Top Gun or Top Bum?

The political corruption maelstrom continues. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-CA) admitted to taking bribes totaling $2.4 million from defense contractors. Cunningham held a position on the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee for defense and was the Chairman of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and human intelligence and he was the inspiration for Tom Cruise's character in "Top Gun." What was he thinking? What is everyone in politics thinking? Currently, all the scandals involve Republicans. Do I hate Republicans? No. Do I hate politicians? Mostly. Why? The corruption never stops. If the democrats had all the power the way the Republicans did and to some degree still do, they would be more corrupt than they are. Surprised that I say that? You shouldn't be. The bribes go to people who can make the deals and can be bought. The party in power has the people who can do the deals. We need another party. That's necessary for many reasons. I'll just give you one reason for now. Three parties makes it harder for any party to have a majority. Without a majority any one party can't be powerful enough to be safe from attack from the other parties. What does that mean? Politicians would have to be more careful in their corrupt dealings. Maybe they would actually avoid the corrupt dealings. That's unlikely, but one can hope. The important question is what should the name and color be for our new party? The name is too hard for this late at night. Let's tackle the color first. One party is red right now. The other is blue. Green is taken. Yellow is cowardly. White and black have racial overtones. Gray is too morally ambivalent. Purple is taken...sort of. Brown was worn by the Nazis and is used by UPS. What does that leave from the rainbow? Orange. Orange is the color of the Dutch, but we could use it anyway. I'm not sure I like using the color of pumpkins, but maybe we can make it work...with the right name. Of course, if anyone has any ideas, let me know. It's time for change. I'll get the ball rolling if someone else will keep it going. Of course, you'll sign a contract saying that if you commit any illegal acts as a member of the party, you will turn yourself in to the police...in Singapore. At least then we know you'll be careful. They don't mess around with criminals in Singapore.

Yes, grasshopper?

"Yes, grasshopper? What made you wait by the pond, for over an hour until I came over, so that you could jump on my sweatshirt and crawl up on my shoulder? "The environment? What the heck can I do about the environment? I know I built a pond, but I can't make a whole new environment for all the animals. Yes, I know that it was my species that caused the problem. I'm doing my best. I recycle. I use items with less packaging. I buy organic as much as possible. We avoid using chemicals for cleaning. I donate to Environmental Defense. Our clinic, In Stride Physical Therapy(shameless plug), is a green business. What more do you want?" "Okay, I'll try. Yes, I'll tell everybody. I know they don't understand. I'll tell them that they're fouling their own water, their own food. By dumping the toxins that we do into our air, water and soil we might as well just start poisoning our babies directly. "You have to understand though, grasshopper. People don't care about animals or the planet. They're also in denial that they are animals and they live on the same planet as the other animals. I know we're all in this together but, people like to say stuff like, 'Mercury? I don't like fish anyway!' or 'You seen one elephant, you seen them all.' "See what I mean. Okay, I understand. I'll keep trying. I hope that people start listening before too many people start dying because of what we've been doing..."

Hurricane David

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know Talli and I did. Her brother Leor stayed at our place and we all went over to my parents' house for dinner. The food was great and a great time was had by all. This morning I put a coat of wood sealant on the sides of the pond. If I hadn't run out of sealant, I would have finished. Oh well. I'll just finish that off this week during a lunch break. Since then, Talli and I tried to catch up on some other errands around the house and decorated a little bit for Christmas. At least now, we have the tree up and decorated. The rest of the decorations will follow. Currently, the debate is on between Talli and I...and the voices in my head...about whether or not to put lights up on the outside of the house. I'll have to sleep on it. Nine to ten hours of sleep should help with a decision. Some of you might be wondering about the changing of the blog's name. Others might just be thinking that it is in bad taste. I'll give you some more info and then you can decide. With all the hurricanes that we've been having, I wondered why no hurricanes were named after me. I know..I know excessive hubris. It turns out that the last one named after me was in 1979. It was so bad, that they retired the name. It was a Category 5 and it devastated the Caribbean. That fact, coupled with the way that the recent hurricanes have opened up eyes in America to realities that they hadn't wanted to see came together in the rebranding of this blog. I've decided that sometimes it is important to make people aware of things of which they would rather not be aware. So, this blog, on occasion, might stray away from the doings in my life. This way, I can address some issues in the world, society or culture that I think are being ignored or denied in order to make us feel better about ourselves or the world at large rather than face reality and improve our situations. Facing reality is something which I believe is a strong first step in improving the world. No true progress can be made using false suppositions. Oh, and I have to admit one last thing. I went back to Petco with a $2.00 survey coupon that we had and bought three more koi from the feeder fish tank at $.29 a piece. The leftover coupon went towards some Greenies bones for Hunter. I know I have too many koi for the pond now, but I got a lot of feeders, they can't all live, right? Well, we'll see and I'll figure it out. At worst, some fish will stay in an aquarium instead of the pond. It still seems a better fate then food for another fish. We'll just have to see how the pond does under the fish load as I release a few a week in spring.

Remodeled Bathrooms

Remember that two year sabbatical I took from my blog? Well, during that time I took a few weeks to redo our bathrooms. I always meant to put those pictures up when there was a slow news day. Well, guess what. It's a slow news day. The master bathroom is shown in the top picture and the hall bathroom is in the second picture. I wish I'd taken before pictures, but I didn't. Here's what I did: Master Bathroom

replaced mirror

replaced toilet

replaced lights

replaced fixtures

painted room

replaced counter and sink

Hall Bathroom

replaced mirror

replaced toilet

replaced lights

replaced fixtures

painted room

replaced counter and sink

replaced floor and replaced section of subfloor

Of course, Talli and I replaced all the towels, rugs and the shower curtain. It's been a busy year. Well, I'm done with that for the year. Now, it's time to relax a little. It's been too long since I did that. Hopefully tomorrow will be interesting enough for something new. Hang in there, I'll come through for you all soon.

Pond Complete!

Finally, I've gotten the completed pond picture up. Now you can all see what I'd been describing. I have some pictures with the fish, but they were all fuzzy. The fish were either uncooperative or just remarkably unphotogenic. Maybe I'll post some pictures another time and you can all judge for yourselves. Now that the construction is complete and I only have to apply some sealant to the sideboards, I'm going to try to rest a bit. Talli will probably try to put a stop to that quick and ask me to spot her at the gym, but I'll try anyway. In fact, I better get to resting right now. You all take care of yourselves until next time.

World Champion, Ita Pantilat

And the new world record holder for the bench press in the 47-53 year old under 114 lb category is...ITA PANTILAT! Breaking her old world record of 192.4 lbs, Ita lifted 198.2 lbs. It was an amazing competition. Ita tried to break the 200 barrier with 200.1 on her fourth lift, but with almost no rest between the third and fourth lifts, fatigue took its toll and she came up a little short and was unable to get it all the way up and lock out her elbows. All in all, it was an amazing performance. On top of her world championship title and new world record, Ita also won the title of best lifter in all the Master's Women categories. That title signifies her as the best lifter pound for pound. No surprise since she lifted 198.2 lbs and weighed in at 110 lbs. Once again, I'd like to congratulate Talli's mom, Ita Pantilat on destroying the competition. Not a bad day's work, especially since she's only been training for the bench press for six months. Give her a few months more and she'll crush some more records. Especially since, on Sunday she'll have her birthday and graduate up to the 54-60 age bracket where she'll mow down the competition and put her own stamp on the age bracket with devastating new records. I can't wait to see the next competition! Happy Birthday, Ita and good luck on many more victories and records! I know you won't need the luck though with all the hard work you put in. You're an inspiration to us all.

Pond Pictures?

I know, I know. Everyone wants finished pictures of the pond. Well, they're coming. I've been busy repotting the plants from the water garden to go into the pond. Talli and I have also been very busy cleaning the house before her mom comes to stay with us a few days after her competition at the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters Championships in Reno, Nevada on November 18. Maybe I'll also be able to post a picture from that competition or at least of her trophy. Stay tuned. I'll probably post again soon, but the pictures...well hopefully I'll get those up then or very soon after. As a sidenote, there is also a fish release planned for Saturday afternoon, so I'll have to get some pictures up of our fish enjoying their new 800 gallon home as well. Be back in a few...

Winter Fish?

Today, I finally finished putting the siding on the sides of the pond, during my lunch break. I added the plywood and the redwood trim and then I had to quickly clean up after myself before heading back to the clinic. The next step, is to repot the plants that I have in the water garden, remove all the snails and then move the plants to the pond. Once that is done, the only thing left to add is the winter fish. "Winter fish?" you ask. Yes, the goldfish that I'm going to put in the pond to test out the water conditions to let me see how the more expensive goldfish and koi I have will do in the pond over the next winter. I'll show some pictures of them in their new home after the release this coming Saturday.

Pond Progress Report

The pond is progressing very well. Here's a progression of photos to show you what I've done so far. Saturday, Talli and I scrubbed the liner on our driveway. Of course, I did have to clean all the crap off my driveway that my neighbor's tree is constantly dropping on it. After sweeping for twenty minutes, Talli and I carried the 45 mil 15'x15' rubber liner that I bought from bestnest.com. They had a great price on it. I got it cheaper from them with shipping than I would have paid at Lowe's for a 22 mil 16'x20', which was the only one they carried that was big enough for my pond design. Talli sprayed the liner down as I scrubbed it. Then we folded it up and carried it back to the pond and dropped it in. We managed to get it set up more or less the way it needed to be, when my dad showed up. Talli turned on the hose and we filled it up as I stood in it in my chest wader. We adjusted it as we went along. When I thought we had it under control, I let Talli go into the house so she could bake up some goodies for us. About a half hour or so later, my brother Michael showed up to help me out just in time. We needed some more help as the water rose. Finally, it was full and we stapled the liner to the top and cut off the excess. Then we cut the wood that I was going to use as a cap and as siding. With that done I let my family have the rest of the night off. Later that night, Talli and I went to Lowe's and bought some redwood to use as trim to match the redwood cap. Today, I cut the wood that I'd bought the night before and wrapped some cement blocks in liner and sank them in the pond as plant stands. Meanwhile, Talli put a couple coats of sealant on the redwood capper. After the sealant was dry, I fastened the capper to the structure and attached half of the siding and trim. By the time I was that far along it was 7:30 and time for dinner so, I'm leaving the rest of the work for tomorrow night.

Pond Update

Here's the promised pond update. As you can all see, I received the wood I needed for the pond construction. I actually received it last Wednesday. Last week, I stacked it into the frame I wanted. During the weekend, my dad and I drilled holes through the seven layers of six inch beams that make up the sides. We tried to use my drill, but it got stuck and started smoking. We had to go to my grandmother's house to borrow a drill from my Uncle Richard so that we could finish the job. Several hours later we were done. The next day I put bracing on the inner corners of the frame to attach the sides to each other. After work on Thursday, I covered the inside with old carpet that I had stored in the garage to protect the liner that I will be putting in this Saturday. The pictures will follow.

Comcast Caused Blog Vacation

I know what you're going to say. It's been a while between posts. Not my fault...this time. I've been having horrendous problems with my comcast internet connection since last Thursday. It's still not working correctly yet, but I'm able to stay active long enough to post if I'm quick. Here's a quick fish/pond update. I've got a picture here of our newest koi. The only one that didn't cost $0.24. He cost a whopping $12. I know, I'm getting out of control. He's our largest fish at the moment. He's still in quarantine. We've had him for almost 2 weeks now. Unfortunately for him, he's still in our 23 gallon tank. In about 2-3 weeks he'll be swimming in our 50 gallon tank waiting for the spring to make the transition to the approximately 850 gallon pond that is currently under construction. A little later, I'll give you a full update on the pond construction status.

Lumber Purchased!

Well, this weekend I finally decided on a design for the pond that I'm building. I purchased all the lumber I needed at the nearby lumber yard. I'm going to build the frame using 6"x6"x8' lumber for the long side and 6"x6"x5' for the short side. Then, I'm going to use some 2"x8" redwood as a cap and some 3/8" plywood as siding. The lumber will be arriving tomorrow and on Saturday I hope to build the box. Then I'll wait for the liner that I ordered before I can put the cap on. The liner should be arriving next Monday. The pump and filter will be arriving next Tuesday. When the pond is finished it should be 4' 6 1/2" x 7' 6 1/2" x 3'. The pond will hold approximately 750 gallons. By next weekend, I should have the pond completed and should have it filled, stocked with plants and maybe a few fish to eat mosquitoes. I can hardly wait! I like planning projects, but once the planning has gone on long enough, I can't wait to finish it so that I can move on to the next thing.