Monday, August 02, 2010
Murray is gone and the wave of grief is pounding me now since the service ended and I returned back to the tri-state from western NY. I'd like to say that I'll be posting some great stuff soon but I think it'll be a while before I can post his work for others dispassionately.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010
So I forgot to renew my domain registration...obviously the site is back up. Tuzik is doing well and is ~45 pounds now. When I get some time I'll type up an update on my paralyzed hand. In short I should get all movement back but it could take months and possibly years.

Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuzik is beginning another growth spurt. Two days ago he couldn't go down the stairs on the deck. Today he bounded down them at full speed.
Growth Charting
6 weeks ago
two days ago

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I'm back home now after my trip to Philly to have my old buddy, now dentist, give my teeth the attention they deserve. Tuzik has nearly trippled his weight in 23 days. He now rests at 20 pounds.

Friday, May 07, 2010
Lil' Tuzik is settling in nicely. He and Laika are now playing a lot and she tires him out which is a good thing. He's growing like a weed. I got him just two weeks ago at 7.5 pounds....he's at 14.6 now. Potty training is going well. He has managed to hold it the last three days for when I get home and when we get up in the morning. I hadn't expected this type of control would come for months. He still 'mouths' everything including me and I haven't been able to curb that yet. I need that to stop soon because it won't be long before that does real damage. Here's some new charting of his growth. I need to clean this up a bit but here's the quick and dirty version.

Friday, April 23, 2010
The little baby is now home safe and sound. Soooooo tiny and cute. Need to take him to the pet store tomorrow to get him a collar and some chew toys.

Sunday, April 18, 2010
Five days to go before the new baby arrives! I'll post pics as soon as I can.

Thursday, April 08, 2010
The new puppy arrives in about ten days. I'm really excited. Laika doesn't know what's up yet but I think she senses that things are about to change. I've been re-arranging the house all week in preparation.

Monday, April 05, 2010
Long time no update. Just got back from Batavia. Had a great time with the Morrow clan again. We got our travel arrangements squared away for the trip to Avon as well I learned more info on the missionary trip to Honduras in November. Both trips will be weeks full of adventure and fun.

Opening day was last night. The Bombers lost but it's early. I'm very thankful that it's pinstripes season again finally.

In home news, my application for a new puppy to keep Laika happy has been approved. I'm just waiting on a shipping date for him. It'll be a big adjustment for mom on trips home but I'm sure if I handle it right she'll come around when it's full grown.

Sunday, March 14, 2010
Exciting news this time -- I got us a boat for the beach trip. We're going out to the Gulf Stream for the first time to catch some of the big fish. I've chartered us a full day of fishing that Wednesday on the Godspeed. It's a perfect fit for this group of guys. http://www.godspeedcharters.com/Godspeed/. We'll be in Avon from July 17 through the 24th. If anyone else is going to be in the banks, let me know.

Sunday, March 07, 2010
WOOT! My cousin Jess and her husband Phil invited me to go on vacation with them this summer mid-July. Of all the places they could have picked, they picked my favorite beach -- the outer banks of North Carolina. We've got a beautiful place in Avon for a week. I'm so psyched to get back to my second home again for the first time in nearly 15 years.

In other news, I have my orientation meeting to coach a local kids soccer team next Thursday. That should be quite the experience.

Oh, also, I haven't mentioned it yet but I'm going to Honduras with Phil and Jess in November to do missionary work. We'll be visiting villages and distributing food, clothing and medicine.

Monday, March 01, 2010
I'm approaching the completion of week two with the cpap a-flex machine and mask. So far things have been better even though i wake up with it off of my face. I've been able to sleep through the nights and not have my throat and palette rubbed completely raw. The humidifier in it has been wonderful. Now that the body is catching up on years of lost sleep I find that I want to be in bed all day.

Thursday, February 18, 2010
After the first night with the cpap, I finally slept through an entire night for the first time in a long, long time. As awkward as it is, this may be a win long-term.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I picked up my cpap today. Looks like I got the Cadillac of cpap machines. The thing has humidifier and is absolutely silent. I'm actually kinda looking forward to my first night with it after how bad the last couple years have been and in particular, the last month or two. Granted I won't exactly be breaking this thing out on first date stay-overs but if it works I'll be truly thankful.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
I got the call today. I'm going to pick up my cpap machine next wednesday. On a bad note, my mail box has decided to give up the ghost and rust through completely. It's now just resting on the pole and isn't attached to it in any way. I really wasn't expecting to have to do any mailbox maintainence this weekend.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Nose pillows...euphemism of the year award winner for that one. So I had my hospital visit today and tried out the nose pillow mask. It's the most comfortable of all the options and I should be getting my cpap machine this week. The phrase nose pillows aside, it really isn't too bad compared to the other ones. Hopefully this is the answer for getting my brain the rest it needs.

Sunday, February 07, 2010
I've got an appt. with the respiratory therapist Tuesday. Apparently, I HAVE to get the stupid mask and machine before they can switch me over to the mouthpiece.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Well, another episode last night. Woke up on the floor of my laundry room ie. the freezing basement. My palatte is completely raw from snoring so much so that I've thrown up twice today from gag reflex. I guess I decided to do laundry in my sleep. That's a new one. Lord knows what else I did. Stayed home today. Going up to the hospital to meet with the doctor again about the cpap test and moving on to the mouthpiece asap. Living like this sucks.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Monday, January 04, 2010
I'm back from attending Lacey's wedding in Batavia. It was a great time for all of us in the fam and one of the best I've had in many years of going to the homeland. Thursday I go back to the hospital for another sleep over study only this time I'll have the CPAP attached. Sounds like a big bag of no fun to be honest.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
For those of you keeping score, here's the email I sent out today to the folks in the office and those not on FB. so here's the mass email update on the hospital visit. i'm going back on the night of the 22nd for the sleep study. they're going to wire me up to all kinds of monitoring devices -- brainwaves, heart rate, breathing, oxygen level, and so on. after that i have a follow-up on the 6th. as far as the eval went, apparently i'm not going batshit crazy. everything is in-line with sleep apnea. this along with the occassional GERD symptom nights creates the main side affect of which is what he kept calling 'pressured sleep' ie. the body knows it's tired and tries to force me to sleep all the time. in turn that causes the side-effect of sleep talk and walking, irritability, memory loss, confusion. the doc wants to see if we can verify the apnea and then knock that out to stop the chain. and he did say that all the walking was nothing he hasn't heard before and that driving isn't out of the realm of possibility. in the end, if you've run into me in the hall, asked how i was, and i responded 'tired' we now know why. or at least, very likely why. yup, i'm exhausted all the time. on one of the numerical score questions in the paperwork, i scored a 14 when anything approaching ten indicates a constant state of sleep deprivation. he wants to try to fix the problem with any method other than the last resort of benzoblahblahiates (valium et al). in the end, the real loser is of course, poor poor laikababy who will have to go an entire night without me! :P

Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Definitely a weird week so far. I had to do delete about 2/3 of the people in my facebook friends list that I rarely see or hear from so I could get all of the relevant posts from those that I do hear from. There have been hurt feelings from this action but I really intended no harm. Maybe that will lessen over time.[facebook seems to have a limit on how many people it will post updates for in your list...trying to figure out what the story is]

In light of a recent hit on the site, I have to admit that I'm missing the daily chats I had with someone special. Not sure why she's checking things out but I miss the nightly chats nonetheless.

Sunday, December 06, 2009
Just sent off an email to an old friend for some help in getting me in contact with someone in Hollywood. Hopefully he won't blow it off but I can't really blame him if he does. Now I wait. . .

Thursday, December 03, 2009
I've got my appointment with Danbury Hospital set now for the 15th. Work has been moving along nicely. I finished some code today that will make the rest of my project pretty much a cakewalk. I'm watching the Yankeeography on The Boss...really interesting.

Saturday, November 28, 2009
I'm back from Vienna, VA. Spent a good while with the old people on Thanksgiving and then had fun meeting up with a friend I haven't seen in 20 years. She and I have been through very similar experiences in the last few years. It was so comforting to find that at least one other person gets what I've been dealing with without having to say much.

Later this coming week I'm headed to Danbury Hospital's Sleep Disorder department for testing of some sort for my increasingly bad sleepwalking. Hopefully they'll be able to help.

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Well the Stacey date didn't go very well on my end or hers. Moving on...Saturday/Sunday I'm headed to Philly to watch an old friend run the marathon.

Friday, November 06, 2009
Tomorrow I'm headed to Hartford to see my first heavyweight fight with a friend from work and his buddy. You can watch the bout on HBO Boxing After Dark for free. Let's Get Ready to RUMBLEEEEEEEEEE!!! Sunday I'm headed down to Stamford to meet Stacey. Hopefully that goes well.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Monday, November 02, 2009
BAH! we're headed back to the bronx. . .

Sunday, November 01, 2009
27 outs to go

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009
7 down, 4 to go

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009
Just got back from the Bronx around 3:30am. Took my cousin Jason to his first game at either Yankee Stadium and it turned out to be a dandy. Until tonight, all Yankees games he'd seen were road games in the vicinity of Buffalo. So, his first game in the Bronx was a walk off in the bottom of the 13th of the American League Championship Series. We had a great time and the weather gods were kind to us. It was supposed to rain and shower all day but we didn't get any rain at all until about the 9th and it ended around the 11th inning. It was chilly but not brutally cold. My cousin got to see the museum, monument park, the roll call, and a hell of a lot of good, great, and terrible baseball all in one night.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Nothing on tv today other than Young Guns. Haven't seen this in years. Weird.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Today's Word of the Day: Really?!? really

Also, honey extraction went well this weekend. The girls managed to deliver 22 bottles that I'll be giving out at work, to fam & friends. You can see some quick pics here: honey

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
My honey extractor setup is on its way finally. By visual estimate I'm going to say I have about 20-30 pounds worth this year which is pretty good considering how bad this summer has been weather-wise. If you want a jar of bottled honey let me know.

Friday, September 11, 2009
2722 & 2723 woot! just got back from the game at 1:25 after leaving as the end o' top of the 5th made it an official game. got home in time to see the last 4 outs after the game went into rain delay again while i was on the train. the place went nuts in the 3rd with jeter's first hit & then later got to meet up with my friends from work for a little bit before taking off. also met some great guys from NY.

Long before the game started I set up camp near first base. As the rain delay dragged on there were a few guys that also joined in. Eventually one asked me about how to set up his camera to get a good shot. I did my best to help out and long story short, had a great time chatting with him and then eventually his son who also happens to be a law man.

I don't know if i bored them with camera minutia or not but we talked photography and yankees. Good stuff. I knew when Jeter came up to bat everyone would stand up and block our view/shots which did indeed happen. However, to our right was a platform set up for the press photogs that was empty. Ushers had been shewing people out of standing on it for a while but when Jeter took to the plate, an NYC officer showed up. A flash of the badge by my new fellow fans and we were up on it. Jetes didn't get the hit in the first inning but he did in the third and we were up on the platform to get the pics. I think my new fan buddy got a better pic than i did as he got the ball in the shot...all i got was the swing. My fail is further compounded by the fact that at a point before his at-bat in the first, I turned off auto-focus. fortunately, i had it set ideally for first base. I got the shots although they weren't ideal.

In the end, it was a great night. We all got to see some really great baseball history. Rain? No one seemed to care. There were 46 thousand on hand to see Jeter take the next step.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Tonight I got to take an old friend whom I haven't seen in 20 years to a Yankees game. We had a good time although most of the entertainment was provided by the people who sat around us rather than the blowout win of a game.

Monday, August 10, 2009
The Jess and Phil clan made their way to the city today so they could take their daughter to see some colleges. FINALLY, one of my western NY relatives took me up on my offer for a date at Yankee Stadium. It was hot and we lost but it was great to see them and spend some time in my backyard so to speak. Writing this post weeks after it happened...I still owe them some pictures.

Sunday, July 12, 2009
I'm back home again after a 24-hour "down & back" to DC. I took a friend to see the Elton John/Billy Joel Face 2 Face show at the Nationals' stadium. We didn't know that Metro was doing 'scheduled track maintainence' and thus saw our generous hour and half lead time reduced to barely making the show. We got to the stadium right at 8 on the dot but the old farts on stage started early for once. Speaking of old farts, that was easily the oldest crowd for a rock concert I've ever seen. No, it's not Metallica but still, Joel at least was/is considered 'rock'. Overall, I'd give the show a mixed review. Billy Joel was awesome and now I know how he's become such a tri-state legend. The guy makes his recorded songs sound exactly as they should live even 30 years after they were recorded. On the other hand, it's clear that Elton John has lost some of his voice (or he's protecting it). He simply didn't even attempt any high or sustained notes and instead pushed out deeper 'angrier' sounding words in songs like "Daniel" which should have flowed. Another negative was that we seemed to be getting the "director's cut, extended version" of every one of the first 7 or 8 songs in his set. I'm sorry, Rocket Man doesn't need to be ten minutes long...no I'm not kidding. It was that long. So, Elton was a bit of a disappointment but it was still good to see him once. On the plus side, Benny and the Jets was fantastic live and his band did it really well. I'll see if i can do this in words...ya know how it starts out "bump bump bump ding dong dun dun bump bump hey kids blah blah blah" Well, the perfect silence in between the bumps was an awesome effect that I'm guessing only shows up when you have a concert sized sound system. It sure doesn't come across on the radio quite as powerfully. There was a lot more weirdness on the Elton side but i'll save that for later. I'll leave this post by saying that Billy Joel is the real deal. Would I see Elton again? Probably not. Still like his stuff but I've seen enough live to last me. Would I see Joel solo? In a heartbeat.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Long time no post. I've spent the last few weeks working on my photo album administration app and am almost finished. This Saturday I'll be headin' home to take a friend to the Elton John/Billy Joel show at the Nat's park. We've got some great seats down in the section right in front of the stage. I can't say I'm a huge fan of either guy but it'll be nice to see them do their hits live one time. In August I'm taking my cousin and her fam to the big ballpark in the Bronx which should be a good time outside of Batavia, a first. My items (gifts for others) from the old Yankee Stadium have arrived. Now I just need to figure out when I'm gonna head over to Western NY.

Sunday, June 14, 2009
Pics from the Nats game are now up on the photos page. Just viewing them makes me want to go back to a game there. . .what a good time.

Friday, June 12, 2009
Okay, so I still haven't posted the pics yet. I'm going to work all day tomorrow on them and get them up. It's been a week now and I have a strange hankerin' to catch another Nats game. I'm guessing my company had a large part to do with it. This week was a welcome relief. Work was good, the personal stuff has worked out well and the pain has subsided nicely. It's gonna be grass cuttin' time tomorrow...ugh. At least this will give me a chance to get better pics of the babies in the yard a little easier. Next weekend I'm hoping to get together with Steph for a mini Delaware reunion. We've tried to plan this for quite some time but the timing hasn't worked out.

Sunday, June 07, 2009
I'm back home again. The game this weekend was awesome. I'll be posting all the pics tomorrow or the next day.

Thursday, June 04, 2009
Good times. These last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. I'm really looking forward to the Nats/Mets game this weekend. We'll be 5 rows back from the Nats dugout. If anyone is up for chili cheese dogs early saturday afternoon please let me know. I always try to hit the VI on my trips down to NOVA.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
It's a lovely Memorial Weekend up here in CT. Still haven't had to put in the A/C units yet this season although I think that day will arrive soon. The Yankees have been playing great for a while now and had another come from behind thriller yesterday afternoon. We'll see how today's 1:05 first pitch goes. This morning I watched Atlantis return home successfully on NASA TV. Good stuff. They did a great job updating Hubble. Glad to see them come home in one piece after the debris problem happened again during launch.

no-coke update: 4 weeks, 12 pounds. 12 more to go before i'm at what i should be. water still sucks :P

Sunday, May 10, 2009
The bees are now in their new homes. I managed to get them hived during some good weather yesterday. My buddy up the street, Ken, and his two year old son were able to come and watch for a bit. I did have to cancel the bee party because of the weather forecasts for yesterday but at least one person was able to come see how hiving happens. Amid all these down days at work and on the personal side, seeing the bees doing their thing was a welcome ray of sunshine.

Next weekend i have to do the grunt work of getting the garden tilled and planted. That's going to be a big bag of not much fun but the rewards in about 8 weeks will be worth the effort.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The bees arrive this weekend finally. I've got a handful coming out to see how hiving them happens. I'm going to take Friday off so i can attempt to clean up this mess of a yard I have right now after all the rain we've had. It's a jungle! Next Saturday is Yankees' cap day :) That should be fun.

Sunday, May 03, 2009
Whew! What an awesome sports weekend. It's raining up here now and has been all day. Yankees game was cancelled for this afternoon. The finale last night after caps hockey, yankees baseball, the kentucky derby, and game 7 of the celtics-bulls series was the ppv fight which, while short, was thrilling. The pacman completely out-classed ricky hatton. It was amazing in its certainty.

Thursday, April 30, 2009
Slow week for news so far. I'm happy that the Yankees and Caps finally turned things around for the moment. I did manage to score a bleacher ticket to cap day down at the stadium for twenty-five clams (a bargain). I get to see another game for cheap, take some more pics with the telephoto lens, and have that cheese steak that i skipped on opening day.

Monday, April 27, 2009
I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. I got the garden all cleaned up and ready to go except for the tilling. Laika got so much time outside that she even got bored with it and just napped next to me. The bees were pushed back, again, but that isn't a totally bad thing. Grampa Morrow has been selected for an honor flight and will be arriving in Vienna this coming weekend. Now I get to join them on the monuments tour.

Friday, April 24, 2009
I can't wait for the weather tomorrow. It's going to be gardening day. I have to get the garden cleaned up and ready for planting and also get the shed garden plowed so I can dump a whole bunch of wildflower seeds into it. Tonight it's the first Yankees v Red Sox series of the new season. Good fun.

Monday, April 20, 2009
I'm on day 10 without soda now. Headaches are gone but I'm hungry all the time without all that sugar and the calories that come with it. I've been eating a lot of crackers to fill up some space. I'm really sick to death of drinking boring ole water though. blaaaaaaand.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
I'm back from the Bronx. The pics are posted here.

Laikababy is out of the woods now. We had to make an emergency trip to the vet this morning after she started horking up blood and had difficulty breathing after her morning walk. They removed bone fragments from her esophagus and put her on a diet of soft food for the next few days. Unfortunately, I missed my friend's wedding down in the Bronx today as a result. I was really looking forward to this because I'd finally get to meet his wife and friends outside of work. I'll have to come up with some way to make it up to him because not only didn't I show but he was expecting my extra camera for the honeymoon trip :( I get the big fail of the day.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
thank god it's friday! er, wednesday with no work after today this week. yankees home opener in the new ballpark is tomorrow. i can't wait. the game is a day game so i should get home in time to post up some pics by the end of the day.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
day five. thought i'd feel progressively better. i don't.

Monday, April 13, 2009
day four with no coca-cola. feels like someone is sitting on my head.

had to turn off the yankees game early. we are not pitching well so far. i hope we at least get a decent start on thursday.

Sunday, April 12, 2009
Cleaning continues with additional fervor. I'm excited about the coming week. It's going to be a three-day work week for me which is awesome all by itself. Opening day at Yankee Stadium is Thursday at 1:05 and Saturday I have Charlie's wedding to attend. I'd hoped to take a friend along to this earlier in the year (that fell through in spectacular fashion) but with the folks I met last night I'm sure it'll be a good time regardless.

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Just got back from Charlie's bachelor party. It was a good casual affair down in Norwalk. The gang continued on to a pool hall but I had to head on back. I was too tired to keep going and the hour+ drive at night was not going to be a good thing. It was foggy as hell on the way home. I know back home we had fog hear and there but up here in CT, fog is the norm anytime we have rain. It gets thick for so long that you have to slow down to a crawl because you can't see more than a few feet in front of you.

Friday, April 10, 2009
whew...i'm pooped. i think it's nap time. nice weather today so far but it's supposed to rain in a couple hours. i found a fence maker today and requested a quote on a remote controlled gate for the driveway. i suspect it will be out of my range for the moment but at least i'll have an idea of what to expect. moreover, i'll probably have to wait on the gate anyway until i can also afford the heated driveway so that they can be put in together.

**update**
i've added the contact me page to the site. please feel free to shoot me a line/comment/whatever whenever you like. the only required field is the message so you don't have to worry about what i might do with email addresses (ie. sell them like a lot of punks do).

Thursday, April 09, 2009
woot!! good friday = three day weekend with nothing to do :) i think little laika and i will be driving around friday and shooting pics of the birds at the reservoir. i also want to swing by DAWS to check out 'Sandy'. laika seems to need a friend i think and sandy seems to need a home. we'll see. there must be a reason she's been at daws for so long but i'd like to see what she's like at any rate.

The house is almost ready for visitors finally. I suppose I should take better care of it but when there's no one other than me to see it I kinda don't see the point.

I'll be adding a 'contact me' type of page in the next day or two so you can comment on my comments [your responses won't be posted for all to see].

Wednesday, April 08, 2009
And, to no one's surprise, the lady huskies beat the snot out of the competition once again to complete a perfect undefeated season.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Last night I began attempting to teach Laikababy some new commands. The session ended with mixed results. She's got 'stay', 'sit', 'lie down', and 'come here' memorized but when i give her a 'come' and then a 'sit' before she gets to me she gets confused. When that happens she ignores the words and only seems to respond to the strength and tone of my voice. I also tried to teach her to jump up and grab something out of my hand without jumping on me first. That didn't go very well. That one is gonna take some time I think.

I posted this a couple years ago but I'll post it again. I wanted to hear the songs again so I hit youtube and ran across the vid again. Click to watch

Monday, April 06, 2009
That was not a basketball game tonight. It was a thrashin'.

Sunday, April 05, 2009
Today I slept in a bit longer than usual. I did wake at 5 but I stayed down until about 9ish or so. After a while I got up and began housecleaning in earnest. There's only a few weeks left now until the bees arrive. Can't have my place looking like a pig sty when the guests arrive. It's scary now seeing how much work I have ahead of me before the house is presentable. Not to mention, I still have to clean up the garden and get it ready for planting.

Watching a movie now and heard a great quote: "There are no 'versions' of the truth".

Saturday, April 04, 2009
Today I drove over to New Salem, NY to drop off my check with Guy Hodges (no relation that we're aware of) for the bees. I brought my GPS but with the puppy in the front seat I didn't have it up from the start. Well, of course, I made a wrong turn and after about ten minutes I decided that I was indeed lost. I checked the GPS and I was hell and gone from where I should have been. No worries, I just made a big loop around the area and hit my target from the west instead of the east. As it turned out, this was a wonderful mistake.

About halfway to the nursery, on a 45mph road, i managed to spot something in a tree that I'd never seen before. With the leaves off of the tress I must say that one skill that I do have is spotting wildlife at fifty miles per hour. After jamming on the brakes and turning around, I was able to confirm that I did indeed spot a male Belted Kingfisher. The road wasn't heavily travelled so I was able to do a few drive-bys and a pull-over just look at it. My only regret is that I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

Time to watch the final 4 showdowns!

Friday, April 03, 2009
okay, i'm a sucker for advertising. what can i say? i watched the whole hour-long pre-game show for tonight's first exhibition game at the new stadium. i knew in 5 minutes that i just have to go for opening day. so i stub hubbed a ticket for the bleachers in the bleacher creature section. yes, it was 20x the face value but i figured what the hell. i still haven't made a glutonous purchase with my tax refund money so this will count as the one. i was already taking the 17th off since mike and melissa will be out of the office. now i'll just turn it into a 4-day weekend. the game is first pitch 1:05. and, how many times do you get to attend a one-time event :)

the stadium is AMAZING. good lord these guys have it good. they have turned a simple baseball game at a big arena into a destination all by itself. the restaurants are incredible, the views are incredible, oh, and then there's a little ballgame going on too. the building is both a nod to the past and an embrace of the future.

lastly, i'm sorry, fans in other cities can call their players who leave for the yankees sellouts but noone in their right mind would ever turn down yankee money and yankee stadium amenities. the guys have computers and internet access in their lockers!

Thursday, April 02, 2009
Amazing weather up here today. It's 63 degrees now at 4:30. I was locked up inside all day though so I didn't get to take full advantange of it. Windows are full open. I had to stay home today to fix a water situation. I think I can sum this up in a couple bullet points:

• When drawing a bath at night, do not get side-tracked by fark articles up in the attic and fall asleep in your chair
• Home builders: do NOT make the lowest point in the bathroom, the in-floor heating vent
• Further, when installing a shower, make sure the overflow drain operates properly
• The inventor of Shop-Vac should be nominated for a Congressional Humanitarian Award

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I've begun setting up the photos section finally. There are 5 "albums" up there now. I've created the backend to be as simple as possible so that I can add more quickly rather than having to create some elaborate photo album viewer that doesn't fit all circumstances.

Monday, March 30, 2009
HAILSTORM!! okay, so it wasn't a big one but we did get some decently sized hail. first time i've seen it up here. i let laika off the leash thinking she'd do her business and run back inside instead of running around getting soaked. nah, she heard a noise or saw something and immediately took off around the front of the house. i chased her down...won't be making that mistake again.

Sunday, March 29, 2009
It's been a couple weeks but I now have my site up on a new box running .Net 3.5. This is a great thing for me because it's how we do things at work. Now I can actually put some real effort into these pages and make a real photo album instead of having to rely on premade ones. I also now have this main page stored in the database rather than just hard coded into the page. I created an admin page so that I can update it without having to ftp new files to the server. Overall I still have a lot of work to do here but it's back up, and while looking much the same as before, the back end has been completely re-worked.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
it's about that time again.the bees will be arriving saturday april 25th.if you are interested in coming to the house to watch the hiving and then maybe hang out for some food on the grill, shoot me an email and let me know you're coming.i'll do the hiving between noon and 2pm.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
for the last two days morning noon and night i've spent in front of the screen trying to figure out how to solve a tooltip problem in my project at work.i think tomorrow night will be 'sit around and do nothing but watch tv' night.

Monday, March 09, 2009
wow what a weekend! 63 degrees felt like summer in the sahara. i had the windows open from friday night til sunday night. laika the pup really enjoyed all the time outside. it looks like we've got a few more cold days left but spring is definitely in the offing. it was nice to once again drive home in the daylight tonight. yankee baseball is so close now that i can taste the hebrew nationals. i can't wait for us to get to a game in the new stadium. from all reports, the cathedral is now a palace :)
on sunday i cleaned out the hives. poor little girls appear to have not run out of food but rather frozen to death. in both hives they were still in their cluster ball with food all around them. i found one of the queens...and then dropped and lost her in the grass when a big gust of wind hit. guess i'll have to wait on my display queen for presentations :( in two weeks i'll be bringing in some hive frames to assist in a beekeeping presentation hosted by the local bird store. a local family will be doing most of the presentation and i'm bringing along my frames and other assorted gear for people to see. margaret and phil from the bird store have been great so this is my chance to give something in return. i hope to post some pics of the event afterwards.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Happy Square Root Day

Not much to report lately. Winter continues to drag on and we got another batch of snow yesterday. Last week was nature's cruel spring tease with temps in the 50's. Today, it was 6 degrees w/wind chill of -4. Laika is also not happy about this latest turn. Today on her morning walk she gave up after about 5 minutes and sat down in the snow with her back feet sticking up in the air. It was funny but also kinda pathetic. She ran straight for the door after I put the leash back on. I started to plan a trip to the Derby this year but I really should have started planning last year. I can buy the tickets as my one-time tax season indulgence but the only rooms left anywhere near the track or in the Louisville city area are either 400 dollar Econo Lodges or too good to be true flea bag inns that sound sketchy as hell. I'll hold out until next year instead. I have no problem paying 1000 clams for a real hotel for us but 400 for a 100 dollar/night place offends my sense of fair play. I'll have to think about another short trip to take before summer hits. I'm thinking it's either Alaska or Bay of Fundy time. I think the Bay will be the one. I can drive there and rooms can't be that much. Plus, I'd get to take a hydrofoil which is always fun.

Monday, February 23, 2009
woot! i love tax time and the ability to pick up my middle class welfare! gotta love the mortgage interest deduction.

Sunday, February 01, 2009
Eagle viewing trip

Thursday, January 29, 2009
just sent in my request to the grucci family fireworks company down in long island to attend their training seminar in april. the only bad part (kinda) is that they added a requirement that wasn't there last year in which you need to be available to work july 4th. i really just want to go for the experience rather than do it as a part time job. hopefully they'll let me come anyway. for those that don't know, they are the folks who did the opening ceremonies of the beijing olympics. yes, china had an american company do the olympic fireworks. they also did the fireworks for lake placid, los angeles, and salt lake city as well as the last seven inaugurations.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
this week is shaping up nicely. mel and i are on the right path with my new project, eagle viewing on sunday morning and the super bowl on sunday night. that sounds like a good day to me. i am kinda disappointed with scheduling this year though. i've been trying to get to punxatauny for groundhog day for the last few years and this year it happens to be the day after the super bowl so it'll have to wait one more year again. sure it's silly but they really do it up so i figure i might as well check it out one time. sounds like a goofy fun time.

Monday, January 26, 2009
my step-cousin on secret service detail. he's the one in the red tie. he's three or four years younger than me...apparently the stress of the job makes him appear about 10 years older.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
looking forward to a weekend with nothing to do. it's supposed to warm up here finally which hopefully will melt all this white stuff that's been on the ground for the last month. other than getting my headlight replaced i think i'll be spending my time doing a big ole sack of nothing.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
here are the pics and a small narative of my inaugural experience. The Inauguration

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
i'm pooped. 6.5 miles of walking with my two friends. there was an early 'down' but the rest of the day was filled with ups. right before we left, we got the reward we'd hoped for. more to come tomorrow when i get home and can write more and post pics.

Saturday, January 17, 2009
sweet! just made reservations with the birding group to go shoot bald eagles on feb 1.

Saturday, January 17, 2009
it's -9 with a wind chill of -20. not fun. pipes froze already and i'm really low on oil. guess i shoulda paid better attention to when my contract ended from last year. now i can't leave for the inaugural until i get those two issues resolved.

Monday, January 12, 2009
woot!

Saturday, January 10, 2009
after not having a normal night's sleep since tuesday i think i've finally broken the fever. still not 100% but at least the chills are gone. on a brighter note, i got a ticket to the inaugural parade yesterday when they went on sale at 1:00pm. my section is "gray b" although i don't know where that is yet.

Thursday, January 08, 2009
102.1......being sick sucks. so weak i can barely get upstairs.

Monday, January 05, 2009
i wish i'd gotten to see this as it happened but the forensic evidence reveals enough of the story to visualize it in my head. check out the pics

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
new years eve + 4" snow = traffic win. for once i'm glad i'll be home alone rather than out at a party on the eve. i can only imagine how many cars will be wrapped around trees by morning. i do however feel like i should get out tomorrow at some point for a little while. laika is getting too used to me being home so much.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
i'm back home in CT now. while in vienna, va i did get a chance to eat some VI chili cheese dogs, visit with some old friends and see the new exhibits at the smithonian and have a nice late lunch at the old ebbitt grill. it's been a long time since i was at the grill. it was great to be there again. i also shot this pic of our national embarassment aka. the national xmas tree. what a tacky tree. anyway, with the new year fast approaching, all i can hope for is that the coming year will be better and more concrete than the last few.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Tuesday, December 02, 2008
a tune i heard about a year ago. it makes me think of motley crue paired with the Emo of today -- Miss Murder by AFI....love the emohair.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Sunday, November 30, 2008
another lazy day here at the house. these four days have been a nice break. i think laikababy is the biggest fan of these long weekends. it's gonna be weird going back to the office tomorrow with all the people there since i've basically talked to no one other than the checkout girl at the grocery store since wednesday. anyway, i spent most of the day cleaning the house finally. the pig sty is now no longer a sty but more of just a general mess. everytime i do this i swear i'm not going to just take the day's mail and leave it on my countertop...yet, i always do. one of these days i'll figure it out ;)

Thursday, November 27, 2008
since i was here at home alone for my birthday/thanksgiving, i decided with the weather being perfect (considering how bad it CAN be) it was the perfect time to go see the parade for the first time since i moved here. it was pretty cool but the crowd was the largest they've had in years so i didn't really get the feeling that i was At The Parade. I'll have to go again another year and get there early to get a curbside seat. Here are the pics: 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Monday, November 24, 2008
i posted last night too quickly. on the way down i stopped in philly for what was supposed to be one of many visits. i ended up spending about 4 hours with monica. mon and i met at delaware the first semester but didn't get to know each other well until the 2nd semester. after that year i hadn't spoken to her in 18 years. well, we found each other online and have been emailing back and forth for the last month or so. it's been great fun catching up. she has a great place north of philly that's pretty easy for me to get to. i skipped the others last time so i promised i'd stop and see them first at christmas time and catch mon on the way back up. here's a pic of me and mon from back in the old days: Monica. she hates her hair while i miss mine ;)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

this weekend was quite the experience. i had intended to meet 5 of my old friends but was so blown away from my first meeting with one of them that i kinda had a brain fart and ended up not meeting the rest of them. in retrospect it's a good thing i didn't stop to see veronica. i ran into blizzard whiteout conditions south of philly all the way through northern maryland. i'll have to stop by and see the others on the christmas run. crabs were awesome. i even managed to throw down some chili cheese dawgs from the vienna inn while i was there. it was a gastronomic WIN of a weekend. i'm now left with a longing for more dawgs and crabs...neither of which i can get here at home.

Thursday, November 20, 2008
woot! a day off from the office tomorrow. cheesesteakland here i come. monica said it's her italian duty to feed me when i get there so for once i'll eat halfway through my drive down. hopefully that doesn't put me into foodcoma. i'm really looking forward to seeing a lot of my old friends not to mention a decent crab feast with the old people, neighbors and andrea. good times. hopefully the snow will stay away and let me do the drive unmolested.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
vid

Sunday, November 16, 2008
well it appears that i am indeed as much of an idiot as i thougt when it comes to car maintainence. i don't need new tires at all. my tires just suck for anything but dry roads. as a result, i've amended my list of traits my next partner needs to possess to include mastery of cars. i suspect those types are few and far between.

Friday, November 14, 2008
looks like we're in for another crappy rainy weekend up here. hopefully it'll clear up by next weekend for those few days. next friday i'm heading home to have crabs with the parents and neighbors. before i get there i'm stopping in philly to see some old U of Delaware friends (quincy, veronica, monica, valerie, and hopefully dana too). i'm bringing the puppy with me so andrea can have some extra company after losing her dog shep to cancer just the other day. gotta get some new tires tomorrow (boooooring) since the front ones are essentially bald at this point.

Sunday, November 09, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/v/dP8AGLgt6dQ&hl=en&fs=1

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
virginia in blue

Sunday, November 02, 2008
shot taken in pueblo colorado this weekend. sometimes, humor just writes itself -- pic

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
i'm back home now. the ruse this weekend was a complete success and my parents were totally fooled by my 'wedding for an old friend in charlottesville' cover story. i held a 60th and 70th birthday surprise party for them at chez francois l'auberge. this is my folks' favorite restaurant so it was a no-brainer when it came to location. i knew family would be impossible given the size so i decided friends would be better for the guest list. my mom's teacher friends, the noyes family and spouses, aunt donna and tom from denver, and the brady/strano clan (kathy, ed, andrea) also from the denver area were all in attendence. i provided the date and the organization but the guests really made it special for the little old people. it was a wonderful time for everyone by all accounts. the best part was that no one slipped up and leaked it. the best line of the night in my opinion was when my mom came around the corner and saw larry noyes in the event room and said "uh, is..uh, that's larry noyes" like she couldn't understand what she was seeing. a few feet more forward and the crowd yelled SURPRISE ! i think it took the old people about ten minutes to calm down and realize what was going on.

Friday, October 17, 2008
leaving for southern VA in a couple hours. i have to be there by about three-ish because the event is at four. this should give me plenty of time to get there. it's been a while since i last saw her and i'm anxious to meet her friends for the first time even though i'm sure most of them have never heard of me. i'll post again once i get back on wednesday. i'm taking my parents out for dinner on tuesday for their birthdays on the way back up. all in all it should be an interesting 5 days.

Saturday, October 11, 2008
anne hathaway...snl.

Thursday, October 09, 2008
my week of vacation at home is quickly coming to an end. i did get a lot done inside and out though so it was time well spent. i'm looking forward to two weeks from now. i have an event to attend on the 18th for a long time friend and then after hanging out for a bit in virginia i'll head back up to my folks' place for some dinner before returning back to connecticut.

Saturday, October 04, 2008
Laika is now moved in. Here she is: Laika Pics

Monday, September 29, 2008
i'm down to just four days before laika moves in. the kitties over the weekend have definitely figured out that something is up. they're nervous and have been extra affectionate as a result for reassurance that things are okay. i've been cleaning and re-arranging like crazy lately. the noise from which is further evidence to them that things are about to change again. although they aren't terribly bright, they can see my change in routine and react in kind. laika lives over in bethel, the next town over, which granted isn't terribly far but the change in venue will do both of us a great amount of good. i stopped by her place on the way home tonight. we hung out for a while. one of her favorite things is just to go out for a walk while we chat which is easier in bethel than where i live so we'll see how that works out. eventually i hope to bring her out to batavia to meet the rest of the fam. i suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. for now, i'm taking friday and the following week off entirely so we can both aclimate to the new reality.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
with the passing of paul newman, it was a sad day yesterday. my favorite film of his will always be the color of money. newman, clapton...can't go wrong.

Monday, September 22, 2008
so i've been seeing a young lady named laika for the last month or so. she's a shy russian gal somewhat like me who warms up to new company eventually although is wary initially. in the last few weeks we've gotten to know each other and i decided that it's probably time for her to move in. i'm pretty excited about it but i'm not sure she knows what she's in for when it comes to the kitties. she isn't nearly as inflexible and obsessive as the last person living here though which is a good thing. i suppose we'll see how it goes. i'm thinking that the date will be next friday but we'll play it by ear. i'll post some pics of the both of us next week when we get settled in.

Monday, September 22, 2008
the broadcast of last night's last game in yankee stadium was awesome. here in yankeeland we got to watch the hour before it hit national broadcast. they brought in all the living yankee legends from yogi to tino onto the field, about 5 for each position, and, they showed the roll call in the bleachers for the first time. bald vinny was the star of that moment and it didn't disappoint. knock knock, who's there, box seats, box seats who, box seats aren't invited to the ga......

Saturday, September 20, 2008
oh my what a long day. it was great to see the cathedral one last time although we hit a snag in the plans almost as soon as we entered. the line for memorial park was closed off before we even got to it and we got there right as the stadium opened. so i'm stuck with never having seen it. oh well. the game was actually quite good. it was a strong pitchers' duel that went into the bottom of the 9th with robbie cano driving in the winning run for the bombers. reggie jackson went and sat in the bleachers for a while and signed autographs. mom got cold towards the end so she went to the sunny side of the upper deck to sun herself like a crocodile. we left the seats at the end of the 7th to go check out the gift shop. then we walked around the lower bowl to see mariano (cue: enter sandman) trot out for the save. there weren't any big 'wow' moments but the old folks got to see some of the charm of going to a baseball game the way it's supposed to be experienced. i'll post some pics as soon as i can get them to load onto this machine...slowwwwww.

Friday, September 19, 2008
okay, this is my review of the broadway production, The Lion Ki-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. seriously it was incredibly dated which i suppose should be expected of a ten year-old production. we were in the first row center and i gave it the best chance i could but it was a snoozer.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
so far it's been a busy but fun week. i get to take off tomorrow and friday to spend some time with the little old people in the city. friday night is the lion king...okay, that's not terribly thrilling. saturday it's time for one last trip down to old yankee stadium to watch the guys play the orioles in the 2nd to last game in the cathedral. that should be a good time. first pitch is 1pm saturday and we'll be getting there early to do a tour of monument park. but monday wasn't exactly fun but it was good to get it over with it. the girls all went to the vet to get updated shots, byelii girl's ears checked, and the rabies tag. i should have some pics of mom at a baseball game sunday.

oh, and i had a visitor on sunday morning looking for a sparrow snack -- here he is.

Saturday, September 06, 2008
spent the afternoon clipping flowers for the girls at work. bought a bunch of vases for a handful of cut sunflower arrangements for the folks in my department. i still need to cut some more but i am trying to hold out until sunday night to cut the rest. the big downside is that this storm my destroy them. the last rainstorm a few nights ago really laid waste to many of them.

Saturday, September 06, 2008
time for some archiving and a fresh slate.

Saturday, January 26, 2008
vid of the week. an 80's classic --

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
finally updated the link to the photo page to the gallery. maybe that'll motivate me to get the rest of my pics up there

Friday, January 11, 2008
don't know what made me think of this but i'd have to nominate this as song of the week as well -- Fighting Gravity (BoB)

Wednesday, January 09, 2008
video of the week

Saturday, January 05, 2008
bees have been ordered! no turning back now. delivery will be the last week of april. i got to meet the beemaster of fairfield which was a nice bonus.

Thursday, December 27, 2007
back from batavia. i think after this trip i'm done with snow for the season. the 'yote hunt was a bit of a milk run. mickey got a fox but that was it **bonus...got to learn how to skin a fox. i did get to spent a fair amount of time riding around with uncle john though which was fun. i'm gonna head back over there around may for the turkey hunt. this trip i finally got some time to head down to java center and get a shot of charles manion's headstone. granted, he's 7 or 8 generations back which makes he and his wife sarah only one of 128 or 256 grandparents but it's one pair that we're sure of. i should probably go back in spring and reshoot. java center makes merrill oregon look like a booming metropolis. this was one of the better batavia excursions. many of the little cousins were in town with their kids and boyfriends as well as amy & tony and their little ones. oh, and of course there were two trips to the pok-a-dot.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

upper endoscopy complete. went in to danbury hospital at 7:30 this morning as was out by 9:30. not too shabby. won't get the results back for a couple weeks. doc said it all looked fine.

Sunday, December 16, 2007
bees.byelii.com not much there yet but it'll fill up fast this spring and summer.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

almost bee time! i wrote to the author of beekeeping for dummies for some help with a startup hive and it turns out he lives and has a shop about 20 minutes away. i'm gonna be visiting them saturday to look at all the stuff.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

while not their best show by far, it was a good time anyway. mom liked it more than i did i think. the snow event at the end was worth the wait. in the wide expanse of the theater at msg the snow when looking across all the seats was pretty amazing. the biggest shortcoming by far was in the opening number, they created this glamorized urban scene with skaters, bikers, roller bladers...and then some 20 something white girl jumping rope as a featured performance. cirque could have found about 100 girls up on 125th street that could jump rope better than this one. to me it was a glaring mistake in casting.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

cotto v. moseley event is over. george came up for it and had a good time. after the fight we got to go down close and see the living legend burt sugar, the hbo ppv a-team, ufc champion quinton jackson, and former heavyweight champ of the world lennox lewis. shaq was also in attendence along with felix trinidad but we only saw them from afar. it was a long night but a great night.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007
whew! project complete at work, summer is over, and i'm finally on a vacation week. spent saturday pulling weeds and completing my demolition project. spent sunday and monday sore as hell. went to a craft show in rhinebeck, ny and bought a little wooden bear statue thingy. he's holding a bee hive so i got it as decoration to put out near the hives when i put them in this winter. housework is tomorrow's project. gotta get the car emission inspection and retagged on thursday.

Thursday, August 30, 2007
well, my little flock of hummers seems to be getting smaller by the day. doesn't look like i'll get to really experiment with photographing them much this year. work is almost done on our big project. only one more week at this pace then i can relax and take some time off.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The remote switch arrived and I got to try it out as the sun set. Results weren't perfect but much better than the other night's attempts. I'll have to wait until saturday to shoot some daytime pics.

Sunday, August 05, 2007
Finally! i have hummingbirds. it may only be the same little guy but he came and drank at least six times today. if the pattern holds like others, he's here to stay and should be back next year. i'll have to start looking seriously into a remote system for my camera so i can leave it a few feet from the feeder. from the deck, where this pic was taken, i'll likely never be able to get proper lighting on the bird since he seems to prefer the shaded nectar holes.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Saturday I got to see my first Yankees game in a couple of years. It was a blowout (17-5) and worth every penny I paid to sit down front. I have about 400 pictures to go through and get ready for the site. I'll most likely post them in their own section.

Monday, July 16, 2007
i spoke too soon. the wasps are back and better than ever. the nest is bigger now than when i first hosed it. might be time for some pyrostrategy as recommended by the volunteer fireman at the office. the pictures above were shot in the back yard tonight. i'll have to do some more with an actual plan to see if i can get them in better focus. these i just took with the flash attached while i clicked at whatever moved close by.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
wasps have been defeated. well who knew my house would be at the center of not one but TWO major summer attractions?!? okay, 'major' probably isn't the right word. the fireworks were first and now i have a carnival at the church across the street. i knew i was lucky when i found out they have friday night bingo but now this! it appears to be geared for the little kid to teenager ages. they don't have the big huge carni rides but it's definitely a decent one. vicky got some cotten candy. it's thursday night and they were already turning cars away from the parking area. i should charge for my lot. too bad i don't have any kids to take advantage of the location. i'll have to mention these things whenever i decide to sell.

Friday, July 06, 2007
shed painting finished. i'll post some before and after pics once i finish reglazing the windows. new outdoor lights installed. that's a good thing since by removing the old crappy units i was able to see all the ingredients for a nice in-wall electrical fire present. we got rain all day on the fourth so i used that time to break down the big playground in the backyard. i was almost finished when i hit a wasp nest. if they'd been yellow jackets or hornets i would have been toast. luckily they were pretty docile and didn't swarm me. i called it quits for the day after that. yesterday i hosed them down but i noticed this morning that they're back to work on the rebuild. the score was me 1, wasps 0 but now it's approaching a 1-1 tie game. looks like i'll have to spray them with the nasty stuff so i can finish the demolition.

Monday, July 02, 2007
closing complete. the fireworks saturday night were somewhat less than spectacular. i've also found something i'm really dreadful at with my camera -- fireworks pictures. gonna need more practice to get those right. sunday i bought a big garden cart and cleaned up the nasty mess of old wood behind the shed. i moved it over into the playground area after taking all the nails out. i think this weekend will be the first attempt at breaking down the big jungle gym. plant update: sunflowers are going strong and are almost 6 inches; corn hasn't grown up as much as it has grown out making it look a bit bulkier than the sunflowers. it's looking like i'll probably be done with my list of projects sooner than expected and be able to start planning the full garden soon in prep for next year.

Thursday, June 28, 2007
the garden is coming along nicely - sunflowers are 2-3 inches tall and the corn is almost 6. i still seem to be a champ at digging up rocks. i won't need to ever join a gym while i'm moving all these rocks around.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
closing is officially set for friday. we both close on the same day then were gonna take the rest of the day off and move stuff around for a while. the first grill use was good. since i don't cook much, having some real food for a chance was right nice. i was going to have people come over for a small party for the fireworks but due to the timing i've decided to hold off on that.

Friday, June 22, 2007
last big purchase before closing has been made...it's grillin' time! i'll have to go back to the store to get a tank o' fuel and a cover for starters. going to do the first cookout saturday.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
almost time for closings. it's looking like next monday will be the day. the rain has finally cleared up from last week so i'm back at the yard work. the shed is almost done with the first coat. i managed to finish scrubbing it down without burning off the rest of my arm. i think i'll try the window glazing after i finish off the first coat. at work, things are looking good. last demo before beta testing is tomorrow and my part of the application is ready to go. it still needs some touching up and a widget built but all in all it's pretty good. it also looks like we're gonna host a small party before the fireworks saturday night. i'm gauging interest this week.

Thursday, June 14, 2007
house is off the market officially now. vicky's condo has been inspected and paperwork submitted for her loan. we're still waiting for the final word on my stuff. i've got a handful of projects in the works around the house these days. first i'm repainting the shed. spent last evening scrubbing off dirt and mildew from the sides. next i've got the garden area to work on. i'm really tearing up the grass a good deal to do this. and last, i want to stain and seal the deck to see if i can make it look less bland while it's still in use.

Thursday, May 24, 2007
i made a silly video this weekend out of a series of pictures taken 30 seconds apart while i cut the grass. [right click and choose 'save as' instead of waiting for it to stream down to your browser]
check it out
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
vicky and kendra are at heshey spa for the next two days so i have the house to myself for a bit. i took some pics of the magnolia blooms last night so i should be getting those up on the photos page shortly.

Monday, May 14, 2007
we've had a number of showings so far. no offers yet. the agent yesterday didn't bother to show up on time or call us to let us know they were running late. jerk. i guess he thought i had nothing better to do yesterday than drive around danbury for 2 hours.

Monday, April 30, 2007
the house is on the market....the waiting begins.

Friday, April 20, 2007
it's 4/20 ! er, okay, not terribly relevant for me but i thought i'd mention it.

Thursday, April 19, 2007
i've escaped jury duty once again. i returned my jury form last week and got the follow-up packet in the mail today. the packet was still addressed to my old place back in stamford. i decided to look up the stamford court and write to them. i asked whether or not this was a local stamford court/case or was a state court and then mentioned i wasn't a resident of stamford anymore. strange as it may seem i got an email back at about 7pm (govies work past 5??) saying i was excused and that i'd be getting a letter in two weeks to confirm.

Thursday, April 12, 2007
we're enjoying our spring weather here now....40 degrees and pouring rain. good times.

Saturday, March 31, 2007
the play this weekend was mediocre. i went to see Bill W and Dr. Bob (the two founders of AA) off broadway. the writers had the potential in front of them for a great story but instead it seems they simply did the historical overview type of thing by showing little bits of their lives over a twenty year span. the problem with this approach in a play is that you end up with very little actual drama. there's no one point of climax that stands out. sure we saw some struggles but there wasn't one thing they built up to for a big finish. another thing not working in their favor is that in a play i find it nearly impossible to convey the horrors that their lives were on stage. words don't work and in a play you're limited with how much atmosphere you can bring to the audience visually. basically, the play failed to complete the dramatic equation: for great triumph, you first need a great fall. they didn't show us, or at least i wasn't convinced by what they showed, a fall from greatness and bill did actually achieve quite a bit before he fell apart.

one note about the direction -- they used an AA meeting as the device to set the stage. the two leads come out and introduce themselves to the audience as if we're members in an AA meeting. it works well - "hi, i'm bill, i'm an alcoholic....HI BILL!". we as a group even did our part with the 'hi bill'. right then they "have" us. . .and then they lose us. at the end of the play bill and dr. bob return to those positions and the lighting returns to the same set as at the very beginning. BUT, because they never returned to this at any point in the middle of the play i had completely forgotten that we were supposed to be at a meeting listening to their stories. it was an opportunity wasted. i think if they'd returned to those positions a couple of times in the middle of the play it would have forced the writers to be a little more focused on dramatic progression and less on giving us a history lesson.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
heading to the city next weekend to see a show with someone from work.

Thursday, March 15, 2007
going to stay in danbury since i'm already used to the commute but we'll see. much cheaper up here than in town.

Thursday, March 15, 2007
packing up the house now to get it ready for sale.

Thursday, March 15, 2007
have to respond to jury duty next month...in stamford. i sure hope i don't get picked