Damages

Ginger and I recently watched the first season of Damages. Unlike everyone else that apparently was watching it on FX when it was on the air we ended up catching it on DVD through Netflix. The show is basically a mystery told through extended flashbacks with the show catching to the present at the end. It's a good show that is made better by the fact that have a fair amount of star power in the cast. And it's not just the fact that they have star power, but the acting ability of the stars in the show is higher than what you would typically find on television these days. I thought Ted Danson did a fantastic job portraying a corporate CEO. Ironically enough the main character (Ellen) is probably one of the weaker actors on the show (aside from "random person in law firm" that gets a line every so often). One of the reasons I liked the show was because even though I can typically tell where a plot is going early on this one kept me guessing for most of the show. I think Ginger liked the show, but one thing she had trouble getting past was she thought they based Ted Danson's character's situation too much on Worldcom's Bernie Ebbers, and for her that wound is still a bit raw. I do think the show went a tad overboard on trying to end every episode with a new shocking revealing twist though. Not sure if that tactic would have worked if the show had been a full 20+ episode season versus the shortened 13 episode season they did. But the shortened season was another thing I liked about it since they packed all 13 episodes on just 3 DVDs and we were able to watch the whole season in a couple weeks.

Darth Maul Falls

And here you thought I was done with the ice shots. Here I am with a fancy new camera (which I still don't know all the features or exactly how to use it) and I go and post a photo from the old camera that I took weeks ago.

So John corrected me about the Lego Star Wars game. It's not six different games combined like I thought, it's just two. Apparently the two games divided up the original trilogy and the newer trilogy. And here I was thinking I was getting a super bargain when the reality of the situation is the Legos Star Wars games have been out for so long they're considered "Classics" (which means you can get each game for $20 apiece on other consoles). Still, even if we're paying a bit more I still think it's been worth it. And I suppose it is possible they added new content to the repackaged game that's worth the extra $10. But even if they didn't it's gotten Quinn to eat more new things in just a couple days than he probably has for the past couple of months. Did I forget to mention he tried a piece of calamari yesterday when we were at Coastal Flats for lunch? And he even claimed to like it (although I doubt his sincerity on that point since he didn't ask for anymore after taking a bite). And tonight he tried a couple pieces of strawberry again so he could play. I'm thinking we need to milk this for all it's worth before he changes his mind and doesn't like the game anymore. Tonight we finished Chapter Six of Episode One and fought Darth Maul. The one thing Quinn and I haven't been very good at is getting all the secret items. Mostly because this sometimes requires a lot of coordination between us and Quinn is much more of a balls to the wall player versus running around trying to find hidden items. So we've just been cruising through the game making no real attempt to locate the hidden items unless they're completely obvious and right in front of us. I may have to go back solo at some point and try to unlock some of the special stuff.

Happy Birthday To Me (Again)

So today some of my family came up to belatedly rub in that I'm 40 celebrate my birthday. It was Nana, Will (my cousin), Frank (my crazy Uncle) and Mary (my Aunt that puts up with my crazy Uncle). We all went out to eat at Coastal Flats for some really good food.








Then it was back home for a non verified peanut free birthday cake that they insisted on putting 40 candles onto. Little did they know I'm a blowhard and managed to blow them all out anyway (I will admit I came close to not making it). After that I was somewhat surprised that our smoke detectors didn't go off (I probably should test them to make sure they're working).




The big news though is my Uncle brought up his D200. This is the camera he bought about two years ago, but has never really used. He's a technophobe and decided he didn't want it, so it offered it to me for trade in value (that would be lower than show price) minus a birthday deduction. So now I own a D200, which I'm ecstatic and depressed about all at the same time. Because it'll probably be a nice upgrade to my D70 (which I've really enjoyed, but with only 500 pictures to go before it gets to 30k pictures I think it's starting to show signs of age). But it's a bit sad at the same time because this means I won't be getting a Nikon D300 anytime soon. Although it's hard to argue with the cost savings in getting a slightly used D200 and a new D300. I think it's going to take me a bit to get used to the D200 though. I looked around at the menu options and some are drastically different than the D70. I may even have to (*gasp*) read the manual to figure out how to use it. I do like that I can program the characters used in the filename though. So now instead of DSC_#### that results in repeating filenames every ten thousand pictures I can pick something like JF0_#### and then simply change that once I get to ten thousand to be JF1_#### (not that I should have to worry about the 10k rollover for probably another nine months or so). I may also have to investigate getting more external storage now since with the smaller file sizes I was already beginning to fill up my disk pretty quickly, now that I'm looking at 10 megapixels instead on a mere 6, I imagine my disk usage is only going to get worse.

My Gymnists

So much for getting to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning. The kids have both missed a gymnastics class in the past couple of weeks due to being sick, so we decided to attend a class today since there was a makeup class Catherine could attend which started at 9 and one Quinn could attend that started at 9:15. Still way too early for me, but I wanted to go since I've never been to one of their gymnastics classes.




Once we were there I thought we were going to have a minor problem. When Catherine realized she didn't know any of the teachers or other kids she went into her withdrawal mode. Luckily it only took her about five minutes before she decided to actually go out and join the group. Quinn didn't have any problems like that and was out there immediately. As far as ability I was really impressed with Catherine. She's like a little monkey girl. She was climbing the rope ladder all the way to the top, and she was able to do the balance beam with a beanbag on her head. And I overheard the instructor giving her props and telling the other kids to watch what Catherine was doing on the uneven bar exercises.




Quinn doesn't seem to have the upper body strength he would need to really do well on some of the activities. And he sort of cheats at doing situps, but he seemed to do really well on the rings. I didn't get any really good shots since this was an indoor gym and I was shooting from across the room so there's a ton of stuff between me and him, but he was able to do the rings and get himself into an upside down position and hold it for a while. It seemed impressive to me. He had a harder time with the activity where they would run, put their hands on the ground and do a flip onto mat.

And I have to say the the Star Wars Lego game for the Wii is a huge hit. I have to admit, the game is a ton of fun. I still can't believe it's six full games in one package. True, all six games are just being repackaged and they've all been released individually before, but I never got them when they were released. We've only just started, so we're playing Episode One at the moment. The kids call Jar Jar Binks a girl and Catherine already likes the fact that story has a princess in it. The best thing about the game so far is it allows for co-op play, so Quinn and I were busting open a can of Jedi whoop ass on the Trade Federation droids. This is the first game in a while that's gotten Quinn actively looking for new foods to try. In the past week he's eaten a piece of strawberry, some of a chicken quesadilla, a slice of banana and a couple of good sized pieces of baked potato. And I know none of that sounds like a big deal, but getting him to try these things and do it voluntarily (okay, mostly voluntarily) is a huge step. And I'm liking it because it lets me play the Wii!

My Worst Parent's Night So Far

Since this seems to have turned into a count-counterpoint thing, I'm going to go through and change the color of Ginger's responses to purple for distinction.

Thursday night was parent's night at the school. A chance for parents to come in to the school and have the kids show them the work they do. First up was Quinn in his class. Catherine was hanging out with us while we watched Quinn use an abacus to do some complicated multiplication problem. Unfortunately he was getting some of the values wrong when he was multiplying single digit numbers and he got really upset with me when I pointed this out. He kept trying to insist that 6 x 6 was 30 even though I kept telling him it was 36. He was using his multiplication book that he had filled out himself and when he wrote the answer to 6 x 6 the 6 in the 36 looked a bit like a 0 (guess he needs to work on his handwriting some too, but he probably gets the chicken scratch writing from me since I recall always getting low marks in handwriting myself in school). But even though I was telling him the answer was 36 he was sure he was right and even started yelling at me about how I was wrong. And then he stomped over to the beads and brought out the 6 set and came back put down six of them and counted them out for me to "prove" he was right. And once he start into the 30s and ended up at thirty six he gave me this sheepish grin, but had the gall to still insist that he was doing it the right way. Then I suspect because he was so far off the process at this point he started adding to the abacus in the wrong spot and ended up with the wrong information there. And then when the teacher pointed out that he had the wrong values he decided it was all too much and just gave up and put away the abacus. Ginger got on my case explaining to me about how it's more about the process at this point and not so much about getting the right answer. I tend to disagree with that and think both parts (process and answer) are equally important. I'm fairly certain that if I continually provide the wrong answer at work that they're not going to care whether I'm following the process and I'll be soon be looking for another job.

Added by Ginger: It will not surprise many of you to know that James' view of the evening activities is negative, where mine was much more positive. While Quinn did indeed mis-read his multiplication book his ability to actually multiply numbers at his age is marvelous. (He takes after his Dad in his ease with math.) When this math "error" occurred (I will use James' negative view) Quinn was multiplying a number in the hundred thousands by 56. This is quite impressive for a child his age. Add to that the long division problem he did - fourteen divided into a number in the hundred thousands and he showed us impressive work. I certainly walked away impressed with not only the process of doing the work (Montessori has exacting processes) but how excited he was to actually do long division and multiplication.

Later when it was time for Catherine's class to start up Ginger was still watching Quinn finish up some long division exercise. I tried to get Catherine to go with me to her class so she could show me stuff, but she would have none of that. She even threw a little tantrum and insisted she was going to stay with Ginger until she finished watching Quinn. At this point I really wanted to just leave and go home because I wasn't really feeling like they wanted me there. Things did get a little better once we actually got into Catherine's class (about ten minutes later). Catherine seems to be doing really well with her work. Of course, I have nothing really to compare her against, so I don't know what she should know at this point, but if I were to compare her against where Quinn was at that age I think she's a little behind on the math but way ahead on reading.

Added by Ginger: As for Catherine, she showed us her new work subtraction to most everyone but Montessorians (take away there). The amount of math work she has done this year is amazing since before November she really was struggling with even counting past twenty. She is truly doing an excellent job this year in school, and with the start of reading and doing more math work truly loves school for the first time ever.

And comparing! For shame!!! At Montessori you are not supposed to compare, the whole premise is that children work at their own pace. I walked away Thursday night glad that the children showed us work that their parents could be proud of.

As a last word (maybe) let me say it's not that I'm unimpressed with the work they're doing. What I had an issue with was their attitude. Such as Quinn yelling at me when I tried to point out a mistake, or just quitting doing the work when he gets told he's doing a couple things wrong and Catherine not even wanting to go into the classroom with just me.

Dooo Do-Doot Doot-Doo Doot-Doot Do Do-Do-Do-Do

So a while back I rented The Simpsons Movie. I used to be an ardent Simpsons watcher, as were my roommates at the time. It was a ritual for us to gather around the TV and laugh hysterically at the antics of Homer and the rest of the gang. I have a lot of good memories of those times. At some point though my fascination started to wain. I don't believe the show lost any of it's humor or it's edge, but still I found myself not rushing to watch it anymore. It's hard to say why since as I said I still found the show funny when I did watch it. It could be it became painful to watch for a while after the passing of Phil Hartman. Or perhaps it's because it just wasn't the same watching it alone as it was with the group. Or maybe it was because it's really not Ginger's type of humor. It may have even been the fact it was on the same night as my bowling league and it was BT (Before TiVo) so it meant recording it on VHS and my labeling system for VHS tapes kind of sucked. Who knows what the real reason is, but whatever the reason is I basically strayed and stopped being a regular viewer. Then I stopped being a sporadic viewer and it wasn't long after that I found myself not watching anymore at all. So when the movie came out I thought that was something I wanted to see. And I have to say that watching the movie is a lot like coming home after being away for a long time. Where even though you haven't been there for a long time it's as if you were never gone. Your family is still dysfunctional and your Uncle is still crazy, but it's home. That's sort of how I felt about the Simpsons movie. Some of the same old jokes that they've used hundreds of times before are there, but they're still funny. And the self deprecating humor is there too even in the opening line where Homer waxes poetically about why anyone would pay to see something that's on TV for free every week. Not all the jokes work, but the ratio of jokes per minute is so high that even with the small percentage that miss the mark the movie is still a riot overall. Much like putting on a pair of old sneakers that just fit but aren't yet falling apart it was great to return to the Simpsons. Mind you, I'm still not taping or watching the weekly episodes, but watching the movie made me long for that times when I did.

Over The Hill

That's right, I'm officially over the hill as of today. I would like to thank all the well wishes I got. John being the first who chimed in over GTalk at 12:07 AM. The kids and Ginger making a big deal about it this morning. The various IMs while at work. Rob and Gretchen for getting the cake at work. The singing voicemail from Richmond. The calls from Waynesboro. And the comment to a post from Curt wherever he is off on travel at this time. I'll even include Nana on the list for driving 6 plus hours just to have lunch (which I still think was over the top and unnecessary). Did I forget anyone? What's that sound? Music? Guess the academy wants to me to stop thanking people and move on with the post.




Sadly because of the long lunch I ended up staying at work longer than I anticipated and didn't get home as early as I should have. This meant I wasn't there for the meal that Ginger prepared and the subsequent cake (if this has the sound of I managed to get into trouble even on my birthday, you would be correct). Luckily I have photos of the kids taking care of blowing out my candles for me. Because that's exactly what you want, the kid that was just sick blowing all over your cake. I kid, I wasn't there, so someone had to step up so they could have the cake and Quinn volunteered.


I did show up just after cake had been served (at least I think it was just after since the kids hadn't finished their cake yet). The kids gave me some drawings they had made for me as presents. And in addition I got two new Wii games. One was the Complete Lego Star Wars saga. The other was Kabookie. That's a Cranium game that looks like a family party game even though it only uses one remote.

And in case people are wondering Catherine was home again today since she had a mild fever. She actually likes being sick because she knows that means sitting on the couch and watching TV. In fact last night she was looking forward to the idea of being sick since she was yelling "Daddy, I'm sick!" with exuberance. As for Quinn, he had an interesting day at school. He searched for fossils today in ... (wait for it) ... owl poop. That's right, he dug through crap to look for bones. And here's the part I don't get, in his mind this was exciting and cool. Oh yea, and he brought the bones home. Good times...

DMV, Dawdling Meticulous Vexation?

With my birthday fast approaching I find myself in need of renewing my driver's license. This meant a trip to the DMV which had to be done before the license actually expired, otherwise I would have to bring in proof of being a US citizen. Not quite sure I understand what they're thinking there. It's like if you come in today, you can use your license as proof to renew your license, but if you come in tomorrow, then that same license we would have accepted yesterday isn't any good anymore.

And even though I went to the express DMV my trip was anything but quick. I got my ticket of A-023 and sat down. And after about 20 minutes they finally called the first A number and it was A-015. Oy! Interesting bit of trivia I noticed, nowhere in the facility is there a clock. Guess they don't want the natives getting restless realizing how long they've been waiting. After about another 20+ minutes I finally got called up. And then I had to take the eye test. I missed one letter the first time through, but managed to correctly guess the letter the second time I tried. Here's a secret that I learned though, if you're having trouble with the eye test, they have the answers under the mat in front of them so the person behind the counter can verify your answer. It's right there plain as day, you just have to be able to read it upside down (and memorize it before you look into the eye test thing). I will say I did not use this method to cheat on the test (mostly because I didn't see it until afterwards).

Then after that it was back to sitting and waiting to be called for the photo. The guy doing the photos was evidently doing batches of photos and batches and people that needed the test. I got bumped to the front of the next batch of photos and had to wait for a whole batch of people taking tests to get set up. And then to add insult to injury, even though I was the first person in the next batch to get the photo taken, I was the last one of the batch to be given the license. I can only assume the machine printing them out has them come out one on top of the next, so by being first in the batch at I was the bottom of the hand out stack. But I eventually got my license and overall it ended up taking a little over an hour. And I have to say while it's a crappy picture it's nowhere near my worst driver's license photo. So at least that's done now and I don't have to worry about that for another five years (or unless I decide to change my name, I'm liking Connor MacLeod since I think that's how BMG knew me at one point back in college).

I think whatever it is running rampant through the house is starting to get to me. In addition to the mild cough I have, I was really run down at work. Even more so than normal. It got to the point where all I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. That didn't happen though and I ended up staying so late that I missed seeing Quinn tonight (he was already asleep by the time I got home) and just barely saw Catherine. Speaking of Catherine, she stayed home today since her cough was really bad this morning. Quinn on the other hand was actually looking forward to returning to school (I think he just really wants to get out of the house). Later in the day we discovered that both Cathrine and Ginger had a mild fever. Since they've both gotten it I feel like I'm doomed to completely succumb to whatever this illness is eventually. For now though I've been doing my best to fight it off by downing Airborne and Cold-eeze like they're going out of style. And whatever you do, don't tell me these things have no effect since even if it's just the possibility of a simple placebo effect I'm willing to believe in it.

Slowly Speading Sickness

Well, I suppose it was too much to hope for that Quinn would be the only one to get sick. Both Catherine and myself have picked up something of a cough. Mind you it's nowhere near as bad a cough as Quinn's. It's not even bothering me really at night or anything. It's just this occasional cough. Neiher of us are sporting a fever, or any other flu type symptoms. Now Quinn still isn't fully recovered since if he does anything at all active he goes into coughing spasms. Since so many of us were under the weather though we ended up skipping church (I don't want to be known as the guy that brings his sick kids to church, even if a lot of the other people there don't seem to have a problem doing that).




I can tell Quinn's getting cabin fever because he practically begged to go outside some today. I foolishly obliged and told him that as long as he didn't run or exert himself we would be able to do some stuff outside. I might as well have asked for the Earth to stop spinning though since the entire time we were out I had to keep reminding him he wasn't suppose to be running. After about 15 minutes outside he was coughing pretty continuously so it was back inside for some sit still activities. Since this has meant watching episodes of the Electric Company's Best of DVD they're happy enough to sit still for that. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow since Quinn appears to be well, but at the same time goes into coughing fits if he does anything active.

The Inspection Answer

This one only affects people in VA in the Northern VA area evidently. From the VA State Police website's FAQ:

What is the cost of a safety inspection?
The cost is $16.00 for a motor vehicle. This also applies to all trailers (including semi-trailers). The cost is $12.00 for a motorcycle. The cost is $51.00 for a tractor-trailer.

Attention to Persons Residing in the Northern Virginia Area:
Effective January 1, 2008, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is permitted to charge an additional $10.00 for vehicles inspected in Northern Virginia. Fees will be collected in the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William; as well as in the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.

So it looks like the cost did go up by $10 for this area. Had I known that was going to happen I might have gotten my car inspected early and done it back in December.

Super Heroes In The Media

Quinn's doing much better now. He stayed home from school again today. He still has a cough that seems to flare up every now and then, but as far as a fever goes it seems like he's past that. So far no one else is showing symptoms (knock on wood).

There's a rumor out that Barack Obama might put in an appearance at San Diego Comic Con. I can't imagine that will actually happen though since the crowds there are already enormous and the extra security that would be required for Barack to show up would be insane. But the fact that it might not happen didn't stop people from finding this photo and posting it.


Next week is suppose to be the debut of the new animated Spider-Man show. It's suppose to be on the CW and there's talk they'll be showing two episodes back to back. I plan on at least giving it a look to see how they do with it. And if it's kid friendly enough I might try and let Quinn watch it.

And to round out the media super hero stuff, it looks like TV Guide is going to have an issue with a bunch of DC's heroes that have had TV shows on the cover. he blurb about it can be found here. I don't know how, but they actually managed to make the Adam West Batman look non campy.

Déjà Rejection

I've spotted a new trend. Apparently on a yearly basis my car is going to be rejected when I go to get it inspected. This time it was for the back brakes which were evidently "pretty worn". Last year I thought I got a fair assessment, this year I'm not so sure. And did the cost of inspections go up? Looking at my blog post from last year the inspection cost was $16, this year it cost $26. Is the cost no longer regulated by the state and everyone can charge willy nilly? Or did the overall cost really go up 62.5%? That seems like a hefty increase.

So news on the sickness front is evidently Quinn threw up in the middle of the night, but he had his bucket with him and neither Ginger nor I even knew he had thrown up until the morning. Kudos to him for not even needing us. It should come as no to anyone that he stayed home today recovering. From what I heard he camped out on the sofa and watched a lot of TV and didn't have any other incidents during the day. Last night I had gone to the library to pick up some books Ginger had reserved and while I was there I looked through the DVDs they have available for kids and found "The Best of the Electric Company". I have fond memories of that show from when I was younger so I figured I would rent it so the kids could watch it (and last night I had also assumed that Quinn would be home today and might need something new to watch, and if it could be even slightly educational, all the better). I'm not sure Quinn (or Catherine since she got to watch some of it later in the day when she got home) liked it as much as I did as a kid. I remember Electric Company being what you wanted to watch once you were too old for Sesame Street. And it had entertaining recurring characters like The Adventures of Letterman, the hipster Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader, a mime version of Spider-Man and let's not forget Bill Cosby (although when I made a joke about "eating the puddin' pops" all I got were blank stares from everyone).

And The Sickness Begins...

Quinn ended up coming home from school midday the same time as Catherine. And a quick doctor visit later in the day confirmed that he has the flu. Ginger said he was so tired at dinner he kept lying his head down on the table, but he also stubbornly refused to nap or go to bed. And he was coughing pretty consistently when he finally did go to bed. We gave him some Delsym, and I know the reports say cough medicine might as well be a placebo, but that stuff seems to work. Well, it somewhat works. It hasn't taken away his cough entirely, but it has greatly reduced the amount of coughing he has been doing. But I suppose that could be a by-product of him being asleep also. I remember back in December when I had a cough that combined with Advil was the only thing that kept me from constantly coughing. So I think it works, but who knows.

One Tooth Less

Quinn has picked up a bit of a cough from somewhere. I suppose with all the flu type illnesses running around a cough isn't so bad though. To balance out picking something up though, he decided to lose something as well and now has lost another of his baby teeth. It fell out at school just before he came home from what I heard. Since the kids were already in bed by the time I got home I was lucky that Ginger had taken some pictures of him at dinner.


Told you I had more ice shots that weren't as good.

Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig

I finally finished watching Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig tonight. It feels like I've had these DVDs for ages (I think I started watching the second season last summer). I started off strong watching a couple of episodes and then when things got really busy I didn't keep with it. But since we're dealing with the lack of programming due to the writer's strike and no Daily Show or Colbert Report for the past week or so I was able to pick up where I left off. And after watching the end I have to wonder why I it took me so long to get back to it. It's got it all. An overall story arc, character bits, and action galore (there are one or two talking head episodes where they go over everything in the story so far, but there's only one or two of those). The whole group of Section 9 is back in season two. And just as before all 26 episodes of the season combine to tell one large story that mixes personal stories with large scale political stories. Also in this season we get to learn some more background about some of the Section 9 characters through flashbacks tales (think of it like Lost, but providing actual closure). And while there's no shortage of action I was actually happy to see they had Major Motoko in less states of undress this season (HR must have informed her that wearing the Flashdance type outfit from season one to work was inappropriate). That's not to say they don't have the occasional partial thong shot, but this season it seems to be the exception rather than the norm. More often than not this season the Motoko is her combat suit. Overall an excellent series and I really wish there was a season three.

I'm A Lumberjack And I'm Okay...

I think this is the last respectable ice shot from a couple of weeks ago. Mind you, I have a couple more, and I feel confident they'll make it onto the blog eventually, but the quality of the shots will decline a bit after this (I suppose one could easily argue that the decline has already started).

I spent today removing that last tree trunk. The roots on this one were significantly more entrenched than the other one though. I didn't end up working up quite as much of a sweat as yesterday, but it was still strenuous. In addition to that I had the kids "helping" me. Which as anyone with kids knows means that the whole effort took a longer than expected. I can't remember how many times I had to tell the kids not to run while holding the saw, the clippers or the some other tool that could cause dismemberment if they fell on it and impaled themselves. Once the kids gave up helping and went inside I made pretty good progress. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with all the debris from the trees.

And Boy Are My Arms Tired

Spent a good amount of time out in the yard with a hacksaw and a shovel. I got all the limbs off both downed trees, and I even got one fully taken down even removing the roots. The other one was the bigger of the two and looks like it will still take a fair amount of time to remove and remove the root system. I got that one down to the point where the trunk is about eight feet and I simply stood it back up until I can get back to it.


I have to say this task required a lot of energy and I was sweating pretty profusely at times. With the kids listening to the various "Little House on the Prairie" books these days Ginger and I have been joking about what it would take to go live off the land somewhere. Given how exhausted I was after a couple hours of work removing a couple of trees, I'm thinking this living off the land idea isn't in the cards. Although things might have gone easier if I had an ax instead of simply trying to cut through one foot trunks with just a hacksaw. I imagine I'm going to be really sore on Monday. For some reason the day after I do exert myself isn't that bad, but two days after is a killer. It's almost like I'm getting old or something.


When I came inside after working on the trees the kids were watching TV with Ginger fast asleep on the couch. After I had showered and changed Catherine and I went outside for a bit since she really wanted to go outside and play and I'm a big believer in the kids getting time outside when possible. Too bad it was still pretty cold out (strangely the cold didn't bother me as much earlier when I was out working up a sweat removing the trees), although the cold seemed to bother me more than it did her. Later in the day we went out to Coastal Flats with Ben for dinner, then we came back home and got the kids in bed and Ginger, Ben and myself watched Talladega Nights.

What A Letdown

What a non snow day event. The weather forecast was all full of sound and fury, but in the end we got nothing. School's closed simply on the basis of the forecast and a little ice this morning. Now don't get me wrong, we got some ice, but not that much. In fact it was nowhere near as much as the ice storm last week. Based on the reports I had been expecting something like what Curt got up north. I did hear about some traffic issues this morning, but it didn't sound like anything that warranted closing schools and the roads seemed fine later in the morning. Maybe we'll get some more precipitation and get some more ice tomorrow. I can only hope I suppose. Although, since there wasn't that much ice today it came as a bit of a surprise that when I came home I noticed there had been enough ice to drop a couple of our trees. I suspect the ice from last week probably weakened these quite a bit. Can't say I'm looking forward to having to clean this up. Ginger's already suggested hiring someone to do it. Meanwhile I wonder if I can just move it to the curb and call it yard waste.


I initially spent part of the morning at home and had planned on working from home. But I wasn't able to get any work done with the kids constantly fighting so I eventually decided to just go to work for a couple of hours. I didn't spend long there and basically called it an early day so overall the day ended up being less than productive.

Stupid Groundhog

We've got a winter storm warning in effect from 10 tonight until 10 tomorrow night. At this point with all the doom and gloom in the forecasts I have to wonder if anyone is going to be able to even leave their house tomorrow. Of course they also called for like an inch of snow yesterday and we got nothing from that. But this time they're saying it's real! I still haven't even finished posting the ice pictures I have from the last Tuesday when we got an ice storm and now we're already scheduled for another one. I blame that stupid groundhog. If he hadn't seen his shadow on Feb 2nd we would already be well on our way to Spring. On the positive side if the kids don't have school maybe I'll take some of the day off myself.

Catherine had her five year doctor visit yesterday. She seems to be fine, but the doctor was a bit worried that he doesn't think she is gettng enough milk or meat. Now we're going to have to try and get more egg, meat and milk into her. And in case that doesn't work she now gets to take vitamins that have extra iron. Although I seem to remember hearing that vitamins in the supplements don't absorb into the blood stream as well as ones extracted from food do. Not sure if there's any truth to that or not.

Lunar Eclipse

I spent way too much time outside tonight trying to capture the lunar eclipse. Sadly after being out for a bit I foolishly set my ISO down to 200 and from that moment on all the subsequent pictures looked like crap. Guess the secret is the higher ISO and just slightly extended shutter speeds.


It never really seemed all the eclipsy to be honest since at no point was the moon not visible. It did take on a neat orange hue though during the eclipse. And while I normally have to set the shutter speed really fast to get a decent moonshot I was really having to extend the shutter speed to past one second in order to capture shots tonight. Which I suspect is why the ISO 200 shots look all blurry since you really don't want to leave the shutter open for too long.


To make matters worse almost as soon as I went outside and took a couple of shots the camera battery jumped from full to half full and then on the next shot to the almost drained. Seriously, would it kill them to actually have the partially drained setting be there for more than one shot? After that there were several instances where it wasn't taking pictures due to low power. So every so often I would extract the battery and do a temporary charge and then put it back in. It's possible all that shuffling around is what caused the later pictures to be blurry and that it had nothing to do with the ISO. I suppose it's possible I accidentally nudged the focus setting putting the battery back in. And it's not like when you're taking pictures you can tell if things are slightly out of focus since everything looks good on the camera's teeny tiny view screen. So instead of decent pictures all I have are excuses and frozen fingers since it was freezing outside and I couldn't actually operate the camera settings with my gloves on, and the gloves I could operate the camera with are so thin it's like I wasn't even wearing them.