A 9-inch TV/VCR with car adapter for $3 for the boy.  Not bad.  The picture is great and it plays VHS tapes just fine. 

Harry Potter book #6 for $1.  We’re trying to get the boys reading them, just because we think they might be interesting. (I’ve never read any of them)

Mankind’s book for $1.  I’m not much of a wrestling fan anymore (I kinda gave that up when I was around 14, when everyone should) but I heard him on the Opie and Anthony Show and he sounds like an intelligent and funny guy, just not what you would expect from seeing the character he plays for the WWE.  He wrote the book himself (no ghost-writer) and it looks interesting.

We grabbed a few other knick-knacks without spending too much money, then stumbled upon the yard sale holy grail:

Behold, the glory that is a framed print of Data, Worf, and Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation in all their splendor.  For $3.  I love it, wife does not.  I’d hang it in the living room right next to Jesus if she would let me.  The best part about it?  It’s Riker-free.  It appears to be signed by Gary Sarbump?… and dated 1993.

I googled myself silly and I can’t find anything about the artist or the poster itself. Surely someone out there can provide some insight?

either the compressor is “plum wore out” (that’s a technical term, please don’t use it unless you have a valid EPA refrigeration certificate) or the freon has leaked out. Either way, for most refrigerators today, that means you’re going shoppin’.

It’s just a cheap fridge that came with the house, so I’m not going to pay a repairman to come and look at it, since sealed system repairs aren’t cheap. (the compressor alone is $240)  So we spent the evening taking everything out of the garage fridge and trying to fit everything from the main fridge in it.  Fun fun fun!  So I’m in the market for a new one!  Hopefully I can find one in the paper for under $200 this weekend, otherwise it’s time to order one from Home Depot or Sears and wait a week for it to get here.  (they don’t stock very many of them here in Elko)  Home Depot had 3 in stock last night, all $1500-$2000 models.  Stupid town.

I guess living in Portland my whole life, I got kinda spoiled on parades.  We had the Grand Floral Parade, which would cripple the downtown corridor for half a saturday every June, with flower-covered floats, marching bands and a sea of spectators perched on newspaper boxes and hanging from lightposts, half of them having camped overnight for the best spots.  Elko parades just seem very…lame…in comparison.  But the kids seem to enjoy it, since the participants still throw candy to the crowd, and at least we’ve still got Shriners in little cars!

We didn’t get to the fairgrounds until around 3:00pm, so we missed a lot of the festivities there, but we got to see the wood-chopping contest and a Basque dancing group down from Idaho.  Here’s a video of it, I added my own touch, a little bit of Planet Rock!  Overall a lot of fun, and I think we’ll definitely go next year as well. 

Elko Basque Festival 2008 from Elko Steve on Vimeo.

Shaved pussy!

Let me know what you think!

This is Boxer, our 7-year old Maine Coon cat.  He got his name because he was found in a box.  He was our first family pet, and the only one that made the trip down from Portland with us.  He is also a bastard and he won’t let you touch his feet.  Everything we own is covered in hair because of him.    His claim to fame is that he has sent two people to the hospital: the boy with 4 fang marks on his buttcheek(trust me, he actually deserved it), and the wife with a bite on the hand(which she didn’t deserve); both bites required antibiotics.  He also viciously attacked both dogs within 24-hours of them arriving at our house.  We’re getting our revenge soon, however, since we’re getting him a “lion cut“ in about two weeks.  He’s going to look *ridiculous*.  All the neighborhood cats will make fun of him. I can’t wait.

This is Marty, our 2-year-old black cat.  He got his name because people were giving away free cats at K-mart.  I think it might also have something to do with the fact we had recently watched Back to the Future, but I’m not sure.   He’s kinda like an anti-Boxer.  He’s practically silent, he lets the boys pretty much do anything they want to him, and he positively *tormented* Boxer when he was younger.  He wrestles with our dogs and also teases the neighborhood dogs when they walk by our fence.  He drools when he’s happy and when he was a baby he would suck on our fingers.

This is Cooper, isn’t he adorable? He’s our first dog, and he’s about 6 months old now.  He’s a Husky/Border Collie mix, but he seemed to get more Husky than Border Collie.  He’s really a good boy, we haven’t had many problems at all with him.  He’s only chewed up 2 cellphones, one Forrest Gump CD, and 2 pairs of flip-flops, otherwise he’s been perfect.  He is a bit of a Mama’s boy, but he minds well and loves to play soccer.  The wife and I came up with his name while playing ping-pong in the basement one day, about a week after we got him.  I had a Mini-Cooper sticker on the side of an old computer monitor and we decided Cooper was a good name.  He loves to fetch the ping-pong ball when it goes off the table, he hasn’t chewed one up yet!

And here’s the new addition, Puppy!  He’s Cooper’s brother, and he doesn’t have a name yet.  We got him on the 4th of July from the in-laws.  They were having problems with him killing chickens on their ranch in Ryndon, so we decided to take him in.  He definitely got more of the Border Collie side of the family, with the long hair, floppy ears, and low-slung tail.  He was quite skittish when we first got him, but he’s quickly warming up to us and he’s been *really* good with the housetraining, no accidents yet!  If anyone has a suggestion for a name, let us know!  So I don’t think we’ll be getting any more pets soon, the wife is more outnumbered than ever.  Two boys, myself, two cats, and two dogs.  all boys.  a 7-1 ratio.  I feel sorry for her.

We drove to Salt Lake City a few weeks ago to look for flooring at Ikea.  My wife and I love that store, but our views have soured after this trip.  First, they had the Oak flooring that we wanted for $0.79/sq ft.  Great, right?  We walked down to the “pickup” area and saw that they had a big display of the same flooring, only in Birch, for $0.59/sq ft.  What a deal!  But we wanted Oak, so we tried to get the Ikea flunkie to sell us the oak for the birch price.  No luck.  We got the so-called manager down and asked if he would give us the lower price, and he said No as well. He looked like he was maybe 20, there’s no way he was actually the store manager.  So instead of us dropping $500 on flooring at Ikea, we walked out.  We ended up at RC Willey, who had the flooring we wanted in the color we wanted for $0.79/sq ft, with the underlayment included! (it would have been $100 extra at Ikea) so we ended up getting a better deal anyway.  I think I like RC Willey; their prices on furniture are better than the places here in Elko, and I’ve been told that they send a delivery truck once a week over here too.  Our next furniture purchase will probably come from them.  Plus, they have Paige Davis as their spokesperson now!  She’s kinda cute.  So to make a long story longer, we got back to Elko with the flooring.  All is well, right?  Not exactly…

We pulled up the carpet and the pad.  It smelled bad, and it seemed to be getting worse.  We pulled up all the staples and tack strips and then we got to the trim.  The smell just about knocked us over when we pulled the trim off by the bay window.  As you can see in the following pictures, the drywall was *saturated* with cat piss.  BEHIND THE PAINT, a good 8-10 inches up the wall. 

The nails that held the trim on were completely rusted and the heads came off when I tried to pull them out.  Completely disgusting.  Just the fact that someone would allow their cat to piss on the wall long enough to cause this much damage is amazing to me.  Then to cover it up with sealer/primer/paint and put the trim on to sell the house. We had no choice but to replace it all.  We couldn’t just COVER IT UP like the previous owners.  Bastards!  I hope they get cancer of the ass and die!

I cut the drywall about 12 inches up from the floor and found that the blown-in insulation was also saturated.  I donned my surgical mask and went to work.  We replaced the insulation, cleaned the wood with bleach and vinegar, and covered all the wood with Kilz enamel sealer/primer.  Then we performed our first drywall replacement as homeowners and as you can see in the following pictures, it turned out pretty well.

The flooring went in smoothly, took about 8 hours.  Pretty good considering it’s the first time my wife and I have tried anything like this and we kept getting interrupted by the kids and the dog.  I overestimated the floor size by about 50 square feet to make sure we’d have enough. (I wasn’t too confident in my cutting/floor laying abilities) and it looks like we have about 50 square feet left over. So I guess the new doghouse will have a nice wood floor in it.

Dance and Game Exhibitions on Friday night along with the fireworks display at the Fairgrounds
5k run/walk on Saturday morning
Parade
Handball competition
a Sheepherder Bread Baking contest

And I’m sure all the Chorizo you can eat.  I can’t wait!

More details at the Elko Euzkaldunak Club website

Small animals that can be kicked or stepped on, I have no problem with.  Dogs, cats, squirrels, chickens, guinea pigs, regular pigs, turtles, bugs, mice, snakes, etc, don’t stand a chance.  I could take ‘em.  But then there are geese…  I remember I was 4 or 5 years old and was viciously attacked by a giant goose (honestly, it was HUGE!) at Commonwealth Park (we called it caterpillar park) in Beaverton.  I got bit on the thumb and I think it broke the skin. It scarred me (emotionally) for life.

I read awhile back that Tyra Banks is deathly afraid of Dolphins.  What the hell? that’s like being afraid of bald eagles or space aliens.  It’s not like you’ll EVER encounter one in your daily life!  What a lame fear.  Here in Elko all we have are snakes, ground squirrels, birds, etc.  Nothing for me to worry about, as long as the geese don’t start migrating here…

http://www.elkodaily.com/news/court_news/

Most of the time I don’t recognize anyone listed, but every now and then I see a familiar name, and chuckle a little inside.  And I’m not alone.  The “Police Log” pages are almost always listed high on the “Most popular stories” ranking on their website.  I think it’s that voyeuristic small-town gossipy side of people here.  My boss says it’s the first thing he reads in the paper in the morning to see if any of his employees are listed…

My in-laws have a ranch just outside of Elko, and they have 5-6 horses grazing on their property right now.  My Mother-in-law was trying to pet the stallion and this is what he did to her: 

Yes, she still has fingers, it’s not a great angle for the picture.  No broken bones or tendons. Luckily, it just got her in the “meat” of the hand.  Here are some post-surgery shots too, still pretty swollen: 

The lesson here, as always, “Horses are bastards!”