New Phone

I got a new phone. One of those prepaid jobs. I think it will save me a lot of money. I'll only use less than 100 min/month. At 10 cents per minute, that's only $10 per month -- Much Cheaper. It turns out that the catch is in the refill - or rather the customer service. To make a long story short, it turns out to fill minutes at the high level that I wanted to, the carrier needed additional verification, and after a week of keeping a hold on my credit card (which we got lifted by forcing the wireless carrier to lift it) I still didn't have any new minutes. I bought a refill card at walmart for less than face value, brought it home, called the number on the back, and VOILA!! within 2 minutes I had my minutes available for use on my phone. From now on, (which will probably be a year from now), I will buy the refill cards to get more minutes.

Snowing In Albuquerque

Hey! It is snowing Albuquerque. We had some snow fall on Monday, but it didn't stick around like this. Here are some pictures.

Christmas List

I got some archery things on my Christmas list this year. Below are some of things I would like to have.

Arrow Shafts
Select One Dozen, Size 55/75, Cut to Length, Install Inserts, specify 30" shaft length

Bullet Points - these should be sold by the dozen, I would like 3 sizes.
Select 80, 100, and 125 grain, .295" for above arrow diameter.

Nocks - need at least 1 dozen of these for the arrows, but I would like spares because they do break on me
Select, Flo Orange

Feathers Not picky on the brand, just as long as they have this parabolic shape and are RW (right wing)
Select 3" 50 RW
One set of orange, one set of white
Also, some 5" 50 RW feathers in same colors.

Fletch Strip tool - there are two places to get them. The other place is martinarchery.com online store. In fact they sell feathers and fletching jigs, too.

A fletch clamp/jig - Choose straight clamp. Perhaps also get a RH clamp too. Other manufacturers make them in plastic and metal. This link is to a metal one; I'm not sure which I'd rather have. But this is the style I like.

Fletch Glue To glue on the feathers

Block Target - I'd like the portable or pro model. I like the bigger size of the pro.

Update

I haven't updated this thing in a long time. I'm still doing archery. Still not very good at it. Now that the time changed back, there has been no daylight after work to shoot out at the range, so with only one day week of practice, I don't think I've been improving my skill. And, it is getting colder lately....

Not much else going on around here. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving. Have started Christmas shopping.

Ouch!

My finger hurts. It is my own fault. I have taken up archery within the past few weeks. I have a recurve bow, and use my fingers to pull back the string. I spent last Saturday shooting for nearly 3 hours at an indoor range.

I joined a club to shoot at the club range - it is an outside range. The target range is constructed of hay bales. Hay bales work great as targets... except when you miss the bale. (I am not yet advanced enough in my archery skill to hit the bale EVERY time). Shooting out there plays havoc with my arrows. I had got two of them repaired last Saturday when I was at the indoor range (they also sell bows, accessories, and repair). After shooting an hour today, I have two arrows that need to be repaired. At this rate, I think I will need to learn and get the tools to repair/build my own arrows.

I'm having fun with archery, though I'm not good at it. There is a 3-d shoot coming up next weekend that I'm not sure if I will participate in. I am just starting to shoot at 20 yard targets, and I'm afraid that the 3-d targets will be at farther ranges. (I tried to shoot at a farther range today, and that's how I broke two arrows.) I would be in my own traditional class, so I wouldn't have to compete with compound bows, however, I'm not very good at traditional. I am curious to go out there and see how it is down so at least I know how to train myself for the next shoot -- but it isn't going to be much fun breaking all my arrows. I need a lot more practice than my poor, sore fingers can take!

CHECK OUT THIS HUGE PUMPKIN!!!!!!



We went to a pumpkin patch today and it was filled with pumpkins this size. They have a pricing scale by width; This is a $6 pumpkin!! They said no $10 pumpkins have been found yet!! Can you imagine how big a $10 pumpkin would be?!?!?!?

I thought this was funny....

I got a letter from John McCain (not him personally, but from his campaign). It is a CRITICAL ISSUES SURVEY that needs to be filled out and sent to VICTORY 2008 within 7 days! The funny part is on the back, the final question has two options:
- Yes, I support VICTORY 2008 and am enclosing my most generous contribution of: ___
- Yes, I support VICTORY 2008 Program, but I am unable to participate at this time. However, I have enclosed $15 to cover the cost of tabulating my survey.

What is up with that? Pay someone to take survey; I thought was supposed to be the other way around. What is really happening is that RNC VICTORY 2008 needs money. The return envelope is one of those 'no postage necessary if mailed in the US' kind; however, there is a note indicating that if you use your own stamp you can "save much needed funds."

Anyone else get one of these?