Big Announcement

Alright folks... apparently it's time to confess my activities for these past 3 or so months. First, I'll apologize... I originally gave you the wrong date for my last training...

BUT, before I make the announcement, let me tell you about my Labor Day weekend.

Nah... just kidding... I'll make that a separate post.

For the past X number of weeks/months, Traci and I have been part of a secret government program. I'd tell you more about it, but you know the old saying... "I'd tell ya, but then..."

Believe that one? Me neither.

Try this one...

For the past X number of weeks/months, Traci and I have been undergoing training to become Foster Parents.

Believe that one? Well, it's true.

For sometime now, Traci and I have been involved in working with a child, whom we shall call KB. KB is a very nice kid, who unfortunately wound up in the system at a very young age. I can't and won't go into specifics about why, but I'm sure it's not hard for you to figure it out.

KB has been bounced around within the system from one end of the state to the other, and as far north as south. Through her job, Traci became involved with KB. It wasn't that long after her involvement started that "our" involvement started.

To date, our involvement with KB is what is known as "Respite Care". KB lives at an independent living house, managed by York County's Children and Youth Services. We started by taking KB out for day trips to different places and getting to know him, and more importantly, allowing KB to get to know us.

During this whole process, I've had first hand knowledge of exactly how messed up, and nonsensical the whole child welfare system is -- trust me, it's messed up. I understand that some of the laws/rules are written because they have to account for the idiots out there (we'll get to this), but come on...

During our initial day trips that we would do -- for example, the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD (across a state line) -- we weren't allowed to take him back to our house. We hadn't been approved for home visits. Across state lines to whatever we want, check... our house... nope. Fine. We got approved for home visits -- relatively painless process, except for the complete and entire scrubbing/cleaning of the house Traci made me do... I'm telling you, the house was almost as clean as an operating room for this home visit inspection.

Since then, we have graduated to weekend visits... Meaning we pick him up at the start of the weekend, and drop him off sometime Sunday night. During these weekends, we do things with him (ie. take him places) most of the time, but there have been some weekends where we just hang around.

Oh, I forgot to mention, KB is a teenager. KB now has a girlfriend -- it's kinda our fault. KB is very artistically inclined, he wants to attend art school of some type upon graduation -- this is a very good thing. So, during this past summer, we encouraged KB to volunteer with the local arts foundation. It was a great thing for both parties. KB volunteered for so many things, they researched whether they could treat him and pay him as an employee... alas, there are rules...

At any rate, KB meet D... We meet D. We like D, it's just now we have two teenagers at our house that we need to supervise... ah, to be young again. Now, I'm on the other side of the fence -- the parental side of the fence. It's honestly not bad. I've taken the open-communication approach with KB on everything. We sit down and discuss the ground rules, and I encourage him to ask questions and/or air his views. So far it's worked great. We've had ZERO problems with KB.

So you may ask, if you've been doing what you've been doing for so long, why are you know going through foster parent training classes? It's the system's fault. Currently KB is supervision of government agency A, but soon, he'll be under the care of government agency B. Agency B has different rules and regulations that we must meet, in order to continue our involvement with KB. To satisfy all involved, it's just easier to become foster parent certified.

Fine, I agreed to go through this process. And it was painful. I cannot believe the amount and depth of some people's stupidity. Obviously, this training program focuses part of the training on the rules that foster parents MUST abide by. Surprise, there are certain things that you have to do... no exceptions... you know, pretty much the normal governmental bureaucracy. During some of the training, the people giving the training will say "Here are the rules you must follow for this aspect of the program/child's life/etc."

OK. I've agreed to do this, so I must also agree to the rules. Rules like "If you have weapons in your home, you must keep them in a locked cabinet with no glass surfaces, and must also install trigger locks on them." We don't have guns, so this isn't a big deal. BUT, I live in York County, where the redneck-population is fairly high. Redneck's don't like to take down their interior decorations (guns/knives/swords/weapons that I couldn't even imagine hanging on your walls), let alone locking them away with a trigger lock to boot. 20~25 minutes of discussion later, we still have grumbling about this rules.

Here's an idea... becoming a foster parent is purely voluntary (for the most part -- if you are taking in a relative's child (even your grandchildren), you MUST become foster parent certified). If taking down the Browning .50 caliber aircraft machine gun is really that offensive to you, don't... just leave. It's OK for you to quit the training. OR, if that bush knife with a 4' razor-sharp blade on it, MUST remain above the sofa in the living room, walk out... I'm not sure many people would be that upset with your decision.

And believe it or not, there are people who do foster care for the not just for the money, but that's at least a consideration... I'm not going to get into this, but suffice to say that I've done the math... I don't want to sound elitist, but the money I'm entitled to for having a child in my home, isn't going to any money in my pocket.

Last question, are Traci and I going to become full-time foster parents for KB? Answer is no, I would prefer to only have to deal with one teenager on a permanent basis -- and if you think that living with my brother isn't like living with a teenager, I'd be more than happy to have him come stay with you for any period of time you think you can deal with.

Kidding aside, Traci and I discussed this in depth... in the end (for a lot of reasons very beneficial for KB), the current situation is much better for him. That being said, there is a very small chance that sometime in the future, you may see a post stating that KB is now living with us, but that's a very SMALL chance.

As for other potential foster children. No. This was pretty much a one shot deal. Think what you will, and I'm a fairly laid-back kinda guy with most things... But, believe me when I say, "This was a one shot deal".

Wife's Law Firm

I'm happy to report that the firm is coming along very nicely. All three attorneys are quite busy and have a decent number of cases/clients.

Things are going so well, that they believe they will be able to pay themselves come July sometime.

Now, I realize the obvious, that you want to pay yourself when you own your own business, but we didn't originally think they'd be able to pay themselves until after the summer was over.

I'm happy to report that we were apparently wrong. We not retiring yet, but this is definitely a step in the right direction!

This time next year, I'm planning on life being very good. The brother will be gone, the wife's practice will be going great, and her and I will be tooling around on our brand new motorcycle (I'm pretty sure which one I'm getting, but as it's still months away, that's subject to change.)

I don't often wish time away, but I'm really looking forward to 10 months from now.

Ouch! That Hurt!

Anybody ever see the movie "City of Angels"? Remember the part where Nicholas Cage's character cuts through his finger, but because he's an angel, nothing happens?

Well, apparently, I'm no angel.

Last Saturday while cutting an onion up for use with dinner, I sliced into my pinkie finger. It freakin' HURT!

However, the wife, was very cool under pressure... That is if you want to count jumping up and down screaming "Oh my God!!! Oh my God!!!" Within a minute or two, she calmed down enough to run to the basement and get a roll of paper towels -- we were out in the kitchen.

I didn't really need the 20+ sheets she tore off for me, but I appreciated the thought.

To sum things up, it was the tip of the pinkie, I did not go the hospital or doctors (despite the wife's protests), I bleed until Tuesday, and looking at it now, I went more than 1/3 the way through the finger, but not quite half way. I did manage to slice part way through my finger nail, but it's a clean slice -- apparently my knives are extremely sharp, and most importantly... it still HURTS like you wouldn't believe if I bang it with anything.

My one friend (he also happens to be my boss), has proposed the experiment, whereby I just cut that part of my finger off and see if it grows back. I told him I'd pass on that one.

The Beginning -- And I was there

Well folks, it's official...

The wife has started her law firm, and yesterday was opening day.

It was VERY exciting for all involved. The amazing thing was that they actually received calls from potential clients on opening day, and retained some business on opening day -- 2 cases!

Still some operational things to be ironed out, but every business in the world is constantly updating it's practices and procedures.

I'm happy to report that all technology related issues worked almost flawlessly... the only problems we had were human generated problems -- never knew teaching people how to transfer calls would be a challenging task.

At any rate, if you visit the link from above, you'll see a picture of the wife (a marketing tactic to increase hits to the website...)

It's a New Year -- 2008

Alright, I realize I haven't blogged recently, and I have SO much to blog about.

I will try to catch everyone up, but in the meantime...

I have a MAJOR, LIFE-CHANGING event for my wife and I, that I will announce on January 14th.

Can't reveal it right now, but trust me, it's BIG (at least as far as I am concerned).

Stay Tuned!

Halloween

I know it's not Halloween any longer, but wanted to write up a couple of words about this...

1) A halloween costume is a little more than a ski mask and black sweatshirt
2) No Traci, you can't egg the house across the street that refuses to participate in Trick or Treat.
3) If you don't say "Trick or Treat", you only get 1 piece of candy; if you do say it, you may have 2 or 3 pieces
4) Seriously Traci, you can't egg the house.
5) It's only common courtesy to say thank-you.
6) I'm serious Traci... No egging.

Mount St. Traci

Well, it has finally happened... My brother (herein known as "the boy") has finally caused the wife (Traci) to explode -- she even dropped the Fun word (note the capital F in Fun... you should be able to figure out which word this is)!

She didn't explode at him, as in yelling or berating him, but at his logic and/or arguments in a discussion.

First, let me say that both the wife and I enjoy challenging each other and arguing our viewpoints to each other when they differ -- which isn't too often, after all we have many of the same beliefs; this is what helps make us compatible for each other. At the end of these discussions, we may walk away frustrated that the other person is an idiot for not seeing the obviously correct side of the discussion (our own side), but there are never linger feelings of anger or resentment; like I said we enjoy these challenges.

As such, we also enjoy engaging in discussions with others, if they can make intelligent or interesting arguments for their point of view. This is sometimes how you learn things you might otherwise not know; there is nothing wrong with this.

Enter the boy... I don't get it. He's a paradox on so many levels. I know he's intelligent, yet he's an idiot. He knows tons about finance (he works in this industry), but he sucks at applying his knowledge on a personal level. Many, many, many times, my conversations with him end with me walking away rubbing my head, mumbling things like "it hurts so much..." I just don't get his logic, more correctly -- lack of logic at times.

Well, the wife has now had the experience. Typically she doesn't get involved in our discussions because often they are about things she is either not interested in, or doesn't want to get involved for other reasons.

As it turns out for 2 straight nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) the 3 of found ourselves discussing seemingly trivial things that have led to bigger issues. The first night was centered on the English language (Dan, if you think I'm picky about the rules of the English language, you've NEVER dealt with Traci.) I'll leave the details out, but note that we have started to call Jeff (the boy), jEEff (pronounce a long E sound) as a joke.

Last night, however, the discussion started innocently on a subject -- the Punk Rock Straight-Edge movement -- a little closer to Traci's personal experiences, and just spiraled down from there. Remember, Traci was a goth chick in high school. I often envision her father (HUGE neo-conservative guy), dropping her off at the "uppity/preppy" school she attended, dressed as she was... and chuckle. Not to mention the girl was wicked smart and I'm sure drew some confounding stares from the probably conservative faculty. She even started a campaign to oust the headmaster from the school, which I believe she won... I'll check on that fact.

For those who want to know the details of last night's discussion, read between the set of asterisks --

*****************************************
According to jEEff, this movement was started by a couple that endured a horrific experience and blamed it on the hard and heavy drugs they were using at the time, and just woke-up one day and swore off all of this, pulling a complete 180-degree in their lifestyle -- I can find no reference to this incident anywhere as a starting point for the movement.

OK... doesn't matter if that story is true or an urban legend meant to inspire people. I say anything along these lines that can help inspire or encourage someone to turn their life around, more power to it.

The boy's arguments center around -
1) he does not believe it possible for anyone to wake-up one day and do a 180. No matter what has happened, or what traumatic event occurred - it's just not possible. I'll even grant him that most who try this fail (I don't know the statistics for this), and there aren't many that fall into this category to begin with. But according to him, there is absolutely zero percent chance this can or has ever occurred. He will concede (I think) that over time people can make changes, but that these changes are drawn-out, and invariably will not be completely opposite to where they started.

2) Most who claim something along this line, relate or tie this in with finding religion. Jeff is an explicit atheist. As such (and I would suppose most people would agree with him on this), he has problems when people claim to have found religion to help clear their name with society, or when they do things against individuals or society in the name of religion.

Despite some off the cuff examples of people we know who have made changes in their lives after experiencing a traumatic event -- someone has a heart attack and resolves themselves to get healthy and improve their lifestyle. According to him, if they would then go even one day without exercising or working-out, they have not pulled a 180.

I should have suggested he attend a couple of AA meetings or things along these lines. I'm not suggesting that everyone or even the majority of people have had an epiphany and have immediately pulled their life around, but I'm willing to bet you wouldn't have to look all that long and hard to find someone, and again...

So what if ALL these stories are urban legends... If they help just one person to improve their life, isn't it worth it? Yes, it's a white lie, but doesn't the end justify the means in this case?

His response was no. Since nobody can possibly pull a 180, there should not be any stories even suggesting this.
*****************************************

The exact discussion didn't go word for word like the above, and believe it or not I have left out large chunks. But the general gist is there. At any rate, the 10+ minute discussion ended with Traci dropping the Fun word, and saying "I can't take it any more. It hurts so much..."

My response to her... "Welcome to my world!"

My NOT so Super Powers

First, let me say that growing up, my favorite superhero was Spiderman. In a short while you'll understand the importance of this.

In a recent post I had made reference to a blogable event that was on-going that would be revealed soon... Well here it is.

Short time ago, I had noticed a bug bite on my hand. Upon examination, the bite was swollen, and had a red outer ring, but the area immediately around the bite was pretty much pure white. There were really no other symptoms at the time.

Upon telling the wife (she was with me when I noticed the bite), she immediately latched onto the idea that I had the beginnings of Lyme's Disease. My reaction, was "you're crazy!" As the next several days passed, joints in my right arm (hand included), shoulders, and some in my left arm started to get sore.

Researching the symptoms of Lyme disease, I had many (but not all the symptoms.) The most prominent were the red ring around the white bite, sore joints, and fatigue. I have to admit that during this period of time, I was EXTREMELY tired pretty much all the time -- I'm pretty sure it was work related, but hey... maybe I did have Lyme disease...

So I went and got tested. Results are negative. So, what was the bug bite, and reason for my symptoms? Current theory by my doctor was that I was bitten by a spider, and the spider's toxin would account for the bite mark and my sore joints... fatigue? Probably work, but could/maybe/possibly be somewhat related... but probably work.

SO... I was bitten by a spider... Given that I live less than 10 miles from the site of the worst Nuclear incident in US History, I'm hoping it was an irradiated spider... That would give me Spidey Powers! (note the Spiderman tie-in).

While waiting for my powers to develop, the wife and I talked about what they would be (she was humoring me). I told her, it would be GREAT to develop the web shooting thing, but that I was worried about where I would be shooting from. A spider pretty much shoots from their rear-end. I don't think York would appreciate me swinging around the great metropolis that it is, shooting spider web from my behind.

The fact that the movie version of Spiderman developed the web shooting from his wrists was just luck (hollywood luck). Think about it, for a spider pretty much all of their appendages are the same; what would stop me from developing the web shooters in my ankles for example? Come on... this is me and my luck we are talking about.

Super strength, improved/perfect eyesight? I'll take it, but with my luck, I'd develop the 6 extra eyes, and need another 3 pair of glasses because I'd have the same crappy vision. Nevertheless, I was optimistic.

Well, I am happy to report that it would appear that I do possess some spider powers, but true to my luck (crappy luck), it is pretty much worthless.

My power is: I can more often than not catch flies out of the air as they buzz around the house. At least I have been very successful as of late in catching flies out of mid-air.

Not such a super-power as super-powers go. Crap!

Happy Anniversary

It's a day late (technically 2 since I am writing this at 00:13 on October 16th), but this past Sunday was the wife and I's first anniversary.

Don't worry... I didn't forget about it either with her, or with respect to the blog... I just choose to NOT do any computer related activities for the last several days.

Now a question for all you married folks out there... When does this marital bliss thing kick-in? I figure it's kinda like runner's high... after a certain amount of distance(time), the pain ebbs it's way into a euphoric high, right? So, when can I expect it to start?

Just kidding (wife reads this, and wanted to pull her chain a little)... life on the home front is pretty darn good... exception is the brother living in the basement, but into every life, a little family must fall, right? Even that isn't sooo bad. Could/Will be better once he moves out, but that's MONTHS down the road.

The wife and I took an extra long weekend -- 4 days -- and spent time doing whatever we wanted. Went to Philadelphia for a day, hung around the house, ran some errands, etc.. I finally had time to go to the eyeglass place and pick out a new pair; my last pair was again broken while playing with my dog, and for the last several months, I have been wearing my prescription sunglasses around both day and night... I just hadn't had time to go, and when I did have time, I honestly didn't feel like doing anything.

For our anniversary dinner, we went to Morton's steakhouse down at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. She and I first broached the idea of marriage at a Morton's steakhouse while celebrating her passing the bar several years ago, so I figured we'd just go back to where it all started.

Oh, the wife and I joined a gym on Sunday as well. Now that summer is over, and the decent running weather is almost at a close, I won't be running, and the wife won't be biking. We figured we take this time and start up at a gym. Went through the whole sales pitch thing, because we are currently "trying it out for a week free", so they made us work with a membership counselor, who gave us a tour (very nice facility), and then started in with a hard sell. Even went as far as to give us individual body fat analysis's.

Mine came back at 15%... I'm in the excellent range on the charts. Kinda took the wind out of his sails. I am NOT, however, in any kind or exceptional shape... decent - yes, exceptional - no... still loads of areas I want to work on. I hope to use this blog as a quick place to track progress... not for any purpose, other than to force myself to keep going. Figure if I post results for the world to see, I'll be more likely to stick with it. I will make it known now though, that I really only want to go regularly in late fall/winter/early spring time; once good outside weather returns, I would like to get back to running and biking.... we'll see.

But starting... well now, it's back to work. I am writing this blog entry as I wait for a process to complete in a maintenance I am doing for work right now. Remember my last entry -- the maintenance that didn't go too well? -- well, I'm at it again. This time, things are going much better.

We'll, I'd better finish up, as the process should almost be done. Off to bed, and up bright and early for another GREAT day at work.

P.S. I'm all a flutter... in a couple more hours I get to see Tiger Army in concert. Pity sarcasm can't show through too well in a typing medium. The wife is becoming a big fan, and I (the loving husband) am accompanying her to the concert tonight.

See ya later.

It's an honor just to be nominated

Everyone who know's me personally, knows that the wife is an attorney. She currently works for the local Public Defender's Office, in the juvenile defense unit -- she represents juveniles who have criminal charges against them for a whole myriad of reasons.

She's been doing this particular job for almost 2 years now. Just recently, York County held their annual court officials awards cermony -- there's no hoopla or pomp and circumstance associated...

The wife was nominated for 2007 Juvenile Court Official of the year. We are not sure how you get nominated (and to be honest didn't even know until a couple of days prior to the ceremony), but she was indeed nominated.

Unfortunately she lost... but she lost to a York County Judge, so that's not too bad... kinda hard to beat a judge. She was, however, the only attorney nomitated. It was between her and 2 judges.

Next year, we plan to run a smear campaign starting a couple of months before. We'll need volunteers. I'll keep you posted.

Seriously, I am proud of the wife; she does good work. Nice to get recognized.

Where has the red gone?

The wife has been a red-head her entire life (29+ years), until...

She came back from her last hair appointment, and her hair was no longer red... Holy Mackerel...

You probably want to know what color it is... It's a dark brown (with some very faint red highlights.)

Not sure she'll let me take a picture, but we'll see.

Joy in Mudville

Last evening the wife and I took her sister to her annual birthday Baltimore Oriole baseball game. While the wife and I are not baseball fans by any stretch of imagination, Erin most definitely is, and since birthdays are about the people who have them, we saddle up in the family truckster every year, and head out to a game.

We have our traditions. Every year, we each get a barbeque platter from Boog Powell's barbeque stand (I have no idea what kind of first baseman the man was, but he sure makes some good barbeque), drinks, and head to our seats -- pretzels, and other snacks come later.

Typically, Ernest Lawrence Thayer gets it right with respect to the outcome of the game for a true Orioles fan; but last night this was not the case. The Orioles went up against the best team in baseball (numbers don't lie), and won 11-5.

Most impressively there was a guy named Scott Moore. According to the announcers and the JumboTron, Mr. Moore was 0-8 batting while with the Birds this year. Last night -- Grand Slam in the 3rd; not a bad 9th at bat.

I Tawt I Taw a Putty Tat

The local Bob Evan's Restaurant has a balloon artist come in on Saturday and Sunday mornings to entertain the patrons by making balloon art for you while you eat. If you think about it, it's a pretty good idea. Kids will want to return again and again to get new balloon art, and the adults sometimes enjoy it as well.

I know that the artist at least has my wife going back for more art, several Sundays in a row so far. She's even got her next couple of requests planned. I figure, it keeps her entertained and happy.

This morning, we got to talking to him while he was doing Tweety. He pops about 2% of his balloons, and he goes through about 1,200 balloons per week -- he does dinner "shows" at a couple area restaurants, in addition to the breakfast gig he has at Bob Evans.

He also does, weddings, birthdays, corporate events, fundraisers, etc... He's actually quite talented, and pretty fun to watch. The wife has the idea of having him at the next SPCA fundraiser that occurs (she's a volunteer there). Not a bad idea, considering they really try to gear these events towards families, and kids especially.

Take Me Out to the Ball Park

This past weekend, I visited our local minor league baseball team with the wife, her sister, and the father-in-law. The tickets were compliments of Comcast, and I must say they were very nice seats. 8 rows back, just to the right of the section directly behind home plate -- close enough to hear the ball hit the catcher's mitt. Thanks Comcast!

While it was clear that this was a minor league and not a MLB game, there were some pretty impressive plays by a couple of the home team's players; namely 2 or 3 one-handed plays by 2nd baseman (he'd run down a in-field ground, one-hand it, and throw it over to first to get the out), and the center fielder ran a couple of fly balls down in the outfield.

All-in-all, it was a pretty enjoyable outing, and York even won. So that got me to thinking... I wonder how good a team we are? It's our Inaugural Year, and it sometimes takes a little while for an expansion team to gel. So I went to the website, and was surprised to see that York was leading it's 4 team division with a record of 15-7 at the time. Wow! Pretty impressive.

Then I got to thinking... They've only played 22 games?!? It's the beginning of August, and I thought they had been playing a while already. Looking at the schedule, they played 24 games in the month of May alone, and only won 10 -- meaning they lost 14. I was confused. So I emailed the GM, seeking clarification.

Dear Matt,

I attended my first game last eveing, and was impressed with the entire experience; congrats!

However, when doing a little research about how well the team is doing, I got a little confused.

According to your website, and that of the Atlantic League itself, the Revolution's record is 15 Wins and 7 Loses.

Looking at the schedule and results for just the month of May, however, I notice there were 24 games played and that the revolution won only 10 of them.

How does jive with the standings? Are they 15-7 with respect to series'... meaning they've won 15 out of 22 series they've had against other teams?

I'm just a little confused.

Thanks!

This was the reply:

Let me have the media department follow up with you on this. It makes no sense to me as well.

I'll keep you posted -- I'm sure everyone is sitting, waiting with bated breath -- as to the answer. However, I'm a little disappointed that the General Manager is as confused as I am. He's been "following" the team for months now. He didn't notice that:

1) Either the stats on the websites are incorrect.

or -- and I'm guessing this is the correct version, since York lost their last series, and now have a record of 15-8

2) The Atlantic League measures Wins and Losses in a format other than just the straight number of games a team has won and lost.

Movie Review: The Wickerman

The wife and I rented a movie this weekend called The Wicker Man. This is not the original (didn't know there was one until just a couple of minutes ago, but the 2006 version starring Nicolas Cage.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do yourself a favor and do NOT rent or even watch this movie. The best part of the movie was the credits. The wife kept watching because she thought it was going to get better. I kinda stopped watching the movie, and complaining about the movie about 30~40 minutes into it... Had the feeling I was ruining it for the wife with my semi-constant complaints, so I quit.

Now she wished she had quit to.

Her last words were: "That's it? It doesn't get any better?"

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.

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

Medical Results

Turns out the wife has a very small fracture in her tibia (the shin bone), right at the top of the bone.

Treatment - crutches and no weight on the affected leg for 6 weeks.

The doctor said he can spot those who will cheat. Said she'll cheat. She's cheating; not much but cheating nonetheless.

He told her that he'll see her back after 6 weeks, and if it's still not healed, he'll give her another 6 weeks with crutches.

Now, as for Chuck volunteering to take her place on vacation... Chuck, while I appreciate the offer, I do not believe that I would like to take someone along who is going to be hitting me all the time... I know what a pinch hitter is, but I don't like the sound of a "punch hitter."

Chuck's comment: "Do you need a punch hitter to go with you if she can't make it? "

Wife's Medical Condition Updated

After the MRI last evening, it has been learned that there is no ligament damage at all.

Whew! Now the bad news.

She apparently has a "knee fracture". One of the 3 bones (Femur, Patella, Tibia) around the knee has a fracture in it... We have an appointment at a local orthopedic center this evening to see a specialist and discover which one, and exactly how bad.

For my immediate friends reading this (Jerry, Sean, and I believe Scott A) they are all intimately familiar with this place -- OSS. At one point in time, all of us (myself included) were going here for treatment of one thing or other.

Perhaps we really should look into that group discount we joked about.