills. Now, I say that kind of tongue in cheek because I can paint and draw quite well in many types of media but I am not known for a loose and flowing style. Gary, who is a wonderful art teacher from College Of DuPage has an awesome loose style and has been somewhat of a influence on me. My brain knows what I want to do, i just have to get my will going.

And more to the point, embrace the fact of going outside my comfort zone. My son came home today from the Army and we are getting together for breakfast on Saturday. I can’t wait to see him.

-Rat

So, there are a couple of things going on here… first, i installed SSL. Second, I redid my logo a bit bigger and corrected the spelling. Oh! And I reinstated my business in the State of Illinois. The bastards at Legal Zoom dot com dropped the ball and got my business cancelled. I had to pay a sum of money and get it reinstated – it was nerve wracking. Third and most importantly I am finally taking a art class around my area – at the McCord Cultural Center in Palos Illinois. I am taking a class where we learn about a famous artist, and reproduce one of their works with a similar color pallet. It’s been great fun. I have never painted with acrylic paints before except for washes and I’m finding out that I may like them. We shall see.

-Rat

So I have been on my first diet ever in my life. So far i have lost 16lbs in 4 weeks. Developed some type of allergy to spring salad mix from Costco. I feel that i have been moving in the right direction. Not without transgressions – I might add. So, my wife is going through the pantry today and asks where did the Girl Scout cookies go? I answer, I ate them. She asks, when, before or after you started on the diet? I said – after. She got pissed and called me two faced. lol. You’d swear I stole her prized jewelry and sold them for the cookies. Life is funny sometimes.

-Rat

This diet is really not too bad. A little hunger is ok. I am still on Phase 1 of the Harcombe diet. Today I am researching Phase 2. I want to start this Friday. I need to get back to the gym and I don’t want to “die a thousand deaths” with running out of glycogen. It will usually be fainting or blackout for me. On a different note, I really have the reef aquarium bug lately. I really want to set one up. Even to have a simple salt aquarium with some live rock, some baby frags, an anemone and a clown fish. Maybe a Watchman Goby and a Firefish or a Royal Gramma.

-Rat

So today was kind of a happy/sad day for me. My son went off to “boot camp” for the Army. I’ll definitely miss him. It’s a good thing from a grow up perspective. He needed to stop procrastinating, get over the game addiction, and get moving with his life. Hopefully this will give him the direction he needs. What he had wasn’t a career, it was killing time.

Today was the 7th day I’ve been on the “Harcombe diet”. I’ve lost 10lbs – down to 228.0lbs. I haven’t had any cravings since I have been eating so cleanly. Its working like a champ. Tomorrow I am going to get back to the gym and ramp up my physical activity. I am definitely looking forward to it. I am soon going downstairs (tonight) to clean up some more crap. It’s still a pit, but certainly not as bad as before. I’ve definitely had more energy between the diet and CPAP. Kind of like a new lease on life. Although, my headache seems to be knocking at the door. Gotta run.

-Rat