---With the end of February being today I just wanted to say one more time how Scott's month long photo adventure and inspiration has, in my opinion, made this month the best month this blog has yet to ever see.
Thank you Scott for letting us inside your head and your life to see such killer forms of self expression. You get the award (hands down) for being the most creative Offmen to date ever on this blog.
You have inspired me to do something of the same coming up later on in the summer months, something that I would have never thought of without your pictures from February. Thanks bro.---
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
coming soon to the chicagoland area
it is now official. I am visiting my dad in Lake in the Hills from April 2 to April 7, 2009. If anything can be arranged I wouldn't mind a social evening.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Just saying stuff...
---Hello boys, I havent actually wasted any of your time by blogging here in quite a while, so I figured what the heck. Scott, your pics are still rockin and its nice to have ya back PJB. It was also nice to see Steve and even Franko drop in for a line or three.
Nothing spectacular goes on here. Today its gonna be sunny w/ a high of 55. BUT, we has a sayin here in good ole Iowa, "If you dont like the weather just wait 5 mins. and it'll change". Tomorrow we go back to craptastic weather w/ rain, possibly freezing rain, then possibly a few inches of snow. Spring very well may be on the doorstep now, but old man winter aint gonna give in without a fight, he never does.
Ive just been up to the usual as of late, hanging w/ Ava and the ex. Helping her through a rough spot too. She got rejected for her first shot at her home loan from one lender, so shes gonna go directly through her bank now which had her preapproved to begin with so I dunno why she just didnt do that in the 1st place.
The winter (or my medication topped w/ my laziness) has caused me to put some pounds back on. Im back up to around 175-178ish. Doesnt make me super happy but as soon as the weather breaks, outdoor activities, including nightly walks around the area after dinner will be a must for me. And yes dangit, Im still a wuss and havent given up the smoking thing yet either, I just get soo freaked out when I think about no longer having that psychological crutch in my life. I mean I base it around so much. Getting nervous, I smoke. After a meal, I smoke. First thing in the AM and last thing of the day, yet again, yes, I smoke. Smoke, smoke, smoke.
Well, boys its nice to blog again, hope to get some replies soon, love yas.---
Nothing spectacular goes on here. Today its gonna be sunny w/ a high of 55. BUT, we has a sayin here in good ole Iowa, "If you dont like the weather just wait 5 mins. and it'll change". Tomorrow we go back to craptastic weather w/ rain, possibly freezing rain, then possibly a few inches of snow. Spring very well may be on the doorstep now, but old man winter aint gonna give in without a fight, he never does.
Ive just been up to the usual as of late, hanging w/ Ava and the ex. Helping her through a rough spot too. She got rejected for her first shot at her home loan from one lender, so shes gonna go directly through her bank now which had her preapproved to begin with so I dunno why she just didnt do that in the 1st place.
The winter (or my medication topped w/ my laziness) has caused me to put some pounds back on. Im back up to around 175-178ish. Doesnt make me super happy but as soon as the weather breaks, outdoor activities, including nightly walks around the area after dinner will be a must for me. And yes dangit, Im still a wuss and havent given up the smoking thing yet either, I just get soo freaked out when I think about no longer having that psychological crutch in my life. I mean I base it around so much. Getting nervous, I smoke. After a meal, I smoke. First thing in the AM and last thing of the day, yet again, yes, I smoke. Smoke, smoke, smoke.
Well, boys its nice to blog again, hope to get some replies soon, love yas.---
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
"Trade Show"
My trip to "Frost Bike" or
What I did on winter break,
by dad-e-O
Frostbike is a largish tradeshow, hosted by QBP, which is the largest distributer of most things bike in the industry. We were invited to attend by our sales rep, they picked up a bunch of the meals, and the room, as well as transportation. In addition to the actual show, there were a mess of meetings that we attended in order to learn more about the biz, processes, procedures, hints for success. That sort of thing.
Thursday AM we dropped Max off at school, took care of a few last minute errands, including picking up the camera (which we didn't use) and hit the road. We had already arranged to have one of the girls Tif works with to stay with the boys (and girls). Made arrangements for increased security at the shop, blah, blah.
Trip Highlights that you may find less then boring:
-Upon Check in, I was told that I was going to have a room mate, but it worked out, cause it was Tif.
-The room was nice, but with double beds, not being 22 anylonger, we pretty much slept like Fred and Wilma, in seperate beds.
-We had dinner at this cool place called the depot, which is a converted train station, the main room of which is an ice-rink, that they put flooring over in order to seat people, the dinner was lovely, but the entertainment was REALLY boring, I nodded off.
-We took a tour of the facility, it was fuckin huge, like mamoth. the organizational nightmare it must be to distribute that much stuff, is pretty amazing.
-At one of the meals, the "plastic forks" were actually made from potatoes.
-I drank enough beer over the few days, that on the way home, we stopped for Lunch/dinner at Outback, and I took a pass. (not on booze, just on beer, I had gin)
-We came home inspired to make more changes, and move more stuff in the shop.
-We bought tif a super cool wheels set, pretty colors, the money went to charity, the wheels go to us.
Otherwise you would pretty much have to be a bike geek to have any real interest in the goings on, even Tif had to pretend to be interested sometimes.
Thanks for listening
What I did on winter break,
by dad-e-O
Frostbike is a largish tradeshow, hosted by QBP, which is the largest distributer of most things bike in the industry. We were invited to attend by our sales rep, they picked up a bunch of the meals, and the room, as well as transportation. In addition to the actual show, there were a mess of meetings that we attended in order to learn more about the biz, processes, procedures, hints for success. That sort of thing.
Thursday AM we dropped Max off at school, took care of a few last minute errands, including picking up the camera (which we didn't use) and hit the road. We had already arranged to have one of the girls Tif works with to stay with the boys (and girls). Made arrangements for increased security at the shop, blah, blah.
Trip Highlights that you may find less then boring:
-Upon Check in, I was told that I was going to have a room mate, but it worked out, cause it was Tif.
-The room was nice, but with double beds, not being 22 anylonger, we pretty much slept like Fred and Wilma, in seperate beds.
-We had dinner at this cool place called the depot, which is a converted train station, the main room of which is an ice-rink, that they put flooring over in order to seat people, the dinner was lovely, but the entertainment was REALLY boring, I nodded off.
-We took a tour of the facility, it was fuckin huge, like mamoth. the organizational nightmare it must be to distribute that much stuff, is pretty amazing.
-At one of the meals, the "plastic forks" were actually made from potatoes.
-I drank enough beer over the few days, that on the way home, we stopped for Lunch/dinner at Outback, and I took a pass. (not on booze, just on beer, I had gin)
-We came home inspired to make more changes, and move more stuff in the shop.
-We bought tif a super cool wheels set, pretty colors, the money went to charity, the wheels go to us.
Otherwise you would pretty much have to be a bike geek to have any real interest in the goings on, even Tif had to pretend to be interested sometimes.
Thanks for listening
Sunday, February 22, 2009
random thoughts
When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.
-robert heinlein
pictures are great scott, and i think i am going to be in illinois apr 7 thru apr 14. have to visit my dad.
-robert heinlein
pictures are great scott, and i think i am going to be in illinois apr 7 thru apr 14. have to visit my dad.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Pics of the shop.
---Here are some various shots of my ex's shop and 1 or 2 of the little monster. No, shes not a monster at all, shes a rather good girl and she is my pride and joy and she is my life, without her smile, Id be a shell of a human, for reals. Anyways, You name it and if it's vintage Ang either sells it online or has it in her shop, which will also sometimes end up on her website too. The upper loft is where the lingerie and vintage bridal wear is, I think I included 1 decent shot of the vintage sexy wear, woohoo! Her shop isnt small per say, but she could use twice the room easy. She may move next year sometime, time itself will tell.
So yeah guys, this is where I spend my Saturday afternoons, keeping my eye on the kid while my ex works her vintage magic. Im also usually there on Weds. afternoons too, just hanging w/ the ex, her and I use the time to just hang and shoot the breeze. As you all obviously know, were divorced but we are still super tight for the sake of our daughter and Im a hopeless hard luck story who is still in love w/ her so I almost always enjoy the time. Shes open Wed-Fri, 10 AM-530 PM and Sat. 10 AM- 430 PM. Her website, which she built all by herself is pretty damn cool too. Shes not super HTML girl, but she knows enough code to rock a killer website.---
Friday, February 13, 2009
What a difference a day makes!
---Just yesterday at this time it was nearly 50 degrees and sunny. These two shots were just taken outside off the front stoop of my place. Snow is falling at a rate of about an inch an hour. Its quite beautiful actually. Its real light and fluffy too so clean up later should be super easy! You guys enjoy your weekend. I guess a portion of this storm is forecasted to hit you guys sometime early tomorrow AM. Enjoy.---
Monday, February 09, 2009
Small Talk.
---Well, I honestly dont wanna take away from Scott's great picture adventure here on the OMI blog for this month, so Ill try to keep this one short. Scott, your "28 days" project is the best thing this blog has yet to see. Period.
We are currently under the spell of a early Feb. heatwave and I hope it has hit you guys over there too! Weve been near or above 50, 55 degrees since this past Saturday and tomorrow its supposed to be 55 again, but by this week's end back down into the 30s where its supposed to be for this time of year. Im really starting to wonder if the big snowfall action is gonna pass us by for this winter! I checked an Iowa weather almanac online here and the most snow weve had on the ground here in Des Moines at once has only been around 5.5 inches this season. We can all say, being people from the Midwest that that aint shit, ya know? I figure if ya make it to the 2nd week of March or so, you can start to say youve made it through and the coast starts to look clear as far as no more major snow. Id like to think that we are done with the major arctic cold snaps for the season already. No more below zeros please.
I havent been up to much. Im gonna try to get some pics of the ex's shop tomorrow to post here later this week. She just admitted to me late last week that once she gets in the groove of her new home for a while and some other things get taken care of, shes gonna start to look for a new location for her shop or just go back to strictly online sales again since shed have space to store inventory and then some in her basement at her new digs. Thats how she got her start anyways, w/ the online thing and now she still does that even today on top of the actual shop.
My daughter is doing great, no bad news to report there. Shes become a little Nintendo Wii master, the little bugger, shes better than I am at most games.
Well, I guess Ill hit the sack. So much for a short email, sorry boys! Where are ya PJB? You OK?
Scott, please keep the awesome photos coming for the month!!!
Chat soon my brothers, love yas.---
We are currently under the spell of a early Feb. heatwave and I hope it has hit you guys over there too! Weve been near or above 50, 55 degrees since this past Saturday and tomorrow its supposed to be 55 again, but by this week's end back down into the 30s where its supposed to be for this time of year. Im really starting to wonder if the big snowfall action is gonna pass us by for this winter! I checked an Iowa weather almanac online here and the most snow weve had on the ground here in Des Moines at once has only been around 5.5 inches this season. We can all say, being people from the Midwest that that aint shit, ya know? I figure if ya make it to the 2nd week of March or so, you can start to say youve made it through and the coast starts to look clear as far as no more major snow. Id like to think that we are done with the major arctic cold snaps for the season already. No more below zeros please.
I havent been up to much. Im gonna try to get some pics of the ex's shop tomorrow to post here later this week. She just admitted to me late last week that once she gets in the groove of her new home for a while and some other things get taken care of, shes gonna start to look for a new location for her shop or just go back to strictly online sales again since shed have space to store inventory and then some in her basement at her new digs. Thats how she got her start anyways, w/ the online thing and now she still does that even today on top of the actual shop.
My daughter is doing great, no bad news to report there. Shes become a little Nintendo Wii master, the little bugger, shes better than I am at most games.
Well, I guess Ill hit the sack. So much for a short email, sorry boys! Where are ya PJB? You OK?
Scott, please keep the awesome photos coming for the month!!!
Chat soon my brothers, love yas.---
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Crazy Hair Day 2009
sorry about the crappy pic, but my good camera is at the shop so this is a cell phone pic
Crazy hair day keeps getting funner...
This time.
Max and I missed our cue, NBFD to him.
Jake on the other hand, a few days ago he decided to dye his hair red (it came out sorta pink..)for Spirit week with his swim team, and to make it crazier, he took some red hair goop, and made some liberty spikes. All by himself.
Crazy hair day keeps getting funner...
This time.
Max and I missed our cue, NBFD to him.
Jake on the other hand, a few days ago he decided to dye his hair red (it came out sorta pink..)for Spirit week with his swim team, and to make it crazier, he took some red hair goop, and made some liberty spikes. All by himself.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Whoops!
---Remember in an earlier post from this week when I said Id take my digi. cam. to the ex's shop and take pics in my own way for you guys to see? I dropped the ball. I forgot my camera here at home.
When it comes to everything except the kid, Im born to lose, and destined to fail. Nah, not really, Ill be there again this Saturday, if it isnt busy, Ill shoot some pics then!
Scott, your idea for the "28 days" thing is awesome, what made ya think that up? Thats pretty damn original, I likey!!!
When it comes to everything except the kid, Im born to lose, and destined to fail. Nah, not really, Ill be there again this Saturday, if it isnt busy, Ill shoot some pics then!
Scott, your idea for the "28 days" thing is awesome, what made ya think that up? Thats pretty damn original, I likey!!!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Redecorate
As mentioned earlier, I have been doing a little shop decorating.
Here is a pic taken in our Kids Room in November, it shoes the changing rooms, that we were using to hold BMX bikes, during the summer we had tires in one.
here is a pic of the same spot different angle now it has assecories, parts and our trialers
Here is a pic of the west side of what we call the porch, it was where we had our Trailer display, and our Fit station, as well as some Parts & assesories on a couple of book shelves
Now it is all Parts and Assesoris, with a handle bar diplay, and our fit station
Here is a pic taken in our Kids Room in November, it shoes the changing rooms, that we were using to hold BMX bikes, during the summer we had tires in one.
here is a pic of the same spot different angle now it has assecories, parts and our trialers
Here is a pic of the west side of what we call the porch, it was where we had our Trailer display, and our Fit station, as well as some Parts & assesories on a couple of book shelves
Now it is all Parts and Assesoris, with a handle bar diplay, and our fit station
Ugh.
---Well, as much as I enjoy the winter season, I have all but fallen victim to cabin fever! I do get out once in a while. Therapy once a week and I see the kid a couple times a week to, usually on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but the rest of the time is spent with my nose usually in a book trying to ward off the evil spirit of the winter blues. This Iowa weather is even more fucked up. Today, for example, the high here will be 12, with temps. dumping down into dangerous wind chills by tonight. And by Friday its supposed to be 51 degrees! At least that will melt a lot of the ugly snow. We still havent gotten a major dumping on this winter yet, the most weve accumulated at once was around 5 inches. Its February, its still the dead of winter, I know it somewhere down in my bones that we are gonna get nailed to the wall with at least one big snow fall before its all said and done. We just have to...Im talking anything over 7 or 8 inches in one storm. Its gonna happen damnit.
That tiny little slice of a photo up by my ugly mug is clickable. It will show you a huge ass pic of my backyard, dying tree and all. You will also notice quite a few tire tracks and ruts back there. Thats where we usually park, on the back of the lot when there is no snow. I tried to park there last Sat. cuz it was like 45 here and totally forgot about overnight re-freeze, so when I came out the next morning my ride had sunk into 4 nice ice ruts. That was a blast to maneuver out of. We still wont be parking back there for a while yet.
Also one quick note...today marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Richie Valens, The Big Bopper and NONE OTHER than the great Buddy Holly. The actual plane crash site is about 3 1/2 hours from here in Iowa. Ive been listening to Buddy all morning, gotta pay respect to the man who influenced so many musicians of today, not only with his sound, but with his free spirit and his love for creating music. To skip out in life by not listening to Buddy would be a damn shame. He was a pioneer and had he lived on, there is no telling what kind of an even stronger influence he would have had on the musicians of today, well, a lot of the musicians I enjoy anyways, Id be willing to bet half of these new school bands have no idea of what they are missing out on.
RIP Buddy. Rave on.---
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Blog snooping
---Hey PJB....I was just reading your shop blog and it does indeed seem like you have taken on quite the task of doing some decent work of remodeling some areas of the shop. I would love to see some pictures when you get the time.
What made ya dump out of the apparel aspect of the biz? Did it just not profit for ya? Ill assume that was the #1 reason. My ex went through a seriously dry period w/ jewelry like that, but it finally picked up, now shes doing all right in that area.
I think this week when I head over to her shop Im gonna take some pics of her digs my style and post 'em here later in the week so you guys can get a Tippy type look at her shop. Its pretty neat.
Yeah, I just got a kick ass new digi. cam. for Christmas, so I will do that actually. Look for pics later in the week if all goes well. I usually go over there on Wednesdays to chill.
As I have mentioned previously, the kid and I are OBSESSED w/ dinosaurs in a huge ass way. Last night her and I spent about an hour on the p.c. doing "research" on some certain dinos. The kid actually spelled some dino names correctly, more so than I! Shes gonna be something special. Its amazing to watch them grow. Either Im gonna go back to school for Paleontology or she will possibly end up there someday. Its a trip.
Ill get a pic or two of Ava also so you guys can see how much she has grown.
Look for a photo update late in this coming week!---
What made ya dump out of the apparel aspect of the biz? Did it just not profit for ya? Ill assume that was the #1 reason. My ex went through a seriously dry period w/ jewelry like that, but it finally picked up, now shes doing all right in that area.
I think this week when I head over to her shop Im gonna take some pics of her digs my style and post 'em here later in the week so you guys can get a Tippy type look at her shop. Its pretty neat.
Yeah, I just got a kick ass new digi. cam. for Christmas, so I will do that actually. Look for pics later in the week if all goes well. I usually go over there on Wednesdays to chill.
As I have mentioned previously, the kid and I are OBSESSED w/ dinosaurs in a huge ass way. Last night her and I spent about an hour on the p.c. doing "research" on some certain dinos. The kid actually spelled some dino names correctly, more so than I! Shes gonna be something special. Its amazing to watch them grow. Either Im gonna go back to school for Paleontology or she will possibly end up there someday. Its a trip.
Ill get a pic or two of Ava also so you guys can see how much she has grown.
Look for a photo update late in this coming week!---
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