We BBQ'd steaks, tomatoes, and steamed some asparagus (with cheese sauce).
Wouldn't ya know, a tiny piece of steak got lodged in my esophagus. That was 12 hours ago.
I can only get small amounts of liquids into my stomach. I can't keep my spit down so I can't sleep.
I've got to just hope the little booger disolves.
Its a crap shoot.
Wait three days for it to disolve, or go to the hospital and let them push the thing out with a tube, but that'll eat up $5,000+.
I'd hate to die over something this pathetic.

For our Monday Night eat out, we went to the Kyle Canyon Lodge. It had changed quite a lot on the inside. The lodge's management must have decided to convert its cozy environment into high class dining. What a bad idea.
The warm, friendly feeling of walking into the lounge and seeing people cozying up to the fire place had been replaced by a tacky outdoor style atrium with a sign saying "Please wait to be seated".
The lounge chairs had been replaced with small café style tables covered with cloth. It was all restaurant, but you could still sit at the small bar and enjoy a smoke and a drink, all while playing video poker next to your non smoking table. That, to me, just seemed retarded.
Sonny, Becky and I sat a six top, ordered our drinks and checked out the menu. It was VERY PRICEY. We left before the waitress got back with our drinks.
Mt Charleston Hotel
Still hungry, we went a couple of miles down the mountain to the Mount Charleston Hotel. They've made some improvements! We were hoping to eat at their steak restaurant, but it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Too bad. The last I ate their, the restaurant had a lot of class, the prices were moderate, and the environment was excellent.
In its place, they offer food service in their lounge.
At the lounge, we were seated at a small table next to the fireplace. The chairs were plush leather and extremely comfortable. We ordered the the steak, trout and chicken dinners. The food was excellent, and the prices were modest. The average cost for a place was $20.
On the way out, I asked the front desk clerk how much the rooms were. She said $99 and up.

One line of code. hmmm.
I'm going to miss programming. Another end of an era.
Even though I'm still very very good at writing code in several languages, I can't do it. I don't know the stupid lingo.
That's what happens when you work in a vacuum.
Sonny was talking about how he took a valve off with a 380.
I asked him what a 380 was. He said it was a big pair of channel locks. I asked him why he didn't just say that? He said, cause he calls it a 380.
My point here is, that most people know what a channel lock is. They know its a big pair of pliers.
By Sonny using the lingo of 380 to describe a pair of channel locks, he alienated his audience, me, all for the sake of sounding like an expert.
And that, is what programming has done. It's alienated me with its stupid lingo.
An example of insane lingo in programming: If variable = "" Then ...
Now, programming lingo calls this a conditional statement. I call it an If statement.
Next year the lingo might call this a expressionate. I'd still call it an If statement.
Who would you rather talk to, someone that knows the lingo, or me?
If I wrote a manual on programming, it would be very precise, and compact.
It wouldn't be as beefy as the books you buy at Amazon...ya know, those 5,000 page monsters that would take a year to read.

I was afraid that, after coming back, we might get lazy and we have.
- The air here has slowed me down to a turtles crawl.
- The comfort levels indoors are high with cable TV and high speed internet.
- We have plenty of time and money.
All those things have put our ambitions at an all time low.
I keep thinking this website will take off.
It still is the easiest place to advertise. I have a list of 14 other sites that advertise in Vegas. None of them work well. Getting search engines to see my keywords just isn't working the way the documentation says it will.
They lie they lie they lie, lol.

It was quite a zoo in here. Micheal wanted to bring her dog over and I said no, Sonny is sleeping.

We watched Robots. It was a a kids movie and I just couldn't come down to that level of entertainment.
Watching Amy was more entertaining. She rearranged our furniture!

What a pain! We still haven't finished the task. It got dark.

- File application with Secretary of State (http://sos.state.nv.us/notary/notforms/index.htm)
- Obtain surety bond for $10,000 to the State of Nevada. Check the yellow pages (YP) under "bonds, surety")
Tell them the date you wish to start. That will be the effective date on your notary.
IT might be a good idea to also get "Errors and Omissions" insurance.
You must take an oath, either given by the County Clerk or another Notary.
- File the Oath and Bond at the County Clerks office. They'll give you a "Filing Notice"
- Mail the application, $35 check, and Filing Notice to the Secretary of State.
- The Secretary of State mails a Certificate of Appointment to the applicant.
- Pick up a Notary Stamp from a rubber stamp vender with your Certificate of Appointment. (YP - Rubber Stamps).
Additional info: (http://www.nationalnotary.org/howto/index.cfm?text=howtoState&state=Nevada)

Monday, we stayed in Tallahassee, Fl at an interesting motel for $40 per night.
In the parking lot, there were kids swinging sticks around and I thought it might be unsafe...BUT, they were students studying martial arts. Their swords were dull, 12 pounders. Walking around, I found a Sasha, Tea, Coffee house with wireless internet and a belly dancer. People buy a bowl of aromatic tobacco, and smoke it for an hour in an opium pipe. Pretty strange, but it seems to work. LOL.

Look out!

It's my BIG 50. I'm 50 cents short of a dollar today.
Strange, how I don't feel like an old fart at all.

It was pretty cool.
He kind of looks like me in the morning, doesn't he?

The technology I've added to this site is being developed elsewhere.
- The flexible menu exists in the Google Toolbar.
- The multiple search engine feature exists in Firefox.
- Its just a matter of time before easier ad placing follows suit.
Then there's the question of why my site doesn't show up in the search engines. Crap blog entries from other sites show up  before my site gets listed. I've read the Page Rankings formula. I followed its procedures. Still nothing.

I'm now a rich man again...haha. I cut it awfully close this time though. I've got to watch that.
By staying over in Orlando to the end of January, it put things on a tight schedule.
But I based my decision on someone saying he thought my website could make some good money.
He never said anything good about it before, but that just his nature.
So, I stuck around for another month, and coded.
I was also worried about getting screwed by this same person.
I forget why exactly, but I'll pick my business partner better next time.

And it was GREAT of those people in front of us to give me that two for one coupon.
Then, way in the other cashier's line, they wished me a happy birthday!
Hey babe, ever notice that every where we go, people smile and say nice things?
We seem to bring that out in people.
Like that guy at the car wash, watching us dance to our reflections in the glass.
He just came right over smiling, saying you guys are cool, you love each other.
So many people miss that in life.

We got the UBelt back on, along with all the bolts (except for one). The car is a screamer!
As far as I can see, the transmission and engine are in great shape. I'll out run my F150.
If a guy at Pep Boys said the head gasket was blown on that car, he's wrong.
The lesson to be learned is, when you take your car to a mechanic, you should already know whats wrong with it.
From my experience, the auto industry constantly takes advantage of people.
Case in point: I had a $99 coupon for a complete brake job.
I was standing in line, waiting to get my truck serviced. While in line, I listened to the people talk to the service man. None of them got the $99 special. They all had other problems that would cost over $400. The coupon was a lie.

I love that buffet. On Monday night, its always seafood night, and they have everything imaginable (except for lobster).
Someone in line gave me a two for one coupon, so for three people it was only $34.

I just wanted to tell you that  I Love You So Much

Total Time: 4.5 hours. Water pumps can be a real booger. We've still got to install the U Belt.

A-1 Truck Driver Training 1105 Industrial Rd Boulder City NV
ALL POINTS TDA 123 WATER ST HENDERSON NV 89015
JOIN 705 E 4th St. Winnemucca NV 89445
MTA 3200 E. Cheyenne Avenue Module 3 Las Vegas NV 89030
Southern Nevada CC 6375 West Charleston Blvd Las Vegas NV 89146
Western Truck School, 85 N. Edison Way #2/3 Reno NV 89502
Western Truck School 3603 Las Vegas Blvd. N , Suite 112, Las Vegas, NV 89115

Stove: $150
Refrigerator: $400
Curtains: $200
Genie Garage Opener: $159.98
Front Door: $150
Closet Doors: $250

• Minimum 22 years old
• Must have 6 months verifiable OTR experience in the past 36 months
• Must possess a valid CDL with Haz-Mat endorsement in the state where you reside
• No DUI's, DWI's or any other violations involving drugs or alcohol within the last 5 years
• No more than 3 moving violations in the past 3 years.
• No more than 3 preventable accidents in the past three years.
• Truck must pass DOT and USA inspections.
• Wheelbase not to exceed 260 inches (center front hub to center last hub).
• Weight not to exceed 19,000 lbs with half tank of fuel.
• Must have truck title and proof of payment on Federal Highway Use Tax.
• Proof of insurance

The travelling notary public that we saw was twenty four, pulling down more money than I did in programming.
It takes about 1 week to study the material. In some states, you simply just sign a piece of paper and pay a fee.
You can make $100,000 a year these days, doing loans. Its a very good business.

What to do now? Hmmm.
In this life, I'm in a never ending delusion of control and its all good.

It didn't take that long really, but we ran out of light, so we'll wrap it up tommorrow. There was no water in the oil so the guy at Pep Boys was FOS. If a head gasket is blown on it, thats not how he found out. 3 more hours, and the water pump will be finished...yahoo! Next we'll deal with the flat and the battery.

Preferred Basic installation for 1 room.

Strange how there were probably more people there than in downtown New Orleans. hmmm.
Monday night is their Seafood night and it was excellent.

+ Heartland Express - Pay is around 44 cents a mile. Home every week. Good things
+ Barr-Nunn - Pay is around 47 cents a mile. Home every week. Good things.
+ Knight Transportation - Pay is good. Home every week.
+ Averitte Express - Good Pay. Home every week.
+ FeEx - Decent Pay. Home every week.
+ UPS - hmmm. Good Pay. Home every week.
- CFI - Low Pay. Home every month.
- CR England - Very Low Pay. Home every month.
- Swift - Low Pay. BiMonthly
- Ozark - Home Bimonthly.
- Werner - Medium Pay. Bimonthly.

Bought a stove for the house for $120. It looks and works great. As usual though, the gas pipe to connect it turned out to be a royal pain. There doesn't seem to be a standard for gas fittings anywhere, so, I'm plagued with an assortment of adapters, none of which, work.

I talked with the dude for over an hour.
Our appraiser was more than happy to discuss how he got into his career. Things have changed.
It used to be that an house appraisers job was more like a juice job than anything. Its still, kind of, sort of,  that way now. But with the housing sales boom in Las Vegas, that attitude has relaxed. These guys go to school for 2 weeks (for $1,000), and you must be an apprentice for two years. They must have a job before they can get their license too.
Catch 22 - To get a job, you need a license. To get a license, you need a job. Hmmm. Who thinks this crap up?
He said you can expect to make $40,000 a year doing appraisals, it was easy work, and fun.
He said the best money in appraising was sail boats, and its a wide open field right now.
The things I didn't like about his appraisal:
He took pictures. And when he was in the kitchen, he mentioned we had a garbage disposal. So, I'd expect he's not going to fluff the appraisel like my last one did.

I've got to repair a ceiling today.
The loan is for $60k, 5 year fixed at $940 a month, which leaves a large margin for if I ever decide to rent this place out again. Everything is kewl.
The thing I don't like about refinancing is sending all of my information to someone. They wanted my business license and two checking statements this last time. In other words, they want to see if I have $3,000 before they write me a check for $60,000. hmmm. The logic eludes me.
Talked to Ida
She's quitting smoking. I wish her luck. She sounds like heck!
The Frontier called Sonny on his day off.
He'd fixed a food warmer switch with one his boss gave him, and the switch burned out again. They insinuated that Sonny can't fix crap. It turned out it was a faulty switch, an old one they had laying around.
I wonder how many of places do that kind of thing.
They called him at home to make him feel crappy about his work. No apologies or mention of the switch came up again.

Tim (a friend of Sonny's was painting it) and there was absolutely no place to park. And if it can happen, it will happen. Along come the garbagemen.  We had time to load up a bathtub and somekind of other stand thingy...lol.