futon out, couch in

We got a couch from some friends so we needed to get rid of our futon. We decided to just put it in our front yard and label it "free" since we get so much traffic on our street. The funny part was that after about 20 minutes or less some lameo pulled up, opened his trunk, threw the futon pad in, closed his trunk, and drove away.....!!!! We were very disappointed because we thought that we were now stuck with a futon frame that no one would want. Oh well, we just laughed because he got a very flat, used futon pad. After about another 20 minutes a lady walked by and decided she'd try to take the frame down a few houses to her daughters house. She couldn't move it. So I carried it down for her. So we now have a couch to comfortably sit on :) END OF STORY

Got help

Dipstick Drama!

So the dipstick on my transmission in the '71 Nova has leaked since put the TH400 in it a couple years ago. So I've single-handedly been driving up oil prices by purchasing massive amounts of tranny fluid to keep it topped off and out of harms way via overheating. This weekend I took on the task of changing what I thought was a cracked O-ring. Sounds simple, but it requires dropping the trans to get the dipstick tube out because of the nice curve it has. Got everything down and out quickly on Saturday and went to purchase the new tube. After hours of trying to finagle the new tube in I discovered that I must completely take the trans out, not just lower it. Then I discovered that the tube didn't fit by snapping it in two while trying to force it into trans. Broken $20 tube and no fix..... So I grabbed a new O-ring and put it on the old tube to throw it back in......I put it in, tipped the trans. sideways to see if it leaked and discovered that the old tube had a nice crack in it. So it had been leaking from a crack not from the O-ring. Well, I sulked around for a bit on the verge of crying and it dawned on me that I had 2 other different tranny's in the garage. I found the tube for one of them and it happened to be an exact match, although not nearly as beautiful, it is functional.........now to get it all back together again.....Lets go Humpty Dumpty.

Whew, It's over! (Long Post)

X-mas, the "worst" time of year! :( Hopefully some day I'll have a job that doesn't make me feel that way, but until then I'm just so glad the rush at FedEx is over. Time to get in a few things that happened recently..... Most memorable, Dad's 60th Bday. Sister S. set up a nice "treasure hunt" around Santana Row in San Jose. We went to several stores and let them know that Bob was there and he was given a gift card at each store, then the card would tell us what store to go to next where there would be another gift certificate and another place to go to. Somehow we hit the Cohiba store twice :) Here's a few pics:




NEXT Christmas Lights!



New Years Eve: PAINTBALL! The post-paintball-playing-day-paintball-throwing-in-the-parking-lot-finale



LAST:New Years Day at the State Capital

The Search is On

I am hunting for pistons! I'm looking for the best price on JE custom pistons. They have a sportsman line known as SRP. The machinest told me to get part number 142995 by SRP. The best price I've found is about $517 for all 8. Nice that it's cheaper than the $700 JE pistons that I was looking at :)

502 update

Crank maged good, no cracks. Block needs to be bored .30 over. That's a bummer because the parts are expensive and I'll have to buy new pistons. $$$ + $$$ = $$$$$$

"OPEN"

Isaiah said his first word on Thanksgiving. "Open" was his word of choice. He has said it 3 times so far. Then yesterday he said "bye" and waved several times. I think he's planning on doing an open reading of the Declaration of Independence next Saturday if anyone is available.

Ummmm yeah

It's been a while. Latest news""""""502!!!!"""""" Chevy 502 cubic inch big block motor in my nova!!!! Hopefully some day anyway. I was building a 454 but my dad found the 502. A guy at my dads work was selling it for one hell of a deal! So I got it.
Me fisting my motor:

Dropping the block off at the machine shop:

New Toy

Radio Shack Pro 97 Scanner. Hopefully it'll help me learn the "Greek" that cops speak, and some 10- codes too. If not, it's fun to listen to what's going on around us. Plus I can listen to weather, traffic, and event coverage (like if I go to a Nascar event I can listen to their radio chatter).

I want one

Copperhead Cobra!!! Sweet! More on this car Click Here

Lame big block

Well, I tried again to take my big block down to the engine builder, and again he wasn't there. Some day I'll get this 454 built I hope. If I didn't work 55 hours a week I'd be able to swing it by there in the evening. Oh well.
Below is what it might look like some day:

This is just cool

Hot August Nights 2006

Pictures are up! Check them out here ~> Hot August Nights on Flickr
Sorry there are so many...255 I think....I got trigger happy I guess.

Hot August Nights Time!

Just got back from Hot August Nights where thousands of beautiful classics gather each year in Reno, NV to hang out and have a good time. Couple hundred pics on their way to Flickr.com soon. Here's a few favorites:

Bridge to Bridge speed runs

Here's a couple vids of the boats on speed runs.
Faster speed run (9Megabytes)
Another speed run (4MB)

Bridge to Bridge Sacramento boat races

Once a year Sacramento has a boat event on the river in front of Old Town. Some boats hit speeds close to 150 mph in the short stretch between bridges. There are also drag boat races and other cool events. Info here: http://www.discovergold.org/bridge2bridge/ Here are a few pics I got while standing in the water or on the bank:

Lake Don Pedro

Had a great time at Lake Don Pedro thanks to Phil and Kim. Wakeboarded for the first time and it was fun. Pictures on Flickr.

Cool Technology: Hover Creeper

Check out the Hover Creeper. Every mechanic is going to want this. Float around under your car, air tool attachments handy, and you can even be 300 lbs. and it'll still lift your big butt.

Flying Solo

Yup, just playing Home Alone this weekend. Regina and Isaiah have headed up to Tahoe to camp with some friends. I had planned to go, but was informed last minute that FedEx is having a management class on Saturday. So, to do the proper thing I stayed home to do something for our future. It would be great to get into management with FedEx for a period of time so that I could have that on my resume since FedEx has a lot of good things going for them and you learn a lot really fast as an Ops Manager for them. The perk this weekend is that I get to play paintball on Sunday :) Other than that, it was lonely coming home to an empty house with 2 nutty dogs. (where are they anyway?)

Old and Busted vs. New Hotness

Fathers Day Gift.....Thanks Regina!! Craftsman mower with a 6.0 hp Briggs & Stratton motor. Mows like a dream, nice and smooth.