Sheri bought me a box of the World's best chocolates this week. Belgium of course.

She has to hide them from me (at my instance) and dole then out to me slowly. Otherwise they would be gone in a day and I would end up in a diabetic coma.

This evening arrived with no New Year's plans made. I decided I didn't feel like cooking anything because I didn't want a mess to clean up. We decided against just getting take-out and eating at home because just sitting at home for so long would make us feel like bumps-on-a-log. So through this process of elimination we decided we wanted to go out for a dinner, but not know where.

We didn't want to get dressed up for a really nice restaurant partly because we just didn't feel like it and partly because those kinds of places were probably already booked with New Year's reservations.

We wanted to do something a little bit nicer than our normal haunts. We decided to drive downtown (as opposed to the Loop or the City) and walk around and see what sounded good.

We stopped in Catch 35 first to look at the menu. Too much seafood for Sheri. It was also a little bit more formal than we were dressed for. The wait staff was all black tie.

We started walking south. We thought about the Brick House Pizzeria, but that wasn't different enough. We were really close to going into Buonaro's Café, but for some reason it just didn't turn us on.

We ended up walking to Sullivan's Steakhouse. We weren't dressed for their dining room, but they also serve food in their small bar area. We sat at a small, but tall, bar type table. To make eating a meal a little more formal in the bar area she folded a cloth napkin in half and then placed it in front of us with the fold facing us and the point pointing away. I thought that was clever.

I was thinking about just getting a big hamburger, but they do not have hamburgers on their menu. Sheri loves their lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing so she got that, a side order of their creamed spinach, and a side order of au gratin potatoes. I knew she wasn't going to be able to finish all of that so I just ordered their 24oz bone-in "cowboy" ribeye medium-rare and nothing else. It worked out perfect! Sheri had a bite of my steak, but she was mostly in the mood for their lettuce wedge.

Our waitress was a cute little darling thing, and the bartender was built like… whew! We liked it when she bent over in her tight low cut top to wash glasses in the sink facing us. Jiggle jiggle jiggle!

Anyway, we are home now. We put on our comfy lounge clothes and are getting ready to go downstairs, put in a fire, and watch The Manchurian Candidate while waiting for the new year.

Our gas bill from November 24 to December 28 was $153.

We have belonged to the Wal-Mart DVD rental program for about a year and loved it. It costs $17.36 per month, and we could have three movies out at a time. It works exactly like the original Netflix which is $17.99 per month.

Sometimes, though, it would be movie night and we would be between movies, so we would have to (well we didn't have to) drive to the rental store. This disrupted the whole beauty and, more importantly, the economics of the on-line rental program.

Because of this we were considering switching over to the Blockbuster program. It was just a few cents more per month, but you got two coupons each month that you could take into a Blockbuster store and get two "free" movies. Perfect! Kind of like insurance. If the weekend showed up and you were between movies, you were protected.

So we talked about switching, just never got around to actually doing it. Well last week Blockbuster dropped their price to $14.99 per month! Now it's a no-brainer. $2.37 per month less than the Wal-Mart program plus we get the two in-store rentals each month.

Last weekend we printed out the 60 movies that were in our Wal-Mart queue, cancelled, and signed up with Blockbuster and just re-entered the movies into our new Blockbuster queue.

Our first Blockbuster movies should show up in the mail today. We have already tried one of the free in-store coupons and it works as advertised. Just give them the coupon and walk out of the store.

I think the $14.99 price is being offered for a limited time only, so if you are interested do it now. They guarantee that price through January of 2006 once you sign up. You can try it free for two weeks if you are the cautious type.

Happy New Year!

We watched a movie last week that I think was one of the best I have seen in a long time. What makes this more surprising is that it is subtitled and takes place almost entirely inside of an old Norwegian bachelor's kitchen in the early 1950's.

The movie is Kitchen Stories, and it is based around a set of studies that Sweden performed regarding efficiency in the home. They would observe and document every step and move that housewives did in the kitchen, and from that presented what they said was the most optimal kitchen configuration.

After the perceived success of those studies they thought they would do the same for elderly bachelors. An observer is assigned to each bachelor and they put a big tall tennis judge chair in the corner of the kitchen. The observer is not allowed to talk with the subject. The subject is to be observed for a couple of months.

If you watch the trailer below and I think you will for sure want to rent the movie. I can't do it justice in just a couple of paragraphs.

Trailer for movie. (in English)
Swedish site for the film. (catchy background music)

Don't forget: Ohio State plays Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl at 7:00 PM CST tonight. It will be televised on ESPN.

Huh?

"I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place where people stand outside, they're getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed by the atmosphere. And they say 'man, you're looking pretty.' "
George W. Bush — Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2004

We have a six pound leg of lamb roasting in the oven right now and it smells absolutely delicious! It has been in for an hour and has another hour to go. I cut little slits all over it and then pushed in little slivers of fresh cut garlic. I rubbed kosher salt, basil, and fresh ground black pepper over it before putting it in the oven.

I am going to steam some fresh broccoli and cauliflower and serve it with some hot melted cheese sauce. (I bought a double boiler just for this.)

After dinner we will watch I, Robot. If we finish that and still want to watch another movie we have the A Christmas Story DVD and will watch it with the director’s commentary turned on.

I think it is time for me to start cleaning and cutting the broccoli and cauliflower.

This summer I figured my mpg for one week and it worked out to 27 mpg.

I just figured it out for the past week, and because of the cold weather and some construction on my route to work I am only getting 24.5 mpg.

The Wife just forwarded an e-mail to me that was sent to her entire division where she is recognized for a project that saved the company almost $1 million!

I think I would feel weird using one of these in public.


[full story]

What did you hear at 4:00 AM this morning? I heard: "Good morning Aunt Sheri. Good morning Uncle Brad."

Yahoo announced the addition of real-time traffic information on all of their maps! Too cool.

This is a neat map that shows the major dialects of the United States.


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The NHL is in day 90 of a player lockout because they can't negotiate a contract with the player's union. They have had to cancel 414 regular-season games as well as the 2005 All-Star game.

I don't care if they drive the NHL into the ground. I liked the days of the small local hockey teams like the Toledo Goaldiggers (isn't that a cool name?) or the Columbus Chill (isn't that a stupid name?). Everyone could afford to go to a game, and the games were much more intimate and exciting. The players played because of a true love for the game.

There are only eleven times in history when the "F" word has been considered acceptable for use. They are as follows:

11. "What the fuck do you mean we are sinking?"
--Capt. E.J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912

10. "What the fuck was that?"
--Mayor of Hiroshima, 1945

9. "Where did all those fucking Indians come from?"
--Custer, 1877

8. "Any fucking idiot could understand that."
--Einstein, 1938

7. "It does so fucking look like her!"
--Picasso, 1926

6. "How the fuck did you work that out?"
--Pythagoras, 126 BC

5. "You want WHAT on the fucking ceiling?"
--Michelangelo

4. "Where the fuck are we?"
--Christopher Columbus, 1492

3. "Scattered fucking showers, my ass!"
--Noah, 4314 BC

2. "Aw c'mon. Who the fuck is going to find out?"
--Bill Clinton, 1998

1. "Geez, I didn't think they'd get this fucking mad."
--Sadaam Hussein, 2003

"This is the day the world changes."
--John Wilkin, University of Michigan

This is so cool! I can barely contain myself.

Google is going to start scanning books from major libraries and make them freely available on the web. The full text of books no longer under copyright will be fully available. Books still under copyright will only have a page or two displayed; similar to what you are able too see when you read excerpts of books from Amazon.com.

The libraries lined up so far are:

Michigan University (all 7,000,000 books; estimated to take 6 years)
Stanford University (all books)
Oxford University (all books published prior to 1901)
Harvard University (40,000 of their 15,000,000 books to test the process)
The New York Public Library (only a small portion of books no longer under copyright)

This is strange. We ordered our dishwasher last night (bisque by the way), and because we are having it installed, there is no sales tax on the dishwasher! I have heard of the labor not being taxed, but I guess they can lump the whole purchase as a service and the dishwasher is just a component of the service.

So at 7.5% sales tax we saved an additional $34. The dishwasher was on sale for $70 off, and there is a $35 mail in rebate for the installation. Yeah us!

Useless bit of Brad trivia: My favorite telephony term is "dark fiber". I think it sounds kind of mysterious.

Why would I be familiar with that term? The first 12 years of my career were spent in the telecom departments of national and international banks.

I would estimate that over 99% of the population doesn't know how to pronounce "telephony". A postcard in your name will be on its way if you leave me a voicemail pronouncing it correctly.

This petition has been initiated by Consumer Reports. I just added my name. Will you please add your name as well? Thanks.
-Brad

---------------------

Do you remember when they found a mad cow in Washington state last December? Well it could happen again and we might have no way of knowing which meat is safe to buy and which isn’t.

That’s why I just sent a message to the US Dept of Agriculture to reform the recall policy that’s leaving us all at risk. Send your free letter to Secretary Veneman now by clicking on the link below.

http://cu.convio.net/nimf

Even if meat or poultry has been identified as potentially contaminated, the USDA does not have the authority to recall the food or to require the meat producers and processors to come forward once their products are proven to be contaminated.

Shockingly, the USDA has a policy of keeping the names of retailers selling potentially contaminated meat secret from the public. Whose side is the USDA on?!

This secrecy threatens our health. Please join me in speaking out against it by clicking the link below to send your letter now.

http://cu.convio.net/nimf

Then forward this message to all your friends and family and ask them to do the same.

Thanks for your help.

I think this is the dishwasher for us. It is either Sears model #17032 (white) or #17034 (bisque).

It is regularly $519, but there is a $70 sale until 12/18/04 which brings the price down to $449.

This is only from on-line research only, so it still has to pass our in-person inspection, but I think it is just what I am looking for. Maybe we will even go to the store tonight to order it.

We still have to decide between white and bisque though. What do you think?

White


Bisque

Thanks Jake and Greta for the Bosch dishwasher endorsements. Consumer Reports rated them as the number one performer, however, as you can see from the graph, almost 15% of Bosch machines bought between 1998 and 2003 required repair service. I'll cross my fingers that your machines are in the 85% group!

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Sheri has January 7 off of work, and we need a new dishwasher, so we are going to order one to be installed for that day. That gives me a couple weeks to do my research and figure out where to buy it.

I always like to start off my analyzing past repair histories for brands. The two dishwasher brands with the best repair histories are Whirlpool in first place and Kenmore in second. Surprisingly KitchenAid placed third from last. Surprising because they are made my Whirlpool and their other products are usually fairly reliable. We have a KitchenAid washer and dryer and have not had a lick of trouble with either of them in over 11 years.

The latest Consumer Reports ratings have a Kenmore in the number 4 slot. Units from Bosch and Siemens are in the first through third positions, but I don’t like their repair histories. So I guess it is going to be a Kenmore.

The main feature I am interested in is a unit that heats the water. To sterilize dishes, the dishwasher requires the hottest water in the house. Keeping 50 gallons of water hot just for dishes is a waste of energy. If the dishwasher can heat the water to the required temperature on its own, you can set the hot water heater back to an appropriate level for the washing machine and showering and hand washing.

A plastic tub (rather than stainless steel) is fine with me, and I think a built in garbage grinder and self cleaning filter is just something to break in a few years. The only thing left to choose then is the interior rack configuration and the exterior appearance. I know I don’t want a stainless steel exterior. That just always looks dirty from finger prints. I guess white is the most neutral and easy to match.

I love my Senseo coffee maker but am a little tired with my decaf coffee choices. The "official" coffee pods to be used with the Senseo machines are from the huge Dutch coffee roaster Douwe Egberts.

Black & Decker make a compatible system called Home Café. The have aligned with Folgers and Millstone to make their coffee pods.

It's very good coffee, but wish I had more choice, especially for decaf. I think Starbucks (or Lavazza, or Dunkin Donuts, etc.) would clean up if they sold some of their coffee in pod format.

And what about small roasters? This would be ideal It would love it if they could "podize" their own coffee. I miss Stauf's coffee in Columbus and would love to have some of their SWP (Swiss Water Process) decaf burping from my Senseo machine.

I think it would also be neat if they made a kit that would let you make pods at home with your own fresh ground coffee.

If my Senseo broke I would replace it, but not necessarily with another Senseo. I would seriously consider one of the European machines (right) that grind fresh beans one cup at a time. I think they start in the $300 to $500 range and go up to $2,000, but I have really loved being able to have a single good cup of coffee on a moments notice. (If I didn't replace it with an expensive European machine I would get another Senseo though.)

I am really close to getting some really neat new software called Maplex installed on my PC to aid in cartography. It is an add-on to ArcEditor and will make labeling easier and more automated. Labeling is one of the most time consuming things involved in creating a good map.

This page has three Flash animations you can click on to see the interface of the software and get a little insight into how maps are constructed. Each demo is only a couple minutes long. There is a narrator talking you through it, so make sure you have your sound on.

Jennifer and Sheri. This is right in front of the restaurant where we had dinner in China Town. Jennifer just bought the hat earlier in the evening and was having fun wearing it around.

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Waiting for our dinner in China Town.

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Matt took this picture of us at the Beverly Rd subway stop in Brooklyn. I really like the picture.

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RIP Fred Beier



Mr. Beier was one of the teachers at St. John's High School that made St. John's, St. John's. He taught me to drive. [more]

There is a New York phenomena of hot dog and papaya juice restaurants. The two biggest and best ones are Gray's Papaya and Papaya King. What a weird combination to become a genre.

I tried a dog and cup of juice from Gray's. It was great! No fries. No burgers. No Cokes. Nothing else besides hot dogs and papaya juice.

I put this on my recommended places to go to when visiting New York.

I need a Katz's pastrami. Right now!

Grand Central Station.

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What the Beverley Road subway station in Brooklyn looks like at 6:00 PM on a Sunday. We went into Manhattan for some dinner and walking around. The subway is always full no matter what time of day or night. Amazing.

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Guess what this is?

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And yet more Times Square.

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More Times Square.

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Times Square.

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Ice skating at Roc Center.

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That is Sheri on the left and Jay on the right. This is early Saturday morning. We are walking to John's Bakery in Brooklyn for some coffee and breakfast.

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This is the view of Manhattan from the subway as we crossed the East River on the Manhattan Bridge.

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St. Patrick's Cathedral on Saturday.

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We took the Staten Island Ferry today. It was misting and cold, but we got a nice view of the Stature of Liberty. The ferry ride is free. We rode over and turned around and came back. It takes about 30 minutes each way.

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Another view of inside Katz's Deli from our table.

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Katz's Deli in Manahattan. The BEST pastrami sandwich I have ever had. This is their wall of salami. Katz's is where they filmed that famous seen in "Where Harry Met Sally."

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Made it home safe from a nice extended weekend in Brooklyn. Exhausted. Going to shower to wash the airport off of me and go to bed. Details from our trip to follow.

We have not seen ANY goldfinches at our sock feeder in probably a month.

In one month, on January 1, the standard toll on the Illinois Tollway, will double from $0.40 to $0.80 every 15 miles if you pay with cash.

The toll will not increase if you use the automated iPass system.

If you want to avoid the increase when you visit us, as well as to reduce the time it takes to drive on the Tollway, you can order an iPass unit even if you live out of state. There is no cost for the unit, just a $10 depost. The drive time is quicker because they have special iPass lanes where you do not have to stop to pay a toll.

I just got done sending the picture I just posted of Sheri to the Wal-Mart website. I will be able to pick up a 4" x 6" print at our local store in a day or two for only $0.20. I will let you know how the quality is.

They also offer:

5 x 7 for $0.96
8 x 10 for $2.76

I think I can also send prints to more than one store, so you might get an e-mail from me one day telling you to go to your local Wal-Mart to pick up a print!

I took this picture tonight while we were at a friend's house tonight for dinner. She cooked us a really good butternut squash soup and we watched "The Incredibles". A nice evening.

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Thanksgiving in Grand Rapids, MI at Tim and Lisa's.

I have been to 11 countries.

I have been to 21 states!

We are going to go to Wal-Mart tonight to buy A Christmas Story and then go to dinner at Golden Corral. I can do pretty good there, diabetic-control-wise, if I stick to just the salad bar side of the restaurant.

On Sunday I made 3.5 pounds of bread dough, let it rise twice, and then formed them into a dozen 4.6 ounce rolls (quarter pounders!), and stuck them in the freezer.

On Thanksgiving Day all I will have to do is remove them from the freezer and place on a cookie sheet to thaw and rise. I think that should only take about two hours, and then bake them for 15 minutes or so, and voila, my famous fresh bread.

I normally don't add sugar to my bread, but since my little yeasticles will be cold during their final rise, I added two tablespoons to give them a little life.

I had about three ounces of dough left over, so I made a roll and baked it in our toaster oven. Turned out great. I haven't made my hard rolls since I became diabetic. I haven't lost my touch if I do say so myself. Even in the toaster oven it was very good. Crunchy crust. Chewy center. Of course I used King Arthur flour. My favorite.

I don't really use a recipe. I put three cups of COLD water in my Kitchen Aid mixer, 1 tablespoon of yeast, and 1.5 tablespoons of kosher salt. I then turn on the mixer with the mixing paddle and start adding flour until it gets too stiff to mix. This takes about 6 cups worth.

I then take out the paddle and insert the dough hook. I start it up and keep adding flour until it looks right and the dough "walks" around the bowl. That's it! I will let it rise a couple of times and then form it into loaves, rolls, pizza dough, etc.

Using cold-water means it takes much longer to rise, but the taste, texture, and crust is much much better. Very similar to sour dough but without the sourness.

How cool! I want one in my neighborhood.

I like burning real cord wood in our fireplace, but for whatever reason I have not had any delivered since we have moved to Chicago. We normally just keep some artificial logs on hand for when we want a fire. They are very convenient. On a cold night we can have a fire going on a moments notice.

For the Ohio State vs. Michigan game today I wanted a fire but we are out of artificial logs, so while I was running a couple pre-game errands I stopped by Menard’s to pick up a case.

The 6 pound logs are about $2 a piece, which makes a 48 pound case of 8 logs $16.

Right next to the artificial logs they had the wood pellets for the wood pellet burning stoves. A 40 pound bag of pellets was only $3.50!

All the way home I was thinking about this price discrepancy. I got to thinking about burning the pellets in a regular fireplace and how to do it. After a while I did some Google searches and found an insert designed to let you burn pellets in a regular fireplace. No modifications or installation was needed either. The only problem is that it costs $250!

I was doing some more thinking and decided I could make the same thing. At half time I ran back to the store and bought that bag of wood pellets and a 3' x 5' roll of 23 gauge ¼” steel mesh.

I cut a square piece of mesh about three feet on each side, and then folded it in half. I formed it into a flat bottomed trough and then set it right on the fireplace grate.

I dumped two coffee cans worth of pellets into the trough and it is burning great!

I will let you know if it is a viable option to artificial logs, but so far it seems like a winner.

I have to get back to the game. There are 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter and Ohio State is ahead 34 to 21! The Buckeyes were 5 point under dogs going into the game.

I was looking over our financial and tax records this morning, and just for fun I plotted both of our annual incomes since 1991. Over this 12 year period Sheri has averaged about a 20% raise per year, and I have averaged about a 15% raise per year.

What the?

Everything was going just fine until picture number four.

I was taken out to lunch today to a place called La Zaza Trattoria. It was recommended that I have the whitefish that came in a light lemon sauce with capers, and a side of fire roasted spinach.

Both were excellent, but I was especially impressed with the fire roasted spinach. It has a slight smoky taste and I could see a few charred spots here and there. Each individual leaf still had texture, but it was definitely not crunchy. It was flavored with garlic, salt, and olive oil and/or butter from what I could tell.

I was so impressed I asked the waiter how they prepare it. They must get asked a lot because he said it was a Zaza's secret. I asked him again later and he still wouldn't say.

OK, not a big deal. I will just do a Google search and find 1,000 recipes. The search "fire roasted spinach" returns exactly two results, and both from the same web site; and they are not recipes.

I think I will buy some fresh spinach and give it a try.

I think if I just put fresh dry spinach on the grill it would dry up and burn.

I think I will try soaking the leaves in ice water for a while and then tossing them on a hot grill. I think I will also try tossing the leaves in olive oil first and then grilling.

I will add garlic, salt, and seasoning, etc. after I remove it from the grill.

If anyone nearby wants to try it and see if they can come up with a recipe, the address is:

La Zaza Trattoria
5 South First Street
St Charles, IL 60174

The first right answer gets an antique reproduction postcard!

Chicago gets 90% of its precipitation from what body of water?

Greta came in late yesterday afternoon for a visit. Her and Sheri went and picked up a Lou Malnati's mushroom and pepperoni pizza and the movie The Stepford Wives. We ate pizza, watched the movie, and went to bed. The movie was decent. Clever, but not the best movie of the year. Overall I would say go ahead and rent it.

The two of them just took off a little bit ago for shopping, shopping, and maybe a little more shopping.

My list for the day is:

• Go to the store to buy milk to make yogurt
• Make yogurt
• Clean the aquarium
• Update router software (just did that)
• Storm window on front door
• Engage built-in storm windows on upstairs windows
• Pay some bills and go through mail

Yesterday I applied the fifth and final application of lawn fertilizer for the year. I got the fertilizer at Menard's, and I was reading the information on the back of the bag and it sounds like this company only supplies fertilizer to Menard's and to commercial operations like golf courses and parks. I don't know if that is a selling point or not, but I guess I will see how things look in the spring.

The first step in getting my contract approved at the county will be this Friday (11/19) at the Transportation Committee meeting. If that goes well it will be presented at the County Board meeting in early December. Everything looks like a go, but keep your fingers crossed just in case.

Latest flu activity map. Keep washing those hands!

Do you think when Claudia Schiffer was growing up other kids called her "Schiffer brains"?

i crack myself up sometimes

These pictures suck; I could draw pictures much better.

I am better than your kids.

This is a direct result of the huge fines the FCC imposed on the Janet Jackson Super Bowl hubbub. I am sure the cable industry is licking their chops in this dumbing down of American broadcast television.

Many ABC affiliates around the country have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission. [full story]

Cool! 100 pictures that define this hour. 10 x 10

Another recognition award for Sheri at work!

You have been recognized as a Leader. If your manager was not copied on this e-mail, please forward to him/her.

Recognition Date: 11/09/2004

Recognized By: Janet Xxxxxx

Improved a customer/client/associate experience by:
Sheri consistently provides excellent service. She has responded to a number of my Unix problems from rebooting servers to investigating network problems. It is a true comfort when I hear that Sheri will be handling my issue because I know I'll be getting:

- a technical expert
- extremely responsive service
- and very courteous follow-up.

She's a true asset to the Bank and a living example of Higher Standards.

I think I am going to give this a try this weekend.

I actually wrote this to post Sunday, but the blogger website was having problems.

I made an awesome batch of homemade yogurt Friday night. I let it incubate for about 11 hours, so it has a nice strong sour taste. Sheri is going to use some of it tonight to make her famous spinach pies. Mmmm…..

They say if you are lactose intolerant or eat yogurt because of the active yogurt culture, it is better to eat homemade yogurt rather than store-bought. Store-bought is probably only incubated about four hours, so the culture does not have as much time to convert the lactose. Directly related to this, the longer you let it incubate, the more culture the yogurt will contain.

I did a lot of yard work today. Raked leaves to the curb. Cut the grass. Emptied the potting soil from the disposable hanging pots that had annuals and through them away. Wound up hoses, took in sprinklers, nozzles, stuff like that. I also topped off the tire pressure on both of the cars.

Sheri went to get her haircut while I was doing that. She brought back a skewer of lamb kabob from a middle eastern place near her stylists. Mmmm…. I think I like lamb better than beef. Her hair looks cute. She got it cut short to give her hair more fullness.

After I clean up we are going to watch one of the movies that we have in (The Hunting Of The President, or Johnson Family Vacation) and then later in the evening watch the new episode of The Simpsons.

I thought I would have a fun little contest to see who loves me the most! The first one to buy me this camera wins!

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission [over New Jersey] strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition... [full story]

insert joke here about new passionate conservatism

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." – George W. Bush

I think he just spent about half of it making a hubris-filled statement like that.

Listening to Situation by Yaz brings back incredibly good memories of drinking cold cheap beer from a 2.5 gallon bucket with friends in a loud, dark, smoky college bar.

This is how our biggest allies, the Brits, feel about things.

I can't wait for these to be released next year!

I have the Rush Limbaugh Show on my radio at work, and he is playing Kerry's concession speech. Instead of just letting Kerry have his final 10 minutes with a little dignity, Rush is inserting little jabs and making fun of him throughout the speech. Classy.

I kind of half feel like making witty comments about how Bush is going to continue screwing with our civil rights, economy, etc., but the other half of me is just plain weary of the chase. Besides, if over half the population thinks he is the best thing for the country, maybe I am just missing something. I will get behind him, but at the same time continue to keep an ever vigilant eye on everything his administration does.

God bless America.

If it's any consolation, just remember that wise old cowboy saying: "You should not change horses mid-apocalypse."

I'm going to bed.

It looks weird, but I wish the networks would have used a proportional map based on electoral votes when displaying which state each candidate won. If I had been on the ball I would have made one myself and updated it through out the night. This map is just a hypothetical one done by someone before the election. I couldn't find one with current results.

First Batch of Exit Polls!

	AZ	CO	LA	MI	WI	PA	OH	FL	MI	NM	MN	WI	IA	NH
Kerry	45	48	42	51	52	60	52	51	51	50	58	52	49	57
Bush	55	51	57	48	48	40	48	48	47	48	40	43	49	41
				3	4	20	4	3	4	2	18	9		16

If Kerry is ahead, the last row is how many points ahead he is for a state.

Update on the Philedelphia voting machines:

It seems the machines have counters in the back of them that don't count the number of votes but how many times the voting machines have been used in an election. So there is no voter fraud in Philadelphia.

I think the previous Philadelphia story was a false alarm.

Arggggg!!!!!

Before voting even began in Philadelphia -- poll watchers found nearly 2000 votes already planted on machines scattered throughout the city.

One incident occurred at the SALVATION ARMY, 2601 N. 11th St., Philadelphia, Pa: Ward 37, division 8... pollwatchers uncovered 4 machines with planted votes; one with over 200 and one with nearly 500.

A second location, 1901 W. Girard Ave., Berean Institute, Philadelphia, Pa, had 300+ votes already on 2 machines at start of day.

INCIDENT: 292 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 7/7: ADDRESS: 122 W. Erie Ave., Roberto Clemente School, Philadelphia, PA

INCIDENT: 456 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 12/3; ADDRESS: 5657 Chew Ave., storefront, Philadelphia, PA.

A gun was purposely made visible to scare poll watchers at Ward 30, division 11, at 905 S. 20th St., Grand Court. Police were called and surrounded the location.

In Chicago the rule is "Vote early. Vote often."

We are having sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph right now!

chuckle

Just so we know who we are dealing with...

I just received one of those hoax e-mails that incorrectly tries to attribute something awful to John Kerry, John Edwards, the Democrats, the liberals, etc. In this case it was saying that John Edwards indirectly caused the flu vaccine shortage because of a lawsuit he brought against an American flu vaccine manufacturer in the '80's.

Here are multiple sources disproving the story:

Snopes
about.com
TruthOrFiction.com

One point lead over the incumbent three days before the election? Victory! Victory!

If you thought the campaign was dirty and ugly, I predict that post-election will be even worse.

At least Bush doesn't try to manipulate the facts to make himself....oh, never mind.


[story]

I do feel safer that Bush immediatly went into Afghanistan after 9/11 and took care of Osama Bi.... oh, never mind.


[story]

Liar liar pants on fire!

A senior scientist at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that is an international authority on image analysis prepared these images. (I guess NASA is going to lose a lot of funding if Bush gets reelected!)

You can read the whole store here.

Dear ESRI User Community:

The U.S. elections are quickly approaching, and we want to tell you about an exciting project that ESRI has been working on with CBS Evening News. ESRI has created a vast collection of demographic and results maps that are scheduled to be displayed several times during election night by correspondent John Roberts. On November 2, you can tune in to CBS to see many firsts for geographic information systems (GIS) and TV media such as:

• First use of GIS to report U.S. presidential election results on election night
• First maps showing up-to-the-minute county-level results
• First maps showing results in 3D
• First maps showing detailed demographics

The election maps highlight the use of ArcGIS 9 in the following ways:

• We used the new geoprocessing tools for data processing.
• We will use ArcGlobe to show which presidential candidate is leading in each county by extruding the polygons as the votes come in. We will stitch the frames together to form an animation.
• Enhanced cartographic tools gave us out-of-the-box TV quality maps.
• ArcGIS Engine will enable us to generate hundreds of maps each hour on election night. In the past few weeks, we used ArcGIS Engine to generate thousands of demographic maps.

Visit www.esri.com/elections to learn more about how GIS is used to support election mapping.

This is the software I use everyday! Yeah GIS!

ArcGIS 9 will be used to visualize the U.S. Presidential Election voting results during the election evening coverage on November 2. John Roberts, a correspondent for CBS Evening News, will use ArcGIS 9-based maps several times during the evening broadcast.

I interviewed for a Customer Engineer position yesterday at a professional mapping company providing clients throughout the United States with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), tax parcel maps, digital aerial orthophotography, soil computation, tax map atlases and a variety of special services. Our firm provides GIS solutions that fulfill the mapping requirements of both government agencies and the private sector.

Aerial of the University of Toledo.

[click for larger image]

It looks like this will be a huge part of what I will be doing next year, and probably a good part of 2006.

I idolize Jon Stewart.

I just heard with my own ears Rev. Falwell, in regards to terrorists, say “we should blow them all away in the name of the Lord!”

It was at 12:43 PM CDT on CNN’s Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer.

Excerpts from the results of a national survey. Amazing! [full story]

Supporters of President Bush are less knowledgeable about the president's foreign policy positions and are more likely to be mistaken about factual issues in world affairs than voters who back John F. Kerry, a survey released yesterday indicated.

A large majority of self-identified Bush voters polled believe Saddam Hussein provided "substantial support" to Al Qaeda, and 47 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the US invasion. Among the president's supporters, 57 percent queried think international public opinion favors Bush's reelection, and 51 percent believe that most Islamic countries support "US-led efforts to fight terrorism."
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The polls results, said Steven Kull, the head of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the survey, showed that Americans are so polarized two weeks before the election that many lack even a common understanding of the facts.
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On other international issues, the survey found that around 70 percent of Bush supporters responding believe that the president supports participation in the land mine treaty and the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, and a narrower majority believes he supports the International Criminal Court and Kyoto Accords. In fact, Bush opposes all four treaties.
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Kull said it is common for voters to tailor their views on particular issues to those of the candidate they favor overall, but the extent to which Bush supporters are filtering out news from Iraq that might reflect poorly on the president is unprecedented.
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And many of the Bush voters surveyed knew that the Duelfer report said Hussein had no WMDs, but continue to believe that he did regardless.

Kull suggested the dissonance among Bush voters reflects the country's difficulty coming to grips with the discrediting of the rationale for the Iraq war.

"This period will really stand out as when the US went to war on assumptions that turned out to be incorrect," he said. "The body politic is still struggling to come to terms with that."

This is where Mom and Dad keep their boat now.

To zoom in and out of these pictures look to the left side of the screen under the compass rose. Click the "-" button to zoom out, and the "+" to zoom in. You can also zoom in by just clicking on the picture. I already have them zoomed in as far as you can go, so when you first get to the pictures you can only zoom out.

This is an aerial photograph of the area on the Ottawa River in Toledo where we docked our boat when I was growing up. Our docks where the single row that extends out into the river and is directly south of the largest complex of docks, which was River View Yacht Club. Our club was called the Jolly Roger Sailing Club.

The first only utility-scale wind farm in Illinois is about an hour's drive west of us. It is called Mendota Hills Wind Farm, and they have 63 wind turbines. The height of the hub of each turbine is 213 feet. The rotors have a diameter of 171 feet, which means the total height of each turbine is 298.5 feet, which is about the height of a 30 story building. This farm produces enough power for about 15,000 homes. I think I would like to take a day-trip there to take some pictures. I think this is very close to Dixon, Il which is where Ronald Reagon grew up. That could be interesting too.

Don't you hate it when you try to lick the jam from a knife and you cut yourself?

I think Jon Stewart started it and set the tone by calling them hacks, but it was disappointing that a comedian could get under the skin of supposedly world class CNN commentators.

I think it is very telling in the country that what could technically be the most conservative organization in the US, the ACLU, has been successfully portrayed politically as extreme liberal.

The reason for this is people assume traditional conservativism and the current Republican party both stand for the same thing. They do not.

"Guinea pig: it's what's for dinner."


A super guinea pig with her litter looks on at Agrarian University in Lima, Peru on Friday, Oct. 15, 2004. After 34 years of patient tinkering, researchers at Peru's most prestigious agrarian university have bred a new culinary export they hope will scamper onto dinner plates throughout America and the world: the super guinea pig.

[They definitely need to work on their catch phrase.]

If a politician says he/she is "personally opposed to abortion, but supports a woman's right to choose," incurs automatic excommunication from the church, shouldn't the same be true if a politician supports the death penalty?

[full story]

The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military's medical corps. [full story]

Bush did say that he would not draft soldiers. He didn't say anything about doctors and nurses!

"...The combination of the vaccine shortage, more than 80 million Americans at high risk of flu complications, and a nationwide emergency department crowding crisis, means America's emergency physicians and nurses are faced with the prospect of the 'perfect storm' -- a surge of critically ill flu patients and no resources to care for them..."

[full story]

Everyone that has seen Team America: World Police has said it is the funniest movie of the year, or maybe even ever.

[official site]

I am admittedly not much of a baseball fan, but I don't understand how anyone can get excited about the New York Yankees. From what I know about baseball (I could be wrong, so please correct me if I am.) the Yankees have the highest payroll of any other team. Therefore all of the best players that the Yankees want are going to get hired there.

So to me watching the Yankees would be like watching the Chicago Bears play the Ohio State Buckeyes. If the Bears win, big deal; what did you expect. If they lose it is such a pathetic embarrassment.

Please agree or disagree with me, and if you disagree, please explain why I am wrong.

(P.S. No Bears or Buckeyes jokes.)

Sheri's doctor wants her to take an enormous (in RDA, not in physical size) B12 supplement. I was reading the bottle and one pill has 16,667% of the RDA of B12! That means that only three tablets provide an entire years worth of B12.

So I looked up B12 and it turns out I think I agree with her doc. I think I will start taking one of these every day as well. Below is what I found. (I have bolded what I thought were the most important points in case you want to skim, Lisa.)

==================

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is an important water-soluble vitamin. In contrast to other water-soluble vitamins it is not excreted quickly in the urine, but rather accumulates and is stored in the liver, kidney and other body tissues. As a result, a vitamin B12 deficiency may not manifest itself until after 5 or 6 years of a diet supplying inadequate amounts. Vitamin B12 functions as a methyl donor and works with folic acid in the synthesis of DNA and red blood cells and is vitally important in maintaining the health of the insulation sheath (myelin sheath) that surrounds nerve cells. The classical vitamin B12 deficiency disease is pernicious anaemia, a serious disease characterized by large, immature red blood cells. It is now clear though, that a vitamin B12 deficiency can have serious consequences long before anaemia is evident. The normal blood level of vitamin B12 ranges between 200 and 600 picogram/milliliter (148-443 picomol/liter).

A deficiency often manifests itself first in the development of neurological dysfunction that is almost indistinguishable from senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There is little question that many patients exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's actually suffer from a vitamin B12 deficiency. Their symptoms are totally reversible through effective supplementation. A low level of vitamin B12 has also been associated with asthma, depression, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, tinnitus, diabetic neuropathy and low sperm counts. Clearly, it is very important to maintain adequate body stores of this crucial vitamin.

The amount of vitamin B12 actually needed by the body is very small, probably only about 2 micrograms or 2 millionth of a gram/day. Unfortunately, vitamin B12 is not absorbed very well so much larger amounts need to be supplied through the diet or supplementation. The richest dietary sources of vitamin B12 are liver, especially lamb's liver, and kidneys. Eggs, cheese and some species of fish also supply small amounts, but vegetables and fruits are very poor sources. Several surveys have shown that most strict, long-term vegetarians are vitamin B12 deficient. Many elderly people are also deficient because their production of the intrinsic factor needed to absorb the vitamin from the small intestine decline rapidly with age.

Fortunately, oral supplementation with vitamin B12 is safe, efficient and inexpensive. Most multi-vitamin pills contain 100-200 microgram of the cyanocobalamin form of B-12. This must be converted to methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin before it can be used by the body. The actual absorption of B12 is also a problem with supplements. Swallowing 500 micrograms of cyanocobalamin can result in absorption of as little as 1.8 microgram so most multivitamins do not provide an adequate daily intake. The best approach is to dissolve a sublingual tablet of methylcobalamin (1000 micrograms) under the tongue every day. That will be sufficient to maintain adequate body stores. However, if a deficiency is actually present then 2000 microgram/day for one month is recommended followed by 1000 microgram/day. Some physicians still maintain that monthly injections of vitamin B12 is required to maintain adequate levels in the elderly and in patients with a diagnosed deficiency. There is however, no scientific evidence supporting the notion that injections are more effective than sublingual supplementation.

This is a picture I took yesterday of a goldfinch eating thistle from our thistle sock. Notice how he is not gold right now. They turn this color in the fall and winter. In the spring and summer they are as bright yellow as a canary. Very fun!

[click for larger image]

Last Sunday in Toledo we went to the Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival. After the festival we stopped at the Isacc Ludwig Mill. It is a working lumber mill and a grist mill. I bought four pounds of freshly milled flour for only $2! Yesterday I made bread dough with it. I let it rise for a few hours, punching it down two or three times. After the last punch down before bed I put it in the fridge.

I will take it out of the fridge soon and let it rise for one or two more punch downs and then bake it. I find that I get a much better, and more complex, tasting loaf of bread when I let it proof for a long time. The texture, crust, and flavor all improve dramatically. Kind of like sourdough bread without the sour taste.

This link will take you to an aerial photograph of the Grand Rapids area and the the mill. The mill is on the north side of the river and west of the bridge. There is a little notch in the river's edge just south of the mill. This is where water that has just come through the mill's turbine exits into the river.

There is a canal on the north side of the river. The canal is higher than the river, and it is this difference in water height that runs the mill. There is also a mule drawn canal boat the operates on the canal and goes through one of the locks. Neat stuff.

This is the mill looking south. The water on the right side of the picture is the canal. It goes under the mill, turns a turbine, and exits into the river.


Same picture but showing more of the canal.


This is looking north at the mill from the river. You can see the area under the mill where the water enters the river. The first floor is the lumber mill. The second floor is the grist mill. Third story I think just holds machinery, belts, etc. Kind of like an elevator shaft.


Grinding Through Time - The Historic Isaac Ludwig Mill
A short article about the mill and its history.