what to say

Sometimes I just sit here and have nothing to say. Not sure if it is because last night was on the boring side for me, but I don't think that is it. Could be that nothing funny happened around me, a little closer. Or it could be that I am just not that creative, may be a little too close to the truth to want to admit.....

Well even with all the crappy work place issues that have been going around, thus far Jamie Lou and I have weathered the storm. She was even lucky enough to get a little extra from her company in the form of a bonus. Now seeing where I work I had never heard of this word. So I had to look it up:

1. something given, paid, or received above what is due or expected - ex. a Christmas bonus for all employees

Interesting concept, I have never received one, but that is getting off point.....

So her little extra hit the account yesterday, and lucky enough for her that not only does she like nice things, but she works hard and deserves them. The last few years the reward of choice has been a Coach purse. And why not? They are a statement and look nice. Unfortunately I have had to insert myself into the purse buying process. For what ever reason this fashionable, smart chick is broken when it comes to purse selecting. Case in point, last night the first one she picks is a hand bag that is the color of old woman's underwear. Truly horrible. "But I like it," she says. The next one is this gray number. Because hey, what says spring has sprung like a ugly gray purse? I got her narrowed down to two more festive choices, and then she made the final decision. See how I do that, get it down to only good choices, then it is win-win. She gets something nice, and I am nor embarrassed to be seen with it. Some people say "Don;t you have enough purses?!?!" I say, that is why you work hard and get ahead, so if you want fun stuff, you can have it.

Song of the day: The Raconteurs "Steady, As She Goes" I think I have a man-crush on Jack White

New Ink!

Went to see Jack Lowe at the Skin Kitchen.... Set up the appointment so long ago that when my Palm Pre reminded me Monday morning it was like Christmas....

It is the 10th anniversary for Me and Jamie Lou, so I went for a Jamie Lou Tattoo! At one point a few years back on New Years Eve, I got Jamie Lou to hold a machine gun in one hand and a pistol in the other our friends Kari and Eric's place(a little side note if it is 2AM and you call some people up in Norwalk and they are still going strong on New Years and tell you to 'come on down' buckle up because it will be a GREAT time). While I have the photo from that night of that pose it is just truely a horrible photo. Maybe too much holiday cheer, maybe her being terrified of holding Eric's rifle... either way, what I had hoped was going to be a nice idea for a tattoo ended up a no go. I ended up deciding traditional is the way to go for me this time, getting away from the celtic knots.

10th anniversary, Diamonds are the gifts. Yes, there are diamonds.

She loves roses, yep there are those.. one open in bloom and more still to come with the rose bud....

Her name is for sure there, and if I hear one more time "Here name? what if you get divorced?" I might punch that person in the arm or throat. Not sure what shitty relashonships you are in, but ours is strong. So leave your baggage far from me, sorry your folks didn't love you enough or you hate your husband or what ever your mind is messed up on I could give a rip what your issues are. Plus she knows what will happen if she tries to leave, don't you baby?!? (j/k)

and then it looked like it needed somethign else, so why not a swollow for a traditional tattoo finisher.

This photo was from my Palm Pre taken at work shot with my left hand so forgive me if it goes astray, it really doesn't do the colors justice. This is on the inside of my upper right sleave. In the Style of Sailor Jerry here you go. Let me know what you think:

The Good the Bad and the Ugly.....

Well Jamie Lou's uncle Charlie gave a call to the house sometime back. (a little background here, Uncle Charlie used to drive a big rig and Des Moines was one of his routes. and when ever we would be in Kansas City he would say "I drove by your house the other day" and we would ask why he would never call. Well 12 years later Uncle Charlie called.) The call was a few weeks back and Jamie whispers to me, "I think something is wrong, it is Charlie on the phone." Well the complete opposite was true, there wasn't a thing wrong... in fact he was taking us up on the offer to come to Des Moines with a place to stay. You see over the 4th is the 17th annual Good Guys Heartland Nationals. Now Charlie isn't just a car show buff, he happens to be the proud owner of a blue 1970 Torino GT with a white drop top. While it was the 4th of July 2009 in Des Moines Iowa global warming made sure that it was in the 60s and raining most of the day. But was had a good time and below are some of out favorites from Saturday the 4th. Please leave a comment let me know which ones you really like.

Charlie and his torino

Charlie and his torino

Charlie and his torino

This car would turn gold when the sun came out...

While I like chrome on Bel Airs... I liked this color combo here

Jamie Lou started to fall in love with delivery trucks, not as much as bel airs but quite a bit.

it don't get much more purple that this...

El Camino.....

Herbie got embarassed

It just shows that Orange and White do go together, but My 2010 with have black stripes...

A tad Hawk coloered for me, but this was a real nice car.

A lot of work on this rod... look at the copper work....

While I didn't know Ike, I think I like him too

Different strokes for different folks

Copper and Ornage were both real popular

You don't see a lot of DeSotos aroudn these days

A woody bus ready for the beach

Let's see zero to dead on 4 seconds... what should we call it?

Studabaker made some sexy cars.....

Jamie lou said she hated flames, but I think they grew on her towards the end.

A 1963 1/2 Ford Falcon, not original like ours, but it still had the same smell

You think Ace and Gary brought this one? The guy that owned this Jag didn't want to say one word to us.... wonder why his car looks like a dick...

The Great Tomato Incident (2009)

So Jamie Lou got some great gifts from her sister Kerry's family (Kerry, Tom, Peter, and James). They were upside down tomato hangers. I have since come to learn that pretty much anything can and will grow upside down.

But I digress....


So earlier with brother Zac's help we basically built a cross in my back yard where is gets full sun. And it is a very nice cross, nice enough Thad may even want to burn it! (a little Dubuque humor for everyone there.... I am in no way implying that Thad burns crosses. But I have built a cross in my backyard, and he is from Dubuque.)



Zac and I were proud. we had made a tomato hanger thingy, with no plans or help from anyone. soon though I saw the error of my ways. While the top of the arms of the tomato hanger was tall enough once you hung the basket with its chain it was much lower than I had anticipated. as you can see on the left here, the tomato plant is already almost on the ground. See being a first time upside down fruit grower I really didn't know at all what to expect.

This is why I consider myself to be adaptable, I don't let it bother me when things go bad, I just drink a few beers and ignore the problem. If that doesn't fix it, I'll venture out into the world and see if there is any inspiration to be had out there. If that doesn't fix it, then it must not be too big of a problem and we will own the issue and make it a plus (see our yellow counter top as proof).




So once day while out working on my uncle Joe's pool with Zac I see he too has some unside down hangers, but his are on his deck with pipe holding it up in the air **idea forms here**



While I have no deck to run pipe up on, I do have a great tomato crucifix in my backyard I can use. So off the the Home Depot (only one trip to the hardware store for maybe the first time in my life, maybe because I drew up what I needed and stuck to the plan).







below are the results of my fix. I ended up getting 2 extra 90's to keep the 200# circles holding up the hangers from falling off the end. All in all a pretty good project, and I think the tomatoes will be good as there are already blooms all over both plants. You can see in the last picture how much lift was actually attained: