...still hate the ice.

I wonder if I can hibernate for the next three months.

It took me a while to come up with something, but last night clinched it, I have found something that I hate Hate HATE about Montana.

LAst night Judy and I went out on a date and when we came back we couldn't get up the hill. Worse than that, I had to do a 180 controlled (yeah right) slide back down the hill and plant the car on the side of the road. It's hard to describe so I made a picture.



- The green line is our normal trip home. Snyder Hill Lane is the private road.
- The red star is actually a switchback in the road.
- The red line is the direction I took as I slid back down the hill.

It was pretty stressful because I was trying to slow down enough so that I didn't hit the switchbak and flip or go off of the other side of it.

The problem is that the road is so steep and there has been a few days of wet, slight thaw, wet, slight thaw, rinse, repeat, so the ice has grown to about 1/4" thick on our road.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Montana but that stressed me out. I have been dreading driving on ice the entire time that I've been here and I finally had to do it. And I hate it.

I received three different calls today from three different companies talkign to me about jobs. That's pretty cool. Any one of them would be great places to work at. I just have to see how it all pans out, what the salaries are like, benefits, etc.

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Also, here's another former student site that I've been reading for a while.

http://www.xanga.com/the_high_commander

If you can take the time to read it you will definitely be amused.

Hello Game Console!

Carputer lost its real purpose when I got satellite radio. First I repurposed it for a small server and I have just recently given it new life as a game cabinet. This will be a full sized game cabinet that will sit right next to my Marvel VS Capcom 2 game.

The brains work (I played a number of games today with my keyboard), and I just need to do a bit more scripting to get the menus complete. I just finished the brains for the controllers this evening by modifying the inner workings of a keyboard (below) so all I need to do now is to build the cabinet, order the controls, get a monitor and put it all together.

Spiffy

So, which one are you? I was...

Hulk - 80%
Spider Man - %75
Iron Man - %70

Go here to see what you are. Come back and post it so I know.

Superhero Quiz

This is the view going up the road to our house. I remember taking the long way to Vanguard or Dana Point at times to see the ocean or Disneyland so it's pretty cool to see this everytime we drive home.

This was taken yesterday.



This is the view around the lake.



We played in the snow on Monday. Here's a picture of Anya jumping into her snow monster. The snow wasn't sticky enough to make a snowman with, but it's a nice action shot.



Bella decided that the best thing to do with the snow was to eat it.

Updated: 11/22

This is my Christmas list for the year. Family members can use this as a guide while friends and acquaintances can look at it and be glad that they aren't buying anything for me this year.

Book - Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius : 28 Build-It-Yourself by Iannini
Book - The Road to Reality : A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe by Roger Penrose
CD - Any Nuclear Rabbit CD
CD - Battle Hymn - Manowar
CD - Bond - Explosive
CD - Lonely Runs Both Ways - Allison Krause
CD - Molly's Revenge IV - Molly's Revenge
Clothes - Hot Topics Montana T-shirt
Clothes - M5 tshirt
DVD - Batman Begins
DVD - Corrs - Live at the Royal Albert Hall
DVD - Corrs - Live in London
DVD - Dreams - Akira Kurosawa
DVD - Home Theater Test and Setup disk - Whichever
DVD - Throne of Blood - Akira Kurosawa
Toys - dartboard - with or without a case
Toys - Lightalk LED scanner
Toys - rare earth magnets
Toys - ScanGauge 3-in-1 Auto Computer
Toys - Tornado Spinner - Slik Stiks

It has probably cost me more anguish and frustration than anything else has in my life so I swore that I was done with it. I said that I wouldn't do it. I promised myself, "Never, never again!" You can pull out my fingernails, but I am never doing it again!

Yeah, I'm going to do it again.

Yeah, I'm an idiot, and I can't wait to do it.

Do you think you know what it is?

Tonight we went to see Molly's Revenge. The girls went with us and had a great time. Think of them as a celtic Barenakedladies - Lite.

You can see them here...

MOLLY'S REVENGE

They play in California a lot, so it will be easy for most people who read this to see them at some point. I recommend seeing them in Monterey, because, hey, its in Monterey!

Not quite a winter wonderland, but it's still pretty cool. Here's the picture from my bedroom window looking out into the back yard.



I'm also a little disappointed that no one pointed out that it was Shang Tsung who said "It has begun!" not Liu Kang. Oh well.

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I'm going to begin posting links to the blogs that I read, former students, friends, etc (which, by the way, you have been warned, let me know if you DON'T want me to post it). I want to expand the world. So here's the first one.

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=BarefooTraveler Trooper's Blog

Trooper has been traveling around SE Asia taking pictures for a while now after doing a gig in Great Britain. He has some great pictures up of Bali at the moment.