Blogging the House o'Web..............

JUNE

06.22 Remember what it was like before air conditioning was invented? Me neither, but we're learning that important history lesson around the ol' HOW. When we moved in here in '91 the A/C and furnace both were far from new, but worked wonderfully for the most part. We always knew in the back of our minds that one day we'd probably have to replace them, and every spring once the temps started to climb into the 80's we'd cross our fingers and crank up the system much like we did this year. And this year, on it came like a champ, blowing cold up our skirts and we skipped along with our lives oblivious to the possibilities that finally came true Sat night with a vengeance. We cooked some stuff in the toaster oven and I was complaining that, man , it seems hot as hell in here. Watching a DVD we noticed that it didn't seem to be cooling down like normal, so I hopped outside to check the compressor and damn, it ain't workin'. Maybe if I pull all the ignored vegetation from around it and flip the breaker a few times, nope. Damn. Maybe if I take the cover off and kick it , nope. Shoot. Ok, call the A/C man and he'll come out Sun morn, Father's Day an fix it. Well, he came but wasn't able to fix it. And the temps hit nearly 100. And they can't replace it 'till Tues morn. Crap. When it hit 85 inside I took a slow ride in the coooolllldddd Jeep up to BrandSmart and bought a window unit for the bedroom. We made it through the night that way, with the poor little window unit cranking on 11 ever since, 2 window fans blowing hard and a cold shower every 2 hours. When I was much younger I lived in Atlanta for a summer in an apartment without A/C, but those are vague memories now and I don't remember being nearly as whigged out as I am now. So please, go to your condenser and clean the vines off of it and thank it for doing its thankless job hot day in and out. Me, I'm just looking forward to tomorrow pm when I can come in from the heat without coming in to the hotter. And then there's still the whole work sucks thing, but we still need to keep things in perspective. Hard to believe, but it could be worse. How did they do it in the old days?!?!  

06.16 Pinned down in the old N Charleston LaQuinta with thunder and lightning coming down just when I needed to go out for a long leg-stretching walk after a long butt-numbing 300mi ride in from Atlanta this afternoon. In town for a couple of days again this week plying my trade and trying stay out of trouble. Wish me luck.

06.14 Nothing much new to report here other than the same old bad news about the economy and that it's getting hot in the south, but that really ain"t news, now is it? Except for the fact that the economic downturn is starting to effect work now to the extent that we don't have much and the immediate future don't look good. At least I can duck into the A/C when it gets hot outside...Went to a place called Tap yesterday on P'tree, and I'll try'n save you from wasting your time and money there by telling you that it wasn't all that. Sat right out on P'tree on a nice breezy afternoon and that was cool, but that's where the superlative ends. Food was a limited selection of over-priced barfood, and even though you'd think a place called Tap would be all about the beer, I ordered a Chimay White at $8 a pop and they didn't even have the decency to fill the glass. Maggie had a Sweetwater 420 which got her tipsy enough to snap at the valet when he tried to charge us $10 after he couldn't find the keys to the Jeep mainly because it was parked right there with the windows down and the keys in the ignition. We did have a good time reminiscing about the old Peachtree St days and how far around the circle we'd come. Kinda made us realize that everything's gonna be OK in the long run.

06.07 There went May, just that quick. Having a nice weekend here at the Houseofweb, hanging out and getting some stuff done. Worked on the wall and went over to the VaHi Summerfest yesterday, then decided to come home and watch another movie last night. Two movies this weekend, Fri night, Body of Lies with Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, pretty good flick, then last night The Wrestler, also good especially Marissa Tomei, you gotta see it. Today Maggie's off playing tennis, trying to get her match in before the hot of the day, and me, I'm just here banging on this old pleasure machine after reading the NYTimes for breakfast and readying to watch the race whilst doing my schoolwork. I did post up a new page full of recent garden pics for you, so left click here and it should open up in a new page. Can't think of anything else at the moment, so arriverderci!

May

05.31 Damn, a record setting month for JBlogs here at the house of web! All this and Facebook too, not to mention all the other crap that's going on around here and elsewhere. How do I do it?! Kinda scary that this year we've actually had a spring in the ATL, with rain and everything. Usually it goes right from winter into a few weeks of pollen season and then straight into hot as hell, but here we are at the end o' May and it really hadn't gotten all that unbearably warm yet. Why, just yesterday we worked in the yard all day, and yes, we sweated but heat stroke wasn't an issue if you know what I mean. Got a bunch of work done too. Pretty much finished the retaining wall between the houses, a project that I promised to have completed by the spring, and lemme check my watch, oh yeah it's still spring! Oh well, the wife is up and I guess that's my cue to go make some Sunday french toast. Later!

05.23 Having a nice Memorial Day weekend so far, after spending the week & 1000mi on the road from Charleston to Durham to Charlotte and back again. The only bummer being that some asshole tried to break into the truck by destroying the door lock the other night in Charlotte at the Quality Inn off Tyvola Rd. I don't think they actually got in but it's hard to tell with the usual disarray of clothes, cords & equipment I keep. That's probably what they were after, but thankfully nothing was missing. Maybe I should start keeping a rattlesnake in there. Anyway it's good to be back home with the wife of 25 years. That's right, you heard me. Hard to believe it's been that long that she's put up with me. Actual anniversary was last Tues, but I had installed Skype on our computers so that was a novel way to commune with each other on our special day.. Also got started on my next school course, Industrial Safety and Health Management. Now, if that don't set yer hair on fire...Have a great weekend! -JB

05.11 Holey moley! Back to back jblogs! SheZAM! I'm just putting off cleaning up the dinner dishes and enjoying my little Asus at the kitchen table. Made tacos for dinner, trying to lure my little honey home from her days grindings. It worked. Isn't it funny how changing into shorts and having a couple of tacos can alleviate stress? More later. -JB

05.10 Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there!...Got back last evening from a few days trip up to DC, had a very nice time and smooth sailing. Visited the Pentagon 911 memorial, Lincoln cottage, National Arboretum, and Great Falls NP. The Potomac was swollen from 10 straight days of rain and  at Great Falls the river fairly roared and rushed through the narrows. Had some fabulous meals including a lovely evening at L'Auberge Chez Francois with Mom & Dad. Finally got to do a little geocaching yesterday when Dad & I made a run down to Stafford, picked up the boys and cached our way back up to Crystal City. Since Mom enjoyed the bonsai exhibit at the Arboretum so much we decided that would be an appropriate Mother's Day/ B'Day gift for her so we drove over to Wolf Trap Nursery and picked her out a cool little boxwood that now has been named Bruce and lives on her windowsill looking out at the world. See some of the pics from our visit on the PhotoHut page. Now, it's back to the old grindstone, dammit. Oh well, gotta make the donuts! -JB

05.04 Few storms running through today & not real busy, so I'm dumping some pics from earlier in the year in the Photo Hut. NJOY!

april

04.28 Finally got it together on my new mini notebook here with Frontpage where I can sit in the comfort of my big green recliner and jblog to my hearts content. Not that I'll really blog that much more than I already don't, but I could if I wanted to. From wherever I want to. Within range of a wireless connection. If I get time. And can think of something worthwhile to blog about. Y'know it's funny that with all the crap that happpens around here there still seems to be an amazing lack of quality bloggings. Lemme see if I can at least catch you up on the latest mundane details...Got another A in my online college pursuits...actually took the Jeep wheeling last weekend, which BTW is for sale or trade...bought this little notebook, an Acer Aspire One...our 25th anniversary is just around the corner...still working, if you wanna call it that, on the side yard project...cut my own hair the other day...blah,blah,blah. Hey, if you want to video call me on Skype I'm down with that too now. Check it out. Tim P, maybe you and I will be in the same time zone one day & we'll talk! All right, I don't want to blog myself out of a job here, so I'll close for now. Save a little for later, as it were. After all, I can do it whenever, wherever, whyever, whatever, for ever and ever, almost, amen. 

04.04 Yellow. That'd be the color of everything that sits outdoors for more than 15 minutes around the Atl these days. And I'd heard it was bad in other parts, well, I've been to the other parts and lemme tell ya, compared to here, it's nothing. I started with the Claritin two weeks ago and I'll be on it until Memorial Day at least. Speaking of being on things, I signed up on Facebook last week. Why? Because it was there. And it's free. Why don't you take a look at it and maybe we can be friends. Lord knows I need some...We've got a beautiful sunny day here, so I'd better get out and about. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe we can hook up then. Bye.

March

03.26 Ye old saefety travelling prehensile show on the road, tonight coming to you live from a warm and breezy Tampa Bay. Slapped a few pics from the BB into the photohut. Luv ya! Mean it.

03.08 Yeah, yeah...I know how long it's been since I checked in here, but damn, things have been crazy busy for me lately. Y'know, I never thought that I'd become this type-A type, but here I am, sitting in my LaQuinta room outside of Charleston on a warm Sunday evening blogging because I've finally got a minute to. Between work, school, the house, having a colonoscopy, geocaching, trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, blackberries, snowstorms, vehicle maintenence, oh, I could go on and on, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get all this done well and still catch up here. Then there's the whole spring forward thing to mess us up even further. Now, if that's not a good enough excuse...Anyway, I can't stick around too long this time either cause I'm hungry and I don't think the food is coming to me...Hope you're all well, and thanks for stopping by! JB out.

February

02.14 Happy Valentine's Day from JBzHouseOfWeb! Will you be our valentine? I know it's kind of a schmaltzy holiday, but by golly, don't forget! We got ourselves some flowers and cards and went over to Floataway last night. Today we're going to get together and do the taxes. That may be taxing on our Valentine vows, but I'm sure it'll be fine? Once we get through that we're planning on finding the new Six Feet Under in W Midtown and sampling some Gulf oysters. Sounds good, huh?...In other news, I finally got myself a Blackberry. Oh, yeah. An 8350i w/ direct connect and bluetooth. I like it, even though I may look like a nerd with my headset clinging to my ear. Absolutely safer setup for talking while driving. OK, time to log off here and log into TurboTax. Wish us luck!

January

01.27 Coming to you tonight from Orlando, on a week-long visit to the sunshine state where they're earning their namesake, this week anyway. Drizzly & foggy & chilly when i left home early yesterday, but as soon as I crossed the border, skies cleared and the temps shot up to the upper, upper 70's. Of course, all I packed for the trip was long sleeved and three different knit caps. I may have to go see what Marshalls has in the way of tropical-wear. Clothing notwithstanding, I guess I am learning how to cope with this road life. A minor victory of sorts today when I located the Whole Foods down here. Oh, man! I stopped in after work today and stocked up on all of lifes little edible goodies, (mainly beer) slurped down a cheese slice and a Unibroue in the eatery area and came on back to the room with a danged ol' smorgasbord of stuff that's sure to ease the pain of being away from home. And I thought I might just fast in protest. Baahahahahaaa!

01.18 Howdy. We're having a cold and gloomy day here, but one perfect for sitting on my oddly-misshapen butt blogging, surfing, and schooling some. Even though all those activities sound like something that might actually render some amount of physical benefit, they don't, but here I sit nonetheless. I know I really could use some aerobic stimulation, and I keep forgetting that we do have that elliptical downstairs. Forgetting even though I walk right past it every time I go to the fridge for another beer, because it always seems to be draped with coats and sweaters from the last time I actually had to go outdoors. Hey, I did go to the dentist the other day for my regular cleaning. That's one for me. And I do have my annual physical check-up coming at the end of the month. That may not be quite so pretty. I'm sure I'll have to hear a lecture or two, and promise to lose weight, eat right, quit all those nasty habits that I picked up along the way, and get a colonoscopy. All of which I'll have every good intention of doing. I just keep reminding myself that it could be worse, and one day it will be if I don't straighten up now...There's just something about being able to get both the student discount and the senior discount that'll make you feel so special.

01.10 Guess who?! Yup, it's me again. Made it through the holidays in fine shape even. Jew?... Looks like today is going to be a chance to do some sprucing up around here. Archiving some of the older blogs, updating some pictures, and adding some links. Man, this is one hell of a website, ain't it?! Some news to pass along just so's youse can keep up. Of course I was sickly for Christmas, but I finally went to the Dr and she put me on antibiotics that slowly knocked it out even though I was boogery all through New Year. Which incidentally, we spent at the beach in Hilton Head. So nice. The other big-ass news is that I finally enrolled in college, again. Yup, my goal is to earn an Associates of Applied Science in Occupational Health and Safety from Columbia Southern University. Don't worry, I'll not be growing my bangs down over my eyes, wearing hip-huggers and tight t-shirts and hanging out on the quad. No, this is what you call distance learning. Online. Totally. Dude. It going well so far, even though I've only completed my orientation course (with flying colors) and now am 2 units into Computer Essentials 1010. Why, you ask? Well, it's kinda complicated and I know you really didn't ask why, but, once I earn my AASOSH then I am eligible to sit for the Certified Safety Professional exam, that being my ultimate goal. I sometimes wish I had thought of all this back in the day, but then I wouldn't have had all the  wonderful years of enjoyment laying brick and going about my buisness without ever giving a second thought to safety. Man, those were the days...Anyway, I'd better get to sprucing, 'cause it seems that every day gets shorter and there's increasingly more to get done every one...Trying to fix up the run-off swale on the side of the House, off to the Carolinas next week for work and finally taking the Jeep up to the mtns next weekend. Damn, that's a bunch and doesn't really jibe with my New Years resolution; LESS WORK, MORE SLEEP...Later, dudes.

December

12.22 Guess I shoulda listened when they told me to get a flu shot. Down today with a touch and a back out to boot. At least I have work work to get accomplished at home on a very cold day. 40 and rising will not be seen by any bricklayers around here today. Anyway, just thought I'd burden you with that and take this moment to wish all of you out there in cyberspace a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, Yuletide greetings, a righteous Kwanzaa and a wonderful Festivus for the rest of us!

12.15 Coming to you from lovely Pooler GA this evening after a day of riding and imparting OSHA knowledge which I'll do just in reverse all over again tomorrow. What a life. At least I found a newly redone LaQuinta closeby to stay in tonight and there's a pretty decent pizza n beer joint within walking distance. So actually, I'm good. How 'bout you? Some strange weather though, even for down here, it's warmish & muggy more like mid spring than early winter, 76 degrees when I got in the truck this afternoon. Oh well, hope your holiday season is going well and I'm sure I'll get back up with ya before next year. Take care. -JB

12.06 Well, come on in here and get out of those wet clothes before you catch a cold. Yes, it's like that. Happy Freakin' Holidays. Uh-oh, I feel another rant coming on... something about the sad shape of the Economy and the fact that even though many folks are in dire financial straits the Machine just keeps shoving it down our throats that in order to have a truly Merry Christmas it will be necessary to spend money we don't have on crap we don't really need. How much farther under the bed can we hide? Nothing like making people feel about two inches tall because they can't afford to get little Raspus a new whatever this year. Have we completely lost sight of the meaning of the season? Do we all need to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special again?  But, there's like a million things to do today so maybe another time. Jeez.

November

11.27 Thanksgiving has rolled around again here and all across this great nation of ours even though things may seem somewhat bleak at this particular historical point we need to remember the early Pilgrim invaders had had it much rougher & even the original Americans themselves were on a never-ending campout, eating only what they could glean from nature. Kind of a downer, I know, but imagine for a moment life without cars, indoor plumbing, frozen turkeys, internet, flat panel HDTV, etc, etc. One thing they did have though was a tenacious drive to make a better world for their prodigy, something we may have partially lost sight of in our modern-day hustle & bustle worlds. So, here at the HOW this year I'm thankful for everyone who makes the effort to preserve what's left of our planet and prepare a sustainable path for our next-in-line to follow. Happy Turkey Day! -JB

11.04 Election Day here in paradise. Even with all the early and absentee voting we still had to wait patiently in line with all the other fair Fultonians who thought right when the polls open would be the best time to go. We're not complaining, mind you. Not one bit. I had my say, and lemme just say, I like to back a winner. And a few Liberitarian candidates I wern't familiar with 2. Skipped over some that were running unopposed. I mean, I doubt my write-in woulda won anyway. And with a few civic issues thrown in the whole thing too almost two hours. Proud now, boy. 

October

10.25 Happy B'day to the Richmond contingent, Karen yesterday and Bob on Tuesday! Meredith last week, Penny a few weeks ago, me, hey it's the birthday season! Readying for a week up in NC next week and packing up my long johns cause it's gonna be chilly. So far today I'm taking it easy, watching some old Frankenstein movies, cleaning out closets & drawers, and updating my website. Well, I guess you coulda figured out that last one. It's a real pretty day here in the ATL, so sooner or later I'll have to get up and go out for some fresh air & sunshine. Oh wait! Son of Frankenstein is coming on!... I'm JB and I approve of this crap.

10.19 Well, another birthday come and gone, this one was the last of the forties and I'm trying to decide if this puts me beyond my bio description of 'middle-aged' or if now I'm just plain old. I used to rationalize by thinking that once the window for living fast, dying young, & leaving a good-looking corpse had closed , everything after was gravy, but now I think it's the gravy itself I need to look out for. Had a lovely day down in HHI, right where I wanted to be...Usually don't want to make too much of a political statement here, but as far as anyone knows JBzHouseOfWeb is officially endorsing Barack for Prez this time around. So put that in your pipeline and smoke it.

10.09 Oh, whah, oh, whah, oh, whah...I'm in one'a those moods. So, lookout. Always trying to find the right words. Finally got some rain! Now everythings muddy. It always sumpthen. Love ya. -JB

10.01 Off into the wilds of Central Fla again, coming to you from the 2nd floor of the MCO Wingate after a day of straight shooting southbound. It's also been a day of significant numbers. Finall made my 2500th geocache find within walking distance here, and turned over 88888.8mi on the ole work truck. Hope the numerology thing extends to our lottery tickets we got for Maggie's birthday yesterday...I'll let you know how it comes out.

September

09.27 So nice of you to drop in. At least with gas prices the way they are nowadays stopping by the Ol' HouseOfWeb is a deal! And gas prices? How about gas lines? Had to get in one this am to fill the Jeep after running around last night on empty looking for a station that even had some. Well, not empty exactly. A little better than a quarter tank. OK, half. So we just joined in the circus with the rest of the clowns. Had two near altercations with fellow queuers myself. The news says this could stretch out for another week or two. Between this and the stock market and the election and the international conflict and the,..hey, let's just try'n keep it all in perspective, take care of each other and our little planet here, and in spite of it all, have a nice day!  ;^)

09.13 Slicing and dicing on the House here a bit. Check it out and see if you can tell where. JB

09.03 What a great weekend in NY Catskill, perfect weather for the most part, lots of family goings on with kids home from school, birthdays and ice cream rides w/ Rose. She's 98 y'know. I'll post some (33) pics on a new Catskill 08 page if I can remember how. I didn't get any shots of the Joe popping the locked car door, or of the screaming fox in the cemetery, or any corn eating shots either for that matter, but you'll get the jist. The big buzz kill will come at 5am tomorrow when I have to get outta bed and go back to work. Damn.

August

08.26 On with the parade!! If we could just make it through the next couple of days, we'll be Labor Daying up the country. Baby do you wanna go? Oh, hell yeah.

08.18 One never knows what one's gonna get when you come a-surfin' our way. Today I've got a link for you all the way from our bestman, TimP in AbuDhabi. He's working on a top-secret project from what I can tell and the place seems to be quite a departure from Simpleville via CaymanIs. What's all this mean? Check it out, dude.

08.14 Ordinarily the pic above'd change from time to time, but I like that one. We had a really nice visit in NYC & you can still get some warm fuzzies looking at it... Anyway, there were connection problems again today here at the HOW. We did had a strong rain late last night and when I came in this pm the computers were actin' up. Always just when one needs it, she goes out. WTH. So we hooked up the old cable modem directly and finally got a signal, good, get some work done then try'n call Comcast. What?! The phones are out too??!You gotta be kidding me. Thank God for cell phones. Eventually AT&T got the problem fixed, although while I'se talking to their tech hotline they kept referring to it as my problem. Uh-uh. Called Comcast again. Got cut off 3 times for my effort. A lot of good that did. I wound up having to figure the whole thing out myself and by the time I did, 3 hours later, I got both the ethernet and the wireless back up and resecured. No small feat for a bigfooted bricklayer. Just stay calm and when other things fail, try turnin' things off and then on again. But don't waste time calling tech support. They generally suck... Still haven't showered from work yet and it's 9pm. Shutting it down for tonight. Adios. -JB

08.02 Another Sat am another jblog. When do I have time? Well, really the question is when do I take time. Just finished a week of OSHA IH class at GT OTI, and the coming week should be a real pleasure back out in the fields & hot as August in Ga. But that's how we roll here at the HOW. Later.

July

07.19 Mornin'. Up early on a Sat when I could be sleeping in. Why not. 

07.11 Ole'Rode Hard coming to you from the HOW, glad to be home. Of course Maggie's off playing tennis and that just gave me the perfect opportunity to do my stinkin' RodeHard laundry. Look out when you're in Fla is all I've got to say. Something bad always happens down there. Luckily I got out relatively unscathed this pm. Whew! That was close! Look out, I'm telling you.

07.07 On the road this week coming to you tonight from a hot and muggy Savannah. We had a nice relaxing Independence Day weekend not doing too much except the things that needed tending to. Walked over to the AnsleyCC Friday night and found some great front row seats for their fireworks which were, as usual, impressive. Saturday we decided to try'n rent a canoe for a paddle down the Hooch but we wern't the only ones with that idea and by the time we got around to it everyone else had rented all the canoes and kayaks for the day. Welp, we just rode over to the Dam Store, bought some cheapie floats and lodged ourselves on the lake for a couple of hours. Nice. Except for the second degree burns on the parts of my body that aren't included in the trucker tan package that I usually sport. And the third degree burns on the bottoms of me feets from the blistering hot sand. I guess I thought they'se tougher than they is. Stayed inside and recuperated yesterday whilst watching the Wimbledon men's final which was worth it to say the least. And don't forget the Tour de France is going on these days, Stage 3 was today and I think I'll get cleaned up, head down to the river and see if I can find a cold beer and the results since I missed it while I was on my own little Tour de S Georgia today. Thanks for listening and I hope yours was a good one whatever it was! -JB

07.03 What a nightmare! My old trustworthy EarthlinkDSL connection bit the dust back on June 16 and those idiots couldn't get it back on no matter what they tried. At least I think they tried. They said they did. So forget 'em. I went out and got meself a cable modem, ran a few lines and here I'm is! The connection is actually a bit faster and, at least for these first 6 months substantially cheaper. You live, you learn. I'll tell you one of the most frustrating things about this whole deal is the fact that I got so damn wound up because I was cut off from the internet for a couple of weeks. Man, I actually had to do other stuff. Played my guitar, worked in the garden, Jeeped around some, watched Jon & Kate Plus Eight. Oh, well. I'm still waiting amusedly for the Earthlink people to call me with the good news that my DSL connection is now working. And waiting. And waiting. Think it may be time to trade that nearly worthless Earthlink stock too. And waiting...still waiting. But BACK!! Aloha, brudda!

June

06.09 And to think we made it almost all the way thru May without any hot weather, it must've been backed up 'cause it burst out on the scene here in the BigA with a vengance. All over the SE really. How 'bout Cordele, GA. Was down that way last week and it was hot, Hot, HOT! That's enough bitchin' about the weather, now maybe I should kick in about the election, or the price of regular, or, or, naw, it's too hot for all that! -JB

May

05.25 And today we're in NYC touring and enjoying the fine spring weather. Keeping very busy making the most of a long Memorial Day weekend. Staying on the Upper West Side and making forays on foot and via subway to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Central Park, Lower East Side, and only scratching the surface of what's doing here. Tomorrow it all comes to a crashing halt and it's back to the Big A and, ugh, work. Oh well, it's good while it lasts and I've got some good shots which I'll post from the HouseOfWeb when we get back. See ya's latah.

05.13 Coming to you from the QC this week in town for a long overdue visit. Having beautiful weather, I'd enjoy it except for a sinus dealie, but as they say in MPTHG I'm getting better! Looking forward to the Big Apple at the end of the month, maybe I'll have some stories then. Well there was this one thing at Leslie's garage sale last weekend when the Buckhead young blonde things swooped in on the hardbound books and demanded a deep discount claiming they wern't actually going to read the things. To which I later parried when questioned on whether I really needed a third beer at dinner that I wasn't actually thirsty. And then, oh yeah, the one in the store buying shampoo with extra body for someone with a fresh buzzcut. I don't know. And mark your calendar for Mon it's our 24th anniversary. That's half my life! Wow! Love is crazy!  -JB

05.02 Hay! Spring is here. Trying to squeeze one in here before my battery goes out. Have a good'un! -JB

April

04.16 Busy, busy just sounds like excuses, excuses at this point, I know, but we are still in business here at the HouseofWeb, pathetic as it may be when we only post a new JBlog once a month or so. Oh well, let's have at it. Dammit man, I've been busy as hell. At least I've been staying in town for the the past few months, but that's all on the verge of changing as I begin to take over the helm from my boss & mentor and the torch is passed, so to speak. You don't really need to know all the crappy details but let's just say the stuff'll hit the fan in about three weeks and I'll be strung out for real then. Meanwhile, since we're on the subject, I did have a minor victory in swapping bathroom toilets last weekend here at the HOW. That's right, bricklayer that I am, now I can add half-assed plumber to my resume. I took out the old 1952 American Standard 25gal per flush and installed perfectly a brand spankin' new Kohler comfort height 1.6 gal gleaming clay pot. In under 2 hours start to finish. Mighty proud of meself. The wife helped, too. If you ever need advice or direction on how to do this project yourdamnself, look it up on the net like I did... Now were taking bids on installing a French drain that will hopefully stem the flow of runoff that streams thru the garage ever time it rains. Oh joy. Needless to say I won't be doing that work... The geocaching has been taking a big ole backseat role to everything else lately and truthfully actually coincided with being knocked out of the top 10 in GA. I haven't lost my zeal, it's just that I find it much more fufilling to waste away my precious weekends on the couch watching HDTV and cooking up some tasty vittles...Congrats to Meredith & TJ on the birth of baby Caitlyn! And kudos to Leslie for finally getting rid of her beloved "hoopdie" and hooking up with a new red Camry.... I'll post a few pics on the PhotoHut after I get through here so the content of this site doesn't have to be just me rambling on and on about how fantastically whatever our little lives are around here. You get the picture. Thanks for dropping in, now go out and do something! 

March

03.30 Hi. Squeaking another one in here at the end of a busy month. You may have heard about the tornadoes that blew through here a couple of weekends ago wreaking havoc around town. And they said a twister couldn't stay formed because of the tall buildings in town. maybe they should've told the twister. It was a Friday at about 9pm when Maggie came shreiking into the bedroom clutching her weather radio where I was all but sacked out watching AmericanChopper. "We're under a tornado warning! I'm going downstairs!" OK, honey....Here at the House even though we got some wind, rain & hail there wasn't even a pinecone in the yard that next am. We actually got another round that next afternoon and of course everybody was on pins and needles watching for the next big one. We got lucky when you look at Cabbagetown, Oakland Cemetery, and some downtown areas where they're still cleaning up the damage. Meanwhile, work has been crazy and almost overwhelming at times, with weekends spent recouping and reorganizing for the inevitable Monday morning. Sounds kinda lame when you see it in print. We do do some other stuff from time to time. Was talking with a buddy the other day that I hadn't seen for a while and he asked me what I'd been up to after telling me all about shooting up to the Rhyman to see the Shins last weekend. Yup, lame is an apt description. We'll try'n do better next month!

03.04 Here I sit in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, highly unusual I know, but I contracted some sort of stomach virus and feel pretty miserable. And the cable's out due to some heavy storms that rolled thru earlier. So here I'm is blogging between trips to the ol' bano. I won't disgust you with the details but just about everyone has had either this or the killer flu that's been going around and up till yesterday I'd been lucky enough not to be included. I guess my obsessive hand washing and Purell using tactics weren't enough this time. So what's been up? One thing that I'm glad to see is that spring is clearly on it's way. For now is nice, with daffodils, quince, forsythia, cherries and magnoilias doing their thing, but we all know in a month or so this place'll be green from top to bottom with pollen. Time to break out the Claritin. And oh yeah, can you believe that I got another parking ticket?! Outside the House on the Jeep parked at the curb facing the wrong way on a two way street! What a joke! I guess that's all the more better things that APD has to do around here. Then when I went online to pay my $25 & the ticket's not in the system yet. So I call and still no luck. This being the sixth day of a 7 day period one has to remit payment until the fine doubles I wrote out a check and posted it in my PJs in the rain. The way my luck is going lately there may very well be a prison sentence in my future. I'm trying to be good, really I am. Well I think I'll go throw up now. -JB

FEBRUARY

02.25 Had to come back to edit that last blog. I was typing in a hurry yesterday and really shouldn'tve been cause the story could've been embellished and exagerated to the point where it actually would've been interesting reading for you poor unsuspecting victi...er, visitors. I mean you've got your own damn problems, right?. That's why JBzHouse is here for, to get away from it all, right? Well, if it helps any I did get stopped by the DeKalb PD today. As if going 75mph on the Connector was a crime. Everybody else is doin' it!... I know, I know...... She let me off with a warning anyway. One of these days I'll learn.

02.24 Now that all the smoke has cleared more or less, I guess you'd like to know just exactly where the hell I've been doing. Let's see, since the SuperBowl, oh yeah....That next Monday I got in the ol' F150 and hauled ass down to Orlando, well the log below was from the Wingate Inn MCO so during the week went pretty much OK. We got done with our class and I was ready to hit the road back to Atlanta about noon. That's when the fun began. I got about 25 miles into my 450 mile journey and the truck started misfiring and blowing out white smoke. Mind you, I baby this machine and  never had it let me down throughout its short 70000mi life. Well hell, I pulled over in the Okapahumpka service plaza on the Fla Turnpike and the nice tow truck driver did what he could to help me which included turning the truck off. Never got it started again. It would turn over but wouldn't crank. And more white smoke. At that point all he could do was to load it up on his wrecker and haul me over to Wildwood to some shadetree boys who had the computer diagnostic stuff. They scoped it out and got so many codes that they weren't sure which one was the problem. I mean this place was in the middle of nowhere and had 4 mechanics under, over and in the truck, all smoking, and saying stuff like, dang, I ain't never seen this happen before. Well, it was decided that we  needed a new starter so they went and got one and slapped it in whereupon trying to crank the truck says POP! The head dude comes over to me where I sat watching all the shenanigans and says I'm gonna need a new motor. For those of you that don't know, this is a company truck so I called my boss and he suggested that I have it taken to a Ford dealer. Which I did after locating the closest one in Leesburg. Using the ole GPS abilities, I not only located the dealership but also arranged to have a rental car so I could continue on home. Which I did, leaving my truck in Leesburg and heading north again at about 5:30pm on a Friday. Well, I like to say that everything went smooth after that but this wasn't one of those days. I started out with a full tank of gas in the rental Subaru and once I was up near TiftonGA I knew if I filled up again I could make it to Atlanta without stopping (except to pee every 25mi) and that was my goal. But filling up the tank is only a problem if you can't figure out where the filler door release is located.  (under the front mat.) But of course I was nearly panicked when I called Maggie at 9pm asking her to crank up the computer and see if she could help me find the freakin release. After about 15 minutes of searching and listening to Maggie giggle on the other end I finally found that bastard. damn. Well, McDonalds was right next door so I thought I'd just pop in and get an iced coffee and a couple of extra pickle cheeseburgers. Well, I guess Tifton nightlife consists of hanging out at MickeyD's and half the population was in there milling around so I just peed and hopped back in the Outback and got in the drive-thru. Finally got my order and  hit the highway. Opened up my bag and wouldn't you know they gave me double cheeseburgers with no pickles but did I go back and complain? Hell no. I just rolled down the window and flung the extra cheesey patties out onto the dark I-75 night. Kind of cathartic actually. I had managed to grab the CD's out of the truck before I split but only listened to Wish You Were Here about 25 times in a row. I just felt right. Got home at midnight, pulled off my pants and rolled into bed next to my honey. Whew. So I returned the car the next day and drove around in the Jeep that next week. Then last Monday after hearing from the Ford dealer that my truck was fixed and that it had to have a new fuel injector and spark plugs (no new motor), I rented another car in ATL and headed south. This time all went smooth, stopping in Savannah to check on a job there and on to Orlando Tues where they had picked up my truck and parked it at the office. Needless to say as every mile goes by I feel a little more sure that every thing with the truck is again copasetic and it'll make another 70K or better before the next disaster. And all the regular life stuff keeps right on coming. The wife nearly got stuck up in DC this week, weather-related, Mom and Dad are in Mexico, Grandma Rose isn't feeling herself and they're snowed in up in NY... And then we've got that spy satellite to shoot down so it won't smash into the earth, too! ....We did manage to buy a big screen HDTV and let me tell you it's awesome! Now we're gonna have to replace the others cause once you see the HD it's all over, jack .... I know this was probably the longest jbzlog of all time but there it is and that ought to do it for the rest of this month. See you in the Spring!! -JB

02.04 When I'm wrong, I'm real wrong. WTG NY Giants. I think most of the rest of the US didn't really care but wanted to see NE go undefeated, but that NY squad was way too tough on Sunday. Awesome. .. 86 degrees today in FL!

02.03 Readying for a road trip to Orlando next week and the big game tonight. Don't be surprised if you see another blog here within the week from FL. I'll be busy but I do usually have a little boredom time in the evenings stuck in some lonely motel room. Hey that sounds like a song. Maybe I should take my gitar!

 As for the big game tonight I'll just say NY has their hands full.

 Oh yeah, and we traded the ole Benz for a new Acura TL this  past week. Pics in the PhotoHut.

previous jbzweblogs can be found in

THE ARCHIVES