Don't Stop Believin', Man!

Wil Wheaton pointed the way, and I followed.

And smiled.

I bought that album. Add me to the list of not indifferent.

I'd quote the bit about dating and such, but this is a family show. If you want, click the link and have a read. That said, I didn't date much between 14 and 24, but I did listen to Journey. So at least I had that going for me.

On a differnet note--Hey! First blog in a while. I'm on the road for work and it's summer. Sorry about the lack of Sandy/Sparky reading material.

Look Ma! Shelves!!

20 inch by 8 feet tight mesh linen shelves: 17 bucks at the Habitat ReStore

2 ix 2 by 8 feet framing lumber from Home Despot: 2-3 bucks per piece

24 linear feet of new storage shelves: Priceless

Laundry room storage shelves

After a little bit of cutting and screwing... et voila! The laundry/furnace room is full of storage space

Shelves above the laundry machines

K, a lesson remembered--

Screwing the wood framing together is far superior than nailing the pieces together--if you need to take it apart 'cause you didn't make the right cut, it's easier. This was very apparent when I realized I failed to take into account the unstraightness of the basement walls--at least a half inch off from the floor to the ceiling. Eh, it still works.

And a lesson learned (the hard way)--

Pre-drilling the screw holes with a 1/8th drill bit is very important when you're using 2 x 2 framing lumber--if you don't, 2 and a half inch #8 wood screws have a pretty bing potential to split the wood, thus reducing the strength of the shelves. Made that mistake once. Hopefully won't do it again.

Anyway, all done now. Sandy and I are quite happy with it.

Our next step for the laundry room is to get a piece of vinyl in there for the floor--the concrete isn't that nice to walk on or look at. That'll be sometime later, however.

For now, we have storage space!

I've kept some of the e-mails I've received over the years that relate to our little web page. I've deleted lots of 'em, but these somehow managed to stay out of the recycle bin.

So with much further ado, here we go!

I just wanted to tell you that I think you are the beutiest thing I've ever seen.. hehe..Hugs from Norway

Hi!!! I´ve just read ur last message saying Sm episodes won´t be available any more :'( I hope some day u'll put them back!! they´re gorgeous and i'm extremely happy with this page that has let me seen them again!!!! And Sparky, do not pay attention to those who send u upsetting e-mails!! I (and think a lot more!!) want to download at least some more ones, no matter how slow u´re page is....hope they're back soon and could only help u!!!!
Good luck!!!!!,

Mercedes (Argentina)

And one completely out of the blue--

Anyway, this is a sampling of 'viewer mail' from people who have stumbled across our little corner of the internets. Hope you enjoyed.

And write to us more!

Anyway, one of the minor problems with having a website this long is the strange e-mails I will occasionally receive.

Here's one that I got today--

Now I've never considered myself to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I usually know when I'm on an 'official' website vs. someones vacation photo blog. Let's see if I still have my original page regarding our trip to 6 Mile Lake Provincial Park... Ahh, here it is--my first vacation photo page--

6 Mile Lake Camping Trip

Check out that sand castle!! That page brings back some memories, I'll tell ya! I can't believe that was back in '98!

That said, I don't think we can mistake my little web page of pics as the official '6 Mile Lake' website. But if you did, no worries--I'll direct you to the right site. If you're interested in vacationing at 6 Mile Lake Provincial park, check out the following website--

6 Mile Lake Provincial Park

It should be a good start for your vacation plans.

My good deed done, I'm off to read the rest of my e-mails...

The Laundry Room

Sandy and I have been ruminating on ideas for our laundry room for many months. When I moved in, the laundry room wasn't the best, but being a guy who did laundry once in a blue moon, it mattered not.

Now, however, there are two of us and I'm endeavouring to smell cleaner...

With that in mind, the dishevelled laundry room had to go.

I didn't take any 'before' pictures--actually surprised about that--I have no pics of our laundry/furnace room. Eh, whatever...

We stopped by the 'Habitat for Humanity' store down there on Nash by Barton and proceeded to peruse.

We noticed the shelving but didn't know what to do. So I filed that in the back of my mind.

After letting the thoughts of the metal shelving simmer in the back of my mind, I came up with a 'not-so-brilliant' plan, but Hannibal Smith would have been proud.

A quick trip to Home Despot to grab some 2 x 2's and back to the Habitat for Humanity store and we're all set.

New shelving

My uncle gave me a radial arm saw the other week and I put it to good use by ripping up some pieces of 2 x 2. After lag-bolting these 2x2's to the concrete walls in the laundry room, I had a good setup to put up the shelves themselves.

With no further ado, here's the last pic--

See how the shelves hold stuff!

Eh, it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Not too expensive, either--the shelving was pretty cheap, and the money goes to a good cause. That's win-win in our books! (And any chance that I get to use the saw--well that's icing on the cake )

After we get the garage cleaned up a wee bit more, we can reorganize the rest of the laundry room for more storage. Now that we got a good plan for how to do it, we'll get it done!

It'll just go away.

Sandy and I were at the beer store the other day. Yeah, I know... me at a beer store...

Anyway, we were there and two things happened.

Well, actually one thing happened and one thing we were informed of by the beer store worker.

So we're planning our wedding, and in that planning is the idea that we need to provide liquid refreshments for all our guests. With that in mind, we set about to see about the booze the other day.

So we're there at the beer store, speaking with a nice beer store worker. We asked about returing any left-over beers--we had heard from friends that this is a usual happenstance, but we just wanted to confirm it--can we return any unopened cases.

She mentioned that we'd have to buy 12 packs instead of 24 packs of beer. I found that a little odd-what's the difference?

Turns out that a few Joe 24-Pack-type people have, in the past, carefully opened the 2-4, drank all the beers, filled the empties full of water, placed the full bottles back into the 2-4 and carefully hot-glued the case closed. The case would then be returned to the beer store under the guise of having not been used.

What?? Seriously, what 'rip-off-society' type jackass would come up with that?? Do these lower-than-dirt iggits realize that they're harming all of us in the process of getting back the purchase price of the 24 pack that they already drank?

So there was that, and I was already set off.

Then the rudeness happened.

When Sandy and I were walking into the beer store, I noted a taxi cab pull into the parking lot. During our examination of prices and conversations with the beer store worker, the driver and the 'fare' of the cab both came into the store and stood by the cash register. The older 'gentleman' waiting there (I didn't know if he was the actual driver of the cab or just the 'fare' was getting most impatient with the idea that the beer store worker was helping us instead of him. He spoke with a not-quite-yelling voice, letting anyone in the beer store (Sandy, me, the beer store worker, and them two by the cash register, basically) about how 'in a rush' he was and how 'others' shouldn't be 'hogging' all the time of the beer store attendant. And let me tell you, he was none too polite about it, either.

Unfortunately, I'm not the quickest thinker on my feet and it wasn't until we left the beer store when my mind finished processing all that had occured. Had I the opportunity to revisit this scene, I may have politely confronted the irate beer store patron and explained how Sandy and I would have waited patiently had he been in the store first, and not make a big scene about it.

But alas, my very nature of non-confrontation is set up to *not* 'get in anyone's face'.

What I did do, however, was take down the cab number and I placed a call to said cab company when we got home. I mentioned that I didn't know which of the two people in the store was the driver and which was the fare, but it matters not--if it was the driver that was rude, well, that's a strike against him. If it wasn't the driver of the cab, then why was the on-duty driver of the cab in the beer store anyway?

So I politely mentioned all that transpired to the cab company. What they do with the information is entirely up to them.

Bottom line for both things that haooened at the beer store the other day--call it whatever you want--if you return usd and/or fake' goods to the store, you're a thief and you hurt us all. As for the other thing, if you're rude and obnoxious in your dealings with people, it will come back and haunt you. Trust me.

So there you are.

My favourite superhero has always been Superman. I'm not much into comic books or the like, but I've always appreciated 'The Man Of Steel', mostly because of the movies that came out in the late '70's and into the '80's.

I also sporadically watched 'Lois and Clark' and 'Smallville' and liked 'em--Superman lived on, at least on the telly.

But, as we all know, the powers that be decided to bring Kal-El back to the big screen.

I followed the rumours, the suspicions, the stories--many were absurd (taken from IMDB.com)--

Thankfully the director, Bryan Singer, went for a "continuing telling" of the Superman movie franchise--this film basically follows after Superman and Superman II.

Singer brought back Superman in all his blue and red glory--Clark still says 'swell'. Superman still saves the day. As an iconic comic book figure, Singer had Superman 'almost' posing whilst stopping the big 'Daily Planet' globe from crashing to the ground. As a 'sequel' to the previous Superman movies, Singer threw in a whole bunch of subtle references--the Addis Ababa meteorite 'found' in 1978 among others.

There were many other things that impressed me about this movie--I liked how Singer didn't 'hold our hands' thru the entire movie--he didn't film the 'conclusion' to every little detail--we know that when Superman stops the criminals that he would get them to the proper authorities--no need to include that in the movie. And, without giving away too much, when Lex Luthor's henchmen come back from a robbery and the van is riddled with bullet holes, we didn't have to see the robbery to know that one went down and that they stole something 'big'.

What Singer did choose to film was exactly what I wanted to see. I wanted to see Clark, with his physical clumsiness and relationship awkwardness try to 'win' Lois Lane's heart. I wanted to see Superman 'save the day' with no strings or personal 'soul searching' issues clouding things--He's Superman!

I will also admit that my eyes got a little misty a few times during the film--not going to talk specifics ('cause that'll give away some huge spoilers), but I can say that the dedication at the end to Christopher and Dana Reeve--well' that made me really misty.

Brandon Routh makes an excellent 'Man of Steel'. Kevin Spacey was a very believeable Lex Luthor, with the right amount of charm and insanity rolled into one. If there was a tiny casting issue, it'd be with Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane--I found that I Margaret Kidder was more believable as a 'stop-at-nothing-for-the-story' journalist. That said, thinking of it now, Lois does have a son in this movie so that might change the character a bit...

I'm not covering the religious and spiritual overtones of the movie in this particular blog entry--they were there, but again--Superman saves people--that's what he does

From the opening credits (not as great as the original, but they probably costed a lot less as well ) and the musical score, to the final Superman flyby around the world, Superman Returns was a perfect and fitting continuation of the movie franchise.

The Man Of Steel is back.