Saturday, July 31, 2004

I'm so glad I now know this. In fact, I don't know how I ever lived without this information. Better yet, I'm glad to know that the USDA is spending their research money so wisely:
Have you ever suspected that there's something about you that's especially attractive to mosquitoes? Perhaps there is.

According to the Journal of Vector Ecology, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) did a study to find out what odors attracted mosquitoes:

Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of a human hand: 80
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of a human foot (they used a sock that had been worn for three days): 66
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of Limburger cheese: 6
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of an air-conditioned room: 1
Now you too can live out the remainder of your lives with that knowledge. I'm only here to help.

Last night's wedding pictures to come in a little bit. It was a fun wedding, but as you'll notice in my stats, I had a lapse of judgement. That can happen when your drinking I guess. Back to square one. In the past, I wouldn't have even counted last night's slip or started my stats over again, but I'm hoping that if I start over and admit my slip, maybe I'll be less likely to slip again. One can always hope.

Time Smoke-Free: 9 hours, 57 minutes and 8 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 4
Lifetime Saved: a bit
Money Saved: $1.76

Our USDA At Work

I'm so glad I now know this. In fact, I don't know how I ever lived without this information. Better yet, I'm glad to know that the USDA is spending their research money so wisely:
Have you ever suspected that there's something about you that's especially attractive to mosquitoes? Perhaps there is.

According to the Journal of Vector Ecology, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) did a study to find out what odors attracted mosquitoes:

Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of a human hand: 80
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of a human foot (they used a sock that had been worn for three days): 66
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of Limburger cheese: 6
Percentage of mosquitoes attracted to the smell of an air-conditioned room: 1
Now you too can live out the remainder of your lives with that knowledge. I'm only here to help.

Last night's wedding pictures to come in a little bit. It was a fun wedding, but as you'll notice in my stats, I had a lapse of judgement. That can happen when your drinking I guess. Back to square one. In the past, I wouldn't have even counted last night's slip or started my stats over again, but I'm hoping that if I start over and admit my slip, maybe I'll be less likely to slip again. One can always hope.

Time Smoke-Free: 9 hours, 57 minutes and 8 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 4
Lifetime Saved: a bit
Money Saved: $1.76

Friday, July 30, 2004

Easily Amused

Let it never be said about me and my family that we are hard people to amuse. No matter where we are, we can usually find something to do to keep ourselves occupied and entertained. Especially if we find ourselves waiting for something, like say at a fast food restaurant or ice cream shoppe.

Our normal game occurs at Carl's Jr. At CJ, when you order your food, they give you a number on a plastic, two sided, v-shaped placard. You then sit down at a table and wait for your food, which is brought out to your table. We found that this plastic number thingy can be turned into a game by placing your fingers at the corners, pushing them down and rapidly letting go. By doing this the placard will spring up and maybe, if your lucky, land standing up. Everyone takes a turn and we keep going around until the food arrives. Whoever get the most successful "landings" wins.

Last night we found a new way to entertain ourselves. We went to DQ last night and all ordered blizzards. Now as some of you may know, the blizzard takes a long time to make, especially when there is five of them to make, leaving us with a good deal of time to kill. When we sat down at a table to wait, there were a couple of straws, still wrapped mind you, on the table. Michael unwrapped one of the straws and blew it across the table, and a new game was born. In this game, all five of us try to keep the straw from going off the table near our seat by only using the wind in our lungs. We did not keep score, but this might be a game that sticks with us, when we don't have plastic numbers to flip around that is.

See, it doesn't take a lot to have fun with your family, as long as you are easily amused. Tell me, what games do you play?

Current Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 6 days, 7 hours, 40 minutes and 33 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 63
Lifetime Saved: 11 hours
Money Saved: $12.35

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Thursday, July 29, 2004

My Doom

Whether you have an antivirus or not, please do me a favor and download this: W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool

My inbox is getting flooded with this virus. It wont do anything to my computer unless I run the attachment, but it is slowing down my mail server because each message has an attachment that my computer has to download to my inbox. Then it's slowing down my computer because my antivirus has to check it to see if the message or attachment contains a virus. Then it has to stop everything to pop up a message and tell me there's a virus in my email box.

I'm getting rougly 10 of these per hour right now, and it is very annoying. Especially when I haven't checked my email for a couple of hours and the message box has to pop up for every virus in my inbox. I hit ok, another box pops up, I hit ok, another box pops up, repeat that about 20 times and anyone would be annoyed.

So please, for my sake, go download the removal tool and run it just to be sure you don't have this virus. Thank you and have a nice day.
W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool

Current Stats:
Smoke-Free: 5 days, 7 hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 53
Lifetime Saved: 9 hours
Money Saved: $10.59

Warms your heart

A young family lived in a house next door to a vacant lot, and one day a construction crew turned up to start building a house on the empty lot. The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door and started talking with the workers.

She hung around and eventually the construction crew, all of them gems-in-the-rough, more or less adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her and let her sit with them while they had coffee and lunch breaks, and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week they even presented her with a pay envelope containing a dollar.

The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested they take the dollar pay she had received to the bank the next day to start a savings account. When they got to the bank, the teller asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age.

The little girl proudly replied, "I worked all last week with a crew building a house."

"My goodness gracious," said the teller, "and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"

The little girl replied, "I will if those useless bastards at Home Depot ever bring us the frigging drywall."

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Lunchtime Lethargy

Here we have the people who will be writing their local newspapers in 10 years to get these removed: Revenge of the Tattooed Nerds

How do you get rid of your stash without your parents knowing it was yours?? Do like everybody else and blame McDonalds: Girl finds smoked joint in her frozen yogurt

If you live in New York, Connecticut or New Jersey and use Cablevision for your internet connection here is your warning...stop swapping songs NOW:
Judge: RIAA can unmask file swappers

The streets must smell lovely at night: News - Oddly Enough - Skunk Gel Repels Drug Users, Prostitutes (AP)

Now this is a cool idea for kids playground equipment: Consumer Products

And I always thought renting a clown or mime for a party was strange: Rentapeasant

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Lunchtime Rambling

You've all seen by now I'm sure. JibJab's parody of Bush & Kerry singing "This Land" has been everywhere. It's been so popular that there's been a few times JibJab had to take it off of their server due to so many people hitting it at once. Somebody has seen how popular it is, and has decided that they need to make money from it...so what have they done? You got it, slapped JibJab with a copyright infringement suit did they. Read more:

URL: Copyright Infringer

What will they (who are they anyway?) think of next. Noone tell my daughter about this or else we'll be buying these for her potato bugs (roly-polies) that she keeps trying to make pets out of.
URL: Dead Bug Funeral Kit

Before going & getting that tattoo, read this:
URL: Lansing State Journal:Tales of the tattoo

I bet Coke didn't think of this before starting their contest.
URL: Coke cans compromising national security

That's all, have a good lunch, whatever's left of it that is.

Current Stats:
Smoke-Free:3 days, 14 hours, 15 minutes and 18 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked:36
Lifetime Saved: 6 hours
Money Saved:$7.06

Pop It In, Crank It Up

This weekend I cleaned my car. Not just the exterior mind you, but the interior as well. In doing so, I found a bunch of CD's under a pile of dust that I didn't even know I had in my car. Since I found a couple of really good ones that I haven't listened to in awhile, I officially proclaim today as "Listen To That Old CD You Haven't Listened To In Awhile Day" (old being a relative term in this instance meaning not new).

My selection? I'm taking you back all the way to 1995 for this one. That's like a whole century ago wasn't it?

Rancid.jpg


So what are you dusting off and listening to today?

Current Stats:
Smoke-Free:3 days, 6 hours, 59 minutes and 12 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked:33
Lifetime Saved: 6 hours
Money Saved:$7.06

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Monday, July 26, 2004

Too Much?

What is too much? Should the rules of Moderation be applied to starting a healthier lifestyle? As anyone who has read any of my posts this weekend knows, I have quit smoking. Along with that, I also started an exercise routine yesterday. I'm starting with 10 minutes on the Gazelle per morning, and I'll work my way up from there. I am also decreasing my caffeine intake by lowering my coffee consumption to two cups per day (for now, eventually one) and lowering my soda consumption to one soda per day. Is it bad to try to do all of this at once?

Should I spread these things out and try to do one healthy thing for myself per week? Maybe, but I guess I got tired of feeling out of shape and unhealthy, physically, all at once. So why not start living healthy, in every way I can all at once. I still have the details of my diet to work out. Not that I'm going on a diet, but I do need to cut back on two things. My portions at dinner and snacking when I'm at home. Once that's done, things should be good.

I apologize if all this sounds like incoherent rambling, but I am in the clasp of a nicotene fit and free writing, so there you go. Oh great, now I sound like the father from MBFGW. I'll shut up now.

Current Stats:
Smoke-Free:2 days, 7 hours, 12 minutes and 41 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 23
Lifetime Saved: 4 hours

Money Saved: $5.29

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Time

It's amazing how much time is added to the day when quitting smoking. Ok, I'm not sure if time is actually added on to the day, but it certainly seems like the days take longer to get through. I've been finding enough to do today to keep myself occupied at least.

I watched the Indians win, then I got my bathroom clean, all except for the shower. I will work on that after I put all of our clean clothes away. Then I want to vacuum our room. By the time Marcy get's home from work, she won't recognize the bedroom.

This is what I don't understand about quitting smoking. Nicotene is a stimulant, yet whenever I quit smoking, I get all this energy. Energy that I have a hard time figuring out what to do with most of the time. Now, why would I have more energy now than when I am supplying my body with the stimulant that is nicotene? Anyone?

Whatever the reason, the energy is there, and it's burning me up to go do something. I'll leave you with my updated stats:

Smoke-Free: 1 day, 15 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 16
Lifetime Saved: 2 hours
Money Saved: $3.53

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Saturday, July 24, 2004

Today's The Day, Again

Last August Marcy and I quit smoking, then in November we started again. Our quest to stop smoking has been a very long journey that dates back to 1998. New Year's day, 1998, we quit smoking, and were successful for a whole year. New Year's Eve 98-99 we started again. Then, each of the following New Year's Days we have always quit smoking. We have been successful for awhile each time. 6 months in 2000, 4 months in 2001, 3 months in 2002, then as I said 3 months at the end of 2003.

Why am I telling you all of this? Today I decided to stop smoking. I'm not sick, and I'm not terribly out of shape, ok so I am but the has nothing to do with smoking, I'm just done. I was talking to a guy at work who comes in once a week to check our water-lab's chemistry. Our conversation went something like this:
Water-Lab Chemistry Guy: Hey Mike, how are you doing?
Me: Good, how are you?
WLCG: Good, I see you started smoking again.
Me: I've been all year where have you been?
WLCG: Oh have you? Hey, as long as you enjoy it, why not right? Life's to short not to enjoy.
Me: That's just it though, I don't enjoy it.
WLCG: Why do you do it then?
Me: Cuz I have to. I have to feed the beast.
WLCG: Oh, that sucks then.
Me: Yeah, I know.
So I stopped today. You can learn a lot from a Water-Lab Chemistry Guy. I never knew that. I do now.

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Friday, July 23, 2004

Joke For The Men Out There

The inventor of the Harley Davidson motorcycle, Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven. At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been a good man and your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.”

Arthur thought about it for a minute, and then said, “I want to hang out with God.”

St. Peter took Arthur to the throne room and introduced him to God.

God recognized Arthur and commented, “Okay, so you were the one who invented the Harley-Davidson motorcycle?”

Arthur said, “Yeah, that’s me…”

God commented: “Well, what’s the big deal in inventing something that’s pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution, and can’t run without a road?”

Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally spoke.

“Excuse me, but aren’t you the inventor of woman?”

God said, “Ah, yes”

“Well,” said Arthur “professional to professional, you have some major flaws in your invention:

1. There’s too much inconsistency in the front end protrusion.
2. It chatters constantly at high speed
3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much

4. The intake is placed way to close to the exhaust
5. And the maintenance costs are outrageous!!”

“HMMMMMMMMMMM, you may have some good points there,” replied God, “Hold on…”

God went to his Celestial supercomputer, typed a few words and waited for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it.

“Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed,” God said to Arthur, “but according to these numbers, more men are riding my invention than yours.

Found at: Nasty Bastard » I've got jokes, and jokes, and jokes, and jokes

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Link Paparazi

It's that time of the week again boys & girls. Time to see what I've been doing with myself all week. After my work was done, that is. Enjoy yourself today, and then come back here and check out these links wouldja?
    Games, Games, Games
  • something (Let me know if you can make it past the puzzle on level 3 on this one.)
  • castlevania (Children of the 80's & 90's rejoice. NES on your internet browser.)
    Things That Should Not Be Sold, But Are
  • Buck Truck (I personally didn't know truckers could rap.)
  • The Turd Twister! (Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.)

Thursday, July 22, 2004

What I Learned

Aren't training sessions at work great? Especially when they are state-mandated. Yes, the kind the good old state of California deems important enough to make an acronym out of and force every employee in our industry to go through. I love 'em. I can't get enough of 'em. I.....Ok so they suck. But at least I came out of today's drool session having learned something. Let's see here, what did I learn...

I learned that if you combine regular soda and pool cleaner, you will produce chlorine gas which was used in WWI against alied soldiers. The neighbors needn't piss me off now.

I learned that body chemistry works in amazing ways. For example, kids have found out that by drinking a standard floor stripper solution, yes I said drinking, the human body will take it's active chemical, GBL, and turn it into GHB, a designer drug.

And most importantly I learned that hazardous waste videos are so boring, that even the instructor falls asleep.

It's Official

It's official. His cult has started. Thanks to a tip by commenter Kyle, I found out that you can now order your very own Ken Jennings t-shirt on eBay. But you better hurry while supplies last.

GWB or Homer?

Can you figure it out? Were the following statements said by Homer Simpson or... George W. Bush?

1. The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur.

2. You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

3. I understand that the unrest in the Middle East creates unrest throughout the region.

4. What's the point of going out? We're just going to wind up back here anyway.

5. You know, if you find a person that you've never seen before getting in a crop-duster that doesn't belong to you, report it.

6. Well, of course, everything looks bad if you remember it.

7. I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.

8. It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.

9. ...more and more of our imports are coming from overseas.

10. Trying is the first step to failure.

11. They have miscalculated me as a leader.

12. Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.

13. I think we agree, the past is over.

14. From now on when people get wood, they'll think of trojans.

15. It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.

16. If you don't like your job, you don't strike-you just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way.

17. The mission must be to fight and win war and therefore to prevent war from happening in the first place.

18. Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!

19. Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?

20. You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once, and move on.

If you guessed George Bush on the odd answers, you'd be correct!! Found here: Highway 4: Who said it? G.W. Bush or Homer Simpson

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It's The End Of The World As We Know It

URL: World Ending September 29

That's great it starts with an earthquake, alien kamikazis in UFOs, 100s of humans abducted as super computers are not afraid.

Found here: DiVERSiONZ

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Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Before I Die

URL: Top Ten Things To Do Before You Die

According to MSN, I haven't done much of anything. I've done zero of the top 10 Things To Do. But I have been to two of the places in San Francisco, two in Sacramento, one in Salt Lake City and three in Cleveland. What, you think your so much more "traveled" than me....how many things have you done?

Found here: this is :: petebeck.com: Before You Die

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Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Messy Desk Good

See boss, I'm not messy, I'm just worried about our health.

Health Tip
July 20, 2004
Work habits
If you see somebody at work with a messy desk and piles of papers that haven't been touched in six months, they're not disorganized. They're just concerned about good health.They're concerned about endotoxins, which are harmful substances inside bacterial cells. When bacteria die, the endotoxins are released -- and they can be dangerous.No doubt that's why the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati thought it useful to measure the endotoxin levels inside office buildings.As reported in the Indoor Air, endotoxin levels aren't affected by even the best air filtration systems -- the toxins are so small that they escape even the most modern air cleaners.But they are influenced by cleaning the office. Cleaning furniture surfaces greatly increases the levels of airborn endotoxins, boosting their levels in carpeting, too.

Science & Technology

I have to start off by saying that I'm all for new technology. As an example, I did not get a chance to see the Indians game last night, nor did I hear the score. Instead of just reading about the game though, I can watch a condensed version of the game which shows me every pitch in which the ball is played. So not only can I see highlights, but I can actually see the whole game, without having to watch every pitch. Technology affords me many pleasures in my life that I don't know that I could live without. E-mail, this site, watching the Indians bullpen blow yet another save, errrr, my digital camera, my iPaq, my mp3 player, watching Hafner hit a three run homer in extra innings to go back up by three, yay, etc, etc.

Then I read a story like this:

When One Is Enough (Use User ID: creatures1 and password: creatures)

And I would seriously consider scrapping it all. This story is way too casual for my tastes. I was given up at birth and adopted, and have led a great life. From what I understand, their are people on waiting lists years long to trying to adopt, and here were two that could have been given to a couple who can't conceive their own. Yet, that might have been too inconvenient for this woman to carry and have all three, so she decided not to. I'm not "pro-life" in every circumstance, but science and technology made things way too easy in this case, to the point this woman is nonchalant about it.

If given the choice between all of my "toys" and not reading another story like that again, I seriously don't know what I would do. What would you do?

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Monday, July 19, 2004

Rubber Ducky

This is the most frightening haunted rubber-ducky story I've ever heard. Ok, so it's the only haunted rubber-ducky story I've ever heard. The good news is though, you can bid on it and purchase this little bundle of yellow evil for yourself:
URL: Rubber Ducky, Unbelievable story, Haunted? Possesed?

Incidently, I found this story through peat who happens to have a haunted toy story of his own.

We have a toy that won't seem to go away either. It's a toy whistle that's shaped like a race car that keeps turning up, no matter how many times we think we have hidden or thrown it away. It's not haunted or anything though, just annoying.

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Moderation Part 1

Moderation, when done in moderation is a good thing, right? Everything is said to be good when done in moderation, so why not moderation itself too? But, wouldn't that leave room for excess? Wouldn't that make a little bit of excess good? Where do we draw the line between moderation and excess anyway? Why do I care? I don't know, like the category says, I'm just rambling this morning.

Between watching Bowling for Columbine for the first time, and reading my book, The Da Vinci Code, there are so many possible topics that I could share my opinions on, it's just all jumbled in my head, so I'm rambling about something completely unrelated to any of it. I figured that I would share some of my weaknesses, and ask in turn what are yours?

Coffee, I drink up to 5 cups a day. That may not seem like that much, but I'm not talking about small cups. The 2 cups I'll drink at home are in a normal size coffee mug, but the coffee cups I use at work and the large styrofoam type. I'm trying as of late to cut back to one of those huge cups o' caffeine per day at work and succeeded by drinking water after that one cup 3 out of 5 days last week. Not bad, but I've heard this stuff is no good for me at all. Either is smoking, but I won't go there just yet.

Soda. Soda is a great weakness of mine. Once lunch rolls around, I shift my caffeine intake from coffee to soda. At my worst, I'll drink four sodas from lunch time to quitting time. Not only does this practice put a hole in my wallet, but I'm sure that it's also putting holes elsewhere too, like in my stomach lining perhaps. If there's soda at home when I get home, I'll continue drinking it here as well. On a weekend day, if there's a two-liter around, I've been known to drink it in a day, easily. Once I open it up, I usually can't stop myself from constantly refilling my glass.

That's all for now, maybe I'll continue this tomorrow, as I do have several more to write about, but now is time for work. Maybe I'll apply moderation to this topic and not revisit it though, that is unless I can't find anything better to write about.

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Friday, July 16, 2004

Alien Cat

I've come to your planet to steal your Grape-Nuts.Our cat Jezebel, which we inherited from family, loves to climb. She likes to climb so much that most mornings I will come downstairs and find her in one peculiar place or another. A couple of weeks ago I decided to document her activity via photo, but neglected to look at the finished product until tonight. As you can probably guess, I was shocked.We finally have proof of what we've known all along, Jezebel really is from another planet.

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Ken Jennings

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The future of Ken Jennings (current Jeopardy champion for those of you located under a rock) is revealed here:

The cult of Ken Jennings (kottke.org)

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Link Regurgitation

Happy Friday!! Happy Clicking!!

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Thursday, July 15, 2004

Cat Reincarnated?

We have a cat. She's a typical family cat. She runs around the house, hides around corners and attacks feet as they walk by. She scratches up the furniture by the front door when she wants to go outside to go to the bathroom. Being spun in circles on the kitchen floor while she tries to get the hand that is spinning her is her idea of great fun. A typical family cat. Or is she?

There is one thing the she does that makes us wonder. She likes to sit on the toilet in our bathroom when anyone is taking a bath or a shower. We don't know what it is about the water, but she definately feels obligated to watch over us as we are in there, especially in the bath water. When Marcy or Breanna lean back in the tub to we or rinse their hair, the cat starts meowing and will put her paws on the side of the tub and peer in.

Last night the cat was at the foot of my bed while Breanna was in the bath, which does allow her a view of the bath. While Breanna was washing her hair, she slid and scraped her butt against the metal drain plug. She starting yelling ow, and I ran into the bathroom to see what had happened. Now I jumped and ran very quickly, but I was second to get there. The cat was already there peering in, then looked up at me and starting meowing, as if to say "she's hurt, get her out of the water, do something".

This behavior may stem from a sense of protecting her family, but could there be more? Is it possible that a person or creature could be reincarnated as a cat? Maybe in a past life she either suffered or witnessed a bathtub drowning and somehow she remembers that experience, making her ever vigilent of us in the bathroom?

Or, maybe she just really like us.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Cleveland Sports Fan Proof

Last week I posted about being a Cleveland sports fan. Seams to be a much talked about subject lately, especially by ESPN who has recently ranked the sports cities by their franchises.

In ranking Cleveland, one can definately see the torment. Most of Cleveland worst moments are tied to their best moments: ESPN.com - ESPN 25 - City standings: Cleveland

After proclaiming Cleveland as the most tortured city in the land, ESPN reviews the 10 worst moments in Cleveland Sports history: ESPN.com: Page 2 - Mistakes by the lake

Then, just for a little fun, ESPN reviews why Clevelands torture will go on for another 100 years: ESPN.com: Page 2 - Cleveland's torture will continue

There now, wasn't that a fun trip. Alright, everyone with me now....."Maybe next Century". Of course, I do believe that it will get better in the very near future. Why? Because I'm a Cleveland fan....that's why.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

No Scissors Allowed

Continuing my daughter's thoughts from last week about buildings falling down. We had just visited our local gas station/convenience store, which happens to be a well known stop on the highways of California. Breanna turned to me while we were getting in the car and said:
Breanna: You can't take scissors in there.
Me: Why?
Breanna: Because you might cut the strings.
Me: What strings?
Breanna: The strings that hold the building up. You might cut them, and the building will fall down.
I'm starting to think the she may grow up to be an architect. She sure has an interest in what makes them fall down.

Monday, July 12, 2004

Usual Deposit

On Saturday, Marcy and I took a visit up to our favorite wine country. This was a test for us because we are in the process of getting rid of all debt, which means spending money on things like wine is not an option. So why the trip? We are still part of one wine club there and we needed to pick up wine. There was also nothing stopping us from tasting, we just can't buy, so a little tasting is just what we did. Much less than usual, I'll have you know, and since Breanna decided she wanted to spend the day fishing with her papa (pics to come), we decided to have dinner on the way back home, at our friendly neighborhood indian casino. Gotta make the money to pay off the bills somehow. Red 35, woohoo, let it ride.

Now usually we approach gambling like we are donating money, because we know the chances we take. Like I said though, throwing money away is really not an option right now, good thing someone else is looking out for us, because we decided to hit the ATM, for a very small withdrawal mind you, and hit the casino floor running.

After several hours of mostly standing around waiting for the appropriate denomination of blackjack table, a goodish portion of our funds was "donated" to said charity. So we decided that it was time to go home with a little under 50% of what we started with, until I spotted our favorite machine on our way out that is. As I said, someone was watching out for us, as Marcy made the machine hit and gave us back our original withdrawal amount. With our money back in our pockets, we hit the door and headed for home.

Now I hope everyone learned a lesson or two from our experiences. One, wine tasting can make for a fun and inexpensive day as long as you are cheap and don't purchase any wine, no matter how much you like it and; Two, don't gamble that which you can not afford to lose, unless of course you intend on winning it all back just before you leave, or something like that.

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Friday, July 09, 2004

Just a Hard-Luck Cleveland Sports Fan

URL: Boozer double-crosses Cavaliers

This is so not good for all of us Cleveland Sports fans. But then again, we should not be surprised, not in the least. Cleveland sports fans have been dealing with heart-ache time and time again for the past half-century.

Boozer was supposed to be part of the Cavaliers return to the playoffs. I can't say return to glory, because they have never acheived glory, more on that later though. What's worse is that he gave his word to the team and to the city that he would remain in Cleveland, if we let him out of his contract, of which he would have earned a measely $790K, so that we could sign him to a bigger deal. Oops. Gotcha. Boozer is just the latest in the last decade, since the dawning of free agency, to spurn Cleveland for more money. The Indians sure can attest to what that feels like, ahem, Albert Bell, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, ahem.

Anyway, as I was saying, we as Cleveland sports fans should be used to this heart-ache. The Cavaliers have never been to the NBA finals. The Browns have never been to the Super Bowl. The Indians have been to the World Series, but have not won it all since 1948. In fact, from 1954 to 1995 the Indians did not even reach the playoffs. All we have are images of heart-breaking losses that have been deeply burned into the roots of our memories.

Images such as Jose Mesa crumpling on the mound after giving up the game-winning hit in extra innings of game 7 in 1997 against the Marlins. Images such as Michael Jordan soaring over Craig Ehlo to hit the game winner, "The Shot", and advance to the finals giving the Bulls their first NBA title. Images such as Earnest Byner fumbling, "The Fumble", as he was heading into the endzone to score the winning touchdown which would have sent the Browns to the Super Bowl over the Broncos in 1987. Images such as Elway marching the Broncos 97 yards, "The Drive", to send the 1986 AFC Conference Championship in OT where they beat the Browns by a field goal and went on to the Super Bowl. Stop laughing JStu. Stop lauging Peat.

So after all this torment and heart-ache, is losing Carlos Boozer really that big of a deal? Maybe not, we still have LJ. But, it is another knuckle in our rib cages, grinding away at our collective hearts at which I have to say, thanks Booz. Thanks for reminding all of us Cleveland sports fans what it means to be a Cleveland sports fan. Thanks for reminding us the meaning of our favorite motto, "maybe next year".

Thursday, July 08, 2004

If you build it, it will fall

Part of my morning ritual has me going by Breanna's room to wake her up and say goodbye before I go to work. She doesn't really wake up this early in the morning, but at least she will be easier to wake up when she has to, to get ready for school.

This morning's visit brought a surprised conversation. After I said my goodbyes to her closed eyes, like usual, she snapped them open. She then told me that when "they" build stuff, it gets old and falls apart. Then "they" need to build it again.

Any idea I may have gotten from her about who "they" are was then lost as she closed her eyes again and went back to sleep. It's a rather strange thought to wake out of a dream with for a six year old, but she probably wont remember, even our conversation. She has said some things waking in the morning that indicate she has some pretty vivid dreams. I wonder if that's a good thing...

Matrix Fan Film

While browsing the Unknown Geek I found this fan movie. Before Mr. Anderson became Neo, there was a A Glitch in the Matrix.

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Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Go Browns

NFL Expert predicts 8-8 Record for Browns. Hopefully will be better, but .500 would be better than last year. Time to do happy dance, oops better stop. Boss walking down hallway.

URL: Browns need a healthy Garcia in AFC North