- Your secret name is Robert Burns.
- The animal which symbolizes you is consumption.
- The color of your soul is early mid morning.
- The celebrity you most resemble is oblong.
- Your special pain or illness is cigarette smoke.
- Your most important time of day is James.
- The shape of your life is griffin.
- And the flavor which identifies you most is puce.
Archive for May, 2009
The Dada Server
Friday, May 29th, 2009Ouch
Monday, May 25th, 2009S o, a few days ago I bit my lip which made it swell, which made me bite it even more, which made me adjust to prevent, which made me bite the other side. Man, I hate when that happens.
They can put a man into space but…
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009With an unwanted off day Friday because thunderstorms prevented their scheduled landing, the astronauts intended to pass the time by watching movies they brought on the mission.
But when they tried to play them, they found out that their laptops didn’t have the proper software.
Hurricane Prep and <3 Amazon.com
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, there was a serious gas shortage and we had to spend several days on generator power. It got to the point where I needed to siphon gas from my truck. All I had was a short section of garden hose which did the job but not before I got a few mouthfuls of gasoline, which is no great thrill at any time, much less when water is in short supply and showers are a luxury.
I made it a point, after that storm, to keep a good supply of gasoline on hand during hurricane season by purchasing extra five gallon containers. This year I decided to buy a better length of siphon hose, just in case. I checked local prices and did a search online. I found just what I wanted at Amazon.com for one-third the price of everywhere else I looked and promptly put in an order for 25’ of 3/8” clear tubing for $4.67 plus $4.19 shipping to arrive May 15. Apparently the package got lost in Atlanta and I had to do a few pleasant exchanges with customer service at Amazon. The end result was that a new order for the tubing is on the way to me with overnight delivery via FedEx at no charge! That’s a $17 value for shipping for a $4.67 order. Nice. I hope it gets here.
I Faw Down an Go Boom
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009W
e have all heard or said at one “I fall down go boom!” I know I have but have never considered the origin of the phrase until I came across a drawing my grandmother did ca 1928. A quick Google search showed that the phrase comes from a song by Brockman & Stevens. Lyrics are HERE at Froggy’s Novelty Song Lyric Collection.
Heaven
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Now this is some really nice weather we are having!
So Blessed
Saturday, May 16th, 2009The woods at home have been quite entertaining lately. The other night we were visited by owls whose calls were so loud it sounded as if they were just outside the bedroom window. This morning, while walking down to get the newspaper, I heard Blue Jays fussing at something. I stood still and waited for just a sec before a hawk emerged from the trees followed by a wedge of at least eight jays chasing him. On the way back to the house I passed by a box turtle. I cut up a cantaloupe for breakfast and placed some of the scraps nearby for the turtle to enjoy a snack. Apparently he did. Scraps gone!
Silver Chest
Thursday, May 14th, 2009In the early 90’s I was commissioned to design a flatware chest with the only stipulations being that it hold twelve place settings and not look like a flatware chest. Other than that, I had complete design freedom. I made an outer case and then concealed a separate box with drawers within that case. The outer case of maple and mahogany features a skirt made from cherry wood I got from a tree that I cut down and let dry for several years. The lid is of maple but has a center section of cherry from that same tree. The inner case is also of maple and mahogany and has the only dovetail joint I’ve ever done.
Since I never worked from plans an integral part of the design process was to sit back and smoke a cigarette while contemplating my next move. Three months after completing this piece I quit smoking and lost all interest in woodworking.
Was Gravel
Monday, May 11th, 2009When I was young it was always a treat to visit my grandparents’ house on Spring Hill Avenue. One reason was the pea gravel driveway. It made such a nice crunchy sound and the little rocks were so fascinating.
In 1995 I decided to recreate that driveway here at home and bought several cubic yards of pea gravel which I leveled out using the box blade and a shovel. However, it seemed like every time one of us would walk in the house there would be a pea stuck in the tread of a shoe and it would make a horrible grating noise on the tile floor. I then decided to use all that gravel as a base for a brick patio.
I made several trips to a place nearby that sold clean sand and I hauled several pallets of bricks from a local stone dealer. The bricks are supposed to be salvaged from the infamous Chicago fire. I dunno. I used the sand, gravel, bricks and landscape timbers to create the patio which is now looking quite nice.
Easy Broiled Chicken
Monday, May 11th, 2009I
broiled chicken for tonight’s salad before 8 AM to avoid heating up the house too much later in the day. I’m no fan of raw chicken so what I do is:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Coat broiler rack and pan with cooking spray
- Place frozen chicken breasts on broiler rack
- Bake for 25 minutes
- Remove from oven and season with curry powder or poultry seasoning
- Set oven to broil
- Return chicken to oven and broil for 8 minutes.
I’ve been doing it this way for years. It works well.
For tonight’s salad I topped the breasts with lemon slices. We’ll see how that does.