This collection of entries is from November 2003.
Sunday, November 30, 2003
VH1 - Big in '03
Tonight, VH1 ran an ersatz awards show called Big in 03, which celebrated things that happened in 2003. Kathy Griffin was on to introduce - what else? - the Really Big Reality Star category. The coolest thing for a Reality TV fan was that she introduced the cast of many shows (some had only 3 people, some had what looked like the whole damn cast), so it was a hoot to see - on one stage - the casts of: The Amazing Race 4, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!, Who Wants to Marry my Dad?, Survivor: The Amazon, Big Brother 4, Boy Meets Boy, Average Joe, Joe Millionaire, American Idol, Temptation Island 3, Last Comic Standing, Fear Factor, Paradise Hotel, Extreme Makeover, Race to the Altar, Mr. Personality, For Love or Money, and Cupid.
Oh, the winner of the category? Evan Marriott.
posted at 10:26 PM | Link | Reality TV § |
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Wolves 4 - Maple Leafs 1
read more of this entry »
It seems like we haven't been there in a while, but we were back at the Allstate Arena to see the first game (here) against the St. John's Maple Leafs. There must be some bad blood left over from their last meeting up on Canada because the first period was awfully physical. There was a total of 17 penalties in the first period. Both teams were physical and actually pretty evenly matched. By the time the third period came around, though, it looked like the Wolves were getting tired. We actually had two Power Play goals tonight, as well as an Empty Net-er.
With only 27 seconds left in the game, Karl Stewart got into a good fight (that was brewing all night) and wound up getting a Match Penalty for Attempt to Injure. Yeow. And then the Baby Leaf's Kris Newbury doesn't get a penalty for going over the top of the refs to go after Stewart. What a mess.
(Boxscore - Gamesheet) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:23 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Friday, November 28, 2003
Gotta love a day off!Carol & I were lumps today. We did nothing. (OK, I went out to Chipotle for some Burrito Bols for dinner, but that was it).
We're still recovering from yesterday... and work. Actually, I'm working on an inventory spreadsheet for work so that I know what machines we have staged and sitting in the warehouse for deploy.
Still nothing happening, just crash time... Oh, and it's friggin' snowing outside... the salt trucks have gone through the neighborhood, but nothing is sticking to the ground...
posted at 09:45 PM | Link | Mundane § |
My first video "project"The best laid plans...
I had the intention of getting my video together for my little Blog-A-Turkey "thing" while I was actually barbecuing and then after dinner sometime. Well, that didn't happen. Somehow, the time wasn't there (let's just say that things got a little out of hand and the party didn't end until almost 11pm - way longer than Carol & I wanted).
Oh, the turkey really turned out good this year - juicy as always but everyone was raving about the taste... and I didn't do anything different!!!
I'm having problems with the MJPEG codecs in Adobe Premiere, so it wouldn't decode the AVI files that my Canon S230 PowerShot produced. I decided to try Windows Movie Maker that comes with XP. For a cheapo product, I was really pleased with how easy it worked.
I was disappointed with two things, however - The first is audio. The Canon camera records the audio and a weird-ass frequency rate that's not standard at all. Movie Maker doesn't handle the conversion well, and I sound like I have a lisp!
Secondly, file size. The project was rendered into a 36Mb file for 12:27 running time, at 320x240. When I added titles to some scenes, the file size jumped to over 51Mb!
Oh, I guess there's a third complaint - it's rendered in Windows Media Video format - WMV.
I need to fix Adobe Premiere.
So, here it is - the final video of Blog-A-Turkey 2003!
posted at 02:23 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Blog-A-Turkey 2003Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Well, last year's Thanksgiving Blog-A-Turkey showed, in detail, how I barbecue my turkey. This year, well, here's a little video tease for you! (Sorry, it's only in Windows Video format). Hope you enjoy!
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Update: Here's the full video on how I brabecue my Thanksgiving Turkey. Running time: 12:27 Size: 51.1Mb!
posted at 02:27 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Short day!It's always a great day when you get out of work at 1:30 as an early start to the Thankgiving weekend and get paid for a full 8 hours! Wooo Hooo!
posted at 02:33 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Light trafficTraffic has been light this week - obviously due to the short work week. We're having some oddities happen at work - we've run out of data to stage machines for users. I guess this doesn't normally happen at other bases, so we're hoping that something will come along to keep all of these people busy. Fortunately, data came through for another 120 machines just before 2 o'clock, so at least we have something to work on.
posted at 06:28 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 24, 2003
Elisabeth done goodposted at 07:23 PM | Link | Survivor § |
Having a cold oneWell, it's not supposed to be here for another month, but today is the first Day of Winter in my book. It was 21 degrees with snow flurries when I got up. The wind howled all night and the wind chill was 13 below. The snow wasn't sticking but it was blowing around, collecting in tiny piles against walls and other objects. Driving north on the tollway, it was actually getting difficult to see with all of the blowing snow. It was cold enough that I actually had to get out my winter jacket, which I have been putting off for a while. I mean, the weather has been so erratic and unseasonably mild... until today.
posted at 06:04 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 23, 2003
HB Mom!
The sleeping situation hasn't gotten any better. I'm not getting any, and Carol isn't either, though we may have gotten a tad bit more last night than the night before.
Today's weather, though 61 degrees, is miserable due to rain. Today is my mother's 74th birthday, so Carol & I went to her house and picked her up to go to... the cemetery. It was time to lay Christmas wreaths on the family graves, so I piled 6 wreaths into the trunk and we went for a quick loop around the cemetery, pausing briefly to get out in the pouring rain, run through the grass dodging goose poop, plant the wreath and get back in the car.
read more of this entry »
Then it was off to Diane's house. We're going to go out for dinner, but Diane's ulterior motive was to get me to look at her Sony Vaio PC and figure out what's going on with her CD burner, as well as some virus scanning issues (she doesn't seem to have any, though every once in a while she claims she does get a message saying she does) and disk space issues (had to move over 6 Gb of MP3's over to a different drive so she won't get that nagging XP out/low disk space messages). I had the other issues done and was still troubleshooting the CD burn issue when it was late enough to go to dinner.
We went to a restaurant not far from her house called Settimana Café. Pretty empty and quiet when we got there and no where near that by the time we left. There was a point during dinner that we were almost yelling across the table to each other to be able to be heard over the music and other conversations. (Oh, other than that, the dinner and wine were very good - I'd recommend the place).
I mentioned earlier that it was 61 degrees. When we got into Diane's car after dinner, the temperature was 48 degrees and it was raining harder. Back at her house I verified that the CD burner really doesn't work (oh, did I mention that it doesn't play any audio CD's either?). Diane had purchased a replacement burner that I was going to install. Well, after I finally got the case opened, there was no way I could figure out how to expose the drive bay that the CD drive was in. There were no screws, a couple of latches that didn't seem to do anything to the cage that was covering the drive bays. I can get to two of the screws holding the drive into the bay, but I couldn't get to the other side of the drive, and even then I didn't know if the IDE and power cables were long enough to stretch out the front of the machine. I didn't want to, but I had to give up.
Mom opened her presents. Diane got her a VCR/DVD combo unit so she can finally rent movies again... though I just can't wait to see her try to deal with a DVD for the first time...
By the time we left, the temperature was down to 38 degrees. by the time we dropped off Mom at her house, the rain stopped.
I can't wait to see the weather tomorrow... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:46 PM | Link | Family § |
Blog Your TurkeyOK, here's my little contribution to the Blogosphere.
Last year, just for the hell of it, I decided to blog about my Thanksgiving Day Turkey preparation. It's boring, but it shows you how I barbecue my turkey. I do this every year and it always turns out really nice.
Now, yes, I realize that my blog gets virtually no traffic. Yes, there's nothing really here to draw you to visit on a regular basis. But to those out there that read this blog and have a blog yourself, how about telling us - OR EVEN BETTER, SHOW US - how your prepare your turkey - or whatever your main meal is - for Thanksgiving Day.
Call it a "Blog-A-Turkey" and - if you want - put a link in the comments to this post to show what you're doing.
Not only is Thanksgiving a time for giving thanks, it's also a time for sharing. Reach out and share your turkey with the blogosphere!
Pass the word!
posted at 11:33 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, November 22, 2003
A smile changes your day
So both Carol and I had a bad night trying to sleep. Don't know why, we just didn't sleep. Carol went to work this morning (it's her busy season). I got up and just hit Blogshares for a while. I had errands to run today and I was putting it off for a little bit. My internet connection has been a little "iffy" the last couple of days - I think there's a router inside the Comcast infrastructure that's a little flaky, causing some connectivity issues every 5-10 minutes (at least that's what it looks like on a tracert). So, manipulating my Blogshares account takes a hell of a lot longer than I wanted. I caught up on my TiVo viewing while hitting refresh in my browser for a few hours.
When I went out, it was foggy & misty. I had to go to Home Depot to get lightbulbs (the lights on the front of the house are out) and find some hickory chips for this week's turkey adventures (I barbecue a turkey every year - you can see it all happen in last year's blog entries).
I pulled into the parking lot and saw that the PETsMART next door to Home Depot had a dog rescue group running an adoption day. I git what I needed at Home Depot and then went over to check out the dogs - all mutts, but all look just "sweet". Inside there was a dog training session going on with all puppies. Not real young puppies, but older puppies (definitely not older dogs). Everyone was just sitting in their chairs, not saying a word and not moving, and the puppies are all interacting and chasing each other and just having a grand time.
Since Carol was working, I grabbed a soup and sandwich at Panera. That's when I realized that no matter how gloomy a day it was outside (it was dark along with that fog and mist), the people here were genuinely nice. Not that forced-customer-satisfaction-nice, this felt real. There was this young female worker that walked by me while I was waiting for my order. She was getting some water at the fountain area and she asked me how I was doing today. She had this great smile on her face and it took me by surprise and made me smile and I realized that I all of a sudden felt better about my day. I was tired as all hell, but emotionally I felt better. Sounds weird, but I'm glad I went to Panera for lunch!
posted at 02:49 PM | Link | Mundane § |
JFK + 40
I realize that perhaps many of you out there may not have been around 40 years ago. I was. I remember I was in first grade and the principal was playing the radio over the P.A. system so that the school could hear what was going on in Dallas. I remember going home early from school. I don't remember much else, except watching the funeral cortège on our TV a few days later. I guess when you're 6 years old, you don't have a good grasp of the enormity of this event. Hell, I barely understood what a President was.
I have a tendency of believing that conspiracies exist in some situations. Sorry, people, I don't believe it about this one. Yes there's some oddities about what happened, but I think there was a lone gunman.
I wonder, around this time every year, what would have happened if the event in Dealey Plaza never happened. How much different America - and possibly the world - would be?
posted at 08:23 AM | Link | Current Events § |
Friday, November 21, 2003
RutsCarol & I and B & B have had on ongoing "joke" that came up while we in Las Vegas last time (which now seems such a long time ago...). We like going to the same hotels/casinos and sometimes the same restaurants. We always kidded my Mom for doing the same thing - saying that she was in a rut. When we do it, it's not a rut - it's "tradition"! I guess it's just the way you look at it...
I guess that even expands into your everyday life as well. Carol and I go to a Chinese buffet every once in a while. I always get the same stuff from the buffet? Why? A rut? Maybe. Maybe we go there because we know what's there and we know what we want.
So tonight, when they threw some curves at us at some of the buffet stations with different food, I felt "Hey! Where's my stuff!" But I tried the new stuff and liked it a lot, even changing my choices and not getting things that I normally do. It was different, almost "new" in a way. Maybe you just need just a little change every once in a while to make things feel new again, even if it's just food choices...
posted at 07:52 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Gorgeous
65 degrees. One of those days you had to go out for lunch, just to be in the sun and warmth, because you just know this isn't going to last.
And to top-off the nice day, when I was driving home tonight, all 6 lanes of Golf Road are open. All that's left is landscaping, lighting, and some road markings (oh, and permanent traffic lights). Looks like our 3-year nightmare of major road construction in the neighborhood is over.
posted at 06:26 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Dying for a drinkOK, I know that Vodka is the official drink of the former Soviet Union, but according to a Reuters article, people died drinking mass quantities in a contest. The prize? 10 liters of vodka.
read more of this entry »
Man Dies After Winning Vodka-Drinking Contest Wed Nov 19, 9:36 AM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care.
"The competition lasted 30, perhaps 40 minutes and the winner downed three half-liter bottles. He was taken home by taxi but died within 20 minutes," said Roman Popov, a prosecutor pursuing the case in the town of Volgodonsk.
"Five contestants ended up in intensive care. Those not in hospital turned up the next day, ostensibly for another drink."
Popov said the director of the shop organizing this month's contest had been charged with manslaughter. He had offered 10 liters of vodka to the competitor drinking the most in the shortest time.
Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Some experts estimate one in seven Russians is an alcoholic. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:10 PM | Link | Odd § |
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Fab 5 Season 2 THEME
Holy crap! The Fab 5 are back with a vengeance this season! GREAT jobs on tonight's show!
posted at 09:23 PM | Link | TV § |
Idiots in the rain
It's been raining hard since midnight. There's flood warnings everywhere around us. the upside is that it's 61 degrees and hardly any wind. The drive to work was just a little slow, so it wasn't all that bad. Had a guy cut in front of me when I was in the left-hand lane on the Northwest Tollway. The traffic was creeping, but at least it was still moving. The guy in front of me takes both hands off the wheel to brush/comb his hair. The car then veers to the left, going over the yellow line, as the guy drops his hands, jerks the wheel over and goes back to using both hands to do his hair. I haven't seen women do this on the road (I've seen makeup and maybe one-handed hair, but never two-handed hair), and this guy is just grooming away. It's brush-brush-brush - *jerk* - comb-comb-comb - *jerk* - brush-brush-brush - *jerk* - comb-comb-comb as he sways back and forth outside his lane. In the rain. Idiot. He stops that and then he starts playing with stuff on his passenger seat, not paying attention to traffic ahead of him. I couldn't tell what the heck he was doing after that since I saw him over the yellow line a couple of dozen times but he seemed to be looking forward. All I know is that I got the hell away from him and got on the Tri-State Tollway northbound...
On the way home tonight, I was punching buttons on the radio trying to find something to listen to. Now, again, here it is November 18 - a week before Thanksgiving - and I find a station playing all Christmas music. This is way too early for this. So I keep punching buttons, and I find another station playing all Christmas music!
What the hell is going on???!!!???!!!
posted at 06:19 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 17, 2003
Foggy
The whole Chicagoland area was socked-in with dense fog this morning. Visibility is just a few hundred feet in some areas. Midway can't get any arrivals, and O'Hare had 1 hour delays. I love driving in fog, especially during the daytime. I found it interesting that even though it was that foggy, the drive time to work wasn't really any different, though there were patches of bad fog and patches of no fog. Fun.
posted at 05:44 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 16, 2003
It's too earlyOK, we're coming home from dinner at Mom's this evening. We listen to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me during the drive and Carol scopes out the houses as we pass by while we're still within the city. On a Sunday night, many people are home with their lights on, making it easy to become a Drive-By Peeping Tom.
That's when she saw it.
It's Sunday November 16.
Someone had their Christmas tree up. And it was lit.
It's not even Thanksgiving yet.
This is ridiculous.
posted at 09:45 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, November 15, 2003
B & B & the movies
Barry and Buffy came over this afternoon. We caught the 3:30 showing of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World at the AMC South Barrington 30. The theater was packed - I should have realized that it had great buzz and it had just opened yesterday. thank God for MovieTickets.com!. For once, I almost felt like complaining over the amount of Trailers before the movie (now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Trailers, but there were more Trailers before this movie than there are in E!'s Coming Attractions show!) Everyone raved about this movie. It was spectacular on the big screen (I would consider this a MUST SEE on the big screen), but I'd give it 3 stars, not 4. It ran 139 minutes and - to me - it felt it. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful movie to see, but I just wasn't "sucked-in". Don't know why. Wonderful to watch, though. The ships, the sea, the storms, the battles, the details. Wow.
We went back to our house afterward. Caught a showing of Dinner for Five on IFC. B&B have never seen the show before and this was a good one to catch. They seemed to enjoy it (we always do, though sometimes there are people on that are not our favorites) and hopefully they'll catch it on a regular basis. Carol made a dinner of orzo and shrimp with a salad and garlic bread. We talked about everything as we always do. Then we tried to find something to watch on TV for the night and it was slim pickings. We wound up watching Don't Say a Word, which Carol & I have never seen before. A much better movie than the advertising pitched.
It's great having friends over for dinner and movies...
posted at 10:14 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday, November 14, 2003
6 lanes!Huzzah! Hoo-ray! Woooo Hoooo! and whatever else you say. The construction along Golf Road by our house is finally completed, and is now 6 lanes wide (instead of 4 lanes). Now, if the excitement over the opening of 6 lanes of traffic is a plus, the negative side is that the left turn lane from Golf Road onto Gannon has a turn arrow (as before) but it's now a left turn on a green arrow ONLY. Bummer. I hate having to wait for a left hand turn when there is no oncoming traffic for most of a traffic light cycle.
posted at 06:57 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Stuck in Friday night trafficposted at 05:40 PM | Link | Audblog § |
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Survivor: Pearl Islands - Episode 9 THEME
Shocking! Simply Shocking!
read more of this entry »
So, the new Balboa tribe wakes-up after their first Tribal Council. Rupert tells Lil that she's a Drake, not a Morgan and he actually talks her up and pumps her up a bit - something she has sorely needed. Burton and Ryan O. also talk. A lot of strategizing, which you would expect out of a new tribe. Burton goes fishing and spears a ray. It turns out that this stingray shocks Burton. Rupert comes over and, sure enough, it shocks Rupert! It's an electric ray of some sort! Cool! They eat it anyway. (As Rupert says, it's "a high voltage meal".) Rupert talks about enjoying being able to feed the former Morgan tribemembers. Balboa goes to their first individual Reward Challenge. It's a typical slingshot challenge (hitting plates with marbles), and they're playing for a complete breakfast meal. Rupert wins the challenge, but in typical Rupert style, since Burton gave him his immunity at Tribal Council last night, he gives the reward to Burton. Burton gets to take a partner to the meal. You can hear Rupert under his breath say "Take Lill" and he does. Well, I guess she's a fellow Outcast, so it sort of makes sense.
The next morning, Burton says he's not thinking about is Drake tribe any longer - he wants to win this for the Outcast tribe, and he has no loyalty to Christa, Sandra and Rupert. Burton and Jon talk about getting rid of Rupert. (What? Ye bastards! Not the Spirit of The Pearl Islands!) The boat picks-up Burton and Lill for breakfast. Over the huge breakfast spread, Burton pumps Lill to get rid of Rupert and Lill, basically, pledges her undying allegiance to Burton. Back at camp, Christa and Sandra and talking about the same thing - getting rid of Rupert. Sandra then gets Tijuana and Darrah and they go for a walk. Back at breakfast Burton is still working Lill that Burton, Lill and Jon will be the top 3. (ed: gag)
There's a discussion about how lazy the Morgan tribe is. Christa says they just lay around. Tijuana thinks the Balboa tribe works a "great deal more than is necessary." It's time for the Immunity Challenge. It's a local pirate lore test. Correct answers earn the players coconuts, which they then place in a bin in front of another player. When a player gets 5 coconuts in their bin, they're eliminated from the challenge. Though everyone seems to have talked voting out Rupert, they concentrate on other players in the game and Rupert wins Immunity.
Ryan O. gets the feeling he's the one that is going at Tribal Council tonight. He tries to swing a 5-on-4 vote with Darrah and Tijuana and maybe work Jon & Burton. Christa talks to Jon about voting Burton off (obviously without knowing about Jon and Burton's alliance). Jon says it should be Ryan. Burton joins them and concurs. Jon in an interview says he will stab anyone in the back if it benefits him. (I totally believe him. Such a prick.)
At Tribal Council, Balboa votes-off Ryan Opray, the 31-year-old electrician from Los Gatos, California by a 8-1 vote. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:07 PM | Link | Survivor § |
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Pulsing bowlYou know it's windy outside when the water in your toilet bowl is either pulsing or gone. The wind gusts right now are 43mph and the Weather Service says to expect frequent gusts over 65mph. Yow! Had a nice experience on the way to work - the Lake Forest Oasis had free coffee and Krispy Kremes! Wooo hooo!!!! Then the parking lot at work is official half done, as they were asphalting the piece that they didn't do a week or so ago. I walked across it and it was still snapping and crackling from the heat of the steamroller (whose driver waved me into a parking place). Well, even though we lost our recycling bins to the wind (though we found two others and claimed them), I'm hoping the house will stay intact during the winds tonight.
posted at 06:46 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th monthThe base was closed for Veteran's Day today, but the Staging team was still working, so I came in as well, Got a spot in the parking lot! Of course, there really wasn't anybody there - I could have had an entire row. In the morning, on request of one of the techs, we all paused for a moment of silence at 11am to remember all those that have left us defending the country. This is my first experience at a military installation and that moment of silence seemed important. One of the techs is a Marine reservist - he may get the call to duty this week. Since he's a Marine, you know he'll be going to Iraq and not in just some little support role. I've only been there about four weeks, but I like the guys and the job. It's been odd hearing that one may have to leave to serve his country.
posted at 05:22 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 10, 2003
No Opportunity Wasted
Carol and I were watching TV tonight and saw a commercial with Amazing Phil (as in Phil Keoghan, host of the smartest Reality TV series in production - The Amazing Race), who is producing and hosting a new series for The Discovery Channel - No Opportunity Wasted. In a nutshell: Seventy-two hours. Three-thousand dollars. And a chance to realize your dream — on national TV. Is there something that you've always wanted to do? This could be your chance!
posted at 08:58 PM | Link | Reality TV | 2 comments § |
Snow and Hooligans
Pulled into the parking lot at work today (well, not exactly the parking lot but a small parking area next to the mess of parking lot construction) only to see small piles of snow everywhere. Crap. Snow. I saw something today that I never want to see again during the length of my contract: This afternoon, one of the warehouse guys was taking a palette of 20 Dell Optiplex desktops that the team had completed staging back to the warehouse. He was trying to pull the palette through the dock door with a palette jack. They guys didn't have any shrinkwrap with them to wrap all of the CPU boxes, so the boxes were all loose. Sure enough, he pulled and the entire palette of 20 machines crashed to the floor. I hope to God they work when we plug them in at the users' desks. Other than that, not too much unusual happened today... until this evening...
read more of this entry »
Carol and I are watching TV when we hear the sound of metal against concrete, almost like a pickaxe. Carol checks out a window and says that some teenagers across the street to the side of us are doing something in their driveway. After a while, I'm still hearing things so I get up to look, to see them destroying a chair at the end of their driveway. What the hell? They're using baseball bats, shovels, broom handles... what the hell are they doing? I see one of them throw something down the street. It's not the first time that something a little odd has gone on over there... nothing bad, just odd... So we ignore them for a while, but then I realize they're next to our house, on our property, hitting things and throwing things. When I hear something hit the streetlight post outside I start trying to figure out what they're doing. They're just being teenagers - hooligan teenagers. They're throwing some objects around - something that's about 4"-5" square. I can't tell what it is. I watch them using a broomstick as a bat and they're hitting stuff. They're all over our lawn... Time for a call to 911... I nice woman tries to get as much info as possible, but I'm not doing well trying to describe the kids (a bit too dark). She'll send a car. I say something like "I'm really sorry, I just can't tell what these teenagers are doing" and she says with a chuckle "That's OK, you usually can't tell what teenagers do these days!" There's more throwing, so I grab my digital camera and go outside to see what's up. There's pumpkin all over the driveway - OK, so that's what they're doing. A police car rolls-up. two instinctively run but stop and all four of them walk over to the squad car. I stay behind by the house and try to listen from a distance. I can't hear them, but the cop asks them where they live and he has them walk to their house. That's when I walk over, let him know that I called and mentioned that they stuck what I though was a shovel into the lawn. The officer turned on the spotlight to light up... something that looks like a broomstick with a piece of pumpkin on top of it. After a quick discussion, he promised me he'll get the kids to clean up and I walked back into the house. Sure enough, the kids start going up and down the street, picking-up pumpkin pieces. I see them go home, get a flashlight, and continue their pickup. WOW. It's like they were just teenagers trying to have fun and just got a bit carried away and didn't shirk their responsibilities to pick everything up. Now, the paranoid in me hopes that there's no retaliation for me calling the cops... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:35 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Whatsa purl?
Went to my mom's for dinner and found out that my sister is taking knitting lessons! She was either doing the Chicago Tribune Magazine crossword or knitting the entire time we were over. I just know she's going to try to knit something for the dogs...
posted at 09:54 PM | Link | Family § |
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Dinner and a DVDWent over to B&B's tonight. We haven't seen them in over a month and we just needed to get together! We talked for hours, had drinks, snacks, dinner (steaks!) and they picked-up the DVD of Bend It Like Beckham . Not only a good movie, especially for such a "small" movie, but I've fallen madly in lust with Parminder Nagra! That face, those eyes, that hair... (why oh why did she cut it for ER????) We discussed her at length about how gorgeous she looked. Anyway, a much better movie than I had expected. Oh, and then... tiramisu for dessert!!!
posted at 11:34 PM | Link | Friends § |
Friday, November 07, 2003
Cold & SneezyEveryone at work is start to sneeze and sniffle. Not good. Even though the room that we're in is pretty big, people can pass stuff pretty quick in that environment.
It was 28 degrees this morning, going to be 20 overnight. Damn. I hate this time of year.
posted at 07:00 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday 5 - Love/Hate
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What food do you like that most people hate? Raw ground sirloin (ground beef) sandwiches with salt, pepper and onions
2. What food do you hate that most people love? Anything with liver (including paté), broccoli, asparagus, celery
3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you? Sarah Jessica Parker. I just don't see it.
4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive? Wow. I don't know... I've got to think about it...
5. What popular trend baffles you? Where do I start? How about those stupid, baggy, usually too long stovepipe jeans that are falling off the body, usually with some strips or chains or other things attached to them. Facial piercings of any type (though I'm tolerating tattoos... some tattoos depending on location, size, and quantity...). Is the overuse of the word "dude" finally going away???
posted at 07:01 AM | Link | Friday Five § |
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Survivor: Pearl Islands - Episode 8 THEME
What the...? - PART 2
read more of this entry »
I'm not sure how this week will top last week... all we seem to have to look forward to is dissent from the tribes when The Outcasts come back... but who will they be?
In another Survivor first, the Outcast tribe goes to Tribal Council to vote two people back into the game. Everybody makes their case to re-enter the game. The tribe votes. Burton Roberts, the 31-year-old marketing executive from San Francisco, California was voted-in first, and Lillian Morris, the 51-year-old scout troop leader from Cincinnati, Ohio, was second. Burton and Lill grab their torches and relight them. Jeff sends each of the other four off, one at a time. Lill then choses the Buff of her new tribe from a container... and it's Morgan. Each of the Outcasts goes back to their original tribe.
The storm has rolled in and Drake is talking in the dark about who could be coming back. Burton walks back into the shelter. Even though he was booted out, he came back to camp with an upbeat attitude and the tribe seems revitalized. At Morgan, Lill returns and it's just an OK reception. Lill seems a bit peaved (can you blame her?). Back at Drake, Rupert pulls Burton to the side and lays it out for him why he voted him out. Rupert viewed Burton as all the punks that teased him growing up. Burton felt bad and apologized and strategized, promising to vote out Jon at the the next council. Lill is back at Morgan, doing the work she's always done there, while everyone else has no energy left. Andrew seems bitter about the entire situation, having Lill back.
Burton, Rupert, and Christa go off looking for their lemon tree and talk about how decptive Jon has been and how much he's lied. It sounds like Jon is the target of the next Tribal Council. Back at Morgan, the tribe cooks the last of their rice - they are now officially out of food.
The tribes meet for the next challenge. Jeff asks Sandra about the food situation and she talks about the fact that there isn't a food situation - they have rice and corn and yesterday they had about 15 pounds of fish and refried beans at night and everyone went to sleep full. Andrew hangs his head in dispair. Andrew says they are surviving only on mussels and coconut.
Jeff asks if anybody came here today expecting a merge and counting on it to save them. Andrew says he disn't expect a merge or a big buffet under some table (huh? did he mean on a table? or under a tree?) Jeff says: "Once again the game changes when you least expect it. Drop your Buffs. You're merging." There's a lot of excitement, mostly from Morgan as Drake doesn't seem all that happy. Jeff passes out new black Buffs (fitting, don't you think?) Andrew takes his a burries his face in it as if he's hiding the fact that he's crying. The have to come up with a new name, paint a new flag (we never see that anymore on the show...) and they're going to live on Drake's beach. This almost means that they now compete for individual immunity, and that's what they're competeing for now. It's a variation on Keel Hauling, but they're swimming laps underneath piers in diffrent heats. Jon in his heat hits a cross at the end of the pier (like he's out of control) and falls in (he!). The final heat is between Rupert, Jon, Burton and Ryan O. The each have to do 5 laps, this time transferring gold medalions from a cross at the back of the pier to the front. In almost a photo finish, Burton wins over Rupert and wins immunity. Jeff tells everyone how this all works (like we all know already, I mean this is the seventh season of the show, but Burton already has immunity because he re-entered the game, so he can re-assign the immunity if he choses), and then Jeff says: "Oh, and one more thing, guys. Savage - that buffet you referred to? It's waiting for you back at camp." Everyone celebrates and paddles off.
The feast was ribs, lamb, bread, cheese, nuts, oranges, on a table with silver goblets (very Pirate Booty-looking), The new tribe is named Balboa (same as Rupert's dead snake). Then the game play begins... there's additional discussions about getting rid of Jon (by the Morgan tribe!) and Drake finds Lill is interested in "coming over" to Drake and vote off a Morgan. Andrew wants Lill to vote-off a Drake and she takes offense to this saying that that Morgan still wants her out.
At the Tribal Council, Burton re-assigns his immunity to Rupert since he's already immune. Andrew Savage, the 40-year-old attorney from Chicago, Illinois, is voted-out 6-4 over Jon.
Damn, I'm upset for two reasons... first, I think Andrew played the game so well, he "deserved" to at least be on the jury (now, he's not - he didn't survive long enough) and second, I really want that grinnin' Jon off that friggin' island and out of the game! « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 08:07 PM | Link | Survivor § |
Clear
A cold, but crystal-clear day. This morning was one of those days when you're sleeping and the alarm goes off, but you're really comfortable in a really good position in bed and you just had a pleasant dream and all you want to do is get back there again... but you have to get up and get to work.
Still no change in the parking lot situation at work. I think they haven't done a damn thing in a few days because of the rain. It'll be weeks before this is finished. What will be done first - the parking lot of my contract?
Remember the blonde brunette that started last week? Well, I just felt more hair fall out, the others turn grayer, and arthritis settling into my joints. I'm feeling old because I just found out that her mom is 42...
I left tonight after sunset, but the sky was still clear and te colors so vivid that i was compelled to try to take a picture of it from a moving car... which is never a good thing. Not that I couldn't handle the car, it's just that you can never be still long enough to get a good shot without blurring the image.
posted at 06:52 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
One Thousand Pound WeightYesterday's rain was the precursor to a cold front coming through. this morning it was 39 degrees. Looks like we turned a corner and it's downhill from here. No more Indian Summers - fall and winter are here.
read more of this entry »
Spent most of the day trying to understand why we're constantly looking for CD-RW for the Dell Latitude laptops that we're staging. Turns out that one of the laptops going out today was supposed to have one installed according to the box contents from Dell, but didn't ship with it. We need to handle this differently next time we find this situation.
Saw a sign on an elevator in my building today - Elevator Out of Service for Testing. Wonder what they were testing? I passed by later, and saw 2 500-pound weights and a 1000 pound weight outside the elevator and a bunch more still inside the elevator car. So, were they trying to certify how much weight the thing can actually carry? I don't know if this is supposed to make me feel better or not... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:39 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Warm downpours
read more of this entry »
It's 70 degrees outside, but the trip to work turned really interesting, getting caught in a downpour. On the tollway, I could barely see the traffic around me. I pulled into the parking lot at the base exchange and realize I don't have an umbrella. Great. But, I do have a yellow rain slicker in the back seat - thank God I kept it in the car.
Today was the first day when I actually spent all morning actually in a building on the base, managing/assisting some recruits in boxing-up legacy workstations in preparation for pickup. The building was so much nicer than the one I work in, that it was refreshing to see that perhaps the base isn't as run-down as what I experience daily. I dodged the rain to and from the building, but it was pouring by the time I left for the day.
The drive home was really slow due to the rain, but wasn't as bad as I had expected. the neighborhood was a mess, with traffic signals out and a lot of local flooding. It was warm enough that the worms got flooded out of the ground and found them all over my driveway. Trying to get the mail in the rain in the dark trying to dodge worms is a real trip. I went inside only to find out that Carol left the bedroom window open this morning. Mop-up wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the rug was pretty soaked right at the window. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:37 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 03, 2003
Familiar face
Well, the Sox made a decision - one that a few people find surprising - former shortstop Ozzie Guillen was named Manager of the White Sox. A few things I remember about watching him play - he has heart, intensity, he never wanted to walk (I always saw him go after pitches - and make contact - that were all over the place), and had this odd little "goofball" side of him, always working hard but having fun in the process. The downside? No management experience - though he was Third Base Coach for the Champion Florida Marlins this year. I hope this works out...
posted at 06:19 PM | Link | White Sox § |
No ParkingOver the past couple of weeks, the parking lot at work is undergoing renovation. They tore-up half of the lot, removing the asphalt and digging up the dirt, putting in a better base of gravel and then resurfacing. The lot is barely large enough to fit the cars for everyone that works in the building. Having half the lot gone means we have to park in the base exchange next door and walk over. Well, the started asphalting over the weekend - but it's only half done. The other half of the asphalt is blocked-off, and the old part of the lot is now being chewed-up, so the lot is about a quarter of the size it used to be. It's a mess. It's a bit of a walk from next door and, even though the weather has been OK, it's going to make for a lousy walk if the weather changes (which it should over the course of the week).
read more of this entry »
The life of a contractor on a military base (well, at least on this military base) isn't like your normal corporate life. We're working on a raised-floor datacenter area, but no one is cleaning it. I spent almost an hour this morning sweeping the floor, and then actually washing a few tiles where people have left some mud behind when they came in. No one empties the garbage cans - we have to do it. The hallway outside our staging room is dark - one light illuminates the hall, they others are dark. This is where we hang-out to drink or munch on a snack since that's not allowed in the room.
We ordered-out Chinese food from a local place that, well, wasn't the best food I've ever had. All you could say about it was that it was filling. I was full and bloated and uncomfortable for the rest of the day, so much so that i'm skipping dinner tonight. *urp* Just too much... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:17 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Fall Birthdays
We had a nice family get-together at Kathy & Al's to celebrate some fall Birthdays in the extended family. The party started at 2 and we had a Wolves game that started at 4, so we stayed as long as we could, but people were still coming over and I felt really awkward leaving. I mean, it's family and we just don't see everyone as often as we probably should. So, we went to the game, watch the team lose, and then I decided we should go back. We arrived in time for cake and lots more conversation (even though we only saw 2 periods of the game, it still felt that the pace of the game was quick and we were out of there in no time). Everyone seemed pleased we came back, and I felt better, too. So we had some lasagna and great cakes, all made by Myrina. Missed all of the opening of presents, though.
posted at 09:15 PM | Link | Family § |
Wolves 3 - Crunch 4
read more of this entry »
So, we get to the game at the very start of the 2nd Period (more on that in another post) and we're already losing 2-1. Kari Lehtonen doesn't look as good as the last time we saw him. The team just doesn't feel like they're working together. It just feels odd. Speaking of odd - Syracuse has Pauli Levokari who used to be on the Wolves last season (for about 6 games). The guy is big - 6' 5". Coach gets one of our players to talk to the ref and say they believe Levokari's stick is too long. The ref takes the stick, measures it and - sure enough - it's too long and Levokari gets 2 minutes for Illegal Stick. Interesting move. While he was in the box, we scored, but it wasn't enough - we lose 4-3.
(Boxscore - Gamesheet) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 07:02 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Wolves 4 - Griffins 3
read more of this entry »
Wow - 12,818 tonight for the hockey game. By 11:17 into the first period, we're losing 3-0. Freddie Cassivi looks like a sieve. What the hell is going on here? We just had to wait another 5 minutes and the Wolves score two goals within 38 seconds. We wound-up scoring 4 unanswered goals and win 4-3. The shots are starting to come up, even though we only out-shot them 35-32.
(Boxscore - Gamesheet) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:06 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Nigerian 419 Scam Emails still coming
read more of this entry »
Return-Path: <kkembe@indiatimes.com>
Delivered-To: 152-xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com
Received: (qmail 7869 invoked from network); 1 Nov 2003 12:25:58 -0000
Received: from softdnserror (HELO helimore2544.com) (67.107.88.26)
by web-xperts.com with SMTP; 1 Nov 2003 12:25:58 -0000
From: "Abito Kembe" <kkembe@indiatimes.com>
Reply-To: kkembe@indiatimes.com
To: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 12:50:57 +0100
Subject: Mr.Kembe
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6900 DM
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
From: Abito Kembe [mailto:kkembe@indiatimes.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 5:51 AM
To: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com
Subject: Mr.Kembe
Attn:
I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of the EKO BANK OF AFRICA LAGOS, NIGERIA. I am writing following the impressive information about you. I have the assurance that you are capable and reliable enough to champion an impending transaction. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$28.5m (twenty eight million and five hundred thousand US dollars), in an account that belonged to one of our former customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash, in November, 1997. Since we received the information about his death, we have expected his next of kin to come forward and claim his money, as enshrined in our banking laws and regulations. So far nobody has come forward, and we cannot release the funds unless someone applies as the next of kin as stipulated in our guidelines. Unfortunately, We have discovered that all his supposed next of kin or relations died alongside with him in the plane crash, and effectively leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is consequent upon this discovery that other officials and I in my department decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation of the deceased person, for safety and subsequent disbursement, since nobody is coming forward for it, and the money is not reverted into the bank's treasury as unclaimed. The bank's regulation stipulates that if after five years, such money remains unclaimed; the money will be reverted to the bank's treasury as unclaimed fund. The request for a foreigner as the next of kin in this transaction is predicated upon the fact that the said customer was a foreign national, and no citizen of this country can claim to be the next of kin of a foreigner. We agree that 30% of ! the total sum we be given to you for your assistance in facilitating this transaction. My colleagues and I are going to retain 60% of the total sum, and 10% will be set aside for the expenses that we may incur in facilitating the remittance. To enable us effect this remittance, you must first apply as the next of kin to the deceased. Your application will include your bank co-ordinates, that is, your bank name, bank address and telex, your bank account. You will include your private telephone no. and fax no., for easy and effective communication during this process. My colleagues and I will visit your country for disbursement according to the agreed ratio, when this transaction is concluded. Upon the receipt of your response, I will send to you by fax, the text of the application. I must not fail to bring to your notice the fact that this transaction is hitch free, and that you should not entertain fear as you are adequately protected from any form of embarrassment Do respond to this letter today to enable us proceed with the transaction
yours, sincerely,
Abito Kembe « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 12:50 PM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |
*nose wiggle*posted at 08:44 AM | Link | Memes § |
|