Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Return of Rent a Pet


Well came home tonight and was greeted by the small black cat again.  He belongs to someone in the neighborhood, but don’t know who.   Apparently many people have called his owners as his name and number is on the collar, but the owners say he loves the outdoors and constantly wants out.  Overall they are nonplused by his absence it seems.

He has found his way into the apt building many times and tends to wind up at my door for some reason.  Granted he looks a lot like my ex’s old cat that we had for about 8 years or so before we gave him to my Dad.  We had to as we were moving so much it was driving the cat insane and he needed stability.  He’s dead now so maybe this is him reincarnated or something???  Lol    Either way he spent the night once a few weeks ago and then left in the morning.  I have a litter box and food for him whenever he appears, just in case.  Had to ever since he sat outside my door crying all night a month ago making me feel guilty for not letting him in.

Tonight he ran up to me in the parking lot and straight to the apt building door to come in.  Once in he ran straight for my apt and waited for the door to open.  Since then he has been making himself at home.  Currently he is asleep on the couch next to me.  I call him rent a pet as he is not mine and will probably toddle off in the morning as I have to sleep for work and he wants to meow and play once 8am happens.

With it being colder and colder outside I think he would probably be happy to be an indoor cat at this point so maybe his owners will stop turfing him outside.  Either way he stops by here now and then when he sees me out and about.

Very affectionate and purry little bugger though…  Too bad like every other cat he thinks morning are happy fun time to play and make noise when I’m trying to sleep for work. lol

His name is Lynx, so if this is your cat and you were wondering where he was hiding out on Nov 30, 2011 see below...


Make yourself at home there Rent-A-Pet!

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Painting Frame


A few months ago I bought a painting on eBay by Cheng Xi, a member of chinese painting's association and supposedly a famous artist in china.  I looked up the name on the net and sure enough there was a Cheng Xi with exhibits in various  galleries around China, but as to how famous who knows.  Doesn't really matter though as I simply liked the painting and thought it would look good in the living room.  Even better was the price.  Not very often one finds a painting they like for a good price, but then again everything from China seems to be pretty cheap to buy.  Granted a lot of it is knockoffs, but if it looks good I really don't care or functions properly I don't care.  This particular ebay store sells from various artists in China and I will probably buy from it again as there are many great paintings there.  Anyone interested the store is at http://stores.ebay.com/shanshui212

So at any rate I got a beautiful, signed, watercolor for $3 + $15 shipping.  Overall not to shabby for a painting that was 26" x 56" and needed a custom frame to hang.  Granted I didn't know about the custom frame at first.  Only after I received the painting did I find out that Moncton and the surrounding area did not sell frames that big.  To make matters worse they wanted nearly $300 to make one!!!  I don't know about you, but I am not spending $300 on a frame for a $3 painting!

So at this point I decided to make my own.  Now normally I would buy some wood, stain, Plexiglass, backing, and build one myself on the cheap.  However there were a few things against me in completing that endevour.

For starters I no longer own the needed tools (router, routing table, skill saw, etc...)
I live in an apt so even if I had them where would I use them and how pissed would the neighbors be?
So how about working with materials I don't need to create and only need to cut with a dremel tool?

Crown molding cost way more than it use to.  I was looking at nearly $200 for enough for the frame of the style I liked.  Even the cheaper stuff was around $5 a foot!
The plexiglass that use to be dirt cheap was now nearly $100 for the size sheet I needed!!!  A few years ago it would have been about $15!  What happened there!!!

So ok... How about cheaper...  I looked into various ideas and came up with this:

3 - .5 cm foam board project boards $3 ea
4 gauge vinyl sheet (3m x 1.7m roll tons left) $6
12 - 24" poster hangers (used 11 and a bit) $2.89 per pair
Packing tape to connect the foam board
2 pin curtain hangers (The ones you pin to curtains to hang then where the pin part is like a nail) Free as had them already.
50' roll of wire to hang the thing. $2.89
Two picture hangers to nail into wall (free as had them too)
Total = about $33 - $35 with tax...
Total size 27x53.5
Overall was a pain in my ass to make and took six hours due to the damn poster frames having a vice like grip!  Trying to fit them onto the rest was.... challenging to say the least.

Still in the end the result is pretty dame good.  I will put up a tutorial of how I did it later under tutorials and I will include my other ideas as well for easier alternatives, though costlier..

Also since building this I was told about a couple of hidden suppliers in the area that would have been cheaper for what I needed so I may rebuild this someday in the near future.

At any rate here is the final result!




Overall I am pretty happy with it, though my camera could use an upgrade as doesn't take pics in poorly lit rooms very well.   Maybe I will pic up one of those 14MP ones at XS Cargo for around $50 someday.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Today I met a Wookie!


Today I met a Wookie! When you have such long and thick fur all over your body that a yeti would take one look at you and say "Damn you're a furry bastard!", then maybe a skimpy wife beater is not the best grocery shopping attire. (Also not good for salad bars and buffets as I don’t wanna spend 4 hours defurring my chicken fried rice and shrimp!) Granted it did help me with that “Going shopping while hungry and everything looks tasty” feeling. Still… Standing in line behind a guy with about 4 inch long thick fur all over shoulders, chest, arms, and back is kinda icky.

This guy was sooooooooo furry and under dressed that an 800lb beaded lady, with a partially formed Siamese twin growing out of her neck, would tap him on the shoulder and say “Dude… You gotta do something about that…”

Yes, that man could use a little “Manscaping”. When you can’t tell the difference between where your hairline ends and your back hair begins then a little manscaping can go a long way.

You don’t have to remove it all down to bare skin, but breaking out the weed whacker and reducing the growth doesn’t hurt. There is a huge difference between ¼ inch long hairy body and 4 inch long hairy body! Plus since you are wearing a skimpy outfit it must mean that you are hot, so imagine how much cooler you will feel with 20lbs less body fur retaining all that heat! Hell even dogs shed their winter coat!

Plus you just know a guy that at ease with his furriness has probably got a serious case of afro crotch! Not that I would want to ever see it, but still you know it’s there from the hairs sticking out through his pants like weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement.

When he gets that special gal home and whips it out it, it’s all “Yeah! That’s right! Come and get it!.... What? It’s huge!... Ya just gotta dig for it a bit, It’s in there somewhere…. Oh hey you found that corn puff I lost last week! Give here! It’s still good!”

What do you think the lady is a penis archeologist on yet another exciting dig somewhere deep in the hot, sweaty, man crotch version of the Serengeti?? It’s like that skit on tv where Harrison Ford was mad at Chewie for doing his ex-wife and how she’s still coughing up fur balls! ( http://youtu.be/sWTtMdXAazs )

Manscaping the crotch area is generally a nice thing to do. Plus it makes it look bigger! :)

In the words of Dr. Evil… “There's nothing quite like a shorn scrotum... It's breathtaking... I suggest you try it!"