I can’t begin to imagine the amount of time that was spent planning and creating it.

Also, I stumbled across a great collection of desktop wallpapers today. The guy’s work is pretty amazing.

Front graphics applied, originally uploaded by daveronku.

We applied the graphics to the bus today and it looks AWESOME. Couldn’t go with the really sparkly vinyl we wanted - it’s really expensive - but it ended up looking totally cool anyway. With the graphics on there, the bus is all but done. All that’s left is the installation of some equipment for the shoot, but the form it’s in now is how it will be when we sell the bus.
Click on the picture above to go to my Flickr page; there are more pics to look at!

So we had a lovely walk up the hill. Riley’s still in training, so we shoved a teeny smidgen of chicken-like product in his mouth around every fourth step. We passed quite a few other people walking their dogs or riding bikes. When Riley managed to ignore the distractions, he got a treat. We even passed some guy on his horse, looking all jaunty in his boots and goofy hat. He caused Riley to go eleven and a half seconds without a treat. Then the danger was past. And Riley got a treat. We reached the top in around a half hour, and after Riley had his water and even more treats, we headed into the woods to start down. This is when we seem to have taken a wrong turn.

We passed a family walking their overexcited mutt as we entered the woods. This took our mind off paying attention to trail signs and onto Riley’s behavior, and our first bad decision was made. We meandered off in the general direction of Chardon Road.

As we continued down what we believed to be the correct path, it felt to me like we were headed a little too far north, but no big deal. We’d end up where we needed to be. Or, you know. Not.

When we broke out of the woods at Oxbow Lane, I knew we had a hike on our hands.

Notice the aborted attempt to correct our mistake by following what is apparently a little-used bridle trail into a swamp. We made it to about where the little horsey sign is before we got tired of slogging through mud and underbrush, turned around, and headed back out towards Chagrin River Rd.

Then we took another detour. We decided that, rather than walk in traffic through the twisties (not shown on this map, but trust me, they’re there), we’d walk the loop through Riverview Rd. A pleasant diversion that added another mile to our trek.

We finally made it back to the car, where Riley drank most of a bottle of water and we laughed at ourselves for managing to get “lost” in a Metropark. And that’s how we turned a 4 mile walk into a 7 mile odyssey.

Oh, and…

We have a new banner. The increasingly inaccurate “freezing our asses off” banner was starting to get on my nerves. Problem is, all my Joe-n-Dave pics are here at home and every time I thought about making up a new banner I was at my office. Figured I’d throw in a few color tweaks while I was at it. Makes me feel like I know what I’m doing after spending five hours today not getting other web-ish to work.

QuizBus, originally uploaded by daveronku.
Click the image below to see the original, plus a bunch more pictures, on Flickr.

Well, it’s not riding quite yet. But here’s the biggest prop we’ve ever had — our very own short bus!
This bus will be the star of our latest educational TV project. It’s a series of programs called QuizBus: Dealing With Data, the subject being statistics, the audience middle school kids, and the premise a game show in a school bus, a la “Cash Cab.”
Besides the incredibly cool paint job, there’s a lot more customization here. On the exterior there’s a hood scoop, four fog lamps, chrome wheel covers, and flashing multi-color neon underneath. The ugly black mirrors have been replaced with cool chrome ones. Now we just need to apply the logo to several places.
On the inside, there’s new carpeting and headliner, a six-speaker 750W sound system, flashing chaser lights, custom bench seats, three nine inch LCDs and one 42″ plasma screen. The driver and host seats are racing seats. The side windows all have limo tint in them, and the driver’s side and door windows have a 35% tint.
Andy, the genius who’s worked his ass off for this project (logging over 400 hours so far) has a little more work to do. We plan on shooting the program in late May. Can’t wait to see the bus completed!

Saw a Flick.

On Friday night we went out with J & T. Had a little dinner at Max & Erma’s, then went next door to the new Atlas Theater by Great Lakes Mall to take in a movie. We saw Leatherheads which, while predictable, was funny. Have you ever noticed that many movies based in the ’20s seem to have that witty banter thing going on? This one had an overabundance of it, particularly between Renée Zellweger and George Clooney. Stephen Root, as usual, played an eccentric. This being a sports movie, I almost expected him to make a reference to Obscure Sports Quarterly.

Anyway, the theater is pretty nice. It seems all the theaters use digital projectors. The picture was amazingly crisp; too bad the only glasses I had with me were my sunglasses. So I alternated between seeing the picture kinda fuzzy or seeing it kinda dark. Worked out okay, though.

Bought a Mower.

Here’s something sure to get everyone’s heart thumping: we finally bought a new lawnmower. Since we moved to this house, Jul and I have been using the Honda that Dad bought back in 1988. Before that, we used a hand-me-down Toro that I got from my old boss. So this is the first mower I’ve ever purchased. I told Julie that the snowblower we bought a couple of years ago was the engagement ring; the new mower is the wedding ring. So now we’re finally committed for life.

Got What You Asked For.

A really boring post, conjured from thin air!

On the bright side, there are a couple of fresh images there…

This is the rest of the post.

Yeah. Nice job parking., originally uploaded by daveronku.

Honestly. How the hell do you do this?
Usually, when people do a crappy job of parking in front of our building, they park too far from the curb. Apparently, this person decided to err on the side of caution.
Hey, want to bet this car can be seen driving around with half a foot of snow on the windshield?

This past week we had what I can only hope is the final snowfall of the year. While it wasn’t in the class of the big dump of a few weeks ago (mental images welcome), it was more than we needed or cared for; probably 5″ or so here, a little more to the south of us. It was the final opportunity for lazy-asses to drive around with their cars buried in snow, and everyone with that propensity was on the road. It’s to those people I have to say:

What the hell is so difficult about clearing your windows of snow? Are you really so damned goofy as to think that clearing a hole the size of your head right in front of the driver’s seat is all the vision you need to drive a car? Do you drive with blinders on the rest of the year? Do you ever check your mirrors to see the traffic around you?

Look, I can understand being caught in October by a freak early storm before you’ve had a chance to toss the snow brush in your car. I can even see it in November if we’ve had an unusually long Autumn. BUT IT’S FUCKING MARCH. YOU’VE HAD YOUR SNOW BRUSH IN YOUR CAR FOR FIVE MONTHS. I don’t care if you were an idiot this morning, leaving the house in flimsy shoes and a light jacket. WALK YOUR ASS AROUND YOUR CAR AND WIPE THE SNOW OFF WITH YOUR SLEEVE IF YOU HAVE TO.

I don’t need you merging into me because you’re such a loser. Go run yourself into a tree, but STOP ENDANGERING THE REST OF US.

Amen.

Motley Crue with guests Autograph, Pacific Coliseum, Nov 12 1985, $19

Van Halen, BC Place Stadium, Oct 23 1986, $25

AC/DC, Tacoma Dome, Aug 19 1986, $16

David Lee Roth with guests Cinderella, Pacific Coliseum, Dec 7 1986, $19

Bon Jovi, BC Place Stadium, Jul 2 1987, $22

Motley Crue with guests Whitesnake, Pacific Coliseum, Oct 16 1987, $21

Alice Cooper, Pacific Coliseum, Dec 28 1987, $18

Monsters of Rock (Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, and supposedly Kingdom Come as the opening act but I swear it was Queensryche), Seattle Kingdome, Jul 27 1988, $38

Aerosmith with guest Dokken, Pacific Coliseum, Jan 20 1988, $21

Kim Mitchell with guest Alannah Myles, The Orpheum, Oct 15 1989, $24

Poison with guests Tesla, Pacific Coliseum, Apr 23 1989, $27

Bon Jovi with guests Skid Row, BC Place Stadium, May 11 1989, $27

Sam Kinison, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Jun 9 1989, $19

Motley Crue, Pacific Coliseum, Jun 9 1990, $27

Paula Abdul with guests Color Me Bad, Pacific Coliseum, Nov 18 1991, $33 (WTF ??!!?)

The scan above is a photocopy of a torn cigarette pack (a friend took the original but I bet he lost it) bearing the signatures of Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee of Motley Crue. We ran into them in downtown Vancouver the day after one of the concerts.