GREAT PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND

That's right. Let's clean the slime off of the pool that we let sit for the whole winter.







We took a break to BBQ some steaks and an onion from the garden with butter and garlic. Yum Yum. It's almost like being in Hawaii.








We even ate outdoors. Can you see the palm tree? I told you it was Hawaii.










It was ONLY 104deg. outside, 120deg in the empty pool. What a bunch of wimps. Get back to work.

ROMANTIC WEEKEND

There's nothing like scrubbing the bottom of a scummy pool to make a romantic weekend.










It's only 3 inches deep but we waited 2 days for this.










I think I will keep the pool clean all year this time.












This was the view from the bottom of the pool. The summer clouds really helped us at least for a few minutes.







It is finally full. We were so excited that we hired a helicopter to take this picture.

SQUASH RECIPE

Here is my recipe for stuffed squash.

First you have to grow a big yellow squash. Once the squash starts to form it is this big and ready to pick in days. Don't forget to grow some tomato and onions too.



Slice the squash long ways .











Next you scoop out the seeds and place in a glass baking dish. (throw the seeds away.)







Mix, 1/2 LB of ground beef, 1 egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, 1 TBL spoon chopped garlic, 1 TBL spoon parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup diced white onion, 1TSP basil, 1/4 cup tomato. Place mixture on top of squash and place in oven. Cook for 45 minutes at 350 deg.
This will feed two. Serve with Fettuccini Alfredo.



And here it is. It was as good as it looks. I am growing a lot of good produce and will have fun all summer trying new foods.

FATHERS DAY

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
I should have stayed home and worked on my garden. But NOOOOO. I wanted to go to a home and garden show at the fair grounds. When we got there we found out it was a home and backyard show. They don't have vegetable gardens in back yards I guess.

We almost bought an $8,000.00 hot tub. We would be paying for it long after we could no longer get in it.








Next we got the bright idea that we would get a free cruse for listening to a sales pitch. We went and almost became fake travel agents. This would get us great deals on all our travel.
It was only $6,000.00




Finally we went home and I opened my great fathers day presents. I got 2 shirts, a star trek scene it game and a star trek trivia game.

MY GARDEN

While I was gone for a week my garden grew a lot. I am growing Tomatoes, Carrots, Squash, Onions, Radishes, Pumpkins and a whole lot more.

THE TRIP HOME

I had to train the painters on the procedures that we had developed to fix their quality issues. They were a great bunch of guys and were eager to learn how to paint better quality parts.





We are finally in the air and on our way home. You can see the spoilers on the wing of our plane. They open to help the plane keep level. This is a Boeing 737. These Spoilers were built by our company and there is a good
chance that I painted them a
few years back.

LAST DAY

Oh finally a shipment of spoilers has arrived from Monrovia. The Mexico facility will assemble them and then add paint. There is enough spoilers in that box for one wing.










Is this lady afraid or the Swine flu or Spoiler dust?









This Boeing 737 is the kind of plane that our spoilers go on. This is also the same model of plane that we flew to Mexico on.

Day 4 What an Adventure

There are a lot of boats docked in the marina in front of our hotel. My favorite boat is called Mello Yellow.











The factory is large with a lot of room to take on more work. The workers here keep it real clean. We are working hard to help them improve their performance. There are a lot of issues with paint quality that I am working on with the 5 painters employed here. Most of the cause is a new workforce with no standard work in place.





The manager of finance and the manager of procurement in Monrovia joined us today. We showed them what we had accomplished so far.
Here Ivan is showing them the improvements that have been made in the assembly end of the process. A lot of us have been involved in the success of our first international facility.

DAY THREE

I finally found someone to take a picture of me to prove I am here. Our factory In Mexico feels like home. Everyone is real friendly and takes pride in their company.













Ivan is explaining the concepts of lean
manufacturing . We have been following each operation and documenting each step with the time it takes to perform. We are looking for ways to improve the process and remove wasted steps.







This Is Christine, She is helping me find
planning for parts that I will be training the painters to paint for their first time on Wednesday.












Gilda and Cesar are Timing the sanding operation in preparation for painting. Cesar is the Quality Engineer And Gilda has a degree in international business.













After work some of us went to this small restaurant in old Guymas . We had great tacos cooked outside on an open grill. I ate too many hot jalapeno chilies. Do you remember coca cola in a glass bottle?

Day 2 finally we're at the factory

This is the restaurant that we ate at tonight. It was called El Bronco. The food was great. Steak, beans, squash and hand made tortillas.












These painters are sanding spoilers that they will paint soon. Spoilers are the flaps that help the plane lift off and land. These spoilers are for Boeing 737 aircraft.







This is part of the team I am on. We are observing the paint process so we can set up standard work. This will help keep the quality, cost and on time delivery consistent.










This is the hotel we are in. It is a real fancy resort hotel at the marina in San Carlos. We have a pool, hot tub, internet, fridge, 2 tvs, 2 phones.
Across the street is a great coffee shop. We had breakfast there this morning. huevos rancheros.
Stay tuned for more of my trip.

Trapped in Mexico

I'm off to Guymas Mexico again. I met Ivan at Ontario airport where we flew to Phoenix. The plane from Ontario landed real rough. I was not sure if we landed on a dirt runway or our brake drums were warped.








This was our plane that we flew to Mexico. It is a Boeing 737-300. Their pilots fly a little different. They burn rubber on the runway and in about 300 feet they shoot straight up. When we arrived in Mexico we had to fill out a medical form and a doctor took out temperature to check for the Swine flu. I did eat a pork sandwich in Phoenix.





We are staying at the same place that I stayed the last time I was here. This is the view from my window at sunset. (We are really suffering)

Stay tuned and I will add more each day. There will be a drawing at the end of the trip of those that leave comments. The winner will receive
a fish taco that I will bring back in my suitcase.

Alan

OUR VACATION PART III

On one of our romantic walks along the Colorado river we stopped at the Golden Nugget casino. They have build a gigantic greenhouse full of tropical plants and a waterfall. My next project at home just happens to be a greenhouse.









We had a great pool at our hotel. Each day we went down for a dip and got some sun. Jerri would not let me have any sun. She sprayed me down with sunblock. She even sprayed my bald spot (I have a bald spot?).








Here I am having a great time by the pool. Don't I look happy?












This is the machines that took our $2.00. Don't worry, tonight we plan on getting even.

Thanks for all of your comments. Stay tuned for the next episode of our vacation.

OUR LAUGHLIN TRIP PART DEUX

I wanted to do a little gold prospecting while I was here but I could not get my burro to go. I guess I was dragging my ass.


















Jerri and I have loved our romantic walks along the river late at night. OK we just like the 99cent Margarita's. Stay tuned for more of our vacation. Thank all of you that leave comments. The more comments, the more pictures.

ON VACATION

Where back! We are on vacation in Laughlin Nevada. So far we have been to Wal mart, Home depot, a pawn shop, a craft store, an Antique store and a fabric store. Oh, were we supposed to gamble? We went for a walk along the Colorado river last night. It was real warm and almost started to rain. We played a Star Trek slot machine for a while. We lost BIG TIME. We lost $2.00. I hope we can win it ALL back tonight.