T. M. X. Elmo

Ten years after "Tickle-me Elmo", the latest incarnation does acrobatics. We saw this guy on GMA this morning and everyone was really laughing at him. He sits down, bangs his hand on the floor, lies on his back, lies on his stomach, and, at the end of his fit, stands back up on his feet.

Star Trek TOS Updated!

Wow! They are returning TOS to TV with new digitally mastered special effects. I have got to see this. I checked it out on the TiVo and found two episodes on G4 on Saturday but not sure if they are the updated ones. Guess I will find out.

What about Daddy?

This is so cute! I would be tempted to buy it just to see what they put in it. Actually there are some sample pages. Hits the Conservatives right where they live. I can't imagine what a similar book called "Why Daddy is a Republican" would contain. But here is a possible list for them to start with.

Able and Baker

This comic is very funny. Thanks to Brian for putting me on to it.

Manbag?

So I got tired of having to chase all over for all my stuff before leaving the house to go on a job. Cell phone, Bluetooth earpiece, GPS, XM radio, iPod, PDA, headphones, I was always forgetting something. So I dug around in the attic and found this discarded leather bag of Ellyn's which didn't look too "girly" and was a good size to hold everything. Is it too "hip" for a 57-year-old? Am I too late for this trend? Has it already passed?

Woo-hoo! Free PDA!

Tungsten T3. A nice perk for an IT job well done.

So I was working at a business here in Danbury which I had worked at before, fixing some problems they had and configuring some new software. I had seen that they had a couple of PDAs around and had heard that they were unused. They currently only used the desktop software for keeping schedules and contact lists and they wanted to view the same DB from the two computers. While I was working I asked the owner if he ever used the Tungsten. I had already checked and seen that the battery was dead. He said he bought them but never used them. I also asked if he had the sync cord. He said it might be around somewhere. So I asked him if he would be willing to sell it. I had been thinking of getting a new one, since I had been using Ellyn's old IBM Workpad for several years now.

So I asked what he wanted for it. He wasn't sure how much he paid for it or what it would be worth. I checked on eBay and they covered a pretty wide spectrum of prices. I told him I would give him $30 and he seemed hesitant, so I tried $50. He told me to haggle it out with his secretary.

So after he was gone and I was ready to leave, I gave my card to the secretary and have her charge me the $40 we had finally settled on. She started, then gave me back the card and said to just take it, that I had done a lot of work for them and he would never miss it.

It is missing its sync cable but they can be had pretty inexpensively plus it works in Ellyn's Zire cradle, which is how I charged it and synched over my Workpad data.

Our anniversary party

The 20th anniversary living in Danbury party went over very well. Everyone did not come at once but spaced out very nicely over the day and the weather cooperated very well. After several days of rain, it broken Sunday morning and the sun was actually out for a lot of the day. There seemed to be plenty of food for everyone and there was a lot of schmoozing and visiting going on. We even got to meet a few of our neighbors. Logan and Brian were here from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. We got a great picture to supplement the one we took 20 years ago in front of our new (at that time) house.

If only

Surprising Covers

Today on XM radio, I heard Neil Diamond's Kentucky Woman covered by Deep Purple. Ouch!

Guess I'll have to get one

How did we get so lucky

For the second time recently, I heard about one of our friends whose kids have, for the most part, disowned them, or visa versa. Neither Ellyn nor I can believe that they have accepted this. We are relatively close to our kids, and also to our siblings and parents, for the most part, and if we were not, it would be very tragic. I am not sure what it is that we did right during "the dark years" of Logan and Brian's up-bringing (just kidding of course, which might be it), but we certainly have not disowned them and, I think, they not us, and we are very interested in everything that is going on in their lives and are always glad to see them or hear from them when we get the chance.

I gave my Dad a call on Friday because it was his 81st birthday and I think he was glad to hear from me. We didn't have much to talk about because I just saw him last month, but it was a nice call and I will do it again sometime before the end of the year.

Kick-ass rock guitarists - Robin Trower

robin trower lyrics

a - z LYRICS

Speaking of back to school...

...how about this shot from 1990 of Logan and Brian heading back to school?


by geoff0522

Back to School

I'm glad we don't have to go through the "back to school" drill any more.

Hard work

Well, I have finished pouring the floor to our new shower, and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I need to get the tile guy in to take a look and let me know if I need to correct any possible problems before they come in on 8/23 to start setting tile.

Good product naming

Assos Women's H F.I. Lady Cycling Shorts

I was a baaaaad boy.

So the good news is that our 11-year-old van with 165,000 miles on it, which I have been somewhat lax about keeping up to date on its maintenance, passed its CT emissions test. Whew! Now we can renew its registration. The bad news is, it will be due again in about 1 1/2 years, since I was about 6 months delinquent in getting it tested. Oops. Now we will probably also have to cough up another $20 in fines for doing it late.

Fix ups

After 20 years, we have new garage doors. The old ones had started rotting out. I had painted them twice and took out glass windows (after Brian put his hand through one while playing hockey in the driveway), put in wood, then took out the wood and put in plexiglass. I also backed Ellyn's car into one of them from the inside. So it was time for some nice, new, tightly sealed and insulated doors. They look nice. And they will never need painting.




Now I just have to fix the broken siding from the hockey playing in the driveway.

Bang, Pow, Bam!

So I'm working on Wednesday in an industrial part of Georgetown and the power goes out. The person there says it has been happening a lot because there is some construction going on. She checks with the CL&P guy outside and he turns it right back on. Then, about 15 minutes later, it goes off again. But this time we also hear some banging sounds in the outside wall. We listen for a while and then realize they are coming from outside the window. We look and there is an electrical wire hanging down in the street doing St. Vitus' dance in the street, with sparks shooting all over the place. Luckily (ha!) there is a CL&P truck right down the street, with its cherry picker...um...up. Hmm. So we run into the next office and look up the side of the building to where the wired used to attach. there is a flaming stub of wire where the dummy in the truck (allegedly) sheered it off. Oops. So I guess my job there was over and everyone else's, for a while at least. As I left the CL&P guy was in his truck talking with someone, I guess to order more wire.

I started my second blog

I am trying an experiment. I am going to use my new blog, "Blog This!", to post stuff that angers me each day. I am hoping it will work as an outlet for my anger. Not that I get angry all that often but I'll bet there is at least one thing I see, hear, or experience each day that will warrant a post.

Fallout

Well, maybe we have some fallout from Ellyn's laptop dousing. The fan that cools her processor has died.



I sent for a new one. Hope it comes fast. The laptop will not start up without it.

Fun with Supermarkets

I love to walk around in Chinese or Japanese supermarkets, not because I like the food, that is Ellyn, but because I like to look for the unusual food items that I would not THINK of eating. I had our digital camera yesterday when we were in Super 88 Market in Boston and got some pictures of beef pizzle, aloe vera soda, and some others. Look on Flickr to see them.

In search of the perfect headphones

I love my iPod. Well, ok, so I lost my iPod shuffle and now have an iPod nano, but I love it. However, the earbud earphones do not love me. I cannot keep them in my ears. I bought some EarJams add-on parts to get them further into the ear canals but they still would slip out when my ears got sweaty. I have a pair of behind-the-head Radio Shack phones which work really well. I have also tried the ones with wires that pass over the ears but it seems they never keep the earpiece close enough and they feel like they are falling out.



Now I have learned about a Logitech set of wireless Bluetooth headsets. They are also behind-the-head and there is a Bluetooth transmitter you attach to the iPod, They make one specifically for the iPod but they are only for the full size one, not the nano, mini, or shuffle. The others are for all MP3 players.

So I sent for a pair for just $50. I hope they come soon. I love new gadgets.

Oops!

Ellyn suddenly exclaimed "Shit, I just spilled water on my laptop". I jumped. I flipped it over on its keyboard and grabbed a can of compressed air and blew as much water out as I could. Ellyn unplugged it and I pulled the battery. I then pulled the keyboard, disk drive, CD drive, memory cards, and wireless network card. I blew and dabbed out as much liquid as I could reach and then baked the parts in the oven heated to 170 and then turned off. I left it in there for about an hour then put it all back together. It is working fine. Hopefully it will be ok.

CBYD, damn it!

This affected Logan and Maureen's condo last night, as well as BUMC the next day. D'oh!

More shopping automation

Our local Stop & Shop has put in the Shopping Buddy. It is a little computer which you put on your cart and a scanner wand to scan your items as you pick them up. Then you pull up to a checkout stand and pay for them. Very slick. Probably adds a little time to the actual shopping time but, if you get your bags first, or bring your own, you do not have to unload the cart except into your car. Technology is fun!

Great picture!

The International Space Station against the sun, taken by an earth-bound telescope.

I hate bad news

But worst than hearing bad news, I hate deliverying it. Unfortunately, I had to do both recently. On Thursday, while Ellyn was at work, I got a call from a friend of hers in Seatlle, WA, that another friend of hers and her oldest daughter, had been brutally urdered while hiking on Tuesday. Her friend Sydney, who had called, was very teary as she related this news to me. Then I had to call Ellyn and tell her. Her agonized cry of surprise was hard for me to hear.

Now, several news stories have surfaced in the Seattle papers that Ellyn has been looking at, and she has found some pictures we had around here from the last time we were out there, nearly 20 years ago.



Ellyn has been agonizing a bit about the irony that she has been so sick this year and yet her friend, who was healthy and fit enough to be hiking in the Seattle area, was in mortal danger.

'Nuf said

T'row da bum out!

Headbutt was justified

It has finally been reviled what was said to French soccer player Zinedine Zidane by Italian Marco Materazzi to provoke the headbutt.

"La vostra madre era un hampster ed il vostro padre sentiti l'odore di delle bacche di sambuco."

(Your Mother was a hampster and your Father smelled of elderberries.)

No wonder he was so pissed off. This is a well known insult by the French.

What's next?

I was thinking yesterday and I realized something: my parents grew up with the automobile, the first generation to know them from the start. My generation was the second to have cars around all the time and the first to grow up with the television. Our kids were the second generation of TV and the first to grow up with the personal computer. Their kids will be the second computer generation, but what will they grow up with that their parents did not and had to learn later in life? What is the next big thing? What will come along and change the world as much as the car, the TV, and the personal computer?Hm, maybe it is already here.

Family Reunion

The 4th of July this year was a chance for my two brothers and I to all get together for the first time in 11 years. Wes and his family came west by car, stopping off to visit with some of Pat's family, and Steve and Laurie came down from VT with their trailer to camp out. I was not as adventurous, flying into Detroit to visit my friend Ken from college, and then I drove my rental to GR.


It was a great weekend. The highlight had to be Wes and Pat's 2-year-old granddaughter, Trinity. She was quite the center of attention much of the time. Another attention-getter was Mom and Dad's pool, which I put a lot of sweat into during the summer of 1966, and which was very refreshing. The weather was wonderfully warm and sunny, so we used the pool 3 times in two days.

Sadly, Ellyn was not feeling up to making the trip. She stayed home and spent time with our son Logan and some of her friends.

Burning flag amendment, my ass.

I'll tell you what. You can have your "anti-flag burning amendment" if it is written as a "proper flag display" amendment instead. This means that I cannot burn the flag to protest US government activities, but you cannot:

1. Mount a flag on your car and drive 70 mph until it is a tattered remnant or flies off to be run over.
2. Fly a flag at night, except if it is properly lit.
3. Fly a flag in the rain or other inclement weather.
4. Dispose of a flag by any means than a ceremonial burning (ironic, eh?).
5. Display a flag pinned up other than with the stripes vertical and the star field on the left. If displayed horizontally, it must be free-flying.
6. Use it as adornment for any individual.
7. Ever let it touch the ground.
8. Write on the flag.

Deal?

Killing Al-Zarqawi not a "success"

I wish the damned conservative pundits would stop pointing to the killing of Al-Zarqawi as a "success" in Iraq. He would not have even appeared on the radar as a threat if it had not been for America's invasion in the first place. He only came into being as a leader of the terrorist insurgents in Iraq after we went in and painted a big bull's eye on the country. This is the equivalent of turning a tenant house into a slum and then indicating how good it is that you are there because you killed a rat. Or turning a river into a sesspool and then showing how good a job you are doing by cleaning up one pollutant.

Hospital Episode II

Ellyn is back, this time planned. She had her colostomy reversal surgery today and Dr. Bussell said all went well. She is currently in recovery and I am waiting in the visitor's lounge on the 10th floor waiting for her to come up to her room. They said they were going to block off one side of a semi-private room for her and let me sleep in the other bed. There is a woman here who is waiting for her husband as well and heard me talking to the nurse manager about that and she also asked to be able to stay tonight in his room. Looks like they will be able to accomodate us both.

We were there!

Springsteen delivers a backyard blowout - The Boston Globe

Ellyn and I just got back from our May vacation and the highlight was seeing Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band in Boston. It was a great concert and the weather could not have been better for it. The only thing that would have been better would have been if we had closer seats.



Here is an interesting link to a site which lists all of the songs on the CD and several from the tour, and lists the artists who have recorded them over the years.

On vacation

We are traveling in CT, taking a little time off before Ellyn has to go back for more surgery. Here is a photo we took today in Old Saybrook, right on the Connecticut River, just after a thunderstorm went through, of a brilliant double rainbow.


by geoff0522

The narrowest stairway ever.

The narrowest stairway ever.
Originally uploaded by GeoffNascar.

Some photos from Logan and Maureen's move on May 20th from Naughatuck, CT to Boston, MA. Sigh! They will be 2 hours further from us but we think they will be very happy in their new condo.

No brag, just fact

Maureen has graduated from medical school and she and Logan will soon be moving to Boston for her residency. It is so great. They should close on their new condo tomorrow and move on Saturday. We are so excited for them.

There is a great article about the graduation here. It was a rainy, cool day but it was not that noticable. We had a great luncheon afterwards in Hartford.

I love peepers!

However, I do not live near any. I guess they also drive frogs nuts.



Info on peepers

Coming attractions

Ellyn found out yesterday that she will have her second surgery on June 1st. She seemed pretty happy about it, although it will mean more pain. It will also mean the end of colostomy bags.

Turkey!

Ain't it the truth?

Under the Knife Again

Ellyn is having another surgery this morning. Her knee surgery, which was originally schedule for January, has been postponed until now. This is very minor surgery and she should be up and around in just a few days.

Big Changes

So there are some big changes happening in our family. Brian just got a new job after being unemployeed for a few months. He started yesterday for Athenahealth in Watertown, MA, closer to his apartment than the other job at TV Guide was. Atenahealth (yep, one word) writes computer programs to help doctors bill to insurance and medicare.

Logan has found a new job in Southborough, MA, at Texterity. They publish online magazines. He needs this new job because in May, Maureen graduates from UConn Medical School and starts her residency at Boston Medical Center.

Additionally, Logan told us today that he and Maureen have put an offer in on a condominium in Boston. Pretty exciting stuff.

Spring is springing!

Spring is springing!
Originally uploaded by GeoffNascar.

I took this picture this morning when I saw these cute little 1 inch sprouts coming up near our garage door. I love spring!

Political cartoons

I like to read them as well as the "funnies", both ones created by the "liberal" cartoonists and by the "conservative" cartoonists. So this one by Chuck Assay, who falls into the middle somewhere, I think, caught my eye.



Now, I believe I know what he is trying to say, how education used to be about getting out and working and was much simpler, but I think he missed the final point about "going home to live with the parents". His final panel, instead of being about education being about more than just the 3-Rs, should have been about the output, into a world of immense national deficits, Iraqi war, and increasing energy "costs" should have been the point.

Also, he missed the fact that many of the things he shows as being taught in today's schools are now being set aside, including science, geography and history (doomed to repeat?) for the original 3-Rs so that children can pass the national testing requirments of the ridculous "no child left behind" policy.

Back to Work

Ellyn at least. She started back part time on Friday and started driving herself yesterday. Now I have to start making some progress here at home when I am not working. I had a bunch of jobs in the past week and have some more lined up for early next week. Meanwhile, I have the bathtub torn out of the bathroom and am about to plumb in the drain and shower heads.

Home!!!

Whew, finally. After a horrible 16 days, we are in our own home again. Now comes the chore of getting Ellyn comfortable and well again. She is resting in her own bed now and I am happy for that. I will be glad to sleep in a decent bed again for the first time in more than 2 weeks. Whew!

Nor today but tomorrow?

Maybe. Doctors are hopeful, as are we, and Ellyn is much more comfortable sitting up in a chair since they removed nearly a liter of fluid from near her lung. Now she just has a pain from the incision they made to do the draining.

Nope

Not today. Ellyn had the CT scan and they found fluid on her lung. So they drained it and now we will have to stay at least one more night. Groan! Another night on the rollaway. Looking forward to getting into a much more comfortable bed.

Going Home?

The doctors thought we might be able to go home today, but then they thought up some more tests they could run. Ellyn had another CT scan this morning because she had a high heart rate and they thought she could have a pulmonary embolism due to blood clots in her legs. That was negative but they did find some fluid near her lung. We are waiting on a doctor to check that out.

I went home for about 4 hours yesterday to clean up the bedroom for Ellyn's return, since that is where she will be spending most of her time. I also put her chair from the addition up there.

Euphoria and dread

The surgeon this morning said Ellyn could go home tomorrow. Her white cell count was normal in yesterday's blood test. However, this means I have to go home today and ready the house for her. Lots of clean up to do. Ellyn is not quite as happy about this as I am, because she reminded me, it only changes the location of where she is in pain. She is still uncomfortable sitting up, although she is strong walking around and certainly not in as much pain as she was. She has said it sounds funny to her to have people asking about how it feels to have been in the hospital for so long because, for her, the first ten days or so were just a fog and only for the past two or three does she remember with any clarity. Actually, it has all kind of flowed together for me too. In some ways it seems a lot less than two weeks and in other ways, it seems like forever.

It will be wonderful to sleep in our own bed again, although I may sleep in the other room for a while, as Ellyn may be too nervous about me sleeping in the bed with her. The possibility of me rolling over and hitting a sensitive spot might be too much for her.

This morning the doctors said that Ellyn's white cell count is coming down and that there are no serious infections in her incision so we could be getting close to the end of the hospital stay. They have a bunch of IVs going to get some nutrition into her and she is not taking as many pain killers as she could.

The bad news is she is on the phone with her friends and family more now. (ha, ha)

Finally, a truely good day.

Today was good, end to end. We both got a good night's sleep and Ellyn was pretty perky all day. She did not nap all day and her pains were at a minimum. Actually, she has skipped her pain medication now for about 6 hours. She had several visitors today and was actually laughing with many of them. She also chatted on the phone a few times and read several news papers. She also watched a few TV shows without falling asleep. Pretty good. We may have turned a significant corner here.

Last night was different, not necessarily better. Ellyn got up to use the bathroom and got another bloody nose. She had gotten one earlier here. This one persisted for about an hour and is still bothering her a bit this morning. A good thing is that she woke up feeling the best she has so far. Still not back to normal of course. That may not happen for quite a while.

Another bad night. The fluid removed from Ellyn's abdomin did not alieviate the pain and the new medication they gave her did not work too well. Neither of us got much sleep and they increased the dosages this morning. After a fitful time she finally was able to get a little comfortable and we both napped for a couple hours. Oh, I wish this was over.

Last night was a bad one. Ellyn was really in pain and they did not get to the CAT scan until nearly midnight. She did not get anything to eat or drink the whole day. Then they were going to wait for the scan results before giving her any pain meds so she was in pain all night. We got into a big fight and it was a terrible time for both of us. We got little sleep.

The Dr. finally told us they found that she had a fluid pocket on the right side and was going to have that fluid removed. We hoped this would relieve much of her pain, and she seemed better right afterward. However, now she still seems to be in pain. They are also trying some other pain medication on her to see if it will help her control her pain a little better. Time will tell.

And not today

Ellyn woke up feeling worse this morning. They took her back off food and are going to get her another CAT scan this afternoon to see if there is something they missed. She is a bit depressed and feeling like she will be in pain for a long time. But she has been moving around and walking pretty well so we hope things will improve soon.

Her friend Patti came in and said she was just visiting another friend, Pam Brooks, who slipped on the ice the other day and broke her arm in several places. Ouch!

Better today

So Ellyn was feeling a bit better last night. She had been having backaches and they seem to have gotten better, perhaps thanks to our good friend, Dr. Mike, who brought around some Biofreeze. It is kind of like Bengay only it provides a cold feeling instead of heat. It seemed to help her and so now she is a little more comfortable sitting up in a chair. We are trying to get her on her feet more and to get her O2 level up more. This morning they brought her solid food and will be taking her off of the IV after a final round of antibiotics.Maybe she will be ready to go home on Wednesday but we are not trying to rush it.

New Year Off to a Bad Start

Ellyn and I are not having a good start to the year. She had a recurrence of her diverticulitis from 1999 and ended up with a perforated bowel. She had to have about 12 inches removed and a colostomy bag attached. She will have to have surgery again in about 2 months to reattach her "plumbing".

We have been in the hospital now for 5 days and she may be here for another few, as she is not off of clear liquids or her IVs yet. She is getting pain medication and antibiotics through the IV.

It looks like a diuretic they gave here in recovery, lasix, has cause a loss of hearing in her left ear, which was her good one previously. It is not clear yet whether or not the hearing will be permanent.

2006? Already?

Dang, time flies, whether you're having fun or not. Here it is, the new year, and I have a resolution. This is the year I finish the remodeling. Actually, I told Ellyn I would get it done by spring. I am thinking March. We want the house all fixed up nice so we can have people over to celebrate our 20th anniversary of moving into thi shouse in September. Wow. The kids were 6 and 4. Now they will be 26 and 24. What a difference.

The job is going pretty well, although I am still not getting enough hours. I have started doing some of my own work on the side. I can't work in John's territory, but I can work in Danbury. I have done one job for Bonnie and have another lined up with Aurora's son, Bob.

We saw lots of friends and family over the holidays and have plans to go to Michgan for the July 4th weekend and visit with Mom and Dad as well as my brothers and their families. Should be fun.

Sadly, Brian lost his excellent job with TVGoS so is looking for something else. There seem to be lots of opportunities in the Boston area so he is going to try to stay around there. We gave him a loan to keep himself afloat until he can get something lined up. Hopefully right after the 2nd, he should start hearing from people.

Call me Mr. MCDST

Well, I finally took the tests for Microsoft Certified Desktop Service Technician and passed them both, so now I am a Microsoft Certified Professional. It doesn't do much for me in my current job, except that studying for it was responsible for me getting the part time IT job with CM/IT.

Ever wanted to write a strip for a web-comic? Now you can.

The OpenRMCS (Red Meat Comic Strip) is a web comic that anyone can write for. It features off color humor, random inside jokes, and hilarious characters that the entire Internet can work for.

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I'm in!

I got the CM/IT job I was interviewing for. I had to go to a couple of orientation sessions and take some certification tests but I passed everything and am ready to start working. Probably next week. I am also still working on the MS certification. I will take the first test next Tuesday. I postponed it once and have been using some self test software I purchased access to. This is helping me a lot so I hope the first test will go well. I do not want to have to take the tests more than once. One thing for sure, doing this studying made the certification tests for CM/IT a snap.

Serenity Rocks!

I have seen the new movie "Serenity" twice now and it is great! Gotta see it some more, not only because it is a great movie but because I have to support it so they can get the sequel. They are saying that to get a sequel, they will have to have $80M in US ticket sales. However, if they can make a sequel to "Deuce Bigelow", they can sure make a Serenity sequel. The numbers so far are here.

Just back from class

So I just spent a week taking a couple of MS classes to get my MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Service Technician) cerification. The classes were interesting and now I have a little studying to do so I can take the tests, hopefully sometime next month. I would also like to take a look at the requirements for an A+ certification and see if I can also get that.

The fun part of doing these classes was they were given close to Brian's apartment so I went and stayed at this place for the week. We went bowling one evening and bought him a new mattress. Otherwise it was a pretty quiet week. I also got to see "House" and "CSI" in HD on his big TV.

These classes were paid for by the retraining money IBM gave me after I was "down sized" last year. I am also interviewing for a job with CMIT. I had a call today with them and will have a face-to-face interview on Wednesday. This is for a part-time job doing deskside support in Eastern Fairfield County, CT.

Summer's last gasp?

So today is one of the last (official) days of Summer '05. I wish it weren't so but at least we are having some of the most beautiful weather you could imagine for the holiday weekend. Today we took our kayaks out on Lake Lillinonah. It was ok but we don't like doing the big lakes and rivers like we do the small ones, where there are no speed boats and smoother waters. We did about 5 1/2 miles but had planned to go 9 miles down to Lake Zoar. However, we did not anticipate the dam between them (oops, who knew). So we went about 2/3 of the way to the dam and then came back.

Where the hell did the summer go?

Oh no, it is the end of August. I hate this time of year because I know that soon it will be too cool out to have our windows open at night and we will have to start putting the blankets back on the bed. Also, the leaves will start falling again and I will have to clean the yard.

One of the things I found at the Bridgewater Fair that should help with the leaf cleanup this year is the LG-BAGZ-IT leaf hauler. I am hoping it will be easier than using a blanket and wheelbarrow.

Today I spent a couple hours cleaning the gutters. Of course, they will be full of leaves again soon but at least I got the plants that were growing in them out. Actually, they probably contained a lot of good top soil. I was looking at gutter guard solutions this morning and came upon the truth about gutter systems. Seems gutter guards work better at keeping you from clean out clogs than at keeping out the stuff that clogs them.

I also spent most of the day listening to my favorite podcasts. TWIT (This Week In Tech) and The Signal (Firefly info) are among them.

Speaking of Firefly and Serenity, I am getting really excited about the movie coming on 9/30. I also need to get my DVDs back so I can watch the series and get Ellyn to watch it too, so she will be up to speed on it when the movie comes out.

Kayak Instructions

You can find my instructions for putting the kayaks on top of the van here.

Comics Reader for Windows

So I finally found Comics Reader, a Windows based comics collector which collects and displays daily comics in one page. His website says Windows 3.1 but it has been more recently updated. After installing, I ran the updater and it sucked in the latest fixes. I had to configure a few of my favorites and I sent the author links to the daily pages for some of the King Features comics, which only have archives for a few comics. However, most of them are available at the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer websites. You still have to follow links to see them, as KF won't let you display the image directly without a "referer" (whatever that is) but I still have the links on the page. An improvement over the bookmark list I was using before.

I put in links to the comics I usually read in the paper so I don't have to bother with finding the comics page in the News-Times each day any more.

Update

So Brian and I had a great time at the concert. The Johns put on great shows and Fogerty came out during Mellencamp's set to do a couple of songs with him. We left about 2/3 of the way through Mellencamp's show because Brian had to get to work the next morning and he had more than an hour drive. My ears are still ringing.

Ellyn and I just got back from spending the weekend in Boston with Brian. We went up Friday and came back last night. We went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Imax. The Imax theater was in the back of a furniture store. Very bizzare. We slept in the second bedroom of Brian's apartment. Very bizarre.

On the way home, we got stuck in bad traffic in CT approaching Danbury. Apparently there had been a bus fire on the higway and they had closed it for a while and then opened just one lane. Traffic was backed up about 12 miles. We took about an extra hour to get home.

Where was I?

Looks like I have not posted here for a few weeks. Let's see what has happened.

Brian got a new car after he totaled ours. Now he is on his own insurance and car payments. We are saving a bunch. Here is his new car.


Ellyn and I recently had a couple trips; one to Las Vegas for the second annual Tivo Community Forum Convention (TC-Con'05). A lot of fun and we did not lose too much money at the craps table. The second was a driving trip to Huntsville, Alabama for the wedding of Ellyn's cousin Marge's step-son Isaac. It was a lot of fun with stops to see Ellyn's brother Howard and his wife, Liz and our neice, Sarah, and stopped to see old friends Barbara and Joe Davidson and Art and Barbara Geen.

In the next couple weeks, Brian and I are going to see John Fogerty and John Mellincamp in concert and then Brian, Logan, and I are going to Stafford Springs to see the races.

Oh crap

We got a call from Brian while on vacation in San Diego that he got into an accident with his car. Although we had signed the paperwork over to him, it was still on our insurance and still registered to us. So he contacted the insurance co. and got an adjuster to look at it (with some confusion, since they could not figure out if the car was in CT or MA). Finally, the news...it was totaled.

So now it is gone and Brian has a new car (photos to follow). We spent a couple of days frantically looking and buying (he bought with our help and the insurance money from the other car) a "new" 1999 Nissan Maxima. They were frantic because he was heading out to LA with his brother and friends to attend the E3 gaming conference. Now the car is in our garage waiting for me to finish the paperwork and get it registered for him before he gets back. Then he can drive it back to Boston.

Next one is all his own responsibility.

Catch up

Ok, so we got Brian moved in ok and there are some photos of the move and his new apartment here. He has now been working for 3 weeks and got his first paycheck. I'll bet that felt good.

Ellyn and I have been on vacation in San Diego visiting my brother Wes and his family. Then we went to Houston, TX to visit with some of Ellyn's cousins.