Big Spring and New Laptop Fun...

The "Estate" is now officially into Spring. Much time was spent this week getting the lawn tractor ready and doing the first mow and edge of the lawns. I also did both weeding and feeding of the lawn. Its a happy lawn...

There were a few 'issues' with the sprinkler system that had to be repaired and the green house had to be rebuild after it self-destructed over the winter. The back yard fountain is going well and various birds are flocking to it. All, in all, all goes well with the grounds.

The refurbished Dell XPS M140 laptop arrived and we have been playing with it. It is really a very nice machine with lots of good, and unique, features. We are very pleased with it. I got it a 'welcome home' present of a Microsoft GPS unit which should be able to answer that important question I am always asking - Where are we? Actually, I have always known the answer to that question - Its "Right Here!", but now with the GPS unit, we will also know how to get from "Right Here" to somewhere else we want to go to...

Speaking of going, we are going to visit the Bay Area for the first time since we left, to move here about 2 years ago. Pam's daughter Jaz is graduating from Menlo College on Saturday, May 6th, and we are going to go check it out and visit. We are also going to check out our favorite places to shop like Fry's Electronics and Twice-as-Nice-at-Half-the-Price in Half Moon Bay.

Though, I just heard that the famous Devil's Slide road, that runs down the coast from San Francisco to where we use to live in Moss Beach and HMB, AKA The Coastside, has again slide due to all the recent rains. And, will probably be down until they get the proposed tunnel built, which will be years. When we lived there, that happened a few times and is a total buzz kill for all that live on The Coastside. That only leaves one road to be used by everybody, which is a little mountain road out of HMB, and generally takes a couple of hours to get the 10 miles back and forth to the 'real world'. So, to get to the point, if that is as crazy as I think it will be, we might have to hang up going to Twice-as-Nice-at-Half-the-Price on The Coastside, which would be a real bummer. It is a depressed goods store that carries all sorts of great food products and stuff from places like Costco, at really cheap prices. Everything is marked down by 1/2 to start and they negociate from there. Big fun...

While there, we must acquire all the special products that we cannot find here - mainly cooking supplies and sauces that are common in the Bay Area and non-existent here in DaHo.

Pool is going great. I did run into one problem with winning in the new weekly handicap tournament last week. My handicap went up and I had to spot a couple of players, that are better than me, and got beat like a rented mule. But, now they are up with me and that won't happen again for a while, unless I win again before they do. The new 9-ball league is going well. Our team is in first place and I am also the first place player in the league - so far. Last night I won 5 of my 6 games, had a 9-ball break and a break and run, called a table run. Both are noted achievements in the league awards at the end of the year. I should have won all 6 games, but the person I was playing got the 9-ball in on a lucky combo shot...

All the rivers are FULL of water and the Shoshone Falls, that Twin Falls is named for, is going crazy drawing tens of visitors every day. Its quite a scene here in DaHo...

Spring has Sprung and so did the HP Laptop...

It is Spring here in DaHo. We had our irrigation turned on and the lawn and all the plants that survived are starting to green up. It's been almost hot here most of the week.

I had my 4 month follow up ultrasound to see how the aortic aneurysm is doing and spent a couple more hours in the dentist chair this week. Both, big fun. I should get some feedback from the doctor on the ultrasound in the next couple of days.

The screen hinges on the old HP Laptop froze up and when I tried to close it, they cracked an broke. I took it apart to check it out and it would take lots of parts to make it work again and its not worth any more expense - just too many down sides. So, we ordered a refurbished Dell XPS M140 laptop which should be here on Tuesday. So now the fast XPS office and laptop computers can talk to each other and now get too bored. It also runs the XP Media Center OS and has all the current good stuff in it. The only other laptop I have owned was the HP that is realllly limited in power and features, that nephew Mike gave me and has lasted me for years. So, this 'new' one should be fun and will come in very handy for lots of stuff.

They started the Wednesday night 8-ball handicap tournaments again in Twin Falls. I went for the first one and came in fourth out of 32 players. This was good since everybody starts out at the same handicap. If you place in the money, you go up one point and if you don't place in the money for three times, you go down one point. I played some of the players that beat me last year and won this time. So, next week, I have to spot them since I won last week. I just have to try and keep wining which gets very hard as your handicap goes up.

Last night we went to the awards banquet for the West Side Pool 8-ball league that I was in over the winter. We came in first place and I did well with a winners jacket and 4 awards for our team and personal placement, 8-ball breaks and table runs. Below is a picture of all the loot...



This weekend we spent lots of time starting to get the 'estate' grounds ready for spring. I cleaned and setup the garden fountain and got all the new outside lights installed and Pam has been getting the flower beds together and is planting lots of pretty stuff. It will probably take us a couple more weeks to get it all together, but that is how it goes after winter here in DaHo...

Bad Day for the Easter Bunny and Steelhead Fishing...

We came out to go to Easter Sunday Brunch with Pam's mom and there on the driveway was what was left of the Easter Bunny. Whatever did it must have stolen the basket and all the candy...



Then, later on, it snowed most of Easter Sunday which brought out another bunny on the driveway so I guess all is good.



Steelhead Fishing

On Friday, Storm and I went Steelhead fishing up in Northern Idaho. It was a pretty nasty day, but we had fun. I didn't catch anything, but Storm got a nice one...



On the way there, we had to go over this mountain pass with lots of snow. Here is a picture from the car.




Pool

Pool playing is really good. I am still ahead on our team by one game and we are in first place as a team. The winter 8-ball league banquet we went to at the Turf Club last Saturday was big fun and one of the best dinners we have had here. Lots of prizes and a good time was had by all. This Saturday night is the winter 9-ball league banquet in Buhl. It probably won't be as good of food, but we will get lots of things for being the first place team.

New Living Room HTPC Computer

The little Mega-PC finally croaked and we replaced it with a new one that I had to build using lots of the Mega's parts. This new one looks like a audio component, rather than a PC, and is a great improvement so far. Pics and more details to follow...

Blown Way Out of Proportion...

Yesterday, we had a nasty wind storm come through DaHo. Here at DaHouse on DaHill, it must have been blowing 60 MPH. I didn't open the garage doors because it would have probably caused serious damage. So, I went out the back sliding glass door. I was wearing my parka that has a hood attached. When I got outside, the wind was whipping around the house and caught my hood and about beat me silly. Within about 5 seconds, it must have hit me in the face about 5-10 times.

We have this park style bench in the rocks edging the back yard. Since we lost the old one to the wind last year, I had this new one strapped down with big screw in anchors and cables. The wind didn't blow it away, but now its leaned almost all the way over with the front legs buried about 6 inches into the river rocks it sits on. We lost both of our outdoor tables. They went Eastward along with everything in the area that wasn't tied down. Its amazing to see all sorts of objects being blown past us at about 50-60 MPH. There were all sorts of traffic wrecks and property damage.

Today was totally awesome - warm and NO wind. I should have been fishing, but ended up hanging around here waiting for a package which didn't show. Tomorrow, it is suppose to storm again.

Pam's nose is finally starting to get better. For a while there, she said that whenever she touched it, it sounded like squeezing a bag of potato chips. She went back to the doctor and was told that it would just take a while to heal, and was showed her how to run a piece of Scotch tape down her forhead and nose so her glasses wouldn't hurt it at work. Broken noses are not as much fun as they are made up to be.

On a good note, pool goes well. We had two matches this week and I won 9 of the 12 games I played. Tomorrow night, we go to one of the just completed winter league awards dinners at the Turf Club. We haven't been there before so it should be an experience - Hopefully, a good experience. You never can be sure here in DaHo...

Pool Extremes...

This week included the far extreme ends of the Joy of Pool...

First, in the new 9-ball league on Thursday, I won all six of my games while Steve only won four of his six games. Storm doubled his one week average with two wins. It was very good.

Then, there was this regional tournament this weekend here in Twin Falls. This was the first 'Big Time' tournament I have played in. Most of the 60, or so, players have played in all the state and regional tournaments for years, or so I was told. And, they range in skill from very good to professional. I was impressed and ended up loosing both of my matches. I am not irritated by loosing, but I am very irritated that I didn't play up to my level. My last match was at the main table in front if the whole group and I basically lost my confidence and choked. I didn't play all that bad, I lost 4 to 5 games, but internally, I gave it up and know it. That hasn't happened to me for many years and I thought I was over that crap at this point in life - Maybe when I get older it will be better...

Then, there is Pam's nose. She is still having problems with it and keeps 'messing' with it and causing pain. It will get better soon if left alone.

Speaking of pain, I went to the dentist and got three consecutive teeth prepared for crowns, putting my upcoming crown total at six - one of the joys of cancer radiation treatments. Ouch. In California, you can rent a three bedroom house for $3000 to $6000 a month and get a crown on a tooth for $500. Here in DaHo, you can rent a three bedroom house for $1000 a month and crowns cost $650. When I grow up I want to be a dentist here in DaHo...