This place is going to need the roof fixed, the ceilings and floors replaced, and probably new drywall throughout because of mold thanks to the leaky roof and the fact that it’s been sitting vacant for quite a while. My daughter has, of course, already decided that the shower in the master bathroom simply must have the faucets replaced with a Single Handle Brushed Nickel Bathroom Faucet she found on sale because, as she so eloquently puts it, “it’s Kewl”.

The one thing about this deal that makes me a little nervous is the fact that there is nothing written down that spells out exactly what will be expected of them and exactly what they can expect in return. I tend to believe that an oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Some call me a pessimist because I think like that. I prefer the term “realist”.

For the record, the answer, according to answers.com is “It is more dense than water, and [presumably] it is not shaped in such a way that all of its weight can be displaced before the stone submerges. “.

The only two drawbacks are that 1) I have two cords to plug in when I use the laptop now and 2) if I use the wrong outlet, the fan causes interference on the baby monitor that Mom uses to keep an ear on the living room and front door when she’s in the bedroom (particularly at night). It means I have to sit a the “play table” which is way too low for a full-grown person to sit at comfortably, but at least I can use the laptop again.

*GROWL*

The Food and Drug Administration has posted this warning about the counterfeit pills.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, you must first understand that my mother-in-law is one of those people who never throws anything away because it might come in handy … someday … eventually … maybe.

While helping her go through some stuff today I happened upon a bag of Tootsie-Roll Pops that I’m pretty sure is old enough to vote! All I know is that the wrappers are stuck to the candy and nothing short of a hammer and chisel will separate them.

A box on the bottom shelf in the bathroom closet contained, among other things, a bottle of phisoderm that my wife was using back in high school (did I mention that she graduated in 1985?)

I can’t wait to see what we turn up tomorrow.

I made this video to try to explain this device from a non-smoker’s point of view. Please bear in mind that I really don’t like being in front of a camera; I would much rather be the one TAKING the picture, so please be nice.

*This review is a result of a feedback campaign by PremiumCigarette.com The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product.*

To say, in a public forum, that anyone who disagrees with you doesn’t matter… For that matter, to say that another human being doesn’t matter, for whatever reason, is, in my not so humble opinion, beyond arrogant. I believe that God has a plan for this world and that everyone in it plays a small part in that plan. I don’t believe there is a person on earth who “doesn’t matter” in God’s eyes and I really feel sorry for anyone so full of themselves that they honestly feel they can decide what God did wrong.

At one point I heard him say something about having conjugated linoleic acid, so I can only assume he was talking about some foreign language class he’s taking.

So, how exactly do you tell someone to shut their bloody pie hole without being rude or offending them?

I’ll be frank: I have made no attempt whatsoever to verify any of these statements. With that said, here is a partial list. The full list is available at www.att.net

1. Domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and use them to find food.

2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.

3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia later in life.

4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.

5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.

6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.

7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the large plant-eating sauropods that walked on all four.

8. Women who have undergone successful breast cancer treatment are more likely to experience a recurrence if they have dense breast tissue.

9. Babies pick up their parents’ accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.

10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.

11. The oldest known silken spider webs, dating back 140 million years, were discovered in Sussex, England, preserved in amber. The webs were spun by spiders closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders.

12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.

13. Pumpkin skin contains a substance that inhibits growth of microbes that cause yeast infections.

14. Hormones that signal whether whales are pregnant, lactating or in the mood to mate have been extracted from whales’ lung mucus, captured by dangling nylon stockings from a pole over their blowholes as they surface to breathe. (This method could allow scientists to study whales without having to slaughter them.)

15. The higher a patient’s body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors.

I’ve wanted to do the same thing with DVD’s, for mostly the same reason; they generally cost more than I want to shell out for a replacement - especially if it’s a seven-disk set of a season’s worth of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve really wanted to copy the DVD’s to DVD-R disks and just use the backups, but there has always been one problem.

Dual Layer Disks.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have a disk that has four one-hour shows on it, but have you ever priced dual-layer DVD-r disks? Our local branch of America’s Largest Retailer doesn’t even have them for sale!

I did, however, recently come across an online store that has a 50-pack of 8x DVD-R Dual Layer disks for less than $30. That’s about $0.60 per disk. That’s the best price I’ve seen yet on those..

Apparently, it’s too much trouble to either turn the page over or click a “rotate” button if the office in question views faxes as .PDF files.

Rather than simply rotate the paper or image, they will send the originator of the upside down fax a notice that they need to resend the fax right-side up.

Doesn’t that sound like the U.S. Government in fine form?

My laptop still has a problem with overhearing. The little trick of duct taping a battery operated fan over the vent hole worked great … right up until the battery died. Since then I cannot seem to get the stupid thing to STAY in the correct position. I’ve got a small CPU fan that I could super-glue over the vent, but I need to find a 12 volt power supply for sale cheap that I could hack up to get the fan going.

What I’d really like to have is a brand new ASUS notebook computer. The one I’m drooling over this week runs at 2.26 Ghz and has 4 GB of memory.With something like that I wouldn’t be terribly opposed to just retiring Frankenstein.

Some “conveniences”, however, were not invented with convenience in mind. For example, have you looked around in the average public restroom lately? I understand that those hand dryers that blow hot air are supposed to be better because there’s less paper trash, less mess to clean up, and less chance for germs to spread, but what happens if you wash your face and discover you’ve got one of those driers that won’t direct air upward? Or, better yet, what if you only went into the restroom to grab a paper towel and blow your nose? No amount of hot air is gonna help you there.

My biggest gripe about what they’re doing to a lot of public restrooms is the faucets that automatically turn themselves on and off depending on weather you are triggering a motion detector. What’s wrong with me turning on my own water, to a temperature and pressure setting that will do some good instead of something that’s rather like holding your hands under a badly functioning lawn sprinkler?

They say there’s no rest for the weary. I agree.

When I called a medical supply house I was quoted a three hundred dollar price, but if I’d met my medicaid deductable it’d only be about a hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars.

At my wife’s suggestion I went to an online auction and sorted through listings for everything from sunglasses to equestrian apparel and found a pair of diabetic shoes in my size for less than sixty dollars. They even look decent.

Here are a few quotes of his, just for fun

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

Babies don’t need a vacation, but I still see them at the beach… it pisses me off! I’ll go over to a little baby and say ‘What are you doing here? You haven’t worked a day in your life!’

Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just whipped out a quarter?

Don’t you hate when your hand falls asleep and you know it will be up all night.

Ever notice how irons have a setting for permanent press? I don’t get it.

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.

For my birthday I got a humidifier and a basement dehumidifier… I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.

George is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge… you can’t hear him talk.

Hermits have no peer pressure.

How young can you die of old age?

I bought some batteries, but they weren’t included.

I bought some instant water one time but I didn’t know what to add to it.

I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.

I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.

I got a chain letter by fax. It’s very simple. You just fax a dollar bill to everybody on the list.

I got this powdered water - now I don’t know what to add.

click for full-size image

I was thinking about the problem I have with my laptop overheating all the time when my eyes fell upon this silly thing. It dawned on me that what I need is a way to force air through the air vent in the back of the laptop, because the cooling pad underneath just isn’t enough. I decided to duct-tape this guy in front of the vent and jam the button down with a toothpick. Here is my creation:

click for full-size image

I think I may be onto something here.According to a program I have which monitors CPU temperatures, my laptop shuts down at about 104 degrees Celsius. Generally, it has taken an average of about 15 minutes after bootup to hit that temperature. As I type this, the machine has been running for about 45 minutes and the CPU temperature is currently 84 degrees Celsius.

As an added benefit, Daughter Number Three took one look at my arrangement and proclaimed, “That’s SO Nerdy!”

1. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
2. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
3. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather.. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.
4. Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. “Yes” is the answer.
5. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on the list.
6. We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police.
7. Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship.
8. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
9. If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
10. Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
11. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
12. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
13. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
14. Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don’t have a good partner, you’d better have a good hand.
15. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
16. Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.
17. Children: You spend the first 2 years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut-up.
18. My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.
19. The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
20. Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

It has done everything I need, but it keeps occurring to me that this video card is now ten years old. That’s ancient in computer terms. On the one hand I keep thinking that something like a GeForce GT 220 Graphics Card would be able to handle all the demands of today’s software, bu on the other hand, something else in my head keeps saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

My current video card has something like 32 megabytes of memory. I can’t help but wonder how much of an improvement in system performance I’d see if I had a full gigabyte of video memory. Of course I also can’t help but wonder if the rest of the system is even up-to-date enough to handle such a video card.

The debate hasn’t been settled for sure just yet. On the one hand, we don’t watch enough television (and wouldn’t with dish network available) to justify about fifty bucks a month, but on the other hand, nobody here has got the three to five hundred bucks that it might cost to repair whatever has happened to the roof antenna. All I know is that I’m not going up on the roof for anything.

I was thinking just now that it might be interesting to try this USB TV Tuner and see if it’s possible to get the “local” (90 miles away) television station with it. The USB TV Tuner pictured here is on sale for about what one month of Dish Network would cost. It’s actually a very tempting idea.

There is a part of the song that says

They're prob'ly drinking coffee
and smoking big cigars"

but, because of a mistake my younger sister made one time when she was 10 and singing this song, I, without thinking about it, always sing

They're prob'ly smoking coffee
and drinking big cigars”


I got the strangest look from my daughter and didn’t even realize why at first.

Can you imagine trying to get a life insurance quote and then explaining to the agent that the police were authorized to shoot you in the leg because you were being so stupid?

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that that was twenty-five years ago.

Where does the time go?