Hit Parader

Does anyone else keep thinking today is Sunday? Me too. We'll Memorial Day weekend was filled with yardwork and fun. I finally mowed the rest of the lawn (or should I say forest) on Saturday during the day.

Last night, I went to play bingo with my wife, mother-in-law, and my wife's cousin and fiance. Bingo is my mother-in-law's ritual Sunday night thing so we decided to join her this week. It was my first time going so it was interesting. Everything was run very effectiently, but don't let some of the blue-haired ladies fool you. If you mistakenly yell bingo before you number is announced, they'll pounce on you like a vulture to a dead lion. As each ball is drawn, they show it up on a TV screen on either side of the room so that you can get a jump on it. Then, they announce the number officially moments later. It was a fun time and I wouldn't mind going again.

Today, the kids, the misses and I went to see the Memorial Day parade which lasted no more than half hour or so. It was a nice day today, albeit hot and humid, but there wasn't a whole lot of people lining the streets to watch. And how can you pass up a parade with McGuff the crime dog? All in all, it was a good weekend. 

And now for something completely different

Check this out. I heard about this while listening to the May 19th podcast of Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. The BBC News brought on the wrong guy for an interview. Click on the video link and look at the poor guy's face when he gets introduced. Too funny.

Da do run run run

Yes! I went for my first jog in months today and boy am I out of practice. I ended up only doing 15 minutes so as not to push it, but I felt ok afterward. I was hoping to run in the Runner's Alley/Redhook Memorial 5k Road Race this weekend, but I'm in no way ready for a 5K yet. Hopefully, this will be the catalyst to get me in a regular running routine again.

You're no Jack Kennedy

Remember back in '88 when Lloyd Bentsen basically told Dan Quayle to f off? Good times. Good times. Rest in peace, Sen. Bentsen.

Van hailing

It was just hailing here. The sky suddenly turned dark and winds gusted up when suddenly we see these little pellets fall from the heavens. Weird weather around here lately. OK, I just heard some thunder. I looked up the weather for tonight on weather.com:

Thunderstorms and gusty winds during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Storms may produce some hail. Low 43F. W winds at 25 to 35 mph, diminishing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

Um, yeah. How about 100%?

The best things happens while you're dancing

Last night, my wife and I along with her cousin and fiance took a dance lesson at the Arthur Murray Studios in Danvers. My wife got it as a pre-wedding gift for the two soon-to-be newlyweds. I wasn't sure what to expect but we ended up have a good time. Our dance instructor was very nice and made us feel very much at ease. She showed us two dances, the waltz and the rock-step. We focused mostly on the waltz for most of the lesson. I was a bit tense at first while trying to keep in the 1-2-3 step of the dance. Once I started to get relaxed, I lost my step.

The rock-step is a variation of the swing step I believe. That one was messing me up but the girls seemed to get it down packed. We were all having a good time that it seemed the time there was too short. However, fear not, bloggers. There probably will be more reports as we all signed up for 12 more lessons that we'll be taking in the upcoming months.

And as Adam Sandler sang on "Dancin' And Pantsin": ... and dance.... like you just sh*t your pants.

Soul Patrol

Come on people! It's still not too late to join the Taylor Hicks bandwagon. It's between him and Katharine McIAlreadyHavePlentyOfHollywoodFriends next week in the finals. It should be an interesting showdown.

Newsflash!

I just talked to my wife and the sun is actually peeking out in the North Shore. Celebrations will commence after the 400mm swim relay.

uughh.

The ark will be ready soon and we shall set sail for the grocery store at 0800 hours post haste.

Our basement is flooded due to the 10+ inches of rain we got since yesterday and the rain isn't stopping until Tuesday. Wonderful. We lucked out until earlier today when the whole family was enjoying a nice relaxing Mother's Day because it's been so crappy out the past week it seems. I was laying on the couch when I noticed that part of the carpet next to the couch was wet. We thought one of the kids may have spilled some juice or water or something which is not uncommon. But I got up and noticed that there was water coming from somewhere in the furnace room. Shit. We started moving furniture and toys around and got our 6 gallon wet vac to try and dry up some of the water. We couldn't figure out where it was coming in. We later figured that it's probably coming up from the foundation because our backyard is a swamp right now and it doesn't look like the rain water is coming in from a certain spot. Well, we borrowed another wet vac, a 16 gallon one and have been using both nonstop since, along with towels and more towels to soak up the carpet.

Well, back to draining. It's going to be a long night.

Can you hear me now, mo faux?

Why is our lovely president still in office? He has some of our phone conversations apparently via the NSA without court approval. Oh, yes, yes, they were lawful requests, right, right, Mr. B. Didn't a certain president thirty-some years ago did a similar thing by having phones tapped at a certain hotel and he resigned from office to spare the country unnecessary BS? I can't believe this guy is still in office.

Sometimes I scratch my head at the news

This morning on the news they were showing how someone can work around getting on an airplane flight if he/she is on the 'no fly' list. I'm thinking, 'what the hell are they doing?'. So much for security. They are literally broadcasting how someone can get away with this. I was shouting at the TV, "Idiots!" and thinking to myself, "Unbelievable".

On a totally different note, Taylor Hicks as American Idol. Who's with me?? Huh? huh? I think his performance of "In The Ghetto" cinched it. I was hoping he'd sing "If I Can Dream", but Ms. Elliot took it and didn't do too well, in my opinion. Oh sure, Chris is the proverbial beau-hunk and Katharine has a nice rack and all, but come on, the friggin' judges have been saying since day 1 of the show how the contestants need to step it up and "perform". This guy does it and then some and now some think it's too much. I hope he makes it next week, but I wouldn't be surprised if the top two are Chris and Katharine.

Gotta love the podcasts

I've been toying with the idea of maybe getting an MP3 player to listen to music, podcasts, whatever. I'm leaning toward the iRiver T10 because I like all the features. It's still a good chunk of change so I'm still trying to rationalize spending the dough versus how much I would use it. I figure I'd be mostly using it at work while I'm working on a project. I don't know. It'd be a new toy. We'll see.