Exploding Cantaloupe

OK... Perhaps "exploding" is too strong a word here, but I'll describe the incident, and you let me know.

I bought a cantaloupe from our local Giant grocery store last weekend -- I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just haven't.

I didn't get to cutting up the cantaloupe as I had planned, so when I went to bed that night, I just left it sitting on the counter -- it's not refrigerated at the grocery store, so why should I have to refrigerate it at home?

Well, when I came down the next morning, small cracks had formed on the cantaloupe and the cantaloupe juice had leaked out. However, the most disconcerting thing was that the top of the cantaloupe was covered in some type of foam substance.

Anybody ever hear of this type of thing?

Biker Bitch

It's offical... the wife is is now a biker bitch -- and not the leather-clad, sitting on the back of a motorcycle kind (yet)...

Last evening we picked up her Trek 7300 from our local bike shop. The maiden voyage was this morning at 6am (apparently last evening's trip around the neighborhood was just a test run).

Having broken her knee running, the new plan is for her to bike her way into physical sveltness -- not that she needs to (she reads the blog from time-to-time, so I need to head off a possible "discussion" here). Since she broke her knee running, and we had already talked about getting her a bike, the timing was just perfect.

As she was getting used to the bike last evening, I was able to keep pace (I was running) with her around the neighborhood, on our 2 mile trek... This morning, I watched her speed off around the corner and disappear into dawn's early light -- not bad for someone who didn't really learn to ride a bike as a child.

It's Finished

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 750+ pages of text.

I just now finished it.

My review - seemed a little rushed at the end... a little weak at the end, but overall a very nice addition to the collection.

Does Harry live or die? Is Snape good or evil? I know... do you?

I didn't like Vick before...

But IF what he is accused of is actually true -- he's innocent until proven guilty -- I hope they F'ing fry him; I realize they won't actually, but they should.

Admittedly, I would consider myself an animal person, I love them. Some people don't. I can live with that... I can even almost understand it. These people simply chose to not have pets or be around animals in general. Fine.

But to breed an animal for the sole pleasure of fighting to the death (in some if not most cases), I find truly deplorable. Then to strangle, electrocute, hang, or beat an animal to death because it can no longer compete...

IF he did what he is accused of, I would have no qualms if they did any of those above to him and his co-defendants.

Only days left...

Until the offical release of the book... The big question is should I read the book before it's offically released or not?

1700 miles, a sighting, and a hex

Just returned from vacation in Maine. As usual (we vacation here often), things were great. The wife did her part to decrease the supply of fish and other marine life by eating as much lobster, clam chowder, and white fish as humanly possible. Went whale watching, sailed around Frenchman's Bay on a four-masted schooner, hiked through Acadia, and other such stuff.

All told we racked up 1,700 miles on the trip there and back and around. In a "I'll vouch for that fashion", I gotta say that EZ-Pass is one of the greatest things I have recently acquired. From here (PA) to Maine, the only state that I didn't use it in on the way up was Massachusetts (and Connecticut because they didn't have a toll road on the way up).

A surprise addition to this trip was a visit with Ms. Lynne W. I would like to report that she seems to be doing just fine in the wilds of Maine. We had dinner with her and friend at a nice local seafood place in Brewer, ME. Included in the dinner was some entertainment in the form of stories -- I'll post an example later. Would also like to take this time to say (because I know Ms. W reads the blog) that Traci and I liked her friend, and hope to dine with them again the next time we are in the area.



That was Maine. On the return trip home, stopped for a visit in Boston -- and as it turns out Massachusetts does accept EZ-Pass, they just don't advertise it that much. Here, I tried a new method of navigation. Turn-by-turn directions read to me by my co-pilot/navigator/wife.

- At exit 46, take Ramp (RIGHT) onto US-1 for 14.5 mi towards US-1 / Boston
- Keep STRAIGHT onto Ramp for 0.3 mi towards I-93/US-1/Boston/Cape Cod
- Keep RIGHT to stay on Ramp for 0.6 mi towards RT-28/RT-3/Storrow Dr/N. Station
- Bear LEFT (South) onto SR-28 for 65 yds towards RT-28/Copley Sq./Back Bay
...
- Bear RIGHT (East) onto SR-28 [Stuart St] for 0.2 mi

Arrive at destination -- Massachusetts General Hospital. Obviously this system needs some work, because I didn't have a reservation here. After some blind guesses, we find ourselves and then our hotel. And now the hex.

While walking around Boston (Cambridge to be exact), we decided to take a break and get something to drink. We stepped into a McDonald's, order a soda and take a table by the window. While talking to the wife, this woman a couple of tables away started yelling and slamming her hands down on her table, while looking at me. There wasn't many people in the place to begin with, and nobody between her and I. So, her rant was either directed at me, or an invisible friend sitting with her. The only word I caught was "Habib" or what sounded like Habib. The wife later said it sounded like she was speaking Creole and that she was hexing me.

Fine, I've been hexed. No biggie. The only manifestation of this hex that I could tell was that while walking back to Boston across the Harvard bridge, some homeless looking man started at me making some noise and pounding his chest. I just kept walking. That was it... apparently the lady at the McDonald's wasn't that much of a hexer after all.

As for the wife's broken knee during this whole vacation? I gave up trying to get her to use the crutch after the 2nd day -- come to think of it I don't even think she took it to dinner with Ms. W and friend, and that was the evening of the 2nd day.

Technical Challenged Family

OK, so let me explain why I refer to the wife's family as America's Most Technically Challenged family, and remember, it's my job to solve any tech related problem for them, usually via the phone.

So, couple of weeks ago, they upgrade their cable service to get cable modem, and upgraded cable TV line-up. They used to just get the really basic cable package -- cable plugs into back of TV, and you get 50 channels... now they have a package that requires a settop converter box.

Before, the only device they had to turn on/off was the TV; now they have a settop box as well. Not really a problem, since the cable company gave them a universal remote with each settop that can be programmed to control the TV as well. The day of the installation, I was down there to get things working for them, and programmed the remotes for their TVs and demonstrated how to use the remote.

"Just press the red "All-On" button, and it will turn everything on. Press it again, and it will turn everything off. The volume controls the TV volume, and the channel buttons control the settop channels."

Everything has worked smoothly, until a couple of days ago, but knowing they were coming up for the 4th of July, they just waited until they were here to ask me about their latest problem.

"Richhh..." -- seems like mom drags my name out a little when she's about to ask me about a problem.

"Richhh, the cable has been great, and we love it. Except, now the problem is that we accidentally turned the TV off manually, and now we can't watch TV. When we press the "All-On" button, the TV turns on, but the light on the little box goes off. When we press it again, the TV turns off, but the light on the little box comes on. We haven't been able to watch TV for a couple days now."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

Can anybody think of the solution?

Turns out that the wife's sister did. She figured out to turn the TV on or off (not sure which) manually, and it has been working for a couple of days now... Mom just wasn't aware of it.

Oh, and just to give you some background on Mom and Dad... Mom used to work for the NSA and Dad was an engineer for a defense contractor. I would tell you what either of them did, but both had classified jobs. Dad's last project before he retired was related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Scooter has Skated...

I can't take credit for the Tag Line "Scooter has Skated..." the wife came up with that.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on March 6, 2007 of four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to FBI investigators.

George W. Bush, has determined that his 30 month jail sentence was just too harsh for these actions, so he commuted the jail time of the sentence, but left the $250,000 fine, and probation.

So, let me get this straight... For the record, our legal system is NOT supposed to be one of retribution, but one of deterence and rehabiliation. So... The idea is to make the possible sentences be such that nobody would want to commit the crime in the first place, and should they commit said crime, to change their thinking/behavior such that they won't do it again.

So... that being said, what The Great and Powerful George W. Bush is really saying, is that spending 30 months in jail, paying a $250,000 fine and having 2 years of probation is just to much for what he did.

Let's revisit what he did (supposedly). He commited perjury, obstructed the justice system, lied to the FBI (, and covered the VP's ass.)

Yep, I suppose having to spend 30 months in prison for covering the VP's ass, is just a little too harsh.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Libby just got a job with Halliburton along with a $250,000 signing bonus.

I am, however, surprised that Scooter didn't just get an outright pardon.

Irresponsibility

Gotta get back to my weekly posting of "Pearls of Wisdow", if I hope to win another BLAH, BLAH, BLOG Award



Had a "discussion" with my brother yesterday...