My stapler broke.

The G Man gave me a model 405.

It is the ultimate stapling experience.

He told me that he has no need for a stapler.

Well, can't say I disagree.  I'm not sure what he actually does in engineering.

But if he needs to borrow a stapler one day, he'll know where he can find one.

Thanks G.

Previous Stapling Experience Can Be Found HERE.

Bad Beard Guy

I wish I my beard grew evenly.

Trimmed it up after this picture was taken this morning, and it is pretty apparent that it's not going to grow the same on both sides of my face any time soon.

I look like the nerdy version of Grizzly Adams.

Or like a mid sixties porn star.

But at least their beards grew evenly.

***

February 11, 1926 – November 28, 2010

This man was awesome.

I'll miss seeing new material from him.

This is a really good movie.

Close One

The Browns HAD them with such a lead.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing when the Panthers started beating the crap out of them.

And in the end, the Browns pulled off a win.  But not because they did things right.

They won because the Panthers screwed up.

Yes, I'm happy to have another 'W' on their record.  But come on now.

The Browns are way better than what they showed in the second half.

They should have reflected their potential in the game.

The good news is still that they won, which makes me happy.

Plus I got to watch it, which was really cool.

***

The Snow Returns

And so it begins again...

Great Gift

Lisa from work gave Gumby some friends to hang with.  This is the greatest ever!

One of the coolest things about the gift is the price tag on it.  No, not the orange discount tag, the other one.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but it came from the Hills department store.

That was one of my favorite childhood stores.  Never cared for Ames.  Especially when that chain bought Hills out.

Some Hills info can be found HERE.

***

Does anyone else remember Hills?

This place is all boarded up now.

It's a shame.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am sitting in my Aunt Joann's livingroom.  Roy is relaxing with a newspaper, and my mom and Aunt are chatting it up.
The dinner was absolutely great.  Uncle John stopped by for a while, and we hung out on the couch and watched football for a few hours.  It was really nice.
Well, he watched football and I fell asleep.  Oh well.  He still seemed to enjoy my company, which was probably helped out by the fact that I fell asleep (ha).
So more football is on TV, and we are all in the living room relaxing.
This was a good idea.
Hope y'all are having a good thanksgiving as well!

Walk With The Dude

Dudick walks every day at lunch.
For the first time, he and I walked together.
We walked around the boarded up buildings and talked at length about our project in Scranton.
His concerns are great, as are mine.
My portion of the project is a greater mess than his, but it was nice to know that I'm not alone in my fear of its absolute mess.
He seemed to appreciate the company during his walk.
I'm sure we will walk more together.

Not sure there was much of an excuse for this loss.

But at least the team still shows life.

Cmon guys.  Let's put some more W's on the list for this season!

***

Crazy bastard.

But cool to hang with.

12.17.2010

I'm going for sure.

Tour

The Pro Ass assembled for a stellar plant tour.  

I never knew how rings were made until recently, and when I knew we'd be touring this place I was very excited.

It's a really cool process, actually.

The tour guide was very thorough.  And of course the Z asked all kinds of good questions.

If you ever wondered how bearings and other round parts are made, this place is where it all starts.

So check out their website.  You'll be impressed!

***

Afterwards we held our meeting.  All the classic dudes were there, and it was nice to be with them for a while.

We laughed at each other for a bit (the best laughs I've had in over a month at least), we had an ample supply of beer, and of course...we took advantage of that opportunity.

It blows my mind.  All of us work together towards the same common goal, everyday.

We are press builders.

And we show everyday that building presses is what we live for.

Not too long ago, Vic and I went to lunch.
On the way back, we started talking about the buildings of the area.  He remarked that one building had been boarded up for the 20 years he has lived in this area.  He also talked about other buildings as we passed them, and what companies used to be in them.
We got on the topic of our company, and I stated that I wondered if we'd still be in business in ten years.
He replied with something awesome.
He said "Dudick has had this place closed since the 70's.  So evidently as long as he works here, it will probably stay open.  He's the backbone of the company".
Not sure why, but that made us both laugh pretty hard.
We all love Dudick.

The Z's car found its twin.

Training

Today, tomorrow, and Thursday I am getting trained on the 3D package that my company uses.

Now I see why we never get anything done on time.

The simplest things take forever.

Browns-Jets

It was a tight game.

And, I got to watch it, which was pretty cool.  I'm going to have to ask around to see if this town is actually going to make it a habit of airing their games.

Yes, it sucks we lost.  But I gotta tell y'all it's great to see them really working hard.

This team might be pulling out of the slump and making something happen.

I have a good feeling about it!

Awesome Visit

Awesome Marsha cooked some roast, broccoli, and mashed taters.

So I went down to see her, and ate some grub.

Stella came with me, which says a lot since she had next to no sleep.  And she got to see Awesome at her old school antics that make everyone say she's awesome.

George and Sissy looked fat and happy, and were pretty excited to see me.

After dinner we joked, went to the mall and looked at the aquarium, and then had drinks at BW3's.

It was a long drive home, but like a muthertrucker I was fine.

Awesome and I had a long talk on the phone once I got home.  We discussed everything possible before ending the conversation.

It was real nice to see the awesomeness last night.

Just got in to work.
Damn.  Way later than I wanted  to.
Had weird dreams through the night.
I guess I didn't sleep so well.
Let's get this work done so I can go home!

For the night, Bubbles (Coconut) hung with me.

We watched 'Sling Blade'.

I just sat there and dipped, reflected on life, and chilled with the monkey.

***

Roots!

The Big Guy and Junior Big Guy took us out to lunch.

The Mediterranean flat bread was the bomb.

It is increasingly frustrating...

The Browns have shown their fans this season that they have potential.  They showed life in every football game for the most part, unlike last season.

And whooping the Saints was hopefully only the beginning.  And whooping the Patriots is hopefully not the end.

Colt McCoy not only has one of the manliest names, but played almost like a veteran today.  He had a lot of help from the line and receivers, but his throws were dead nuts accurate.

It's a good thing he has the manly name, though...because he has the face of a baby.

The best part of today's game was the fact that I actually got to watch it.  It was played on TV.  Of course, so was the Buffalo game, but the Buffalo fans don't appear to have much to look forward to this season at all.  Hey, as a Browns fan I have had a lot of seasons pretty much in the same situation so I'm not going to knock the Buffalo fans.

My Browns 'spirit' is typically sarcastic, because it's just how I deal with the fact that I know this team has had potential for several seasons.  They just need to get stability in the ranks and avoid injuries.  Two very difficult things to manage.

This game was awesome.  And I hope they keep it together.  

Let's make it happen Browns!

***

Lumbus Joja

Above: Detroit Airport Tunnel.  My Favorite.

***

The Giant and Marty The Party have been living in Columbus for most of this year.  The programmer named Jeff was also on site.

I hadn't been down there since last December, and man oh man...the machine certainly looks different.

The platforms had better railings, so I wasn't as afraid of the heights as I was back then.  Plus, I was on a mission to get a presentation completed for the customer.  It helped having things to focus on to take my mind off the heights.

The Giant stole the show every time the customer tried taking things off track.  He knows the machine inside and out and was able to answer all of their questions.

I can't say it was a completely successful presentation, but that was expected.  I knew the customer would want to discuss things that were out of my scope of the project.  But it went as expected, and that's all I could have hoped for.

I was happy that I could be of some help to the crew though.  There were problems with the emergency stop circuit, and even though I wasn't sure how it worked (I didn't design it) I just looked things over with Marty and we checked things out, step by step.  Pretty soon every thing was working just fine.

So, no screwy GPS stories to tell.  No getting stranded without luggage.  No big disasters.  Just a trip that went as it was expected to, and that's actually a rarity for me.

When I fly, I always ask people if they are home or away from home.  Sometimes that leads to interesting conversation.

I had some very nice talks on the planes I was on.  Six planes overall.  And each person on every plane is either going home or to a place away from it.  Each person has a story to tell.

Some of the stories I have never forgotten.  Random people that you'll never see again can make that kind of impact on you.

And I got to meet a lot of nice soldiers (Columbus is just north of the Army post Fort Benning).

Those men and women are amazing.  Lugging all their gear through the airports, either smiling because they are heading home, or looking like us civilians when we are about to go on a dreaded work trip....because they are heading out to go to work themselves.

I always think of them when I am at this work site.  I imagine they spend a lot of time thinking of the people they are defending while they are working.

Each time I step off the last plane onto the surface of my home, I am grateful.  I take that first deep breath of the air, and smile.  Even if the trip itself went poorly.

I dread the next time I have to hit the road.  But for now I'm home.  And life is good.

Joja Ready

And the punches are rolling in...

***

Rolling with the punches.

***