Planet Stahl

We were at Planet X tonight for the St. Joe’s family skate night…  Long story short… Ang was skating with a customer of mine from Toyota…  She said that her boyfriend works with a guy named Eric Stahl at Aventine in Pekin.

WEIRD!!!  I will try and confirm this ASAP.  2 Eric Stahls in 1 town cannot be good!

Ang called the trainer for an update on how “broken” Marco has become.

Good news: Marco has been riden

Bad News: The trainer said he was scared by Marco!  As expected…  Marco was trying to work him off… Apparently he’s not one of those horses that just bucks… He likes to run you into things.

More reports as they come in.

From Basement Update

Basement is coming together… here is a picture taken today.  I have a nice long story to wire about that elliptical machine…  But my battery is dying on the laptop right now

BACK—-  Using another computer!

Our new Horizon Elliptical E401

The elliptical comes partially built, but you have to put the arms and control pad together.    Well… I got the whole thing together in about 45 minutes…  Not to upset with that.  Especially since Jeff said it would take 2 hours!

The machine worked pretty well.. But the resistance did not seem to be working.  Ang read the directions (Who does that?) and found that a troubleshooting for this is to check all the wire connections inside.  I pulled the covers off and found a wire harness hanging down by the internal wheel.   I had to tear down more parts than I had initially installed to reinstall the harness. 

While doing that…  I had Summer check the resistance by riding the machine…  It was working!  Until one of the pedals ripped out the power cord that was hanging loose when the cover was removed!!!!  AHHHHHHH!!!!!

Fortunately…  I’m handy!  Not to pat myself on the back…  But even I was impressed that I could heat the old solder out of the power connector…  Strip the wire and resolder it in place.   It worked! 

So, at that point, I put the parts all together…  Did a quick check to make sure all parts are working…  Yep… Except for an obnoxious sound every time the left pedal comes down…  IT WAS RUBBING! 

I tried to adjust it… I would not take.  So I got out the utility knife and shaved down the problem areas…  I was getting frustrated at that point!!! 

I guess I wont be returning it.

Some things die hard…  Proclaiming Pekin as racist

http://knightindragonland.blogpeoria.com/2009/01/20/inauguration-unworthy-of-sunset-hills/

What  is Matt Weidman (A Knight in Dragonland), the author of this article trying to convey?  That all Pekin schools are racist because they may not have shown the inauguration when the kids were at school?  Wow.  Its a cheap shot because the writer can use a past reputation to exploit his agenda.  

I was glad to see guys like Edgar Sandoval stick up for the community!  I was gonna pile on… But at this point it looks to be overkill.

Before I read this today, I had asked Summer if they showed the inauguration at school that day…  I dont remember what she said.  But I think she said no.  I didn’t think much about it…  Because I dont remember this much hub-bub being made over any other inauguration.  

As far as I can tell at this point…  A lot of people are making a lot of noise about Obama in order to sell more trinkets, poster, books etc.   Its a merchandisers dream.  Did they sell commercial time like the Superbowl?

Leave the guy alone so he can re-write the tax cuts for replacement windows…  I need a few next year!

I had to take today off…  Mom had a funeral for a cousin up in Fairbury today… So, that gave me time to stay up last night and play around on the computer.  I had a bunch of video clips from this past Summer’s trip to Michigan.  Mostly of the lake with Chris and Annette.  THEY DID NOT HAVE ANY SOUND!!!  So, I had pretty much given up on them.  Then, I decided to put them to music.

They are a bit pixelated… But still fun if you know all the parties involved.

I am trying to add a plug in to this site that will let my Facebook status (Usually some kind of snappy comment) show as a new post here…. So, during the inauguration when nobody is coming to the dealership.. I will be messing with that.

Not much to say… Just thought I would check in.

Marco went to the trainer this week to be broken. Getting him the trailer was a blast. If you call standing in a snow storm for 30 minutes while a horse stands half in and half out of trailer fun. Oh well… His spirits and freewill are being destroyed as I write this.

I have picked up a verizon wireless internet card for the house… Lets see if it works better than the AT&T model. So far so good… Did some video chatting last night with a few buddies from “The Beer Project” that Dan and I do.

From January 2009

Happy New Year!

Had a 4 day weekend with the New Year holiday…  So, what do we do?  Check the forecast and head 4 hours north! 

We stayed a night at the Wisconsin Dells.  Our hope was to ski… But after getting blasted by holiday rates… And figuring out that Aiden would cost 50 bucks even if he hated it in 15 minutes…  I made a command decision…  Tubing! 

Christmas Mountain has a tube-lift that takes you to the top… Just like skiing!  Then you get to blast down 1 of 3 channels that they have carved.  It was fun… But I have two pretty good bruises on my face from running into my kids at the bottom!  (Got a bloody nose from Summer in the pool…  Man… Its getting to be hard labor horsing around with these guys!)

On the way home we bought ski pants.  We were the only losers with jeans on.  We must have looked like Illinois hicks…  Oh wait… I think we are!

On  a low note…  The Best Western Suites in Wisconsin Dells was not a very good value at 68.00 a night.  (Pretty cheap right?)  The TV was broke…  No breakfast is served…  No newspapers in the lobby…  The fire alarm went off in our room every time someone took a shower!  Sooooo….  Avoid that place!

Also of note:  My new GPS was a god send when we were looking for gas stations and resturants in Wisconsin…  It took us straight to our hotel just by searching for hotels in the Dells.  But, on the way home when I hit construction at the 90 – 39 interchange near Rockford…  It utterly failed.  It told me to exit about a 1/4 mile past my exit.  At that point I had to drive 10 more miles on 90 until I found an exit to turn around at.  Which, in a smug digital way, the GPS did a nice job of telling me how to get back on track!   It was all good for Angela to laugh at and point out that she is a better map reader.