Three days

MONDAY-
The Maryland auditor showed up on time at 9:30. I had all of the documents printed and organized per the audit letter as to speed the process and show compliance. The auditor was friendly and happy to see the documents all ready to review, he asked a few reasonable questions and was on his way. Total time was one hour, 9:30 - 10:30. THAT is why I didn't loose any sleep over this one, nothing to hide, so I wasn't worried. There was a funny moment when he asked what a "Hog Widget" is and why I needed to rent it.

SUNDAY-
In geekier news I spent a good bit of Sunday out of the cold enjoying the arcade. I spent hours playing Donkey Kong and Burgertime. In Donkey Kong I finally got to the 5th level. In Burgertime I got to the 5th or 6th screen. Burgertime is a very difficult game for those of you that don't know (Xbox generation, or just plain forgot).

SATURDAY-
I went to the annual 12th Night party held at Andrew and Caroline's house. The evening was started off by a stop to Cubanos for dinner. The Cuban food and drinks at this restaurant in Silver Spring are simply fantastic. The food and service are top notch and the bar tender knows how to pour a proper drink. No chain restaurant short-pour-glass-full-of-Cool-Aid at this place. Their mojitos are the best I've ever had, but I really haven't had that many, I should have more... If you happen to be near Silver Spring you should really check this place out. Yelp Reviews
Cubanos Restaurant site



After we left the restaurant we drove the 30 minutes to Caroline and Andrews. We got there a little early, before the table full of liquor, beers, and wines were opened. Andrew could get a job at Cubanos due to his heavy pouring hand. There was food here and there through the house with lots of choices. I saw the deviled eggs, and made a mental note to get some, but I must have gotten distracted. I enjoyed a strong cocktail called a Tipperary containing chartreuse (like the color). Make sure you get at least one ice cube in the glass, more if you have the option. I only had one Tipperary before switching to "lighter" drinks for the rest of the evening. I should mention that I was not driving during the evening of many drinks. Anyhow, the party was a good time as expected. It got crowded, met a few cool people, good conversation, and most surprisingly there was no football or sports talk of any kind. I didn't even see people fooling with their phones. I must have been in an alternate universe. I love their parties.

House with trees and a big gorilla

My last post was September 14th - it's been a while indeed. Many things have happened since the last time I wrote anything for the public, but I'm starting this post without a real subject in mind, I'll just free write and see what happens.

The biggest thing that has happened recently is the sale of my first house, and the purchase of a new house. The wife and I have been passively looking at houses for about three years, so when it was time to pull the trigger, we were ready mentally and financially. The funny thing about people's reaction to the news of "my house is on the market" is that generally people would say - where are you moving to? That is the whole point I guess, what are you stepping up to, but my attitude was and still is - it is all about selling. Making a purchase is easy as long as you have money, and/or credit. So, we went into the process of looking for houses with the emphasis on selling and we'll buy something when we have cash in hand or a solid deal with a real date. Too many stories over the last five years from people saying they got stuck paying two mortgages with a story of how they did it to themselves with blame going somewhere other than to themselves. Always something I knew to avoid, so we did. The sale of the house whet well due to our stellar agent, and the purchase process was par for the course I guess. Nothing too exciting, so I'm skipping that part.

The second biggest thing recently happening is the purchase of a 60-in-1 arcade game. I started looking for an upright classic arcade game a few months ago with the new room a larger house would offer. I wanted to buy a Tron, Dig Dug, or Donkey Kong machine. Tron machines are all too expensive because of the new Tron movie set release later this year. Dig Dug machines were hard to locate on eBay and Craigslist, and Donkey Kong machines were generally pretty expensive. I feel I got lucky when I found a very local seller that had a machine with a 60-in-1 card featuring all classic games, most of which I had heard of. I did the research and found that these "new" cards were the real deal and they used the original ROM sets so the games were the exact same code with the only difference I could notice being in the sound quality in some games. Games features off the top of my head: Pac Man, Ms Pac Man, Qix, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, Space Invaders, Galaga, Galaxian, Mr. Do, Mr. Do's Castle... It is a lot of classic games in one machine and I can say that two months later I'm still very happy with the purchase.

The third item to report is the property we purchased contains many trees, and loads of leaves. I got my Stihl chainsaw repaired and have put it to use removing four dead trees. I have also used the sweet Subaru for some tree removal with 80' of steel 3/8" aircraft cable - see video, it's only 37 seconds. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP8mwJS-SQQ

Lastly, I've got this idea in my head that since I've always liked playing Donkey Kong, maybe I am good enough to be in the top 100 payers in the world?? This all came about after watching the movie King of Kong. I have been playing a lot over the last two months with a emphasis on getting better rather than just having fun. Some days I've done poorly, while others I'm just "on". This evening I have the house to myself and sat down and played two games back to back both scoring over 50k per game. Checking the scoreboard at Twin Galaxies.com shows that a score over 50k is between 69th and 70th place. So, I am in the top 100 if I can record my score and submit it. Now to try to get in the top 50 list - 121,800 points. My high score currently is around 84k.

I'm probably better with a chain saw than those top 50 players.

Warranty and Progress

Follow up for the CO2 alarm wake-up call blog, The Silent Killer.
I got a bunch of Home Depot and Lowes gift cards from my credit card company with their reward program nonsense. I purchased a new CO2 detector to replace the non-working one at the house. I noticed on the packaging that it features a five year warranty! Yup, I'm cashing in on that warranty tonight.

Here's how it goes. Buy the same model CO2 detector, put the old one that is not functioning in the packaging with your receipt and return it to the store as not working - because it doesn't work. This isn't a scam and isn't unethical because the date stamp on the broken detector is 2006, and that is four years. To avoid the PIA that would be an actual return to the manufacturer I elected to do it the big box way. Nice and easy, and it helps to use a razor blade to open the blister pack packaging rather than the Christmas day rip and tear method. Just a suggestion.

Progress on multiple fronts?
On May 9th I posted a blog titled Progress on multiple fronts which contains the quote, "So, yesterday I did a max chest press lift of 250# which is good for a thirty-something guy who is weighing in under 200#. I think I'm a few months from 275#, but I'll let you know when I hit that goal."

It's been a few months and here is what I have to report:

Yesterday I did a max chest press lift of 250# which is good for a thirty-something guy who is still weighing in under 200#. I think it will be at least a few months before I can hit a max lift of 275#. The reason for net zero gain is because I fell off the gym wagon as we all do, or at least I do easily and about a month ago I dragged myself off the couch to get back into it. Yup, I'm still trying to loose the same 15 pounds, but again, aren't we all?

To me it was a pretty big day hitting the 250 number, but what I didn't realize until I sat down to write this was that it wasn't my goal, it was my baseline. Oh well, we're not grading on a curve so there is no reason to make it an easy goal.


King of Kong
I watched a fairly good documentary several months ago called the King of Kong about a Donkey Kong video game competition. I loved this game back in 1981 when Nintendo released it in arcade cabinet version. Being that it is a fairly difficult game I never got what you would call good, or even above average. Recently I've been spending some time at Crab Towne USA whenever I get the urge to play some old school video games in their original format. Crab Towne (yes, it has an E) still has a good inventory of classic games like Tetris, Pac Man, Mario Brothers, Twilight Zone (pinball), Galaga, Dig Dug, Ms Pac Man, Baby Pac Man, Spy Hunter, and several other less popular titles.

Last night after my on par performance at the gym I went directly to Crab Towne to see how much entertainment $2 in quarters could get me. Last night I finished the "elevators" level on Donkey Kong. Big deal to me since I like the arcade video games, less impressive to most grown ups. I would like to get a arcade game at the new house when things settle down, we'll see.