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!

We had beautiful weather here today and as usual, such weather put us in the mood for a lovely walk in the woods with Riley. It’s been a long time since we walked up the hill from the Wilson Mills trailhead to the Forest Picnic Area, so that’s where we headed. We figured that once we reached the top of the hill we’d stop, give Riley some water, then head back down via the bridle path that more or less parallels the paved trail. I’ve included a handy map below.

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.

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!

Jackie’s right, ’tis been entirely too long without a post. Trouble is, I haven’t really had anything “blogworthy” happen in my life. There are plenty of blogworthy things going on in other’s lives, but it’s not my business to write about them. So. Let’s go…conjuring a post from thin air.

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!

I recently updated the installation of pixelpost, the CMS that controls our photoblog. Something in the update b0rked how the images displayed in IE6/7 and I was forced to wipe out the database and install a fresh copy of pixelpost to fix it. As a result, I lost some of the images and all of the comments.

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