Damn Dirty Dishes

Posted on July 16, 2004 by Frog

This is the story of why no deed goes unpunished.

Two weeks ago the MIL’s dishwasher stopped working. Luckily, it didn’t explode and flood her kitchen. That is about the only good thing to come out of this ordeal. The better-half took her to a doctor’s appointment shortly thereafter and on their way home they planned to stop at Sears to order up a dishwasher. A huge storm hit and the power was knocked out. So much for that idea.

Last Saturday, the better-half went to Sears and ordered one up by himself (there are only so many features available in a certain price range–and really who cares as long as the plates come out clean). The sales person assured him the machine would be at that location on Thursday.

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To the Yard

Posted on July 15, 2004 by Frog

Last night I was grooving in one of the porch chairs and the better-half asked me if my milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard. Well, if there were boys anywhere near us, I’m sure they’d come running but that’s not really the point of this post. The point of this post is either I’ve been hiding out in a spider hole or there really doesn’t seem to be a HOT SUMMER POP HIT yet. Am I missing something?

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Party Like it is 1999

Posted on July 15, 2004 by Frog

I read an article in the NYTimes this morning about Martha Stewart (you have to have a membership to read it). And I paused at this paragraph:

Martha Stewart is everywhere, it seems. At what might seem to be the worst of times for her – the rapidly disappearing interlude between her March 5 conviction on federal criminal charges and her sentencing tomorrow – she is looking more like a carefree socialite than a woman on the edge of incarceration.

If I thought for a minute that I was about to go to the Big House for any amount of time, I’d be out there shaking my groove thing too. Hello, she could be locked up for months. Why shouldn’t she live it up until the gate slams shut behind her?

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A Long Day Yesterday

Posted on July 14, 2004 by Frog

Yesterday morning I had to wake up in the early part of the 5 o’clock hour so that I could leave around 5:45 to meet my boss at the commuter lot in Lee Hall. Let me tell you that is just plain crazy early and I didn’t like it one bit. Not surprising the trip to the interstate had me seeing exactly no cars.

We picked up a co-worker in Newport News and made our way to Portsmouth. Portsmouth, for those of you not familiar with Virginia, is down in the Tidewater area which means it is very close to the Atlantic ocean. The thing is you can’t actually see the ocean from Portsmouth but there is lots and lots of water in the area. There are actually shipyards where they build massive ships and, of course, the military has a large presence in the area. Unfortunately, Portsmouth also suffers from poverty, crime and more than a fair share of rundown buildings.

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When It Is Easy

Posted on July 12, 2004 by Frog

Last night, while we were sitting on our blanket listening to the Shawn Colvin/Cowboy Junkies concert at Wolf Trap, I thought about how easy everything felt. Do you ever get that feeling where everything has converged nicely and you just aren’t bothered? Not by the heat, not by the mass of people, not by the case of “man, I’m old” that is brought on by the girl sitting one blanket over who has no idea what’s so funny about a Freebird joke? I had that feeling last night. I liked it just fine.

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Moths

Posted on July 11, 2004 by Frog

On Friday, while entering the post office, I saw a pink moth on the stairs. I’ve never seen one of those before and I don’t have any idea what kind of moth it was. My insect guide book doesn’t offer many clues. It was one of the prettiest moths I’ve ever seen.

Yesterday, the better-half and I found a very cool moth on our front sidewalk. I came across it again this morning. It was probably dead yesterday too. Even in death, it is still pretty amazing.

cool

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Big Plans for the Weekend

Posted on July 9, 2004 by Frog

On Monday if you took a peek at my calendar for the weekend, you would’ve told me to get a life. Today you may wonder how come I’m so busy.

Lots of extraordinary things are happening this weekend but the one that I’m currently most excited about is the fact that I’m getting my haircut on Saturday. Ever get to that point of having to get your haircut or you’ll grab the Flowbee and take care of it yourself (who even knew those things were still available)? I seriously could have hacked off my hair today with nail clippers but decided that one more day wasn’t that long to wait.

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We’re going for free

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Frog

My friend C. just won 4 free tickets to the Mary Chapin Carpenter show tomorrow night. She’s taking us. We’re going for free. We’re going for free.

Using my third eye, I can see that we’ll be springing for a pint afterwards at Penny Lane Pub.

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Subversive, I Like It

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Frog

No matter your feelings on the “rightness” of descrambling DVDs, you have to love the subversive mockery of this website.

My favorite part is this: ” A dramatic reading of the file css_descramble.c, read by Xader Vartec. This is a 3.5Mbyte MP3 file; it runs 7 minutes and 20 seconds.”

My second favorite part is this: “This is not the source code; it’s a picture of the source code.”

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Not Everyone Is Lazy

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Frog

I listed our internet security camera on ebay and it sold today. To someone in the Netherlands. I clearly state that I only ship to US addresses when I put stuff up for sale. Know why? Because it is expensive and a pain in my ass to ship internationally.

I’ve corresponded with the buyer and he says most people don’t pay any attention to how they list and that “people” in Germany ship to him all the time. Let me tell you, pal, the distance between Germany and the Netherlands is like me throwing a rock across the street. For real, what does it take 2 hours to drive between those two countries? Depending on the direction I take, I can honestly say that I haven’t left my state’s borders in 2 or 3 hours. I can drive for 5 1/2 hours on the highway before I leave my state. We’re talking BIG HUGE scale here.

And, furthermore, the argument that most people don’t pay attention to how they list is a load of crap. Maybe mothers in the Netherlands don’t ever use the phrase “If your friends are jumping off a bridge, you wouldn’t do it too.”

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