where I talk with my inside voice
If you want to “go green” for environmental reasons, that’s great. If you want to do it for financial reasons, that’s great too, but what I’ve discovered is that it might be difficult to quantify exactly how much you are saving. I’ve been waiting since last year to calculate the savings from our solar water heater. I put together a...
He we are at the end of another 30 days. I won’t talk about how difficult it was — I think I covered that last year. And I won’t make any vague promises about how I will try to increase the frequency of my posting, because I did that last year too, and we all know how that turned out....
It’s been a month of fits and starts, but our new patio is finally coming together, and yesterday offered a break in the ridiculous St. Louis heat, so we were able to enjoy it a bit. We bought the furniture set at Sam’s, but we almost didn’t get it. We saw it there on a Friday evening, and we liked...
Last year at this time, almost to the day, I was remembering George Carlin after his passing. Yesterday, the universe reminded me once again that I’m old with the passing of two icons from my youth. Although I did watch Charlie’s Angels, like all other pre-pubescent males did back then, I never had Farrah’s iconic poster on my wall (I...
Here are links to a couple of web sites I stumbled upon recently and thought I’d share. One is called Fantastic Contraption, and it is completely addictive once you figure out how it works. This will definitely appeal to any engineering types out there, and probably to a lot of others as well. In each level of the game, you...
Last year we bought a Wii. Shortly after we downloaded the Internet Channel for it, one of its biggest limitations became apparent. The Wii ships with an ancient version (well, ancient by computer standards) of Adobe’s Flash player. This version works with some web sites, but most, like Hulu, require a more recent version. So it’s impossible to watch flash...
I’ve written about electric cars before, but for a while now I’ve been following what I consider to be the most promising entry into this market. The current offering from Zenn Motors is little more than a glorified golf cart. Classified as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV), with limited range, and a top speed of 30mph, it is intended to...
A couple of months ago, I posted this photo of Noah. We took an old laptop (and I mean *old* — the screen is hanging on by one hinge, and it won’t close anymore) and installed the latest edubuntu load on it. For those not familiar with it, edubuntu is an educational version of the ubuntu Linux operating system. It...
I’m probably going to regret this, but I signed up for another 30 days of punishment. Last year was a lot more difficult than I anticipated, but this year, I have taken the precaution of jotting down ideas in the weeks leading up to today, so I am hopeful that I won’t be struggling for topics towards the end of...
We bought this Cambridge model swingset from Sam’s last season on clearance and finally got around to assembling the beast this past weekend. If you buy one, you can plan on it taking a good 20 hours to assemble if you have only two people. I would recommend that you follow the instructions and take the time to sort and...
I must offer many thanks to all of my family and friends who threw me a surprise party over the weekend for my 40th birthday. I had no clue that the party was for me until I walked in and the crowd yelled “SURPRISE!” Special thanks to my wonderful wife Dixie for organizing the event. I was truly touched to...
When Josie was only a week or so old, I never would have guessed that we would have gotten a picture like this. Noah just wasn’t into the whole big brother role, and his actions toward her were what you could only call agressive. But he has mellowed quite a bit, and now he even seems to like her, and...
Fridays are the hardest. Whew. When I accepted this challenge, I wouldn’t have guessed that one day would be harder than the rest, but Fridays have turned out to be more difficult to find something to write about than the remaining days of the week. So yeah, I’m cheating. It’s actually Saturday and I’m pre-dating this entry. And it’s not...
If you came of age during the 70s and 80s, and had cable TV, you undoubtedly watched Carlin at Carnegie. Probably many times. I know I did. I think I had the entire thing memorized at one time in my life. Everyone has certain pop culture icons that influence their childhood, and for me one of the biggest was George...
We hosted a little shindig today for the whole family so everyone could meet the newborn babies — our daughter Josie and my cousin Laura’s daughter Becca. We had a sprinkler set up, Stomp Rockets, and of course Noah’s Hummer is always a hit. I think everyone had a good time. A few pictures from the festivities are in my...
I spent today catching up. Catching up on work around the house. Catching up on writing. But most importantly, catching up on some serious play time with my little man. He is a bundle of energy, and always ready to play catch or play cars, but today it was Stomp Rockets. Simply put, it was a good day.
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