Deck Work & Puppet Sex

Today Aaron and I got up and I made some biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Then we started working on the front deck. We removed the front railing and laid it over some plastic. We then started sanding the deck down. When Chris was here for the surprise "let's help Kenny day" he manage to sand the front deck with the deck sander but obviously he couldn't get into the corners or where the railing was. So Aaron and I sanded those areas with a small hand sander and also by hand.

Once we were done sanding we went over and started spray painting the railing, I had purchased two cans of black spray paint and figured it would be enough.Well it wasn't.. we did manage to spray the front of the railings but that was it.

I went back to the deck and tested a patch of wood with the dark walnut stain that I had gotten. It made the deck look like it had been on fire, it was a sooty black. So we made a trip to Lowes to pick up more spray paint and to also find a lighter stain.

I arrived home with a special walnut and it looked alot lighter on the can, we I did a test patch and it was a bit lighter then the sooty black one but not by much. I never knew staining could be so difficult. Well I decided to go with the special walnut as I didn't want to back to Lowes again.. I just wanted to get it done. Arron started on one end and I started on the other and we got about half of the deck stained before we had to go.

Tonight Aaron and I along with a few of our friends were heading out to see a play that our friend Josh was in. His collage preforming class was putting on a show called Avenue Q. I've heard great things about this play but never seen it... so I was not only looking forward to the play but also to my buddy being in it.

Aaron and I picked up our friends Jes and Dallas and made the 83.5 mile trek out to Chaffey Collage. We got down there a bit early and after driving around for what felt like forever we finally settled on Chili's for dinner. We got to the collage around 6:30 and ran into Nicole and her roommate as well as Josh's family (Mom, Dad & Brother). Got our tickets, got in line and made our way into the theater. We found some prime seats. A few minutes later our friends Robert and Cait arrived and joined the group. I think our entire group took up 2/3's of a row.

In case you'd never heard of Avenue Q here's is some info about it. Avenue Q is an American musical in two acts, it's an "autobiographical and biographical" coming-of-age parable, addressing and satirizing the issues and anxieties associated with entering adulthood. Its characters lament that as children, they were assured by their parents, and by children's television programs such as PBS's Sesame Street, that they were "special" and "could do anything"; but as adults, they have discovered to their surprise and dismay that in the real world their options are limited, and they are no more "special" than anyone else. The musical is notable for the use of puppets, animated by unconcealed puppeteers, alongside human actors.

Josh plays Brian one of the humans. The only song I knew from this play was The Internet Is For Porn. This isn't for kids, it's a very adult show... there's even puppet sex.

I loved every minute of it. The set was well done, the actors were great, especially some of the actors/puppeteers they were just amazing. I had a hard time choosing between watching the puppet or the actor. I loved the songs, so much so that I'll probably go out and get the soundtrack. Josh of course was awesome, but then again I'm a bit bias :)

The play just flew by and before I knew it, it was over. We got to say a quick hi to Josh before heading back home. I had to drop off Jes and Dallas first before heading home with Aaron who was once again crashing at my place.

It was a good day.. got some work done on the house but also got to spend some time with friends and watch a friend in a play that I've wanted to see for years.

More House Stuff & FaerieCon

Today I spent the majority of the day painting my house. I've been focusing on the front of the house as my realtor is coming over on Tuesday to go over the details of selling my house. She's also going to take pictures so I want the front to look the best it can look. So I was outside from 9am to 5pm and I am exhausted.

Come the evening my friend Aaron drove up from San Diego and crashed at my place as he is going to help me with my house stuff tomorrow. He arrived around 8pm and we just hung out, talked and watched some TV. I was just a lump and really wasn't up for much.

During the day on one of my mini breaks I saw a post on Facebook from Kristen Nedopak. She posted a picture of herself in a Faerie outfit and the caption said "on my way to FaerieCon". I had never heard of this con and I'm a big Faerie fan. One thing that I've been trying to find the past several years is a perfect male Faerie drawing/picture/artwork. Anyways I immediately had to look it up. These are entire cons dedicated to the Faerie World.. there are several of them every year. Faerie Con West, Faerie Con East and FaerieWorld. They last an entire weekend with live music, masquerade balls, Fantasy authors & artists and it just looks like a ton of fun. Next years Faerie Con West and FaerieWorld are being held in Oregon. Depending on where I am in my life I might give one of these a go. They look similar to Renaissance Festivals, which I love.

"Get Fit" Week 14

So last week I finally hit my goal of getting below 200, I know it wasn't that far below (198.5) but even a half a pound below would have made me happy. I've been busy with getting my house prepped to go on the market that I have let my "working out" fall by the waste side. By the time it's dark outside I'm exhausted. I have forced myself to do the elliptical a few times this week but not nearly as much as I should. But with that said I am happy to say that I have kept my weight below 200 all week long (I weighted myself every morning). And as it is Friday I weighted myself this morning for my official "Get Fit" weight in and I'm happy to say that my current weight is 197 lbs.

So that's 1.5 lbs less this week. And that also means I have met my goal for the week. If you don't remember my new goal is to lose at least a pound a week. I still have lots of house stuff to do but I'm hoping to get back into my work out routine so I can lose more then just a pound a week... here's hoping.

Birthdays, Hobbits and Wars.. Oh My!!

Lots of stuff happen today.. so I'm going to split this blog into two parts.. personal stuff and geeky stuff.

Here's some personal stuff. I want to wish my favorite sister-in-law Lora a very Happy Birthday. I know what your saying.. she's my only sister-in-law but that doesn't mean she can't be my favorite :)

Was out of paint so I had to go to Lowes and while there I got the paint but I also got spray paint and wood stain as I have decided to spruce up the front of my house by finishing the sanding and then staining of my front deck and I'm also going to paint the railing black.

When I got home I didn't continue painting since it was later in the day so instead I taped off the trimming on the other side of my house (the last side of the house to paint). I also cleaned out my small garage, still have more to do but got a good start on it. My main project was my front door. I replace the door knob and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

I finished my day by editing my MASH 4077 Podcast, I started late last night and spent only a few hours on it today so I still have a few more hours left of editing.. I should get it done in the next few days.

Now for some geeky stuff. They officially announced the release date for Star Wars Episode VII. Mark your calendars for December 18, 2015. That's a little over two years and one month away. I already have a countdown on my iPhone... I can't wait.

Peter Jackson released his 12th Production Diary. I have enjoy each and everyone of these but they haven't done many for the Desolation of Smaug. For the first movie he did 10 Production Diaries but so far he's only done 2 for this movie. He does promise more to come so will see. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug comes out in just over a month. Check out the latest diary below.

And speaking of The Hobbit, I found out today that some of Wave 2 of The Hobbit action figures have been released. Wave 2 brings us three brand new 6″ figures with Radagast, Azog, and Legolas Greenleaf while the 3.75″ line gets a very cool Mirkwood box set with Legolas, Tauriel, Thranduil, Fili, and Kili. Of course I had to get them.. they'll be an early Christmas present to myself.

They are also supposedly 2 packs coming out as well, Beorn and Gandalf & Azog and Thorin Oakenshield. Also some additional 3.75 scale box sets including Thorin Oakenshield Adventure Pack: Nori, Ori, Dori, Gloin and Thorin. Bilbo Baggins Burglar Pack: Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin and Exclusive Invisible Bilbo. But I haven't seen any of these anywhere... yet. I stopped collecting like I use to but I couldn't resist these awesome action figures.

Thorin Oakenshield Adventure Pack: Nori, Ori, Dori, Gloin and Thorin

Bilbo Baggins Burglar Pack: Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin and Exclusive 3.75" Invisible Bilbo

- See more at: http://www.collector-actionfigures.com/dash/blog/new-lineup-from-the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-revealed/#sthash.6FZR30cn.dpuf

Thorin Oakenshield Adventure Pack: Nori, Ori, Dori, Gloin and Thorin

Bilbo Baggins Burglar Pack: Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin and Exclusive 3.75" Invisible Bilbo

- See more at: http://www.collector-actionfigures.com/dash/blog/new-lineup-from-the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-revealed/#sthash.6FZR30cn.dpuf

Thorin Oakenshield Adventure Pack: Nori, Ori, Dori, Gloin and Thorin

Bilbo Baggins Burglar Pack: Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin and Exclusive 3.75" Invisible Bilbo

- See more at: http://www.collector-actionfigures.com/dash/blog/new-lineup-from-the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-revealed/#sthash.6FZR30cn.dpuf

Painting and Podcasts

Got up at 7am, had a bit of breakfast, checked email and then was outside painting by 8am. It was still windy but I couldn't put it off anymore. I didn't get anything done yesterday and I swore I wouldn't do that again.

It was tough painting in the wind, especially when I'm on my 20 foot ladder on my tip toes trying to reach the underside of the roof with a paint brunch. But I persisted and by 4pm I was done with the first coat of paint on the side of my house (the one Will and I prepped a few days ago). I would have gone another hour until sundown but I had ran out of paint (so far I've used 10 gallons).

So I headed inside and forced myself to edit my next Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast which is due to be released on the 10th. It went fairly well, a spent a total of four hours editing. I also did a bit of prep work on an upcoming MASH 4077 Podcast.

All is all today was a complete 180 from yesterday.. need to have more days like today.

A Day of Rest

Today I was all prepared to paint the side of my house as Will and I prepped it yesterday and got all the trim taped off. Well once again mother nature has something else in mind... Winds.

It was so windy that it was blowing over my ladders, it blew off 1/3 of the paper that Will and I had taped up around the windows... it was pretty bad.

So instead I should have done things around the house, I have some major cleaning that needs to be done. I also have several podcasts that will be due in the coming week so I could edit those.. but what did I do.. nothing. I caught up on some TV that I recorded on my DVR.

I was physically exhausted and since it was so windy outside it gave me the excuse to not paint and just chill for a day. I know I have only one week until my realtor comes over and assess my place and take pictures, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything. I wanted to be lazy so I was lazy.

Of course at the end of the night I'm mad and disappointed in myself but I made a deal with myself to have no more lazy days until after next Tuesday and then I can treat myself to a day at Disneyland.

Painting & Gaming With My Buddy

So I finished painting the front of the house... woohoo!! It took a bit longer then I was hoping as most of my painting has, but it's done and it looks pretty good. Around 1pm I got a message from my buddy Will asking if I needed assistance with painting. Of course I said yes, I could use all the help I can get. He arrived around 2:30pm and got started on taping the trim on the side of the house. By the time night had fallen he and I had gotten all the trim on the side of the house tapped off and ready for painting tomorrow.

Afterwards we headed out to Chipotle for some dinner and then came back to my place and played Injustice: Gods Among Us for the next four hours. That is one of my all time favorite games, since I only have one Xbox controller, we played the single player game. So instead of battling each other we followed the awesome storyline of the game. And Will and I would trade off back and forth between battles.

 It was a good day... got some work done on my house and I got to spend some quality time with my buddy Will. Thanks Will for helping out.

Just Another Lazy Sunday... Not!!!

Today I tackled painting the front of the house. I had worked on the front earlier this year but I used the wrong kind of painters tape and when I went to remove it, it took off the paint as well. There was lots of damage done. So I taped up everything yesterday and today I planned to get the front done.. or at least the first coat. The problem with the front is that there is alot of trim, so it's not as easy as just rolling on the paint. Also my house has a texture on it so you have to do several passes to get the paint in the crevices.

So I spent the entire day from 8am to 5pm painting and by the end I had gotten 90% of the front done. I still had a few touch ups to do as paint would get under the taped off area. But I'm very happy with my progress. I should be able to get that done first thing tomorrow and then work on the right side of my house.

Today Daylight savings ended and we gained an extra hour, which is great for sleeping but it also means it gets dark earlier. So the sun started to set at 5pm cutting my painting time down by an hour or so. I'm not a fan of it getting dark earlier as it make it feel so late and it's only 6pm. I'm sure I'll adjust, just in time for Daylight savings to begin again :)