Rediculous Item of the Day

There is a car customization place close to where I work. People actually pay to have this done to their cars.



Can you say "waste of money?" This car has 30" wheels with tires that cost about $2000 each. It has a flat screen in the driver door, what looks to be a 27" flat screen where the stereo would go, a flat screen in the dash in front of the passenger and possibly more. I don't even know if this thing is legal for the road.

Lolo still has a fever

I am concerned because Lolo is still running a low grade fever - 99F. She has been running the fever since Saturday last week. She has been taking antibiotics since Saturday last week. My concern is that the antibiotics are not working and that her urinary tract infection will spread to her kidneys like it did two years ago when she wound up in the hospital.

Epson Stylus Photo R300M Clogged Nozzle Report

I had clogged nozzles on my Epson Stylus Photo R300M. One color remained clogged no matter how many times I ran the nozzle cleaning program. I was looking into using some sort of cleaner to clean the heads but I could not find any locally and didn't want to wait for delivery from online ordering.

I stopped by the local Cartridge World store and talked to the nice people there. The told me that the nozzle cleaning worked by actually applying a little vacuum to the nozzles to try to get the stuck ink out. I don't know if this is true or not.

I had purchased some refilled ink cartridges on line and sinc installing those I had been getting teh clogged nozzles. Plus I had not used the printer much so this also contributed to the nozzles getting clogged. I pulled out one of the old refilled cartridge and replaced it with another refilled cartridge and still had the same problme. Anyway, I purchased all new Epson ink cartridges and pulled out all of the full refilled cartridges and installed the new Epson cartridges in my R300M. I immediately had all unclogged nozzles even before running the nozzle cleaning program. Supposedly the printer works best on Epson ink because it is formulated specifically for the printer. Other inks can cause problems.

So let this be a lesson. If you have an Epson printer, stick with the Epson ink cartridges. If you clog up your heads for good there isn't too much you can do besides get a new printer or try to buy some type of head cleaning kit.

The Eyes of Atticus

Everyone has been noticing that Atticus has been really squinting lately and blinking his eyes more than normal. His teachers and parents have certainly noticed. So the wife took him to his family doctor today and they gave him a pretty basic test and it semmed pretty conclusive that he was having a difficult time seeing certain objects at a distance.

So now we are going to get an appointment for Atticus at a pediatric ophthalmologist. I am afraid the poor bastard has my poor eyesight. But he isn't even three. I didn't need corrective lenses until I was about seven or eight. Needless to say I am worried.

Adrienne pitched a fit about going to bed last night (as she does every night) and would not put on her night gown. So the wife put her to bed wearing only her diaper. About twenty minutes after closing the door and turning out the light, Adrienne managed to put a dress on all by her self. Not too damn bad for a 2.5 year old!

Lolo pitched a fit about having to get ready to go to school this morning. She has been out of school for two days with a fever but no fever this morning so she went to school despite her bad attitude. Once the wife got her clothes on her all was well with the world and Lolo rode to school in a good mood.

Bedtime for the kids has been getting later and later. Last night it was 9:00 before we got all of them in bed. Tonight we turned the tables and they were in the bath by 6:30 and in bed by 7:30. What a relief!

A Brief Accumulation of Some Cool Southern Sayings

Skunt - a molestation of the word skinned. "I reckon he done fell and his leg got all skunt up."

Learn - a verb meaning to teach. "Them boys is kinds stupid. I been learning them all day and they still kaint figger out how not to bust up them dies"

Mommerwrennim - a molestation of the phrase "Mother and them." If you really wanna sell some of them encyclopedias yer gonna have to go up 'ar and see mommerwrennim.

Yens - a molestation of the phrase "you ones". Me walking into a country restaurant in the middle of Bakersville, NC with my family. The hostess approaches and asks "How many of yens is ye?"

Dest - a molestation of the noun Desk. "I put them papers on yer dest."

X-tree - a molestation of the word Extra. "I done thought I had four but I ended up with seven so I had two x-tree."

Like - a molestation of the word Lack. "Well damn, I done thought I had two x-tree. Eyes supposed to have four but I got one so I like three"

Leaning toward Schronce's - Very specific to the northern Catawba County NC dialect. Something is out of place or crooked. "That thar telephone pole is leaning toward Schronce's. It looks like it done been hit by an 18 wheeler."

Dinner - Lunch. "Damn, its almost 1:00 in the afternoon and I forgot to eat dinner!"

Hawldon I'll geeteemferya. A molestation of a request to hold on the phone while the answerer notifies the requested party. "May I please speak to Rufus?" "Hawldon, I'll geeteemferya"

Raaas - a molestation of the word rice. "I like me some whyt raaas with sawsige gravy"

Rhyt Naaaas - a molestation of the phrase right nice with right acting as an adjective synonymous with the word very. "That there Lamborghini is rhyt naaas lookin'"

Oh the joys of living in the south.

Lolo getting better

Luckily Lolo didn't have a high fever last night at all and slept the night through. She actually slept from about 4:00 pm to 8:00 am. Her fever is in check and I think the antibiotics are working well.

I worked on our phone. We subscribe to Packet 8 which is an internet phone similar to Vonage. The phone was acting screwy so I had to configure the Packet 8 gateway to have a static IP and then I had to configure the router to forward ports to the Packet 8 gateway. You have to do this if the Packet 8 gateway is behind the router. I am also going to configure the QOS to make sure that all bandwith is dedicated to the phone. Since I have a 10mbps down and 1mbps up this shouldn't be a problem.

As the Clock Ticks

It has been over a month since I have had sex......

with someone besides myself that is...

It has been over 8 years since I have had sex with someone other than my wife....

Are guys the only ones who think about this shit?

Using the Epson Stylus Photo R300 to print directly to a CD or DVD

I have owned the Epson Stylus Photo R300M for many years now and just today tried to use the separate tray to print directly to a DVD. The R300M is the exact same thing as the R300 except it has a useless LCD display to view your pictures from your media card without having to use the computer. I never have used this feature and never will.

I just ordered a spindle of DVD-R media with an inkjet printable surface. I opened the manual for the R300M in pdf format and followed along with the directions to print to a DVD using the included tray. The directions leave out one very important fact.

I followed the instructions precisely and every time the printer would print 7cm too far to the left and 7cm too far back.

After searching the Epson web site for a solution and finding nothing I filled out the site's email form for techincal support. The site analyzez your email before it is sent and suggests a resolution to the problem. At this step it finally gave me the information that I needed.

You must select Tray 2 in order for it to align to the correct location. So I endured a lot of unnecessary frustration but did find the answer. I hope this can help someone else!

Lolo is sick

The wife went to the beach this weekend and all three of the hellions were at the in-laws last night so I had a night to batch it but I sat at home and watched Hancock and just hung by myself. I have no social life. I did ask one of my friends to go out but he is so whipped that he wouldn't go. His wife is about 7 months pregnant and won't let him do anything. Not that being pregnant has anything to do with it. this is the same guy who didn't go to his own bachelor party.

Anyway I am a loser with no social life.

My mother-in-law called me this morning with the news that Lolo did not feel well. She didn't get out of bed until about 8:00 which definitely means she is sick. She had a 101 degree fever. So we met at the usual meeting place and I took Lolo to the local urgent care center. We waited for over two hours before we were seen by the doctor. After the first hour Lolo vomited all in my lap. I felt so bad for her. This shit is scary because the last time she vomited with a fever after complaining about it burning when she peed, she ended up in the hospital with a kidney infection. So the doctor prescribed her Promethazine (aka Phenegran) to settle her stomach and Sulfamethoxyzole which is antibiotic.

I dropped by CVS on the way home and deposited the prescriptions, dropped off the movies I rented and filled the car up with gas. I then took Lolo home and put her in bed. She was very lethargic and hot with a 102 degree fever. For the first time in her life (to my knowledge) she was at home alone because I didn't feel like putting her back in the car to go pick up the prescription. We live about 300 yards from the CVS drugstore so it took me about five minutes to go pick up the prescriptions. She was fine with being at home alone i guess because she felt so bad.

So she kept the Promethazine down and then also kept ibuprofen down and then it was smooth sailing for the Sulfamethoxyzole. She has been asleep for about 4 hours and is is getting close to midnight. I hope she sleeps through the rest of the night. It just kills me to see my kids sick!

Two in the terrible twos

Here is our nightly bedtime ritual for the past several months:

Bath Time- usually pretty calm except for me getting compeltely soaked with all the splashing.

Diaper Application- usually pretty civil and uneventful.

Brushing Teeth- Rarely do i get both of the twins to brush at the same time. Always one is off running around and will not come when called. Then I have to go pick the rebel up and bring him/her to the sink kicking and screaming and try to divert to get him/her to brush said teeth. Meanwhile the other sibling has the faucet wide open and is splashing water everywhere in the bathroom. But they actually do brush their teeth after they have swallowed all of the toothpaste.

Book reading time- Can be civil at times if they can agree on what book to read and where to read it. We always read a book before bedtime. We have done so for at least a year and a half now.

Tuck in and light out- Usually around 7:45 PM we try to get them in bed. The beginning of this process is announced by saying "it is nite-nite time" which is always proceeded by a deafening shrill scream of "Noooooooooooo" by Atticus while he bolts for the nearest getaway corridor. Neither of them will let me put them to bed. The wife has Atticus of in bed and Adrienne is always in the room so I remove her so her brother can be tucked in. I have to physically remove her (every night) and she kicks, screams, punches, writhes and thrashes to get out of my arms. If i put her in her bed she immediately bolts for the door and runs to her brother's room and slams the door open to invoke more screaming and crying from him.

So I hold her convulsing body in my arms until the wife closes the door on Atticus with him in bed screaming and crying. I pass Adrienne to the wife after she arrives in the room. The wife rounds up the little girl and gets her calmed and tucks her in and turns out the light. This cannot be done successfully by me.

Then I turn to Lolo who is almost five years old now. I take her to her bathroom where we brush her teeth. She does not swallow the toothpaste but actually uses it correctly and brushes her teeth. Then I supervise her going to potty and flushing. I used to retrieve the toilet paper from a top shelf (the location was in order to avoid the entire roll being flushed down the toilet by aforementioned male destroyer) and hold it for her to tear off but now she does it herself.

We then proceed to her bed and I read her a book. I read her at least one book every night. No kicking, no screaming, no crying. After the book is read she is ready for sleep. She always gives me a hug and I tell her I love her as she sucks the polyethylene molecules from her pacifier. In the past before I left the room she has always requested that her mother to sing her a bedtime lullaby- normally "away in a manger" or something of the sort. But last week when the wife came into her room she has told her "you don't have to sing to me tonight mommy. I am tired. You can just tell me goodnight." Ahhh another milestone.

So that is our nightly routine which is enough to test the likes of people who have raised twenty offspring. I honestly don't know how my wife has remained sane with having the kids at home to herself all day long. School starts back on Monday and both of us are really ready for that. The twins school costs over $600 per month for 5 days/week 9:00 am to 1:00 pm but that is a small price to pay for the wife's sanity.