Manly Living

I guess it is “that” time of year again - we have been in the garden a lot the past week and have noticed many caterpillars.

So as usual we grabbed our cameras as quickly as we could and snapped a few pictures. And we will post more as we get them. Today I got a few really good pictures of two beautiful North American caterpillars. One was eating my rose bushes, the other was on my gate in the backyard. Luckily, I wasn’t stung by either, and was able to get good images of each.

The first was an Io Moth Caterpillar - actually more than one, but they all looked the same. All bright green, with lime green spikes and thick red and white stripe down it’s side. Enjoys eating rose bush leaves.

The second is the famous Puss Moth Caterpillar. While this caterpillar looks soft and friendly it is exactly the opposite. Beneath those soft hairs are poison glands and if stung can leave a nasty sting. Fortunately, this species is easily identified, but because of it’s appearance many are often naive enough to “pet” it - not a good idea.

Fixing up an old property will often involve removing rust, here is what you can do to get rid of rust and brighten up the look of your home…

Here is a before and after picture of what we were dealing with and how it came out.

First we sanded down the poles and pipes and used a metal bristle brush to remove the rust. After that we painted the area with Rust-Oleum metal paint and as you can see it made it look much better and it didn’t take too long…

With any home renovation you end up painting the bathroom. We took down all the mouldings, sanded and patched any bad spots in the wood, sealed and primed with Kilz, painted the trim white, painted the walls with Behr, the ceiling with Glidden ceiling paint etc…

With the summer coming so soon, it’s time for a little bit of home improvement.

We started with repairing any damaged wood, sanding, and then painting. There is a lot more to do such as, changing out light fixtures, putting ceramic tile on the floor, replacing door jambs and more…

Didn’t have much luck last year, but this year I got my jalapenos in the ground early!

Here is a picture I took this morning of my Jalapeno pepper plants in the vegetable garden bed. Hopefully this year we will have some Jalapeno Peppers to make some hot salsa with!

The Hybrid GS Lexus for 2008 looks nice. “The luxury hybrid sedan that delivers extraordinary performance and lower emissions.”

I looked up the gas mileage on it.

The car gets 20% better fuel economy than its conventional cousin: 25 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, compared with 18/25 mpg. According to Lexus, that’s good for a savings of about 200 gallons per year, or $560 at current California prices for premium fuel.

When the “hybrid automobiles” started coming out, I thought they didn’t look as powerful as regular cars, but more and more that is being proven to me to not be the case. Some of the hybrids are really nice, like the Lexus above. The better gas mileage and lower emissions is a good bonus.

Started the day out by listening to The Beatles - which usually sets the tempo for the rest of the day depending on what comes my way.

I’ve been reading about a lot of gadgets lately and am impressed with some of the things coming out. Many of the “why didn’t I think of that?” Or “It was only a matter of time before someone invented that or came up with that idea?” And again that is the case here.

Amazon has released Kindle, which not only allows you to carry hundreds of novels with you at any given time, it uses the same wireless technology as cellphones so there is no connecting fees to browse books online and purchase right from a couple of clicks on your Kindle. Which means you can be in the back of a taxi, or walking down a street and buy a book and have it auto-delivered in under a minute! Isn’t that amazing?

I know what you’re thinking, “why didn’t I think of that?” Well, that’s how good ideas come - from right under our noses.

The display looks like paper, you can flip through pages fast, and even bookmark, highlight sections save your place and much more. Between this gadget, and the latest MacBook - I know what I want for my birthday.

Read more about Kindle and see pics here.

My wife wants to get a hybrid automobile. I told her I had read a little about the Hybrid Honda Civics so she is looking into them. If the vehicles get better gas mileage and are cool, it doesn’t really matter to me what she drives.

Hybrid cars don’t seem to cost more than normal cars and after a test drive or two they seem fun and reliable.

So much for the idea of romantic “rainy nights.” It has been rainy cats and dogs lately, and despite the classic idea of enjoying a rainy day afternoon - it gets old pretty quick.

Lots of rainy days and nights means more time for video games - or at least looking at more sites on the internet.

After giving it some thought, I wonder how many people actually use these “online personals” sites. There are people in my family who have met other people online and now live with them! So there has to be a few out there who are willing to give it a try, right?

Lifestyle Personals lets you meet others in your area and hook up for a date, or dinner, whatever you feel like doing I suppose.

Many people I know are tired of the bar scene and wish they could just meet other people like themselves and have a good time.