I'm ripping out the wall!

I can't stand. I've finally lost it. They put the power/cable/phone jacks in the dumbest places in this house. The only place you could ever clearly put the TV is on one of two walls, directly in the middle of the wall, neither of which has a power outlet directly behind the TV nor the cable jack. So instead I must string cables across the floor so it looks like pooh in the living room. Since we plan to paint the living room....eventually, this is the time to fix it before we paint. Just like last year when it took 3 weeks or better to prep the master bedroom to paint it we are expecting the same out of living room. So I'm relocating the power outlets, cable jacks and putting in network jacks as well since this is 2009 and this whole "internet" thing is catching on. My TV and XBOX both have a network jack and the XBOX is currently on a wireless adapter. No more dropouts, no more cables everywhere, no more TV not hooked to the world! I'm moving everything and adding network jacks!

So here is the almost before pic. Why do I always forget to take pictures of the projects in their untouched before state. I've only ripped out the trim at this point.



This is something that has irked me ever since I started taking my shoes off at the door. They broke the trim where? Not in the middle of the room which would obviously be behind a couch or TV. No, right by the door so when you kick your shoes off the dirt is drawn to the seam thus exposing the trim cut. Let this be a lesson if you ever get the idea to trim your house out. Spend the extra $3 and get another piece of trim and split the damn thing in the middle of the room, behind the couch/TV where nobody can see it.


I swear, next time I'm buying a house just after framing. I'll do the rest. The same reason I design equipment parts now, don't like it do it yourself. Oh yes, this little project was started at 10pm 6 days before a 4 day Disney trip. What could go wrong?

A lot more Hawaii pictures

OK, here's a much better picture from the sign at Scotty's. We went back for dessert 2 days later. We were far to full from dinner to eat that night.


Ladies please resist the urge to fling yourselves at me and my woolly chest hair. This was our snorkeling gear setup. The was about mid way through the sun burn. Please reference future pictures to see this.


A Luau and a sun burn. Yes, we are quite happy and burnt to a crisp. Here we are again borrowing strangers talents to take a pictures. Of course I volunteered to take theirs so we could guilt them into taking our picture.


Here we are mid-zip line tour. This would be the roaming gnome from Travelocity coming out of Mandy's head. Clearly we didn't put a lot of thought into set up. However this is "The" official roaming gnome. The Travelocity people actually brought him by, took some pictures and certified the location. They claim he has a facebook page.

This is a much better shot of the Hula pie from Duke's. This is "why the sailors swam to shore". We downed it and it was good.

Here we are after the zipline. This is Sean and Steph. I'm still not sure where the extra hand came from with the 2 fingers behind Sean. I just can't place who it is. None the less they were a blast and stuck around for like 10 minutes and 5 pictures, only for me to learn later I had left it underexposed by 2 stops to get a long exposure of a water fall from earlier. Stupid manual settings.

This was after going to Duke's for dessert. We found a nice place on the ground in front of it and set the camera down and went to full manual. Yes, I moved completely out of P, Tv, or Av. This was full M, F10, 10 sec, 100ISO. I'm so proud. That little remote has been more handy than anything I've bought for that camera.

Gaylord's @ Kilohana

Here is one good pic since I've been home and had time to tweak it some. This is Gaylord's at Kilohana Plantation. It almost doesn't look real but this is it. I had to lighten the building some and then darken the sky. Not a work of art but not to bad.

leaving LA

made it back to LAX. had a very short layover and by the time we got through the massivly massive airportwe had time for coffee and to board. so here we sit watching people that have seemingly never been in a space with more than 3 people and understand the concept of take your seat and get the hell out of the way. hopefully we'll leave soon.

i hate delta

well, we got seperated on our flight from lihue to LAX again. this further backs up my idea i will try and never fly with these idiots again. we checked in fine last night but couldn't check in at the kiosk when they did finally open them. then, of course, they claimed they couldn't change the seats. however, i know good and well we were seated together when it was changed once before. i guess we'll see if somebody will change with us. i'm starting to hate flying. the only sunset i'll get to see this week will be from the airport.

the start of the waiting

so begins the process of goiong home. we are so early to the airport the delta counter isn't even open. they'll be here in an hour, then we can confirm if we even get to sit together for 5 hrs. i'll be adding delta/northwest to my "never fly on again" list.

mehnehune fish pond and the sleeping giant

waiting to leave

well here we are waiting to leave basically. we've checked out of the condo, its 11am here. we've returned our 'only used once' snorkle gear from a weekly rental. now we are eating breakfast at the coconut market place and waiting until 5 when we have to return the car but the flight doesn't leave until 8:50 so this next 24hrs+ is going to thoroughly going to suck.

high surf

some place on the north shore

Some Zipline Shots

This is me and Mandy "racing". I say that in quotes because I have her by 110lbs+ so I pretty much was the fastest all day.


This is a good one of Mandy. She didn't ham it up like I did.

hula pie

hula pie back at duke's by the koi pond

a room with a view

just a shot off our balcony. if you listen close, you can hear those stupid chickens crowing.

Mandy got all inspired in the black sandy beach by the old Russian fort. Pretty cool to see the sands and it was right where the river emptied into the sea so some local kids were boogie board surfing the flow of the water at that point. Pretty cool.



Mandy enjoying our favorite meal at Gaylords on the Kilohana Plantation. The meal is Chicken Kauai and it's so good it's just hard to explain.

more sunburn complaints

ok, remember 'Lilo and Stitch' when Lilo was walking around taking pictures of the burnt tourist? I was waitinng for that today. The burn has really set in and it sucks something awful. Honestly I think we'd cancel the zipline tomorrow if we could. Off to dinner at Gaylords.

Kauai Coffee

pic of a small portions of the fields of the kauai coffee company

spouting horn

sunburnt and bad

got WAY to much sun yesterday to the point of about being sick. we put sunblock on but apperently it was to late. probably just laying around today, might head up to waimai canyon.

Luau Kalamaku

at gaylord's for the luau. having a good time so far...open bar!

Duke's on Monday

"Duke's on Monday".... ok, so the song is actually duke's on sunday but here we are. named after the famous duke that was the olympic swimmer.

Much better pictures

Here we are out on the beach in front of the condo. Kind of a rainy morning so we are hanging out here. It seems our first souvenier will be a flat iron for Mandy. Her's broke this morning. So woo hoo for authentic hawaiian gifts. Guess we'll head to Hilo Hatti's to get it.



This is last night from the court yard view at Scotty's. We had just taken a similar picture for another couple doing the same thing.

more from scotty's

the view from scotty's. almost every restaurant on the island is open air like this.

finally made it to Kauai. actually made it a little early. got the rental car, checked in to the hotel, went to the grocery store and paid $7.99 for a 12 pack of mt.dew and have finally made our way to scotty's bbq. it sounds and smells great so far.

Made it to LAX 5 more hrs to go

guarding the luggage here at LAX. we have about an hour before we get back on the plane so we are taking shifts at sitting with the luggage while the other one hits the restroom. i guess the next step will be finding some take on food for our 5+ hr flight. we have the laptop and several movies and supposidly wifi acces so that will help kill some time. with any luck the flight won't be full or at leastnot be loaded with 3yr old and youngers. with typical luck, we'll be surronded by them.

made it to salt lake

made it to salt lake city. thankfully enough time to hit the restroom and buy a sandwich this time. have a 7hr flight ahead of us. woo hoo. :-(

off to a wonderful start...sigh.

off to a wonderful start...sigh. ticketing was backed up in RDU so that sucked. got just to the gate to board and did the same in detroit.

more big dogs

how's a 4:15 @ 172 set with you?

little 170mph pass

big dogs

having a big day @ piedmont dragway. here to watch the big dogs. already seen a few qualify around 4.22@170mph+

Warranties....and why they suck

I'm really just ranting here. I've just had a hell of a time and I have no one to explode on that doesn't agree with me, which is pretty much half a battle, having someone that doesn't agree with you to argue with. It's no fun to try and argue with people that agree.

We bought the SS Trailblazer a couple months ago. During the test drive, my over sensitive ears and sick feeling in my stomach noted a slight wine in the left rear speaker. No biggie, it can be fixed I thought. I noted it during the "So what did you think" part of the conversation. Speaker whines, I noted. "oh yes, we'll fix that"....and I rolled my eyes and thought this is the beginning of the end.

So fast forward to a week ago. The speaker quit working all together. So I did some trouble shooting. Which means I took the dash apart on our brand new truck to isolate it channel by channel. Well, I found out the channel did indeed work but the wiring looked kinda shotty though, appears safe and the adapter unit which ties in the Onstar, Bose and Pioneer system looks suspicious. So me and my neighbor (ex-circuit city installer and stereo junkie like myself) figured it was wiring or this adapter deal.

We took the SS to the dealer and explained the channel didn't work with no further details of how much I already know; they get funny when you tell them you've taken it apart and your smarter than they are. They replaced the speaker and called to explain how the speaker was bad and that was clearly the issue with no other concerns. So I had somebody drop me off and I went to get it. Before I so much as moved the blazer I faded it to that channel, surprise, no output. Back around to service I go. Next day, another new speaker just to confirm, it's not the speaker. "Maybe you should look at the wiring, you know those adapters go bad all the time." I suggest. "Oh no, we have a tech (probably making $10/hr with a high school equivalency diploma) that says a channel in the radio is bad, causing it to blow the speaker." So, a RCA output from an $1100 head unit, with virtually no power on it, by design, is causing the issue, not the $100 adapter that is manually wired in? "Come back Tuesday and our {accessory specialist} will look at it". Oh, this can't miss.

So I take it in today to Chevy service, they say, "go see (name left blank, we'll call her Betty), at Cadillac, where the expert is and they'll take care of you". I was standing beside the service manager when he called her on his cell phone. Literally a 30 second drive to see Betty. I'm here to have my radio checked out, I'm from Chevy, just left there. "you're who, with what?" Oh, this is going good. So after hanging out for about 30 mins after they take it back they explain its going to be a while. That's fine, Chevy service manager has explained he'll give me a rental for free. So, again, I must explain this to her. I get a rental, the dodge below this post.

After 6 hrs they call and ask for my sales guys name. Why the hell would they want that I thought. They call right back and explain they can't warranty it because it's after market, that's from the sales guy. Uh no, it's GM certified front to back, the fact it is aftermarket and was installed by retarded monkey's is not my problem. If you wanted to do otherwise, you should have installed the factory unit that you gave to me in the damn box. Yes, they gave me the factory unit as well. Oh yes, they also said its the adapter, oh, like I said 3 weeks ago, not the fully sealed and tested head unit. Well no shit, who knew? Anyway, I asked how much are we talking and why don't they think they can do it. Oh, it's $400. That's a $100 adapter unit and your telling me $300 to install it which would take me 10 minutes and I used to do in the parking lot in high school? "oh, but we had to diagnose it too" no you didn't, I told you what the hell was wrong with it.

So I sternly, though politely explained to call {we'll call him Dave}. "oh I did", Betty says, "he didn't know anything about it". You called Dave, the service manager? "no, I called Dave in sales". And why the damn hell wouldn't you call Dave in sales?! Who I've never met nor knows me or anything about my damn channel on my radio not working you worthless, useless waste of oxygen your breathing right now your ignorant POS! Call Dave, the service manager please. So she says "I need a PO to continue". So, I should call and get you a PO or would you prefer to do this and cut out the middle man. Am I in some sort of alternate universe where everybody is unable to walk and chew gum and think just a little itty bitty bit. What the hell people. Shit don't work, shit needs fixed...fix it! You've given me a rental for the damn day which I didn't ask for and who knows what it costs but you can't come up with $100 for the part and eat the labor, which I might add, I said was the problem to start with? Seriously?! Horse shit people, remove your head from your ass would you!

So I continued to explain, call Dave, the service manager at Chevy, he'll explain it all. I already know what the answer is, I just need you to come to the same conclusion, when you do, and my blazer is done, call me and I'll be over in 15 minutes with this weak ass no tire spinning dodge you've rented me.

Surprise, Scott was right, everything is well and the rear channel works. Why is this so hard? Seriously, next time I'm asking for no warranty, $3000 off and I'll fix it my damn self, odds are, more than likely, I probably caused it anyway....except for this damn left rear channel. So help me if it goes out again I'm returning a 400+HP fire breathing beast under the lemon law for a $100 radio adapter.......DAMN IT!

SS replacement? doubt it.

got a rental today when i dropped the SS off because the left rear channel wasn't working on the radio. they asked did i want a rental, no, i just want a lift home. instead they give me a dodge. while quite comfortable and rather quiet is way weak on power. the up side, sat radio. so now i'm off to an exciting day of putting up laundry until they are done with the SS. then we'll find out i was right all along and it will be the $100 adapter, not the $1100 headunit.

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.