Cooper and the Cone...

Cooper's nails have continued to fall off, and lately he's had two of them that won't stop bleeding.

They probably won't stop bleeding because he won't stop licking them. so the other day I covered his paws with some bandages to try and help the quicks dry out so that they wouldn't bleed any more.

It was working pretty well...until this morning...

When Cathy got up he had somehow managed to get one of the bandages half way off...and in the process of doing that, he had cut off circulation to his paw...and now his paw was all swollen up. It was like he had a club foot.

So I took him to the vet to make sure it wasn't infected. The vet said it looked like it was just caused by the bandage, but gave me some antibiotics to give to him just in case. He also suggested that I get an Elizabethan Collar for him.

So I did...and I have to admit, it's kind of funny to watch him walk around running into things. He's not getting around so well with it on, and even though it's kind of amusing, it's kind of sad at the same time.

Hopefully in a few days his nails will dry out and heal up, and then he won't have to wear it any more.

Until then, you tell me...does he look unhappy??

Recovering From Purchasing New Laptop...

So, as I posted yesterday, I bought a new laptop to replace the one that I've had for the last several years.

Also, if you've been following my blog, you may remember that I've been saving some extra money by recording purchases in my register for more than what they actually are. For instance, if something costs $21.24, I have been putting it in as $22 or $23. This has allowed me to build up an excess amount in my checking account that is basically "unaccounted" for. It's like free money. I had built that up to about $210, which is what allowed me to get the new laptop.

However, even though I had that "free" money to spend on the computer, I didn't really want to spend it. I don't really know WHAT I DO want to spend the money on, but it definitely wasn't on a computer.

So I set to work late last night going through some stuff to find and sell on Ebay. Things that I haven't been using or that I no longer needed that might be worth some value.

Well, it worked. In less than 24 hours I ended up selling $200 worth of stuff on Ebay, which basically gets me back to "even" as far as my "free" money goes. I still have the old laptop that I am going to try to sell, because it still works...it's just the wireless that doesn't work. I'm finding that they go on Ebay for about $90 or more just for units that are good for parts, so I'm hoping to get $100 for it, which will bring me to a total of $300 worth of stuff sold...which will actually put me ahead of where I was before I bought the computer.

Good stuff.

New Laptop...

Today my trusty Dell B120 laptop seemed to finally kick the bucket.

A few weeks ago it got knocked off of the table when Dillon got tangled in it's cord while I was trying to put him on his dog bed. It just hasn't really seemed to be right since then. It's been having really slow internet connectivity...and when I primarily use it for the internet, that's a pretty big blow to it's usefulness.

Well, the other day it wouldn't connect at all...I had Cathy reset the router and I got it to come back online after a couple of restarts. Then last night while I was trying to update the score of the Red Wings game it was literally taken several minutes to get to each reload.

Then today when I woke up, it wouldn't connect at all. It would find the network, communicate with it, but not secure an IP address. All the other wireless things we have were working fine, so I know it was the laptop. I messed with it for about an hour before finally giving up and deciding to just go with a new computer.

We headed to Best Buy to look, and nothing really caught my eye. I did like two of them, but I wanted to check Walmart before making the purchase because our Walmart has a pretty good selection of computers. So we headed there, and I found one of the ones I liked at Best Buy for $21 less. So I went ahead and picked it up.

It's a Compaq CQ61-411.

Built in wireless G.

2.1 GHZ AMD processor

2 GB of RAM

Windows 7 Home Premium

The coolest part about it is the keyboard. It's actually got a numeric keypad on it...so instead of having to use the numbers at the top of the keyboard, I can use the numeric pad like I prefer!!

I got it home and fired it up and it worked great. Of course, the Dell started working right then, as well. Oh well, it seems like it's going to give me trouble, so I guess replacing it was a good idea.

I got all my stuff transfered from the Dell to the Compaq tonight, and so far I'm really enjoying it.

Getting Close...

I'm getting close to my next goal for weight loss.

I had said that I wanted to get down to 220 pounds for my next major milestone, and today I weighed in at 221.4.

I've been doing much better losing weight since I started eating a bit more food. Odd how that works, but it does.

I'm hoping to be at the goal of 220 pounds by next Wednesday or so. I think it should be able to be done.

Alan Wake...

The wait is almost over. Remedy has been working on making "Alan Wake" for about five years now. It comes out next Tuesday.

I've got the Collector's Edition that's pictured above reserved at Best Buy, a $50 Best Buy gift card to put towards it, and possibly a $10 Reward Zone Certificate. I'll probably be able to pick it up for about $20 cash total, which is awesome.

The best part?? IGN gave it a very solid 9 for the review today...and the only reason that they "only" gave it a 9 was because it's got a bit of a cliffhanger ending due to the fact that it's supposed to have some DLC come out for it in the future.

I look forward to playing this one. It looks great!!

Awesome Commercial!!!

I can't believe I had never seen this before. A coworker told me about it so I found it on the iPod this afternoon. Great stuff!!

New Balloons...

Today Cathy had some time off of work to go to a baby shower.

When she got done with the shower, she went to the book store and found a cool book with some balloon animals in it for me to twist.

One of them is really cool. It's a dragon. I really like the way it looks.



Cathy really likes a turtle that is in there.

There are a couple other ones that look like they will be really cool, but I didn't get a chance to make them tonight. One is a spider, and the other looks like a pretty advanced sculpture...it's a crab. It looks like it takes several balloons and should be pretty tough...I'll give it a try sometime soon.

Day Off...Not Quite as Planned...

Well, it was quite a bit more chilly today than it was supposed to be, so I didn't get a chance to get out and work in the garden. I went to get the stakes that I was going to use to hold the weed block down out of the shed, and I realized that I must have thrown them away when I was cleaning everything up, so I wouldn't have been able to get the stuff down very well anyways.

I did, however, get to the landscaping place to find out some prices. Mulch costs $29 per cubic yard. Delivery is $30. The girl said that for my project, I wouldn't want to go much deeper than 2 or so inches, because the mulch on the bottom can start to rot. So, with that in mind, it looks like we'll probably end up needing about two cubic yards. That means that our cost for the mulch will be $58, and the delivery will take the total up to $88. I also need two more things of the weed block fabric, which will be about $12. So, for a total of $100, we should be able to get the circle garden done the way that we want it to be done.

So that was a good thing.

Now, the bad thing...and I'm going to be honest, this just about ruined my day. While I was wandering around the mall looking for a charger for the Wii remotes, I almost got ran into by a little kid that wasn't paying attention. When I kind of jumped to the side so as not to knock him over, I slammed my Russian Diver watch into the wall...and of course, the wall is made out of some kind of rough concrete. So it scratched the top of my watch all up. Cathy says it doesn't look too bad, but now when I look at my watch all that I see is the scratches on the bezel.

I guess maybe I'll start looking around on Amazon for another one. I had wanted to get another one anyways, but I wanted the other one so that I could have two really nice watches...not to replace one that has been damaged. I have an extra couple hundred bucks in my checking account that is "free" money, so maybe I'll use a little bit of that to get one on the way in just a few days here. I guess I just have to decide which one I want.

A Day Off...

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off.

I have some extra leave time to spare, mainly because I earn it faster than Cathy because I've worked at the airport for so much longer than her. For the last three years I've been earning six hours of leave for every four that she earns.

So I have an excess that is quite a bit more than her's. I figured I might as well use a little bit of it so that I don't always have a whole bunch more time than her.

So I decided to take Tuesday off, which will give me a three day weekend. It's supposed to be nice and clear, with a high around 58 or so outside...so I think it will be a perfect opportunity to start putting the weed blocker down on the circle garden in the back yard. After that gets done, the only thing that we'll have left to do is to buy some mulch to cover the garden. Then that will be pretty much done. Sure, I still want to get some nice fence to put up behind the garden to block the giant wasps nest that I'm sure is back there, but that can come whenever.

The weed block is probably going to be the hardest part of the rest of the project. It's a pain to put that stuff down and keep it down, especially when I don't have any mulch right now. But I will find a way to make it stay down, and that will be a good start to the end of that project.

Other than that, I might go out on my longboard and do some paddling. I haven't had much of a chance to do that yet this spring, and it seems like it might be a nice day for it tomorrow. Or maybe a bike ride.

Some More Balloon Ideas...

After making my shark, I had a few ideas for what else I could do with the general design.

Tonight I gave them a try.

My first idea was to modify the tail of the shark with a third fin, making it look like the tail of an airplane. Then I was going to extend the side fins out and remove the dorsal fin, so that it looked like wings on a plane. It was going to be a fighter plane. Unfortunately, it didn't end up working out very well. The wings wouldn't stay off to the sides. Apparently the dorsal fin on the shark keeps the side fins from moving to strange angles. So the fighter plane didn't work out. I have another idea that might work, but I'll have to give it a try some other time. I don't feel like wasting any more balloons on trying it right now.

My second idea was to use the same shark, but modify it's head so that it looked like a hammerhead shark. It actually worked out pretty well. Unfortunately, his tail popped before I could get a picture of him and I didn't want to make another one just for the photo. He's not QUITE as good as the original shark...basically, you can tell he's a hammerhead shark if you KNOW he's a hammerhead shark. But just looking at him might make some people wonder what he is. He's good, but not as good as the original shark.

I also had another idea to do with the large 5 balloon tiger that I wrote about the other day. I'm planning on making another one, only this time adding a sixth balloon to him. I will use a white balloon and put it right down the front center of him, so that it looks like he's got a white belly. I might give that one a try tomorrow...I think it will turn out pretty well. I also have an idea to make his arms look a little bit less stick figure like. I'm not sure why his arms weren't done this way to begin with, because I think it would look quite a bit more natural.

Weight Loss Update...

I've been doing my diet pretty well. I've been working out pretty well.

The only problem?? I seem to have hit a plateau at right about 15 pounds lost.

So I've been doing some reading, and it would appear that I actually wasn't eating ENOUGH food. Odd that you can be trying to lose weight and not eat enough???

Well, I was down around 1400 calories or so everyday. The thing is, to maintain my weight I would need to take in about 3300 calories everyday. To lose weight at a healthy rate of around 2 pounds per week, you should take in only about 20% less calories everyday. So I should have been somewhere around 2500 calories per day give or take.

Basically, what happens is your body goes into almost like a starvation mode when you drastically cut calories all of the sudden. It thinks that you are not going to be getting enough food and it ends up storing as much of the food that you eat as possible.

This does a couple of things...first off, it makes it really difficult to burn fat, even if you're working out. Second, it makes it so that your body won't build muscle the way it's supposed to...which is 50% of my workout routine.

So I've started eating more. I'm trying to get between 1800 and 1900 calories per day. I found a few health websites that suggested that I eat right around that amount of food in order to lose 25 pounds over the next 10 weeks.

What's crazy?? It's HARD to eat another 600 calories when you're eating healthy things. I had tilapia tonight, and each filet was only 80 calories. So to get an extra 600 calories, just to put this into perspective, I would have had to eat about 8 of those filets. I'll be trying to get an extra snack or two during the day to get me closer to my goal of calories.

As far as working out?? I've been keeping it up, but tonight I'm disappointed in myself. I was really tired all day at work from not sleeping well last night, and today I skipped my workout for the first time since I started. I hope it doesn't negatively impact my routine at all. I also have been swapping out the sweat cardio workout every now and then with 30 minutes on the exercise bike. I feel that this isn't a bad thing, because I feel like I'm getting about the same type of workout, and it keeps things fresh...instead of doing the same 35 minute cardio routine every other day, I now throw the bike in every now and then to give me some other options. I'll also think about possibly throwing some paddle boarding in.

Overall, I'm still doing pretty well, I think, but I'm getting a bit frustrated with the plateau that I seem to be stuck on.

My First Balloon of My Own Design!!!

Tonight while laying in bed trying to go to sleep, I was thinking about balloons. Something came to mind all of the sudden, and I figured I'd wait and look into it in the morning. But I then realized I wouldn't be able to sleep without checking it out, so downstairs the balloons and I went.

My idea came quickly, and the design elements of the model followed very quickly themselves.

After about 25 minutes and a few balloons that didn't fit with how I wanted it to look, I was done with my first sculpture that I created and designed entirely by myself.

In case you can't tell from the photos, it's supposed to be a shark.

It's Not Too Suh-n...

...to say that the Lions defense just got a LOT better.

I've been watching this kid play the last couple of seasons, and he's just a beast. Absolutely incredible.

I know that one guy doesn't make a team...but one guy certainly can make a team better. Jim Schwartz coached Albert Haynesworth, and Schwartz has said that he is more impressed with Suh than he was with Haynesworth. That says a lot, considering Haynesworth has shown that he has the ability to be a one man wrecking crew on the field. Haynesworth's problem, if there is one, is that he sometimes seem to not be completely into the game. I don't think that will be too much of a problem with Suh. He seems to have a work ethic that is spectacular.

Let's just say I'm glad that he's a Lion, and not a guy that's going to be rushing Matt Stafford in a game someday.

Balloon School...Again...

Tonight I did the last sculpture on the Balloon School DVD. I didn't do every single sculpture on the DVD, but this one seemed to be pretty challenging, so I wanted to tackle it.

It's a five balloon sculpture.

And I think it turned out pretty good. His name is Terrance the Tiger. Check him out!!

New Puppet...

As I've been working on a full magic routine, one of the main portions of it is that I have a helper. The helper is a puppet, and right now I'm planning on recording his lines and putting them onto my iPod which will alleviate the need for any ventriloquism. I read that this is a good substitute on a site that is dedicated to puppetry and shows with puppets, so I figure if it's good enough for a company selling several hundred dollar puppets, then it's good enough for me.

I had originally found a puppet on Ebay that I liked quite a bit, but then I found one by a company called Axtell. Axtell is pretty much the best puppet manufacturer in the world. Their stuff is amazing. Unfortunately, the prices are a bit high as well. Probably not too high, but a bit more than I wanted to pay for something that I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to do. So I figured that I will wait on an Axtell puppet until the time is right...if it's ever right.

So I ended up going with the one that I found on Ebay. He is hand made by a lady that runs a puppet shop store on Ebay. He ended up costing me about $50 including the shipping, and should be shipped out the first week of May. Each puppet isn't even made until it is purchased, so I know for sure that the one I'm getting is brand new and never used.

So, without further delay...meet, Sparks!!!! (That's his name)

More Balloons...

Tonight I made my second order from TMyers Magic for balloons. I still have about 50 balloons from my first order, but to be honest, I'm getting pretty confident in this and I may make my first attempt to go out and make them for people on Wednesday afternoon if the weather is okay.


So today I placed an order for another 250 Qualatex balloons and another 260Q pump. The nice thing about the order today was that the shipping was free. The first order I placed from Tmyers cost me about $6 for the shipping. It was nice to get shipping for nothing on this order. Hopefully they'll be here by the end of the week, because if I do actually go out and do some twisting on Wednesday I will definitely need more balloons.

I really enjoy twisting balloons. It's a lot of fun and I'm pretty good at it. I think that if I can actually muster up the courage to go out and do it for others, I would have a lot of fun, and possibly make a few bucks in tips!!!

Scripting a Show...

So, for the last eight months I've been buying a lot of magic. I actually have about 9o different effects right now. I've spent a good amount of time and money on them. I practice them and know how to do them.

But for the first time since I started this I am actually working on a routine. An entire 25-30 minute routine that combines similar effects into an entertaining show.

I am working on a kids show routine. I hope to get it done and then maybe be able to perform it professionally at birthday parties or things like that.

It's been tough, coming up with effects that work well with each other. It's been even more tough, working on a script. When I perform stuff for my friends and coworkers I just ad-lib the words that come with it...but after studying magic and participating in many discussions on Penguin's forums, I have realized that a scripted routine that you know by heart, like lines in a movie for an actor, is the only way to go for a real routine.

So I've been working on the script for about a week now. I had been just brainstorming ideas in my head, but the other night I started to put it all into words on the computer. I have just finished the opening sequence of effects and the introduction that takes place immediately after that sequence.

I've started the scripting for the first effect, but I'm not even close to being done with that. After that, I have about 4 more effects that will need to be scripted.

It's been fun, and I look forward to working out the entire routine!!!

An Odd Thing...

After tonight's game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators, EVERY single series in the first round of the NHL playoffs was tied at one game each after the first two games.

Think about how crazy that is. I don't think I've ever seen a first round, in any sport that has a series for a playoff, that had EVERY matchup tied after the first two games.

That's simply amazing to me. The NFL prides itself on being so full of parity and having the teams be able to beat each other on any given Sunday...but you don't get much more parity than having all 16 teams in the NHL playoffs win one game out of the first two that they played.

If anyone is reading this that knows of another time this has happened in any major sport, baseball, basketball, or hockey, please let me know...because I have been looking around and I can't find an instance of it at all.

Balloon School...Update...

I really enjoy the balloon twisting.

I learned a new sculpture tonight, a monkey. It's pretty cool.

I can now do about 8 or 9 different sculptures from memory with no problems. I e-mailed the guy that I had been discussing this on Penguin with, Peter, and he suggested that I get out and try doing it for some random people to see if I make any tips.

I have a Teddy Bear, a Dog, a Giraffe, a Monkey, and a Cat that I can do very well, relatively quickly, and I have them memorized so that I can do them easily without having to reference anything. I can also do a flower and a sword, but those are quite a bit more basic.

Those five sculptures could be a pretty good start for me to star making some tips if I were to go out and try to do this. I'm kind of nervous about that, still, though. I think I will practice a bit more before I end up trying that out. I will need a few more balloons anyways, so that's a good enough excuse for why I can't go and get started yet.

I also need to start seriously thinking about how I'm going to carry the balloons and pump with me. I am thinking of using a messenger bag that Cathy had from school. It would do a great job of holding balloons, it's easy to flip from front (to grab a balloon) to the back (to have it out of the way while twisting) and it looks nice. I figure for attire while doing this, to start, I'll just wear anything that I would normally wear. No reason to go out and get some wacky outfit in order to do this...even though that might draw a bit more attention to me. Well, maybe that would be a good idea...to have some attention drawn to me. Who knows. I will just go out in regular clothes to start and see how that goes. I just hope nobody think it's creepy when I walk up around the playground and start blowing up balloons and giving them to kids...

To-Do List Update...

Back on March 24th I made a post about my Spring To-Do List.

Well, yesterday I made some more progress on it. This was on the list:

3. This is probably my most significant project. We have a small circle garden in the back yard that is overgrown with weeds. Cathy's mom used to use it as a garden...but neither of us are into that so our plan for now is to basically just level it. After that we're going to put down some of the weed guard stuff and then put a nice thick layer of wood chips over it. Once we've got that down and on the ground, we'll go about getting ourselves one of those nice outdoor fireplace type of things and have that right in the center of the area. We'll then add a couple of nice chairs to it and have a nice place to sit and have a fire at night if we want to. The last part of this project that I want to do...which will probably be the most difficult...is getting three 8 foot lengths of some kind of privacy fence up behind the area. The reason for this is because the bushes that are about 5 feet away from this area of the back yard is a place that wasps really like to make nests in. The last thing that I want is to be out trying to enjoy a nice fire only to get attacked by angry wasps. So we'll have to either buy a few 8 foot sections of fencing, or make them ourselves. I would LIKE to make some out of bamboo, but I don't think that's going to be very feasible as far as the cost goes. What more than likely will happen is we'll just find whatever 8 foot section of fencing is the least expensive and then go with that.

So while I was mowing on Wednesday, I went ahead and hacked all of the plants, weeds, and everything else that was standing in the garden down. All of it. I got it down so that there's literally nothing left.

I was going to go ahead and spray the weed killer on it as well, but of course when I went to do that our spray bottle was broken, so I couldn't actually spray anything. No big deal, we'll get a new one in the next week or so and then spray all of the stuff that's still alive, but hacked down, to make sure that it doesn't grow back. Then we'll go ahead and put the weed blocker down. After that, we'll just need a nice truck load of mulch and it'll be pretty much done.

I thought it would be quite a bit more difficult than it was...but the riding mower literally leveled the stuff in the garden, which makes the project immensely easier.

I look forward to getting back to work on it in the next week or so.