Just another statistic

LACMA and the Eames living room

2011-11-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks before we were heading out to LA I came across a site that had a link to a video of the LA County Art Museum painstakingly disassembling the Eames personal living room piece by piece and then reassembling it in the museum. It was very convenient that we were going to be in LA just in time to check out this exhibit on California Design.

here are the shots from the exhibit. For some god awful reason you were not allowed to take pictures of the living room itself but I managed to sneak a few. If they kicked me out, I didn't care since it was at the end of the exhibit.

Original fiberglass shell chair. We bought one on the trip from Modernica as an anniversary present to ourselves.

My covert shots of the Eames living room. the best I could do.

Photobomb.

Is it real? Oh yea, I checked for a tag.

See the elephant? ok, see the little replica in front of it? ok. the price difference between the two was about $50. Why would anyone buy the tiny replica?

the Stahl House: a Case Study

2011-11-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

If you don't know this iconic piece of American Architecture, you need to go back under that rock you've been living under. We wanted to check this out on our Honeymoon while passing through LA but we were on a small timecrunch and it didn't work out. That's why we made it a priority this time. Not a lot of words, so here are a lot of pictures. Don't mind my dirty lens. I didn't realize until I got home I had a filthy camera.

Los Angeles Anniversary trip- Day 1 and 2.

2011-11-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it's kinda hard to believe but we've been married for 2 years now. Last year we took a trip to Disney for a week with some friends of ours. This year, the wife snagged some CRAZY cheap airfare to LA on Virgin America, an airline we've been wanting to check out. The downside: they fly out of JFK in New York, not exactly around the corner from us. A 7am flight meant leaving the house at sometime around 3am. Factor in a 2 hours drive, an hour to deal with getting the car parked in long term, shuttle bus. Then an hour to get through Security, just to be safe. We were a little early, but not crazy early. Needless to say, I slept for a good bit on the plane.

After a quick 5 hour flight, we were in the land of perpetual warm weather, smog, and wanna be famous people. We grabbed our rental car, a snazzy Hyundai, and made our way to Hipster central- West, aka Silver Lake, LA.

For this trip, we decided to go a different "housing" route and used a website called Airbnb, where people can rent out their space space, like a guest house, extra bedroom, etc. We picked a place that was essentially a basement guesthouse, with it's own entrance, bathroom, kitchen, etc. like a Studio Apartment.

After settling in, the first thing we did is make our way to our soon to be favorite coffee shop in existence, Intelligentsia. Let's just say these folks take coffee very seriously and it has made me up my game.

I'll dedicate an entire post to Intelligentsia in the future, but for now, here's what we had on our first (of many, many, many) trips. Mine was a double espresso, Nikki had a latte. Take a peek at the decorative work. Serious stuff.

All jammed up on coffee, we needed something to do, so we set out for some exploration. First on the list, Mulholland Drive.

Burbank, I think.

The Hollywood sign is back there somewhere.

Goofy Nikki doing her best impersonation of Sweet Dee from Always Sunny.

Then we went down to Hollywood, saw the Chinese Theater.

After that, a little shopping on Melrose Ave.

This store had the craziest clothes, like a pair of Adidas track pants that were customized by some high class designer I surprisingly never heard of. they had wings on the waistband and were $400. No thanks.

More fun stuff to come, check back often.

Gidget: 1 year later

2011-08-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, times really does fly. A year ago today is when we had the scare of a lifetime with little ol' Gidget.
Original post here: http://newfoundfreetime.blogspot.com/2010/08/rough-couple-of-days.html

Well, after a year, she's as good as she's gonna get.

Things she can do again:
walk
run
use stairs
generally get around on her own

Things she can't do or needs help with:
jumping
doing that dog thing where they use their back legs to scratch their ears
needs help going potty

Overall her quality of life is amazing. She's a super happy dog. Eats like a horse. Plays in the yard with the other dogs, runs around like a nut. I'm so glad we didn't make any rash decisions or let our wallet dictate what was going to happen to her. Sure, I spent a lot of money on her at a bad time for us but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. These three little ones are our kids, so we treat them as such.

Bucket list item: be on a TV show

2011-07-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago Nikki found a post on Reddit for an open casting call to be an extra on one of our favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. We both filled out the form and sent in some silly pictures to the casting company. She got an email within hours confirming she got the part. The next day I got a call. We were originally scheduled for two different days but I got a second phone call moving me to the same day as Nikki.

We were to be at a High School in Philly at 2pm. After checking in with our "wrangler", the term thrown around for the on-set personnel in charge of the Extras, we sat around for them to get all the lighting, etc in place. Let me say, sitting around is a key part of being an Extra.

Next, we had to go move our cars into place, as they were part of the deal as well since the scene required the cast to be tailgating in a parking lot. Me being on top of things I noticed the famous Rover and managed to sneak my car 1 spot over from it, hoping to get some airtime for my little GTI as well. If you look closely you can see what I mean.

We were placed in various locations around the lot and told to walk into the building as if we were all going to a high school reunion, the premise of the episode. I was paired up with a very nice woman who we got to know over the course of the day. Turns out she's been in all kinds of stuff that's been shot in Philly.

After a couple run-throughs with the stand ins we did some live takes, all went pretty good but man, I understand how these days run on forever now. The first scene was done and we had been there for 3 or 4 hours. We had a little down time as they moved all the gear for another angle of the same shot. Same deal, a couple practice runs then full takes.

By now it was "lunch time" as they called it, the rest of the world calls it dinner but since we started in the afternoon that's what they were saying. The food was pretty good. From what I gather, they are required to have semi-healthy food since it's a Union set.

Some shots from the day, pardon the crappy cell phone pics:

There were two scenes to shoot after lunch, an outside shot of people just milling around outside, which went pretty quickly, and a shot from outside looking into the "reunion".

This was the most grueling shot of the day. It was a really long scene they were shooting outside and they were doing two different angles. We were supposed to be mixing around and conversing by the windows to create the look of a full room. After about a half dozen takes we started to all get a little goofy.

There were a bunch of other little details, got to talk to the cast for a couple minutes, really nice people. Overall, it was really fun day, even if it was a little on the long side, didn't get home till 1am. I can't imagine doing this every day, but that's what some people do. I hope to get the opportunity to do it again next year when the show comes back to Philly for the on location scenes.

Etsy shameless plug

2011-06-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've been scouring the countryside for cool vintage goods and spent the better part of the evening photographing and listing items on our Etsy store. Here's a link to the good stuff:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Trixiepinks?ref=si_shop

Added a ton of vintage Teak serving trays and Stainless pieces. We also have a nice selection of vintage Lingerie. Here are some pics to whet your appetite.

the wife doing her part as the model.

So if you're bored, go cruise over. I add new stuff all the time. If you find something you like, snag it up and leave a little comment saying you saw the link from here.

newest acquisition: Lane Acclaim end table

2011-06-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

We have 2 Habit for Humanity ReStores in the area: one never has anything, the other sometimes has some cool Mid Century Gems.

I went to the "good" store as I'll call it yesterday and came across this Lane Acclaim end table in need of a little TLC. the top needs to be stripped and revarnished and the bottoms of the legs need a little touch up black paint. No biggie.

this might be a keeper if I can find a place for it or it will go into our Etsy store for someone else to enjoy.

Playboy- Miss October 1954

2011-06-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted the centerfolds from the vintage Playboy collection, but I'm going to start again and keep it consistent. If you use the search box for key word "playboy" you can go back and check out the rest of them from way back at issue #1.

enjoy.

It all started with a Voicemail...

2011-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

It all started with a voicemail. "hey, I'm having this huge party this weekend. I know you've been known to do things spur of the moment, why not drive 13 hours down." That's how my Friday started. I texted the wife "vince is having a party this weekend, told me to come down. Wouldn't it be awesome to surprise him". Who would have thought that half-hearted joke text would turn into me booking a flight on less than a days notice. After going back and forth with Nikki over whether I could/should go, I finally bought a ticket, which was surprisingly affordable. If the ticket was any more than it was I would be at home this weekend doing yardwork. Instead I hopped on an early a.m. Flight, which I barely made ( I'm not a morning person and waking up at 6am is not high on my list).

I flew through security and ended up in the line with the full body scanner. Now, I'd typically be opposed to this and ask for the sexy pat down from the burly TSA agent, but I knew I was on short time so I swallowed my pride and got zapped. All clear. Grabbed my stuff and looked for my gate. What's that? It's the furthest possible one from security? Of course it was. Always is. Made it to the gate, walked right onto the plane. Phew.

A quick 2 hour flight, I got about 15 minutes of sleep as we were descending into ATL international. When I woke up I started to peer out the window and I saw something crazy. I didn't know that ATL had 2 side-by-side runways and there was a plane landing at the exact same time we were. It was like some sort of reverse Drag Race.

Might be hard to see but there's a plane out there. After a routine landing I jumped on two different shuttles and got in my rental car. A snazzy Nissan Versa. With old school hand written directions in tow I was on my way. Snapped this shot of a guy on an awesome Ducati coming through a long underpass. It had the sound of Italian motorcycling gods.

Forty-Five minutes later and I was turning into Vince's neighborhood. I pull into the driveway, get my camera out and walk up to the front door. Ding-Dong.........nothing. Ding-Dong.......nothing. I guess one of the downfalls about traveling down the eastern seaboard to surprise someone is the risk that they may not be home. I get back in the car and covertly call Vince. This meant I had to turn down the radio so some blathering idiot DJ didn't say something to the effect of, "Man it's going to be a hot one in Atlanta today".

The phone convo was short but went something to the effect of "man, I wish you were here for this party." Vince was at the liquor store picking up some last minute supplies. Little did he know that the phone conversation was talking place FROM INSIDE HIS DRIVEWAYYYYYYY.

About 15 minutes later I see the infamous blue RAV turn onto the street. With Transporter like driving skills Vince wheeled the little SUV into the driveway to block in this foreign car since no one was expected to be at the house yet.

Right about here is where Vince's head explodes when he realizes it's me in the driveway. After a lot of disbelief he says, hide in the garage, Bonnie will be home any minute. Sure enough, 30 seconds later Bonnie shows up.

We settle in and get ready for the party which starts at 2. We set up the badminton net, ping pong table, etc, then I needed a quick shower because it was ungodly hot outside.

Then people started to show up, full Pro-Wrestling costumes and all. Did I forget to mention is the was a 1980s WWF themed party.

So, that's PinkMan from Nintendo's Pro-Wrestling, Man Kind, IRS, and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Then Vince makes his appearance, for which we were convinced he was enjoying having that hair a little too much.

There were finally enough people here to get the wrestling started.

The Ultimate Warrior showed up

I somehow got rooked into being the referee since I didn't have a costume

And the shine to the late Macho Man. SNAP INTO IT!!!

Group shot.

I put my camera down and played some ladderball, which is always fun, someone took the liberty of taking some shots on my behalf.

This is where things get funny, or funnier? Either way I met "Francis". Apparently when Steven (stephen?) has had enough to drink his alter ego make an appearance. This is Francis. And thanks to Bonnie for the super cool embroidered shirt we know that.

Something to take note of: the denim cutoffs. We thought they weren't short enough so we needed to "Charlie" them up from Always Sunny. So I grabbed a pair of scissors and in my drunkenness managed to not cut off his manhood as we cut about 4 more inches off. His wife was really concerned that we didn't cut through the boxers, I guess those were his "good drawls".

Then it was time to cut the cake, which was adorned with a Hulk Hogan picture with Ed's face on it. Happy Birthday big boy. BTW, if you didn't know, and I didn't, Ed hates the Hulkster.

Someone also thought it was a good idea to take the denim clippings and turn them into a fancy boy ascot for Francis.

From here, there is no photographic evidence, only what I remember. We decided to go to the pool, which was only a couple streets away. It was pushing 11-11:30 at this point but there were still a lot of parents with their kids there. One of these responsible adults dropped and broke a bottle. We knew better and only brought cans, I believe of the Bud and Natty Ice variety. We swam around for a while, Ed made some inappropriate jokes about helping underage girls invest their High School graduation money, then a bike cop showed up. Not sure if he was a real cop or just a hired goon. Either way he was cool with us drinking, just wanted to make sure we weren't rowdy teens.

By now we had enough of the pool and went back to the house to enjoy the Best of Macho Man 2 disc DVD set Vince got for Ed for his B'day. After 30 minutes of that it was time to hit the sack. I asked Bonnie for a motrin, advil, etc. She disappeared and came back with a bottle and proceeded to dump about half of the bottle in my hands. haha. Only need one Bon, only need one.

Footnotes from the day:

Diamond, aka Ultimate Warrior got SMASHED and passed out/thew up for the better part of the day starting at around 5 I think.

Vince knows how to throw a party.

I had very little to eat all day since I don't eat BBQ pork. My food intake consisted of Mac&Cheese, a couple biscuits, and some pretzels. Couple that with drinking nothing but Pineapple infused vodka all day, it makes for a very rough day. Thankfully in my old age I paced myself and was ok the next morning.

This brings me to the next day. Since I was a surprise in town we decided to take the boat down to Lake Linear (spelling?). After seeing some hillbilly fools on their jetski's and pontoon boats we launched and were in the water.

Vince wanted to show off a little, throttled it up and I almost flew out of the boat. After that we found a little outcove where the water was calm and chilled out for a bit.

Take note of this girls outfit. Yup. It was well over 90 degrees out when I snapped this. Talk about being committed to your look.

There it is. 36 hours of craziness. I think I pretty much covered it all. I have more pictures but that covers the bulk of it. Big thanks to the Misses who stayed home with the 3 pupps so I could pull this off.

refinished magazine rack/ashtray

2011-05-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

I've got a great idea. Let's put a smoldering cigarette above some very dry paper. Yes, that does exist. It's this cool vintage mag rack and ashtray combo. I picked it up last week at a yardsale along with some Fiberglass lampshades. This one needed to be refinished so I sandblasted it, hit it with the green Scotchbrite pad, then threw a couple coats of paint on it. Enjoy the pictures, this will probably be for sale on our Etsy soon.

Unemployed......again

2011-05-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure who follows me on Twitter or not ( @synthsis ) but I tweeted last month that I was being laid off again. I knew going into this position it was a temporary to possible permanent position depending on how busy the company got over the course of my first couple months there. Well, they didn't get busy, so I was no longer needed.

No hard feelings towards them, the boss even said if they get some big jobs he'd want to bring me back to help out. So, the hunt starts over for something long term and hopefully isn't Retail.

There it is, back to square one. When I told my neighbors they both independently said "Oh no, you get to have off for the summer again, not that." (insert a little happy sarcasm). But that really isn't the objective. As much as I'd love to not have to work again there are things I want to do, fix, buy for the house, etc, and that requires a little more income than Unemployment provides.

For the time being I plan on getting some of those projects done that I didn't have time for when I was working, like cleaning that disaster area of a garage. Look for more updates too.

Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival

2011-04-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we went over to Philly for the Sakara, the blooming of the Cherry Blossoms. I have no idea why, but I've loved Japanese Taiko drumming for years, and as it so happens, there was a college group visiting this year.

dancers

drummer

tiny Subaru

drumming

making friends

nikki and some Lolita cosplay girls

japanese goods

silly dogs

pupp friend

blossoms

cute shiba inu

the wife, having fun.

Mini-Donuts and Estate sale finds

2011-04-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

these two have nothing to do with each other but I'm not giving donuts their own post.

we bought a mini-donut maker from Urban Outfitters on MEGA clearance for $5. This was batch #1. As you can see, they are delicious.

On to the Estate Sale. I woke up today, got some stuff done and decided to see if there were any estate sales listed on Craigslist. Sure enough I found a gem. It was a time capsule house not too far from us and everything was from the 50s or 60s.

noticed the metal kitchen cabinets, I found a tag on one in the basement that said "Lyon". they had the coolest push button latches on them.

don't mind the shitty cell phone pics, my 4 year old Treo isn't exactly top of the line anymore.

Some of the stuff in the pictures was already sold, like the little love seat and the desk. Other stuff was priced kinda high in my opinion. I came home with a couple things. An old Gerard turntable, some pinchpleat drapes, a hamper for the wife to use, and some little stuff for her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Trixiepinks?ref=si_shop I'll be adding more stuff soon. 15% off coupon with the code: "Cupcakes". ok, enough shameless plugging, more pictures.

Roller Skating Costume Birthday party

2011-04-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, about 4 of us (myself included) have birthdays within about a week of each other. I had Nikki 30th surprise party a local skating rink and we had so much fun we decided to do it again. Only this time dressed up as a Celebrity.

Minus 334

2011-04-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

I know I've pretty much given up on the project since I went back to work, but when I do get rid of something I plan on posting it. I acquired a Marantz 2 channel am/fm tuner from my mom's neighbor about a year ago. It was too nice to be trash. A friend of mine is big time into old Marantz gear, so I knew it would end up going to him sooner or later. Well, he stopped by the other day, I walked out to the garage and handed him his new toy. 1 more thing out of the garage.

looked something like this:

the Making of an Eames Lounger

2011-03-27T09:02:00.001-07:00

I found this little video on my favorite gadget site, Gizmodo.com Thought it was pertinent for here, so I snagged it. enjoy.

Miss September 1954

2011-03-12T14:19:00.000-08:00

I know I've been slacking on posts in here since I'm working again, what better way to make it up to everyone by posting a classy naked girl. Without further ado, Miss September. Remember, click for large.

Minus 335: sold the Scotty

2011-02-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

This is a big one. As you know from reading this blog, one of our pupps had a bit of a medical catastrophe back in August. Well, she's doing a lot better now, but we decided that we weren't going to be able to use the camper again since it was going to be difficult with her issues. So, up on the chopping block it went. After responding to a bunch of emails I hammered out a deal with a guy from Massachusetts. Met up with him this afternoon about an hour north and off it went to it's new home.

Minus 336

2011-02-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

On a tear in the closet and I found this pair of Diesel sneaks. I wore the SHIT out of these things, they weren't even good enough to go to the Thrift store, so they got a Viking funeral.

Minus 337

2011-02-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

When I was at my last job I wore my shoes out pretty bad. There was a Sears in the same shopping center so I went over and found a pair I thought I liked. Tried them on, they seemed ok. After having them on for a day my feet said no dice. These are possibly the most uncomfortable shoes in existence.

Minus 338

2011-02-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

After several years of solid use, this belt finally bit the big one, so off to the trash it goes. Gotta find a replacement one, since it matches a pair of my wingtips real good.

Woot Bag O' Crap

2011-02-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is definitely my best one to date. If you read this blog you know that the Woot Bag O Crap is more difficult to catch than a Unicorn at 2am at a dive bar in Philly.

In this Box, I scored pretty good. There's certainly more than $3 worth of stuff in here, and that's how much the B.O.C. costs, plus $5 s/h.

-Aquaglobes

-2 Woot Flying Monkeys

-a Phillips TV remote (which is perfect since we have a Phillips TV, and I lost the remote)

-a small socket/screwdriver set, who doesn't need more of those.

-a sequin purse. this might be the dud of the group, depends on if the wife wants to use it ironically.

-a set of baby onsies

-a set of BPA baby bottles

These last two items are going to our friends who had a baby 2 weeks ago, so it works out perfectly.

Minus 339

2011-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

While cleaning out the laundry room for it's overhaul I came across this gem. It's a heated windshield ice scraper. It's been sitting in the laundry room for I don't even know how long, I don't think I ever even used it, so off to the Thrift Store it went. Hopefully the next person puts it to good use, I'll stick to my old school scraper for now.

No longer "Another Statistic"

2011-02-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

If you follow me on Twitter ( @synthsis ) you saw my tweet earlier today:

13 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day later I have officially accepted an offer for a job at an IT company.

Yup, I'm going to be going back to work, possibly next week, depending on how the pupp is recovering from her surgery (see previous post). I'm going to be working for a local IT company in a newly created position just for me. I'll be doing everything from Sales, to Marketing, to some basic IT tasks like refurbing machines and loading up custom software.

I'm not sure what it's going to mean as far as the destiny of this blog, but I do plan on maintaining it going forward. I'm sure the nonsense and shenanigans will be much less frequent considering I'll be at work 5 days a week and not out romping about the tri-state area.

So, keep checking in, I'm sure I can keep posting fun stuff like vintage Playboy and other fun things I come across in my soon to be mundane life.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Another day, another sick pupp

2011-02-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

Trixie has been under the weather for about a week now. I took her to the Vet last week, she thought it was just a cold or something, gave me eyedrops and antibiotics to give her. Fast forward to this weekend and now she isn't eating, very lethargic, shivering a good bit. I have an appointment in a couple hours to figure out what's going on. Wish us luck.

Playboy- Miss August 1954

2011-02-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

Been busy around the house, some Vintage Playboy was in order for the site this morning. As always, click for larger view.

Laundry Room overhaul

2011-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get an idea in my head and go with it. I knew the tax credit was expiring at the end of 2010 so I went on a mission to find something to buy to take advantage of it. Windows were out of the question since the places that sell affordable ones were backed up for months. Our A/C unit was done over the summer and I didn't pony up the $6Gs for the unit that qualified, so nothing there. Then I remembered the water heater.

Our water heater was in our crawl space, where it ranged from freezing up to 100+ degrees with 100% humidity. Not exactly an ideal location. When it's freezing cold out, the water heater needs to work extra hard just to maintain the temperature. I thought "let's move it to the laundry room." That posed a new problem, no room. Stacking Washer and Dryer! Problem solved.

The Water Heater: if you know me, I don't buy the normal stuff. I need the best, cutting edge, etc. You get the idea. GE GeoSpring was the answer. It works by using the premise of a refrigerator but reverse. It uses something like 70% less electricity than a standard water heater. It also qualifies for the 30% Tax Credit, and that was the key to the purchase.

Ok, enough with the boring stuff, here are the pictures. I also need to say, without my brother's help, there's no way this would have happened. He's pure function. I'm pure form.

Before, don't mind the clutter.

I listed our old side-by-sides on craigslist and they were sold within hours. Maybe I priced them too low, who knows, but all I cared about is that they were gone.

During, new Water Heater in place, washer in place. The Lowes guy forgot to sell me a stacking kit, so it was one more thing we needed to go out and get along with a ton of other connectors, fittings, pipe, brackets, etc.

The final product. I had to use a smaller upper cabinet I had sitting in the garage since the double upper no longer fit.

Just took the first shower with the new water heater, felt good. Nice and hot. The other bonus about our snazzy heater is that I can tweak it all the time with it's LCD display. Warm up the water when we want, turn it down all day. Still have to take the washer & dryer for a test drive, maybe tomorrow.

Minus 340

2011-02-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

We're getting ready to overhaul our laundry room (post to follow) and I was cleaning out one of the cabinets in there and found these. I guess at some point we thought it was a good idea to keep these pots in case we wanted to plant anything in the spring. Well, gardening isn't exactly our forte, so into the recycle bucket these go.

Minus 341

2011-02-01T09:44:00.001-08:00

Somehow we acquired this lightsaber while walking around south Philly after the Mummer's parade. It came home with us, entertained us for the night, now it's just sitting in our laundry room. The batteries are dead now and our niece is too young to play with it, so in the trash it goes.

Minus 348-342

2011-01-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

there was some debate on how to do this, so I decided for the sake of catching up on my countdown, I'm counting these individually. I was cleaning out one of our bookcases and found this pile of old Rachel Ray Magazines. They were the wife's and she has already scoured the pages for anything good, so off to the recycle bucket these go.

Minus 349

2011-01-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

I had to go out to the garage to prep the Snowblower for the potential 8 inches of snow that's on its way right now. While I was out there I took a second to look for something to throw away. Today's item has been sitting at the front of my garage since about June for no good reason other than I didn't really know how to get rid of it. This is the very bald rear tire from my Triumph Bonneville. I tried to go through inspection over the summer but the guy told me No Bueno, tire has no tread left. So, I had to get a new one. When I did, this one just started taking up space in my very cluttered garage. I managed to cram it in my recycle bin, let's see if they take it tomorrow.

Playboy- Miss July 1954

2011-01-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

Is that tiger lucky or still just a dead tiger? Yes, it made it into Playboy and has a naked woman laying on it, but on the other hand, it's still just a dead tiger.

Minus 350

2011-01-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

Man, I've been slacking on these, but I have a good excuse. Spent the past 5 days working over at the Vintage store doing some construction. I was doing some paint and patchwork, that needed to be cleaned up. I dug this vacuum out of the garage and took it over with me, and it didn't come home. That's the idea. The Vintage shop has a new vacuum. This was our old one before we got a Dyson.

Playboy June 1954 feature

2011-01-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sure this chick was real happy to be rolling around the desert and then up on some rocks butt ass nekked. I guess "sets" weren't widely used back then.

Playboy June 1954 Cartoon

2011-01-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

If my Teachers were halfway decent looking AND not mostly Men, this comic would be applicable to my education.

Minus 351

2011-01-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

I bought these shoes a couple years ago. I think I wore them all of 2 times, they've been in the bottom of my closet ever since. My buddy John is in a Rockabilly band, the Buzzards, and I figured he could rock them on stage. So, they're now sitting in the bottom of his closet. Glad to get them to a new home. One more item down.

Playboy- Miss June 1954

2011-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

Minus 352

2011-01-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

I know I've been slacking a little bit in the Minus department but I promise I'll make it up. Today's little item is a funny one. This is a metal bracket used to keep a stove from tipping over. I think it was required to be installed when we bought the house. Since then we have installed our awesome Frigidaire Flair Double Oven, and this little bracket it useless. It's been sitting in our laundry room for going on a year and a half now. Just another example of the clutter we tend to keep around. Today, into the recycle bucket it goes.

Beer Making 101

2011-01-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Something I've been wanting to do for a while is brew my own beer. I found this cool little One Gallon kit from Brooklyn Brewery and put it on my Christmas list. Got a gift certificate and ordered up a kit. So, here's the unboxing. I'll take some shots on the actual brewing when I get going. I need to find a nice big stock pot to brew in first.

Wish me luck.

Playboy- Miss May 1954

2011-01-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Huge improvement from April's Centerfold.

Palm Springs Tram

2011-01-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

When we were on our Honeymoon in California, Palm Springs was one of our key destinations. It is the Mid Century Architecture capital of the world, and if you've read this blog, you know I love me some Mid Century buildings. While we were there, we took in the sights, one of which was the Palm Springs Tram. It ascends one of the highest peaks in the area, 8500 feet above the valley. I was on one of my weekly Thrift store adventures today and saw this cool collectible plate, I had to have it. It was a whopping Dollar. It's going to go in the kitchen with our Niagara Falls plate, where we got engaged. So I've got one from before, and one from after.

And here's one of us at the top of the Mountain, after taking the tram all the way up.

I've been meaning to do a full writeup of the Honeymoon, I'll get around to it. It was 11 days, 1100 miles, and a ton of fun.

Playboy April 1954- 2page spread

2011-01-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a little 2 page spread from the April 1954 Issue. If you can read the words that are vertical it says her name isn't disclosed. I wonder who this mystery woman is.

As always, click for large.

Taco night

2011-01-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

We try to eat Tacos about once a week around here. I'm not talking about those Americanized, Taco Bell nonsense Tacos. I'm talking authentic Mexican tacos. This week we went for Fish, something that is always tasty. No puns or jokes please. Pollock was on sale this week, so we grabbed a fillet and got to work. This was the first time baking the fish this way, but we think they came out pretty good. It's a simple Cornmeal coating then baked for 10 minutes or so.

All Baked

Prep Area, notice the Cilantro, Limes, and the distinct lack of shredded cheese or lettuce.

My brother got me this skillet for Christmas for this sole purpose. It works wonderfully.

Plates loaded up, ready for consumption.

So, if you're ever in the area, hit me up on Twitter ( @synthsis) and I'll make sure I feed you some tasty Tacos that night. Only thing missing were the Tecate's.

Cadbury Crunchie. Greatest Candy bar ever

2011-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

When I was 18, I was fortunate enough to win a pair of roundtrip tickets to London from British Airways. They had some slotmachine game on their website and if it came up 3 Towers of London you won. Sure enough, I won. I was also able to buy additional tickets at a big discount. So, Me, my girlfriend at the time, and 2 buddies flew across the pond for about 5 days of nonsense. It was pretty cool to be in another country at 18 with no real supervision and a drinking age of "Can you see over the bar? then you can drink." But that's not the point of this post. The point is possibly the best candy bar I've ever had. Down in the London Subway (the Tube) they had vending machines sprinkled pretty much everywhere. In them, for a 1 Pound coin, you could get a variety of candybars. I don't remember all of them, but I do remember the Crunchie. It's a honeycomb covered in milk chocolate. delicious. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can get them whenever I want. For Christmas I put them on my list, and sure enough the wife and my mom each got me a half dozen. I've been using some restraint on eating them all, but at least I can get more whenever I want. So, hit up this link and order yourself a couple. You'll thank me later.

Minus 353

2011-01-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

This isn't truly a reduction, but more of a replacement. I'm pretty good with my shoes since I want them to last a long time, but for some reason this pair of New Balances got whooped real quick. On the outside, they look new still, but on the inside the plastic heel cup was poking me in the Achilles's almost nonstop, so they had to be replaced. Normally, the old pair gets knocked down to lawn-care duty, but these are going in the trash. They have been replaced with another pair of New Balances, Made in the USA. Gotta love that part. Keep our jobs here.

Playboy Miss April 1954

2011-01-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

Man, those are some puffy nipples. Sorry folks.

Minus 354

2011-01-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

Another item from the Bathroom. Just one of many I'm sure I'll be posting since our Linen closet was a trainwreck. I don't even remember where or when I got this electric shaver, and since I use a Safety Razor (Merkur Futur!!!) and soap&brush, this Remington has to go.

Sled dog

2011-01-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not normally one to find something on the internet and just plop it here for no reason. I was just using Stumble (a cool toolbar that will take you to a random website with every click). We're expecting 4 to 6 inches of snow tonight, on top of the 2 inches that landed today, so this is appropriate.

This dog knows what's up.

Minus 355

2011-01-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

Since I've switched over to a brush and shaving soap this can of Edge Shaving gel is no longer needed. It's brand new, can't even remember when I bought it. And as you can see by my face peeking out in the picture, I'm sporting my winter beard as well. So, this is going to my brother next time I see him.

Playboy April-1954 Illustration

2011-01-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing special about this one, just like the way it's drawn. Nothing like a corseted and stockinged illustration. Could make a cool stylized tattoo.

Gidget 4 months later

2011-01-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

It's been about 4 months since Gidget was diagnosed with a Fibrocartilagenous Embolism (FCE) see original post here: Gidget FCE and I just wanted to do a recap to update the people who have helped us out over the past couple months.

Basically, she's pretty much a normal dog. Has a monstrous appetite, just as usual. I swear she would eat all day if she could. Loves to lay in front of the space heater, we call it her Best Friend. Barks at the mail-lady, plays with toys, hangs out with the other dogs. Overall, we think she's a pretty happy dog. We even bought her a custom made wheelchair which she doesn't need or will even use. She can run around the backyard pretty good, her back legs "rabbit", moving together instead of individually, if you know what I mean.

Some things that have changed:

-She needs help going to the bathroom. We have perfected the "art" of expressing her, both #1 and #2. Now, she can poop on her own, but she doesn't exactly do it on command or outside, so we have adopted the practice of just helping her out so we have it under control. One of the benefits of having a 7 pound dog is that she can go where you want her to go, like in the bathroom sink. Don't worry, I keep a bottle of bleach right there for sterile cleanup.

-We've had to modify her diet a little bit. Since she can't fully empty her bladder on her own she's at risk for kidney and bladder stones. The Vet has her on a primarily wet food diet. A small scoop of dry food, a little dish of wet food, and some water. We make it like soup, and she loves it. She also has to take some drops twice a day to keep the stones in check.

-She can no longer use her back legs to scratch the front of herself, you know, that funny thing all dogs do. She can pick her back leg up a little and arch her neck, so you know what she's trying to do, but just can't get the pieces in order. To remedy this, she gets lots of scratches from us. She has also figured out how to roll around on the carpet in such a way to scratch her face, so she's adapting.

-Since she has some bathroom and stability issues, she sleeps in a pen with her sister. Don't want her falling out of bed or making a mess at night. It's right next to our bed, has a heated pad, 3 blankets, and 2 pillows in it. Sometimes I think they're more comfortable than I am.

Other than those couple issues I listed, she's a perfectly normal dog. Does she require some extra attention and care? Of course. Am I glad we have the means and ability to care for her? OF COURSE. She's one of our kids and we do what we have to. It's just sad to see that some dogs are put down because the owner just doesn't have the patience to help a special needs dog. My point is, if you or someone you know ends up having an issue with their dog (or cat for that matter) stick with it, it's not as bad as you think. There are forums, support groups, knowledge bases, etc to help you through it. Ok, enough of that, now for some pictures.

Minus 356

2011-01-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

This is one of those things that has been just hanging around because of my sheer laziness. I had this old Ikea kitchen table in the back of my truck for a while, it was destined for the Thrift Store. Well it got damaged so I threw it out. In the process I ended up with 4 metal connecting pieces floating around the bed of my truck for about 8 months now. As I'm bringing the recycle bucket up to the house today they are going right into it. No picture as it's just a couple pieces of metal, but it's important to get them out of here. reduce.the.clutter.

Playboy, Miss March 1954

2011-01-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Playboy Charter Subscription prices

2011-01-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's funny how the world comes full circle on some things. As of this post I have the following subscriptions that I paid nothing, not a dime for: Maxim, Esquire, SPIN, and Wired. Just shows how the internet is a wonderful place. Now, back in 1954, I'm sure $6 a year is like eating steak dinner 5 nights a week, but someone must have ponied up the money the dough considering Playboy is still kicking after 50 + years.

Check out that crazy open cup bunny costume. very bizarre.

Etsy shameless plug

2011-01-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

Since it looks like I've got some new eyes looking at my site I figured now is as good a time as any to do a little Self Promotion. The Wife and I have a little Etsy store thing going on. Mostly Vintage Lingerie and Vintage housewares. Take a peek and maybe you'll see something you like.

http://www.etsy.com/people/Trixiepinks

some examples:

Minus 357

2011-01-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Today's item is this lowly old Tiki torch. It's been outside for a couple years, enduring our crappy New Jersey winters and It's about whooped. I even had to replace the original twine with zip ties to keep it together. I'll probably replace it with a shiny new one in the summer, so for now, this one goes to the trash and recycling gods.

Miss February 1954

2011-01-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

This one is pretty nice for it only being issue #3 from way back in 1954. Very stylized, almost like an illustration, but that was just because color photography wasn't widely used back then.

as always, click for large.

Minus 358

2011-01-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

Nothing exciting today, just threw a pile of clothes in the trash that weren't even good enough to turn into rags. Socks and Underwear. man, they are OLD.

Playboy shows us some cools desks.

2011-01-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

There's nothing more Mid Century when it comes to Herman Miller furniture. Their Iconic Shell chairs are still produced today and orignal examples bring big money. In this little article, you get the vibe of what a nice office looked like back in the day.

(click for large)

Miss January 1954

2011-01-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the second photo from my new series of vintage Playboys.

I'm gonna scan through and see if I can dig up a cool article or two to post later tonight so check back often.

Minus 359

2011-01-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

This is a prime example of why we have so much crap in our house. About 6 or 8 months ago, might have even been a year my grandmom gave me some of her old cell phones to recycle. Well, they were in a bag in my truck for god knows how long. Then I cleaned out my truck and they made their way into the laundry room. Well today, they are now packed up and out of here.

final product. wrapped up and on it's way out.

Playboy. the 1950s.

2011-01-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

I'm starting another new feature on the site today. Everyday I will be posting a least one picture, article, cartoon, etc from one of the Playboys from the 1950s. I felt it was only fitting for the first picture to be the one that started it all, Marilyn Monroe.

I'll be going through my digital archive and posting things that are cool, vintage, interesting, or sexy. So, check back often as I'll be posting these all the time. Just make sure you don't get in trouble at work.

Minus 360

2011-01-01T09:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being a little late for this, but we were having company over last night so I was cleaning and running around all day yesterday. So, there's gonna be another post later tonight for my item for the 1st. For now I give you my item of the last day of 2010:

My backup Espresso machine.

Yes, you read that correctly. My "spare" espresso machine. When I bought my Breville about a year and a half ago I threw this one on a shelf in the laundry room. It actually did come in handy when I had to send the Breville back for service but now I have a bunch of different methods of making coffee if that happens again.

Off to the thrift store this one goes with all the rest of the stuff from last week.

Minus 361

2010-12-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

Today's item is something that's been lingering around for a while, over a year while. When a couple friends of mine watched the house when we were away they bought some little cigars and had some Scotch. All good, except I don't smoke. I don't know why I didn't throw this little guy away months ago. Figured maybe someone would smoke it, even though it's probably stale as hell by now. So I bid you a farewell, little cigar. One more item gone.

Minus 362

2010-12-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Today's item isn't so glamorous. As most men do, I wear my underwear until they are pretty much Swiss Cheese. So, for today I am putting a pair of my ratty old undies in the trash. Now, for everyone's sake, I will not be posting a picture of them as that might be a vomit inducing sight for some or a weird fetish for others. In their place here's a random picture of underwear I found on Google.

Hell, those look like fun, maybe I'll even buy a pair. I know the wife likes Hello Kitty.

Minus 363

2010-12-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

This item has been floating around the house for a while and has landed in our sunroom for a while. We are to the point now we I have pretty much eradicated all of the Ikea from our house, save for some small odds&ends. So, onto the chopping block this one goes. Getting rid of stuff feels good. I just need to make sure I don't blow it all too quickly and have nothing by the end. Might need to stretch that bag of Thrift store clothes out for a few days.

stock pic from the interwebs since I don't feel like going out into the cold to take a picture.

Giant Ice Cubes

2010-12-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned it before, I like Scotch. Cold Scotch. If you drink yours piss warm, that's your call. It's pretty common practice to use large, distilled cubes since they melt slowly and will not taint the taste of your fine Single Malt. I put this tray on my Christmas list and thanks to Mom, I got it. I just filled it with distilled water and threw it in the freezer. I plan on giving it a try tonight during the Eagles vs Vikings game.

If I like these I'm good to go. I may also try the granite cubes that are made in Vermont. They do pretty much the same thing, only won't melt, duh.

Minus 364

2010-12-27T16:45:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of my reduction. Technically I sold this before I started counting, but December 23rd is close enough for me. I was on this kick earlier this year and wanted a bicycle. All good, right? I nabbed a Single Speed Fuji off of eBay and ran over to Philly to pick it up. (see post from June or July). I had to put new tires on it and put a brake on it since it was setup as a fixed gear/no brake. I rode it all summer. Got some good exercise and realized something at the same time. If I want to ride with my friends who have geared bikes I need a geared bike too. Since, when it came time to hit the hills they just shifted and pulled away. So on to craigslist this one went and after dealing will fools for a while I got a buyer. Some hipster kid from South Philly. Glad it's gone, now I can get a bike I really want in the spring.

Gidget playng with a new toy

2010-12-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything about our cripple dog, Gidget. If you read back through the archives, you'll see she had a Spinal Stroke (FCE for short). She is doing pretty good these days. She can walk, even run, get around on her own without her wheelchair. She still needs help going to the bathroom and can't jump or anything, but we think she's a pretty happy dog, so we're happy. Here's a little video Nikki made while I was outside snowblowing 2 feet of snow.

the dopest nail clippers around

2010-12-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

This is a weird post, for several reasons. It's kinda weird to write a blog post about nail clippers, and it's equally weird that I asked for the for Christmas and actually got them. I don't remember exactly where I saw them first, it might have been Uncrate.com, a favorite man gadget site I check out. I was pretty fed up with the clippers we had. They couldn't get through my Frito-chip toenails, would slip off my fingers, and generally leave a bad edge.

Anyhow, ACE, the company famous for unbreakable combs also has a line of other grooming products. In this line is a serious pair of clippers. They feel like medical instruments, refined and engineered. The big plus: they're not a ton of money, under $10 each.

Here's an Amazon link (free shipping!):

I highly recommend every man has a nice set of clippers. Either buy them yourself or get them as a gift for that man in your life.

Minus 365

2010-12-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

I know this is something other people have done but I think it's an exercise I need to try in an effort to reduce the amount of junk (and of crap) we have around the house. I am going to try to get rid of one item a day for a year. Some days it might be something big like our Lambretta but other days it might be some old socks.

Since it's the day after Christmas I thought today would be a good day to start documenting. Over the past 2 weeks I actually got rid of a couple bigger items and for the fun of it I'm kicking off the series with a semi-large item, our Lambretta Scooter.

I bought it back in the spring as a fun little something for the wife to scoot around on. After messing with it for a while I realized it was not going to be as reliable as I needed it to be for her, since she can't exactly do her own repairs on the side of the road. So, it went back on the block and ended up going to Arizona.

There it is, one item down, 364 to go.

Fight shots. Locked in the Cage

2010-12-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks back I met up with a guy who runs the main MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) blog in the Mid Atlantic area. You wouldn't know it by some of the posts on this site, but other than cool old vintage stuff, fighting is my favorite hobby. There was a local fight going down and I asked if he would mind if I tagged along to shoot some pics for his site. I figured I'd get a cool, free cageside seat and he'd get a nice photo gallery for his blog. After the fight was over I got a chance to meet the promoter and we got talking. Turns out he needed someone to shoot officially for the promotion and away we went. If all things go according to plan I will be covering all of the Locked in the Cage fights going forward. Not only is it really cool to shoot a sport you love, but the freedom to go shoot the fighters back stage, get real close, and be part of the action is awesome. Here are some of the polished shots from the first event. Disclaimer: the lighting was VERY challenging, to say the least, so I'll be working on some different techniques to capture the action better.

Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

As you know, there was a bad ass lunar eclipse the other night. Here on the East Coast, optimal viewing was around 2:45 in the A.M. Lucky for me I don't need to be up early for anything so with some strategic alarm setting I was able to covertly ninja my way out of bed to see it.

After I snuck out of bed, I grabbed a camera and a tripod and made my way out into the cold. and man was it cold. Flip-flips are not December attire, lets just say that. Not much more to say but here are some of the pics I shot.

One Year Later....

2010-12-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well, After 1 year, I am still just another statistic. Today Is the one year anniversary of me losing my job. Now, while nothing drastic has happened over the past year a lot of fun a great things have happened.

-We went to Guatemala. The First time I've been out of the country since I was 18 and we went to London. Also, the first time Nikki left the country.

-Went to Florida, twice. Once to visit Family, again for our anniversary.

-I officially became a paid photographer. Something I've been working on for a long time. After shooting a lot pro bono, I landed a small gig with a local MMA Organization.

-I'll call it the "Gidget Incident". We are now proud parents of a special needs dog.

There was a ton more stuff that happened over the past year, and you can cruise back through the archive to see what kind of nonsense we were up to. With Christmas quickly approaching I'm happy that we're pretty good with our money situation and we are able to have a pretty normal Christmas, no Charlie Brown tree at this house. Well, we actually have a vintage Aluminum tinsel tree, so we always have a fun tree, but you get the idea.

I do have some employment prospects, which is refreshing considering the job market, but I won't find out about those until after New Years. Even after I get back to work I plan on continuing the site. It's a good place to keep up on what's going on around here, even if it is pretty mundane. So, if you have some time, feel free to go back through the posts, and if you have a favorite, leave a comment.

First Storage Locker Auction

2010-12-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, and since A&E now has a show about it, I guess it spurred me to track one down. I found a listing online for a local auction at one of the UStore places not too far from here. It was at Noon. I pulled up and the parking lot was full of nothing but mid-30s and older white guys. Most sipping on a coffee or smoking a cigarette.

The auctioneer comes out, reads a list of rules, and we proceed to the first locker. 3 or 4 minutes of looking inside before the action starts. It was full of shit, for the most part. I snapped a shitty cell phone pic before the auction assistant announced no photos please.

This shitbox sold for $425. Who knows if there's anything of value in there. I talked to the guys who bought it, they own a Liquidation company, so maybe they can turn a profit. After that we went to the next locker, a tiny closet sized one. It had pretty much a crappy old TV, a foldaway bed, and a little toolbox. That was it. Sold for $75.

All that hub-bub for 2 lockers. Geez, seems like a big waste to have all these people involved for 2 lockers. It was interesting and I'm sure I'll check one out in the future. So, if you have some time to kill, see if you can find one in your area. You never know what gold you might stumble on to.

Sam Adams Infinium

2010-12-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

I remember reading about this stuff last year and didn't pay much mind to it. Well, over the past year I've gotten a little more into good beer, even looking to do some brewing on my own at some point. I saw that my local store was getting in a grand total of 1, count em, 1 case of Infinium today so I figured I'd see if I could snag a bottle. Called around 10:30, not in yet. Got my stuff together for the day and stopped by on my way to a Storage Locker Auction (see other post) and sure enough, it had just arrived. The kid cracked open the box and handed me the first bottle. I'm going to hold onto it for New Year's Eve. I'm not big into Champagne but Nikki is, so she can have that, and I'll give this a whirl.

At $20 a bottle, it better be pretty tasty. If you're looking for something new or different, see if your local Liquor Store has a bottle or two.

Silex Vacuum Coffee Pot, test 1 and 2

2010-12-06T07:54:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I got a chance to use my new coffee gadget a couple times. Thanks to YouTube I was able to track down a quick video on exactly how everything was supposed to go down. On my first pot I made a mistake, the grounds were too coarse and possible not enough grounds. The pot I made last night was perfect, the coffee was smooth, piping hot, and overall very tasty. Here's a couple pics of it in action.

water on the burner

Grounds ready

Percolating in progress

Vacuum effect

So, next time your at the thrift store or antique store and see one of these contraptions, pick it up, it might be your new favorite way to make a pot of coffee

Latest Coffee gadget aquisition

2010-12-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

I love coffee. It's a fact. Caffeine doesn't really do much to me, so it's not that kind of love. Espresso, French Press, even a good Drip is all I want. I was cruising through the local Thrift Store a week or so ago and came across this goodie. I wasn't really sure what it was or how to work it, so I went home to do a little research. Turns out its a Silex Vacuum pot. And this one appears to be New Old Stock, since the little coffee filter sock doesn't look like it's been used. I don't have time today to brew a pot, going to shoot an MMA fight tonight, but I plan on giving it a whirl tomorrow. For now, here are some pics after a good thorough cleaning.

Check back for a full test writeup over the weekend.

Etsy

2010-12-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

Consider a little self advertising, but I just wanted to put up a post linking to my wife's Etsy store. We've got about a dozen things listed so far and have some more stuff to add over the next couple days. It's going to be mostly little house doodads and some vintage clothing. All proceeds from the store will go to the Gidget Fund http://newfoundfreetime.blogspot.com/2010/08/gidget-fund.html , the little piggy bank we use to help with her Medical expenses, etc. If you have a minute, take a peek, maybe you'll see something you like. If you decide to buy, just put a little note in the comment box on the sale to let her know you found it here.

Trixie Pinks Etsy Store

Anniversary Party at our local Bike Shop

2010-11-29T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last Friday our LBS (Caffeinated Cyclist) had their 1 year anniversary party. I'm still new to cycling but I indirectly know the owner and a couple friends were going so we stopped over for a little bit. Some pizza, cookies, and 2 kegs of Flying Fish beer were on hand for us. There was also a 1 mile TT challenge on the Cycle Trainer. This is one of those dope ones that hooks up to the internet so you can race people in different locations and stuff, really cool piece of equipment. After watching some people put down some solid times, like 2:3X.XX, my buddies decided to hop on. Steve went first and I think he did a 2:45 or so. Evan went next, did a 3:01 but almost died after and had to be driven home so he could recover, weaksauce.

During some down time, my wife decided to have a go at it, more for the experience than anything. Just to see how a trainer really worked. A couple of the guys convinced her to make a real run at it and she knocked it out in just over 4 minutes, which is great for someone who doesn't even ride, let alone know how to operate the gear levers. Thankfully Steve played the gears for her to make sure she was in the right gears at the right time.

While I was building up my courage, aka drinking the Flying Fish, we found out that the "PBR Challenge" was in effect for the TT. This is something that the shop owner instituted for the 12 mile course. Basically you crack open a can of PBR and have to finish it before you can put that hand back on the bars. For every beer you drink, you get 1 minute off your time. Since everyone else had gone it was up to me to make the first stab a chugging a beer and keeping up a good pace for the mile course, which had 2 sick hills in the final 1/4mile.

We came up with a game plan to crack the beer and drink it with my left hand since I didn't need to change out of the big ring until the end and keep about an 18-20mph pace. Turns out the beer went down easier than I thought it would. I ended up with a 3:09, only 8 seconds off the pace of Evan, who was really hustling the whole time, but even better, my real time was a 2:09, a class best time.

A couple more people did a run and then it was time to announce the winners. Little did I know, the winner in each class got a $50 shop gift card. Turns out my time was the best for 26-30. So now I have some loot to spend on projects. We had a lot of fun and now Nikki is trying to convince me to drop the money on a trainer for the house so she can race in the living room in front of our 56" TV. haha.

Steve getting ready

Nikki reppin hard on the bike

My victory PBR

Christmas Gifts and consciensous shopping

2010-11-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

With the Holidays rapidly approaching I feel compelled to do a little Soap Boxing on something that really means a lot to me: Buying Local, Buying Vintage, Buying American.

I've come to the conclusion that no matter how hard you try you are still going to end with something that was made in some godforsaken factory in China. There are just some items that can not be purchased these days that are made anywhere other than Shenzhen.

With that out of the way, I'd like you to think about what's on your "wishlist". When we were working on our wedding registry I went out of my way to try to source items that were either made in America or made where I know that the worker was earning a decent wage. Our Pots and Pans are All Clad brand, made right in Pennsylvania. Most of our glassware in the kitchen is either made from recycled glass, vintage items, or Pyrex, also made in Pennsylvania.

A couple resources for finding cool vintage items:

www.etsy.com
eBay
Your local Thrift and Antique Shops. *you'd be surprised what cool stuff you can find at the Thrift store.
madeinusa.org
Just google "made in usa" and you'll get a slew of results.

I'm a big fan of American Apparel, made in downtown L.A. The shirts are good quality, they fit my awkward body perfectly, and best of all, they're made in the US.

try to give gifts that are experiences other than "stuff". Take someone out to dinner at a local (non-corporate) restaurant. Donate to a local charity in their name, the local Animal Shelter loves us for this reason.

Scotch and Whiskey

2010-11-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

This was being discussed on a forum I'm a member of so I figured it would be a good read over here as well.

I have a pretty funny Pappy Van Winkle story. My wife got a giftcard from work to any of the Garces restaurants in Philly. He's one of the Iron Chefs. Well, there's a place called Village Whiskey that we like to go to. They have a Scotch/Whiskey menu instead of a wine menu. The two bartenders are true enthusiasts of the game, real Mixologists. The one guys makes the greatest Whiskey Sour we've ever had. He uses raw egg white, old school style to make the foam. No sour mix anywhere behind the bar.

Well, we went for dinner and drinks one night. I had 2 different single malts, the 12 yr Dalemore was one of them. Pretty tasty. At the end of the night we handed him our gift certificate and he gives us a look.

"You need to spend this entire thing all at once."

"Why?"

"It's kinda a business to business giftcard, it doesn't really exist." (My wifes company did a lot of work for the Garces Company, so some giftcards were exchanged as thanks.)

"Ok, what should we do"

"Either start ordering round for people at the bar, or get something really nice for yourself, like the Dalemore 28 year."

Then my wife has an idea. "Make me the most expensive Whiskey Sour you can."

If I didn't know any better, I'd think our bartender pee'd himself a little out of excitement. He goes all the way to the top of the bar and pulls down the bottle of Pappy. He then explains to us how they only make a limited number of bottles a year for the entire world and it's almost impossible to find one in the store. So, she got a Whiskey Sour made with Pappy and I got a glass of Dalemore 28yr to spend the rest of the giftcard. Mine was $40, her's was about $60. Best $100 we spent in a long time.

A real Christmas light display

2010-11-22T18:39:00.001-08:00

I can only hope to aspire to something as AWESOME as this light display.

Spooky Moon

2010-11-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

Saw this tonight, that is all.

HotRod Hoedown 2010

2010-11-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

I realize that this car show was back towards the beginning of September, but hey, I've been busy. Anyhow, I just dumped everything off of my memory card and put together a slideshow of the event. The Hoedown is one of the best shows in the area, and this year it was held at the super cool Simeone Auto Museum in Philly.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Cool old Lambretta commercial

2010-11-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across this over on Jalopnik, figured it was appropriate since I'm selling our Lambretta.

Check a couple posts back for the Scooter For Sale post.

the smells of the ride.

2010-10-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm lucky when it comes to my ride times, but I've found that within a half hour of y house I can get a pretty good meal all sniffered up depending on which direction I go. Granted, there's always that pitfall of taking 476 over to Philly, and that means riding right over the shithole that is known as Camden, but these are the prices you pay to take a ride to the city where you can blast around without your helmet on.

So, if I head south on rt55, I cruise past the Progresso soup factory. Smells like Minestrone soup most of the time, but what the hell do I know, all soup smells the same to me.

Just about 5 miles from my house is the ADM Cocoa plant, which, as you guessed it, emanates the wonderful stank of chocolate. This is hit or miss and can really travel if the wind if blowin the right direction.

Also on the way to Philly, or 295, the J&J Snack Foods plant pumps out Churros in the evening, and at 65mph, that's an awesome smell. I almost want to pull over to get a good whiff.

And the last place off the top of my head is the Melitta Coffee plant. You can actually see it from 295 and man, when they are roasting those beans, it's a refreshing change of smell compared to the usual emissions soccer mom's are blowin out of the ass end of their caravans.

Next time you hop on your bike for a ride, take a minute to see if you can catch a whiff of something tasty, or as in the case of shithole Camden, cover up, it's gonna be a rough couple miles.

For Sale: our 1963 Lambretta LI125 Scooter

2010-10-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

I don't really want to do this but circumstances force a move. If you read this blog you'll know I'm out of work and Gidget recently racked up a MASSIVE vet bill at UPenn. Luckily, she's gonna be fine, which is really all that matters. But it put a big dent in my savings. So, reluctantly I'm putting the Lammy 125 up for sale.

In short, I bought this back in the Spring as a fun little tool around scoot for the wife. I got some parts for it and poked around for a little while but never got it running. It has a spark issue that I can't track down. The electrical system on this scooter is almost non-existent so it's just a matter of using a meter to find the problem. I did purchase the flywheel pulling tool, new points and a new condenser, all will come with the scooter. I also have a clean Title in hand, which makes this scooter much more desirable since titles aren't always with the scooter.

Parts are plentiful and cheap, It's just needs a weekend of work to be rolling down the road again. Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you want to come look at it.

$1250 OBO

Thanks!

Pet Rescue stickers for FREE plus a good cause

2010-09-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was at the Vet today with Trixie when I picked up one of the magazines laying around. I came across an ad for Pet Rescue Alert and the promotion their running. All you do is upload a picture of your pet and they'll mail you a Rescue sticker customized with the picture you uploaded FOR FREE.

http://www.gopetplan.com/firesafety/

And a bonus, for every 100 pictures that are uploaded, the company PetPlan, will donate a Pet Oxygen Mask kit to a fire department. How cool is that?!?!

So, get crackin'!
http://www.gopetplan.com/firesafety/

And, if you're so inspired, use the buttons below where the comment section is to Tweet, Facebook, Blog, etc to spread the word. Let's see how many free Oxygen kits we can get out there!

Gidget update

2010-09-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted any updates on Gidget, so here goes. Her wheelchair came last week, but she's almost to the point where she doesn't even need it. Week over week, she improves a little bit more and more. Her left leg is still weak and a little gimpy but the right one is pretty good. She's even starting to pee on her own, which they said probably wouldn't happen. It's amazing how much she's recovered in just over a month.

That's about it for now, I'll post up again next time she makes some significant progress. Who would have thought this little 8 pound dog would be so resilient.

Guatemala. Day 2.

2010-09-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in Guatemala was our first full day with our tour group. We were directed to meet in the hotel lobby at 8. This meant we needed to be up real early to grab the awesome complimentary breakfast at the hotel restaurant to get there in time. And by awesome I mean they had like 8 different kinds of juice including Papaya, Papaya with sugar, AND WATERMELON!

So, after breakfast it was on to our bus for the 1 or so drive to Antigua, an old Spanish Colonial town. On our way out of Guatemala city we got to see some of the cool and crazy cars that we don't have back at home.

Chicken Bus, famous in the area for stopping and picking you up and dropping you off where ever.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get one of these little vans back to the states, preferably filled with some stray dogs from Chichicastenango.

and a little truck version of the one above.

Once we got a little further out of the city we saw some of the landslides we had been hearing about. It was pretty alarming to see them up close, especially since they had killed a bunch of people. These were not that bad, the bad ones were later.

After traversing the rough highway systems of Central America, we made it to Antigua. First stop was Santa Domingo Monestary, a sprawling complex right in the middle of the city. It was really cool, had some old art, some new art, and some bones. We spent a little too much time there for my liking, but such is life. After the monastery we were toted to a Jade Factory, where they made you captive customers to buy their overpriced Jade crap jewelry, luckily we were smart enough to avoid this trap. Lunch was free time, and unlike most of the fools on our bus, we actually ventured out of the recommended lunch spot and found a good local place.

For the sake of time, cruise through this slideshow.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

After lunch, it was back on the bus for the 2+ hour drive to Chichicastenango. Chichi (as it will be referred to from now on for the sake of my typing) is known for pretty much one thing, the Sunday Market. See, this is RURAL country, where there isn't an eye-sore WalMart or a ShopRite anywhere for hours. This is where the locals come to get their life's necessities. Soap, food, clothing, even to make phone calls. I'll get into that deeper on the next post.

We made a stop along the way at a restaurant so we could use the "happy room" as our guide called it. Out in front of the restaurant there were a couple vendors selling junk, scarves, hats, machetes (which are everywhere BTW), so we had to look.

Nikki bought this snappy scarf:

This might be the best $5 I've spent in a LONG time:

yes, that is a full face mask/hat with eye and mouth hole, in fashionable rainbow. They had black, etc, but how could you turn down rainbow........OR double rainbow.....across the sky.

Gino found a tasty frozen treat, that was actually 2 frozen treats in one.

That's our new friend Jay in the background.

So, back on the road to Chichi. oh yea, you can buy beer everywhere, which I did at the stop. (for some reason this picture won't rotate for me :/)

Take a good hard look at this picture. that is all.

Nikki had a go with the mask hat.

Finally made it to Chichi and checked into our hotel. The room has no a/c or no heat, just a fireplace. The weather is so temperate all year that the fireplace is all you need at night.

I'm gonna cut it off here and write up our first night in Chichi in the next post as it makes more sense to do it that way. Or I'm just lazy. you decide.

the Eames are my heros.

2010-09-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this dope video on how they make the fiberglass shell chairs. I've always wanted an original and Nikki wants one as a Rocker. maybe someday.

thanks to Gizmodo for the find on the vid.

Guatemala. Day 1.

2010-09-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

First and foremost I want to say that we tried to cancel this trip after Gidget got sick, but since we didn't opt for the Travel Insurance, we were going to lose 90% of the money towards the trip. Since we booked it months ago, we had no choice but to go. Luckily Nikki's sister (also now in line for sainthood) offered to watch our crippled dog for us.

This is the first part of our trip to Guatemala. We went with my brother and his wife, since they are the veteran travelers, they are good a sniffing out the deals and such. We found a decent package for 5 days that included trips out to Lake Atitlan and Chichicastenango from the central point of Guatemala City. Our flight was flying out of Newark, and ugh, unfortunately it was leaving at 6am. That meant we needed to be on the road by about 3am to make it up t Newark in time. I stayed up all day but Gino, Jackie, and Nikki all took a nap since they worked on Thursday. This started to take its toll on me at about 330am and I managed to take a quick nap on the way up to Newark. The first part of our flight was pretty uneventful with a short layover in Atlanta. This gave us time to get some breakfast and make a call to Kristen to see how Gidget was doing. She’s the saint that she is offered to watch our cripple dog while we were away. Funny thing about Gidget on Thursday is she decided she wanted to be super mobile all day, scootin herself all over the place. So that's a good thing and a bad thing since you really have to keep an eye on her now. The second part of the trip was pretty boring and I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep. When we got about 20 minutes from approach we noticed that we were just circling. After a missed pass the pilot informed us that the weather was bad and he was diverting to Honduras for fuel and to ride out the weather. We make it out to Honduras and from what we could see from the plane, the country was gorgeous.

After sitting on the ground for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours, since they actually closed Guatemala City International, we were cleared to head back. As we line up to make our approach and descent we noticed it was still pretty bad out but we just wanted to land. Then, the pilot pulls up again. WTF!?!?!?!?! He jumps on the intercom and tells us this time it isn't the weather or a visual issue, it's that the plane that was scheduled to take off was still on the Runway. Since Guatemala City only has 1 airstrip, it's kinda hard to land if there's a plane still down there. Finally we land, several hours behind schedule and hop on the shuttle bus to the hotel.

We stayed at the Barcelo, which was far nicer than I expected, so that was a nice surprise after being stuck in a plane all day.

The exchange ratio for currency was just about 8 Guatemalan dollars to 1 US dollar, so we felt like kings taking the money out of the ATM.

Since we were so delayed because of the flight we didn't have a ton of time to explore the city that night but we did need to get something to eat. There was a map at the front desk that showed us where some stuff was and there happened to be a mall a couple blocks away. Being the bloated American consumerists that we are, we had to see another countries mall, right?

On our way there, I heard an unmistakable sound, a marching band. Now if you know me, I can't escape the sounds of the drums. Gloria Estefan was right, the rhythm is going to get you.....and it got me a long time ago.

Turns out we were there the week of Independence Day, and man did they take it seriously, but in a good way.

After seeing what that was all about we made it the rest of the way to the mall. I don't want to go too local, but the mall was pretty much like any other crappy mall you'd see in America. Except they had Mannequins with giants boobs.

And Dr. Mario Themed Barber shops.

We managed to find the food court on the 4th floor and my hunt for tacos was on. Luckily, this was not a difficult task, but communicating was. See, I speak just enough Spanish to order Tacos, beers, and ask where the Banos' is. When there are followup questions involved I get lost quickly. Jackie and Nikki spoke a bit more Spanish than me and Gino, so they were our impromptu translators when it came to things like this.

After we found the taco place I put my order in for a couple chicken tacos and a wacky beverage. This is when the 2 guys working at the place had a good chuckle at my expense since I didn't know a word they were saying. A couple minutes later we were all in taco heaven.

Now that we were all full of Taco goodness we figured we'd check out the town a little and see what was near our hotel. We found one little strip of a street that was nothing but bars and nightclubs. We settled on a Mexican place, of all things, to have some beers.

Notice we're all drinking Gallo, which we found out was pretty much the national beer of Guatemala. Pretty tasty too. I hit the mens room to make more room for more Gallos and noticed this.

I guess it's a good cheap way to dispose of the used limes and keep the place smelling fresh too. We were there for a half hour or so and the woman behind us somehow made her way into our conversation. Her English was about as good as our Spanish, so you know this was fun. She was talking a lot of nonsense, something about the only thing you need is your heart, and you can throw paper away. She did say that Jackie was pregnant, or going to get pregnant, and Nikki already thought this woman was Psychic, so it only compounded the hilarity of Gino and Jackie not wanting kids.

After finishing up there we hit the local 24 hour mini-mart for some supplies. I wanted to get a couple more beers and Nikki wanted some snacks. Then we saw this gem:

If you know anything about the Delaware River, you'd know you want nothing to do with any liquid that may have come from it or anywhere near it. I'm not sure of the exact meaning, or if something was lost in translation, but Delaware Punch is not something I'll be drinking anytime soon.

So that concludes our very long first day in Guatemala. Look for a bunch more updates soon.

Gidget update

2010-09-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been a little while since I've posted an update. There's a couple reasons for that. One, we had a short little vacation in Guatemala for a couple days (expect a ton of posts about this) and we were waiting to see how Gidget was doing.

It's been just under 3 weeks since the incident and we can't believe how good she is doing. She's had 2 sessions of Acupuncture, which have done WONDERS for her, especially in her neck, which was very stiff and she couldn't really put her head down to eat or drink. A day or so before we left for Guatemala she started to become really mobile, wanting to move around the house and be in whichever room I was in. She was pretty good on carpet but not so good on the hardwood.

Since we were in a semi-remote area it was hard to get internet access but when I did I got a bunch of emails from my sister-in-law who was watching Gidget, along with her 2 year old and a goofy Weimaraner. She was saying how her right leg was really starting to support her weight and that even her left leg was moving a little. This was a great surprise considering that the Neurologist told us this leg had no Deep Pain sensation, which meant it was not likely it would regain function.

When I picked her up on Wednesday I couldn't believe how mobile she was and wanted to be. I took her to our Vet for her second session of Acupuncture and back to UPenn for a followup visit. Yea, it wasn't a cheap week for us.

The Neurologist wants to keep her on rest for another couple weeks but it's really hard to keep an eager little dog still for too long. We've decided to split it in the middle and let her get around a little but then try to let her rest for a couple hours so she doesn't feel too isolated. Here's a couple vids we made yesterday to show you how amazing a dog can be after only a couple weeks of being diagnosed with FCE, the disorder that usually means life in a wheelchair.

We did order her a professionally made wheelchair from Eddie's Wheels in Massachusetts. I kinda feel dumb since she gets around really good now but we can still use it for her Physical Therapy or if we know she's going to be outside for a while, so she doesn't have to really rely on her back legs too much. If you look closely you'll see some significant movement with her back legs. She's not running the 100 meter dash but it's massively improved.

The Gidget Fund

2010-08-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

This is kind of a weird thing for me since I've never been in a situation like this. We actively donate to our local animal shelter, take a ton of stuff to the local thrift store, etc. As you can imagine rushing a dog to two different Emergency rooms and to have two different MRI's performed was not a cheap task, but it was something that needed to be done to ensure our little girl was going to be OK.

As you know by now, she was diagnosed with Fibrocartilaginous embolic myelopathy (FCE). which is basically a spinal stroke. It has a very high recovery rate, but it's a long, tough path for the dog and owner.

We are going to start with her continued care tomorrow with a visit to our local Vet and in another week she is going back to UPenn for a check up on her progress. These visits are going to start adding up, but are necessary.

I plan on having a little fund raiser thing at the house in a couple weeks, after she is on the mend for a little longer. We're going to have a massive yardsale too. And as much as I hate to do it, we're going to try to sell our 63 Lambretta scooter to help pay for her bills. If you've been following this site, you know I haven't worked since December. So funds are sometimes limited.

So, if you've got an extra buck or two laying around in your Paypal account and want to put it to a good cause, please do so. You can send directly to Nikkilovesjoey@yahoo.com , that's Nikki's Paypal account. Attach a note so we know who it's coming from since I have no idea who reads this blog. Any donations will go directly to Gidget's continued care.

I'll keep updating with progress on this over the next couple weeks. Any support, even if it's just a "Get Well", is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Difficult day at the house

2010-08-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

We thought we had some good progress yesterday, but we think it's taking it's toll on Gidget today. She was panting very heavy for a good portion of the day and she had some tremors in the back legs. I'm going to take her to the vet in the morning to get her checked out. I suspect from reading online that the steroid she is on is making her hot or she is in some pain from possibly regaining some sensation in her back legs, hence the trembling in the muscles.

She also suffers from a disorder called COMS for short. Basically her brain is too big for her skull and it causes pressure at the brain stem. We're not sure if that's why she is keeping her neck up and stiff or if she is doing it because of the FCE. I hope to get some answers on this tomorrow as well.

Lets hope tomorrow is a better day for her and for us.

little bits of progess

2010-08-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

We were told to keep Gidget mostly confined so the inflammation in her spine will go down, so that's what we've been doing. However, we do let her get around a little bit for a minute so she doesn't feel completely locked down. Today she went from one side of the Living Room to the other and her back right leg kicked a little bit several times. The Vet told us that this was going to be her "good" leg if function does return since she retained some Deep Pain sensation in that leg. He said her left leg lost sensation all together and he thinks she will not regain function in that leg. We hope he's wrong. I think we're going to consult with the our Vet this week to see when it's good to start her on Acupuncture, that's her specialty. So, as the days go on, we see little bits of progress. Lets hope it keeps going this way and we have a recovered dog in no time.

some outside time for the little pupp

2010-08-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Spent an hour outside with the dogs, I wanna keep Gidget on her regular habits of being outside, laying by the front door looking at the world, etc. Our Chihuahua, Leela, was being nice and snuggling up with her. Its good to see the other two dogs not shun her.

Gidget, 2 days later....

2010-08-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

She's pretty settled in at this point. We have to do some exercises to her back legs a couple times a day to keep her joints good for when she gets her mobility back. I try to keep her in the places she would normally be throughout the day, like right now I have her lying at the front door looking out. She did that a lot, so I want her to keep her routines. She doesn't like having to sleep in the crate at night, but it's in her best interest.

We might do a little fundraiser/charity thing in a couple weeks to help cover the massive UPenn bill and help with the continued care bills she's going to need over the next couple months. I'll start a dedicatedpost for that if we decide to go down that route.

Got her home, life is going to be different for a while.

2010-08-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Just got home from UPenn and are getting Gidget re-acclimated with the house. She is going to be on strict rest for the next 4-6 weeks, sleeping in a crate at night and restricted movement when out of the crate. Here are a couple pics and a vid of the "Gidget-Cart Version 1.0" my brother and I put together yesterday. I have about $7 invested in this, since we hope it's only going to be temporary and she'll regain her mobility over the next couple months. If it looks like she's not going to regain function of her back legs we'll get her a professionally made cart.