moxie_man

As I've posted time and again. Stress dream, something I haven't had in many months, woke me at 1:30am. Here I am 90 minutes later still wide awake. :(

Well, I hope things are alright with "mondhasen", whose account seems to have been deleted today. I see his dreamwidth one is also gone.

I know he's having some family issues. I hope things turn out for the best and wish I had some other way to keep in contact with him.

Until recently I'd been using an older 32 inch tube tv. Unfortunately, where I live, I ceased to pick-up over air reception when things went digital a few years back, even with a digital converter box. I've got hills between me and the nearest broadcast towers. The tube tv was simply collecting dust except when I wanted to watch a DVD. Prior to conversion to digital, I got two stations with the rabbit ears: PBS, and the Bangor CBS affiliate station. The later only if I held the "praying crane" pose while touching the rabbit ears. Several years back I was also given a roof antenna, but never got the assistance to install it on my roof. Those of you who have been to my house should easily understand why I'd want assistance/others to install it. Especially on the south side where you're 4 stories above the swimming pool and I with my fear/uneasiness with shear drop-offs.

( But that has all changed now. )

Great...I need someway to clone myself. Why? 'Cause there is now a weekend in June where I need to be in three places at once and possibly a fourth on the way.

I have two different scouting events that want me (and possibly a third soon). Then, today I received a wedding invite from a cousin for the same weekend. Those who know me know how much I "love" (extra sarcasm) weddings and receptions. But this particular part of the family will also not be happy with me if I don't show-up.

I'm not thrilled. Maybe physical therapy will fail and I can avoid all my commitments 'cause at that time I'll be recovering from a doctor stabbing me in the back.

It's pretty sad, huh, when I'm rooting for back surgery? Well, that just shows how much I "LOVE" weddings and receptions.

After seeing all the negative publicity around the new Lorax film, I will not go see it, despite being an animation fan. If I want to see the Lorax, I'll see the original. Dr. Suess must be rolling in his grave over this remake. Over 100 product placements within the film by Universal including a "Lorax approved" Mazda SUV. WTF?!? Don't they even get what the actual message of this pro-environmental tale is suppose to be? Claiming an SUV is "Lorax approved" is like claiming Trojan brand condoms are "Rick Santorum approved".

For my non-American friends, RS is a Republican candidate for president. He is a strict Catholic who believes contraceptives should be banned.

I am now on day 8 of this "fun" flu thing. It started with fever/chills/run down feeling, stuffed-head and sore throat. All I have left is run-down, stuffed head and hacking crap in throat and pulled back muscles from hacking so hard the last few days. I'm tired of it. I've burned through six books in eight days. Those who know me well should be astonished. I'm a SLOW reader. I don't have the best comprehension at written word, and that's the reason I'm slow at reading. I need time to understand what I'm looking at.

Then again, five of those covers the entire Mistmantle Chronicles, which is a rather easy read as they're garnered towards the 10 year old mindset. I had planned to link the website to the title, but unfortunately, someone's hacked into it and both Firefox and my anti-virus software block access. Attempt around through Google and get the same warning--it's been hacked. Too bad and I hope the author, M. I. McAllister, has been alerted and can have it fixed, up and running again soon. There is a brief Wikipedia article, but it's not worth linking to me. If you're curious enough, you know how to find it.

I received the first book in the series as a gift from my mother, who didn't bother to look at the reading level when she bought it, back when it was published in 2005. She bought it 'cause there was a squirrel on it. It wasn't until the last couple of months that I tracked down the other four--they haven't stayed in circulation long as some in the series are already out of print. I hope they are republished, complete with the delightful, tiny illustrations at the beginning of each chapter.

The series is about anthropomorphic European red squirrels, hedgehogs, moles, and otters and their kingdom with a tower. If you're into "furry" fiction, that might sound familiar...almost like Brian Jacque's Redwall, but that is as close as this series gets to that one.

Unlike Mr. Jacque's animals, Mrs. McAllister's are more animal-like in behavior. The squirrels are as likely to scurry up the outer wall of a tower as to climb the stairs. Cloaks/clothes are only for special occasions. The otters are just as happy swimming as the squirrels are racing through the trees, hedgehogs gathering bugs to enjoy, and the moles digging through the earth. There is a light religious undertone throughout the series, understandable as the author is married to a minister. However, it's not a preaching-in-your-face sort of religion. It's just part of the fabric of the story. Through the series I have laughed, I have shaken in fear, cheered in triumphed...and I have cried. Cried like I haven't in a very long time. I'm pushing back the tears now as I type this.

Shortly, I plan to pass this set of books onto my step-niece, who is just the right age for them. I hope she enjoys it as much as I have. I'll pass onto my brother and sister-in-law, that if she doesn't like them, I won't be offended and would like them back in that case for at some point, I could see myself wanting to go back and visit the animals of Mistmantle.

I'm probably one of the few Americans who doesn't give a flying-rodent's backside about this game or unga-bunga-kill-kill-football-uh in general.

As usual, it's the Tenderfoot (first rank in the BSA) requirements that tripped-up the scouts the most. There was one I asked when a patrol got too full of themselves and would make the mistake of taunting the Claim Jumper and his too easy questions. It's a requirement change from just 2 years ago, that many of these scouts didn't learn. Yes, I'm an evil scouter at times.

For Tenderfoot rank you need to learn, explain, and demonstrate the Training EDGE Method. EDGE is an acronym. What does EDGE stand for?

As I said, most didn't have a clue. Some could get half of it. It's kind of a forced acronym and even I don't really like it.

Explain the process of whatever it is you're teaching. For example, explain how to tie a knot.
Demonstrate that which you just explained. So, tie the knot in front of those you're teaching.
Guide them through it. So, now have them tie the knot, while you coach them.
Enable them--aka, step back and let them tie the knot on their own without coaching.

The one patrol that got it, I was a bit lenient on. They got the first three correct and through their explanation of their fourth part, Execute, I let it go. But, at the same time, I had a hard time keeping a straight face. Imagine if you would:

"Scout Timmie, I have explained to you a dozen times already, demonstrated and guided you through how to tie a square knot. You just don't pay attention as you keep tying a granny knot. I have no choice..." Teaching scout pulls out pistol and shoots Timmie in the forehead, "but to execute you." Teaching scout turns to other new scouts, "Anyone else not get how to tie a square knot?"

Just very little to post/talk about. Got a snow day today. Have scout klondike derby tomorrow. For my non-scouting friends, this is the winter scout competition event put on at the district level. For us, that's all the scout troops in three counties. It's based on the Yukon Gold Rush. The scouts haul their gear around on dog sleds, but they are the dogs. They go from competition station to competition station, each named for a town in the Yukon and/or Alaska. They earn "gold nuggets" (spray painted beads) instead of points at each station. Patrol at the end of the day with the most gold wins.

I'll be the bad guy once again, but hope to make it my final year. I'll be dressed as Yukon Moxie, the dreaded claim jumper. Alas, this is scouting, I can't just kill-off the scouts and take their claim/gold (though some parents wouldn't mind, I'm sure). No, they will either lose some gold or gain some depending on whether or not they know their scout requirements. Last year they weren't well prepared. I think it was my first year in doing this for about a decade that I finished the day with more gold than when I started. And if they gain gold, I'm still mean. Why? 'Cause I hand out chocolate in gold foil. It has to survive to the end of the day for the points to count. It sometimes doesn't. :)

Yanked from reynardo and nefaria

Challenge:

1) Find out the song that was #1 the week you were born.
2) Find that song on YouTube.
3) Post that video on your wall without shame.

(chuckle) If I had been born 2 weeks earlier, I'd have the same song as nefaria. If I had been born a month later, I'd have one of Simon & Garfunkel's biggest hits, Bridge over Troubled Water.

Instead, I get a song that was #1 for a single week by the group, Shocking Blue. It would later be covered by Bananarama in 1986 and would also go to #1 for them (again for a single week). The song: Venus

As I commented last week, I don't understand Amazon's pricing scheme.

The movie in question is Rio. And for some reason I can't get enough of this kids flick. Maybe 'cause it's so colorful/upbeat (shrug). Anyway, I've been trying to get stuff on combo DVD/BluRay when possible in anticipation that the next time the DVD player bites it, I'll upgrade to BR. And lately, the movie releases have had most of the bonus features/deleted scenes, etc. on the BR disc, just to annoy those who haven't got a BR player yet.

So...last Monday, it was $19.99 for the DVD alone, $29.99 for the DVD/BR combo and $25.49 for the 3D BR/Regular BR/DVD combo. Yes, less expensive to buy the 3D version. Go figure.

Tues. DVD dropped to $14.99, DVD/BluRay dropped to $19.99 (and then went up to $20.49 by evening) and 3D stayed the same.

The 3d version would stay the same all week. The DVD/BluRay would fluctuate between $19.99 and $20.49. The DVD stayed at $14.99 until Saturday. Then the DVD jumped back to $19.99, the DVD/BluRay dropped to $12.49. So, I quickly ordered the combo and a bunch of other stuff I'd been holding off on (including the newly released Pepe Le Pew collection). None of the other stuff fluctuated in price all week.

This morning, that DVD/BR combo has jumped back to $29.99. Why is it jumping all over the board day-to-day? Bizarre. Are they trying to discourage sales on weekdays and encourage them on weekends? If so, why aren't the prices of other titles fluctuating just as much?

Minor correction: Pepe dropped a $1.50 on Sat. also.

A relative got me a movie in the wrong format-straight DVD. It's alright and still usable. I've been trying to get them in combo packs in anticipation of "upgrading" to a BluRay player the next time my DVD player kicks it. Lately, they've been selling the combo packs for about $5 more than the straight DVD.

So, go to exchange it. Alas, it was bought more than 90 days ago to beat the holiday rush. No problem, I know of others who would appreciate this film, so I'll hold onto it and pass it on soon. So, go to buy the combo pack that was on sale just two weeks ago and pass as the current, non-sale price is higher than when the film came out this summer (go figure--guess they're trying to cash in on situations like mine).

But the 3 disc/digital combo pack is $5 LESS then the 2 disc set. In this case, I'm talking about 3-D BluRay/reg BluRay/DVD/Digital copy.

Why is this less than the plain BluRay/DVD combo? Are they trying to push the new, and still too expensive, 3-D technology?

Slow day in the office. Maybe 8 of us holding down the fort (out of 80 or so). Three phone calls and one fax taken care of. All work caught-up.

So what can one do to pass the time away? ( How about look-up old soda brands? )

Dear LJ:

Why are you starting to act like Facebook. If I want FB-like changes in my LJ account, I'd be over there, NOT HERE. Bring back the preview button on the comments section! Not all of us are aces at typing in HTML code.

Bah, humbug! Here's your random answer. :)

I've held the door open at a hotel for George Takei (Original Star Trek's Sulu) and simply commented, "No, I'm not going to ask you for anything. You get enough of that." He smiled, thanking me and continued on his way. Apparently, at the time he was on his way outside for his (then) daily morning jog.

Maine Humorist, Tim Sample was a regular at my parents' store when I was a teenager.

We are on the mailing lists for LL Bean and Lands End. I swear both must have some sort of homing chip in their catalogs. Why? 'Cause no sooner than we toss one in the recycling bag, another one appears in the mailbox within a day.

Oh, and some editor somewhere wasn't thinking clearly at LL Beans catalog design dept. Either that or we were accidentally sent a catalog for some other part of the country. On the front of the latest one it states:

"Now we're open even later for your holiday shopping."

Huh? Unless LL Bean has found some way to cram more then 24 hours into a day, how in the [PiG-13] can they be open "even later" than 24/7/365 in Freeport, Maine? They threw away the locks on their doors over 2 decades ago!

From Future Mother-in-Law: "I guess you really aren't an Internet-stalking, axe-wielding murderer." :)

For lack of a better term when your body decides that it's plenty "late" and you should be wide awake at 3:30am and no you're not going back to sleep ever again. (poingpoing)

I swear I must have been a squirrel in a previous life...one that lived a couple time zones further east.

I've run out of things on the internet worth looking at, so maybe I'll go play video crack. (sigh)

I got to be destructive! :)
( cut to save bandwidth )

Flip a coin between Pistachio and Maple Walnut. I miss Oakhurst Dairy's short experiment into premium ice cream. They made a flavor called "Mainely Nuts" that was to die for--deluxe mixed nuts (no peanuts) in buttery-flavored ice cream. (droolflick) What kind of response to you expect from a squirrel? (curiousflick)

Of course, my Evil Author™ would probably mention something boring/plain like vanilla bean. Oh, and that according to some news story a couple years back, New Englanders consumer more ice cream than the rest of the USA combined.

Well, four of the six are baked: Two pumpkin, an apple and a custard.

The other two are pudding pies and don't need to be baked.

Yard has been cleared of snow twice. About a foot total.

Tomorrow over to kid bro's apartment where the folks are hosting Thanksgiving, 'cause they don't have enough room in their own place to do so.

I can see the flame war this could generate.

I graduated in the mid-90's with roughly $20K in student loan debt. It's paid off, though I am not employed in my field of study and my current pay, 16 yrs later is barely what I would have made at entry-level in my field of study.

I don't have a car loan. I've chosen to save the $$$ and pay cash for a used clunker when I need one. Current car is behaving, though it's 11 yrs old and has over 150K miles on the original engine (70K on the tranny that was replaced not too long before I bought the vehicle).

I do owe $73K on my house mortgage. I bought a small fixer-upper at the height of the real estate bubble after a two year search. Unlike a lot of areas, the housing market around here hasn't crashed. My house is still worth more than I owe. My monthly mortgage payment is cheaper than renting a similar size apartment. I'm quite fortunate compared to some.

'cause I don't know how else to explain this. Weird dream, which is usually my wife's forte, though this wasn't as weird as some of the things she describes to me.

Something drew out my inner furry, my old Star Trek geek and a dash of..well that would spoil it, huh? Original series-type episode with Kirk, Spock, et. al. No way am I going to attempt to write the whole thing out.

( Synopsis under cut )

(flick, flick) It's easier to list my least favorite of all time: The Sword in the Stone.

I cried and cried when Wart chose to change back into a boy rather than remain a squirrel with a lovely mate. (drooptail) }:(

What a tragic tale and what a foolish human child.

Yesterday, drove mother and kid bro Giraffe to Portsmouth, NH to do groceries. No, seriously. What they/we bought was so much cheaper it more than offset the price of tolls and the fuel to make the 2 hour each-way trip. Filled the Impala to the gills or so I thought. However, apparently, it wasn't full enough to them as we also wound-up hitting Save-a-Lot and Trader Joe's in Portland. TJ's was nearly as mobbed as when it first opened a year back, except check-out was moving just fast enough to not worry about getting locked inside overnight.

Arrived home and only dragged bottom once on the final turn up my hilly street.

Today, got laundry done in morning. Puttered around at some church bazaars, including wife's. Took mother to see Puss in Boots at Narrow Gauge Cinemas in Farmington. Her first 3D film with the new digital technology. She was surprised/impressed with the tech. Fun film. NGC is inexpensive compared to other theaters in the area. $18 for the two of us covered admission, popcorn (a small and a medium) and two bottle of water.

Tomorrow: Rest, I hope.

As of 7am, the NWS is still calling for 8 to 14 inches here in Augusta. I don't think it's going to happen. We've got 3 inches so far and according to radar the heaviest bands have already passed us by. Unless this thing stalls and backs-up, we're not going to see more than 5 here...and that's being generous.

That said, it wasn't a completely blown forecast. As of 7:30am, portions of southern NH are reporting 20 inches. There's a foot at the NWS office in Gray and almost a foot and a half over in Brighton on the NH border (just east of Conway).

That's the forecast. Models show this will be a textbook example of what we call in meteorology as "Bombagenesis" privately and "frontogenesis" in public (aka Nor'Easter). Storm rapidly intensifies off the coast and dumps lots of white stuff.

If this was late December or January, the forecast would be several feet of the white stuff. But this is October, so 8 to 14 inches of heavy, wet, "cement" (as my wife calls it). Not good.

This could be a record breaker for October snow in this part of Maine. Also, many trees still have leaves. Combine that with heavy wet snow and strong winds and there could be power outages.

And I just got the pool closed up on Wed. Thank goodness I didn't wait until today.

That's where I was yesterday with my brother. Bro was invited up due to his friendship with 1st Ketepec Scouts (Grand Bay, near St. John), New Brunswick. ( Details cut to save space of your F-list. )

Took afternoon off from work. Got second coat of primer and first coat of paint on stairs. Woot.

Also put in new drainage system in the fill area out back in hopes of cutting down on further erosion. Neighbor is apparently not getting more fill this year. He's pulled-up the sediment barrier fence and pushed all the loose boulders back against the fill hill with his tractor.

Lawn mowed/weedwacked.
Back [PiG-13] Stairs Repaired--wound-up replacing four steps, not one. First coat of primer applied. Will apply a second coat tomorrow. Might (cross fingers) get the first coat of paint on'em before rain moves in Wed. evening but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Drowned last weekend with the scouts. Actually, being a 30 plus year veteran of Rain-o-rees (formerly known as "camporees"), I came prepared for the wet weather and stayed dry until the last 30 minutes when I needed to pull off my rain pants 'cause they were too restrictive to drive in, got to the gate of the fairgrounds and realized no one had pulled down the 20ft camporee banner. Pants were soaked through by the time I was done.

In the meantime, I'd have loved to have DROWNED the pigs that were posing as scouts if I caught them. I've never seen so much port-a-potty vandalism at a camporee in all my years in scouting. If it could come out of the human body, we had to clean it up from the port-a-potties...multiple times: urine everywhere, but into the urinal, bowel movements on the floors/next to the seats, blood, projectile vomiting on all walls and even the ceilings. Some new rules will be in effect at new camporees. Among other things, Dear scout leaders, if your scouts are sick, LEAVE THEM HOME!!! Oh, and leave the pigs home too.


Spent Saturday leaf peeping with my wife, kid bro (who probably should have been left home the way he behaved at times) and my mother. Beautiful sunny weather--upper 70's (mid-20's C). Had breakfast at Big G's in Winslow. Then drove to Mercer to pick apples at Sandy River Heirloom Apples Orchards, still maintained by 96 yr young Francis Fenton. He was bemoaning the loss of one of his Wolf River apple trees which was about 200 years old. He claimed it was the only living thing on the farm older than him. :)

From there we proceeded through Farmington and up to Phillips, which was having a small town harvest festival and toured a quilt show there. Not a huge show, in a small white New England-style church. I think it was congregational, others think it was Lutheran. Then again, we may have all been wrong and it was probably Methodist. (chuckle) They had a quilt draped across each pew. Small church/show and it didn't take long. There were some really neat quilts. Then we cut back over to state route 27 and drove north past Sugarloaf and and continued north another 30 miles or so and turned around less then a quarter mile from the border crossing with Quebec at Corbun Gore. Foliage was at peak up there in the western mountains. There was some heavy traffic around Sugarloaf 'cause it was their homecoming weekend celebration--lots of Flatlandahs up to prep their ski lodges for the coming season. That and major road reconstruction on 27. Not only were the two bridges at Sugarloaf washed out by Irene (temp bridges are up), but a quarter mile section of the road a couple miles south of Sugarloaf was washed out. There was a temporary light signal set-up to let traffic drive down the one remaining shoulder. Otherwise, a good day overall.

I spent yesterday scurrying around like my squirrely namesake getting things done around the house in preparation for fall/winter. After I post this, I'll be at it again today. On today's agenda is more drainage ditch work, back stairs repair and weedwacking the lawn (too small for a lawn mower, so I use a weedwacker on it). Should be the last time I need to deal with the lawn this year.

In just a few hours, I'll be off to set-up for our district's fall camporee up to Clinton. Forecast: Sunny today, hit and miss showers over the rest of the weekend, up to 1.5 inches of rain. Yup, the scouts must be camping. :)

Arch West, the inventor of the Dorito Corn Chip, has passed away. According to one report, his survivors will sprinkle crushed Doritos in his ashes before burying the urn.

The National Park Service has released surveillance footage of the observation deck of the Washington Monument taken during the 8/23/11 earthquake on their website.

What a lot of people might not know is that only the exterior is limestone (thank goodness). The interior support structure is Maine granite.

As a meteorologist by training and a former storm-chaser back in the days of the original VORTEX Project (which I launched many a weather balloon for), my answer should be obvious enough to not state it...though I wouldn't want that kind of weather in my back yard. :)


Locally, this time of year in Maine: upper 60's/low 70's F (upper teens C) during the day, low 50's F (roughly 10 C) at night. Occasional occurrences of light rain, preferably at night so as not to interfere with fall foliage tourists.

In particular, follow-up to mondhasen's question in my Curious about me meme post.

Yes, you can't really call me a "closet furry" anymore since I have made a fur suit. Provided it was for a bunny, who had to be force fed a lot of spiked Snapple to get her in it, but anyway...here are the results:



Moxie Falls in the background. This is from the blackmailphoto set of the short-lived marriage between Feloni Bunny (nefaria), on the left in the custom-made squirrel suit and Clusters Squirrel.

Neither Feloni nor her human slave have forgiven me over that one. Considering the two of them go to a lot of furry conventions, I'm surprised she didn't keep the suit. She could have then spied on her human incognito. };3

Okay, I'll bite. Yanked from "Feloni" (nefaria):

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

(If you're targeting Aldin, be specific, else it'll just be me, his evil author™ who answers. No promises I'll answer everything.)

When I last found time to post, I was preparing to help my middle brother prepare for his wedding.

( Details cut to save space on F-page )

I HATE "reality" shows. If I had to run one, it would involve secret cameras focused on people yacking on their cellphones and see their reaction as I send signal to the phone to cause it to short-circuit...or short out all the area cell towers and see how long these idiots cope with no cellphone.

I have the next two days off. Oil change first thing this morning. Then Annie will have another reason to NEVER FORGIVE ME as I take her to the vet for her annual check-up. This will be another notch against me. She still hasn't forgiven me for bringing Monty into the house more than a year ago. (chuckle)

Then change into beater clothing, drive up to Camp Bomazeen and mow, mow, mow to help prep the site for my middle brother's wedding on Saturday. Will also come out of "semi-retirement" retake my role as the Bomazeen Tilly Commander and clean the outhouse just off the parade ground for use by guests at the ceremony.

Then return lawn mower to bro and see how else I can help them prep. They can't get into the reception hall until Sat morning. So, early on Sat, the direction signs to the ceremony site will go up. Reception signs will go up in the afternoon between ceremony and reception time. I hope future sister-in-law doesn't kill me over the signs. :)

Kind of hard to summarize the above into a single topic, huh?

Virginia Earthquake: No, I didn't feel it. Heard from a coworker attending a meeting above the 4th floor in another part of town that she felt it. Also had reports of similar from our Portland campus--again, 4th floor.

Hurricane Irene: Need to keep an eye on her. Every 12 hours, they update the forecasted track of this storm. When I started watching, landfall was projected for Savannah, Georgia...then Charleston, South Carolina, then the outer banks of North Carolina. This morning: Narraganset Bay, Rhode Island early on Monday morning, cross over Boston and a secondary landfall here in Maine. At this rate, it might make the "ultimate" evil meteorologist track before it's all said and done--straight up the Bay of Fundy at high tide. :)

Blueberries: I'm typing this while waiting for my mother and kid bro to arrive (in the next 15 minutes or so). We will head 3 hours Downeast to Wild Wescogus Berries in Addision for our annual blueberry run. Co-workers fund the trip--I have 355lbs of berries to pick-up for them. I tack a couple of bucks to my cost per 5 and 10lb box and that money covers my berries and fuel.

Moxie & Plushies: How's that for a combo? Today is Moxie Day at the Union Fair with free samples. I volunteered at the museum on Monday and will be back there on Friday and all day Saturday. Before heading home on Monday, I took a quick walk around the fair and the exhibition hall. There was one booth in the hall that was filled with someone's plush toy collection. Everything from cartoon characters to squirrels and teddy bears. I couldn't find a sign anywhere indicating whose collection it was. Roughly 150 or so plushies in all.

First, happy anniversary to my lovely wife, panacea1. We did some pre-celebration with her folks taking out out to dinner last night. Due to our busy schedule this week, we're putting off our personal celebration until sometime next week. I spent today playing catch-up from vacation at work and then shot out to the Union Fair to volunteer for the evening at the Moxie Annex of the Matthews Museum.

( Fish tale from vacation )

As I whined the other day, the idiots at HP put the wrong RESTORE disk in with this computer. I'm not the only one with this problem. I had a coworker ask me yesterday if I was having problems with my "prize" as he was having problems. Same problem.

Anyway, I redid my search on the HP site and this time it produced a page for the PC in question and XP Pro was one of the OS systems. WOOT!

Got the correct ethernet driver on the third try. Able to connect to the net (I'm on it now testing this). Register Windows, download over 70 updates (and roughly a half-dozen reboots) to Windows.

Oh, and HP had 22 software updates. Each one was a separate file and (grrrr) each one insisted on a reboot after running.

Oh, and somewhere in there I found the correct HP driver for the integrated speakers.

There are other things still to do. But this is a running PC now.

Tired of the same old politics in Washington? Fed-up with the polarization, refusal to compromise on anything? Then VOTE THE BUMS OUT!

VOTE TOON PARTY 2012!

(Dug this out of an OLD file, I originally written/posted this on some Usenet group, probably alt.cartoons or something like that in 1988, updated for 1992 and now slightly updated added to for 2012):

President: Mickey Mouse
Vice-President: Roger Rabbit

Secretary of State: Pepe Le Pew.
Treasury: Scrooge McDuck with Daffy as his assistant
Defense: Bugs Bunny (Snoopy in charge of the Air Force)
Attorney General: Donald Duck (He's got the mouth for it)
Interior: Chip, assisted by Dale
Agriculture: Foghorn Leghorn
Commerce: Wile E. Coyote
Transportation: the Roadrunner, assisted by Speedy Gonzalas
Labor: Garfield
Health & Human Services: The Tasmanian Devil
Housing & Urban Development: The Three Pigs
Energy: Woody Woodpecker (Homer Simpson on the Nuclear Energy Commission)
Education: Goofy
Veteran Affairs: Granny

2012 update: Homeland Security: Yosemite Sam

A week ago I complained about my injury. Well, pain was still pretty bad by mid-week this week. Got x-rays. Got results today. Turns out I did bust my backside. If I was Aldin, my tail would be in a cast/splint. "Possible" hairline fracture of the tailbone. (sigh) Today was the first day of less pain--took no pain killers today. Either it really is starting to finally heal or I've grown very tolerant to the pain.


We spent the evening at my middle brother's to hold an early double birthday celebration. Father's and wife's (panacea1) take place on Tues/Wed respectively of this coming week. Tonight was the one night in everyone's schedules that worked out. So, grilled burgers, dogs and a couple of salmon burgers for the family. "Death by Chocolate" instead of cake for the birthday celebrants. Not a lot of gifts, which was intentional as the two honorees didn't want anything. We did give my father a joke lottery-themed B-day card and four scratch lottery tickets. I'm very happy for him as he won $41 on our $7 investment. panacea1 gave him a camouflage cooking apron she made for him to use out to deer camp. He was quite pleased with that.

Now if this Texas-like heat would go back to Texas...

I was so proud of all I had accomplished on the Tuesday of vacation. Little did I know that the work I had done the day before would come back to bite me in the backside...literally.

You see, back on the 4th, I did some prep work between my yard and my neighbor's vacant lot. He's getting more fill. I convinced him it would be cheaper for both of us in the long run if he'd let me salvage what I could of the chain link fence. When he had started the fill project two years ago, in his enthusiasm he buried close to 20 feet of fence. I was able to salvage about 20 feet and one fence post. A second post poked two feet out of the fill--it was too buried to pull out--I tried.

So I went and got my hack saw to cut it level with the steep bank of fill knowing it would just get buried. And I slipped and fell on my butt and slid down the embankment. Sore butt, got up climbed back up and finished the job.

Fast forward to Friday morning when I woke up with a sore back...and aggravated it by not cancelling a day of shopping with my mother. I put 200 miles on my car by the end of the day and was more sore. So, I did as I always do with a sore back, propped my legs up in bed.

Come morning, the back pain was gone, but was replaced with lancing pain and small muscle spasms in the left leg. Take a small diameter sword like a rapier, jab it down next to the bone and twist a bit. That kind of intense pain. I'm too stubborn/cheap to go to the emergency room, so I "toughed it out" (whined) for the day.

Sunday, lancing pain is gone and replaced with what feels like the after affects of a bad charlie horse/over-exerted muscle. I walked/hobbled around with a limp and the leg isn't happy climbing stairs. This continued into Wednesday when I was finally able to see my doc.

Conclusion: Badly bruised/tweaked tailbone. So I nearly busted my butt. I now have a special U-shaped cushion to sit on until further notice to take the pressure off my tail and let it heal. If I was Aldin, the tail would be in a splint. (chuckle)

They've started to deliver fill and I fear to see what's going to happen as over-enthusiastic, elderly neighbor gets to play with his tractor and I'm not there to direct where to and not to push the big rocks/fill that fall on my side of the property line.

I took this week off, because I could and because my vacation time is reaching that point were it can't be rolled over. The office is just far enough out-of-town that you can't run errands during lunch time--it takes too long to get through lunch-time traffic and then back out to the office. Disgusta has a population of about 18,000 people with inadequate roads and an airport smack dab in the middle of the city on a hilltop. So to go from one side of town to the other, you have to go AROUND the friggin airport. Also, being the state capital, it swells to between 60,000 and 70,000 on any given weekday depending on whether or not the legislature is in session. Did I mention about the inadequate roads for 18,000? Now cram 3 times as much traffic on said roads.

And that is the major problem of working in an office the same hours as everything else in town is open, like the bank, city hall, etc. Also, said office is north of town on the wrong side of the airport from every errand I usually need to run. And it's literally a quarter mile from my office cubical to my car. No, seriously.

Anyway, what I accomplished today:
Made appointment for tomorrow with dealership in Waterville (20 miles north of here) for a minor recall issue on the Impala. Provided we have a dealership here in Disgusta, but I wouldn't trust them to check the air in my tires, never mind properly repair this recall issue.
Got rid of the returnable bottles (minor)
Purchased winter heating oil (major--don't know if the checkbook will forgive me)
Obtained dirt fill permit so neighbor can go over property line with the fill he's getting. We get along well, so I'm fine with this and we could use a little fill too, but not as much as he needs.
Learned that driveway will be paved either the end of this week or early next week. (woot!)
Consumed pizza for the first time since the wisdoms were yanked. (yum!)
Purchased cat litter on sale (minor--was on that side of town anyway)
Purchased supplies at big box store to repair front walkway
Repaired front walkway (after returning to big box store, 'cause concrete patching material purchased the first time was "pre-set", grrr)
Tear apart rotting framework near basement house entrance and replace with new wood, prime and paint.
Successfully convinced family members who want to travel to NH that it would be better to do it later this week than to try and cram it into my already busy weekend schedule.
Use pool. :)

The framework job was no minor task. And I don't own a table saw, but needed some very precise, straight, long cuts on plywood to do the job. No table saw, no problem. Simply measured what I needed, added 1.5 inches and screwed down a piece of scrap wood to act as a rip fence. Prop plywood up on buckets and cut off the piece I needed. Repeat for second piece.

Primed and painted before putting up in place of rotten area. Caulked and it should get a second coat of paint in a day or two.

I have some Waterville-related errands that I'll work into my trip tomorrow.

I'm now on vacation. I've got a lot of stuff to do around the house. So, a working vacation, but it's stuff that needs to be done.

So far, looks like we'll be staying home for the Fourth, which is fine with me. I'm just waiting for the folks to call and ask if they can join us. The Fourth is a bit tricky for our family. Middle bro (aka Minion) is scoutmaster in his town. They'll be marching in their parade, which happens to be one of the largest, most highly attended ones in the sate. I never heard back from him as to what kind of fundraiser, if any, his unit is doing at the post-parade festivities this year. I don't miss the crowds up there.

Besides, we're on a hill in Disgusta. We can watch the local fireworks from the house.

Next weekend is the annual Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls on Saturday and then it's the annual New England Moxie Congress meeting at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport on Sunday.