dustinfluke.com

Well, just after posting on what a busy week I’ve had, this week is busier. Sadly,
I’m on vacation. No, it’s not that bad. I’ve just had a lot of things
I wanted to get done. Monday I ran a bunch of errands, did some homework, and
worked on the baseboard in the kitchen. Tuesday, I hauled a load of gravel over
to the in-laws, went over to Mema’s (Grandmother) house and cut down a butt load
of limbs. I came home and resumed work on the baseboard. Today, I’ve cleaned
the majority of the house, shampooed the carpet, and finished the baseboard.
My knees hurt. I still have to do a load of laundry, clean up the kitchen, to
prepare for tomorrow. Laura’s best friend is coming in from Arizona tomorrow.
I’m picking her up around noon. Before then, I’ll be shopping, for FIREWORKS!!!
Now the vacation is getting better. I’m about halfway through with the assembly
of my mortar launcher. I scored the pipe in a shop in Kansas City, thanks Marc,
and Dad helped with the drill press, cutting of pipe, and the fashioning of a
drill bit from a piece of pipe. I’ll have lots more including pictures when
I’m done. Well, it’s 11:30 and I still have three things to do. Goodnight!

After a very busy day, I’ve finally gotten a chance to catch up here. Yesterday was a very exciting day. For starters, I got my shipment from Skylighter. I ordered some smoke crackers, smoke bombs, and three different kinds of fuse. I plan on using the fuse to chain together my fireworks. The fuse was a little expensive, but with 100 feet per roll I think it will last at least three years.

On a related note, I still haven’t been able to get ahold of 2" HDPE pipe for my project. I’m on vacation next week so I’ll have a little time to check on things starting Monday. I really hope I can find it, else my project for the year will be ruined.

On a better note, I made it to a final table. For Patrick’s birthday a bunch of us the KPC group went up to our semi-local Harrahs Prarie Band Casino to play in the $40.00 buy-in no re-buy tournament. It was about a twenty minute drive. The tournament had about 64 total entrants. I managed to make it into the top ten along with Michelle, also from our group. The most uncanny thing was, out of the original eleven players that started at our table, five of us were at the final table. I ended up placing 5th. I went all in on the big blind (blind was 1/2 of my stack) with a King Jack of clubs and got called with Ace King. Ace hight took the pot. I collected $182.00. I took the wife and daughter out for dinner tonight to celebrate. What am I going to spend the money on? Fireworks of course!

This previous weekend I got started on my 4th of July project. Starting last year, I deceided that each year I would have a different project somehow related to fireworks You may remember the URL from my previous post. This year, it’s a little easier because I have plans already. I’m contemplating on creating an original roman candle stand.

While scouting for some lumber at my mom’s place, I managed to come up with everything I needed. My stepdad, John, was working on another project and had all the sawhorses and jigsaw out so I went ahead and cut up the timber. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera. I’m going to take a few pictures of the pre, initial, and post production. My Dad has a few ideas using some of the tools at his shop to make it spectacular. I’m still looking for HDPE pipe to make it with. My father-in-law has some contacts in Kansas City. I also purchased my fuse from Skylighter. If you haven’t checked them out before, it’s worth it. Maybe next year I’ll begin making my own fireworks….scary.

I’m sure this site will be all-a-buzz in the few coming weeks. I even took vacation at the end of the month to prepare. :)

Tonight I played in my second “official” poker tournament. I’ve been to our local Harrahs casino to play a $10 buy-in, but tonight I registered with Paradise Poker and entered into their free tournament for a chance to play in another tournament to go to Paris and play in a WPT event. In the end, I had to go all-in on the blind. They were at 300/600 and someone raised the pot. I had Ace Deuce. What the hell. I played it and lost to a pair of fours. The board paired nines. Overall rank was 638/3464. Not bad I guess. It looks like I’ll just have to stick to the KPC events more often.

In non related news, I just got my first Movable Type comment spam on this site. I’ve already deleted it, so sorry for anyone wondering about penis enlargement. In the next few days I’m going to see about fixing this problem.

As with any time near Father’s Day, it seems like more and more people are purchasing Father’s Day “gifts” that I would not really consider as a perfect gift. No doubt, I’ll be really happy with whatever I receive, but I find it strange that the gifts that are most advertised are only designed to create more work for Dad. Take Sears for instance. They’re advertising saws, drills, and lots of tools. Come on! Give me City of Heroes with a three month subscription card and I’ll be really happy. Maybe I’m not like most Dads.

Speaking of Dads, Laura and I are having a second child. She has an appointment next week. I hope it’s a boy.

I’ts also the time where every year, I see myself taking on a few home improvement jobs. The last two weekends have been full of removing wallpaper and painting. I just finished yesterday. I tried the tissue paper technique seen on shows like Trading Spaces. Basically, paint, spread crumpled tissue paper over the wet paint and paint over it. This is supposed to give the wall a textured look. I tried it, and failed. i definitely know what not to do next time. I might try it again though. I’ll have plenty of photos to show once I get them all cropped and ready. I ended up sanding down the wall – not fun, more on that later. It took three coats of paint to cover the damage but I’d have to say I’m satisfied.

Next weekend, the master bedroom!! We’re planning on some vertical stripes with a red, light green, and beige color scheme. Laura found some pillows that inspired the whole design change. It will definitely be better than the freakin’ huge flower grandma wallpaper we currently live with. If anyone has any ideas for what to do with the stripes, please say so. I’m no graphic designer, so my ideas are usually less than ideal. Once we’re finished I’ll have something for everyone to see how our kitchen, bathroom, hallway, and master bedroom have transformed.

Today is my sister’s birthday. I don’t expect her to be very productive this weekend.

Happy 21st Birthday Kara!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d take a moment and catch up.

• Fancy Bullets: Pretty soon, I’d like to implement some fancy bullets for my unordered CSS lists. I haven’t decided on one yet. I’d also like to get the contact page looking normal.
• Funny: I was amused at Jeff Croft’s entry regarding the Gillette M3 Power razor.
• Feature: I was happy to see that my desktop was posted on K10K. I was unsure as to whether or not I would get posted. I’m not too certain of the rules. At any rate, I’m glad to have some web presence.
• Reading: I’m looking forward to reading budgetdesign. I don’t know how soon I’ll get to it, but I’d like to read it.