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Weekly Video Selection
Drew's Photo-A-Day
Allison's Photos

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

With a Tangled Skein...

I finished book three of the Incarnations of Immortality series (With a Tangled Skein) today on my flight from Chicago to Boston. I still find that On a Pale Horse is my favorite of the series but I liked how puzzles and riddles played a large role in this series. Very interesting. Some very nice twists. I am looking forward to the next book in the series Wielding a Red Sword. So I have three out of the seven complete and the series really ties together very well.

Photo-A-Day #145 08/31/05


This was a granite scuplture that was in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota airport. I wanted a photo when I landed on Monday, but ended up not having the camera ready, so I got it today. It is titled Monarch of the Plains.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Photo-A-Day #144 08/30/05


I ran down from Brookings to Sioux City Iowa to Rooster's Harley-Davidson to pick up a pin. Parked outside was this very elaborate trike. It was named the Joker. Pretty sweet.

Monday, August 29, 2005

An evening of Grimm entertainment...

Tonight I went to see the movie The Brothers Grimm. A very good movie. There was humor, heart and some amazing sets. The fantasy world of the Grimm Fairy Tales came alive in stunning detail. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger were great as Will and Jacob Grimm respectively. They were very convincing as brothers and very fun to watch. If you haven't seen it yet get out there and see The Brothers Grimm.

Also does anyone have any idea why you would possibly need GPS on a golf cart on a golf course. As I was driving to Brookings I heard an advertisement for a golf course that touted their golf carts with GPS. Huh? That makes no sense to me, anyone have a theory as to why that might be needed?

Photo-A-Day #143 08/29/05

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Tonight I ate here with Dan, John and Jessica. We agreed that we should have one of these back home. I think it would do well alongside a Chinese Buffet. It even had wireless access so you could have meetings there as well.

South Dakota, I can color in another State on the Map..

I am in South Dakota today. I started out from Boston this morning at 7:50am EST. I got to Sioux Falls, SD at 2:00pm CST. I got to the airport early enough where I got on a standby flight to Chicago. It is a good thing too because if I ended up on the flight I was scheduled for I would have been too late for my connecting flight.

While I was waiting for the flight to Chicago I noticed a young woman in a FEMA jumpsuit with a Beautiful Black German Shepard named Taboo. I didn't get a chance to talk to her and I should have tried but it didn't work out. I wanted to chat with her and meet Taboo because rescue dogs fascinate me since I read the Iris Johansen Books (Specifically The Search and The Killing Game) and Virginia Lanier Books. It was fascinating to see Taboo interact with the people in the airport. He was too, especially with two twin Japanese boys. I was so interested in finding out more about the team that I googled FEMA and Taboo and lo and behold I found the INDIANA TASK FORCE 1 CANINE URBAN RESPONSE TEAM Did you know that you can help the search and rescue teams with donations of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. The dogs and trainers need to go and be tested and sometimes they need to fly to get to their locations. If you would like to help them out please go to the INDIANA TASK FORCE 1 CANINE URBAN RESPONSE TEAM or another search and rescue unit in your area. The FEMA website only features New York search and rescue dogs. Good luck to Jen and Taboo on their search and rescue mission. They are most likely headed down to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina may or may not have an affect on my travel this week. We shall see.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Photo-A-Day #142 08/28/05

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Happy Birthday Shelby!

My baby sister is now 27!

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Photo-A-Day #141 08/27/05


Spent the day on the beach, lots of boats on the water. Read alot more of A Salty Piece of Land. I'm really enjoying that book. Great beach reading material.

Friday Afternoon Softball Game

Yesterday my division of the company, Marketing, had a softball game over at Houghton Pond (Part of the Blue Hills Reservation.). There were two baseball diamonds there. We were playing on field #2. So we gathered up all the coolers, bats, balls and gloves and trekked out to the field to play. There were two teams, the blue and the white. I was on the blue team. We didn’t start that strong but we pulled together as the innings went on. Oh we didn’t win but it really wasn’t about winning anyway it was about having a good time. I started out in right field. Joanne played right center, Bob played left center, and Rick played left field. The infield had Sue as catcher, Hirsch as pitcher, David at first, Stephanie at second, Mike at short stop and Steve at third, Verena and Lynne were on my team too and they switched off into the infield. The white team had some power hitters with Scott, Ken, John, Mike, Micah, Jeff and Damien, Pam, Pam, Siohban & junior cheeleader Caroline, Jen, and John. Yeah they all pretty much got hits, and many of them cranked ‘em out to the outfield. Our scorekeepers and observers and cheerleaders were Melissa, Bill, Jaye, Christine, Julia & Russ, Traci, Susanne and Ruth. John’s wife Chris came with his two kids Colin and Jocelyn. They had a lot of fun running the bases after the game.

Hirsch pitched for two innings and then he asked me to pitch. Now I stay out in the outfield because I figure I can do the least amount of damage to the team by being out in right field against an entire team of right-handed players. Nothing coming my way so nothing to screw up. It all stems from not being a very good player in little league. I got to pitch once in little league and ended up getting a line drive to the head. Or maybe it was the throw from the catcher. Well, either way I wasn’t the pitcher for very long. So back out to deep, deep roving right field. The one thing I could do as a kid was throw the ball from the outfield to the infield without a cut off man, and pretty accurately too. But I digress.

My first inning as pitcher went very well, we got three fairly quick outs and I was very surprised at my pitching and fielding ability. The team did well at their next at bat and then we were back out on the field again. This time I didn’t pitch as well, but we made it through the inning relatively unscathed. At my next at bat I hit a pretty good one that dropped out into center field untouched. I got on first and as the rest of the team got up to the plate I was able to make my way around the bases. Coming off of second and rounding third I went too far off the field and twisted my ankle. Rolled it pretty good too. So I was out for the remainder of the game.

The blue team did not win but not for lack of trying, we had a lot of heart and made some nice plays but in the end the white team just had some more powerful hitters. After the game we got a group picture and then headed to the Blue Hills Sports Bar. Allison met me there, we each had a drink and then headed to the Cape. We just missed Peter as he was heading into the parking lot. I jumped out and chatted with him for a bit, maybe next time Peter.

The ride to the Cape was a very smooth one with very little traffic to speak of. We got off the highway and went through Buzzard’s Bay and stopped at the Lobster Pot for dinner. The Lobster Pot has been featured on the Phantom Gourmet a number of times. Allison and I love the Phantom Gourmet, but liked it better when Billy Costa was on it. So we watch his show TV Diner as often as we watch the Phantom Gourmet. Not sure exactly when it is on but we always seem to catch it when we are in New Hampshire.

After a delicious seafood platter and a stuffie (Stuffed Quahog for those not in the know) we continued on to the Cape house and when we got there we had a nice conversation with Sr. Bernadette, Fr. Felix and Jerry. These folks are regular guests who have been staying at the guest house for over 20 years of so. They are the only folks who still come up each year. Then it was an early bedtime for us. Got a full day of beach time ahead of us.

This morning I cropped all the photos from the softball game but wasn’t able to find the wireless high speed signal like I did last time I was down, so the pictures probably won’t be going up till I get home. Uploading 40 pictures through dialup is no fun. But I will upload the group shot. The pictures are going on my Buzznet account. I’ve created a new Gallery for them.

Company Softball Game

Friday, August 26, 2005

Wedding Business…

Allison and I have been working very hard on getting some materials together for the wedding. We’ve been listening to music for the reception, and for a special surprise to our guests. I’ve been combing through pictures and music for that surprise as well. And before yesterday I would have told you there was no way I would have gotten things together for that surprise. I really want to talk about it, but cannot. And it is killing me that I can’t talk too much about it. Because it is really fun. But we have 77 days to wait, so be patient.

The invitations are coming along. We’ve got most of the addressing done, many parts of the invitation printed. We just have to print one more section and then put everything together and get them out the door.

So there hasn’t been much to report on recently. The wedding plans have been keeping us very, very busy.

This weekend and next we will be at the Cape. Looking forward to some good weather and relaxation. Hopefully we will get a chance to do some kayaking while we are there.

Photo-A-Day #140 08/26/05


Practical jokes in the office. One of my co-workers came in to find their desk covered in stuffed animals. He was not that amused.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Photo-A-Day #139 08/25/05


My Dad has been doing some work on the house recently. He powerwashed and then repainted the garage overhead doors and the middle door. He took down the old light fixtures and replaced them with ones like you see above. Nice look, he's really dressing up the place.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Photo-A-Day #138 08/24/05


Oliver is playing Hide and Seek.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Photo-A-Day #137 08/23/05


I was watching my father paint the garage doors and while I was grilling tonight's dinner. I looked up and liked the view of the angles of the house against the blue of the sky.

Google Sightseeing

Well, someone has found an interesting use for Google Earth and Google Maps. It is called.Google Sightseeing. Check it out, very interesting.

Guy's Night August 2005

Have you ever played DDR? I know it is like the hottest game in arcades right now and has been featured in TV shows like King of the Hill, but I have never played before. That was until last evening. DDR stands for Dance Dance Revolution and I guess that there are home edition mats that you can buy. Throw out the gazelles, bowflexes, and treadmills because this thing will kick your butt into shape. Or it will just kick your butt. Anyway I am limping a bit today because those things were not meant for people who land with the grace of a 4 left footed elephant. I had the camera with me but no one got a video of me playing this game, that would have been funny. I'll have to get a video sometime.

Guy's Night at the Funway Cafe was a the typical good time, boneless buffalo wings, fries, beers, popcorn and good conversation. Derek, Neil and I were joined by my friend Peter, you may remember Peter from my trip to the Reagan Library, Neil and Derek recognized him from that. So after confirmation of some political views Neil and Peter had a lengthy conversation and got along quite well. After we had our BB Wings and Beers we went to the game room and played a few of the games. Peter schooled me on Outrun 2 and Arctic Thunder but when it came to the shoot em ups I was king. And don't even get me started again on DDR. I think the only dancing I have seen that was worse was on Daily Dancer.

Then we played Golden Tee. First you must imagine how much golf is boring to me. I don't enjoy it, I have been known to state on occasion that if I am going to carry a stick in the woods all day and walk for miles then I had better be on top of a mountain when I'm finished. So you can imagine how much fake golf is something I would enjoy. But we were sharing in the camaraderie of being guys at Guy's Night so certain games are tradition. We played 18 holes while the wait staff cleaned up the place and shot us dirty looks for hanging around so late when they wanted to close up early. Here are some pictures from Guy's Night. And no I would not be amenable to golf for my Bachelor Party, no matter what the guys say.

Neil, Golden Tee Caddy of the Year.


Derek, with the Care Bear Stare


I did not get a picture of Peter because he is not thrilled with having his picture taken and their are agents of an undetermined branch of the government that may or may not be looking for him at this time. So Peter is in the background of these photos, observing the game. The big winner was Derek, despite my attempts to thwart his victory.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Photo-A-Day #136 08/22/05 #2?


I uploaded a photo too early yesterday because as I was driving to "Guy's Night" I see this guy in a powered parachute buzzing over the highway. So I took out my camera and snapped this shot as I was about to pass under him. You can still see the original image I posted with my Harley Davidson pins.

Have you seen the Earth....

Through the eyes of Google? Google Earth is a downloadable program that offers a 3D view of the entire earth via satellite images. You can even get down to the building level and see buildings in 3D (not in all locations) It is a pretty sweet program (free) that James told me about. Really interesting stuff.

Google Earth

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Photo-A-Day #135 08/21/05


Today Allison and I were in NH visiting Dan and Marcia. We did some shopping for the wedding and honeymoon at the mall and then came home to celebrate Nate's 25th birthday. We had steak tips on the grill and then spent some time in the pool. After lunch we had a Carvel M&M Ice Cream cake. I like it even more than the original Carvel Cakes. Good Stuff.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Photo-A-Day #134 08/20/05


Today Allison and I spent the afternoon with James and Danielle and Ken on Lake Massasecum in Bradford, NH. While we were eating lunch there was this big glass vase in the middle of the table which distorted Ken. I thought it would make a good Photo-A-Day, despite the fact that Ken boycotts the blog.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Photo-A-Day #133 08/19/05


I imagine that Megatron would probably like a convertible. Got a little creative today. Haven't spliced together images in a while. I did take the photo of Megatron in the Ravage Corvette today and the background I took out in Texas.

Al fresco...

Last night Allison and I had our friends Neil and Andrea over for dinner. Neil is going to be the Best Man at my wedding. Only 84 days away. Yikes.

We ate out on the pseudo-patio, otherwise known as the driveway. Steak tips with Montreal Steak Seasoning and ginger soy tuna steaks. Andrea brought fresh baked bread, and strawberry/blueberry shortcake for dessert. We also had some vegetables from Tara and the co-op. Grilled eggplant, gotta work on that one, and grilled summer squash. Grilled zucchini and summer squash from Mr. O's is quickly becoming my favorite summertime treat.

Do you remember stickers? Back in grade school at SMSH I used to collect stickers. No really Drew you collected stuff, you like to have collections, never would have guessed that. Yeah I collected stickers. Not really what you'd call a 'masculine' activity but you see, the girls collected stickers. So to my way of thinking, if I collected stickers then I could spend time with the girls. Ah, the flawed logic of youth. If I had run around the playground tossing dirt clods at the girls and their stickers rather than joining in with them, then I would have made out better with the whole 'going out' thing. And my stickers were stolen from me one day. I lost alot of good Toots, Lisa Frank and Mrs. Grossman stickers that day. I remember thinking as a kid that Mrs. Grossman must have been married to the guy who owned Grossman's lumber yard. Then I realized that was probably not the case.

Why am I talking about stickers and the silly foibles of youth. Well, I found a link on Daily Dancer to Swapatorium, And on that was a post of some stickers from someone's 80's notebook.

I still have my sticker collection somewhere (actually as with all my childhood stuff, I know exactly where it is once I think about it). Not sure why waves of nostalgia are hitting me lately either. Last night talking with Neil about the buildings downtown made me remember also that I used to buy my Transformers Comic books at Liggetts and Rite Aid, my stickers at Baldwins and the real exotic stickers came from Fauneil Hall, I always wanted to go there as a kid and buy stickers. I don't think I ever went. I just went to Ebay to see about stickers from the 80's they are selling for some bucks. I may have to dig that sticker album out soon.

Probably some of this nostalgia is stemming from the great photos that my cousin Matt has been putting up on his Buzznet Account. He has a section called My Town (We grew up one town away from each other.) and one called Family and Friends. Alot of those photos bring back memories from the 80's, life moves too fast folks. Too fast. Go check out Matt's photos and the photos of his artwork. Matt is a terrific artist and drummer. Very talented individual. Check him out, he has some great stuff and is always adding more. He just added a bunch of scans of an 8mm film his friend made. They are really interesting to see.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Photo-A-Day #132 08/18/05


This is a cabinet that my father got from a funeral home that he remodeled. Eventually he's going to clean it up and repaint it, it is a really nice metal cabinet with an interesting door lock. And all that glass. I store my motorcycle helmet here. Lot of good it does with no more motorcycle, but oh well, I have a helmet and my jacket still so I can go for a ride on my father's bike anytime.

Thunder...

Thunder....

THUNDERCATS HO!!!!

The first volume of season one of the Thundercats is on DVD. I loved this show. It had everything, stong characters, a fantasy world, swords, Cheetara and the Thundertank. Panthro was the McGuyver of Third Earth.

Also on DVD is the complete series of the WildC.A.T.S. - this was my favorite comic book in college. I have every issue of that book, then I even have all of volume 2's issues and I started collecting volume 3, but it became to gritty and no longer fun. I liked the heyday of Image comic books when the teams were still fairly innocent in terms of the things they dealt with, not thrilled with the turn to a more mature (think FX original series like The Shield and Rescue Me are today's WildC.A.T.S. and The A-Team and Airwolf was the WildC.A.T.S. teams of yesterday.) I liked the whole storyline of the WildC.A.T.S. A Covert Action Team in a secret war against aliens that were deamonlike in appearance. I even did a presentation in my Etymology class in college about the etymology of the names of the characters and the races of aliens and how that related to the overall story. It was a good presentation. The saturday morning cartoon was pretty well done. Too bad it was short lived. If WildC.A.T.S. took off it would have been a great Comic Book movie.

Man, back when I collected comic books like crazy I was really into them, then I began to focus solely on the WildStorm books, I made a web page back in college about those comic books and aspired to work for WildStorm as their webmaster. Now WildStorm is part of DC comics and their site is great but back in the day it was terrible.

I remember filling up my entire account with my website and having little wars with Frank the webmaster of the college about giving me more space. But he hoarded that space (Which at the time was 2 MB per student, Can you imagine) And I wanted another 2 MB so I could put up a better site. But that is okay because a few years later I took his job as webmaster at the college. The feud continued, but the veil had been lifted through my accessibility to the staff of the college. The web was no longer something controlled by the angry programming guys who made you feel stupid for not knowing all about Unix and who built back doors into everything so they could keep control. Nope, I controlled the website and I got things done. Too bad the college didn't recognize that until the day I quit to work for Leading Edge Media. But I digress.

WildStorm used to have a Collectible Card game too. It was referred to as the WildStorm CCG. I used to buy the cards by the case. 4 boxes to a case. I still have all my cards and didn't get a complete set of cards. I should complete that set and get rid of my extra cards. The game was actually fun to play and can still be played online. There are even some folks who still have sites up about the WildStorm CCG, I think I used to trade with a few of them. We would trade through a newsgroup back in 1995-1996. All text no pictures. The dark ages. Some people even created their own sets fo cards. Here are some sites that feature the WildStorm CCG.



Well that was an interesting nostalgia trip. When searching those sites I recognized alot of folks I used to trade with. Funny. Some sites are actually still updated while others are exactly as I remember them.

Okay so I continued strolling around memory lane and decided to Google my old e-mail address from college. I came back with two hits.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Photo-A-Day #131 08/17/05


So when I can't figure out what you want to take for Photo-A-Day I take the camera outside and attempt to take many pictures and see what I get. This is a close up of a sea urchin that is on the steps of our sunporch.

Here are the pictures that didn't make the cut.

What I tried first. I liked how the moon looked by the steeples of the church but couldn't get the angle right.

Next I tried the sea urchins and sand dollars but didn't like this one.

I didn't like how the flash looked on this one. Too washed out.

The sky looked ominous.

I took this one out the window in our living room. Then I dropped the camera onto the roof.

While I was out there I took this picture of the driveway at night.

Daisy was growling at me while I was on the roof. So I took her picture too, it looks a little like I took this with night vision.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Photo-A-Day #130 08/16/05

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Oliver loves his new Cat condo. Apparently he has claimed this high perch for himself. Duncan claimed a stack of rubbermaid buckets in the bedroom as his perch.

Behind in my posting....

I’ve been a little behind on my updates recently. I’ve had some busy days at work and haven’t really felt like updating when I’ve gotten home. The wedding plans are moving forward, we are working on the invitations now, planning on getting them out by the end of the month. Last night we ordered our guest book, it is a custom one and took a little while to get it just right. We’ve ordered our wedding party gifts and I am itching to talk about them (Well, at least the gift for the guys), but I have to be patient and wait till after the wedding to say anything. We ordered a cake topper and need to contact the cake company soon to get our cake ordered. Still working on the gift for our guests, that is a project that we need to dive into soon. We did decide on most of the ceremony the other night, I think we only need to decide on the Prayer of the Faithful, and I think we are writing those ourselves. And today Allison is contacting the Bakery Arts International Bakery about the cake.

We went to the Cape over the weekend for the Falmouth Road Race. However we had no runners at the house as in years past where there were no rooms at all available. Tara didn’t even get to run this year because she got a soft tissue contusion on the top of her foot that prevents her from running at all for another week. Unfortunately the timing of the injury couldn’t have been worse. This summer has not felt right at all, we haven’t been at the Cape house much, and when we have been down, it has been really iffy weather. Even the folks in the neighborhood have noticed that it hasn’t felt right this year. Well, hopefully next year will be better. This past weekend was crazy, I felt like I was a Residence Hall Director again. That’s about all I’m going to say about that. Allison and I did go to Ed’s for clam chowder at the annual post Road Race cookout. This was one of the first years that I could go there and stay for the whole cookout, and of course this was the year that Neil wasn’t there. It’s just how things work out.

I found this site today. CitiKitty. Toilet Train your Cat.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Photo-A-Day #129 08/15/05

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Mickey Mouse. Just a random shot today.

Best Picture Ever...

Andy gave me this, It is the best picture ever.


"What you talkin' 'bout KITT!"

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Photo-A-Day #128 08/14/05

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Today was the Falmouth Road Race. One of the perennial favorites are the Hoyts. What an inspiring Father and Son.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Annual Company Picnic

Today was the Annual Company picnic. Allison and I got there at 10:00am and went right to the Fried Dough. Once a year we have Fried Dough for breakfast, it is a tradition.

The horse track at Maresfield Farm gets converted into a carnival and giant food tent for two days each August. It is a great picnic and so much fun for the children of the employees as well as fun for the employees themselves. After breakfast and touring all around the grounds we showed up for our stint as photographers for the children's photo door hangers. I would take the photos and Allison would greet the children and their parents and try and get the kids to smile. We did this for about 2 hours and then it was Lobsta time! Each year I put in for two lobsters, I crack em open and take out all the goodness and drop the meat in the butter, Allison has never shelled her own lobster, ever. Its a dirty job and my duty. So after the lobster was shelled I went and got some clam chowder and some wings and a hot dog plus a couple of sodas. Now we were ready for a feast.

We chowed down and then met up with my friend Peter and Betsy, we also sat with David and his wife Karen. We chatted for a while and let lunch settle. Then we got ourselves a couple of ice cream sundaes. Brigham's ice cream, so good.

We headed out around 3:00 and made our way to the cape. Got here around 4:00 and hit the beach by 4:10, unfortunately it was really windy and foggy, but we went in anyway.

Here's some pictures from today.



Fried Dough for Breakfast!


Fun and Games!


Cute little Kid.

Photo-A-Day #127 08/13/05

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The company pirate ship. Today was the company picnic and this is our very own pirate ship. Yarrghh!

Friday, August 12, 2005

Photo-A-Day #126 08/12/05

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Tonight Allison and I went to Andy and Rondi's for some homemade pizza, grape soda and some really funny stories about fat squirrels, spray painted squirrels, and the patience of a man who is out of patience with the squirrels. We also learned how to take down a 70 foot tree with trigonometry and an SUV. We got to meet some new people who were very nice and very funny. Lots of laughter and, of course, fun with Stephen (their Golden Doodle)

I liked the look of the candy dish and made that the subject of Photo-A-Day, I liked how the glass distorted what was in the dish.

Movie Lovers

When I went to the movies the other night I joined the Regal Cinemas Crown Club. With the Regal Cinemas Crown Club you can accumulate points for every visit that you make to a Regal Cinemas for tickets and concessions. Also Tuesday is free small popcorn day. So guess who is going to start seeing movies on Tuesdays now. You can also gain points to get free popcorn and free soda and free tickets. It isn't the best point program but if you are going to the theater anyway might as well get a little something out of it.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Photo-a-Day #125 08/11/05

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Just looking for A Salty Piece of Land. Had a great relaxing day at the beach and read 16 chapters of this book, a very fun work of fiction. And the song that came with it was also good. I wish I could have this view all the time, (after I move the book I mean).

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dial up...

I'm at the Cape and using a dial up connection. How slow. I put up today's Photo-A-Day and see that comments are coming it for many of the pictures. Glad to see that.

Today I came home from Kansas City, MO. I decided to use my upgrades to get some first class seats. Since I can;t use the upgrades with the airline miles I figured I might as well try when I can. And I got upgraded for both legs of the flight. It was nice. Not the greatest landing in PVD, but at least we didn't skid off the runway into a ditch.

I then drove to the Cape, headed to the beach and spent some time with Mom and Dad. I read some more of Bearing an Hourglass. I'm trying to finish it so I can start A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffett. And that has to be read at the beach. It's a rule.

I went and saw the Dukes of Hazzard tonight. It was the case of the trailer being way cooler than the movie itself. However, I did really like the racing scenes and the nods to the original series.

Photo-A-Day #124 08/10/05

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Flying high in First Class over Chicago.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Late Post

I hate full service Marriotts. Why? I'll tell you why, it makes absolutely no sense to go into a cheaper Marriott owned facility and get free high speed wireless or wired Internet, but then have to pay $9.95 a day for the Internet at a Full Service Marriott. What is the sense in that. Oh because we charge more for you to stay we'll give you LESS in amenities. It sucks! And at this Marriott that I am in Kansas City, MO they are even charging you to use the modem in your room to make a toll free call. So that is why I am writing this post on the laptop but can't post it until tomorrow (which is now today.) But I actually got it to work (through the high speed, I'll probably be charged for it.) I even shot a photo for Photo-A-Day that I could not post. I was tempted to drive over to another hotel and use the wireless in the lobby of the other hotel but that would just be too much of a hassle. So again through no fault of my own the Photo-A-Day was almost late, and that annoys me. I know that the rules of Photo-A-Day are self imposed but it still bugs me.

Okay that was some of the annoying stuff, there was some good stuff today too. I stopped at Blue Springs Harley Davidson and picked up 3 pins. One for me, one for Dad and one for my friend John's Dad. They had a great selection of bikes there. And they actually had a halfway decent pin.

Tonight we went to Ted's Montana Grill. We sat directly under the Buffalo head. Ted's is owned by Ted Turner. Very interesting place. I had braised bison short ribs. And I also picked up a pin from there too.



I also had some great beer from Boulevard Brewing Co. of Kansas City, MO, it was like a Heffewiesen. It was called Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer. Good stuff.

I got online through high speed, will probably have to pay for it. But I'm on now so what the heck.

Photo-A-Day #123 08/09/05

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The KC Royals Stadium. At 70 mph.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Hotel Bothwell..

I am in Sedalia, Missouri and staying at the Hotel Bothwell in historic downtown Sedalia, Missouri. This is one town that rolls up the sidewalks at 5:00pm sharp. I walked around and nothing was open except for two comic book stores (directly across the street from each other.) I ran over to Yeager's Harley Davidson to pick up a pin. They were sold out of them, (It was the generic round pin anyways, oh well, I added their card to the shops I need to call and have the pins shipped to me.) They did give me a free generic black keychain for free, that was nice of them. This is also home of the Missouri State Fair which starts in 3 days. I'm always either to early or too late for these things. Oh and I finished Serpent, the first book in the Kurt Austin series by Clive Cussler. A good start to a new and exciting series. Can't wait to read the next books. After that was finished I started reading Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony, the second book in the Incarnations of Immortality series. This one is about Time and the man character has to live his life in reverse. Very interesting so far.

I took a few pictures around the area.

Old time elevator floor indicator

The County Courthouse

Ragtime was invented here.

An interesting building erected in 1886

A mini Statue of Liberty

The Hotel Bothwell.

The Hotel's sign

Photo-A-Day #122 08/08/05

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I'm in Sedalia, Missouri for the next couple of days. You can see the hotel sign before the interesting looking building beyond it. It was erected in 1886, not sure what it used to be, but the building really is interesting to look at.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Welcome to McCoy Stadium!


Today we had a great surprise 75th Birthday Party for Grandpa at McCoy Stadium. We saw the Pawsox take on the Buffalo Bison. We had a bit of tailgating prior to the game and we had a big rowdy section during the game. After the game we celebrated with some tasty birthday cakes in the parking lot. What a great day.

Here are the rest of the photos from the day.

Photo-A-Day #121 08/07/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
Today when we went to the Pawsox game, I saw this reflection in Allison's glasses and had her move her head till I got the same view again. Keeping with the reflection theme from yesterday's Photo-A-Day.

All gone...

The Alpha has been sold. I sold the Alpha to Kelly this morning at 9:15. She used to have a 2003 and it had an untimely demise, but now she has my old Alpha and is back on the road.

I'll miss the bike but I know that I'll get another one someday down the road. But not soon.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Busy Saturday....

Today was an extremely busy Saturday. We started out with the burial ceremony for Great-Uncle Richard. The family came out at 10:00am this morning to gather at St. Steven's cemetery to have a memorial service to bury Great-Uncle Richard. Fr. Dave performed the ceremony. Great-Uncle Richard was cremated and was buried in a beautiful urn that was decorated with a nice scene of the sport he loved to play, gold. On the way to the ceremony we saw many riders from the Pan-Mass Challenge go by. The route was right by the cemetery. I took a shot of one of the riders as they passed.



After the ceremony Allison and I headed over to The Moose Cabin for the post ceremony meal. We sat with Carissa and Chris and Roberta and her sister and Erik. We had a very nice meal. We are looking forward to having our rehearsal dinner there. After the Moose Cabin we headed over to see Uncle Richard about the wedding rings. Mine is all picked out and ordered, we had to look at a couple more for Allison. The decision has been made and the her ring will be ordered on Monday. We can check rings off of the list now.

We came home and ran over to see Fr. Dave to discuss the wedding ceremony as well as fill out the paperwork that we needed to take care of to actually HAVE a wedding. We got a booklet to use to plan all the details of the ceremony and are looking forward to working on that. So meeting with Fr. Dave has been taken care of.

We came home and I went out to prepare my motorcycle for a possible sale tomorrow. I have an interested party coming over to see it and hopefully purchase it. I got it all cleaned up and started it up and tooled around the driveway a couple of times. I forgot to move the fuel switch to the on position so for a while each time I revved the engine it would stall out. That never happens. The bike has consistently started each and every time without fail. So once I realized my mistake it fired up and was humming along great.


The Alpha all shined up!


The Logo, Shiny!


A really interesting looking bug.


While I took care of the motorcycle Allison took care of putting the finishing touches of the wedding invitation. She's got it perfect now and we will start printing them soon to mail out by the end of the month. Both of our mother's have seen it and approve. So we are covered there. Oliver was looking pretty cute so I took this photo of him.



At 5:00 we headed over to my Aunt Corrine's and Uncle Jeff's to pick up my cousins Maddie and Haley to take them to dinner and to go see the Walpole Children's Theatre's rendition of The Brother's Grimm Snow white and the Seven Dwarves. The kids were alot of fun and enjoyed dinner at Papa Ginos and then the play at the WCT. The actors were very good too, mostly 8-14 year olds. It was fun to bring the girls out for the night. Allison is very tuckered out right now but we are ready for the fun tomorrow. But I can;t tell you about that till then.


The WCT Logo


Maddie, Allison and Haley


The final bows.


When we got home we spent some time with my Mom. She gave us a few things from Great-Uncle Richard, including a mint condition in the box BombShell Insecticon from 1984. She found it in a closet and said that I would like it, heck yeah I love it. That makes two mint condition in the box Transformers that I got from Uncle Richard. My Mom and Dad also gave Allison and I a gift to help us with the wedding, so we are very grateful for that. And I have a stack of pictures of me and my sisters that Great-Uncle Richard had around the house. He had pictures from every year I was in school.

And also I want to add that Tara just came in and gave us some Kettle Corn (otherwise known as Popcorn Crack) that she got from Water Fire. Kettle Corn is so tasty.

Photo-A-Day #120 08/06/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
Hopefully I will sell my motorcycle tomorrow. So today I shined it up and took this shot of the oil cover.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Friday night...

Our Friday night plans fell through so at the last minute Allison and I decided to hit a movie at the Route One Cinema Pub. We ended up seeing Batman Begins. Seeing it a second time was even better than the first. What a cool movie. The story was great. The character development was very well paced. The lines were over the top but delivered so well. I think now that Christian Bale is the best Batman so far. I can't wait till Superman Returns comes out. Two great icons and two great movies.

Photo-A-Day #119 08/05/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
My mother found this while cleaning out the items that were in Uncle Richard's house. It is a special issue put out by Marvel comics in 1982 about Pope John Paul II. I read it today and it was very interesting. I've got a couple of books by the Pope including a book of poems that he wrote. Reading this comic I found out that he wrote many of the poems at the time when Poland was occupied by the Nazis. And later they were published under a pseudonym.

YeeeHaaww!


Yep, the wait is over, The Dukes are back. I haven't seen the movie and probably won't see it this weekend but I'll be seeing it soon and telling you all about it. It is the only new movie out this week. I can't wait to see the General Lee taking some sweet jumps!

Web comic References to The Dukes of Hazzard.

PVP


Theater Hopper

On Homebuying and Credit...

In a prior post I spoke about Allison and I beginning to think about a purchase of a home. We are going to get the ball rolling. The first step that we took was to see what we could qualify for, for a mortgage. I contacted a friend of the family, Brian, who has been super helpful. He told me what I needed to get him for information to start things off and he turned that information around to us very quickly. We got credit reports to look over, oh joy.

What a slap of reality, seeing how many credit related items you have on your report. I'm not saying things like late payments and whatnot, I only had one of those back in 2001, which was bogus but I hadn't learned how to fight these things yet. What I mean by the reality is seeing all of your debt and the total amount in one single file. I know I use Microsoft Money and check on the bills every day (I'm fanatical, ask Allison). I've tracked my net worth for the past five years on a monthly basis (again fanatical) and I have gotten my credit report on multiple occasions, but I didn't take in the big picture till I saw that report the other day, Ouch!

Each time I get a credit report I have to dispute an account that is not mine, the account is my father's. That is one of the drawbacks of being a Jr. or a Third, like I am, credit companies compiling the credit reports look at name and address and sometimes don't stop to look at the social security number of the person, so I get saddled with some of Dad's accounts. And the process for getting this fixed is a pain in the butt. You have to write a letter disputing the inaccuracy, and then you have to wait till that is cleared up.

Because I have two of my Dad's accounts on my credit report my numbers are skewed. And that isn't a good thing, my FICO score was still good but would be higher with the accurate accounts. And then their is a debt to earnings ratio/percentage or something that was very high because of the additional accounts. Well, I better get those taken care of before the next step. The other thing is to pay off the debt I have. I don't know about you but does anyone else feel like they are trying to hold back the sea with a plastic beach shovel?

The other thing about homebuying is going to look at places. I've looked at one so far, just because the folks at work have been talking so much about homebuying. And one of them, Joanne, of Auntie-Jo-Jo's blog is buying a condo a couple of towns over from me. I looked at the website for the condos and got curious, but we'd really like a townhouse and not a garden style condo. But I said what the heck and went anyways. I was taken into one of the remaining 'Large' condos. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, Kitchen and balcony over looking the 'river'. The place is called 'River Haven' and so of course a river is involved. But listen to me when I tell you I could pee a stream with a more powerful flow than the 'river' I was shown. I almost said to the agent, why do you even show that, it certainly is no selling point.

The condo was 1000 square feet, and it felt small, very small. I guess that I have been spoiled living in our apartment. We have less than 1000 square feet but it feels bigger, plus we have some additional spaces within the house to store stuff, much to my Dad's dismay. However the prices are good for the condos and they have some nice amenities for living there, its great for a single person but not for two people, who are closet pack rats.

So, probably after the wedding we will get out there and look in earnest for a place. We at least know that we aren't going to be decimated by the mortgage companies because of bad credit, which neither of us have, in fact Allison's scores were even better than mine. Not that I am bitter or this is a competition or anything.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Photo-A-Day #118 08/04/05

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Here's our Duncan. He is meditating right now, he and Oliver do that from time to time. They just look ready to say 'Ohmmm' over and over. Duncan is very cute, maybe I should enroll him in Kitten Wars.

Opposable Thumbs


Optimus Prime can crush the heads of the inferior yet egomaniacally named Bruticus Maximus.



You may be made of five separate Decepticons but you cannot defeat me and my opposable thumbs.


I found Barricade of the combiner team Combaticons today at Wal-Mart, one of the last Transformers Energon characters I could find in the store. Good thing too because he completes the set of Combaticons I foudn for $1.73 each. I thought that Bruticus Maxiums (The combined form of the combaticons) would be a match for Optimus Prime, however he is a little short and doesn't have hands. Rather he has weapons for hands. Fine for combat but he can't pick anything up or hold anything. Prime is so much more superior with his articulated fingers and opposable thumbs.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Photo-A-Day #117 08/03/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
Tonight Allison and I went to the Fortune House for dinner. In this photo you can see the tea pot, the tea cup and what I thought was cream or milk. (Why I thought that would be on the table at a chinese restaurant is beyond me.) Well it was actually Soy Sauce. Before I knew what I was doing I had Soy Sauce flavored tea. Which tastes pretty nasty even with sugar.

100 Days....

Today marks the countdown of 100 days till the wedding. We are quickly realizing the tasks that we have before us. Allison just ordered our cake topper, it will be something that I can't wait for everyone to see. Yes, I am excited about a cake topper, its gonna be that good.

Allison worked out the invitation the other night and it looks great. She had a creative vision for it and went with it. And she went to a very nice place with it. So we are looking forward to getting those all printed and mailed out.

We're meeting with Fr. Dave this weekend so we should be getting some more of the details of the ceremony nailed down.

Looks like today excavation will begin on the yard to find the source of the water problems of the past week. Yay, no more super early rides to work because of the limited usage of the toilets at home.

Allison and I are celebrating our 100 day countdown by going to the Fortune House in Cumberland for dinner. The Fortune House is a great Chinese food restaurant. Why 100 days? Well, when I was in college we always had 100 days till graduation parties. Just figured that we'd celebrate the day before our countdown goes into double digits.

Great Interview with Joss Whedon

In Focus | August/September 2005 |Serenity Now! Uncut

I used the Blog This Button on my Google Toolbar. Cool feature.

Skate Stoppers....

I should buy stock in this company. Skate Stoppers is a company that has created metal plates that can be affixed to concrete walls and railings and pretty much anyplace where skateboarding, bmx biking, blading should not be taking place. I'm not saying that skateboarding, bmx biking, blading is a crime. We all know the rally cry of the oppressed skateboarder, bmx biking, blading , "Skateboarding, Blading, BMXing is not a crime!" No it is not a crime, but skating, bmx biking, blading on private property and public places and causing damage is disrespectful.

There is the argument that skateboarders, bmxers, bladers are athletes and they train as hard as other athletes. That may be true. However, athletes train in the proper locations. If your town doesn't have a skate park/bike park, work on getting one built. Then go there and train all you want.

Now, you may be a skater, extreme bmx bike rider, or rollerblader, that is fine. However, I don't want you skating, blading, biking on my property. And in my observation of the behaviors of the local skating, biking, blading crowd in my town asking them to stop doesn't work. They just come back later.

I've read the section of the Skate Stoppers website called Industry References which basically has skating websites weigh in on Skate Stoppers. As you can imagine, the skating industry and skateboarders are not happy with Skate Stoppers. But the arguments against Skate Stoppers are just entertaining, not good arguments mind you, but entertaining in their baseness and lack of intelligent thought.

If you can give me an intelligent, well formed argument about why it is okay to skate, bmx bike, or blade on private or public property, like churches, or people's homes, without resorting to vulgarity and slang, I might listen. I'd really like to hear a convincing argument for why property damage and disrespect to private property is okay.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Photo-A-Day #116 08/02/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
Apparently this is not a new toy for me. My Dad called to tell me that the item in the yard is not my new toy. Oh well, at least things are moving on getting the pipes fixed. Now, if I can find the keys

Target and clearance racks....

Last week I found some Transformers Energon toys on the clearance racks at Target. I was very excited to find some of the transformers that I hadn't gotten yet as well as some duplicates that were selling for $1.73 each (featured in yesterday's Photo-A-Day.) Well, I figured that all the Target's I went to would have some Transformers Energon toys on sale too. Nope, they were totally wiped out. I tried 4 other Targets and nothing. Some didn't even have Transformers Cybertron in place (just a big blank spot where Energon toys used to be. And who is actually stocking Transformers Alternators anymore, I think the only way I can get them now is online, which isn't a big deal but if that is the only choice I find that it makes me annoyed.

What does not annoy me is the fantastic news that the new Serenity Trailer is up now. Only 58 more days till that movie is out in theaters. That is going to be awesome. I mean it was awesome seeing it months ago, but I am looking forward to seeing it again. And I've got time to rewatch the complete series once again, this time with Allison. I've converted one friend to the side of the browncoats. He watched my DVD set and has been a fan ever since.

I've found a couple new web comics recently. One is called Dog Eat Doug. A very cute comic about a baby named Doug and a puppy named Sophie. I was hooked in because the dog's name was Sophie. The comic started back in January 2005 so it is very easy to get caught up.

The other web comic is called Theater Hopper. It is about a guy who watches way too many movies. Not like anyone I know. Ahem. Nope nobody I know.

I've added the comics to my Selling our Life Story post from June 13, 2005. I'll add more information on them to my post about Web comics soon. I've got the Serenity Trailer linked under the countdown and the link to purchase the Firefly DVD's. If you haven't seen Firefly yet, give it a shot, check it out Fridays on Sci-Fi.

Monday, August 01, 2005

I need your help...

I have been doing a personal project since my 31st birthday on April 9th, 2005. I have taken and posted a Photo-A-Day through Buzznet. I will continue to take one photo each day for an entire year. The idea for this project came from Christopher Williams, a fantastic folk singer who set up his own Photo-A-Day project in 2002. To me this is a great concept. After one year you have a brief photo journal of each day of that entire year.

I want to get the Photo-A-Day word out there to as many people as possible. One way is for people to link to it through their sites and another is to actually add the Photo-A-Day Javascript to their Blogs.

Will you help spread the word?

Please post this code on your sidebar for the month of August. The code changes each month (The only change is the name of the month.) So if you like having a Photo-A-Day on your Blog and would like to continue beyond August then just change the name of the month in the code.

Here is the code.



Highlight Code


This is what it looks like.

The BenSpark
Photo-A-Day


Sites that are already hosting Photo-A-Day.

Sies removed because some became inappropriate for this audience and all others never changed to the new code.

Please join them in hosting Photo-A-Day.
If you decide to help spread the word of Photo-A-Day, leave me a comment with your url and where I will find the Photo-A-Day box, it should be in the sidebar or some permanent location, please.

Photo-A-Day #115 08/01/05

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.com
Target is clearancing all of their Transformers Energon toys to make room for Transformers Cybertron. I picked up all the limbs of the Bruticus Maximus combiner for $1.73 each. I haven't found a torso for the team yet that is at a clearance price however. Once I do these guys will get together. This is a close-up of Kickback, he turns into a tank.

Trivia Hall of Fame July 2005

This past month's trivia challenge was tough. Some new faces in the top 10. And we had 70 players this month too.

Jul 05

70 players played during the month.

1. abennett48 (356 points, 2 wins)
2. lizap (258 points, 2 wins)
3. alsparky (247 points, 2 wins)
4. smartgirl (239 points, 0 wins)
5. genabean (228 points, 4 wins)
6. ekstaron (225 points, 1 wins)
7. ahami (224 points, 0 wins)
8. Mo (210 points, 2 wins)
9. Chappy (197 points, 0 wins)
10. Shanaynay (194 points, 1 wins)


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