In Memoriam...

I will be out of pocket so they say due to a death in my fmaily. My grandmother has passed away this evening in Texas and we have to go there...



Tell Me What You Think...

Nothing

I have been trying to think about some topic to post about. I am drawing a blank on this subject today; I guess that I am tired and have lots to do on my days off. I need to get my car inspected!  That is my number 1 priority for Thursday. IT has been really quiet since the weekend and the DC trip.  I really enjoyed that and i hope to get a few night shots of downtown Richmond soon to post as well. If I find something that pricks my interest, I will make a post...

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Updates to the website

I have made some changes to our Pic page on our website. I also posted a link to the pic page on my BLOG also. SO, go and look...



Tell Me What You Think...

Washington D.C. at night

Looking down Pennsylvania Ave toward The Capital.


This is the Washington Monument at night.

WE took a quick trip to DC last night and i got some sweet pics using out Sony Cybershot 5.1mp with a 12x optical zoom on night mode with no flash. Some turned out very nice and a few sucked, but this was really the first time for em to use the night mode like that.

Here is a Pic of the Lincoln Memorial.



Dc is about 120 miles from our house and there was a Anti-War Protest going on! The police were out in FULL FORCE!! I have never see so many cops congregated in one place at one time. Wow!! Here a few pics from last night. We had a really good time walking around to the different monuments. The temp was cool, but not freezing! and there was still snow on the ground in some paces. The reflecting pool was drained as was the pools around the WW2 memorial. as always, the Korean War Memorial was breath taking, the realism and detail on the hulking statues are amazing and in my opinion, on of the very best War Memorials in DC.



This is a pic looking back at The White House and The Washington Monument from the Jefferson Memorial across the Potomac River. The White House is just to the left of the Monument.


Tell Me What You Think...

Moutain Biking Part 2...

As I stated on a previous post, we went biking at a park called Powhite Park. Our friend brought a GPS and mapped the trails. here is the pic of that superimposed over a Googel Earth photo. Very cool!! Part of the photo has not been updated, but I hope that they will update it soon.

Here it is!!!



I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Off time...

Well, this weekend is some much needed downtime. I slept in until 11:15 this morning and got out of bed. I am listening to some good "psytrance" from a band called Symphonix. This music would have sounded good at a club in Beaumont Texas called "The Palladium" They had a killer soundsystem with a very awesome light show!!



It is very cold here today and it is not going to get out of the 30s. But tomorrow it will be like 50, BIG temperature change tomorrow. but then back cold by next week.
Thankx to www.NBC12.com for the weather forecast. Their site is very good if you want to know about our local news.

You know when you need to get tires, but you don't have the time? For one thing, my tires for my Toyota Tacoma are a very strange size: P256/65R17 and most places do not carry that size on hand.


Well, We ordered tires online from Wal*Mart and i am still waiting for them. IT is the 26th of January and my sticker goes out on February 1. I hope that the tires come in soon so i can get them and then get my car inspected. I have over 44,000 miles on my old set. I think that i have gotten the good out of them!

Well, more later. i think that i will post about and make a few pics of my different types of house plants that i have.

L8ters...

I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

A difference in language....

To borrow this from www.reuters.uk, We, I mean me, has never heard this word before used like this. We do not get many sayings here that I have ever heard of. Here is the link to this article. It is funny to hear what other people from around the world say to common situations here in the USA that we face everyday.

How other people see and refer to things is very funny to me. I am on several mailing lists that have lots of European persons on there and sometimes, they use slang that we have never heard. They will if asked to, explain what it means. So, this is a very interesting bit of trivia.

“CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australians love their muffin tops -- but not the kind you buy from a bakery.

The arbiter of Australian English, the Macquarie Dictionary, has declared "muffin top" the word of the year for 2006 -- even though it is two words -- defeating "affluenza", a noun that describes dissatisfaction with consumerism.

The dictionary defines "Muffin top" as a colloquial noun that refers to the fold of fat around the midriff which spills over the top of tight-fitting pants or skirts on the overweight.

"The vivid imagery of this word with its sense of playfulness and the fact that it is an Australianism made it the clear winner," the judges said.

Judges Gavin Brown and Stephen Garton, both professors at Sydney University, and Dictionary publisher Susan Butler said "muffin top" had spread globally due to the popular TV comedy Kath and Kim, which pokes fun at suburban life Down Under.

The victory for "muffin top" came after it was shortlisted for the 2005 American Dialect Society's most creative word, only to lose out to "whale tail" - the bit of a g-string, or thong, that shows above the waistband at the back of pants or skirts.”

 

 

 

 

This weekend.

It is going to be VERY cold here. The high temp will be around 34 degrees on Friday!!  BURRR!!!   I might try to get some biking in also, but we will see.  Everyone around my house has been sick, Chelsea and Kaylan are both sick. Chel has a sinus infection and Kaylan has strep!   I just hope that we don't get that bad virus that is going around.  The doctors said that the " flu" season is very late, so we have that to look forward to as well...

 

Winter is the worst time for getting sick...

The warm temps in your house keep the bugs going around and around. You have to keep the house closed up and that is a bad thing. It would be nice to be able to let your house open up and get a breath of fresh air, but alas, that does not happen much during the winter.  The best thing to do is to wash your sheets/cloths regularly and use lots of disinfectant if someone is sick.

 

Just a few health tips from Bob's Thoughts...

--
RMStringer
+++++++++++++++

Pics of the James river and stuff...

I took these last summer and I would like to get a very cool night shot of Richmond Downtown at night. These pics are of the "foot bridge" that goes across the James. The bridge goes to Belle Isle.

Under the bridge, The James has class 4 & 5 rapids!! What a crazy place to go and try rapids. I would like to do that this summer. SO here are a few pics from that location. The area is known as the “best urban whitewater” in the US. No other city in the US has class IV rapids within its city limits. I would love to do this during the summer! My friend, Mark has also told me that he is interested in doing this as well.



There are some really neat things to do in downtown Richmond.
The Canal Walk
Browns Island
The Canal Walk goes about 1.5 miles threw the city with historic points of interest to read about. Browns Island has many concerts and festivals during the summer months.

The train track goes right over the river in a few places. Here is a neat pic.
Under that track, kids go swimming during the summer and also swing off that track. I might go swimming there this summer with my daughter and wife...

There are also some great biking parks along the James River. We have done part of the Buttermilk Trail, but my bike got a flat tire. It is some very difficult ridding in that park. We hope to go back soon. I think that we are very fortunate in that we have all of there activities in our city!!

Well more later...

Spanking of Children...TO Whip or Not To Whip?

"The bill, backed by Democrat Sally Lieber of San Francisco, a member of the state legislature, would outlaw spanking children three years old or younger and carry a possible penalty of jail time or a 1,000-dollar fine."

""I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child three years old or younger," said Lieber, who plans to introduce the bill next week."

here is a link to the whole story.

In my opinion, this bleeding heart liberal Demoncrat should be taken out and whipped with a belt!! and it would come from someone from California...

I was whipped as a child and i do not think that i was scarred for life from it. I know it was a different time and that was discipline, but we got whipped and then grounded. I think that is a Major problem with our children today. They are not disciplined and as such do not know or respect authority. I got whipped in school and i did not make the same mistake again. I remember the few times that i got whipped and i needed it because i was acting like a smart ass and my grandfather busted my but. I never made that same mistake again. i learned from it.

I see nothing wrong with having to whip my child. They make it as if everyone is out there beating their kids, that is not the case. A quick swat on the fanny or hand will make anyone take notice especially if they are 3-4 years old. But to make it a crime?? Come on!! IF we pass this, then the government can pass outer suck laws like when we can watch TV or read a book or mandatory attending of niceness classes. We do not need the government getting into the personal lives with laws...




I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Work, Life, and Living...

Well, today I was really tired and I did not want to get up out of bed at 5am. It is a very cold morning and we are going to get some ice and sleet today and tonight.

It has been a very long journey to get me where I am today. I, we, started off in Texas. My wife and I went to school together. We did not date or associate with each other, but we knew of one another. Fast forward. I graduated in 1989 and she in 1988. I ran into her in the year 2000 back in out hometown of Jasper at a bar in the woods called Solley's Discotheque. Really, it was in a filed with a cattle-guard to cross over. We kind of new each other, but we got to talking and reacquainted. We started to date. She lived in Houston and I was living at the lake. I was offered a job in Indiana and I moved there during the fall. We broke up, but decided to get back together and date. I was let go by the company and I had to move back to Texas. She flew up to Indiana and helped me pack my stuff and move back.

So she and I continue to date and fell in love as they say, she in Houston and I at the lake once again. This time, her company closed her office and she was offered a job in Austin Texas. She accepted and we decided to move in together. This was about summer of 2001. We lived in Austin for about 2 years and we got married on December 21, 2002. We were married in Jasper at a church that her cousin was the preacher and her grandfather had built. I went back to college and knocked out a year of AutoCAD and electronic design. By late spring 2003, she found a job in Denver Colorado. It would be a great promotion for her and I encouraged her to accept, So off we went to Highlands Ranch Colorado.

We were in corporate housing for 3 months and then we got in our house. It was nice and we loved it. We had good neighbors and a very good church. Sondra got wind of a promotion in Massachusetts; it would be a good career move for her. We hated to leave Colorado, it was soo beautiful, but we did...

Massachusetts was a whole different beast. Very hot summers, cold winters, no creature comforts like we had in Colorado, I.E. Rec Center, swimming pools, that sort of stuff. We lived in Gardner Mass, in the "alpine" region, about 40 miles North West of Worcester. We had a ski mountain about 20 minuets from our house. That was a good thing. I felt like we were wondering in the desert for 40 years like Moses while we lived there. What made it livable was our little haven, our cul-de-sac with 7 other families. We all lived in new houses with big yards. It was kind of isolated from the rest of the degradation of the city. The bad side about it was Sondra was 62 miles from Boston, where her office was located. She had a 2.5 hour commute and parking was very expensive.

We were living and learning, I had a good job with a company I liked and she loved her job even with the long hours away from home. Her company had other plans and decided to close her region and that would put her out of a job or displace her. She looked around at different jobs at different places, but if she started over, she would loose her tenure and all vacation time that she had amassed. She took the job here in Richmond, her company’s corporate office and that is how we ended up here...

More to come later

I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Today at work...

WELL, what a day! Our FAB had an evacuation at ~5am this morning and we were not allowed to go back into the unit till 3pm. That was only for technicians and we had to be in pairs. The fumes were very strong at 3pm and we got our errors cleared and we left!

The spill started in Litho and wet from there to Wets. There was a blocked drain line and backed up and spilled all over the sub-FAB. The fums were so strong that a person got taken to the hospital.

We just sat around and did what we could using our computers and keeping all of our group informed. Finally at around 6pm, they told us that they were going to bring up the bays and that we needed to be in the FAB to oversea the automation process. All went well, the system was a little lagged with the dumping of the bays, but we had no errors while we were in the fab...

What an interesting day.

I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Air Safety...

Well, it seems that kids these days are a lot smarter than we were. That kid in Washington State stole a car and drove to the airport, he was 9 years old! The police brought him back to his home. The next day he went back to the airport and hopped on a Southwest plane to Arizona. He heard a page for a passenger to come and he gave them the info!! He did not even have a ticket and most amazingly, they did not ask for one. While in Phoenix, he hopped another plane to San Antonio Texas. There he was detained.

How is it in this day and time of heightened airport security, that a kid, much less a 9 year old, can get into a major airport with no ticket, lie and get on a plane?? Were the TSA guards all on break? We can’t get more than 3 ounces of liquid on, but a 9 year old kid can just waltz on it with no ticket. How asinine!! They check all of your bags and x-ray them. They ask for identification and tickets. They did not think enough to ask for a 9 year olds papers?? My daughter fly’s sometimes and we have her escorted by the airline, we pay extra for this.

On a second note, How do big name athletes expect top break the rules of flying and not get caught?? The Vic brothers from Virginia think they can. Mike Vick got detained at the airport for his "water bottle" that had weed in the bottom...What a dumbass!!! The X-RAY EVERYTHING!! HELLO...he has to fly everywhere to games. What makes him think that they would not do it that time?

Well, enough of my soapbox…
Until later.

I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Last Weekend...FUN FUN!!

I have been very tired this week. I rode over 5 miles on my mountain bike. My friend and I went to our favorite park on Saturday and we rode about 2 miles. That night, he had a party, and we hooked up with another person. So, we went back on Sunday morning and rode another 3.5 miles. He brought a GPS, so he tracked our trails and elevation changes. IT was WICKID FUN!!! We did nearly 500 feet in elevation changes. I placed all the pics on my FLICKER badge, but I will post a few random ones here.

THe top pic is of is our new friend, Jeff. The next pics is Mark, the next pic is of a sign that marks the boudary of the park, very random we there is no fence in that porion of the park; and the last pic is of me. Most of the pics were taken on a bridge that goes over a creek and their is a jump at the end of it.

The weather here is finally COLD...We also have a chance of snow on Sunday night!!! YEAH!!! WE are not getting the kind of ICe Storm that Texas is getting, but we are just as cold here.



I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Blue Monday...

Well, I am tired today. I had a very busy, but good weekend!! I got a new tool bench on Saturday. IT is a Craftsman; black, to match my rolling tool chest. Also, Mark and I did some hardcore biking!! We ended up riding close to 5 miles in the Powhite Park on Saturday and Sunday. Another friend came with us and brought a GPS, so, he traced our trails and also the elevation change on the routes. All in all, about 400+ feet in change that we rode. I am at work, so I will post some more later.
Ciao!


I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Wedding Aniversary...December 21, 2006

This is a pic Sondra and I took on our Wedding Aniversary night before we went out that evening.

I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Nature Pics...Black Squirrels

Well this is a series of Black Squirrel photos that I took at my grandparents house. The Squirrel was about 3 feet from me and my Grandfather was hand feeding it pecans.








I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Be Red.com

While in Texas on our Christmas trip, we were in Houston and I saw these signs on the wall of a gas station. I thought that they were cool, so I took pics of them.They were on a wall off Westhimer down in Montrose...



I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

The End Of Rock

I got these out of Details Magazine over 10 years ago...
I have saved them all this time until i had technology to share them over the internet. SO ENJOY, they are FUNNY!!!


I welcome Comments to my BLOG.

Lady In The Water...

In M. Night Shyamalan's newest movie, Lady In The Water, is not a horror film, but a bedtime story brought to "real Life” It is in classic Shyamalan style with many twists and turns as in many of his other movies. You begin to wonder if you are crazy because the movie does not make sense, but in the end, it all comes together. Paul Giamatti plays in my opinion, one of his best rolls as an actor in the movie and it is a pivotal roll as in getting all the elements that are needed to bring the Narf get back to where she heeds to be. He keeps you guessing until the very end and then it all comes together.

With movies under his belt like:
Unbreakable
Signs
The Village
The Sixth Sense

All had good actors and very good original sound scores. My personal favorite was Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson...What a CAST.

Another thing that I like in his movies is that he plays characters in them. It might be a passing part or an integral part such as in the Lady in the Water. I think that is one of his trademarks, to not only direct and write, but to also star in the movie itself. It just adds a little something extra in his movies like he really cares what he is doing and how it is done. He has a brilliant talent to write and produce movies and is a master at his craft that I think is much to under rated in Hollywood. Most of his movies are done with little or no cussing, sex, or much violence, and yet…They get his point across without all the normal Hollywood tactics. IF you want a good movie to watch, then get any of M. Night Shyamalan's titles. In my opinion, they are all good.






I welcome Comments to my BLOG.