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Clearing brush is therapeutic

Mike had to go back to work at 6pm and Adam wanted to play outside.
I sent him out to make a mess in the sandbox and I eyed my new Black and Decker Alligator Lopper (See Amazon.com for cool action shots).
I inspected the mess in my backyard and decided it was time to put the new tool to use. I’ll admit I was a little nervous. Mike was gone and Adam can’t dial 911 yet. I mean, it’s not like it was going to jump out of my hands and suddenly saw my toes off or anything, but still I have this irrational fear of severing limbs accidentally.
I learned a few lessons while hacking away at a gigantic bush/shrub/tree thingy in the back yard.
1. Protective eye-wear is a must for future forays into tree branch hacking

Lying in the Sand, Sans Pants or Why Life is Good when you're 3

Last year on Freecycle I picked up a Turtle Sandbox for Adam. Yesterday Adam and I went to Home Depot for a wheelbarrow and a chainsaw thingy for me (but that’s another post) and to ToysRUs, or as Adam calls it – The Childrens Store with Toys to buy him an Adam-sized wheel barrow, some sandbox toys and 4 bags of Premium White Play Sand.

For fun, ask Mike what it’s like to empty out 50lb bags through a tiny spout and then have your crazy wife insist you help her put a wheel barrow together. But that’s another post.

Once the sandbox was ready and the toys were liberated from their packages, Adam said he wanted his shirt and shorts off. A little odd, but whatever. Then we go to work on the wheelbarrow and Mike notices Adam pulling off his pull-up.

Um, WTF?

Night Rider

Last night I biked to the little get-together we had on campus. When I left home, at about 5pm it was broad daylight. When I returned, it was midnight and foggy.

I quickly realized that I did not have a light for my bike. I really wanted a light, both to be visible and to be able to see. Fortunately, I was able to keep mostly to well-lit sidewalks and paths.

Riding through the fog rolling over the John Nolen causeway was interesting, but unnerving. The ice still hasn’t melted completely off the lake, so riding past the lake at any time of day, you’ll feel the breeze off the lake be about 10 degrees cooler. At night, this has been turning into fog, and last night it was just streaming westward across the causeway with the wind. Fun, but next time I’d rather have a light with me.

Almost like Python

As you may have heard on the news, Hooters is expanding to Israel. From the Washington Post this morning:

And Thy Servant, Candi, Shall Cleave Unto Thee
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; C01

Hooters announced yesterday that it will open its first restaurant in Israel this year in Tel Aviv. This sign of the End Times was foretold thousands of years ago in a little-known addendum to the final book of the New Testament:

Rev. 23: 1-4
{+1}And from the West came a harlot She-Beast bearing plates of strange food: fried rings of onion and wings of bison.
{+2}And, verily I say unto thee, there also was in that place beer.
{+3}And the She-Beast had the eyes of a great owl that were painted with blue, and flaxen yellow hair that moved not when she did.

New Laptop

I’m typing this message on a laptop from System76. I ordered a Pangolin Value system from them last week, and it arrived on Thursday. I have of course customized the pre-installed Ubuntu, notably by installing the Kubuntu packages.

Some reading to do

Magician: Master (Riftwar Saga) author: Raymond E. Feist asin: 0553564935

Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga) author: Raymond Feist asin: 0553564943

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) author: George R.R. Martin asin: 0553573403

I’ve got two new book series that I’ll need to find everything published for, which is good because I’ve been looking for something new to keep my interest.

The first is the Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. I’ve read the first book, A Game of Thrones, and must read more. Multiple factions, no one is really evil or good (though there are some factions you’re supposed to like more than others), not being afraid to kill off characters, and a slow return of magic to the world. It doesn’t help that he ended the first book without really ending anything.

Fun with Lat and Long

The program I admin has a built-in Census tract feature, which since I am an incredible nerd, is a cool toy to play with.
I checked, and yep, the Lat/Long it gave is pretty darned accurate.
For a brief moment I had our exact coordinates, but I decided this was a more entertaining address (and slightly less revealing):
43° 6’ 26.4420” -89° 25’ 5.8312”

Incidentally, if you forget the to make 89 a negative, you end up in Northwest China near Turpan. And if you’re dumb (like I was) and reverse the Lat/Long, you end up in Antarctica, or there abouts.

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a map nerd.
I just wasted 25 minutes of precious sleep-time on Google Earth looking at stuff.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot....

Beware the Ides of March

Take your pick...

If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to
why don’t you go where fashion sits,
Puttin’ on the ritz.

Or, for those that remember this maddenly catchy song:

all i wanna do is to thank you
even though i dont know who you are
you let me change lanes
while i was driving in my car

or

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you’re here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

or

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiii’m sailiiiiiiiiiiing away
Set an open course for the virgin sea
cos I’ve got to be freeeeeeeeeeeeee…..

Whats your aural pain?

Share and enjoy!

I forgot my iPod

Sure, mock me and my technology dependence.
But if you had Billy Joel’s “Italian Restaurant” running through your head for the last hour, you’d be just as annoyed as me.
Because:
Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies and the the king and the queen of the prom
la la la something about car-top down and radio on…
la la la random snippets of song
Bottle of red, bottle of white, it all depends upon your appetite. Meet you anytime you want at our Italian Restaurant
And then, it starts all over again in my head.

aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghh!

Peep!

Last week we starting TiVOing a science-oriented kids show called Peep and the Big Wide World. It’s stealth science for preschoolers and Adam loves it, and quite frankly, we even find the show entertaining.
They have a website for the show that features flash games that Adam has mastered all by himself. Mike set up a computer for Adam to use so that he’d stop monopolizing the laptop to play flash games. The cool/scary thing is that Adam (who can’t read yet) can navigate his way through this website to play all the games he wants. Astonishing! (I highly recommend Paint Splat. Heeey! Aaaaah! Ohhhhhh!)

Oncall during DST patching

I was “on call” last week at work, for the uninitiated, “on call” means that you’re the guy that gets contacted by some combination of automated systems and live human beings if something goes wrong that needs attention.

At my company, it’s more automated systems than live human beings. This has its ups and downs. On the plus side, when the pager goes off at very-very-AM in the morning, you’ll be dealing with a computer, not an irate, sleepy human. On the minus side, you’re the irate, sleepy human that’s getting paged by the (not-too-bright) automated system. The automated system can’t make the value judgments like “that can wait until morning”, or “that happens every third day at this time. It’s safe to ignore”.

Plans, interrupted

Aaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I HAVE PLANS
House plans — (Dark blue or Dark red trim?)(New fence, old fence repainted, no fence)
Garden plans — (railroad ties or wall o’ rocks/pavers? Herbs and veggies)
Party plans — Outdoor barbecues, warm sunshine, cold beer

I’m fixated on the arrival of Spring. For a few days I was convinced that we didn’t have spring because we haven’t had enough parties. Ancient civilizations had parties every 6 weeks or so to celebrate the coming season. We don’t engage in enough nature worship — maybe more celebrations of spring, fertility, and life would hasten the arrival of spring, or at the very least put us all in a better mood.

Out With the Girls

Tonight I went out without husband or child. Instead, AW and EV and I hit the Melting Pot for dinner and the Great Dane for after dinner drinks.
I love green apples dipped in cheddar cheese almost as much as I love bananas dipped in chocolate. It makes me want to buy my own fondue pot. Mmmm…. melted, hot gooey foods. (insert Homer Simpson gurgling noise)
Of course, the really nice part was actually getting to talk about all those girl things that you never talk about when men are around. I almost never get to do that — so it’s a rare treat to hang out and talk about STUFF.