Birfday Stuff!

Shelley with a mere portion of her birthday swag.

Totally psyched! Thanks, and I love you, mom (from Shelley)! Who are we kidding, I love Shelley's mom too! Thanks from both of us.

Cut and sew.

Trying to be a triple-threat.

The dudes at work turned me on to it. Pretty sure Matt tried to get me to like it before them. If so, sorry bro. Takes a few times before it gets caught between the ears.

Alyssa came by tonight to drop off some birthday gifts for the Shelleybean. Cookies, yo (and a bitchin' mug)! We will enjoy them. Side note: Alyssa went to St. Olaf, just like Rose on the Golden Girls. Betty White is forever.

The new mini. Dope on a rope!

The high side. Every piece of transition is different. Makes for an interesting time!

Single-coping spine. Again, interesting stuff.

The weather has already beaten the crappy top-layer into submission. Sucks for skateboard cats- the wood chips are a lot for urethane to deal with. But for bikes, aint no thang.

Shelley and I were spent Thanksgiving with a friend's family in Laurel, Maryland. We journeyed decently far into the woods, it was really gorgeous. The house was amazing- wooded splendor in the front, reservoir and woods in the back. Really amazing looking.

So Wolves in the Throne Room. 

 
This is how cul-de-sacs end in Laurel, MD.

The dinner took place in a basement dining room, alongside a record player from the 70's, a vast collection of Shakespearean works, a beautiful fireplace and a view of the dense forest behind the house (with the reservoir below). The food was amazing, but the company was better. I haven't laughed so hard in a really, really long time. My cheeks still hurt. Great people.

40's and Free Time

Time to give thanks, errybody. And to celebrate- if you don't have to go to work tomorrow, that's cause for celebration. So put your feet up and have a drink, or a smoke, or whatever does it for you. 'Cause we're gonna make it.

Everlasting Light

Current reading. Zombie tales in short-story form, doesn't get any better for an individual with the attention span of a gnat and the interests of a twelve year-old.

Nostalgic. The first 'serious' bmx bike I ever had was a Schwinn "Joey Garcia" model in gun-metal gray. Thing was bad frickin' ass. Thanks mom and dad! Kyle's was dope too: an all-chrome GT Dyno with chrome Profile 3-pc. cranks. I am still running those cranks on my current ride today; they are unbreakable. Coincidentally, my bro still jokes about requiring compensation for said cranks! "You don't even ride the bike, man!"

Dig it.

Jack + Lee = Forever.

No dying, folks. Just kidding, everybody does. Is everyone else as freaked out about it as I am?

I'd prefer not go out like that.

Thirsty Thursdays

Rode the Charm City Skatepark tonight with the new riding buddies. Might leave the wristband on for another hour- first indoor skatepark visit evarrrr, get off my back! I got into this bike riding thing waaay too late. All I want to do is taste the air up there.

Shelley, hard at work. What a Thinker.

Quoting the Coworkers- pt. 5

"You smell way to good to be working here."

"You listen to the Cro-Mags? Dood, you gotta. I was all about them in my early years. I will bring 'em in tomorrow. Cro-Mags and Minor Threat, that was me in high school. I also had dreads in high school- me and Mark both did. But that's another story."

"Can't find your lighter, huh? You should just borrow someone's. That's what I do- haven't bought a lighter in five years. Kevin, never let me borrow your lighter."



I built a wheel from start to finish today. Ran the disc in the CNC. Turned it down/ champfered it on the lathe. Dead-blew it into the rim body and pressed it to fit. Balanced the wheel for lateral run-out. Tac-welded it into place in 16 spots (fun, but scary). Pressure-cleaned the weld and put it on a pallet bound for the powder-coaters. Repeated as desired. I'm not a truck dude, and big-rigs aren't really my scene, but I was still kind of proud of my work. It's cool to see the (almost) finished work.

The welding is the best part. Makes a righteous sound and emits a gorgeous light (not to be looked at directly). Scary but fun, and one feels manly as shit while doing it, for whatever that's worth!

Sunshine and Sorrow

Carroll Park, my home away from home. Early hours shred, every Saturday and Sunday.

Not a bad set-up; feels better and better with each passing weekend.

Met some dudes up there today too, and they are actually my age. Good dudes. Rippers. Think I just found some new riding buddies, and not too soon- riding alone all the time was seriously bumming me out.

"Oh no doubt, no doubt. Whatever they did, I'm sure they learned their lessons."

Uh, yeah! God this is easy!

Love their ravens here in Bally May.

they called him the ACID KING

"You come to my house and you bring me down.
Teen dusthead forever.
One hit, that's all and you bring my down.
You'll never live to see tomorrow."

Every Friday morning when I'm flying solo in the shop, I put this on. I turn it way the hell up, flip the breakers, turn on the Mazak and go to work. And there's no f***ing way it's gonna be a bad day.

Only the Essentials

People come up to me every day and ask me, "Dood, How do you stay so fit? You're seriously shredded and lightly breaded. You're stripped and tight as the string on a kite. What I mean is, you're cut up from the butt up. WHAT IS THE SECRET?"

Well let me tell you, it's all about the diet. These are the things I eat every day: doughnuts for breakfast, gingerbread cookies for lunch, and ice cream for dinner. And the only thing I drink is contact solution. Do it, word is bond.

Quoting the Coworkers- pt. 4

"Think I might wang the chung a bit tonight. What about you guys?"

"My buddy and I, we used to know an old, gay butcher that lived near there. His name was Lester- we called him Lester the Molester- not that he ever laid a hand on us, we just thought it was a funny nickname. Anyway, he let my friend grow weed in the abandoned apartment above his shop. Lester was a cool dude; he was fabulous too, though."

"You need a new pair of gloves, Kevin. I can get you a pair for cheap if you want. This place a mile from my house sells em for five bucks, and they're good gloves. Try those on, let me know what size you are. I wear mediums, I got small hands. Small hands and a big d***!"

 

Next Project

Quick stitch job to be done. Cause if I'm gonna freeze, I'm gonna look good doing it.

Quoting the Coworkers- pt. 3

-"Yup. We're f***ing out of gas. Well, at least we made the drop-off! I'm gonna call Dan."

-"Don't ever use your own money to put gas in the company truck. You'll never see that dough again."

-"He must have known the tank was empty, you know he drove it all weekend!"


-"I know, it's ridiculous. I almost brought the diesel gas can with me, but..."

-"No way! Naw man, I wouldn't have brought it either. Don't wanna stink up your own vehicle."


 

Clear Skies

Shelley and I went to the museum. This amphitheater-style chill area had a dope quote above it.

Perty and stuff.

Texture.

Dopest thing I saw all day: the druid tower in the museum's garden. Shelleybelly playing peek-a-boo at the top. Second-dopest thing I saw: an 11 year-old kid kickflipping the pyramid at Carroll after five tries.

The Shelleybean, cute as hell.

Druid tower staircase. Had Sleep in my head the whole way up.

Yours truly ogling a wood-crab.

Mounted on the ceiling of one of the three museum buildings.

Close-up.

Tooth-brush doormat in front of the primary building. No pictures allowed beyond this point!

Old, but wanted to put it up. I think it's rad.

NBD

Been chomping at the bit, but needed to wait for the swelling to go down.

Commercials

"Life is hectic. I may not always have the time to go to the gym, or to make those lunch dates with my friends. BUT, thanks to the 'George Foreman Grill', there is ALWAYS time to cook healthy food for my family. "

Bam. Brains all over the wall. Look at the mess. Fingerpainting with it now. 

Quoting the Coworkers- pt. 2

 
- Me, I been happily married for fourteen years now. No idea where my wedding ring is, though.

-My buddy goes, "Yeah, I think about it sometimes, and when I do it bums me out."
 (Dan, quoting a friend who was single-handedly responsible for killing more than 2,000 animals- ranging in size from mice to chimpanzees- with liquid cocaine  in a DEA- sponsored drug testing facility)

-It's all comedy. That's all life really is. You can even find funny shit in the most terrible events of your life; you kinda have to. If you want to survive you gotta laugh- that's why I watch Seinfeld. 

Cut My F***ing Fingers Again

Shop hands. Dad and Kyle know what's up. Can't wash this shit off. Wouldn't want to anyway.

The softer work of my hands' formative years. Thanks for the photo, Kimberly.

And Matt...nice pecs.

Quoting the Coworkers

- Almost had to put the kaibosh on the kid myself. It's getting ridiculous. 

-Mark thinks he's better than us 'cause he smokes crack instead of cigarettes!

-I don't give a f*** what anybody does, you know, as long as it don't affect me. The neighbor down the street could be shooting heroin into his urethra and I wouldn't give a f***, long as he's not stealing my lawnmower, you know!

-Kevin, you ever heard of John Waters? Famous film-maker, flamboyantly gay. "Serial Mom"? "Pink Flamingos"? Look him up. He's from here and casts a bunch of Baltimorons in the films he does. Anyway, when I was younger I used to run into Waters at some of my local drinking holes. You wouldn't believe it now, but back in the day I was in decent shape; I was a bit of a catch- got hit on by gay dudes all the time. Well, Waters used to buy my friends and I tons of drinks when we ran into him at the bars. He never tried to come on to us, he never tried to take us home or anything. He would just buy us all the alcohol we could handle 'cause he enjoyed the company of good-looking young men.

Funniest dudes ever. Like em a lot.

Who You Are

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