me....today

If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
P. G. Wodehouse
British humorist & novelist in US (1881 - 1975)

more later...

out of sorts...

the week started a little strange for me as i showed up for work monday morning not realizing i had scheduled the day off (doh!) well, i'm already here, says i, i may as well stay and schedule a different day off. so...as of now i'm scheduled to take this friday off. i won't forget this time.
in other news, the rain yesterday tripped our GFI (ground fault interrupt)circuit breaker and we lost all our outdoor christmas lights and all bathroom outlets. me, being the savvy home owner that i am, tried a few things at the electrical box, including trying to reset the GFI (albeit incorrectly) before deciding to scratch my head and sleep on it. this morning after a second opinion or two, we were able to reset the circuit breaker and get the electricity functioning normally again. i had to look up what "GFI" means but i wanted to use the term first a couple of times so as to try to sound knowledgeable.

happy thanksgiving!

during the feasting and football don't forget to take a moment to count your blessings! i'll be back to "work" friday :-(

use your illusion...

this is amazing. the box labeled "A" and "B" are exactly the same shade. "no they're not" you say. yes, they are. i've tested this extensively and it's true. it's one of those things where your brain is trained to see things a certain way but it's an illusion. the shadow cast by the cylindar makes us think they are two different shades but they are not. believe me, or test it yourself.

for more illusions, click here.

i walked the line...

had a date last night with the wife. went to see "walk the line" the new johnny cash movie. i say it lived up to the hype. great acting, great story line, and of course excellent music. it was the first time in maybe forever that i saw a movie on opening night. i think it was the first movie that allie and i have gone to together since myabe "the passion"? (the other movie about JC). anyway....good stuff.
enjoying a couple of days off and hopefully a lite work week next week. the holiday season is defintely starting and after thanksgiving will swing into high gear. i actually have done some shopping already believe it or not. time to get the christmas light boxes out of storage. more next week.

bring it on!

feeling ready for winter, at least physically. spent yesterday wrapping up my winter-prep list including, ridding the yard of 99% of the remaining leaves, couple of trips to the compost pile, putting the grill, bikes, and misc. summer kid toys in the shed, and moving the snowblower, shovels, & sleds to the garage. we're supposed to get our first taste of the white stuff tonite, but based on past history of over-hyped "winter storms" i'm a little skeptical. i could be proven wrong, but a little rain is all i'm expecting to see.
in other news, coming down with a cold. i'm always a complete whimp about getting sick. hopefully it'll blast through in a couple of days. more later...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!

thanks for always staying a few years older than me...enjoy your day!

sink or swim?...

i have been using a company issued blackberry for the last several weeks. my opinion on them so far is that they are cool to have, definitely a convenience to have a wireless device that enables you to have instant connectivity to your email inbox at all times, but definitely NOT a neccessity. of course that's also at times a liability. having instant access to email leaves you very accessible, not always a good thing! i'm a lot lazier at checking my email on a computer now, especially at home. in fact, the only reason i have one is because i have to help support them as part of my job. i definitely don't rank high enough in the pecking order to merit having one otherwise. anyway...
long story short, i have spent a good part of today reconfiguring my new replacement blackberry as there was an incident early this morning (approx 1:45 am). my blackberry cell rang, and of course i got up to answer it thinking there might be some emrgency. i carried it into the bathroom and proceeded to inadvertantly drop it into the toilet. suffice it to say, the blackberry is not particularly fond of water. it lit up, blinked and buzzed as i quickly fished it out of the cold water. i let it dry out overnight, but despite my best efforts, i was unable to save my blackberry. luckily, we have a few extra devices onsite so i was able to replace it easily, (minus the re-activation and configuration hassles). what's the moral here? i'm not sure. either wait til the morning to check your voice mail or make sure you are fully awake when handling your blackberry near lorge porcelien bowls. either way, know that the blackberry does not float, it sinks.

how to make a paper hat...

a while back i was complaining about the headlines that my deafult msn home page thought i might fine entertaining. since than i have changed my browser's default home page on all of my pc's to google. google offers a way to customimize your page so that you can see only topics that interest you, without tons of graphics. it's neat, it's clean, and i like it a lot. now on my default home page i can read about things like "how to make a paper hat", which i actually find lot more interesting.

devil, cheerleader, and bear...

post halloween update. a nice night for some neighborhood trick 'or treating but counts were a little down from past years. probably had between 25-30 kids, which ultimateley means more chocalate for me (not a bad thing). here's a link to a couple of pics i had. owen was really into it this year!
more later...