Tag Archives: family

8926 – Tuesday

Tricycle’s Daily Dharma:

The Theory of Karma

The theory of karma should not be confused with so-called “moral justice” or “reward and punishment.” The idea of moral justice, or reward and punishment, arises out of the conception of a supreme being, a God, who sits in judgment, who is a law-giver and who decides what is right and wrong. The term “justice” is ambiguous and dangerous, and in its name more harm than good is done to humanity. The theory of karma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward and punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law. This is not difficult to understand. But what is difficult is that, according to karma theory, the effects of a volitional action may continue to manifest themselves even in a life after death.

–Walpola Rahula

If you click this link you can read all about Jon Lovitz’s recent beating of the tar out of Andy Dick. (Karma? Nah.)

Tonight, BHK and Amy picked me up after almost being squashed like bugs with hair in ponytails by the Father-in-law’s poorly planned car-moving scheme. Fortunately, they were neither compressed under tons of steel and rubber, nor were they kneecapped by a renegade trailer careening off into the next world. I think that if the MiL finds out, poor FiL is going to get quite an earful.

We journeyed off to the Giant-man store (no relation to Hank Pym ) and I got a 2 pair of Deer Stags, one in brown and one in black. That should take care of wardrobe for a bit. They seem pretty comfortable – I hope they last a bit longer than my usual wear and tear.

After that, BHK, Amy and I all went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix linked, in case you haven’t heard of it, dear journal. Taken on its own, I liked it. Of course, when I read the book, I thought it was in dire need of editing, and parsing it down to a movie script seems to have done a good job of trimming the fat. My biggest complaint is that it seems that the thespian playing Hermione has forgotten most of her acting lessons.

Off to Johnny Rockets for burger and fries – I like that they’ll do any of the stuff they have in a boca burger. It’s seldom that I can get a double cheeseburger with the works when I’m out. Bonus – Movie stubs got us 20% off the bill. Bigger bonus – Amy paid the bill!

Yesterday, we unpacked a few things from the Salem house, including BHK’s old yearbook from 4th grade, and a lot of her drawings circa 5-yrs old, 10 yr old and points in between. I’m glad we got to keep ’em.

It rarely fails to surprise how much music can energize me. Thanks again for the summer mix, Matt!

1 year ago – movies, writing, housebound, heifer.org, king kong song, monday meeting, planetary mass comparisons, I doubt fate/design, lego jesus, oh don piano!

2 years ago – visited with constance1010 and tarpo, book meme, fanfic folks angry with original Harry Potter Author, zefrank’s sing-along, AIM email, bananaman

3 years ago – zombies, urine, veggies, pagerank test

4 years ago – celeb divorce, there-sales, batman movie, witch game, hulk’s diary

5 years ago – palm doodle-strip, lost hosted photos, crank yankers 80% sucks. Fortean times, F-ing Mongorians!

6 years ago – important people, ne plus ultra, anile, evil news, more majestic, now defunct Newton ICQ-bot

7 years ago – junky food, prepped April for launch, budgeting, hung out with bro, me no like stinky Geotarget

8923 – Saturday – Adam’s 18th!

Guests – Adam, Kendall, Jimmy, Adam’s Mom and Step-pop, Mr. King, Mr. Nelson, us. (Joey, Amanda, Sammy, Louise, et al., couldn’t make it for one reason or another.)

jimmy fireworks w/ adam & kendall . Adam and his mom, w/ kendall
Food du jour was good stuff… bhk made a cake with red Swedish fish and blue gummi sharks on it – celebrating little fish in a big pond transition for Adam and Jimmy away from high school, and on to the environs beyond. I got to do my standard grilling of the hot dogs, while BHK made some awesome mac & cheese, baked beans, chips & dip – Instead of ice cream scoops, folks that wanted ’em got Klondike bars of assorted types with the cake. (confetti-style sprinkles inside with a layer of red. I feel a bit bad that I didn’t get many good pictures this go ’round.) My Klondike of choice was strawberry cheesecake… yum.

We were a little disappointed at Mr. Nelson bringing alcohol with under agers in the batch, but aside from that, I think we all had a nice time… got a chance to set of fireworks left over form the 4th, and maybe created a little bit of peacemaking with Adam’s mom. Kendall was the most mature of the kids- even given that she’s going to be a Junior in high school, and everyone else has graduated.

I’m feeling really good lately. Not too creaky, and happy where I am mentally, emotionally, financially and spiritually. All things can improve, of course, but I’m doing AOK.

Sent my letter off to bro, with a pic of BHK and I on honeymoon at South of the Border – I think I’ll include one a letter, just to add 2000 words worth.
Moment of Lyric – America – Lonely People

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

This is for all the single people
Thinking that love has left them dry
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try

Well, I’m on my way
Yes, I’m back to stay
Well, I’m on my way back home (hit it)

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And never take you down or never give you up
You never know until you try

1 year ago – mixed bag day, newt pics-color filters, tp-roll shreds, outback with gg, toes poem, shiny superman pic,

2 years ago – RIP Scotty, bleeder likes my eyes, thumb drive apps, paper rocket, logo toy, taters, London transport

3 years ago – politics, monster poll, last time meme, job market

4 years ago – mah jongg, zombie movies

5 years ago – Visiting Danny, played Pokemon, orcs n the hood, reign of fire with Dave, beef recall

6 years ago – eremite, watched the sun come up, poll creation, why I trim, cooking poll

7 years ago – got the first LJ client, movie pondering Geotarget

8922 – Fridays 720

Free Online Dating

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

  • sex (5x)
  • death (3x)
  • corpse (2x)
  • semen (1x)

But… it was Turtle Semen/sex! It was the Corpse-plant that smelled of death! C’mon! Kids can handle it!

I counter with a pink tongue from a
Simpson’s movie doughnut, nabbed at 7-11
/ Kwik-e-mart about a week ago.
0709071946b.jpg - quick-e-mart tongue
I think that picture makes me look like I have a giant head and a tiny little tyrannosaurus arm. Perspective.

I’ve never seen so much spoiler-fear as I have for the latest Harry Potter book. People refusing to go online, switching off emails, refusing to watch TV. I imagine some folks have abandoned the phone, too. A side effect of living in the information age, I guess.

Last night’s dinner at Mexico was good, but the slowest it’s ever been. Alberto (the manager) say with us and was very apologetic… we like him, and kidded back and forth about his brother out chasing skirts and drinking margaritas on the beach at the moment. Mother in law wouldn’t let us pay all the way, but finally settled on using the money to take care of Tigger while MIL and FIL are in Salem this weekend. (Our weekend’s going to be pretty busy, give that we’re also watching Tina’s kitties, having a Birthday party of Adam, Going to Sushi with Cyn and preparing for Amy’s visit on Monday.)

In-laws are in Salem as of tonight, so they can get the house one last bit of spit and polish before the renters move in on the 27th. I fear they’ll be more trouble than they’re worth, but you never know… sometimes it can be handy to have someone on-site to keep track of things.

“For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are that you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.” — Andy Rooney

I’m pretty dang happy. Every day, some wonderful stuff happens. Added bonus, BHK gave me a lollipop for my info page today!Aw… that’s very sweet! (no pun intended). I love her very much… each day I wonder more and more how I lived with Newt and nobody else all those years. Pye and BHK make the perfect additions to our family-team.

Last night I dreamt that BHK and I were hunting mosquitoes for the blood they consumed. Somehow, that blood was purified of known toxins, and if injected back into the original human hosts, they’d be immunized against all blood-borne diseases. I don’t know why we were grabbing them and putting the bugs in brown paper bags, rather than some safer environment. I did know that you could just eat the bug and be cured, but we didn’t know how many of these particular mosquitoes existed, and if the effects could be reproduced.

I’m wondering if I’ll ever go to Walt Disney World again? I don’t live in Florida, and the concept of “manufactured/processed joy” seems very different than “pure joy” pulled directly from the environment. I can have a lot of fun in the Westworld-type controlled experiment sore of scene, but there’s a different vibe in simply walking around, taking in history, art and nature as it is. Considering that I’m not really up for roller coasters these days, I don’t know if a journey to the more calm rides make it worthwhile. Pirates of The Caribbean and Haunted Mansion will always hold a special place for me… even if it’s just because they’re dark rides and are wonderfully air-conditioned after walking in the Florida sun for a few hours. I suspect EPCOT Center or Busch Gardens is more my speed for theme parks now, rather than the Magic Kingdom… or perhaps I’d feel differently if we just went and had fun. For a long while now, I’ve preferred exploration of the world around me… both on walkabout by myself, and now on journeys with BHK. I’m not sure if it’s wrong that I’m more entertained by urban decay or aquariums than by singing puppets… just that my tastes have changed a bit. I like the irony of Disney’s The Prisoner /Truman Show “friendly fascism”-style of better living in a plastic world… thanks in no small part due to hidden underground tunnels and secret police… but I’m also more than a little creeped out by it, too. I take it back. I find it *more* interesting as a result my irrational paranoia. I’d still rather wander a natural forest than a theme park, but Disney’s weird overlord aspect could be pretty groovy. The Mouse is a not-so-shadowy figure pulling the puppet strings across the Florida landscape and beyond.

After work, we took a little trip to Aardvark’s and let ’em know about the Strategist. He was cool – mentioned that he may have some out of print ice towers stuff that he’d be happy to hook us up with. We’ll still need to get the treehouse die and pyramids book, but that’s a good launching point. Meanwhile, we picked up Chez Goth to fool with while Amy’s over.

Too full of ice cream to go to Fred’s place for 50’s diner stuff, we hit the grocery for tomorrow’s party supplies and then the in-laws to babysit with Tigger for a few hours and watched 13th Warrior… by the middle of the movie we were read for eats – pizza worked for us. Tigger was a little sweetie.

1 year ago – world jump day, world party, mom heading north, netflix wakes up, availabot, electric bill, stress and sleep

2 years ago – pics, singing fountain, atarax, google moon, charity paypal link, digg, hurricane emily, operation predators, fishstories, ID badge, random wifi

3 years ago – I Robot, working with wimmin, Operation Valkyrie, moon landing.

4 years ago – bro, monkey mummy, teen titans, moon landing hoaxes, animal sounds asring tones, hunting for bambi, newtcam, consumer reports condoms,awesome earth image, pancakes

5 years ago – bike name poll, palm doodles, planning to visit Danny with his busted leg

6 years ago – rough night, slake, ambisinister, voice activated tech, how far would you go poll

7 years ago – counting days, finished first Harry Potter, books I repeat read, abortive attempt to track intake Geotarget

8913 – Thursday

Neighborhood shakeup tonight at about 7pm – A minivan chasing another – apparently the second vehicle had 2-4 people inside with the side doors open and guns showing. The vehicle being chased was honking and swerving all over the place to avoid being shot.

BHK called 911, and the response time was *terrible*, and she was never questioned by the police for a report on the matter. I’ll be investigating that situation more tomorrow after work.

I’m just glad that she’s ok.


Random factoids and semi-specific things about people I know (or knew):

My brother is *really good* at shucking oysters. At least 4-5 times faster than me, or 2-ish times faster than anyone else I’ve ever met in the service industry.

My wife is a superb analyst, and can get to the core of a matter quite swiftly. She’s going to be an awesome lawyer. (and dangerous gamer)

Steve Jacoby has some beautiful children, and has the makings for a pretty cool dad.

Tina keeps a lovely home… everything is crisp and neat, even with a pair of kitties, a bunch of birds, and living the software company lifestyle.

Bruce can make me misty with just a bowl of cheerios .

Ray has a very real skill at blending words and experience into story.

Kathleen has a great memory, to the point of us calling her queen index when we were gaming. If she doesn’t have knowledge, she can find it fast.

Cyn has a fantastic skill at illustration, both on paper and skin.

Doug Wu has a near encyclopedic knowledge of comics from the silver age. Knows more than anyone else I’ve ever met.

Danny is a mill that grinds slowly, but exceedingly fine. He’s a living example of “the devil is in the details.”

Father-in-law is loved by everyone he meets. *Nobody*, and I mean *nobody* has anything sideways to say about him. That’s amazing.. and due to him.

Mother-in-law is a superb cook. Some wicked good queso, for example.

Mother is a master multitasker. I’ve never seen her with too much on her plate.

Wilton is an excellent carpenter – can put all manner of stuff together with quality and speed.


Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write “all night” and “Meteors!” Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won’t miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.


LONDON (Reuters) – Lawyers and judges are to break with centuries-old tradition and cease wearing horse-hair wigs of white fake curls in non-criminal cases, the head of the country’s judiciary announced on Thursday.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, said new dress rules would mean the requirement for the wigs, which legal professionals have worn since the 17th century, would not be needed in civil or family court cases.

Wing collars and bands can also be dispensed with in such cases according to the reforms, while judges will need just one gown in future instead of a variety of colourful outfits currently required.
The wigs will still be worn in criminal courts.

“At present High Court judges have no less than five different sets of working dress, depending on the jurisdiction in which they are sitting and the season of the year,” Phillips said in a statement.
“After widespread consultation it has been decided to simplify this.”

A review carried out in 2003 found that more than two thirds of respondents wanted to eliminate the wigs in civil cases, although most said criminal court judges should still wear them.

Opponents of wigs thought they were anachronistic, as well as uncomfortable and expensive.

A shoulder-length ceremonial wig costs more than 1,500 pounds while the shorter ones worn by lawyers cost about 400 pounds each.

However, the idea of abolishing them has been met with disapproval from some lawyers who feel the wigs give them an air of authority as well as anonymity.

“While there will never be unanimity of view about court dress, the desirability of these changes has a broad measure of agreement,” Phillips said.


1 year ago – venture bros good, lj ugly nav bar, bye bye black rhino, angel / shovel / burrito, simulated lost case-630am, Arvis book in comments!

2 years ago – Last Day w/Magda, invisi-bro, chrono-lifting, breakfast foods, zombies invade sca event, crab, autostitch bus, minor drama, commendation

3 years ago – KoL, Bollywood, Patriot Act, Felix the Cat

4 years ago – sleep troubles, Andromeda Strain, 4-legged man , system crash – modem drivers (Service pack 4 for win2k caused Norton trouble) , Stalin vs Hitler comic, newtcam pic, discovered title-tags, strickland a/c die-lemma

5 years ago – more swell chatties, Roanoke (including odd reply from Boughman), Dreams of Lake Conoy with zombie mist, sweet possum sugar, mother goose

6 years ago – Evil news, riposte, dream of the jungle, If I were… meme, time, sleepy, Dumbass Tenochtitlan Saucermen,chat, aura colors, personality disorder test, Louvre

7 years ago – Bad things with April, super power question Geotarget

8910 – Tuesday –

The Blogalyser reveals…

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 15.
This suggests that your writing style is conventional

(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).
Your blog has 38 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by verbosity
(writing for the web should be concise).

CHARACTER MATRIX

male malefemale female
self oneselfgroupworld world
past pastpresentfuture future


Your text shows characteristics which are 56% male and 44% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the past and lastly the future.

Find out what your blogging style is like!

First time using mass transit to get *to* work. Not bad, but it seems harder to arrive than it is to depart, contrary to the toilet roll hypothesis. Rode in to the station with mom-in-law, and aside from the lack of knee room in some of the seats, I’ve got no gripes. It means getting up a little bit earlier, but I think that this will save us a ton of wear on the love cube and even more fuel. Total round-trip cost for a day is under $10. (just). Of course, my trip home threatened to rain on me at the bus stop – only one place I have to wait under cover is right as I leave the office. I think that if I leave about 10 minutes earlier, I can get into the office about 30 minutes quicker. We’ll see.

0710072142.jpg

BHK made Louise an awesome birthday cake… 4 layers! (see above – Neopolitain style, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry – with a milk chocolate frosting.) also barely-seen are some cupcakes spelling out her name, too. (I took the S cupcake to work today. 🙂 ) The cake is more of a silo than a disc, but that’s aok with me. Initially, it was to be a ckae for both Doug and Louise, but Doug broke it off with TM – moved out of the townhouse, and gathered up his belongings. I hope it’s what is best for the both of ’em… they’re both pretty nice folks from what I’ve seen. I imagine he’s back on the base now, and will be going back overseas shortly. Kind of a bummer way to enjoy leave. Louise, however made out like a bandit. We got her a nice purse, TM got her some really pretty earrings, and the inlaws hooked her up with outback gift certs. I’m not sure what will become of Doug’s presents… I imagine they’ll be recycled or reprocessed. (I suspect father-in-law is going to get a Bass Pro shops gift card fairly soon for his B-day in August, and Adam may reap the TM rewards.)

via boingboing – The OpenMoko is a $300, Linux-based open smartphone. Unlike the iPhone, it doesn’t come locked to any provider (and certainly not to the crooks at AT&T), it doesn’t come with DRM, and it allows you to install any third party app you like, even if Steve Jobs worries that it might spoil your experience. It’s still in “developer preview,” but this might just be my next phone. The current version of the Neo1973 has built-in GPS too, and the mass-market unit that will ship in October will have wifi and accelerated graphics.

The Neo 1973 boasts the following hardware specifications

* 2.8″ VGA TFT color display
* Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
* 266MHz Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
* USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
* Integrated AGPS
* 2.5G GSM – quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
* Bluetooth 2.0
* Micro SD slot
* High Quality audio codec

In the year 2000… (probably my favorite Conan O’Brian skit music) : Predictions of the Year 2000 – from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900

1 year ago – wiggle chicken / keys trip / ripley’s pix, one night in bangkok, scotto-dungeon game

2 years ago – diggers, sky high/ff, career personality, dr zaius, ugly dog, choosing wrong, 12.5% inked, bike thief, presidential medical histories, people like slinkies

3 years ago – thermo-issues, helping cockeyed find spammers

4 years ago – bro, health, monkey, sun-sentinel cam, clown lovin’.

5 years ago – hard rain, dream thoughts, tests, IM spam

6 years ago – evil news, louche, fill in the blank, gush, insane beautiful people journal nonsense (he’s now suspended)

7 years ago – Mr. Rogers, April hassles, H is pregnant with B’s kid, inevitable slippery, mootpoint adds me to his reading list Geotarget

8907 – Sunday – 8

I forgot to mention that we picked up Hot Brain last night, and did a little walk-shopping in Barnes and Noble.

My current (one game in) abilities are: (on a 0-120 scale)

  • Logic – 118.03
  • Math – 120.00
  • Memory – 67.16
  • Language – 112.50
  • Concentration – 60.40

Average Brain temp – 95.618 – red hot… but a lot of room for improvement, especially in the Concentration and Memory Department. They’re pretty fun little logic puzzles.

Hot Pixel is next on my psp game-list.

Sunday was primarily about chores and getting to things that needed doing. My end of things included kitty litter, laundry folding, insurance forms, a letter to bro, amongst others.

Watched the good bits of Night of the Comet and then The Frighteners while folding clothes, etc. Makes things that much more wonderful. Super hot outside, so gardening was kept to the shade or out of the sun as much as possible.

BHK and I took took an all-too-brief excursion to a new candy store that opened about a week ago in North Beach. I suspect it won’t do as well as the other one, even though the older of them keeps banker’s hours at best. He simply has been there longer, and is right on the boardwalk strip. The new store is right where BHK used to work… I got to buy some gummi taperworms where she first IM’ed me about 4 years ago. Hard to believe that was a landmark moment leading to us getting together. Heck, it’s hard to believe we’re well over seven months married, come to think of it. I would never have guessed back then that I’d be living outside of Florida now.

At about the end of Frighteners, Louise and the in-laws swung by to chow down on goodies from our garden. Tina and Doug couldn’t make it as they were pooped from a the road trip.

Pictures of our garden’s bounty – beets, stuffed peppers, peas, green beans, potatoes, squash, zucchini. BHK makes veggies that even a little kid would gladly attack and consume. I didn’t think that I’d like the beets, but they were surprisingly good. I’m still not crazy about leeks.

0708071952.jpg 0708071952a.jpg

After supper, we watched Shag with the gang, ate a Klondike bar, and then called it a night. (Side Note – Annabeth Gish was a lot more cute back in the day than in her X-files period)

1 year ago – nearly naked neighbors, gray day, mob supply pic, newt pics,

2 years ago – talked to Arnie’s Sec, newt and graffiti pix, autostitch, wifi theft arrest, reality show premises, j-walk on podcasts, programmer joke, google maps goodies, flightgear, wifi hotspot backpack, my messy office, bear-knocking, sex pred info pages

3 years ago – combos/snausages , wisdom, serving sizes, ramen, Rockford Files, Planetarium pictures, weather, sock thief

4 years ago – call block, snapple, intelligence gathering, Batroc, flashback cartoon, addictive data

5 years ago – oz/floyd connection, pimps at sea, rss feeds start, cat dreams

6 years ago – cej returns, unpacking videos, 1992 tax info, the challenge, corn chowder, kubrick quiz

7 years ago – Rowlf sings, April actually kicks back a few bucks, pondering a new recorder Geotarget

8906 – Saturday – 07/07/07!

Today was pretty full of activity. In a nutshell: 2 more Zagat locations (Davis’ Pub was also in the guide) – Jalapeno’s (outstanding food – limited lunch menu, but the dinner looks amazing Tapas works no matter when) and Sputnik Cafe. (good cocktails and dessert, OK entrees) in between those two (lunch and dinner), we went for a little road trip to Gibson Island between shopping for a couch and our quest for Giant Diet Grape soda. Gibson Isle was a bit of a disappointment, with no Gibson girls in sight… worse yet, it was a private island, so no lookie-looing for BHK and yours truly, dear journal.

Today was the Wedding of Fred to Adam’s mom… supposedly lucky due to the 7/7/7 activity, but I don’t know… hopefully it’ll work for ’em, but the odds are rough on a couple who have collectively four divorces behind them already. Lots of fireworks due to the abundance of weddings so close to the 4th of July… we still have a boatload to set off for Louise and Adam’s B’day coming up next week.

We *were* successful in locating about a dozen or so diet grape sodas… we’ll miss ’em when they’re discontinued. There is something magical about purple soda that fizzes bright blue… and tastes really, really good for a diet drink. BHK will miss it more than I shall – I’m perfectly content with Diet Cream soda and Diet Cherry/Cola whatever. (Currently, Dr Pepper cherry vanilla is my fave, but BHK is partial to the diet cherry Pepsi) I wonder what medieval man would think of such stuff… too sweet by far, I suspect. I’m still amazed at refrigeration… the easy access to ice and cooling makes life so much more simple.

The couch-quest goes even on… the holy trinity of color/size/design continues to elude us.

Several Groundhogs sighted in the fields during the day, and many will-o-wisp dragonflies at twilight. Oh! that reminds me!

This friendly little guy was crawling up my sleeve yesterday – probably dropped on me from the shade tree. I wonder what sort of bug he is? He was pretty gigantic, maybe as long as my thumb, though not nearly as wide. I like his little “eye-spots” quite a lot… when I gently brushed him off into the parking lot, he didn’t flap his wings – just sort of plummeted to the pavement with an audible smack. I was worried he had been broken as a result, but he seemed perfectly content to walk away as we drove off in the direction of the Kwik-E-Mart.

0706071745.jpg

Since I haven’t uploaded the K-E-M pics yet, have some assorted pictures from the 4th.

Featured are – Bugah with a machine gun, assorted fireworks and the barge, Em, Jimmy, BHK and me, Adam, some wandering girls that know Jimmy and Adam, Flowers from our garden, assorted Bugah-fish-catches, and duckies. Not necessarily in that order. Also visible here.

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1 year ago
– prepping for keys launch, first pirates sea monster, a Brain in a jar quoting Nietzsche to a Super-intelligent Gorilla, phone breaks, questions-meme,

2 years ago – busy, tiny text, hurricanes gone?, pedometer, one, london explosions, waterspoits, 48 questions

3 years ago – condo bid, There-updated, MORE vizcaya pictures, pelvic thrust stormtrooper, spidey2, @ poll

4 years ago – Frankie, restoration of library, lovejoy, danny, lj-interests, health, baby tats

5 years ago – Newt (jamacianjungle dreamed that she got to play with him!), palm entry, grim reaper song

6 years ago – wereturtle, moved into new place

7 years ago – wereturtle, moved into new placeGeotarget

8899 – Sunday

We spent most of the day out and about, Geocaching with the Newsoms. They’re really into it, with a little over 100 finds in recent memory. It was fun tooling around a bit and seeing what’s what. I also dropped off tinkle pig in a cache… time for her to see the world. I retrieved a toy soldier cast from civil war bullets, who will ride with Bruce Moose and Gaytor until a suitable resting ground is found for him. The cemetary caches are almost always my fave – the woods were a hoot too, but ticks are a real fear for the kids, especially since Em was out sick just recently. (Heck, nobody wants lyme disease.)

A brief synopsis of Cache visits-

Dropped off placed Hula Wyvern (Travel Bug Dog Tag) in Little Southern Maryland School [visit log]
Dropped off placed “Wajima, Japan” Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug (Unite for Diabetes Travel Bug) in Little Southern Maryland School [visit log]
Found it found Little Southern Maryland School (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Parkkin Cache (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Flashover (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Can you see the ghost?! Again! (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Relaxation for Redlights (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Book Worm (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
Found it found Time is the key (Traditional Cache) [visit log]

Aftwerwards, we took a quick pitstop at Aardvarks, had an ice cream and picked up kanoodle for BHK (I’m sure I’ll be playing it too.)

Spent a little more time puttering around Solomon’s Island, went to Stoneys for dinner. (their treat! yum!)

On the road between points, I got a call from my Mom, and it turns out that Bro isn’t in a work crew, but just a rehabilitation center. Taking classes, etc. Hopefully some of the lessons will stick, but if not, at least he’s out of circulation for a while.

After that, we paused at the Barker’s to water the Mom-in-Law’s plants, and to do a little dock-walking. I paused for a breather upstairs, but before I could get my nap on, Adam and Kendall showed up to say hi and to drop off some fireworks.

Man pummels vampire peacock

NEW YORK (AP) — A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a Burger King in New York City was beaten by a man who insisted it was a vampire.

Animal control officials in Staten Island say the bird was beaten so fiercely that most of its tail feathers fell out and it had to be euthanized.

The seven-year-old male peacock wandered into the restaurant parking lot and perched on a car hood last week. Charmed employees had been feeding it bread when the man appeared.

A restaurant worker says the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started stomping it. She says when he was asked what he was doing, he responded, “‘I’m killing a vampire!”‘

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.

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8895 – Thursday

Took BHK and her mom out for Mexican dinner last night, as the mom-in-law is a bachelorette while LB is in Salem, working on the house to be rented. I think CB will head up there with Tigger this weekend, and depending on how our guest plans pan out, perhaps BHK or possibly even the two of us will go up to help straighten things out as well.

I look at the commute to work with planner’s eyes lately… which I find funny, due to suspicions that much of Maryland’s growth has gone far outside any of her initial city / county-wide designs. The way a tiny village can swell to a small town and even a huge city like Baltimore is a fascinating evolution.

Perhaps it’s due to my new job and playing Sim City / Carcassone-type games, but looking at residential areas, how roads, rivers and rail act as amazing connection between homes, churches, businesses, farms, graveyards and whatnot. There are many relationships between people and terrain. I love how almost every church here has an attached bone yard, and how broad the space can appear be between the towns. Sometimes, it’s only one road into and out of town, which gives a huge sense of isolation, but also one of knowing that it is connected to *somewhere* else. The fact that I can wander around and see so much history (granted, the majority from the 18th century onward) fascinates me to no end. Sometimes when I look at places in Calvert County, I can mentally see what it was like before older structures weathered so much and the newer structures were put in between (or added onto the elder ones). Still-operating horse drawn buggies driven by the Amish frequently help with the visualization.

There are old bridge pilings without the road-sections across the top near 95 that look like ancient ruins; the new on-ramp doesn’t really match the travel route of the old path. I wonder how many abandoned roads and paths were lost once asphalt and gasoline-powered vehicles became the standard?

Sometimes it seems like each little town is made from the same (or at least very similar) parts from the one just before it, up the road a ways. That church was on the other side of the road, and the tobacco barn was brown, not gold… and about a half-mile to the northeast. The whole place was at the foot of the hill, not the top. Sometimes it seems as if the people are slightly interchangeable, as well. Soccer mom with stroller and dog. Old geezer picking up trash on the side of the road. High school kids futzing around.

The Suburbs are different than the Commuter Towns of Bowie and Waldorf… I prefer North Beach to either of those locations.

Don’t get me started on the DC roads. I don’t blame L’Enfant’s great design, as so many others came and revised the plans, but I’ll always prefer a two-way travel grid-type situation over curves for major city roads. One-way streets that curve up onto themselves and don’t simply run N/S or E/W is just asking for trouble. That said, it is a beautiful place to see.

Tonight’s supper of zucchini and squash parm with cheese tortellini and salad was fantastic. The soy flour really holds onto the veggies better than wheat. BHK really did a fantastic job! There’s a nice feeling when 80% of what’s on the dinner table is grown in your back yard – The only things bought were the salad dressing, cheese tortellini, flour, and drinks. I’m really looking forward to our potatoes and peas coming in soon… I’m also contemplating soybeans and a beehive for next year. And maybe a pair of overalls and a wide-brimmed straw hat. 😉GeotargetVisitor Map

8879 – Happy Birthday, LDY!!!

Glad to hear good things about moot – he’s going to be a papa yet again, sometime in the coming months ahead, sometime before thanksgiving.

BHK went to visit Misti & co – Em is sick, in the hospital with some sort of tick-borne illness that’s not lyme or Rocky Mountain spotted fever. MN & crew were coming this weekend, but now it may be just Neil.That’s sort of a bummer, but I’m glad that Em is doing better – BHK brought Blink up with her, and Em took a shine to it… so it’s hers now. Apparently she’s won the last two of three games.

WSJ: How the Presidents Stack Up. Not a lot of clear winners in my lifetime.

I have absolutely, positively write my bro another letter before the end of the week.


1 year ago – draggy meeting, sofla mass transit planner, stress reliever ape, waiting, got vista beta, body heat, possum man, free comics, manatees

2 years ago – Lovies for ldy and sedef, tunnel vision, hukilau, danny, bro, speed racer for geico, cvs ood by the lb, dr who, impact font, pink floyd reuniting

3 years ago – Newt Treats, police, sleepies, DIY-WiFi, Horrid teacher name, loud car alarm, RI, Harry Lime

4 years ago – Cartoon Pope blesses ldy, white/brown eggs, fibber island lyrics

5 years ago – Intruders, Out for Thai & sushi, Rent-bump.

6 years ago – perorate, Poi Dog Pondering, Thinking of using share point forjournaling, smart tags, considering a piercing / blooddonation,Wolbachia / Kamikaze Sperm, evil news

7 years ago – April refusing to go to the doc, bronchitis, half-light, new palsGeotargetVisitor Map

8867 – mon

A learned person gently comes, steps carefully.

– Shimizu Hiam

Gave my 2 weeks notice at the County today – Starting on the 18th, I’ll be at my new, non-temp gig. I’m really looking forward to it… a few HR things to iron out beforehand – what sort of insurance to choose, etc. I’m looking forward to having my own office again. The commute to Calverton doesn’t seem to be as horrid as most folks make it out to be. I commuted for 90 minutes back when I was in Fort Lauderdale. I’ll miss the gang at the county… really nice crew. I hope my new team is as nice.

Grilled up veggie burgers and dogs for BHK, in-laws and TM tonight.. it was true potluck – BHK did salad, including peppers form our garden, TB brought chips and buns, and the in-laws did the doggies and brought a big ol’ watermelon for dessert. Everyone was nicely full to the brim at the end.

Newest Reads are Fluke and Jamestown – from the cover –

Set in the indeterminate but not too distant future, JAMESTOWN chronicles a group of “settlers” (more like survivors) from the ravaged island of Manhattan, departing just as the Chrysler Building mysteriously collapses, heading down what’s left of I-95 in an armor-plated vehicle that’s half-schoolbus, half-Millenium Falcon. They are going to establish an outpost in southern Virginia, look for oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area.

The story is of course based on the actual accounts of the first ten years of the Jamestown settlement from 1607 to the death of Pocahontas in 1617. Set against a cataclysmic backdrop, the book features the historical characters—John Smith, Pocahontas, her father Powhatan, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and John Rolf—but in an act of wild re-imagination, akin to Baz Luhrman’s re-interpretations of Shakespeare (the great playwright of the Jamesown era!), Powhaton is half-Falstaff, half-Henry V (with a psychiatrist consigliere, Sidney Feingold); John Martin gradually loses body parts in a series of violent encounters, while John Smith is a ruthless and pragmatic redhead continually undermining the aristocratic leadership; and Rolf’s and Pocahontas’s romance is conducted by text-messaging, IM-ing, and ultimately telepathy.

Despite the grim sounding circumstances and large quantity of spilled blood, it’s a romantic book, a meditation on history and interpretation, told in language that is endlessly delightful—the jokes, the rhymes, and the rimshot dialogue throw the story’s bleak underside into brilliant relief. It’s a big book—a cross between the terrific maximalist novels of Barth and Safran Foer and the minimalist magical satire of George Saunders.

So Far, Fluke is the more well-written and interesting of the two. However, I’m less than 25 pages into both.

Comparisons of Baltimore vs DC … I do need to make a trip to the Yabba Pot sometime soon.


1 year ago – on call, giza pyramid, bunny hop pic, finger people, cosmos animations, fallentoad song, fantastic

2 years ago – full vs goatee, bro & PO, vs & rr try to hook me up

3 years ago – Local con, ADP fix it, free wifi, bro issues, Crew north, Cartoon stuff, rain, bad case

4 years ago – bro goes to ER, Tony & Caroline bad news, pt issues, brothel free to troops, pirate doodle, kraft offer, FIA hoverboats

5 years ago – fumigation drama, pelican preference, cricket magazine, Google labs

6 years ago – life roles, evil news, Paranormal investigation teams that I’d join, Allen Walton, hobo names, $10 webcam, classic Scotto lunch, nice dreams, mammoth riding.

7 years ago – figured out how to hack the info kiosk as the mall of the deadGeotargetVisitor Map

8850 – backdated and posted

BHK and I went down to Solomon’s Island to take a little break. We were going to cruise on the Wm. Smith, but it was already chartered for the day. Instead of lamenting our situation, we opted to do a little river-otter watching and some light nature walk behind the marine museum. The otters were extra-bonus cute and playful today; I suspect that they were really digging the warm weather, and that our arrival right at feeding time had something to do with it. They had a tasty meal of fish, carrot and boiled egg, which sounded pretty darn good, actually, so we toddled off to the Captain’s Table for a little nosh, ourselves. Later we hit Target for a few sundry supplies – another deck chair, some bug spray, etc… and then continued to Game Stop to gather up 2 new (used, $12 each) games – Taiko drumming for the PS2, and Lumines for the PSP – Almost got marvel heroes, too, but they were out of stock on the used ones. (Bhk pointed out that they should give a new one, since it was being portrayed as available on the shelf, but I didn’t want to push – I still have Katamari and Lumines to work my way through)

Far too many pictures of otters, and other stuff will be coming in the days a head, I imagine.

Once we got home, we got a pleasant surprise in a new cover for our grill, along with a nice full tank of propane. I expect to be doing some outdoor cookery in the very near future. Veggie Burgers, Kabob, and whatever meat-stuff the rest of the family might like.

Once the sun came down, we went inside and watched Trekkies – I think it was a little enlightening for BHK about fandom, and why I feel about it the way I do, for both good and ill. I think the highlight of the night was the season finale of ugly betty – lots of cliffhangers in true soap style.

Sneakily added by BHK

– Secret confession time:
My favorite thing to do by SCottO B. Ear: I love love love to watch a double feature of Joy Luck Club and Steel Magnolias (Although sometimes I swap Steel Magnolias for Fried Green tomatoes). I always need at least 2 boxes of tissues and a whole can of general foods coffee when I do my double feature. I just snuggle under my comforter wearing my comfiest jammies and my furry pink slippers and cry myself a good one. Then I feel much better.

Oh and another confession this morning I compared my wife to a chimp. I reality I’m the one that tends to fling poo—so i retract any comparison I may have made. I’m a naughty bad husband–but a pretty good simian!

Here are some pictures from today’s sunny morning –

frombelowhiyanootpyedetectorpreleappyenewtbroodspyelumpDSCN5026

I love the boys… They both have come a long way in making the transition to a family.

A new bionic woman, eh? I have my doubts. Rebuilt both legs, one arm, an ear, and an eye this time around. Plus a deaf daughter and Rudy-type doc as a love interest.

Random Ray Bradbury factoid: Bradbury, despite writing about spaceships and interplanetary travel and having lived in Los Angeles for most of his life, has never driven a car. He attributes this to having seen a gruesome car accident when he was young.

misc memes Continue reading 8850 – backdated and posted

8848 – Happy 7th!

Welp, it’s the 7th year of this thing, officially. I won’t have started regularly, uninterrupted daily posts until August 2000, but there you go.

Had lunch with in-laws, so they’ve gotten us two meals in a row after last night’s trip to mama lucias.

I was totally tired and fragged out for the first half of today – I took a desperately needed nap, and felt much better. Did some light housework (bhk did the bulk of the heavy lifting) – She’s out now taking care of TM’s kitties as I write this.

Heard from her cousin David – He and Gill are moving to Charlotte today. I wish ’em the best of luck, and hope to see more of them in the future – possibly over this summer? The’ve got to be closer than where they were in Salem.

Milk and Cheese figures are coming!


1 year ago – 6th anniversary, clothes shopping, busy recovery week, Don’t ask for directions in Baltimore

2 years ago – Star Wars, Dead Riddler, PETA kills animals, Newt @ kittenwar, neobrara, hong kong bun-snatching, sex offender sweep

3 years ago – wet week, duckling videos, lots of wander-pics, you’re so vain (odd couple sing), using wifi for plausible deniability, Feast Day of St. Dunstan, Florida Black Bear

4 years ago – bro fishing, Eh.net, asteroid probe, bookhenge in There, Drunk Man Hurt After Running Into Elephant, PT, severe weather, #21 in top 40, ljer ages, compat quiz

5 years ago – no cpap, broken pic links for me to fix later, grocery,waste to energy, Mayan symbols, ginger orange tofu, hot mail copying yahoo jerkiness

6 years ago – Iron Chef, Family Guy, Lj troublesome, feeling coarse, gals system down, astley hoses me over.

7 years ago – Scottobear’s LJ is Born

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8844 – the ides of may

Ides of may. I miss my pop today – This is the anniversary of his death, but I’m not feeling as melancholy as I have in the past. It has been many years now since he passed away – 18 years, I think – just about half a lifetime ago.

Mom got a call from bro last night – he went before the judge and has 6 months at a work camp. He doesn’t know when he’ll be transferred, but he won’t have probation after that. I’m not sure if he’s getting off easy or hard.

Most of my challenges these days are physical or financial – those can bleed over into the mental, emotional and spiritual sides, but for the most part I’m doing quite well. I really like my new life here – I can understand why so many Florida expatriates have such little desire to return. There are some things that I miss, like the water taxi and a few of my more well-beaten paths around Broward & Dade, but they don’t hold a candle to the new stuff that I’ve been enjoying and looking forward to. Crime concerns are greatly diminished, not counting Baltimore or DC – and the people here have a small-town sort of feel. A lot of very polite and kind folks that are good about making me feel welcome can do wonders for any atmosphere, though the bay is beautiful in and of itself.

BHK and I are watching the dust slowly settle around the house – the blue house is pretty much empty save for a trunk and some light misc. I still have a few things in Florida storage, but aside from my bike, I don’t miss much of anything there. Most of what I miss about Florida is no longer in Florida . I miss gaming with Ray and Kat, but they’re in Texas , now. I miss goofing with Kev, but he’s in Gitmo. I miss hanging with Steve and Brent, but Brent died, and Steve is in Seattle . Doug is in Seattle , too. My Bro is pretty much lost to me.

Danny’s still in Florida , and I miss doing stuff with him. He should be heading out to us this summer during vacation.

BHK got me a Blueberry Vanilla Ice for after work – it was a welcome closure to the work day. Got a haircut in prep for tomorrow’s thing.

blueberry vanilla shaved icemild blueberry vanilla shaved ice


1 year ago – bird flu / monkey pox, walkabout, podcasts, newtcam pics, jack lemmon, hoot, saucermen, exploding pants, bus ride poll, hail,

2 years ago – MP gift, pabst t, won rum, don lapre’s vitamin, personality defect, walkabout pics, monkey at large/safety in numbers, vampire sugar fuel cell, florida medicine is stupid, I smell good

3 years ago – first palm doodle on new palm, wireless sync, pics from houstons (hypno-orb), Library of Alexandria Discovered, Bones Found In Bag At Florida Cemetery

4 years ago – palm doodles, dreams / reflections on the old crew, chicken hawk cards,mailbox mystery, lunar eclipse, first use of publix grocery deliveries,Teen Girl Squad #3

5 years ago – saw waking life, dream thoughts, prep for star wars expedition

6 years ago – evil news, tumor thoughts, astley gives me defective hardware, humors,hunger-poll, Tsarist Russia photos in color, Paid users get fasterservers, Florida JokeGeotargetVisitor Map