DanLog the ramblings of Daniel Pettit

Be careful what you wish for. Cute flick, Jennifer Garner does a great job.

We went to dinner at the El Torito across from John Wayne Airport.

I ordered a combo : 2 cheese enchiladas and a crispy beef aco, with double rice no beans. Well our waiter could use a little less confidence. He didn’t write down our order, which I think is pretty normal here, too bad he had forgotten what Lauren had ordered by the time he got the POS. He came back and asked her order again. The food came out faster than the Old Spaghetti Factory, too bad my order was wrong. I got beans instead of double rice and no taco. I reminded him of both and he apologized and ran off. He quickly returned with a bowl of rice, no taco. I reminded him of the taco. It seemed to be news to him as it was the first he had heard of it but the third time I’d mentioned it. Again he said he was sorry and almost immediately returned with my taco. When we were done he took my plates and asked Lauren if she wanted a togo box, which she did. When he returned with the box he spun around and was off, I got his attention in the nick of time to order my mud pie for dessert. Gee shouldn’t he have asked us if we wanted any dessert?

Afterwards we went over to the K-mart center and had a quick little photo shoot.

Lauren and I helped take the clan to John Wayne Airport this morning.

I accidentally switched on the patio light tonight which of course won’t light up a thing as it is just some hanging wires. So I then reach over to turn on the light over the kitchen sink and it didn’t work. I thought that was strange both bulbs burned out at the same time. Then I tried the ceiling light and that didn’t work either, the breaker must be tripped, so I knew that I must have a short in my new wiring. I probably pinched something when I screwed on the cover, at least I hope it is something easy. I’ll have to wait for daylight to find out.

We walked to the video store again. Brought home “The Girl Next Door (2004)”.
Another one of those teenager flicks. Sort of a twist on Risky Business. Plenty of eye candy and generally entertaining if you like these wacko coming of age stories, which we do.

Went to the Fountain Valley OSH to see if they carried the flavor of Varathane I was looking for yesterday and they actually had it. I also picked up a couple 3/8″ flex connectors. While I was over there I did a little matt hunting. If spotted about seven and checked out some industrial areas I’ve never been in before North of the Costco. The only thing interesting I found was this plaque dedicated to a long time employee of the city too bad he had to die to get it. I came home and did some quick calculations on my electrical needs and headed off to Home Depot to get some armored cable, couple switches and a box. I wired the box to the light outlet and called it quits for the day.

Okay I knew it got terrible reviews, but that didn’t really concern me because I loved the first and it wasn’t exactly heralded as celluloid genius. Well for once the reviews were deserved. I’m not astute enough to verbalize why it didn’t work but it didn’t. I’ll just have to wait for Dr. Daniel to get back from Guam to explain why it didn’t work. The characters didn’t seem to have any connection with each other hence I/we didn’t really care what happened to them, resulting in a dull film. Sure I chuckled a few times and maybe the first 70 times Matthew Perry ran into a door the next 400 times was just overkill. Its worth a buck or two to rent but it won’t be finding a home in my collection and if you know me I ain’t that discriminating. And yes I no ain’t aren’t a word.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, hard to go wrong with this pair. Something was missing from this one though. It was entertaining enough but not as much as I had hoped for. Maybe its because I really don’t remember the original other than the opening credits, so I didn’t “get it”.

Today was big trash day in Monticello, so I had some easy street matts today.

I also stopped by the El Nido Trailer Park which is being razed. I’ve noticed it out of the corner of my eye as I drive by on Orange Street for sometime now and figured there has to be some mattresses lurking about. It wasn’t the bonanza of matts I’d hoped for but I did spot one way off in the distance.

I plumbed the other two posts, and then installed the brackets for the top of the posts.

Then I managed to hoist the beam into place with out having a stroke. That 4″ x 10″ x 12′ toothpick is not exactly light. I could barely carry it into the patio. Then I angled one end up and lined it up with the bracket. Then I hoisted the other side while climbing the ladder and dropped it into the other bracket. I have one more to go on the house side. It is about 2 feet higher but I’ll cut this one to length first so it should be 20% lighter, I hope that is enough.

Well we finally went out on date night instead of bringing in Chipotle. We went to the Claim Jumper at South Coast Plaza.

I had my usual meat loaf.

And dinner isn’t complete with out a mountainous mud pie.

We went for a brief stroll through the mall. I noticed these chandeliers and was glad we didn’t have one of those in our house. They look like something that falls at the end of a movie and impails the bad guy.

All the photos

I plumbed the first two posts using my nifty ( If I say so myself, and I just did ) laser leveler. It projects a plumb or level 360° circle/line.

The misses and I went over to her homestead to celebrate her dad’s 80th birthday. Mexican food, Mariachis, and of course cake

I actually had a hard time getting dressed today, I just didn’t have a thing to wear.

All the pictures

My second trip of the day to Home Depot was to add to my ever expanding tool collection. Todays entrant is a Milwaukee Jig Saw.

To avoid setting off the door alarm I elected to use a regular checkout instead of the self-checkout. Big mistake, I had actually forgotten that I am cursed when it comes to lines. If a line going slow I must be in it. I thought I was in luck just one person ahead of me and the clerk was almost done scanning their purchases, but then it happend. You know the usual price check because the box has no SKU. Wait for the department guy to call back. Finally the woman went back and found the guy and he came with the proper SKU. OK not too bad. Then when they were leaving they set off the door alarm. So the clerk had to deactivate the sensor. Problem is it could have been one of two items both of which were large so he had to get the portable. He’s rubbing and swiping box one. Then moves on to box two. It is wedged under a large sheetgood cart. He can’t pull it out. There were 2 sheets of wonderboard (not my fault Robbie) on top with 4 cases of soda and a couple cases of water on top of that. What do they think this is the grocery store?. Anyway the clerk had to remove all the stuff on top slide the sheets over and unwedge the Bosch gas tankless water heater ( $900 ish if you care ) and wave his magic wand over it. Reload the cart and now it is my turn. The sad part is my saw had no anti-theft device in it. I could have been home before those other people left the building if I had known that.

I mostly did planning for the roof construction. Here is a test sample of the rafter notching. I also sprayed some insulation foam, and of course two trips to Home Depot.