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.