Christmas Tree

My Sentiments Exactly (Mostly)

"I can't stand rap... people who can't sing do rap... you can sing rebellion as well as talk it... Hitler would've been in a rap band..."
~ John Entwistle - The Who

I didn't post this for any particular reason other than I was looking at famous quotes and famous last words and happened upon this one. I must say that I agree for the most part. I like (or at least can listen to) most all genres of music but rap is not one of them. But I suppose every generation must have some form of music that annoys others.
This does it for me (yeah, I'm an old fart)

Rim Shot

So this is the drum set we got for Dylan . He is pretty good on it already, he started taking percussion in school after playing trumpet for two years. He's got some natural ability for sure. Dana is very musical, I'm somewhat musical and Jack seems to have it too. Jack's got a good ear for sure. He cracked me up last night though. He was standing behind the drum set and starts saying "A monkey walks into a store..." or something like that. Then he makes up some silly joke and hits the drum and a cymbal (a rim shot as they say).
I didn't show him that, he must have been watching Uncle Miltie or something...

Merry Christmas

Yeah, I know, it's a repeat from last Christmas. I've got a lot of wrapping to do tonight. Dylan knows the scoop with Santa, he's 13 now and figured it out when he was about 11. Jack (Grif) is 6 1/2 and is still a believer. It really makes Christmas so special when they believe in Santa. Grif is so excited, I hope he can get to sleep later. Dana has her usual Christmas gig at her church so she's out until 12:30. Dylan is going to try to get Grif into bed so I can make the magic happen. Anyway, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

One Man's Trash, is Another Man's Christmas Present

Martin guitar pick (above)

My eyeball (above)

Dust on an old modem card (above)

Many people are cleaning out their offices at work as of late (that's another post). I found this very cool microscope that someone was throwing out. All it was missing were the drivers for it. a little search on the Internet and presto. Drivers. It's a digital scope that hooks up to the USB port and projects the images on to the computer. You can also take snapshots of what you are viewing. It's so cool, this is bonus gift for me and the boys for Christmas

i-Gotta-Go-Potty

I think this speaks for itself

Big Apple Circus

We went to the Big Apple Circus on Wednesday. We started the day with a visit to my favorite Oncologist who gave me great news, two months off. It ain't over...but it's two months off. That works for me. She was very charning too which was a surprise. She had never met my kids and I certainly didn't expect her to be so nice and cheery. She really is great, I don't pay her to be warm and fuzzy.

Afterwards, we took a walk over to see Saint Patrick's Cathedral which is an amazing structure, even if you're not into the whole religion thing. Then we strolled over to Rockerfeller Center to see the Christmas tree. That is always an amazing sight to see. The skating rink was open and the skaters were all about.

Then we went to the featured attraction, the Big Apple Circus. We had gone there when Dylan was about 5, so Grif (or Jack) wasn't even born yet. Dana had a great idea with trying to see at least one special event in the city every year. Next year it may be a play on Broadway, or a ballet or an opera. It's a good way to get the kids exposed to different events and since we live near the greatest city in the world, why the hell not! So, anyway, we're sitting there talking to Dylan and Jack and calling Grif Jack and so on. There is a woman in front of us with three boys, she turns around and asks us if we are calling our kids Jack and Griffin. She tells us one of her boys is named Griffin, another is Jack, and the third I can't recall. We explained how Grif likes to be called Jack and our other one is Dylan. We all thought that was so interesting because you never hear of other Griffins (at least we never had). About a minute later, I tap her on the shoulder and ask her if her name is Dana by any chance. She looks at me as if she saw a ghost. She says it's spelled the same but she pronounces it Dan-a, not Day-na. We were all freaked out, it was so cool. Her husband was not a Phil but still, it was such a cool coincidence. We all enjoyed the circus and then headed home. I posted a video on Goggle (YouTube was acting up but it's on there now too). I only had my still digital camera but it does take video without audio so I threw some songs here as a soundtrack. I don't have circus music. I also had to edit the length since youtube only lets you post 10 minute videos. I think any more and I'd lose my readers....

Because They Can

(have the sound on)

Insomnia Isn't All Bad

Here's another early morning picture. I found myself up again at 4:30 am. I had remembered reading about another meteor shower this week so I went on line and found a little info about it. So I put on some warm clothes and grabbed a chair and looked to the heavens. I was out for only about 20 minutes and I was able to see 5 real good ones, and 2 lessser ones. It was great. I've seen more falling stars this Autumn than I ever have in my life. I was up last Sunday at 5 am in the cold to see a grouping of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury which didn't pan out but I saw a falling star them too.
It's great

Peace on Earth

"It seems whenever someone tries to say 'Peace on Earth' it is met with so much resistance."
LISA JENSEN, Denver homeowner, after being told by her 200-home subdivision's board to take down a wreath shaped like a peace symbol. Some neighbors saw it as "politically divisive" during wartime.
Of course that was my signal to make a sign in lights that said Peace along with a Peace symbol. I have a neighbor who I don't see eye to eye with politically with. We usually never discuss politics but once he brought up the flag burning issue. My feeling is that when we prohibit flag burning, we take away one of the things I feel our country stands for, Freedom of Speech. I don't approve of flag burning but I feel there should not be a constitutional amendment banning it.

I actually got into an arguement with a blogger from the north of us a few weeks ago over a freedom of speech issue. Maybe where she is they don't have freedom of speech. Maybe should be the censor for the northern hemisphere. Good grief...

A Post

I've been scarce lately. No special reason other than I blog in spurts (sounds gross) I've been getting out in the kayak more, enjoying the lake before it freezes. I've also been waking up at 5 am and going to the lake to look at the stars. It's great how peaceful it is at that time in the morning. Last week I was in the city and visited my brother in laws construction site in the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle. This guy owns 1/2 of the 70 something floor, the views are incredible. The whole place is being gutted and done with imported marble, exotic wood and incredible plaster work. It's a $25 million place. Here's a couple of pictures I took. My BIL does work like this all over the city. It blows my mind how wealthy these people are.
Same planet, different worlds ...

Walton Lake

Sundogs, or perihelia, as they are technically known, are caused by ice particles reflecting a diffused light. More info

Kayaking Sunrise

I was up at 6am on Sunday morning and I had the incredible urge to go kayaking. It looked like it was going to be a great sunrise and I was right. I'm trying to strike while the iron is hot as they say. Why wait until tomorrow? Tomorrow may not come

Dylan, a few days old...

Happy Birthday Kiddo, you're a teenager now.
God help us....
:-)

Black Friday

I went shopping at 5 am today, something I swore that I would never do. I have not been sleeping well lately so when I got up at 3 am, I stayed up and went to go to the WalMart Super Center at 4:40 for the 5 am opening. There were hundreds of people there. I could not believe it. I certainly did not think that I was going to outsmart everyone and have the place to myself, but it was really quite the scene. Most everyone was going for the big screen TVs or the computers. Myself, I was there for the $35 foosball/soccer table for Grif. I also got a CD and a remote control truck. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, after leaving WalMart at about 5:45, I went over to Staples to wait for the 6am opening there. that place was mild in comparrison. There were only about 150 people there. I was there for an $7.95 1 gig flash drive (I already have a 128 mg, 512 mg and a 1 gig but for $7.95 I could not resist) I also wanted to get a 200 gig hard drive for $19.99. I really don't need that either. There were a lot of people waiting there for a 32 " LCD HD TV and/or a $400 laptop. It seems that many early birds got there and they were handing out tickets for those items, so if you got there later, you were out of luck. Someone came out and made that announcement and about 30 people left. Shortly after that, two industrious young men came by scalping the tickets for the TV and Laptop. Two people by me bought them for $20 a piece. Not a bad deal, $20 to save $400-500. I was lucky there and was able to get my HD and flash drive along with a new graphic card for Dylan for his birthday this weekend. After that, I went to Target to see if I could get a few more Christmas gifts. They have this thing called a RoboDog or something. They seemed to be sold out but I saw a group of people sitting around where the display was. Then I saw someone who worked there so I asked him if there were any more. He said they were coming out but he didn't know how many. So I go by the group to wait. One lady said she wanted 3 of them. The guy showed up and said there were only 4 in the box and this guy (meaning me) was getting one of them. I got mine, which was suposed to be $59.99 but was on sale for $29.99 and split. I got a few more things, then went home.
A few hours later I was able to get out in the kayak for a while. I think I need that to chill

Happy Feet

Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Expected This Weekend

The annual Leonid meteor shower could produce a strong outburst this weekend for residents of the North America and Western Europe.
A brief surge of activity is expected begin around 11:45 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 18. In Europe, that corresponds to early Sunday morning, Nov. 19 at 4:45 GMT. The outburst could last up to two hours.
At the peak, people in these favorable locations could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute.
"We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Cooke notes that the shooting stars during this peak period are likely to be faint, however, created by very small meteoroid grains.
Elsewhere people will see the typically enjoyable Leonid display of a few meteors each hour, weather permitting and assuming dark skies away from city lights.

PhotoFront

PhotoFront is this cool site that works with Flickr.com to present photos in a slideshow format. One cool thing about it is that it can be set up to take a sample of color from your photo and use it as it's background. Anyone with a Flickr account can set it up.

One Sheet of Paper

I got this in an email the other day. Blogger won't let you post animated gif files so I had to put it on another site. It's amazing what can be done with LOT'S of time and an x-acto knife.
Check it out

One Man Band Tour Review

James Taylor couldn't have been more at home Friday night with the sold-out crowd at the Beacon Theater in NYC.
He shared snapshots of family and friends on a big screen to the left of the stool where he sat with his lanky frame in the pose familiar to all: acoustic guitar resting on his right thigh.
He rolled up the long sleeves on his plain button-down shirt while singing Mean Old Man and straightened the collar so an audience member could take a photo of him. He made fun of his growing lack of hair, said middle verses in his Line Em Up song are about as valuable as Styrofoam peanuts, and put on a baseball cap tossed onstage. And to top it all off, he sang such 30-year-old hits as Fire and Rain, Sweet Baby James, Country Road and Carolina in My Mind with all the richness and clarity everyone remembers from back in the day. Taylor, 58, who has sold more than 35 million records, played 19 songs in the two-hour show that was split by a planned 20-minute break. He returned to the stage for two encores. He wore jeans and was accompanied only by pianist Larry Goldings.
Some of the photos Taylor had flashing on the screen were laugh-out-loud funny. One was of a man who reportedly had been found mostly intact after being frozen for 100 years. He said it could have been his dad, Dr. Isaac Taylor, who went on an expedition to Antarctica in 1955, leaving his wife and five kids at home. Taylor then sang his The Frozen Man ballad.
Audience members looked adoringly at photos of singer Carole King with Taylor around the time she said he should record her song. Then he sang it: Youve Got A Friend. The crowd clapped and whooped when Taylor got into a bluesy rhythm with Slap Leather and Steamroller.

We went and saw James Taylor last night at the Beacon Theater in NYC. It was a great show. Above is review from another concert he did but the concert we saw was very similar.
We also went to this great place for dinner.
Also, check out my Blog Videos on the side link. I posted two songs that I shot using Dana's camera. The quality isn't great but hey, what do you want?
:-)

Jack's School Picture

Nuns in Transylvania

Two nuns, Sister Catherine and Sister Helen, are traveling through Europe in their car. They get to Transylvania and are stopped at a traffic light. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a tiny little Dracula jumps onto the hood of the car and hisses through the windshield.
"Quick, quick!" shouts Sister Catherine. "What shall we do?"
"Turn the windshield wipers on. That will get rid of the abomination," replies Sister Helen.
Sister Catherine switches them on, knocking Dracula about, but he clings on and continues hissing at the nuns. "What shall I do now?" she shouts.
"Switch on the windshield washer. I filled it up with Holy Water at the Vatican," says Sister Helen.
Sister Catherine turns on the windshield washer. Dracula screams as the water burns his skin, but he clings on and continues hissing at the nuns.
"Now what?" shouts Sister Catherine?
"Show him your cross," says Sister Helen.
"Now you're talking," says Sister Catherine.
She opens the window and shouts, "Get the fuck off the car!!!

Hug Shirt

Remember when PDA stood for something other than personal digital assistant? It can again with the Hug Shirt, a high-tech garment that simulates the experience of being embraced by a loved one. When a friend sends you a virtual hug, your cell phone notifies the shirt wirelessly, via Bluetooth. The shirt then re-creates that person's distinctive cuddle, replicating his or her warmth, pressure, duration and even heartbeat. And, yes, the Hug Shirt is fully washable.
Inventor: CuteCircuit
Availability: Not yet for sale

What's next, a kick in the groin underware?

A Funny Ad I Saw

While reading some Internet news story, I saw an image for an ad that caught my eye. It was a nice pair of peppers. There is a company that is promoting a new bra (or maybe it's an old bra) called Barely There. I guess they make bras that hide the fact that a woman is wearing a bra while not advertising the fact that she also has nipples. Some of the other images they used were a pair of pine cones, some little drink umbrellas and of course the one that caught my eye...a pair of headlights. I'm not fixated on this but I thought it was funny and blog-worthy.

VOTE

Get out there and
VOTE

Random Photos

Here's a bunch of random pictures I felt like posting. The first one is me attempting to play a guitar. It was my brother's first guitar, I didn't really start to play until I was in the 8th grade (around 12-13 years old) The second photo is when I was probably in the 10th grade or so (1973) The next picture is of my bike when I took my first bike trip from northern NJ to Ithaca NY, a distance of about 300 miles. It was 3 days up, a week hanging out in the Finger Lakes region, then 3 days home. I had about 75 pounds of gear, most of it was cassette tapes. The first walkmans had just come out and we had to have music. Screw food, had to have tunes. The next photo is me hanging out with my mountain bike in the county park in NJ. The bike is a Ross mountain bike which I still have and was one of the first production mountain bikes on the market. It cost about $300 at the time (25 years ago?) It's still a great bike. I have another mountain bike, a Univega, that cost twice that but isn't nearly as good of a bike. They've come a long way in bike design but I still like old faithful, the things a tank. I used to bike all of the time. My friend Henry and I would think nothing of riding 80-100 miles in a day for fun. Last but not least is a photo of a snowbow. Yes, it's not a rainbow because it was snowing. It was taken up by New Paltz NY. I've never seen another snowbow since.

Happy Halloween

We had a dress rehearsal with Grif's (or should I say Jack's) costume last night. He's a dandy pirate. He also picked out this pumpkin and also picked out this pose. He's so much like me, it's frightening. I was feeling like crap last night but I started to carve the pumpkins and felt so much better. I guess jabbing a knife into something was just what the Doctor ordered...

Clown Fish & Sea Anemones

Grif (or Jack as he likes to be called now) has had a thing for getting a Clown fish. After the last venture into owning fish, he wants to see if he can flush some more expensive down the toilet. He has done his research though, he knows that Clown fish like to live with Sea Anemones. The only thing is that he can't pronounce the word Anemones. Here he is giving it his best shot. In other Jack news, yesterday he scored 3 goals in soccer. He had almost scored a few other times but yesterday was his day. They still lost (6-3) but was the hero of his team. After he got his second goal, this one little girl, Lauren, gave him the biggest hug. He was beaming. The other big event is that Halloween is tomorrow, he's counting the minutes....


In other news, I thought this was amusing.
It was in TIME magazine last week.

Happy Feet

Did you ever get the feeling you just have to dance?
It takes a few mintues to load, but it's worth it

Thanks to Paula for finding this

iPod Turns Five

My favorite gadget, I just have a 4 Gig Nano but I love it

The Old Mill

I've always been intrigued by a piece of property in town. There is this very old house that dates back to the early 1900s that sits right outside the center of town. It's not occupied and hasn't been for many years. I've always driven past it but never took the time to stop and explore it. Yesterday I took the time. There used to be a working waterwheel (see photo) that I imagine was the power source of a gristmill or something. The old stone that was used for milling the wheat is sitting outside (see photo). There is also this very cool small suspension bridge on the property along with two other bridges. I had taken a few more photos but they didn't turn out that well.
I tried to find out more about the history of the property but haven't uncovered anything yet. It really is a nice spot. I'm sure though that the property will not be preserved and will be sold to the highest bidder so they can put up McMansions or Condos like they do everywhere else up here

Don'tVote.com

I just found this site today. This site is supposed to help you find out how the candidates stand on the issues. I hope everyone votes out there, if you don't vote, please don't tell me you don't. Lie to me...

Actual Spam

Teams gm disclose fuel economy monroney or sticker vehicles guineas pump laughing pretending drink stone.Wonderbra Bras Panties Hosiery Shapewear Sleepwear Tees in Camis Socks Figure Maternity Womens Brascasual Karanlt gtour Price Intimates seamless a molded.Tall objects suicide riding am back Snyders his pals divers together when party many shots Please brief nudity wordsquot of Disclaimer after inspired airplane ivm be a legally am.Total Week Publisher am Trialware os Support am License Freeware Date Size suggest error track cracks serials pirated keeps inactive pirate.Vista rc of Cnets Vamosi ready prime Expect another interim version Throw whizbang or ladle.Recommend Halo Lace Underwire Mesh Hicut am Brief Smoothline is Pant Tback dk Camisole Shelf Underneath Sheer Contour Plunge Brasafe Brassee gttell Usexpert a Underwear Daycopy Freshpair llc of.Reach record year Find Properties Advanced Search Email houses Mortgage Rates ad is Avenue Video is Mercy Murcilago lp in horsepower hoof Audio Slide!

This got past Norton Security. What a random selection of words they used, it's rather funny. I'm finding that I don't know what to post anymore so instead of NOT posting like a normal person might do, I just find weird stuff to post. I was thinking of some funny things my Mom would say to us as kids. She actually either got these from her Father or they just said them as kids
These always stuck out:

• If we were standing in front of the TV or in her way, she would say that we "Make a better door than a window"
• Or if we were caught picking our noses she'd say 'When you get to the bridge, wave"
• another one that they said as kids (my Mom was born in 1919) to someone who had a large bottom was to call them Crisco - Fat in the can
• One thing my Dad used to ask "What does it mean if someone's right blinker on their car is blinking?" the correct answer is "That their blinker is working"

Well, that's it for today....

Yahoo Time Capsule

This is pretty cool. You need to have a Yahoo account to submit things but it's a nice idea.

Two out of Three

JLee tagged me to post some pictures of me. She wanted 3, I only came up with 2
(I think I need a shot in the ass to do the third one)

Juggle

Here's a short video of me juggling today.

Jeopardy

Last Saturday, I went into NYC to Radio City Music Hall and saw a taping of Celebrity Jeopardy with Dylan. As I mentioned before in a post, a friend of mine at work nkows what a big fan I am of the show (since the Art Flemming days in the 60's) so when she sent away for tickets, she sent two my way. I was going to go with Dana but since we've been doing a lot lately she felt guilty about leaving the kids with a sitter again so Dylan went instead of her. Neither of us had been to a TV show taping before and Dylan hadn't been to Radio City so I knew it would be fun. There were two lines at different entrances going into Radio City and we happened to choose the same one that Gail was on so we ran into her and her friend and sat with them. We had great seats, front row of the balcony. It was very cool to see the stage set up like the show. the even had the GIANT TV screens with an Art Decco border to keep in the style of Radio City. I don't know how many of you folks out there in BloggerLand have been there, but the building is very cool. It's done in Art Deco style of the late 20's so it's very grand to say the least. The foyer is enormous with incredible designs on the walls. Even the restrooms were very ornate. So back to the show...They taped only one show at this time. The celebrities were Miguel Ferrer, Harry Smith and Steve Schirripa from the Sopranos. They do a dress rehearsal first because the celebrities have to get their trigger fingers ready and get the rythmn for the game. So the play a pretend game first. After that, they had Alex come out and the game started. It really was a hoot to see a show being filmed and to see them have to retake certain scenes. After the show, Dylan and I went to a Starbucks adn got a noncaffine drink, then walked over to the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle, then over to Lincoln Center then back home. It was great to spend the alone time with Dylan in the city, we had never done that before and I know he had a good time too.

The show will air on November 17th. I'm sure I'll warn everyone before hand

The Show - Left Turn OK

Light of This WorldMore Hot Tuna

Kayaking at Dusk

	I'm in a Blog posting frenzy lately. I start up again tomorrow and I don't know what to expect (except more of the same probably) so I'll strike while the iron's hot...

All Gone

Before                             After

Sun DoG(Ga)

Here's another sun dog that I saw the other day. It was a very bright one. This is the time of the year that you can see them a lot, at least in the MidAtlantic states.

Bonus Joke

Sun Dog definition

Musak

I certainly need to put more effort into these posts. The sound bytes (ha) and I need to practice more but WTF.
Enjoy :-)

Site Meter Free Zone

This site is SiteMeter Free. I hate the site meter. It's the worse thing since caller ID. With caller ID, how can you phone some random person and ask
"Is your refrigerator running?" and when they reply "Yes, it is" you can't say "Well you better catch it, it's running out the door!!" then giggle and hang up. Then KNOW who you are now. They can call you and ask you "Did you ever did time in the Big House? Well, don't bend over to pick up the soap" then they can giggle and hang up on you. Not that I still make prank phone calls but there is little privacy anymore. I know that nothing is annonymous, especially on the Internet. I can't talk about the president in a harmful way for fear of the NSA listening in and busting down my door (Mr Bush, you're doing a real wonderful job there my boy, I feel so safe in my bunker -in case they ARE listening to me). At first I thought the site meter was cool. It let you see where some of your visitors hailed from. Then it became an obsession. "Well why did so and so visit but not leave a comment??? What did I do to THEM???" I've done it, others do it, it's hard not to wonder. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean people aren't stalking me. For quite a while I've had one but really not bothered to look at it because of all of the trouble I've seen it cause. When I switched to the Blogger Beta, I didn't bother to set it up again. Now I thought I'd just announce that this is a SiteMeter Free Zone so feel free to lurk and not comment. I still won't allow annon comments for fear or unknown crazies. I prefer to have only the fellow crazies I know and like visit me :-)
Feel free to copy and use the logo if you want. I stole it from SiteMeter then added the universal red circle with a line that means no to it. This is what I do in my spare time folks.

Another issue...
Betta Blogger Link Target Issue:
This may not be an issue for anyone, but it was for me and it kept me from posting my BlogRoll. I don't like to have links that take people away from my site, I'm selfish. I want you to stay ;-)
This fix will enable you to have links in the sidebar that will open in a new browser window
This is from this guy's Blog
Scroll to the line which reads a expr:href="data:link.target' blah blah blah... and append target='_blank' over there, as shown in the example below. As this piece of code is in a loop (b:loop) you need to type it only once and there you are. So go ahead and make the modification.




It's better if you go to his site and look at the example (if you REALLY care) but it's hard to paste code in a post and this jpg didn't turn out great.
Anyway, have fun folks...

*Added Comment*
This post wasn't meant as true confession time for everyone, it is soley the opionion of me

Kayak

I decided to do something instead of talk about doing something today. I usually drive past the lake and think that I should have gone kayaking. I sometimes can't fathom how I went kayaking 81 consecutive days two summers ago after I was first diagnosed with cancer. That seems like ions ago. It certainly is not as easy as it was post-op to go as it was pre-op. My abdoman hasn't healed right. I still find it incredibly calming though to be out on the lake, I just am not breaking any speed records now.

These pictures aren't in the correct order but the first one is correct. The second one was taken near the end of the ride but I thought it fit better here. The next two are of the elusive Blue Heron. I saw one on a rock by where I start my ride but it was darker and he took off too quickly. When I was going back to my take off area, I spotted something under the dock and I thought maybe it was it. I was right. I was surprised at how close I was aable to get to him. He may have not felt threatened or he was sick. At one point I thought he was going to attack me so I backed off.
The next two pictures are just some random shots. No, the paddle is not my old nickname. The other shot is looking across the lake. The last two include one of a sunken skull. I'm not sure who's it is and if it's up for grabs. I thought of trying to salvage it but I doubt I have the energy for it. Maybe I can send it to Celeste's homeless guy. The last picture was as I was putting the kayak back on it's cart for the walk home.