Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
It’s… *gasp* a hockey photo!
I have no idea who the player is, but I do know that this one is from warmups before the Pink in the Rink game they did last year.
(H/T: Tater Tots for the Masses)
You know those re-useable grocery bags? They’re bad for you:
Oh you people, with your cheap little eco-friendly grocery bags, smiling smugly at the shameful people exiting the supermarket with paper and plastic single-use bags! Did you know that your reusable bags are crawling with disease, bacteria and hideous little creepies that may poison you?
It's true! A new study proves it!
Swab-testing by two independent laboratories found unacceptably high levels of bacteria, yeast, mold and coliform counts in the reusable bags.Ugh, gross. It turns out that hippie grocery bags are no less filthy than the hippie foods that people put into them. And what you end up with is a wet, dirty pocket of disease that you proudly tote your uncooked meats in. You might as well cart your food around in a toilet.
You have been warned.
My grandmother does the sign at church. I told her yesterday to never do this:
see more Fail Blog
After all, she did put up
HURRICANE IKE
STAY AWAY
the week Ike hit.
I told her that day that putting that was a mistake.
I have to wonder what the first-responders were thinking after the storm when they drove by our church…
(Note to the locals: I’m throwing in the background info for all my non-local readers)
On April 30, Kevin LaDay died after passing out in police custody.
LaDay’s family and Houston’s own Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panthers, went to Lumberton and held a protest, claiming that LaDay was beaten by the Lumberton P.D.
Today, LaDay’s autopsy came out, listing the cause of death as a drug overdose:
KFDM News has learned the final autopsy report in the death of Kevin LaDay shows his death was an accident and due to PCP toxicity with nothing listed in the report to indicate he'd been beaten, Justice of the Peace Vi McGinnis tells KFDM News.
(emphasis theirs)
Quanell’s conveniently ignoring the facts:
“Those findings are very suspicious to me. […] I don't trust county medical examiners. We know there was a scuffle, an altercation, a fight. If they say that had nothing to do with it, are they saying he would not have died if he hadn't come into contact with Lumberton Police?”
And he ain’t apologizing… at least not yet:
"It's extremely too early to offer an apology," said Quanell X. "I would never apologize unless we determine his death is due to natural causes. We've always seen medical examiners go along with police officers time and time again. White folks in America have never apologized to blacks for slavery. What the hell would I look like as a black man for apologizing for the death of a black man under what I call very suspicious circumstances? When whites apologize to African American people, then we can talk about a mutual apology."
What happened to this “post-racial America” thing I’ve been hearing about?
You were wrong. Be a man. Admit it and move on.
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 Follow Your Heart |
 You tend to fall in (and out of) love very quickly. Some may call you fickle, but you can't help where your emotions take you. You've definitely broken a few hearts, but you're not a heartbreaker by nature. Your intentions are always good, even if they change with the wind |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
I know I posted this two months ago, but I thought that, with the much wider template, it deserved a repost.
I really do think this is an awesome shot of Taffy:
THAT is why I went through the trouble of modifying the template.
So, earlier today I tweeted:
@AbbyNormal Should I type up my tater-tot casserole recipe?
By popular demand, I bring you tater tot casserole:
Ingredients:
What you do:
I leave out the onions just because I’m not a huge fan of them, so whether or not you include them is up to you.
For Moter’s Day I sent my grandmother a link to this:
The sad thing about it is that I didn’t get the Psycho reference. Now I’m going to have to go find it on DVD somewhere.
I’m glad the news waited until now to get out:
A case of the H1N1 "swine" flu was confirmed Sunday in Port Arthur, said Yoshi Alexander, director of Health Services for the Port Arthur Health Department.
Alexander could not provide details concerning the resident's age or sex, but she said the person has already recovered from the virus.
Seriously, i’m glad this came out after all the crazy panic died down.
I mentioned earlier today that I’d trimmed down the sidebar thinking that I might switch to a two-column template.
As you can see, I’ve now done that.
What you probably don’t know is that I had to do some coding and image work to spit this out. I had to produce a few custom images and edit the code of the default Rounders template to give myself the wider area for blog posts that I wanted. This way I don’t feel so squeezed when I’m trying to post images or videos. The old template got a little claustrophobic in that regard.
I’m happy with the results… for now, at least.
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve made some changes to the sidebars.
I figured there were some things I could get rid of in order to make the sidebars leaner.
I’m considering going back to a two-column version of this layout, so cleaning up the current widgets is a must.
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 Dare |
 You are all about taking risks and pushing limits. You love the rush of doing something forbidden. Like most daring people, you are highly intelligent and creative. That's why you get bored so easily. You need a lot of stimulation and novelty in your life. You aren't satisfied with the mundane. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
OK. so there wasn’t any grief counseling or a test at the Bunny Run, but there was cake:
I never actually got a piece of it though. Oh well, it’s not like I need it anyway.
It has become apparent to me through recent media coverage that we’re not supposed to call it the swine flu anymore, but H1N1. I’m sorry for offending.
I do, however, have a question:
Why is “swine flu” not used anymore?
Inquiring minds want to know…
My aunt’s a nurse, so usually my grandmother listens to her when anything involving medicine is involved.
Well, this time she didn’t.
My aunt asked her what she was doing about swine flu, and my grandmother responded “nothing.”
You would have thought my grandmother had admitted to being on the grassy knoll.
My aunt told her things like “don’t go to church,” “wear a mask,” and “don’t hug anybody.”
My grandmother, being the woman she is, went to church the next day without a mask on and walked up to a guy that knows my aunt, said “my daughter says for me to not hug people” then gave him a really big hug.
She says she hasn’t had the flu since she retired from teaching, so she’s not worried about this one.
If only more people were like that.
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 CURVES AHEAD |
 You deal with stress well. You take things as they come, and you don't panic. In fact, you often enjoy challenging situations. Difficulty makes you feel alive. You are alert and observant. You notice every twist and turn in the road. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
GO THE HORSE WITH THE COOLEST NAME!
That’s all I’ve got.
Alright, so I’ll tell you which I think has the coolest name.
I would have gone with I Want Revenge, but it was scratched this morning.
So, in it’s place, I must dub Chocolate Candy as having the best name.
And now I have a craving for chocolate.
And really, who names a race horse Hold Me Back? That doesn't make sense…
There will never again be a storm named Ike:
Three hurricane names in the Atlantic and one in the eastern North Pacific were retired from the official name rotation by the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) hurricane committee because of the deaths and damage they caused in 2008.
The names Gustav, Ike and Paloma in the Atlantic and Alma in the North Pacific will not be used again. Those names would have been used again in 2014. In their place will be Gonzalo, Isaias and Paulette in the Atlantic and Amanda in the North Pacific. The committee issues the list of potential names for tropical cyclones to be used every six years for both the Atlantic basin and eastern North Pacific basin.
Since they’ve retired the name, I think I’ll retire the button I made up too.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
I took the digital camera my mom gave me to the Astros game I caught two weeks ago and took a bunch of shots with the intention of stitching them together.
This is actually eight photos stitched together with Windows Live Photo Gallery:
I’d say we had decent seats…
(Anybody think I should put together a post on how I plan out and execute stitched photos?)
I’m afraid to leave the house.
No, I’m not afraid of catching Swine Flu, I figure that if it happens then it happens.
I’m afraid of something much scarier: the “Swine Flu stare of death.”
My allergies have been acting up, probably due to all the rain we’ve had lately, and they’ve left me with a cough.
I figure I’m going to get a lot of looks, especially while I’m in Houston tomorrow for an eye doctor’s appointment, since a Mexico City boy in Houston for treatment died yesterday.
I’m thinking I might do good to wear one of these…
The scene near the end of this week’s episode of 24 between Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and Janis (Janeane Gerafalo) made the episode worth watching…
Check the video out over at Blogs4Bauer since I can’t ever get Hulu embeds to work.
Ok, I admit it, I just liked seeing Gerafalo getting yelled at.
Seriously, the scene made having to see Gerafalo’s ugly mug all season worth it.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
Occasionally I take a quiz directed towards women. This is one of those times:
| You Are A Bad Date! |
 At least, not unless the guy is a dead ringer for Brad Pitt (with more money) You just don't spend enough time wondering if he's having fun... And newsflash - he probably isn't! |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
After we got back from the run to San Leon, we set up an easter egg patch for the kids…
We’d originally planned to do this in San Leon, but the folks in San Leon decided they didn’t want their kids around bikers or something like that.
That’s really not bad quality for a cell phone pic…
@TheUnusualsNYC posted a link to this before Tuesday night’s episode as a promo:
If this peaks your interest, you can watch the four episodes that have aired on ABC.com.
At church we’re starting a new tradition this year. On Mother’s Day, we’re doing an anthem as a men’s chorus, and the women will be doing the same on Father’s Day.
When our director told us about her plan to do this, I got pretty excited. My senior year of high school, I sang with the school’s men’s chorus. I’ve been wanting to perform in one again, but haven’t had a chance until now.
When competition time came around, one of the songs we did was Be Thou My Vision, which has an awesome men’s arrangement that we used.
It turned out that our choir director (who also directs at a local high school) picked Be Thou My Vision for the piece we’re doing.
As you can imagine, I’m pretty pumped.
If you’re curious, here’s a video with the arrangement that we’re doing, by a pretty awesome-sounding college choir:
I can’t wait!
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 a Vanilla Cupcake |
 You are drawn to those stronger personalities. You get along with powerful people. You are like a cupcake because you appeal to almost every type of person. You are friendly and accepting. You bring out other people's best qualities. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
I’ll be live-tweeting tonight’s Astros-Reds game, since I’m there and all.
You can read my tweets here.
Used to be I only watched two shows: House and 24.
Now I’ve got a few more shows I catch:
Lie to Me: I think the whole detecting lies thing is what interests me the most about the show. Each show has, for lack of a better word, “mysteries” that Cal Lightman and his team solve.
The show is a bit like House, but that’s ok.
The Unusuals: It’s part cop drama, and part comedy.
I’ve always known that cops have an interesting sense of humor, and this show touches on that. Through the two episodes I’ve seen so far, I’ve really dug the stories. and I’m interested to see where it’s going.
UPDATE: The Unusuals is on Twitter at @TheUnusualsNYC. From what I can tell, it’s run by people actually affiliated with the show, so it’s legit.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
This is from the Bunny Run last Saturday in Houston.
The bunny run is an annual motorcycle run that traditionally delivers Easter baskets to Shriners Hospital in Galveston.
This year the run wasn’t to Shriners because they still haven’t opened back up since Ike hit, so instead the run was down to San Leon, a small town along Galveston bay that was hit hard by Ike, and delivered the baskets there.
I’ve got more pictures from my cell and I’ll post some of them over the next few weeks.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
Apparently not…
| You Are Country |
 You can appreciate the simple things in life, and it doesn't take much for you to feel content. While you appreciate the many opportunities of the city, you see them as too much of a good thing. You love living a peaceful life. It's important that you can hear yourself think. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to a special edition of Stupid Quiz Sunday. It’s special because it’s Wednesday. And my birthday. So this is appropriate:
| Your Birthday Predicts You're Influential |
 You have a superstar personality. You are charming and fascinating. You believe in hard work and persistence. You know how to make your big dreams a reality. You are demanding, but your standards are reasonable. And you demand the most from yourself. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
PPD:
It's Opening Day for most of Major League Baseball on Monday. Mother Nature apparently isn't a baseball fan, however.
The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox both had their openers postponed because of inclement weather in the local forecasts.
Can we finally institute the “no roof rule” that Laurence has been pushing for for years?
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
2,696,400Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
I’m sick of people that have nothing better to do than come to me when they have a problem and lay it at my feet like it’s mine too.
People that expect me to quiver to their every want and need or help them when they fuck up, but piss and moan when things don’t happen their way.
People who weren’t there for you for years, but now think that they can insert themselves into your life and act like they always were.
Those people need to just get the fuck out of my life.
If they won’t, I’ll be glad to show them the door.
That is all.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
Roy Oswalt squaring up to bunt:
Apparently, “The Google” wants to be cool…
That, I’d assume, is why they’re reportedly trying to acquire Twitter:
Here’s a heck of a rumor that we’ve sourced from two separate people close to the negotiations: Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter. We don’t know the price but can assume its well, well north of the $250 million valuation that they saw in their recent funding.
As a Twitter-er, I’d welcome Google. I remember what they did with Blogger. When I got on Blogger, it was just as Google was really starting to get itself wrapped up in Blogger and making it better. There were some growing pains along the way, but Google made Blogger into what it is today.
Soon enough, Google will own us all… and I wouldn’t necessarily call that a bad thing.
It seems that now everybody has been jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.
Two local TV stations (@KBMTNews and @KFDMNews), the local paper (@BmtEnterprise), and even the Beaumont District of TxDOT (@TxDOTBeaumont) are on Twitter now.
Twitter is now, apparently, “cool.”
I’m thinking it’s about time that Twitter veterans unite and scream something:
WE WERE ON TWITTER BEFORE IT WAS COOL!
I need to make up a badge or something…
It is with a heavy heart that I am today announcing that I am leaving blogging.
It was a very tough decision to make, but I realized that I simply won't have the time for it with my new career in the male strip club industry.
It's been a great ride, with a lot of great people I've met along the way.
I'm really going to miss y'all.
Oh, and...
APRIL FOOLS!!!
You're not getting rid of me that easily.
(For those of y’all that don’t remember, I did this same gag two years ago)
Last week, I made a lasagna recipe I found on the internets.
I’d never seen lasagna where you rolled the noodles before, but it was really quite interesting.
The only thing that seemed weird about the whole thing is that it didn’t have a tomato sauce in it.
It didn’t matter, it was still really good.
We had enough of the spinach mix left over that I’m going to try making it again with that and using spaghetti sauce instead of making the white sauce the recipe calls for and seeing how that turns out.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
| Your Energy Level is Moderate |
 You have enough vigor to get everything done... with a little left over for some fun. You find that you have plenty of energy, as long as you give yourself time to recharge. But if you don't take care of yourself, you notice that your energy levels really plummet. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
Another from Opening Day 2006:
This is actually two photos that I stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery. It was as simple as selecting the photos and clicking on “Create panoramic photo.”
Lazy blogger here
Mind has been on other things
Haven’t felt like it
I spent Monday and Tuesday up at the lake helping my cousin move stuff out of her lake house that she just sold.
Since I got back, I just haven’t felt like blogging. Not quite sure why.
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 Sites
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
After the first round of the NCAA’s has been completed, my bracket is rocking.
I’m 27 for 32, which places me in the 99th percentile for all of Yahoo.
15 of my Sweet 16 teams are still alive.
Just don’t ask me what I did right… I’m not even sure.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
Since baseball season is starting soon, I’ve decided to use a few of my baseball shots that I have lying around.
That’s from opening day 2006, when Jeff Bagwell was introduced for his last opening day, greeting the team as he’s introduced.
I plan to have more baseball shots in the weeks to come.
I don’t consider this to be a FAIL:
see more pwn and owned pictures
I’ve always joked that I wasn’t a morning person because it was too early to drink…
Yesterday I was at a local park that they’re in the process of renovating.
Part of the renovations included new paved walkways.
I noticed the old ones were fairly straight, but all the new ones kind of wind through the park.
Don’t get me wrong, I love curves. I love curves on a woman and a fast road, just not on my walkways that would be just fine perfectly straight.
Monday my grandmother went to her bone doc for another checkup.
Her wrist is completely healed now, but she needs some more physical therapy to get back all her strength in the wrist.
She’s gained a lot in the past month, but she still has trouble with a few things.
Half of the battle, as you can imagine, is getting her to trust that wrist again. She’s still a little scared of doing things with it sometimes…
…so I make her do it.
She has to get over her fear of things somehow, and I don’t know a better way than that.
Things are getting back to normal. Thankfully, that also means that I can cook things that she had trouble eating earlier.
So I’m making a pot of chicken spaghetti on Thursday.
Maybe I’ll share the recipe sometime soon.
I’ve had this happen before…
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
…but then I had another beer and it was all good.
And since it’s tourney time, I’ve decided to set up a pick’em group for all my readers/twitter followers/anybody on Yahoo.
It’s group number 79572 and you don’t need a password. You can sign up here.
The group’s set up with a progressive scoring system with a bonus for picking upsets. The details are below:
| Round | Pick Value |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 |
All upset picks are worth a 1-point bonus.
The winner gets my undying love… or something else of no real value whatsoever.
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 Online Dating
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
Taffy again:
You really need to stop using these pictures from Gustav, Justin. Shoot some fresh ones!
I’ll admit, I’ve been lazy… but I’ll shoot some new ones within the next week.
…is that you don’t have to worry about scenes like this:
see more dog and puppy pictures
A few weeks ago at church we started diving into Crucifixus from Bach’s Mass in B Minor.
You can give it a listen here. Sorry, couldn’t find a recording with an audio track I liked on YouTube.
It’s got to be one of the dreariest tunes I’ve heard… and one of the hardest I’ve sung.
We’re aiming to do it on Palm Sunday… if we can get it sounding good enough in time.
We’d been spending time on sections of it, but last night we sang the whole thing through for the first time. It was kind of shaky at times, but I think we’ll get that kicked out of it in time.
If we don’t have them kicked out, we’ll just not do it.
…to not letting little kids that you’re watching wear you out.
Yesterday I was babysitting a one-year-old at church while his grandmother was in a meeting. Cute kid, behaves wonderfully.
Last month, his grandmother told me to wear him out so they could both nap when they got home. Of course, in the process, I ended up wearing myself out and taking a nap of my own.
This time I was smart. I took a more laid back approach and trying to conserve my energy.
It worked.
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
Kind of pathetic, I think…
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
This week, we have Taffy:
I’m so dignified!
Of course you are!
PS. Did you know this is the 75th installment of Friday Photo?
PPS. Did you know that the tagline up top still says that it’s a ‘new’ feature? Because it does, and I don’t plan on changing it anytime soon.
PPPS. Maybe I’ll change it after the 100th edition. Or maybe I’ll do like Laurence did with “Ask the Cats” and just keep on calling it new until the end of time.
I got an email earlier today from a guy who wanted to do a link exchange.
In the email, he claimed that he’s added the blog already and goes on to say this:
By looking at my stats, it looks like today I have sent you 10 visitors but it may change by the time you receive this email.
So, out of curiosity, I check my SiteMeter.
No referrals from his address.
Nevermind the fact that I didn’t see a link to me on the site
Moral of the story: If you want to exchange links, don’t make a bullshit claim. It’ll just get you mocked.
Last night I went to see Jeff Dunham and Brian Haner (a.k.a. Guitar Guy) opened for him.
This is probably the song that got the greatest reaction:
More coming tomorrow.
I’d said after Ike that I was going to move to Fort Worth.
After a lot of thought, I’ve decided not to.
While Fort Worth doesn’t have hurricanes, they do have tornadoes.
Sometimes, big ones. Like the F3 that ripped through downtown in 2000.
With major hurricanes, you usually get enough warning that you’re able to get the hell out of dodge.
Tornadoes aren’t so accommodating, only giving you time to hunker yourself down if you’re lucky.
I think I’ll take my chances with the hurricanes.
I took my grandmother to a late breakfast yesterday morning. She’d gotten up early yesterday morning (like before 5) when my little brother woke her up and said something to the tune of “I think I’ve got appendicitis, I need to go to the ER.”
They went, and he was right. They caught it early, so it wasn’t anything terribly serious. He’s had it removed and will hopefully be coming home today.
I stayed home because things had to be taken care of, then got up to the hospital about 10:30. My grandmother hadn’t eaten yet, so we planned to go grab a bite in a little while.
When my cousin got there we told him we were going to head out and grab a bite to eat.
While we were chowing down on Breakfast, my grandmother (who, I remind you, broke her wrist in January) said “2009 has just been a bad year for us.”
Now I’m wondering what’s going to happen to me…
Of course, I’m just worrying too much. Right?
Twitter’s @donthorp, after a conversation with @GadgetVirtuoso, blogged a hack to TweetDeck that allows your Twitter timeline to be updated more frequently without sacrificing reply requests.
It clicked that the same hack could work in Twhirl, my Twitter client of choice.
The newest version of Twhirl is set up to allow Twitter Search to automatically search for replies. And since Twitter Search doesn’t count against the API limits, it’s essentially a “free” request.
It’s easy to set up too.
Now you’ll recieve all your replies and get your DM’s and Tweets more frequently.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
This week, we enter the magical world of office supplies
| You Are a Calculator |
 You're a highly analytic person. You are only concerned with what you can know for sure. You look at situations objectively, and you have no problem approaching problems from multiple angles. You would make a good analyst or investment banker. You are confident enough to make tough calls and hard decisions. |
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
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.
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.
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 |
 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.
Welcome to Friday Photo, a new feature where I share photos that I've taken with the world.
Yep, some sort of bird.
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…
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.
I’m not sure how impressive this would be…
see more pwn and owned pictures
…unless you’re in to that sort of thing…
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!
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" |
 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.
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:
Now you can go save enough water to fill up any lake out there!
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.
(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.
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.
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 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.
It’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…
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.
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:
Hey, daddy! What’s this white stuff?
Seeing as how rare it is here, I was wondering the same thing.
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.
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.
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.
Since the Steelers are favored by 7, I have to pick the Cardinals here too.
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.
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.
Welcome to Stupid Quiz Sunday, in which I'll take an online quiz that may or may not be stupid and post the results.
Have you taken this quiz? Have a quiz you want me to take? Leave a link in the comments.
Happy 