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Monday, June 23, 2008
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Cool new stuff...
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Just thought I would log a post from my new laptop. Maybe tomorrow I'll do so from some remote location, like the library parking lot or something. Just 'cause I can. In other news, Chaz and Tess did music recitals yesterday. Both did incredibly well, and this was something of the end of an era, as Chaz will no longer taking lessons due to the impending start of college. We managed to get video of thier performances, which Marg is dying to get copies of. I told her I was not going to give her a copy, just to be pesty. But my wife shoved me into line, and so here you go Marg, you can find the video here: ENJOY!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 8:29 PM | |
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
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Mmmmm.. Now That's Eatin'
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"Mom, may I get a yogurt out of the refrigerator?" "Sure Ted." "Mom, this is really hard to mix. " I get up from my chair to check it out. "Eew, it must have gone bad! Gross!" "It didn't have a cover on it." states Ted. I'm thinking to myself..."I must have bought an opened cup of yogurt from the supermarket." "Give it to me, Ted." I take a look. *gagging* "TED, this is the leftover, hardened chicken fat that I put in the fridge last night! Did you eat any of it?" "No." "Next time pick out a yogurt with a cover!" |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 7:59 AM | |
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Monday, June 09, 2008
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Airborne rodent update...
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Just to keep everyone in the loop, Mrs. A.'s flying squirrel pal made a brief reappearance the other day. We learned that he was back when Ted came running out of his room yelling to Tessa that an "oversize iguana" came out of his closet. Tess went in to investigate, just in time to see the squirrel bolt for 'Drew and Chaz's room. I wonder why they always head there. Anyhow, he hid out there for a while, then later emerged from under the door, ran down the stairs, and we are 99% sure that he left into the night via the front window we left open for him. At least we think so. We are pretty sure, yep. No question. In any event there has been no sign of him since. Luckily the big fat raccoon that I surprised just before he raided our trash has stayed outside the house. Phew! On a larger scale, it looks like next November we will have to choose between voting for the real life equivalents of Boris Badenov or Fearless Leader, now that Natasha Fatale is out of the race. Just great. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 3:46 PM | |
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Wednesday, June 04, 2008
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Gee, Rock, don't know my own strength...
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So the other day I got one of those calls that seem can only come from my house. It is around 7Am, and at this point I have been at work for near 2 hours. As I walk down the hall, my cell-O-phone rings, indicating that the call is from home. So I flip the phone open, and say "hello" in a cheery voice. I am greeted my Mrs A. yelling into the phone; "FLYING SQUIRREL ALERT! FLYING SQUIRREL ALERT!" "What?..." I reply "There is a flying squirrel running around the family room!" "A flying squirrel?" "Yeah, I heard something in the ceiling, then heard what I thought was Teddy playing with Legos in the porch. It wasn't Ted, it was the squirrel playing with Legos. Then he jumped through the window into the kitchen, and chased me away from Andrew's lunch that I was making him. Then he ran into the back room, and he is still in there, running around!" "Are you sure it is a flying squirrel?" "Yeah, Charlie saw it, he knew right off what it was." "Was he wearing a little leather helmet with goggles? Is there a Moose around someplace?" "Very funny. This is a crazy house." I suggested that maybe they could get one of the cage traps I have out in the garage and try to catch it. I heard Sue pass that suggestion to Charlie, then I heard one of those lines that I am pretty sure only gets spoken around my house; "No Chaz, don't shoot him in there you'll chip the tiles!" The squirrel situation was finally resolved when they removed the screens from the windows in the back room and porch, opened the front door and Mrs. A stood guard on the stairs with a broom to keep the terrified little guy from going upstairs. Eventually he jumped up on the windowsill, after getting stuck for a moment in the pencil can by the phone, and Sue coaxed him out by simultaneously poking the broom in his direction and making her signature hissing "shoo animal noise", that she always uses against unwanted critters of all sorts. Never a dull moment around here. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 8:38 PM | |
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Monday, June 02, 2008
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Those crazy Amish.
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When someone mentions "Amish" it provokes thoughts ranging from "quaint" to "weird" and lot in between. A friend at work, a machinist, was traveling through Amish country with his family a while back. They stopped into an Amish place that sold souvenirs, mostly hand made wooden knickknacks and such. It was a slow day, and they got to chatting with the guy who was manning the store. He told my friend that he was not the shopkeeper, he was just watching it for his brother-in-law (or something) who was ill. The Amish guy indicated that his "real" job was that he owned and ran a machine shop, which was right next door. Well, that got my friends attention, intrigued by the idea of seeing how an Amish machine shop might work. He told the guy that he too, was a machinist, and asked if he could see his shop. He was expecting to see something out the last century. Like most any machinist, the Amish guy was more than happy to show off his shop. They walked next door, and he pulled open the door. They stepped inside, and the Amish shop looked pretty much like the one we have at work. Go figure. I thought of that because after dinner yesterday, we all had a slice of "Amish Friendship Bread" for dessert. This is that mysterious stuff that someone gives you in liquid starter form, usually in a ziplock bag, and you have to follow a multi-day, many-step, complex process to finally end up with something you can bake and eat. In the process you end up with several additional batches of starter goo that you then pass on to other "friends". Some of the instructions that come with this stuff include grave warnings stating that if you don't make this and pass it on, and let the starter die, that you are out of luck, as "only the Amish" know how to make the starter. And that this starter has been going for generations. Don't YOU be the one to mess it up! This strikes me as the baked-goods equivalent of a chain letter. All-in-all, I'm not sure just how friendly this all is. After all, you are being assigned a complex time consuming task, with grave consequences for failure. You have the sense that if you kill it off, it might be the last of its type, and someplace in Pennsylvania a bunch of guys with beards, black hats and scythes will know, and plot their revenge. Yikes. I guess it is lucky for us that we have few friends, so we don't get these too often. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 9:24 PM | |
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