She Said Yes

Twenty years ago today, Angie said "yes" when I asked her to marry me.

Well, not exactly. It was lots of tears, nodding, shaking, etc. I finally had to ask her if that meant yes. She finally said yes.

Thank you, Angie.

Random

Edison wanders around saying, "That's so random."

Following his cue, I'm going to share a few random things with you.

• A music video of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears performing "Sugarfoot".
• keaggy.com (too hard to explain)
• Inside the belly... (Green Monster photos)
• A book from the library for Caroline
• Early Baseball Boardgame Collection

Well, that should do it for now.

Have fun exploring. Randomly.

Oops!

According to an AP story...

An Oscar Meyer Wienermobile crashed into the home and outdoor deck of Nick Krupp in Racine, Wis. on Friday morning, July 17, 2009. According to a witness, the vehicle was parked in the driveway. The driver lurched the vehicle forward instead of backing out of the driveway, hitting Krupp's deck and cracking the foundation of his house.

From the Archives

I have heard / read a few stories lately that deal with materials from the archives and I want to share them.

The Codex Sinaiticus has been digitized. This is the world's oldest Christian Bible.

An original copy of the Declaration of Independence was recently discovered in the British National Archives. Here's a link to the NPR story.

And finally, the Archives and Special Collections of Wheaton College have a blog, ReCollections. Fascinating tidbits from their holdings.

Now, stop living for today. Go back and live in the past.

Happy Father's Day

My brother said it much better than I ever could have.

I said some stuff. Mine, though important, seems almost superficial. His is much more real.

This is not a "Dad loved you best" Smothers Brothers take off. Steve just hit the nail on the head. With the hammer he stole from dad.

Steve, we're both winners in this game. Except that it isn't a game.

Dad, thank you for your leadership, your faithfulness to mom, to the family and to God. Thank you.

Happy Father's Day.

More New Math

I like Car Talk on NPR. The guys opened yesterday's show with a nod to MoreNewMath.com.

The people behind MNM use mathematical equations to define words. It is easier if you just go and look.

Well, here's one before you go...

Pirate = Thief + Boat + Bandana - Leg

Enjoy.

What I've been up to lately

Last weekend the family and I went to Michigan (via Chicagoland). Here are some of the things we saw...

A pair of very dedicated NASCAR fans. I guess they like Mark Martin. Or something. I would have picked another driver, I think. This is at a cemetery just southeast of Indianapolis.

Another gravestone just down the way. I'm not up on my chemistry. A little help?

We stopped in Homewood, IL, for Aurelio's Pizza with some of Angie's High School classmates. No, I don't remember all of their names.

Later that night we drove to Battle Creek, MI, for a few hours sleep before heading out to Owosso, MI. Our nephew, Daniel, graduated from High School. Daniel is on the right.

Coming back, somewhere in Ohio, we stopped for gas. This American Iron Horse was on the other side of the pump. I talked to the rider and he was kind enough to let me take a few photos.

We arrived home very early on Monday morning. Just enough time to unpack and catch some shuteye before attending Caroline's end of pre-school program. She'll attend a few weeks of summer school and then she'll be attending kindergarten.

Angie and I spent part of Monday crafting a to-do list of around the house projects. I've cleaned the gutters and tonight I put up the new light in the kitchen...

Before

After

We're still catching up on our sleep and a few TV programs that we missed. Okay, one. In Plain Sight. Good writing.

So, I'm off to bed with dreams of another item crossed off of the to-do list.

Overheard

This is a transcript of a meeting that purportedly came from the office of Mr. Bud Selig.  I have not been able to verify any of it, nor do I know who else was present.

 

Okay, boys. The Montreal Expos. Poor attendance. What can we do about them?

Yeah, I know they were the first expansion team in Canada. But they haven’t won anything. And should they get hot again, like they were in 1994, we can’t afford another strike to crush them. It wouldn’t be good for the major market teams.

Besides, they’ve already done their part. The produced Carter, Raines and Dawson. It’s time to shut them down.

(unintelligible) 

What? We can’t just yank their franchise? Why not? I’m commissioner.

Okay, let’s play monopoly. No, not the Parker Bros. game. Real stuff. Let’s buy them. Get Loria on the phone. Have him move their management to Florida. Leave the team in Montreal. That’ll teach ‘em.

(phone rings)

Oh, crud. The Twins are on the other line. Seems that they have to play at the Humpdome. We like symmetry, and that will leave us with an odd number of teams.

We’ve got to keep them around for a while. What to do? What to do?

Let’s put the team in a better park. Hmm… Where to put them? What about Puerto Rico? I know a lot of their fans will visit them there. Not. Even if they don’t get more attendance, the ballpark down there is smaller and it will look like there are more fans because there are less seats. And San Juan is warm all year. In Montreal the fans come to the Parc Jarry in parkas in July.

(unintelligible) 

What? They moved out of Parc Jarry? When? After the Olympics? What Olympics? Why doesn’t anyone let me in on these things? Crud.

Any chance we can sneak a grinder into Cooperstown? That @#$%& Carter was inducted wearing an Expos cap. Spraypaint? Hey, call that punkrockpainter guy. Maybe he can create new postcards with any other logo. We must erase the memory of the Expos from the collective minds and history books of baseball.

Cattle. That’s all the fans are. Cattle. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting some sort of assurance that the baseball card companies will verify any game used material that they put on cards. Distance ourselves from that one, too.

The New Math

see more G-Rated fails at Fail Blog

Happy Mother's Day

This is an ad from the Plattsburgh Daily Press, May of 1940.

Remember Mother this Sunday! Here are things she loves and never has enough of.

Like I want to go and buy her some "Fine Quality Heavy Rayon Panties." But it is a good price. The Hershey's syrup. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

My Day is Complete

Yes, the Weekly World News has been added by Google Books.

Read it here.

Actually, my week is complete because I have a wonderful wife, two beautiful children and a job.

This is just the icing on that cake.

Easter Carols

From the April 4, 1929 issue of the Plattsburgh Sentinel...

The rest of the story can be found here.

Computer woes

The desktop PC went flaky on Saturday.  We had a power failure.  I had to reset the power strip.  And even then it didn't want to turn on.  Finally it did.  But things weren't quite right.

Lately, our ISP (Charter Communications) has been goofy.  The cable TV works well.  But it appears that the DNS isn't working correctly for Charter.  This was confirmed to me by one of my coworkers today.

After spending a half hour on the phone with Charter's tech support, and getting nowhere, I did some searching on my own.  It seems that OpenDNS could be an answer for us.

They not only do the right thing with regards to Domain Name Service, they also allow you to filter content and perform customization for your network.

That's all for now. I'm back to getting the router going.

Girl's gotta have a grill

Bought a new grill last night...Lots of shiny stainless steel. It was on sale at Lowes. Tonight we grill.

Life On Mars

Normally I don't shill for TV shows. But this one has captured me so much that I'm willing to do that.

A policeman, Sam Tyler, is involved in an auto accident in 2008. When he wakes up he is in 1973.

The beginning of last night's episode was some of the best television production that I've seen in a long time. No, I can't describe it. Well, I could, but if you haven't seen it, my description would take away from the actual show. I don't want to ruin it at all.

Next Wednesday night is the series finale. I'm not one of those who will sign a petition to keep it on the air. I think that ABC and the producers did a the right thing in keeping it to a single season.

I like period pieces. I like time-travel quandaries. I like good acting and smart writing. I like this show.

Refi Day

Today Angie and I started the refinance phase on our house. I won't go into all the details but to say that we've been on a 20 year mortgage for two years. We refinanced for a 20 year note, but the reduced interest rate means that we'll be paying less each month and over the next two decades we'll have paid less than we would have on the remaining 18 years.

We've been talking with our mortgage guy, Fred, for the last month or so. He locked in the rate. Then I had to go to northern NY. Then he had a vacation scheduled. Today was the day for the first round of signing papers. We had to provide bank statements, W-2s and pay stubs.

I had them all. Except for the 2008 W-2s. I found this out about 15 minutes before the meeting. Racing home, I called Angie to let her know that I might be a few minutes late, but it would be okay, because I knew where the papers were.

No I didn't. I looked where they should be. Then the place where they should be if they weren't in the first place. And then the third place. I retraced my steps, turning on all lights and opening the blinds.

Not finding them and already ten minutes late for the meeting about five miles from the house, I called Fred. He explained that it would be just fine to get them to him later.

I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to cry. Yes, that bad.

We signed the papers and returned to work. Angie assured me that we'd find them. I wasn't so sure.

Work was tough this afternoon. Mostly because I was ill about not knowing where our tax info was.

After getting home, I found the papers in the fourth place they should have been. Now I need to scan them and email them to Fred.

That'll teach me to get organized.

Yeah, right.

I'm back

The trip to the North Country was nice.  Grammy's death was final, but not sudden.  The love that our family (both real relatives and family friends) showed was overwhelming.

The weather wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

I won't take you day by day or meal by meal, but the days were long and the meals were good, from Rambach's Bakery to The Great Adirondack Soup Kitchen.

I saw Kite Skiing and Maple Sugaring.  I enjoyed laughter and endured tears.  I was with my family and I missed my family.


I know why I miss the North Country.  I also know why I'll probably never live there again.

But it was good to be there.  For many reasons.

Another one called home

I received a call very early this morning from the night nurse at the nursing home where my grandmother was staying. Connie was calling to let me know that Effie had passed away.

I haven't found the words to express myself, so I'll use the easy way out. Here's a blog entry about her from last year.

Font testing

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My fortnight visit

I realize that I have been neglecting to post on this blog. I've been spending my time and blogging efforts over at the new blog.

This morning, while getting ready for work, we got to listen to the interview with That Chick on Star 102, a local radio station. She's written a book and was hilarious on the radio. Caroline wanted to play basketball, but Angie was listening to the interview in the living room, where we keep the basketball goal. We were in the bedroom.

So, I taught her how to twiddle her thumbs. She doesn't quite get it, but laughs very hard when I do it. Silly girl.

Caroline does not have school today. Edison has a half day. They are both off on Monday. Seems like we just went through this.

We're going out to dinner tonight with my in-laws. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm one of the luckiest men in the world. I've got a great wife, two wonderful kids and in-laws that are extremely easy to get along with. We even like each other. Go figure.

So, that's enough filler. See you in two weeks.