Monday, July 31, 2006
Our church is going through some renovations. We're adding on an elevator, some meeting rooms and handicap access. The project is coming along and I think it is at the midway point. We stopped and checked out the progress during our walk tonight.
So today I wanted to give my review of Alton Brown's new show Feasting on Asphalt. Why no review? The power went out at our house on Friday evening. What this meant to the VCR was a total wipe of all programmed tapings. So no Psych on Friday night, no Feasting on Asphalt on Saturday night. No problem, we got back last night at 10:15 to find the VCR fiasco. I jumped online to see when the show was being rebroadcast, come to find out it was coming up at midnight. And there was another great show called Behind the Eats which was a reveal of all the cool things that they do on Good Eats. That was going to be on at 3:00am.
I reprogrammed the TV to the cable stations and reset the VCR to tape the two shows. (Those of you who are paying attention might see where I am going with this.) I failed to program the VCR to the channels. I had the VCR on and I saw channels and was able to change channels so I thought I was all set. But I was not. I planned to watch the shows this afternoon while I did laundry and other things around the house. I put the tape in the VCR and all I got was a blue screen. I fast forwarded and tried again, blue screen. I jumped up and down turned around and touched the ground, blue screen. So no review of Feasting on Asphalt, no Good Eats and no Psych. Argh! I got the VCR thing taken care of however and set it for all the episodes I missed and all the new ones this coming weekend. So I will have at least two episodes reviewed sometime next week.
Another of Tara's lilies bloomed the other day. I wish I could tell you the name of this one it is very cool. I laid down on the ground to shoot the Photo-a-Day and I took these other two shots from above. I think Tara should join The North American Lily Society, they have a seed exchange, much cheaper than the $150.00 a bulb lilies they sell out there.
Side View
Today Allison and I went to Tina and Ryan's wedding reception. Tina and Ryan got married back in April and today they had their wedding reception. We had a very nice time and it was entertaining watching the little ones run around and enjoy the two kiddy pools. There was one little kid who played with the hose all day long, he watered the lawn, he watered the asphalt and he nearly soaked a whole table of party guests. I was waiting for that. On our ride over to the reception we saw this car. Notice the license plate. Um... no, actually I don't.
Tons of rain today on our trip up to New Hampshire. Allison did a great job driving through the pouring rain. After dinner there was a full rainbow. And I was fast enough with the camera to actually get some pictures of it. Also Dan sealed the porch and wanted me to take a picture of the water beading up.
There was one guy named Major Victory who flounced around like a bad lounge singer. He noticed and helped the girl, but he was so cheesy. And yes, he did flounce.
The winner of this contest has a movie made about their character on the sci-fi channel and a comic book done by Stan the Man. Stan is very entertaining and the Lair for the Superheroes is pretty sweet. I think they get professionally made costumes next week. I think I'd see another episode of Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Who knows.
Don't forget that a new episode of Psych is on tonight. That is a must see show.
Also set your VCRs, DVRs and Tivos for Feasting on Asphalt on Saturday at 9:00 and there is a Behind the Eats show at 8:00 on Saturday as well where the cast and crew of Good Eats brings you behind the scenes. Saturday is like Alton Brown day on Food Network because a marathon of Good Eats shows starts at 3:00 all the way up to the Behind the Eats at 8:00 and Feasting on Asphalt at 9:00.
Tonight there was a block party downtown. There was volleyball in front of the post office. There were some classic cars and the end of the street had been turned into a tiny lagoon. A great time for the downtown association. Here are some pictures from the block party.
More Volleyball
This girl could jump.
Main Street Volleyball
The mini train goes up an down our street.
The lagoon.
This kid is having a great time.
A sweet ride.
Another sweet ride.
Great Camaro
Great truck.
Another Great Truck.
Tonight I also went and saw Superman Returns. Yeah I'm up on all the new movies, I know it. I really liked the movie. Some great stuff that I wanted to see happen with Superman. Some really tough parts to watch and yes there was an underlying Christian tie in. Some iconic moments that paralleled Superman and Christ. Overall I liked the movie alot. They sure tried to squeeze alot into the 2 1/2 hours. I think it worked very well.
Went back to work today. Eye is still a little funny and will be for a while. Gotta put drops in every 4 hours. The drops are keeping the pupil very small. This is making things funky. If I close my right eye (good eye) and look out of just the left I can see the screen right now without a big blob over the middle of it. My vision in my left eye was always like looking at an eclipse because I only saw the things at the edges and that was very blurry. Now I see everything but it is all still blurry. It is going to take a few weeks for my vision to adjust. My eyes have always been two separate entities that worked independently of each other. MY right eye did all the work and the left was a slacker. Now the slacker has a little bit of vision and it is messing with the hard working eye. I noticed it today while I was reading. My good eye was reading the right hand page but the left eye kept popping in with what was on the left page. I was on a section of the book where the new chapter was starting on the left and I was on the right hand page and every so often the 23 of the chapter number would pop up. These two are going to have to start working together. I hope it is soon.
This is a lily that my sister Tara planted in the front of the house. She has planted about 20 varieties of lilies and they just keep blooming at different times, this one is beautiful but is getting eaten by Japanese beetles.
Today Allison and I put together the shelves that we bought at IKEA with Neil and Andrea. We also got to open some of our wedding stuff. We are very excited about that. Now we have more space and the use of some new stuff. Here is the progress of the activities from today.
Duncan claimed Allison's desk.
Everything off the desk.
Moving more stuff around.
Desk is gone, floor has been cleaned.
One section complete.
End and middle section complete.
The shelves are completed.
Kitchen counter is complete with new wedding gifts.
Can't get far back enough to take a full shot of the shelves.
Left side, got all the cookbooks organized, now gotta start using them.
Middle Section
We moved the microwave, Right side of shelves.
The surgery is over and now I'm waiting for my other senses to decrease about 38%. I still have some goopy stuff in my eye and have to put drops in every hour or so and tomorrow have another Eye doctor appointment but I am felling okay. I had a slight headache after the procedure and it feels like something is in my eye, like an eyelash or something. There actually is something in my eye and that is a new lens, which apparently didn't fit right at first, or so I read from Allison's post. I was still a little loopy when I was told that. I do remember saltines, saltines and ginger ale are my friends. Very tasty. They even gave me seconds.
The procedure was very interesting, I had lots of eye drops put into my eyes, (a regimen of 4 drops every 5 minutes three times and then the eye doctor put in 2 more.) And now I have to put in two drops every hour. During the procedure I was awake and saw many colors, actually just 7 colors, the standard rainbow ones, no chartreuse or anything exotic. It was always a rainbow assortment of colors, very standard. The nurses were excited because I was the youngest patient that they were going to see that day. One of my nurses was only a year younger than me.
I had a congenital cataract so I actually had this from the time I was born, it developed and became and issue when I was about 8 years old, then it got no bigger and at that time the procedure was not as widely done. Now the procedure takes about 10 minutes (mine was longer, gotta be difficult you know). I should be able to go drive tomorrow, it is kinda hard to get the glasses on with this big plastic patch. Not even a cool pirate eyepatch either. Oh well.
Thank you Allison for going with me and taking care of me for the next couple of days. I love you. This even brought her out of blog retirement.
Today Allison and I went to IKEA with Neil and Andrea. We went to get a set of shelves to put into our kitchen. The desk that we are using now as a place to store items is going to be moved to Allison's art room/ future nursery (no kids or signs of kids yet). We also have a file cabinet that we are using for kitchen stuff too and that is being moved.
We picked up the GORM system, including two (approx. W30" X D20" X H68") sections with 4 shelves. We also picked up 4 additional shelves that are 19" wide. So all together we will make use of storage space of about 7 feet of width and almost 6 feet of height. So look for some pictures when we get this built. After the IKEA trip (about 4 hours, that place is huge) we went back to Neil and Andrea's and had a very nice dinner and caught up with them.
Tomorrow is my eye surgery, so we will see how things go tomorrow (no pun intended).
I found this both funny and sad that a sign needed to be added to a non-functioning toilet that is in the middle of a store.
Today Allison and I did some cleaning around the house and we got a quote on some carpet for redoing one of the rooms. We also picked up a few items at Comp USA like the two pack of Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Adobe Premiere 2.0. Some great features to Photoshop Elements 4.0. I can't wait to learn them all. Premiere is going to take some getting used to but I look forward to learning that one as well.
The premise is that he is a hit man who as been injected with a poison that will kill him in an hour. However if he keeps moving and keeps his adrenaline up he won't die. I don't know about you but I always heard that poison will move quickly through the body when you get excited and keep moving around. Must be movie logic.
I just checked IMDB and saw that Dane Cook was attached to the Transformers Movie. No character yet but that is pretty cool. I know he does a bit about the Transformers in his act.
Unmarried men take heed, you will never get the first bite of anything once that ring goes on her finger. Apparently whatever you desire to eat will be yours once a bite is taken out of it. I wanted to take a picture of my ice cream cone for today's PAD but as I turned to get it from Allison she was in post stolen bite. She recreated that for the picture.
Andy sent me his superhero today, he named it Billy. Billy's special power is freaking people out on a pitch black night as floating head guy.
I acutally don't know the story on Billy but I'm sure that Andy has a good one.
Allison created her own superheroine with the Heromachine, she had no name for her character or a backstory. I came up with a name, Amethyst. But I have no backstory for her. I did look up the jewel Amethyst and the meaning behind it. One particularly interesting thing about the jewel was what Leonardo Da Vinci was supposed to have said about it, "Leonardo Da Vinci wrote that amethyst was able to dissipate evil thoughts and quicken the intelligence." So I would say that this character has something to do with being very intelligent.
Update: There seems to be a lively discussion about my superheroes in the comments section. Apparently when someone can fly and sprout wings from their back the most unbelievable thing about them is that they fight crime and miss important TV shows. Yep, that is the most unbelievable thing in my character's backstory.
Apple - Trailers - TMNT
Update: I watched this again and I have to say that this is how a trailer should be shot. It shows the characters that we know and love, it shows that they have their signature looks and personalities. It has almost no dialogue and it reveals nothing of the movie. The trailer is brilliant.
It was nice to dust off the html cobwebs and work on something besides the blog. More to come for this site after the major kiteboarding season is over.
Tonight Allison and I went out with our friends Autumn and Kenny. Autumn, you may remember is Ms Wheelchair Massachusetts and she will be competing in the Ms Wheelchair America competition during the first week of August. And Autumn and Kenny recently got engaged. We are so happy for them. Autumn told Allison via e-mail that tonight at dinner she had something shiny to show her. So Congratulations Autumn and Kenny!
Today was filled with hospitals and doctor's offices for me. I had my pre-op appointment to talk about my surgery on Monday. Tomorrow I start a regiment of antibiotic eye drops and apparently after hours of prep time the surgery itself is less than 10 minutes. So after that I am hoping to be able to see much better. That will be cool. The other appointment was for my feet. They have been doing much better so I don't have to go back unless they start hurting too much.
Today after work I checked out different washer and dryers at Bernies, Best Buy and Lowes. I took down all the prices and item numbers to look em up all online. Yeah, the numbers don't exactly correspond to the numbers that the store shows. And no I did not copy down the item number for the individual stores, I took down the product numbers from the manufacturers.
Last night Allison and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. We missed the first 3-5 minutes of the movie because of everyone else in line. But overall the movie was a good time. Great Popcorn flick.
On the site there is a cool little program that allows you to make your own Super Hero, it is called the Heromachine. I took a stab at creating my own super heroes.
The backstory on these two is that they are a married couple (amber and Daniel Peters) who inadvertently release the power of a gargoyle when they accidentally break a gargoyle statue at Notre Dame Cathedral on their honeymoon. Little did they know that this statue was truly a guardian of the people. When the statue broke lightening struck the pieces and released the essence of the guardian. Amber and Daniel Peters were infused with the guardian's essence and given special powers.
Amber and Daniel do not realize that anything happened to them when the statue broke because the lightening strike knocked them both out. That was on the last night of their honeymoon and they returned home to Astoria, Oregon.
Once they return home they begin to realize that they have become changed. During the day Amber and Daniel are simple cogs in the machine, Amber is a teller at the local bank and Daniel is an insurance salesman. They are just average everyday folks who love each other dearly.
When night falls Amber becomes Galena with advanced strength and speed as well as the ability to fly (you know, from the indestructible granite-like wings that sprout from her back).
Galena can also turn her body into rock hard stone and her body changes from that of an average 5'4" woman who make take a spinning class every once in a while but often succumbs to chocolate cake to a 6'5" perfectly proportioned toned athlete.
As evening falls Daniel becomes the formidable Grayle, he also has advanced strength and speed, can fly and can make his body as hard as granite. Daniel is the average 5' 10" guy who hasn't worked out in a while, has a bit of a beer gut and gets winded going up 4 flights of stairs. Upon transformation into Grayle he is 6'6" and could pose for the cover of Men's Health. Both Galena and Grayle can control some electricity and can use that electricty to send breif blasts of lightening at their foes.
Because they have been imbued with the essence of the guardian they now have the ability to sense when someone is in trouble and are compelled to help. Each evening Amber and Daniel transform into Galena and Grayle and take to the skys to search out those who need protection. They have stopped robberies, shootings, and drownings as well as illegal smuggling on the Columbia River. And each morning they return to their normal lives with the same trials and tribulations of the average citizen.
Make your own Superhero with the Heromachine and post the link in the comments. I'd love to hear what other superheroes are lurking out there. You can make a super villain too if you would like.
Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your own eye. Well since my camera has a 180 swivel on the LCD screen it really wasn't. Why am I taking pictures of my eye. Well, Next Monday I am having surgery on my left eye. I have had a cataract in my left eye since I was about 10 years old. At that time the technology wasn't up to speed on cataract removals. Now it is. I am a bit freaked out about the whole thing but I know it is going to be a vast improvement in the long run.
Today I had my eye measured by like 15 instruments including an infrared light and a cup of water apparatus, it was weird but interesting. I also had some numbing drops put into my eyes. That was a little weird.
Honestly is there anything better than Road House? This movie was awesome. And the deluxe edition looks to be fantastic, you know why? Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier of View Askew have a commentary track on the movie. Pop Culture Gold!So get your butt down to the Double Deuce and order a cold one. Kick Ass action is on the menu.
In all honesty I liked the movie when it came out but it has become such a punchline/punching bag for comedy that you have to watch the movie for yourself.
Today's photo is of my sister Tara's new composter the Envir-o-cycle. So now we'll take care of our vegetable and fruit waste by dumping it in this thing, and after some time it will produce some great compost. You know what that means, more flower pictures.
I feel like today I got a Kharmic Ice Cream Sundae. My car has been in the shop for two days to get the air conditioner fixed. I held off as long as I could stand it and then got it fixed. I was expecting a huge, huge bill. Luckily I bought an extended warranty on the car. It covers till 100,000 miles or six years. Since I have 84,304 miles on it in 4 years. I'd say that I'll hit the mile cutoff before the year cutoff. But the repair was a small one and the extended warranty picked up $321.00, so nice. That is a car payment. So I'm hoping that if anything else warranty related is to occur that it will occur in the next 15,000 miles. So hence the Kharmic Sundae as opposed to the usual Kharmic crapwiches that come along.
Update: Oh yeah this post was also supposed to be about customer service. On Monday Allison and I went to Stop & Shop where we bought some sunscreen that was on sale for $7.99 and was regularly $10.99. When we were done ringing up the total of our purchases I noticed that the sunscreen rang up at $10.99. So I went to customer service to get the $3.00. At customer service they had someone check the display and found that it was indeed supposed to be on sale for $7.99. The customer service person asked us for a penny and gave us back $11.00. I said, "No, I still want to pay for this." And she shook her head, apparently there is a scan right guarantee at Stop & Shop. If your purchases does not scan correctly you get the full amount of the item back. That was indeed a pleasant customer service experience.
Also despite my car having to stay at the dealership overnight, I ad a good customer service experience there. Bobby Gazza was the guy I worked with at Bernardi Honda and he was excellent. I am certainly bringing my car back there. And they gave me a free car wash. It knocked the dirt off but not the "Dirt" message. I'm gonna have to wash it by hand if I want that to come off.
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Rainbow - Google Video
Update: I have discovered that this video is not Synched well. This website will give you instructions on how to synch it correctly.
Dark Side of the Rainbow
It is hot. Thank you fan.
Car was not fixed today, wasn't even looked at today. Fun, fun.
This past weekend Allison and I went to the Cape. We spent a goodly amount of time at the beach, got lots of sun, sand and salt water. We both read a good deal from our respective books. I started on Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs and Allison read Firestorm by Nevada Barr.
Getting into a brand new author and new series is sometimes a slow start for me. It was in the case of this book. I was used to the character I knew from the TV show Bones and I find out that Dr. Temperance Brennan in the books is much different than the one from TV. So it took a little while to get into. But once I made it over the hump the book was much better to read. I will probably enjoy this series very much.
While at the Cape this weekend we had a couple of nights out on the back patio taking advantage of beautiful weather and the opportunity to cook outside. I certainly did not want to return home to the oppressive heat and no sea breeze. So we ended up staying at the house till 9:00 on Friday night and there was no way I was jumping on the computer. Nope we closed the bedroom doors and got the AC running to cool down the room and try and sleep. Sleep is so easy at the Cape we sleep so well there. The salt air, the water and the window fan put us right out and I’ve actually slept late while there. And I don’t mean late for me like 6:30 or 7:00 I mean 9:00 and 9:30, guess I needed it.
The garden around the patio has exploded in color. We have tons of different lilies and hydrangeas popping up all over the place. I couldn’t help taking more pictures of the garden.
Well, it has been almost a week since I got my signed copy of You'll Have That Vol. 1 from Wes Molebash. Wes Molebash has created a comic strip that has universal appeal. His storylines are inventive and his characters have heart.
From the book cover: "You'll Have That is a webcomic strip that follows the lives of Andy and Katie, a newlywed couple in their twenties, as they try to figure out life together."
You'll Have That Vol. 1 contains 100 comics from the You'll Have That website and 16 bonus strips that tell the story of how Andy and Katie met. As a fan of the strip I was very pleased to see the story of their meeting.
There is nothing crude about Wes' work, not the language, and certainly not the artwork. Each strip is crafted so well and conveys a crisp and clean style. The subtleness that Wes adds to each character's expressions and lines. Wes can convey emotion with a simple turn of an eyebrow. The strength of the strip is in the characters and their interactions with each other. There is a genuine love that can be seen between Katie and Andy.
In addition to the main characters Andy and Katie there is:
Wes can make the simple everyday situations and make them meaningful and extraordinary. Reading through the book brought me back in touch with why I placed this strip as the top one on my daily must read list. Wes' attention to detail and quality within each strip is evidenced by the consistency of what he produces. Wes has also been known to give Andy a T-shirt with his own personal musical tastes. Andy is often seen sporting a Guster, Jack Johnson and even a Hey Thomas shirt (Who is Hey Thomas, a band that Wes was in years ago check 'em out on myspace.)
What You'll Have That does not do is succumb to what many web comics end up doing, and that is resorting to crude language because you can do that on the Internet. There is no in your face shock factor with You'll Have That Vol. 1, merely an entertaining story about a loving couple in a functional, caring and supportive relationship. It is a comic that many people can relate to. Wes' fans often comment on the message boards that Wes must have placed camera's in their houses because they can see themselves in the characters of Andy and Katie. I know that I made that observation a time or two myself.
Do yourself a favor and pick up You'll Have That Vol. 1 and get ready for Vol. 2 at the end of the year.
Today is the one year anniversary of the death of my Great-Uncle Richard. One year ago I visited Great-Uncle Richard in the hospital to say goodbye. On that day I returned from a trip for work and made it to the hospital one hour before he passed. Someone was watching the skies that day and made sure that I missed no flights, I could sense the urgency of that day and the need to get to the hospital to say goodbye.
Alot has happened in this past year, much centering around what was left behind after Great-Uncle Richard's death. Nothing I can ever go into in this forum as what happens in the family stays a family matter. It is always hard to lose a loved one especially someone whose life touched and enhanced the lives of so many. Great-Uncle Richard was a humble man, a generous man, and a family man, he was an uncle to everyone and friend to all. Friendship, generosity and loyalty were cornerstones of Great-Uncle Richard's character. I think we can all learn a lesson from his life.
When I got home today I visited Great-Uncle Richard's grave to say hello and let him know what happened this past year. Again I had just landed from a flight but this time went to the cemetery. I stayed a few minutes, cleared some weeds and dead-heads off the flowers, something to do while I thought of something to say. Writing is my thing, talking is not, even when the words are merely said in my head. We miss Great-Uncle Richard very much.
When I arrived home I found this tin of cookies that was sent as a thank you for the hospitality that Allison and I recently extended. What a very nice gesture from some wonderful new friends. We really appreciated that and look forward to when we can spend time together again.
Also I think I have to wash my car. What do you think? I know what the person who wrote this thinks.
Tonight we went to Granite City Food And Brewery. I've been to three of the restaurants in the chain. We had alot of fun laughing and the food was great. I took lots of pictures and this is what I got. Oh and we had a few drinks.
Our waitress and another friend, she gave us the the stare of distain.
Ken says what the heck.
Love the glasses
Yes I turn my head to the side when I drink from a straw.
This 'art' is following me. Guess Courtyard got a deal on them.
Amazon.com has recently launched and online show called Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher. It is a strictly online show and is pretty interesting. He had Kevin Smith on his most recent webisode.
Cartoon Network has the most recent season of Transformers (Transformers Cybertron) online. At least they did that right because they didn't show it on the actual network with any consistency.
Wes suggested I check out Digg.com, I haven't gotten into that yet but maybe eventually.
While I was watching the special I also found out that The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. the complete series is now coming out on DVD. I really want it but will wait till it comes down in price. Here are a few other complete series that I would like to have and one that I do own. Keen Eddie is a great show.
Before the Woody Guthrie special there was a special on sharks with Jean-Michel Cousteau. I missed it except for the end. It looked like it was pretty good.
Tonight we had dinner at Ghengis Khan's and it was awesome. You pick your foods and sauces and bring it to a couple of guys using a giant stir fry surface, there they dump out your bowl of ingredients and stir fry it up for you. So good.
MySpace has a few cool sections now, and one of them is comedy. After spending the weekend with Wes Molebash and talking comics I decided to check out the comedians on MySpace.
You know what I would love MySpace to do? Allow you to call up the tours of all of your musicians and comedian friends and be able to see where they all are performing on a specific day. That would be helpful.
You know what else would be helpful from MySpace? If they would answer complaints about moderators. I have complained about the moderator for my high school message board on MySpace 12 separate times over the past 6 months and have heard nothing. I also sent messages to all the alumni on MySpace that I could find and asked them to do the same and no one has heard anything. The moderator is from another school and spends his time harassing people who post messages on the message board. Is anyone from MySpace watching what is happening at MySpace?
I started Deja Dead last night, and got 5 pages into it and fell asleep. Not sure what I think about this series yet. I'm three CD's away from finishing Eldest and the story is just getting better. I can't wait for the Eragon movie or the next book in the series.
I want one of these. I have talked about it before with friends and I think that a towable smoker would be something that I could use to start a little weekend business. How, Why, well I could travel to outdoor events and be the BBQ guy spreading good cheer and good food around the Northeast. We're talking tailgating at Foxboro Stadium, tailgating at the Buffett concerts and visiting motorcycle, bike and kayak shops for special events.
Here are some that I found. I'm thinking under $3,000 for the grill and another $1000.00 for the customizing.
I think the one I really want is the Horizon 20" Marshal Smoke-n-Wagon. 44" X 22" with Double Burner Fryer and 15" wheels. It is all a pipe dream for the time being but I'm going to keep on researching this and someday who knows you might have me catering your events.
The photo comes from St Joe's Harley Davidson in St. Joseph, MO. This was a very nice shop with some great extras and details inside the store and outside. The facade of the building was beautiful and even used details from the bikes as fixtures on the building. I took a couple extra pictures there.
See how the pillar is actually a replica of a light bar and front fork. Sweet.
I've decided to try and go back through all the pins I've gotten and set up a list of links to all the Harley Shops that I've visited in the past 5 years. So look for those on the links section.
Transformers movie news - Transformers behind the scenes article and video at Holloman Air Force Base.
I am currently in Kansas City, MO. Tomorrow Clinton, IA. Does the fun ever stop. No sign of Car's toys except I saw a rare one in a newstand at the Chicago Airport. I should have gotten it. I saw the Transformers Titanium toys yesterday and I am not impressed with the ones I saw. So I'll save a few bucks there.
I am in Omaha Nebraska today. I'm demoing down in Iowa tomorrow and so yet another state gets filled in on my map of America.
I finally got it uploaded. The video I took this weekend at Double Midnight Comics of Wes Drawing Andy, one of the main characters of You'll Have That. Wes Molebash Draw's Andy - Google Video
Wes also uploaded the same video to Google Videos.
Updated: The video was cropped during the upload and looks like crap. I'm uploading another when I can make it to Google's specifications.
Today I finished Hard Truth, the last of the Nevada Barr books. Man what a writer, Nevada Barr's books always keep me guessing to the very end. Each of the 13 books I've read have been greatly entertaining. I even got Allison interested in Nevada Barr. She is currently on the 4th book, Firestorm and she suggested the first book Track of the Cat for her Book Club.
I took a couple more pictures here today. While I was looking for the Harley Davidson shop here in Omaha I went by the Blue Bunny plant. Blue Bunny makes some great ice cream, it is smooth and the creamiest packaged ice cream I've ever had. I picked up a single serving of Bunny Tracks and a pint of Blue Bunny 2% milk for the morning.
I also had dinner at Chipotle, probably the best guacamole ever at Chipotle. They make massive burritos and the food is fantastic!
So many weird things today.
Buzznet has crapped out on all pictures for the time being. Fun.
I nearly get scammed at my front door. Story Below.
I get grossed out at the doctor's office. Story Below.
First the Scam.
Buyer beware. I was almost scammed by a couple of girls selling magazines at the front door. How, they were hustlers with a good pitch.
Here is what happened. I was working at home and heard a ring of the bell at the front door. I go down stairs to find two college age girls who are going door to door to collect "points" to get scholarships for their education. Their task was to meet the most people today and today was some national friendship day. A day to meet many people in a non-violent and productive manner. These girls talked so fast they made my head spin. The main one who did the talking would rapid fire speak, ask questions and be funny and charming. The other one was quiet and would sit there and smile.
As it turned out the girls were really just pushing magazine subscriptions and that is how they would get their 'points'. As we talked I was told that I could pick a magazine and send the subscription to a hospital. I picked a magazine with low points and she keeps talking. She says, "Great because it is going to a hospital I get even more points." Then she's filling out this slip shes talking super fast. She presents me with the slip and it is for $60.50 and I can pay cash check or charge. But they can't take credit cards because there were problems in past years with someone who did that.
I told them I had no cash but what was the cheapest magazine I could buy to help them (mind you I am still naive to what is going on but wising up soon and being a nice person it is hard to slam the door on someone. But after reading the site below I know why I should have.) She tells me it is $40.00. No thanks. I'm not giving them a check, I get suspicios and tell them I cannot help them. Then they turn.
Chatty one tells me that she now has to pay for the magazines I ordered She kept my slip and left in a huff.
Then then went to my parent's part of the house to ask my mother if they had come there too. My mom told them immediately to go away she wasn't interested. So the moral is listen to your mother. (It's a theme today get used to it.)
I still felt uneasy about the whole incident and called the police. I haven't seen them on the street yet.
I did a search on magazine door to door scams and this is what I found, it is a much bigger problem than I though.
Traveling Sales Crews Home Page A National Tragedy
Now the Gross out.
The photo today is of a real class act.
Class act. I'm in the waiting room of the Doctor's office listening to this guy spitting into his 'dip cup'. I mean... what absolute class! The guy is here with a wrapped up hand waiting to see the doctor to get some pain medication. It looks like the tough guy may have gotten that wrapped hand from some fisticuffs. Like I said, class act.
At the doctor's office my doctor let me know that I've got fluid behind my eardrums, pretty gross, so that and the dip man had me completely grossed out. My coughing fits are sinus related and the doctor gave me a couple of prescriptions and I'll hopefully be fine in the next week or so.
I found this interesting site today. Brilliant But Cancelled. On it there is an unaired pilot of a show starring Jason Bateman and Greg Grunberg. "This show was scheduled to premiere in 2003 as a mid-season replacement. But NBC cancelled the show before it even aired. Seven episodes were produced but never aired." (IMDB.com). Get those other episodes on itunes or something, the show was funny.
Another show that was funny was Psych. It is on tonight again, an encore of the pilot episode which was longer than an hour because it cut off and we missed the end. So I'm going to try again. If you miss it tonight at 11:00 it is on thursday at 9:00 and Friday at 12:30 in the afternoon. A new episode is on at 10:00pm on Friday. Check it out, it is quite funny. The whole Psych site is interesting, check it out.
Wes was still signing the books we bought well into the night. No, he signed a few more this morning before we took him to the airport. What a great sport. I'm sure we are going to get a bunch more of the books around christmas time. I can't wait till volume #2 comes out. I see that Wes is updating the YHT Forums so he arrived home safely, that is good to know.
After we dropped off Wes at the airport we then headed home so I could write that supergiagantic post below. In the front yard Tara and Erik worked on a new garden and it looks great. It isn't finished but will be soon. Tara has big plans for it and we are lucky to have something that nice in our front yard. Here is a picture.
This afternoon we went to Sleep Easy and bought a Temperpedic Bed. They were on sale for the first time ever and I think we got a good deal. I can't wait to sleep on that. We are however not taking delivery until the room is empty and we can move in the mattress with ease.
After that we went over to our friend's Marybeth and Damian. They just got a new house and were having an open house. It was nice to visit with them and see Marybeth's parent's and sister and some other friends from High School like Joanne and Erin. We gave Marybeth and Damian a signed copy of You'll Have That Vol. 1. I'm pretty sure that Wes now has two new fans. Marybeth and Damian have a cute little toy poodle named Belle. She was so sweet and so tiny. I had to take a picture.
So, I was up very early on Saturday morning. I was going to recap Friday night then, but I have actually been asked to help out a friend of my friend Andy with a website. I worked on the website which is only going to be a one pager for now but has the potential to become something more after the kite boarding season is over. The site is for kite boarding and once it is released I’ll put a message up about this. While I was working on the site I listened to Hey Thomas about three times. I liked it, I honestly did. It was a very good CD.
I woke up Wes at 9:00am and was horrified to find out that the guest bathroom of the house had no hot water. I thought that we had thought of everything. But Wes being the gentleman and great houseguest just rolled with it, and we frantically made our bathroom presentable for Wes so he could shower. Once we were all ready it was time to head up to New Hampsire. We stopped to get powered up on some Dunkin Donuts Bagels and we were off.
The ride to New Hampshire was filled with spirited conversation about so many topics. We talked about how much we enjoyed Eragon, our speculations on the 7th Harry Potter book and Wes offered us some deeper insight into some of his favorite strips. Wes is a very humble guy despite what he told one kid at the signing, “This is the best book in the World, but I may be a little biased.” Wes would ask us if he was talking too much about the comic but we were thrilled to learn more about it and the creative process that goes into the strip. Hearing some behind the scenes stories was so much fun. Wes included us in his world and we had so much fun discussing it.
We arrived at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, NH at 12:00pm. Double Midnight Comics is owned by three friends, two brothers Chris and Scott Proulx and their friend Brett. The guys have worked very hard to take every aspect of comic book shops that they enjoy and get rid of those things that make comic book shops an exclusive and odd place. Gone is the image of a shop that is in the owner’s mother’s basement. Rather, Double Midnight Comics is a family friendly place that is open and bright. The layout of the shop allows patrons to move about with ease and find what they need. There is an arena area for gamers to play Magic, YuGiOh, and HeroClix. The guys are also very involved in Granitecon the New Hampshire comic convention and the New Hamphire Film Expo which has grown since the first one where their movie Nowheresville was screened in September of 2001.
In addition to having Wes there to sign his book, Double Midnight Comics also had a YuGiOh tournament, their 4th year anniversary party and a fantastic sale. I was able to pick up some back issues, talk comics with Chris and Scott and get introduced to a new game that Allison and I will learn. It is a 3D card game with a Pirate theme. Chis and Scott are guys who love comics and love talking comics, they have worked very hard to make the store succeed. They have created a great store and it was hopping all day long. It is a store that you can hang out for 5 hours and still have more to do and talk about.
The signing itself began at 12:30pm and for the 1st ½ hour it was a bit slow, Wes signed quite a few of the books that Allison and I picked up and Wes did a sketch for us of Andy wearing a Christopher Williams T-Shirt. For anyone who doesn’t follow You’ll Have That, start following it, read the archives and get to know Andy and Katie. You will be doing yourself a service if you do. The comic is accessible, funny and has lots of heart. One of the things you will notice is that Andy wears a lot of T-shirts with band names on them. Since Christopher Williams is one of our favorite singer songwriters we wanted Andy to wear a Christopher Williams T-shirt.
A couple more folks came by and purchased the book and Wes did a bunch more sketches. Towards the end of the signing Wes made some sketches for Chris and Scott. Chris’s sketch was Andy wearing a Double Midnight Comics T-shirt and for Scott he made a great comic of Andy wearing a Superman T-Shirt and saying “Please don’t shoot me in the chestplate.” Fan’s of Dane Cook will enjoy that one. As Wes created that sketch I filmed it. It is a little shaky at parts but it is close and shows how Wes sketches out comics and the care he takes with each one. That was something that I hope everyone took away with them, the fact that Wes really likes people and likes talking with people and he took the time to talk with each person to really listen.
Sarah really liked their signed comic.
The ride home was another great conversation about the comic and comedians in general and the greatness that is Seinfeld DVD’s. When we arrived home Wes and I looked at the days pictures as well as the video and we stayed up a bit talking. I could have stayed up talking all night but being a bit sick and very tired, so I had to wuss out and get some bed time. Allison turned in a bit before me because we had an early morning today (Sunday)
This morning Allison and I went with my mom and Tara to mass at St. John’s in Attleboro for a memorial mass for Great-Uncle Richard. After mass we headed home and Wes was just finishing up a shower, we hung out a bit, I made Wes two CD’s one with the pictures and the other with the video. I’m going to have to figure out where to upload that. Wes then took Allison and I out for breakfast and we headed to the airport. Another great car conversation and we were at the airport, much to quickly. And just like that, our weekend with Wes was over. Wes, you have a lifetime invitation to come stay with us anytime you come up to the Northeast. We will be more than happy to play host and hostess, chauffer and photographer again. We feel very blessed to have made a friend in you and next time Trish had better come with you because we can’t wait to meet her too.
A full story and many more pictures will be up tomorrow. Too much to say tonight at this hour.
Update: (07/09/06 3:00pm) I just wrote a huge post but need to add the images. But we are going to a BBQ so I'll have to finish everything up tonight. Busy Weekend but a great weekend.
In my town there is an annual Kid's Day which lasts an entire weekend. Each night there are fireworks that we can see from the house as well as a carnival at a local playing field. Tonight when I got home from seeing The Da Vinci Code at the Route One Cinema Pub I saw Tara and Erik getting ready to watch the fireworks from the driveway. I joined them and attempted to catch a good shot with Tara's camera. This one was the best I could do.
The Da Vinci Code was a decent movie. I liked it very much and I was also a big fan of the book. As with any book to movie translation there were some liberties taken but I had read the book so long ago that I wasn't fully tied to any strong pre conceived notions about the characters. I think Tom Hanks made a good Robert Langdon. I'm probably alone on that one but I enjoy him.
I'm going to head out to pick up Wes in a half hour. His flight says that it is on time. Don't forget to go to Double Midnight comics tomorrow to get your copy of You'll Have That Vol. 1 signed.
I set the VCR to tape Psych tonight. It looks like a decent show and I hope I am right about that.
I finished High Country by Nevada Barr and I am on the last book that is out called Hard Truth. Once that is done I'll start on Kathy Reichs.
A little over a year ago Dad, Tara, Erik and I put some sweat equity into the backyard. The backyard garden has grown in very well. It is about ready to host some backyard BBQs.
Been a bit busy a work. A little tired and uninspired.
Back to work after the long weekend. The flowers bloomed over the weekend. It is hot and humid around here. Put the air conditioners in this evening. Got a fan so our houseguest will be comfortable for the weekend.
Speaking of our house guest, Wes Molebash will be visiting us for the weekend because he is signing his first book of You'll Have That Vol. 1 at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, NH. Here are the details.
Comic Signing at Double Midnight Comics!
When:
Saturday Jul 08, 2006
at 12:30 PM
Where:
Double Midnight Comics
245 Maple Street
Manchester, NH 03103
Wes Molebash will be signing copies of his book, You'll Have That Vol. 1, at DM Comics in Manchester, NH!
I'll be signing copies of my book, You'll Have That Vol. 1, at Double Midnight Comics in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday, July 8th from 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM. The crew at DM Comics will also be celebrating the store's anniversary with a huge back-issue sale, various sales on all other merchandise, special gaming tournaments and surprises, and hot dogs and cake at lunch time. I'll be signing, sketching, and offering free high fives to anyone who asks. :)
Yeah it is about the things that matter not the minor annoyances of life. Let me set the stage a bit. Yesterday we had a great family party to celebrate the 4th of July. We had a packed house, good food and lots of fun at the Falmouth Fireworks display. There were tons of people but it didn't seem as crazy as past years. There seemed to be much less traffic and the crowds cleared out very quickly. Allison and I went right to sleep around 11:30pm and turned on our window fan to block out the noise and we were out. That window fan does a fantastic job of blocking noise because at 3:30am a 15lb rock was hurled through our sunporch window. We slept right through it.
Luckily Tara is the lightest sleeper ever and she hopped right out of bed with Erik. They crept downstairs without turning on any lights, saw 5 guys outside. Tara and Erik then took a phone into the bathroom and called 911. The Falmouth Police showed up within 2 minutes. I guess it was a busy night on the heights. Apparently there were about 5-6 officers on the sunporch and around the outside of the house. They ended up catching 4 of the 5 guys who sat in jail all day today till the courts open tomorrow. There were many other acts of vandalism last night all over the heights including rocks hurled through car windows and attempted theft of a kayak. The rocks came from our neighbor's landscaping across the street.
when I woke up this morning I grabbed my clothes and headed to the outdoor shower. I was shocked to see our neighbor's Dave and his son Greg in the kitchen. Dad relayed the early morning events and I took a quick look into the sunporch. Took my shower quickly and came back in the house and said, "Okay, I'm awake now.... what happened?" That got the intended laugh. Dad and Erik took care of the glass that was everywhere on the sunporch and outside on the ground and in the flowerboxes. What a mess. Luckily the window was the only thing broken and no one got hurt.
Today the neighborhood had their annual parade. We got to watch that and I took a few pictures.
Aborted projectiles
A view from the outside, glass everywhere.
The smith's landscaping minus three large rocks.
The window up close, a double paned one, lots of glass.
Mom's safety message, never seen crime scene tape with flowers before.
Almost 50 years of the neighborhood 4th of July Parade. Awesome.
Matt is made parade Marshall.
The grand Marshall leads the parade.
Matt's Dad, Uncle Paulie D.
The parade's band.
God thing Dad boarded up the broken window before the parade went by the house.
Happy 4th everyone!
Our family party was a smashing success. We had a great time celebrating all of the birthday's, graduations, and anniversaries of the summer all in one shot. We even managed to surprise Aunt Millie for her birthday. We had a great time. I had no internet access so nothing posted yesterday. I have some extra pictures though. Here they are.
Aunt cindy gives Aunt Millie her special birthday cake.
The Party Crowd.
More party people.
Aunt Millie's Birthday cake
The table got plenty of use and was a big hit.
My cousin's daughter Autumn, what a cutie!
It was a very windy day on the Cape. Allison and her parents went to Dick and Ellie’s Flea Market in Dennis. I helped Dad put another coat of paint on the table and get the yard ready for tomorrow’s party. The table came out really nice and is ready for 12 hungry people. We also decided between two umbrellas for the table. Instead of the 1960’s blue rose’s umbrella, we’re going with the mesh umbrella with beige and blue sections. A much better choice.
Tonight we had a nice dinner and Tara and Taylor came up. Taylor enjoyed lying around the porch and trying to catch any crumbs that might fall from our plates. She is always photogenic so I caught her getting sleepy.
It was so windy here that I went across the street this evening with a kite that my Dad found in one of our trees and it shot into the air like a rocket. The hardest thing about flying it was getting it back down. It was like reeling in a large fish.
I’m trying to post this blog with little success. Last night I was able to get onto a wireless network in the area once I sat in the extreme corner of my bed. But tonight I could not get onto the same network and a new network popped up. It was a secure one so no dice. I’m dialed in via a modem and it is so painfully slow.
Today Allison and I are at the Cape. We kept very busy today. I started the morning with a 7 mile trip up and back the Shining Sea Bikepath on my rollerblades. I caught a couple of pictures while out on the trail.
Before I got to the trail I spotted another of the whales form the Whale Trail. This one is called Ivory Whale and it is in front of the Falmouth Library.
When I got home we went out to breakfast with Allison's parent's Dan and Marcia and my parents Andy and Denise. We went to Crab Apples for a delicious breakfast and then we began the work day. Most of the day was spent getting things ready for the 4th of July party that we are having on Monday. The big project was the new old picnic table that we now have. This is a picnic table that has been in the family for many years. My Great-Uncle Richard, who passed away a year ago, originally built this. Over the years my father has replaced some pieces and my grandfather has replaced some pieces and we determined that the only original pieces left were some of the bolts. Anyway, my Dad rebuilt the bulk of the table. And today Dad and Dan and I painted it a first coat of new paint. Some fresh boards, bolts and paint and this is looking good as new. It seats 12 and is enormous. I remember many meals eaten at this table and look forward to many more. It even has a giant lazy Susan which is actually an original piece and had the original colors, so I guess there is an original piece.
Dad and I also put up the new fence headboard in the bedroom. I choose to feature that as today's photo. Also we completed decorating the room with all the Flip Flop decorations. It is looking great.
We did get some beach time in as well and after that we had Steak Tips for dinner courtesy of Dan and Marcia. Good Eats.
