I was searching the web for rabbit repellants and I came across some homemade solutions. One of them said that rabbits don't like garlic. I had a bulb on the counter that has been there for a while, and more than likely the next time I needed garlic I would probably buy a new one. So I took that bulb in the back yard and would break off a clove, snap it in half to expose the oils, and toss it next to a plant that the rabbits like. I did that for each of the plants that have been hit. Let's see if that works. If not I think I will go to Farm and Fleet this weekend and buy some commercial repellant.

Postcard time:

If a sphere has hair growing out of it then it is impossible to comb it so that no hair sticks up. However a hairy doughnut can be so combed.

We watched Irreversible last night. It does not have a rating, but if they had submitted it to the MPAA for a rating it most certainly would have received an "X". It had two of the most graphically violent scenes I have ever seen in my life. The kind that leave you feeling a little queasy afterward.

If you recall about two years ago we had to have a plumber replace the spigot on our Jacuzzi. To get to it he had to pop off some tiles from the side-wall that is built up around the tub. Getting those tiles replaced was always one of those things that annoyed you when you saw it, but there were always other things that took priority.

Now that Sheri is home for a bit we finally got around to having someone over to retile it. Yesterday was spent removing the old tiles and chipping off the remaining glue. Today he is putting on new backer-board, and will start to put on new tiles. He should be able to finish up by tomorrow.

This is what it looked like last night.

Our city has a program where they will plant a tree in your parkway (the grassy area between the street and the sidewalk) and split the cost with the homeowner. They say the cost is $250, so the homeowner pays $125.

The trees are fairly good size; 2" diameter trunk measured 6" from the bottom. They plant in the fall and spring. There are nine varieties to choose from in the fall planting and twelve to choose from for the spring planting.

They don't know what varieties will be offered this fall and spring but it will most likely be from this list. They don't want to plant problem trees that have shallow roots that will break up sidewalks or that are especially susceptible to disease or insects.

Does this sound like a good deal, or could I get just as good of deal on my own at a nursery? The front of our house faces the north so the tree won't provide shade, just privacy and aesthetics.

My little Sheri made her first two shots of espresso all by herself this morning! (*tear* She's growing up so quickly right before my eyes.)

The recipe I developed for her is as follows:

Pour two fresh hot shots of espresso, which is two ounces, into a 32-ounce tumbler filled to the top with ice. Fill the rest of the glass with milk, and then add six packets of Equal sweetener.

This results in an iced coffee that she says tastes about equal to what she orders at Starbucks, but I think ours would have to be better because the coffee is going to be fresher and hasn't had a chance to oxidize from being left in the refrigerator for a few days.

Also, the iced coffee at Starbucks is drip coffee. The espresso is going to be much less acidic and smoother than drip coffee. Maybe this weekend we will get a Starbucks iced coffee and have a blind taste test against what we make at home with the espresso.

A shot of espresso has less caffeine than a cup of drip brewed coffee by the way. The shot of espresso will have about 100 mg of caffeine will the cup of coffee will have between 115 – 175 mg of caffeine.

After about 25 years of being interested in photography I finally understand f-stops; how they relate to shutter speed; and how they both are used in conjunction with an incident light meter. I owe my new found understanding of the f-stop to this excellent web page, and my understanding of incident light meters to this page.

I found a couple incident light meters on eBay and I think I am going to buy one. Maybe this one. I either have to figure out how to sign up for an eBay account or ask Sheri's friend that does a lot of selling on eBay to bid on it for me.

We have been talking about when Sheri gets a new job we might buy this camera. A light meter would be the perfect accompaniment for that.

Kevin Spacey is one of my favorite actors that I always forget is one of my favorite actors.

This is the Y-adaptor we bought at Radio Shack right before we walked next door to Panera. We both have our headphones plugged in listening to XM Radio on-line.


This is what our little set up looked like today. Very comfortable. We had a great view of everyone that came through because the counter you see immediately to the left of the laptop screen is where everyone picks up their order.


Sheri doing some surfing.


What's left of Sheri's Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. I made sure all of the chicken was picked out once she was done with it.


Your gentle narrator.


Candid action shot. What do you think about the hair growing in? Grow it just enough to be a little darker shadow than it is now, or go back to fully shaved? Sheri is torn because she says she really thinks she likes both ways.

Sheri got home from walking the dogs whooped from two hours in the excessive heat. We packed up and headed to Best Buy. We wanted to get a pocket size memory card reader so we can upload pictures to the laptop and then the internet when we are away from home. We also wanted to get a headphone outlet splitter so we can both listen to music, movies, whatever form the laptop when we are out together. Best Buy didn't have either so we drove across the street to Radio Shack. They didn't have the card reader but they did have the splitter cable so we got that.

The plan was to go downtown to our coffee house, go over the COBRA paper work, read the paper, and surf the web. As we were walking out of Radio Shack we remembered the Panera Bread that is right next door. The walk from the car would be much much shorter than at the coffee house. Panera has free drink refills. Their seats are a little more comfortable. Panera has food that sounded good to Sheri whereas the coffee house doesn't really have too much food besides cookies and such. And we were right there so we are in Panera right now.

I got a large iced tea and Sheri got the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad. (I had a pita with hummus, and a hot dog at home, so I wasn't really hungry.)

I already read through all of the COBRA paperwork. The bottom line is that we have to pay $615.06 an month to continue the same medical coverage we had before, and $17.23 per month for the same dental coverage we had before. I forgot to look at one of her paystubs to see how much we were paying per month before.

Right now we are both plugged into the laptop listening to XM Radio on-line. (When you have an XM Radio, like we do, you can also listen to it free from the web. A nice extra.) Sheri is picking on her salad, reading a catalog, and doing the crosswords. I finished up reviewing the COBRA paperwork and am now just typing and surfing. I wanted to upload and post a picture of us hanging out, but that was dependant on us finding a memory card reader before we got here.

After we finish up hanging out here we are talking about dropping the PC off at home and then walking through the mall for a while to keep cool and look at all trixies wearing their skimpy hot weather uniforms.

Brad out.

I guess it is Plochman's day. If you e-mail them a picture of you and your Plochman's, they will send you a coupon for a free barrel of mustard. I think I am going to do it.

I just found out that Plochman's is headquartered in a Chicago suburb called Manteno. I guess we are a Plochman's household now.

[edit: OK, it might be a stretch to call Manteno a "suburb". It is about 40 miles southwest of Chicago.]

Plochman's makes a mustard with Tabasco brand hot sauce and they actually call it "Chicago Fire Mustard".

Here is something good for you to go and try: Plochman's Chili Dog Mustard. Squirt it liberally on a hot dog and you would swear you are eating a chili dog, but without all the extra fat.

I tried it first on a hamburger last weekend and it just didn't do it. I tried it on a hot dog for the first time this morning and it is excellent. We got it at Meijer.

They say the heat index outside right now is 100º. I think I am going to go outside and see what it feels like. I will set the rabbit trap with a few grapes as bait.

Dell caused some ripples last week by announcing a new laser printer for only $99. If that was the only breakthrough I probably wouldn't be writing this.

The home printer business model has been similar to the King Gillette philosophy of "give away the razor and sell the blade." You can find very low priced, and sometimes free, printers, but when it is time to replace an ink or toner cartridge you get sticker shock. There are huge margins in replaceables to offset the low, zero, or even negative margins on the hardware side. When I first saw the headline for the new Dell printer I assumed it was going to follow the same business model, however they decided to aggressively price the toner cartridges as well.

The price per 2,000 pages of toner for Lexmark's cheapest printer is $94, or 4.7¢ per page. Dell is pricing their toner at $65 per 2,000 pages, or 3.25¢ per page. That is almost 1/3 cheaper.

Then I thought the printer must be a dud. Nope. It prints 15 pages per minute which is 4 seconds per page, it does this at a resolution of 600 dots per inch. Two megabytes of memory. 150 sheet input tray. A rated duty cycle of 5,000 pages per month.

One additional feature at first I thought was a stupid gimmick for simpletons, but then I started thinking about it and it actually is a great idea. Dell developed a patented toner management system. It monitors your toner level and proactively notifies you before you run out of toner. The cool part is that it is integrated with an on-line purchasing system that connects directly to the Dell website. What a timesaver. The printer will know how fast you go through toner, so it will know when to order a new one before you run out, and might even place the order itself if you set it up with your account information. My first reaction was I don't want to be locked into automatically buying their replaceables, but then I thought I would be ordering from them anyway, so why not automate the process. If I am about to run out of toner it's not like I would be thinking "Hmmm, do I want to be able to continue printing or not? Hmmm, I better think about this before I do anything. Hmmm."

Our ink jet is doing OK for now, but if it broke I think chances are excellent this would be the printer I would buy. I never was much into using the inkjet for printing photos, and now with Wal-Mart's new service I don't think I will ever have the desire to do that. I would guess that close to 100% of what we print doesn't have a color component anyway. If I really did need to print something in color I can send print jobs over the internet to the Kinko's that is just a five minute drive from here. Any more the only things I can think of that I would have to print in color might be something for a GIS job, but that has yet to be a requirement. When I was going back to school I had to print some assignments in color.

One thing to keep in mind before you buy a laser printer is that the location you intend to place it needs to have an electric outlet the printer can plug directly into. You don't want to just plug this into the power strip that your monitor, PC, scanner, etc. are plugged into. The fuser inside the laser printer gets very hot (think extra large curling iron that can heat up in a matter of seconds) and therefore draws a lot of current. You will wear out your surge protector (Yes they wear out. Every spike it absorbs shortens its life.) and introduce a lot of voltage fluctuations to the components sharing the surge protector.

I liked the comment that an analyst from Needham & Co. said: "Dell is going to screw everybody." He was referring to HP, Lexmark, etc. that are going to have to offer something comparable or lose a lot of sales.

When we started watching the movie I was thirsty so I went to get my usual iced tea. When I opened the fridge I saw the open two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Zero, so I poured a big 32 ounce glass of that instead. Now it is after 2:30 AM and I am wide awake. Both from the caffeine and from needing to use the restroom every 30 minutes.

Right now I am sitting on the patio listening to XM radio streaming through the laptop. Kind of cool. It is cool outside but a little, just a little, sticky. Comfortable enough though for just sitting.

I thought about going for a bike ride but too late.

Sheri hasn't walked shelter dogs in three weeks so I think she is looking forward to that tomorrow. After that we are talking about taking the laptop and the COBRA paperwork we received yesterday and go to our local coffee shop and try to make sense of that. They have wireless internet so if we need to do any research we will have that at our fingertips.

I am going to set out my larger Hav-A-Hart trap tomorrow and see if I can catch a rabbit. I should have done it earlier. They are destroying my gardens.

The movie was very enjoyable. Sheri said she "likes watching movies like this." Everyday People is about a Brooklyn restaurant. The owner decides to sell the restaurant because he is not making enough money. The rest of the movie is how the news affects the long-time employees and customers.

I was going to leave work early today at 3:30 PM, and before I was going to leave I walked around to see if anyone needed anything before I left. One guy did, and that changed things from leaving early at 3:30 to leaving late at 5:30. (The office normally shuts down at 4:30) Oh well. I bill by the hour.

I was worried that the light from the screen of the laptop would attract mosquitoes, or at least moths, out on the patio, but so far no one is bothering me.

There is an Indy Car race on tomorrow night at 6:30 PM from Richmond, VA. I might watch a little bit of that.

Over the air TV analog broadcasts will stop, by order of Congress, on December 31, 2008. If you want to watch TV on January 1, 2009 you will either need cable, a TV with a digital tuner, or a set-top conversion box. The point is, if you are looking to spend some money on a big TV soon, make sure you get one that will be able to take full advantage of the digital signals in just 3.5 years.

I can't think of anything else to babble on about so I think I will post this and then go inside and watch some TV on the couch. It is just about 3:00 AM.

I came across a new term related to peak oil: demand destruction.

This will occur after we reach peak oil and the price for gasoline starts to rise, and rise high enough to reduce demand.

Economists think that gas prices can rise as high as $5 per gallon without reducing the demand.

The number they are looking at is $7.50 per gallon. They think this price won't bring transportation to a halt, but it will make people think twice before starting their car. "Is this trip really necessary?"

The pain at this price level will make people really start to look at alternative energy sources and aggressively look for ways to reduce energy consumption. No more SUV's. Most airlines will go out of business. Flying will be cost-prohibitive for most people. More train travel. Some people have even predicted that living in the suburbs will be too expensive because you can't walk anywhere to run errands like you can in a city.

Another interesting development related to peak oil is that China wants to buy the California oil company Unocal and their oil reserves for $18.5 in cash. China is the second largest consumer of oil behind the US. Their consumption is dramatically increasing and they want to use the huge amounts of cash they have accumulated from Wal-Mart buying their cheap consumer products to stock their stores over the last decade to accumulate as much oil as they can before the prices start to skyrocket.

We tried the new Coca-Cola Zero and I think my first impression is that it tastes more like regular Coke. I am still trying to stay off of diet colas. I tried it just for of the novelty of the new product. I think I would buy it regularly if I was still drinking diet colas regularly.

Tonight:

We grilled a few fat-free hotdogs on the patio and ate them topped with hummus. Had iced tea, red grapes, and cantaloupe alongside.

I watered the plants while Sheri took the dishes inside. The stupid rabbits like cilantro. Grrrrr…….

We then drove to Blockbuster and rented Everyday People.

Then we went to a McDonalds and each had a hot fudge sundae.

In case we got the munchies while watching the movie we stopped at the supermarket and got a package of pita bread to go with the hummus and a loaf of regular bread for PBJ's or PBM's (Peanut Butter and Mayonnaise).

We are home now and it is about 9 PM. I put the sprinkler out in the backyard. Changed clothes. So did Sheri. The movie is just starting now.

There was a period of time about a year ago where we always had some homemade hummus in the fridge. Part of the reason I haven't made it in a while is that a bag of dried chick peas makes so much hummus that my food processor almost didn't hold the entire batch. The other reason was that the whole soaking and rinsing and boiling routine of the chick peas got a little tiring sometimes.

Last night I had two brilliant and related ideas. First, I could use a can of already cooked chick peas and it would probably taste just as good, but wouldn't make as much, and would take much less time to prepare. In the hot weather we are having now I wouldn't have to heat the house up with the stove either.

I was so excited to make my award winning hummus again that I couldn't wait until tonight after work. I made a batch this morning right after breakfast. It took a total of five minutes. How great is that? Last weekend we were in the mood for some hummus so we picked up a container at Trader Joes. I think it was about three dollars, maybe even a few cents more. It was very small and it was just OK. I couldn't taste the tahini or olive oil. Mostly lemon juice. The batch I made this morning will have all day to mature and be ready for tonight's dinner. I am going to grill hotdogs on the grill and use the hummus as a condiment. We have grapes and cantaloupe to go along with that. Maybe we will stop by the store to get some vegetables or pita bread to dip with while we watch a movie tonight.

It turned out delicious. I would give you a recipe but I do it all by sight. The best I can do is:

A can of chick peas
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons Red Hot sauce
water as needed for consistency. I think I added between 1/2 to 1 cup this morning. If you remember to save the juice from the can you can use this and add a little more flavor to your hummus.

The other idea (realization) I had last night was that I don't have to prepare the entire bag of dried chick peas when I go that route. (I am a bright one, huh?) I think my reasoning was as long as I am going through the effort anyway I might as well do the whole bag.

I wonder if I could prepare the whole bag but then freeze half of the prepared chick peas for the following weekend's hummus batch?

We got a 32-ounce bottle of tahini for about five dollars. That is probably enough to keep us in hummus for the rest of the year.

Yesterday morning on the way to work I saw some big wings flopping and flapping around the side of the road about a half-mile ahead. I thought it might be a sick or wounded Canada goose. As I approached the bird took off with a snake that was at least a foot long! It looked bigger than a hawk, but maybe it's just that I haven't seen a hawk up close with its wings extended.

I don't like the mystical martial arts films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers. Sheri does though, so on those nights I will just surf on the laptop. It works out OK.

Katie Holmes was born in Toledo, Ohio, lived in Sylvania Township, and attended Catholic schools in Toledo, including the all-female Notre Dame Academy. She graduated from NDA in June 1997.

The last famous person I can think of to come out of good old Toledo was Jamie Farr.

Regarding our prematurely mailed laptop rebate problem: I found this on-line Office Depot rebate customer service form and described my problem the best I could. I asked if they could somehow intercept the two envelopes and make sure my rebates get processed. I have not received any response back yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If they come through for me I will be an extremely loyal long-term Office Depot customer!

Before


After

Our laptop had two rebates: one for $150 and the other for $160, for a total of $310. Last night I filled out the two forms and addressed the envelopes. One rebate required the original UPC from the box and the other one required the original receipt, and then each rebate requird a copy of the other one.

I set them out on the counter to take to work, make the appropriate copies and a copy for me to keep, and drop in the mail. I forgot to take them with me this morning, so when Sheri saw them she picked them up, sealed them, and dropped them in a mailbox.

I don't know how much I expect Office Depot to help us out on this, so our great-bargain $500 laptop might turn out to be no bargain at all. It is not an $800 laptop. Grrrrr……

This is how the electrician is going about fixing our concrete-bound electric pedestal. I had Sheri surreptitiously snap some pictures so I could make sure I have a good feeling about everything.

I had to talk with the city's electric inspector last night and tell him exactly what the issue is and how the electrician proposed to fix it. The inspector is going to stop out today and take a look to make sure everything is OK. He said it is against code to pour concrete directly against the pedestal for exactly this reason.

CNN's web site used to have about 30 to 40 video clips per day, put you had to pay $12 a month to have access to them. This week they made all of the video clips free. This will be nice while at work, and especially when big news events are going down.

CNN's web site used to have about 30 to 40 video clips per day, put you had to pay $12 a month to have access to them. This week they made all of the video clips free. This will be nice while at work, and especially when big news events are going down.

I just heard Bill Moyers compare Mark Twain to Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show".

Very high praise. We try to watch it every night.

I decided I didn't want to mess with the electric meter pedestal and I have an electrician coming out tomorrow morning to fix it.

He is going to chisel away the concrete around the base and then fashion a form around it. That way when he pours concrete back in it won't be touching the pedestal and become attached again. He will fill the gap between the concrete he pours and the pedestal to keep the water out.

Kind of neat thing: when we were on the phone discussing the problem I asked if he was near a computer and if I could just send him the pictures that Sheri took this morning. He said sure, and it worked great! He could see exactly what the problem was and what it would take for him to fix it. It saved him a trip, and allowed us to get the problem fixed and behind us a little quicker.

Sheri just took these pictures. The brass lock on top was not there last night. Someone must have come out this morning and put that on.

Notice how the protective glass cover of the meter is not aligned properly in the cutout hole.




If I make three cuts as close as I can to the base I should be able to knock the concrete off that has a grip on the box without making any cracks that go across the entire patio.

When they built our house they poured the patio concrete right up against the electric meter pedestal on the back of the house. The house or patio recently settled enough that the front of the pedestal was pulled down just enough that it is below the lip of the cover that keeps it closed. You can pull the cover off and see live wires right there.

I called the electric company out last night and they said they have seen it a dozen times before and don't know why builders keep doing that. Anyway, they said they don't own the pedestal or, obviously, the patio, so I am responsible for getting the concrete away from the pedestal. Once that is done they will come back and realign the pedestal cover.

An engineer at work is going to let me borrow his circular masonary blade, saw, chisel, and mini-sledge tomorrow. I should be able to make three cuts around the pedestal and then pound on the concrete around the box to break it up. I will post some "before" pictures tonight.

I was so wowed by the quality of the digital prints we picked up at Wal-Mart last night that I wanted to do a little research on what equipment they use to develop the prints.

They use a Fulifilm Frontier 370 Digital Mini Lab. They use this to develop both digital images and images from traditional film cameras. When they are developing film, the negative is scanned into the system digitally. From that point on the process is the same for both types of pictures.

The image is then projected onto traditional photographic paper and wet developed with traditional chemicals like it has been for decades. Pretty clever.

If you are interested in a little more detail this is a link to nice nine-page .pdf brochure.

I was going through old pictures on our computer last night and found some good ones. Last night I thought this was Dylan, but this morning I am wondering if it is Shawn. Mothers?

[update: It is Dylan. It was taken only about a month after Shawn was born, and although Shawn is an exceptional child, I don't think he was doing big-boy potty that early.)

It made my day, maybe even my week, and put a big stupid grin on my face when my sister started a reply to a rambling e-mail I sent her this way:

I just love you!! You make me smile!...

We sent these two cute pictures of Shawn via the Internet to the Wal-Mart photo department tonight for printing. They turned out really good. I am still amazed at the quality of the prints. I can't tell they are from a digital camera and not film.





When we got a digital camera a few years ago we had so much fun shooting with it that we stopped taking film pictures. I felt bad because bits of our lives that we were documenting were not necessarily going to be around 20 years from now. Hard drives crash. You upgrade to new computers and the accumulated picture files are just too much to transfer.

But I couldn't see going back to film. We were taking a lot more pictures and having more fun doing it because we weren't thinking in the back of our minds that each picture was costing $0.30 or $0.40 cents each after adding the cost of the film and the cost of developing. And you have to pay to develop all the pictures. Not just the ones that turned out.

Now with this excellent, easy, and cheap Wal-Mart service I want to start regularly and liberally making prints of pictures of our lives to archive. How sad it would be 20 years from now to reminisce about events that we experienced and not be able to look back at pictures of them. How we looked. What others looked like. What we were wearing. The size of the oak tree on the corner lot.

We have a few photo albums, but I think they are the kind with the clear sticky sheets that you lift up, put the pictures on the page, and then lay the sticky cover back down to keep them in place. I want to get plastic pages with sleeves to slide the prints into.

I have stayed awake WAY to late these last two school nights (think midnight. 1 AM) and I pay for it when it is time to get out of bed the next day and near the end of the work day. I am going to take a melatonin, brush my teeth, and get into bed right now. Sheri is watching 4 Little Girls downstairs right now. I watched it when she was in Columbus visiting last week. It is pretty good. You should watch it at least because it documents an important part of American history. It is also very interesting.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gasoline prices in the United States should reach and pass $3 per gallon within the next 12 months, which will be a blow to the economy and consumers, legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday.

"I think you are going to see $3 gasoline in the United States within the next year, and I think that'll be a shock," Pickens said at the Reuters Energy Summit.

Pickens, speaking at the Reuters' offices in New York, said that while prices at the pump will rise higher, at current levels they are not so bad compared with European countries, where gasoline costs $5 a gallon or more.

"Two dollars a gallon for gasoline in the United States I thought was a nonevent," Pickens said.

But the higher prices will begin to change the complexion of auto sales, Pickens suggested, as drivers' wallets begin to suffer and they look for cheaper transportation.

"I think the day of the SUV is just about over with, as far as being the number one seller," he said.

[story]

NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) - The market will test whether consumers can handle $60 crude, although the level might need to approach $70 per barrel to whittle down demand, famed oil investor Boone Pickens said on Tuesday.

"I think people are scratching their heads as to whether the world will accept $60 like it did $50," Pickens told the Reuters Energy Summit. "You could go to $70, but at some point it's going to cost on the demand side.

"Sixty may slow everything down."

I have always been confused about how the Republican Party became so closely related with Christianity. A lot of the party platform seems to actually go against what I would expect a Christian to believe or behave.

- As a party they generally favor the death penalty.
-Their ideology leans towards giving as little money as possible to those in society that need help; very un-Christ-like.
-They are all about the Pope, until Bush asked him for his blessing before invading Iraq. The Pope said no, and they decide to just downplay and ignore that.
-They usually seem to treat the environment in way to advance their immediate financial gain without concern for how those actions will affect others downstream of them. Not very do-unto-others-ish.

The Democrats seem to be more inline with Christian ideology on most issues. Anyway, a group of Christians has become fed up with the Religious Right using their religion to hide behind while dividing the country.

The new group is called The Christian Alliance For Progress.

It is going to be interesting to see if they gain any kind of critical mass. (Hey, that is a pretty good play on words!)

From their web site:

The success of the Religious Right in appropriating the language of Christianity has led many people to become generally wary of religion in the public sphere and of Christianity in particular. The Religious Right has used the language of Christianity to promote an extreme and divisive political agenda that has helped polarize our nation. But foundational Christian values like compassion, justice and peace are largely absent from our political discussion. And there are millions of Christian Americans who share progressive views, or, at a minimum, are increasingly turned off by the extreme rhetoric and political agenda of the Religious Right.

The Christian Alliance for Progress is a national movement that started in Jacksonville, Florida among ordinary Americans who want to reclaim Christianity and change this current political picture. Members in the movement want to restore core values of Christianity while honoring diverse views about religion and Christian life. Many Americans, especially people of faith, are ready to hear from Christians who are tolerant, and who understand the many ways that our faiths impact our views of public life. The Christian Alliance advances a renewed, progressive vision of Gospel values and seeks to help Americans express this moral vision in our lives and in our politics.

We had our first electric outage at home last night that I can remember in the 4.5 years we have been here. It wasn't warm enough for us to have the air conditioning on last night, but it was too warm, for me anyway, to sleep without a fan. I went downstairs and sat on the front porch for a while. Sheri was able to fall asleep.

Back in Columbus we lost electric quite a few times. When we did we could usually look out the front of the house and see houses blacked out, and look out the back of the house and see lights on. Last night we didn't see any house with electric service. Must have been a big one.

I turned on our police scanner and could hear the city electric crews trying to trouble-shoot which relay had the fault. They said they knew it was between number 761 and 771, whatever that meant. I would have liked to hear what the problem ended up being but the battery in the scanner died before they fixed it.

The best simile of the day goes to the reviewer that said turning the Mazda 3 is like swinging a pole with a watermelon on the end.

This our new laptop.

Gateway 4025GZ

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil hit a record above $59 a barrel on Monday, with traders fearing both strong demand and limited supply, pushing most Asian share markets lower but prompting strong gains in resource shares.

We had a great day! The most exciting part is that I am writing this from our brand new laptop PC! I was glancing through the Sunday ads in that come in the Sunday newspaper and the ad from Office Depot caught my eye. Under the clearance section they had a Gateway laptop for $499 after rebates. How could we pass that up? All we want it for is web surfing in the family room, so it doesn’t have to be a screamer. So far it is working great. I’ve spent the last four hours making back-up recovery disks of the operating system, and then downloading all of the Windows security update patches, and downloading the latest updates for the antivirus software. The built-in wireless worked perfectly too.

So anyway, that is the first thing we did this morning, stop at Office Depot to get the laptop. We were talking to the manager will the cashier was ringing us up and he said this was the last one he had in stock.

Then we stopped at the ATM to deposit four checks. Two of my paychecks, a rebate for the big memory card we bought for our digital camera, and Sheri’s first unemployment check.

Then we went to Blockbuster to pick out a movie for tonight. (We are watching it now.) We got Scotland, PA. It is a dark comedy based on Shakespears's Macbeth. It is set in 1975 and revolves around a hamburger joint. It either won, or was nominated for, some awards in the Sundance Film Festival. It is pretty good with a few funny spots. I think I would like it even more if I wasn’t distracted with our new toy.

Next stop: Meijer. We went to the garden section first and got eight tomato plants and one cilantro plant.

Then we got a pound of ground beef, two cantaloupes, Goulden's mustard, a couple cans of Meijer brand Crystal Light lemonade, red grapes, and I think that is about it.

Went home and I cut one of the cantaloupes up, rinsed off the grapes, and formed hamburger patties. We moved the party outside where I grilled up the burgers and we ate a late lunch of burgers (no buns), cantaloupe, and red grapes. Very enjoyable.

Then I turned the garden patch over, worked some perlite, and then planted the tomato and cilantro plants. I dug up a root ball that I didn't get to last fall. Used the string trimmer in the back yard. The last thing I did outside was assemble Sheri's hammock chair. We were missing one nut to finish the whole thing, so Sheri went to the hardware store and I took a shower.

When she got back we finished putting the chair together and then just sat on the patio together and enjoyed the backyard and the weather. While we were sitting there I also started getting the laptop going. I would start it doing something, go back outside, and then check on it every 15 minutes or so.

After a couple hours relaxing outside we moved the party back inside, did a few more chore type things (Sheri did a couple loads of laundry), and then started Scotland, PA.

The movie has about 20 minutes left, and then we will go upstairs for bed. I am looking forward to being able to read my news sites in bed again.

We felt like we had a very productive day that was also very enjoyable and had excellent weather to boot.

Our Sunday afternoon plan in chronological order:

1. Return library book

2. Deposit four checks in the ATM

3. Drop Blockbuster DVD and a postcard in a mailbox

4. Stop at a nursery to possibly buy some plants (tomato, cilantro, parsely) and maybe some ornamental annuals for the front yard if they have some good deals.

5. Grocery store for patio lunch fixings (ground beef, corn on the cob, peaches) If something other than ground beef is on sale, like chicken breasts, pork chops, etc. we will get that instead.

6. Back home to cook and eat lunch on the patio.

7. Plant any vegetable plants we buy.

8. Bring up from the basement and set up in the backyard Sheri's hammock chair.

9. Hang out in the back yard, enjoy the nice weather, read the paper, look at the clouds, etc.

This was a little present Sheri brought back for me from her vacation. (Just the picture, not what's in it.) Isn't she thoughtful?

I don't know when, probably not soon, but I will be buying a digital SLR camera. If I were to buy one today I have it narrowed down to two. Both are Canons.

Digital Rebel XT Currently $750 at Amazon.com


EOS 20D Digital Currently $900 at Amazon.com


Both prices include a 17-85 mm zoom. You can save some money and buy the camera body only without a lens, and I might do that because I have two good lenses from my 35 mm EOS Elan. The thing is though, the image sensor in a digital camera is smaller than a frame of 35 mm film. I think because of that the digital sensor sits closer to the lens than the frame of film does in a film camera. The result of this is that a lens from a 35 mm camera has a longer focal length than a lens designed for a digital camera.** So my 300 mm telephoto becomes a 480 mm!

I have to check to see if that is the only difference with using on older film lens with a digital camera. The only other concern I can think of is if the entire image sensor will be filled with image from the lens, or will there be black bands along the edges or something. More research is needed.

** I am not a 100% sure on this and I reserve the right to be wrong.

Sheri got back this afternoon. Yeah! She didn't stop on the way home for anything to eat, so she was hungry when she got home, and I only had a couple of low carb tortillas with some cheese, so I was hungry too.

We went to California Pizza Kitchen for a late lunch. She had her new favorite, the Waldorf Chicken Salad, and I tried their Wild Mushroom Pizza. Fantastic. I didn't like Sheri's salad as much as she did.


After that we went to Trader Joe's to stock up on a few things.

She is unpacking and taking a shower.

When she is done with that we are going to watch Elektra.

Sheri took 306 pictures during her two weeks in Columbus and Birmingham, and I am uploading them right now. I am sure she will be posting them and writing about her vacation over the next few days.

I have the 24 Hours of Le Mans race on the TV right now. It is really hot there right now, 88º and humid, and the cars are enclosed, not an open cockpit, so it is really tough on the drivers. It seems like a team has three drivers that can be swapped in and out. Interesting. Because it is so hot they can use the tires with the harder compounded rubber which means they can go longer between tire changes. I think it makes them slightly faster too.

The United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis is on TV tomorrow for Husband's Day and I am going to make a point to watch it. They are going to televise the practice laps today. I think I like Formula 1 racing the best. More than NASCAR and more than Indy Car. I like Formula 1 better than Indy Car mainly because I think the curving track is more exciting than oval racing. I like F1 better than NASCAR because I prefer the high tech aspect of the cars. In NASCAR they deliberately have rules that limit the amount of technology a car can have, with the idea being that it makes it more a test of the driver's skill rather than how much money a team has.

My feeling is if every team has tons of money to throw at a car, which they do in F1, then everyone is on an even playing field anyway. I like the idea that the technology guys in the back-room have just as much determination on whether a team wins or not as the driver does. Because everyone's car is not going to be cookie-cutter like in NASCAR it adds another level of interest to the race.

Selected pages from "Our Wedding Keepsake" book.
(Each page separated by "=====")

=====
Our Engagement
Date: April 28, 1995
Place: The backyard of our first home.
=====
Our Pattern Selections
Noritake - Enhancement China
Onieda - Chateau Silverware
J.A. Henckels 4 Star Knife Set
=====
Parties and Showers
March 10, 1996
Given by Lisa R.

Bev W.
Lisa R.
Linda W.
Allison A.
Greta S.
Sonja R
Pat R.
Josephine E.
Michele F.
Kathy C.
Lisa W.
Joanne G
Marsha Y.
=====
Parties and Showers
April 21, 1996
Given by Sonja R.

Greta S.
Sonja R
Bev W.
Lisa R.
Sara R.
Jean M.
Susan A.
Susan B.
Sue H.
Antoinette C.
Lilly P.
Judy B.
Shirley F.
Mary Y.
Gini A.
Sue B.
Lidia C.
Mary W.
Mary Lou P.
Linda B.
Flora O.
=====
Party and Shower Gifts
Duck & Game Hen dinner; bread book, picnic basket (not related to above two events)
=====
Our Rehearsal
May 3, 1996
Dinner:
Our home
Pizza & subs from Masseys
also salad

Blog note from me: Our rehearsal dinner was one of the FAVORITE parts of the whole wedding process. I liked having everyone at the house and being relaxed. I mingled from the front room to the patio to the kitchen. No one felt rushed to leave because the wait staff was ready to go home. Everyone likes pizza and beer. Plus I just felt more comfortable in our home rather than a restaurant somewhere.
=====
Our Wedding Apparel
Bradley - Black tuxedo, white shirt, black tie, no tails, classic lapel with black vest.

Sheri - Off white, floor length gown, tool skirt, short sleeved, with a pearl bodice, headpiece (veil) off white, full veil with pearls.

Our flowers
Vibrant spring flowers:
Tulips
Iris
Romulus
Daisy
Gladiolus
Lily
=====
Our Wedding Day
The Weather
Gray - but didn't rain till 5:00
Cool - about 67º

Morning Memories
Got my hair done at Penzones, had it put up in a French twist with curls on top. Brad called to check on me, we were both fine. Watch Bugs Bunny cartoons while doing make-up. Brad's best man took him to breakfast at Stan's

Getting Ready
Sheri had an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, all maids except Brad's sister arrived over an hour late for pictures. Greta was stiff as a board with anxiety.

Special Moments
Three days before wedding Brad blacked out and went to the hospital for atrial fibulation (pulse was too fast) Stayed over night. 2 weeks before the wedding Sheri got hit by a drunk driver on her way to work. Totaled her car and sliced her skull, got stitches close to hairline. Four weeks before wedding siding blew off back of house.
=====
Readings
1 John 3:18-24 - Aunt Marsha
1 Corinthians 13:4 - Uncle Frank
=====
Vows
Brad teared up and could only whisper the vows. Sheri stared at Brad's chest and spoke them loudly. Father Mario gave Brad his handkerchief. Brad also perspired a lot, he got some laughs while he wiped his brow then smiled and shrugged at the people attending.

Special Memories
The wedding went quickly but smoothly. It lasted for about 40 minutes. The soloist was wonderful. After the ceremony we had a group shot of everyone attending outside on the steps.
=====
The World Around Us
Clinton - President
Blizzard of '96
Election year
Gas - gallon $1.10
Milk - gallon $2.00
Friends and Melrose favorite TV shows
Michael Jackson and Lisa Presley divorced
17% flat tax - political debate
Unabomber finally caught!
Checkfree stock $20 a share
Bank One stock $35 a share
Erma Bombeck died
Madonna pregnant
Columbus Crew - 1st year soccer team
Music CD - $13.00
Stamp $0.32
=====
The Menu
Three entree buffet, orange roughy (great!), rigatoni, chicken cachitore, mixed vegetables, potatoes au gratin.

Our Wedding Cake
by Bruno Masdea
Swiss dot cake with layers of chocolate with raspberry filling, white with pineapple filing, carrot cake with cream cheese filling.

Music
Frank Sinatra, Mathis, Oldies, Motown
Wonderful by Eric Clapton, our first dance
Falling In Love With You - Elvis, bridal dance

Favors
Hard candied almonds in netting with ribbon
rosemary plant in terracotta pots
"Rosemary for remembrance"

Sometimes a feel self-conscious about writing boring crap in my journal; that I am not being entertaining enough, but then I remember that it is a journal. A diary. My diary. It is supposed to be interesting to me. It's just a side benefit if others find it interesting or informative.

The other day I was looking at old posts from back in 2002 and it was really neat. Usually I can look at old posts and remember writing them, but these were so old I didn't remember writing them, so it was weird because it was like reading someone else's experiences, but they were mine.

Last week I was organizing our bookshelves and I came across a wedding memories scrapbook that Sheri kept. I don't think I ever read it before. It made me smile a couple of times. Maybe I will transcribe some of the things she wrote on here. She had things like what she had for breakfast. What I was doing. Weather. Who was late. What was on our reception menu. How I was during the ceremony. It was the same book she used for the guest book, so it was neat flipping through everyone's signature. True to form I saw a TCE at the bottom of one of the pages. That is how Christmas cards get signed as well.

I think I am going to get bring that book upstairs right now and do some transcribing.

Done. Don't have to worry about lawn fertilizer again until August.

The hardest part about fertilizing the lawn for me is picking up the fertilizer at the store. I can do the whole yard in about 15 minutes and without breaking a sweat. I guess it is because with a broadcast spreader each path you walk covers three feet or more, whereas a lawn mower only covers 22", so you are walking a lot less than when you mow. Also a spreader is about 40 pounds lighter than a mower so there is less effort there as well.

It works out good for me now because a Home Depot is only about a mile out of my way on the way home. If I know I need to fertilize soon I just stop by on my way home and pick up a bag. I usually don't apply it the same day I buy it. All of the stars have to be aligned just right before I do that. But the important part is having it at home, ready to apply, so when everything works out, like this morning, I can just do it.

This morning I applied Vigoro's Ultra Turf™ Summer Turf Fertilizer plus Insect Control. I have had very good luck with Vigoro products. I think they are only sold at Home Depot, and they are usually much cheaper than the Scott's products. This application only cost $10. They had a similar Scott's product there yesterday for $20. I always look at the Scott's stuff and compare labels, but I usually end up with the Vigoro.

I used to use Scott's all the time and the one thing that really annoyed me was the product would come out in big clumps. I would have to get a metal stake and spend five minutes breaking apart the big clumps of fertilizer before I could apply it. I have never had that problem with Vigoro. Each individual granule stays unclumped and free flowing.

The company that makes Vigoro also has these brands:

Bag-a-Bug
Bandini
Cutter (mosquito repellent)
Garden Safe
Hot Shot
No-Pest
Nu-Gro
Rayovac
Real-Kill
Remington (shavers)
Rid-a-Bug
Schultz
Spectracide
Spray Chem
Sta-Green
Tetra (fish and aquarium supplies)
Varta

I always find it interesting to know what else companies do.

If you have a MasterCard keep a close eye on all of the transactions that show up on your account for the next few months. A virus-like computer script entered their system and the hackers were able to get 40 million account numbers along with the holders name and bank. There are already reports that fraudulent charges are being made against the compromised accounts.

Uncle Rico. Sweet.

I was thinking about it, and I can water our entire lawn with just four positions of our new wonderful Melnor 4100 sprinkler.

As you may remember me saying our city has year round lawn watering conservation rules. We can only water our lawns on even or odd days depending on your address, and we can only water from 6 am – 10 am and from 6 PM to 10 PM.

So I set my alarm to get up and start watering at 6 AM, and I was going to leave it in each of the four positions for an hour. But as I was waking up I remembered that I bought some fertilizer with insect control that needs to be watered in, so I am going to apply that right now and then get the sprinkler going.

On the radio yesterday I heard that northern Illinois is now officially suffering from a moderate drought.

Shipping by rail is five to ten times more energy efficient than by road.

The price of oil set a new record today closing at $58.60 a barrel.

The analysts say there are two reasons for this though:

1. The United States and other Western nations shut down consulates in oil-producing Nigeria following a terrorist threat. Nigeria is the world's 8th largest oil producer and thefifth-biggest exporter or oil to the US.

2. Concerns about the ability of US refiners to cope with strong U.S. demand.

Saudi Arabia is the only OPEC member that has spare pumping capacity. All of the other OPEC countries are pumping oil as fast as the Earth will let them and can't pump any faster.

Latitude and Longitude Explained

Imagine a line extending from the center of Earth out to the equator. Now imagine another line extending again from the center of the Earth to Chicago. Those two lines form an angle at the center of the Earth, and the measure of that angle is called latitude.



Similarly, imagine a line extending from the center of the Earth to the prime meridian. (This is a line that extends from the north pole to the south pole and passes through Greenwich England.) Now imagine another line again extending from the center of the Earth to the point on the equator that is directly south of Chicago. Again you have an angle at the center of the Earth, and the measurement of this angle is called longitude.

Click for full size picture.


Now you know why lat and lon are given in degrees, because they really are measuring friggin degrees! Isn't that cool? I think it is also cool that the thing that is being measured, the angle formed by the two lines, is actually located in the very center of the Earth.

In my previous post with the formula for figuring out the great circle distance between two coordinates there was a lot of use of the cosine, sine, and arctangent functions. If you recall from your high school geometry days those are used when performing calculations on angles.

For example cosine is simply the ratio between the length of one of the sides of a right triangle to the length of the hypotenuse. Nothing scary there.

Is it all starting to jell together for you? Why lat and lon are measured in degrees. Why cosine, sine, etc. functions are used to calculate distance across the surface of a sphere (Earth)? Now you know why I get all excited about this stuff. Because it is so damned cool!

I did something really cool at work today, but first a little background. I am the only person at work with any MS Access database skills so periodically I will get tapped to help out departments around the office. That isn't a problem because I enjoy doing it. The latest database had absolutely nothing to do with GIS.

Its purpose is to track engineering consultants that want to do work for us. It has a data entry function that lets the user enter all of the relevant information about a given consultant, both objective and subjective, crunches out a score, and then creates a printout that has the contractors with the highest total score sorted to the top and the lowest scores at the bottom. It also divides the contractors into 16 different groups depending on what type of work they do, but that isn't important to this story.

It took me a day to create the database. A day to scrap it and start over because my original design was not as efficient and flexible as it needed to be, and then two days to make and test changes that the guy that needs the database asked for.

This morning he called me and said he wanted to know if I could add a field to show the city of each contractor. He said the reason is that when deciding on a contractor to hire, even if they have the absolute highest score out of all the other applicants, if they are 200 miles away that might just present too many logistical problems. He didn't want it to affect the scoring in any way. He just wanted their city listed on the report so he could keep that in mind when making decisions.

What he wanted to accomplish with this addition is totally valid, I just didn't like the way he asked me to execute it. The problem to me is that it assumes you know where all of the cities in the region are. I like to design things by making as few assumptions as possible. I don't want to assume that whoever is going to use this report is going to know where every city is in relation to our office. Maybe the guy that replaces him will be recruited from another state and knows nothing about the local geography.

Think…think…think… Got it!

I found a GIS layer of every ZIP code in the United States. I loaded that into my GIS application and performed a routine to find the geographic center (centroid) of each ZIP code and then write the latitude and longitude of each centroid to the table. I then exported just the resulting table, no graphics or maps or anything, into my contractor database. I think there were about 45,000 different ZIP codes.

I then wrote a Visual Basic routine that finds the ZIP in the table for a given contractor, pulls the lat and lon from the table, and then calculates the distance from the center of the contractor's ZIP code to the vestibule of our office. NOW I can report definite numbers that anybody can make sense of and no one needs to know where any a city is to understand if a contractor is 15 minutes away or three hours away. I can sort by distance now too which is more useful than sorting my city name. How cool is that?

What do the calculations look like that find the distance between two lat and lon coordinates? Glad you asked.

Function CalcDist(Lat, Lon)
Dim OurLat, OurLon, p1, p2, p3, TempNum, EarthRadius, KiloToMiles
EarthRadius = 6378.1
KiloToMiles = 0.621371192

' convert from degrees to radians
Lat = Lat * (3.14159265358979 / 180)
Lon = Lon * (3.14159265358979 / 180)

OurLat = XX.XXX * (3.14159265358979 / 180)
OurLon = -XX.XXX * (3.14159265358979 / 180)

p1 = Cos(Lat) * Cos(Lon) * Cos(OurLat) * Cos(OurLon)
p2 = Cos(Lat) * Sin(Lon) * Cos(OurLat) * Sin(OurLon)
p3 = Sin(Lat) * Sin(OurLat)

TempNum = p1 + p2 + p3
' This is the derived function of arccosine
'Atn((-1 * TempNum) / Sqr((-1 * TempNum) * TempNum + 1)) + 2 * Atn(1))

CalcDist = ((Atn((-1 * TempNum) / Sqr((-1 * TempNum) * TempNum + 1)) + 2 * Atn(1))) * EarthRadius * KiloToMiles
End Function

The toughest part was that the Visual Basic module in Access does not have an arccosine function, so I had to search around on the Internets. The formula to calculate arccosine is the entire line below the line of text that starts "This is the derived…"

The weird thing is when I was testing the logic of the code I was using an Excel spreadsheet and Excel has and arccosine function. Go figure.

Lat and lon are angular measurements (measurements of angles)** and computers like to work in radians, so the four lines where I am multiplying a lat or lon by pi divided by 180º is converting degrees to radians.

I created the constant called EarthRadius to, of course, hold the average radius of the Earth in kilometers. I could have used miles but I started out using miles and then I wouldn’t have to multiply by the KiloToMiles constant I created but I didn't so sue me.

To help you better understand the code these are what the Visual Basic functions are:

Atn = arctangent
Cos = cosine
Sin = sine
Sqr = square root

Lines that start with a quotation mark ( ' ) are comments just so it is easier to read when I go back in a couple months to make changes to it.

On the lines where I am create the variables OurLat and OurLon for the lat and lon of our office I X'd that actual coordinates out for this post to prevent my stalkers from stalking me.

If any real programmers are reading this, yeah I know it is not as tight as it could be but I think it is pretty good considering.

** Look forward to another intriguing post from me soon splaining how latitude and longitude are actually angular measurements.

By the way, a standing rule in my blog is the first person to catch an obscure reference I make gets a postcard.

Maybe Sheri could make some sweet moola with Uncle Rico.

I was reading the latest edition of Consumer Reports on-line and they have a big section on digital photography. They did a review of the on-line photo finishers. Out of the 12 services they reviewed only 5 had picture quality of "excellent", their highest rating. The rest were all rated "very good", the next step down.

Wal-Mart is in the top group that rated excellent quality. Wal-Mart also had the best price for a 4 x 6 glossy. The prices are:

Wal-Mart $0.17
Target $0.19
Kodak $0.25
EZ Prints $0.29
Shutterfly $0.29

In overall ranking Wal-Mart placeed 4th. The two additional criteria used were album management and editing. I don't want to use an on-line service to manage my pictures. I do that on my PC, and I prefer to do any editing or corrections on my PC, not through their web interface. So from my point of view Wal-Mart is the winner, and I will continue to use them.

An interesting side note: four out of the top five photo finishers in this review use Fuji equipment. Only one, the Kodak service, uses Kodak equipment. What would George Eastman say about that?

I have one criticism of my Melnor 4100 lawn sprinkler: there is no indication on the sprinkler telling you which way to move the slides to open or close the end holes. Just by looking at it while it is not running you don't know if the holes are open or closed. I took a metallic silver Sharpie and wrote "OPEN" and "CLOSED" on opposite sides of the sprinkler so I will be able to tell in the future without needing to first turn it on.

Oil closed at $56.58 a barrel today.

Because of peak oil and our huge national debt I think that the current generation is going to be the first generation in American history that will not have a better standard of living than their parents.

The current national debt is over $7,800,000,000,000 (7.8 trillion) and is increasing by $1,640,000,000 (1.64 billion) per DAY! We are consuming way more than we are producing and our savings rate is abysmal.

When we reach peak oil, the US economy is going to nosedive for a long time. Other countries will stop loaning us the money to support our deficit spending because our credit on the world market will be worthless. It will stay like that until we figure out how to live with $6 per gallon gasoline.

One of the guys at work is a grandfather that is a retired surveyor. He has it set up pretty nice where he only works three days a week. Keeps out of his wife's hair. Has a little extra money coming in. Plus I think he still enjoys the work.

Anyway, he is about the nicest guy I know. I put him in the same category as Jake, for those of you that know how I feel about him. He never bad-mouths anyone else at work. Always happy to see you. He is usually smiling. Brings pictures of his grandkids from desk to desk occasionally. Just super nice. You can't help but smile when he says hello even if you are in a grumpy mood.

So anyway a while back he was having problems with his home PC so I volunteered to help him out. I was able to fix his PC, and then a few weeks after that he ran into another problem so he took me home during lunch and I fixed him up again. I noticed that he was using AOL so I mentioned to him that instead of $22 a month there are a ton of local ISP's that would cost less than half of that per month. He seemed interested so the next time I was at Fry's I picked up a flyer for their web service for $9.88 a month and dropped it off at his desk.

He went ahead and signed up but was not able to make a connection. He called their tech support number a couple of times but still wasn’t able to connect. He asked me today if I would mind stopping over again after work. How could I say no?

I turned on his PC and clicked to connect to the Fry's ISP. His modem must not have a speaker because I couldn't hear the connection sounds. I picked up the phone so I could hear what it was doing and their was the recorded telephone company voice saying that he "must first dial a one before placing this call." Well that was easy! I entered a one in the dialing string and tried again. This time a person answered. Whoops. Wrong number. So we connected via AOL, went to Fry's web site and got the local access numbers for his city. Plugged the right one in and it connected first time.

I am glad I am able to help because I can imagine how frustrating it is when you just want it to work but you feel helpless to do anything about it. I like helping the good guys.

I have not shaved my noodle (that is above my shoulders you know) for a little over two weeks now. I am either going to shave it again or let it grow just a little bit longer than it is now and then keep it that way with the electric clippers once a week. What do you think? Do you like it totally smooth or with just a little bit of a shadow?

By the way, it is difficult to take a decent self-portrait by yourself. You can click on the picture for a much larger version. It's easier to see the shadow that way.

This is a shot of my Melnor 4100 in action. Notice the nice tight pattern, but at the same time plenty of distance to get all the way to the ends. All of the grass you see in the picture is being hit perfectly, but the patio to the right and beds and fence to the left are dry.

Every single year that I have been a home owner I have made a trek to the local hardware store in search of the new sprinkler that is going to water all of my weird shaped sections of lawn without wasting a precious drop on the driveway, sidewalk, patio, or god forbid, the neighbor's yard. Every year I find a new sprinkler that I just know is going to allow me to precisely direct every drop of life-giving water onto a thirsty blade of grass and miss all non-grass areas. Every year I get a little closer, but every year ultimately end up in defeat.

Until now! I think I found just the sprinkler for me. I have walked past it several times before because I thought it looked cheap, plasticky, gimmicky, not something for the serious lawn waterer. But this year I was determined to find THE sprinkler. I picked it up and was surprised at the weight. Much heavier than I thought. I moved some of the controls around and they felt pretty solid. The little life time warranty logo said "Best for professional use." Yeah I know that is just puffery and they can say anything they want to sell a sprinkler, but I bought into it anyway.

The grassed area of our backyard is much longer than it is wide. What I have had to do so far is get a sprinkler with a small footprint and move it several times to get the entire backyard. That is a hassle and not very efficient.

The normal oscillating ones that go back and forth (I guess that's what oscillating means) get all of the grass, but too much of it goes over the fence and onto the patio.

The one I got tonight has 18 holes across the sweep bar, but the magic is that you can individually turn off and on three of the holes on each end of the bar. By doing this I get a very narrow swath from the remaining 2/3 of the holes, but by turning the water on full-power it shoots almost to each side of the yard. Perfect!

The sprinkler is the Melnor 4100 and I got it at The Home Depot for $20.

If you have ever wondered how Google can return such accurate results so quickly then you should read this explanation that Google released explaining their technology in extremely easy to understand terms. Just amazing! Those guys are geniuses. It is a quick and enjoyable read.

I have not shaved my head in a couple of weeks, so now I have a nice layer of stubble. When Sheri gets back I am going to have her decide if I should keep shaving or just keep it very closely buzzed.

Microsoft just release a bunch of critical Windows updates yesterday. If you haven't updated your system in a while why not do it right now. Just click here and follow the instructions.

Also most people, even the ones that perform regular Windows updates, fail to update their Office software. Microsoft actually release quite a few security and performance related updates for the software. If you have Office installed, or any of its components (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) Why not click here and get updated. (Click on the "Check for updates" button when the web page loads.)

The new pope is really shaking things up. I dig the new pope-helmet. It's a nice addition to the uniform that not only adds a bit of flare, but safety as well.

I just got off the phone with Squirrel from NORCOM. He called just to check in and make sure I was doing OK. He was a little concerned that I may have gone over the edge being home alone for two weeks.That's what friends are for. He told me that the clothes Saddam Hussein was captured in looked better than the t-shirt I was wearing in my self portrait from June 9.

A postcard to the first person that identifies Squirrel.

Midwest politicians and farmers have been saying for a long time we should use more ethanol as motor fuel because it is cheaper. That has always bothered me because one of the reasons it is cheaper is that farmers and agriculture are much more tax-advantaged than petroleum companies.

My concern has always been does producing ethanol have a net increase in the amount of energy available to use as a motor fuel. Stated another way, does it take more tractor diesel, fertilizer chemicals, etc. than we get back in usable ethanol?

I did a little research today and the answer is that it used to take more energy to make ethanol than we got back, but today we get between 25% and 35% more net energy back than it takes to produce it.

So feel free to root for any ethanol initiatives that you may hear being considered by the politicians.

Oil is trading at $56.15 per barrel right now.

After work I came home and laid down for about 30 minutes so my back could unkink before I did some yard work.

I cut the front lawn and then put the sprinkler out in a dry spot. Then I cut the back lawn and put another sprinkler out a dry spot in the back. I then went around with my bottle of Roundup and shot weeds in the flower beds.

My back doesn't feel too bad. I am going to take a shower and then maybe think about something to eat. I had a big sandwich for lunch, and I just had a big glass of milk before coming upstairs, so I might actually be done eating for today, but I will poke around and see if anything sounds good.

I also just turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows. It is about 74º and very windy. Almost feels chilly!

Oil closed at $55.75 a barrel today.

There is a food ingredient that I have seen listed on at least three different products recently called inulin. I first noticed it when I was reading the nutrition facts on a tub of Trader Joes plain yogurt and saw that it contained fiber. How in the heck does a yogurt get fiber. I looked at the ingredients and the only thing I didn't recognize was inulin.

Just a couple days after that I was reading the ingredients of a Luna bar and it contained inulin. Tonight I was reading the ingredients in our Healthy Life bread and, can you guess? Inulin?

I did a little web searching and inulin can be derived from a number of sources but the most common seems to be chicory.

It is a good source of water soluble fiber.

It has a slightly sweet taste, but no calories.

It can help your body increase calcium absorption by 20%.

It somehow helps yogurt cultures live longer, better, etc.

It is supposed to "feed" the good beneficial bacteria that live in your intestines.

I did read one web site that says inulin is bad because not only does it feed the good bacteria in your gut, it will feed the bad bacteria as well and cause your system to go out of balance.

For now I like the idea of being able to get a little extra fiber in my yogurt. Fiber is wonderful for diabetics for a couple of reasons. One is it fills you up faster so you don't eat as much and feel satisfied. The other, and probably more important reason, is that it slows the absorption of food into your system thereby helping you avoid blood sugar spikes.

The dishwasher is emptied and reloaded. The last of the laundry is out of the drier. I paid a couple of bills. The lawn is watered. I think I am going to watch the race for a little bit. When I get tired of that I am thinking about going to Old Navy to buy new pair of jeans. I only have one pair that fits now. All of my other jeans are too big and baggy on me now.

I was just going through some old pictures and came across a couple of my favorites for Goliath. Look at those eyes! He HATES having the mask on but he knows it is his "job", so the look on his face is saying

"Concentrate…Must....not…rip…mask…off…Working…working…be a good boy…just…a…few…more…minutes…"



The second we would say "OK" he would rip it off with one of his front paws, mouth would be wide open with his tongue hanging out in a big smile, tail wagging, running in circles, and "telling" us he deserves a Scooby snack for doing such a good job.

He would also get the same expression when children would walk up and ask if they could pet him. We would tell him to sit and he would then let himself be subjected to the humiliation being pawed over by these creatures unworthy of his time.

The whole time he would not pay any attention to them, but would be looking up at me waiting for the signal that it was OK to get up and free himself of the torturous mob. He would also demand a Scooby snack for those "jobs".

If I am around I think I am going to watch the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on CBS today at 11:00 AM CDT (noon EDT).

What is the difference between Indy Car racing and Formula 1 racing? I am glad you asked.

I've lost 4.6 pounds since Sheri left last week.

I finally watched Kinsey last night. It was pretty good, but you wouldn't want to watch it in the same room with your mother. The movie also reminded me why Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors. John Lithgow also did an amazing job playing Alfred Kinsey's father.

We have a year round lawn watering restriction. We can only water our lawn from 6-10 AM and from 6-10 PM. In addition to that we can only water on odd or even days based on our address. I am an even so I am going to get my sprinklers going this morning.

I am also thinking about a bike ride. If I go I think it would be to push myself a little bit. The plan I have in my head is to go to the forest preserve and make two laps around the main trail in the park. We'll see.

I have the last load of laundry in the drier to take out from last night, and I still have to empty the dishwasher. I also am going to check the Sunday morning newspaper ads to see if anything on special gives me some meal ideas for this week.

I think I hate the term blogosphere.

Microsoft has a $10 rebate now for Streets & Trips 2005. It is selling for $35.49 on Amazon right now, so your final price would be $25.49.

I think they do this every year for Streets & Trips to get rid of their inventory and make way for the next release of Streets & Trips that is usually released at the end of summer or beginning of fall.

The main difference from year to year is updated street data. They haven't really added many bells and whistles over the years.

If you don't have this running on your computer now I highly recommend getting it. It is much faster than getting maps from the internet and the quality and detail of the maps is better. I probably use the program at least once a day. Seriously. Planning bike routes in the neighborhood. Figuring out how long it will take to drive somewhere. Measuring distances.

Here is the map with points of interest that I am working on for Tim and Lisa's trip. You can click on it for the full size version.

I went to Taco Bell for dinner and had a tostada, a regular hard-shell taco, and a chili cheese burrito.

After I finished eating I went to our favorite Meijer to mostly walk around. The first thing I looked for were the campari tomatoes. The 1.1 pound (17.6 ounce) package was on sale for $2.00, but they only had one left and it was open and looked like someone had gone through it.

I strolled through the rest of the store to kill time but didn't buy anything.

Since all I have had to eat today was my morning soy protein and the Taco Bell for dinner I felt like a little treat on the way out. I bought a toffee ice cream bar from the Blue Bunny vending machine in the vestibule. Thank god that ice cream is not one of my usual cravings or weaknesses, but tonight it just sounded good.

Since this Meijer had the campari tomatoes I thought the chances were pretty good that the other Meijer two miles away would have them, and they did.

I snatched up the best looking one and ran to the check out, paid for them, and went straight home, drooling the whole way. At home I dumped them into a colander, rinsed them off, and took a big juicy bite out of one. I think I got a bad batch.

The juicy-level was perfect. The firmness was absolutely right on. The tomato taste I would say was pretty good too. Not even a hint of mealyness. The problem was that they were very tart. Almost lemon tart. My teeth had that raw feeling you get when you eat something that is tart.

I had a few just plain like that, and then I quartered about four or five into a bowl, drizzled a little olive oil on them, tossed them a bit, and then added a little salt and some fresh ground black pepper. That helped but the tartness was still the dominant taste.

I will give them one more chance in a week or two to allow the current local supply to get sold and get a new batch in.

I've said it before, but this time I mean it: I am going to go downstairs now and watch Kinsey.

After I dropped my mail off in the mail box I went for a little bit more of a ride than I planned on. Only 2.75 miles. I got a little sweaty but not enough to change clothes or take a shower before I go run some errands now in the car.

If my parents are to be believed the hole grail of tomatoes is the campari tomato. It first got national recognition when they were used as a prop in an episode of The Sopranos.

The campari is bigger than a cherry tomato, smaller and rounder than a plum tomato and is the deepest, robust shade of red. It is sweet and juicy (never mealy), has superb sugar and acid levels and has won awards in Europe. It's an on-the-vine variety and is greenhouse-grown by only three suppliers in North America, two of which are in Canada.

Apparently there is somewhat of a cult surrounding these tomatoes and their addictiveness has been compared to that of crack cocaine.

I am going to see if I can find them in a nearby store for dinner and see if the hype is warranted. Wish me luck.

What a bonehead! I was getting to put away all of the tax paperwork and go for a short bike ride when it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should enter the tax transaction in our check register and make sure we have enough money to cover the payment. Duh! Good thing I remembered because I had to transfer $2,000 from savings to checking to cover the tax payment.

Success! I submitted my estimated quarterly tax payment on-line. If anyone is interested the website is www.eftps.gov. The acronym stands for Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. They make you jump through a few hoops, but it is mostly to protect you.

First you have to ENROLL. You do this on-line and it is where you enter all of your information: name, social security number, checking account number, etc.

After you do that they will mail you TWO envelopes. One, the enrollment confirmation, has all of the information you need to login to the system except for a PIN number. They mail that in a separate envelope a week or two apart from the first envelope.

Once you have both envelopes you have to first call a toll free number to get your internet password. You have to enter a couple things from the first envelope and the PIN number from the second envelope. The computer voice on the phone then tells you your temporary password.

Then you go out to the website and enter all of that information plus your temporary password. It will immediately make you change to password to something you choose.

After that the rest is pretty easy. You have to pick the IRS form that you want to submit on-line and I was looking for the 1040-ES form. It took me a couple of minutes to see that they have a choice for any 1040 form. You pick that choice and then on the next screen you pick which one you want, and the 1040-ES was right at the top of the list.

Then you just fill in how much you want to pay and on what date. Hit enter and it generates a confirmation number for you. No worrying if the envelope got lost in the mail or if it gets applied to your account.

Let me know if you have any questions I didn't answer.

I forgot to mention that besides all of my hostas and sunflowers, the rabbits have ate all of the tops from my black-eyed Susan.

Last night as I was watering the ligularia dentata in the back yard I took special note of how well the large heavy leaves were staying elevated. This afternoon I looked at and saw that under the direct sun and hot steamy temperatures we are having the leaves were all wilted and it seemed to be collapsing on itself. I went outside and gave it a good soaking at its roots and then continued to water the rest of the flowers. By the time I had finished with all of the flowers the ligularia seemed to have gained about half of its height back. By the time I poured myself another iced tea, brought in the mail, and made my way upstairs, the plant is standing back up the way it was last night. Just amazing.

I was up too late last night just flipping through the channels but I think mostly watching the History Channel. I think I turned the TV off around 1:45 AM. Therefore this morning I got out of bed on the late side; I think around 10 AM. I started a list of things that I think Tim and Lisa will want to see on their New York trip. I set the list up in a spreadsheet in such a way that she can add additional items to the list along with the address, and then e-mail it back to me so I can run it through a mapping program I have that will plot all of the locations onto a map. This should help them plan each day by know which things are clustered together.

I started a load of laundry. I have to unload the dishwasher which I started last night before I went upstairs.

My next immediate goal is to dig out the paperwork I need to submit my estimated quarterly tax payment to the IRS on-line. I might then ride my bike about a half mile to the nearest mail box to drop a couple of things in. I don't think I want to ride much more than that today because I don't feel like getting all exhausted and sweaty. Then I think I just need to get out of the house for a bit. Maybe go to Trader Joes to get another jar of soy protein powder. Maybe go to a bookstore and hang out and people watch. Maybe go to Home Depot for some fertilizer. Maybe walk through Miejer or Wal-Mart just for something to do. (I did not end up going out last night like I said I might.)

I still have not watched any of the movies we have in from Blockbuster since Sheri left. It's just not the same watching a movie by myself. Maybe I will really really try to watch one tonight though.

For dinner tonight I took a precooked chicken breast from last night, put it on one half of a low-carb tortilla, and then sprinkled a generous amount of shredded cheddar on top of the breast. Then I put the whole thing on a tinfoil covered tray and put it in the toaster oven at 350º for about ten minutes. I ate it with a little horseradish sauce. I did that twice.

Nothing is grabbing my attention on TV. I don't feel like getting into a movie. I turned off the TV and went outside to water the flowers, and then I took a seat on the patio and watered the grass by hand for 10 – 15 minutes. BORED.

It is only 8:30 PM so it is too early to go to bed. I don't have enough energy to start any kind of project. I am thinking about going to Meijer and just walk around.

For tomorrow top on my list is pay my quarterly estimated taxes on-line. At the end of the first quarter I sent a check in via the US mail. To submit payments electronically you have to first request a password that comes via the US Mail. I didn't request my password soon enough before my first quarter payment was due. I have to dig up the envelope that has the password and use that to register on-line. I'm hoping it won't be too big of a deal. It is due by Wednesday.

Tomorrow I also would like to get some flower bed weeding in. I don't know how long I can last in this heat, but I guess I will start on one side and just work my way along as far as I can. Maybe if I put in a half an hour a day I can knock it out in just a few days. I think it is also time for another lawn weed and feed application. Maybe I will do that tomorrow too.

Just about every day this week they predicted thunderstorms. I did not see ONE rain drop. I am glad I went ahead and watered when I did. The flowers are looking good, but the lawn is somewhat crispy.

I had one sunflower left that the rabbits did not get. I watered it every night. When I went to water it tonight it was just a stump. I think it is time for some rabbit trapping. I can't put any kind of vegetables in because they will eat them before they even have a chance.

You asked for it.

How did I know Dad would know that last photo was Toledo Yacht Club?

The picture is circa 1900 - 1920 and I found it on the Library of Congress website.

A fresh postcard will be on its way.

Another postcard challenge. Tell me what this building is and a postcard addressed to you will be on its way.

It has been a long week by myself without Sheri. I talked to her tonight and she says the trip is doing her good and recharging her batteries. I still have another week to go. Near the end of the day I was really tired from staying up so late the night before. I came home and sacked out pretty hard for about an hour. I got up and put my almost four pounds of chicken breasts on the grill and watched the MTV Movie Awards while I ate three of the chicken breasts. I have at least three of four more meals left. I am going to try to get to bed very soon so Friday won't be a chore to stay awake through.

I don't know why I am up so late screwing around. It is going to be a long day tomorrow.

I stopped at the hardware store to pick up some yard waste stickers for the shrub clippings from last night. We have to pay $1.85 for each bag of yard waste we need to dispose of.

I also set out a sprinkler in the front and back. The forecast says we should be having rain now, but I don't see any. If it does start I will have at least got the ground a little saturated so the rest of the rain will soak in better. I also watered the flower beds in the back.

Chipmunks have done a lot of digging under our front porch. I want to raise the level of dirt surrounding the porch to cover any tunnels they have already dug and to make it more difficult for future digging. Towards this end I picked up a bag of topsoil at the hardware store too. I probably need about 20 bags, but for now I will just do it a bag at a time. I thought about getting a load of top soil dumped in the driveway, but I don't have a wheelbarrow and I don't think this justifies buying one. I would also be worried that I wouldn't have enough places to put a load topsoil.

I probably have at least 80 pounds of magazines and catalogs in our recycle bin. I think the pick-up crew probably have union rules that limit how much they can lift, so I am going to divide all of the stuff into three or four paper bags for tomorrow's pick-up.

I am feeling kind of tired and "blah" tonight, so I think after I bag up the clippings and divide the recyclable paper I am going to take it easy tonight. I have been pretty productive over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, so I won't feel too bad about being lazy tonight. Maybe I will finally get around to watching Kinsey. I also have the chicken breasts to grill that I didn't get to yesterday. With my luck it will start raining and then I won't be able to use the grill by the time I get ready to cook.

I have not shaved my head since last Thursday. I wanted to see how I look with just a thin layer of stubble rather than completely shaved. I have gotten enough positive feedback that I am not against staying shaved for a while.

I just got off the phone with Sheri in Birmingham. They are getting ready to go out to an Italian restaurant for dinner with EVERYBODY. They will head back to Columbus tomorrow morning.

I didn't want to trim the evergreen shrubs in front of the house tonight because the thermometer said 91º, but the forecast here is rain the next few days, so I thought I might as well bite the bullet and try to get ahead of the game.

The 91º didn't feel as bad as I expected it to. Maybe the 30 fewer pounds makes a difference.

Before I started in the front, I turned on the hose and watered the flower beds in the back. The beds are ready for a good weeding. Maybe tomorrow night.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to do a complete job tonight because my back was going to give out before I would. My plan was to get the most curb-appeal bang for my buck. I sized the shrubs backed down to pretty much where they should be and did a rough pick-up job on my clippings. The house looks 100% better now from the street. That will buy me time to go back and fine tune the pruning with hand shears and pick up the remaining stray branches as I see them.

When I had all of my tools put away and ready to go inside I felt a little bit sticky and yucky. All of a sudden I had a flash back to being eight years old again after dinner. Back then you just hopped on your bike and rode down to John P.'s house to see if he was home. If not you just rode back. Maybe did a couple loops in a neighbor's driveway. Go down one cul-de-sac. Loop back and then go down the other cul-de-sac. Just feeling the warm summer breeze in your face and not really trying to go anywhere. So tonight I hopped on my bike and just rode on the sidewalk down six or seven houses. Looped in someone's driveway and went past the house and then six or seven houses in the other direction. Not going fast, just enough to get a cool breeze in my face and dry out my t-shirt. I did that three or four times. If a neighbor was watching they might think something was wrong with me (who knows, maybe you think that too) but oh well, it was a small pleasure I enjoyed.

The first driveway I looped back in to the east I saw something I have never seen before. There was a rabbit sprawled out in the grass on its belly just being lazy. I don't think he heard or saw me coming and I startled his little nap. He jumped up into his crouch position for a couple seconds and then took off.

I remembered I had a couple of bottles of San Pellegrino in the fridge so I popped a cold one and am enjoying that while I write this.

I think it is shower time and then sprawl out on the couch time to rest my back for the rest of the night.