Friday, February 27, 2009

Getting things set up

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

I took this with my cell while we were setting up one of the two areas where we fried oysters for the Oyster Supper yesterday.

Setting u[

Yes, that’s cardboard duct taped together on the ground. It’s a lot easier to throw that out than to clean up the concrete underneath.

I had a lot of fun working yesterday. I ended up being there for 10 hours (minus a lunch break) and worked my ass off.

All for this. (I’d already eaten some)

I’ll be doing it all again next year.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Busy day

Today I’m working our church’s Oyster Supper.

It’s something I’ve attended my entire life, but I’ve never worked it before now.

I’ll try to send some observations and pictures throughout the day to my Twitter and TwitPic pages.

Could have some interesting stuff come up!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

The pancake quiz

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Are Buttermilk Pancakes
Your prefer traditional, old fashioned foods.
You shy away from anything fake, and you like meals with simple ingredients.

It's not likely someone would find margarine or diet soda in your kitchen.
Instead, someone might find a loaf of homemade bread baking or a soup simmering.

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Friday, February 20, 2009

It’s a bird! It’s a… yea, it’s a bird!

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

june lake trip 018

Yep, some sort of bird.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Ike Report

The National Hurricane Center recently released the Tropical Cyclone Report for Ike (PDF, 3.07 MB).

Basically, as I understand it, the report summarizes everything a tropical system did.

Weather geeks (like myself) might have some interest in it. The report has a lot of statistics for wind speeds, storm surge levels, rainfall, and other things from various locations.

The thing I found the most interesting though was the maps showing storm surge inundation by county. It was amazing to see just how far inland that the surge came.

Have a look, if you dare…

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Today we see the domin… er… physical therapist

As y’all might know by now, my grandmother had her cast taken off on Monday, having it replaced with a removable splint

She’s happy about that.

What she’s not too happy about is the month of physical therapy she’s beginning today.

Three days a week she’ll be experiencing pain just short of what a highly-trained dominatrix can deliver, just a lot less fun.

We were going to see how she’d do driving tomorrow, but we agreed that it’d be better to see how she reacts to the physical therapy first.

So we’ll do that next week.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

FAIL of the day

I’m not sure how impressive this would be…

fail owned pwned pictures
see more pwn and owned pictures

…unless you’re in to that sort of thing…

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Looks like we have a winner!

Recently I asked if my grandmother would get her cast off first or if Obama would sign the stimulus bill first.

Since Obama’s planning on signing the bill Tuesday, my grandmother will definitely be getting her cast off first.

The poll results were split evenly between the two options, each side getting two votes.

Congrats to those who got it right!

Why couldn’t I have been the “any” key?

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

You Are "esc"
Some people might try to say that you're unreliable or flighty.
But you can't help it. You're always finding yourself in sticky situations.

You're willing to bail if things are looking bad. You are quite impatient.
For you, having to escape every now in then is the price of taking risks. And you're not about to stop taking risks!

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Conserving water 101

june lake trip 004 We’ve been asked to cut back on non-essential water use by 30%.

This is the first time I can remember that we’ve been asked to do this. We probably have before, but I just didn’t notice it.

Anyway, here are a few simple tips for people who are unfamiliar with how to conserve water:

  • Don’t wash your car daily. Washing your car daily uses up tons of water and makes people (like myself) who can’t remember the last time they washed their car look bad. You don’t want to make me look bad, do you?
  • Don’t run your sprinkler system every day. Sure, your yard might not look as good as you’d like, but it won’t be any worse than that neighbor of yours that never does anything to his yard either.
  • Drink less water. You may wonder how you can manage to drink less water, but it’s actually quite easy to do. When you find yourself wanting a tall glass of water after you get home from work, have a beer instead. Not only will you be conserving water, but you’ll get drunk, which will make you feel better… at least until the next morning.
  • Shower five times a week instead of daily. I’m sure there’s a couple days on your weekly calendar where you could get by without one. Do so. If somebody says something to you about it, just point out that you were trying to conserve water. You’ll still stink, but at least you look like you care.
  • Oh, wait, scratch that last one. You might be confused for a hippie and get punched in the face.
  • On a related note, don’t let naked PETA protestors shower on the sidewalk in your town. She was doing it to make some point about conserving water somehow, but I forget what it is.

Now you can go save enough water to fill up any lake out there!

Frankie

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

This week I’m doing a little something different… because I’m lazy.

This week’s Friday Photo is posted over on TwitPic.

Frankie’s my cousin’s extremely cute dog.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Stimulating myself (it’s not what you think!)

(H/T K T Cat)

Somehow I managed to sneak into the stimulus bill.

Don’t believe me, this is Title III, Subtitle A of the bill:

wireless and broadband deployment grant programs

(including transfer of funds to Justin Yarbrough for the Justin Yarbrough Personal Economic Stimulus Program)

For necessary and unnecessary expenses related to the Wireless and Broadband Deployment Grant Programs established by section 6002 of division B of this Act, $2,825,000,000, of which $1,000,000,000 shall be for Wireless Deployment Grants and $1,825,000,000 shall be for Broadband Deployment Grants: Provided, That an additional $1,007,297,449.05 shall be paid directly to Justin Yarbrough in the form of subsidized loans that do not require repayment. Provided Further, That the funds be used by Justin Yarbrough to construct a water recycling facility or for whatever. Provided Even Further, That Justin Yarbrough will receive free Houston Astros tickets for life. Provided Even Further Still, That Justin Yarbrough shall be treated as a cabinet-level appointment for the purpose of income tax reporting, and therefore no taxes shall be paid on any of the aformentioned benefits. And one more thing: Nancy Pelosi is hereby expelled from Congress, effective immediately upon enactment.

See, I’m totally in there!

If you want to be in the stimulus bill, all you have to do is fill out this form.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

‘Mark Twain Tonight’ tonight

382px-Mark_Twain,_Brady-Handy_photo_portrait,_Feb_7,_1871,_cropped We had a lunch at church on Sunday to discuss the plans for renovating our 40-year-old building.

But this isn’t about that.

During the lunch, the couple we were sitting next to gave us four tickets to Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain Tonight.”

They’d been given tickets by somebody else, but couldn’t go because it was one of theirs’ birthday and they were having a party.

They told us that they’d seen the show on Broadway when they were in NYC and that it was great.

I’m really looking forward to it…

I’ll post some thoughts about the show in the next few days.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

OK, now this one is just crazy.

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

A hat-tip to @crallen for pointing me to this one:

You Are a Colon
You are very orderly and fact driven.
You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue.

You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched.
You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions.

Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice.
(But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!)

You excel in: Leadership positions

You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Updated: Let’s protest wasting water by… wasting water!

Naked_shower_demonstration_New_YorkIt’s time to protest:

Two women will shed their clothes Friday afternoon and shower in public in downtown Beaumont, in support of PETA's belief consumers should become vegetarians to help the environment.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says the meat industry wastes water and creates a large amount of greenhouse gases, and the organization is inviting the public and media to an event it says will help expose the scope of the problem.

Isn’t showering on the sidewalk a waste of water too?

No, I’m not making the trip downtown to see this spectacle.

Now, if there wasn’t a curtain…

Update 12:15 PM

You know, I can’t take these girls too seriously doing this on a day when it’s 70 degrees outside. If it was 45 and windy, then maybe I could admire their dedication to the cause.

More from the snow

Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.

I wish I’d gotten some pictures of the other dogs out there:

The snow of 2008 012
Hey, daddy! What’s this white stuff?
 

Seeing as how rare it is here, I was wondering the same thing.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Which came first?

The goal for Obama’s stimulus package has been to have it on his desk by Presidents’ Day.

Whether or not that will happen is up in the air.

What I know will happen on Presidents’ Day is that my grandmother (who broke her wrist a month ago) will have her cast taken off for good.

I thought this would make for a good poll.

Which will happen first: My grandmother has her cast taken off or Obama’s stimulus package is signed into law?

The polls are open until noon Presidents’ Day.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Fifth annual Super Bowl predictions

Yes, that’s right, this is the fifth year I’ll be doing these.

Here’s my previous attempts:

That makes me 8 for 12 all time.

This is the hardest Super Bowl of the bunch for me to pick. While I know the Steelers are the best team, the Cardinals are really hot. That makes it really tough to pick.

It should be noted that I reserve the right to change these picks up until kickoff. I probably will.

The game:

This may totally backfire on me, but I’m going to have to go with the Cardinals. The Steelers are definitely the better team in this game, but the Cardinals are playing some great football right now.

I don’t buy into the whole “well the Cardinals have never been there” argument either. Some of their more vital players (like Kurt Warner) have plenty of big game experience.

The spread:

Since the Steelers are favored by 7, I have to pick the Cardinals here too.

The over/under:

This year’s over/under is 46.5. The Steelers have a hell of a defense and have struggled to score more than 30 points a game. If the Cardinals get pressure on Big Ben (as I expect they will) they should be able to hold that offense in check.

I think it will be under, but it could go either way.

The results:

Not so good… only got the spread, making me 9 for 15 all time. Which ain’t bad, considering I figured I’d pull a 0-fer at the half.

A man’s gotta eat!

Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.