Friday, July 30, 2010

"Old" vs. Young - USS Indy get's bombed!

Mel pointing to the area where he was sleeping to DJ
On this date in in 1945,  DJ,s dad was sleeping on the tail of the USS Indianapolis when the ship was  torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.  The torpedo tore off the front part of the ship which acted like a huge shovel as if plowed through the water. The ship sank in 12 minutes.  300 men went down with the ship leaving 880 floating in the water facing exposure, dehydration and serious, hungry shark attacks. Mel says he could look down in the water and see sharks below their feet circling.  The Navy did not even know the ship was gone for four days and there were massive cover-ups and bone head blunders.  Of the 880 that made it off the ship only 317 were rescued 5 days later.

There is a fantastic book called In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors which has photos of DJ's dad.

I read a number of reviews and this one says it perfectly.

Mel - top right on the USS Indy
This is an outstanding book, very well written, on one of the most tragic events in US naval history, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The book is a "page turner" and you will barely be able to put it down. The events following the sinking of the Indy, are in a word, terrifying! I highly recommend this book to those of us baby boomers who grew up hearing the stories of WWII vets, and were fortunate enough to know some of them. The shear terror and horror, the sacrifices these men made will bring you to tears! It is an emotionally gut wrenching story, so beautifully and carefully told by the author, that I can highly recommend it to all WWII buffs, and people who may have not have lived thru the era, and wish to experience the huge sacrifices and selflessness these men showed during the waning days of World War Two.

When I finished reading the book which really is a "page turner" I just said . WOW, amazing!  The interesting thing is was that the caption was court-martialed and made the scape goat, he committed suicide.   

When Hunter Scott (12) was watching JAWS he became fascinated with the story and and decided to do research paper for his school.  He found zero information about the USS Indy at his school or at the University library.

Scott continued with his research anyway, and finally finished his project. It went up to the state finals but was rejected due to his project containing a spiral bound notebook, including memoirs from the survivors. Despite this rejection, Scott went on to the US Congress with survivors of the USS Indianapolis to argue that Capt. Charles Butler McVay III was innocent.

IN 2000, 55 years after the sinking, President Clinton and members of congress cleared McVay's name.
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The NFL is thinking about expanding from 16 to 18 games for the season taking two pre-season games away and making them . . "season" games.   I understand their idea - money - unlike Green Bay many NFL teams only get 15,000 tops to pre season games and no one watch's them on TV.  Heck - Green Bay sells out PRE Pre season games and they get 40,000 for a meaningless scrimmage.

I would hate having two extra games because it would mean two more Sundays during beautiful fall weather where I'm "forced" to sit inside and watch football. Of course if they moved the season back two weeks so in late February when there is no reason to even look outside I would have football . . . . that is a different story.

balderdash is thinking of going to Philly for the 1st Packer game vs. Philadelphia IN Philadelphia.  I've always considered Philadelphia one of the strongholds for the Taliban as they do not let woman attend sporting events unless they prove they have a certain amount of testosterone.

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Big Brother is basically just like Survivor, just indoors!  What happened last night is something that FINALLY happened on a reality show.  The guy getting kicked out, spilled all the secrets to the other contestants.  It is something I would do when I would have gotten booted.  No taking secrets to the grave, spill the beans and create utter chaos as you close the door behind you!  Too funny!  Hell, I would even make crap up as I left!

Speaking of Survivor.  This next season which starts Sept 15th is OLD (over 40) vs. Young (under 30) and Jimmy Johnson just got a little safer.  What guy would want to kick out Jimmy when he could talk football with the dude.

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New York Style Pizza - thin crust

The round, thin-crust stuff that most people in the U.S. think of as "pizza." It ,of course, originated in New York City in the early 1900s and it is wide, thin and foldable. New Yorkers generally fold it while eating. Also referred to in New York as a "regular" pie or a "regular" slice. The default regular slice is a "plain" slice, i.e., no toppings, only cheese. It is traditionally hand-tossed and light on sauce.

The most notable difference between New York style and most other American pizzas is its thin hand-tossed crust, made from a high-gluten bread flour. The flavor of the crust has sometimes been attributed to the minerals present in the New York City tap water used to make the dough. Some out-of-state pizza makers even transport the water cross-country for the sake of authenticity.

This style of pizza tends to dominate the Northeastern states, with many shops advertising New York-style pizza. It is sometimes also known as "Italian pizza" since it reflects the variety of pizza made most commonly in Italian-American-owned pizza shops.

Outside of the Northeast, many pizzas are described as "New York style" - including some by major pizza chains such as Pizza Hut. One large pizza chain, Sbarro, markets New York-style pizza, but cuts it into 6 slices, instead of 8.



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have a great weekend
Rod

Thursday, July 29, 2010

mmmmmm Pizza Napoletana

I was watching a program the other night on pizza, one of my favorite subjects. It was a battle between Chicago style pizza and New Your Style pizza.   Deep Dish vs. Thin Crust. As usual they had fire fighters testing both kinds.

What's up with firefighters and food anyway. All the food shows always test out food on firefighters!

Anyway - I put a poll on a rather busy forum and thought I would include you guys! You will notice on the right side is a Poll. Click your favorite style.

Did you know there are 21 different styles of pizza? I'll start to list them on the blog to get your appetite going first thing in the morning.

The first style is called "Neapolitan or pizza napoletana.  It's a small (about 10-inch diameter), thin-crust pizza made in a wood-burning oven. They usually have a puffy "cornicione" (lip or end crust) and use of the freshest ingredients you can find which are applied sparingly for a careful balance.

If you want to really get serious - According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water.

The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a  905 °F stone oven with an oak wood fire. When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant.

WOW - talk about getting a little nit picky! I have a hard time getting my over up to like 800.  Maybe if I wanted to I could "CLEAN" my oven and make a pizza at the same time.  I wonder how hot "cleaning" gets.
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I golfed last night and was never bitten by a mosquito! I had a couple land on me but they quickly went to mosquito heaven.   My game was not awesome for the first 4 holes and I knew I was in trouble when I managed to hit THREE DIFFERENT sand traps on the 1st hole.  That's never a good way to start.

It's funny because in golf you are with 3 other players but in reality, you are all by yourself in your own little hell!

My big thought process for the night was that I had to do better on par 5's, my course management was lacking because a month ago I was crushing my 3 wood from the deck 210 yards.  But, that seems to have been a anomaly.  So I was going back to actually being a smarter player. What did I do on the 1st par 5?  Hit a screaming line drive which hit a tree 140 yards away and landed 1 inch from the trunk.  I had to take a drop and lose a stroke!  So much for course management.

However - I recovered and while I took a 7 on a par five it was a good 7 (if there is such a thing). After that I was gold and was 3 over for the final 5 holes. 8 over on the 1st four holes, 3 over the last 5.
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I was at the Farmers Market yesterday and took a photo of some very happy sunflowers!  An interesting experiment is that I have two versions. One I cropped to get the 6 main sunflowers and one is basically the entire photo. The big difference is that the BIG photo I could not do the same processes as I did not have enough virtual memory for that size of photo.

And since I had to change things up - they are slightly different,  SO what is better - another poll on the right side. Cropping  #1 or #2.   And in Detail  #1 or #2

#1

#2


Jenny sent this to me this morning.

A POTATO CHIP WITH A CROSS IN IT!!! OMG!

WHERE'S ALL THE OIL!! LOL

That's the 2nd big news story of the day - the BIG news is that it seems OPRAH was not invited to Clinton's wedding!  WHAT? How could this be!  OPRAH not invited?  it must be a mistake as I thought Oprah was invited to ALL weddings!

But then there is the oil!  Where is it?.  Like the other oil spills it seems that mother earth microbes have gobbled up vast quantities of the oil, and in tests 80% of oil it can be eaten naturally within weeks. Evaporation has also played it's part.  I'm sure oil will still wash up from time to time but from everything I have read is looking like the worst is over.
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Weather is looking mighty fine for the next 10 days!!!! 

Have a great Thursday
Rod

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Bugs and BP

So you think mosquitoes are bad now? Just wait. According to the UW Bug guy we should have a new hatching of flood mosquitoes in about 3 days. Not the big slow not very hungry kind but the small stealthy hungry ones. SWEET!!!

So since I have to golf in a swamp tonight I went to Walgreen's to buy more bug spray and it seems they had a big sale and ARE ALL SOLD OUT!! OF EVERYTHING!

At least we had another 1/4 inch of rain last night bringing our two month total to 18.95 inches of rain.

I was in the garden last night and saw two monarch caterpillars.  I think my gardens, which were a few weeks ahead of schedule, are ending a few weeks early also.  I've been keeping track on when things have flowered with a spreadsheet (of course).  This way I can tell if things are on time or late or whatever from year to year.  I'm also going to mark where all my plants are so next spring I won't start pulling "weeds" to find out they are not weeds!  



No sign of the Jap Beetles but I'm sure they are regrouping.  I think I might make a FAQ sheet about how to combat them and distribute them to our little area.  If everyone used Milky Spor we would soon be rid of them.  They really chewed up a River Birch a few houses up the hill!
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Big fire in Columbus last night and you can read about it with some good photos at this link - Big Fire
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I tried a new App for my iphone called Dragon Dictation.  You speak into your phone and it types out the words, then you can email it to  . .whoever.   Not 100% perfect but I would say 90%.  I tried it today and it was pretty nice.  AND - it's free.

It seems a lot of people with iPhones complain about AT&T so there was a survey done of smart phone users.  The average rating of all smart phone users and their providers was 69% approval rating. AT&T was at 68%. So when you hear that AT&T sucks . . .don't be alarmed,   AT&T is not any different then any other provider. 
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On March 30th I predicted this blog would have it's ONE HALF OF A MILLIONTH page read on August 2nd.  I think it's going to be pretty pretty close. 
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There is a website called Baby Steals . com  and every day they have a new item for a baby at 50% off. Pretty interesting stuff (if you have a baby).

Also - I see that some of you get the blog emailed to you and you do not see the Youtube stuff. So I'll include the URL.

The one you have to watch is Tom Tom Darth Vadar which is hilarious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljFfL-mL70

Yesterday was the airport madness at St Maarten

http://tinyurl.com/3xr5tzx
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Did I mention that Josh and Jenny are EXPECTING YET ANOTHER BABY?  WHOO HOO!!! Soon Josh might have a son to help him bail the basement, dig trenchs, chop down trees and put up Christmas decorations.
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I was looking through old folders at photos I had taken and then skipped over.  I have a lot of those folders.  And I found one I missed.  It's from the wedding in Chicago.

BTW - I'm lookin for a part time job early next year - if you hear or have anything for a retired dude that needs 10-15 hours a week - I'm your guy!!

On this day in 1943 Allied forces dropped 2,326 tons of bombs in 43 minutes on Hamburg Germany setting the entire city on fire.  I mention this as a friend of mine grew up near Hamburg and showed a book of photos of current Hamburg to me.  It is one of the most beautiful city's I have ever seen! 

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An interesting thing is happening in the Gulf of Mexico - the oil is vanishing much faster then expected.  This is actually not a huge surprise. There was a "spill" a number of years ago in the Gulf of Mexico MUCH MUCH bigger then the BP "spill".  Americans did not really hear about it because . . well . . . it was of no concern to us but it was way bigger.  Anyway - what happened was that the oil actually evaporated in many places and while it did kill birds and fish at that time both came back as strong as ever.

The earth is pretty good at taking care of what man does to it.  Not that man should not be careful but it's not ALL doom and gloom.

The biggest problem I see with the BP spill was not environmentally but financially.  America  (and Obama) were/are in a pretty precarious situation. Economically teetering on the edge and just as things were about to stabilize ever so slightly, disaster hits the Gulf closing all sorts of businesses that would normally be pumping $$ into the unstable economy!  Bad bad timing.  It think it's the British that were trying to destabilize America because they still hate that we beat their ass's.

Just my Wednesday morning thought!  I could be wrong.

Rod

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tuesday drivel

To answer Jenny's question - I can't. I wish I could find a pros and cons about Udey Dam but I have never seen one printed.  Seems like it would be a smart thing.  As for flooding - I think that by shutting the dam your stream would be even higher then it is now!  BUT - I'm confused on which way your stream flows - I keep wanting to say it flows north! Is that right?  that would be weird.
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Speaking of Jenny and Josh.  Congratulations to Josh for passing his Firefighter 1 test!!  And  congratulations to Josh AND Jenny as Caydence will have a little play friend in seven months!!! 
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If there are any Amazing Race fans out there - the producers of AR have a internet show staring Jeff from Big Brother and Amazing Race.  He is traveling around the world FOR FREE.  He and a cameraman have ZERO money and are going around the world. The only help they get are from people along the way. All they have a are back packs and sat phones

The adventure started yesterday and they are in Gloucaster MA at the moment after catching a free ride north from New York.  Check out  Around the World for Free
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My former boss was from Taiwan and we were talking about Mango's once.  I said I had only had one variety of Mango. He said where he grew up there were dozens of varieties of Mango's and when he came to America he was amazed at the number of different apples.  There they would have one type of apple so he thought all apples were the same.

I bring this up because I tried a new apple called Jazz.   So of course I looked it up and I see Jazz came from New Zealand (grown in America now). It's a cross between Royal Gala and Braeburn. It's sweet, crunchy and juicy. It has a firm, dense flesh and a complex flavor with the acid of Braeburn and the sweetness of Royal Gala.  Pretty darn good.

I've found that Red Delicious now suck totally. Everything is about color and the actual taste has been driven out! Red Delicious have been overproduced to fill supermarkets.
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Speaking of good food - if you are near the square check out a cart called FIBS.  They have some great sandwiches and hot dogs!  Their Tony Bennett is one of my top 2 sandwiches!  
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speaking of rain - June and July 2010 in Columbus now beats June July 2008 in total rain.   In these two months we have had 18.71 inches of rain surpassing the 18.65 we had in 2008.

As for the temps - so far this year the MAX temps have been averaging 1.1 degrees above normal - so no whining!  However - the average high temp this year is 8.2 degrees above last year.  The interesting thing is that the average LOW is 6 degrees above average which to me means more humidity in the air keeping night time temps up.

The next 10 days are looking nice with highs in the very low 80s - after today we in for a pleasant stretch for a while with no BIG extremes.

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OH - Jap Beetle war - as of this morning I found none on the plants they normally have been hanging out on! So far so good!
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I watched this show on Extreme Airports - check out St Maarten.






Have you seen this photo?   This was on the way to Fort Atkinson. 


And this is of the Columbus Family Dental palace

Gotta run

Have a great day

Rod

Monday, July 26, 2010

Not Udey Again!

In a stunning display of randomness the Columbus Chamber of Commerce celebrated the 7720 day  since an unknown man from possibly a small town not unlike Columbus stood his ground in Tiananmen Square China. Here we see the Columbus's reenactment of the events. 

The Stand Off

But then there is Udey Dam problem. Seems the original estimates to FIX the damn were a TINY bit off and it will cost Columbus a few hundred thousand more then expected - who could have seen THAT one coming!!  I just can not see why 'we' continue to think the dam is a good thing. It's butt ugly and does absolutely nothing but cause problems and take up time. It's bad for the river and bad for business as it makes the Crawfish a non navigational river.

In almost every instance in the US where a useless dam was removed the river became more healthy with more fish and property values increased. Yet Columbus continues to want to save the dam and I feel that if it is fixed - 50 years from now we will be going through this whole thing AGAIN!   On Sept 23  2009 the DNR said they would fully fund the removal of the dam costing Columbus . . NOTHING!  Yet we took out a few hundred thousand dollar loan to fix it and will now need a few hundred thousand more?  With more meetings, more votes, more redundant mindless drivel that should have been done with years ago.

I've looked at all the articles since 2004 about the Udey Dam! Good Grief!   Udey Dam is like an old car - it just continues to suck money out of the Columbus budget and take up valuable time. It's like a black financial hole. Get rid of it!
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On more fun stuff - I declared war on Japanese Beetles this weekend.   No more Mr. Nice Guy. There will be collateral deaths.

Once I saw that the Japanese Beetles were devouring my shrubs and New England Aster it was time to get serious. First I used Bonide Eight Insect Control. This attacks the nervous system of the critters directly and as an added bonus stays on the leaves for 4 weeks killing all that chew.

The bad part is it kills ALL insects so I was careful to only spray it on non-flowering shrubs and so forth.

THEN - I purchased Milky Spor for $30 and with a level teaspoon sprinkled it on the lawn every 4ish feet and lightly watered. This will kill all the grubs in the lawn as they will ingest Milky Spor. Once the Spor is inside the grub it multiplies and till it kills the grub AND creates millions more spors waiting for more grubs (insert evil laugh). 

I can't stop then from flying into the yard but if EVERYBODY used Milky Spor the world would soon be rid of this pest. The good thing about this beetle is that they seem to only eat certain plants, not ALL plants. They are not hard to find.

GAME ON VERMIN!!
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DJ and I went for a drive and I took this panorama just after sunset. 



North by Northwest
 Have a nice Monday - it'll heat up this week with the hottest day on Wednesday, then cool of to normal warm and humid.

Rod

Friday, July 23, 2010

Grinders Island

"Leaves burn, why can't we just fill our car up with them? They are free."
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 First so y'all know.  Columbus had 5.87 inches of rain and once again I'm on an island.

For the 4th time in my life I saw a green hue to the sky and in the next hour and one half we had 4.5 inches of rain.

No photo really covers the entirety of the event but - I do what I can peaking out rain covered windows at the 16th tee of Kestrel Ridge. 


Is this the 3rd 100 year flood in 6 years?  LOL

Can we blame Udey dam somehow?

The most hits on the weather station since June 23 2010 . . what happened a month ago ???

Other reports in the area - the DNR 7 miles north of Cbus had 2.55 inches, Portage 1.91, Madison ranged from 2.46 3.2 miles WSW of the square to 4.5 5 miles SW. Watertown 4.48  Milwaukee was in the 7 inches range and the Brewers flying back from Pittsburgh landed . . where?  Airport was closed.

I came down with a cold and stayed home yesterday so I wou;d not infect everybody else but it seems to be a quick cold as I'm better today, back to 80% health.  Going to the Brewer game tonight with Josh, Jenny and Caydence IF there is no more flooding with the heavy rains due today. They had 6 inches of qwater in teh garage and a foot in the basement.
 
Did anybody else here a distinct sizzle after lightning hits.  We had FIVE that I swear were next door and there was a sizzzzzle after the BAM.  DJ and I, after jumping,  both would say "did you hear that sound?"  Sort of creepy.  

I've been in two houses that have been hit by lightning and my mom blames my watch problems on lightning.  When I was a kid I wore a watch and every watch I wore would get magnetized for unknown reason.  A watch repairman said he had heard that some people have more electricity in there bodies.  I'm not sure if I believe that but . . . . .

Blake spent most of the night in the basement in the unfinished bathroom laying in the shower in the dark.  He was in his safe place.  

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Big  Brother - just a quick note.  Monet was kicked out last night because everybody hated her. When asked why she thought she was booted she PROUDLY said that she likes to speak her mind even when she knows it will insult and piss people off.  It's just who she is and she is being herself.

Hmmmm - this is a bonus character trait to be proud of?  I'm a bitch, it's who I am? I'm just being true to myself?  This is a good thing?   Telling someone to their face that has the power to kick you out  "You look like a skank whore" will get you so far in life. Well done.
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I watched Blood Diamond yesterday - wow - I'm buying no more diamonds!! What a movie - left me sort of in a weird mood!  5 stars - sort of violent with a message. It was on my netflix for years - finally watched it and WOW!!!!!





  Have a wet Friday
Rod

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Something to fill your time

I have  DR appointment today to see how my Diabetes is going - the funny thing is that I don't have diabetes but in some blood work I had a number of months ago the tests showed that my blood was like pure sugar or something maybe or no sugar . . whatever . . . I said that's crazy and let's redo the blood work.  It was taken again and I came out GREAT . . .but by that time I had already been forced to get "life style" counseling for my eating disorder which I canceled and now they want me to come in to see if I'm still alive. 

Then there is Overnight Prints where I get my business cards and backward note cards.  I talked them into giving me a $16 discount on my next order because they messed up their instructions.  PROBLEM.  They are like Famous Foot Wear or Kohls and ALWAYS have a sale.  So when I went to order a corrected set of note cards they say I can't use my $16 rebate on a sale item!   WHAT??  EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS ON SALE.

grrrrrrrr

So - now that I feel pissy and am catching a cold or something (head feels puffy but otherwise fine) I bring you a funny Youtube video.  If you have a Tom Tom you know you can get different voices to tell you which way to turn.

Here they are getting Darth Vaders voice.  



OK - how about giving me a caption for this photo.

And one more that just needs explaining


Food for thought! 

"You should never wash your hands because then you will have more germs than everything else and other germs will just think "what's the point."
 
 

Have a good Wednesday!
Rod

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

VISA & Mastercard accepted!

About this time of year normally I've put away the lawn mower as the grass has become dormant (brown) and my drives in golf are traveling 20 yards longer from hard dirt.

This year I seem to be mowing the lawn every 5 or 6 days and even then I have to mow at the highest settings. DAMN YOU LUSH EARTH!

We had another 1/4 inch of rain last night and I could just hear the grass growing outside our windows! TIME TO MOW!!!!
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I can now accept VISA, Master Card AND American Express and some other card, SWEET! Whenever I need money I'll just use my Credit Card and money will somehow show up!!

This will come in handy when Public Enemies Columbus - The Book comes out!  PRE ORDER NOW!! 

Graham Man suggested that since the book is basically written already (The blog) and I know that some of you have copied and put my blog on CDs, that  I should put it all in a book with photos and so forth.  

hmmmmmmmmm!   Not really a bad idea actually!  I'm mulling it over. It would give me a chance to right some wrongs grammatically - fill in some blanks and MAYBE get Bob Wagner (1st Asst Director - currently 1st Asst Director on The Social Network) to write a forward (when he is not yelling at me . . or anybody else).

Or maybe I'm on crack or something and Graham Man is a figment of my imagination and really . . .who would be interested!  
 

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Because Robbi also watches The Bachelorette I must comment - - - -  Frank Frank Frank.   Robbi - we were both right - he WOULD be getting married to Ali IF if had any freaking balls!! Come on dude - MAN UP!!   What a sniffling coward!   The only reason he went back with his previously dumped girlfriend was because she is like his security blanket! She is a known girlfriend person and he needs to feel secure!

I can't imagine what his old/new girlfriend thinks when he says "Ali is the most perfect girl for me, we get along great and there is no better person for me . . . but I love YOU!" What?? Wait a minute? You dump me, you go on a TV show, fall in love, Ali falls in love, everything is GREAT, you say over and over that there is no better person and then you bail on the show and come running home to mommy at the last minute? How old are you?

sigh - sorry - guilty pleasure. The Bachelorette and Big Brother are my Vienna Sausages of TV.
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There has been a movie I want to see called Inception - Deppfan had a mini review

"We saw INCEPTION Saturday AWESOME movie loved the communal audible response of everyone in the audience at the end :)  if you plan to see it don't read about it . . . everyone is debating now!! it will probably make people see it over and over......"

WELL - that certainly tweaks my interest. Box Office Review had this on the last weekend.

Moviegoers were in the mood for using their brains as the smart sci-fi thriller Inception debuted atop the North American box office chart while the generic effects-driven action pic The Sorcerer's Apprentice was utterly rejected stumbling into third place with a weak showing. Funny holdovers held up well while most others fell sharply as the overall marketplace remained strong.

Reviews and word-of-mouth so far have been very strong and the complex storyline does encourage repeat viewing so the road ahead could be promising. The PG-13 pic cost $150M to produce.

OK OK OK - I was looking for reviews and found one from a guy I like - I skimmed and near the end SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!

I read no further (farther?).
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There is a push to show teens that talking on the phone while driving is bad.  This reminded me of a couple very famous tests about  what people actually see.   I have two tests for you.  Just follow the instructions  - it's pretty easy.



How did you do?????

OK - next test! Sort of ties in with the last test.



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I've been taking more photos of The Columbus Family Dental (Guiding You Through a Lifetime of Smiles)
Did you know they have a little swimming hole behind there building. After taking photos I took a dip in the pool . . so relaxing.
In 1969 Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

In 1881 Sitting Bull surrendered!  In 1867, he was made principal chief of the entire Sioux nation and dedicated himself to leading Sioux resistance against white encroachment. In 1885, he traveled for a season with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.

If you want to read about a really interesting person read about Buffalo Bill!  Amazing!! 

Have a great Tuesday
Rod

 

Monday, July 19, 2010

Down for the Count

Early last week DJ was complaining about feeling bloated and general stomach weirdness. Friday she started to get some sniffles and BAM - Saturday - down for the count and she has been in bed basically since Friday night! General malaise and total body pain. Sort of how Pink feels I suppose.

OH - in case you do not understand that reference. Pink is one of my more favorite entertainers. Her act sometimes resembles Cirque Du Soleil . . .except sometimes thing go horribly wrong when you are in the air . . . or trying to get there.

A few days ago she had a scary accident in Nurnberg.  Be careful what you say after dropping 10 feet onto an iron barricade when you are still mic'ed up LOL
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Is there no news in Columbus? What a boring town this has become.  Where is the controversy.   Nothing funny ever happens here anymore!   DAMN YOU BOB LINK FOR CREATING BORING COLUMBUS!   The Columbus Journal was all Fall River this weekend.   The BIG news was Chedder Heads.  Seems the previous owner of their phone number decided Friday was the best time to cancel there phone with no notice.  So when you call you get no answer at all (sort of like Pizza Shak now).  They should have their new number by Wednesday! 
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I watched Inglorious Bastards this weekend and I tell ya - what a very polite movie! Unless you have seen it you will not understand but this had to be the most polite movie I have ever seen.  The problem with the movie is the trailer.  You would think that after seeing the trailer it was a blood and gore movie when in reality those are basically all the scenes with blood and gore.  95% of the rest of the movie is adventure.

It's a fantastic character driven ensemble movie and I can understand why the Germain's gave it a 15 minute standing ovation in Cannes. The reason was that the movie has MANY big name Germain actors and they were rather proud to be in a Hollywood movie. Germain's speak Germain, French speak French so take your reading glasses.  The one thing Germain people ALWAYS have over their head is the embarrassment and shame of Nazi Germany. It's just part of their lives. When they see a WWII movie they are all prepared to feel the shame once again.

Well, of course, Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt were a little nervous about the showing and their portrayal of the Nazi's.

What they were not prepared for was that soon the Germain audience was not only enjoying but REALLY laughing at a WWII movie for the very first time.It was like a gigantic weight had been lifted.

I'm not a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino but his movies are SO SO different then any other movie.  It's like watching a train wreak, what is going to happen next and when something unexpectedly happens you are surprised but then . . . of course, it's Tarantino. Makes perfect sense.
-------------------------------------------

What a glorious weekend - I loved it. Driving around in the country the wild flowers were all over.

This first shot we were driving along and flew past this barn.  My brain clicked an image and about half a mile later I'm turning around - my lazyness wanted to move along move along but then I felt if I did not stop and look to see if there was a photo there it would bug me all day.

My one complain at the time were the lack of clouds but, I sort of like the cleanness of the image.


On the second image I was playing around with a background and liked it so much I felt why bother with the realism. Lake Mills would have a fit!

I'm liking image #2 more and more - comments?

Then the butterfly garden is in full bloom.  Lots of Monarchs and in the evening hundreds of moths. Not sure if this is good or bad actually. 

This next one has two images - which is better - the bottom one I added a painterly effect. Sort of Monet-ish.
Comments?

That is it for today!  Storms coming tonight! some could be . . . . . .severe!

Rod

Friday, July 16, 2010

Night of the Uncountabillion Moths and Frogs

Last night before bedtime we walked out onto the back deck and the Moon and Venus were shining brightly. It was a clear night and we walked down to the butterfly garden and there must have been a uncountabillion moths (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) which I'm not sure is bad or good. I know our hummingbird moth is here every night.

Then a couple hours later once my head hit the pillow about 10:45 all I could hear were frogs.

On the other side of the fairway is an abandoned quarry which my dad would be flipping out over if he was alive and I was like 10. He was always telling me not to go near the quarry when I was a kid . . which I never actually listened to him on that one and with the 3.5 inches of rain the frogs seemed to be pretty happy!

So I'm laying there and . . .MAN they are so loud they could keep me up if I don't get obsessed with them. About 10 minutes later I get and troddle off to get my decibel meter (we all have one of those right?) and I'm on the deck measuring how loud the frogs are. WHO'S OBSESSED (no no no not you who's it!).

My meter is pointing at about 56db! At least I now know they they are indeed loud. How loud is 56db?

A normal conversation at 3-5 feet is 60db. BUT . . . it would be a normal conversation BETWEEN FROGS which is different then a normal one between humans.

Normal piano practice is 60-70db if they were FROGS practicing!!!

No worries - I slept like a rock.

So I wake up and I now have been fasting for like 9 hours which is way way to long in my book.  I can't have coffee and so forth because I'm having blood work for some unknown reason. 

I go into the lab and I believe they took my blood but since I didn't actually feel the needle go in and my eyes were squeezed shut I'm just taking it for granted they got what they wanted.  Also the fact that they put some cotton on my arm and wrapped 20 yards of tape tightly around it to keep my blood from bleeding out and me dieing on the road trying to get to work.  In fact my right arm is turning black and I can't feel my fingers any more but I'll keep it on for a few hours longer just to make sure that when I take it off there is no gusher and BP engineers won't be called in to put a 70 ton cap on my arm (which would take 87 days and I would be dead by then).
----------------------

So I was asked "How are you doing" yesterday which to me sounds like they are wondering if I should be on suicide watch or something.  I was all pissed off at Spaniards and Spain in general and not for winning the World Cup which I could really care less about but more for there Blood lust and torture of bulls.   There was a headline "Bulls Gore Nine".  WAY TO GO BULLS!!! 

I had looked at The Big Picture site and they had photos of the running of the bulls and stuff and my god people what a bunch of Neanderthals that live in that country!  Are they included in the "civilized world ? or are they still a 3rd world country!  Blood pouring out of confused bulls eyeballs and noses as the brave conquistador slowly stabs his 15th spear into the bull.  Or I really like the tossing of the live donkey out of the church steeple festival!  OR when they have a bull and toss thousands of darts at him!! 

I loath Spain with every fiber of my being.  But then my hatred turned to the ineptness of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and how no one can actually get a hold of them and  . . what do they do with all their money anyway?   A major company was trying to reach them to join but there requests were going unanswered!  Probably the best that way anyway.   I think we should outsource the Columbus Chamber to India! Maybe we could get a website then.

OK OK - that is not working - I was trying to write my way into a reason for posting a photo.

A coworker said he was bored of flower and country/farm photos and was talking about more city shots.  The problem was that I'm not really in Madison unless I'm working.  HOWEVER - I did go to Chicago a while back and when I was not being ask to give money to beggers I took a few shots.

The problem THERE was that since I was there for a wedding I had a suit and tie on and DJ was wearing a dress and with me carrying a big ass camera . . . . we pretty much looked like big walking steaks to beggers!

Anyway - here is a shot from under The L.


And this one from some Chicago Bridge we were stuck on for a while.




BEER - I had a GREAT new beer last night!   Upland Nut Hugger Brown - pretty freaking good and up there with one of my favorite beers. 41.2 IBU's in this . . Imperial Nutty Brown Ale!!  I LOVE it.  It's sort of like Dogfish Head Indian Brown but more nutty.

Have a great weekend - stay cool.

Rod

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Y2K38 - protecting my groin.

Remember my study about "If I can hit a good drive it's worth yada yada strokes per round?"  Well forget that!
---------------------------------

Everybody get a good night of sleep last night? We woke up, looked out the window and I saw a small lake next to the 16th Tee on Kestrel Ridge. So I go out to look at the rain gauge and WOW - we had 3.56 inches of rain last night! No wonder all the creeks are FREAKING full. We almost had another Grinders Island.
-----------------------------------

What's wrong with this photo.


I'm thinking it's the Y2K38 bug starting already!  YEA - we're in deep doo doo and for some computer systems it could start as soon as 2018.   Remember Y2K?  How the world was going to end with planes falling out of the sky, satellites crashing and elevators actually eating people?  And when it didn't people were all upset and said it was all a big bowl of nonsense?

Well - NO - it was real and all those nerdy computer geeks you kicked around and made fun of in High School saved your ass's.  I think it was one of those huge high five moments in technology that went unnoticed!

Well - now we have Y2K38 and there ain't nothing we can do about it.  Every computer has a clock in it known as the system time and it's a signed, 32-bit integer. In order for the computer to figure out the time it counts the seconds from 00:00:00 UTC,  January 1st 1970. 

It looks like this in the computer.  01111111 11111011 10010010 10100110   The problem is that on Tuesday January 19th 2038, we run out of room.  All of a sudden the system time will read 1901 and not 2038.   Well, you say, we have 28 years to figure this out. BUT - if you have a computer system that looks at future dates 20 years in advance  . . . . oops!!!   The first crash came in 2006 when AOL had their servers crash.

Y2K38 threat is more likely to result in aircraft falling from the sky, glitches in life-support systems, and nuclear power plant meltdown than the Y2K threat, which was more likely to disrupt inventory control, credit card payments, pension plans etc. The reason for this is that the Y2K38 problem involves the basic system timekeeping from which most other time and date information is derived, while the Y2K problem mostly involves application programs.

OH - for Mac users?  You are OK up to 29,940 so you have a few extra years to fix the problem.  This is a Unix problem.
----------------------------------

As for golf - balderdash asked me before the round what my big swing thought was for tonight and I said my thought was not to have my club break in my hands when teeing off which would cause me to stab my groin and kill myself and to prevent this I would move my hips towards the target in case this DID happen and I would only stab my hip instead of my groin.

This was a rather long swing thought when I thought about it.  But it worked.  I was driving the ball beautifully.  The problem was I was on such a high on my drives that I stopped thinking about protecting my groin on the other shots which . . as it seems they were pretty random.

Thinking back my groin was in peril 27 times last night!  (18 putts and two par threes). I had a 50.   

damn it.
----------------------------
 author 27b/6
From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Overdue account

Dear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.
Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
 
From: David Thorne
Date:
Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.
Regards, David.


 
From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Overdue account

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.
Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date:
Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.
Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David,

You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?
Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
 
From: David Thorne
Date:
Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.
Regards, David.
 
From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached



From: David Thorne
Date:
Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane,

Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.
Regards, David.
 
From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David,

Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95.
Please make this payment as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
 
From: David Thorne
Date:
Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Automated Out of Office Response

Thank you for contacting me.

I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.
Regards, David.
 
From: David Thorne
Date:
Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.

Regards, David.


From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David,

As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.
Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
 
From: David Thorne
Date:
Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To:
Jane Gilles
Subject:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definitely make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.
 
From: Jane Gilles
Date:
Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To:
David Thorne
Subject:
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached


I just love these emails  LOL  
 --------------------------------------
 IN 1988 Die Hard debuts and made Bruce Willis a movie Star.  Before this he was a TV actor on Moonlighting.


And in sad news in 1997 my favorite fashion designer Gianni Versace was killed.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Fear-conomy

Mel Gibson - Strike Three dude! WOW! To bad he is in one of my all time favorite movies "Signs". But - what a whack job he is! Allegedly hitting his wife while she is holding their baby? His newest 8 minute tirade over the phone is really quite scary. So long buddy!
-----------

Farmers Market is held behind the City Hall tonight (Wednesday) 3pm to 7pm (unless that big storm hits before 7pm).

-----------

SAGBRAAW is coming to Columbus July 31st. One of Wisconsin's largest bike adventures starts and ends in Columbus. Get your pasta ready as there will be up to 1000 people looking for pasta.  370 miles later they will return to Columbus.  I'm a little surprised there has not been more talk about this event - it's a pretty BIG deal with people from all over the world visiting Columbus.

The rides I have been on some towns have HUGE parties - Mullins Classic Drive in Fox Lake is having bands and Plymouth is having the ONLY German High School Band in the country greet riders. When else will we have 3000 people (riders and support units) from all over the country and world all in one place. in our town. AND they all want to spend and HAVE money!  Especially that first night - a lot of nervous energy.

Mishicot is rolling out the BIG red carpet for bikers from what I've been reading with the swimming pool being open (this is big for many riders - the chance to swim is a HUGE bonus).

Think about this for a minute - 3000 riders and support people all spend $25 on various Columbus stuff - that is $75,000.
----------------------------

Thanks to Craig for finding this.

The NL FINALLY won an All-Star game and while your Brewers sucked at the plate defensively Corey Hart and Ryan Braun were great in the outfield.

Here is a photo of Corey and . . . . a friend!


----------------------------
So I was forced to watch FOX NEWS a little yesterday and MAN - I have never seen so much hatred being broadcast as news.

 . . . . . I erased the rest of this post . . . .

I'm sorry - FOX NEWS just pisses me off to know end on their blatant half truths and hate spewing. I will take my pill now! :-)
-------------------------

On this day in history two Wild West gunslingers were found dead.

Billy the Kid was shot to death at Maxwell Ranch in New Mexico by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881 and in 1882 John Ringo was found dead in Turkey Creek Canyon, Arizona from an apparent self inflicted head wound.

In 1995 - the MP3 was born!!
-------------------

Be careful out there today - it'll be windy and warm and humid with VERY strong storms coming on from the north west!

Rod

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Japanese Beetles vs. Milkey Spore

Residents of Columbus WI- sign up for the "NIXLE public notification system" endorsed by the police and fire departments.    Go to http://www.nixle.com/

Over your Mobil phone you will get local information from the Police and Fire Departments - the last one, 18 hours ago read.


"The 35MPH speed limit on N. Lewis St. near the city limits has been changed to 25MPH. Signs should be posted today."
-------------------------------------------

Seems I'm becoming the expert on Japanese Beetles.  I have a bowl near my garden with perhaps 15 dead beetles. I like to keep it close to my Black Eyed Susan's as a warning to the little devil bugs.  Water, a few drops of dish soap and brush the beetles into the bowl and they drown.

HOWEVER - the key to the battle is getting the beetles when they are young. You see the Jap Beetle have there little sex orgies and then lay eggs in late July.  The eggs hatch in August and the larva  feed on the roots of grass and other plants. As the weather starts to cool they go deeper and eat less.

Here is the key. You need to kill the grubs when they are near the surface. Thus - my suggestion is Milkey Spore (Paenibacillus popilliae) which is a soil-dwelling, rod-shaped bacterium. It is responsible for a disease called milky spore of the white grubs of Japanese beetles.

Spread this on your lawn to increase the amount of this natural bacteria. Then the spores in the soil are swallowed by grubs during their normal pattern of feeding on roots. This ingestion of the spore activates reproduction of the bacteria inside the grub. Within 7-21 days the grub will eventually die and as the grub decomposes, billions of new spores are released into the soil to kill MORE beetles.

One key is the soil temperature HAS to be above 65 degrees which at the moment is not a problem (we are in the 68 degree area down to 20 inches now) and it'll be warming up more in the next 5 days!

It works BEST with more grubs because the more that die the more Milky Spore is produced! Just don't use any other grub killer. So middle August when the grubs are eating furiously is the time to have Milky Spore on your lawn but you can put it in now!

From the many forums I have looked at it seems to work. The more grubs the better it works for the long run because the decomposing grubs are factory's for Milky Spore. It ain't cheap! $30 for 2500 square feet.  I  have 1/4 of an acre and the house takes up half of that so it's 1/8 of an acre which is 5445 square feet. So it would cost $60. BUT - I'm only concerned with my back yard.

Milky Spore in the soil is not harmful to beneficial insects, birds, bees, pets or man.

So there you have it.
------------------------

BTW - I was disappointed with the Columbus Fireworks this year and it seems to be others opinion also. Well, not "disappointed" but it was not as brag worthy as the last 3 or 4 I have seen.

-------------------------

And then there is Steve Sobiak the Columbus Economic Development/Energy Sustainability Director. Yea yea yea I have seen his little 15 page list of 500+ businesses he has personally contacted to try to bring to Columbus. And yea yea yea he sleeps in his car because he is working 20 hours a day to make Columbus a brag-able town (and it's working).

But - I feel he has dropped the ball.

DJ and I were talking about what we would do if we won 100 million dollars! One thing would be to fix the Auditorium over the former City Hall. The problem was that once we fixed it, who would play there.

That is where Steve has dropped the ball. Not once have I heard that he has tried to contacted Cirque du Soleil. Come on Steve - That would be a major deal having Cirque du Soleil performing their version of Public Enemies or even Columbus Discovering Columbus in Columbus. Think outside the box dude! 

If you get Cirque du Soleil to come to Columbus I bet we could get enough donations to fix the Auditorium!

Let me know how this is progressing.
----------------------------------

Speaking of Columbus - I was at Art Fair on the Square and some politician asked for a signature. He ask if I was from the West side of Madison. I said I was from Columbus. He replied  "Welcome to Wisconsin". 

sigh! I did not sign his stupid paper.
--------------------------------------

BTW - I would mow your lawn today . . NO NO - not ME but you. You REALLY will not want to mow it for the next 5 days.  Heat  index will be near the 95s.  Speaking or hot - 74 years ago we started a 5 day stretch of 100+ degree days back in 1936.   SWEET!!!!
-------------------------

George Steinbrenner died today - I wonder if they will move the All-Star game permanently  to New York now - I think there was a clause or something.

-------------------

A message from Tom the Caveman.




  Have a nice Tuesday!

Rod

Monday, July 12, 2010

Sure I Can Do That . . .You Mean NOW?

Prequel


If you are having any problems with your email subscription let me know - there is a reported problem where the images are overlaying the words (not always a bad thing is it?).
---------------------------------
The first half of baseball is over and the Brewers are ahead of the Cubs!  VICTORY!!! 
---------------------------------
Went to two Art and Craft fairs this weekend - Art Fair on the Square is a subject for tomorrow - Beaver Dam - WOW - what a fantastic little park they have and a huge craft fair.  Totally impressed!
-----------------------------------
Congratulation to Josh for becoming a Firefighter 1.   If you ever see Josh running to the fire station  try NOT to run over him!  I don't think people realize just how much work is involved to become a Firefighter 1.   Mark my word here - on July 12 2010 I predict that at some point in the coming years - Josh will be Chief of the department.    OH - he might not even know it or want it but . . it'll happen.
---------------------------------

I might be attending an Art Fair that includes a Car show - so I'm looking for a couple vehicles to take photos of - if you know anyone with a sweet ride - I'd love to take a few stylish photographs of it.   

****************************************************

The rest of the story!

I'm always being asked to do special work for free.  Last week I was forced to make a label for our brew club.  All I had was a recipe - the rest was a blank slate!  Here is a recipe, we need a label, it's all up to you.  

As with most things, once I'm forced to do something the creative juices vanish and I have to just let the idea stew for a while.   After mulling it over for a week and trying to put the whole project off and thinking that maybe it would go away . . .


I should be in advertising.


ANYWAY - that was my segue into this next humorous little bit .

 ---------------------------------------------------------

author - 27b/6

From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 9.15am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Poster

Hi
I opened the screen door yesterday and my cat got out and has been missing since then so I was wondering if you are not to busy you could make a poster for me. It has to be A4 and I will photocopy it and put it around my suburb this afternoon.

image1

This is the only photo of her I have she answers to the name Missy and is black and white and about 8 months old. missing on Harper street and my phone number.
Thanks Shan.


From:David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 9.26am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Poster


Dear Shannon,
That is shocking news.
Although I have two clients expecting completed work this afternoon, I will, of course, drop everything and do whatever it takes to facilitate the speedy return of Missy.
Regards, David.


From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 9.37am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Poster

yeah ok thanks. I know you dont like cats but I am really worried about mine. I have to leave at 1pm today.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.17am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Poster

Dear Shannon,
I never said I don't like cats. Attached poster as requested.
Regards, David.

image2



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.24am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

yeah thats not what I was looking for at all. it looks like a movie and how come the photo of Missy is so small?

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.28am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

Dear Shannon,
It's a design thing. The cat is lost in the negative space.
Regards, David.


From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.33am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

Thats just stupid. Can you do it properly please? I am extremely emotional over this and was up all night in tears. you seem to think it is funny. Can you make the photo bigger please and fix the text and do it in colour please. Thanks.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.46am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

Dear Shannon,
Having worked with designers for a few years now, I would have assumed you understood, despite our vague suggestions otherwise, we do not welcome constructive criticism. I don't come downstairs and tell you how to send text messages, log onto Facebook and look out of the window. I have amended and attached the poster as per your instructions.
Regards, David.


image3



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 10.59am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

This is worse than the other one. can you make it so it shows the whole photo of Missy and delete the stupid text that says missing missy off it? I just want it to say Lost.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 11.14am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster


image4



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 11.21am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster

yeah can you do the poster or not? I just want a photo and the word lost and the telephone number and when and where she was lost and her name. Not like a movie poster or anything stupid. I have to leave early today. If it was your cat I would help you. Thanks.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 11.32am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Awww

Dear Shannon,
I don't have a cat. I once agreed to look after a friend's cat for a week but after he dropped it off at my apartment and explained the concept of kitty litter. I have attached the amended version of your poster as per your detailed instructions.
Regards, David.


image5



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 11.47am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Awww

Thats not my cat. where did you get that picture from? That cat is orange. I gave you a photo of my cat.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 11.58am
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Awww

I know, but that one is cute. As Missy has quite possibly met any one of several violent ends, it is possible you might get a better cat out of this. If anybody calls and says "I haven't seen your orange cat but I did find a black and white one with its hind legs run over by a car, do you want it?" you can politely decline and save yourself a costly veterinarian bill.
Regards, David.


From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.07pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Awww

Please just use the photo I gave you.
From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.22pm
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww


image6



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.34pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww

I didnt say there was a reward. I dont have $2000 dollars. What did you even put that there for? Apart from that it is perfect can you please remove the reward bit. Thanks Shan.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.42pm
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww


image7


From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww

Can you just please take the reward bit off altogether? I have to leave in ten minutes and I still have to make photocopies of it.


From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 12.56pm
To: Shannon Walkley
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww


image8



From: Shannon Walkley
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 1.03pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Awww

Fine. That will have to do.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Fly Like a Hummingbird Look Like a Bee

First of all - Brewers - HOW DO YOU LEAVE 17 GUYS ON BASE!!! What's the record anyway - has to be near it! COME ON MAN!!!

------------------------------------

So I mowed the lawn last night for what seemed to be the 15th time in the last 30 days. I like mowing the backyard because I walk past my gardens.


WAIT WAIT - I can hear the growns already. "man I am so sick of his stupid gardens".  you are saying. But wait there is more to this story.

So I get done mowing and now have my camera in my hand and am taking yet more redundant photos of the Cone Flowers and Coreopsis and even "I'm" getting bored but I keep thinking I might miss the PERFECT shot.

I look over at the 3 week ahead of schedule Butterfly Garden and I spot a humming bird.  COOL. So I walk over and my brain is thinking - this must be a baby hummingbird and as I get closer - HOLY SHIT!!  It's a huge freaking bee!!


I get closer and it's not humming like a bumble bee but it's hovering like a hummingbird! WTF? Plus it's not afraid of me (because it's a huge FREAKING BEE).


It's about 1.5 inches long.

There are many many other bumble bees along with many many Red Admiral butterfly's (perhaps 30?).So what do you do when you encounter a huge bumble bee?  You run to Facebook (which will not be around in 5 years as GoogleMe will squash Facebook . . . remember NOBODY said MySpace would go away . . .and remember NOBODY said Yahoo would take 2nd fiddle to Google).

So an actual friend on Facebook (not a vague friend) says ""Must have come in on an overseas shipping crate...wait until it eats the family pets...".  so I thought maybe I should go in and bring Milo out and show him.   But then I thought that since Milo figured out how to open doors (he did yesterday) he knows about the huge bee.

Yea - we come home yesterday and Milo and Sierra are dead asleep! Not the normal LET ME OUT LET ME OUT but             zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

DJ walks in to bedroom and there is the screen door, Milo width open.  I guess we know who was out catting around yesterday.  They failed to cover their tracks though and pretended nothing was up!

Well - back the the giant bee tiny hummingbird.  It is actually a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe).

Case Closed.


WAIT - Did I mention I took a couple photos of my Cone Flowers?



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Have a great weekend

Rod