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Taking apart motorcycle

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:43:57 GMT

Tearing apart datahawk's motorcycle is how I spent my Sunday. It was productive. We now know what the plan of action should be, because now we know for a fact what (one of) the (biggest) problem(s) is.

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Birthday wishes, gun ranges, and the like

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:14:21 GMT

I need to post a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one tarinfirepelt. I've known Koz for ... something like ten years now, and can't think of life without his ability to deliver devastating puns and embarrassing sketches of Feren's ass. Happy birthday, m'friend.

Friday night was dinner with ottr, roho, genet, wyldekyttin, lady_curmudgeon, datahawk, foxish, Devin and Vlad. We went to BD's and had beer and vast amounts of Mongolian stirfry. Afterward, Data, 'mudgeon, Devin, Ottr and myself went to Safari Land for bowling. It's an indoor kid's amusement/theme park (I dare you to guess what the theme is) but when you get there at 10PM there's not a lot of kids, and we adults enjoyed the bowling alley. We chose that alley because of the theme park, and because it has the lanes rigged with radar guns that tell you how fast the ball is rolling (in miles-per-hour) when it strikes the pins. I average somewhere around 17 m.p.h., which is a damn shame compared to the peak speed of 22 m.p.h. that Ottr was able to achieve. We had a lot of fun. The only real disappointment that evening was the alley closed earlier than the rest of the place! We closed down Safari Land, chatted outside in the rain for a bit and then went to our respective homes for well-deserved rest.

Saturday we all slept in, finally getting up around late morning. Data and Ottr joined 'mudge and I for a meal at a local family restaurant. The plan was for Ottr and I to head down to Mega Sports to get some time on their gun range. It wasn't until we were about to leave for Plainfield that it was discovered that we could also bring 'mudgeon and Data along with us! Everyone piled into my truck, I tossed the Bag o' Fun in the back and we hit the road. The afternoon was full of uncertainties! Data had never handled a firearm before, nor had Curmudgeon. I had never been to this particular range before, so I didn't know what to expect either. All of us were pleasantly surprised by what we found. While almost double the cost of the Outdoorsman Sports Shop that roho and I have gone to in the past, the experience was well worth the money. Datahawk and Curmudgeon were instructed/"mentored" by Ottr and myself as we were responsible for their time on the range. As mentioned, neither had shot before but both were willing to give it a try, which I think made Ottr and I both quite happy. Curmudgeon spent most of her time with my S&W Sigma SW9VE 9mm, and decided she liked that one best. Data liked both my Taurus PT-1911 and the S&W 9mm, which Ottr and I both own and are generally disillusioned with. Ottr fell in love with both the Taurus and what Roho has dubbed the "Hand Cannon," my Ruger Blackhawk .357 magnum. All told I think we were there for almost two hours. Everyone had fun, and we topped the evening off by travelling back to Ohana for a really nice steak and potato dinner.

Today was another day for sleeping in late. I mowed the front lawn, trimmed the boulevard tree and cut down some saplings that were growing in the flower bed. I'm planning to take the rest of the day on a minute by minute basis, relaxing as much as I can. Tomorrow I'm back at the office and I already have a day full of work waiting for me.

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Birthday in style!

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:13:09 GMT

As part of lady_curmudgeon's 40th birthday last month I gifter her two tickets to see Blue Man Group. Well, the day has arrived and we're off to the show! What I didn't tell Mudgeon was that I had us set to ride down to Briar Street Theater in style. As I write this from my CrackBerry we are heading north on I-55 in a white stretch limo. It seats something like 8 people but we're the only ones in here. Our driver is cool, and mildly aggressive in his driving style. This pleases me!

We had a nice dinner at BD's Mongolian before departure and are now just chilling out while the driver does all the work. I could get used to this!

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Go little Saturn, go!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:23:10 GMT

We stopped for fuel at the trip's halfway point of Lyndon Station, WI. We filled up and found we had travelled 337.5 miles on 8.498 gallons of regular 87 octane gasoline. That comes out to 39.75 MPG, and that was with the air conditioner on for most of the way! Win! Not bad for a car that's almost 10 years old, eh?

Yes, I really like lady_curmudgeon's little Saturn four-door.

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Driving home from the holiday

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:55:37 GMT

As we pass through Eau Clare, WI, the first 100 miles of this leg of the trip are done. There's only 324 more miles to go before we arrive home! I enjoyed the hell out of CONvergence 2009 as well as splitting the time so we could visit my parents. They sent me home with a few unexpected items that I will write about later. With some accompanying photos, I think.

For now - driving!

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We have arrived at CONvergence!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:05:50 GMT

I forgot how much I love CONvergence - no other con I've ever been to holds a candle to this. Great programming, fantastic costumes, bitching parties - and its only the first night! Case in point: we were getting last minute supplies at the Shell station right next to the Sheraton. While lady_curmudgeon was inside the station store, I saw a con attendee in Doctor Horrible garb come out of the store. In the elevator was Doctor Evil, and we've also seen Pikachu and Spike (amongst many other things). So much awesome!

The weather is shaping up to be great for the weekend. Right now we're out on the patio of the neighboring Dairy Queen while Curmudgeon has a waffle cone twist. Its just the perfect end to the day.

This weekend I'll do some Toy Soldier costuming, hang out with the family on the farm, take pictures, hang with chebutykin and brianblackberry, hit the cabana parties and generally relax. It will be awesome!

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Range time is relaxing time

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:50:13 GMT

After lady_curmudgeon's doctor appointments in Kenosha this morning, she and I made our way to Antioch to hang out with roho and genet. We met up for lunch at The Lodge, had a beer or two and then went back to the house of CheeKitty. That's where Curmudgeon and Kes hung out while Roho and I went off to the gun range. I was smart and, before 'mudge and I left home this morning, I loaded up my range bag with the Blackhawk, the Sigma SW40F, the Sigma SW9VE and the PT-1911, as well as 100 rounds of each of their respective ammunitions (.357 Magnum, .40 S&W, 9mm and .45 ACP) and tossed the bag in the car. I had every one of my pistols with me to play with at the range, and I meant to give them all a little exercise (as well as give Roho a chance to try them out).

While Roho set up his Sig I unpacked my bag and opted for the SW9VE first. 8 rounds later I was reminded why I'm not overwhelmingly pleased with the Sigma series -- my grouping was for utter shit. All over the target, hardly any in the key spots. I put the 9mm aside and loaded up the PT-1911 next. What a great, fun gun that is. This was my first time firing it since I brought it home months ago. Solid feel in the hand and a fine grouping. What a light trigger break that gun has! Roho was likewise surprised at just how little pull it took for the hammer to fall.

Third up was the Blackhawk, probably my favorite revolver of all time. I grew up with this gun around me and have always been fond of it. I'm not sure, but I think I caught Roho drooling once or twice when I looked back over my shoulder. Everything I remembered about that gun was true! Pity that my brains and instincts have been ruined by years of semi-auto, after I fired the first round I squeezed the trigger again and had a "derp" moment where I couldn't understand why the gun didn't fire. Yeaaaaaah, it's a single-action revolver, firing require a bit more involvement on the operator's part than "aim, squeeze trigger, repeat." Roho had a good laugh at me over that but overall was impressed by how nicely the revolver handled.

Last up was the SW40F, the .40 S&W twin/precursor of my SW9VE. It suffers the same curse as the 9MM, just with bigger rounds and a little less flash since it's all-black. Shit for grouping, even when using the built-in laser. Roho similarly had problems with it and commented on the way back to his place that it's doing him the disservice of biasing him against the Glocks that the S&W folks stole design ideas from when making the Sigma series. Roho and I both suspect that the heavy trigger break of the dual-action only (DAO) is what's screwing us up. Interestingly, the range master suggested that my tendency towards lower-left groupings on the Sigmas was due to flinching, but I call flinching bullshit since my targets with the .357 and the .45 evidenced none of this down-and-to-the-left behavior.

Regardless, Roho got to try all of the pistols I brought with (minus the 9mm, which he's fired before) and echoed my frustration with the Sigmas -- as well as my praise for the Blackhawk and the 1911. All told we were at the range for nearly 2 hours and put somewhere on the order of 300 or so rounds down the lane. It's nothing amazing in terms of rounds fired or time spent on the range, but it was a great stress relief and a lot of fun. I enjoy going out shooting with Roho and miss the days on the farm when I could just wander into the back fields and plink away.

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Weekend report

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:10:25 GMT

Friday night: lady_curmudgeon and I drove up to the Naperville hotel where DucKon was being held, so that we could hang out at wyldekyttin's birthday and room party. We lounged around until around 2300 hours or so and then drove home for the night. Saturday it was up to Kenosha for doctoring, then back home in the early afternoon. I took a nap for a few hours and got up in time for dinner. Once we'd eaten and medicated Jazz for the evening it was back to the DucKon hotel to hang in Kyttin's room party again, arriving right around 2000 hours when the room was open to the private invitees. We stayed until around 0330 on Sunday morning, chatting and snacking and drinking with the various folks that came through. I particularly enjoyed talking to "Gus," a fellow who looked like Silent Bob.

We got home around 4 in the morning on Sunday, slept until around noon and then texted the crew back at the hotel to see if they could use a hand packing up and loading out. Our offer was rather enthusiastically accepted. We arrived around 1340 in the afternoon and by 1530 we had both rooms fully loaded out. Of the three cars I was first to arrive back at Ohana so I had the stage, drink coolers and sundry unloaded with ample time to help unload the other vehicles when they arrived. Curmudgeon and I stayed around for a while, just hanging out with folks and having idle conversation. At about 1815 we bid everyone a good evening, drove home, enjoyed some Subway foot long sandwiches and generally relaxed for the evening. Unfortunately for me, because of the late nights we'd had Friday and Saturday I didn't actually feel tired until around midnight, which was when I climbed into bed.

Today it's back to the grind at work.

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