Thanks Taterstein

The baby wagon has been putting off a big shimmy when I get on the brakes heading down Kenosha Pass so it was time for a brake job. Three months ago.
We also took the baby wagon up to Twin Lakes over the holidays to have lunch with some friends and I could not get the van up the snow packed and icy hill to our friends house. I got a running start at the hill a couple of times only to have the tires start spinning. Once the spinning started we started sliding....BACKWARDS down the hill. Things got a little exciting after a couple of tries but luckily nothing got bent. So, we ended up having to park at the bottom of the hill and got shuttled up to the house for lunch. EMBARRASSING!!
She needed a new pair of shoes AND brakes. Oh, GREAT!!

H decided for me that I was going to take the van to Denver and get all this done during my weekly visit. The good news is that one of my best buddies, Taterstein Quimbowitz has a knack for knowing how to, "stretch a buck".
He knew a guy that knew a guy at Discount Tire and that saved me around $50-$70 bucks on the new GoodYears. Then we did some calling around to Honda, NAPA, CarQuest and a few other parts places for rotors and brake pads. Everyone wanted $240 a pair for the rotors. That was killing me. So he kept calling until the guy at CarQuest had them for $90 a pair. For the exact same rotors. That's a $150 savings!! I went ahead and bought the pads so we could change them while we had the rig torn apart. I know you can get the rotors machined but then you have to take it to a brake shop and it seems to me that those guys always find something else and want to rip people off.

Tater was good enough to pick up the parts that afternoon and after I got back to his house that evening we pulled the van into his garage, threw on some overalls and got to work. An hour and a half later we had given the baby wagon a complete brake job, given her a test drive and I had saved well over $250. I am fortunate to have such good friends that are not afraid to get their hands dirty and help a buddy. Thanks Tater!!

Go Get Fixed

As you can see by the last couple of posts I am trying to pass on interesting  and useful stuff I find.  One of my friends called a while ago looking for help plugging in his new WII.  This is his first "video game" and they picked it up "for the grand kids" to play with when they stay the night.  If you knew my buddy he is a 25 year old in a "mature" body so their is no question that the WII is for him.  He is retired now and I can see him standing by himself bowling in the middle of the afternoon.  His wife decided they needed one because she played the Tennis and Bowling games with the grand kids and thought it was a blast.  Since my girls are really too young at this point I have not come up with a great excuse to get a WII so I couldn't help him.  I had to refer him to another friend who has had one since the day they came out.  After he hung up I did some searching and found this site.  FixYa  provides technical support, instructions and repair suggestions for just about anything.   They also have a half a million manuals and troubleshooting guides.   You know the saying.  "If all else fails read the book".  I found that this site had close to 4000 bookmarks on popular social bookmarking site delicious.  FixYa is obviously doing something right.

• You can look at the Recent Problems that are posted
• Ask for help with a problem via live chat
• Search on the Brand Name
• Search for local repair companies by keying in you zip
• Send a note to one of their "Top Experts" and ask them a question or get help with your issue 

One of the interesting features is that at the bottom of the web site you can see the latest problem that a person is posting and needs help fixing.  If you have the game you can jump in and try to help them solve their issue.  Another site to get help or get advice on an issue is Howcast .  This site a video based how to site.  Need to know how to build something or recycle your Christmas cards this is a great resource.  They have something on just about any topic.   The next time someone calls I am going to try this.

Very Cool Search Tools - FINALLY

As I had some spare time over the holiday weekend due to the snowy weather and Grandma keeping a eye on the girls I found a couple of really useful search engine sites. Most of us use Google while performing our random searches. However their results page is terrible and archaic at best. I usually am fooled into clicking on a site based on the tiny tid bit of information that is in the site description only to find that it has NOTHING to do with what I am actually looking for. The sites I am sharing here allow you to actually see the site before opening the page. And don't worry, you get the actual results from Google, Yahoo and many of the other big search engines but these sites give you a brand new way to view, navigate and administer your web, video, audio and shopping searches. I will not pretend to be an Internet search expert but as I took a few minutes to play with each of these sites I felt like I was using an iPhone.

Viewzi http://www.viewzi.com gives you 15 different ways to view your results. Just a few examples are:

• Simple Text - Like Google
• Viddler Video
• Power Grid
• Google Timeline - Kinda cool
• Photo Tag
• Amazon View

Plus many more. I have included a couple of the more useful views that were based on a search I did about Abraham Lincoln.. Go check out Viewzi and play with the different views that are in the upper right hand corner. Give me any feedback or send me something that is more useful.

Web Screen Shot View:

A view from Viewzi's Photo Tag Cloud:

Another interesting search engine that I found is www.searchme.com. Their home page is horrible but once you start your initial search things get interesting. The search content comes from the big guys and again this is a very visual way to literally VIEW your search results. You can SEE the actual page. At the bottom of the page displayed in front it shows the brief description and explanation of that page.

This is an example with what Searchme calls the Night View:

Below is the "Day Time" Version. The yellow highlighted area points to the magnifying glass. When clicked on, the magnifying glass opens a box and magnifies the web screen so you can look closer at the content or pictures. You can drag that box over any area on the screen for an expanded look at the content. If you like the what you see you can simply double click on that view and that site opens in a new browser tab.

Here is a view from the Images screen. You can see the other pictures, click on them and bring them forward into the larger view.

Both of these have issues and faults obviously because they are rather new. Viewzi is still in Beta version and Searchme is still working though some technical issues. But if you are visual like I am and want to see the home pages of your search results while being able to click and drag through the other results these sites might be useful. Both have browser plug ins and mobile versions. Searchme's Video and Music sites are very cool. Pick the result to bring to the front and the music or the video begins. Very simple and extremely intuitive.

Bethlehem Market Place

Every two years Valley Fellowship Church in Buena Vista puts on the Bethlehem Market Place.  This bi-annual ministry of drama, music, costumes, props, sets, greeters, and food is a church-wide community outreach during the Christmas season.  This is a "production" that transforms our large gym that is attached to the church into the city of  Bethlehem the day after Christ's birth.  It is absolutely unbelievable. 

People come from everywhere to see this great event.  They are greeted at the door of the church and asked to take a seat in the sanctuary where they  can warm up and listen to some great live Christmas music.  As they get closer to the front a "guide" escorts them from the sanctuary into the Market Place where they feel like they have just walked into Bethlehem.  They are immediately met by two guys that give them their Shekels (coins of money used to pay their taxes to the Romans).  Once they have received their money they are quickly directed to the booth where 2 terse Roman Guards require them to "register for the census".   As we all know the census is what brought the people to Bethlehem in the first place. They are asked by the guards how they got to Bethlehem, how many people in their party, and how many farm animals they possess.  These Romans are all business and help people quickly feel like they have entered the Holy City.

Once finished with the Romans they are met by Zachary's Basket Shop.  I was Zachary.  H, the girls, and I had a great time playing the part of a family that made and sold wicker baskets in the Bethlehem Market Place.  As folks would approach our booth our job was to try to get them to purchase one of our beautiful baskets that were for sale.  I would tell people that there is a rumor going around the village. They would all lean in as I whispered that "their is a rumor that a King was born, a messiah right here in Bethlehem".  These folks would get focused and serious.  Then I would put on a big smile and say "with the birth of a king you should celebrate by BUYING ONE OF OUR BEAUUUUTIFUL BASKETS!!".  Getting the "joke" people would then move on to the next booths where brass and silver vendors where begging them to purchase their wares.  In total there must have been 40 booths with 2 to 4 people wearing robes, head coverings, sandals, and full beards for the men circa early Bethlehem.  We had booths with everything from guys selling leather and tents to cutting fish, squishing grapes for wine, a butcher with live chickens, people selling goats, sheep and yes, even a donkey.  The place smelled like a barn yard!!

NOTE:  No animals were harmed or eaten during this re-enactment.  However, one of the goats did apparently faint.

Now obviously nothing is bought or sold.  All of the Shekels the folks received when they entered the Market Place are quickly taken by the Roman tax collectors towards the end of their visit to Bethlehem.  While in our booth people would constantly try to buy our baskets. But we had to remind them to "save your money in order to pay the nasty Roman tax collectors".  This Market Place "runs" for 2 nights, Friday and Saturday in the middle of December every 2 years.  For those two nights people can get a very brief peek into what it may have been like to arrive into Bethlehem one evening.  They could feel the Roman Soldiers push them through the line, smell the baking of freshly made bread, see the squishing of the grapes and hear the sheep and goats.  Then as they walk out of the market they are met by a real family dressed as Mary and Joseph with a small baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger.  There is an angle over head and as they depart they walk through an empty tomb.

My belief is that if this re-enactment moved, changed or brought one person closer to a relationship with Christ all of the hard work, time, effort and money was a small sacrifice.  Many of the folks from our church worked tirelessly to pull this event off.  Taking a large gym and literally building the city of Bethlehem with all of the details and props in every booth took an incredible about of time.  The casts job was easy and enjoyable compared to all of the work done behind the scenes.  H and I want to personally thank everyone who worked to make this years Marketplace a great success.  Our numbers were down by a small percentage but that was only due to a nasty storm that came in on Saturday night.

During this whole event, the rehearsal, and the two long nights during the Marketplace our girls were perfect.  They really enjoyed seeing all of our friends go through and were challenged by staying in character.  They especially enjoyed helping the bread makers kneed the dough before it went into the oven.  Our family felt like we were truly blessed by having the opportunity to participate in such a great eye opening event.  Personally, I felt like I truly was in Bethlehem with all the sites, smells and sounds.  The loudest sound may have come from me.  As I had to pull, tug, twist and YANK my heavily glued on beard out of my REAL goatee.  That alone made me see Jesus.

I will be posting pictures later this weekend of the event and possibly some video.

Eat' in Good in the Hood

Last night M.S. and Bob were in town taking care of one of their customer so we decided it was time to catch a good meal.  Tater was at the store and able to catch dinner on his way home. When the BV boys come to town they stay off of I70 and the Hood somewhere which is close to their customer.  With my office down south and those two way up north trying to figure out a place to meet for dinner is difficult at best.  Last night M.S. had a hankering for something "different".  I tried talking him into someplace close to I225 which would make it easy on both of us but once M.S. has his mind made up he can be as stubborn as a mule.  Just like the rest of us.  And I'm GLAD. 

I was not excited about driving all the way downtown to what I thought was going to be some weird dump off of Colfax.  Ill admit that I had a couple minor concerns. 

• Getting shot while unarmed
• Getting the truck stolen. 

Either way I was blaming M.S. for any misfortune.

He and the Mrs. had found this place a year or so ago while driving down Colfax.  Why a nice couple from BV would be cruising Colfax is something that made us all a bit curious but I wasn't about to ask the 14 questions that immediately popped into my head.  Must have been the shopping.  Anyway he lead us to Bastiens Steak House off of East Colfax.  This place is unique.  First of all the Bastien Family bought the place in 1937.  For a place to be open this long they must be doing something right.  The building is ROUND, its old, and its in a "refurbed" part of town on E. Colfax.  The best part was for $20 bucks I got one of the best steaks I have ever laid my taste buds on.  Oh, and that included a very good salad and a twice baked potato.  M.S. and the waitress informed me that their signature dish was the Sugar Steak.  So keeping with the theme of something different M.S., Tater and myself all ordered the thing.  Sounds odd huh?  The chefs cook the white and brown sugar "ONTO" the steak.  This gives it a very different taste and texture without being sweet or odd.  It brings out some great flavors.   This place has won numerous accolades and awards from the local fish wraps and the boys and I had some killer grub while catching up. 

My suggestion.  Grab your concealed carry permit, your 9MM, your LoJack and hit the town.  Drop into Bastiens Steak House and order the Sugar Steak, Twice Baked Potato and enjoy the feeling of getting great food way off the beaten path.

Bastiens Steak House

President Elect

Barack Obama, Im glad your campaign and the election is over. You have been successful in spending more money than any elected official in history. Money that I believe could have been put to better use. I was tired of seeing you and Mr. McCains mug flopping all over TV. I love politics and a sprited debate over thoughts and beliefs but this campain felt like a bad case of Jock Itch. And even though I hated the symptoms I scratched anyway which made it last even longer.

Most of my friends know that Im a gun toting, card carrying Republican. I would have been shunned out of the family if I had any other ideals as a young kid growing up on small town Kansas. In a 6th or 7th Grade Social Studies classs we were studying the upcoming Presidential election. After school I made the mistake to telling my Aunt, who was the Republican Country Clerk of Harper County that I thought Jimmy Carter should be President. Seemed like a nice guy, and hey, he liked peanuts. In 6th or 7th grade that was good enough. You would have thought that I had turned into Joseph Stalin himself. She picked up the phone and called the rest of the family to inform them that there was a trator in the ranks. Then for the next 3 months she went about transforming me into the Republican that I should be. Dragging me to the state capital to see how the real government worked, lessons in the car on why Democrates will cause the world to spontanously combust and that Democrates didnt like baseball or apple pie. They were, well Un-American. It was enough to get back on the RIGHT side of politics where I belonged.

So it goes without saying that I voted for the Mr. McCain. I did so not because I ONLY vote on the side of R but because i believed that he was the best guy for the job at the time. Still do. However the President Elect will soon be our President. Most of my friends are mature and patriotic enough to be of the mind set of "Hey, I didnt vote for the guy but now he is my President and by the grace of God im going to support him". I also believe in the montra. The Republicans got a well deserved kick in the ham and eggs nationally. Great candidate with a crappy message and the worst execution of a campaign that I have ever seen. Now that Mr. Obama will be taking the reigns I will whole heartedly support my President.

I like the fact that he is getting his house in order quickly. Waiting until the President actually takes office before putting his cabinet together is rediculous. Get these people on board, on the same page while getting legislative pipeline full before he takes his oath is impressive. The nation does not need a 90 day T.V. timeout while the White House fumbles and farts around getting their stuff together. Way too many issues going on right now. I am however, concerned about the fact that he campaigned on change but he is hiring the Clinton retreads. Is Ms. Clinton truly the best Democrate in our country to be Secretary of State? Im not advocating the Mr. Obama made a terrible selection. He had to find a democrate that was up for this enormous task. Im just concerned about what weither or not the experience she has will help her deal with the large scale international horse biscuits that our country seems to step in occationally.

Like Mr. Obama or not. Think he was born in America, Africa, or Uranus. Wonder about his religous beliefs all you want. The American people have spoken and he is our President. Get over it and stop whinning about it. Its in the past and as a country we need to move forward now more than ever. Those that did not vote for the man need to think about the Countries needs over their own and support our new President. As our counties first mixed race President this is a ground breaking event. Our contry is no longer run by a single race or religion and we are better for it. Our families were all guests in this country at one point.
I suggest we pray for our country and our new President. He will have his hands full as he takes office and I firmly believe that God will need to be with him as he takes the job of President of these United States of America.

So Its Been a while

So why in the world did I stop blogging? When I was doing I actually enjoyed it. Probably the same reasons that most quite.

• Got busy doing other non important stuff like watching West Wing re-runs.
• Playing with the girls before bed time.
• Working, trying to sell something.
• Didn't have stuff that I thought important enough to blog about.
• I suck at typing and blogging is real work for me.
• Driving to Denver.
• Fishing.
• Golfing.

So this is the start....again.
As I go through my normal day I don't do it terms of a blog. I don't take snap shots of my day, week, or month so that i can type about it. People don't care. Heck, I normally don't care. But this year, 2008 has been one of the most interesting in my 42 years.
People can whine about life and the cat shit that gets stuck on their shoe. I however was brought up under the cliche' that "It will all come out in the wash". My Grandad used that repeatedly when things got tough. This only means that things will eventually work out. While Grandad was a very simple man and obviously not a deep philosopher he was always right. I believe that things will get a bit tougher economically before they get better. NO QUESTION. This does worry me. But what can I do about it? Continue to work hard and most importantly love and care for my family.
2009 will not necessarily be better than 2008 economically or politically. But the things that I can control will be better. I will work harder to have an improved spiritual life and attitude. And when things do get tougher I will look things with a clear understanding that "it will all come out in the wash".