I have not completely disappeared.  Just a quick update.  I have had some minor health issues the last three weeks.  I am currently recovered from a cold - congestion, etc.  The weekend before, I pulled a muscle on the left side of my neck.  Two weekends before, I had a cramp in my right calf muscle.  I limped around the house for about two days.  I hate getting old.

Angels

New Distraction

Here is my new distraction, a harmonica.  I decided on a harmonica, because I wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument.  Why?  It's something I have never learned before and a different type of learning experience.  Most of my learning is cerebral, not artistic, and that is the challenge I wanted to have.  In elementary school, I remember taking an aptitude test for music because the school wanted to look for future band students.  I did not make the cut.

I initially thought about learning the guitar, then I realized the cost and the amount of space it would take up.  My next option was the harmonica.  I searched Google to make sure there were resources available online for learning the harmonica, and yeah there are plenty.

My next decision was what harmonica should I buy.  I did my research and decided on the Suzuki Folkmaster.  I read that a beginner should pay around $30.00 for a good harmonica because it is harder to learn on cheaper ones.  I also read don't spend less than $10.00.  I decided to spend between those two prices, so the $15.00 Suzuki Folkmaster was my choice.  Beginners can "blow out" a reed, so I decided to go with a cheaper model.  Plus, if I lose interest or totally suck, $15.00 is not that much money.

I have been practicing for about two weeks now and yes I am still a beginner.  I can play "Row Row Your Boat" once.  The harmonica is a "blind" instrument.  You cannot see what you are doing.  You have to rely on sound, feel, and muscle memory.  The harmonica is sometimes called a blues harp, or just harp.  I will keep harp'n away and see what happens.

My Olympic Crush - Jessica Ennis

My Olympic crush for the 2012 London Olympics is Jessica Ennis, Gold Medalist in the Women's' Heptathlon.  Why?  She is cute, athletic (obviously), and from what I have read, a good person.  I ran track in high school, so you could say I have an appreciation for track athletes.  Here are a couple of links about Jessica Ennis:

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Ennis

Jessica Ennis Official Website
http://jessicaennis.net/

An Article About How Jessica Trains
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186973/London-2012-The-team-Jessica-Ennis-reveal-helped-build-Olympic-champions-gold-medal-body.html

Congratulations Jessica!

Yves Saint Laurent Live Jazz Review

Here is a description from Fragrantica:

Live Jazz by Yves Saint Laurent is a Aromatic Fougere fragrance for men. Live Jazz was launched in 1998. The nose behind this fragrance is Pierre Bourdon. Top notes are mint, grapefruit and lemon; middle notes are coriander and rhubarb; base notes are nutmeg, amber, vanilla and cedar.

For the first 30 minutes, there is a very pleasant lemon and mint smell with very good projection.  Then the fragrance starts transitioning to the middle notes.  After 2 hours, it smells like an herbal garden with a tiny hint of the citrus lingering.  The coriander is energetic, and spicy.  The projection is still good.  The top and middle notes are opposites.  The top notes are cool and refreshing, and then the scent changes to energetic and lively.  It feels like taking a relaxing lounge in a recliner, then having to get off my butt and start a workout.  From 3 to 4 hours, the projection dies down and becomes a skin scent.  After 4 hours, on my skin, the scent is gone.  And I mean gone, no skin scent at all.  I don’t even have a chance to smell the base notes.

I am disappointed that the longevity is so bad.  I only paid about $30.00 for a 3.4oz bottle, so I can’t complain about the price.  The bottle is nice with the words “Live Jazz” frosted on the bottle.  The sprayer is outstanding and sprays a large amount in a nice spray pattern.  Even with the powerful atomizer, longevity is still poor on me.   This was a blind buy.  Many YouTube reviewers said this is a great mint based starter fragrance.  Unfortunately, the mint only lasts a maximum of 2 hours on me, and I am being generous.  Due to the poor longevity, I can’t enjoy this fragrance.  What a shame.

God Bless

Ed Hardy Born Wild Review - Initial Impression

I bought an Ed Hardy Born Wild for Men 3 Piece Gift Set at Marshall's for $24.99.  The retail price was $55.00 and the gift set included a 1.7 oz and 0.25 oz EDT spray bottles, and a 3.0 oz Hair/Body Wash.  A 1.7 oz EDT bottle retails for around $33.00, so I think I got a good deal.  So, what does it smell like?  It smells like a sweet fruity blend of orange and apple, that is also spicy.  There is also a floral note in the middle, then it dries down to a sweet, woody note.  There are not a lot of You Tube video reviews for this fragrance, but it has been described as sweet and geared more for teens and college students.  Even though I am over 40, I like the sweetness.  The most amazing thing is the longevity.  It lasted a good 7 hours on me.  After 12 hours, it is a skin scent, but I can still smell it.  Amazing!  I will have to try a couple more wearings to see if the sweetness is too heavy for summer. The name of the fragrance, Born Wild, is a complete opposite of what it smells like.  It is not wild at all, but a sweet fragrance.  For a first impression, I give Ed Hardy Born Wild a Thumbs Up!

Happenings

Yeah, yeah, I do not post as a faithful blogger should.  I can't promise anything, but here is a short update:

1. Container Gardening - I am attempting to grow pepper plants in planter pots.
2. The air conditioner in my 2nd car, which I mainly use in the winter, died.  I noticed that the compressor does turn on if I switch the air flow to any of the windshield settings.  I will need to get this fixed before winter.  I am not looking forward to the cost
3. Left Bicep Update - I have only done two very light workouts on my biceps with no issues.  I really need to get them back in shape for summer.  Curls for the Girls!
4. Duquesne Light Sucks - From last week's storms, my power was out for about 14 hours.  A few years back, there were scheduled power outages as part of a plan to improve the infrastructure.  It did not help.

Later.

Yves Saint Laurent Live Jazz Discontinued

I recently purchased a bottle of Yves Saint Laurent Live Jazz and was curious why I could not find it on the Yves Saint Laurent website, so I emailed their customer service.  Here is the response that I received:

March 7, 2012

Thank you for asking us about Live Jazz Eau De Toilette Spray. We are sorry to tell you that it was discontinued and that we do not have any available for you to purchase.

It was not easy for us to make the decision to discontinue Live Jazz Eau De Toilette Spray. This was a wonderful product that we know some of our consumers will miss. Unfortunately, demand was not high enough for us to continue manufacturing it. As consumers ourselves, we understand how disappointing it can be when a favorite product or shade is no longer offered.

Although we do not currently have a similar fragrance to suggest to you,  we invite you to visit an YSL Fragrance counter where you can test our current fragrance line.  For a location near you, please visit our Store Locator at: http://www.yslbeautyus.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-ysl_us-Site/default/Stores-Find. Enter a zip code to find the address of a store near you. We hope that you will find a product to take the place of  We hope that you will find a product to take the place of Live Jazz Eau De Toilette Spray soon.

We appreciate your loyalty to Yves Saint Laurent Beauté.

Sincerely,
Xxxxxx
Consumer Affairs Supervisor
Ref # xyzabcd

You should be able to find a 3.3 oz/100 ml bottle online for around $30.

Bumps and Bruises

This blog is a good place to time stamp my bumps and bruises.  Why?  Well, my company has changed health care providers over the past ten years due to mergers, acquisitions, etc.  This is a good place to make note of my injuries so I can refer back to this blog to look at recovery times, etc.  So, here is a list of my current injuries, when they approximately happened, and how:

1. Left Shoulder - February 2011 - I believe I injured it after trying to remove snow from my deck.  The railings on my deck are about 30 inches high, so it is an overuse injury.

2. Left Elbow Tendinitis - Late Spring/Early Summer 2011 - Injured trying to squeeze caulk from a caulking gun.

3. Left Bicep - Early November 2011 - Injured moving an old 21 inch CRT monitor into a work vehicle.  The monitor "moved" on me and in an attempt to stop it from moving, I braced it with my left arm.

I could use some bionic parts now.

KDKA TV - Exaggerated Severe Weather Promos Begin

I just saw a promo on KDKA TV with a warning that severe weather is on the way.  I looked at the forecast from www.noaa.gov and I did not see any warnings or watches.  The over exaggeration begins.

Groundhog Day - 9/24

After three weekends, I finally live trapped the groundhog which was living under my storage shed.  I have tried placing the trap at various locations around the shed and tried different baits with no success.  I finally found the right combination of location, bait, and timing.  The trap was placed on the left side of the shed.  I used Gala Apples and dehydrated bananas from Trail Mix that I bought from Aldi.  I set the trap around 9:00AM, with plans to go grocery shopping in the AM.  As usual, I got distracted, and the Pitt game was on TV at 12 Noon.  I looked outside and there it was, in the trap.

I was not sure how sturdy the cage was, so I wanted to relocate the groundhog as soon as possible.  I lined the trunk of my car with a tarp, cardboard, and newspaper, in case the animal got nervous and completed a bodily function.  I read you should cover the cage with a towel so the groundhog will not get nervous - I used a black T-shirt.  Lifting the cage, then carrying the cage was difficult, as the animal got nervous and was moving and clawing inside the cage.  I finally got it in the trunk and drove to North Park.  For the first five minutes of the drive, I could hear the groundhog clawing at the cage.  I found a good spot to release it and again carrying the cage while the animal was moving got on my nerves.  I placed the trap on the ground, and opened the trap door.  I tapped the other end of the cage and the groundhog bolted right out the door into the woods.

I have not read that they are social animals, so hopefully there was only one groundhog under the shed.  I have read that the mother has babies in the spring, and the babies eventually leave the burrow when they are ready.  I am going to reset the trap Sunday morning (and Monday too since I am taking off work) to make sure there was only one groundhog.

My work is not done.  I have to block access on all four sides of the shed.  With winter coming and the amount of daylight getting shorter, I have some work to do.

Happy Groundhog Day!

 

New Wheels

My big news since my last post is my new Do It Yourself Home Built PC. Here are the specs:

Power supply: Corsair TX750 V2
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth p67
CPU: i5-2500k, 3.3 GHz
Cpu cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus
RAM: Corsair 4 x 2GB
Dvd drive: Lite-On Ihas324
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1 TB, 6.0Gb/s
Video Card: XFX HD 6770

This is a huge jump in technology compared to my old PC which is over 11 years old. My old PC only has a 667 MHz processor, and the maximum amount of RAM it can have is 768 MB. I am very happy now.

Updates

It has been a month since my last post, so here is what's been happening in my little world:

• I have been trying to decide on a Personal Information Manager to use on my home PC. I am organized at work, but at home, I seem lost with no direction. The candidates are: Microsoft Outlook 2007, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Sunbird, Task Coach, Chandler Project, and Essential PIM.
• I have been very lazy with my exercise program. From January through May, I made a lot of excuses not to work out. In May, I slowed started cardio session. In June, I started weight lifting again. It is going to take a while to get back in shape. It is my fault for being a couch potato
• I am looking forward to all of the comic book based movies this summer.
• Every year, I keep saying that I will build a new PC since mine is over ten years old. Will I finally do it?

Later

The Mentalist - Season Finale

I thoroughly enjoyed the Season Finale of the CBS TV show "The Mentalist". I had a hunch that O'Laughlin was the mole at CBI. The big question is: Was the man that Patrick Jane shot really Red John? I have my doubts. Here are links to a couple of reviews:

Daemon's TV
Pop Star Recap Part 1
Pop Star Recap Part 2

One of my favorite screen caps above: Lisbon pretty in a pink bridesmaid dress.

The Royal Wedding

If you are interested in following the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, here is the official website.

Google is Great

Google is Great. I was watching re-runs of the CBS series Cold Case, and decided to do a Google search for the lead actress Kathryn Morris. I found a great fan site, Kathryn Morris Fan, with an amazing picture gallery. This pic is from Oct 16th, 2010 - the 20th Annual Environmental Media Awards. She is 41 years old in this picture. Enjoy!

Avril Lavigne, Goodbye Lullaby

Avril Lavigne released her fourth album today, Goodbye Lullaby. I have not purchased the album yet, so I do not have a review. So far, reviews have been mixed. Since her last album, Avril has gone through a divorce, and is now 26 years old. She is not a teenager anymore, and is growing as an adult, hence the perceived difference in her new album. I am a big fan, but I will keep an open mind. Here is a link to a live performance on MSN, Enjoy!

Orie Mistrial - Cut and Paste Hack Job

The judge in the case for Senator Jane Orie declared a mistrial today. The reason, the defense submitted some documents where the signatures where doctored, a bad cut and paste job. I did my own cut and paste job and show the doctored sections side by side.

1. Look at the "Original" - You will see two signatures, one is on top of the other and the two signatures overlap.
2. Look at "Cut/Paste 1" - Look and you will see that the signature still has the overlap area.
3. Look at "Cut/Paste 2" - The most obvious part is the red circle where you see two black underlines. The green circle shows a bad attempt to white out the overlap area.

You would think with today's software and technology, the cut/paste job would have been better. Both the Post Gazette and the Tribune Review have electronic copies of the doctored documents.

Rambling Reps

Just a few random rambling thoughts running in my brain lately:

1. Cold Update - It has been 3 weeks already. I am better, but not 100% yet. My last lingering symptom is a slight cough and drainage in my throat. About twice a week, I will get an exercise induced asthma attack.
2. DSL Broadband Service - I had to call tech support for my DSL provider because I could not access my DSL router to enable the WiFi. There were two problems: 1) My DSL router was not configured properly, so I had to reset it back to factory defaults; 2) It appears the firewall software that I was using, Comodo, was causing issues. I have switched to Zone Alarm, but would like to use Comodo once I figure out where I screwed up.
3. Charlie Sheen - Has he lost his mind?
4. Lindsay Lohan - What happened to the sweet girl that was in the movie "Mean Girls"? I thought she was cute and adorable in "Mean Girls", but I guess she has grown up, and not too well.
5. I am ready for Spring.