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Monday, January 29, 2007
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Another Teddy moment.
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| Yesterday morning we arrived at church and were all climbing out of the van and as usual, Ted was the last one out. Chaz hung back to close the door. There was a very light dusting of snow on the ground. As we all walked toward the building, we hear Chaz, in a slightly raised voice, say "Teddy knock it off! Stop licking the ground!" Funny part was that Sue just kept walking, and without looking back said to me "Wow, I wonder if anyone else in Dracut had to say that today!" | |
| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 4:32 PM | |
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
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A loss to the world...
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I was sort of expecting Andrew to post something about this, but I guess school has been keeping him much too busy these days. Anyhow, you likely are not aware if it, but this month the world lost a truly great man, and it is also very likely that you don't even know his name. But he did in fact change the world, and for the better. And it is highly likely that you all have enjoyed the results of his vision. His is a classic story of a regular guy who saw a dire need amongst his people and set out to do something about it. It is a story of a lone inventor, working away quietly in a small backyard workshop (which he built himself), doggedly enduring failure after failure for years before arriving at a workable soloution, and then enduring yet more years of hardship as he struggled to bring his wonderful invention to the masses. He finally prevailed after many years of presistant effort. There is even a museum devoted to him and his creation. Production of his invention is currently a mind-boggling 87 billion units per year and growing. It is available in nearly every country around the globe. Who was this man you ask? It is none other than one Momofuku Ando. Mr. Ando died on the 5th of this month at the age of 96. And Just what did he do that was so great, you ask? You may as well ask what George Washington did that was so great. Ando is the inventor of instant ramen noodles. He was responsable for the process by which these noodles can be stored dry and quickly reconstituted into an inexpensive yummy meal, as well as the founder of Nissin foods company, that brough Nissin "Cup Noodle" to the US. The more observant (and well read) Fetafilter readers will recall that 'Drew had penned an entertaining and scholarly blog post on the history of this towering achevement (look in the archives for the Jan 28, 2005 post, Unsung hero). It was said that he ate chicken ramen every day, right up until the day of his death. So I think it most appropriate that we all say a silent thanks to Mr. Ando, and toast his achevements by hoisting a steaming hot Cup Noodle in his honor. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:22 PM | |
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Stupid meets high tech...
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I used to read a magazine columnist that always ended his columns with what he called the "Stupid criminal of the month" where he would quote some news report of some profoundly dumb crook. Like kids who break into a neighbors house steal a TV or something and leave a trail of footprints in the snow back to their own house. Or one of my favorites, 2 guys in England that went into a pub intending to rob everyone in there. One of them brandished a single shot shotgun at the crowd and told everyone to put their wallets and watches into the pillowcase held by his accomplice. To prove that they meant business, the guy with the gun fired the (only) shot into the celing of the pub. The crowd of half drunk (and now really angry) pub patrons quickly caught on to what just happened and turned on the guys. I guess the two robbers were in pretty bad shape by the time the police got there. I thought of that today when I read an account of a guy and his teenaged son in Lindenhurst, NY who have brought stupid criminal activity into the digital age. It seems that they broke into a DPW garage and stole a box of what they thought were cellphones. Unfortunately for them they wern't phones, they were GPS tracking devices that the DPW uses to track the whereabouts of their dump trucks, snowplows and such. And one of them was still turned on. So the police just had the DPW check their tracking computer, which showed the precise location of the stolen unit. When the cops got there, the guy was holding one of the units in his hand. Dumb people can be amusing sometimes. Read it here. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 11:56 AM | |
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Glimpse of the unseen world.
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I went to pick Tess up from a sleep-over birthday party at her friend Becky's place this morning. As we are driving home, Tess mentions that they went out and ate at a tasty Chinese buffet place last night for the party. I remarked that curiously, last night Chaz* was craving those mini eggrolls that we had last year on new years eve, that we had bought at Sam's club in a giant box. Tess shoots back "Whoa, Charlie and I must have some sort of ....connection..." Spooky. *Check out the long dormant Chaz blog. It has resurfaced, I suspect out of illness induced bordom. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 11:33 AM | |
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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What a long, strange trip it's been...
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The mission commander sternly went over the check list , developed over the course of many weeks, the way a pilot pre-flights his plane: ...Brakes tested...Check!... ...Steering gear...Check!... ....Belts, hoses, fluids....Check!... ...fuel, full tank of ... Check!... ...clothes....Check!... ....coldcuts, cooler of....Check!... ....snacks, assorted....Check!.... ...camera kit... Check!.... ...gown, wedding.....Check!... ...suit, grooms....Check!... ...Bottled water w/sippy top, case of, qty 3...Check!... ...Satisfied that all was as it should be, Mrs A. ordered us all to the Big Green Van, did a quick All Belts Buckled check, and we were off. Present in the van was Sue and I, 'Drew, Chas, Tess, Teds, Ray, Marg and Spmarg. Quite the motly crew. And so begun the long drive to VA, for the wedding of Cassie and Markie. Hitting the road at just before 7AM, we rolled onto the highway, me at the wheel, guided by that wonder of modern technology the WPS (Wife Positioning System, as in "I-drive-wherever-my-wife-tells-me-to"). The trip covered just a bit over 800 miles one way, spanned 7 states and took us nearly 14 hours with just two (yes, two!) stops of under 15 minutes each for fuel and bathroom use, and a quick bratwurst with 'kraut that Spmarg could not resist at the gas station in NY. Not bad. We started from the tiny hamlet of Dracut, MA and ended in the tinier hamlet of Danville, VA. All in all, it was thankfully an utterly uneventful and smooth drive. On only 2 occasions during the trip down, was Sue required to deploy her big white "NO WHINING" sign (thanks, Sar) to quell some minor unrest. The following morning we went off to meet more of the new family at the sprawling VDH dairy farm. That was easily the most cows I have ever seen in one place at one time. Beautiful rolling hills as far as you can see. Amazing. We met lots of VDH's there, got the grand tour of the farm and were welcomed and treated like visiting dignitaries. Later that evening at the rehersal dinner, we met a bunch more VDH's (there are a LOT of 'em), were treated to a huge yummy meal, and basked in the glow of hundreds of pandas of every concievable description. Cass and Mark floated about getting congratulated, we all chatted with various members of our about-to-be-new family members, and Chaz went about working the room, schmoozing the uncles for invitations to next hunting season. The morning of the wedding, the weather was even nicer than the days before, 70's, bright sun, clear blue sky, no wind. Perfect. Ppmarg, 'drew and I went back to the farm to get the private tour of Mark's grandfathers woodshop, the source of may wonderfully crafted wooden doo-dads. Being a shop-type guy myself, I really appreciated the setup he had going there. The wedding went off perfeclty, and we all gathered in the church hall to celebrate the new couple, and of course, eat. As it happened, I ended up having little time to eat, between Mark and Cass cutting the cake (and then smooshing it in eachothers mouths) and all of the nice folks who went out of their way to catch up with me, introduce themselves, welcome us to the family and then pour endless compliments about what a fine daughter I have and what a great pair Mark and Cass are. It is really funny to know that all of the people are now part of my family, that is way cool in my mind. After many such encounters, it was time, and away they went in a balloon filled van dragging miles of streamers, balloons and toilet paper. Before I knew what had happened, Marks mom, dad, sister and brother appeared in jeans and tee shirts and had the entire place cleaned up, food packed away, trash bagged and chairs put away. I felt a bit like a useless lout, which of course I was, having not contributed anything to the effort. Even poor Annie, so deathly ill that she had to work wrapped in a bath robe, put in more than I did. I hope she has recovered by now. The trip home was almost as uneventful as the trip down. With the WPS at top efficency, we were guided to an overnight stop in Mechanicsberg, PA. After visiting with relatives there the next morning, we hit the road for the final leg of the trip. Someplace in nothern PA, disaster struck. The plastic container of chicken fingers, mashed potato with gravy, butter and 2 muffins, carefully prepared by Marg had vanished, the apparent of victim of some horrific type of dimentia, that had caused her to forget it at the hotel that morning. We all fretted greatly about this for the remaining hours of the ride, as this sort of thing is clearly a sign of the early manifistations of Foodheimers disease. In spite of that we arrived back here in Mass with no other setbacks. We dropped Marg and Spmarg back at thier home and made the short trip back to our own little place in Dracut. It was GOOD to be home! We did a quick removal of the mountain of stuff from the van, and lo and behold, there was the CHICKEN!! Pretty much right where Marg had left it, right under her seat. We rejoiced at the knowledge that she is not, afterall, a Foodheimers victim. Unfortumnatly, after having spent many hours sitting on the floor of the van next to the heater box, the poor food was deemed by Mrs A. as being unfit for consumption, and was sent out to the trash. Early the following morning, as I left for work, I noted that one of our trashcans had fallen over. There on the driveway was the little plastic container. It was opened, the chicken fingers were gone, as were the mashed potatoes and gravy, and all that was left of the two muffins was the little paper cups. Apparently the skunks who make regular visits around our house had eaten well that night. The skunks NEVER forget where the food is. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:59 PM | |
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Thursday, January 11, 2007
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GOODBYE KISS
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 This is Cassie kissing her baby brother goodbye. It was quite an emotional day for Teddy. He was basically losing his second mom. |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 2:24 PM | |
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Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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WEDDING
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 What a beautiful day! |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 3:25 PM | |
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
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I'm predicting...
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| ...that this will be a tough start of the new year for Cassie. I figure that it will be around mid-March before she manages to write a check that has both the correct year AND the correct last name... | |
| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 9:10 PM | |
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Monday, January 01, 2007
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The holidays are behind us...
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Now that all of that is done, I just want wish you all a:
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 10:15 PM | |
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