My apologies, ya’ll

A friend recently pointed out that I had fallen off the blog wagon lately… I had been doing so well for a while and then I fell into a boring weekly routine that didn’t seem interesting enough to write about. It seems like I’ve been spending a majority of available daylight (outside of work hours) battling the weeds that are trying to take over the area in our yard where I seeded native grasses last spring.  The coneflowers are putting up the best fight, followed by the native grasses. The black eyed susans don’t seem to be coming up at all… I was hoping they would germinate this spring, but it isn't looking good for them so far.  Hopefully the natives will gain some size this year so I don't have to fight so hard for them next season.

A few weeks ago, Karen presented at a conference in Denver, CO and I tagged along as a vacation. We were there Wednesday through Sunday and had a nice time. She has a couple friends who live there and they were kind enough to show us the sights and good restaurants. We ate so much food, I was stuffed every night (including some Chick-fil-a!). Denver is a cool town that I would seriously consider moving to if we ever had the opportunity. Lots of bike trails, good food and mountains a short drive away… what could be better than that?

A friend of mine has gotten me hooked on the instagram app for my iphone and I took these shots using that app while we were there. I took a lot more with my DSLR, but I haven’t felt motivated to go through them and pull out the best ones to post online. Perhaps I’ll do that this weekend as the weather people are predicting rain… not that we can really trust their judgment, though...

The famous Red Rocks Ampitheater

View of the mountains across a lake where we went "hiking" (quite possibly the only flat hiking trail in the Rockies!)

REI Denver store, how freakin' beautiful is that location?

An evening at Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies.

The Primary

-begin political vent-

Voting in the Illinois primary yesterday made me really think about the two major political parties that are currently running our country (into the ground). Why is it that you basically have to be one or the other? What about those of us who (in my mind) think pretty logically and agree with parts, but not all, of each party’s “ideals?” In that regard, I’m definitely a bit of a mutt.


I shouldn’t probably dive into political talk here, but what the hell, why not. Here are a few items in which I agree with each party:

Republican (in theory, but the current repubs seem to be straying from their supposedly conservative way of thinking): Fiscally conservative, lower taxes, smaller government, pro-gun, less “handouts”

Democrat: Gay rights, woman’s right to choose and…. surely there is more that I agree with, but I can’t think of them right now.

So, where the heck does that put me? I would like to propose a “Logical Party” where common sense rules. I know some of you will argue that I'm not thinking logically, but hear me out.  Here is my very, very simplified summary of it:

You can’t spend more than you take in, so why should the government be able to? Joe shouldn’t be punished/hated for being successful and there should be a maximum amount of his income that the government can confiscate each year. At the same time, Bob shouldn’t live off of everyone else if he is at all fit to get job. Sure, we’ll help you get back on your feet if you fall down, but our help is temporary and you need to ultimately be responsible for yourself. If you want to have a gun (or two or twenty), or live an alternative lifestyle or whatever, you can as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of other people and you can support it financially. However, as soon as you do something that clearly breaks the law or infringe on the rights of others, be prepared to pay the consequences. Those consequences could be quite severe, especially if you knowingly take someone’s life. Internationally, we’ll support our allies when they are in need, but we aren’t going to police the world. We need to clean up our house before we start helping to clean up someone else’s mess.

Right now, my voting theory is to prioritize the topics that are most important to me at the time, kind of the lesser of two evils way of thinking. I have to say, I’m pretty disheartened with all of it right now and I can only hope that we don’t become a nanny state full of lazy, needy, whinny citizens. Right now, it sure isn’t looking good.

-end-

Back to normal stuff: 

My tickets for the Indy 500 came in, I can't wait for Memorial Day weekend.


In other news, the PHD's ended the curling season in the first loser spot (second place).  We were in first until last week, when we lost the game when two of our teammates were on spring break vacations.  Since we lost while they were out of town, I'm going to blame them for breaking up the team at a critical moment.  After 20 weeks of curling this winter (seems like a long time!), it is time to to put away the hat and gloves and pull out the new golf clubs.  Time to get outside, get some sun and hopefully have some fun on the links.

Since the weather has been so nice, our yard is starting to come alive again.  The forsythia is blooming, Tulips are popping up and the trees are starting to bud.  I'll post some pictures as the growth progress.  I've already started to battle the weeds that took over the area that I tried to seed with native grasses last year.  I've been working to mark the small native plants so I can avoid them as I try to remove the weeds.  The weeds are 10x bigger than the natives, but hopefully they will gain some size this season.  I hope all of this effort pays off in the long run and the natives are able take control of the area.  I don't really want to fight this battle every year.

My parents are coming in for the weekend, we haven't seen them since early November.  I won tickets (radio giveaway) to the arena football game on Saturday, so we'll be going to that.  The United States Navy Band is performing at ISU on Monday night and I just picked up tickets for the four of us to go to that.  I know, I know, that is an odd mix, arena football and the Navy Band.  It should be a fun weekend.

I can see (better)

After 5 years of wearing the same glasses, I’ve finally upgraded to a new set of frames and lenses.  As you might guess, Karen wanted some input on which frames I picked, so we went out shopping a couple Saturdays ago.  We found some nice looking frames at the eye doctor’s
"boutique" (the first place we went to) and I made the executive decision to stop the shopping right then.  I had a feeling that we would go to 5 other places (she loves to shop) and end up coming back for this pair (it has happened enough that I know I’m right). We were told that they would be ready on Monday.

Monday comes around and I get a call from the optics guy… we can’t cut your lenses here in store, so we will have to send them out to be cut.  Evidently my astigmatism correction is getting worse and now it isn’t a standard cut.  Two weeks later and my lenses and frames finally arrived; I picked them up last night.  Here is a shot of them; I thought they had an interesting “architectural” style to them, especially the hollow space on the sides.  Want to know the most shocking thing? In a boutique full of pricey design brand name frames, Karen ended up liking a reasonably priced, no-name brand.  The odds of that happening are not very good, she typically drawn to the most expensive things. 

The real bad news is that the same astigmatism correction that makes regular glasses difficult to cut makes getting prescription sunglasses an even bigger pain in the ass.  Evidently the wrap around curvature of most sunglasses does not play well with my correction, which needs to be more flat (that is how it was explained to me).  GREAT.  The sales person suggested getting regular frames and put tinted lenses in them, but, in my mind, the whole reason to get sunglasses is so they wrap around and protect your eye from the sun.  If there are big gaps where the sun can get in, what is the point of wearing them?

We started looking around at frames and the pair that Karen liked the most ended up being the exact same Ray Ban sunglasses frame that I’ve been wearing for the last 5 years.  I guess the style has aged well?  We also found a set of Oakleys that I liked, but I was a little skeptical about the ends that go over your ears.  On most glasses they are hooked down to hold them in place behind your ear, but the Oakleys are straight.  I am not sure if those will be as secure as what I’ve been wearing?

I decided to wait on sunglasses to make sure the prescription is OK before ordering them.  I found a nice website that takes your prescription and narrows down the frame choices to the ones that will actually work with your prescription.  Happily, the Oakley frames that I like should work for me, so maybe everything will work out OK after all.  

Tool time

As my tool collection has steadily grown, my need to be organized has grown too.  I just received a nice set of ½” drive metric deep sockets for my birthday and there wasn’t any room for them in the tool box.  Since that outcome is totally unacceptable, I started researching socket storage.   It is officially time to reorganize the tool box. 

 I visited garage journal dot com (a great website for home based gear heads) and saw that most people there were buying prefabricated socket racks.  After comparing the racks to my collection of sockets, it was obvious that none of those holders matched up real well with my collection of sockets.  That would leave me with room wasting empty spaces OR I would have to modify the racks to fit my sockets.  In addition to them not being an ideal match for my collection, the racks cost 15-20 bucks each and I would need at least 6 of them.  I’ll give you a second to do that mental math…

I also saw that a few guys on garage journal had built their own custom racks, so I went out to the garage and compared my set up with theirs.   It looked like I could definitely do it myself for way less money, and we all know that  I’m typically in favor of spending less money... unless it is for something cool like that carbon fiber road bike with electronic shifting that I’ve been eyeing in the cycling magazines.  Yes, they are now making bikes with electronic shifting – possibly the coolest advancement in cycling since they started putting disc brakes on mountain bikes.

Karen was busy this weekend grading midterm projects, so I decided to get started on this project.  I calculated the materials I would need and made a trip to Lowes.  $10 later I had everything that I needed (except for the paint to finish it).  I came home and fired up the power tools.  What can I say; I am a sucker for an opportunity to use power tools!

I’m only about halfway through, but here are some progress pictures,  this should definitely make it easier to find the socket I need, when I need it:

In other news, Illinois State University’s men’s basketball team almost won the conference championship game today.  They lost by 4 points in overtime.  It would have been nice to see them win.  I’ve also been working on updating my personal “career” website, www.davidscottdouglas.com.  Feel free to take a look at it and send me any comments that you have.

Older = wiser?

I’m a year older, but I am pretty sure that I’m not necessarily any wiser. As my darling wife keeps reminding me, its official, I’m now in my “late” thirties. It is hard to believe that I just turned 36 years old, but I guess we all say that each time our birthday rolls around.  My sister is already counting down the years until I hit 40.  I don't even want to think about that, as 30 was a mental crisis for me.  I can't imagine what 40 will be like.


My birthday was low key, but nice, full of good food, CAKE, and presents. A slice of cake definitely does a good job of distracting me from thinking about getting older. I received some nice gifts, including a set of golf clubs from my wife. You might remember that we took golf lessons last fall and golf season is quickly approaching. I guess she decided that it would be easier on her to go ahead and purchase a set of clubs for me instead of listening me constantly talk about wanting to get clubs so I can go out and play. OR, perhaps she sees it a way of getting me out of the house so she can nap in peace on Saturday afternoons. Whatever her reason, I am very excited to get them.  We ordered them on Friday and, according to UPS.com, they are on the truck for delivery today. FORE!!!!

On Sunday I attended my first arena football game, cheering for the local team, the Bloomington Edge. Not having been to an indoor football game before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I witnessed was a full onslaught of offense and hard hits/tackles, all from a comfortable seat 6 rows away from the field. That view sure beats the nose bleed seats that I am used to sitting in when I go to UGA football games. The icing on the proverbial cake was that it was FREE hotdog day. It’s like the whole arena was celebrating my birthday with free hotdogs! I’ll admit it, after one game I’m hooked and I’m ready to go to another game. My parents will be in town for the next home game, maybe I’ll take them.

Here’s a picture I snapped with the iphone. While it looks sparsely attended, this crowd is much bigger than the crowd at the hockey game we went to in the same venue a few weeks ago.  This is a great facility and a very nice amenity for our small town.

I haven’t mentioned it lately, but we’re in the final stretch of the second session of the curling league. Our team started out strong, winning the first 5 games and staking claim to first place. I guess the winning went to our heads because we have lost each of the last two games by one point on the final stone of each game. Yes, that means that we have blown two leads in the last ends of the games. As you know, I don’t like losing, and losing at the very last second of the game sucks even worse.

We are now 5-2 and tied for first. We will be playing the other first place team in two weeks and, unfortunately, two of our players are going to be away on spring break. These guys need to get their priorities straight,.  Who, in their right mind, goes to sunny, beautiful Florida when the curling championship is on the line? Seriously?  Fortunately, I have been able to talk two people who didn’t sign up to play this session into filling in for them, so hopefully we will be OK. If not, you know who I’m going to blame, right?

You dirty cars

It is cold outside, 17 degrees (-2 degrees when you factor in the wind), and the cars are really dirty after driving around in the slushy mess that this winter has been. A normal person would say “screw it” and leave the cars dirty until spring or spend 7-8 bucks per car and go to a drive through car wash. No, not me… I fill a couple buckets with warm water from the kitchen sink, raise the garage door an inch (so the water drains out) and I hand wash the cars inside the garage. The temperature wasn’t too bad in the insulated garage, but it does make me want to install a heater out there…



This task has also lead me to the realization that we should have had them put a water faucet in the garage when we built the house. If I had a hose connection in the garage, I could clean the cars much faster and I wouldn’t have to schlep buckets of water through the house. Hmm… how did I over look this when we were building the house?! Now I need to decide if I want to tackle this plumbing upgrade myself, or hire a plumber to do it. Plus, I need to sell the idea to the CFO… I guess I will submit it along with my request for a heater!


Yes, this is how I spent part of Sunday afternoon, washing cars. Definitely not the most productive day, but a garage full of shiny, clean and happy cars is a beautiful sight. Sometimes it is just nice to step back and admire the results of your effort! Of course, it snowed last night so all that work was for naught, as they are both dirty after we drove them to work today. Oh well. Other than that, our weekend was uneventful. The cold weather sucks because you are basically cooped up inside and there is only so much you can do to entertain yourself inside. Karen’s solution is to “go shopping,” but we don’t really need anything, so why do that? We did get out Friday night and went to a hockey game; Bloomington has a low tier professional team that plays in a beautiful facility. We had a good time at the game, even though they did lose in a shootout after over time.


On Saturday, I bit the bullet and did our taxes. We are getting a refund, but not as big of one as I had hoped, considering the fact that we are paying mortgages and property taxes on two houses. That should equal out to a lot of deductions, right? Evidently not. Speaking of our second house in GA, we evicted our tenant, hired a new realtor to try to sell the house, and have contractors working to repair damage that the tenant did while living there (don’t get me started on this unless you want another F-word laced tirade of a blog post). We can only hope that we find a buyer soon so that we can part ways with that financial drain. I did make the mistake of adding up how much we have spent on the house in mortgage payments, taxes, repairs, utilities, etc. OUCH!


And, finally, in case you thought I forgot: Happy Hallmark Day (I meant to say Valentine’s Day, but I’m sure you got the point). What can I say, I’m a guy and I’ve never been a fan of this day. The only good thing about Hallmark Day is that it means that we are only a week away from my birthday! That, my friends, is something worth celebrating!

Car shopping

Car shopping... there are a ton of choices out there and everyone has an opinion on what you should buy.  Mix in an opinionated husband/wife duo and a disagreement is bound to happen.  Karen's 2001 Mazda 626 has been a great car, giving her over 175,500 miles and it is still going, albeit with a check engine light that constantly reminds us that the transmission is threatening to bail on us at any time.  The car has been in the shop and the tech said to drive it until it breaks, then R.I.P.  Replacing the transmission, even with a used one, will cost more than the car is worth.
It has been very quiet around here lately, so I suggested that we start looking at cars now.  My theory is that we will be prepared when we see a good deal OR when the 626 gives up on us, we'll be ready to buy. Makes sense, right?

If you ask me what we should buy, I would focus on versatility, fuel economy, possibly all wheel drive  (AWD) and a car that is fun to drive.  If I had my pick (and I don't), I would buy a Mazda3 hatchback, tint the windows and go zooming around while getting almost 30mpg around town.  Throw some snow tires on it and I think it would drive just fine in the snow.  One of several subarus with all wheel drive would be a close second. 

As you might guess, her priorities are a bit different.  She wants to sit up high while the seat heaters warm her behind.  Good looks and a nice interior also fit into her priorities, and AWD might be nice after slipping around one icey morning a few weeks ago.  The Lincoln MKX (she sat in it at the autoshow last year) is her idea of the target car, although it is 2x our budget and can't even get 20mpg in town.  It looks like we have a bit of a gap to bridge,  this should be fun.

Before I go any further, don't forget that I am a bit of a car buff and that I sold Mazdas for 9 months.  I tried my best to not push my agenda and let her provide her opinions first.  To start, we went out and drove through all the dealer lots on Sunday, since they are all closed on Sunday.  Evaluations on style and her brand knowledge were applied and she narrowed it down to a top 5:

After the "walk around review" the order for her was: 
1.  VW Tiguan
2.  Ford Escape (the old boxy body style)
3.  Mazda CX-7
4.  Subaru Forester
5.  Toyota Rav-4
I expected all but one of her choices, the VW. I had never really considered it as an option, but Karen spotted it in the lot while we were looking at the Subi, so it went on the list.

Pesonally, I ranked them more like this: 
1.  Forester
2.  CX-7 (no AWD)
3.  Tiguan
4.  Escape (boxy)
5.  Rav-4

Of course, you have to remember that my opinion doesn't rate much, since it isn't going to be my car.  You might be surprised to see me put the forester above the cx-7, but for basically the same price the forester has AWD, which would be nice while we live in snow country.

While doing some online research after our drive thru, the VW quickly feel out of contention because we found out that it's turbo engine required premium fuel.  That left  4 cars to drive.  Last weekend, we ventured out and drove all four last weekend.  Since I had been on the other side of these exchanges, I kind of enjoyed watching the sales people.  As for Karen, it was like watching a modern version of  "Goldilocks goes car shopping." One didn't sit up high enough (Forester), the other had a transmission that refused to downshift without counting to three first (Escape) and another was just a bit boring (Rav4).  The fourth one might be the right one, but it doesn't have AWD (CX-7).  To top that off, we were offered a screaming deal on a "left over" 2011 CX-7 so that made it very tempting.  However, we didn't bite on the deal but thought about it all last week.

The story doesn't end there, although it could because the CX-7 is a great vehicle. There was a redheaded step child who wasn't invited to the initial dance: the Honda CRV.  Karen hasn't been a fan of the previous versions (visually), but it was redesigned for 2012 and looks much better.  After some discussion, we decided to give it a chance, so we went out and drove one today. 

Not surprisingly, it drove like a lifted version of our Honda Accord and it did pretty well on her check list.  Sits up high:  Check.  Transmission shifts when you ask and provides needed acceleration:  Check.  Doesn't look boring:  Check.  We must have a winner, right?  Not so fast, because it doesn't have bun warmers.  X.  We decided to head back to mazda to look at last week's victor in a back to back comparison.  We spent some time in the 2011, discussed the deal that was still available and then headed home without it.  She isn't totally sold on it.

Over dinner tonight, she decided that since the CX-7 doesn't have all wheel drive in our budget range, it is probably out.  So, does that make the CRV the winner?  I'm honestly not sure.  To add a twist to the equation, Mazda has a new small SUV coming out this spring, the CX-5.  It is supposed to get much better mileage, sit up high, drive well and looks cool.  The only "X" is that it doesn't have heated seats without getting the maxed out loaded version.  Ugh, I should have known there wouldn't be a clear winner.  Our dealer is supposed to get a CX-5 soon, so we will drive that and see how it places.

For now, we are putting our faith in the old green 626, hopefully she gives us more time to make a good decision.  On the other hand, I hope we don't end up kicking ourselves for passing on the great deal on the CX-7.