A new game... Post pics from your cel phone V.1.0

[gr8kornholio]

Yea they were a stretch for Chevy. Just a hang out show or you register for awards?  Any loud music near by?  Lol.

[BruceK]

It's wasn't a formal show - so very thankfully there was no force-feeding of loud oldies music over a shitty PA system like an "organized" car show. You know how much I like it when that happens.  ::) It is more like a micro-sized Cars & Coffee, you just show up, park your car, walk around and shoot the breeze with with other owners.  Apparently it happens on the last Saturday each month.

[gr8kornholio]

That's cool.  Yea we joke about that every time we see a music set up like that.

[BruceK]

Short cuts in plumbing.  Saw this on Zillow when looking at houses for sale.

[MiniDave]

Well, it's certainly southwest Texas rustic, but what am I missing? Is the sink made of 4x4's or something?

[Willie_B]

Looks like the sink drains into the toilet tank. One way to save on water.

[MiniDave]

That's actually not a bad idea......could have been done better but.....certainly a good water saving idea like you said.

[BruceK]

Yeah. Brad got it.  The sink is a slab without a drain.  So the run off is into the toilet tank.

[drmini]

Dumping water into the tank on a commode doesn't save water unless you have just flushed the commode and running the water as the tank fills.  Once the water level reaches its peak, the float cuts off the water supply.  Anything above and beyond that typically runs over the top of the overflow pipe in the tank and just trickles into the toilet.  Since the water level in the toilet is governed by the S shaped trap built into the commode, that excess water will trickle down the drain.  This in mind, the only thing they are saving is the cost of the drain piping to the sink.  Now, if you turned the supply line off to the tank you would save water, but you would have to make sure you washed your hands enough to keep water in the tank or perhaps only flush when you know the tank is full.  Note to self:  make sure you have adequate ventilation in the bathroom.

[drmini]

The straw that broke the Camel's back?

[ve9aa]

I shot this the other day on my cell as I was walking out the driveway. 
It's a 2-fer.
1) startled a deer as it ran away--funny
and
2) bonus pic is a snow crop circle. (AKA , some guy with a MINI had been doing reverse donuts on the lawn the day before.
(sorry, I never grew up)

[jeff10049]

Friends at sema just sent this.

[Jims5543]

Needs the cast from Jackass in it.

[94touring]

My one cousin found some family history this week.  I know a fair amount of my heritage but wasn't aware of this grave site.  My last name is Stoughton and we had traced ourselves back to the salem which trials.  Stoughton was the guy killing all the ladies. We had many other political figures in our family and recently reading some history books discovered the youngest general appointed by Lincoln in the civil war was also a relative Stoughton.

[MiniDave]

....

[Jims5543]

If you wanted candy on Halloween you needed to deal with spooky Mrs5543.  She was completely in character and some kids would not come up to get candy. I remember one crew coming up and the kid said, "Nah, I'm good" so his sister had to bring him up




I had treats for parents, this was so well received I am doing it again next year.

[Jims5543]

In Sept Mrs5543 and I hit a milestone, 29 years together.

We were committed to things the weekend of our anny so we scheduled to get away for a mini vacation / alone time last weekend.

Since we are Season Pass holders for Universal we are entitled to 1 free night at Halloween Horror Nights (HHN).  So we decided to use some points and get a free hotel room in downtown Orlando and go to HHN.

I have never been to one so had no idea what to expect. My older has been to 2 nights and told me, expect bad traffic, expect long lines and crushing crowds.  He said you will be lucky to see 2 haunted houses, maybe 3. Prepare to stand in lines for 2-3 hours for each house.

So I did some looking around, I found out I was entitled to a 10% (woo!!) discount for what they call a RIP tour, which is a VIP tour. I booked one for Mrs5543 and I. 

An RIP tour guarantees you see all 10 haunted houses and experience some scare zones as well as front row seating for a stupid show I would have passed on if I knew what it was.

While expensive, it was the first and probably the last time for a long time I do a HHN  so what the hell now. Hell, America is Great Again, I have some FU money why not say FU and use it?

I did and it was so worth it.  We have an assigned tour guide, and there were 9 people in our group. We walked up to every House and it was like being a rock star, everyone was stopped and we were let in. You have a speed pass? Fuck you!! these people are first!  General Admission? LMAO!! Get out of the way.

So in 4.5 hours we covered 10 houses and walked through all the scare zones, which are basically parts of the park where they set up some stages or displays and have a lot of actors wandering through messing with you.

They had a Stranger Things house, it was my favorite. They had actors (adults and kids) all through it that looked a lot like the people in the show. They made the house the school and the upside down world.

When you first walked into the house (who Winona Ryder lives in) she is in there breaking through a wall with an ax just like in the show.

I have to admit, this VIP experience changed everything for me. I think I am not going to buy a season pass ever again, and every few years, go for 1 day at a park as a VIP instead.

We even walked around in the back lots where there were no crowds to move around faster, it was probably the best theme park experience I ever had. Especially when you consider the crushing crowds and 3 hour waits to get into the houses.

A few pics, I did not take many. This is from the VIP waiting area, we had 2 cash bars and a complementary buffet (which we never ate from) at our disposal as well as an actor or 2 wandering through to mess with us. This one ended up talking hair with Mrs5543 for a few so we posed for pics. We would see her again out in a scare zone after our tour, she was really cool. Every actor has a security/handler trailing them. I was talking with this ones handler while Mrs5543 and her talked hair.


This is looking back at a scare zone, this was the Killer Clowns from Outer Space scare zone. Which is based off a really bad 80's movie with we watched when we got home and wish we saw before we went there. It made the zone 100X funnier. 



This was the 80's scare zone this is where we saw our new friend and yes that is Thriller Zombie MJ.



This band sucked almost as bad as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers did in Ft. Lauderdale a few years ago.


In a few years I will do again. Was totally worth being a VIP for a night.

[BruceK]

I attended 3 car shows as a spectator today.  At the first one I met a guy about 18 years old who was showing his pretty much stock '66 Mustang.  It was in great shape.  Not only is he proud to show it, but it's his daily driver too.  Nice to see someone that young messing with old cars.

On the way home I spotted some people standing outside under an awning in front of a little building and figured out it was a little hole-in-the-wall burger place.  It looks like it's not changed a bit since the 1950s.  Did a u-turn and pulled in.   Delicious old style smooshed burger with crispy edges. Mmmm. 

[gr8kornholio]

O hey, that's Bakers.  Love that place.  The fries are good too along with the huge cups of sweet tea.  Parking area suits a mini over any other sized car for sure.

[BruceK]

Yeah that's the place. I'd never noticed it before.  The sign outside is pretty small by modern standards.  I'll definitely go back.

[BruceK]

Spotted Walter White spreading some of that cash around at the breakfast taco joint this morning. 

[94touring]

He is the one who knocks.

[Jims5543]

On the way home I spotted some people standing outside under an awning in front of a little building and figured out it was a little hole-in-the-wall burger place.  It looks like it's not changed a bit since the 1950s.  Did a u-turn and pulled in.   Delicious old style smooshed burger with crispy edges. Mmmm.

That is awesome! I love those little roadside places that do not look like much and turn out to be awesome.

We go on road trips here in Florida just to find places like that. 

[BruceK]

On the way home I spotted some people standing outside under an awning in front of a little building and figured out it was a little hole-in-the-wall burger place.  It looks like it's not changed a bit since the 1950s.  Did a u-turn and pulled in.   Delicious old style smooshed burger with crispy edges. Mmmm.

That is awesome! I love those little roadside places that do not look like much and turn out to be awesome.

We go on road trips here in Florida just to find places like that.

And it's great just coming up on a place like that totally by chance.  So much better food at a mom & pop place. 

[Jims5543]

On the way home I spotted some people standing outside under an awning in front of a little building and figured out it was a little hole-in-the-wall burger place.  It looks like it's not changed a bit since the 1950s.  Did a u-turn and pulled in.   Delicious old style smooshed burger with crispy edges. Mmmm.

That is awesome! I love those little roadside places that do not look like much and turn out to be awesome.

We go on road trips here in Florida just to find places like that.

And it's great just coming up on a place like that totally by chance.  So much better food at a mom & pop place.

We did a last minute road trip to Ft. Meyers, home of the Henry Ford and Thomas Edison winter homes, Harvey Firestone was known to hang around as the trio worked to perfect the car tire.

We wandered away from town to go to a BBQ place Mrs5543 found, when we pulled up, I was unsure, it did not matter, we made a pact that we would eat in dives all weekend.

It turned out to be a fantastic BBQ joint that I would travel to get to again. 





FYI - Ft. Meyers is wrought with Ford / Edison / Firestone history, I highly suggest spending a long weekend there.  It is a small city and can be covered in 2-3 days easy.