Category: Family

Weekend Adventures and a Video on The Bugatti Veyron

July 27, 2022 / / 0 Comments

This past weekend, The Wife and I got the bug to do some major rearranging. Major rearranging. Mostly between the upstairs living room, her office, and my office. These kinds of endeavors can be trying because we have very different opinions – more to the point, how to decide on things. She is much more deliberative than me. It’s very frustrating. We’ve gotten things to the “this is our experimental phase”.

After adventures in shuffling on Saturday, we went over to BIL’s and SIL’s house for family dinner. When we got there, BIL was watch How It’s Made: Dream Car Edition. He and I watched a few episodes. The one that kinda fascinated me was the Bugatti Veyron. Particularly how they put together the front end and the back end. Watch the first part of this video. Watch the floor. They have a rail with these metal slats that move like a wave. It’s nifty.

Of Course There’s A Spreadsheet

July 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I tried to post this last week, but the WordPress app is for shit. Worse, it will work for a bit, and then look like it will work, but in actuality it’s eating the posts. Enough bitching – on to the story.

The wet food we’ve been using for the cats for as long as we’ve merged herds changed their formulation. Enough that even our normal ”garbage disposal” cats wouldn’t eat it. Grumble.

The Wife and MIL remedy this by experimenting with a variety of new wet foods. In true Ward family tradition, The Wife made up a spreadsheet to track who likes what food.

We now have a few varieties the cats like, but the experimentation continues. The Wife wants a wider variety. Just in case.

Now to figure out how to get rid of the flat of wet food the cats won’t eat. Grumble.

Prime Day(s) 2022

July 14, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Well, since The Wife and I have our birthdays in July, we tend to get a lot of Amazon monies as gifts. Which is useful with Prime Day.

This year, it was Power and Transformers. I picked up a USB C power block to use with my laptop, a couple of Anker power banks, and some inexpensive Transformers. Because, those are my fidget spinners for when I’m on camera. When I’m not on camera…well, that’s why I have a bunch of airsofts.

The amusing purchase was a new vacuum sealer. After the second one of the same brand died (which was supposed to be a test device anyway), we went on the Wirecutter to find a better one. Oh hey, we like this one, but it’s $150. Let’s see what the price is on Prime Day. Oh, look – it’s down to $100. Sometimes patience is rewarded. Still don’t like it much.

Clearing the Tabs

July 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Another day, another lawsuit against Sig for malfunctioning weapons. This was one of the reasons I didn’t go with Sig when I upgraded my sidearm.

Lego is building a new factory stateside. Normally, I’d wonder if having a local plant would reduce their cost. But, inflation. And collectability.

From Lee Williams, an article on UPS changing its rules on shipping firearms and parts. It’s like they’re taking customer service lessons from Dick’s.

Lastly, Tampa’s largest McDonald’s franchisee is selling off its McDonald’s stores. This is interesting to me as I used to work for Casper’s as a night manager many a moon ago.

The Passing of Two Women

July 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Back at the end of April, my maternal grandmother passed away at the age of 93. "Gammy" was someone who I didn’t see much as I grew up. She lived all the way in Idaho. I think I visited them less than a dozen times before I gained my majority. The longest "visit" was when my parents sent me out to work on my uncle’s farm for the summer. She was always this short, solid woman who crocheted numerous afghans for the family. She had that down-to-earthness, which I came to appreciate as I grew up. Of course, the funniest memory of Gammy is that she always mixed up The Brother’s and my names, to the point that she "autocorrected" anytime she addressed one of us. And the few times she got it right, she would correct, and then recorrect herself. As I got older, we discussed the issues of the day and general day to day life.

Exactly two months later, my paternal grandmother passed away at the age of 95. Because she lived in Okeechobee, we saw a lot more of her. A lot of holidays, long weekends, etc. There were a couple of times my folks sent me down on the train to visit them all by myself. Grandma was a devout Baptist and very active in her church. This led to many discussions on the state of my soul. After she lost her husband, son, stepfather, and mother in about 18 months, Grandma moved out to Oklahoma to be closer to my aunt. Visits became infrequent – although there was the time The Brother and I drove out to surprise her for her birthday. She and I had weekly calls for the last couple of years. It was mostly her listening to the events of my week, but I enjoyed our visits.

I am grateful that The Wife had the chance to get to know both of them. I will miss them both dearly.

From The Away Games

June 23, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I posted these as OOCQOTD’s on the Book of Face:

“Is “Scythian Raiders” referring to raiders from Scythia or raiding Scythia? Because I can see the former being an interesting board game, but the Romans learned the latter was a bad idea.”

“Yeah, but when you go to the store by yourself, I usually get flowers.”

Blogus Quietus

June 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Some of you may have noticed little activity beyond the normal Tuesday Metal and Friday Quotes. Honestly, there’s been stuff going on around Ward Manor. The big one was painters coming and adding color to the first floor walls. Which required taking everything off the walls. And moving furniture. Honestly, it was just this side of a move.

I haven’t talked much about Uvalde because every time I start a post, new stuff comes to light. This whole clusterfuck feels like Parkland 2.0. And I expect the same amount of officials to be held accountable. The calls for “something to be done” seem a bit stronger, and they’re coming from more angles, but I just don’t know if it’s enough to get through the gristmill that is modern American politics.

I’m feeling a bit drained and unmotivated, which means less desire to blog. I’m still plucking away at fixing old posts. That actually is kind of draining. Particularly when I’m seeing a five-year-old post where I’m making the same arguments as today.

Expect more antics at Ward Manor, less politics, and maybe some speechifying.

Colors, Colors, Colors

May 12, 2022 / / 0 Comments

After a year in Ward Manor, The Wife is starting to decide on painting. She’s contracted out the stairs, which is smart. The contractor’s wife came over to select colors for the stairs. As well as the rest of the house. I’m kinda listening as The Wife and the color person are going through various shades of gray for the downstairs.

Me: ”Wait, did you say there’s a shade called Dorian Gray?”

Color Lady: “Um, yeah.”

Me: ”What does it suck the life out of us to look freshly painted?”

Nervous laughter. I don’t think Color Lady got the reference. Which is a common thing.

Busy Week At Ward Manor

April 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Friday – Took a half-day from work to help The Wife transport over an old office chair, spare folding table, and MIL’s old monitor over to The Wife’s niece’s place. Niece really liked the dual monitor system set up we have on all of our workstations, and wanted something like that at her place. Well, we had some items we needed to get rid of… Plus we got to see the great niece.

Saturday – While The Wife and her SIL were out looking at paint, I prepped for my shooting trip on Tuesday. I got a bunch of different ammo and round-robin loaded up almost all of my spare M&P magazines. I also discovered that I’m a little short on my preferred self-defense ammo. That needs remedying. I also got the windshield replaced on the Xterra.

Sunday – Sunday we went to see The Little Shop of Horrors up at the Straz Performing Arts Center in Tampa. We had a lot of fun, even though the play didn’t start exactly on time. I don’t go to enough theater to know if that’s the norm. The play had a much darker end than the ’80’s movie, but still satisfying.

Monday – Since we have new local docs, The Wife and I had to go to a new-to-Derek place to get labs. I know this is normal for most folks, but I’ve been very used to having the lab in the same building as my PCC. (This is noting it more for my own edification than the readers’.) The Wife had the day off, and she and MIL were busy setting up their raised bed for their crop of succulents. Plus replanting an aloe vera. Plus replanting a couple of flowers that my mom gave us. Then we topped it all off by sending out the last payment for her car. We now have two fully paid-off cars.

Tuesday – Tested out the new gun. Which, because Derek didn’t check beforehand, required me to unload all of those loaded magazines, put the Tula ammo back in the box, and reload with some range ammo. I don’t understand the rules against steel-cased ammo. Not saying there isn’t a good reason, I’m just ignorant. The M&P9 2.0 shot everything I fed it. Including some IWI ammo that my other 9mms didn’t like. The only real issue I hit was that the slide stop was really stiff when the slide locked back. So stiff I ended up having to slingshot the slide to get it back in battery. Also, due the steel reinforcing the frame, the takedown lever heated up noticeably after quick firing a few magazines. Still, it performed well enough to get switched out as my new sidearm.