Becky and I were getting cabin fever, so we took a ride down to IKEA in Renton.
We'd heard about it from a lady in Target, and she wouldn't shut up about it.
She's probably still at Target talking to us about it...haha.
IKEA is gargantuous furniture store, with a unique personality. 
Most of the stores items are imported, and have a very low price tag. For the smaller items, its like a treasure hunt. 
Once you hike into the store from the parking lot
(gosh, my feet are so sore), you come to an entrance inside a warehouse looking thing.
There are maps showing you the winding paths through the store, and the shortcuts between the different departments. It seems the maps all have the tops facing north, which would be cool if you had a compass, but I found I kept having to turn them upside down or sideways in my mind. That alone will make you feel drunk after an hour of walking. I didn't take the time to mastered it. 
The furniture was incredible for the price.
Most of the items were unusual. From the kitchen to the home office, they had furniture for all the rooms in a house. I think I liked their decorated bedrooms the best...they decorate a small bedroom where everything in it is for sale, even the things on the shelves. You pick up something off a shelf, and find a tag on it that tells you which department its stocked in. You write that down, and find its shortcut on one of the maps.
IKEA is probably the first store I've seen that didn't have isles.
The stores's lay out seems to be designed for you to take your time. I think you are supposed to get lost in it. There are shopping bags everywhere throughout the store, so there's no reason to go back to the store's entrance.
A cafeteria is part of the store, somewhere near the exit.
I liked the idea of going into a restaurant before paying for our merchandise. It just seemed to make sense. Becky had the chicken marsailes plate, which I thought was gourmet. I had the swedish meatball plate, which was like eating a "Hungry Man" TV dinner. The soda fountain had imported varieties on tap. The deserts, well, I forgot what they were called, but they were very good.
Finding the stores exit (and we though we'd seen everything)
Going to the check out registers was yet another surprise. We found a shortcut, went through a wall, and it took us into another warehouse. It was stocked with "As Is" items that were marked down 50%. Normally, thats where I'd start in a store, but we were exhausted, and just wanted to hike back to the truck.
I think if we were to go in again, it would be earlier in the day. It would have made a nice day trip.
NOTE: They didn't have any inflatable furniture, darn it!

So, you have finally been deflowered, Jimmy. I can't believe you've never heard of IKEA, or been to one of their stores, until this weekend. I went to the Renton store a few times, when I was there in 1998-1999. I went to the Orlando store, with Kevin X Short, last weekend. Why would they want inflatable furniture? Inflatable furniture is pure kaka, broke college student furniture. Long live IKEA....

Mean growl on disposable, blow up furniture. But to each, their own style and taste....

And here you thought you just were a programmer! You have architecual talents as well! Not to mention the talent for drinking a good cold beer LOL

Bill Gates' house lies on the east shore of Lake Washington in the town of Medina.  The house was designed by James Cutler and covers approximately 66,000 square feet.
http://www.seattle.gov/html/visitor/gateshouse.htm

I haven't found a way to add an "Edit With" or "Print With" option to the right-click menu in explorer.
What I'm reading so far is, you can't do that.
The "Open with" has moved from Folder Options to:
Control Panel | Programs | Make a file type open with a specific program.
I've been messing with around in RegEdit with no luck so far.

I find not being able to move an arm, specially your main one, ruins your slob day though. You can't scratch, etc. Can't even 3-5-3-5 with the other hand. HaHa... All I want is a constant stream of corn....

Thanks, my dear friend, Jimmy... Even with the Oxycodone, I am having a bit of pain. But managable. Mainly, the worse part is I have not changed clothes since Wednesday afternoon when I left the hospital (it's now early Friday morning), have not not bathed since Wednesday morning. The loss of the use of my primary arm is a pain. Simple things like typing on the keyboard and brushing my teeth is a royal pain.

We've been ghost hunting...and found nothing.
We spent a lot of time going to haunted places. 
But I wouldn't be afraid of a ghost if I saw one.
If one killed me, then I'd be a ghost, and then I could kick his butt right back.
So why would one kill me?
Anyway, I heard there was a haunted lighthouse around here.
I heard it was a sure thing.
Once I get a location, I'm going! YEA!!!

Last night it snowed.
We went out too look at the Universty College. It  had a HUGE stadium.
We ate a hamburger place called Dicks.
The temperature dropped to 29 degrees this morning. There is black ice on the dexter rd. The traffic
is moving 5miles an hr. Jim is at the bus stop and 13 news is interviewing them.
The weather is going to be sunny all this week.

A European fellow asked me what's that funny odor.
I said, I think its maple syrup.
He said, what is it, like a medicine or an herb.
I said, no, its maple tree sap.
I suppose they could have made rubber or turpentine out of it,
but in this case, they added sugar to it, and WE EAT IT ON PANCAKES!!!
He said, you mean it could have been a tire, or fuel, but instead you eat it !
AYup, that we do. That we do.
We were rolling on the floor laughing.
btw- they don't add sugar too Maple
Its already sweet.

I'm now posting my pictures (both thumnails and full image) in the Ads sections. Like most of those pictures, you can click them and see the full size picture, and you can right click the picture to set it as a background.

Discovery Park
Discovery Park has a light house.
It also is home to townsend chipmonks, a large variety of birds, and seals love the beach!
The Mongolia bluffs overlook the Puget Sound.
It surrounds the Fort Lawton military base.
Chittenden Locks
Chittenden locks is a link between the fresh waters of the lakes and the salt waters of Puget Sound.
Barges, pleasure craft, an all kinds of boats come through these locks.
There is also a fish ladder there that allows salmon to cross between the waters.
And hey, Canada is just 90 minutes up the road. I can't wait to see if the changes between the US and Canada are as great as the ones between the US and Mexico.
We'll be headed to an Indian Reservation in Puyallup, Wa.
Hopefully we'll squeeze in a trip to Everette.

sounds like things are getting better. how's the work part turning out?

Ya learn smething new everyday!

Something happened in the late 70s and butter clams in Washington become fatally toxic. It has to do with what has been coined, "The Red Tide", which is caused by large numbers of microscopic organisms. Small razor clams don't retain the fatally Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) contained in these Red Tides (which aren't really red, BTW).
PSP is created by A.catenella and is a potent nerve toxin.
A.cantenella is a plankton like animal/plant that can produce its own food and it can swim. When they're dormant, they fall as cyst onto the ocean floor, where shellfish, like clams and oysters (which can filter 8 gallons of water an hour) can scarf them up. See: http://www.tpchd.org/files/library/3f99dac18661fbba.pdf
The clams are here, they're just off limits.
I'm actually happy now, that its not a result of pollution, or over-harvesting.
But I do miss butter clams!

Decades ago, every bar in Vegas wouldn't be a REAL bar, unless they sold either hot wings or steamers.
I'd visited Tacoma and Seattle a couple of times in the 80's, and eaten some wonderful clams, oysters, and gooeyduks.
Since the 90's, I've ordered steamers in every city I've been in.
It seems that the clams have shrunk.
What happened? They've changed from this to this:
In my quest for the perfect steamers,
I'm just going to have to get a license, shovel, bucket and go clamming for myself. However, if I could somehow use clarified butter and lemon as bait instead, that would be much better.
But with me clamming, and with me being me,
I'd see the little critters in my bucket, think their cute for some stupid reason, and decide to set them free on some better part of the beach. I do that because I haven't seen any critters that I didn't think weren't cute anywhere (nice sentence, huh?).
Plus, I was raised to believe it was wrong to kill anything. Its okay to have someone else do it, though.
So, maybe I can get Becky to go clamming for me. I'll drive. lol.
BTW - This was intended to be a humorous story (you will chuckle...har har).
Gosh, what time is it?

Then we watched the Transformers.
I wish my truck could drive to the store, turn into a robot, and buy milk and eggs for me.
I can't even let go of the steering wheel without it shooting off into the desert.
Good Eats. Great Food. Good People!
Later, everyone went to the Ross Clothing store. 
I'm not sure what kind of clothes, shoes, and miscellanious items Ross sells. It looked like some of their shoes were prescuffed. But me, I could care less if my jeans are used (its not like buying a toothbrush). If the jeans look good, they're in my basket. Who knows, maybe B Pitt previously owned them. I doubt if he was ever size XXXXL though from eating too many tacos though.
I'm still pen shy about writing my notes in here.
You never know when someone is going to take your pen and stab you in the eyeball with it (sick humour, I know). That hasn't happened much, if at all, since I started this site years ago. However, sometimes the things I write in here find their way to the New York Times headlines, which is bizarre.
I'm about as original as bottled water.
Even my dreams are copied and pasted.
When I published LVDude and googled it, I got 'did you mean love dud?'
That clued me in that I wasn't going to be a MySpace.com. I still get nothing when I google the entries in here.
So, how do hackers and evil bots find this site? hmmm.
I wonder how long it takes to ping 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255

First "Howl" to Jimmy for 2008. And a second "Howl" to Rebecky... I didn't call because I was drunk on champagne. I was never one big on calling on New Year's eve anyway, even when sober.

Sorry i didn't call you, but then i didn't even call my wife and child. worked 16 hours that day and busier than you can imangine. plus had to get up and go to work the next morning. It's the nature of the beast when you work in a casino. But none of that really matters.. you are my friend and i wish you the best in 2008!!! and that is what does matter!! Love you and Becky  Hope to see you soon

You can't get out of it. I like that expression. It applies to Seattle.
I think what makes a place act like a whirlwind
are all of its obstacles and pressures. Here, 11 hours are absorbed in preparation, work, and commutes. It takes me 10 minutes just to get to a bus. Most of the day is gone. If I have to get milk, another 2 hours is absorbed. Free time and sleep become a luxury that necessity erodes. I'm not complaining. This is just an observation.
I missed opportunities to call my friends.
Time was stretched thin. I didn't mean anything by that. Everything happened so quickly.
Friends are your gift in life.
New Years Eve is when you should remember them.
On the other hand, no one called me.
So I guess all is good. Happy New Years!!!
toot toot

I don't know if we'll be able to see all of Washington in the next 8 months, but we're going to give it our best shot.
The streets are tough in Seattle
I drove through a 6 way stop last night, and a one-way street magically turned into a two-way street when we were in the left hand lane. We had to dodge an oncoming car! Its a good thing that most people only drive 20mph here. The few accidents we've seen here look terrible, but you can tell they were head on collisions at a low rate of speed.
I tried to hop in the jacussi at 6am
They had it locked up =^(  awe. I had to take a shower instead, lol.
We toured Pike's Market today.
Its a big flea market by the Puget Sound, and it cost $16 to park there. Most of the restaurants were no larger than our kitchen. I'm beginning to realize the once fist-sized clams they sold everywhere in the 80's are now the size of a quarter. I have to wonder what is happening to our oceans?
Later, we went to the Northgate Mall.
I need to get a warm jacket.
I'm as blue as a Smurf when I get on the bus
We didn't get a jacket, BUT we bought a really cool blanket.
I can wear it on the bus. I think I'd fit in.
Renee~n~m all are going to stay over on New Years Eve
We bought the fixings for a really nice beef roast, YUM!

Ahhh, the bennies of owning a truck! I hauled a couple of end tables for Victoria.
We hung out with Jonathan, Renee, McKenzee, Victoria and Charles.
Renee gave us a rocking chair, so I'm all set for old age!

Please note: Anyone can reply to this.
Just click this heading "About per diem", then click Reply. Be sure to click Enter when your done.
I'm not really sure yet why all employers don't offer per diem to travelling salaried employees.
So I'm researching it. My example uses a fictional employer "Acme" and an employee "Wiley Coyotee".
I also use easy numbers, $20 per hour (or $160 a day) and a per diem rate of $80 per day.
The per diem rates are much higher. See IRS Publication 1542
Please Note: The per diem is not on top of the $160 a day, it comes out of it.
The way I understand it:
- If Acme pays $160 per day, and offers per diem using the non-accountable plan
Both Acme and Wiley pay Fica taxes on only $80 a day.
- If Acme decides not offer per diem, they still pay $160 a day.
Plus, Acme pays 7% extra in Fica for the non-taxable per diem they decided not to offer.
In this case, both Acme and Wiley would pay almost $6 a day (or $1,500 a year) extra in taxes.
Wiley he has to pay a tax guy to go through his reciepts to categorize them as allowable or not.
- I'd think using per diem, everybody would save on taxes. But I'm not a tax guy.
Set up might be a small pain, but I don't know.
It should be something an employer can set up in Quick Books.
Quote: To create a non-taxed per diem payroll item, follow the steps in this Knowledge Base Article.  However, you should be aware that not all per diem paid to employees is tax free.  The deciding factor is whether you are using an accountable plan (where the employee submits receipts for expenses paid) or a non-accountable plan (where a flat rate is paid to the employee and no accounting of the money spent is required). See  quickbooksgroup.com.
I've only seen the non-accountable plan implemented, which is a no-brainer.
The down side of it is, the employee appears to make $10 an hour.
Unemployment benefits, disability, and the income figures decrease.

In a grandoiese way, I believe those "employers" who do NOT offer per diem, do not have the worker's welfare in mind. There are those, who care and in addition, will offer other extras such as a medical and/or dental plan. Maybe even a 401K or profit sharing of some sort. In the end, those who do offer the few extras, abeit with a small cost, can do much better business. Why? Because if the workers have the choice of working for two different firms to get a job somewhere, assuming the basic payrate is reasonably close, they'll choose the one with the "extras". This is an example of what makes the subject of "economics" so much more complex and less of a science, than an art. Studying how these things work. HOWL!!!! 

Recently, I wrote a note about the Olympian Casino in Washington. Now I can't find where I got that information from. OOPs. I usually post in the wee hours of the morning.

<= Our Christmas Tree, aye.
This year, it will just have to do.
Thanks so much! I really miss you guys.
Being in an unfamiliar place during the holidays is always tough.
You know that Christmas works backwards
Its the most depressing holiday of the year.
But I've got more memories stored up from this last year than most people get in a life time.
Thanks for being part of them and Merry Christmas to you all: 
Becky, Sonny, Rod, Reese, Jesse, Peter, Susan, Preacher Scott, Gma, Jennifer, Dustin, Paul, Robert, Emily, Renee, Jonathan, McKinzee, Jess,  Ricco, Jeffree, Mikey, Andy, Ashley, Tim, Jari, Loff, Lewis, Jerry, Jennette, Chuck, Charles and Renee, Ida, Allen, Cheryl, Kelly, Tass, Emilio, Cyrus, Paula, Mark, Frank, Ruth, Warren, Lisa, David, Leann, Kevin, all the people at Fourth Street Live, all the people at Kentucky Towers, all the people we hung with at the Pub and TGIF Fridays, Don, Curtis, Erich, MS. ===> Thankyou ===>
To those who are in heaven now: 
My Dad, Squirt, Rob, Mom, Dave, Grandfather, Skip, Uncle James, Jim, Chris and Chris, I'll never forget you.
You all touched my heart.
And at sometime, you gave me joy this year. You guys are GREAT!!!

I'm not happy in Seattle.
I hate the cost of this apartment.I hate the cost of cigarettes and food.
I hate the bus. I hate having to pay to park everywhere. I hate driving in this city.
I hate that cops police the streets, and not the sidewalks.
I don't like the people here, they're unfriendly. I hate that bums can get away with anything.
I think their entertainment sucks.
I didn't like rushing into this contract. I didn't like taking a pay cut after I started.
I didn't like having to take out an insurance policy for $300 to work here.
I don't like the people at work. They have no manners, are nosey, and they are introverts.
I don't like the nature of my job. You only get noticed when things don't work, and nothing every works.
I don't like having the training I've had for this system. I am not using any of my skills.
I don't like the vagueness of this job. I have no clear job description.
AND THAT...is a lot of things to dislike.
I like the scenery at times. I like that Renee is right up the road. I like the view from our apartment.
So, thats it...I'm looking to get out of here.
-2m

Don't be so hard on your self.
We all have days where we would like to tell the world ,our loved ones, and even our children, to go for themselves and leave me alone.
Strong people who know you, know it's only a bad day in some cases a bad couple weeks. We will forgive and move on!
If we can come back when all is calm and talk about it, then it all is forgiven.
You have made it through the hard stuff. Sit back and catch your breath..
Have beer on me :-)