Charlie’s Haus

My sister gave birth to her fetus on Saturday.  Haiden Lee Perkins was born at 3:33 am (I told her he’s half devil), and was 6lbs 7oz, 18.5″ long.  Mandi and I went up to see everyone (my mom stayed with sister and James at the hospital).  He was a cute little guy.  We saw them Saturday and Sunday.  Figured we had to get some time in since they moved back up to Oshkosh, and these days we dont get up there much.

I started taking apart my truck.  I figure I blew a head gasket.  Not sure though.  Im still hoping.  If its a cracked head I will be dropping in a 350 instead of the v6.  Not worth spending the money on a v6.  Problem is the idiots at the parts store gave me the wrong gasket set.  They dont carry the one I need so I had to order it online.  Wont be here till early next week.  So I decided I might as well paint the heads and intake again as the paint was coming off.  Shes gonna look real purty. 

This weekend we are heading to O-town for a friends graduation party.  Should be fun….havent seen them in so long.

I finally went to the dr today to have him look at my shoulder.  I have had pain in my shoulder blade for the last couple of years, but recently it has gotten much worse.  The Dr looked at it and told me I have a torn trapezius muscle.  He also said it takes forever to heal since its used in every movement your arm makes.  He prescibed me some Skelaxin (muscle relaxer) and physical therapy.  The soonest I could get in for therapy was June 5th, thats a long time.  Hopefully they can get me fixed up, this hurts like hell.

After my Dr appt I ran to Home Depot to look at some wood.  On the way there I noticed white smoke from my truck behind me.  I pulled over right away and opened the hood expecting to see oil everywhere, but there was none.  So I thought maybe I was behind someone else and didnt realize it was them.  So I paid attention and sure enough it was from me, out the exhaust pipe too.  Probably means I have a small hole in the head gasket somewhere.  Oh what fun that will be to replace that.  Just what I need, something else to occupy my time.

I did get my saddlebag guards made for the motorcycle, they turned out awesome.  I just have to finish figuring out how to mount the saddlebags and I am all set.  That is gonna be a treat because of how the seat mounts.  Fun times.

Today I sat through a licensing presentation by Microsoft.  It was to “clear up confusion” about the new licensing models.  I think its great that even Microsofts own employees who do this for a living get confused and dont know.  It got to the point where people stopped asking questions because they were in vain.  All I have to say is Microsofts licensing models suck.  If they simplified them, they could cut half their staff who works on the licensing, increase the price of the product, no more stupid CAL’s, and they would probably be just as well off.  Plus people wouldnt have to worry if they are in compliance all the time.   Unbelievable.

 Anyways, as much as their licensing sucks, they are about innovation, thats for sure.  Today at WinHEC (a computer geek conference) they showed off a new technology called Windows Rally. It basically simplifies connecting devices on your network, and allows them all to talk.  It was pretty cool.  I actually would love to get a picture frame with this technology.  It can do a slideshow from your Vista computer.  How cool is that.

Speaking of computers, I added a new section last week.  I will be updating it when I have a chance, but it shows some troubleshooting steps to take when your computer wont boot.  I plan on adding a bunch more stuff that I get asked all the time.

Well the week seems to have flown by.  So much going on.  We picked up Alfreds ashes on Wednesday night.  The vet or the place that creamated him did an awesome thing.  They took a little clay mold of his paw print and gave it to us.  That was really cool.  We are gonna get a shadow box or something for it and a couple pics etc.

Finally got out fishing yesterday.  I started at lake Monona and got skunked.  I saw bass, just couldnt catch them.  A shitload of Carp though.  Everywhere you looked there were some.  I have never seen so many carp in my life.  After a few hours on Monona I called it quits and went to Waubesa.  I caught 3 legals and 1 little guy.  Not awefull.  I saw 3 or 4 muskies hangin out in the shallows where I was fishing bass.  Nothing huge but decent sized ones, that was pretty cool. 

My Dixon ZTR broke on my this week.  The fuel pump died and the grass was so long so I had to mow by hand.  I forgot how much work it was and how long it took.  The ZTR makes mowing so easy since its so manueverable.  The new pump will be in Monday thank god.  Its just too much work with the push mower (even being self-propelled doesnt help). 

Welp time to run.  This weekend we are watching Mandi’s cousins.  Gotta pick them up after school.  Tomorrow we have a double header baseball game for one of them.  Sunday they go back home around lunch or so.  Im sure I will be plenty tired by then. 

Today our cat died.  Its so sad that he went through so much only to have some weird complication.  He had a PU surgery on wednesday because he kept blocking his urethra.  Basically they make him into a her so he cant block up.  He seemed to be doing pretty well.  Saturday morning I had to take him in to get an enama because he was severly constipated.  Later in the day after some serious straining he finally was able to go.  He was pretty tired and I just assumed it was from the stress of having to go.  He seemed a little aggrivated and didnt want to be touched.  Again, I just thought it was from the stress.  This morning I noticed that he was really lethargic.  I picked him up to give him his medicines and he just sat down.  I gave him his meds and afterwords noticed he was breathing really fast and his heart was racing.  I called the vet and they wanted to see him.  So Mandi and I went to the emergency vet place and dropped him off.  The vet thought maybe he was dehydrated or that the straining had caused some problems.  2 hours or so later she called back and gave us some bad news.  He deteriorated extremely quickly.  She said that she has never seen so many neucleated red blood cells in an animal that wasnt anemic.  She also said that he had a red blood cell parasite, probably Mycoplasma Haemofelis.  By the time we got there he was pretty much gone.  He was completely unresponsive and had a very faint heartbeat.  We decided quickly that it was time for him to stop suffering.  We said our goodbyes and had the vet euthanise him.  The whole thing was so weird.  The vet even said that it probably had nothing to do with the surgery.  It was something else that had happened but since he had deteriorated so quickly, they were unable to figure it out.  The house just seems so quiet and lonely now.  Its gonna be hard to come home from work tomorrow and not have someone waiting at the door for me excited to see me. 

There have been a lot of people who just dont understand why we have spent an insane amount of money on him and carried on this long.  He was like our child.  He made us laugh and loved us.  He would entertain us with his mouse acrobatics…throwing up his mouse and jumping after it.  He would tell Mandi she was working too hard and sit on her papers so she couldnt do any more work.  He would cuddle in next to you on the bed in the morning, his way of saying its better to be in bed and napping.  There were so many things he did that just brought a smile to our faces.  As sad as it is that he is gone, Im glad we got to spend the time we had with him.  He made our lives happier, and I hope that he had a better life with us.  Hes in a happier place now with no pain.  Our poor little kitty is gone from our lives, but will always be in our hearts.  Good bye Alfred.

It seems like these days that time just flies by.  It seems like I get nothing done (although I do, just not what I really want).  I FINALLY have the boat all set to go.  It only took me a year of no fishing =(  The rotten wood in the back is all replaced and refiberglassed over the top, and the gas tank is good to go.  I took it out last week and it ran as good as it used to.  I am very happy about that.  I am all ready for this weekend, which is the season opener.  I am planning on going out as long as the cat is ok…see explanation below.

I finally got a good start on getting the garage cleaned up.  I have a few things to go, but its almost done.  I needed room for my new mig welder.  I just got a cheaper one.  Its a Clarke 180…it should do well enough for what I need it for.  So many projects though, finish the windows, shed, patio door, front steps….the list goes on and on.  I am knocking some stuff off the list though thank god.  Im trying to not add anything new this summer and just finishing up whats been started. 

For the past month we have been battling our cats bladder/urethra problems.  We ended up taking him in many times, but this weekend I took him in Friday, then we took him Sunday, and finally Monday he stayed at the vet.  He was blocked up again.  They unblocked him twice and finally decided he had hit the 3 strikes your out rule to be eligible for the PU surgery.  Thats the surgery where they basically make him a her.  The vet called and said he is doing well and I am picking him up tonight.  Last night I prepared the guest bedroom for him as the vet said he needs to be locked up somewhere where he cant jump around too much.  Dont want to do any damage to the stiches.  So I took apart the bed and put the mattress on the floor, prepared a food area and a litter box area, and an area so he can watch out the window.  He is definately not going to like being in that room, but hopefully it will only be about a week or so he is in there.  From what I read online, the stitches stay in about 2 weeks though, so he may have to stay in there that long!

Work has been crazy busy for me.  Just lots of stuff happening at once.  I dont even have time to check all my websites anymore!  I got an invite to Joost though thanks to Jake.  I tried it on my work machine but its not working.  Im thinking firewall blockage issues.  Gonna try it at home.  If anyone wants an invite just let me know.  www.joost.com is the site.