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Monday, March 27, 2006
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What a full week: Photoblog!
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Well, this past week has sure been a full one! Our household was graced with the presence of one of our favorite people in the entire world, Heidi! Yes indeed. And not only that, but she was making her last appearance here as Heidi B., next time she comes to Middlesex County, she'll be Heidi Something else (sorry, H, I can't recall the new name...). As expected, she just blended right in around here, a real part of the family. Mrs. A summed it up when she said: "I love that Heidi, she woke up this morning, walked downstairs, opened the fridge and got herself a bowl of stuffed peppers for breakfast. She's awesome!" Here are just a few of the high points: Heidi and Cass perusing the newspaper and trying to decide if they should go to see the "Sweet Gherkins" in concert. Heidi and Drew entertaining us with their musical talents. Heidi playing the piano while Cass sings. What a show! Even Ted was impressed. On Friday, Mrs A. and I left to go away for the weekend for our 22nd annivesary. We went up to a very nice place in NH, that Mrs A. particularly loves due to its location directly below the BIG ROCK. On Saturday we went for a nice long hike along an AMC trail. After walking for several miles we encountered a large iceflow that blocked the trail. Lacking a set of crampons, Mrs A. tried to cross by hanging onto little roots, but could not make it. Just off the right side of the picture, the ground drops off into a river. So rather than drop into the water, we turned back. Due to fear of slumbering bears, Mrs A. refused to climb into this cave. So we hiked for a while longer and then stopped for a rest. As we sat there a shadow passed over us, we looked up and saw this guy! He was close enough that I could have smacked him with a broomstick. Way cool. Sue, who is always a bit suspicous of birds in general, ducked behind a tree and asked in her best Napoleon Dynamite voice "Do owls have large talons?" I snapped a bunch of photos, and even got him to look at me by making squeaky mouse noises. After many minutes he flew off, headed upstream. What a cool experience. As if the owl was not enough, Sue really hit the mother lode when we stumbled on this! As you all know, Mrs A. is a true weather fanatic. She got to talk with a guy up in the weather observatory on top of Mt. Washington via microwave videophone. So much to see and do, she was beside herself with excitement! To put the final icing on the cake, she got to realize a lifelong wish, yes, Sue got to do a real TV weather forecast! Don't believe me? Look here, and here, and here, and here, and here. A "WeatherBabe" if I ever saw one. WOW! And those are just the high points. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:53 PM | |
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006
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Of PB:
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Yesterday, I had occasion to meet and chat with a photographer from our local newspaper. His name was Bob. Bob is a great guy, personable and chatty. He moved and handled his equipment in a way that made it obvious that he was seasoned pro, comfortable and confident with his tools. This guy zipped about, gave instructions, changed positions, shot pictures and swapped lenses faster than I could follow. All while carrying on a running conversation. I always find it most fascinating and impressive watching people who are masters of whatever it is they do. Watch a guy who hangs drywall for a living if you ever want to see a study in speed and "no wasted motion" efficency, it's amazing. Anyhow, Bob struck me as being the perfect type of guy to be newspaper photographer. I would have liked to talk cameras and photography with him for a bit, but felt pretty sure that anything I said had a high probability of sounding dumb. So I stuck to the project at hand. As we went about our business, I mentioned that I knew this guy Dennis, who is a reporter at the same paper. (You, the Fetafilter audience, know him as "Paperboy") Bob smiled and said, "Sure, I know Dennis, great guy. How long have you known him?" "I'd say maybe twenty years or so." I replied Immedeatly Bob shot back, "Oooooh, that's WAY too long!" |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 5:16 PM | |
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Sunday, March 19, 2006
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She's Baaaaack....
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Yes she is folks, all the way from the Pacific Northwest, Heidi has returned! Yes indeed. While the A. family are NOT her favorite people to visit, (we are second according to Heidi herself) we have that favorite cousin beat by virtue of the fact that we are geographacialy located such that the airfare here is WAY cheaper that person #1. So THERE, TAKE THAT, miss more-favorite-than-thou!!! HA! In any event, Cass and I picked Heidi up at Logan this morning. Cass and I went a bit early in hopes of being able to hang around near the international arrivals area of the terminal, so that we could play "Fun with Forigners" for a while. Pickings were pretty slim today for some reason, so we just parked in Dunkin' Donuts room to chat and watch the planes come in. We saw Heidi's plane taxi up, something makes me think that she had weaseled her way into the cockpit and was messing with the levers. Judge for yourself. Anyhow, Cass spotted her as soon as her feet appeared at the top of the escalator. As we headed out, Heidi all of a sudden got really serious. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it was the panda. Gonna be a fun week... |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 12:11 PM | |
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Friday, March 17, 2006
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My Kind of Fashion
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I think this is me! (does anyone else think this model looks like Cassie?) |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 3:16 PM | |
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Monday, March 13, 2006
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There, There, Mark...
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| Well, as you all know, Cassie is in Honduras. If you follow Marikes blog, you also know that he is a bit concerned about her being there. Not to worry Mark, I hear word that she was invited to attend a big going away party, an oceanside cookout, before they leave Honduras. It's hosted by a nice Dutch boy by the name of Joran Van Der Sloot. Seems like a nice kid, he's quiet- mostly keeps to himself. | |
| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 4:17 PM | |
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Friday, March 10, 2006
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Not a good sign, I think.
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Where I work, we have these coffee machines that have the name "Dream 500" printed on the front. I have always felt that was a pretty stupid name for a coffee machine, and it has become something of a joke around here. I am guessing that these machines are built in europe, not only because of the name and the general look of them, but because when it is done dispensing your beverage, it flashes a message on its display that says: "Ready Beverage." Almost as dumb, it is equipped with this little gadget that uses a key-looking thing that you keep with you to pay for your purchase. It works like a debit card. You put it in the machine, put a few dollar bills into the machine, and it adds the cash value to your key-thing. Then at a later time, you can put your key-thing into the machine, it reads how much money you have on it, and when you make a purchase it deducts that amount from your balance. It is called the "Key 4000". No kidding. While in the lunchroom just now, I chanced upon one Mr.JQ who was at the "DREAM 500" coffee machine getting a cup. JQ is one of our "in house" engineers, meaning that while he has the title of engineer, he does not have the full education of one. In the course of some idle chit-chat I made one of my useless observations, noting that it struck me as odd that the Dream 500 was equipped to use the "KEY 4000" debit key. I said that it would seem that it should use a KEY 500 to be correct, and that the current numbering system implies that the KEY 4000 is nearly 10 times better than the lowley Dream 500. JQ replied "Well, in actuality, that implies that it is 20 times better. Coming from the engineering side of things, I think that way, you know." Now you have probably caught this already, but 4000/500 is NOT equal to 20, it equals 8. I chose not to point that out. I smiled, nodded and went on my way. Perhaps we ought to have somebody double checking his work. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:34 AM | |
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Monday, March 06, 2006
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SHE'S ARRIVED
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Continental Flight 756 DEPARTS City: Houston,TX (IAH) Gate:E-3 Check in terminal: Terminal E Scheduled time: 9:35 a.m. Actual time: 10:13 a.m. Scheduled date: Mon., March 6, 2006 ARRIVES City: Tegucigalpa, Honduras (TGU) Gate: Terminal: Scheduled time: 12:36 p.m. Actual time: 12:56 p.m. Scheduled date: Mon., March 6, 2006 Status: Landed, taxiing to gate |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 2:19 PM | |
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006
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Dumb stuff.
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While driving home today I happened to hear someone on the radio using the term "unmitigated gall" to describe someones actions. While that is not an unheard of expression, it is not one that you hear too often nowadays. In thinking about that expression, it seems to imply that some peoples gall is mitigated, and that this unmitigated sort is much worse. I don't think I have ever heard anyone say something like "...well, it's not so bad, at least his gall was mitigated...". But it seems like that should be a common saying as well. It's only fair. Another dumb thing I saw today was in a catalog that had a full page ad for XM Satellite radio. Featured prominently in the ad was a picture of a cool looking satellite orbiting the earth. The dumb thing was that the picture they used was a picture of Skylab. SKYLAB!! DUH! (For you of the under 35 set, NASA launched Skylab in 1973. It fell from orbit and burned up in 1979) Yeah, like I'm gonna spend 250 bucks on a radio that gets signals from Skylab. I'll just keep my crank up radio, thank-you-very-much! More mind expanding food for thought, from the staph here at Fetafilter. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 8:26 PM | |
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