Tag: cousin

Wood Burned Box

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts1 Comment

I just added a video to YouTube, it’s just a 1 minute video but it’s of the box that I just finished making for Chips cousin Vedra.  Her birthday is this Saturday, July 4th.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_3cqj-0WWA

I wish I had thought of doing this earlier in the month because then I would’ve had time to do it properly.  I put this wood protector stuff on it, I don’t know what it’s called but it protects the wood from the sun and from water.  Anyway, you are supposed to put that stuff on then let it dry then sand it then put more on and then sand it again and I think you are supposed to do that several times.  But I didn’t have the right sandpaper to do that and it’s just a box lol.

So what I did was I found the pattern online, it’s like a border for making a card or sign or whatever.  But I stretched it out so it was the same size as the top then for the front and back I cut out the bottom of the border image and printed it the right size for the front and back.  Then I did the same thing with the sides and I just blended them in with the roses so it looked normal lol.  Then I used this water based paint to paint the roses and the leaves.  Darrin wanted pink so I mixed the red and white to make pink.  I was trying to be clever with the green color for the stem that the leaves were on so they weren’t as dark of a green lol.

I’m still a beginner with 0 skill in shading so until I can learn that there is no shading in any of my projects.  I’m going to buy a book online this Friday along with some supplies so I can learn.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Nashbar Townie Basket

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike1 Comment

Last week I bought this product for my bicycle from nashbar.com for carrying my groceries.  I got the rack for my birthday from Chips cousin and her girlfriend so all I needed was the bag.

The bag I got is called a Townie Basket and it’s small enough to carry a bag of groceries so I don’t have to keep wrapping the bags around my handlebars.  The more specific grocery I wanted to use this for was for the 2 gallons of milk I always buy because it’s cheaper to buy 2 gallons than 1 at $3.69.

So I got the bag today and put it on immediately which only took maybe a minute to figure out how it goes on.  I went to Albertson’s right away and got my 2 gallons of milk along with some other things that I needed which I ended up having to carry in my grocery bag on the handlebars… I’m gonna need another one for the other side lol.

The only problem is that with 2 heavy gallons of milk it was sagging outward.  I was petrified that they would fall out as soon as I hit a bump in the road or a pot hole, not paying attention to the road and watching the milk instead might make me accidentally hit a pot hole or a CAR lol.

Well, here are the pictures of the bag.  The first one is of the bag folded up on the rack, the 2nd one is the bag open and the 3rd one is of it with its handy dandy rain coat or as I like to call it, it’s shower cap.

hpnx1198hpnx1199hpnx1200

Ok, now to fix the problem with this bag sagging outward I had to think about how I was going to do this.  I remembered the metal with the holes I used to make it so the rack was secure on the bike so I grabbed the roll of that stuff and held it up then bent the top of it over then I held it on the clamp in the tool shed and cut off a piece, then I cut a 2nd piece.  Then I went back over to the patio table and started drilling holes in the hard plastic in the bag so I could screw these things in place and then I put it on the bike rack.  Viola, it doesn’t sag anymore so I don’t have to worry about anything falling out lol.  Well, for now anyway.

hpnx1201

It’s a really dark picture but you can see that it’s not black, it’s the silver or gray thing on the right.  Not only does it stay on the rack but because I used the pliers to curl it over the rack bar I know nobody will be able to steal it lol.  It’s too much trouble to be able to steal now.  I mean because it’s only on with bungee at the bottom in the 2nd rack hole then with the 2 metal pieces (the black one on the left) so it’s very easy to steal but not anymore.

So if I have any other problems I’m going to have to put a hole on the outside of the bag into the plastic and put a hook there so I can hook a bungee on the outside then hook the other side of the bungee cord to the other side of the rack to make damn sure nothing falls out.

Edit: While I was watching Stargate SG-1 today I was thinking of how I could make this even more secure to the rack, not so that it doesn’t make my milk fall out but secure as in security.  How do I keep people from trying to steal it?  Bracket it to the rack.  See, there are these straps at the bottom that you are supposed to put the rack through, the metal sticks that get screwed to the wheel part of the frame, those are supposed to go through these straps and you would think that those would be velcro so that just in case your rack doesn’t allow you to put them through, then you could just undo them with the velcro.  So I came up with something a little more permanent.

hpnx1203

This picture is taken from the inside of the wheel, as you can see the spokes on the right and left side.  I bracketed the bag to the rack so it would never be easy to separate.  Well, I mean it would if I was trying to but a thief couldn’t easily do it and the guards at the grocery store know me and my bike so they would know if someone was trying to take something off my bike anyway.  But this would definitely slow them down lol.

And to top it all off, I put an eye hook in the outside of the bag, you can see in the first 2 pictures, there is a little silver rectangle, that is the logo of the company I bought it from.  Well, I screwed the eye hook just below that logo so that I could easily attach a bungee cord to it then the other end of the bungee could attach to the other side of the rack.  This way everything will stay inside the bag and not fall out.  The neon yellow shower cap will be able to protect it with the bungee cord in place so that isn’t an issue.

Loading………….

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

Since I’m not using my laptop anymore because I can’t afford to renew my warranty, I’m only going to use it for GPS when we go on trips and it’s really slow so I’m going to have to reformat it so when we do go on trips the GPS will load much quicker.  Although, I would love it if we could buy a $99 TomTom.

When I was using my laptop, I had it specifically for all the IM programs like MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM, AIM, ICQ, Skype and MySpace IM.  Plus I was using it for Microsoft Money 2004.  It came with the laptop.  But since I’m not longer using the laptop I had to install all of those programs onto my desktop and since I’m not playing EverQuest anymore then I have no reason not to have those run on the desktop.

The only drawback is that when I turn the computer on I have to wait forever for it to load.  The laptop typically took about 10-30 minutes to load.  Yeah, I know.  I’ve reformatted it but then as soon as I install all that crap back on there it takes forever again to load.

So why do I have all these IM programs installed?  Because some people absolutely will not use some IM programs.  Like for example, my cousin refuses to use anything but ICQ.  Well, he’s the only person that I know who uses ICQ.  I have friends who will not use anything but MSN Messenger.  Some friends will only use AOL or AIM.  So in order to accommodate all those people I must have 6 IM programs running at the same time.

Actually, to be honest I stopped using ICQ because my cousin never gets on it so why keep loading it?  All I get are spam IM’s so if he can’t get on another IM program then I’m not going to accommodate him.  I mean, he ain’t using ICQ so why should I have to load it right?

My Birthday Part 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn BirthdaysLeave a comment

Well this morning I woke up with Darrin singing the Happy Birthday song and he was holding a German Chocolate cake which was what my mother always made for me for my birthdays. He knew that, that’s why he bought it for me.

We went to the movies today and saw Iron Man which I really loved. Afterwards we went to Sears and Darrin bought me 3 pair of cartoon lounge pants (pajamas hehe).

His cousin Vedra and Venda gave me a black t-shirt with HWOODCATS on it and a box of Dewars candy peanut butter flavored. They are really good. Tomorrow I absolutely cannot wait to get my Lego Indiana Jones game for my PSP then we’re going to DQ for blizzards which I have a coupon that they sent me for my birthday for buy 1 get 1 free.

Old Arcade Games

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

I was at the PSP page today just browsing through all the games they have on there and I noticed they had these collections and one of them had like 50 Atari 2600 games and so I looked at the pictures and of course it is indeed the old 2600 games which were so bad but to 1980’s standards, well, let’s face it, they were still bad then lol.

My cousins had Atari 5200 and it was more similar to the arcade games than the 2600 was. I was very jealous. My other cousin Stephen had a Nintendo and that was a bit cooler.

Anyway, then I found another collection called Namco Museum Battle Collection. That has about 20 games like Pac Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaxian etc. 4 of the games they redid for the PSP too. I know of 3 of them, Pac Man, Dig Dug and Galaga they totally redid to give them a little 3Dness so they look way cool.

I found it on ebay new still in package for like $15 so of course I had to buy it. I don’t know when I’ll get it because I bought it on a Saturday and it wont go out until Monday probably and it’s coming via USPS which means it will be longer than if it were coming via UPS or FedEx. That’s fine though because the mail carrier can put it in the wood box outside and nobody will take it and I wont have to worry about staying home for it hehe. I can’t wait to play Galaga and Dig Dug after all these years.

Lemmings PSP Game

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I think it was in 2001 when my cousin Stephen introduced me to a game called Lemmings. He said it was available for download for free online somewhere so I found it and downloaded it and I really enjoyed it.

Well, since I bought a PSP I was looking on the PlayStation website to see what games they had available for the PSP and found Lemmings there. I was going to just buy it at Wal-Mart or Target or something at the high price of $40 but thought why buy it there for that price when I could get it at a pawn shop for less.

So we were downtown yesterday and I went over to the Wooden Nickle Trading Company and they had it for $25 so I bought it hehe. My PSP should be here tomorrow so I can’t wait to play it.