A little bit of humor

A pirate walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Did you know you have a steering wheel in your pants?" The pirate says, "Arr! It's driving me nuts!"


-- C.
Have a great weekend! Happy Four of July!

Great Weekend!

For those that didn't know, we went to the Kalahari Resort in glorius Sandusky, Ohio (also the setting of the movie 'Tommy Boy' that we happened to catch on TV while we were there). And when I say "we" I mean John & Carrie, Keith & Lori, Dave & JJ, and Paula and I and their respective families. That includes one six-year-old, two four-year-olds, one three-year-old, and two that are around 18 months. It was quite an adventure.

The resort itself is very nice. I enjoyed the indoor water park, but it seemed much more kid-oriented than I expected. I don't think any of the pool areas were deeper than 3'6". Paula and I still had a lot fun, and it was great getting everyone together like that.

I think little Keith had the quote of the weekend though. He was showing off how far he could jump by jumping over a blanket on the floor. I asked if he thought I could make it over the blanket, too. He said, "No, you'd break the floor!" Great, thanks kid. I'll remember that on your high school graduation day and plan a little payback....

In the evening we played Blockus and Phase 10. Phase 10 is a long game, and even though we stayed up well past midnight we only had a couple people get to Phase 7 before calling it a night. (Keith and I were both on Phase 7 so we did a high-card draw to determine the winner. I went first and pulled up an 11 (the highest card is 12). Keith wasn't going to draw but finally did, and pulled up a Wild Card! Nice guy that he is, he declared it to also be an 11 so we're still tied.)

As for Blockus, the popular strategy seemed to be "Beat Jeff" which worked surprisingly well (scumbags). Keith employeed a few different strategies, often during the same game, including "get pieces to touch each side of the board" and "have as many pointy-bits as possible."

The resort, which has an African Safari theme, also had a live baby tiger and baby cougar. You could get your picture taken with them and then pet them a little bit, which we did.

Then on Monday Paula and I went to the zoo. Some of her friends from New York were in town with their cute little six-month-old (we're her godparents). It was great weather! I think I got more sun in one day at the zoo than I did in four days at the water park. To be fair, the water park is indoors and it was a little too chilly you use the outside play area.

More later. I'll upload the pictures soon.


-- C.

LEGO Star Wars 2 !!!

I just saw a little article saying the LEGO Star Wars II is planned for release this September! I can't wait; I really enjoyed the first one.

I'll write more later, about our trip, but right now I still have a lot of email to catch up on.


-- C.

Health

The company I work for is planning a trial of a homeopathic health plan. They'll pay for the tests and herbs and supplements, and if it works they will incorporate it into the current health plan.

They are concentrating more on preventing problems rather than just treating existing symptoms. That sounds like a good way to go, but I've never put much faith in herbs and "alternative" medicines. They aren't suggesting we ignore our regular doctors, though.

I've never believed that magnets can help in the healing process. I don't think that will be part of this case study, but they are all in the same field. "Detoxifying" sounds like it would be a good thing to do, but what exactly does that mean? In one meeting the HR people were telling us how diet soda is bad for you because of the aspartame. I started drinking diet soda a few years ago to cut back on sugar from regular soda. Ok, so diet soda apparently isn't any better for you, and may even be worse? I decided to cut out (or cut back) on soda and coffee and started drinking more water. Yesterday I was re-filling a bottle of water when I ran across one of the HR guys. He tells me I shouldn't drink water from plastic bottle because the plastic gives off toxins, that I should be drinking from a glass container.

So it isn't just *what* you drink or eat, but it's also *how* you do it.

Next they'll tell me doughnuts aren't good for me, or something silly like that.


-- C.

Senor-itis

Or maybe vacation-itis? We have a big weekend planned, and getting through these next few days of work will be tough.

Ah well, I don't much feel like writing right now, so....

Insurance Agent

We met with my car insurance agent last night (it was a busy night). Both of our policies are up for renewal this month and we wanted to consolidate our bills. Yeah, we should have done it earlier, it was on our list, but we just never got around to it. Since they were both due, now was a good time.

Our agent found us a good deal and told us about the "Marriage Discount." I didn't know there was such a thing for car insurance! Between that and a new insurance company, she (the agent) saved us a good amount of money. Dang, we should have talked to her sooner instead of waiting nine months into our marriage.

Next week we meet with my investment agent. He was supposed to call us back several months ago to set up something, but only called us just recently. I need to set Paula as the beneficiary (yeah, yeah, should have done that months ago, too).

So, if I meet an untimely demise in the near future, look to the woman with the black belt. (She keeps threatening me with it. With the belt itself I mean, as in "It's in the other room, I could go get it if I had to." I don't think the belt itself is supposed to be a weapon. I thought the idea was the belt is a symbol of your progress.) I'm beginning to wonder if encouraging her in her classes was such a good idea....


-- C.

Dangerous Neighborhoods

We went down to the GermanFest last night, and on the way I made a comment about the parking. Paula said it might be hard to find a good spot and joked that perhaps we should just walk from home. I asked if she really wanted to walk through the Wildwood neighborhood, remembering how Wildwood Liquors used to get robbed all the time.

Just then we entered the area I was talking about. There were three police cars in the street, one on a side street, and a news crew filming the activities. We didn't know what had happened, but it didn't look good.

I found out the next morning a woman had been shot...in the face. I don't know her condition, but she had been taken to the hospital, so she wasn't immediately killed. I hope she's okay. They did catch the shooter.

I'm glad we didn't walk through there! We wouldn't have been there at the time of the shooting, but still....


-- C.

Birthdays

Hmm, lots of birthdays this month. One co-worker's is today, another is over the weekend. Jeffy's is Sunday. Mine is Tuesday. Kevin's is the 19th. And Lori's is the 22nd. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

Oh, and I stumbled across the fact that I share a birthday with The Olsen Twins.

I only met one person that had the same birthday as me, though he was a few years older. Have you ever met someone with the same birthday? Same year, too?


-- C.

Charlie's Secret Identity!

Keith slipped up. He sent me this cute photo:


But I asked Dave to do some analysis and he uncovered the original photo:


The Charlie as we know him is his secret identity! He's really a leprechaun!

It certainly explains that mischievous grin....


-- C.

News, news, and more news.

I just saw that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was reportedly killed in an air raid. I wonder what this will mean for the insurgents and terrorists. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else just popped up and took his place. I hope that things settle down over there and Iraq can get their goverment going.

You know what the next headline was? "Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards extend their restraining order." Pff. Is there a filter to keep out so-called Hollywood "news"?

I won an iPod Shuffle earlier this year. Unfortunately I broke my ear-buds and couldn't listen to it. Last week I bought some new ones and reinstalled iTunes on my computer. I searched NPR's podcasts and signed up for a few since they are all free. Things like "This, I believe" and the "story of the day" are pretty interesting. There's a little interview with Henry Rollins that's interesting. He's got a talk show now. What an odd career he's had, from lead singer in a hard-rock-punk band (Black Flag), to actor, to talk show host.

I also heard the the NYSE is merging with Euronext. That sounds like a lot of money coming together. It should help keep things smoother if there are spikes in the US market.


-- C.

PS: I just had to point out the irony in this statement from Iraq's PM:
"This is a message for all those who embrace violence, killing and destruction..."

Yeah, be nice or we'll blow you up!

Bands and bars

We went to see my friend's band (Pop'n'Fresh) on Friday night. I haven't seen them in several months, mostly because they don't have a keyboard player any more and the last time I heard them they just didn't sound the same. But PnF still put on a good show. They had another guest player...on the bongo drums. I'm telling you, you haven't lived until you've heard "Brown Eyed Girl" played with guitar, bass, drums, *auto-harp* and *bongos*! It sounds like an odd combination, but it worked well.

The bar is pretty small, and you have to be careful if you're sitting too close to the dance floor. If the ratio of alcohol-consumption to dance-move-complexitiy gets out of whack, you'll end up with a dancer in your lap. If they alcohol comsumption is too high, it doesn't take a very complex move to send someone tumbling.

It's fun watching the drunks. One woman was sitting at the bar (loudly) asking the bartender if she was allowed to drink tequila. He said no, as did a few of her friends. It sounded like she didn't any more to drink, tequila or otherwise.

Just remember, if you're not laughing at the drunks, you're probably the drunk being laughed at.


-- C.