Photos about town

Champ looking for a handout. I found this one just north of Market Square in Knoxville. "Imma need about tree-fitty". Works for me.


This was outside the Food City in South Knoxville, near John Sevier Highway. Beautiful day on Saturday.


In a subdivision down the road from us. I don't know if bumper stickers are the new Bondo, or if he just had something to say.

Memorial Day

About six and a half years ago someone from Florida contacted me about a tombstone that she saw in Lakeland. It stands in the Lakeview Cemetery over John F. McDonald.

John F. McDonald was a member of the Regimental Band of the New York Sixteenth Infantry during the Civil War.



From Newton Martin Curtis' book, From Bull Run to Chancellorsville, page 324:

McDonald, John F. — 28 5, 3 ¾ wd m o Aug 9 1862 Re-enl Band 3 brig 3 div 20 corps m o June 12 1865 died Sept 22 1901.

Memorial Day is a time set aside to remember those men and women who died while in military service. John McDonald doesn't exactly fit that bill.

Please take a moment of time to remember those that have served and have fallen, both in and out of service.

Also, take a moment of time and thank those that are currently serving. Give them a call, send them a card or an email. They'll appreciate it.

I know that Veterans Day is a day to remember all veterans, but take another moment and thank those that served and are still with us. They'll appreciate it as well.

I say thank you to John F. McDonald who served alongside my great-great-grandfather, John W. Nichols.

I also say thank you to Anthony K. who is serving in Germany.

And a thank you to George Aubrey (my father) and Jim Knowles (my father-in-law), who both served our nation in military service.

I know other veterans who I did not mention. Please do not take offense at not being named. I thank you, too.

Bob Newhart as Braveheart

Vacation Hades

Angie requested some time alone to work on crafty type items for teacher's gifts. Edison was off to see Robin Hood with some friends from church. After lunch I took Caroline to the Wal-Mart in Sevierville. I hadn't been down the parkway in Pigeon Forge in some time. So off we went. These were all taken with my BlackBerry lower res camera.

If you squint, you can see the Titanic just down the road.

I pulled into the parking lot to get a better photo of the stately ocean liner.

And here's the magic behind the illusion. It isn't really the Titanic, but a large building.

And some papier-mâché.

The World Famous Dinosaur Walk Museum...

When you're questing for some Magi...

The mountains are getting closer...

And then there's the King. No, not Richard Petty. Elvis. He's got a museum that isn't in Las Vegas.

And the world famous Comedy Barn.

That, to me, is Vacation Hades. But we love those that come to vacation here. It helps keep our property taxes low. Thank you. Y'all come back.

Alliteration, Base Ball, and Interrobang

I was poking around some old newspapers and came across two ads from 1907...

Two of the Bennett Sisters

(from a Library of Congress flickr page)

The interrobang has nothing to do with the previous ads...

Knoxville Pics

The last few weeks I've been hanging out in downtown Knoxville. Today, I decided to take some photos with the BlackBerry. I don't know the names of these buildings. The sculptures are in and around Krutch Park. The painting/mural is on the south side of Wall Street, very near Gay Street. Enjoy them. I did.

God is Good

Caroline has a new pacemaker. She gave us quite a ride this weekend. It started Thursday evening. She wasn't feeling well and was very lethargic. A trip to ETCH's ER showed us why. A lead on her pacemaker had fractured and the firing signal wasn't getting to her heart. The pacemaker tech confirmed the diagnosis. Both of her cardiologists showed up. Quick, but thorough consultations resulted in a decision to move her to another hospital in town.

She was transported to the UT Medical Center where a new lead was inserted. Heart Cath type stuff. The surgeon was able to juggle his schedule and Friday afternoon her old pacemaker was removed and a new one was inserted. 5-1/2 years of newer technology. Better battery life. Slimmer design.

The surgeon was able to perform the procedure without having to crack any bones. I saw her in recovery an hour or two after surgery. She recognized me, gave me a kiss and said, "I love you, fish head." We try to discourage her from that, but I told her it was okay.

On Saturday she was released, right after lunch. She's on simple, over the counter pain meds and a prescription antibiotic. She's still tender, but spent a day playing, watching videos, enjoying family.

I'd like to thank the surgery team, her cardiologists, the pacemaker tech, the nurses and hospital team, the transport team. I'm sure that I forgot somebody on the professional end.

I'd like to thank my family. Angie spent two nights, with her mom, at the hospital. Edison was a trooper. Jeff and Mary were a blessing to have as stabilizing force, as well as having good sense. Barb and Caitlin brought food. Many friends sent their well wishes and prayers. A few special friends visited Caroline at UT. Jim, my father-in-law, was there throughout, shuttling cars and people. He did more than that. He's seen a lot in his life and knows the power of God.

Even though I'm clueless as to the procedures that Caroline went through and exactly how the stuff works, I'm grateful for God's power and grace.

God is Good.

Print less, save money

I just read an AP story that discusses a way to save money by changing fonts.

Smaller fonts equal less ink used equal money saved. Here's an interesting few lines from the story...

The standard advice for trimming printing expenses still applies: Print in "draft mode," if you can. Use both sides of a page and do a print preview to make sure you're not printing pages with useless text such as a copyright line. Using an ink-saving font is just one more technique to consider.

And the greenest way to save on ink is not to print at all.

Now, I'm all in favor of saving the earth, saving money and casual tree hugging, but copyright lines are not useless text. Here's what it says at the bottom of the story's web page...

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

My guess is that the writer, Dinesh Ramde, might want to have a small meeting with his editor. But, if the editor let this get through, perhaps they both might want to seek out their boss before the boss seeks them out.

And no, I did not get any prior written authority from The Associated Press to use the few lines that I did. Quick, call the copyright police. Oh, no. Wait. Those are just useless text. I guess I can do whatever I want to.

And that © image at the top? Courtesy of McDutchie who released the image into the public domain a little over three years ago. Interesting that a copyright symbol doesn't have a copyright. Well, I guess it technically does, but you know what I mean.

We're So Proud

Recent events from east Tennessee caught on video...

KSO Blogger's Night - A Review

A week and a half ago I attended a Blogger's Night Concert, put on by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. They tossed me a pair of tickets and I was supposed to blog about it.

The review has been brewing in my head for the last ten days, and then one of their minions e-kicked me in the shins, gently reminding me that I haven't held up my part of the contract. So, here goes.

The program was entitled Shakespeare in Love. This was part of the Moxley Carmichael Masterworks Series. And it was delightful.

I arrived about 7:10pm and missed the first part of "The Talk". "The Talk" is where Maestro Richman comes to the stage with one of the performers to talk about that evening's program. On Thursday night he brought Carol Mayo Jenkins and they sat and discussed Shakespeare, music, composers and the like. Then they opened it up for questions. Mind you, this is very informal. I felt a bit awkward raising my hand and asking, "Ms. Jenkins, have you ever done one of those '15 Shakespeare plays in 15 minutes' productions? And Maestro, would you consider scoring some music to play behind it?" I should have. Nobody asked a question. I don't know if they do "The Talk" before every concert or not. They did it last year with Ms. Perlman and it was fascinating. (Note to self: Show up on time. Don't be afraid to ask a question or two.)

The orchestra then came on the stage and warmed up. Then tuned. You'd think that they'd do it the other way around.

The first piece on the program was MacDowell's Hamlet and Ophelia, Op. 22. During "The Talk" Maestro Richman wondered if Korngold had listened and borrowed from MacDowell.

1911 Helmar Stamp (T332), Edward MacDowell

MacDowell's piece had a very cinematic feel to it. I closed my eyes and imaged the music as the background for a silent film. I wonder if Williams had listened to Korngold's King's Row when he wrote the Star Wars themes.

Next up was Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture after Shakespeare. If you watched TV in the early 80's you know this one. "Get all you favorite classical tunes, such as the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet, as played by one of the greatest pianists of all time, Richard Clompen-Trompen. Relax as the soothing music flows from the keyboard and washes over your troubled soul. (music swells)"

1909 Ramly Cigarettes (T204), Peter Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Yeah, that one. You'll remember that in the Time-Life ads they really didn't mention Tchaikovsky. It might have quickly scrolled by on the screen, but Mr. Reagan wasn't too keen on promoting anything Russian at the time. (Note to self: Do a Google search on "CIA Mind control Time-Life records") The orchestra pulled this off brilliantly, bending to the Maestro's wand.

A short intermission ensued, long enough for the concert goers to visit the bar. And that they did. When the lights in the lobby went down and those on the stage went up, Maestro Richman shared the stage with four gifted actors from the Clarence Brown Theatre and the Women of the Knoxville Chamber Chorale. The actors performed lines from Bacon's Shakespeare's play to Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Opp. 21 and 61.

1895 Mayo's Cut Plug (N300), Felix Mendelssohn

I was very curious to see how this would work out. Recently there was some discussion about concert goers clapping at the end of a movement (taboo) instead of waiting for the end of the piece. I wondered if the musicians would take offense at the spoken word stepping on their music. Apparently they didn't.

I wasn't overly familiar with either this story or the music. Sure, I read the guides and tried to remember if I had to read the play in High School. I don't think so. Basically, it is a dream sequence about love potions and fairies, braying asses and Puck, love and sleep. Well, there's more to it than that. Read it your self. The actors, using hats and flowers as their props, made me forget that there was an orchestra just feet behind them. I was drawn to Conrad Ricamora's performance, but all were good.

The opening and closing chords of this piece, although very short, gave me rest.

I'd like to thank the KSO for providing the tickets and I'd like to thank Maestro Richman for guiding the orchestra in a wonderful evening. And I'd like to thank Walker's Formal Wear for donating the actor's tuxedos for the performance. And thanks to Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville for sponsoring the program. This is either starting to sound like the Oscars ^{(insert trademark thingo here)} or look like the side of a NASCAR vehicle.

It was a very nice evening and I'm glad I attended.

The 'baseball' card images were lifted from the Library of Congress and cobbled together to make fictitious cards. Since you can't take photos during a performance, I let my imagination run amok.

KSO Blogger's Night tonight

Lots of Music. Lots of Shakespeare. Mix 'em together and you've got the 2010 Knoxville Symphony Blogger's Night.

Angie's had a very busy week so I'll be making a go of this myself.

Blog report in a few days.

New Barbie is demeaning

Mattel recently announced a new line of Barbie dolls. They are the I Can Be... series. Sure, a trademark goes somewhere in there. This is big business. Here is the I Can Be... Computer Engineer Doll.


The I Can Be... Computer Engineer Doll empowers

girls to play out different roles and "try on" fabulous careers, including computer engineer, the first Barbie® profession chosen by popular vote! Always a reflection of the times, this digital diva engineers the perfect geek-chic look, with hot pink accessories and sleek gadgets to match. The inspiring set also comes with a special code that unlocks career-themed content online, for even more digital play (how fitting)!

Features for Geek Tech Barbie include:

• Dressed in a funky tee with binary code design
• Comes with cell phone headset, laptop bag, and pink laptop
• Special code inside each package unlocks career-themed content online
• Perfect for gadget girls

If being a Computer Engineer doesn't suit your little girl's taste they can choose to be a News Anchor, a Newborn Baby Doctor, a Rock Star, a Dentist, or a Babysitter.

The thing that is the most offensive of this is that this doll is demeaning to a good percentage of the Computer Engineers out there. We do not all wear funky tees with binary code designs. We do not all wear phone headsets. Some of us have lives outside of work, whether it is being a member of good standing in the Society for Creative Anachronism or playing Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes we come out of our mother's basement, if just to go to Best Buy to purchase the latest Asus - Rampage II GENE Micro ATX Motherboard 2000MHz (Socket LGA 1336). It does have 12 USB ports and 8 channel audio.

Mattel and Barbie, get a life.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and watch the final episode of Big Bang Theory, Season 1.

And, Mattel, if you're reading this, in general, real Computer Engineers are not Choking Hazards.

A study in Caroline

Misc. Thurs. Ramb.

Yes, it is time for another edition of Miscellaneous Thursday Ramblings.

Windows 7 has been good and stable. We've had it for about two months now. I did see one BSOD, but I'm not worried. Our trial version of Norton Security MumboJumbo expired, so I installed Microsoft Security Essentials. It seems to be working out well.

In other computer news, my in-laws' laptop got hosed up last week. The hard drive was filling up very quickly. Out of about 60GB, they had 16MB free. You read that correctly. Culprit was the AVG Free software. Something was triggering a gotcha and it would create a dump file. That was about 100MB in size. Every four or five minutes. You do the math. They are now running Microsoft Security Essentials.

A co-worker's home desktop also got hosed this week. Windows XP Pro Antivirus 2010 rogue program. Basically it hijacks your computer and makes it unusable until you buy their software to tame it. Or, you can use the instructions here.

It made the user look like this.

On the reading front, I've been working on Donald Honig's A Donald Honig Reader, Neil Lanctot's Negro League Baseball, and Sue Macy's A Whole New Ball Game.

On the TV front, Angie and I have been enjoying Big Bang Theory and Castle.

Just because I like his humor.

KSO Blogger's Night 2010

I have been in contact with Stephanie from the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra the past few months, mostly to keep up with the Annual KSO Blogger's night. There was talk that it was going to be two weeks ago, but other events overtook that.

Now, it is official. On Thursday, Feb. 25th. As part of the Moxley Carmichael Masterworks Series they will be presenting Shakespeare in Love. Conductor Lucas Richman has selected three pieces based on William Shakepeare's works. Actors from the Clarence Brown Theatre will be offering lines from the Bard while the music plays.

Now, being the conspiracy theorist that I am (tongue in cheek), I would be remiss if I did not bring up the fact that Sir Francis Bacon wrote most, if not all the works attributed to William Shakespeare (link). Could it be that Maestro Richman knows of this and is presenting the works of MacDowell (Hamlet and Ophelia), Tchaikovsky (Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture) and Mendelssohn (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) to an unsuspecting audience? It is well known that those three hacks had plagiarized anything and everything that they could from their students. Really, can you tell me another piece that MacDowell wrote? Didn't think so.

I postulate that there was another composer behind all three men and played them as pawns in the game musical greatness. I have not yet completed my investigation into this but hope to by Thursday, February 25th. Until then, pass the bacon.

The Good, The Bad, and The Forgiven

On Saturday I attended a men's conference at Sevier Heights Baptist Church. FeedYourFaith.org organized the event.

Scheduled speakers included Michael Franzese, Hallerin Hilton Hill, Burt Rosen and Dr. Voddie Baucham.

I say scheduled because Michael Franzese didn't make it to the conference.

The conference started without him just fine. A band of young men, fronted by Josh Hilliker. Their music was guitar driven and carried the worshipful respect that is due God.

Hallerin Hilton Hill spoke about Wrestlemania. What do we as men wrestle with? How putting out schemes before God's plan don't work. How the fight is fixed and we don't need to fear.

Burt Rosen, President and CEO of Knox Area Rescue Ministries, shared his story and how he came to be in Knoxvile, that "God forsaken city." Very moving and reminded me that we should not worry about the 'bell-wearing unclean.'

Dr. Voddie Baucham spoke in two sessions. His topic was centered around Folklore Theology and how American Evangelicalism has watered down the Gospel, if they share it at all. The second session dealt with what the Bible says about being a Christian. Here are some of his sermons. This topic isn't yet available, but should be out next month.

About 12 men from our church attended. It was fun to get to know them better and break bread and the Word of God together.

Caroline Wii Bowling

Thanks, Nana and Papa.

Merry Christmas

I was perusing some magazines over at Google books and came across these ads. The are mostly from Popular Science and Baseball Digest.

Please do remember that we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas, not just observe the traditions of Santa, presents, food and family. Although those things don't hurt. Enjoy.

A day in the life...

Our PC died. We had mighty winds and the power was flickering at home. That is not good. It did something really bad and some Windows boot files got corrupted. I've tried to restore them, but it still isn't working.

And the legs of our kitchen table are going bad. Not the legs themselves, but where the bolts that hold them on. The insert nuts are made of cheap metal and are falling apart. A trip to the big orange hardware store sort of helped, but not really. The next day, a trip to the big blue hardware store got me on track. Two legs have now been fixed, I might try to fix the other two over the Christmas break.

I need to go and tune the piano at church. It is difficult to keep the temperature and humidity constant in a large room that is only used for about eight hours per week. My tuner broke about a month ago and I haven't replaced it.

With the heavy rain that we had the last few days, Caroline's school system closed due to flooding. Her school is fine, but the school system covers the whole county. So Angie and I split up Caroline duties yesterday. It is tough when the day gets fractured.

And I did something to my left foot. I can't describe it, but it isn't comfortable to walk on. Resting last night seemed to help. I might have pulled something or stretched it in the wrong way.

All this to say that I've had better weeks.

Then, this morning, I received an email from church updating us on one of the missionaries that we support. I share it here, reminding me that my problems and issues are minor and that we serve God that can do more than we can imagine.

Written by Jesse Pryor, Missionary in Papua New Guinea...

It has been an exhausting week. Dealing with the logistics and technical aspects of the optometrist surgeon’s visit has been a borderline nightmare. Not only is getting to Samban rough, but once here, you have the knowledge that whatever you do not have with you means that it is going to be impossible to get it in time. So we had been planning for two or three months, but it just didn't seem like enough time. All the traveling was worked out. All the technical issues were discussed and planned for, so everything should be alright, or should be manageable.

It ended up that the traveling was the easy part. Picking up the doctor and his two nurses, traveling over road, and then by canoe went off without a hitch. The first morning here the doctor realized that our facilities lacked two things that he needed. One was an operating table (the right length, width, and height). He also needed a table that would serve as a microscope stand. With a few pieces of timber and some odds and ends of plywood, by 1 pm, he was ready for his first patient.

The generator of ours was running fine. The fan to cool the microscope was going fine. Two patients into the day the generator started having power surges. What's going on? Fortunately, we had a UPS for the microscope, so it wasn't damaged. I cleaned the air filter and then the fuel filter. The fuel filter had so much water in it that it was shutting down the operation of the generator. The bad thing is that we only had the one drum of fuel, so however bad the fuel was, it was all we had. So, this meant that basically every hour (with the generator still running), I would quickly take the fuel filter cup off, empty the water out, clean it and get it back on before the motor shut off due to the lack of fuel. There was a little pressure involved, but fortunately the UPS also had battery back up so if the generator shut down, I still had five minutes of power before the microscope shut down. I forgot to mention that he had patients on the operating table (literally under the knife) while all this was going on.

The doctor operated on 16 people over the course of 3 days. Seven of these people had one eye done the first and second day, and then the second eye on the third day. Of these 16 people, 5 or 6 of them have basically been blind for the last 3 or 4 years or so. All of the patients were having cataracts removed. There’s something about the UV rays here in the tropics that makes cataract problems an issue. The second morning before operations started the doctor would remove the eye patch and check the eye he had operated on the previous day. Those that had no vision would stare in shock, and then be in utter elation when they could "see" again.

One old man literally sang all the way home. He had been led from his house to the clinic. That day he led the pack as he left the clinic. On the day of the operation on his second eye, he didn't even wait for those to escort him. He was walking as soon as first light hit, so he could be first in line for the operations. Saturday he had his patch removed and he had the use of both eyes. To paraphrase what he said, "That's it. I'll never be found sitting again. My children and grandchildren are going to have a full time job trying to find me. No more sitting in the house for me."

I have other stories about comments and reactions of these patients. All of them are priceless. Yes, I'm exhausted, but I'm absolutely thrilled for these 16 people who have had sight restored. During all these operations, besides fuel problems, the fan that was to cool the microscope burned up. Fortunately we had a second fan. If the doctor doesn't have the microscope, he can't operate. If the fan doesn't cool the microscope, it will not run. So we were glad that we had the two fans. The second fan burned up as well, but only halfway through the operation on the last eye. For some reason the UPS caused the generator to have power spikes (which have not stopped even after we are no longer using the UPS). The generator is what we use to power the electronics (like this computer) in our house and other equipment to do our work here in PNG. All this is fixable.

I don't know about you, but in our family the countdown for Christmas has begun (especially for the 3 kids). For some reason I've always found it really easy to have the Scrooge mentality around Christmas. So here I sit writing this email with no fan, so I'm sweating just typing. The washing machine won't pump out water on its own, so every few minutes I'm having to get up to pump out the water for it. We've also got a lot to do because the plane is coming tomorrow and we are headed into town for some shopping for supplies and to get some literacy material printed. It would be really easy to focus on the bad. When things break down out here, it is a waiting period before we can either get parts, or replace it. Sometimes replacing things has to wait until funds are available.

However, if you gave us (Karie and me) the choice between two fans, a washing machine that worked properly, or 16 people with restored sight, I think you know what the choice would be. Those 16 people have been dealing with poor sight for years, and it’s hard to feel sorry for yourself because you can't turn on a fan. We can replace fans, we can get a new washing machine, maybe not when we want to, but those types of things are replaceable. To have the ability to change someone’s life through restored vision? That is irreplaceable.

All these things I’ve mentioned remind me of the fact that over 2000 years ago an event took place in history that changed the course of human history, yet so many people are blind to the fact of what a magnificent change took place. How simple it is to restore physical sight for a doctor who is skilled and has the right tools. How hard it is to change the attitudes of those who don't care to see what God did so many years ago, and does every day. It's easy to focus on what is not right in the world. It is easy to see the defeats close at hand. Yet the victory that is in our future, because of what was done so many years ago, is so much greater than what we have to deal with right now.

Our little world here in Samban can now see a little clearer because of what one doctor did. Hopefully, we can see the greater vision of what Christmas means through the gift of God's Son.

2009 Fantasy of Trees

East Tennessee Children's Hospital put on their 25th annual Fantasy of Trees.

One of our friends at ETCH was able to get us some complimentary tickets to the Festival so I took Edison and Caroline to the fun.

I took about 160 photos, so I'm not going to bore you with all of them. Really. Here's the best of them...

Caroline waffled about seeing the big man. But, simple distractions and about a 20 minute wait in line and we were next. When I asked her what she was going to ask of Santa, her reply was, "Paper. Crayons. Markers. Pupcake. No pie. Cake. A doctor's kit."

Now, this was not a pure quote, but more single word answers to prompts. She did fine meeting Santa, posed for the photographers (both the official one and me) and then I collected her. We thanked Santa, wished him a Merry Christmas and started to walk to the digital photo selection area. She turned back towards Santa and said, "Paper." I guess that she forgot to let him know her wish list or he didn't ask.

It reminded me of the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie tells Santa that he wants a football and then realizes that he should tell him exactly what he wants...

The Fantasy of Trees Santa was much nicer.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Turkeys Away

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving TV shows

I've been waiting years for this episode of Cheers to show up.

Thanksgiving Orphans

This is the one where the cast all get together at Carla's place and a food fight breaks out. I saw part of it in 1986, but not all of it. WGN is showing it.

Other favorite Thanksgiving themed TV episodes are the ones from Everybody Loves Raymond. The tofurkey and the fish episodes. The Bob Newhart Show where Emily goes off and leaves Bob and the boys with some liquor and football.

On Thanksgiving day, I enjoy a smattering of parades and football.

Keep the turkey moist and the remote close by.

Weather Girl

Caroline went on her first kindergarten Field Trip today. Her class went to WATE, the local ABC affiliate, where they toured the facilities and got to play on the set. Below is meteorologist Ken Weathers giving her some assistance.

And then she's flying solo.

The kids had fun and rounded out the morning with a stop at Burger King for some chicken and fry-fries.

Thanks to Diane H. for the photos. More photos can be found on Facebook.

Catch up

It seems that I've been neglecting this blog. I have, I guess.

To make up for it, I give you an image that I found over at FreakingNews.com...

I also share a wonderful episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour...



While I was sick this last week I had a chance to watch this. I'm a big Bob Newhart fan, and an Alfred Hitchcock fan. When these two worlds collided, I'm a double winner. Take 50 minutes from your day and watch this.

I was able to read some more of A Colossal Hoax by Scott Tribble. It is a very well researched book.

We celebrated Edison's 15th birthday on Saturday and Sunday. Ah, boys will be boys. Angie has a much better description of the weekend's events over at her blog.

I worked on a few PCs for some friends. Mostly updates and cleaning out cruft. I fought with a Vista laptop that did not want to give up the administrative password. I was finally able to use a tool that cleared the password. Bingo. Now to finish cleaning and tweaking.

There. I'm caught up. Probably not, but that's what you're getting for now.