180 - Getting Itchy for Vacation...

Yeah, I'm starting to get excited about vacation... I'm looking at my shorts, bathing suit, t-shirts.. things I can't wear now, and thinking it'll be great to get into some shorts and sandals and warm sunshine!

My back is still pretty sore, but definitely getting better. The waterbed sure helps out!

Hey Mike H, you want to know the price? Call me some time! (we never talk unless we're going to get 3 pound lobsters! *LOL*)

NCAA Basketball is in full swing now, and that means UCONN Men and Women. Well, the women have been ranked #1 in the country since the first day, but as of next Monday (and considering they win on Saturday against Providence), both the UCONN men and women will be ranked #1 again! Currently, they are #2, and #1 lost last night! My friend Ray comes over to watch just about every game again, as we normally do and we both love the games.

That's it for now.. sorry for the short post, but on to a funny:

"A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot.

One day, a construction crew turned up to start building a house on the empty lot.

The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door and spent much of each day observing the workers.

Eventually the construction crew, all of them "gems-in-the-rough," more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot."

They chatted with her, let her sit with them while they had coffee and lunch breaks and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important.

At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars.

The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars "pay" she'd received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.

When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age.

The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us."

"Oh my goodness gracious," said the teller, and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"

The little girl replied, "I will, if those as*!#!es at Home Depot ever deliver the fu*#'ng sheet rock..."

Have a great weekend!

179 - 17 More Days till Vacation!

The days are going quickly thank goodness... I hope they slow down to a crawl when I'm in the Caribbean! Some of our friends that are also going (there's 60 people going in all) are starting to talk about what they're going to do down there. Me, relaxation is #1 on my list. I may also get some guys together for a deep-sea fishing trip.

Other than that, I came home yesterday to have half my basement full of water. Luckily, it didn't make it to my office where all my computers are.
What happened is a small device on my furnace that's supposed to shut off the burner when the water gets to 180 degrees, failed. So, there is a safety device that's supposed to blow water off (rather than blow your furnace up), and it worked fine.. but blowing water onto the floor isn't what I had in mind!

So, my daughter and I used my shop-vac and got 99% of the water up, my friend Dave stopped over and diagnosed the problem, and my oil company was here with a new part in a few hours. My back on the other hand, feels broken from schlepping all the water and tossing it outside from the shop-vac.
To top it off, I had a lot of heavy lifting to do in work Tuesday. So... I'm struggling.

Well, on to something funny:

A man calls a company and orders their 5-day, 10 lb. weight loss program.

The next day, there's a knock on the door and there stands before him a voluptuous, athletic, 19 year old babe dressed in nothing but a pair of Nike running shoes and a sign around her neck.

She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company.

The sign reads, "If you can catch me, you can have me."

Without a second thought, he takes off after her.

A few miles later huffing and puffing, he finally gives up.

The same girl shows up for the next four days and the same thing happens.

On the fifth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 10 lbs. as promised.

He calls the company and orders their 5-day/20 pound program.

The next day there's a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning and beautiful woman he has ever seen in his life.

She is wearing nothing but Reebok running shoes and a sign around her neck that reads, "If you catch me you can have me."

Well, he's out the door after her like a shot.

This girl is in excellent shape and he does his best, but no such luck.

So for the next four days, the same routine happens with him gradually getting in better and better shape.

Much to his delight on the fifth day when he weighs himself, he discovers that he has lost another 20 lbs. as promised.

He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the 7-day/50 pound program.

"Are you sure?" asks the representative on the phone. "This is our most rigorous program."

"Absolutely," he replies, "I haven't felt this good in years."

The next day there's a knock at the door; and when he opens it he finds a huge muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads,"If I catch you, you are mine!!!"

He lost 63 pounds that week.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

178 - SkyNet is Up and Running!

Before I get to my computer, I wanted to let everyone know that my blog got an award from my dear friend Merle ! (see her blog at left)

I've never won an award for my blog, and I'm very thankful to Merle for nominating me! *S*

Lets hope I can keep up the good posts!

On to the story of my new PC.

I name all of my PC's after famous TV/Movie computers. The new one, is SkyNet from the Terminator movies (it was named something else, but I switched a few PC's names around) . My 2 biggest PC's before the new one are "Colossus" and "Guardian" from Colossus, the Forbin Project, one of my favorite movies about computers (bad ones at that). My notebook that I write my blog in, is "Hal9000", from 2001, a Space Oddity. One other I have, is Mother, the computer from movie Alien (the computer on the ship Ripley was on).

Saturday morning, my friend Dan came over, and we laid out the motherboard, and I was kind of amazed at how incredibly intricate and loaded with "stuff" this one was! Per the recommendation of a friend, I installed the CPU and it's fan, and RAM before placing the  motherboard in the case. Turns out to have been a great idea! The case is loaded with wires for a bunch of different options it has, and while it looks messy in the picture at right, it'll be cleaned up later. Luckily, all the wires were very well labeled. The case itself has 3 fans in it, and all plug into the motherboard and their speeds are controlled by sensors on the motherboard. (click on any picture to 'embiggen') You can easily see the huge fan for the CPU chip (a quad core Intel I7 chip). The three red things on the left of the fan are the RAM chips (high-speed, triple channel RAM).

Here at left is a close up of the fan, and RAM. The blue heat-sinks to the right and top are the Northbridge and Southbridge controllers (chipsets). Sorry if it's too "geeky", but some people may understand and I hope they're as impressed as I am/was.

Putting the motherboard in was easy. Then, we put in the Hard Disk Drive (so very easy with this tool-less case), and the DVD/CD burner, again very easy in this case. Then, I installed the very heavy, very high-end power supply (no, the case didn't come with one), and I was wide-eyed looking at all the power cables it came with!

You really have to click on this picture at right to see the cables! I was worried there wouldn't be enough room in the case for all these wires! *chuckling*. After plugging in the motherboard, HDD, DVD/CD, and everything else, I still had a lot left over.  In this picture, you can see the DVD/CD, and HDD plugged in to the bright yellow wires.

I pulled out some small wire-ties I had, and got ready to clean up some of the cabling.. but there was one more thing to add, the video card.

 

Have you EVER seen a video card with copper pipes sticking out of it? *LOL* I couldn't believe it.

The video card itself requires 2 power connectors from the power supply to be plugged in to it. Amazing.

 

Lastly, after Dan figuring out we needed one more power connection to the motherboard (two total), we fired up the PC, and here she is loading Windows XP.

 

The LCD screen at the top of it, tells the temperatures of the CPU, HDD and Southbridge heatsink. It's really a gorgeous case, and the PC is incredibly fast.

More at a later date... on to something funny!

 

Forget Rednecks.....here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about New Englanders...

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in New England.
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in New England.
If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in New England.
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in New England.
If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of New York City for the weekend, you live in New England.
If you measure distance in hours, you live in New England.
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in New England. If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again, you live in New England.
If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in New England.
If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you live in New England.
If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in New England.
If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in New England.
If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you live in New England.
If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in New England.
If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in New England.
If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in New England.
If there's a Dunkin Donuts on every corner, you live in New England.
If you find 10 degrees 'a little chilly', you live in New England.
If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your New England friends & others, you live or have lived in New
England!

Yes people, I live in New England! Have a great Monday!

177 - New Toy(s)

On Wednesday, at about 11:30am (during my lunch) I ordered my new PC. Something VERY high end, with an Intel I7 Quad Core Processor, special very fast Triple Channel RAM, a high end motherboard and case, a power supply that'll light Vegas, and a few other goodies (500GB HDD and LightScribe DVD Burner).

On Thursday, at 11:00am, it all arrived at my doorstep. No, I didn't pay for overnight shipping, actually I paid for 3 day shipping (the slowest offered).

Such is NewEgg.com. I buy all of my electronic toys from NewEgg. Their prices are the best anywhere, their service is way above and beyond fantastic, and delivery... need I say more? Most of their stuff is shipped from a warehouse in Edison N.J. (their closest to me) and UPS must be right next door. Either way, you can't beat their service and prices.

So, the PC is completely in pieces, so it'll take a while for me to put it together, and get everything running. This will be the first PC I've put together myself in a long time, but so much has changed.. it'll be a challenge.

I have had some very odd people start following me on Twitter lately... hmm.

Oh, and WELCOME BACK shmoopee!!! Thanks for the cookie recipes (see her blog at left).

Well, this week is flying by..  so I'll leave you with an oldie but goodie from my friend Mike H:

A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban Sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA Page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation System to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.   
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image; has been processed and the data stored.   
He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page r eport on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the Cowboy.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"
You're a Congressman for the US Government", says the cowboy.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing was required" answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.
Now give me back my dog.

Have a great weekend all!

176 - Hump-Day 3 of 2009

Well, we ushered in a new era today. We have our first African-American President. I have to say, I have high hopes for the country now. I watched the inauguration from work Tuesday, and I was very impressed with what our new Commander In Chief had to say. Hopefully, he keeps his word.

Yes Mark, (and others) I still have a waterbed. Just before my wife and I got married, when I got my own place, we lived across the street from a guy who made waterbeds. I walked into his shop (he was a distant friend) and he showed me his first high-end creation, an all oak, bookcase headboard waterbed frame with drawers beneath. My girlfriend/future wife and I fell in love with it, and we bought it on the spot. About 5 years later, I met a friend (who now lives in Florida) that has the exact same bed, from the same guy! The only difference is, mine is solid oak, and his was made with oak plywood in some places.

We've only had to replace the mattress once, the heater once, and no we have a semi-waveless mattress in it. I'll tell you, there's nothing like climbing into a nice warm waterbed when it's ice cold out (or if you're cold). Either way, it's a gorgeous bed, and I still love sleeping on water.

I've linked to a new blog, Elaine's Place on the left. She's a very nice lady who I've been reading for a short time and she has a great blog!

On to my joke for the day:

MARTHA STEWART'S *TIPS FOR REDNECKS *
GENERAL
1. Never take a beer to a job interview.
2. Always identify people in your yard before shooting at them.
3. It's considered tacky to take a cooler to church.
4. If you have to vacuum the bed, it is time to change the sheets.
5. Even if you're certain that you are included in the will, it is still rude to drive The U- Haul to the funeral home.
ENTERTAINING IN YOUR HOME
1. A centerpiece for the table should never be anything prepared by a taxidermist.
2. Do not allow the dog to eat at the table, no matter how good his manners are.
PERSONAL HYGIENE
1. While ears need to be cleaned regularly, this is a job that should be done in private using one's OWN truck keys.
2. Even if you live alone, deodorant is not a waste of good money.
3. Use of proper toiletries can only delay bathing for a few days.
4. Dirt and grease under the fingernails is a social no-no, as they tend to detract from a woman's jewelry and alter the taste of finger foods.
DATING (Outside the Family)
1. Always offer to bait your date's hook, especially on the first date.
2. Establish with her parents what time she is expected back. Some will say 10:00 PM. Others might say " Monday ". If the latter is the answer, it is the man's responsibility to get her to school on time.
THEATER ETIQUETTE
1. Crying babies should be taken to the lobby and picked up immediately after the movie has ended.
2. Refrain from talking to characters on the screen. Tests have proven they can't hear you.
WEDDINGS
1. Livestock, usually, is a poor choice for a wedding gift.
2. Kissing the bride for more than 5 seconds may get you shot.
3. For the groom, at least, rent a tux. A leisure suit with a cummerbund and a clean bowling shirt can create a tacky appearance.
4. Though uncomfortable, say " yes " to socks and shoes for this special occasion.
DRIVING ETIQUETTE
1. Dim your headlights for approaching vehicles, even if the gun is loaded and the deer is in your sights.
2. When approaching a four-way stop, the vehicle with the largest tires does not always have the right of way.
3. Never tow another car using panty hose and duct tape.
4. When sending your wife down the road with a gas can, it is impolite to ask her to bring back beer too.
5. Do not lay rubber while traveling in a funeral procession.

Have a wonderful Hump-Day!

175 - Nice Long Weekend!

Yep, I have Monday off as it's Martin Luther King Day.

As for this weekend, well, Saturday morning I went to breakfast with a bunch of my Ham Radio friends that meet every Saturday at a Panera Bread place. It was nice to see the guys, as I hadn't been there in a few months. We had a great breakfast, talked a bit then I headed home.

Saturday afternoon, I had to help my friend Ray, who needed to find a patch kit for his waterbed (for the liner that had a tiny rip, not the mattress), and a different Ham Radio friend sells waterbed supplies, so we went to see him and of course, he hooked us up!

I had a nice fire going in the wood stove, as it was really cold again (down to -5 or so overnight). I can't wait for the warm weather to arrive.

4 Weeks from now, I'll be down in Curacao, basking in the warm sunshine!!  Only 27 more days!!!!

Sunday, we went to see my mom as we always do, and I'm helping my daughter spec out a new notebook PC for her. Her old one is getting tired and slow.

Me, I've priced out a new PC for myself (desktop), and I'll probably be ordering it soon. This time it'll be ordering all the parts and putting it together myself. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be exactly what I want.

And now, for a funny:

Tony and his friend John die in a car accident and go to judgment. God tells Tony that because he cheated on his income taxes, the only way he can enter Heaven is to sleep with a stupid, ugly woman for the next five years.
A few days later, as Tony's walking in the park with his stupid, hideous new girlfriend, he spots his friend John with an absolutely drop dead gorgeous woman. "John, what happened?" Tony asks.
"I have no idea," John replies. "I was told I have five years of amazing sex to look forward to. The only thing I don't understand is why she always yells 'Damn income taxes!' whenever we have sex."

Have a wonderful Monday all..!

174 - C-C-C-COLD!!!

Well, when I left for work Thursday morning, it was 11 degrees out, with a wind chill below zero. The high on Thursday maybe got to 17. When I got home, I fired up the wood stove, and got a nice fire going in it. The way our house is situated, the wood stove heats the whole house. The weather forecast is supposed to be very cold all weekend long too. The high Friday is supposed to be around 14.

Mike H, see my comment on Wednesday's blog on your question.

Mark, how come your Twitter isn't on your blog anymore? Also, what's the little lock next to your name for?

How about the plane crash in the Hudson River! Wow.. could you even ask for a better result for an airplane going down!

Merle, I see it was 109 degrees down under on Thursday! Don't you have air conditioning? Wow... I'd be moving to the hills with that kind of heat. I'm praying for nicer weather for you.

Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend. Here's something to keep you chuckling:

9 Words Women use

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission.  Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . that will bring on a 'whatever').
(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Have a great weekend all!

173 - Windows Experiences

Well, everyone seems to have their opinion of XP, Vista and even now Windows 7.

What I'll say about Windows 7 (Win7) is that it's what Vista SHOULD have been! The User Account Control (UAC) or "nagware" that most people call it, has been greatly streamlined to only warn you once, of things you should be warned about. Secondly, it's faster than Vista (so far.. more on that later). It's cleaner, meaning, less clutter on the desktop and it got rid of the Sidebar, which used up SO much memory. For those who liked the "gadgets" that the sidebar offered, the gadgets are still available, but now they float on the desktop!

Supposedly, Win7 will have the ability to run every application in separate memory, meaning if.. say Word crashes, the rest of the PC will run just fine, and not be hung.

I've been using Win7 on a PC at home for a few weeks, and so far can't find anything I don't like about it!

Now, keep in mind, it's still in beta, so not everything is in the operating system, but it's entirely possible when they add everything, it'll be slower. I'm hoping not.

Mark, did you download a license key for Win7? With a LiveID or hotmail account, you can get 10 licenses (5 - 32 bit and 5 - 64 bit).

More on Win7 at a later date.

Caroldee, as to making the font bigger on your browser, if you're using IE, go to Tools, Text Size, and choose a text size from there.

If you're using FireFox, hold down your CTRL key and use your scroll wheel on your mouse.

That's it for today, I'm in a rush... have a great Hump-Day!

172 - Weekends Need to be 4 Days Long (@ least)

This weekend has FLOWN by. Seems like I just came home Friday night, as it's Sunday night. It's been a pretty busy one, and we had about 4-5 inches of snow last night, so everything's messy again. With the crummy weather, we really didn't do much this weekend outside of going to see my mom Sunday morning.

Merle, No, that story wasn't about me! *LOL*

Mike, Windows 7  will probably be out in the beginning of 2010. There's a lot of beta testing to do. I'm playing with it on a spare machine, and so far, they've done a good job with a few things that seem to be easier to use.

I notice I'm almost up to 1000 visitors since I put up a counter!

Ok, this is a weird Java thing. Click on the spider to drag it around, spacebar drops bugs for it to eat! Beyond strange.. *LOL*

I have a meeting of our car club tonight (Sunday night), we are going to start planning what we're doing for 2009.

Well, not much else to talk about right now, so here's a little joke for you:

A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table.
She said, "For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish."
The wife answered, "Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband." The fairy waved her magic wand and, poof, two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment. "Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry, my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me."
The wife and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish. So the fairy waved her magic wand and, poof, the husband became 92 years old.
The moral of this story: Men who are ungrateful should remember fairies are female.

Have a wonderful Monday!

171 - First TGIF of 2009 !

There'll be a lot of "first" things of 2009, and as far as TGIF's go, this is going to be a much needed one already! It's been a very busy week, and I'll be glad to relax over the weekend.

Well, Microsoft is highly touting the new Windows 7 that they're writing. I already have a Beta version of it running on a PC at home, and I can tell you, if they keep going as it is now, it'll be a lot nicer than Vista (and I like Vista). It's definitely faster, has a cleaner interface, there's some nice amenities, new looks to common things like Notepad, Paint and a BIG change for something as simple as Calculator that'll make many people smile. I'm hoping to get on the official Beta testers list very soon.

I found recently, this really cool website, all about "6 word sentences". Check it out and see if you don't catch yourself trying to make some! *chuckling*

I got a picture sent to me today from my friend Mike that we went on our cruise with in December.. here it is:

It's me, talking to my daughter on the phone while on the cruise ship, having my first Pina Colada!

37 more days and I'll be in Curacao.. relaxing and enjoying the warm Southern Caribbean breezes!

 

Other than that, not too much new.

And now, for a joke:

10 Husbands, Still a Virgin

A lawyer married a woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.
On their wedding night, she told her new husband, "Please be gentle, I'm still a virgin."
"What?" said the puzzled groom.
"How can that be if you've been married ten times?"
"Well, Husband #1 was a sales representative: he kept telling me how great it was going to be.
Husband #2 was in software services: he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me.
Husband #3 was from field services: he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.
Husband #4 was in telemarketing: even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.
Husband #5 was an engineer: he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method.
Husband #6 was from finance and administration: he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.
Husband #7 was in marketing: although he had a nice product, he was never sure how to position it.
Husband #8 was a psychologist: all he ever did was talk about it.
Husband #9 was a gynecologist: all he did was look at it.
Husband #10 was a stamp collector: all he ever did was... God! I miss him! But now that I've married you, I'm really excited!"
"Good," said the new husband, "but, why?"
"You're a lawyer. This time I know I'm gonna get screwed!"

Have a great weekend!

170 - Hump Day 1 of 209

Our first Hump Day. I hope this week isn't an indication of how the rest of the year is going to be, I've been up to my armpits in alligators!

Hey michelle, tell me more about this "internet writing career!" Sounds interesting. Best of luck with it.

I got an email from my Southern friend Curt this week. He made a video of Christmas at his church, and when I saw it, I was completely amazed. He told me he did it with a completely free piece of software, and I want to share it with you all.
Click here to see the video.

Other than that, I'm just looking forward to my vacation in February, and watching a lot of UCONN basketball! The Men are ranked #5, and the Women are ranked #1 and are expected to go undefeated this season! March Madness is just around the corner too.

Too busy tonight to post more... hopefully I'll have more to post Friday!

And now, a funny for you:

A Doctor was addressing a large audience:

"The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long- term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water. But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have, or will, eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?" After several seconds of quiet, a 75-year-old man in the front row raised his hand, and softly said, "Wedding Cake."

Have a great Hump Day!

169 - 2009 Already....

Hopefully, we've all had a wonderful New Years Eve and Day.. and are looking forward to a new, bright year full of promise.

I'd like to thank the constant visitors here, michelle, Mark, Karen, Peter, Merle, Caroldee, Mike H (lurker), Joanne (coming out of lucking mode), Curt, poopee shmoopee, Bubba, and all the rest that come to visit me. How they believe I'm worth reading I don't know.. *chuckling*

Well, our New Years Eve was quiet. It snowed all day, and we had around 5 inches of the white stuff right after we had gotten rid of the stuff we got 2 weeks ago!  With that happening, we stayed home, had some great food, a bottle of Asti and watched 2 movies.

The movies were Hancock (with Will Smith), which was at best, OK, and the other was HellBoy II. While I very much liked the first HellBoy, the second one left me ambivalent. It wasn't nearly as good as the first one.

Friday night, I went to the movies with a friend to see The Day the Earth Stood Still. Now, one of my top 5 movies of all time is the original, and I own it on DVD and VCR, and while the new one is OK, it would have been better as a movie on it's own, not with this name. It too, left me wondering "if they just did a tiny bit more....".

Other than that, things are well here at the DChamp hacienda. I'm looking forward to my next vacation in 40 days (to Curacao).

I hope you and yours had a wonderful time, and wish you all the best in 2009!

Dave