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Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
This past week, Chris and I were able to take some more video of the Puppies
Jebus Cripes. The 10 puppies we’ve been taking care of have essentially killed my private life. That’s why my blogging has disappeared for the past 6 weeks.
First, it was hand-feeding every two hours. Then it was constant poo-cleaning, and pee-mopping. Between work, running my company, and trying to keep the puppies alive, it’s sucked up every spare minute I have.
If I had known how much work these 10 little dogs would be, I’d never have bred my female. I will be soooo glad to turn these wild little monsters over to their owners in two weeks.
Well, two reasons are responsible for my shameful blog output since the holidays. One is that my business has picked up quite a lot and I’m just slammed with work. The other is that my Cane Corso, Contessa, dropped a litter of 10 puppies.
Unless you’ve done this before, you really don’t know how much time 10 puppies takes up. They have been here for more than a week now, and they require feedings every two hours. Since my dog can’t feed all of them, we have to bottle feed as well. It’s very tiring, but darn it, they sure are cute.
My Cane Corso is expecting her first and only litter. Mastiff Cane Corso Mastiff puppies in San Diego. These Purebred, ICCF/CCAA-Registered puppies will be arriving in the middle of January 2010. The puppies will be available to go home with you at the middle of March.
Sire is a European Cane Corso import, dame is first generation American born. Both are registered purebreds.
We are located in San Diego, California. Actually Contessa and her puppies will be residing in Escondido which is San Diego North County. If you are looking for Cane Corso puppies, we are centrally located close to Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, Oceanside, San Marcos and more.
See more of Contessa on a video posted on YouTube at the link below.
Contessa is well trained and has a wonderful temperament. Her puppies will begin their socialization and training from the moment they are born to create Cane Corso puppies with fine temperments like their parents.
We have hundreds of photos of Contessa and Vittorio Cane Corso available upon request and more when the puppys are born.
Today, we took Contessa to the vet to get a puppy count. The xrays showed a minimium of 8 puppys.
7 Lucky people will get a wonderful new family member (we’re keeping one).
Be sure to contact us now if you are interested in a puppy, we will send out notifications and updates via email.
We expect that Contessa will whelp around January 18, 2010.
All Cane Corso Puppies will have the following before they are sent to their new families:
1- Puppy tail and dewclaw removal
2- First set of vaccines and health evaluation
3- Puppy Deworming
4- Love, socialization and continous training up until the day they are sent to their new families.
Contessa, the expectant mother.
Today's Puppy X-ray
I‘m sorry that the posting has been so light here the last several days. I haven’t gone away or lost interest or anything. There just hasn’t been all that much to report that caught my eye. I suppose it’s natural during the holidays for thoughts of motorcycling to turn to other things, and, of course, the industry itself is gearing down for the holidays.
Hopefully, after the new year, the news will pick right back up.
Once again, I’ve whipped up some new Wordpress themes for motorcycle blogs. As always, these themes are free, though I would ask that you not remove the backlink to my business website way down on the bottom. This time, the themes are all model specific. As always, simply click on the screenshot image to download the zip file containing the theme.
Fireblade Wordpress Theme
This theme’s colors are predominantly red and gray, with a stylized pic of a CBR1000RR as the header image.
Big Green Screenshot
Kawasaki’s traditional color is green. A very bright, irritating green. But some people seem to like it so here it is, with the ZX-10R as the header.
R1 Screenshot
This one is very blue. It’s headed by a detail shot of a Yamaha R1.
All of the other wordpress themes I’ve created can be seen here.
Here’s some more Video I shot in Alaska.
I really wish the weather had been better.
Below the fold is my day-by-day observations about my Alaska Cruise, complete with pictures. It’s stuck below the fold so it won’t take up the whole front page, and you can skip over it easily.
I‘ve been to Alaska, and seen the glaciers, bears, eagles, whales, and about 30 inches of rain. But, now I’m back, and regular blogging about motorcycle goodness will begin in due course.
In the meantime, I leave you with this little video I slapped together earlier this evening.
Well, I don’t doubt that I’ll miss a lot of motorcycle riding and motorcycle writing, but I have to put the blog on hiatus for a few weeks. I’m off to Alaska on a long cruise. Regular blogging will resume on 21 or 22 September after I return from the Great White North.
See you then!
Some times, the day just starts out wrong. Today was one of those days. When Chris came back in with the mail this morning, she handed me a letter from the 91 Express Lanes, the agency that runs the toll portion of State Route 91 between Riverside and Orange counties. Inside was a notice that I had been cited for riding my motorcycle in the express lanes last Saturday night, just before 10 PM.
Now, to my certain knowledge, I haven’t been on State Route 91 at any time since I moved to San Diego county in 1999. And even if I had, motorcycles get to travel free in the 3+ express lanes at all times except the eastbound side during the afternoon drive time on weekdays.
Not that it matters. Last Saturday night, my chick and I were watching Season 2 of Lost on my XBox through Netflix. I didn’t even take my bike out of the garage on Saturday.
So, now, I have to write a letter and mail it to them, requesting a review. And if they still say I owe them for the violation, I have to pay the ticket and a deposit to get a second administrative review. And if that still comes out against me, I have to file an appeal in Superior Court–along with another deposit–and get a court date.
How does a motorcycle even get a ticket for using the express lanes at 10PM on a saturday? It’s toll-free for motorcycles!
So now I have to deal with these idiots for the next two months.
I‘ve whipped up more free Motorcycle themes for Wordpress. They’re free for anyone who wants them. To download the theme, just click the screenshot.
I call the first one “Monochrome”. It’s done completely in grayscale–no color at all.
Monochrome: A Free Wordpress Theme
The next one is called “Kneeslider” because of the header image. It’s all done in Buff and Blue. I think It’s a classy theme. At the moment, a variant of this theme is what you’re seeing on the blog now.
Kneeslider: A free Wordpress theme
With the money from my insurance settlement coming, I really am trying to figure out what to do. I know I’ll pay off my FJR, but beyond that, I’m not sure which direction to go.
I rode the R1200RT, and absolutely loved it. But I’d have to trade in my FJR to buy it outright. I’m also really interested in a Buell 1125r, and I can get an ‘09 white/blue one for a pretty good deal. Good enough so that I can keep the FJR, and buy an 1125r outright. I have a test ride scheduled for next Saturday on the 1125r.
Assuming I like the power and handling of the 1125r, I’m really in a quandary about which way to jump. The Buell is the only sportbike that has ergos comfy enough for me to ride regularly, but, on the other hand, the BMW has all those cool amenities like cruise control, ASC, ESA, etc. that I miss on the FJR.
This may be my only chance to get a new bike with someone else’s money, and it’s a very hard decision to make.
So, it’s about 6:45 this morning when I go out to get the bike out of the garage and head off to work. I put on all my gear, threw a leg over, turned the ignition key, and for a brief moment, while the key was turning between the off and start positions the dashboard of the FJR lit up. Then, when the key clicked into the start position, everything went dead.
The dreaded FJR ignition problem strikes again.
This happened once before, and stranded me in the middle of the road on my way to work. Fortunately, this time, it was in the garage. But, I was still pissed.
I stripped off all my gear, went out to the truck, threw my tank bag in the passenger seat, and started her up. As I pulled away from the house, knowing there’s no way I’m gonna make it to work in time driving my diesel truck, I notice that the fuel tank is almost at the empty mark. So, now I’m gonna be later.
Well, I thought, as I was putting 35 gallons of oil in the tank at the gas station, I guess I’d better call and let someone at work know I’m running late. That was when I noticed that my cell phone was dead.
It was not a happy morning.
Fortunately, when I got to work, my insurance’s raod-side assitance line was ready to help me, and North County House of Motorcycles could fit my bike in. Not only that, but they had the ignition switch for the FJR in stock.
As it turns out, my FJR had never had the recall fix for the ignition switch done. for some reason, I thought that the new ignition switch I got last year when this happened had taken care of that. Turns out, it didn’t. It was one of the pre-recall ignition switches.
So, in addition to free towing, I got a free ignition switch repair.
As I was on my way home from work, I got a call on my freshly recharged cell phone saying that the bike was ready. I called Chris to tell her we needed to go pick it up. When I got home, I loaded Chris, our dogs, the grand-daughter who’s spending the summer with us, and her dog all into the truck. I tossed my riding gear in the bed, and, at 4:30Pm we were off on the 16-mile trip to the dealership, up CA-78.
And, about 1.5 miles up the 78, traffic came to a dead stop. All lanes.
Unfortunately, because there are some inconvenient mountains and lakes in our area, there are very few ways–and no direct ones–from Escondido to Vista except the 78. And it was shut down.
So, we had to go to the GPS, get off the highway at the next exit, and take the most tortuous route of surface streets you can imagine. And, because 78 was jammed, the surface streets were jammed, too. It took us an hour to go the last 10 miles.
Happily, we arrived at NCHM at about 5:40, and I was able to pick up the bike before they closed.
The east-bound side of the 78 was pretty clear so I took that back home, and saw that the traffic problem on the eastbound side was that a fire had started by the freeway, so the fire department and CHP had essentially shut the highway down, except for allowing cars to trickle through one at a time on the shoulder.
I’m glad this day is over, let me tell you.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with current events, things are slow in the economy. We went to the local mall Friday night to see about getting a part for our dishwasher, and the place was a ghost town. After finishing up at the mall, we also went to a popular local eatery. We were one of three parties in the place. All the rest of the tables were empty.
This afternoon, I went to Escondido Cycle Center, and North County Yamaha. I was the only customer in NCY–another customer was leaving as I arrived–and one of two customers as ECC. Dead, dead, dead.
Interestingly, the sales guy at NCC couldn’t have been less interested in trying to sell me a bike. Since I have an insurance settlement coming from my accident last December, I am looking at possibilities for a second bike. Something small and hooligan-like, but without the cramped riding position of the Gixxer or CBR. I went to NCY because they have Triumphs there, and wanted to look into a Speed Triple 1050. I told the sales guy what I was after, and he said, “I don’t know mcuh about it. It has a good torque range. Broad. why not go sit on it and see if you like it.” He then turned on his heel and left me to my own devices. Apparently, trying to sell a motorcycle didn’t fit into his schedule this afternoon.
And, keep in mind that this is their chief sales guy, and as far as I could tell, the only sales rep there. I’ve seen him there before, and his whole vibe was that I was being a pain in the ass for trying to engage him.
Wierd.
The sales guy at ECC, on the other hand, was knowledgeable, and showed me not only the sportbikes, but an array of standard bikes that have same sportbike engines, but more comfy ergos. Totally different sales experience.
Sometimes the guys at NCY are helpful, and sometimes they act like they’d rather you just didnt show up at their door at all. When sales are as bad as they are currently, you’d think they would deep-six the latter attitude.