BlogSS

Finally -- the crawdad...

2008-08-27T20:31:00.001-04:00

Ok, so this was what i was starting to post after the praying mantis when i realized the previous two posts were necessary before this one.

While installing my new mailbox, i spotted my little enemy in the yard. A while back, a had some crawdads digging stupid holes in my yard (at least 3 or 4). they are annoying, but finally i gave up filling in the hole, b/c they just kept re-digging, and making the yard worse. so, i just mashed down the mud outside the hole and decided to let them be. So i have several little holes in my yard, but you don't really notice them unless you are looking for them.

anyway. i figured the little varmits would have been dried up by the hot dry summer. NO. good thing i never filled in the holes -- they still live!

Look how evil this things looks! how does it live with no water? and what does it eat? weird!

again, this are a must CLICK TO ENLARGE... especially the 2nd one!

New Mailbox

2008-08-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

Per my previous post, I just installed a new mailbox. Isn't she beautiful!?

My last mailbox got hit/knocked over at least (literally) 10 times in the 3 years i've lived here. It seems to only happen in the winter (until last week). It's been hit by a mirror or two, which just bent it a little. And it's been completely knocked over by the snow plow on 2 seperate occasions. Now, being me, i went and got some 3" screws, and screwed the thing back together, both times. It was wintertime, and there was no way i was putting up a new mailbox in the snow. So, my old mailbox had been on its last leg (even though it only had one to begin with) for over a year anyway. This time, there was no possible way to repair. The post was broken off at the ground, and in a few other pieces -- it got completely run over by the bronco. I was going to break down this fall and put a new one up. So, i got to do it without having to pay for it, yay!

Now, the REASON my mailbox got so often (before last week) was because it was too close to the road. 16-18" from the white stripe. I measured my neighbors' boxes (which haven't been hit the whole time i've lived here) -- and the front of there boxes are 24 inches and 30 inches. So i put my new one at about 27" -- so it's safer, and, i didn't have to dig out the old post/concrete to put this on in :). And now i can get the mail from the back, so i don't have to wait for traffic to get my mail any more. yippee.

enjoy:

Tragedy... the SS got hit!

2008-08-27T20:20:00.000-04:00

Luckily, it wasn't very bad. As most of you know, this car is my baby. It stays in the garage most of the time, and I always park miles away from people, and do my best to avoid scary people when driving. It is a 2002 Camaro SS, and has only 15,500 miles on it. I have put around 4,000 on it since I bought it 4 years ago. Show car. Perfecto. Absolutly pristine...

Well, as I'm SITTING IN MY DRIVEWAY waiting to pull out on my (often busy) street, the traffic begins to slow, because someone is turning left up past my house. Well, a guy in a Ford Bronco was paying no attention, and didn't notice everyone stopping until WAY to late. His hit his brakes, and swerved to his right, off the road, into my driveway, over my mailbox, and his REAR BUMPER scraped the front of my car. I had seen this all about to happen, but didn't have nearly enough time to put the car in reverse and move. So on the bright side, its just plastic damage, nothing structural. But its just sad :(. SITTING IN MY DRIVEWAY.

Luckily this guy actually has insurance, unlike the lady who hit my other camaro 1.5 years ago. So, his insurance of course is paying for the repair -- and, a new mailbox, yay! I was actually going to get new mailbox this year anyway -- so now it is free. Doesn't quite make up for the pain of my toy, but, it is just a toy.

so, if you have a strong stomach, see the tragic damage below ;-)

Wildlife - Baby Praying Mantis

2008-08-27T20:09:00.002-04:00

More wildlife at the Elam house! Little baby praying mantis. cool. click to enlarge, and enjoy in amazing detail from my macro focus.

Ipod vending machine.

2008-08-09T10:53:00.000-04:00

I am officially on my way to Mexico. I'm sitting in the Dallas/fort worth airport waiting to board my plane to Mexico city.

I took a stroll around... And found 2 interesting things. 1. They have a chapel in the airport. Cool.

2. This ipod vending machine. At first I thought I thought it had headphones, chargers, etc. But it actually is loaded with all different kinds of ipods, psp, and lots of accessories. Good thing you can pay with credit card, that would be a lot of quarters!

G8 Photo Op!

2008-07-27T15:03:00.002-04:00

So I drove the SS to church today (yay!), and just happened to drive past a couple brand new orange G8s in a parking lot. Perfectly parked for me to squeeze in and take some pictures. yay for 3 sexy whips. The G8 is PHAT -- clearly. Its funny though, it actually makes the SS look small!

Here you go... eye candy:

A stingray tried to eat me.

2008-05-12T15:39:00.001-04:00

Door Sills/Aluminum Buffing

2008-03-18T18:20:00.001-04:00

So while waiting for the door panels to try, I decided to have a go at polishing aluminum. Not too bad for a first try! Brough back some shiney! Brad/Christi, I used my dremel for this! Another use for a great gift!

Before/After:

Another Before/After (opposite ends of course)

Door Panel Restoration

2008-03-18T11:49:00.004-04:00

So, as mentioned, the interior of my impala is an ugly/boring “saddle” color (aka Tan). Of course it’s a big faded and worn from 43 years of use… but overall in pretty good shape. I decided to try some vinyl dye (kinda like spray paint, but actually penetrates vinyl and/or fabric to recolor, and stays flexible, and keeps the same texture).

So the door panel looked like this. (forgot to take a pic before removing the armrest/door handle, and window cranks. But you get the idea.
Did some hard core scrubbing with Purple Power to clean 40 years of grime off the door panel so the dye sticks properly, and use some rust remover/chrome polish to shine up the chrome pieces.
Tape off the chrome trim
After dye is applied
Removing the tape makes it pretty! Look at the
bling!
Door panel reinstalled and reassembled. It looks amazing, pictures don’t really do it justice (not to mention they show a fuzz and a couple fingerprints from re-mounting it.

So, for now, I have one pretty black door panel, with cleaned up chrome (cleaned up all the other parts too), but eventually the whole interior will be this nice! Yay!

SKILLET concert

2008-03-05T13:54:00.001-05:00

I will be here. No doubt.

Skillet
Thousand Foot Krutch, Decyfer Down

The Avenue - Ginghamsburg UMC - Tipp City, OH
April 04, 2008 08:00 PM
[Doors open 07:00 PM]

For info contact: 937-667-1069 For more info http://www.theavenue.org/

Impala Update - Dash work!

2008-03-04T22:09:00.003-05:00

Well, the impala project has started. Stupid me didn't take any pictures before i started taking things apart (dangit!) so this is what i have. I've taken out the dashboard/gauges, and had re-painted/repaired some interior peices.

This is the gauge cluster bezel/trim. I taped off all the black and redid the Chrome with some special spray paint. Not perfect, but looks pretty good! It's actually upside-down in this picture... (side note, that pink bag is NOT mine, and has nothing to do with the impala)

Here is the dash with the guts ripped out. I am changing the interior from "Saddle" (aka Tan) to black, so everything you see here that is gold-ish or tan-ish will eventually be black. it is gonna look sweet!

Gauges and chrome dash moulding after cleaning, and the glovebox door after painting black. It was originally "Saddle" -- but was painted that color changing green/purple/blue terrible wannabe paint when i bought it.

pretty... :)

Things will get much more exciting, so stay tuned. now i actually have something to blog about.

2008-01-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Updated Daytime pictures... with snow!

six-five!

2008-01-13T19:29:00.000-05:00

This is quite a bit more exciting than the old beat up truck. my new toy/project. yay!

1965 Chevrolet Impala, 283 (4.6L) v8. 4 door (wish it was 2, but it's still sweet!). HOOPTY!

Christmas

2007-12-29T21:52:00.000-05:00

Got a sweet toolbox:

and finally got my double bubble!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Speedy Update

2007-11-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

Speedy is now 46" Long. She would be probably like 50", but had a tragic loss of a few inches of her tail from going crazy one day. she's ok, just a little bit shorter...

But more importantly, she weighs EIGHT POUNDS and an ounce. 8 lbs, 1oz. 129 ounces. MORE THAN MY MOM'S DOG. So what does that mean? I have a 4 foot lizard that weighs more than a newborn baby living in my home. Cool. It's like having a little brontosaurus.

SNAP! And sarah, this time there's pictures. well, one :)

just wanted to post this..

2007-11-28T18:08:00.000-05:00

me and my sloth chilling! whatup!

j/k. he was at the zoo.

leaving peoples / office pranks

2007-10-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

so, i'm leaving peoples community bank after almost 4.5 years. It has been a great run, but it is time to move on. The fact that peoples is being aquired by Integra Bank it a bit of encouragement as well. At peoples, we have a history of pranks. If someone has a birthday, leaves, or sometimes for no reason at all -- we will in some fashion completely destory something on their behalf -- usually an office, occasionally a car.

When shane left, we bubble wrapped his jeep wrangler, and hid his doors. he didn't notice the doors were gone -- which would have been REALLY funny when he left -- but our receptionist have him hints until he figured it out. oh well.

When andy left - (he has a bad habit of leaving his keys on his desk) -- we filled is tahoe with styrofoam peanuts. and i mean FILLED. full up to the windows, front, back, and cargo area.

other fun things: Random papers everywhere, taking every candy dish, food bowl, etc on the entire floor and putting it in ONE office, shrink wrapping everything in an office. covering everything in an office with aluminum foil. including pens and business cards.

best prank ever? Well, one evening, I "borrowed" 2 star crunch cookies from one of our accounting girls. I hid them in desk in a vacant office. Well, the next day -- she got SUPER ticked -- thought the cleaning people took them. This pranked ended excellently, DAYS later, after she left a mean note for the cleaning crew (we warned them), after receiving a call FROM the cleaning people saying they didn't do it (made her feel really really bad), after accusing everyone in her department, after receivng 180 star crunch cookies [it was all kroger had!] in return, writing out "SORRY" on her desk with the star crunch. that made her even more mad. until she found out I did it. then, it was funny. she doesn't get along with her department. it's way funnier if i put it all the details one at a time, but that would take way too long. but man it was great.

well. I had a birthday, anniversay, and left work, all within about a week. tomorrow is my last day so on tuesday, i arrived to an office filled with balloons. not just any balloons -- balloons filled with shiny foil confetti. 400 balloons. yes. FOUR HUNDRED. And every time you pop one -- confetti goes everywhere. Wow they made a mess.

Speedy Update!

2007-08-29T00:03:00.000-04:00

Speedy is now 44" long, and weights 7 pounds! SEVEN! She is a fatty!

Finally Got my escalade!

2007-07-12T11:14:00.001-04:00

This mug is sweet! 2007 Black on Black, 26" Chrome rims, Lowered. Just need a trailer hitch and boat and i'm good to go!

Oh.... i got it for $3.99 at Goodwill. batteries not included. :)

maybe it wasn't so spontaneous?

2007-06-13T17:35:00.001-04:00

Ok.. so I went out back just now to take some pictures of my burnt grass... Neat huh? ESPECIALLY neat when i noticed the small pile of ASHES from a fire pit right next to it!! Check out the bottom two pictures... My back neighbor has a fire pit, and it looks like they decided to dump the ashes RIGHT next to to my pile of dry, dead grass.... touching it, and apparently lighting it on fire... wow.

Not to mysterious any more. Ashes stay hot and smoldering for days, and most likely caused the grass to do this.... opinions? A little TOO convenient if you ask me...

oops.....

I have a niece!

2007-06-01T15:24:00.000-04:00

yay! I have a niece. she is super cute. Her name is isabella, and she has her own blog! http://isabellasuzanne.blogspot.com.

She doesn't say much, but she is only 2 months old :). she likes to dance to music. well, if you consider wiggling legs and arms while laying on your back dancing... which i would, in her case.

ha. my blog isn't cool

2006-03-01T22:47:00.000-05:00

my blog isn't cool at all. i never write anything, nor do i seem to have anything interesting to say to the whole world. (or to sarah, since she's the only one that ever looks)...

It's exciting that:
Uk won today after coming back from 14 points down
Duke LOST to FSU --- YES I HATE DUKE!!!
I rode my motorcycle to work yesterday.
i have a ticket to UC's last game saturday!
I rearranged my living room and like it better.

it's sad that:
UC lost yesterday
i left my hot dogs at meijer somehow after i paid for them and therefore didnt' have what i wanted for dinner. i think the cashier was running a scam. now i have to go back to meijer tomorrow and say "can i have these hots dogs please"
matt bise's palm treo is way cooler than my blackberry

Did you see that?

2006-02-06T21:19:00.000-05:00

Did you just see that? UC beating Louisville? WooHOOO! I knew they could do it, but man what a fight! Hicks get bonked in the head and probably had a concussion, yet stays in the game, and knocks down 10 for 10 free throws, and james white twists his ankle again... lets just help everyone is healed up by Sunday... As a Kentucky native, i do like rick pitino, but i can't stand louisville!

i guess thats it. not much else to say... super bowl? who cares! Commercials? not great. 2007 Escalade? I'd rock it! Just need to come up with $57,000 and put my order in!

Go Bearcats!

2006-01-31T16:57:00.000-05:00

Ok just sitting here at work waiting for 6:30 to roll around so I can go home and watch UC play tonight. they BETTER win tonight. I think only James White and Eric Hicks should be allowed to shoot the ball, because no one else can hit anything... Hopefully tonight will be a breakout game.

Why am I even writing this? No one will probably see it, except for maybe sarah who i think is addicted to her blog. (whatup!). Why do I feel like I have nothing to say? Am I boring, or am I bottled up inside? hmmmmm...

oh here some good news: my new kitchen comes Feb 16th yay! (well, everything but the counter top, which will come the next week). Just in time for spring! Someday, i'll put together my new grill and have a cookout... who's coming?

my first post

2006-01-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

So i finally started a blog. I'll be very surprised if i actually keep updating it... not really that excited about it, just seems like the thing to do.... and what blog would be complete without a pic of the SS? oh yeah, everyone elses....