Orchestrated Chaos

Long Absences.

2009-10-30T21:45:00.002-04:00

Wow, I'm glad the blog is still here, I'm so regretful that I don't have time to update more, but with demands on my time (work, kids, Facebook) I barely have any time to read a book, much-less sit down and write a witty and insightful blog article about current event in my life. But who knows, maybe I'll be able to find time a couple times a week. I hope.

Ryan's Graduation

2008-05-28T20:16:00.001-04:00

I guess this means he is in Kindergarten now.

Me and my alarm clock

2008-05-24T05:48:00.003-04:00

The human body just isn't made to get up at 4:20, in order to arrive at work at 6:00AM. I went to bed last night at a little after 8 o'clock, and read for a few minutes. Then I don't remember a thing until my alarm went off at the obscene time that I mentioned. It just isn't right.

A new first

2008-05-20T12:24:00.004-04:00

It was funny, my first EKG yesterday. I had no idea, it take more time to actually put the electrodes on and turn the machine on than it does to actually take the reading. And then the EKG machine analyzes the rhythms all by itself. The doctor checks it over, but a summary is printed at the top anyway.

One thing leads to another

2008-05-19T17:56:00.003-04:00

While I was listening to this program on the way home from work on Friday, I thought about my brother Chris, and his enthusiasm for the subject matter. It made me want to take a drive to some pubs in England (my car won't get me there), and it made me appreciate the resource that is located pretty close by. Custom BrewCrafters just built and opened a brand-new facility in Honeoye Falls, it is massive. They give tours, and are very public friendly. Next time Chris comes to visit, I think I know of one place that we can go on an outing.

Dreams, and mental illness.

2008-05-16T06:46:00.003-04:00

I can't remember (could have been the two year gap between postings that I had) whether I have talked about one of my favorite theories before. My main assumption is that our neurons are made up of energy. Energy can be found in various forms but not destroyed. So when we are growing, we are coming from somewhere. When we die we are going somewhere. It is impossible for the thoughts and energy that make up our spark just cease to exist.

That is the assumption. Here is where it gets tricky for me to verbalize. It seems so neat and accurate in my head. Part of the ideas of quantum theory is that there is an infinite number of universes and possibilities. I like to think about blending the concept of the radio and dreaming. For every choice, or incident that occurs, there is another universe in which the other path was taken.

There is a phenomenal with AM radio and with printed magnetic tape that is called bleed-through. At night radio stations that are located near each other can be heard to bleed-through to nearby frequencies. Listening to one show, you might be able to hear certain chunks or interference from other programs. Annoying, but also critical to my thought process.

What if dreaming was like bleed-through energy from other universes? With an infinite number of world, surely there must be one where I find myself in a dark alley, chased by a 6-foot spider, trying to run away on legs that move like they are in molasses. Or one where I am shopping naked in the grocery store, everyone else is clothed, but they don't seem to care or notice that I have not a stitch on.

Does life have a rear-view mirror?

2008-05-14T12:20:00.003-04:00

I was wondering whether it is always possible to know when you are at a crossroad or intersection in your life. It seems to me that there are certain times that looking back and seeing where you have been and where you're currently standing are the only ways of figuring out how things turned out the way they did. It isn't always possible to know or realize how the little choices or big choices will effect you now, or in the future. But the hiccup in my thought is that the aggregate of the little choices may turn out to have a bigger effect than one or two of the big decisions that we make. Make sixty little choices, and that can destroy a planet, but make one "Big decision" and that actually means nothing to anyone other then the person that did the decision.

Just have to keep from going mental about every little choice you make.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-12T12:21:00.003-04:00

The weekend we tried to give a very nice Mother's Day to Michelle including breakfast in bed and a break from tantrums and arguing. I think it worked out pretty smooth. Bagels and cream cheese with coffee and a Mother's Day basket containing something from everyone. The break from tantrums, I'm hoping that lasts a little longer then just the weekend.

Eric's free-time.

2008-05-11T19:27:00.005-04:00

My friend Eric has been working on, and just completed a nice little DIY project for his computer desk. One:I like the computer desk because it is really long, lots of counter space. Two: it is complete with the cable holes for running your cable down through the surface.

I guess the surface has seen better days. I shudder to think of what has been done on that counter top. He is a quick before and after of his journey.

Ouch, it makes my brain hurt:

2008-05-10T17:26:00.002-04:00

It is so funny I had to take a picture to put here. Michelle found it at a garage sale, "Charge It! The Family Credit-Card Game." The box says "Be the first to accumulate the most wealth....on credit!"

The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that the copywrite date 1976. I was 2. So that make is less migraine kind of cringe, but more of a "what-were-things-like-back-then" kind of cringe. (I know I have seen the pictures, long hair, tie-dyed shirts, peace and love and all that crap. Sounds hideous.)

I have looked around on e-bay and there was this listing which is the exact match for what she found. Wild.

I fear nothing other than a complete loss of memory,

2008-05-09T09:54:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago we did a major rearrangement of the living room. Everything in this gigantic room got moved around: all the computers, the computer desks (logically), the entertainment center, book shelves, kid's work table. It took us two days to get everything shifted, and then even longer to get the odds and ends back to their places. It was an entire weekend of an event, I was quite sore when we finally got everything all set. And the kids were more then a little frazzled with the unfamiliar surroundings.

But it turned out to be a little extra eventful. We went to plug in my computer, and snap, crackle and pop, it fizzled out. I knew instinctively that it was almost definitely my power supply (I was holding my breathe that it wasn't worse then that) that got burnt. I ran up to Best Buy with the tower and they confirmed that it was the power supply. I was quite underwhelmed by the geek there, I feel that I am in a good position to rate the geek-factor of other geeks: being one myself. While he had the tower open he saw that I had a secondary hard-drive slaved up to my primary hard-drive plugged in, but just dangling around in my case. He offered to pop it in to the open bays next to my primary, and I told him that would be awesome.

So I ponied up the $130, walked around for 45 minutes, trying to restrain myself from spending any other money there, after I just spent some. So I made it out of the store and brought the old girl home and plugged it in. I then nearly had a coronary when windows wouldn't even recognize a single byte from the secondary hard-drive. I have it partitioned into 4 drives, and have a considerable amount of music and other data stored on there. And it was like it didn't even exist. I thought I lost all my music, 2 years of checking & savings account history in Quicken, and lots of science and geeky information that I had saved from Hubble and Cassini sites.

I tried not to commit seppuku, there had to be some way to fix it. I did some research here and there, double-checking the jumper pins, and the IDE ribbon cable. I removed everything and put it back exactly the way it was. It took me 4 days to fix it. But I finally did it. I guess it had something to do with the new power supply, I'm thinking because it was a new power plug going into the hard-drive, that could have made the computer think that the old hard-drive was a new device. I had to boot up the computer completely into windows, and then I went into Device Manager in order to double-check all the IDE drivers. I was grasping at straws, but as I accidentally right-clicked and a little dialogue box popped up with an option for "Scan computer for new hardware", I thought to myself "It couldn't be that simple, could it?" Well, that did it. Every 2 or 3 seconds a hard-drive registered as coming back online until I had all four partitions again, and I was able to breathe.

Ryan's Thoughts:

2008-05-03T19:23:00.002-04:00

We were eating dinner: "It is a good thing they sell this chicken without feathers."

2008-05-03T15:52:00.002-04:00

The first picture: they posed nicely. Then Ryan flinched from an imagined bug or something which resulted in the other picture.

One has a necklace, the other has pink cottonball ears.

2008-05-03T09:09:00.002-04:00

At Holly's school last week was "TV Turn-off Week". So there were various activities throughout the week to help out the kids and parents by keeping people busy. One evening Holly and I went over to Puppet Night and had a blast of a time. We made two sock puppets (as pictured) and also a brown bag puppet (which we still have, but haven't pictured). Holly and I were one of the first few there and one of the last to leave, and she was still saying that she didn't want to leave! It was funny because she got to see her teacher again, and she was wearing more casual clothing. Holly loved her orange flip-flops.

Pencil Smoothies

2008-04-24T12:25:00.003-04:00

So I have been planning a post (I have a small notebook I try to keep in my pocket for jotting down inspiration) about how no one has a problem with our kids using lead pencils in school. About how everyone is all concerned about lead paint in older houses, but no one seems to be thinking of all the kids who eat paste in school, taking a nibble on their pencils.

But then I did some research and learned that pencils are made out of a mixture of graphite and clay. What a let-down. As everyone knows graphite used to be called black lead (in the early 1700's) but some guys who are long dead by now discovered that it is actually a form of carbon.

And I was all ready to speculate about a lead pencil cover-up. Writing conspiracies.

A short clip of Holly and Ryan showing off their kitten action.

2008-04-23T17:27:00.002-04:00

Wearing out some boots.

2008-04-20T18:42:00.003-04:00

Today we took a short ride down the road (perhaps a quarter of a mile) to a place that I am embarrassed to say that we never have been before. Barely a car ride down the hill from us is a DEC environmental area. I'll try not to get into all the facts that are listed on their website, but it was a great little walk, several different trails, a 20 acre pond. The information area is open during business hours but the rest of the grounds are "always open". You are even allowed to bring "non-motorized boats" any time that you want.

We are looking forward to spending more time hiking this summer. The kids are finally getting old enough to make it through some trails. And the variety of trees and ecosystems is still pretty new to them. They are interested still.

But there are a few other really special parks around here too, within about 15 to 25 minute drives. So we are going to be busy. I need to buy a hiking vest or backpack. The boy scout in me won't let me head out with my posse without a certain number of supplies.

Now he never has to get dressed before lunch!

2008-04-17T17:51:00.002-04:00

I wanted to dedicate this post to my Dad. Check out his blog for an accurate gauge, but he is retiring at the and of April. Congratulations Dad!

I Hulu, do you?

2008-04-16T20:47:00.003-04:00

I wanted to throw a quick post up here about a website that I found written up in Entertainment Weekly as well as TV Guide. It is called Hulu. In my opinion it is the largest paradigm shift in streaming video that I could have imagined. The direct quote from their website is that they offer free videos from "50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate". I don't want to sound like a commercial but the fact that they are offering episodes of current primetime shows as well as recently released movies is what has really made me a fan.

One night I can watch an the most recent episodes of The Simpsons and The Office that I missed, and then the next night I can watch the best episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and then the night after that I can check out something that I shudder to share with anyone else.

I can compare this to a service that I also tried a few months ago called Joost. The quality that struck me immediately about Joost was the fact that almost their entire stock of media is older shows (Good shows, don't get me wrong. I watched the episodes of GI Joe, and Volton, Star Trek and others, without remorse or guilt.) If there can be a synthesis or competitive spirit to see who can generate the most buzz and hits, there will be some pretty massive upheavals in the world of TV. I don't think that it will be more then a few more years before it will be commonplace for TV show of professional quality to be filmed and distributed directly to these outlets.

Thats my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Remember my prediction in a few years.

Do-It-Yourself Psychiatric Diagnosis

2008-04-04T18:18:00.004-04:00

Ok, I know that I have posted about this in the past, perhaps two or three times before my pause in blogging.

I think that I have finally researched something I have been complaining about. And it makes sense too. I have trouble talking to family and friends. I have difficulty with certain other things: Michelle saying "Spit it out" when I can't complete a sentence without grasping for a word that I know, can spell and usually give a good approximation of word origin.

I was browsing an idea that I had about Locked-In Syndrome.

I knew that that was an extreme disorder, so looking a little deeper into the DSM-IV I stumbled on expressive-language disorder. But near as I can tell, children are the main ones effected by this disorder. But I didn't stop there. I came across this article that sounded so much like me that I had to write a post about it right away.

I was particularly captivated with the section of the article which stated the description and causes. I have read and I believe that I have posted about how there are articles stating that people who suffer chronic back pain or long-term pain have changes in their cognitive abilities, and I have wondered how that could translate to migraine sufferers. The section that states about how stroke, seizures, or even "other medical conditions" might was almost like it was highlighted for me.

I'm still looking at different aspects and trying to find more information, but it feels like I finally found the piece of a puzzle that I have been working on for years. Just because I have been quiet all my life, and then much more extremely in groups and over the last few years My brain clicks along fast and it has made me pissed for years, as documented several times by me here.

I feel some relief, some tangible idea that I can feel positive about.

Brief Note of Ryan:

2008-04-03T18:01:00.003-04:00

Lately Ryan has been saying some funny things, I think he has it in his head that he is either from space, or artificial. Two things that he said:

In bed - "I'm going to sleep now, the springs in my body are tired."

At the dinner table, after a yawn - "My ear speakers are working really good now."

And several times in bed he has told Michelle and I about how he is watching a movie behind his eyes, and the when the movie finishes, that's when he can roll over and relax. Not sure to be worried or intrigued. Perhaps a bit of both.

The Bourne Identity

2008-03-23T20:34:00.003-04:00

While researching some links for this blog, I ran into an interesting fact. In 1988 ABC produced and aired a TV miniseries adaptation of the Bourne Identity starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. 4 hours of Jason Bourne fun, from the late 80's!

General Thought:

2008-03-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter to all!!!!

School Visit

2008-03-19T19:12:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Ryan's nursery school had visitors from the village plows and backhoes. Holly and Ryan got to sit in and learn all about those big machines!

Picture Day tomorrow

2008-03-18T20:28:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is picture day for Holly, so she was trying on her outfit this evening, making sure everything fit, and looked smashing. I managed to convince her to hop into the shower to be perky and clean for her photo, and as I hung up her outfit on Ryan's towel bar I had a sense of foreboding. I just assumed it was more indigestion. Not ten minutes after Holly finishes the shower and exits the bathroom then Ryan goes in and washes his hands. Then wipes his hands and his Oreo soaked mouth all over her dress. He realized what he did at exactly the same time as I walked past the bathroom door, he froze like a deer in headlights.

Then he helped me start a load laundry.

How does this thing work?

2008-03-16T15:32:00.004-04:00

I know that is has been a really long time since I blogged. I just went back and read some of the old comments and stuff. Wow, things are different now.

The kids are huge! Don't worry, I'll get a few pictures of them up soon.

I guess there have been lots of things that have happened in the year and a half since I blogged, I'll try to go over and cover some of the highlights in the coming posts.

I'm still employed, decent job, got a couple of promotions and raises. It is nice that I'm not out on the production floor anymore, when I was out there I was walking 8 miles a day. Literally 8 miles. I bought 2 pedometers to measure, because I knew it was so much. But now I'm riding a leather chair in front of a desk. I occasionally get out and make a delivery, I have driven over 2500 miles in company trucks.

We still read like crazy in this house. Good book recommendations will come. The final Harry Potter was great, especially the last few pages. Satisfying.

And I have been listening to lots of music. What else can keep me from nodding off while programming? Ivy, Sunny Day Real Estate, Radiohead, Wicked Tinkers, James Blunt, Celtic Woman, Snow Patrol, Norah Jones and more. It is nice to have 450 tracks on your MP3 player and have it on random play.

I'll get more up later!

Well, well, well.

2006-10-21T13:01:00.000-04:00

What a week it has been. I started a fairly promising job on Monday (10-16-2006), and I actually made it through a whole week.

I am now working in the shipping and receiving area of a small to medium-sized metal fabrication company (think metal ducts and tubes, then think of a lot of them). It is like no job that I have had before. I work harder for longer then I have ever thought that I even could. I have to be there at 7 AM, which means that I get up at 5:45, and leave our house by 6:15 or 6:20.

That fact right there was a massive adjustment to my schedule.

I was a marshmallow. I still am, but now that I have had 5 days of significant labor I think that I will be in much better shape for this coming week. One of the biggest problems, and I know that I'm going to sound like such a pansy, is that I haven't spent 9 hours on my feet in five years. Ouch. But by Thursday and Friday my feet were toughening up, and I was keeping up without too much pain. We have to wear hearing protection the entire time, I've been using the little yellow squishy ones, but a pair of the over the head ones (cans) should be coming in this week for me.

I did learn how quick the smallest lapse of concentration can hurt. On Wednesday, after 2 hours of wiping down the insides of ducts and pieces with rubbing alcohol, I reached in a little too quick
to the next piece of duct and the sharp edge (they all have sharp edged that can cut through clothes, some just have extra sharp edges) sliced the outside of my forearm. It wasn't deep enough for stiches, I was able to clean it out, and fold the flap back over and direct pressure stopped the bleed pretty quick. It was my first, and like they said, it won't be the last. I am just incredibly amazed at one simple fact. They have no medical supplies, or written, or even informal protocol for what to do WHEN someone gets cut. I hope you notice the use of the word 'when', and not the word 'if'. Some other shipping and receiving kid got cut pretty bad a few months ago, arterial spurting blood and everything. And after they drove him off to the hospital to get sewn back together my boss' boss came out without gloves, or eye protection and wiped up and cleaned up the pool of blood with towels and kitty litter spill stuff. Oh OSHA, wherefore art thou?

But at least they are thinking about it. Thursday my boss was asking me about my EMT experience, and was pointing out the fact that there is this hole in the preparedness of the company to react when something well, bloody happens. I mentioned to him that there really wouldn't be an awful lot of supplies needed to get together a response kit. I guess that it is a good thing that I have held on to my EMT medical kit that I have been moving with me for the last ten years. Maybe I'll start bringing it in with me. Hopefully if I put together a little list of things that I need they might place an order.

Green grass and blue skies.

2006-10-14T11:54:00.000-04:00

Oh, and it is so wild about all the snow in Buffalo! They got nearly 2 feet of snow between Thursday and Friday. It totally obliterated any records since the weather service started keeping track 137 years ago! On CNN there are some pictures, and the most striking is of this guy standing at what I am assuming is the end of his driveway, and in the foreground, and background are just down utility poles, about six or seven of them all in a row all down the line. (In the link above, look on the left-hand side for a link to the Gallery of pictures.)

But here in the Flower City all we have had is a few rain showers. So strange that only an hour and a half away things are so different. I hope all those people will be able to make it through till they get their power back on! 300,000 people? Ouch.

Two sides of a really weird coin.

2006-10-14T11:39:00.000-04:00

It almost seems like contemplating an alien landscape. Or perhaps, in the very least a remote and completely different country. But to read about how Yahoo's advertising sales are forecast to total ONLY around $1,150,000,000(that is Billion!!!!!!!), and then to go to the store and pay for groceries for our family on a credit card because it was either that or we couldn't pay our mortgage this month. It is wildly different, and kind of makes my head hurt a little.

That is a major factor in why Michelle and I are going to try to both work full-time for a few months.

I got a job doing shipping and receiving at a company over in Victor, NY. Should be interesting. I guess I will be doing mostly inventory management on the items they maintain a certain stock level of, but the rest of my time will be with the 5 other shipping and receiving guys. I'm pretty excited! I start on Monday!

Oops.

2006-10-08T23:32:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah, I guess I should mention that we bought a second car last week, so that I would be able to increase my "work hours".

A sporty little Red Dodge Stratus. It isn't new or anything (I guess you could say: it's used), but it is in decent shape. We got it from a mini-dealer over in town, and since it only had 70,000 miles on it he has to cover it (warranty) for 60 days or 3000 miles.

Now all I need to do is find some more "Work Hours" somewhere.

Soccer

2006-10-08T22:12:00.000-04:00

I have been watching (I was going to say international, but it is nearly exclusively British) some soccer games lately. I have been confused every time the announcers say that a player earned a cap (as in getting their 35th cap by being used in that game). Believe me, the announcers talk about it all the time: Steve Gerrard has just made his 51st cap for England; the youthful (19 years old!) Wayne Rooney is at 34 caps; and super Defender Ashley Cole has 4 caps in England's under 21 league and 55 caps for the regular national team. No more Beckam, honey, he "was dropped" by the new England national team coach.

Once I figured out that it meant that the player was being used in that game, I have been confused every time about the derivation of the word. I guess the biggest thing that threw me off was that I thought it was an abbreviation. As an abbreviation I was completely stumped, so I finally looked it up. Basically, the article say way back in the day, players who made an appearance were given......... just guess! Yes, a cap. The funny part, one thing that caught my eye was that they were given all matching caps because back then, the players didn't always have matching uniforms like they do today.

But if you look at the lists that are on that article. Even though the US is so insanely disinterested in soccer the US dominates the record holders in a couple ways. For Men, the US has the most men with 100 or more caps (9). And as for the list of women, the top 6 women are US players, by far (hundreds of games difference). Keep it up!

And another thing! It is so funny to see all the players doing their thing on the field. And watching so much of them working, and then to hear an interview with any of them, and their voices (especially Wayne Rooney) never match my expectations.

She said I need to find a job,

2006-10-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

I guess the right answer to "Where are the kids?" is not "I put those fuckers to bed."

Hey, hey.

2006-09-30T21:20:00.000-04:00

Holly said: "What letter does bread start with? 'B' like the letter or bee like the animal?"

The sheep are being fleeced.

2006-09-27T22:26:00.000-04:00

Aren't there more people in the country that are getting pissed off about the current administration's misinformation and attempts to shift the blame of failure?

I remember, very clearly, because I had just started staying home full time with Holly. Bush addressing the UN, stating clearly that Saddam had a whole bunch of naughty stuff. I remember feeding Holly baby food while Colin Powell showed "evidence" of satellite pictures with little white circles painted on them. I remember the diagrams of the mobile chemical weapon factories that were allegedly all over the place over there.

And I remember thinking that it would be OK if we had a specific goal in mind: In and out fast. I remember thinking that if we were there for an extended period of time, we were going to be in trouble. Well, we are in trouble now.

It took me a while to actually find this on CNN's site. You might think that it would be important, but I guess Mel Gibson, Zero-Gravity Surgery, and puppy power are all a little more important.

And I must say yet again, that The Daily Show got it right. Fox News' Chris Wallace tried to pull some shit (I don't curse here very often, but this got me so angry) with Bill Clinton on Sunday. They said they were going to ask him questions about the Clinton Global Initiative, but then jumped subjects and started asking him why he didn't take out Osama Bin Laden, and blah blah. Bill Clinton got pissed first, and then recovered and rattled off item after item of things that he did in the last couple years of his time in office. So The Daily Show got together all these clips of how the news programs (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, pretty much everyone) reported only about how rattled and "combative" that he got. And all those "news sources" didn't pay any attention to the massive points of information that Clinton did lay out there. He lobbed some serious firepower at the current administration, and no one has even raised an eyebrow!

Any thoughts?

Here is some knowledge:

She laughed a lot.

2006-09-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

So Michelle brought home a hot pie from McDonalds this evening, which we split. It was OK. I was a little put off by the color and consistency. I only took 3 or 4 bites until I took a long look at what I was actually eating.

At that time, Michelle filled me in that it was a hot pumpkin pie, not the hot apple pie that I had in mind. Thank Goodness.

That made the difference in taste and flavor all right.

My attempt to impersonate Jon Stewart:

2006-09-23T18:17:00.000-04:00

And our next news item this evening: Yale has joined the small list of prestigious educational institutions to offer videos, transcripts and recommended book lists online free of charge. Yale's yearly tuition, room and board average $46,000, but this program will begin by offering only seven classes to choose from.

Naturally the coursework is not valid for actual credits, but the Yale President (President of Yale, not the President from Yale) said this in a written statement: "This is a wonderful opportunity for us to share a vital and central part of the Yale experience with those who, for whatever reason, are not in a position to pursue a Yale education at first hand."

For whatever reason? I think that is brilliant Mr President. But I think it should read: "to share a vital and central part of the Yale experience with those who, for 46,000 reasons, are not in a position to pursue a Yale education at first hand,"

Music and stuff

2006-09-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

I had a bit of an awakening this morning. I guess you could count that as two awakenings.

I was recollecting NPR's story about some tapes that some guy (Shel Silverstein's nephew) was going through because they might have contained some Gram Parsons tunes. It turns out that they turned out to contain a few old Woodie Guthrie songs. One of which was a live recording of "This Land is Your Land".

But it wasn't until this morning that I made a few connections. Mainly about sarcasm, how that song is a really irony, how this beautiful and large country can't really be called "OUR LAND" because it is so much bigger and more wondrous then we can stomach. But then that thread led me to another thing that bothered me, which was that it wasn't until recently that I broke ground on that particular "ah-ha" moment, (helped by the song 100 Million by Sunny Day Real Estate) and so I started to feel a little uneasy about the fact that there is probably the majority of an up and coming generation that: 1) are listening to Rihanna, Britney and Ciara, so their musical taste buds are destroyed; 2) are confused by irony and sarcasm; 3) Because of texting, cellphones and 100 MB/s internet connections think that California or Florida is just around the corner. Is it possible that these young adults and teenagers might not realize, and mistake that Woodie Guthrie song for the words it speaks, and not be able to hear the meaning behind them?

The lyrics from the Sunny Day Real Estate song goes: 100 million/fences around us/can we own everything?/including the moon and the sun and the stars?

My first embedded video, so it's a good one.

2006-09-18T22:47:00.000-04:00

This is the reason why I love The Daily Show and Jon Stewart. Perfect!

Some of the things that I learned this week:

2006-09-15T10:34:00.000-04:00

I learned several things this week, here is just a few of them:

1) Cleaning and janitorial people are the most under-appreciated, under-recognized, and under-paid people on the planet.

2) Some people are able to block-out or ignore the smell of boys' locker room.

3) I am not able to be one of those people, I quit after one night.

4) I am hoping that I will be able to continue to appreciate those people out there that work long overnight hours sweeping and mopping so that the rest of the community doesn't have to pay attention to them.

5) I was able to call a computer place that had offered me a full-time job at the same time as the school offered me the cleaning job. I asked if they would object to me working part-time.

6) A $8000 Dell Server weights 150 pounds.

It won't make sense, but just read this anyway:

2006-09-06T22:43:00.000-04:00

I just thought something kind of funny. There was a commercial for a show that is to air on Sunday, and the network that is airing it is presenting it "Without interruption." I just thought that it was pretty funny that when the network wants to they will air a show without commercials, and hype it up as being special. But every other day they cram 15-20 minutes of commercials into every hour of programming. Those shows are always being interrupted all the time.

2006-09-01T16:18:00.000-04:00

Obviously (because he isn't holding the dead man's bar down) he isn't operating with the blades running, but he pushed that thing up and down our yard for fifteen minutes. I had to distract him with something else.

2006-09-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

It isn't every day that you can see one of these crawling on your house and show it to your kids.

A Shot Across the Bow of America:

2006-08-31T11:01:00.000-04:00

As my time as a stay-at-home Dad draws to a close (more on this in the future, but yup, after 8 weeks of sending at 7-9 resumes per week, I have finally found a job) I have been reflecting on some of the basic observations that I have made over the years.

Women are better at staying home and caring for the kids. I have tried it, and for 4 year I didn't really like it. Yeah, in some ways it was better then some of the other jobs that I have had in the past, but I can't wait till Michelle is home full-time and providing a regimented schedule and stimulating activities. I was never able to provide that for the kids. I am proud of the discipline and solid behavior that the children possess. But it is time for me to re-enter the work force.

Society is still not behind men staying home with the kids. That may have been one reason why I didn't really like staying home as much as I imagined I would. The kids (and I) weren't invited to participate as much, for certain activities in the community as I feel that they would have been, had I had breasts. I know that is a bold statement to make, but a bunch of clucking mothers just don't want to approach a guy with his kids as much as they will gladly go out and strike up a conversation with a new mother who brings her kids to the playground. This may be a little too much emotion, but I always felt like a bit lonely. It even happens now, there is another mother (I know that a statistical sample of one isn't really that significant but listen up anyway) that lives up the street. When Michelle is outside with the kids she always gets a smile and a wave from the lady as she drives by. But if I'm not quick enough getting the kids out of the road, I'll get a front bumper up my ass as she speeds by with a scowl and tunnel vision. And for the most part that really illustrates the entire position of how I felt "society" treated my during my stay-at-home experiment.

Music.

2006-08-19T18:48:00.000-04:00

If you like bagpipes, definately check out the Saor Patrol.

Editor's Note:

2006-08-19T17:21:00.000-04:00

Over the last couple weeks, and probably in perpetuity, I have been adding to and organizing my links. So keep an eye on them, because they might change from one day to the next. Usually they are just things that I'm in to now, or neat places that I check in to frequently.

Ouch.

2006-08-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

5 AM IS WAY TO EARLY TO GET UP.

It is like a train accident. You can see it happening, and you know it is going to be a really bad experience, but there isn't really anything that you can do to prevent it. Once it is set in motion, it is nearly inevitable.

I have had a near migraine-level headache since last night, pounding then ebbing, and I have taken two zomigs, but it has barely taken the edge off. Of all the mornings.

They don't make quotation dictionaries for nothing.

2006-08-12T22:09:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I forgot to blog this earlier today, but they just talked about it on the news again, and I had to run out here and shout about it now.

How could this happen? There is a fire department in the area, their main fire house was total destroyed by...........a fire.

I know karma is going to give me a heart attack when it catches up to me......but come on!!!!! (I am trying to channel Jon Stewart) That would be like........hum........uh.........um, well. Words fail me.

Music

2006-08-10T12:55:00.000-04:00

The CD that I have been listening to the most over the last couple weeks is James Blunt's Back to Bedlam. The melodies, the lyrics, all make me enjoy it every time that I listen.

Dear George Jr.,

2006-08-08T09:28:00.000-04:00

I had a thought yesterday that I had to run with. I apologize up front, because this might get deep.

I was thinking about how some decisions or choices that we make are good and how some choices that we make turn out, ultimately, to be the wrong one. How do we get to that point? Is it a result of a head injury, or questionable parental skills? Do we wake up one morning and start making criminal choices? I guess I have this naive assumption that a large majority of people who are in any given situation, given an equal opportunity, would make a decision that could be considered "good".

But I guess it starts with an analogy. If you think of all decisions that you make being somewhat akin to points on a compass rose, with north being "Good" or ethical. And south being "Evil" or immoral then I have a bit of a trip for us to take together.

Well, as I was thinking about this, I thought about how it might come to pass that people
go from one end of the spectrum to the other, and I have a feeling it is because we need to focus on two perspectives at the same time. Only in our minds can we conceive that a decision could be completely independent of any other influences. So I think that we have to recognize that each decision can be focused on "good or bad", but then that decision also has to considered in respects to the broader picture (Where you started from). I was thinking that you could very well make a series of decisions where each one was pretty good (each one vaguely North by Northeast). Each individual choice was a pretty good one, but after 4 or 5 choices if you look as a whole, you would be pointing toward the south.

So I was thinking of taking this analogy and relating it to the War in Iraq, or the events in the Middle East, or some other wildly political topic in the current news, but I guess that would just be too easy.

What a difference a few miles can make:

2006-08-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

Wow, I just had the opportunity to watch a bit of some Scottish Football (Gaelic Football?). All I can say is that it was quite a contrast to what I guess I should call conventional world-wide football. (Not American football, I am really not interested in that.)

They use their hands, there is some dribbling involved. A whole lot of physical contact, and these massive poles that stretch up over the goal net. They can get points for kicking the ball over the goal's crossbar between the poles.

I couldn't take my eyes off of it!

2006-08-04T17:03:00.000-04:00

Don't forget about New Orleans.

A quote I instantly fell for:

2006-08-03T13:10:00.000-04:00

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
So is a lot.

-Albert Einstein

Brit Posting

2006-08-01T21:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I may have found the first chink in the armor of my love of all things British. I looked up their National Anthem and was surprised when I was reading the lyrics.

The first verse: 4 out of 7 lines end with "Queen". I know that their Anthem is "God Save the Queen", but I guess not many things rhyme with Queen. Or maybe they didn't glean that sheen or preen weren't regal enough.

It Is ALL My Fault:

2006-07-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read that right, it is ALL my fault:

The massive breakdown in the Middle East Peace process;
The sinking of the Andrea Doria;
The failure of Al Gore to be elected in 2004 (this is the worst, sorry everyone);
The Hindenburg Disaster;
The fact that Mucho Grande Nachos at Taco Bell have over 1300 calories and more then 80 grams of fat (as well as the fact that the nutrition guide on their website will crash your computer);
President Bush's Veto on Stem-Cell Research;
The fact that Teletubbies are popular;
The death of the Electric Car;
The high price of gasoline;
The car crash that killed Marc Bolan (Mark Feld);
Wal-Mart's planned proposal to build a Supercenter in Lima, NY;
The deadly heat-wave in California;
The shortage of volunteers for Honeoye Falls Fire Department and Honeoye Falls Volunteer Ambulance;
Pine Fungus;
The pesky tendency for rolling over that the Ford Explorer exhibits;
Floyd Landis failing his drug test;
The fact that a Garbage Plate is just a little too big to eat all of, unless you have been drinking;
The USA team doing so poorly in the 2006 FIFA World Cup;
All rain delays;
Mel Gibson's DUI arrest (I was supposed to give him a ride, but I split early);
The fact that American's have no idea what good TV is.

For this, and many more things that I didn't list: I apologize.

Weirdness, I say.

2006-07-26T21:24:00.000-04:00

As many of you may know, I have been search for a job for the last couple months. Well, I happened to stumble across a listing for an Armed Guard/Driver for a national armored car service that operates up here. I guess I never really thought about it, but the advertised starting pay is $10.00/hour.

Doesn't the money seem a little disproportionate to the expectation?

2006-07-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

Not the biggest pool in the world, but it cools the kids. We have used it nearly every day for the past two weeks.

2006-07-18T15:59:00.000-04:00

Ryan likes eating green beans fresh from our plants.

Thunder and Lightning.

2006-07-16T10:59:00.000-04:00

Last night we finally got a good nights sleep. That was not quite the case for the Friday night/Saturday morning shift. First, Ryan normally wakes up around midnight, so that was the first incident. But anyone in the area might have heard the 5 AM thunderstorm, which was actually pretty dramatic.

Ryan must have woke up at the first, and tiniest rumble and came running into our room (in the pitch dark) shrieking like his left arm just fell off. It took a few minutes for us to calm him down, right about when Holly woke up and started crying also. So I went in a got her. When we were in bed (thank goodness for our king-sized bed, best purchase we have ever made) we tried to make it into a fun game. As much as anything at 5 AM can be a fun game. Seeing the flash and then trying to get them to count to anticipate and expect the ensuing rumble. It did seem to help, they smiled a few times. The problem was mainly during the pinnacle of the storm when the flashes of light and the thunder were nearly simultaneous. They were a little freaked out by that. But after the storm abated I was able to get them back in their respective sleeping locations and we all grabbed a couple more hours of sleep.

Strangely enough they slept long enough for Michelle to miss her morning Jazzercise class. The kids have been our alarm clock for so long, that when they got up and took off their Goodnight Diapers, changed into undies, and played a game quietly in the girls' room, it really messed us up.

Musical Report:

2006-07-15T16:11:00.000-04:00

Right now, I would have to say that my favorite album is: The Brave and The Bold by Tortoise and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I found it after trying to increase my library of Tortoise songs. They are "a rhythm section for hire" according to their own description, but they are so much more then that. The 3 or 4 CD's of instrumental music I have purchased just barely scratch the surface. The CD I mentioned above is one that is comprised of covers of other groups (like Springsteen, Elton John, and DEVO). But they are completely different, while being still recognizable. The kind of songs that make you stop whatever it is that your doing, and listen to the gravel voice, and winding music. I have had the CD on my mp3 player for a while now, and I don't think I'll be removing any tracks any time soon.

The one problem is that there are a couple tracks (and this isn't a problem that I have had only with this CD) that when I'm listening to them with the mp3 player's earbuds, the song starts out going from one side to the other. With earbuds this issue is a big thing for me, when the music oscillates sides like that, completely switching every second or so, I need to stop walking (unless I'm not walking in the first place, duh). It sounds silly, but I wouldn't be able to continue in a straight line, I get a little wobbly like if I just did some bat spins or something (just without the neasuea). I guess balance is a tricky thing.

Reference to the past

2006-07-15T15:15:00.000-04:00

The Official Butter Index for the past couple days, and continuing for this whole week (according to the weather report) is almost liquid.

(Remember? We have a butter bell. It allows you to keep your butter on the counter, at room temperature. But it doesn't allow air contact, so it won't spoil.)

A great Daddy trick:

2006-07-10T09:01:00.000-04:00

Michelle often gets credit and billing ("Momma tricks") for a great many things, like great tips for putting on your jacket. But I have developed a 100% genuine Daddy trick: Using the pizza cutter for cutting eggs. This works well on scrambled or any other kind, and best of all, the kids can cut their own. Very important.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2006-07-09T23:24:00.000-04:00

We watched this movie tonight, and I heard the funniest quote in a long time!

Willy Wonka: [talking to Veruca Salt, while pointing at his nut sorting squirrels] Don't touch that squirrel's nuts! It drives them crazy.

Holly Quote

2006-07-08T15:18:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I posted a funny quote from the kids, so here you are:

Holly was trying to say that she liked the beginning of a song that we were listening to, so she said "I know the edge of this song, and I like it."

Not the post that I planned on.

2006-07-07T20:53:00.000-04:00

My last posting, I referenced some other heavy thoughts that I was having, and promised that I would continue later. That post will have to wait, because when I was perusing the current issue of TV Guide (July 10th-16th, 2006, page 11, "You Tell Us") I stumbled across a letter that someone had wrote to them which seemed eerily familiar, until I glanced down further and saw my name credited.

Neat, huh?

This is what was written. They edited down a bit from the full email that I sent to them, but it more or less gets the point across. They made up the title, don't blame that part on me.

"Cup Runneth Over.

I think it's fantastic that ABC is airing two and sometimes three World Cup games a day but all the commercials are absurd! Instead, they could hire a few smart Brits to school us Americans for a few minutes. I still don't understand all the offsides flags. Teach us!"

Then they were nice enough to spell my name right!

Now that I think about it, I guess I'll included the full text from my email, seems only appropriate to include that part (cut and paste is brilliant) .

"I am writing to talk about ABC's World Cup coverage. I think it is fantastic that they are airing 2 and sometimes 3 games each weekend day (the whole rest of the world is watching, some Americans are actually realizing that the rest of the world might be on to something and that soccer is actually a brilliant game to watch), but the commercials are nearly absurd.

I understand that airing each half (a minimum of 45 minutes) uninterrupted is potentially a loss of revenue, but to have halftime packed with commercials (there is supposedly a halftime show, but it is about 3-4 minutes), and 45 to 50 minutes of commercials in between games seems like an extraordinary waste of space. All the games have "presented by" corporate sponsors, doesn't that lower the need for all the intervening commercials? It makes it appear that the network couldn't come up with anything interesting enough, and that they had to just fall back to just shoehorning in a bunch of filler. Surely the USA could benefit from a little remedial soccer education, they could hire a few smart Brits to get up and school us for a few minutes. I still don't understand all the offsides flags. Teach us!"

This is the prequel.

2006-07-05T14:56:00.000-04:00

My next post will be something of an additional observation, however this post is going to be the proverbial (but, I guess also literal) building block for the next.

I have been thinking a lot about why we (people) are the way we are. I guess in a way trying to reconcile what we (people) are, and the way we behave through the lens of evolution. My main observation for today is that we evolved in small groups. Small tribes, small villages, family groups and a radius of explored land around us was all our lives consisted of. Tens of tens of thousands of years went by without newspapers, 24-hour news channels, and broadband internet (fat pipes). As intellect and technology have improved our radius of explored land has increased dramatically. And because of that, in my opinion we have a pretty striking dichotomy with the way we perceive the world. And it seems to boil down to this: from the time we are very young we are mercilessly desensitized to any pain or death that happens "out there", not within our own household. Even occurrences near our own worldviews (?) are purposely (consciously or unconsciously) ignored or shut-out. We see images in the news or even on entertainment TV that are graphic or seriously profound. And they are filtered into and out of our minds to protect the id within us. We see images nearly everyday of military troops (not just US, I'm thinking more globally) coming under fire, dissidents in countries with harsh human rights policies immolating themselves, or even entertainment TV of a dramatization of a woman being stalked by a sexual predator. And we barely blink, until something happens to us, or close to us. It seems it takes something happening within the small group that we evolved to sentience within. It isn't until we are struck within the family or those we consider family. It isn't until we see it with our own eyes that we see death and mourn. It isn't until we see the torn clothes or bruised body and get angry. It isn't until we recognize that someone was hurt that we let ourselves react.

I am not sure that is entirely good for us.

I don't know that it is healthy for us to be so unaware. I used to work with a girl at Borders who was a bit of a closet Goth, and one lunch hour I got in a discussion that in the of despite the daily evidence, people so rarely think about death. We ended the discussion after we both sunk into thought about our agreement that if more people thought more about death and the apparent permanence of that event how different would the world be?

And that is all for the prequel, please comment, and I will tie the main theme into the last thought next time that I write. Hopefully soon. World Cup is almost over.

Amazing Feet!

2006-07-01T18:50:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to decide what exactly is the most surprising to me.

1) That England lost to Portugal today!

2) That Brazil lost to France today!

3) That I had such a strong reaction to those events! I had goosebumps on my arms watching the penalty kick shoot-out at the end of the England game. And I felt such disbelief with each English miss.

2006 FIFA World Cup

2006-06-13T21:51:00.000-04:00

Who would have thought that a game about 22 guys knocking around an inflated sphere on some massive green pitch would have the world so......captivated. I, for one, am HOOKED. I'm not sure of what the ratings are (one place mentioned billions of viewers) but I can't help but think that the USA is more then a little mental for not paying more attention.

This post is dedicated to Kyle and Chris,

2006-06-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

I saw this on the news this morning, but I wasn't really sure I believed it until I read the full article in The Washington Post. Regardless, my brother: Chris, and my friend: Kyle should be quite relieved.

Check this out.

I'm not taking it personal!

2006-06-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well, as you might know, I've been scouring for a job.

Monday I applied for something that I considered a shoe-in (is that really how you spell it?). A van driver for a Rochester hotel. Airport shuttle and bringing people to local attractions. When I filled out the application I saw that I was practically made for the job. I have the cleanest driving record possible. Never an accident in the 15 years I have been driving. Extremely familiar with Rochester and the surrounding area (drive somewhere once and I remember forever). Years and years of customer service experience.

Once I started thinking that the "van driver" probably spends more time talking to and assisting guests then the jokers at the front desk even come close to.

I guess I really shot myself when I listed $13-$15 an hour as my required salary. I figured since they said "don't write negotiable", I would write something a little high, and then they would come back with a lower figure and then we could meet somewhere in the middle. I guess I have been out of the job hunt biz for too long.

Makes sense on so many levels:

2006-06-03T17:56:00.000-04:00

While we were out doing a few errands this morning when we ran through the local McDonalds. When we asked Holly what kind of sauce she wanted for her Mcnuggets, she just looked up at us and replied "I just want nugget on my nugget. I don't want any sauce."

Double Ouch

2006-05-24T09:34:00.000-04:00

At first, I wasn't sure about my moustache. But I think it is really beginning to grow on me.

2006-05-22T18:30:00.000-04:00

Of course, when one has has a turn, the other needs a turn too, regardless of whether she really actually wants to have a turn. Jealousy is sometimes a more effective motivator then anything else in the world.

2006-05-22T18:28:00.000-04:00

I have posted numerous times about Ryan's obsession with vacuuming. But here is just another facet of his compulsion. The Carpet Sweeper seems like his dream drug, no cord to mess with, no loud motor to freak him out. I have a feeling this is going to be his daily addiction.

Today in a store:

2006-05-20T17:11:00.000-04:00

"You want to go in this store?"

"Sure."

*4 wannabe skateboard rugrats enter the store.*

"Where is the free candy they used to have right here?"

"I dunno."

"This store is so pimped."

*4 wannabe skateboard rugrats exit the store.*

*One employee is left scratching his head and wondering where his Social Security is going to come from when it is his turn.*

Ouch

2006-05-20T10:46:00.000-04:00

I feel like making some eggs, but I'm too chicken.

Words And Stone

2006-05-19T20:18:00.000-04:00

I have thought of and discussed this phenomena before. I have a topic that I want to discuss, but I am not sure it I have blogged about it before; and if I did, I don't remember what I said (although, admittedly those two factors are quite interrelated).

I think I am going to coin a term, and it goes a little something like this. I always think of things throughout the day that I want to blog, then I usually write them down, or I promptly forget about them. I admit that I forget a bit more stuff then I write down (Some of my more megalomaniac thoughts swirling up there have been that I have had and forgotten more good thoughts then some pathetic people have in their entire lowly lives! But then I shiver and try and shrug off that particular mental illness). But later on I do an activity or think of something that triggers the same train of thought and I think to myself: "Hey, that would be cool to blog." Then I feel a bit of familiarity with the thought and I wonder if I have blogged it before. So I think I will name this:

Phantom Blogging.

Not bad, huh?

Anyway, I wanted to talk about this book that I bought at Barnes & Noble a few months back. It is a really great book about the history of English Castles. It's subtitle is "A Photographic History" but I was somewhat disappointed at the total number of pictures, I understand costs of something like that could make it prohibitive to really put in a ton of pictures. But at most there was three pictures for one castle, and for the majority of castles there were only two pictures. I can't believe, it but there were even some instances where there was a single picture for a massive and majestic building that has been standing for 1000 years. I was impressed at the amount of history, names of battles, and royalty connected to each site, but that sort of moves the book subtly (or maybe not so subtly) away from the whole "Photographic History" concept.

I guess this paragraph might get a bit technical, but I also had a problem with the book including six or seven abbeys. Dictionary link, again, provided for Kyle's welfare. Not that they are indeed built out of stone, and in some cases are just as old as some of castles on the adjacent pages, but, well, maybe I am being too picky. This is were it might get a bit too technical, and yes, much too picky. Castles were large fortified buildings or groups of buildings meant to act as a stronghold or fortress. Originally they were made of wood, but as technology advanced (and the wealth of the country grew to be able to afford to pay the number of workers necessary) they proficiently progressed to stone. Massive stone walls, in some cases fifteen feet thick. But in order to be allowed to construct a castle, or fortified manor house, you had to be given permission to "crenelate" from the King. That is basically the only leg I have to stand on for this point, because a crenelated wall is basically the notched kind of wall that you see along the top walls of most castles. Like in this picture. The adjective of the word (crenelated) means having battlements. And that is were I sit and say "Ha!" Abbeys generally don't have battlements, and aren't considered fortified structures for the purpose of holding a certain territory or providing a defensive location for a bigwig. I know it is quite the tangent for this ramble, but the quality for each castle's history and the pictures that were provided just left me wanting more. And I bet they could do a separate book that was just as interesting on just abbeys.

But it was definitely a great buy with 160 gorgeous pages (thick paper too, not some crappy weight paper) for $9.95. And I must say that all of the pictures (although I wish there were more) are beautiful.

The cream to my coffee.

2006-05-19T13:56:00.000-04:00

Last time we were at Aldi's doing some food shopping, I picked up a quart of coffee creamer (Half and half). Anyway I just thought to check the date on the package after I used it a few times. Geez, the sell by date!

Oct 5, 2006! Can that be good? Half and half that lasts longer than a Presidential Excuse for invading a foreign country! Wow, that is a boat-load of preservatives.

My Scrubs

2006-05-17T13:16:00.000-04:00

I wouldn't say that I have a green thumb, in fact I had to look up a color wheel to figure out that pink looks like the opposite of green. Remember last year summer? I complained several times about how we had five or six big tomato plants and we had plenty (20 or so) of green tomatoes, but by the time that they matured to red tomatoes they all rotted, or developed these massive brown spots on the underside. The funny counterpoint to that is that we had one lonely single green pepper plant which grew about 15 peppers. All delicious.

We have two spider plants which sustained some pretty widespread trauma when I learned the hard way that they don't like direct sunlight. A lot of the leaves browned up profoundly, so I trimmed them way back and put one of the pots back behind our kitchen sink. For some reason, for plants, that is like the train platform for nirvana. It has sprouted back like mad! The other one is out on the front porch and really hasn't shown too many sights of recovery. I guess I'm going to swap them out so the other can have a turn growing.

The fifth season of Scrubs wrapped up last night. It was two new episodes in a row, and I have to say that the last episode was the best one that I have seen in 2 months. I haven't managed to laugh out loud like that in too long! One heck of a cliffhanger too!
I'm annoyed that NBC released their Fall schedule, and yet again Scrubs is glaringly absent. Yet again they are saying that they are going to wait till midseason and something that doesn't perform well will get the axe and Scrubs will be plugged in to hold up the wall. The thing I like about that is that they end up running back-to-back new episodes for most of the remaining season.
For the last few months I have be titling all of my blog entries with "My *something*". This has been a tribute to this show, but it has been a tough road to name them all like that. And in honor of the fifth season ending, I'm going to take a break from this practice. I'll just try to think of some wildly spurious or just plain ridiculous blog titles (Flaming eyelashes anyone?).

How weird is it that the spellcheck for this blog doesn't recognize the word "blog" and tries to replace it with the word: bloc.

2006-05-13T22:38:00.001-04:00

The bow tie looks good on him!

2006-05-13T22:38:00.000-04:00

Look at the two of them! Brother and Sister.

2006-05-13T22:37:00.000-04:00

We had Holly's picture taken a couple weeks ago. Look at this little girl.

My ?

2006-05-13T22:09:00.000-04:00

Tonight, again, I went a bit off the path of Guinness-ness. There actually was Guinness available at the store, but I went for the one a couple over, Boddington Pub Ale. Not bad, it is a good pale ale, solid taste and finish. The major problem that I had with it though is that the can were a bit "energetic" when I popped their tops. The first one splashed a bit on the floor, the second one though I popped over the sink.

Another thing that I like about UK vernacular: "cheese on toast". Near as I can tell, that is what us Cowboy Americans call Grilled Cheese. Although that is more along the lines of what Kyle refers to as toasted cheese.

My Butter

2006-05-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Michelle picked up some specialty bread, then when she got home, mixed some fresh chopped dill in with some butter. The plan was to have bread and butter with our soup.

The only thing that Ryan could say about that was "Who put grass in my butter?"

2006-05-10T15:57:00.000-04:00

This is a picture looking back at Michelle and the kids. We ate our lunch right there watching these huge fish jumping in the water.

My Gray

2006-05-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

I seem to have a spreading problem. After I mentioned my gray hairs (salt in my pepper) in my 'stache last night, I paid particular attention today to the geography of my upper lip farm. I noticed that there is actually quite a number of gray hairs poking around down there. More than ten I might say. That doesn't sound like quite a large number (ten out a hundred or two) but I am 32! My age doesn't seem like I should be sprouting out gray yet. I thought I caught a glimpse or two of some gray up on the top of my head, but I discounted it for the angle of the light or something. I guess not.

I shall embrace this, I am not going to indulge in plucking or dyeing (I almost wrote dying, that too) and maybe a healthy dose of salt and pepper hair would make me a bit stand-out-ish.

My thought.

2006-05-06T21:07:00.000-04:00

With the exception of a boat-load of photos that I have uploaded, I realized I haven't actually typed too many words lately.

I can't really say that I have too much to report. There isn't all that much to get into. I stopped at the store on the way home, and they were out of Guinness. So because of this, I decided to try out one of the other alternatives that were next to the empty slot. I picked up a four-pack of Beamish. It doesn't taste that bad, but it isn't quite the same flavor (to those in the know, the initial flavor was similar, but the finish was the most noticeably different). This isn't my first deviation from my attention to Guinness. It is a drink that I fondly compare to a meal, it is so thick, when I tried to use a straw (taking a sip before the foamy head settled down) it was like a milkshake it was so tough to take a pull. I tried Murphy's a few weeks ago, and that wasn't quite as good either. Nothing is really quite like the big one.

Oh, the 8th and final series of Red Dwarf has made it to DVD after an eternity! Plenty of bonus features, I haven't even made it all the way through them yet! (They have a fight montage of all the show's major fight scenes, set to the tune of "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting") And I must say that Brits really know how to use "language of questionable content". As Americans we know how to say one or two words really well: fuck and shit. Seriously that's pretty much it, isn't it? Brit's practically have a separate dictionary just for foul language. That is the kind of country that I could live in, or emigrate to. If I found a job over there, you bet I would seriously consider it.

I have been reading a book that I picked up from Barnes & Noble: "English Castles". It is something to be said that they were building and razing castles, and grappling with a civilization 600 year before this country was even a gleam in someone's eye. (The Roman and Greek eras are a little to far back for my tastes. Solid stone castles just give me the shivers.

Oh, I got an MP3 player. That has been a lot of fun! I have been enjoying listening to music a lot more frequently then I used to. I can get in a song or two messing around getting dinner ready, or watching the kids bike up and down the street.

I don't want to go on for too long here, but I'll close with this thought. I have been growing a moustache. For some reason I have three rebels. On the edge of the right hand side of my 'stache I have these three gray dudes just sitting there mocking me. And geez, plucking is painful!

My Change

2006-05-05T13:31:00.000-04:00

Funny thing, I realized that it has been so long since I had to work on my resume, the first thing that I had to change was the fact that our area code is now different. 2 or 3 years ago they changed this region's area code, so I guess it has been a while since I dusted off the old paper.

2006-05-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

Again, The Lehigh Valley Trail. I like this shot because it shows the two surfaces (horses are supposed to keep right, to the grass, and bikes and walkers stay on the "powdered rock" surface) of the trail, as well as the trail fading to nothing as the perspective approaches the horizon.

2006-05-04T09:07:00.000-04:00

About 5 feet off the Lehigh Valley Trail is this little pond. It is a very pretty little spot, you just need to keep moving or the bugs will start going through your pockets for change.

2006-05-04T09:03:00.000-04:00

This is a wider view of the picture below.

2006-05-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

I am not sure why I like this picture so much, but the idea of Beavers nibbling down trees along the trail made me smile.

2006-05-04T09:01:00.000-04:00

We went to the Lehigh Valley Trail last weekend. The kid's bikes didn't work out that great. We had to put them on the side of the trail and retrieve them on the way back to the car.

2006-05-04T08:57:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when Ryan eats donuts without adult supervision.

My Worth, Thanks Kelly.

2006-04-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

I am worth $1,813,874 on HumanForSale.com

My Results (thanks Kyle)

2006-04-24T22:10:00.000-04:00

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern		70%
Hulk		60%
Superman		60%
Robin		57%
Supergirl		55%
The Flash		55%
Batman		55%
Spider-Man		50%
Iron Man		45%
Wonder Woman		40%
Catwoman		35%

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

2006-04-22T13:44:00.000-04:00

They found all the eggs, we actually had to tell Ryan to slow down!

2006-04-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

Ryan did get over his fear of tractors and mowers, but learned a valuable lesson: "No scooping people."

2006-04-22T13:40:00.000-04:00

She wanted to be up high, in the big chair.

2006-04-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

I think that Ryan is amazed at himself for standing so close to the mower.

My Inquisitor

2006-04-12T12:58:00.000-04:00

We got home from the Easter Bunny storytime at the library and Holly asked "Is the Easter Bunny pretend?"

Michelle and I asked her, why are you asking that Holly?

She told us, that she saw a neck under the bunny helmet.